Deep Thoughts, by Rick RootPowered by BlogCFM
http://www.rickroot.com/blog
Where Am I Now?<p>I haven't blogged here in a very long time. Facebook happened, I guess. Life happened. I got tired of freelancing in my spare time and I took up more <a href="http://www.ricksroots.com">gardening</a>. And I blogged about it for a while, and then I didn't blog about it. I worked out a lot and lost a lot of weight. Then I had shoulder surgery, stopped working out and put a lot of weight back on. Life's ups and downs.</p>
<p>The biggest change in my life, relevant to the people that used to read this blog, is that I'm no longer a Coldfusion developer, after nearly 15 years of it.</p>
<p>Back in June of 2013, I left Duke University and took a job at the University of North Carolina, and that was the end of my Coldfusion programming career. I haven't touched it since, really. At UNC, I do a lot of SQL and some .NET programming with VB and C#, but mostly, I manage a great team of 6 soon to be 7 IT people - web developers, programmers, and report writers.</p>
<p>That's really all I have to say right now. Talk to you soon!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2015/04/Where-Am-I-Now.cfm
2015-04-09T09:32:25-08:00PersonalBlog Updates coming!<p> Shannon made me do it! She better appreciate this.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2015/03/Blog-Updates-coming.cfm
2015-03-30T13:00:30-08:00Personal,PersonalProgrammer Humor<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">When Programmers Talk about Tools
<p> </p>
</span></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">If you know any programmers, perhaps you've noticed that we sometimes have odd senses of humor. One example I always like to bring up is that an old mail program for UNIX systems was called "elm" which was short for "electronic mail". Some other programmers decided to call their new mail program "pine", which stood for "Pine Is Not Elm.".</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
<p> </p>
</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Anyway, the other day, I asked a question of some programmer friends of mine. I was hoping to borrow a nail gun from someone, and hilarity ensued. Well, perhaps hilarity is a bit overkill, but I thought it was funny enough to blog about.</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ME</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Does anyone on the list have a pneumatic finishing nailer that I could borrow?
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ROGER</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">I have several, some with wooden handles that are easy on your hands. These are the completely manual units that don't need any power, just your arm moving back and forward. ;)
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">DOUG</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Holy cow! You have leverage-based nailers? I've heard about those. It's almost like they make your arm longer and give you the ability to wield more force upon nail heads. It's like you have a fist of iron with which you can beat nails senseless. I hear that nails cower, bend over, and even lay down in fear of this type of nailer. How did you ever manage to find one of these? It must have been very expensive!
<p> </p>
</span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ROGER</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Sometimes you can find them at yard sales or in antique stores at a very reasonable prices. There are special ones that get handed down from father to son also. These are usually partnered with yelling and provocative use of language when there is a thumb malfunction or bug in the process.
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">JEFF</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">LOL! A trip to the ER to get your thumb looked at is not cheap at all. I urge caution when using one of these leverage-based nailers. They are very dangerous...and would you believe that they don't have any safety on them? no warning labels? and most of them have this vicious claw like end on them as well...so you aren't even safe on the back swing!
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">I don’t know about you, but hammers sure sound dangerous!
<p> </p>
</span></p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2011/04/3F.Programmer-Humor.cfm
2011-04-13T09:09:36-08:00Personal,Personal,HumorProgrammer Humor<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">When Programmers Talk about Tools
<p> </p>
</span></b></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">If you know any programmers, perhaps you've noticed that we sometimes have odd senses of humor. One example I always like to bring up is that an old mail program for UNIX systems was called "elm" which was short for "electronic mail". Some other programmers decided to call their new mail program "pine", which stood for "Pine Is Not Elm.".</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
<p> </p>
</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Anyway, the other day, I asked a question of some programmer friends of mine. I was hoping to borrow a nail gun from someone, and hilarity ensued. Well, perhaps hilarity is a bit overkill, but I thought it was funny enough to blog about.</span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ME</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Does anyone on the list have a pneumatic finishing nailer that I could borrow?
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000; BORDER-LEFT: #000000; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT: #000000; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt" valign="top">
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ROGER</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">I have several, some with wooden handles that are easy on your hands. These are the completely manual units that don't need any power, just your arm moving back and forward. ;)
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2">
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">DOUG</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
<p> </p>
</span></p>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000; BORDER-LEFT: #000000; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT: #000000; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt" valign="top">
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Holy cow! You have leverage-based nailers? I've heard about those. It's almost like they make your arm longer and give you the ability to wield more force upon nail heads. It's like you have a fist of iron with which you can beat nails senseless. I hear that nails cower, bend over, and even lay down in fear of this type of nailer. How did you ever manage to find one of these? It must have been very expensive!
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">ROGER</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Sometimes you can find them at yard sales or in antique stores at a very reasonable prices. There are special ones that get handed down from father to son also. These are usually partnered with yelling and provocative use of language when there is a thumb malfunction or bug in the process.
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000; BORDER-LEFT: #000000; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0.75pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; PADDING-LEFT: 0.75pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0.75pt; BORDER-TOP: #000000; BORDER-RIGHT: #000000; PADDING-TOP: 0.75pt" valign="top">
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">JEFF</span></b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">
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</td>
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<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">LOL! A trip to the ER to get your thumb looked at is not cheap at all. I urge caution when using one of these leverage-based nailers. They are very dangerous...and would you believe that they don't have any safety on them? no warning labels? and most of them have this vicious claw like end on them as well...so you aren't even safe on the back swing!
