The Green Bag

Star rookie race car Lightning McQueen gets waylayed on his trip to LA for the big race, and winds up stuck in Radiator Springs, a ghost town on Route 66. Your typical "coming of age" movie plot about growing up and developing character ensues, as Lighting works to break free of the small town and return to the world of racing.

On Friday afternoon, we went to see Cars. This excellent movie gets its own entry as I've now added the Movie Review module to the web site. After the movie, and a trip to the grocery store, we went home for some outside play time, including our first round of wild rasberry picking for the season. We ended up the evening with an encore viewing of High School Musical on DVD. So this morning brings a short entr

Jean Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise battle Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine...

I thought it was entertaining, and the effects were decent, but I know from experience that the cuts - especially the audio - can be done cleaner in Premiere than what you'll find here. Still, this is a pretty good cross-genre parody.

This week we had a slightly abbreviated family day, as the kids' morning was taken up with the last day of Youth Summer Camp (aka VBS) at the church. When we picked the kids up from the bus stop, we were all ready with a picnic lunch and other necessities for an afternoon at Indian Springs Metropark. We had a picnic lunch, and then the kids played for a while in the water at the new spray park. The new playground area also has a short (about 10' or so) climbing wall, and Anna quickly discovered a new skill.

Then it was off to church again for the big closing program that always crowns VBS week. (The kids always put on a big production, which they've spent part of their week preparing, as a draw to get their parents into church as well.) After the program there were the usual inflatables and other carnival-like attractions, and the whole Ignited Center game area was also open, so both kids gave the 30 foot rock wall a try. Marissa did really well on her first climb, ascending until she couldn't figure out the next handhold, and then slipped and lost her grip. Anna zipped up the wall like an expert until she was almost halfway up, and then looked down. At that point, she was also having trouble locating the next handhold, and didn't really want to go any higher, either. She couldn't bring herself to let go and allow the belay to drop her safely back down, so she climbed most of the way back. Not bad for a seven-year-old, considering that some teens and adults (myself included) have found that letting go is an insurmountable challenge.

So Mike (or anyone) do you know anything about ipods (such as getting songs OFF). I had itunes all figured out on friday, but I went back on my comp today to get more songs from CDs onto the ipod, and itunes is gone! When I put in the disk nothing happens!! GRR!!

Shortly after we got involved in Geocaching, we purchased a Magellan eXplorist 100 GPS receiver (GPSr), which has served us faithfully for almost two years. Unfortunately, we started having a problem with the display a couple of months ago, and despite trying everything including checking all of the menu settings, we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working right.

We continued our Family Friday theme last Friday. In the morning, I hinted that I wanted to go Geocaching, and Teri suggested that we wait and go on Sunday, for Father's Day. We talked a little more, and when she said that maybe it would be okay to go on Friday anyway, I asked if that meant I could have my new GPSr now. I was fishing, but Marissa took the bait and blurted "I swear I didn't say anything!"

hehe

So, I got my new Magellan eXplorist 210 a couple of days early, though we didn't get to use it for Geocaching until Sunday, after all. nstead, we started our day with a bike ride around the block, and then headed off to go shop for some birthday presents and whatever.

Aww, makes me miss my old yellow bus, though it was never as cool as this one!

(Click image for larger versions)

Found via reddit

This has been a pretty hot topic this week, but in case you missed it:

In the wake of Microsoft's monthly patch release on Tuesday comes news that Microsoft has decided not to release updates for some critical vulnerabilities in Windows 98, SE and ME. The company recommends upgrading to Windows XP as soon as possible.

See my HelpDesk Article for more information.

Now that Central Florida has finally had some rain (thanks to Tropical Storm Alberto), I worked in the south bed of the main entrance to the complex yesterday. Five months of near-drought conditions did a number on the Pentas, and I replaced some of the plants. It's nice to have color there again.

I was doing some weeding and trimming of other plantings in the bed, as well. Finishing the trimming of the Norfolk Pine (which was about 4-1/2 feet tall when it was planted four to five years ago, and stands at well over twenty feet now), I turned around and gasped as I viewed the plant in front of me. What I had assumed to be just another palm that I wasn't able to identify was standing about three feet high, with a perfectly formed pineapple growing from the center! I just stood there with my mouth hanging open, not believing what I was seeing.