Yeszilla

I didn't get pictures up before we left for vacation, and I apologize for that. I'll try to get some up now.
We've been pretty busy as of late! We went to Chicago for a week with Nick and Sadie and Ascher. We visited the Field Museum (with the King Tut exhibit), the Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, and the Shedd Aquarium. We soon discovered that things tend to take about twice as long when you have two one-and-a-half year olds with you. The boys got along great and they behaved relatively well, but kids seem to slow things down. We did manage to do some thigs sans children though. Nick and I saw Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and the girls saw the Broadway Musical Wicked.
We've got plenty of pictures from the trip, but if you want to see them, you'll have to come over because we didn't take the digital camera ;)
In other news, I started brewing my own beer on Thursday night. I think it went pretty well overall, but I'll have to wait and see I guess. I know the yeast are working because bubbles have been coming out of the airlock. I need to read a bit more to see if I want to transfer to a secondary fermenter and if I do, when I should do so. For more details on what went down, follow this link to my other blog, now devoted to the art of homebrewing!
This first picture is from when I was filling Miles' tub up for a bath. He was reaching in playing and he just fell right in, head first. I was standing there and managed to grab his ankle as it flew up in the air, which is why only the top part of his shirt is wet.
Here he is being just like dad:
And just like mom?...
Scotty B

"Give a man a beer and he wastes an hour; teach a man to brew and he wastes a lifetime." - Bill Owens

Congrats to Tim and Gretchen Paluch on their wonderful wedding this weekend! We all had a very good time (even Miles was up until 10:00). We got to see some old friends, which is always nice. Speaking of old friends, we're going on vacation next week with Nick, Sadie and their boy Ascher. I can hardly wait, this week just isn't going fast enough. Its kina like the last week of school before summer vacation except there are no tests and this vacation is only going to last a week.
In other not-so-news, I've decided to try brewing my own beer. Partially inspired by my friend Chad (wassup Chaddy) and partially because I need a hobby, as well as the fact that its hard to find good beer around here without shelling out some $$ (I don't care what you say, $5 for a six pack is too much). I'm still trying to figure out how to get bottles as all of the bottles I have at home are screw-top (which I can't use), so if anybody has any bottles or ideas where I could get some cheap, lemme know (start drinkin and bring me your empties!).
Ok, I should go now. I'll try to get more pics of Miles up before I leave this weekend.

Scotty B

"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent." -Ronnie D. Laing

Weekend fun.

Well, even sans Miles, we had a really good time this weekend. We went camping with some friends at a place called Harvest Farms. Saturday we mostly lounged around, hung out, and drank, but Sunday, we went biking and canoeing (sp?), which was a lot of fun. Beth got a little burnt, but I got a nice tan, so I guess it all evens out, right?
I forgot to mention this before, but CONGRATS to all of you marathon runners the other weekend! Unbefreakinleivable! Be sure to check out Adam's site for some fun pics.
In other news, I got my first in a series of rabies vaccines yesterday. The shot itself didn't hurt, but my arm was a bit sore later in the day. These days a person has to get three shots. My next shot will be Wednesday 07 Jun 06, then the last one on Wednesday 21 Jun 06. Lucky it worked out that way, because the week in between I'm going to be in Chicago with some friends. For those who are wondering, I've not been bit by a stray animal, but we do test rabies vaccines on site at work and there is the chance (albeit small) that I could be exposed while in the sample room. On the bright side, if anyone has a rabid animal they need taken care of, I'm your man!
Well, I'm going to get back to some reading now.
Relax, Don't Worry...

Scotty B

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." -Albert Einstein

Google, Good or Evil?

Well, I sent this in an email to a friend after inviting him to try Google Calendar (which I highly recommend). You will need a gmail account to use it, but if anybody has any questions on how to get one, just email me. If you don't have my email address, I'm sure someone you know does ;)

Anyway, here's what I sent. I hope someone finds it useful:

Ok, since I'm shamelessly promoting Google, I might as well share with you a few of the other cool things that google has out these days. Some of which are easily accessable from the home page, others which you can only find if you know about them. Here they are in no particular order:

www.Google.com/ig, Personalized Google Home Page. Go to this page an log on and you can personalize your google home page with an almost endless supply of stuff including weather, gmail, calendar, clocks, games, news, comics, pretty much anything you can imagine. Attached is a screenshot of my current home age (although i'm constantly adding and removing things). http://toolbar.google.com/send/sms/index.php, SMS. Pretty self explanatory, you can use this page to send text messages to people from the computer ...for free! Notice that it automatically redirects to another page so if you want it, make sure you save this link.
http://www.blogger.com/, Blogger. Again, self-explanatory. I tried MySpace for a while and it wasn't terrible, but I had a lot of problems with it. I find this one (which is through Google) to be much easier to use and it just plain looks nicer. Only problem is I can't get the pictures to show up at work. But then I can't get a LOT of sites at work.

Here's a couple neat programs you'll really enjoy:
http://sketchup.google.com/, SketchUp. An easy to use (and free) CAD program you can use to build houses or pretty much whatever you want. If you want to use it, be sure to go through the various tutorials. They are very useful.
http://earth.google.com/, Google Earth. This one is just fun to play around with. You put in an address (or any place on the earth for that matter) and the 'camera' will
zoom in from outer space all the way in to the address typed at which point you can pan around to different agles and such. And if that isn't enough, you can build your
house in SketchUp and then place the three-dimensional image in Google Earth. You can even share your creation online and when the other user downloads it, it can be
automatically placed on their Google Earth.

One last thing, not through Google, but I highly recommend:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/, Firefox browser. After using this, I can't see why anyone would go back to using Internet Explorer ever again. Seriously.

Well, I guess that's all I've got. The best of what I've found on the net recently. Ought to keep a person busy for a few weeks, eh?

Scotty B

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." -Arthur Schopenhauer

Hey there Everybody!

Good morning friends! I'm a little hopped up right now. I haven't had any coffee as of yet, but I am halfway through a can of Stewie's Domination Serum. I know what you're thinking: "Is that what you got for your birthday? You lucky dog!" Yes, but that's not all, I also got the one thing I've been asking for every birthday, fathers day, christmas, talk like a pirate day and anything inbetween for the last two or three years at least (give or take): That's right its the infamous binary clock! And of course, what gift package wouldn't be complete without a bag of delicious, delectable dark chocolate? Sweet.
Anyway, I've got to go run some laps around the lab now. More pics of Miles coming soon!

Scotty B

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." -Jules Renard

FoxTrot

For those of you who don't read the comics on Sundays, check out today's FoxTrot strip here (note you may have to click the 21st on the little calendar if it is no longer Sunday). Anyway, since I don't know morse code, I entered the whole thing into an online translator and here's what it says:
"Someday I will rule you all"
That's great. I love it when Bill Amend does stuff like that, it keeps things interesting.
Anyway, sorry it's been so long, but I'm a busy guy (right). Anyway, enjoy some pictures of Miles from last month's Easter egg hunt here in good 'ol NH.

Still rockin,
Scotty B

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." -Oscar Wilde

Firstsies.

Test one two.

Regards,
Scotty B