Radio Smack

Had an interesting experience this afternoon. We stopped at a local Radio Shack and I ran in to get electrical adapters to plug stuff in for our trip. Here's where it gets weird: There wasn't a single person in the store. No employees in sight.

I quickly found what I needed and started walking around the store, looking for anybody who might work there. There was a door to the employee/backroom area, partially open, but nobody visible in there either.

I called out "hello" a few times -- even went to the door and opened and closed it to set off the electronic "bing". Nobody showed up.

So eventually, I found a piece of paper and pen, and wrote the following:

International Travel Adapters
[product code numbers]
No price tag on shelf
Nobody in store to help

I left my note, along with $8 cash, sitting by the cash register and walked out of the store with my "purchase". As we were backing out of the parking space, a couple of employees magically showed up inside the store. I went back in and explained what happened - they rang up my purchase, which was $17 and change.

Brilliantly run operation, that Radio Shack.

Seth's thoughts

The following is typed by The Boy.

bf cs88+0000000000000000000000000000
2o9u8 67rijtf tgggggmnixhcg5y4ec jkh k bvz8j9 i7 yft yynbbfc nb

(There were also a lot of spaces in there but Blogger condenses them.)

Thanks to our first guest-blogger, Seth.

Sabbatical

I'm taking a sabbatical from blogging.

Tomorrow, we embark on our ambitious travel plans and I doubt I'll have access to post any blog entries while we're away.

In the meantime, here are updates:

Had a job interview today, went okay, I wouldn't say fantastic. Position is interesting and we'll see what happens.

Dropped the car today for repairs resulting from the Fender Bender. Will pick it up when we return.

Taking the girly glasses on our trip. I'll still have a few days to return them to Lenscrafters when we get back.

Seth is nuts -- N-V-T-S, nuts! He's singing and playing today in a most energetic manner.

Happy Birthday to the Flippish Hen Award-winning Daniel and to aspiring Flippish Hen nominee Aliza.

That is all for now!

I hate Delaware

Yesterday, the family unit drove back home from New Jersey. We got an early start and all was going relatively well... until Delaware.

Interstate 95, which runs from Florida to Maine, happens to run through Delaware for about a 12-mile stretch. Delaware, of course, siezed on the opportunity to rip off passers-through and built a toll booth.

I generally hate the concept of toll roads. But my complaint isn't the fact that Delaware chose to declare their stretch of I-95 the "Delaware Turnpike" and impose a $3 toll. My issue is that they built a toll booth that is entirely inadequate to handle the flow of traffic.

Approaching the toll booth, it took us nearly an hour to go about five miles. There were no accidents or lane closures - this was simply the backup for the toll booth. As a result of the delay, we had to make an extra stop to soothe and feed a very upset Seth and got home much later otherwise expected.

I confirmed on a map that it's fairly simple to avoid the Delaware toll, and I have no intention of ever giving that lame excuse for a state my $3 again. But I would propose that they either:

• Spend some of the copious toll income to expand the toll booth to more lanes, OR
• Pass legislation that the tolls may not be collected (everyone just drives right through) any time that traffic approaching the toll exceeds 2 miles

While crawling along at six miles per hour along with thousands of other cars and trucks, it also crossed my mind that this poorly-designed toll is the cause of millions of tons of excess pollution. I wonder if the Sierra Club would bring legal action against the evil Republic of Delaware.

Have a good weekend!

This my lame excuse for a blog entry today. We're getting ready to head out to Jersey for a weekend with the in-laws. For your entertainment, here's a video of an impressive soccer feat by Ronaldinho, courtesy of Daniel.

Updates on the important stuff

Update #1: Fender Bender
This afternoon, I brought my car to a body shop for an estimate. The damage is pretty minor and looks mostly superficial -- scrapes in the paint and a couple of small dents.

To my shock, the estimate is just over $2,000. I'm a little uncomfortable about telling the older gentleman who hit me -- he was an apologetic retiree with Disabled Veteran plates and still wearing his Red Cross name tag, presumably on his way home from volunteering somewhere.

I'm pretty confident that the estimate is inflated. The body shop knows that either he'll pay it himself, or he'll let insurance handle it -- in which case a claims adjuster would undoubtedly negotiate the cost downward. I may get a second estimate before I call him.

