Ups and downs of the week.

 Celtics – Un-be-lievable come from behind win to go up 3-1.

   Red Sox - Still in first place, but again their bats went silent on the first game of this road trip. Wish they’d figure out why they can’t hit on the road.

 Toronto – Nice city. Pics to follow.

 Garmin Nuvi 660 – My newest toy. Working like a charm so far.

A few months ago I posted some images and links from the Hailuoto Island ferry in Finland. Hailuoto Island is about the same latitude as Iceland, so this time of year there is virutally no night. Check out the time on the image below. Nearly 3AM and it’s still quite bright outside. Bet you could make a fortune selling blackout curtains there.  🙂

Like many Americans, we decided to stay close to home this weekend. We’ve been meaning to get back down to the Moonshine Store, as we haven’t been there since last Spring. It was just as packed this year. Still, the burgers were good and the atmosphere was as cool as always. As you can see below, it’s located right at the intersection of 600St and 300Rd in Martinsville, IL.

On the way back home, we stopped in at the Lincoln Log Cabin site. We’ve been here many times, but it’s was a great day for a walk and this site has an easy and picturesque trail. As you can see, it was shearing day. The sheep didn’t appear to be too excited about it, though.  🙂

We were in Chicago this weekend. The weather was great. We went up Saturday, had lunch in Greektown, and the went over to the Adler Planetarium. The admission, as with all the museums over there, is a bit pricey, but it was a pretty cool place. The views of the city were spectacular.

This one is in Ramsau, Germany. Beautiful sunrise.

Ups and downs of the week.

  Veterinarians – Tough job with lots of sad duties, but when they can heal an injured animal, it must make it all worthwhile. Big thanks to Dr. Christie Stone at Crestline Veterinary Clinic for a job well done on our Max.

  Red Sox Season thus far – Although to be fair, no one was going to beat Chien-Ming Wang tonight. He was virtually perfect. 

  J.D Drew – Still hitting every game.

  American Airlines and the FAA – Two incompetent entities team up to screw thousands of travelers. This summer is going to be tough on all travelers thanks to the outrageous price of gas and the pathetic air travel system. Amtrak, anyone? 

 Gift cards – Bought a new lawn mower this past weekend for $37 out of pocket.

  Government stupidity – I know, that’s redundant. I had hoped Massachusetts was smarter than Illinois, but I was wrong. They also passed a really dumb booster seat law requiring children to ride in booster seats until they turn 8 years old.  It’s virtually impossible to enforce if a child is older than 6. How are you supposed to prove your kid is older than 8? Carry his or her birth certificate around? And what if your kid is short and still is not 4′ 9″ at 8 years old? Instead of booster seats, why isn’t the gummint forcing auto makers to install adjustable seat belt anchors?

These days there are enough surveillance cameras around to scare George Orwell. In some places, like London, you can’t sneeze without someone on the other end of a camera seeing it. But webcams can be used for recreational purposes as well. A few weeks ago I posted about a Google search which yielded some cool webcams around Europe. One of them, of the ferry between Hailuoto Island in Finland and the Finnish mainland, has fascinated me for some odd reason.

 

You can see live images, updated every few seconds, from both the east and west ends of the ferry as it makes its way across the bay. There is also a camera at Marjeniementie on the western end of the island. Note the abundance of power generating windmills. The Finns are obviously way ahead of us in the wind power field. These cameras should be fun to watch this summer when the long Arctic summer gives them daylight for most of each day.  At this time, you’ll need to be watching during the morning hours in the U.S. in order to see anything.

Ups and downs of the week.

 Bermuda – Beautiful island. 

  Air travel – Still sucks.

  Formula One – Start of a new season. No traction control should make for some interesting racing this year.

  Head colds – Probably caught this one on the flight down to Bermuda. Airplanes are just giant Petri dishes anyway.

 Springtime – Here at last. I hope it stays mild for a bit before getting into the really hot weather.

Ups and downs of the week.

 European Webcams – Most of these webcams are in Europe, such as this one in Italy and this one on some ferry.

  File and Settings Transfer Wizard - This is supposed to save time?

  Vacation – Off to Bermuda tomorrow.

  Chicago traffic - Nuff said.

 Spring Break – I need it. And I get two in a row. This coming week for EIU, so no school for me, and the following week at UIUC, so all the students are gone.

Ups and downs of the week.

 BMW X5 – This car was made for winter driving. 

  Crappy commutes – White outs, heavy snow, dense fog, and driving rain. All on consecutive days. See above, though.

  Baseball is coming – Spring training is underway.

  Patriots - Last thing I have to say about it.

 TGIF – Lame, I know. But it’s been a rough week.