<p> </p>
</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"></span></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: "Arial", "sans-serif"; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">I don’t know about you, but hammers sure sound dangerous!
<p> </p>
</span></p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2011/04/Programmer-Humor.cfm
2011-04-13T09:09:31-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,HumorBack Yard Plans for this spring<p>We're remodeling our back yard this year!</p>
<p>It starts next week - having three small trees removed from the left side of the house. Two of them are sweetgum trees that just matured enough to start dropping those annoying "gumballs" all over the place. I hate those things! In the place of these three trees will be a nice unobnoxious River Birch.</p>
<p>Next - hopefully this weekend - we're going to tear down Emily's playset. Adrienne's mom has requested the wood. I'm pretty sure this custom made set couldn't be sold anyway.</p>
<p>In place of the playset, we're going to build a shed and some raised bed gardens and a walkway between the gardens.</p>
<p>We'd like to expand the left side of the deck to the edge of the house - and expansion of about 8'x12', and move the stairway to the otherside of the deck. On that side, we're putting a patio, which will probably be in the neighborhood of 12x14, and may be as simple as poured or stamped concrete, or maybe even pavers if I'm feeling anbitious.</p>
<p>And finally, once all this is done, the rest of the back yard will be sodded with a nice heat tolerant "summer" grass - probably Bermuda.</p>
<p>Sounds like a lot of work doesn't it?</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2011/02/Back-Yard-Plans-for-this-spring.cfm
2011-02-25T08:10:33-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and LandscapingSpring Garden - The Beginning<p>It's late February. The WRAL weather guy has guaranteed no more accumulating white stuff! We'll see about that. We're in a nice weather pattern now with lots of 60 and 70 degree days, somewhat above normal but it's got me in the gardening mood.</p>
<p>That being said, I did a couplethings yesterday. From Amazon.com, I purchased a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-2-Foot-Start-Light-System/dp/B0006856EQ/ref=pd_sim_ol_2">Hydrofarm JSV2 2-Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System</a>, along with a 20"x20" heat pad and a digital heat pad thermostat. Total cost with free shipping, about $100. Then I went to Home Depot and picked up a pair of Jiffy Seed Starting Greenhouse kits (like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jiffy-5029-Starter-Greenhouse-50-Plant/dp/B0000DI83Y">this one</a>), some seed starting mix, and some seeds, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cucumbers (Tendergreen)</li>
<li>roma Tomatoes (Roma VFN)</li>
<li>Cherry Tomatoes (Supersweet 100 VF hybrid)</li>
<li>Pole Beans (Kentucky Wonder)</li>
<li>Peas (Wando)</li>
<li>Cayenne Pepper</li>
<li>Anaheim Chili Pepper</li>
<li>Jalapeno Pepper</li>
<li>Eggplant</li>
<li>Zucchini</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, after doing some reading, it sounds like Peppers are a little harder to germinate than some o ther plants and need about 10 weeks indoors before moving outside sometime in May - so I decided NOW was the time to start my peppers. I stopped at home depot this morning and bought a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jiffy-5035-Professional-Greenhouse-72-Plant/dp/B000KL76S8">Jiffy Heated Professional Greenhouse</a> kit (it was cheaper at Home Depot than at amazon, go figure). I have it set up on my desk at work. Soaked the seeds in warm water for a couple hours to speed germination, and planted. Now, I wait.</p>
<p>As for the rest of the crops - I need to get the peas in the ground - yesterday! They'll harvest in 2 months, but right now I don't have enough light in my back yard to grow anything - the sun is still too far south. So I'm going to put some of the peas in a half barrel or something similar out in front. Probably gonna do that this weekend. Apparently, peas grow just fine here even though we certainly haven't seen our last frost.</p>
<p>I probably won't have my gardens ready in the back yard until early April, so most everything else I'll be planting under the new grow light system at appropriate times, probably starting with the tomatoes and basil. I'll be able to seed 144 plants in the grow light system, and transplant some of them into 4" pots, and I can have two flats of the 4" pots under the grow lights so that gives me 24 plants to keep and others to give to friends and family to keep in their windows.</p>
<p>Adrienne and I discussed plans for the back yard last night. We're going to put in a 8x8 or 8x10 shed near the back corner with the door facing the house, and a gravel walkway coming out of the shed between 2 raised bed gardens that will each be about 4' wide and 15' long. These are my "sunny" gardens where I'll have to plant most of my stuff. I'm definately doing corn again - probably will get 12 plants in a 4x4 space. I'll also put the eggplant and peppers over here, along with the cucumbers and maybe some of the tomatoes, depending on space. I am going to hang some of the tomatoes again this year in a topsy turvy.</p>
<p>The sunniest of the side yard gardens will get the pole beans - there's already a nice sturdy trellis in place that the bird feeder gourds were on last year. In the less sunny garden I'll plant the zucchini, since it did very well in that location last year. The other side yard garden I will not use because nothing grew well in it last year.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2011/02/Spring-Garden--The-Beginning.cfm
2011-02-25T07:58:08-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,GardeningStoplight Thai Stir Fry with Linguini<p>New Recipe! I made this today and actually measured stuff so I could calculate nutrition information.</p>
<p>My friend Brian came up with the name, though apparently other people have used the same name out there, thanks to the red/green/yellow bell peppers.</p>
<p>Anyway, here's the ingredients:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 green bell pepper</li>
<li>2 yellow bell peppers</li>
<li>2 red bell peppers</li>
<li>2 zucchini</li>
<li>1 small red onion</li>
