Tag Archives: maryland

8784 – fresh Haircut

run forrest!

Run, Forrest!

A bit shorter than I’d planned, but I think it looks ok. certainly good in the warmer weather that’s coming. Spring has pretty much sprung. Green shoots are coming out of trees everywhere. (Not to mention a lot of pink and white buds on plant life, as well.)

Not sure about the cause, but I’ve been coughing today… to add injury to insult, I coughed so hard that I threw out my lower back. Walking is a bit of a chore… we went to the Amish Market but I wasn’t up for a long trek through uneven terrain, so we went on a driving tour instead in the love cube (after BHK picked up a shoofly pie from one of the vendors). BHK’s got a little ickies chasing her down, too.

Swung by Arizona Pizza for a later din-din with Tina, but between my ickies, and the general food quality of the place – not much was consumed by me. The visual ambience and smells were fantastic.. maybe it just takes a better server and/or ordering something different from the menu next time.


1 year ago – funnel clouds, nice gabbing, alligators door-to-door, you go to my head, black and white 2, v for vendetta, musical meme

2 years ago – readablog, banksy, laughing boy audio, pictures, birth chart

3 years ago – condo falls through, lj being bad, GIMP, AIM games, chimp mask, first remarked on how the Roanoke/Lumbee entry is still active, origin poll, Calliope fest

4 years ago – cool chemical reactions, pronunciation query, gael returns , a pic of newt

5 years ago – Happy chats, urban ruins links, some website renewal ideas, old icons

6 years ago – Baron Munchausen, computer needs fixifying, Coconut song, Oscar Picks, Crayola Crayon color time line

GeotargetVisitor Map

GeotargetVisitor Map

8782 –

Work for the county was pretty keen on the first day – nice folks there. Help desk duties are pretty simple and straightforward – image laptops, XP transitioning, phone and online support, so far.

On the second day, it was primarily imaging desktops and laptops for the police department, punctuated by telephone help-desk stuff… all very straightforward.

I like the people I work with, ad would enjoy a full-time gig with that crew. I’m pleasantly surprised to see an even mix of the sexes, with some marrieds… very different than the all guy network rooms or all female non-profit agencies.


BHK got us macaroons from the Cakery! oh, yum, yum yum. Cookie Monster knows his stuff when he claims them as his favorite cookie. when done right, they are a bit o’ heaven… and those guys make ’em right.


Apple CEO Steve Jobs has written an interesting essay, “Thoughts on Music“,in which he explains why Apple has refused to license its FairPlay DRM scheme, and calls out to the music industry to end copy protection.Jobs also points out that the vast amount of music on iPods is DRM-unencumbered, and argues that the 3% of music on iPods which is DRM-encumbered is hardly enough to lock users into the iPod platform.

It will be interesting to see the fallout from this essay, both from the music industry (which has recently shown signs of re-thinking DRM), and the European countries like Norway, which has declared Apple’s DRM illegal.


Looks like spore is still on schedule! I’m really looking forward to it.


1 year ago – sleepyhead, ren-festige, Chacarron again, comic-book picture, condo commando, network named elements, Sandra Day O’Connor comments on right-wingers, star wars concept pics, don’t walk through words, political profile quiz

2 years ago – Fragments, Chatted a cutie, BEAR TRAP/ PUNCH!, homeopathy=placebo, ref desk, giant sea monkeys, walkabout pics, rhemish, Parallel Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

3 years ago – local search sillies, copyright disclaimer, zombie minis, missed bro

4 years ago – palm pic, whiskerliscious-fuzzy-paw newt-pic, cat eaters, the coffee song, interviewed @ starmark

5 years ago – radiology, reading lensmen books, riker in trouble for DVDing, corpse Tupperware, Elisabeth, and a bunch of dead links.

6 years ago – IMT politics, and so onGeotargetVisitor Map

My chicken stalker – 8772


My chicken stalker., originally uploaded by scottobear.

This person from Cluck-U was seen peering through the window from the rainy outdoors as visiting family, in-laws, bhk and I ate dinner out at a nearby chinese food place.

GeotargetVisitor Map

8769 –

Saw David and Gill to the Metro station… from there, they’re off to New York.

