A pirate born 200 years too late

The Buffet show was fantastic. He played all the greats, plus a few extras including Southern Cross, Brown Eyed Girl, and Scarlet Begonias by the Grateful Dead. My favorite is Fins. To be in a crowd of 20,000 people doing fins to the left, fins to the right is really fun.

The tailgating was good. Tons of food and drink. Having a bus (with a clean restroom) was a godsend for 6 hours of tailgating.

I have to give it to the parrotheads in NC - they tend to have more and better tailgating decor. Here are a few pictures, to give you a taste.

Sidenote: How appropriate that on a pirate-themed day ECU would beat Virginia Tech. Go Pirates!

Fins up!

Today I'm going to the Jimmy Buffet show at Nissan Pavilion. There will be 35 of us on a chartered bus which leaves Arlington at 2. The show starts at 8. If you've never been to a Buffet show, it's all about the tailgating.

This will be my fourth Buffet show. (Does that make me officially a parrothead?) The last show I went to was in 1995. I'm not quite as, um, energetic as I was then but I'm up to the challenge. :-)

Sad day

Today was a sad day. I learned that my former colleague and friend, Jeff, was badly injured yesterday when he and his wife were struck by a car.

The motorcycle that Jeff and his wife were riding was bumped by a car - a minor bump. They pulled off the road to check for damage. After they pulled off the road another car lost control and struck them.

Jeff's wife is home today. Jeff will be in the hospital for awhile.

Jeff and his wife are lucky to be alive. My heart goes out to them as Jeff starts the healing process.

Hello, new iPod!

Today I engaged in my first - possibly of many - private gadget trades. Actually, I bought my friend's (working) 4 Gb iPod, which is perfect for me. He just got an iPhone and didn't need his iPod anymore. Win-win.

:-)

Good-bye, iPod. Sniff.

The Apple store declared my iPod DOA yesterday. Sniff. Actually, the iPod works fine but the battery needs to be replaced. They explained to me that instead of actually replacing the battery, they give you a new iPod. For $70. But only if you get the exact same iPod. Or, you can turn in your dead iPod for 10% off a new one (a value of $15 to $30).

Three years ago my 60 Gb video iPod was top-of-the-line. Yum. I won it in a bet at work, so I didn't pay the $349 (at the time) for it. Since then I've picked up a few cool accessories like the radio adapter, universal docking station (a gift from the Apple store) and a cool cover for it.

Truth is, I would like to have an iPod but I don't need a 60 Gb video iPod. I've only ever used 1 Gb of the storage space. I probably wouldn't try to watch a video on a screen that small when I could just use my laptop.

My iPod isn't solid state like the new ones, so it's more prone to break if you drop it. And the batteries in the older iPods don't hold a charge for as long. The guy said that the new iPods hold charge for 24 hours. Mine held charge for maybe 8 or 10 hours. The new iPods would require less frequent charging, which could increase the lifespan of the battery.

So the dilemma is, do I get a smaller new iPod that might last a little longer (because of the different battery and the solid state design) for $135, or pay $70 for the same iPod?

Best macaroni ever

Last night a couple of friends came over and I cooked a yummy macaroni and cheese dinner, with home-baked brownie sundaes for dessert. L. brought over veggies from farmer's market, and we feasted. It doesn't get much better than that.

To shake things up, I got some big ramekins at Sur la Table and instead of baking the macaroni in a big casserole dish, I baked it in four individual-size ramekins. It was the best mac-and-cheese I've made. Mmmm.

Sole searching

Today I went to the barn to play with Duke and Gary. I wore my blundstone boots. Duke and Gary had just been turned back out to pasture when I noticed bits of my soles in the barn aisle. The soles literally disintegrated right there. The leather on the boots is still great, so I'd like to resole them. Sadly, here's what Blundstone says about resoling their boots:

Is Blundstone footwear able to be resoled?

There have been many technical advances in footwear construction methods, which enable volume manufacturers to produce a quality product economically. As a company we have expanded our use of this technology, particularly through the use of direct injection sole moulding in preference to the method of 'sticking on soles'. The security of the sole bond and the economies realised through adopting this technology, make it impractical to repair and resole footwear. The Blundstone range consists of soles, which have been directly injected using either polyurethane, nitrile rubber and thermo urethane polyurethane (TPU).

Sigh.