...is only to placate my sister for giving me a hard time about not updating sooner. There. I updated.

Jon sent me a few examples from over at freakingnews.com tonight, and they brought back memories of Wacky Pack stickers that I used to collect as a kid. Wacky Packs were released by the Topps Chewing Gum company and were quite the fad in the early-mid 70s. My 2nd & 3rd grade notebook was filled with 'em. My brother Michael took the grand prize with his bedroom door, though - it was completely covered.

Resources

• Wacky Pack history
• Complete series images

It's hard to believe that 25 years ago on May 18th, Mt. St. Helens erupted, changing the face of Western Washington forever.

I was only 15 at the time and still living in Florida. My family & I first visited Washington state the following year. We never got to actually see the mountain that year, but did see the destruction along the Toutle River. Even that was an amazing sight and a testament to the awesome power of Mt. St. Helens.

Since moving up here I've gotten to visit St. Helens numerous times. Despite the seemingly total destruction in the blast zone, life thrives. Each time I return I'm amazed at the difference in the landscape from the previous visit. If you haven't been, I'd highly recommend a visit.

Resources:

• MSH National Volcanic Monument
• A Native Washingtonian's Guide
• Personal Stories & Timeline
• Volcano Cam
• USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory

Today was my Dad's birthday.  AND I'll be nice and not mention how old he really is.   I know I never say it, but I love you, Dad. Hope you had a fun day today. Which probably means:

• Sitting in front of the computer all morning
• Breaking for a brief lunch of microwaved spam on white bread with yellow mustard (alternate: pimiento cheese sandwich)
• Spending until 4 or so in front of the computer
• Afternoon nap
• Dinner of leftover cubed steak
• Watch TV until 1

Tomorrow: lather, rinse, repeat.

A quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, in a 1954 letter to his brother Edgar:

"The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Full Text

In what is certainly not an everyday occurence, an Amorphophallus titanum is in full bloom today at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, Florida. Big deal, you say? Well, this flower is over 6 feet tall, blooms only once every few years, and - the big attraction - stinks like rotting fish that can be smelled from 150 feet away. From the St. Petersburg Times:

It's supposed to unfurl its leaves sometime between today and Sunday and let out a stench worse than any Dumpster. (In its native Indonesia, the plant is called the "corpse flower.")

The majestic red bloom will last only a day or two, then close and lay dormant for several months until it sprouts a single leaf, which looks more like a tree. If all goes well, the leaf-tree will then morph back into a tuber.

It could be several years until Alice completes the process and blooms again. The garden's three Amorphophallus plants have only bloomed seven times in the past 15 or so years.

more...

The garden has a live web cam during daylight hours to check on the blooming process. I'm thinking that most people wouldn't want one of these in their garden. At least the neighbors wouldn't.

Just days after Denny's Beer Barrell Pub introduced their monster 15 pound Belly Buster Burger, three brave men managed to down a 12.5 pound "Zeus" burger in neighboring New Jersey.

The Clinton Station Diner's 12 1/2-pound "Zeus" burger met its match Monday in the person of 345-pound "Gentleman Joe" Menchetti and two slightly less hefty friends. The trio managed to devour the monster meat patty plus 2 1/2-pound bun and 3 pounds of fixings in one hour, 11 minutes and 52 seconds.

more...

All for a good cause, too. The owner of the restaurant is donating 15% of the nights receipts, at least $500, to a volunteer effort to ship personal goods to the troops in Iraq.

When you see a story about exploding German toads, your hand immediately goes to the mouse and clicks on the link. It is a physical impossibility to resist. I think your hand itself might explode if you tried. From our friends at the Sunday Times:

AN OUTBREAK of exploding toads is perplexing the residents of Hamburg. The affected creatures seem to behave quite normally, croaking and languidly snapping up flies. Suddenly, after nightfall, they start to balloon to more than three times their normal size and can barely crawl before popping. Their entrails are expelled distances of up to one metre.

Dogs and children have been warned away. The force of the explosions is impressive. “It’s like hitting a slightly rotten orange with a golf iron,” one Green activist explained yesterday.

more...

Is this another sign of the End Times?

Mentioned almost in passing at the end of the article is this sentence:

The Government has allocated £153,000 for toad tunnels underneath roads to protect the animals from traffic.

Now, I'm as much as environmentalist as the next King County resident, but I busted a gut (not quite in the same way as those poor toads) when I read that.

Now I'm starting to feel guilty about those potato bugs I might mow up every week. 

My sister Michelle is evil. There's just no two ways about it. And forgetful.

