For the last 2 years we’ve had pretty mild winters with nothing really worth noting as far as snowfall. It only snowed like one time last winter that was even sledable. That even didn’t last long.

On Tuesday the 19th before Thankgiving, it snowed just enough to dust the ground white. But it did snow before Thanksgiving! So, I am anticipating a massive snowfall this season. I can’t wait. I got a bit lazy in our first winter in our new house, that I didn’t make our own sledding trail. This year, I really plan on doing it.

We have a very sloping yard, and it should be possible to make a sledding trail that goes about 200 to 300 yards long. If I plan it right I can make it go right into the backyard of the of the kids my kids are friends with.

Bring on the Noreaster baby!

I pray nearly everyday, by chanting, the phrase na-mu-myō-hō-ren-ge-kyō, a phrase representing the ultimate Law or true entity of life permeating all phenomena in the universe. The practice of changing is what is called daimoku. If I am chanting while driving home or something from work and I’m alone, I will do it more loudly. Normally I am not so I do it internally in my heart of at a barely audible town. I do it to calm myself in very stressful situations and to help give me strength to overcome things. I really should pick up and begin practising my faith more faithfully. Here is a link to a page that will allow you to download an audio clip of it being done in a group. The organizational part of my religion is Soka Gakkai International. Here you will find a plethora of information about. There is a United States based version of the same site here.

Just thought I’d share a bit of information about myself and my religion. May happiness and peace come your way.

I have always struggled with my weight ever since getting out of the military. I am not entirely sure that it’s centered around my not being full or feeling hungry while on a diet. I love fruits and vegetables though, so this approach may very well be the one for me. I made a commitment to myself to lose weight some time ago, and really being lazy and unmotivated I have fallen off the wagon a few times. I think that starting tomorrow, my first day of vacation, I will start to eat more fruits and vegetables to stay full longer, so the cravings don’t come as easily. I recently started use of the new weight loss supplement called Alli, together with the information from this study, I should be able to conquer this weight!

Reminds me of the time I got a bill for 10 cents. They paid postage to tell me I owe 10 cents? Sheesh! Rolling Eyes

LOL. I got that one beat!

When we first moved into a rental here in Massachusetts. We called Verizon and said, hey set us up with phone service, they said SURE!

Four days came and went no phone service, no Verizon truck. Call them up, they said they had been there and hooked it up. I said, hmm that’s funny, I HAVE NO PHONE SERVICE! So, I told them to cancel the service, I had already gotten RCN to hook up phone and internet and all that jazz. So what does Verizon do? Send me a bill for the month for phone service, just like they had turned it on and it was working all along. So, we call and straighten that out, not paying anything, as we had no service with them for even a minute.

About 2 months later, what do we get? A check in the mail from Verizon for like 24 cents. A refund for our service we never had. Stupid much?

HEHE.

Wolf’s Milk Slime Mold

Originally uploaded by atypically_me.
I had a dream last night, where things that resembled these in this picture here would sense anything organic or living (like humans) and try to attach to it and feed off it. It wasn’t a particularly scary dream, but it was intense.

I was with a group of people, in a neighborhood I used to live in when I was about 10 years old. I could see that the ground, just the ground, not the pavement and the concrete sidewalks, just where the grass was, or where there was standing water, were completely covered in these things. Imagine a sea of little pink mushrooms packed in so tight that you couldn’t see anything under them at all. In the dream, I didn’t grow up in this changed world, I came from some other world, or time, and was getting briefed on what was going on by someone that was on top of the car with me trying to avoid these mushroom looking things of pink ooze. I was told to spit on them to see them come to life. So, I spit out into a bunch of them, and they all erupted into a frenzy of activity seemingly fighting for who was going to eat my spit.

After a bit of this we skipped and jumped our way to the front door of my old house, which led to an elevator. Well of course my old house didn’t have an elevator, but I wasn’t really in my house at this time. At the end of the elevator ride down, we emerged into something that resembled a command center that was set up into an old abandoned missile silo. Here I was shown that people were working on a way to combat this pink menace. I saw them trying to freeze them with a freeze gun of sorts. I also saw fake lightening bolts shooting into patches of them seeing the effects.

I woke up soon after this last part. This was a very vivid dream for me, and seemed too real. I wonder what in the heck it all meant!

I lived in Colorado Springs for just over a year. Colorado has to have some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. The road coming back from the airport in Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak dominates that skyline. If I had a choice to move back there again, I’d go back in a heartbeat. Man, I need to win the lottery and go back to this wonderful, peaceful area.

First, you will need to install some software, unless you already have a way to decompress the archives packed with the 7-zip program. WinRAR should be able to unpack these files as well. Once you have that installed, navigate to the download page for the Wikipedia Static HTML Dumps.

There are a few files in the English version directory:

There are 4 archives for the English version of the download. Each one is roughly 1.5 GB. I am only going to download one at this time. I am not sure I have the disk space to unpack this beast either.

Possibly it would be best to download with a download manager such as GetRight. Once you have them all downloaded, which should take a good while, if not days, unpack them using the 7-Zip program, or WinRAR. Once unpacked you should be able to open up the index.html file in the base directory, and browse your very own local copy of Wikipedia!

Keep in mind, that bandwidth isn’t free, and that you should help support Wikipedia if you download this, by surfing to the Wikipedia Funraising page..

I am so glad that our cats were not effected by this disaster. My daughters would have been absolutely devastated. Our cats really are a part of our family and I’m not sure we could ever really replace them. My condolences to those families who’s pets were lost in all of this.

The Ingredients:

• 1 - 30 oz (not sure if it’s the 30oz size, but it’s a big bottle)Bottle of Frank’s Redhot Original
• 8oz of Tomato Sauce or Ketchup (This adds more vinegar and other flavors and is what I use)
• About 8 cloves of garlic sliced
• 2 -3 Tablespoons of Spreadable Margarine

The Preparation:

• Empty contents of Frank’s Redhot Original into a resealable bowl. I recommend the Ziploc Twist and Loc containers as you can shake them vigorously and not spill the precious sauce
• Next put your garlic in there.
• Melt the margarine and add it also.
• The tomato sauce is kind of the “secret” ingredient here. You can use it to control the temperature of the sauce. A full 8 oz would make it quite mild but still very tasty. I use about 4 ounces myself. On occasion like when taking it for work. I use 2 ounces of the Tomato Sauce and then add 2 ounces of Frank’s Redhot XTRA HOT for that added potluck kick
• Put the lid on the twist and loc container and shake vigorously until you feel it is thoroughly mixed.
• Refrigerate after making, best results after refrigerating 24 hours prior to serving. I am not sure how long this sauce will last in the refrigerator, because mine rarely makes it past 2 days.