Best Thanksgiving Ever

We all had a really good Thanksgiving. We played a Nancy Drew game all day long. Food was provided by our local grocery store so little cooking involved. It was completely relaxing in every way; and we all needed that after a very busy couple of months!

Castle Mallory Un-haunted

We finished "The Haunting of Castle Mallory" the new Nancy Drew game! It is great; in fact, we all agree it is one of our favorite Nancy Drew games. It uses math, chemistry and has tons of fun puzzles. Even Esh enjoys it. Really great game.

Xmas Vacation

This Christmas vacation, we will go to Ocracoke again. We are all looking forward to the vacation from the hard work we have been doing. The house we have usually stayed in is already booked so we are going to try a different one. The new house is on the harbor which will be different; usually we stay on the marsh. We will be able to see the ferries come and go, and each of us will have a king size bed and our own private baths! Linens are provided for us which will be great.

It's A Girl

Bud is home again to study. And, he was killed today by a thrown sock! His assassin was a girl and the person organizing the game is a girl!!! Awesome....

Infinity

If Bud returns to UVA in the spring (and it is iffy due to the five week "break" this semster) one of the classes he is going to take is about Infinity. There will be lots of reading and discussion about infinity and all of its different aspects. Sounds like a really great class!

Amazing Google Earth

Google Earth has always been pretty amazing but now it is awesome! They now have actual photos of each street or building, etc.! You can take a panoramic view of our neighborhood! Truly wonderful. Just click on the above embedded link, key in your address and take a look. Camera icons show where the photos are. If you do not see one for your address, zoom in and more cameras appear. Click on a camera and view the view! Try Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower -- anything.

Privacy is a thing of the past!

Gnomie at my drawing table!! Wonder what he will draw??

Assassin's Game

Esh's school has an Assasins game going on for a couple of weeks. You are a target and you have a target. How is one assassinated? By being hit with a clean sock. If you are hit, you are dead.

You cannot be killed at your place of work during working hours or while in the middle of playing a sport.

Also, each day has a method of immunity from being assassinated. Yesterday, if you were wearing your shirt inside out, you could not be killed. If someone tried to kill you and you were immune, they are dead.

Today, to be immune, you must be carrying a banana. It must be in your hand and visible, not in a pocket or backpack.

Esh is still alive but so is his target.

Get in the mood! Click Here

My Own Worst Enemy

This TV season, there is a new show on NBC called My Own Worst Enemy. It has Christian Slater playing the main character and we consider it to be a fairly enjoyable show.

However, the questions raised by the show's premise might be better than the show itself. As background, a man has a chip in his brain which has begun to malfunction. Sometimes, he is a well trained professional killer (aka Edward) and other times he is Mr. Typical Family Man (aka Henry). What is not clear is this: which one is the actual / original pre-chip person? Also, is it okay to have a chip implanted in your brain which affects your personality? The answer seems straight forward to be "No" but if it is okay to have a prosthetic arm why would it not be okay to have a brain chip? If it is okay to have an artificial heart why would it not be okay to have a brain chip?

Interesting questions are raised by this show.

Insurance

We have always felt that insurance is a good thing; additionally we have always tried to make sure we are not over-insured, too (although it may be better to be over- vs. under- insured). Each month, we purchase health insurance through an HMO. We also pay for life insurance, house insurance, car insurance, and an umbrella policy! We have Orkin termite insurance, and insurance on the pipes and telephone lines leading to the house. We have made sure that Bud has copies of his insurance , too, especially while driving. Insurance is just such a good idea as a person never knows what the future holds. Bud and October have both had fender benders in the past year and the insurance cards were pulled out. Gravity had some other unknown vehicle scrape along the side of his car while it was parked just a year ago! Good idea -- insurance.

Dough Boy

OMG, Pillsbury now does pre-made pie crusts! Wow. They already make yummy cinnamon twists, crescent rolls, dinner rolls, cookie dough, ...........

Buddy

Bud is home this weekend. He is studying here the entire weekend in order to get caught up. He decided to take a bit of a break at UVA to the extent that teachers wrote asking where-are-you types of things to both him and his academic Dean. We will see what grades are like at the end of the semester........

