Nero Wolfe

Dan asked earlier what Nero Wolfe was. So, I thought I would provide a couple of links to websites for anyone interested in the detective novel series. Here's the official fan club website and a very informative site that describes the main characters and the books and the life of Nero Wolfe on radio and tv through the years.

Update on the Dish Network story

It appears that after looking at the Dish Network website, we will be keeping the Sirius Satellite Radio stations. It looks like they come with our package. So, that's pretty cool. I can hear show tunes whenever I want now.

Apparently Dish Network is feeling generous this holiday weekend. We have some new channels. They are Sirius Satellite Radio channels. I'm listening to Broadway music, Bluegrass music, and all kinds of other music. I'm guessing this is only a free weekend preview kind of thing.

Now that you've listened to Redneck Woman, how about considering buying the cd? Click here to go to Amazon.com where you'll find Gretchen Wilson's cd "Here for the Party".

Redneck Woman

I found a website that not only lists the lyrics (they aren't completely accurate, but close enough) but the site also plays the song. I'm so excited. Go here and listen to Redneck Woman. It's a really fun song.

What if???????????

What if Dr. Seuss wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation?

(..........this is pretty funny)

Today Polly and I had planned to go see Shrek 2. Polly wanted to see it because Antonio Banderas's voice is in the movie. I figured I'd go because Polly wanted to see it and because I wanted to give Polly my extra Andromeda dvds to sell on ebay and because I had taped the season ending episode of Andromeda for her to watch. So, we get to the theater only to find every kid in a tri-state area has decided to see Shrek 2 today. Being as how Polly and I are pleasantly child free, we decided we would have much more fun shopping, so we went to Walmart. An hour and a half later, we came out with many purchases. Polly has engaged in a new hobby, one of jewelry making. So, she bought some jewelry making supplies there among some other things like an African Violet, which I think she said might be named after me if she takes it to work with her. LOL! We then moved on to the Gino's restaurant for some dinner, which was very good. And then, while we were right next door, we stopped by the pet store to look at the birds, fish, turtles, rodents, and such. After that, we ended our little afternoon get-together. I went on to the grocery store and I guess she went on home.

A few minutes ago I tried to download pictures of the bracelet Polly made and gave to me so I could post them in the photo album, but the digital camera is not working. I'm guessing it's all a part of the "Great Computer Clash" that we are experiencing. Hopefully, one day everything will return to normal. It would be nice to actually be able to use my digital camera again. So, Polly, I tried to help you sell some jewelry by posting a picture of the really pretty bracelet you gave me. Maybe when you get enough jewelry made ahead you can do your own photo album on your blog and try to sell some that way. My digital camera was only $20.00 and it works well enough to display pictures on the pc.

Well, I learned a new little blogging trick today. I learned how to cross out words - see the Wishlist to see what I'm talking about. And speaking of Wishlists, I added a few things to mine. Told you that list would get bigger.

Last night I watched both the Academy of Country Music Awards and American Idol. I'm not a big fan of American Idol, but I was curious to see who won. That Diana girl is from the same small town that a contestant on Nashville Star was from. I thought that was a fascinating fact, but apparently no one in the news media cares to mention it. On the ACM awards show, Rascal Flats thanked both God and beer in the same sentence during their acceptance speech. So, you know it was a country music event. LOL! And Gretchen Wilson performed Redneck Woman, a really good song. You all will have to look it up. Amazon.com doesn't have a sample of the song available to listen too.

Welcome to Oz....

So, I had a weird experience today. Little Miss Commissioner called me about an audit and acted like I was her new best friend. Of course, for her, it might have been 'only friend'. I don't know how she can be so rude in email, but sound so nice on the phone. Still don't like her, I don't care what she does. My phone got used 5 whole times today. Usually I never get phone calls. You all should see the dust on the phone. Oh and here's an anecdote about April, Julie and the training that April's doing this week. April is attending her first level training class. She's ready for something like level 2 and a half, but they won't let her skip level 1. The trainer told the people in the class today that they are not to ask other technicians in the office questions about doing audits. They are to email the training unit the questions. Well, Julie, in her big rumble with management about not getting reclassified into a Specialist 3 position, is not allowed to answer questions from the other workers in the office either. So, I told Julie about what they told April and said, "I feel just like Julie now!" LOL! Julie loved it.