<li>8oz can pineapple tidbits, drained</li>
<li>1/2 cup peanut satay sauce</li>
<li>1/2 cup sweet thai red chili sauce</li>
<li>1-3 tsp cayenne pepper</li>
<li>3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed</li>
<li>6oz linguini </li>
<li>3 tbsp olive oil <br />(I used "garlic-infused olive oil)</li>
<li>1 tbsp Mongolion Fire Oil (optional)</li>
</ul>
<p>Cook the linguini according to the package insructions and set aside. By the way, I used "al dente" brand Spicy Sesame Linguini. Yummy. You could use any kind of pasta, but don't use too much - this is a "lite" dish and so shouldn't be too heavy on the pasta. Whole wheat penne would probably work pretty well too.</p>
<p>Cut all the veggies into "bite sized" pieces. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and the mongolian fire oil to a LARGE frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add cubed chicken and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your cubes. Add vegetables, continue to stir fry for 10 more minutes. Add peanut satay sauce and thai chili sauce. I get this from the "International" section of my local grocery store. Stir fry for a few more minutes, add cayenne pepper. Remove from heat. Add shrimp. Mix thoroughly.</p>
<p>Eat and enjoy.</p>
<p>Leave the cayenne and mongolion fire oil out if you're timid. If you love the spicy food, use both and use 3 tsp of cayenne. Otherwise.. somewhere in between.</p>
<p>We'll call this 8 servings, here's the nutrition information:</p>
<p>
<table style="WIDTH: 140pt; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="186" x:str="">
<colgroup><col style="WIDTH: 92pt; mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 4461" width="122"></col><col style="WIDTH: 48pt" width="64"></col></colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height="17">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 92pt; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" height="17" width="122"><strong>Calories</strong></td>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; WIDTH: 48pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" width="64"><strong>350 cal</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height="17">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" height="17" x:str="Fat "><strong>Fat<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></strong></td>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24"><strong>11 g</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height="17">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" height="17"><strong>Sodium</strong></td>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24"><strong>265 mg</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height="17">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" height="17"><strong>Carbohydrates</strong></td>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24"><strong>41 g</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr style="HEIGHT: 12.75pt" height="17">
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; HEIGHT: 12.75pt; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24" height="17"><strong>Protein</strong></td>
<td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-TOP: windowtext; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext" class="xl24"><strong>27 g</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
<p>You can't beat that with Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice!!!</p>
<p>You can probably cut the fat by using olive oil spray to coat your stir fry pan. Personally when I'm cooking chickn, I like to use a little more olive oil, it just tastes better, and 11g of fat isn't too bad for an entry!</p>
<p>You could make this a low sodium recipe by finding some other sauce. 90% of the sodium comes from the peanut satay and thai chili sauce. 265mg isn't bad though for an entry, and it's yummy.</p>
<p> </p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2011/01/Stoplight-Thai-Stir-Fry-with-Linguini.cfm
2011-01-23T14:17:42-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,CookingGarden Update - The Fall Garden<p>The autumnal equinox is almost here! On September 22nd at 11:09 P.M. EDT, it will be Fall.</p>
<p>What does that mean? It means I've ripped up my tomatoes, birdfeeder gourds, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, beans, and bell peppers (the latter three didn't do well at all because of their location). It also means that it's time for fall planting.</p>
<p>I moved one of my raised bed gardens (the one that didn't get enough sun) to the back yard in the middle of all the dead grass (lol), and filled it with good garden soil. In it, I planted about 4 feet of double-rowed sugar snap peas (probably 40 or so plants), about 3 square feet of mesclun (aka, spring mix salad lettuce), and 6 broccoli plants which I purchased at Wal-Mart. Hopefully, the broccoli will survive the warm September without going to seed. We're still in the mid 80s to low 90s in the 10 day forecast. The record warm summer might turn into a record warm fall, and I may regret planting my broccoli this early.</p>
<p>I moved the trellises that my cucumbers were on into this garden for the peas.</p>
<p>About 2 weeks ago, I also seeded a bunch more peas - 2 varieties of regular ol' peas and some snow peas. Most of these seedlings were 4-8 inches tall now and needed to be transplanted, and that meant figuring out where I was going to put them. I put 24 of them into my topsy turvy strawberry planter. I decided that growing strawberries was too much work but it might work well for pea vines. We'll see. I also put 4 plants each in two 12" pots with tomato cages for the vines to climb on, and I planted more of the peas in flower boxes hanging off the deck. I don't think these will do particularly well because the deck doesn't get much sun anymore (sigh). I was going to just have them trail out of the flower box and essentially hang down but they really won't get any sun that way so I'm going to have to put some kind of light weight trellis in place for them to grow vertically out of the flower boxes.</p>
<p>I also have some sunflower seedlings growing and I put them into one of the side yard gardens. They won't do very well, it's far too late to plant sunflowers and that garden doesn't get enough sun, but I've got nothing else to do in that garden so whatever.</p>