Random Facts

Like random facts? Here are two posts that are amazing!

http://diamondhearted.blogspot.com/2008/10/very-random-facts.html

http://diamondhearted.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-random-facts.html

Ancient Rome Reborn

From UVA's news blog: Ancient Rome has been reborn as a collaboration between Google Earth and UVA. Cool video where you travel through ancient Rome.

http://uvatoday.org/blog/?p=472

Time For Another Puzzle!

The numbers 1 to 9 should be in each row and each column and in each square with no repetitions. Have fun!

Lion Sighting

For a couple of weeks now, the news has reported a lion, yes -- full grown actual lion like they find in Africa -- lion in our neighborhood. NBC says that many people have seen it and that police have told them that the sources are credible. Wow. We are being very careful when we let the girls outside. Dottie, the slowest and oldest dog goes out the front with October on a lease; Gravity takes the two twins (born a year apart and complete opposites) out with him in the back. The woods behind the house are populated with deer; and there is a farm with sheep and lamas nearby so I am not sure they would go after our literal "pack". Wonder if any of the neighbors are missing any outdoors cats.....

New Soup

Tonight we are having another new experimental dinner soup. I have taste tested it and it is great! So here it is:

Buy Campbell's Southwestern Corn soup (comes in boxes -- one per 1.5 person). This was used for the soup base. The portions below depend on number of people and amount of corn soup base. The soup should be very chunky and full of other stuff -- sort of like a stew.

Also buy:

• precooked beef bratwurst - chop into bite size pieces
• napa cabbage - chop; it will shrink significantly in the soup
• onion - peel and chop
• fresh tomato - de-stem then chop
• butternut squash - peel and chop into chunks; it becomes very soft when cooked so fairly big chunks are okay
• fresh parsley - chopped
• olive oil

In the bottom of the soup pan, very lightly brown the onion, cabbage, squash. Add bratwurst. Stir and heat until meat is warm and slightly browned. Add tomatoes and parsley and heat about 2 minutes. Add the boxed soup. Simmer at least an hour so flavors blend. Yum.

Our travel gnome is at it again!!

Here he is by a BIG picture of October's butt!

Ukrops

Ukrops supermarket is amazing! For only $111, I just ordered Turkey Day meal. Here is what we will have:

• 7-8 lb turkey breast cooked and ready to go
• 2 lbs. cornbread dressing
• 2 lbs. sweet potato casserole
• 1.5 lbs. seasoned green beans
• 1 qt savory gravy
• 1.75 lbs. cranberry orange salad
• dozen white house rolls
• dozen min-croissants
• one sweet potato pie
• dozen assorted cup cakes
• dozen country ham biscuits
• 2 lbs. triple cheese macaroni cheese

I don't think I could cook the meal myself for a cheaper price especially at my current hourly wage of $50 per hour. With everything precooked, I will be a guest at Thanksgiving Dinner like everyone else and I love it! It is the way to go.

Eleventh Hour

Gravity and I have watched some of the new TV shows (The Mentalist, My Own Worst Enemy, Eleventh Hour) and our favorite is Eleventh Hour. It is a very well done show where a scientist works with the FBI to solve science related crimes. There is also a female FBI agent assigned to protect him and this situation has given a few instances of comic relief. very good show and highly recommended especially to those of you who like science.

Sleep Disorders Redux

Gravity placed a post on his blog about sleep disorders that is really interesting. It triggered some additional thoughts in me.

Remember the Ambien stories where people who had taken Ambien were driving cars while asleep and cooking breakfast at 2 AM while completely asleep? Well, I wonder if Ambien creates REM Sleep Behavior Disorder in people who do not actually have REM Sleep Behavior Disorder naturally! Interesting. Some day we actually might know the answers to all of these questions.

One of Our Favorite Authors

One of Gravity's and October's favorite authors died yesterday. Michael Crichton was 66. Many people probably did not even understand that Jurassic Park was primarily about chaos mathematical theory and that the dinosaurs were only used to demonstrate the math theory. His research was awe-inspiring to say the least! We will miss your books. Fond farewell.

