Yesterday

I now have all of the parts for the Cutlass tranny swap, but the guys that are going to do the work for me haven't been available lately. So my trip next week to the Lake of the Ozarks will be made in the more comfort but less style. As I bitched about previously the A/C in the Alero (stock photo of car faithfully trekking Andre, Inga, Anke and I across Utah in 2004 included) quit, so yesterday I took it to the shop to get the oil changed and A/C recharged. While there the shop guys were kind enough to give the car the old once over to find any other little thing that they could replace. The rear brakes needed replacing and the front left pad was wearing oddly. And the power steering fluid could use flushing. I didn't really want to do it, but at the end of the day I rather enjoy stopping and steering. So I said do it all. Total bill came to north of $600. More than I wanted or expected to spend, but the old Olds has been good to me.

Last night we had an impressive storm roll through Omaha and Anke got a couple of nice pre and post storm photos. For the record, these are two seperate pictures, not the same one photoshopped.

The Sign Doesn't Lie

This morning we took a field trip to Fontenelle Forest. It is a nice place with several miles of trails. It has a several mile long boardwalk for those who don't want to dirty their shoes, or perhaps would rather skateboard through the woods. They had signs that said no bicycles (sorry Billy) or horseys (sorry Mom), but I found no signs prohibiting skateboarding. Alas, I haven't skateboarded since my teenage years. Plus we didn't spend much time on the boardwalk.

When we arrived it was still cool, but the humidity was killer. As the morning wore on the temperature rose, yet the humidity stayed very high. When Anke was a young lass, she went hiking in the jungles of Indonesia. Before the Muslim radicals started acting crazy, wanting to blow up all westerner's. It wouldn't be so safe for you and I to go there now. Sad really. But I digress. Back when it was safe, Anke was there. She said the Indonesian jungles got nothing on a Nebraskan forest when it comes to humidity. So it was hot and sweaty and sticky. The little free loader even got sweaty just riding around in a backpack.

We followed one trail that crossed some railroad tracks and led down to the Missouri river. I believe that technically Fontenelle Forest Nature Association lands ends before the tracks. But the trail clearly went down to the river. The mighty mo was as brown as ever. By the river we heard a train coming, so we decided to walk up and watch it. Generally trains slow down for metropolitan areas, so you rarely see them zooming along. But this Amtrak train was officially zooming. I tried to wave at the conductor, but I'm not sure if he actually saw me.

DSM

*Tony's son Kelton along with Jasmine - flower girl from wedding- at Ben's reception

I went to Des Moines Friday night and Saturday to hang with friends who were in the area for Ben's wedding. I was going to drive the Cutlass, but it supposed to be (and was) freaking hot over the weekend. So I took the Alero instead. As it turns out, the A/C in the Alero has taken a vacation since the last time Anke drove the car. So I could have driven my pimp car anyway. I may have still been hot, but at least I would have looked cool. And really what is more important that looking cool. So I met up with the friends at Hooter's as is customary for us. Drank many beers. Fun was had by all.

The next day was Ben's wedding. I had intended on buying a shirt before the ceremony, but we didn't have time so I bummed the shirt Bill wore the previous night. It looked better on me anyway. So after dropping me off at Hooter's Saturday to get my car, getting lost on the way, we arrived at the 2pm wedding at 2:03. Just behind Eric - who left after us and gave shoddy directions. The ceremony was interesting as the priest sounded just like the priest from The Princess Bride. (Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday ... And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva...) Well anyway, the priest utters two syllables and this is the first thing that comes into my mind. I look past Deanna (who was takes weddings way more seriously than us) to Eric and Bill. They are trying very hard to keep a strait face. I'm not the only one who has seen The Princess Bride one too many times. Check that, you can't watch The Princess Bride too many times. But the ceremony was mostly nice and rather short for a Catholic wedding.

Which brings me to my rant. I'm not Catholic. We all know that. It surprises some people that I don't get struck by lightning stepping inside a church. But what I hate about Catholic weddings is that they make the ceremony more about God and the Church, than Ben and Shelby. It is Ben and Shelby's big day! And it seems like all this priest cares about is making sure that the kids will be raised Catholic. He mentions this several times, and before letting Ben kiss the bride makes them promise- again- to raise the kids to be good little Catholics. Drives me nuts. Let's celebrate the union of Ben and Shelby who love each other and are dedicating thier lives together. If I wanted to be preached at, I'd show up on Sunday.