Piccies from metro [edit – to follow once a better net connection appears]

Emergency Preparedness meeting went ok, plans have to be drawn up for notifications, evacuations, and other levels of distress (boil water, etc)

After the meeting, I took a little walk by the store, an got some of those St. Patty’s Day Irish “Potato” candies for BHK (coconut cream rolled in cinnamon – the candy, not Bhk)… dang yummy (both BHK and the candy)! (not these that missv pointed me to, but dang tasty, nonetheless)

We returned late, and missed going to see 300 with chrishaas and cath555 – maybe next go ’round!

Birdwatching / dinner with the In-laws (Bhk made a ploy for them to get Tigger adopted – if they don’t take him, we’ll very likely integrate him here with us.)


Ultimate quiz

8762 – sunday, sunday

Nice day today… BHK and I initially wanted to make some coffee and sip it on the boardwalk in North Beach, but the wind quickly put the kibosh on that… My two caffeinated crack monkey companions soon decided that perhaps a nice drive through Deale might make for a more comfortable Sunday morning activity. (Thanks to the Love Cube’s swell environmental controls and roomy tour vehicle status, no doubt.)

Peekatures from the drive (the very last is the boardwalk bay view, before we iced over)- some broken down/abandoned housing and barns, a nifty little food joint, etc. the ‘Fabulous brew coffee shop” was a nice little joint to stop and get some scones and a caffeine recharge. Good (bad?) news is that they’re opening another Fabulous Brew about 3 minutes away from our house. Will our tassimo survive? as always, hover for a minor description, or clicken to embiggen.

rip, mr rogers wacky shed gargoyles and mexican mondays! swan thingies rickety boathouse rickety boathouse2 star barn tobacco leaner view from the point boardwalk view - north beach

On the way to dropping Tina off, we noticed a lot of activity at the volunteer fire department. (the semi-decapitated gnome: semi-decapitated gnome at tina's is on Tina’s neighbor’s steps, as it has for a year. Each neighbor is supposed to take turns and pass the gnome off to the next person in line to mow as a bait to get him off the porch, but this neighbor would rather keep a broken lawn ornament than do his part.)

The admission to the dog show was free, but there were all sorts of opportunities to help support the local SPCA, no chains, disabled animals and adoptions… though I confess that the primary allure was wiener dog races (videos to follow once uploaded to google). Oddly, there were belly dancers, as well… but I didn’t grasp the connection between them and animal assists.

fire engine bell sit, ubu, sit! neighbors at the show sniffy dog no, *I'm* Scott. more sniffy dog dog show dog show dog show belly dance w/ kid belly dance w/ bunny belly dance w/bunny belly dance


I’ve been enjoying Assassination Vacation Vowell’s writing is good, but I don’t know if I could listen to her read the whole thing in audio format. – Next on the list is Gasp


1 year ago – rs drops to part time, spoofcard, condo issues, newtcam time lapse, spore,

2 years ago – pomade, numbers, lumbee talk going strong, rat flies a f-22, ifbot, secutiry, scotto pic, zombie quiz, miami bridge, New York Public Library Digital Gallery , hurley episode of lost, mile markers

3 years ago – stress, bro, god wishes, font music, audio books, tofu “chicken parm”, he-man, owie-back

4 years ago – stupidity genetic?, pulp-it, sick folks, history of eating utensils, tree like, riblets are great

5 years ago – fiddled with tulpa, dream, oxycontin, naproxen, oxycodone, Domesday

6 years ago – CJ & Herman story 2, dangers of reading in bed, AOK2GeotargetVisitor Map

8761- sat

Been hearing good things about the revamp of Star Fleet Battles called Federation Commander – it sounds like it can be played by both normal humans as well as rule-monkey hardcore gamers. I think that I’ll work BHK into it after she gets over the Pirates addiction. (Free Sample Game here as a pdf from the homepage) I’m more likely to get the Romulan one first… it has Gorn Ships, too, even though Klingons are plenty keen.


BHK and I spent most of our waking day with the in-laws… What I thought would be a quick-ish trip to get some plywood became a pleasant all-day affair.

