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July 8, 2009

A Different Destination

I’ve been to Virginia several times, and in my travels I’ve visited many of the homes of our Founding Fathers. Washington’s Mount Vernon, Jefferson’s Monticello, and James Monroe’s Ash Lawn have all been lovingly restored to their original grandeur… so much so that the original inhabitants could walk through the front door today and not notice much of difference between their homes now and 200 years ago. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Montpelier, the home of James Madison, our fourth president and writer of much of the United States Constitution.

Montpelier

James Madison married Dolley Todd in September 15, 1794. Dolley was born Dolley Payne on May 20, 1768 and married a Philadelphia lawyer named John Todd, Jr. on January 7, 1790. The couple had two children, John Payne Todd (born 1792) and William Temple Todd (born 1793). Tragedy struck the family that same year, when an epidemic of yellow fever devastated Philadelphia. The entire Todd family was stricken with the disease, and although Dolley and John Payne survived, her husband, her youngest child, and her in-laws did not.

Continue reading “A Different Destination”

July 7, 2009

R.I.P. Isobel

Isobel

Goodbye, Isobel… you were an awesome dog. I’ll miss you more than you know!

July 7, 2009

Dollar Tree funny

Lisa and recently stopped by our local Dollar Tree to pick up some stuff, and I couldn’t help but laugh at this poster:

Dollar Tree

Yes, because when my life is on the line, I want to stock up on questionable canned food from Nigeria, flashlights that may or may not work, batteries of dubious quality, first aid supplies from the lowest possible bidder, and tape that strains to hold two pieces of paper together, much less anything else!

July 7, 2009

Engineer v Manager

A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

July 6, 2009

DOK resists by-law changes

Daughters of the King is a “spiritual sisterhood of women dedicated to a life of Prayer, Service and Evangelism”. It is, for brevity’s sake, a convent for Episcopalian women. Over the years, however, DOK has expanded their order by admitting women from Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran (ELCA) and Roman Catholic churches.

However, the mania currently engulfing The Episcopal Church has taken over some members of the Order, and at the DOK convention this past Friday there was a motion to limit membership to only those in “approved” Episcopal churches. While those members from Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches would have been kicked to the curb, Anglican women were the real target of what amounts to a beer hall putsch.

Thankfully, the Episcopalian women of DOK voted down the change in the by-laws! BabyBlue says that

[a]t the end of the day and through much debate – some of it quite painful – the DOK Triennial voted down all the amendments and the bylaws in place that include all the members of the Order remain unchanged. The non-Episcopalian members were reseated and the Triennial continued into Saturday.

At least someone with “Episcopal” in their name is acting rationally these days!

Hotel Babylon: Season 4, Episode 3

Hotel Babylon
Season 4, episode 3
Aired: July 3, 2009 on BBC1

hotel_babylon_s04_e03_01

SYNOPSIS

This episode begins with a flashback to 1973. Harold Kelly, a jewel thief, is on the run from the cops, and he rushes through the service entrance to Hotel Babylon. There he hides a cache of giant, flawless emeralds behind a painting. He’s then arrested and sent to prison, where he is given a life term.

What does any of this have to do with Hotel Babylon today? Well, it seems that Kelly’s autobiography was recently published (posthumously), and in it he left several clues to the location of the stones. Babylon is soon overrun with curious treasure hunters, and the staff start finding them all over the hotel. Sam and the rest of the staff are convinced that the whole thing is a hoax… except for Anna, who spies a clue right under her nose.

Continue reading “Hotel Babylon: Season 4, Episode 3”

July 5, 2009

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-05

Pffft! Way to blow a 2-0 lead, Team USA! #
@WilfriedAnsome Elaborate please? #
NO WAY #
Hey Microsoft – fix Outlook 2010!!! fixoutlook.org #
Give us back our damn shotglass! #
Hey Microsoft – fix Outlook 2010!!! fixoutlook.org #
Annnnd this is why I don't fly ScareBus: http://ping.fm/mSf1Z #
Sometimes I just wanna punch a wall. Then it finally starts working and I'm happy. Ahhhh… life in IT! #
Yeah… crow's feet are sexy. Then again, I'd be much more likely to hit on Dana Delaney than the chicks from the new "90210" these days. #
Happy Birthday, America! By the way… you're $11,518,472,742,288 in debt! #
Steve McNair… dead! #

July 4, 2009

Happy Birthday, America!

I’m sure some of the liberals out there are racing to publish “America’s first birthday with a black president and what it all means” stories.

Me? I’m gonna sit on a chair made in China and get tanked on Irish beer and listen to English bands whilst eating German sausages with French mustard along with some Belgian fries… and I’ll do it wearing a shirt made in Honduras, jeans made in Malaysia, boxers made in India, and boots made in England but sold only through a Slovakian website… ‘cos that’s how I roll! Too bad I don’t have a Japanese car to drive to get to the party, no?

fireworks

Seriously… Happy Independence Day, everyone! Have fun, but be careful out there!

Amusing true story: I stole the above graphic from the Bunny Ranch’s website. Here’s the NSFW page from Google’s cache.

July 3, 2009

Friday Fun: A Cool Tune!

Nouvelle Vague - 3 You’ve probably heard the French band Nouvelle Vague before. Their music has been used in several TV shows and commercials including Sugar Rush, and a popular promo for the show L.A. Ink (which prominently featured Nouvelle Vague’s cover version of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself”).

For what it’s worth, the band’s name is a clever play on words: it’s French for “New Wave”, and it represents their “Frenchness” and “artiness” (after the ’60s “new wave” of French cinema), the source of all their music (cover tunes of old punk and New Wave favorites), as well as their actual style of music (which is bossa-nova, which is Portuguese for… “new wave”).

Anyway, the band has a new album out. This one is simply called 3, and it features an awesome cover of the Violent Femme’s “Blister In The Sun” on it. It sounds like it would be great to play at parties! Have a listen and tell me what you think:

[audio:blister.mp3]

July 3, 2009

Gene Robinson disses ACNA

Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire whose consecration set off a firestorm in the Anglican Communion, dissed the new Province in a recent interview. Robinson, derisively known as the “Simple County Bishop” (SCB) by conservative Anglicans, said in an interview that