If I were elected Pope, I'd change my name to Methusela I.

It couldn't hurt.

Posted by: Ted at 11:08 AM | category: Square Pegs
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If you're planning a quiet evening watching a movie together, don't pick War of the Roses.

Posted by: Ted at 05:49 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Spent an eventful weekend visiting Robyn and her new husband Henry. Well, that was the excuse, anyways. The real reason we travelled to Norfolk was for minor league hockey.

Liz discovered that President Bush was going to be visiting Williamsburg on Saturday, which is right on our way. In order to avoid any potential traffic problems caused by security around the decider-in-chief, we took an alternate route which made for a beautiful drive through the countryside.

After spending the afternoon visiting, we headed downtown to see the Norfolk Admirals play the Philadelphia Phantoms. This was Henry's first live hockey game.

The people at the arena (Scopes?) were really nice, but I was truly pissed off about the accomodations for the handicapped. We wound up on the lower parking level, and the only way to the entrance was to go up the vehicle ramp, where we almost got run over by a cop! He was insisting that there was an elevator, and we were insisting that the damn thing was inside a locked foyer and not accessible. Once inside, the staff listened to my complaints and did their own check and sure enough, the parking elevator was locked up. Odd thing is, nobody there had a key to unlock it, because it was mainly for the adjoining theater. I can't believe that they've never encountered this situation before, and it took me a while to calm down.

So anyway, game time. The Admirals are in the middle of a great season, so the arena was better than 3/4 full. They're a farm team for the Chicago Black Hawks, and we enjoyed spotting the various incarnations of the Admirals uniforms from years past. They've changed logos a couple of times, and back a few years ago their team colors were blue and gold, which made for really good looking jerseys. Now they wear Chicago's red, black and gold.

I'd heard that minor league hockey had been tamed. No fights, no hitting. Let me tell you, NOT TRUE! In the first few minutes of the game two guys dropped their gloves, threw off the helmets and went at it. As usual, the refs waited until they fell to the ice in a heap to break it up. After the next face off, two more guys did the same thing. The place was going wild! There were a couple of scrums later on and quite a bit of pushing and shoving, but that was it for the fights.

As for hitting, there were some hellacious hits. Norfolk is a smaller and faster finesse team but they dished out more than they took during the game.

My biggest problem with the Admirals is that they tended to make one pass too many. I screamed myself hoarse to put the damn puck on the net as they repeatedly passed up shots to try to make the perfect set up. As expected with minor league hockey, the skill level was a shade below what you're used to seeing in the NHL. Passes just missed, or if they did hit the tape weren't controlled well. Lots of "oops, forgot something" moments as they frantically hit the brakes and tried to reverse to gather up a missed puck.

No matter, the game was fun and we'll be doing it again soon. I wish we lived closer, because season tickets would be great. Oh yeah, lower section tickets were $16.00. Can't beat that. The title of this post is a combination of what was announced as a Phantoms player left the penalty box - "Philadelphia is at full strength" - the crowds hollered response each time - "AND YOU STILL SUCK!". Cracked me up.

The Admirals came back from two down to tie it up 3 all. No score in the overtime, and the Admirals took the shootout to win it.

On Sunday, Liz and I stopped at Williamsburg Pottery on the way home. This place is amazing, like a super-duper yardsale/flea market/k-mart/dollar store/nursury. Laid out in a sprawling jumble of buildings, you can easily spend hours there just looking around - and we did. Imagine your local craft store, which is probably pretty large if you're near one of the big chains. Now imagine that store if it sold nothing but baskets. That's one department at Williamsburg Pottery. Cool place. I picked up some smoked salt and rice vinegar in the gourmet section, along with a few other odds and ends for the kitchen.

So all in all we had a very enjoyable weekend.

Heh. I just heard from Robyn, who was up early doing homework after Henry left for work. He wants to go to the hockey game this Friday.

Posted by: Ted at 06:01 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Later I'll get a chance to tell you about our wonderful weekend, but for now, in no particular order:

1. Charities that don't pick up when they say they will. You called and asked if we had anything to donate. As a matter of fact, we did. So, per your instructions, we packed up two boxes of stuff, put signs on them and set them out by the curb. Your people didn't bother to come by and the wind made short work of the plastic we'd covered the boxes with, so now tomorrow the trash guys get to haul off two soggy boxes of crap. Next time you call, you're going to get an earfull along with a request to take us off your calling list.

2. Did you know that a black coach won the Superbowl? Yeah, big whoop to most of America, both black and white. Thanks though, to those idiots who repeatedly whacked me over the head with the diversity shit all night long. Broadcasters (2a. Phil Simms is an annoying ass) and advertisers alike. In this day and age, we're supposed to be past the race thing. Note it once and get over it. By the way, congratulations to both Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith for getting their teams to the big game. Y'all are tops.

3. Rascal Flats. To me, their music sounds manufactured, like they're the Back Street Boys of country music. I was flipping through the stations this morning and heard their version of "Life Is A Highway" from the movie Cars. Gack. I'd rather listen to the Laurence Welk version, it would have more soul. I think I know where the Menudo rejects go when they reach puberty.

Posted by: Ted at 05:20 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Have a great one.

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Have a great one.

Posted by: Ted at 05:23 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Have a great one.

Posted by: Ted at 05:10 AM | category: Square Pegs
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That would be me. There has been lots going on so far this bright and shiny new year, both good and otherwise, and free time in order to crow and/or gripe about it here at Rocket Jones has been drastically reduced.

As the new routine settles in, I'll probably find more time to write. I realize that I've posted excuses for not posting twice now in January, believe me when I say that they're a good way to bump up the ol' productivity stats.