Firstly, we visited our snowman, now just a stick and bit of cork on the dock, since it’s 63 degrees outside.
snowman-63degrees

bay rocks bay rocks north beach, md bay rocks bay rocks DSCN4315 mermaidcloud clouds baysky

It was a nice day on the bay

Later we went to Leonardtown and stopped off at Witch’s Rock (An 875-pound boulder sits in front of this museum, and it’s said that visitors can see the hand print of Moll Dyer on the rock. Dyer was labeled a witch by the townspeople and was driven from her home on one of the coldest nights of the year. Her neighbors burned down her cabin, so she was left to the elements. Dyer was found the next morning, frozen to death and clutching the giant rock. When the townspeople removed her body, the impressions of her knees and hands were left at the scene. Three hundred years later, people report seeing a ghostly apparition floating over the land where she lived. Visitors to the museum report feeling aches and pains when they stand near the rock, and those who have tried to take pictures of it find that their cameras malfunction.)

https://i0.wp.com/farm1.static.flickr.com/185/409899745_d1a94d18ee_o.gif?w=474

after getting Mexican hot chocolate at the tea room, and touched it outside the courthouse. Lacking any non-photo manipulated spiritual manifestation, we continued on to try by touching witch’s other stuff (trash can, tree, flagpole, picnic table, and ash tray), with more solid results.

Haunted ashtray! Evil Picnic table! mystic flagpole! phantom tree?! trash can of the damned! witch's rock DSCN4336

Possessed, post witch artifacts.

We’re just fine.

DSCN4344 DSCN4343 DSCN4340

Veterans of WWI memorial, Segregated by colored and white Heroes fallen in battle.


Google has added a slick new feature to their mapping product. Over 30 major US cities (including DC) now sport a new “Traffic” button that will display congestion, or (hopefully) lack of it, on important routes.

  • Red means bumper-to-bumper gridlock
  • Green means go go go
  • Orange means somewhere in between

I don’t drive, but it would be interesting to hear from anyone out there who has tried this interface and has gotten feedback that actually helped them pick a successful alternate route.


okcupid typecasting

8760 – week’s end

Loving life in North Beach these days. It’s absolutely beautiful outside…I still fear a little bit for Tigger, but our street isn’t a major thoroughfare, so his risk is less than when we were at the blue house. I expect we’ll get any remaining stuff from there this weekend, unless something comes up for more fun recreation. We’re having David and his girlfriend Gill come over for the following weekend, so I expect some cleaning up may happen before then.


Lunar Eclipse this weekend! (Sat night). Hopefully BHK and I will be down y the bay to check it out.

If you live in the eastern U.S. and Canada, you’ll see the eclipse in progress at nightfall. If you’re east of the Mississippi River, you’ll see the Moon rise while still in totality. But you may find it very difficult to spot the lunar disk at all while it’s still very low in the sky. So, if your weather permits, note where moon rise occurs along the horizon on the evening before the eclipse; on March 3rd the eclipsed Moon will rise very close to that location.

Total Eclipse of the Moon, March 3, 2007
Eclipse stage AST EST CST MST PST
Partial eclipse begins 5:30 p.m — — — —
Total eclipse begins 6:44 p.m. 5:44 p.m. — — —
Total eclipse ends 7:58 p.m. 6:58 p.m. 5:58 p.m. — —
Partial eclipse ends 9:12 p.m. 8:12 p.m. 7:12 p.m. 6:12 p.m. —
Last shading visible? 9:50 p.m. 8:50 p.m. 7:50 p.m. 6:50 p.m. —

Two other total lunar eclipses occur within the next 12 months: the one on August 28, 2007, favors viewers in western North America and Canada;the Moon sets just after it fully enters the umbra for most viewers on the Atlantic Coast. An eclipse on February 20, 2008, should be viewable in the evening for virtually everyone in North America.


Moment of Lyric –

8759 – kitty tigger – found in our yard


kitty tigger, originally uploaded by scottobear.

Tigger’s collar has a phone number that’s disconnected. He’s very affectionate, and I played with him for a while, hoping that his owner would come around looking for him. No dice, so I’ve put out a little bowl of food for him and am calling around to the local animal people to see if anyone knows who he is, and where he belongs.

[edit-update: Tigger’s a neighborhood cat, who lives mostly out in the woods. Apparently he makes a good living visiting folks and eating food set out for him, and the occasional mouse and mole. I hate that he’s an outside cat, but this region is moderately safe… I guess he’ll continue to live out and about, unless someone adopts him. I’m a huge softie, and am liable to do it myself, if another family doesn’t come by soon.. I don’t know how Pye and Newt would deal with a third brother in the house.]

8755 – Monday, once again

BHK is out taking care of Tina’s kitties, so I’m home doing online research. Taking a little breather. (Her cats make my eyes puffy… not sure why I can’t cope with them as easily as Newt and Pye)


Larry wants to train me to play bass guitar… I’ve been fooling around a very little bit with the ukulele, which is a hoot.


Note – cool named people in my neighborhood-type region.

