A Little Traveling

We drove up to Wyoming a couple of weeks ago to attend the wedding of one of the kids. We decided to take our grandson along for the trip and let him meet some new cousins and aunts and uncles. At first I thought it was a rather maniacal idea to take a 4 year old on a drive that lasts 14 hours each way, but he turned out to be a great companion. We packed a bag full of toys and he played and sang and jabbered in the back seat and had a grand old time. He was very disappointed when it was time to go back home.
The wedding was nice. After all the work and stress put into it on our end, dealing with changes in plans, dubious decisions on the bride's part, and more glitter than should be allowed on any planet, it turned out better than we expected, and we got a new son-in-law for our efforts.
The reception, on the other hand, left much to be desired. The music was horrific, the DJ stunk, and and they ran out of silverware! I had to eat with a knife and a spoon. BUT - The food was good, the people were fun, and the little kids had a blast.
We also took our dogs along on the trip.They enjoy traveling. In fact, they were so excited they thought the car seat in the back was for them!

All things considered, it was a good trip. Exhausting, though. We were pretty much moving from the time we got there on Wednesday until Sunday. Even the day after the wedding involved a two hour drive back to where we were staying in Cheyenne. I took advantage of a free Saturday afternoon and the grandson and I drove down into Colorado and spent a few hours with my cousins. They took us out to supper and even baked me a birthday cake!

Autumn R&R

Went to Lake of the Ozarks for a couple days last week....

My goofy dogs love exploring the deck and guarding us from  everyone they see.

Blogger's Block

It seems I have nothing to say.

A Year Without Cable TV

My name is Mike, and I am a recovering Cable TV Subscriber.

Just over a year ago I cancelled my subscription to cable television, put an antenna on my roof, ran a few cables through the house, and bought a Blu-Ray player so I could watch Netflix Streams.
I haven't missed cable TV yet.
When I took a look at my "viewing habits", I realized that nearly all the shows I am really hooked on are all on ABC, CBS, or NBC. Why was I paying the cable company to watch shows that are broadcast for free?
Then I took a look at the stuff I *did* watch on cable channels, and realized that I wouldn't miss any of it, with the exception of just a few shows - and eventually those shows will be on the channels' websites, so I could still see them if I waited.
The cost of the Blu-Ray player was offset the first month I didn't have to send $100+ to the cable company.
The HD pictures received over-the-air are far superior to the HD transmitted via cable (or satellite).
I eventually got a TIVO box so I can record stuff.
Even with the Netflix and TIVO fees, I am still saving nearly $100 a month by not paying for several hundred cable channels I never watched anyway. Out of all the stations available to me through my cable subscription, I think I regularly tuned in to MAYBE a dozen of them, and even most of those stations had repeats on much of the time.

So, as I said, I don't miss cable TV at all. In fact, I enjoy watching TV more now, since I only watch things I WANT to, instead of just tuning into any old thing I happen to come across.

Television Boredom

The Fall TV Season needs to start.

SyFy Cancel Eureka

According to Amy Berg: "...Eureka is an expensive show to make. And we could not maintain the quality of our show with the cuts it would take to make us profitable for Syfy's new parent company." I assume the 'new parent company' is referring to NBCU merging with Comcast - and we all know how much respect Comcast has for it's customer base.

On one hand, Eureka has had a good 5 year run. It's been my experience that after 5 seasons, any scifi show starts having trouble maintaining quality (there are exceptions, of course). Sometimes it is best to cut a show before it starts leaving a bad taste because it doesn't know when to quit. I'm not saying this is the case with Eureka, it just a general comment on shows that go on too long.

On the other hand, SyFy is steadily cutting quality shows in favor of popular tripe. What will they replace Eureka with? A new ghost show, perhaps? Or maybe a teenage vampire melodrama, complete with sparkly undead, angst-ridden emo vamps that ride on giant sharks to wrestle with WWE superstars on the backs of mega-whales.

Warehouse 13 will be next.

What To Do

The wife is out of town for a couple of days, leaving me at home with two cats and a needy pug. Not entirely sure what to do with myself. Maybe I'll go log a few geocaches she isn't too interested in trudging to.

Aside from that, I am also establishing myself on Google Plus. Facebook, while it still serves a purpose, has become far too immature for my tastes.

STLost Tweetup 2011

What a weekend!  Hosted the Lost viewing party for the St. Louis Lost Tweetup (on Twitter #stlost) on Saturday evening.  Had some of Twitter's finest Lost fans out on my back deck watching The Man Behind The Curtain!

There was food, fun, and door prizes.
Personally, I got some copies of autographed scripts, Charlie's DS ring, and the Jungle Claire bobblehead!

Best of all, though, was a weekend spent meeting friends, and making some awesome memories.

Huge thanks to @jessorso and @loster21 for organizing the whole shindig:

And to:
@kcdan108
@echobase77
@billkava
@jeremybentham42
@therealmswright
for showing up and rounding out the evening!

More pictures should be showing up on LostBlog in the very near future, including Dr. Halliwax's adventures around town!

Namaste

Wedding, The Battle of Britain, Hats, and Fences

Woke up early on Friday the 29th to watch the Royal Wedding.  I pretty much ignored all the hoopla over the last 6 months leading up to the wedding, so I was able to watch all the pomp and circumstance and enjoy watching the ceremony, and appreciate all the history behind it.
In particular I enjoyed the salute to early times of the RAF during the "fly pass" of the WWII Lancaster bomber and the Spitfire escort:

I felt this was a nice nod to William's current service in the RAF and to all those who went before him.

In a not-so-nice nod to William and Kate were some of the hats - in particular those worn by the Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.  What were they thinking?  They were attending the wedding of their future king and queen - I would think a little more decorum would be in order.  Even my daughter, who enjoys tattoos and has died her hair colors nature never intended, had enough respect to look nice for my wedding.
I found this photo on Twitter, and it pretty much sums up the over-all impression I got of these royal sisters:

After the wedding stuff was all done, and despite the fact I had been up since 04:30, the missus decided we should get outside and do some work - so we built a fence to keep the dogs out of what will soon be our vegetable garden:

Not a bad morning's work.

Why Am I Here?

I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon and bore the rest of the world with what is happening in my Life.  I have no idea what I will talk about, or even if I will post anything at all here.

Guess we'll see.

Pug Face

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