Shake Your Veggie Booty

Our six year old loves Veggie Booty. Unfortunately it's been recalled due to a little problem with Salmonella. If you have any lying around, throw it away and call Robert's American Gourmet Food, Inc. for a refund. All lots and sizes are being recalled.

Bow to your Robot Overlords

Oh sure, iRobot seemed all harmless when they were only making robots that vacuumed our carpets but now phase 1 of the robot uprising has begun. They're armed. The next step is for SkyNet to become self aware and then it's all down hill for us humans. This quote from the article may be the coolest thing I've ever read on  MSNBC: "We may see autonomous robots capable of inflicting lethal force." Sweet.

Happy iDay

Today is iPhone day. If you're one of the Apple faithful with a little extra walking around money, you may be waiting in line right now. In which case, you wouldn't be reading this.  As big of a gadget nut as I am, the whole getting email on your phone feature is something I've never seen the benefit of. Email is a distraction. I would just as soon travel with a woodpecker who constantly pecked me on the head. When I walk away from the computer, I don't want to take the most annoying part of it with me.

First Harvest

Our first shipment from Fresh Harvest Farm was ready today. The shipment included broccoli rapini, four varieties of lettuce, scallions, mustard greens, radishes, peas, garlic scapes, and kolrabhi. The peas were excellent, we munched on the raw right in the pods. The lettuce was also good. I'm really looking forward to some of the vegetable that won't be ready until later in the summer.

I'm not exactly sure what to do with some of it but we'll figure it out. If you know a good kolrabhi recipe, let me know!

RoboForm

One piece of software I truly could not live without is RoboForm. If, like me, you're trying to manage a multitude of different usernames and passwords (shopping sites, email, work links, etc), it really helps. Besides, you're not using the same username and password for every site, are you?

That's Why They Call it Bug Juice

Soilent Green is .... People! Oh and Ocean Spray is ... bugs! OK, I'm not sure about the Soilent Green part but apparently, Ocean Spray and a host of other products are colored with a  dye made from the shells of bugs. How's that for a renewable resource. Speaking of bugs, be sure to eat a cicada before they're gone! You'll be kicking yourself for 17 years if you don't. According to reports, they taste like almonds.

Vicariously I...

Normally I'm a small venue kind of guy. It may be a remnant of the punk days I enjoyed in college. Seeing bands in barns and VFW halls was always infinitely better than huge corporate sponsored mega-stadiums with ever changing brand identities. New World Music Theater, Tweeter Center, Allstate Arena, who can keep track of it? Thankfully, I set my faux musical snobbery aside this weekend for the sake of a road trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was there at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum that we we saw Tool. I have no idea what war the coliseum was built in memorial of. I hope it was the Spanish American War because, for my money, that's the most underappreciated war. I digress. Lasers, video screens, smoke, it was quite a show. Jambi, Forty Six & Two, Vicarious, Lateralus, and many more. It was a great thrill to see them performed live. My only complaint is getting out of the parking lot. Our autos like cattle slowly herded towards right turn only hell. Never had that problem at the VFW hall.

Greatest Remote Ever

We've been through our share of universal remotes over the years and none of them ever completely satisfied me or had a sufficiently high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). There was always that one device they didn't quite control, or they were too big, or sucked batteries, or the button labels made no sense, or any of a million other problems. No more. The whole family, wife and six year old included love the Logitech Harmony 880.  The best thing about it is the setup. You install some software, tell it the make and model of all your components (TV, receiver, cable box, etc) and provide some information about how they are hooked together. Once you've done that you just connect the remote to your computer via the included USB cable and the programming is handled for you. The remote uses what are called "activities" to set everything up. For example our remote has 4 activities: Watch Television, Listen to Music, Watch a Movie, and Play Video Games. You pick an activity and the remote handles all the on/off and input selection. It's great. An added bonus is the included recharging station that the remote sits in when not in use. Now before you go looking it up, no, I didn't pay retail ($249.99) for it, that's a little more than I can justify for a remote control. Amazon has factory reconditioned models here for $99. So far ours has worked great.

He's Back

The man with the hat and the whip is back. It's been a long time (1989) since we've seen him. As happy as I am about a new Die Hard, this is even better.