Mail Carrier – Candy Thorn (extra awesome, because I have a christmas card from her.)
Plumber – Joe Magnolia.

I forget if I mentioned them before. Both names are awesome.


Heroes meme

8745 – Saturday –

Tonight is the sleepover with Amy and Tina!

After a long comedy of errors catching up with Tina-bo-beena, we finally arrived at the HQ to watch Jackass 2 of all things. It was funny, in a sort of “what the heck kind of nimrods” kind of way… but I did like a few of the sight gags a bit.. the boxing-glove valentine in particular was pretty dang funny.

We went to Annapolis and walked around a bit – saw the Alex Haley Monument, and window-shopped at a few stores. We intended to see Ghost Rider today, but our timing was off. However, Sushi at Joss makes everything better. Even mo’ betta’ was that Amy surprised us and bought supper!

Some photos from Annapolis – Aforementioned Haley Monument, dogma graffiti, state capitol, Ducks, and sundry other sights.

ducks!4 ducks! 3 alex haley moument ducks! 2 ducks! DSCN4142 doubt your dogma 3 capital graffito doubt your dogma 2 doubt your dogma


1 year ago – lego service, lion roar, LS left, misc linkies, nccic, yeti beware sign, (fo)-chief’s letter

2 years ago – Movies, backup tech training, miss mcdonald, themed fonts, stinky, fear of physics, captain’s blog

3 years ago – client crapped out, slow awakening, urge to box, comet collisions, Planet Osiris

4 years ago – early to bed, doctor thoughts, Politi-talk

5 years ago – Pym, argument about writing, haiku, I look like jupiter, pink for vboys, blue for girls, they have a word for it

6 years ago – more crazy haiku, profession of love, seeking a new gig, tough dreams, gooterGeotargetVisitor Map

8742 – Wednesday – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Staying home for V-day… maybe a trip to Philly or DC as a little romantic getaway some other time… the snow and ice was just too rough and tumble for driving unless it was absolutely necessary.

Made for some interesting scenes, though. I’ve never seen stuff so totally laminated as this… including the tree branch that fell and smashed one of our fence pipes! the branch alone weighed about 200-300 lbs… I estimate the water on top added an additional 100-150 lbs to it.

Photos – Probably too much ice, but I’m new to this stuff! (click here for thumbnails of iced trees, a smashed house, birds by the water, and so on. Bobby Drake attacks!)

8734 –

Zippers Firecracker logo big

Saw Squirrel Nut Zippers and Firecracker Jazz Band… both put on a good show. (It was a combo gift to Mother in Law and me for our birthdays 2/13 and 2/2 respectively.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone dug both bands a lot… and I think that the consensus was that Firecracker was the better show and band overall. (Firecracker and NZ share the same trumpet player). BHK and Larry had some of the best musical observations regarding both… they’re both quite talented at evaluation and detailed analysis.

Surprisingly, the performance of Hell was lackluster, but the rest was quite a lot of fun. They said that the gig played the night previous was the first time they’d played together in 5 1/2 years, and it showed a bit.

Firecracker was an absolute Hoot (with a capital H) and we picked up both of the CDs available… got to love any band that can mix up Carl Stalling’s Powerhouse and Count Basie’s Jazz piano stylings. They’re headed to Rhode Island now, making stops in between. If you get a chance, check ’em out. (link goes to a page w/music – auto loads)


Speaking of Squirrels and nuts, we’ve had quite a bit of luck at the Bird feeder. Nuthatches, red-bellied woodpeckers, robins, bluejays and cardinals. Strangely, not many squirrels since we put out the nuts and corn, but the bigger birds are quite appreciative. Zillions of Starlings… I’ve seen huge flocks of parrots and mockingbirds…and pigeons, for that matter, but they had *nothing* on the starling population. Alfred Hitchcock would be proud. Swarm is a much better term than flock for those guys.


My Valentinr - scottobear
Get your own valentinr


1 year ago – compusa sucks, Sun Ra and The Blues Project Do Batman and Robin (MP3s),

2 years ago – piccies, superbowl, flying daggers, robert did it, cemetary pics, immersive gaming, newt smooch, mel and I break up

3 years ago – spam poll, Gabby newt while I’m sick (I seem to frequently catch coldsthe week after my birthday.), screening journal spam, Batman’s MoonPatrol(most links dead now), true & fake smiles

4 years ago – Wooden ships and iron men (online!), tiny things made large, snapplefactoids, LXG movie, craving falafel, b-day note from bro, palm-campics monkey cam!

