Whale Watch Tme.

Weather permitting, I'm off to the tip of Cape Cod to look for whales on Sunday. For the past few years, come January, I start to go looking for right whales off the coast of provincetown. Two years ago, max and I watched one feeding off of Race Point in Provincetown. Last year, we found them off of Herring Cove Beach, also in P-town. We've seen lots of humpbacks, and a few finbacks and minkes right from the beach. It sucks if it's windy, but if it's sunny with no wind, there's a good chance we'll be able to stay out on the beach for a while and see some kind of whale. Saturday will be cold and nasty. Sunday is supposed to be warmer, but still only in the 30's. Hopefully there will be no wind. Oh... and I just got my 2009 shelfish license, so with luck... fresh steamers for supper.. oh yeah!
(click the image for a bigger view)

Update: Saturday Morning, 25°, windy and cold. The ground is covered with a dusting of snow. No WAY am I going out to any beach today.

Update: Sunday Morning, 24°, cold, but no wind. It's supposed to warm up to 39° today by this afternoon, but the wind will be picking up. Maybe have to wait 'til next weekend.

Pinewood Derby

Max and Sophie had cars in the Cub Scouts' Pinewood derby race this last weekend. I'm slow at getting anything posted these days, so I'm just getting around to downloading the photos and getting them posted. They just MIGHT be on flickr tonight

The kids both had fun making the cars, but again, the race itself was chaotic and somehow, even though Max had one of the faster cars, he was eliminated and never even got to face the three winning cars. Personally I think they forgot to run a few of the middle heats that he should have been in... he only raced twice all day! Sophie, who isn't even a Cub Scout, and was racing Max's friend's car, raced in six or seven heats.

He clearly beat the car that came in fourth overall in his first heat, 3 out of 3 times. However, he was still eliminated even after taking another win in his second heat. Maybe it was because his car just looked too damn good!

He's not bitter, but I can't seem to let it go. I feel bad for him. He obviously knew he had one of the faster cars.

(click the photos for full-size views)

Another Snow Storm is Coming!

I woke up to the announcement that more snow is coming. I love snow. I'm glad it's coming. So many people are groaning about the long winter, but I can't wait. Now, come March, when it's steadily 36 degrees and raw during my out-of-work hours, I'm sure I'll be complaining with the rest o'ya', but c'mon! It's January. It's winter and if its going to be cold as hell, it might as well look nice out there. Plus, it's the beginning of the year. For those of us poor saps that are still working for the man, we have a full year's allotment vacation and sick day's comin' at us.... so if it's driving that's bummin' you out. DON'T DRIVE! Go play in the snow and try to remember how much you enjoyed anticipating the big storm when you were a kid. What kid doesn't like a snowstorm. I think the day I don't wish it to snow will be the day I figure out that I really am an old man. Snow pics from Chatham here: flickr. Some snowy lighthouse ones...

January Almost Over - Nothing Done

I don't seem to have much time these days to keep up with this blog about not keeping up with myself. Suddenly it's a month into the new year. I haven't checked a thing off my list. Well, there you have it, my half-assed attempt to keep up with myself is surely living up to itself.

More Snow - Cold Coming

It's snowing like crazy out. It's beautiful light fluffy snow - classic January snow, and it's all Cape Cod's. Nowhere esle is getting this storm. Special.

I'm missing the whole thing because I'm in the basement at work. The rude building manager just came down and made us all move our cars so they could plow the lot. So, I at least got to see it. There's a TON of snow! I have the Prius, so should be a wild ride home. Hoping to get out before dark.

Starting the Year off Right - and Props to Juno

Ugh... on New Year's day our Microwave stopped working. It wasn't the fuse, it wasn't a bad plug... it just stopped. It's been sick for a while, and recently it couldn't even handle finishing a bag of pop corn without crashing the power to the kitchen. Come to think of it, it's had symptoms like that for a while... just more pronounced more recently.

Well now it's dead. I took it off the wall yesterday (its one of those over-the-range deals) to see if I could find a fuse on it anywhere within its guts. I only found little signs all over as I dug deeper that said "DANGER!" and something to the effect of "Microwaves can be dangerous... only professionals should delve any further..." So, instead of wasting time trying to find someone to pay $100 to fix what I can buy for $200, I went shopping.

The sales guy at "Sears" had such bad breath I almost puked. Really! My throat went into this auto-heave-motion and I had to retreat quickly. I then tried "Best Buy" at the complete opposite end of the mall. They had a whole bunch, but NO ONE was interested in helping me. I went to Home Depot. No one was there... it was spooky. No shoppers I mean. I've never seen the store so empty. Three salespeople fought to help me. No kidding. They took me to a row with a $200, a $250 and a $300 machine. The $200 was just cheesy - it looked like the screws I'd hang it with would pull right through the metal. The $300 I'd have to have delivered, but it was nice. But, I didn't want to wait - I settled for the $250 one. It looks like it should cost more than $250 because it's made of some stainless steel-like material. I was told it's not really stainless steel. Who cares. It was shiny. I bought it. Now it's on the kitchen floor. I watched a movie instead of hanging it. Great movie... Juno. (Chase - rent it!)

Big Weekend for Will

Wow... The holidays are over and now it's time to relax. I almost got all of my Christmas cards out this year too. Good thing. I don't think I'll do it any more. It's just too time consuming and now too expensive. A hundred cards and a hundred stamps and I'm well over a hundred dollars. Everyone I know well enough to send a card to, I keep well enough in touch with for them to know I'm thinking about them at Christmas time. I'll probably do some kind of digital deal this year. Not sure what. Hey... save paper, printer ink, plastic, less photo chemicals, stamp glue, shipping boxes from the distributor, pen ink.... it all ads up to less waste. Digital it is this year.

But that's now what I was going to blog about... I was going to blog about Will. He has reached several milestones this week. He cut a tooth, moved from the bassinet to his crib where he now has almost learned to put himself to sleep. He rolled over onto his belly, ate rice cereal and got baptized. All at roughly the turn of four months. Good job little guy!