I called her today to wish her a very happy Mother's Day, since she is Mom to three of the most well-behaved and angelic children on the planet.  I'm used to getting her voicemail (which I did this time), so I hung up and waited for her to call back.

"OMG, I left my phone at the mall," she tells me about 30 minutes later.

She proceeds to explain to me that she called her phone from Bart's (my brother-in-law) cell to try and locate exactly where it was. As she's dialing, she remembered what her caller ID is for him on her phone - a shot of his, um, unit (yes, that) he had taken the first day he had his new camera phone. At this point I'm dyin', thinking about the look on whoever's face was that saw that pop up on the phone. 

So they went back to the mall, and then she tells me the worst part:

"I made him go inside to get it. I was parking the car." 

The poor girl that gave Bart back the phone couldn't even make eye contact with him.

Now, knowing my sister, she's already making a list of where to leave the phone next. The post office (where Bart works), Mema's (the local greasy spoon), or God knows where else. I have no doubt that the phone will be "lost" again soon. 

It's that time of year again when we pause to thank and honor our Moms for all that they've done in our lives.

There are a ton of Mother's Day poems out there on the web, but this one really struck me as being appropriate for this special day:

Mothers are the place where love
Emerges from the earth,
And happiness rings out like bells
In honor of our birth.

Mothers are the sun that lights
For life our inner sky,
So we may know that we are loved
And need not question why.

Mothers are the moon that shines
Upon our black despair,
So even when we weep, we know
That someone's always there.

Whatever fear, or stress, or pain
Might them to anger move,
We know that underneath the storm
We have, always, their love.

- Nicholas Gordon

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you very much.

My nephew Aiden's 5th birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday, buddy! I love you very much.

And btw, that's my sister's shot of him. Just thought I'd let everyone know before she has a conniption and accuses me of taking credit for taking it.  

Speaking of thunderstorms, CNN has a great web special report on tornadoes.

Here are some other interesting tornado resources:

• NOAA Tornado FAQ
• Tornado Project
• Tornado chasing vacations

Personally, I think it would be a blast to go on a tornado chasing vacation! Now I'm gonna have to put in my Twister DVD. 

I don't know whether this guy is lucky or not.

The first time lightning hit Emory Johnson, it wasn't so bad. The 1986 strike burned the inside of his truck and left him tingling.

Wednesday's bolt was much worse.

"There was a loud bang, and it felt like I was burning inside, and I passed out," Johnson recalled later. "When I woke up, I was shaking so bad I couldn't quit."

One of the things I miss most about Florida are the thunderstorms. We don't get too many of 'em up here in Western Washington, so it's a real treat when we get a little bit of thunder. There's nothing like a good, loud storm... especially at night. 

Wherever I go, I am always on the lookout for a good burger. By and large I have found that the best ones come from the mom- & pop-type places rather than large restaurant chains. From the looks of it, Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA will need to be added to my must-visit list! They've recently reclaimed their crown of the world's biggest burger:

Dubbed the Beer Barrel Belly Buster, the burger comes with 10.5 pounds of ground beef, 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, a cup-and-a-half each of mayonnaise, relish, ketchup, mustard and banana peppers -- and a bun.

Bigger does not always mean better, and there's no way I could ever finish this monster. I'd sure like to see one in person, though, and maybe have just a slice. With grilled onions, of course.

Being a 13-year veteran of Boeing, and working in the travel industry prior to that, it's hard not to be an airplane freak. If you like photography AND airplanes, check out this rockin' site:

http://www.airliners.net/search/

Almost 800,000 photos, enough to keep even the most hardcore aviation buff busy.

Every once in awhile, weird memories will pop into my head. I don't know if it's the same for you, but I find it odd and comforting at the same time. Why do we remember some things so vividly and yet we struggle to recall other events?

One of the memories that sprung into my head this evening was spending a few weeks in the summer over at Florida's Space Coast at the Quality Inn in Cocoa - like 1970 or 1971. It may have been both years, I'm not clear on that part. I was 5 or 6 years old and my Dad had a job related to the space program at the time. Some of the things I remember about that time:

• Riding in my parents' friends' old Cadillac and experiencing power windows for the first time.
• My first experience with a vibrating bed
• Watching a complete downpour (the literal cats and dogs kind) looking out at the beach dunes from the end of the motel corridor.
• Burning the heck outta my hand from the hot water tap in our room
• Being amazed at having an unlimited supply of ice
• Going to Krystal and getting the tiny burgers.
• Spending days swimming and splashing in the motel pool.
• Watching Love, American Style in the motel room.
• Getting to go to my Grandparents' house in Haines City afterwards for a couple more weeks.