5 years ago – she has a crush on me, when furries go bad, total net lock down at work

6 years ago – Pirates!, create your own cereal mix (now gone), pondering my future lj, old school yahoo, kruss goes poof, boot to the headGeotargetVisitor Map

8733 –

Didn’t watch the Superbowl. Whoops. I suppose I’ll find out who won sometime this week.


It snowed tonight, and was quite brisk today. We took a walk into the bay (it had frozen, and the water retreated quite a distance back. The [edit to complete]

cold weather iced over the bay, allowing BHK and I to walk out on the mud flat and take pictures from the water zones and ice toward the beach. Found all sorts of nifty old bottles, shark’s teeth and horseshoe crab carcasses frozen in the ice. Too cold to go out without gloves, however, so I took pictures here and there, but kept my mitts in my sleeves like an amputee cut off at the wrists.

DSCN3887 DSCN3886 DSCN3885 DSCN3884 DSCN3882 DSCN3881 DSCN3880 DSCN3878 DSCN3877 DSCN3876 DSCN3875 DSCN3873 wifey bhk in the tundra! DSCN3871 DSCN3870 DSCN3869 DSCN3868 DSCN3867 DSCN3866 DSCN3865 DSCN3864 DSCN3863 DSCN3862 the darkness! sleepy pye scramble face pye newtie chillin


Hm. Microsoft is going to support OpenID, eh?


1 year ago – “Chilly” – in the 40s.ha. Today it was less than half that, before wind chill!, best buy wall numbers, absurd inventions, Superbowl. Scientology SP, Black/white vs right/wrong

2 years ago – Beetlejuice thoughts, evergreen boneyard photo-walk, domestic cats stay at adolescent mentality, interactive autopsy, girls sued for being nice

3 years ago – Super-loved ones, 2-headed baby surgery, fox wedding weather, meat eaters, scale, ruins

4 years ago – Nice thoughts, torture, LCD, note to Newt, Latrave b-day card, Class action suit.. I got my $12 check, eventually, Chandlerisms

5 years ago – MP pay delay, tron, #10 tight, naughty work thoughts, Scripts, system lockdowns and short tempers

6 years ago – At Last, first find hero machine (now in my toybox), bug, Dani and Rhonda hook me up!GeotargetVisitor Map

8717 – about 10 days until my b’day

Zombie Astronaut is Featuring Ray Bradbury!


Tomorrow is Adam’s swim meet – should be interesting… Adam competing vs Larry’s School.


Dreamt last night about BHK and me being “gun runners” to south of the border… we were storing ensure and other high-vitamin products in the stock… the guns themselves didn’t work, but were easier to bribe past the border patrols rather than food for the hungry. at one point, I though t of making the guns themselves out of chocolate or some sort of dark-colored food, but that was nixed for dream-reasons I don’t recall. I remember clubbing one of the patrolmen with the butt of one of the mock-rifles and having a pinkish milkshake type substance come out… hopefully it was full of strawberry flavored protein shake.


More pics from the Paper Moon in Baltimore. decor was cute “pee-wee herman meets tim burton” painted kitsch at an angle, and the food was exceptionally good. (went on 1/17/07)

DSCN3653 DSCN3652 DSCN3651 DSCN3650 DSCN3649 DSCN3645 DSCN3641 DSCN3638 DSCN3637 DSCN3636 DSCN3635 DSCN3634 DSCN3633 DSCN3630 DSCN3629 DSCN3628 DSCN3626 DSCN3625 DSCN3624 DSCN3623 DSCN3621


1 year ago – missing cj, superhero dream, youtube b&B, fat bat cat, herm patient, pug in lucha mask, endless forest, birthday counter.

2 years ago – Chilly, doodle, facial morphs (monkey scotto is still my fave), food, height comparisons, a/b meme, warning labels, toybox mooch, scythes,

3 years ago – happy Newt, nipples off, palm post – bus stop, tummy ache. penguin poop, giant nostril

4 years ago – Tests, truth, rumor, links and history, lj spam, Kev in court

5 years ago – I got my camera, Alvin gets fired from work for stealing overtime, unsolved mysteries, snap club, mcd’s employees, nifty moon site.

6 years ago – Reflections on the old regime, The Litter Box Song *snerk*, Cow Saliva, “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme”, rehiring some of the fire-eesGeotarget