All right. What's this meme, then?

It's soooooooooooooooooooo late and my brain is in a weird place.

So what's this "ask me anything" question meme, eh? I'm not a meme person, you know. But what the hell. How does it work? Anyone can ask me anything? Maybe I should restrict it to my flist?

Has anyone done this meme before?

I've been watching YouTube - clips of Death from Hogfather. What a cool voice! I can imitate it pretty well, believe it or not. I think it's affecting my brain, though.

All right. What's this meme, then?

It's soooooooooooooooooooo late and my brain is in a weird place.

So what's this "ask me anything" question meme, eh? I'm not a meme person, you know. But what the hell. How does it work? Anyone can ask me anything? Maybe I should restrict it to my flist?

Has anyone done this meme before?

I've been watching YouTube - clips of Death from Hogfather. What a cool voice! I can imitate it pretty well, believe it or not. I think it's affecting my brain, though.

Fun Facts

Did you know that if you squeeze a cat rythmically while it's purring, you can increase the volume of the purrs considerably?

Not too hard, of course, or the purrs will stop.

Fun Facts

Did you know that if you squeeze a cat rythmically while it's purring, you can increase the volume of the purrs considerably?

Not too hard, of course, or the purrs will stop.

Voice Post

Voice Post

Commuter Rail Neglect: The Next Step

On my Friday commuter home there were 28 standees in my coach. There were no empty seats.

It's obvious that the T management isn't going to do anything about it. Nor is the political management. So it occurred to me that there are probably some federal laws about overcrowding and train capacity. I mean 28 people standing in a 122-person capacity coach has GOT to be a safety hazard, right?

Perhaps I should be looking into blowing the whistle to the Federal Department of Transportation. Or maybe some sort of class-action suit would be more appropriate. In any case, it's clearly necessary to move forward, because the entire MBTA bureaucracy and the state government are simply ignoring the situation. And I feel simply ridiculous logging failure after failure on my commuter rail blog with no meaningful results. I mean, I'm not writing about the problems because I like to whine; I want something to be DONE about them!

Does anyone know where I should go to get information on either the appropriate federal officials to contact, or on an organization that might like to take on the MBTA? The only one I can think of is MassPIRG - the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group - and I'm not sure they're the right ones.

Commuter Rail Neglect: The Next Step

On my Friday commuter home there were 28 standees in my coach. There were no empty seats.

It's obvious that the T management isn't going to do anything about it. Nor is the political management. So it occurred to me that there are probably some federal laws about overcrowding and train capacity. I mean 28 people standing in a 122-person capacity coach has GOT to be a safety hazard, right?

Perhaps I should be looking into blowing the whistle to the Federal Department of Transportation. Or maybe some sort of class-action suit would be more appropriate. In any case, it's clearly necessary to move forward, because the entire MBTA bureaucracy and the state government are simply ignoring the situation. And I feel simply ridiculous logging failure after failure on my commuter rail blog with no meaningful results. I mean, I'm not writing about the problems because I like to whine; I want something to be DONE about them!

Does anyone know where I should go to get information on either the appropriate federal officials to contact, or on an organization that might like to take on the MBTA? The only one I can think of is MassPIRG - the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group - and I'm not sure they're the right ones.

Impending Doom

It was 50° today, so Sebastian decided to play out in the back yard. I had to go along, of course, but I didn't mind. Heck, it's a privilege.

But while we were out back I noticed that one of the main trunks of a nearby tree in our neighbor's yard was broken - the branch was leaning on an adjoining tree!



This "branch" is more than a foot across at the break. By the look of it, if (when) it falls it will quite possibly smash our roof in - either on the porch, or in Sebastian's room. The den where I'm typing this right now is more at risk than Sebastian's room is, come to think of it. Eeek!

There's also a fairly heavy branch that could easily smash into our neighbor's house, too - depending on how the tree falls.

I don't know what caused it; maybe the heavy ice a few weeks ago? Anyway, we went over to tell our neighbors. The break wasn't really visible on their side, but when they saw it they were pretty shocked. They have a tree guy, though, so they'll have it taken care of.

The trunk is unlikely to hit us tonight; the tree it's leaning on brackets it on both sides with pretty sturdy branches. But a heavy snow and/or wind could have caused a VERY big disaster! And there's no question that the tree would have come down in a year or two.

Impending Doom

It was 50° today, so Sebastian decided to play out in the back yard. I had to go along, of course, but I didn't mind. Heck, it's a privilege.

But while we were out back I noticed that one of the main trunks of a nearby tree in our neighbor's yard was broken - the branch was leaning on an adjoining tree!



This "branch" is more than a foot across at the break. By the look of it, if (when) it falls it will quite possibly smash our roof in - either on the porch, or in Sebastian's room. The den where I'm typing this right now is more at risk than Sebastian's room is, come to think of it. Eeek!

There's also a fairly heavy branch that could easily smash into our neighbor's house, too - depending on how the tree falls.

I don't know what caused it; maybe the heavy ice a few weeks ago? Anyway, we went over to tell our neighbors. The break wasn't really visible on their side, but when they saw it they were pretty shocked. They have a tree guy, though, so they'll have it taken care of.

The trunk is unlikely to hit us tonight; the tree it's leaning on brackets it on both sides with pretty sturdy branches. But a heavy snow and/or wind could have caused a VERY big disaster! And there's no question that the tree would have come down in a year or two.

Meet ELIZA!

Hey! Meet ELIZA. She's a very sympathetic listener.

Meet ELIZA!

Hey! Meet ELIZA. She's a very sympathetic listener.

Cooking Today

It was kind of a dull weekend; we didn't do anything except shop for groceries and play in the back yard.

But I did a lot of cooking today.

This morning, I made a chocolate vinegar cake. I hadn't made on in quite a few years - before Sebastian was born, in fact - but I'm sure I made one for Teri at least once. She didn't remember it, though, and seemed to be a bit dubious about the whole idea.

But it came out better than I expected; very moist and quite good, even though vinegar cakes are typically better on the second day.

For lunch I barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs. Again, they came out pretty well. I wasn't able to get "good" meat; we bought it at Price Rite, and I've had some bad experiences with their ground beef. But since money is tight, I figured what the hell. The gamble paid off, this time.

Then for dinner I made twelve calzones with some more of that meat. My calzones are cheeseless; just ground beef browned with minced onions, and then mixed with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper, and salt. Sebastian ate a whole one and Teri ate two, so I guess they must be good.

Whoops! As I was writing this I forgot about the last six calzones, which were in the oven. But I caught them in time; they're fine.

Cooking Today

It was kind of a dull weekend; we didn't do anything except shop for groceries and play in the back yard.

But I did a lot of cooking today.

This morning, I made a chocolate vinegar cake. I hadn't made on in quite a few years - before Sebastian was born, in fact - but I'm sure I made one for Teri at least once. She didn't remember it, though, and seemed to be a bit dubious about the whole idea.

But it came out better than I expected; very moist and quite good, even though vinegar cakes are typically better on the second day.

For lunch I barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs. Again, they came out pretty well. I wasn't able to get "good" meat; we bought it at Price Rite, and I've had some bad experiences with their ground beef. But since money is tight, I figured what the hell. The gamble paid off, this time.

Then for dinner I made twelve calzones with some more of that meat. My calzones are cheeseless; just ground beef browned with minced onions, and then mixed with diced tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper, and salt. Sebastian ate a whole one and Teri ate two, so I guess they must be good.

Whoops! As I was writing this I forgot about the last six calzones, which were in the oven. But I caught them in time; they're fine.