Allison is walking on sunshine

How to stop political yard sign thieves

If you're an electrician, wire that baby up with a little juice. Although this one only had the voltage of a pet fence, I'm all for using a standard 120 outlet.

Sad thing is, this kid's parents have a litany of excuses, including "He was just trying to see how the sign was put together." Asshats.

Congratulations, it's a....football!

Little incognito panda is growing rapidly, "football" is actually a week or two old in the size-comparison category. He gained 115 grams in one 24 hour period so I guess they'll have to come up with something new every day. Oh, and he's scooting around, crawling can't be far behind. Zoo trip! I wish they could reschedule Lun Lun to give birth around February so I wouldn't have to freeze my &$$ off to see baby pandas.

Tangible love from Mom!

I was downloading pictures from my camera and found this....In my drug-addled state after surgery, I snapped a shot of an edible arrangement my mom sent. Wayyyyyy good. The fruit really was edible, everything was ripe and top-quality. I had always assumed the "edible" was a technicality.

I had arranged for (and gotten) plenty of food from friends so as to avoid cooking or shopping, dangerous activities while on Percocet (tm). But it hadn't occurred to me a steady diet of lasagna, beef stew, and the like wasn't really well rounded. Fortunately, moms are good at knowing this stuff. I think it goes along with having eyes in the back of their head.

Fantastic Contraptions

Okay, I don't even have drugs to blame for wasting time on this, but who cares? It's a very simple concept--you have to get an object in a goal. You have two tools--wheels and connecting rods.


This game cured me of the crazy idea I might take a physics class.

Eternal Sunset

From the Department of Aimless Surfing On Painkillers, here's a pointless feel-good website: Eternal Sunset, a collection of webcams set to rotate according to sundown. No more impatiently waiting for your local sunset, tune in anytime. Plus, it's kind of cool to compare a day's sunset in Ontario and Key West.
Like, wow, man. Far out. Uh, could someone please pass me the Cheetos?

Congratulations, it's a....cellphone!

For those of you too busy to keep track, Lun Lun had her baby August 30th. I was hoping for another twin cub---two of them together would be quite a sight---but given the rarity of Panda births, we're lucky to have even one. The press is now using the phrase "about the size of a cellphone" to describe him. Mei Lan was "about the size of a stick of butter" when she was born. I'm not sure if they're using a different description because this cub is bigger, a cellphone is an object most people handle on a daily basis, or they realized "stick of butter" was a strange analogy.

There was a brief scare a couple of days ago, the cub's body temperature dropped and they put him in an incubator for 19 hours. He's back with his mom now, everything seems fine.

Due to the "incident" Pandakeepers are weighing and checking him periodically. I wonder who has the job of grabbing him away from Lun Lun? Those animals are pretty damn big.

Congratulations, it's a....backbone!

Zoo Atlanta's panda, Lun Lun, is pregnant! Here's her ultrasound, the alien like thing in middle is a spine. And this is very soon (in panda terms) after having Mei Lan....I'm so proud of our little panda hussy!

Let the Games Begin! Pt. II

Here's one of those Olympic athletes who are lesser known, but far more interesting than some of the big names; Melanie Roach, an ex-gymnast who took up weightlifting to rehab from an injury. She qualified for the 2000 Olympics but ripped up her back shortly before going to Athens, and retired from the sport. So she went out and started both a family and a business. After several years she had back surgery so she could try again, and managed to make this year's team at the apparently old-weightlifter age of 33. Melanie is a definite multitasker. Her three kids are all under six years old, and one is autistic. Her Olympic blog talks about a visit to the Great Wall, and with some kids from a special needs orphanage in China.

She's fun to watch because---well, she looks like a gymnast who just happens to be lifting weights. The first big clue of her background is her smile. This picture isn't staged, it's from a competition. She does that every time she lifts, as opposed to other women who make faces more appropriate to hoisting one's body weight above one's head. You can see her fighting hard after a lift not to do the little gymnast pose.

BTW, she didn't win any medals, but she did make all six of her attempted lifts, and set a new American record. She seems quite happy about her Olympic experience.

Santa Clara's drumline does NOT rule

In the world of DCI, the Phantom Regiment does. Literally. They brought their own slaves to the semifinal competition last Thursday, and had them carry the drum major onto the field--when they weren't otherwise abusing them.

All assertions from Cheryl about the superiority of Santa Clara's drumline aside, they placed sixth, along with their overall corps. The DCI theater telecast was great, both in coverage (really good camerawork and sound) and in comfort (A/C, cushy seats.) I had forgotten how entertaining these productions are, with bunches of people who can run--not march, run--around making formations while playing the Waldenstein Sonata in C Major, Movement 1.

Like the Phantom Regiment, who did "Spartacus," most corps' shows had a central theme. My biking nut friend Jamie really enjoyed "Tour de France," with the color guard in full biking attire. Good thing it included helmets, they threw bike wheels at each other.

Other interesting themes--a boxing match, and "The Pursuit of Happiness," (yeah, whatever, people.) One of my favorites was the Cavaliers Samurai theme. They whipped Santa Clara too, check out the Cavalier's Kodo drums in the youtube clip. Hard to compete with that. Poor Santa Clara. Outgunned in the percussion department.

Let the Games Begin! Pt. I

It seems like just yesterday we were making fun of London's orally fixated 2012 Olympic plans, and now it's time for more Olympics---beginning tonight the Chinese host them in Beijing. China I always look forward to the games and am usually more prepared, but they kind of snuck up on me this year. There is a dizzying array of coverage schedules which I can't decode to save my life, so I'm just gonna take it day by day and try to use the VCR for those critical events. One problem is the time difference, most of the events will take place in the middle of the night (our time.) Despite my rabid motivation I'm a bit old to be awake at 3am. And most of the prime time re-broadcasts will be in sports that don't always interest me much, like track and field or basketball. I'd much rather see the little offbeat stuff like archery or badminton.

So, anyone else tuning in? What events are on your must-see list?

Where have all the trees gone?

Into excessive packaging for one stupid pair of earphones. (Note: cat is for comparison purposes only, and was not included in shipping.)

I suppose it's better than this case, where HP used 17 boxes for...a few pages of paper.