Ogunquit, continued

After breakfast Saturday, we went for a walk along the Marginal Way. It's a path that follows the shore. The weather wasn't cooperating, but it still was a lovely walk.


In this shot, you can see our hotel in the distance. For a better view, just click on the photo.


Here's a view in the other direction. Say, do you think one of those houses would cost much? Nah. Probably dirt cheap! ;)


These were growing along the path.


Greg and Patrick pose for a shot.






Thought I'd try a little black and white.




Another of Patrick and Greg. They're a couple of camera hogs, aren't they? :)

Next stop: lunch! (Isn't this exciting, kids?)

Let's dive right in

We got to Ogunquit Friday evening. Patrick and Greg hadn't arrived yet, so we checked in and then went to find something for dinner. A nearby restaurant called the Blue Water Inn provided a wonderful seafood dinner (and what else were we going to eat in coastal Maine?).

Later that night, Patrick and Greg arrived. By the time they arrived, all we (or they) could do was sleep. So things really got started the next morning. In addition to Patrick and Greg, Chris and Jimmy arrived. They were lovely, and we hit it off from the start.

Time for breakfast...


We went to Bessie's, a local restaurant that offered a decent breakfast and allowed us time to linger and chat.


Greg


Chris


Jimmy


Patrick's camera playing dead. It liked to do that, and that mini-tripod was a real attention-getter.

You'll have to wait for future posts for photos of me, Marc and Patrick.


Walking back, we passed the Front Porch, a local piano bar. For New Yorkers, think "Marie's Crisis," or so I'm told. I never went inside. We discussed going there the last night, but there was no parking, and the rain was enough to dissuade me from walking there!


To me, this looked like the way to get around. $1.50 to go just about anywhere in town. No parking hassles at all!

The Rain in Maine

Come to think of it, let's start with the rain in New York. The weather as we left for our weekend up north foreshadowed much of the trip. Fortunately, it wasn't quite as bad as when we first left, but it wasn't exactly a dry weekend either.


Even Mildred (that's our navigation system's name) wasn't thrilled to be out in this!


Yes, the wipers are going. It was coming down that fast!


The view from a gas station where we stopped to fill up.


And a shot after we pulled away from the gas station.

Fortunately, that didn't continue for too long (or we would have needed an ark!). Since we weren't in a rush, we had time for a small detour. We stopped in Bethel, CT, for one of the best hamburgers around. By the way, Greg tells me that Bethel isn't pronounced beth-el. Rather, it's something like bethull or bethl. That second e isn't accented. Just in case you want to know!

Anyhow, if you're ever in the area, the burgers at the Sycamore drive-in are fabulous.




We didn't get car hop service. Instead, we went inside and ate at a table. Just as well. When I sit in the driver's seat too long, things start to hurt!




We both had Dagwood Burgers. Despite the name, they're not huge. Nevertheless, they are fabulous!

Next stop, Ogunquit!


Okay, here's a sneak preview. This is where we stayed. :)

Weekend

Tomorrow, a cousin is getting married in New Hampshire. He's straight, but we don't hold that against him.

So our plan is to drive up today and stay in nearby Ogunquit, Maine, on the coast. It should be lovely.

We're making a long weekend of it, and we're going to meet Patrick and Greg, as well as two friends of theirs. Meeting new people should be nice, but spending a long weekend with good friends is always a special treat.

The truth is, I'm so tired right now that sitting right here all weekend is appealing, but I'm sure the trip will be lovely!

Our friend Tom is going to stay here with the dogs, so we don't have to worry about them. Should be a good weekend!

By the way, what's this crap on my television? I'm usually at work by now. Since I'm actually home at the moment, I just saw some of the crap on the networks in the morning. Who's watching this dreck? Horrible!

New York's Laziest

Tonight, on my way home, I saw two NYPD officers perform their duties (or, rather, fail to perform them) in a way that was shameful.

I had just gotten off the subway at Penn Station. As I was heading into the main area of the station, the man in front of me kicked out his leg. At first, I wasn't sure if that was a gesture of frustration, but it quickly became clear that it was a lot more than that--it was a real kick. Whether it connected or not, I don't know, but it was aimed at the man in front of him. I know that, because he then punched the man in front of him in the side, in the face, knocked him down and continued the attack.

I'd like to say I instantly jumped into action, but there was a second of pure shock and disbelief. Then I and a number of other people broke it up. Not like I had to fight it out--nothing so macho--but I grabbed the guy's left arm while other men grabbed him, too.

