You can call me Al

What are you most looking forward to this week? What are you least looking forward to?

Getting together with my family at my Dad's house for our annual holiday gathering.

(Yes, the answer to both questions is the same.)

Controllable-christmas-lights-2008

You may have heard about Alek Komarnitsky and his controllable Christmas lights.

• Controllable Christmas lights for Celiac Research - 2007
• Annoy someone else’s neighbors: Control holiday decorations via the web

Alek is doing it again this year. And, as usual, he's using it as a way to raise awareness about Celiac Disease. Oh, and raise money for research.

Here, I'll let him tell it in his own words:

Kentucky Fried Chicken is running a nationwide Holiday Traditions Contest and Colonel Sanders has selected the Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease as a semi-finalist - see those at http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas_webcam

The winner receives an entire year of finger-lickin' good KFC chicken; Original, BBQ, or (my favorite) Extra Crispy - that's a lot of 15 piece buckets!

The winner also receives $1,000 and while I'm tempted to use that to buy even more Christmas Lights, I will have KFC donate the entire amount directly to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research which my (crazy) holiday lights have already raised over $30,000 for.

The winner is determined by Internet voting through December 21st, 2008 so please consider voting for my site and help win a $1,000 for Celiac Disease. More info at http://www.komar.org/christmas/kfc/

So surf on by, tell your friends, blog about it, spread the word, etc.

Merry Christmas, HO-HO-HO, and BUUURRRPPPP!!! ;-)

Go vote #16 today!

This past week we adopted two kittens from the Frederick County Animal Control Shelter.

They're currently about 16 and 18 weeks old, respectively. That's Coco on the top (grey tabby with white underbelly and legs). Cookie is the tortoiseshell and is a couple weeks or so older than Coco. (She reminds us of a chocolate cookie with peanut butter chips.)

What would possess us to do such a thing?

Well, the girls are at an age where they can be (mostly) responsible for a pet. They both love all kinds of animals, especially dogs and cats. My eldest has been known to sit and pet my neighbor's dog for an hour.

A dog was not in our future. We're just not dog people. Oh, I like dogs just fine. I just don't like them enough to be willing to take care of one for more than...oh, about three hours.

We already have a cat, though. Spalding is about ten years old. She's a nice enough cat, but she's very shy. Not that long ago she wouldn't come out if the kids were awake and only very recently that she lets my older girl pet her. You can't pick her up (she won't stand for it) and is scared by just about everything. Not very fun for a couple of young girls.

We were going to wait until Spalding died before getting the kittens, but except for being overweight she is in great health. She can live eight more years or even longer. Letting my girl get her first cat at age 16 didn't seem right.

So, we decided to bite the bullet and risk alienating Spalding for years to come. Two cats, we felt, were the right way to go.

All of our cats have been rescue cats, and so these would be no different. We considered Siamese rescue (the wife really wants a Siamese) but the chances of being able to get two young cats at the same time was very slim. Then, browsing PetFinder.com for cats at the Frederick County Animal Control shelter, she saw a picture of Coco and thought she was very pretty.

Almost on a whim, we went up to the shelter a couple of Saturdays ago. (It was the start of our "stacation".) They were just chock-full of cats for adoption. Virtually every one (that wasn't asleep) was just starving for human affection. I wish I could have rescued every one. I would have been happy to get an adult cat, but we'd have real issues with Spalding and the girls wanted kittens. A very helpful volunteer helped us visit with a few kittens, and we ultimately chose these two.

We couldn't take them home that day, though. No, we needed to wait until Monday, when we'd get a call to come in for a family interview. They require everyone in the family to meet the adoptee(s) and these interviews. Well, it was hard to tear ourselves away, but we figured that not only did we have a bunch of things to do over the next week and wouldn't be home so much, but also that it gave us some time to change our minds.

The following Wednesday we all went in for our interview and talked to a very nice woman for about an hour. She asked the girls why they wanted kittens and if they knew how to take care of cats. She asked us about cats we'd had in the past and what our thoughts were on spaying/neutering and declawing.

On the face of it, it seems excessive. I mean, we wanted a couple of cats and they were filled to the rafters with available adoptees. But, then, thinking about it a bit, I'm actually glad that they do do all that. I certainly wouldn't want any animal to be adopted only to be abandoned again, or to cause the birth of even more strays. And what of some sicko who just wants an animal to torture or use for scientific experiments? No, even though we were slightly nervous that they might not want to give us the cats, I'm very glad they have this process.