But the reception in Ben and Shelby's back yard was very nice. They had tents and an open bar. A meadow beyond with wild flowers. Really rather nice. There was a pleasant breeze and it wasn't too hot under the tents. A gin and tonic sounded rather good at that point. Unfortunately I had to bail early. I wanted to get back to Omaha in time to put Corwin to bed.

The drive back was freaking hot with no A/C. And I didn't even look cool doing it.

Toddlers and Skeletons

I've decided that Corwin is a toddler now, not a baby. Actually I haven't thought of him as a baby for many months now- like 11. I've always thought of babies as these little personality lacking humans. But Corwin has always had personality, so therefor, he couldn't be baby. Plus he is now capable of taking, like, seven steps in a row now without falling. He'll be shooting hoops before we know it.

This isn't the best picture of Corwin, but it shows off his cool new Social Distortion onesie. Thanks Maurice and Bernie! At this point I think it's a safe assumption that he is the only punk in the tiger room at daycare.

And we also have me and Corwin playing out in front of the apartment last night with his birthday firetruck.

Wet as a drowned Rat

Saturday night after Corwin went to bed, I walked down to Memorial Park to catch the free Bright Eyes show that Omaha was putting on. Most years they have past thier prime rock bands like Three Dog Night or the Beach Boys sans Brian Wilson. But two or three years ago they had 311 with Grasshopper Take Over opening. 311 was good, but I thought GTO was better.

This year Mayor Mike Fahey arranged for Bright Eyes to play. Bright Eyes is basically Omaha native Conor Oberst and whoever is playing with him at the moment. They are nationally known and recognized on the Indie scene. The music isn't really accessible the first time you hear it, but is very good if given a chance. Some of thier music is conteporary rock, while other is really folk or country inspired.

Bright Eyes played from around 8:10 to 9:40. It rained heavy and steady from around 8 to 9:15. Cell phone cameras suck, but here is a picture of soaked Scotty just as the band started. I have to get me a pocketsize digital camera at some point. The show was really great despite the fact that I was cold, wet and blinder than usual for most of it. I should have worn contacts and a rain parka. But the crowd that stuck around was good (but rather young, or I'm getting rather old.) Some people created a mud slide on one of the hills. And who doesn't love girls covered in mud?

Conor Oberst and crew are talented. They sounded great live and have a violin in the band. There is a serious dearth of modern bands taking advantage of the violin/fiddle. If I weren't so lazy- and lacking of any musical skill what-so-ever- I'd learn how to play violin.

1

Corwin celebrated his first birthday this week. His first year has been very good. He has grown and learned and changed so much. The first six to eight weeks were very hard. I don't really remember it now, but I recall thinking at the time, "This is really freaking hard!" But you adjust and he gets better. You learn to survive with less sleep. I still don't get enough sleep, but you adjust. I don't go out as much as I would like to anymore. But when he smiles at you, its special. I can't imagine life with out him. But I have an all new respect for what single mothers do. I am so glad that Corwin has two caring loving parents that want to be parents.

Corwin got many cool things for his birthday, and was even able to help unwrap his presents some, unlike Christmas. Anke and I got him what is surely the worlds coolest rocking horse, Marlo the Pinto. The rocking horse is actually for 18 months and up, but as Mom always said, "He'll grow into it." He likes Marlo and pets him on occasion. But Corwin doesn't like to ride for long stretches yet.

On Saturday we had a small party for Corwin in Maurice's back yard. He and Bernie were there along with Grandma and Grandpa. I still find it weird to think of my parents as grandparents. Of course they don't find it weird in the slightest. I do believe they feel they had to way too long to achieve that status. We had cake and some truly fantastic steaks. (Thanks Russ!) He got a couple of cool toy cars and some nice clothes from the family. Uncle Mo and Aunt Bernie got him the coolest Social Distortion onesie. I'll have to post a pic as soon as he wears it. I'm sure the other parents at day care won't let their kids play with Corwin anymore after seeing him in his new punk gear.

We also got Corwin a little baby pool to splash around in. He really loved it. Although Mommy and Daddy didn't love blowing the bloody thing up so much. But it was worth the breath the I had to expend to see the fun he had with it Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Happy Birthday, Corwin. Thank you for the joy and love you've brought to so many lives.

It's here! It's here!

My transmission has finally arrived. The torque convertor didn't come with it, but that should be arriving within the week. I hope. And I just ordered the cooler- like a tiny radiator- for it. Summit should ship that tomorrow.

It looks good, but it's what is on the inside that really counts. I won't know about that until I get it in the car. Happy Day!