Weird stuff to remember, eh? It was great being a kid. At least during the summer.  I'll continue with the random memories, if nothing else just to remind myself of all the interesting (or not) stuff that happened earlier in my life.

Just a little example of how different conservative leaders were then compared to today:

"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "

Barry Goldwater, Arizona Senator, 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and a conservative's conservative said that. Compare that to the unethical rats that control all three branches of our government today.

Well, I had an interview at Puget Sound Energy last Friday morning. PSE is one of our power companies here in Western Washington with a rich history going back to 1873.

Interviews are like tests for me - both scare the living crap outta me!   You think you know all the material forward & backward, and still you stress out completely. That said, I think I came across pretty well despite my stress & brief "deer in the headlights" look. I should hear something one way or the other next week.  

Here's mine. What's yours?

<names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent>

OK, so I'm chatting with a buddy of mine today on Messenger, and I ask him where the heck he's been all morning.

Todd says: What are you sick with

Joe says: my ulva is swollen

Um, your WHAT?  

He meant uvula. But that didn't stop me from dishing out some major harassment.

Last Sunday I was up in Lynnwood helping my buddy Paul renovate his front lawn. We rototilled and raked, and rototilled and raked some more. I think I found muscles in my body that have been dormant since birth.

Besides the fact that I can still barely move, I think we accomplished quite a bit. We managed to remove all of the old sod, mix in two truckloads of compost, and level it all out. Tomorrow evening we'll finish it off with the seed & fertilizer as well as the protective peat moss.

Don't know about terms like aerating or dethatching? Want to renovate your own lawn? Take a look at this page for a good start. Lots of great info on lawn care.

For state by state grass types and weather and lawn conditions, Go here. For us Western Washington residents, I'll save you the trouble:

Grasses Commonly Found (WA): Fine Fescue, Tall Fescue, Bent grass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Ryegrass 
Frost :  Fall (first) 11/22 , Spring (last) 3/15 
Hearty Growing Months: 3/16-11/20
Growing Days: 253
Days over 90 degrees:  (July-August): 2-5

Google has come up with another nifty new feature called Google Search History. Login with your gmail (or Google) account and your search history will then be integrated into the Google homepage. Simply clicking on the calendar interface will display your search terms results based on the day that you click. Since the info is stored on Google servers, your search history is available from any computer connected to the web.

Getting started:

http://www.google.com/searchhistory/login

FAQ:

http://www.google.com/searchhistory/help.html

Well, we Catholics have a brand new pope, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany. I don't think the cardinals could have chosen a more ultraconservative servant of God if they tried. Does this mean he will be a wedge and a lightning rod for criticism? Oh yes. An excerpt from The Guardian:

He also shows no flexibility on the church's views on priestly celibacy, contraception and the ban on ordinations for women.

In 1986, he denounced rock music as the "vehicle of anti-religion.'' In 1988, he dismissed anyone who tried to find ``feminist'' meanings in the Bible. Last year, he told American bishops that it was allowable to deny Communion to those who support such "manifest grave sin'' as abortion and euthanasia.

"Indeed, it would be hard to find a Catholic controversy in the past 20 years that did not somehow involve Joseph Ratzinger,'' John Allen, a Vatican reporter for the National Catholic Register, wrote six years ago.

I'll keep an open mind for now, but it's awfully hard for a leopard to change its spots.  

This morning I read that Adobe is acquiring Macromedia. Thankfully this was before breakfast and I was spared choking on my Lunchable cracker.

Now, at first glance this may seem on the order of Enterprise being canceled, but consider these two (much scarier) scenarios: Corel could buy Macromedia, or, heaven forfend, Quark could.

OK, I'm back from washing my mouth out with soap.

Seriously though, I don't think I'm the only one who thinks this is a piss-poor idea. Bottom line is that competition will suffer, good products will fall by the wayside, and we'll start having product stagnation. Think Quark and their frequent product releases. And it's ironically funny that Adobe got Freehand in the Aldus deal years ago, and now they're getting it back again. I'm not holding my breath for the Justice Department to do much more than rubber-stamp this takeover.

What changes might we expect with the product line in the months following the merger? My friend Aaron & I were discussing some of the possibilities tonight:

• PhotoFusion CS3
• GoDream
• Frustrator MX
• or maybe even GoLiveAcroDreamworksFusionFlashReadyMXCS

It's a sad day for web designers.