Monday, July 19, 2004


Here is one of the storms that was forming around us, but never actually hit us. Posted by Hello

And last, here is me in the water fishing and keeping cool! Posted by Hello

Friday, July 16, 2004

I’m a little stress bubble today!

Not enough people covering here at work, so it makes for an unpleasant stressful Friday, but hey what can you do. Tomorrow at this time, I will be on the beach in the sun trying my best to catch a fish or two, waist deep in the water having a ball.
 
Found something disturbing on my blog webstats the other day, and I cant stop thinking about it for some reason. Someone came to visit my weblog through doing the following search on yahoo: “how do I buy a live dolphin”.  I wonder why this person wants a live dolphin? Are they mad, or just stupid? Oh well, I don’t think I will ever know.
 
I have been adding links from funny news and things I find on the web, and I hope this amuses folks, because it certainly amuses me! And I like sharing a laugh or two.
 
Well, I will try to find another template I like and get it posted, so people can leave better comments to my posts then just the tag board. Not to mention I am bored of this one already.
 
Well, back to work!

The diffence between Fantasy and Politics

I found a funny write up today about the DNC and a Sci Fi con, both going on in Boston:
 
 This year's World Science Fiction Convention is in Boston, and accordingly, the URL for the con is boston2004.com. By a funny coincidence, the Democratic National Convention is also in Boston, and its URL is boston04.com. The inevitable confusion is quite humorous -- the organisers of the WorldCon have compiled a list of ways in which the WorldCon is unlike the DNC:

# We're not $10 million over budget. We don't even have a $10 million budget.

# Our promises for the future are supposed to be fiction.
# You don't have to donate thousands of dollars to us (though we wouldn't complain)—we'll give you a high-level appointment to work for us for free!
# The media will not outnumber the attendees.
# Thoats and banthas are more interesting animals than donkeys and elephants.
# The folks wandering around with walkie-talkies are likely to be helpful and friendly.
# The slogans on our buttons are actually funny, and many of them are about cats.
# No one will be kissing babies except their immediate families and friends.
# When we talk about "skull and bones" it's probably in a discussion about paleontology.
# When we sling mud, it's probably in a workshop on making alien pottery.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Boring Boring Day!

Boring boring day.

Work is slow, news is slow, and I am bored out of my freaking gourd.
A co worker of mine got mildly miffed on her blog at the fact that I sound like a five year old on the phone when I talk to Phoenix with all the lovey dovey stuff, admonishing me to grow up and not be so co-dependant. It actually got me thinking about it… for about 3 seconds before I guffawed in laughter. Better co-dependant, in love and sickeningly sweet then unhappy and lonely I say! I have to admit, I am a much happier man with Phoenix then without, and I plan to keep it that way (figuring I am going to marry her after all!)
Speaking of having fun, I am still trying to determine where to go fishing this weekend. Phoenix wants to try somewhere else besides New Smyrna, and I am thinking that the Canaveral seashore might be the place to go. Anything to get away from the typical crowds we keep running into. I just need to find a bait shop nearby!

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Senate Scuttles Amendment Banning Same-Sex Marriage (Thank God!)

Sleepy day

Fighter practice at Martins last night went very well. I was sad that Phoenix couldn’t make it, but I had much fun. Most fun fighting I have had in some time. Martin taught me how to fight like Michael of Bedford, and wow does it work well for me! I cant wait to fight again! Otherwise I am too exhausted (no sleep) to do a decent post today, or for that matter do my job correctly. Plans for this weekend include more surf fishing, Phoenix cant get enough of it, and I am happy to oblige.

Japan plans pro-whaling alliance

Blinking Japanese! I want to sign up as a confederate raider! (They did a good job of destroying the U.S.'s Whaling fleet in the 19th C. Hmm. I wonder if we can develop somthing to give to whales that makes their flesh poisonous?

CIA's Acting Chief Says Threat Highest Since 9/11 - Here we go again

Here we are agian with another terror alert, and another opportunity to show the country how useless our "terrorist threat alert" system is. They say that we are at the highest level of threat since 9/11, but the alert status has not been raised. This government really doesnt have a clue does it?

Monday, July 12, 2004

Goin to the chapel and were gonna get married!

Whew. keep trying to make the better template. keep failing miserably!

Back to my old back up, the mermaid one was too risqué for folks at work. I worked on another one, but the preview and the actual blog never matched.

