I sneaked out of the office at 10 AM and headed over to my polling place in hopes that the lines would not be long. I was in luck. It took me seven minutes to go through the line and vote. It took me longer to do the round-trip to the polling place. I was told that…
I was up ridiculously late last night–until almost 2 AM. I started playing Tiger Woods 2009 at around 9:30 PM and ended up in a tournament that I eventually won, but it took a long, long time. I can’t recall the last time I did something like that. Nevertheless, I was up at 6:30 this morning, excited for…
In the November 1 issue of NEW SCIENTIST is an amusing review by Fred Pearce of a book called The Big Necessity by Rose George, which apparently is about the history of the toilet. I can’t give you a flavor of the one page review without quoting from it a few times: The Big Necessity…
For the first time in a long, long time, I did not turn the clocks back before going to bed. That’s not to say I didn’t know that daylight savings ended today. I just forgot to turn the clocks back. I was pleased, therefore, when I woke up around 6 AM, to turn the clock back an hour. I even…
We could not have asked for better weather today. It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, with temperatures above 70 degrees. So nice was it, that Kelly said that we should go for a hike. We pulled out a book of hikes in Northern Virginia and finally decided on a hike around Burke Lake, a…
Halloween today, but unlike last year, there was no dressing up or Halloween parties this year. There was work, and then after work, I headed home and started preparing dinner. AJ and Denisse came over around 7 PM and I made a taco salad using one of strausmouse’s recipes. I think it came out pretty good, even though I made…
I felt a little sluggish throughout the rest of the day yesterday–cold too, and that’s probably because the saline they put back in me was freezing! I didn’t end up cooking last night. I was going to make Taco Salad but decided to hold off until tonight. For one thing, there were leftovers we could eat. For…
The pre-Halloween vampires were out in force today, collecting blood. I was one of their victims. I donated blood for the third time, but it still managed to be a "first". Given my height, weight, and blood type, I am considered a good candidate for apheresis, which I agreed to. I takes longer, but they can get 2 units…
Up at 6:30 AM and into work shortly thereafter. For some reason, I didn’t feel as productive as usual today. Work has seemed relatively quiet all week long, but it just seemed to drag a bit today because I couldn’t get the engines firing on all 8 cylinders. I made dinner again tonight. This time, it was…
Before the wedding, I subscribed to New Scientist. When I got back from the honeymoon, the first issue was in the mail. Unlike SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, New Scientist is a weekly magazine. The next issue came yesterday. I didn’t want to fall too far behind and so today, I read last week’s issue cover-to-cover. And you know what, I thoroughly…