Update #2: Eyeballs
Shortly after I got home from Lenscrafters the other day, I noticed that my new glasses have two shiny objects embedded on each temple-piece. I'm still not sure if they are shiny metal or some kind of rhinestone, but this much I know: They are women's frames.

In my defense, I spent most of my time at Lenscrafters looking into a mirror while wearing various frames, so I was concentrating on the frontal view and never really looked at the temples until I got home. I'm about 75% sure that I'll take advantage of Lenscrafter's 30-day guarantee and return them, but I haven't ruled out the possibility of prying out the shiny objects and keeping them.

Feel free to offer advice in the comments.

Taxi practical joke

From Edmunds.com's Captain Video:

I don't watch a lot of Japanese television and don't speak any Japanese beyond "Kirin." But I understand exactly what's going on in this clip from some Japanese TV show: a particularly sharp and dangerous practical joke involving a cab, a stunt driver and one very scared passenger. In America, attorneys have a word to describe this sort of joke. And that word is "actionable."

Eat a Peach!

Seth's diet is getting broader every day. Well, every two days: In order to watch for any allergic reactions, we always wait 2-3 days after a new food before introducing the next food.

As of last weekend, he was up to: Sweet potato, peas, applesauce, pears, rice cereal, barley cereal, oatmeal, cheerios (still hasn't figured out how to put them into his own mouth), green beans, and bananas.

Yesterday, we introduced peaches. Rachel prepared them by boiling, peeling and pureeing. Without a doubt, this is his favorite food so far. Yesterday, he insisted on having more and more until he'd eaten the equivalent of more than one and a half whole peaches.

He's now regularly having 2 solid meals per day.

Fender Bender!

Just over an hour ago, I had a fender bender on the highway. It's a rainy day and traffic was heavy and moving slowly, when an older gentleman attempted to move his Lincon into the space occupied by my Kia.

The damage was pretty minimal and we traded insurance information, although the gentleman asked me to provide him an estimate and allow him to pay directly rather than going through insurance. I agreed.

Strange - my car may have body work before it has its first oil change.

And for the record -- Massachussetts may have Massholes, but I drove around Boston for 6 years with only one minor accident. Since we moved, I've had three accidents in less than three years, and Rachel has had two of her own. We were not at fault in any of them.

Update: Corrected accident stats 6/14 10:05am.

Better now? Or better now?

I had an eye exam today.

It's always a high-pressure situation. They go through all those different lenses, and if you choose wrong... you'll have headaches or see blurry for a whole year! Compounding the problem, they never change the eye chart so you already know what the letters are. It's hard to tell your brain to guess a letter that you know is incorrect, just to get the point across that it's a little unsharp.

The bottom line of the standard eye chart is TZVECL. I know this, in part, because that's the eye chart I saw today. But there's a funny family story about this eye chart that I couldn't forget.

My grandmother, a fluent speaker of Yiddish, lived in a high-rise condo building. In the underground garage, one of the nearby cars had the license plate TZVECL. My grandmother was baffled -- it sure sounded like a Yiddish word, but she had no idea what it meant. Finally, one day she caught the driver getting out of his car and asked what his license plate meant -- was it German? He laughed and replied that he's an ophthamologist, and his license plate is the bottom line on the eye chart.

Probably ten years later, in another part of the country... the Optometrist (next to Lenscrafters) still uses the same chart.

And in case you're curious - my prescription is a little weaker now, following a pattern of the last few years whereby my vision is mysteriously getting better. This should also help to prevent the headaches I've been getting occasionally.

Placebo effect

The placebo effect, for anyone who doesn't know, is the term applied when a patient's condition improves due to belief that their medicine is effective, despite the fact that they are actually taking a faux medicine, or placebo.

I've come to the conclusion that the following things operate on the placebo effect -- that is, they make you think you're making a difference when you really aren't.

• Thermostats in office buildings
• The "close door" button in the elevator
• The "push to cross" button found at crosswalks

With the latter two, the button exists strictly to entertain you while you wait for natural result. Eventually, the elevator door closes or the crosswalk signal changes, but you had nothing to do with it.

