Colbert & O'Rielly

Pretty awesome... can't believe I missed this but if you have a highspeed connection and some time to burn... check it out!

Thanks You Tube, and AmericaBlog!

Wow Winter!

Wow Winter!
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I walked outside this morning and it actually decided to become winter in New England! I was so happy to see some snow that I snapped this picture and a few others. Yay for snow!

Happy winter, people.

Where's my coco???

Cheese On Bread

Add to my list of things that make me nostalgic for DC:

Last night Lyndsey and I were going out to meet up with some friends and we were in my car, so the music was provided by ye-olde i-pod. This means an eclectic mix of stuff I've managed to upload out of my roughly 10-year old 1,000 disc-ish CD collection. The choice tracks for last night were provided by Cheese on Bread, who once preformed live in the first floor of the Colonel Mustard... actually I think they preformed at least twice. Anyway, it was a nice little moment of DC nostalgia.

This after last weekend when we took a very quick trip up to Boston. We had hoped to spend MLK weekend in DC, but with Lyndsey's parents out of town we expected to act as pet&house-sitters. Very last minute another pet&house sitter was arranged, but she was only available starting around mid-day on Saturday. This made DC seem inconceivable so Boston jumped up the list. The trip was great. Thanks Nate for fun adventures and wonderful baked goods, and thanks to Meghan for hosting us... good times...

That's all for now, I'm back to work (for the moment)

Long Bets... Cool Link

Hey, it's been awhile since I've actively modified the links along the left of my blog... by awhile I mean a few weeks... but anyway, there are two fun new additions. One is Loren's blog about being car-less. I'm proud to say that it features some sentimentally discussed photos from our camping trip with Loren & Tyler to the Shenandoah Valley National Park last year. It was a fun trip, and while the beloved vehicle that transported us has gone to her higher reward I hope we all go camping again soon, and I'm excited to see more posts soon!

The other new link is to Long Bets, an interesting site I just found out about today. I think it's pretty fascinating but I'm at work so I haven't had a chance to dig into it too much. I thought others might find the concept and the organization itself interesting too, so I invite you to check it out!

Chessie's Big Day Out (pt. 1)

Chessies Big Day Out 1
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Last weekend it was beautiful here in Connecticut so we took Chester the dog out to the park. He was very happy and we had about a 2 hour adventure where he swam, and where Lyndsey, Chester, and I all enjoyed the outdoors.

There are actually quite a few more photos to follow, but I only uploaded the ones from my camera, so here's the first of a series of 9 that start off the story of Chessie's Big Day Out.

Iraq Coverage Spotlight

Slate, as usual, has a pretty good bit of analysis on last night's speech and the proposed actions. I can't say it's an uplifting read, but worth passing one's eyes over, if you have 10 minutes for reading.

www.slate.com

Articles of note: "How Bush Bets the Farm on Maliki," "How the Dems could Stop the War Expansion," "and Why they Won't,"

Interesting news sidelight: Gates Says Timetable for Surge Unclear. Cause, you know... that's cool.

The President says

"Blah blah blah blah blah."

It's funny, going into last night I read a couple articles that touted W's love of surprising people, of delivering speeches where he defied expectations. Then, I sat down on the sofa and watched last night's declaration... and I have to say... it was pretty unsurprising, that's for sure.

I guess it's hard to claim disappointment when you go into an event with zero expectations, but somehow disappointed is what I feel.

Man, what a mess we've made over there. It's really, incredibly worrisome how thoroughly Bush & Co. have mucked this all up.

Don't Forget!!

Just a little testimonial on the fact that New Orleans (and certainly untold dozens of other gulf coast communities) is still not in a place that anyone could rightly call recovered. They still need the funding they have never received from the federal government, and they still need us all to figure out ways to help, however and whenever we can. Note to self: still need to get my butt down there, can't believe I still haven't.

Just a little link from work

Check it out, folks. Jack Abramoff, Georgie Bush... smiling for the birdie.

They look chummy, don't they? I think so.

An Admission

Alright, I have to admit it, I've been neglecting ye olde blog. But, never fear, I'll be back in full force in the days to come. Why, you might ask, have I been so absent, so silent, so sparse in my posting of photos, random blathering and other formerly reliable drivel???

Well, the reason, folks, is that I've been spending way too much time uploading music to my new mp3 player. I've been happily ripping tracks (681 to date, to be precise) and um... I've still got many more to upload.

While I've now explained myself, it's no excuse. This weekend Lyndsey and I went for an awesome huge walk in a park with the Ellis' dog Chester. He went swimming, and it was a gorgeous day. I took way too many pictures, and that means that before too long I'll be uploading a bunch of random happy outdoor pics to Flickr... and they'll soon be gracing the pages of this fancy little cyber-zine. Also, I'm just gonna try to prioritize writing a bit more.

It's like a resolution, a week late.

So, that's all to say... expect more soon. More photos, more rambles, more junk of various kinds, and more fun fun fun.

Hope everybody's week is starting off in style.

Year of the snail?

snail
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Happy New Year everybody!

So far, 2007 appears to be the year of the Guitar Hero for me. If you are not familiar with Guitar Hero, it's an amazing game that involves... sort of... playing the guitar through a video game system.

It may not sound completely concrete, but if you haven't seen it in action, that's about the best I can do to describe it for you.

More soon, but I wanted to get a post up to welcome in 2007. So far... an interesting year. Can't wait to see what else happens as the months unfold.

Award for Best wedding picture goes to...

Joseph is the Man for taking this picture
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Joseph gets the prize for my favorite wedding picture of all. Over Christmas I got to see a bunch of pics I hadn't seen yet and that was fun. Between peoples' digitals, the disposable cameras at the reception, and the photographer Matt & Kristi's wedding was very well documented. There is a whole bunch of stuff that's great fun. Still, I think this photo is just amazing. I took some liberties with the original that Joseph sent to Matt, opting for a landscape rather than portrait layout, and turning it into a B/W pic whereas it was color in the original.

I hope you enjoy it, and Happy New Year to everybody.

Cheers.

+ John