Snow Fort

Cooper and I spent about two hours working on a snowman and this fort. We'll have to keep adding to it with each bit of wet sticky snow we get.

Holy....

Tuesday night I picked the kids up from school and it was dark so I told Cooper I'd drive him past the house with tons of lights. As we were driving up Chamberlain Street, Cooper kept asking him if were at the house as we drove by each one that had some lights at it. I kept telling him no, and that he'd know it when we got there. As we pulled up to this house, I heard him clearly say "Holy Shit" outloud. We won't be making it a point to drive past that house anymore...

Birthday Party

I took Cooper to Brayden's 5th birthday yesterday. Cooper and Brayden are best buddies at school and end up in trouble together all the time. Everytime I pick him up at school, it's always "Well, Cooper and Brayden did this...and had to put their heads down" or something like that...Generally they are good boys, they just rough house a little to much for the class. Brayden's dad is in the process of trying to be come a Shriner and does the whole clown thing but was just dad today. Brayden is picking it up as well so there were tons a balloons and some balloon animals and whatnot.

Enjoying the cake...Everyone else wolfed theirs down and starting playing again while Cooper is a little bit more strategical when eating cake. He takes the time to eat all the frosting off first, then gets in to the cake itself so he took a little more time before going to play.

There was a piñata where instead of beating it open, everyone pulled a string and one of the strings would open the bottom for all the goodies to pour out. As luck would have it, everyone that pulled a string had one of the dummy strings and that left just the magic one. Brayden grabbed a hold and yanked and with a little help from mom, everything fell to the floor. The kids all scrambled for stuff with the exception of Cooper. He was taking his time in putting stuff in his bag kind of only picking out the stuff that he wanted rather than just grabbing for everything. That kid amazes me with his politeness and cautiosness in not hurting others feelings with his actions.

Brayden started doing what he could to try and make some balloon figures. Most of them turned out as just a loop of a hat but he'll get it in time I'm sure.

This was one that had a bunch of potential. It was supposed to be a parrot that he attached to Cooper's arm. It was really a cool gesture and with more practice and learning, he and his dad are going to have one cool talent that makes people happy.

Should have stayed home...

Well, winter is here. We had the first significant snowfall and sure enough, people are having to go through that transitional phase of learning to drive in the snow. These people obviously should have headed south a little sooner. What I don't get, is this is at a really large non busy intersection in Orrington and the car was just abandoned.

Hold on, let me zoom a little. Aaaah, a Florida plate...That explains a little.

Day 5

Marvin under the mini tree for Day 5.

Day 3 and 4

Marvin hanging on the Mantle for day 3/4.

Another ok shake...

Lots of companies have tried to produce a milkshake that will remain on the shelves but they all seem to disappear. Hopefully, this one will hang on as it had a good consistancy and tasted good.

They're back

Coke always seems to draw me in during the December month with these and the glass bottles. There is nothing better than glass bottles of Coke as it stays cold and holds the flavor and carbonation longer. Haven't seen the glass ones yet but I'll find them...

Marvin...Day 2

Marvin has found is way into one of the stockings for tomorrow. Hopefully Cooper remembers to look for him as he just appeared tonight while we were getting the Christmas tree set up. Might take him a day or two to get into the routine again.

Marvin has returned...

Marvin has made his return. I had bought Marvin last year for Cooper as he was really getting to understand the whole Santa thing and trying to be good so Marvin gives good reports. You can get your own Elf on a Shelf either in select Hallmark Stores or directly from Elfontheshelf.com. Marvin came with his own story book that explains how he flies off each night to report to Santa and comes back each morning before you wake to hide in another spot. It also explains that the kids shouldn't touch the elf or he could lose his magic and won't be able to return his reports to Santa. Each day, Cooper can search for him and see where he's at kind of making a game out of both finding him as well as behaving.

Dodge Point Caching

Went out to grab a quick 10 caches this past Sunday with my dad PaxMarine, and Cooper. We were able to come up with 9 of the 10 caches at Dodge Point in Edgecomb. Lots of spoiler pictures here so ignore them if you haven't done these caches...We had a great time and Cooper even located a couple of these "all by himself" he'll tell you. The one we couldn't find was DNF'd by plenty of others as its a micro in the woods with a hint that didn't really offer much assistance. Next time we'll get it I guess.

Good Stuff

I'm usually not much for posting from other sites but someone had this on their FB and I always get a chuckle out of people like this (even if the whole situation is probably made up)...



To: Megan Roberts
Subject: DVDs

Dear Megan,
Thank you for your letter regarding overdue fees. As all four movies were outstanding examples of modern cinematic masterpieces, your assumption that I would wish to retain them in my possession is understandable, but incorrect. Please check your records as these movies were returned, on time, over three weeks ago. I remember specifically driving there and having my offspring run them in due to the fact that I was wearing shorts and did not want the girl behind the counter to see my white hairy legs.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 11.09am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: DVDs

Hi David
Our computer system indicates otherwise. Please recheck and get back to me.