Last night was the season finales of two of my favorite shows: Alias and Andromeda. I'll talk about Andromeda over in the "The Earth Hath Skin" blog (but vaguely as Polly hasn't seen the finale yet). As for Alias, I was pleased. It had a cliffhanger, but nothing that would torture me for the next 7 months. I was glad that Lauren got shot about a dozen times. I was glad that Vaughn was the one to shoot her. I was glad that Syd got the better of Katya Derevko. Presumably, Jack is still CIA, but we don't really know what it was that Syd was reading at the end of the episode. All we know is that they were CIA documents, or at least some of them were. And Weiss got some words to say in this episode and actually had a little camera time. Yay!

Today, I finally got my Andromeda dvds. I was under the impression that they would come in a collective box like my Alias dvds, but apparently the box is not. But as soon as I verify that dvds 1 and 2 are in working order, I will be able to let Polly sell my other 1 and 2 on ebay. Polly wants to see Shrek 2, so I might have to see it with her just to give her my dvds to sell. I don't know if it will be playing this weekend though.

Thoughts on Troy

Polly and I went to see Troy today. Polly was very disappointed because, shock to us all, Hollywood apparently rewrote the story. I don't remember enough of the story to be disappointed, but if they were already rewriting it, couldn't they have had Achilles and his girlfriend escape? That was so sad to see them torn apart by war. As we were watching the credits we discovered that Tyler Mane had a part in the movie. I'm betting he was one of the really tall warriors. Tyler Mane played Sabretooth in the X-Men movie. Still don't understand why they all wore dresses. I don't think I saw one person in that movie with pants on. You'd think horseriding would be a problem for a man with no pants.

Hugh Jackman Pics

Google is a wonderful thing. check out the google Image search for Hugh Jackman. *sigh*

Would anyone care to explain how I can have LESS disk space on this computer AFTER deleting a whole bunch of stuff and emptying the trash than I did BEFORE I deleted and emptied?

Well, I finally got an email from the people I bought the Andromeda DVD Boxset from on Ebay telling me that they had received my payment. I wonder if they had just received it or if it had been in a stack of mail for a few days. I sent them the money last week. If people are going to be that slow in opening their payment, then they shouldn't put stupid 5 day or 7 day time limits on the buyers getting the payments to them. If there's a way ebay will let buyers come up with rules, like, if I don't receive the item in so many days you'll get negative feedback, then I wanna know what it is.

My sister was down today and fixed the computer so we don't have to open up about 5 different files to get to the internet connection and our favorites list. Yay! I found the picture used for the desktop background and I got our mouse pointer changed back to the little mouse like we had it before. I haven't had a chance to work on getting the printer back, but maybe I'll look at that this weekend. We still have an 8 GB hard drive completely full - I'm sure we need to delete stuff off of it since our original hard drive isn't half that big and we don't have it filled, but I guess that can wait for a while.

The movie, Troy, will still be playing this weekend. Polly wanted to see that one too, so we might be going to see it this weekend. Maybe they will explain why fierce warriors would let so much skin be exposed in battle when wearing those skirts. I always wanted to know why.

An Alias Rant

I just read on the internet that ABC is not going to start airing Alias's next season until January 2005!!! They 'promise' that it will be aired continuously without pre-emption for the entire 22 weeks in needs to run to complete the season, but I don't trust anything ABC does. Network tv is nothing but crap these days.

Well, we had our team meeting in the other town today. Three people drove over so that's more mileage reimbursement than the bosses were expecting. Greg wasn't at the team meeting, and the whole reason I was supposed to give my little speech was to set him straight. Oh well, I'll just have to keep tattling on him. He's off for a couple of weeks for some kind of sinus surgery. April and I went to the cubicle that would be hers once she starts going over to the other town to work two days a week and guess what we found. The manual that the boss said wasn't over there. We actually found two of them. Sitting out in plain sight on the desk. So, I'm guessing that Greg and Lydia had them and when they realized we weren't going to let them get away with doing their own audits, they put the manuals back. Even though April only needed one manual, we grabbed both of them just to make sure Greg and Lydia wouldn't try to use it again. We did eat at Pizza Hut, but I only had to share my coupons with April. Other workers had brought coupons of their own.

A financial consultant spends his last $0.75 at a casino. Would you pay him for financial consulting? But I do love the lucky gambler stories.....

The wet blanket on the Don't buy gas on Wednesday email.

Sad News :(

Actor Tony Randall died yesterday. Here's a news story.

Work Rant

Tomorrow we are having a team meeting. Which, isn't in itself a bad thing - I like team meetings. But this one is about 30 miles away in another town. And while there are ten of us in my office who would have to travel to this other town, there are only three people in that other town who could travel to our office for the meeting. It makes more sense to make them travel than to pay all ten of us reimbursment at $0.375 a mile to travel there. But sense never governed a State and so we are being forced to spend (i.e. waste) money by all of us traveling for the team meeting. See Polly, don't even try to understand our employer. It's just no use. Anyway, I have coupons to Pizza Hut that I WON'T be sharing with the three who stay in that office over there. They can get their own coupons.

