June 26, 2005 
OK, you Tampa area Liberals. Time for us to kick back and share a cold one. As Wayne and Christine have posted, there's a liberal Tampa tradition that's started up ...enjoying a mid-week beer at New World Brewery (map). Next glass to be hoisted on Wed, July 29 at 8pm. Join us for a liberal beer :)
Florida June 19, 2005 
Clicking the thumbnail image on the left will display a larger version of a photo of a sunset, taken from Mars on 19 May 2005. No, I did not take this pic, although I do enjoy visiting new places. The image was taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Spaceflight Now has posted a story and also a link to a high-res image from NASA's photojournal site. Too cool!
Travel June 11, 2005 
A while back we bought Shirley a little iBook,
and we've both come to really like the Mac platform. Well, SWMBO ("She
Who Must Be Obeyed ...pronounced "Shwahm-bo") has been reading the
manuals and has posted a number of pictures of our Florida home
up on the 'net. Most of the outside pics were taken a number of months
ago, and it amazes me how much things have grown since then ...but
these will still give our out of town friends and family a good feel
for the place. Cheers.
House June 5, 2005 
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, and I certainly was not expecting to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a hundred fire ants
(who, like the Cardinals in the Monty Python skit, also sometimes sport
nice red uniforms). I was trimming some of the grass behind our fence
this morning when my legs suddenly felt as though there was a multitude
of locking pliers grabbing and twisting my skin, and holding burning
cigarettes to my unsuspecting flesh. I looked down in the area of the
pain, as one is wont to do when one is experiencing an explosion of
unpleasant sensation on one's person, and saw my lower legs covered
with moving dark masses of very upset little Satans. I had wandered
onto their nest and they were expressing their displeasure.
While
I was hosing off my legs, shaking ants out of my socks and shoes, and
getting fresh socks, Shirley took a peek on the 'net and learned that
sprinkling talcum powder on oneself may help keep the fire ants off.
They apparently can't get good traction or something. I decided if
"sprinkling" was a good idea, then emptying the household supply onto
my legs was a better idea :) ...You see, the nest that I had disturbed
was actually on the neighbor's property, right next to our fence, and I
had then noticed another fire ant mound that was on our property at the opposite end of the yard. I wanted to be a little more cautious as I worked near this mound.
Just
as I finished mowing the lawn, a good ol' tropical Florida rainstorm
hit. I stood outside for a while just enjoying the cooling rain as it
pounded down. And in true Florida style, within a few hours the sun had
dried the grass again, so (after a quick trip to Lowe's for supplies)
we applied some fire ant killer to the yard. It is supposed to control
the ants for 6 months. Tomorrow morning I'll hit our fire ant mound and
our neighbor's directly with some fire ant bait; the bait is a
deliciously evil substance that the worker ants happily tote down (up
to ten feet deep!) to the hive, and they share the bait with all their
little pals, killing the lot.
Florida May 30, 2005 The SexOffender Search is a free service from PublicData.com that lets you enter your USA zip code and see a list of registered sex offenders living near you. It's sad that this service needed, but I'm grateful to the folks who have made this data available.
Misc 