After spending most of a year swearing that I was going to plant boxwoods in the front of the house, eliminating the need for anything but an annual trimming and mulching, I ordered flowers for the front yard last week.

Not a shrub in the lot. What can I say? I'm a flower guy.

Two new clematis to share a new trellis, one pink and one white, hopefully their bloom season will be different enough to extend the color. I love clematis, and already have one growing in another bed.

In the bed along the front walk will be blue asters, white dragonflowers (variety of snapdragon and a Virginia native, according to the catalog), and pink "pincushion" flowers (a much nicer name than the scientific scabiosa.

The front bed is getting a hedge of lavender. Should smell wonderful, attract butterflies and maybe hummingbirds, and tons of bees too, to keep the (bleepin') neighborhood kids away so they'll quit teasing the dogs.

Not a simplification in the garden plan... not by a long shot. But, they're all perennials. I'll take my small victories when I find them. And the flowers this year should be gorgeous.

Posted by: Ted at 06:29 AM | category: Square Pegs
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As I was finishing lunch at my desk, it dawned on me that I haven't had any meat since Wednesday.

Posted by: Ted at 11:14 AM | category: Square Pegs
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When granny drives, all you can see through the back window is her hair and hands on the wheel as she peers over the dash.

When homey drives, all you can see through the back window is his do-rag and one hand on the wheel as he peers over the dash.

Either granny is hot shizzle, or homeboy looks like a silly fool. I know which way I'm leaning.

Posted by: Ted at 08:10 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Hey there, friends and family! It's time for our 42nd Annual* Blogger Meet at the ballpark!!!

Invitations are going out to DC metro area friends and bloggers for the first blogmeet game of the year which will be Saturday, May 5th at 7:05pm as the Potomac Nationals take on the Wilmington Blue Rocks. After the game they have a pretty good fireworks show and you might even see Buckethead's son whack me in the jewels with a bat. Again.

No invitation? No problem! Just email me and I'll add you to the list. We've always managed to get a block of seats together ($9.00 a ticket), but that's not garaunteed (never can spell that word).

The P-Nats (I cringe every time I hear the team nickname) play in Woodbridge, Virginia, in Prince William County (directions here).

Liz and I will be going to the game this Saturday, May April 21st, if anyone is interested in meeting up. We're going to check out the wheelchair access seating and see what it's like.

Also, if anyone would like to set up something similar with another local minor league team, let's do it!

*42nd Annual? Yep. If 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, then baseball is the answer to why we bother.

Posted by: Ted at 07:16 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1 uh, this saturday is april 21st not may.

Posted by: michele at April 18, 2007 12:27 PM (0cwiO)

2 Obviously I was thinking in dog-months.

You're right, it's April 21st.

Posted by: Ted at April 18, 2007 07:32 PM (+OVgL)

3 We still on for this? I'm trying to persuade someone to make the drive with me (i.e., may or may not need a last-second ticket). In any case, I'm looking forward to it!

Posted by: dawn at April 29, 2007 05:30 PM (jm3xl)

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Don Ho passed away at the age of 76.

Most famous for his song "Tiny Bubbles", the man was a high school football star good enough to get a sports scholarship on the mainland. During the Korean war he piloted cargo planes between Hawaii and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots in Hawaii, then had a breakout year in 1966, when appearances at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood helped him build a mainland following, and the release of "Tiny Bubbles" gave him his greatest recording success.

Soon he was packing places such as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."

He did his final show last Thursday night.

Posted by: Ted at 06:43 AM | category: Links
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Greek theatre was originally sung, not the mindless droning usually associated with it nowadays. So the chorus wasn't just a lump on the stage not doing anything besides repeating what was said previously, but they sang and danced to the delight of the crowd; and everything was highly refined.

Unfortunately though we do have music from the Greeks that are connected to some of the plays that remain, no one knows how to read them.

Opera was created as people tried to approximate the original Greek theatre experience at a time when the Greeks were the idols and Aristotle was studied almost religiously.

Posted by: Mookie at 09:26 AM | category:
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I updated some links in the sidebar for folks who've moved and pruned away a few dead branches.

I'm also (still) playing over at my Minx beta site.

Posted by: Ted at 05:20 AM | category: Square Pegs
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If you do html, css, java, php, regular expressions, etc.