----------------------
October says:

My two favorite books of his are Andromeda Strain and the little known The Great Train Robbery which is based on an actual train robbery in England. Both of these books are very well researched and written. Andromeda Strain was actually written while Crichton was in medical school. I like both of the films produced from both of theses book, too. It could be because Crichton was heavily involved with both of these films, too. I will miss his books.

Web Users Beware!

Are "private" blogs actually private? Many say not so. How could they be as it is impossible to secure a world wide web. The other day I found this out on Google:

"Saturday, July 26, 2008. Starting again. I've become really interested in crocheting again. I finally found a pattern for a..."

This is from a blog that is supposed to be private! Web users beware. Nothing is actually private. Privacy is best left to the phone...no that does not work; best left to the US mail system...no that does not work either; and definitely not email. Oh well, there is just no privacy. Everyone is constantly spying on everyone else. So, just hang loose and go with the flow. Be happy -- don't worry.

Voted

Gravity and I both just voted. We voted cross-party; i.e., we voted for people from multiple parties not just following the party line. Hope everyone else votes too! Esh, and his roommate, are not old enough

Surprise Candidates

What a surprise. There are six groups of two running for President and Vice President!

President and Vice President
Statewide
Chuck Baldwin and Darrell L. Castle
Independent Green
http://www.baldwin08.com
President and Vice President
Statewide
Bob Barr and Wayne A. Root
Libertarian
http://www.libertarianparty.com
President and Vice President
Statewide
John McCain and Sarah Palin
Republican
http://www.johnmccain.com
President and Vice President
Statewide
Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente
Green
President and Vice President
Statewide
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez
Independent
http://www.votenader.org
President and Vice President
Statewide
Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Democrat
http://www.barackobama.com

Fun At College

One of Esh's many gifts is the ability to make friends. People just love him! (Gravity and I must have done it all correctly!) Every time we talk with him over the phone, he tells us delightful tales of adventure and fun. He and several of his friends are applying to Brown Residence College at UVA. It is like a college within a university. It is limited to only 300 students so the process is very selective; but Esh already has Friends who live at Brown and they are encouraging him to apply.

One interesting thing about Esh's friends is that they cover the complete scope of grades at UVA; and they include boys and girls. When Esh was in HS his guidance counselor once told me that everyone liked Esh. She said this was unusual with gifted kids as they often act as if they were entitled to treat others badly because they were bright. Well, Esh keep up the good work! And good luck getting into Brown Residence College!

Seasons Survey

The other day, I was thinking about how wonderful autumn was as it is my favorite season; and how glad I was that summer, my least favorite season, had finally ended. Then I began to wonder how many people were influenced in choosing their favorite season based on the conclusion of their least favorite season – a type of “Ah ha” feeling of relief. I began to ask people – friends, family, people at my veterinarian, a class of students at UVA, my hairdresser, etc. It appears that my initial thought might be correct. The sample size for the survey was far too small to be statistically valid, but, none the less, it is interesting. Following are the results of this very small survey.

Results:

Based on the repeating sequence of four seasons, the normal statistical occurrence of favorite and least favorite occurring adjacent to each other would occur about 50% of the time. Of this 50%, half would have the least favorite preceding the favorite with an overall result of 25% of the time. The chart below shows what would be expected if no influence occurred between the choice of favorite and least favorite seasons; i.e. they were random in occurrence.

Favorite and least favorite not adjacent -- 50%
Favorite preceding least favorite -- 25%
Least favorite preceding favorite -- 25%

The results gathered from the survey varied greatly from what would be expected based on typical random choices as listed above. The survey results are below.

Least favorite preceding favorite -- 57%
Favorite preceding least favorite -- 16.5%
Favorite and least favorite not adjacent (exclusively summer/winter) -- 16.5%
Not familiar with four seasons -- 10%

Definitely, the occurrence of the least favorite season prior to the favorite season must have some significance. Whether the influence is the “Thank goodness that season has finally ended!” effect would have to be determined from an additional survey; but the results of my brief and small survey results are clear. Many people’s favorite season follows their least favorite one. It is definitely true with me.