Kind regards,
Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 11.36am
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
Yes, they are definitely white and hairy. Viewed from the knees down, the similarity to two large albino caterpillars in parallel formation is frightening. People who knew what the word meant might describe them as 'piliferous', although there is something quite sexy about that word so perhaps they wouldn't.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 1.44pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David
No I mean our records indicate that the DVDs have not been returned. Please check and return as soon as possible.

Kind regards,
Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 9 November 2009 4.19pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
With the possible exception of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the movies were not worth watching let alone stealing. In Logan's Run, for example, the computer crashed at the end when presented with conflicting facts and blew up destroying the entire city. When my computer crashes I carry on a little bit and have a cigarette while it is rebooting. I don't have to search through rubble for my loved ones. The same programmers probably designed the Blockbuster 'returned or not' database. Also, while one would assume the title Journey to the Centre of the Earth to be a metaphor, the movie was actually set in the centre of the earth which, being a solid core of iron with temperatures exceeding 4300° Celcius and pressures of 3900 tons per square centimetre, does not seem very likely. Waterworld was actually pretty good though. My favourite bit was when they were on the water but the scene when Kevin Costner negotiated for peace, ending the war between fish and mankind moments before the whale army attacked was also very good.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009 3.57pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

David
The DVDs are listed as not returned. If you cant locate the DVDs, you will be charged for the replacement cost.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2009 5.12pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
I have checked pricing at the DVD Warehouse and the cost of replacing your lost movies with new ones is as follows:

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay $7.95
Waterworld $4.95
Journey to the Centre of the Earth $9.95
Logan's Run $12.95

I have no idea why Logan's Run is the most expensive of the four movies as it was definitely the worst. Have you seen it? I wouldn't pay $12.95 for that. I would use the money to buy a good movie instead. Probably something with Steven Seagal in it. The entire premise comprised of living a utopian and carefree lifestyle with only three drawbacks - wearing seventies jumpsuits, living in what looks like a giant shopping centre and not being allowed to live past thirty. This would seem logical though as I would not want a bunch of old people hanging around complaining about their arthritis while I am trying to relax at the shopping centre in my jumpsuit trying not to think about the computer crashing.

I was recently forced to do volunteer work at an aged care hospital. Footage of these people during Tuesday night line dancing could be used as an advertisement for the Logan's Run solution. The only good aspect of working there was that I halved their medication, pocketing and selling the remainder, explaining the computer listed that as their dose and they were welcome to check knowing their abject fear of anything produced after the eighteenth century would prevent them from doing so. I also swapped my Sanyo fourteen inch portable television for their Panasonic wide screen plasma while they were sleeping, explaining that it had always been that way and their senility was simply playing up due to the reduced dosage of drugs.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Wednesday 11 November 2009 1.21pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David
I have not seen those movies so I dont know what you are talking about. I prefer romantic comedies. If you have the movies we can't rent them so we lose money and the fees are based on what we we would have made from renting them and we also have to purchase movies through our suppliers not from DVD Warehouse.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 11 November 2009 3.28pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
I myself am also a huge fan of romantic comedies. Perhaps we could watch one together. I have a new Panasonic wide screen plasma. My favourite romantic comedy is Fatal Instinct although it did not contain enough robots or explosions in my opinion and I was therefore unable to truly identify with the main characters on a personal and emotional level. Recently, I was tricked into watching The Notebook which was about geese. Lots of geese. It also had something to do with an old lady who conveniently lost her memory so she could not remember being a whore throughout the entire film. I don't recall a lot of it as I was too busy being cross about watching it. In a utopian future society she would have been hunted down and killed at thirty.

In regards to the late fees, I understand the amount is based on what you lose by not being able to rent the movies out. You probably had people lined up around the block waiting to rent Logan's Run. For eighty two dollars though, I could have purchased six copies of it from DVD Warehouse or, as I have heard he is a bit strapped for cash, had Kevin Costner visit my house in person and re-enact key scenes from Waterworld in my bathroom.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Thursday 12 November 2009 3.16pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Hi David.
Restocking fees are:

002190382 Journey to the Centre of the Earth $9.30
003103119 Logans Run $7.90
008629103 Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay $6.30
000721082 Waterworld $5.70

Total: $29.20 - I have deleted your late fees and noted on the computer that the amount owed is for the replacement movies not fees.

Kind regards,
Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 12 November 2009 7.42pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,

Those prices seem reasonable. I do not want Logan's Run but will pick up the other three when I come in next.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 12.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

What? The $29.20 is the cost of the replacement DVDs for the store.

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 1.15pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
That makes more sense, I was wondering what I was going to do with two copies of each movie.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 2.33pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

What do you mean by two copies? Are you saying you found the four movies?

Megan

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 2.57pm
To: Megan Roberts
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Dear Megan,
Yes, they were on top of my fridge the whole time. Unfortunately I have a blind spot that prevents me from seeing this area of the kitchen as it is also where I keep my pile of unpaid bills. Last night I slept on the kitchen floor with the fridge door open due to my air conditioner being broken and the temperature outside exceeding that of the centre of the earth. As my fridge emits a high pitched 'beep' every thirty seconds when left open, the vibrations from this caused the DVDs to wriggle forward over the space of many hours before toppling from the edge and I awoke to find them beside me on the pillow. As you have already waived the late fees, I will drop them off tonight and we will call it even.