But in other news, I ASKED PHOENIX TO MARRY ME!

And she said yes! Which has made me very happy of course (and her *grin*)

It is going to be a long engagement, for we want to get married in Hawaii, the plan being this December.

I’ll try to describe this weekend as best I can. There was a lot that happened.

On Friday, finally the ring came in the mail. Thank God. I swore that Phoenix was going to figure out what was going on when I had this ring box like object in my pants pocket, but she didnt. That Friday we went out and saw King Authur, which was quite a good movie. Not spectacular, but very good. I like how they dressed the Saxons. I didnt like that fact that the Saxons had crossbows, not that they could hit anybody with them anyway. Next morning we went first to the flea market (and got me a pair of sunglasses) and then out to Liu Gardens. What a perfect place to ask someone to marry them! Actually as we were going in, a group of people were leaving who had just been married! Phoenix was saying how cool that was, and I just had to grin. We walked through the gardens, and it is amazing in Florida, that when you set up a place for wildlife, the wildlife come to you. There were amazing plants all around, but also some very cool animals. Our first encounter was a snake fishing for minnows in one of the small ponds. We walked from garden to garden and finally we stumbled into this beautiful area with a stained glass arboretum, surrounded by flowers. Just beyond it was an oval grass covered field where we took off our shoes to feel the grass under our feet. I decided that this would be the perfect place. I grabbed her, asked her if she would love me forever, she said yes, then I asked her if so, would she marry me. She said yes and started crying with a huge smile on her face. I then got a picture to remember it all just as it was.
We continued though the garden, and true to form, as always with Phoenix, she called a bird to come as a good omen. A huge owl flew in front of us and landed in a tree above us, giving us a nice pose to boot. Got me a good picture too! The rest of the gardens were truly spectacular, with exotic flora and nice shady groves with benches to sit in the heat. We left there grinning like Cheshire cats. Then we went and celebrated at the cheesecake factory, with a piece of vanilla bean cheesecake and a daiquiri (well I had a daiquiri, Phoenix had something called a “twilight zone”) and then went and saw Spiderman 2.
I loved the action, I loved Doc Oc, I didnt like Peter Parkers silly wishy washy romantic and personal confliction in the movie, it was boring, drawn out and overdone. I wish they could have managed to say what they were trying to say in a more powerful and condensed way and cut a half hour out of the movie, or added more action. Well anyway, it was good overall.
Sunday we cleaned cages, went grocery shopping and generally just hung out (and well, never mind). It was raining most the day anyway. But we were happy and content with the world.

And here is the ring, a dolphin and opal for Mrs. Dolphin! Posted by Hello

Pretty woman in an arch :) Posted by Hello

Flower! Pretty pretty! Kinda alien like. Posted by Hello

To quote a song I like - "Snake! Snake! Oh no its a snake! Posted by Hello

Phoenix just after being asked Posted by Hello

Here are some pretty roses from the rose garden Posted by Hello

Here is the Owl, very cool! Posted by Hello

All the world take note! Bryce de Byram, one of the finest men in the known world, has been knighted this last weekend. May his prowess always match his heart.
 Posted by Hello
this is an audio post - click to play

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Another day, another template.

And here we go with yet another template, till I get sick of it (which may be tomorrow!)
I am not sure I like this one either, its too light for my taste, but I do like the mermaid (although she is a bit risqué), and its got enough of a water theme for my tastes. One of these days I will make one from scratch and do it how I like (when I learn HTML for real that is)

Well, what is on the list of things? We had the chance to take two more cockatoos, who are in really good shape, only a year old, brother and sister, but there is no way. One cockatoo is a handful, two more would be insane, not to mention that we would have to buy another $200 cage. We could have gotten them to use as breeders, but we have decided that breeding cockatoos would raise too many ethical questions for us. They are so needy, that selling them to a bad household, no matter how well meaning, would be a moral crime to me, especially when there are so many in rescue that should be adopted into good homes instead. However if a female African Grey came up, I think we would snatch them up in a heartbeat to start the breeding business.

Speaking of our birds, here is a progress report for them:

Addicus is doing as well as can be expected. Despite a lot of toys, a huge cage, and all the TLC we can give, he is still picking at his feathers. He seems happy, we play with him, he does his happy dance a lot, and he is leaning new words, but we just can’t seem to stop him from picking. Now mind you he is picking a lot less, but we noticed tips from normal feathers on the bottom of his cage, instead of just down. I am worried about him. I hope we can figure out a way to stop it. I may need to make him a cloak or get him a Elizabethan collar.

