Archive for November, 2007

Invertebrates Added

I’m finally adding some life to my new fish tank project. I just went down to a local store that specializes in saltwater and picked up a half dozen hermit crabs and a few snails. I should have written down exactly what I got, but I think the hermit crabs are called dwarf red tip hermit crabs. They are pretty small, all occupying shells that are around half an inch. I believe the snails are orange turbo snails. I thought they were another variety other than turbo, but I cannot find anything other than turbo snails while searching online. Either way, I don’t think it will matter too much. Currently, I am acclimating them from the water at the store to the water that is in my tank. I’ll be sure to take some photos once they are in the tank.

Edit: As promised, here are a few photos of the critters.

Absolutely No Losses

All I can see are W’s all across the board! I had three wins in each of my fantasy football leagues. My adult league hockey team also won another game last night, finally! I had a goal and an assist, taking my total to three goals and three assists in five games. Not bad. And finally the Bengals won and the Bearcats won. It was a great weekend in sports.

I am now in first place in two of my fantasy leagues (although Kim will claim that she is actually ahead of me still since she has more points than me, however we are still tied based on records alone). I’m 4-6 in the other league and closing in on the top half of the league. It’s still going to take a bunch of work to get there though. At least I’ve already claimed a playoff spot in the league Kim and I are tied.

Castletober
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As I mentioned last week, we headed to the Finger Lakes region of New York for my buddy Jay’s wedding. This region is the second largest producer of wine in the US, next to Napa Valley. We stayed in Geneva, on Seneca Lake, and explored the wineries around this lake. The wedding itself took place at the Belhurst Castle, and was a wonderful ceremony and an excellent reception. We all had such a great time and wish the newlyweds the best!

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Before heading back to Denver, Kim and I made a quick detour to Niagara Falls. It was just over an hour from Rochester, where we were flying out, and Kim doesn’t think she had ever been there before. It was pretty cold for our visit, so we only stayed for a half hour, but we were able to see quite a bit of the area. More pictures from Niagara Falls can be found here, and wedding pictures are located here.


Finger Lakes on Dwellable
Not That Geneva

Anyone flying in or out of Cincy today? If so, look for me, as I’ll be making a mad dash from one plane to another. Don’t try to stop me though, our layover is only 38 minutes, and that’s assuming everything is on time. We are heading to upstate New York for a wedding of one of my longtime buddies from OARfans.com. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures, as this should be a great one. Have a nice weekend…

Another Amazing Race

I’m so glad that the Amazing Race is back on TV! It is always one of my favorite shows to watch. The first episode of the twelfth season aired on Sunday. If you’ve never seen the show before, now would be a good time to set your DVR to record the show. If you’ve seen the show before, I’m sure you are watching it again. The first team to get kicked off didn’t really interest me, so no loss there. It’s still too early to pick any favorites, but I’m always a sucker for a hippie team. I can’t wait to see what happens this week on the second episode.

Defective Video Recorder

Our DVR has been acting up recently. Late last week, when I first noticed the problems, it would frequently pause for a few seconds when watching a recorded show. The frequency of this problem seems to be increasing, and I’m starting to lose out on some of my favorite shows. Before it gets any worse, I am going to take the defective box into Comcast and exchange it for a new one. I wonder if they have new and improved versions available, or if I’ll just get a new one that is identical to what we already have. Has anyone else had any problems?

First In Two

Shoot, I neglected my site today. Must have been too busy with work, or something like that. Just to give a quick update I’ll write about my fantasy football teams. I didn’t do nearly as well as I did last week, ending up with one win and two losses. I’ll blame my losses mostly on Jay Cutler’s performance, or lack of, as he went out of the game early in the second quarter. It also didn’t help that I had the Broncos defense on two of my teams. Last time I root for the home team.

One of my losses, and a win by Kim, has us tied for first place in one league once again with 6-2 records. I’m also tied for first in another league, the one that I had a win, with two other guys that are now 7-2 as well. In the final league I dropped from seventh place to ninth after my loss this week. It may be time to start giving up on this team, they are as hopeless as the Bengals.

Across The Universe

Friday night, Kim and I saw the movie Across the Universe. Before I get into the details of the movie, I would first like to say that it cost $9.75 per ticket! When the heck did this happen? It is now cheaper to buy a DVD than it is to go out to the theaters and see a movie. Unbelievable.

On to the movie, this a modern musical film which features 34 Beatles-related compositions. Being a big fan of the Beatles music, this was my main reason for seeing the film. After a few minutes, I realized that the plot was actually pretty decent. Besides all of the music, there are loads of Beatles references throughout.

A dock worker Jude travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother Max is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.
– From the IMDb

If you are a Beatles fan, i would highly recommend this movie. And even if you aren’t a fan, the movie is definitely entertaining enough. Although if movie prices are that high everywhere, I would wait for it to be on video.

The Waiting Game

I finally went to get a Colorado drivers license today. An eleven month delay isn’t that bad, right? I read online that going between eight and nine thirty would result in the shortest lines. They did recommend avoiding Monday and Friday, but I decided to push my luck anyway, and showed up at eight thirty this morning. The guy at the desk that gives you a number said the wait would be forty-five minutes, but he quickly said that was a good amount to wait. I guess typically it is longer than that.

So I sat down in a chair and waited. I held ticket number seventy-six. The counter said thirty-three. I watched for the next ten minutes or so as it changed to thirty-four and then thirty-five. I figured that this was going to take forever, so I got up and headed for the door. I decided that I could take the quick eight minute drive back home and do some more work before returning. And that’s what I did. After working for awhile, I returned to the license office at nine thirty. If I remember correctly, the counter said fifty something, but there was no one operating any of the computers. I later learned that there was a computer problem that last fifteen minutes, I’m told.

Shortly after arriving, the computers came back up and again they slowly started going through the numbers. I patiently waited for my turn for another half hour or so. I finally get up to the counter, tell the woman that I need a Colorado license. I hand over my Missouri license and my birth certificate. After a quick vision test and a few questions, the paperwork was done. I was directed toward a cash register where I went to pay my $21 fee. Once that was finished I was told to have a seat and wait for my name to be called for my picture.

So this takes us up to around ten in the morning. I stood around the photo area and waited for my name, but I soon realized that they weren’t calling on anyone and it appeared that the computers had gone down once again. Crap! I was so close to being out of here, but now I had to wait again. So we waited. And waited. Finally as it approached eleven, the computers came back online. After a few others got their picture taken, I was called up to the desk. I quickly signed my name, got my fingerprint scanned, and my picture taken. The guy then handed me a piece of paper that is now my temporary license. I guess they don’t print them up on the spot, and I will eventually get my new license in the mail. So much for my morning.

Maybe Next Time

Kim and I really wanted to hand out candy last night but we weren’t sure if any kids would show up since we live on a fairly busy street. Earlier in the week we bought a bag of candy anyway, and last night we sat out on the porch hoping for people to come by. There isn’t an official time for trick-or-treating in Denver, so we sat from the time it was dark out until just after seven. We didn’t get a single kid the whole time. It was pretty disappointing. So we went in and watched TV for the rest of the night, but we left our porch lights on.

Around nine, we hear a knock at the door. Kim peeked out the window and was scared to open the door, so I grabbed the candy and walked out to meet the costumed character as she was walking away. As I got closer I realized that this person was no kid, but a middle aged woman. I told her that she was the first person that had stopped by and gave her a big handful of candy. She pulled her mask off and said, “Well then maybe we should have a beer instead.” The freaks really do come out on Halloween.