Pawprints From Space

Well, well for the first time in over a week the electric company is not happy with me. Why you ask? Because today I did not have to have the air conditioner on all day. Running the silly thing tends to offset all the good that switching to compact flourescent bulbs was doing. Speaking of things "green" okay I did watch (or at least have on) the Live Earth concert (on Bravo) and it was pretty good. I must admit I have my doubts about how carbon neurtal they could possibly be with all the celebs having to travel to get to the various locations. Supposedly they were going to announce after the concert what the output ended up being but I haven't seen "boo" on that in the press so either the press no longer cares (gasp!) or they didn't do that well and they are still trying to figure out how to spin it. I did take Earthlab's little carbon test to see how I stacked up and as expected I am well below average for the normal American. The crappy part was for el...

Ah summer! It's hot, it hasn't rained in an amount worth mentioning in weeks and guess what? A chipmunk, ground squirrel or other small mammal has crawl under the walkway and died. Of course being dead the little body is now producing a huge stink. Being under the wooden walkway there is no way to get at the thing without tearing up said walkway so it must remain where it is.. smelling up the place... drawing fun insects and just being, well... smelly. And guess what? It is supposed to be over 90 degrees the next few days. On the one hand this could speed up the decomp process on the other the stink is gonna get worse. And we're only into day three of stink. According to online research it can take a week or two for the smell from a dead mouse to dissipate. I am assuming that we are dealing with a likewise small rodent because the under the walkway route is a common path for the chipmunks to get to and from their den. A week or two. More if we're talking squirrel. Which...

No I am not waiting in line (on line?) for an Apple iPhone. I can't see spending that much $$ on a device that makes me that much more "available" to people I'd really rather not be available. No I don't have the latest laptop, the coolest TV, my flatbed scanner doesn't even work any more with XP it's that old and I didn't run out and get a new one. Oh yeah, and I'm waiting for the printer I have to completely run out of ink before I trade it in on an all-in-one so that I have fax access again. And yet I am a geek at heart. I love technology. When it makes sense. But I'm sorry the iPhone just doesn't and that isn't because the thing isn't cool (it is) or that I hate all things Apple (I don't, I tend to hate Microsoft but that's another rant for another time) it is because the thing costs so damned much. I mean really, my Motorola Razor can receive email and browse the Web even though the screen it too damned small to read an...