Swans on Tea

Snowmageddon, aka the Snowpocalypse, has moved intothe recovery phase. I got about 2 feet of snow, but further north and in the hilly regions, they got more. 40″ in some areas (i.e. more than a meter)
My car. It’s not a minivan.

I learned my lesson from the snowstorm in December and parked on [...]

Thursday afternoon I had the realization that I still had not purchased a shovel; my inner drive to get one after our last big snowstorm waned immediately after I dug myself out and went home on vacation. So it wasn’t until the latest storm was looming, along with the local ordinance requiring one to [...]

My new sofa with recliner capability. It was delivered last week, in time for the playoff games this past weekend.

I did love my old sofa, but after 20 years of putting up with me the springs and frame were shot.

Sick. As. A. Dog.
Gah.

Did this last year: cities in which I spent at least one night while on travel
Niskayuna, NY
Dewittville, NY
Dover, MA
Charlottesville, VA

I remember walking to lunch one day back in 2002, in early October, discussing some shootings that had been reported either that morning or the morning before. This was not a normal topic for conversation — shootings in the DC area are not uncommon — but these were sniper attacks and not taking place [...]

“You can say that again” — The King of Id
My molar has apparently abdicated — it rejected its crown. Ugh. Fortunately I was able to have the dentist see me and fix my little problem.

I don’t generally watch the teen-coming-of-age drama shows, unless forced (as I was on vacation; the episode of Degrassi was a cheap ripoff of Pump Up the Volume without the benefit of a topless shot of Samantha Mathis), but I’m sure this plot has been covered somewhere: Awkward Teen asks the Beautiful Cheerleader [...]

Gorgeous first two-thirds of the Labor Day weekend, which I spent geocaching, up to the point where my knee started complaining about all the hiking. Off-trail bushwhacking seems to be the main irritant, along with hilly trails, and i was doing a lot of that on Sunday. The knee seems to wait until [...]

Physics Buzz: Six degrees of Paul Erdős
Some famous names have low Erdős numbers— Bill Gates has an Erdős number of 4, Steven Chu’s is 7, and Albert Einstein is 2.
If Chu’s is 7, mine is no greater than 10; I can trivially trace a path through my thesis advisor to his, to Chu. [...]

My TV died last night, right in the middle of The Daily Show (the 8:00 repeat). One minute Jon Stewart was there, the next, he wasn’t. I’m not lamenting the loss of the TV all that much — it was a mediocre set I got 5 years ago (I had to check my [...]

Today is Frank and Helga’s 100th anniversary. Frank and Helga are my great, great grandparents. A toast to them. Skol.
Also, 20 years ago last week I got out of the navy and went west (you know, the way of Horatio Alger, Davy Crockett, the Donner Party…) to go to grad school.