Alstom to develop CO2 capture plant

According to this article some engineering company in Paris is getting paid to develop a CO2 capture plant. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I already have one of those. It's called a tree and I'll sell them one of these fancy new CO2 capture devices for a fair price. Let's say one million? Call me guys!

It's Gonna be a Long Day

No really, it is, at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. June 21st is the Summer Solstice or the longest day of the year.  Enjoy the extra daylight and good luck getting the kids to bed!

Google Solar Panel Project

Google has been installing solar panels on the roofs of buildings in their campus. Now they have a page where you can track how much electricity the panels are generating. Their goal is produce enough electricity for 30% of their peak demand. Speaking of roofs, Chicago City Hall has a green roof, literally.  The roof hosts scores or perennials and hives of honey bees. It sure beats asphalt.

HB 429

A while back I wrote about HB 429 which is essentially an attempt by the wine distributors in Illinois to limit consumer choice. Unfortunately, the bill passed the Illinois House of Representatives. You can see the results of the vote here. My state representative had an "Excused Absence" whatever that means. So, she escaped having to vote yes or no on the bill. In my mind, that's the same as voting yes. If you want to read a good analysis of the bill, Chicagoist has an interesting article.

Wow

So many wows in just one short week. From the airport pickup to the final parade every detail carefully planned to make you forget your life and simply smile. I'm probably the last person you might expect to gush about Disney World but hey, it's good to forget the world we live in once in a while and enter a fantasy. Having a six year old along for the ride helps. My top 10 wows from Disney World that I'll never forget:

• The Wilderness Lodge - That lobby has to be seen, pictures don't do it justice
• Soarin' - Hang gliding over California. I thought I wasn't going to see Napa this year but I was wrong.
• Dinner at Le Cellier - Great steak and wine from Canada. If you get a chance, eat there.
• The waiter at Prime Time Cafe - If he asks you if you washed your hands, you better know what color the soap was. Oh, and I recommend finishing your vegetables.
• Ketchup at Whispering Canyon - If you ask for some, be prepared.
• The characters at Chef Mickey's - The food isn't the best in the park but that's not why you eat there.
• Hearing Dad laugh like a kid on the Tower of Terror. Emma and Mom may have hated it but I know he didn't.
• Seeing Mom and Emma walk into the Magic Kingdom for the first time - Two simultaneous wows each expressed in their own way.
• Emma actually going to sleep on her own. Sheer exhaustion has it's advantages.
• The look in my little girl's eyes when Cinderella blew her a kiss. To her, that really was Cinderella and I think I detected a crack in that tough exterior of hers.

As I return to a world of bills, missed deadlines, and crashed hard drives I'm glad to have escaped it all for a week. Thanks Sue for making reservations all those long months ago. A testament to good planning and getting up early to make reservations. Thanks for making sure each day was filled with wows.

Home Again, Home Again

After a whirlwind week in Disney World, we're back home again. While I attempt to assemble some coherent thoughts about the trip, enjoy the Electrical Water Pageant. I think this music may be more insidious than It's a Small World.

25 Years of Change

USA Today has a list of things we've said goodbye to in the last 25 years. I'll add a few for my own:

• The floppy disk: Both the 5.25 and 3.5 inch varieties. man the 3.5 inch floppy seemed high tech with it's little sliding metal door.
• Real sugar in our food: Bow to your corn based overlord.
• Phones with chords: When it got to twisted you let it dangle and unspin.
• Joysticks: Remember when all it took was one button to play a video game? Now you need an airplane cockpit to play Super Mario.
• Answering machines: Pick up some of those little tapes while you're at the store.
• The Mc DLT: The hot side was hot and the cool side was cool. How did the McRib manage to survive?

Now I'm going to put on my Carnac hat and predict what we'll be saying goodbye to in the near future:

• CDs and DVDs: The future is in bits not atoms
• Wires: just about everything from headphones to your external hard drive will come sans wire some day
• The internal combustion engine: Probably not in my lifetime
• President Bush: Now I get why term limits are so important

What things do you miss that we've said goodbye to? Leave a comment. No parachute pants because those suckers are totally coming back soon.

School's Out

The first day of school seems like it was only yesterday and now, kindergarten is done. Now Emma is introduced to one of the finer things in life, Summer Vacation. Live it up kid, you've got a limited number of them ahead of you. Oh, and let's not rush them, I'd like to live vicariously for as long as possible.