The police were there pretty quickly. Two cops showed up. The attacker said the other guy kicked at him and/or elbowed him--his story seemed flexible, to say the least. He tried some bullshit line about being "an old man." He was probably in his late 50s. Pretty damn sad if you think of yourself as old at that age, but the truth is he was just full of shit.

Meanwhile, the other guy, who I'd say was in his 30s, was dazed and truly hurt. The welt/bruise/bleeding spot next to his left eye was about the size of a golf ball.

These two cops said to the hurt guy, "if you press charges against him, then he'll press charges against you, and we'll have to arrest both of you, because we don't know who attacked who." With that, I and several other people began shouting at them that we saw who the attacker was. The cops completely ignored all of us, bullied the victim into letting it go, and then let the madman walk away. That was for the best, of course, since they didn't want to have to fill out paperwork and otherwise do justice. That's just too tedious!

It was almost too hard to believe. New York's Finest? Not those two!

I need a vacation...

...or at least a nice nap.

We've got a long weekend coming up, but I really feel wiped out. I can't take a big chunk of time off right now, but it really would feel good! Well, maybe a full night's sleep sometime soon will help. :)

A few Dodger shots

Yes, I'm posting dog photos again. Deal with it! :)


WHAT IS THAT? Another blurry Bigfoot photo? No! Something more terrifying! The legendary Dodgefoot!


Daddy Marc, can you get Daddy Jess to leave me alone? He's using that flash thing on me again!


Please, Daddy Marc! I'm right here by your leg. Save me from the camera!


Fine! I'll pose for one photo!


I said ONE photo. That's it! I'm done! Go away!

(Yes, I'm turning into one of those people who invents lines for his pets. I'm ready for my semi-insane old age!) :)

Friday night event

I'm an officer in one of the prominent groups in New York for folks in my profession. I had taken Friday off, so Marc and I could enjoy Thursday night (our anniversary) and sleep in on Friday. Still, being so involved in the aforementioned group, I couldn't very well skip a function we had scheduled for Friday night.

As nice as the event might be, the idea of dressing up and heading into Manhattan on a day off wasn't ideal. Oh well, no use fighting it. The best part was that Marc was going to come along. So off we went to the train, Marc, me and our little Canon Elph...


Marc checked in with the office while we waited for our train.


The occasional passing train made it hard for him to talk.


This bird kept an eye on us. I think it's a bald eagle. :)


Here comes the train again.


The view from my seat.


Okay, here's a better view.


The sunlight shows the damage to this window. I have to wonder what it took to do this. These train windows are tough. I once read that federal regulations require them to be bulletproof (and what horrific incident led to that requirement?).


Walking through Penn Station to the 8th Avenue side.


This is where we were headed--Chelsea Brewing Company at Chelsea Piers.


This building was across the street. I don't know what it is, but it's interesting.


The way it's set up, people can drive in. There's covered parking. We walked in. This is the entrance to Chelsea Brewing Company, where the event was being held.

We were too early, so we looked for a way to kill some time. Fortunately, there are tons of choices at Chelsea Piers.


We decided to do some bowling.


It's an impressive looking bowling alley.


Everything's brightly colored, but they'd do better to keep the balls, floors, etc., nice and clean. The floors were slick, and I nearly broke my neck once or twice.

On a positive note, I got my highest score ever. The sad part is that's only a 157. I suppose that comes from only bowling once or twice a year!


The view out entrance is nice, though.

Actually, the view from Chelsea Brewing Company is pretty nice. The event was fun, too...






They even have a facility for golfing at Chelsea Piers.


When we left, we saw that something bad had happened out front. As much as we like looking at the boys from the FDNY (although some of them are a little rough looking!), we couldn't be bothered to go be nosey at that point.


Here's a closer shot, thanks to the Elph's digital zoom.


Back on the train. I took this shot, in case anyone feels the need to learn what to do in the event of an emergency on a Long Island Railroad train. :)


Next, a quick stop at Borders, before they close. Think Marc's a little too tired for this?


There was a long line, but they couldn't be bothered with opening more than one register until it got to be about 10 people waiting.


One last stop before going home: the lovely local 7-11.

We live exciting lives, don't we? ;)

A new low in retail mathematics

After my last post, Marc and I went to run a couple of errands. Now, I don't want to sound like an octogenarian, but when I was a kid working in retail we counted out change from the register. It helped to even have some basic math skills.