Puzzle

Last week at work we put together a 1000 piece puzzle as a *cough* team building exercise *cough*, that happened to be laying around the office. No one will fess up to whose puzzle it actually was. Anyway, compare the box to the actual puzzle. Yeah, thats right! They aren't the same! But they are both by the same artist and have the same trees at the top. It took us about a day to figure out that the box had the wrong puzzle in it. But we perservered on like fools or perhaps, programmers and analysts looking for anything else to do but actual work. Ok, we actually got some work done. It did take us three days to finish.

Not the Zoo

I don't know where that kid gets his hair from. Anyway, Anke and I had a plan of going to the zoo this morning. It was early. It was raining. We thought we could wander around before the crowds showed up for Memorial Day Weekend. Umm... the crowds got up earlier than us. So we decided to check out Lauritzen Gardens instead. And it was a good choice. The weather was mostly overcast while we were there with the occasional light sprinkle. The grey sky really offset all of the green. It was rather nice, and a bit romantic. There was a bird sanctuary, which was really mostly a turkey sanctuary. Many nice little fountains and ponds with wather lillies. And the early stages of a Japanese garden with a fantastic gate and a small replica of Mt. Fuji. It's all very nice. I'll have to take Mom here sometime when she visits. I believe that she'd really enjoy it.


Also at Lauritzen Gardens is Kenefick Park which has two engines from Union Pacific. One is an old steam engine called Big Boy and the other is a diesel electric of the Centenial series. The Centenial engines are the larges deisel electric train engines in the world. They were built specifically for Union Pacific. It is really hard to get a grasp of how huge these are unless you are right beside them.

Still no transmission

I ordered a new four speed automatic transmission (200-R4) for my Cutlass six weeks ago. With the old Turbo-350 three speed, I'm only getting just above 10 mpg on the highway. I'm hoping to move it up to the 15-20 mpg range with the new tranny.

When ordering Megamax- the transmission company- said that it should ship out in three weeks or less. Well they still haven't even started on the bloody thing yet! I was planning on installing it next weekend, but that plan now looks shot.

Hind-sight being 20/20, I'm wishing that I'd spent the extra $200 and gone with their competitor. I don't want to raise too much hell with Megamax because they still have to build the bloody thing and ship it to me. If I bitch too much, they might rush it and ship me a shoddy unit and I'm doing the same damn thing next year. Which I don't want to do. I 'spose I'll just have to be patient.

What is herping...

... Kim wants to know. The precise answer is: Looking for reptiles and am- phibians in the wild. Generally it involves watching, photographing or catching and releasing the little critters.Anke and I take it beyond actual reptiles into insects and birds and butterflies and mammals and pretty much anything else that interests us in nature. Maurice was telling me about how he was on his farm a couple of weekends ago, just hanging out in his field one morning. He was sitting on the ground and looked between his knees and there was a butterfly. He thought to himself, "This is a perfect Scotty and Anke moment. Except that they would have a camera and take a picture of it." But I digress. Mostly herping is about lizards and snakes.

How did I get here? It all started out as a basic interest in lizards and snakes and frogs as a little kid. And I never really grew out of it. I had a newt first. I named him Isaac. He lived for quite a long time, for a newt. I kept him in a fist bowl with small rocks and one big rock. Dad had to fashion a wood and screen top for the fish bowl as our cats took an unhealthy interest in him. Unhealthy for Isaac, not necessary for Midnight or Jettero. Through the years I had several other lizards, culminating in a basilisk and an iguana. They lived for a while, but not as long as they should have. I was too young, and didn't properly understand the care that they require. I was really too irresponsible. I feel a bit of guilt about that now, I should have taken better care of them. I was probably around 11 or 12.

Then more than a decade went by and I didn't have any lizards, but I kept an interest in them. Anke and I went to western Colorado and eastern Utah (Canyonlands) in maybe 97 or 98 for hiking and camping. While there I photographed all of the little lizards that I could find. This was me herping, before I knew what herping was.

Later in 2001, just after we were married, Anke let me get a lizard for my birthday. We decided on a getting a Chinese Green Waterdragon. We found a nice litter of them at Petco so we purchased Loki there.

Afterward we joined the Nebraska Herpetological Society. Which is basically lizard and snake club. We met many interesting people through the herp society. Zoo keepers at Henry Doorly Zoo. Professors from UNL and UNO. And a grad student, doing her thesis on the ecology and conservation of the Massassauga.