<p>I planted some leeks and green onions in seedling containers but I'm not really sure if I'm going to plant them. They probably should've gone directly into the ground but I don't really have any place to put them where they'll get enough sun. </p>
<p><strong>Spring/Summer Garden Successes</strong></p>
<p>Sweet corn, cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, birdfeeder gourds, basil, cilantro.</p>
<p>I did learn some lessons here. My sweet corn would've produced even better had I assisted in the pollenation, but it worked out pretty well. Cayenne and Jalapeno Peppers did fantastically and produced a TON of peppers. The cilantro did great until it got really REALLY hot and it was dead by July. Too hot for cilantro.</p>
<p><strong>Summer Garden Failures</strong></p>
<p>Tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, green beans, cantaloupe, pumpkin.</p>
<p>I over-watered my topsy turvy tomatoes and they got diseased. The tomatoes in the 12" pots were overcrowded and too difficult to maintain, and the ones in the ground didn't really have enough good soil to work with (only about 4" of garden soil on top of rock hard clay). The eggplant, bell peppers, and green beans were in a raised bed garden that really only got 4-5 hours of sunshine and they just didn't do very well..</p>
<p>I only got one cantaloupe - probably not enough sunshine for it either. I had two pumpkin plants that only produced one pumpkin. But then, the pumpkin was in a 12" pot and it was far too difficult to keep watered - the vine died in July, and the pumpkin got to around 10" in diameter.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/09/E8.Garden-Update--The-Fall-Garden.cfm
2010-09-20T07:20:20-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,GardeningGarden Update - The Fall Garden<p>The autumnal equinox is almost here! On September 22nd at 11:09 P.M. EDT, it will be Fall.</p>
<p>What does that mean? It means I've ripped up my tomatoes, birdfeeder gourds, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, beans, and bell peppers (the latter three didn't do well at all because of their location). It also means that it's time for fall planting.</p>
<p>I moved one of my raised bed gardens (the one that didn't get enough sun) to the back yard in the middle of all the dead grass (lol), and filled it with good garden soil. In it, I planted about 4 feet of double-rowed sugar snap peas (probably 40 or so plants), about 3 square feet of mesclun (aka, spring mix salad lettuce), and 6 broccoli plants which I purchased at Wal-Mart. Hopefully, the broccoli will survive the warm September without going to seed. We're still in the mid 80s to low 90s in the 10 day forecast. The record warm summer might turn into a record warm fall, and I may regret planting my broccoli this early.</p>
<p>I moved the trellises that my cucumbers were on into this garden for the peas.</p>
<p>About 2 weeks ago, I also seeded a bunch more peas - 2 varieties of regular ol' peas and some snow peas. Most of these seedlings were 4-8 inches tall now and needed to be transplanted, and that meant figuring out where I was going to put them. I put 24 of them into my topsy turvy strawberry planter. I decided that growing strawberries was too much work but it might work well for pea vines. We'll see. I also put 4 plants each in two 12" pots with tomato cages for the vines to climb on, and I planted more of the peas in flower boxes hanging off the deck. I don't think these will do particularly well because the deck doesn't get much sun anymore (sigh). I was going to just have them trail out of the flower box and essentially hang down but they really won't get any sun that way so I'm going to have to put some kind of light weight trellis in place for them to grow vertically out of the flower boxes.</p>
<p>I also have some sunflower seedlings growing and I put them into one of the side yard gardens. They won't do very well, it's far too late to plant sunflowers and that garden doesn't get enough sun, but I've got nothing else to do in that garden so whatever.</p>
<p>I planted some leeks and green onions in seedling containers but I'm not really sure if I'm going to plant them. They probably should've gone directly into the ground but I don't really have any place to put them where they'll get enough sun. </p>
<p><strong>Spring/Summer Garden Successes</strong></p>
<p>Sweet corn, cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, birdfeeder gourds, basil, cilantro.</p>
<p>I did learn some lessons here. My sweet corn would've produced even better had I assisted in the pollenation, but it worked out pretty well. Cayenne and Jalapeno Peppers did fantastically and produced a TON of peppers. The cilantro did great until it got really REALLY hot and it was dead by July. Too hot for cilantro.</p>
<p><strong>Summer Garden Failures</strong></p>
<p>Tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, green beans, cantaloupe, pumpkin.</p>
<p>I over-watered my topsy turvy tomatoes and they got diseased. The tomatoes in the 12" pots were overcrowded and too difficult to maintain, and the ones in the ground didn't really have enough good soil to work with (only about 4" of garden soil on top of rock hard clay). The eggplant, bell peppers, and green beans were in a raised bed garden that really only got 4-5 hours of sunshine and they just didn't do very well..</p>
<p>I only got one cantaloupe - probably not enough sunshine for it either. I had two pumpkin plants that only produced one pumpkin. But then, the pumpkin was in a 12" pot and it was far too difficult to keep watered - the vine died in July, and the pumpkin got to around 10" in diameter.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/09/Garden-Update--The-Fall-Garden.cfm
