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June 25, 2007

Good Judge, Bad Judge

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_fe_st/67_million_pants

If you have not heard about the $54 Million dry-cleaner case, read the above article. It was a local issue so we hear about it about every other day.

The Basics:
Judge sues dry cleaner for $54,000,000 because they lost a pair of his pants. They were a nice pair of pants, but no pants are worth that amount of money, even with "mental anguish" as a claim.

His suit was based on a sign in their window, Satisfaction Guaranteed, was false advertising.

He got his pants a day late.

HE'S A JUDGE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Based on his filing of this completely useless case, I think he needs to have action taken against him by the Bar Association.

I'm relieved that the judge presiding over the case has common sense and ruled in favor of the dry cleaner!

June 22, 2007

Pumpkin Update

I have kept up at weeding and watering about every other day. No fertilizers yet. Definitely no pesticides.

No flowers just yet, but hopefully those will be coming soon. Here's a picture from June 20th:


From 2007 Pumpkins



For perspective I have put one of my shoes in the background. They are size 13's! That's a great start this early in the yar.

We still have not seen bees, but I think I am going to buy a hummingbird feeder today to get the scent out.

June 17, 2007

My Celebrity Lookalike

On this, my first, Father's Day, I decided to see who else I might be mistaken for. Umm.... I was better off being myself.



Then I thought, I should make one for Anny too....



Your thoughts?

June 12, 2007

ABBY IS HERE!!!

It happened! We had our baby today!

This is the picture of the happy family.

The essentials details are these:
Abigail Carolyn Monroe
Born June 12 at 1:25 pm
Weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces
Length is 20 inches

Anny is a trooper, but I will not share more of the actual birth story without her express, written consent for fear of beheading!

More pictures are available HERE.

Go ahead, let me hear your applause and congratulations! I'll pass them all along to Anny and Abby tomorrow.

BTW - they should both be home on Thursday afternoon!!

June 10, 2007

Movie THEATER Review

This one is for the locals:

Don't go to the movie theater in Calverton ever again!

The theater used to be a Loews Movie theater but is now owned by AMC. Overall the theater was never the best, but was affordable and close enough to get to in ten minutes or so. I can remember seeing some of the great movies there: Titanic, Tommy Boy, Star Wars during it's second run.

Yesterday we went to see Knocked Up, and the theater killed the movie experience for both of us. The movie was good, though it had way too much foul language. I felt like I must be too old to have gotten into the see it!

But the theater!? $8.75 each for the matinee, because they no longer offer discounts for the mid-day showings. Grr. The theater has certainly never been with that much, no matter what the movie!

Worse than the no-more-matinee prices are the insanely small seats! I've packed on a couple of pounds over the life of the movie theater, but this was ridiculous. Anny had a hard time getting in and out of the seats.

The third strike was the bathrooms which were extremely sub-par. A mop would have taken care of this, but it was apparent that no mop had been seen for a while!

So - go see the movie for some food fun. Don't see it, or any other movie, at the movie theater on Powder Mill Road in Calverton!

June 06, 2007

My OTHER Summer Project

I've been writing so much about Anny and Abby that I've neglected to post pictures of my other summer project: competition sized pumpkins! Last year we stole some straight-from-the-carving-table pumpkin seeds and I planted them in the spring. This year I've decided to use the more traditional from-the-pack seeds.

I have planted in three places, but only two are doing much of anything.

Bed 1 - Actually started out as a plant bed anyway. I added some compost-ish leaves and hay and such from last fall over top of the dried dirt. I planted four seeds directly into proper planting soil. One plant has sprung forth quickly, and one has grown some but has been lagging.

Bed 2 - Really just a place that we didn't have anything else to plant, and I don't want grass there if I can get a good pumpkin or two out of it! Planted four or five seeds on this one, and two have sprouted already.

From 2007 Pumpkins



I've been watering every other day or so, and we had some good, soaking rain over the weekend. We have begun to harvest rain water to use around the yard, so I use that water as often as possible.

Last year we only got one small pumpkin. Bigger than a softball, but smaller than a bowling ball. I found out afterwards that bees are needed to pollinate between the flowers that become the pumpkins, and we didn't have any bees until September. WAY too late to be fruitful!

So, this is the first in (hopefully) a series about my great pumpkin adventures. Wish me bees!

June 04, 2007

Visit Your Farmers Market!

Okay people.

I grew up in the house that I now own. Less than two miles from my house is a local Farmer's Market. Until last summer when we were bored one Saturday morning we had never been.

Oh my! GO!

I can't eat a lot of vegetables because of their potassium content, so the idea going was not appealing. At the grocery store there is no one in the veggie section as Anny and I argue about what is and what is not on "the list" of bad things. At the FM, though, there would be tons of people hassling me to buy all of their stuff, good for me or not.

Wrong.

They family that has the biggest spread is just that, a family. The kids don't want to be there at 7 am on a Saturday, but they are and they try to be cool about it. They always have a mix of locally grown fruits and veggies, as well as staples from other areas of the country. (i.e. cant elopes, which are good in Florida right now, but not here)

We even save money on the food that we buy versus buying it at the grocery store.

There are other goodies from other vendors, though, and you don't want to miss those either! Our local FM has a plant person, a (cut) flowers person, two people with baked goods, and a smaller, all-local fruit & vegetable person. (by person I sometimes mean people)

While our original visit was for veggies for the house, we quickly discovered the goodness that is "Farmers Market Breakfast!" Always said with the "!". Now we look forward to each Saturday morning just for the freshly made cupcakes and pastries in many varieties. We each have our favorites, but are trying to branch out.

We also have been buying a loaf of sourdough bread each week from the baker. Really great bread! This past Saturday I challenged Anny to branch out and we got a load of Rye bread too. Also really great!

So - moral of the story is that you need to go and seek out a Farmers Market near you! Some are only open on weekdays, and that's a pain. Ours is Saturday mornings from 7 to 10 (might go later, but we're early people) from May to October.

Stop by. It will be worth your time!

June 01, 2007

Getting Ready All Over

It may seem like an easy task:
Make sure that everything runs smoothly while I'll be out of the office when Abby is born.

It's is easy, but it's not.

If all goes according to plan, I'll only be out of the office for two weeks, and am accessible by phone or email.

I spend a lot of my day working for different people in the office. I keep trying to put on the persona that it's not too big of a deal that I'll be gone. I work with extremely competent, working adults. Everything should continue like clockwork. There seems to be a sense that it's not going to be such a nice clock, though.

I have written down in detail all of the operations that I typically do that others don't: web-calendar, voicemail controls, overnight delivery instructions, et cetera.

I think that the key to the anxiety is that the time off can't really be planned. Will it start in two days or ten? Will there be false trips to the hospital that trigger panic but are essentially just smoke and mirrors?

I think that doctors should stop using due dates. It focuses everyone onto one specific date, when we know that it's not in the realm of beign true. Only 5 percent of women deliver on their due date. ONLY 5%!!!

But anyway - in addition to the chaos of getting things done at home, I also am working hard to get things ready at work. Good news is that I get to reevaluate the way that some things are done!

There's always an upside!