What else operates by the placebo effect?

Fuel Economy

It's amazing that I've compiled almost 60 blog entries so far without delving into the topic of automobiles. I'm sort of a car-guy. Not a gearhead, mind you -- I haven't done much more than change my oil a few times -- but a car guy.

My wife and I have different cars, but they come from sister companies. In fact, both of our cars have exactly the same engine and transmission.

Why, then, is hers rated 21/30 (city/hwy) for gas mileage, and mine 19/26? That's about a 10% advantage for hers in the city and 15% on the highway. The easiest culprit here would be weight, but mine weighs only 67 lb. more, according to Edmunds.

My car is taller than hers and probably has worse aerodynamic drag, but I wouldn't expect drag to come into play much for the city rating.

In real life, we get very similar mileage - around 23-26mpg, depending on the city/hwy mix. But I wonder if there's some kind of bias built into the EPA's testing.

Awarding of the First Flippish Hen!!

Hens lay eggs. Blog readers leave comments. Sometimes these offspring develop a life of their own, and other times they just get scrambled.

Introducing the Flippish Hen! This is an award that will be given periodically to the Flippish Blog's best commenter. It can be awarded for a single comment that is particularly insightful or entertaining, or for showing a consistently high acumen for commenting.

The first Flippish Hen is awarded to Daniel, for being among my most frequent and most entertaining commenters. No nepotism here, folks - B-dot's commenting record speaks for itself.

So plug in your wit-sharpener (or turn the crank if yours is the older style) and start fightin' your way to Hen-worthy commenting supremacy.

!בייסבול

I knew about the startup of the Israel Baseball League this summer, but thanks to Ilan for reminding me about it.

Turns out, the league begins its inaugural season during our upcoming trip to Israel. I don't honestly know if we'll be able to get to a game, but I'm hoping we'll have a chance. The group we're traveling with includes some big fans of baseball, so maybe we'll organize a side-trip one evening.

Here's an article on how the league was formed, and their entertaining glossary of baseball terms in Hebrew.

I've been to 10 Major League stadiums, a handful of minor league ones, Cape Cod League games, and several others. I'd love to add the IBL to that list.


Update: I've decided my favorite team is the Petach Tikvah Pioneers, because their logo looks like they stole clip art of a hammer throw.

A Very Scrubs Christmas

I'm a fan of Scrubs. If you are too, you'll enjoy this. It's long, but very entertaining.

In the news

Be sure to keep tabs on your enormous squirrel! Personally, I think he just wanted to run into the street when there was a particularly large truck approaching.

It ain't a drink if it ain't a drink! "We are aiming for the youth market." Sweet.

Mohammed is the new Jack. Thanks to My Cooperman for sending me this one.

Something's up?

I'm working from home today and just heard military jets flying overhead. Nothing unusual there, but they seemed louder than usual - more like fighters than the typical transports that overfly this area regularly.

I ran outside and saw at least five fighters, flying fast toward the South/Southwest. They were at high enough altitude that it was tough to identify them - maybe 15,000 feet, but I think they were F-16s.

In other news, there are numerous street closures near the US Capitol due to a suspicious package found in the front yard of a house on Capitol Hill.

Stay tuned...

Update: Just noticed that today is the anniversary of D-Day. I'm guessing that those F-16's were on their way to a flyover of a ceremony somewhere.

Boxing: Don't get pinned on (or by) the ropes!

A word of advice to bloggers: Make sure that your readers are too busy to write their own blogs. That way, they'll just provide you with material for yours instead.

Thanks to my brother, who is too busy to write a blog, for this hilarious video.

It was a split decision, with one judge awarding victory to the ring itself.

Six-month checkup

Yesterday, we brought Seth to the pediatrician for his 6-month checkup. The doctor gave him a clean bill of health, and Seth gave the Doctor some spit-up, smiles and giggles.

Of course, the dreaded part of these visits is the vaccinations. Yesterday, there were five - four shots into his legs, and one oral. Fortunately, they make the oral vaccine taste yummy, and the nurse knew from experience the best way to administer all of them: Four quick shots (two in each leg), followed by the yummy oral vaccine. Getting the liquid candy helped to calm the boy down for a few seconds, but he remained upset for about five minutes while we did our best to console him. It's a little upsetting to watch him endure pain that's inflicted intentionally - even knowing that the pain is for good cause and will help protect his health and life.