2010-09-20T07:19:57-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,GardeningWhy Men Are Happier<dl><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">NICKNAMES</dt><dd>If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.</dd><dd>If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Dickhead and Shit for Brains.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">EATING OUT</dt><dd>When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.</dd><dd>When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">MONEY</dt><dd>A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.</dd><dd>A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">BATHROOMS</dt><dd>A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel.</dd><dd>The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">ARGUMENTS</dt><dd>A woman has the last word in any argument.</dd><dd>Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">FUTURE</dt><dd>A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.</dd><dd>A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">SUCCESS</dt><dd>A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.</dd><dd>A successful woman is one who can find such a man.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">MARRIAGE</dt><dd>A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.</dd><dd>A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">DRESSING UP </dt><dd>A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.</dd><dd>A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">NATURAL</dt><dd>Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.</dd><dd>Women somehow deteriorate during the night.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">OFFSPRING</dt><dd>Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.</dd><dd>A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.</dd><dt style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">THOUGHT FOR THE DAY</dt><dd>A married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!</dd></dl>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/07/Why-Men-Are-Happier.cfm
2010-07-22T06:03:45-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,HumorGarden Update 3<p>I've uploaded 10 new pictures, complete with various comments, some of which I'll mention in this blog post.</p>
<p><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/rick.root/YardAndGarden2010#5477489948381492226">http://picasaweb.google.com/rick.root/YardAndGarden2010#5477489948381492226</a></p>
<p>Of the most interest I think is the continued growth of the cantaloupe. It got so big over the weekend that I felt the need to expand my trellis.</p>
<p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/TAP0bwFwg4I/AAAAAAAAF7U/EbGsQTAOrLo/s640/DSC00448.JPG" target="_blank"><img alt="Click for full size view." src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/TAP0bwFwg4I/AAAAAAAAF7U/EbGsQTAOrLo/s640/DSC00448.JPG" width="500" height="536" /></a></p>
<p>Wow!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/05/Garden-Update-3.cfm
2010-05-31T10:49:46-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,GardeningGarden Update 2<p>My cantaloupe grew a foot last weekend!</p>
<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_ppqxmkppI/AAAAAAAAF2g/FUwQArvVlo4/s512/DSC01347.JPG" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_ppqxmkppI/AAAAAAAAF2g/FUwQArvVlo4/s512/DSC01347.JPG" width="200" height="214" /></a></p>
<p>That picture is from Monday morning. It's actually a few inches higher now but it definately did a ton of growing this weekend. It's been cloudy and rainy all week, but the sun is going to shine today and tomorrow so I suspect everything will burst again.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I planted a couple of Stevia plants, just because the idea of growing my own sugar sounds like fun. </p>
<p>I also decided I need more than 5 basil plants, so I bought a $6 herb garden at Lowe's that has 36 little containers. It came with 6 different herbs but I only planted Basil, Sage, and Chives - 12 of each. It's sitting in the kitchen corner window where it gets light but no direct sun, a fine place to germinate seeds.</p>
<p>I also seeded 8 "small" sunflower plants (a colorful variety that only gets 4-5' tall), and 9 perennial lupines. I did these in 2" Jiffy Pots. The lupines will probably take 3-4 weeks to germinate because I didn't follow the "hastening" instructions. I didn't feel like chilling them in the fridge, then nicking the hard seed shell and soaking them overnight.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/05/Garden-Update-2.cfm
2010-05-26T06:58:00-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,GardeningGarden Update 1: Photos<p><strong>Garden Number 3</strong><br />Three canteloupe and a Big Boy tomoato. The trellis is made from 6.5' steel T-posts and something I found at Home Depot called "Mason Ladder", which is made of a fairly heavy guage steel wire. It's meant for re-inforncing concrete. I also spray-painted it a dark green so it would be less noticeable from a distance.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_Kqm8zTpcI/AAAAAAAAFs4/F7kqffmDhGg/s640/DSC01297.JPG" width="500" /></p>
<p><strong>Garden Number 2</strong><br />This is the one that doesn't get enough light, or so I believe. Maybe 5 hours. The zucchini and onions seem to be doing very well, the mesclun lettuce was great. The roma tomato plants look okay but aren't growing very fast - same with the cucumbers and muskmelon.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_KqqE_fBVI/AAAAAAAAFtU/m_C01JeHBGs/s640/DSC01298.JPG" width="500" /></p>
<p><strong>Insects Already?</strong><br />Several of my eggplants have leaves like this - I haven't seen any insects on them but this sure looks like insect damage. I took the opportunity to apply some Bayer Advanced Fruit, Citrus, and Vegetable Insect Control. The instructions say to apply at transplanting - most of my stuff has been in the ground for 4-6 weeks, but hopefully it will still work to prevent future damage. No, I'm not growing organic.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_KqwSa-tlI/AAAAAAAAFtk/ZckUXQ0kWS8/s640/DSC01300.JPG" width="500" /></p>
<p><strong>Roma Tomatos in the Topsy Turvy planters</strong><br />I have two roma tomato plants in these upside down planters. Both purchased at the same time, both about the same size and similar in their looks. Both transplanted into the planters at the same time with the same Miracle Grow potting soil. Both receive the same amount of water and sunlight.</p>
<p>One of them looks much better than the other, don't you think?</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_Kq10uH2uI/AAAAAAAAFt4/vwTN40_KoRE/s640/DSC01302.JPG" width="500" /></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_iGtLFVL30Yo/S_Kq4tLeOrI/AAAAAAAAFuA/ILQ6FsNtyxU/s640/DSC01304.JPG" width="500" /></p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/05/Garden-Update-1---Photos.cfm