It is with these cool people that we have done most of our herping. We've gone with Tracy (the grad student) to radio track Massassauga's. They are a relatively small rattlesnake with venom that will not kill you (unless you are Corwin, Kelton, or Jadon sized.) On other occasions we've found prairie rattlesnakes and timber rattle snakes and looked for copperheads. We haven't yet found the copperhead in the wild yet, but I put this down to bad luck. But these guys can kill you and me with a bite. But we go with people who are very cautious and know what they are doing. I never get too near the rattlesnakes. But every rattlesnake found has its location recorded using GPS. It is then weighed and checked to see if it has a radio identification tag. If it doesn't one is inserted into the snake, so if it is found again the data can be reattributed to the same snake.

Uncle Scotty!

Or perhaps it would be correctly Onkel Scotty. Anke's sister Inga has just had a little girl. Anouk was born on Saturday May 20th, 2006. She and mother are both doing well. I am very happy for Inga and Andre.

Not at Work

I'm at home with Corwin today. The daycare called at around 9:30 to let me know that he has a tempreture. I picked him up, and we came home. This illness probally explains why he (and Anke and I) slept so badly last night. But he didn't feel warm last night. I just checked it again and it's down to 100.0 f. So nothing serious, but the little guy isn't in top form.

It's not all bad though. We played a little this morning. Just in the past two days, Corwin has discovered the joy of giving. Here he is giving me one of his favorite toys. An old water bottle filled with silver bells.

It should be noted that I'm typing this all with my right hand, as someone insists on being held in my left. He just leans against my chest occasionally uttering a little pathetic whine. The upshot is that if my left hand ever gets lopped off in a tragic scimitar juggling accident, I can still probaly type well enough to continue being a programmer.

I've also got a picture of Corwin playing with his friend Maia, before leaving daycare last week. Don't tell Anke, but I think Maia may be in love with me. Everyday when we pick up Corwin, she runs up to me with her little arms in the air wanting to be held. And she is so cute- clearly the second cutest tiny human at the daycare- that I just have to oblige her.

New TV Movie proposal

The Dukes of Hazard Invade the Lost World! Starring Hunter the Evil Looking Yet Cowardly Water Dragon and A Hot Wheels Wannabe General Lee Car From My Youth. Which is incidentally a Challenger not a Charger. I'm ashamed to admit as a seven year old I never noticed the difference.

Hunter is an extremely impressive looking dragon, but he is also rather skittish. That makes it difficult to work with him as a model. Our Green Water Dragon, Loki, is much calmer. Unfortunately she has been rather sick this year, and she doesn't look as impressive as she has in the past. So she isn't the model for today. The good news is that she is going to live; hopefully she regains her past beauty.

I'm rather looking forward to when Corwin is older and he has toy knights. We will be able to stage wonderful battles against dragons.

What I don't have

So I was bidding on the really cool 18th century Persian buckler shield on Ebay.de. Really cool (did I already say that?), made of copper (maybe) with tiny engravings all across the face. Some rust along the edges, but a real shield that may have blocked an arrow or javilin to save some blokes life. Or the shield may have been too small and and the soldier mistimed the projectile and he could have been over come by a case of too much wood to the heart. So anyway I'm bidding on this shield, and in the beginning I can take it or leave it. I put in my high bid of 115 Euros and am prepared to wait it out. If I win great, if not that's OK too.

So the auction ends at 4:15 and I get home from work at 4:10. Happily, bidding on my shield has been stuck at 70 Euros all day. So I sit down and watch the bidding count down, like waiting for the ball to drop on New Years Eve in NYC. I refresh every minute. 4. 3. 2. 1 minute left. Everything is holding out. I'm feeling pretty good. 30 seconds left, and I'm now refreshing every 2 seconds. Looks like clear sailing. After all, it's 11:15 pm in Germany. Anyone else wanting this shield has clearly gone to bed. I'm now feeling a sense of ownership of my shield. 10 seconds. 5 seconds.

Current bid 116 Euros.

Some bastard came in and sniped me! I quickly tried to get in a 200 Euro bid- well above my own preset limit of 115- but it was too late. I felt like I had been robbed. I had already aquired a sense of ownership with it. It was my bloody shield! So anyway I propose a new rule to Ebay that anytime a bid is entered on an auction with less than one minute remaining, the auction be extended by one minute.

Hello World

So I've wanted to do a blog for a while now. I don't know why, perhaps it's vaninty of thinking others might care about what I'm doing. Anyway here is my attempt. Don't expect anything profound or insightful. You may get them occasionally. Or not. But at any rate, don't expect it. I also doubt that it will get updated all that often. But I'll do what I can.

My tip for the day is; have a listen to some Bob Dylan. My friend Matt got two free CD's of his for buying a couple pair of jeans, and gave me one recently. I've listened to it and decided that there is a reason Bob is so famous.