Connoisseur

The building where I work has a little coffee stand on the first floor, and every day around 3pm, we head up there for coffee and a snack. Yesterday, I decided to add a couple of pumps of Hazelnut syrup, because it’s free. And somehow, the coffee just tasted off to me. I wasn’t sure if the coffee itself was too bitter, or what, but I suspected that they had slipped in a sugar-free syrup on me somehow.
So this afternoon, we went back up again, and I went over and checked on the syrup’s label. Sure enough, sugar-free. So for all of you who doubted my beer reviews, that goes to show you just how sophisticated my palate is. Either that, or sugar-free syrup just really tastes that bad.

Glad to Recant

I had my doubts when I heard that NyQuil/DayQuil were changing their formulas to remove pseudoephedrine. But now that I’ve been slightly under the weather for a couple of days and taking the new version of DayQuil which uses Phenylephrine HCl as a decongestant, I have to say, I was so wrong. The new ingredient works great for me, and it doesn’t have the side effects of completely drying out my mouth and making me feel light-headed. Now, not all is well. Lisa says it doesn’t seem to work as well for her, so it may not be for everyone. But for me, it’s a big improvement, and I’m glad I was wrong.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

This is What I’ve Come To

We had a pretty busy weekend. Our friend (and Ellie’s godfather) John was in from Chicago to visit before the tsunami of relatives arrives in 2 weeks. He’s a smart man, because we’re pushing 30 people who are going to be here for Evan’s christening.
On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore. My cousin Bill and his wife Maria are going to be Evan’s godparents, so we figured it was probably a good idea if they met him before doing all that. They also have a rambunctious 7 month old puppy named Twist. Ellie had a blast playing with her, and somehow both of them made it out alive. I thought Ellie was going to knock the dog out throwing toys at her, and Twist was nipping at Ellie’s ponytails the whole time.
We walked from my cousin’s apartment on Eutaw Street over to the Contemporary Museum on Centre Street. They were running an exhibit on cell phone art, and since John works for Motorola, it seemed an interesting thing to see. Not bad, but we were glad it was free, as it was kind of small. After that, we stopped by the Walters Museum, which was also free. We didn’t get to stay long, but we will probably go back sometime, since they have a cool kids area. Anywhere civilized that we can take the kids is good in my book.
Next up we went to an Afghan restaurant called Helmand. We showed up just after it opened at 5pm, and it was definitely hipster parent hour. The strollers were stacked up at the entrance, and they were out of booster seats when we asked for one. Good food, and the place is owned by Hamid Kharzai’s brother.
After a day of two museums and a nice dinner out, we came back home and fired up the MSU-OSU hoops matchup on the Tivo and sat back with a cold beer. I was feeling pretty sick by halftime, and if John, a fellow MSU alum, hadn’t been there, I might have turned it off at that point. Luckily, we stuck it out, and watched a huge comeback come up just short as the Buckeyes pulled the Gilbert Arenas defense on Drew “Hibachi Junior” Neitzel and forced Maurice Joseph to take the final shot, which he missed. They’ll get a shot at a rematch this coming Saturday.
On Sunday, we got to check out a couple of places that we probably would have never gone on our own. John had a friend who was helping out with the music at St. Francis Xavier in SE DC. For those who know DC, you’ll know that it’s not exactly the best area in town, but they have a nice church, and they’re real proud of their school, from what I gathered. We arrived there for the end of that mass, and then headed up to St. Augustine in NW DC. This was just north of U Street, which is well-known in DC for its vibrant music scene. Nice place, very disciplined (the ushers roped off the aisles during the sermon) and very energetic. They sang the same songs as we would sing in church, but since the vast majority of parishioners are African-American, it’s totally different. We even got to see two babies being baptized, and they made all the newcomers, including us, introduce themselves at the end. Two churches in one day when we normally barely even go to one.
So it was a busy weekend, even without mentioning the geek stuff that me and John did after we got home on Sunday.
This morning, whilst perusing Amazon for memory upgrades for a cell phone (it’s silly that you can get 1 GB of storage for $15 and it’s the size of your fingernail, including the same thickness), I came across a “deal” that offered $30 off any purchase of $99 or more. The catch is that you have to spend $99 on Huggies products. We are seriously considering it. We just need to figure out which size and quantity to order. Indeed, this is what my life is like these days.

State of the Heroes

Anyone out there actually watch the State of the Union? Really, what’s the point in listening to a lame duck president trying to sell his policies to a hostile opposition-controlled Congress? So no, I didn’t watch a minute of the speech.
Instead, I watched “Heroes” on my PC in HDTV. As I mentioned before, I bought a cheap HDTV tuner card, added the Philips Silver Sensor antenna, and I was able to tune in all the major networks with no problems. The only remaining issue was the software. The NVidia PureVideo decoder was the only one that allowed smooth playback of the HDTV. I tried a bunch of different PVR software packages (the one drawback of the cheap HD tuner card is that it did not come with any bundled software, which might have made this step easier), before settling on GB-PVR. It could stand to be prettier (downloading a different “skin” may help in this regard), but it does have a decent interface, and was the only one that I was able to use to download a program guide in order to schedule recordings. So I scheduled Heroes to record a “season pass,” and waited for it to start airing again.
On Monday night, my PC recorded Heroes without a hitch. Last night, I watched the episode during the State of the Union address. At two points during playback, there were some glitches which I attributed to the fact that I was doing other things on the computer while it was recording. But these were very minor blips, all things considered. The other drawback is that the 1 hour episode of Heroes took up about 8 GB of space on my hard drive. Until I’m able to get a second, bigger hard drive, I will really only have space for about 5 hours of HD recordings at a time. That’s not too bad, as I could probably record Prison Break, Heroes, and Lost in HD and watch them each before the next episode airs. It would also be nice to have a real HDTV to watch them on, but I realize that’s a long ways off.
Part of the point of this exercise was to see if it would eventually be possible to wean myself off of basic cable/satellite TV: Sci-Fi, cooking/home shows for Lisa, Ellie’s kid shows and ESPN (noooooooo!). With cable TV shows being released on DVD not long after their seasons are over, I could definitely see myself catching up on Battlestar Galactica in the summer. The other ones are a tough sell, but it might be possible to get a different tuner card that has QAM (unencrypted cable) tuning capability and stick with the most basic cable possible. Or just read more books!