Okay, I'll even admit to torturing some of these kids. If something comes to $4.87 and I have the change, I'll hand over $5.12. Even with registers that do the math for them, they often look at the money in their hand, then at me, then back at the money. On occasion, it has gone on long enough for me to say, "just punch it into the register." On other occasions, I've had the person say, "no, it's $4.87," in a tone like I'm an idiot. Then I get really helpful. "Yes" is all I'll say, and then I'll just stand there staring. Oh, it's such fun. One of these days, I'm going to lose what little self-restraint I have and just say, "you might have some idea what's going on, if you paid any attention at all in math class." Geez, you'd think I was expecting them to do linear algebra!

So tonight, at one of our stops, I was in line behind a woman who paid for her purchase and was going to get exactly nine dollars back in change. She told the guy behind the register (a full-grown man, by the way, but quite representative of what I've seen in the skills of many manning registers around here) to hang on a second, and she dug in her bag for a one dollar bill. She held out the dollar bill, so she could get a ten back.

"No, it's already done," he said, indicating the register. He then said that if he didn't follow what the register said, he'd get confused.

Oh, this was too much! The lady was owed nine dollars change, held out a one dollar bill, and he couldn't add that up and give her a ten? His parents and all of his teachers should be rounded up and jailed for a year or two, just to make a point! What the hell are things coming to?

Too bad Patsy didn't live to see it

News came today of the arrest of a suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. As I'm sure everyone remembers, the parents were suspected by many. Bad enough to lose a child--and so brutally--but to have people blaming you must be a special kind of torture.

Yes, having dressed her up, put makeup on her and entered her in "Who's the prettiest six-year-old hooker?" contests didn't help. The whole situation seemed odd. Still, in recent years, I read newspaper reports that said authorities were confident that the family wasn't involved, and now we're learning of the arrest of a "41-year-old elementary-school teacher."

My first reaction was that it was terrible that the victim's mother didn't live to see the arrest, but I feel a bit better, since the article says that she was kept in the loop and knew they were closing in on a suspect before her death in June of cancer.

Hopefully, mother and daughter are in a better place and are somewhat more at peace, now that an arrest has been made.

It smells wonderful already

As I'm typing this, the house is filling with great smells. I was just saying to Marc that it's funny how much higher the quality of our average meal is when we're dieting. Well, really, I am dieting. Marc's keeping me company. He has a few extra pounds he wants to lose, but his diet really involves his current clothes fitting better, whereas my diet involves (hopefully) winding up in a whole new set of clothes!

So this afternoon, having missed lunch (not a good thing when one is dieting), we needed to make something good for late lunch/early dinner. Marc reminded me of a stuffed peppers recipe I used to make. It was a favorite of mine a while back, and it's completely diet-safe.

BTW, we're taking a low-carb approach. The details aren't important, but the short description is that it's not as extreme as Atkins (since you eat more veggies, fruit, and a small amount of bread). It's the only diet that ever really worked for me. I've lost small amounts trying other diets, but this really worked! Unfortunately, I've since gained most of the weight back (but at least not every bit of it). So I'm back at it, with my babe's help and encouragement.

This afternoon, as I did things around here, Marc ran out and bought four green peppers and almost three pounds of beef.

To the beef, I added two eggs, chopped garlic, fresh basil from the garden, oregano, onion powder (yes, I cheated on that), red pepper and a bit of Heinz low-carb ketchup (it's just easier than tomato paste). We then cut the peppers in half, removing the extraneous matter (seeds and such) and put them in a pan. One by one, I stuffed each pepper and then put a thin coating of the ketchup on top of each.

By the time I was done, the Trivection oven was ready (since I started it up right before I started stuffing the peppers). I told it that these were beef and that I'd normally bake them for 75 minutes at 325 degrees. It said, okay, that will take 25 minutes. I just love this oven!

Of course, I'll use the meat thermometer to double-check the internal temp before I pull them from the oven, but the oven's usually pretty accurate in its approximations of cooking time.

In the short time it has taken to type this, the odors emanating from the kitchen have gotten even stronger. It smells fabulous. I sure hope it is when it's done!

(Oh yeah, we're also roasting some asparagus to go with the meal, but that pales in comparison!) :)

Wish I'd thought of it first

This is such fine work, in the best smartass tradition, that I can't help but admire the guys who started it and wish I'd thought of it myself.