Posted by: Ted at 05:11 AM | category: Links
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Down below, the title "I Vaaaaant to Suck Your Blooooooood", about the Dracula opera... while I was typing that, I was singing it in my head along with some quickie made-up song lyrics...

...to the tune of the theme from Ice Castles!

For those wondering, Robbie Benson said "We forgot about the flowers" to Lexie at the end of that movie. Welcome to the Rocket Jones Sensitive Moment.

And here's a page chock full o' midi files, including *three* versions of "Through the Eyes of Love." The middle version - labeled (1) - is the best.

Posted by: Ted at 06:20 PM | category: Links
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Dracula, the Opera.

Posted by: Ted at 06:05 AM | category: Cult Flicks
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Maryland's governor is set to sign into law today a bill that will award the state's ten electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate gets the most 'popular' votes nationwide.

In simple terms, the rest of the country will now decide whether or not your vote counts. Cal Ripken could get 90% of the vote in Maryland and if George Steinbrenner gets the most votes nationwide then that's who gets all of the Maryland electoral votes. In simplest terms: screw you, Maryland voters!

Think about the implications of this for a minute. Maryland isn't the only state considering this kind of legislation, which means that future elections will almost certainly be decided by the courts as candidates will automatically file lawsuits to have every vote counted or suppressed, depending on the situation.

Third party candidates just became even less likely. Why bother campaigning in Maryland if you know you don't have a chance to win their votes?

This is a terrible decision, and just because it's "popular" doesn't make it correct.

Posted by: Ted at 05:53 AM | category: Politics
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1 Like I always say, can't they at least push our panties aside before they screw us?

Posted by: dawn at April 10, 2007 06:56 AM (jm3xl)

2 Um... Blatantly unconstitutional?

Posted by: GEBIV at April 14, 2007 11:12 AM (xSYbb)

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From the host of K's Lounge (NSFW), a new site featuring videos of sexy asian ladies dancing and doing, er... naughty things.

Posted by: Ted at 05:55 AM | category: Links
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I felt like crap all weekend and spent most of it sleeping and laying around.

The recently added "recently viewed" box over on the sidebar is longer than normal now, because I watched more movies than I usually get a chance to see. There will be at least one new movie review coming up too.

Posted by: Ted at 05:51 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Dark chocolate-covered blueberries!

Posted by: Ted at 08:16 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Awwwww, how cute.

Posted by: Ted at 07:32 AM | category: Links
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It's going to be ugly this year for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Fielding a team mostly comprised of cast-offs, wannabe's and never-were's, a lot of preseason pundits proclaim them the worst of the league this season. So far, they're playing like it.

I don't hate them, but I have no love for them either. For all the talk about how much baseball means to DC, the fact remains that on opening day they drew 40,000 in a 56,000 seat stadium. It's not going to get better, and they need a miracle of biblical proportions - ala the Amazin' Mets - just to reach up to the level of lousy. Opening day may well have been their high point for the next couple of seasons. So much depends on this new ownership.

...Last in the American National League.

Here's hoping for a Washington/Baltimore World Series in the very near future.

Posted by: Ted at 06:15 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Over at Dawn's Place.

2. You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and, pointing at you, says, “She’s fantastic in bed.” That’s Advertising.

The explanation for Junk Mail is priceless.

Posted by: Ted at 11:14 AM | category: Links
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The forecast called for a little snow, more towards our end of the area. I woke up this morning to about an inch of the fluffy white stuff. It's already mostly gone now, but the return of cold weather means I get major snuggles all night. And when the dog moves, I can cuddle my wife.

Posted by: Ted at 11:10 AM | category: Square Pegs
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9:00 on a friday night, freezing, while I prepare copies of portraits to be printed on printers that are out of ink and out of paper.

A security guard just asked how big my project was... answer? "Self Inflicted 9th Level of Hell."

If I have to look at another portrait I may kill something.... I'm up to 450...

Posted by: Mookie at 08:03 PM | category:
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Brewer Anhauser-Busch comes out with a new energy drink called Spyke, which contains 12 percent alcohol. The packaging is miniature, since the product is sold in 2 ounce portions. Naturally, some people who just want to "protect the children" are insisting that the product be removed from the market.

"Saying that it is the parent's responsibility to keep it out of the hands of young people is absolutely ridiculous," Hacker said.

Parenting? Why bother, when we can just pass a law.

Posted by: Ted at 06:25 PM | category: Links
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