I feel bad for the nurse who has to administer these things a dozen times a day... the doctor gets to look like a good guy, checks you over and plays a little -- then it's up to the nurse to give all the shots.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that Seth recovered quickly, besides prolific spitting up for the remainder of the day. He was his playful self again this morning.

Today's topic: Ejections

I'm a little late posting this video, since it's been on CNN.com and ESPN.com over the weekend. But I thought it still merits a spot here.

With all the talk of MLB managers getting ejected from games -- Bobby Cox nearing the record for lifetime ejections; Lou Piniella getting ejected and suspended indefinitely for his display on Saturday -- how about a little respect for Minor League managers?

Phil Wellman, manager of the AA Mississippi Braves, got his money's worth last week before leaving the field of play.

Tap goes mainstream

Just saw this American Express (For Business!) commercial, featuring Spinal Tap's -- er, The Thamesmen's -- "Gimme Some Money". And it's not tongue-in-cheek; they just made a commercial for a cash-back credit card and figured that it would make an appropriate soundtrack.

The amazing journey of Spinal Tap - from cult to counter-culture to American Express commericals. Pretty remarkable feat for a fake (albeit talented) band.

The Hat Tip

As a novice blogger, I didn't know all the rules of blogging etiqutte. Thanks to Shappy for introducing me to the Hat Tip (HT), a blogging principle without which there'd be anarchy.

The preceding sentence was an example of a HT -- basically, it's a friendly and informal way of citing your sources. If someone tells you something funny that would make an entertaining blog entry, don't act like it was your own idea.

So here's my question. Say I'd like to blog about a Japanese baseball player with an entertaining name.

Do I owe a HT to...
...Shappy for introducing me to Deadspin?
...Google Reader for giving me the Deadspin RSS feed?
...Deadspin and their Blogdome feature for linking to the article on Armchair GM?
...Armchair GM for actually posting his bio?

120 Reunion! or: Memorial Day weekend festivities

Last weekend, Rachel's old post-college apartment had a reunion of sorts at our house. Her roommates, Stephanie and Jessica, along with Jessica's husband Justin, came to stay with us for the weekend and to attend a friend's wedding in DC.

Seth had lots of fun playing with all of them. It was fun to have a reunion of 120 University Road. Although Stephanie, Jessica, and Rachel actually lived there, Justin and I were honorary roommates too.

At one point during the weekend, Stephanie suggested that I plant a vegetable or herb garden. It's an idea I've thought about before but never really had the motivation. After they left, I decided to actually pursue it. I knew I had some basil seeds somewhere in the house, and there's a perfect spot outside the kitchen window.

Yesterday, I went to The Home Depot and bought, among other things, a large bag of potting soil. I looked for herbs in their nursery, but they didn't look great and I brought home one tiny, sad looking parsley plant.

Lo and behold* -- today the mailman delivers a gift from our weekend houseguests: An herb garden kit, with seeds for about a dozen different plants. I'm very excited and will try to get around to planting this weekend. Stephanie and Jessica and Justin - you guys rock!


*I've always wanted to use these as names for our children, although we missed the opportunity with Seth. But someday, I'll say, "These are our children, Lo and Behold." Or better, "Lo and Behold! It's dinnertime!" (Note: Both of these instances will occur while Seth is at sleep-away camp.)

Greek Salad from Trader Joes

I ran out around lunchtime today to take care of a few errands, including a stop at Trader Joe's. While there, I figured I'd grab something for lunch. The selection of prepared food was a little light, but I bought a Greek Salad.

Once I got home, I noticed that the label included the words "Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing". I don't mind vinaigrette per se, but wouldn't you expect a Greek Salad to include Greek Dressing? Isn't it in the pantheon of salads-that-have-their-own-dressing, like Caesar?

And I had no idea that's how vinaigrette was spelled. Probably would've guessed vinegarette.

Red Sox fans: Mastercard comes callin'

Funny video that's making the rounds. Remember those Mastercard ads featuring Red Sox fans? Thanks to Ilan for this.