Apparently, Amazon.com has been selling food for some time. So a couple of guys decided to use Amazon's product review feature to have some fun. Since they kicked off the effort, others have joined in. Some sample comments from the article:

"I give this Tuscan milk four stars simply because I found the consistency a little too 'milk-like' for my tastes."

"One word of caution-—milk, even when frozen into a baseball-bat shape, is nigh worthless as a baseball bat, merely shattering into cloudy fragments at the first strike of a baseball."

"Tuscan Whole Milk ruined my life. I have no further details to add."

The article ends with a mention of this having spread to green seedless grapes. I can't help but wonder how far it will go! :)

The poor man!

The little newsstands found throughout New York's Penn Station are staffed mostly by men who appear Indian or Pakistani or of similar origin. They all wear nametags, and the names tend to be unusual by traditional American standards.

No surprise there, I suppose, but I saw one this morning that I really wouldn't want pinned on me. The man's tag read "ASHIT."

I wonder if anyone has clued him in. In any case, it was hard to keep from breaking into a broad grin... but I managed (at least until I was out of his sight). Yeah, I know. I'm bad. :-)

Quotations

I follow a few pages that offer interesting/insightful/humorous quotes. Mr. H.K. runs a good one. Another, to which I must give the credit for the collection I'll post today, is The Quotations Page. So here's a collection of favorites I've saved up over the course of a large number of months. Some amused me. Some made me think. I hope you enjoy them.

"We need a president who's fluent in at least one language." -Buck Henry

"The quickest way to a man's heart really is through his stomach, because then you don't have to chop through that pesky rib cage." -J. Jacques

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." - Edgar Bergen

"There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

"About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends." -Herbert Hoover

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." -Harlan Ellison

"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." -Stephen Jay Gould

"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you." -Rita Mae Brown

"Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home." -Bill Cosby

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." -Galileo Galilei

"It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste." -Evelyn Waugh

"I've gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller's parlors], and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her." -A New York City detective

"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it." -Clarence Darrow

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -Thoman Jefferson

"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" -Abraham Lincoln

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"New York now leads the world's great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn't make a sudden move." -David Letterman

Holy crap!

I knew today's visit to the veterinarian would be pricey. Such visits always are. Still, this was a new record.

So how bad? Well, first, let's go over what we had done:

-2 dogs (Bernice & Mandy) had their tune-ups (lube & oil and rotate the paws). Dodger isn't due yet.
-All three dogs had their teeth cleaned.
-All three dogs were sent home with antibiotics, as they always get after getting their teeth cleaned. Dogs need that precaution after cleanings.
-Two dogs got their boxes of Sentinel (monthly anti-heartworm (and other things) pills.

Since we have three dogs, we get a discount for bringing them all in. The grand total? After our 10% discount... $1,700!!!

Yes, $1,700. We spend more on their healthcare than we do on our own! *sigh*

Well, I'd be heartbroken if any of them got sick, so I guess it's worth it.

Now I just have to figure out how to scrape together $1,700 before the credit card bill gets here!

A solution to the hurricane threat

Every year, we have to worry about potential devastation from hurricanes.

Worry no more! I have the solution!

In past years, some have proposed seeding hurricane clouds, with things like silver iodide or dry ice, to weaken them. I submit that it's too late by then. It's even too late once it gets to be a tropical storm.

What they need to do is act while it's a tropical depression. While it's a depression, seed the clouds with anti-depressants! It's that easy! A relatively small investment in Prozac or Zoloft, and the problem's solved!

Mortgaging the future in the name of big oil

Read here and here:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said he would oppose global warming mandates if Republicans control the 110th Congress. "I think the information is not adequate yet for us to do anything meaningful," he said.

The GOP leadership in action. Not that there's anything surprising here in his attitude, but it's still amazing to see what these clowns will say!

A nice thing to see

For all the times people disappoint me, there also are the good moments. Little things that make a difference.

Yesterday, I was waiting in line to get coffee at a place near work. The guy in front of me went to pay with a five dollar bill. The owner shook his head and said, "here, this is yours," and handed him a ten. The owner then explained to the customer that he'd paid with a twenty the prior day and left without taking his change.

A simple act of honesty. Is it sad that I was so pleased to see this? Maybe my view of my fellow human beings has sunk a bit low. Well, whatever the case, it made me feel a bit better about people in general.