The Movie was Pretty Good

The movie in question: Van Helsing. Hugh Jackman - excellent! He was even shirtless for part of the movie. I may buy the movie when it comes out on dvd. I would like to hear all of the words - movie theater speakers aren't all that great. Before the movie, Polly and I had lunch at the local Mexican restaurant. We had the buffet, which was pretty good. Except for this one thing that was just deepfried bread. There was supposed to be some kind of stuffing inside, but I tore the whole thing apart and only found a hint of tomato paste. Polly caught me up on everything that had been going on in the office I used to work in. Those bosses are just getting more insane by the day. And Polly gave me my birthday present. My birthday was in December but this was the first time she'd seen me in months so I got it then. And she gave me a vampire related romance book. Yay! Can't wait to read it. Very hunky guy on the back cover so it can't be all that bad.

Ria, do not name your child after fruit!!!!

If you've been to Scarlett's blog, then you've seen her post about a possible road trip/vacation that the Cubicle Commando squad may be taking. I don't know how I got tricked into going, you usually can't pry me away from home for anything. Even Pollylougene has a hard time getting me to a movie, which by the way we are going to this weekend. I think it's Van Helsing. I have to get the time it starts for Polly. Hugh Jackman - how can I NOT see this movie?

Speaking of Polly, she has graciously consented to sell my soon to be spare dvds of Andromeda 1.1 and 1.2 on ebay. I buy on ebay, I don't sell stuff. I offered her a percentage of the profit for doing it, but she wouldn't take it. I guess her Buddhist sensibilities lead her to believe that doing something for nothing will bring her good karma.

Hey, someone really is searching for the Holy Grail. I thought that was just a movie. LOL!

Let's All Say It Together.....

"I hate computers!" Yes, I am experiencing technical difficulties. It's a long and complicated story. Suffice it to say, if I ever have a computer of my own in that home far, far away from my parents that I keep saving for, no one will touch it but me. It will never be upgraded. If it dies, I will turn it into a planter for flowers and place it in the front yard. For the next few weeks, I will be going through every website I have bookmarked and writing down the addresses on paper so that I can have them in the event the technical difficulties evolve into technical typhoons, or some other nightmarish disaster they make TV movies of the week about.

Today I sent out a money order for the Season 1 Box Set of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda that I purchased from Ebay yesterday. I can't wait to get it, but I am a little irked that I will then have two copies of the 1.1 and 1.2 dvds (I had bought them separately when they first came out). Oh well, I also have the X-Men movie and the X-Men 1.5 edition as well. When I get the box set, I will have to remove this from the wishlist.

Today at work I set up the cheap Dart Gun I bought from WalMart. It was only $0.97 and it works fine for a stress reliever. I did post some rules for the gun though so I wouldn't get into trouble for having it. Like: Don't shoot at living beings. Only use the gun on your breaks and lunch time. Don't use the gun when customers are in the room with you. That kind of thing.

Greg and Lydia have proven once again that they cannot, or more to the point, don't care to follow orders. They deliberately disobeyed me again. Which means I will get official time at the next Team Meeting to set them straight. Oh joy.

UFO sighting over Mexico.

Wow!

My blogger profile says I've written something like 65,000 words on these blogs. Too bad I can't seem to write one measly little letter to my friend Jenny. She doesn't have a computer :(

Two interesting tv shows will be on the Travel Channel tonight. One is called Secrets of the International Spy Museum and the other is Washington DC: City of Spies. I plan to be watching them while playing with my new blog.

Aaaggghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shouldn't he be covering for his cronies in Washington or something instead of coming to WV to 'visit'?

What Color is Your Brain?
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A New Blog is Born

Since Blogger did its relaunch, I thought I would check out some of the new templates. Found one I really liked, so I was inspired to create a new blog. This one is inspired by the sci fi tv show, Andromeda. And it has a really long title. So, check out: "The Earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases. One of these..is called man."- Nietzsche. I plan to add more stuff to it.

I wonder if I'm the only one who sees a resemblance between Hugh Jackman and Keith Urban? I think they look alike.

4 Days Off!!!!!!!!!!!

That pretty much says it all for how I'm feeling right now!

Scarlett, you were looking for satellite pictures the other day. Try TerraFly.com.

Chris tells me the link for the Pirates of the Caribbean story didn't work. So, I found another story on the Detriot Free Press website that said the same thing and copied it below.