Of course, we passed with flying colors. The kittens had already been in to be spayed that morning and were recovering. We were able to pick them up later that day and begin the process of integrating them into our family.

We started with the two of them segregated from each other and Spalding. We made sure to spend as much time with all three of them as possible. Both kittens are sweet and easy-going, and quick to purr at any attention. Cookie, especially, likes to nuzzle your neck.

We introduced them to each other first. They both got their backs up, of course, but it didn't take too many visits over a couple of days before they started getting along just fine. Introducing them to Spalding is an ongoing process. At first she hissed and growled, but never tried to go after them. Fortunately, since the two of them are near in age, they play with each other and leave her alone. We have moved on from there to where Spalding will still hiss at them, but will occasionally go nose-to-nose with one to check her out. Frankly, I'm surprised that Spalding has adjusted as much as she has so quickly. I don't think that Spalding will turn into a "mommy cat" like my youngest suggests, but I think they'll get along fine.

They weren't free, either. They were $97.50 each, with a discount for the second. But, that fee covers deworming, all their shots including rabies, spaying, and a microchip. It would have been signicantly more if we'd paid for all of that stuff ourselves. And of course we would have, because it's the responsible thing to do. (Well, maybe not the microchip.)

We're very happy to have our newest members of the family.

I really dislike people who have a blog and, after some extended inactivity, post some whiny apology about not posting more frequently. More often than not, they then disappear again for some extended period.

Well, no apologies from me.

A quick re-cap of recent events:

My wife finished her summer term at college. She is still maintaining her 4.0 average. Fall term begins this week. Only a year-and-a-half to go. Unfortunately, this term she'll have labs virtually every weekend.

Last week I took off my first full week from work since, I think, my youngest was born. Like many in this train wreck of an economy, we decided to have a "staycation". We visited Hershey Park, Gettysburg, the National Zoo, the National Cathedral, and Harpers Ferry. The rest of the time I just tried to relax. There were several other things on our "To Do" list, but it was just too much.

Oh, and we got cats. (More on them later.)

My youngest starts Kindergarten this year. Boy, is she ready. She can count to 100 and beyond, can do some simple math, and is even reading a bit. We're not entirely sure that Kindergarten is ready for her, though. She can be a character. She'll be riding the bus with her big sister, who starts third grade this year.

How weird is this? School starts Monday and the little one goes in that day, but then she doesn't go in for the next two days. Apparently for the first three days only a third of the Kindergarteners go in each day. I guess it's to give them a chance to get oriented and let the teachers give a bit more attention. But I can see her going to school, crying from the stress of being away from home, then being off for two days. Right when she's feeling glad that she's home, we send her back to school again but with all the kids. That seems to me to be more stressful.

I guess I just don't get it. They also do full-day Kindergarten down here and don't have the kids nap. How crazy is that?

Work is...well, work. If it was all fun and games they wouldn't have to pay me to keep me coming in. It's a good team though, and I like (the majority of) the people I work with. Unfortunately, just when things started to slow down to a more reasonable pace, my counterpart has decided to leave for a better opportunity. So much for relaxing and catching up with other work.

The beer blog is doing well, although it's suffering from the same syndrome as my other hobbies: a lack of time. (Forget homebrewing. Ugh.)

The NFL season starts soon. I'm anxious to see how the Defending Super Bowl Champions do. If the recent Browns pre-season game is any indication, they'll do just fine.

That's all for now.

freight train

After a long delay (blame busy schedules and postal delays) Naomi has finally posted the last seventy-some pictures from her 365 Days In & Around Brunswick 2007 project.

There are some real winners here; she's got a good eye. She's also not afraid to show the ones that didn't turn out so well.

(For more information, read 365 Days In & Around Brunswick 2007.)

She says: "Never again!"

She really did do what she says she did: Took exactly one--and only one--photo a day for an entire year. That means her SLR wasn't available for any other photo taking. There were also a couple of times where I had to step in as a guest photographer because she was sick or out of town. Many of the night shots are simply a result of not being able to get back to town before sunset. But she never broke down and took several shots in a single day.