2010-05-18T09:52:24-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,GardeningGarden Update 1: The Beginning<p>In mid-March, I bought a burpee garden seed kit at Home Depot. It came with seeds, soil pellets, a container for the soil, and a little plastic container that would act as a greenhouse. I thought it would be fun for emily to grow some things from seed. The kit came with roma tomatoes, oregano, basil, cilantro, squash, beans, carrots, cucumbers, and canteloupe. We seeded on March 21st, the first day of spring. Amazingly, I only had to bring the garden inside once or twice due to frost. I also put some bean seeds in a planter on the patio. </p>
<p>While Emily found it to be marginally interesting, it actually gave me the garden bug. So now, I have FOUR raised bed gardens, three in the wild area out front, and one in the back near the fence.</p>
<p>The first two are each 3 feet by 6 feet and made of 2x6 lumber. I didn't really do any prep of the ground below, just filled them up with about 5" of miracle grow garden soil. In garden #1, I tranplanted 4 bean plants and 2 squash that I'd planted from the seed kit, and also four eggplant and 2 "rainbow mix" bell peppers. I'll probably end up removing 2 of the eggplants. Garden #2 currently has 5 cucumbers and a nice trellis ready for them to climb, though they're still quite small since I grew them from seed. I also planted some mesclun lettuce (which we've already eaten some of!), 2 muskmelons, a zucchini, 2 roma tomatoes, and some green and white onions (same thing really, the "green" onions are planted about 3" deep, while the "white" onions are planted at the surface). Garden #1 only gets about 6-7 hours of sunlight, and garden #2 really gets only 5-6 hours of sunlight. The zucchini, onions, and mesclun all seem to be thriving here, we'll see how the romas, cucumbers, and muskmelon do.</p>
<p>Garden #3 is one that I added just this weekend, it's 8 feet long and 2 feet wide, and made with 2x8 lumber so it's a little deeper than the other two. I needed a place to put my canteloupe that I'd grown from seed and needed a sunny location. I have a lot of trees around my hard to sunny locations are hard to come by. I put in a couple of 6' steel posts and threw some heavy guage "Mason Ladder" wire between them to make a nice trellis for the vines. I'll probably train two of them up the trellis and let the other trail out into the mulch. The other resident of this garden is a Big Boy tomato, which was transplanted from a planter that Adrienne had originally planted from seed. The canteloupe were also transplanted from a planter, but they'd been seeded in the burpee seed kit, so this was their second move. They're doing pretty awesome.</p>
<p>Garden #4 is a 4 foot diameter raised bed garden made from a kit I bought at Walmart. Essentially it's just about 10" of edging. Also filled with miracle grow garden soil, I have a cayenne pepper and a jalapeno pepper plant here, both purchased at the farmers market and at a fairly good size (each about 15" tall when purchased). In fact, the cayenne pepper already has 2 peppers on it, and both are covered with flowers. I also have about 7 sweet corn plants growing in the other half of this garden (there wre more but I thinned them out a bit, and may have to thin a little more). Behind this garden, in the ground by the fence, I also sowed another row of sweet corn, which I'll probably thin to 4 or 5 plants in a week or so. I built another trellis here as well using steel T posts and heavy gauge mason ladder wire. On the trellis, I planted a Himrod grape vine (a variety of white seedless grape). We'll see how well that works.</p>
<p>We have some container gardening going on - we have several Topsy Turvy planters, one for strawberries (it has 15 strawberry plants in it!) and 2 for roma tomatoes. We also have 2 roma tomatoes in a large pot, and 2 big boy tomatoes in pots as well. And finally, we have 5 basil plants (planted from seed) that are in a planter on the porch and doing awesomely.</p>
<p>Oh, and we've got a blueberry bush on the porch, still in the pot we bought it in because it had flowers all over and and we figured as long as we keep it watered it'll produce better than if shocked it by transplanting it. We'll put it in the ground in the fall.</p>
<p>Fun!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/05/Garden-Update-1--The-Beginning.cfm
2010-05-17T09:08:56-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,GardeningThe Year of the Garden<p>Some of you already know that I've gone a little crazy this year with gardening and other yardwork this spring. </p>
<p>Adrienne and I had a small garden four or so years ago but found it difficult to maintain, neither of us had much time to do the things that are required to keep a good garden (like weeding). Also, the garden was a bit on the crowded side. We haven't really done anything since, until this year.</p>
<p>This year, it really started with me picking up some Elyeagnus (<a href="http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Elaeagnaceae/Elaeagnus_ebbingei.html" target="_blank">Ebbing's Silverberry</a>) to put in the wild area between my house and the neighbors house. Adrienne's mom is doing some volunteer work at <a href="http://www.plantdelights.com/" target="_blank">Plant's Delight Nursery</a>, and planted some other stuff in the wild area at the front corner of the yard, That's what really set me off, because I wanted some kind of symetry, so I ended up getting some Frost Proof Gardenias, and put in a nice little cast aluminum fencing (about 8" tall) in front of the Indian Hawthornes that I planted several years ago. Eventually I also added some Cat Mint (aka Catnip) between the hawthorn's, and that side of the wild area looks a hundred times better.</p>
<p>We also took the small banana out of the ground and put it in a very large pot (along with some red and purple gladiola bulbs), and purchased a new banana tree at the farmers market, and put that in a more appropriately sized pot as well. The old banana was replaced with a Camellia. Apparently we didn't get the entire banana root structure out because a baby banana is coming up next to the camellia.</p>
<p>We picked upa nice black bench with a kind of arbor over the top and put it out by the front corner, under one of the trees, and Adrienne put up the "School Bus Stop" sign that she'd bought like 4 years ago.</p>