Zora has turned into that little girl that is always inquisitive, loves running around, is constantly in your face, wants everything you are eating, and throws temper tantrums when ever she doesn’t get what she wants. Otherwise she is a sweetie! Her and Addicus buddy buddy up to each other quite a bit, and are becoming pretty good friends, which is a good thing because the other two grays are scared of her. The morning habit now is that when I sit down for my morning bowl of cereal, I get mugged by Addicus and Zora, with Atticus going for the cereal, and Zora landing on my spoon and trying to get at the milk. It’s like living with seagulls *grin*. Its time I taught Zora a little manners with a squirt bottle, starting tomorrow.

Adonis is plucking feathers. He is still stressed out about all the new birds, but we expect that to calm down eventually. He is also being a bit antisocial, but we are starting to drag him to play with the rest of the flock when we are all together.

Buddy is buddy. No plucking, eats like a horse, but doesnt really like being handled much, unless you have a magnet in your hand (weird bird). He stays in his cage a lot even though open his cage whenever we are home. He talks a lot too.

In other news, went to practice on Tuesday at Martins and spent the whole time fixing Phoenixs helmet. Martin was going over drills for sword leg lead options, and gave me some ideas to try next time I fight him. Otherwise, Phoenix and I have been just hanging out, conserving money (because we don’t have much at the moment) and being happy. How is everyone out there? Leave a tag on my tag board, let me know!!!

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Frustration

Ok, I had enough of the old template, it was giving me problems with spacing and such, so I am using this one till I can get time to figure out how to make somthing I want to do... *sigh* more as it happens :).

Monday, July 05, 2004

Tag board

OK... put on the tag board... that could have been easy, but trying to fool with the HTML is rough to make it how I want it... Oh well... now someone use it! :)

A political joke

Ok, those of you who know me, know I'm a liberal Democrat, and I just have to share this joke with all of you.

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level.

You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.



She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Democrat. " I am," replied the man. "How did you know?”



"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm
still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."


The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you
were in before we met but, somehow, now it's my fault."

4th of July weekend

What a great weekend!

As you can see by the pictures below, we did some fishing on Saturday, and when I say fishing, I do mean it… there was very little catching involved. Still, it was a good time. We fished off the jetty near the lighthouse in New Smyrna, but every time I cast, I got snagged on the rocks. Phoenix on the other hand had a wonderful time climbing on the rocks and looking at the crabs and barnacles, and even scratched herself a little. She is so much fun to watch. She has missed out on so much in life, that when I show her something new, she is like a little girl discovering a treasure. I can’t wait to bring her to Hawaii, she’ll go nuts!
So after hauling all the equipment back from the jetty, we headed out and stopped at that little park as shown in the pictures below. I think if we go camping down on the coast, we may go there… Actually… hmm… If we got a hotel room, we could bring the birds too.

(Turns to audience) Hey! Is there anyone out there who we could hire to spend about 4-6 hours with our birds and otherwise watch TV on Sat and Sun? Phoenix and I want to go camping, and we really cant bring the birds with us.

(Goes back to story)

Well, back to the park, I felt kind of silly trying to fish in a river with rods set up for surf casting, and had no lures to do any surface work. But seeing a bald eagle overhead was worth the stop. I also got my first catch of shrimp ever. First one Phoenix picked up pricked her finger with its horn, but they were fun to catch none the less. I wish they were eating size!

Next we went to the beach again, went out to the sand bar, and just as the fish started to bite, the storm came and we had to go home. Both Phoenix and I had a great time.

The next day, we went to Martin’s for 4th of July grilling, and it smashing as usual. Phoenix got some time to talk with Martin, and the fireworks display in combination with a cloud to cloud lightning storm (not to mention the spectacular rainbow at sunset) really made the day. Thank you Elizabeth for the garb!