Posted by: Ted at 10:23 AM | category: Square Pegs
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You always know you're in trouble food-wise when you meet this scenario:

Day 1: Stuffed shells.
Day 2: Stuffed Shells
Day 3: Pasta Bake... And they don't even bother cutting the stuffed shells up.

Posted by: Mookie at 10:18 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Just some hits I've noticed over the last week or so...

Doug Pratt mentions an apparent shortage of Pyrodex pellets. Pyrodex is a black powder substitute used by muzzle-loader enthusiests that isn't regulated nearly as strongly as the regular stuff. We use the pellets to pre-heat the fuel grain in our hybrid rocket motors. I need some, but haven't been looking too hard (WalMart hasn't had them though, which is unusual around hunting season). Good thing we can get them through Amazon. Gotta love it.

Zoe Brain links to some cool history of the space program you might never have heard of, the UK space program.

Just because Rutan and crew won the X-Prize doesn't mean the other competitors packed it in. Check out the latest test flight video from the Blue Origins team.

JohnL has links for Blue Origins too.

What goes up must come down. EDog has video of a Russian satellite that re-entered the atmosphere and broke up over Colorado.

Rockets are cool. Check out these links and you'll see for yourself.

Posted by: Ted at 07:00 PM | category: Square Pegs
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The wife and I are off for a week or so. Our original plan worked to perfection, we made reservations in four places geographically far apart, so that if a blizzard hit the midwest, we'd go north. If one of those innumerable killer hurricanes hit New England, then we'd head south. Nor'easter? No problem, we'd vacation inland.

Once the weekly weather was examined, we cancelled three sets of plans and are headed to Atlantic City (second choice, actually) for shopping, gambling, and lots of doing absolutely nothing. Our hotel does have high speed internet, but I really shouldn't use my laptop from the in-room hot tub, so I'm not sure how much you'll hear from me.

Catch ya later.

Update: Liz still amazes me. We checked into the hotel, got settled in and then went to a casino for a while. We had a nice dinner and then I watched (as usual, I seldom gamble) as Liz played the nickel slots and walked away with $300. She plays for fun, but it's always more fun when you win.

Posted by: Ted at 04:54 PM | category: Square Pegs
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An excellent observation from Brian J Noggle.

Posted by: Ted at 11:44 AM | category: Square Pegs
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That popping you felt in your ears was caused by the massive collective yawn of America.

Posted by: Ted at 11:36 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I haven't mentioned the bestest Christmas presents I got, both from my wife. She ordered a large San Jose Sharks embroidered logo from the NHL shop, and then sewed it onto the chest of a super-comfy fleece hoody (in black, of course). It looks goooooood.

And where would a fan wear his cool new hoody? Why, to the hockey game on February 21, when my beloved San Jose Sharks come to town to play the Washington Capitals, of course! We'll be in section 116, row U. Wooot!!!

Posted by: Ted at 11:31 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I hurt my back last Friday, and I've been moving at 33 1/3 in a 78 world ever since, trying to keep up. Unfortunately, life hasn't been overly cooperative, so what little free time I've had this week has been spent catching up on things that could be put off a little while, but not indefinitely.

Look for an upcoming movie review or two, and posting frequency will increase as I get back up to speed. You've been warned.

Posted by: Ted at 05:30 PM | category: Square Pegs
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test

Hmmmm, weird. On some browsers (including my IE at work) the posts are all empty boxes down to halfway through the Japanese Movie Monster post. On others, everything appears to be fine.

The only change is the new banner up top, so I'll be digging through the ol' template to look for clues.

Posted by: Ted at 06:12 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Some TV show came on yesterday that touted the ten worst extreme ski accidents or some such. Near the top of the list was a guy who basically fell over three cliffs as he careened down the face of a mountain. It was ugly, and his unconcscious body finally slid to a stop almost a minute later and several hundred feet down from where his tumble started.

The announcer stated that the guy suffered multiple severe lacerations and had "shattered" his leg in three places. Then, in the next breath, we're informed that just eight weeks later the skier was back in competition. I guess it was a minor shatter.

Next, they have an interview with the guy. I'm paraphrasing here because it was so incredibly stupid that I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I wasn't worried about extreme skiing again because, I mean, I'd fallen off a mountain. What are the odds that it would happen again, y'know?"

We live in a society where you can make a career of being a Darwin Award candidate.

Posted by: Ted at 08:46 AM | category: Square Pegs
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As usual, Mookie gave Dad uber-cool presents for Christmas. The banner above shows a few of the figures from the Horrified B-Movie Victims Figure Set.

Posted by: Ted at 06:22 PM | category: Square Pegs
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We commoners call it a relish tray or just veggie snacks, but the proper term for it is pronounced just like the title above. I'd heard the word, I knew what it meant, but I'd never seen it spelled out before.

I now take great pleasure in pronouncing it phonetically.

Cruddites.

Posted by: Ted at 04:51 AM | category: Square Pegs
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The family was very, very nice to me this year.

The Rocket Jones movie library increased by several, including Jack Nicholson's Goin' South (one of my all-time favorites), the exploitation classic I Spit On Your Grave, several oldies (some starring Bela Lugosi) and including the wonderfully abysmal Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Universal's Wolfman Legacy Collection. I also wound up with the complete television series Buffalo Bill.

In print, I got the Zombie Survival Guide, and for my listening pleasure Frank Zappa's ThingFish.

More later. Been busy marrying off my kid and all, don't'cha know.

Posted by: Ted at 07:49 PM | category: Square Pegs
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