<p>That covers most of the non-garden related landscaping we did this spring, and I think I'll write a whole separate entry about the gardens.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/05/The-Year-of-the-Garden.cfm
2010-05-17T08:42:32-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and LandscapingCajun Linguini alla Riccardo<p>More experimenting this weekend with pasta dishes.</p>
<p>This one turned out fabulous, especially if you like a good spicy pasta dish.</p>
<p>Here's what you'll need:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 eggplant</li>
<li>1 red bell pepper</li>
<li>1 yellow bell pepper</li>
<li>2 zucchini</li>
<li>12oz pasta (like <a href="http://www.aldentepasta.com/food/pasta/pasta.html#" target="_blank">Al Dente Brand</a> Spicy Sesame Linguini or Red Chili Pepper Fettucini)</li>
<li>1 tbsp cajun spice</li>
<li>1-2 pounds of spicy andouille chicken sausage</li>
<li>olive oil</li>
<li>1/2 cup pasta sauce (any kind will do, I used Classico Tomato & Basil)</li>
</ul>
<p>Cut the eggplant, zucchini, and peppers into bite sized pieces and set aside. You may want to remove the skin from the eggplant, but you don't have to. Cook pasta according to the directions, rinse, and toss in a bowl with a little olive oil, and set aside. Add 3-4 tbsp of olive oil to the frying pan and heat over medium high heat. Add eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and sausage, and about 1/8 cup of water (my pan was quite full so adding the water helped to steam the vegetables a bit). Sprinkly on the cajun spice, and stir fry for about 8-10 minutes. I covered mine when I wasn't stirring to help keep in the heat and moisture. Add the pasta, and the tomato sauce, cook for another minute or two to make sure the pasta is heated nicely (in case it sat in your bowl for a while and got cold), and then serve.</p>
<p>Makes: a lot. Easily 10-12 servings.</p>
<p>Suggestions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Use less pasta for a dish that's richer in meats and vegetables (I used 12oz of pasta, but I think 8oz might've been the right amount). </li>
<li>Substitute or add other vegetables. </li>
<li>Stir fry some diced chicken or shrimp in a separate pan and add at the end instead of or in addition to the andouille sausage. </li>
<li>Top with grated parmesan cheese.</li>
<li>If you can't get a spicy pasta like the two I mentioned, use regular pasta, but you may want to add more cajun or creole spices to the stir fry. I also wonder if maybe adding a little shrimp/crab boil to the water when cooking the pasta would help make the pasta spicy. Might be worth trying some time.</li>
</ul>
<p>Nutrition-wise, this strikes me as a fairly healthy dish. If you used 8oz of pasta and 2 pounds of sausage, like the Trader Joe's Andouille Chicken Sausage I used, and maybe 1/4 cup of total olive oil, you're probably looking at about 350 calories, 16g of fat, 26 carb, and 25 protein plus whatever is in the vegetables. Those numbers are just for the pasta, sauce, sausage, and olive oil. The vegetables only add about 40 calories per serving.</p>
<p>You could probably cut down on the fat by using less olive oil. Maybe just some non-stick cooking spray, and a tablespoon of olive oil to toss the pasta with.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/03/Cajun-Linguini-alla-Riccardo.cfm
2010-03-08T07:11:56-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,CookingThe Math behind the Hurricanes playoff hopes<p>People have been talking about how improbable the Canes playoff hopes, but why? Because we have 6 teams to pass, right?</p>
<p>I think what's more important is the number of points it will take to get into the playoffs, NOT how many teams we have to pass to get there.</p>
<p>I put the current games played and point totals into a spreadsheed, and used that to project the final standings. I already suspected the 8th place team would have fewer points than normal because the eastern conference is weak this year. The point totals are skewed towards the west.</p>
<p>Anyway, here's the projections:</p>
<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<thead>
<tr style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow">
<th> </th><th>Team</th><th>Games</th><th>Points</th><th>Projected</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">1.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Washington</td>
<td align="right">64</td>
<td align="right">94</td>
<td align="right">120</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">2.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">New Jersey</td>
<td align="right">62</td>
<td align="right">79</td>
<td align="right">104</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">3.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Pittsburgh</td>
<td align="right">64</td>
<td align="right">80</td>
<td align="right">103</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">4.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Buffalo</td>
<td align="right">62</td>
<td align="right">75</td>
<td align="right">99</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">5.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Ottawa</td>
<td align="right">65</td>
<td align="right">76</td>
<td align="right">96</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">6.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Philadelphia</td>
<td align="right">62</td>
<td align="right">69</td>
<td align="right">91</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">7.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9"><strong>Boston</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>62</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>67</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>89</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">8.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9"><strong>Atlanta</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>62</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>66</strong></td>
<td align="right"><strong>87</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">9.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">NY Rangers</td>
<td align="right">64</td>
<td align="right">66</td>
<td align="right">85</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">10.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Montreal</td>
<td align="right">65</td>