Avast, ye hardies! Actor Johnny Depp wants that living death's head, Rolling Stone Keith Richards, to play his father in the sequel to Depp's successful swashbuckler adventure, "Pirates of the Caribbean," reports Britain's ITV and People.com.

All along, Depp said he modeled his Jack Sparrow pirate character after the Stones' breathing corpse and it earned him a best actor Oscar nomination. When the film came out, Depp told the BBC: "I didn't want to do an imitation of Keith, or a character study, just a kind of salute to him, you know, to show him I appreciate him."

Richards, 60, would play Sparrow's father -- here's a surprise, he's a pirate too! -- in the proposed sequel to start shooting next year.

Since Richards looks like he might have trouble remembering anything beyond "I need a love to keep me happy," Depp reportedly would even settle for a Richards cameo.

Scarlett, you and April should read this article.

Wil Wheaton has an update on his cat, Felix. Check out the 5/5/04 post.

Musketeers, and I don't mean the candybar.

Bush's campaign slogan: Yes, America Can.......ada built my campaign bus....

Well, at least there might be a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean....

I'm watching an episode of Changing Rooms, a British decorating show. One of the designers wanted to put a big map of the world in the room and I noticed that North America is smack-dab in the center of the map, with Asia/Europe cut in half at the right and left edge of the map. So, my question would be, why in the world would America be the main focus of a map in England? That's insulting to anyone who isn't as full of themselves as those selfish American Capitalists. Don't they have mapmakers in England who'd put Europe in the center?

Tomorrow is a holiday in Mexico. Check out the History of Cinco de Mayo.

Check out the May 4th post by Wil Wheaton. It's great to know that his cat is feeling better. I know Neighborcat was the same way when we went to pick him up from the vet after we had his tail taken off. He was so happy to see us.

So last night I had a really strange dream. I dreamed that one of our gray cats from outside had latched onto a small cooked turkey breast and would not let go for anything. I tried to separate the cat from the turkey to no avail and for some reason I was desperate to get the turkey breast back. So, dad picks up the cat and the turkey and pulls out a pocket knife. That's the last I see of the cat in my dream, but I had the sense that things didn't go well for the cat. The scary thing is, I can tell you where these images came from. Since I've been feeding turkey breast to the dogs, our house cats have been begging for turkey everytime we walk through the kitchen, so that explains the cat and the turkey in my dream. And the pocketknife thing - the other day Dad brought home a battery operated Barbie Jeep that my niece will be able to drive around the yard. There is a portable radio-like device that plays music in the jeep and while it appeared to be removable, we couldn't figure out how to remove it - the jeep was a bring back to Walmart special and had no instruction manual. So, dad, just like a man, pulls out his pocketknife and starts stabbing the jeep and the radio. Luckily I found the screw that held the radio onto the jeep. It's really wild how your mind can tie otherwise innocent images together in such disturbing ways.

I've added a new little section to the green box. It's a wishlist of things that I would like to buy. I admit, I got the idea from Daniel and Chris over at Alfreds Cheese Emporium, but I don't know if my reason for having a wishlist is the same as theirs. My reason is that I'm afraid that I will forget them so I thought I would write them down. I'm sure this list will grow. I am already thinking about other things I can add to it.

3 Weeks!!!!!!!!!

I have to wait three weeks to see the season finale of ALIAS!!! That stinks! I hope ABC doesn't expect me to watch whatever kind of crap they air in Alias's time slot for the next few weeks. Last night's episode was pretty good. But I hear the season finale is huge.

Oh, if anyone wants to increase the number of new visitors to their blog, just post something about Brad Cotter, the Nashville Star winner. You wouldn't believe how many new visitors I'm getting from people searching for him. I think all 13 million people who voted for the Nashville Star contest have been to this blog. Not that I'm complaining, I just wish I had something good to show them once they get here.

As if the "War" on Terror wasn't enough to occupy his time, Bush now focuses on Cuba. I still don't understand why we have a base there full of 'detainees' if we don't approve of Castro's policies. Someday I'll have to find out if we at least pay rent to Castro for that part of his island.

Man Stabbed Outside Copacabana - Insert the obvious Barry Manilow references here......

My sister sent me this website. I don't think it ever stops playing, so I hope you find the badgers very amusing........

Brad Cotter just won Nashville Star. His first song that will be released sounds like a pretty good one. He performed it tonight on the show. I think it's called "I Meant To". So, just as I did for Buddy Jewell, I will be buying Brad's cd and probably the cd single of the song, if one comes out. And I am adding Brad Cotter's website to the Spotlight on Music section so we can all stay updated on his progress. George Canyon came in second. I plan to buy his cd too. I'm sure he'll get a record deal as well.