Regards, David.

From: Megan Roberts
Date: Friday 13 November 2009 3.43pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: DVDs

Ok.

New Track

Cooper's been stuck in for this whole weekend while Cosmo is sick so I decided to take a quick trip to Walmart today with them so we would have something to do between nebulizer treaments and naps. We got him a new matchbox track to play with as we used his existing one shown here a lot on Saturday and I thought it would be fun to have something a little different.The existing one allows for a three car race... After going through all the ones that required a lot set up and passing them up, we went for one that takes all of two minutes to just clamp to a table or bookshelf and we are up and going...
This one starts with a down slope that leads into two loopty loops followed by a jump. After playing for quite some time, I wanted to have a little fun and caught these...


That was fun. Now its got me thinking about other toys that would make for fun pics while in action...

Midnight Sales

Quick shots from 34th street in NYC last night at 12:00 waiting to get in and get theirs. Everyone is pretty psyched up for the Motorola Android and it had even less advertising than the Blackberry Storm when it came out. I believe that may be Ken Dixon (our regional VP) on the right, but the image isn't totally clear. I just hope that this phone doesn't start off with the same issues that the Storm had. With it being so open to programming and whatnot, I don't think it will. It's typically the branded mess on phones that create issues and the Android has none of that to cause interference. Either way, I can't get one until November 29th so I'll be jealous for a while.

Going South...

I had talked with Wendy about going after all the 2001 caches in one day on Saturday night knowing that it really wouldn't be possible as they are scattered all over the state and it would mean a real solid day of hard driving time. I didn't sleep well Saturday night and ended up waking up at what would be 4am but because of the time change, was really 3am. I started playing with GSAK, updated it with all my PQ's that were sitting in my inbox and loaded the whole state of Maine into my GPS as points of interest. I wanted to make sure I had everything I could loaded so I could just meander around after getting the one that I was really after. The southern most 2001 cache was at Fort Mclarey that was my main target. I finally left the house at at 6 and was at the York rest area by 7:30. Luckily I had remembered to hit an ATM in Augusta to cover the tolls as I forget about that some times where as I almost never go that way. Once at the rest area, I used my current coords and loaded a 50 mile radius of caches as waypoints so I could see them without having to be zoomed to the 800ft view on the GPS. The first cache I attempted was a DNF. It was a cache called "The Way Life Should Be" which stinks because you hate to log a DNF on a cache with a name like that. I finally gave up after about 30 minutes of searching. Next was down the road a piece to "Farbucks 13 MMMMMM" which I was able to find. Farbucks was the name of "Starbucks" in the movie Shrek and I was thankful that the cache wasn't actually at a Starbucks location.
My next location was another DNF. It #97 of the 101 Dalmations series and was missing. There were a lot of DNF's before mine so I'm not sure why I wasted 10 minutes looking. You just never know whether those folks were missing something or not I guess.

Being only 1 for 3, I didn't have a good feeling for how the rest of the day was going to go. It's different caching in an area where you don't know any of the cachers or their hides so I felt like my geosenses were off a little. I decided to go right to the fort next as I was sure that might be something other than a micro. On the way, I traded texts with Chadd Roper (CARoperPhotography on the site) and we decided to meet at a cache when I was done with the fort. I arrived at the grounds and ended up running into another cacher and his son while I was searching. He had seen a GPS in my hand and asked if I was caching. His name was Jackmatt on the site and we had a quick chat about caching, numbers, and things that limit caching time. They walked off and I found the cache only to discover a full log. I found a page with some space and left my mark. Here are some of the views...




After finding this one, Chad was going for Nubble Trouble and that's where we planned on meeting. Getting there was a little slow as I had to go through a detour as well as getting behind some Mass people who were out for what appeared to be a nice slow coastal drive. When I pulled in Chad was parked right in front of the cache which was barely hidden so it was quite the easy find. We signed the log, chatted for couple minutes and I met his girlfriend Emily and their new dog Teddy. They took off and I grabbed some pictures before heading out myself.



I wasn't aware that you couldn't actually get to the lighthouse itself as its on an island. The only way across is restricted for care takers and involves riding in this little single person cable car...Not sure I'd want to take that ride.




This is the view from the "Beach Call". The cache was hidden near a payphone but that's all I'm saying.


After doing a bunch of Chadd's caches in Kennebunk, I went to this final one of his for the day. It was a DNF primarily because I got tired of looking while everyone was watching me. It's located at a very busy intersection but pretty cool to stop and look at. Apparently it had actually seen some action at one point or another as it has some bullet holes in it.


On my way back, I had to make sure I stopped in Scarborough to get the Centrum Challenge cache. Having completed the challenge using the Stud Mill Road series on July 3rd, I figured I had better get this now as I don't know when I'll get down this way again anytime soon. After logging that, I hopped on the turnpike and kept on trucking until I got home. I very rarely do this, but with not another car on the road, I thought I'd do it just quickly...I love my car, even if with the stupid check engine light on. It's just an emissions sensor but has no effect on performace so no worries.