And the drive home... Which was filled with sheets of water and lightning all over the place. Posted by Hello

And right before heading out... Posted by Hello

And another Posted by Hello

Almost on top of us! Posted by Hello

And another Posted by Hello

And another shot Posted by Hello

And over us! Posted by Hello

Here is is much closer, about to go over us. Posted by Hello

Just when we were settling in, and the fish had stolen one or two baits, the daily storm started to roll in. This came from the north and was amazing looking. I thought at first it was just going out to sea and would miss us, but it went right over us! Posted by Hello

We got to the beach at close to low tide, but it was coming back quick! Every 20 minutes or so, we had to move everything another 15 feet back. We swam out to the sandbank (with my pole in hand) and it went from about 6 foot deep to about knee high on the bar, and that's were we started casting. Posted by Hello

Here is a better picture of Phoenix on the dock. The other cool thing that happened here is we got to see a bald eagle fly overhead and an osprey carry off a fish. Did I mention that after I fooled around with the cast net and came up with about nothing, she tried it her first time and caught about 8 minnows? I thought I was supposed to be the expert (hah!) Posted by Hello

We went fishing this last Sat... After the disaster of fishing on the Pylon next to the lighthouse (our lines got snagged everytime we cast, and ran out of rigs) we stopped by a cute little park that sat on the river nearby. However the fish just mocked up by jumping out of the water all around us and not biting (we really didnt have the right rigs for that kind of fishing). We did get out the cast net and cought minnows and small shrimp... In time we headed for the beach... Posted by Hello

Friday, July 02, 2004

Yet another Poll!







I would read this weblog more if it had:


  

Free polls from Pollhost.com


Looking at me looking at you...

Trying to figure out who’s looking at me… Fill in the gaps here if you can…

July 2 2004
onoc.net 10:52:16 am - I have no clue who this is… But they sure look at me a lot! Thanks for reading *grin*
optonline.net 10:34:24 am - Not sure who this one is either…
bellsouth.net 9:20:08 am – This one might be Ros… it only showed up after I sent the addy to her It also might be Bonnie.
Jul 1 2004
collegis.com 4:40:57 pm – Me or one of my co-workers
rr.com 3:55:38 pm20:44 – This is Phoenix looking from home…
prudential.com 3:33:34 pm – This is Sparky I believe
onoc.net 3:20:57 pm
pacbell.net 1:13:44 pm – Pretty sure this one is Learsfool
onoc.net 11:00:16 am
collegis.com 10:21:33 am
collegis.com 8:40:56 am
207.144.211.# 8:59:56 pm
Jun 30 2004
rr.com 5:51:40 pm
collegis.com 4:58:12 pm
collegis.com 4:22:39 pm
rcn.com 3:41:44 pm – rcn? I have no clue on that one.
onoc.net 2:56:45 pm
prudential.com 2:11:11 pm
sprint-hsd.net 12:02:21 pm – And this is Alienora
collegis.com 12:00:12 pm

Well La de da!

Another day and it’s another 8 hours of staring at a computer screen. It’s a wonder I’m not blind yet, or have brain cancer.

This weekend’s plans are mad crazy, Fishing at New Smyrna Beach, seeing a movie (hmm, F 9/11? King Arthur? Spiderman2?), going to Martins for grill out, then fireworks at Lake Eola. Somewhere in there we got to clean the parrot cages, and keep them somewhat entertained. I just hope I can catch a fish or two. I saw a wonderful, well written negative review on Spiderman 2 from a friend (although they liked the movie as a whole)

“Actress problems: The puke-orange hair looked hideously tawdry - like a trailer-trash hooker who's been dumpster diving for cosmetics. Her half-closed, sloe eyes reveal no sign of intellect, and seem as though it's a struggle to remember to breathe, much less say her lines. Her breasts hang down below her waistband like sunken dugs - the wonders that a simple brassiere would do for this flappy-chested trollop. I've seen better shapes on Ugandan refugees with 12 children. During the 'kiss me' scene, when her wasted, thin little lips kept advancing toward the camera, I got the same nasty feeling in my stomach that I did during the scene in Private Ryan when the soldier went back for his severed arm.”

Whew! Can’t wait to see it! *grin*

For this weekend’s fishing, I would like to try a new tack. Instead of wading out to waist deep water and using frozen shrimp, I want to get on the pylon next to the inlet there (at New Smyrna Beach) and use live shrimp on one pole (the one Phoenix will run, I expect it will catch a lot more) and large minnows for one of the other poles to try to get the big fish… I might bring my cast net to see if I can get more bait. I liked fishing last time, but I think this time I want to do some catching, and not just have fun getting wet.