Behind my townhouse my yard is a rather steep hill. (Rather common in Brunswick, actually.) Lacking a teenaged child upon whom I can foist the job, I am responsible for keeping the grass in somewhat presentable condition. Of course, the grass in back grows great, while the grass in the front, which is nice and level and what people see when they pull up, is just sad.

In a conscious effort to reduce my carbon footprint, I have opted to not have a power mower. Instead, I have a reel mower. You know, one of those manual jobs with the spiral blades that spin around and cut the grass.

I have worked out that the only viable method for cutting the grass in my steep backyard is to start with the mower at the top of the incline and let gravity assist in moving the mower fast enough for the blades to work effectively. The disadvantage is, of course, is that after each trip down, I have to drag the mower back up.

In yesterday's humidity, about halfway through the task, breathing heavily and with legs that were leaden, I realized that I was like Sisyphus.

Sisyphus (Σίσυφος) (IPA: /ˈsɪsɨfəs/), in Greek mythology, was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and to repeat this throughout eternity. (Wikipedia)

Granted, I will not be doing this for eternity, but it sure feels like I will while I'm doing it.

I'm not really a NASCAR fan. Oh I've enjoyed watching--even attending--a race or three. I even spent much of my childhood watching the Modifieds make left turns on the 5/8ths-mile dirt at the Flemington Fairgrounds. (I've also been wanting to get up to see the Sprint cars at Williams Grove Speedway.) My father, step-mother, and half of my siblings are "into" NASCAR, but not me.

Still, that didn't prevent me from having a favorite driver or three over the years. As a pre-teen, Sammy Beavers was my favorite Flemington driver. After he retired, no one else there really captured my interest. When I went I'd be content to pick a driver out of the field and make him my "favorite" for the night.

In NASCAR, my favorite driver was Dale Jarrett. I don't know why. Maybe I thought the UPS commercials were more clever than most. Part of it was just that he was a classy guy. Then, of course, he's Ned Jarrett's boy. How could you not like Ned.

Well, now he's retiring. I should have known it was coming.

I finally got around to buying a NASCAR hat. One that celebrates Dale's UPS #88. Of course, the season after I bought it, he changed teams and numbers. In a similar vein, a few years ago I received a New York Giants jersey for Christmas. I was thrilled, because I love the Giants and had wanted one for ages. It was Rodney Hampton's jersey and, of course (and you knew this was coming), he retired that off-season.

Now I have less reason to watch NASCAR races (and less opportunity, since I turned off my cable television).

Thanks Dale! Good luck!

What is your favorite quote and why?

Work is the curse of the drinking classes

- Oscar Wilde

Multiple reasons:

• I am a beer enthusiast
• I am tired of neo-prohibitionists and their antics
• I am a working stiff, and will probably be working until they put me in the ground
• It hangs on a plaque in the kitchen of the parents of one of my best friends (Max); they're two of my favorite people in the world and I have fond memories of spending time in their kitchen

A very close second:

In wine there is wisdom
In beer there is strength
In water there is bacteria

- Unknown (usually erroneously attributed to Ben Franklin)

Brunswick Elementary staff just learned that the school’s reading program is named the best in Maryland by the state’s International Reading Association Council (SoMIRAC).  In receiving the prestigious 2007-08 Exemplary Reading Program Award for Maryland, the school will receive several prizes and a stipend from SoMIRAC to help offset the cost of attending and presenting at the International Reading Association (IRA) conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The IRA sponsors the award to recognize outstanding reading and language arts programs and to call the public’s attention to outstanding programs in schools throughout North America.  Each state can choose only one winning school.

The award program has five objectives.  They are to: improve literacy in our society, recognize school staffs who demonstrate excellence in reading and literacy programs, encourage the development and refinement of exemplary reading/language arts programs, report to the public noteworthy efforts to improve reading/language arts, and disseminate specific information about high-quality programs so that other professionals can use it to improve their own instructional efforts.

The committee members who visited the school were particularly impressed by the programs we have in place to support our students who need additional instruction to address their learning needs. They also mentioned the number of Outreach programs we have in place such as our Sunshine Reader Program, Reading Express and Reading Rocks!

Did I happen to mention this is where my eldest goes to school? And that she's a voracious reader?