<td align="right">66</td>
<td align="right">83</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">11.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Tampa Bay</td>
<td align="right">63</td>
<td align="right">63</td>
<td align="right">82</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">12.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Florida</td>
<td align="right">63</td>
<td align="right">60</td>
<td align="right">78</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">13.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">NY Islanders</td>
<td align="right">64</td>
<td align="right">60</td>
<td align="right">77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">14.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Carolina</td>
<td align="right">63</td>
<td align="right">59</td>
<td align="right">77</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">15.</td>
<td style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d9d9d9">Toronto</td>
<td align="right">63</td>
<td align="right">50</td>
<td align="right">65</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>We could get in the playoffs with 89 points. There are 19 games left. We currently have 59 points.</p>
<p>15-4 or 14-3-2 gets us there.</p>
<p>It's still improbable, but we are 12-1 in our last 13 games against eastern conference opponents (12-3 overall in our last 15).</p>
<p>5 of those final 19 are against Boston (2) and Atlanta (3). 2 more against Tampa Bay, 2 against the Candiens, and 1 more against the Panthers.</p>
<p>This weekend's games against the Panthers and Thrashers are *HUGE* (every game is HUGE, but we can afford to lose a few, as long as it's to a "top 6" or western conference team. We cannot afford to lose to Florida or Atlanta.</p>
<p>Go Canes!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/03/The-Math-behind-the-Hurricanes-playoff-hopes.cfm
2010-03-05T08:27:56-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,SportsDiet Progress Update - Still on the wagon!<p>So, I haven't blogged since I started by diet and exercise program back in early november. I managed to get through the holidays and a trip to Las Vegas, and I am currently down 23 pounds. I'm working with a trainer twice a week, and at the gym 5-6 times a week. Plus, eating healthy and logging my daily food intake. It's going well.</p>
<p>Today, I started an appetite supressant called Phentermine, that my doctor prescribed. It's a short term (1-3 months) assistant to help me avoid being hungry when I don't really need to eat. Logging my food intake will be important, because since I'm working out, doing cardio and weight training, I need to make sure that I get ENOUGH calories. So even if I'm not hungry, no skipping meals! But it might help me curb the cravings between meals. Today, I think it did, but one day is not enough time to make an assessment. I definately feel its affects. I don't think I'm "jittery" but I do feel somewhere between normal and jittery. Alert? I dunno. At any rate, I need to keep track of my blood pressure while taking this medication, and go back to see my doctor for some blood work after 30 days to make sure I'm metabolizing the medication properly.</p>
<p>So I started at 290 when I weighed in on the morning of November 2. I'm currently at 267.</p>
<p>I'll keep you posted!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2010/01/Diet-Progress-Update--Still-on-the-wagon.cfm
2010-01-28T15:50:17-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and FitnessBack on the wagonSo after several years of terrible eating and a complete lack of exercise, I've managed to get myself into the worst shape of my life. Last weekend, I'd had enough. Candy, that is. :) Anyway, I went out and bought some comfortable pants because I'm tired of squeezing into the 40" waist pants that I'd been wearing. Just admit you're a size 42, and move on. Hopefully, I want be wearing them long. Anyway, I started my diet Monday morning, weighed in at 289 pounds! If you look at my blog from back in 2004, I was down to around 230-235 pounds, so I'm up 50 pounds in 5 years, probably 30 of that in the last 2 years.<br /><br />I started off low-carb for a "shock to the system", and I dumped about 8 pounds of water weight in 3 days. I like doing the low-carb thing, because I feel like it helps wean me off the horrible foods that I tend to eat.<br /><br />Thursday afternoon, I joined a gym in Apex that's convenient - <a href="javascript:void(0);/*1257735102410*/">Lifestyle Family Fitness</a>. It's a nice place, great equipment, and no contracts. I did 40 minutes on the treadmill Thursday night... didn't work out Friday because Emily and I went to the hockey game, Saturday I did 20 minutes of cardio and a leg workout on the weight machines, and did 30 minutes of cardio this evening. I'm not low-carbing anymore - not really, at least. on days that I'm not doing weights, I'm avoiding carbs, but on days I'm going to do weights, I'm just going to try to eat "good carbs" like fruits and whole grains.<br /><br />Tomorrow afternoon is my first of three free one hour personal training sessions. I'll let you all know how it goes.
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/11/Back-on-the-wagon.cfm
2009-11-08T18:52:30-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and FitnessMath test to predict your favorite movie!<p>This math test can predict your all time most watched film, mine was 'Star Wars'. Try it <strong>without looking at the answers</strong>. It works! </p>
<ul>
<li>Pick a number from 1 - 9. </li>
<li>Multiply by 3. </li>
<li>Add 3, then multiply by 3 again. </li>
<li>Add the two numbers together to get your final answer (ie, if you end up with "32" your final answer is "5") </li>
<li>See what your favorite movie is from the list below! </li>
</ul>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Scroll down for the list!</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>.</p>
<h1>Movie List</h1>
<ol>
<li>Gone with the wind. </li>
<li>Aliens. </li>
<li>Oliver </li>
<li>Star Wars </li>
<li>Forrest Gump. </li>
<li>Saving Private Ryan. </li>
<li>Jaws. </li>
<li>Grease. </li>
<li>The joy of Anal Sex with male goats & leather clad gay boys. </li>
<li>Mary Poppins </li>
</ol>
<p>Good, huh?</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/11/Math-test-to-predict-your-favorite-movie.cfm
2009-11-05T11:36:00-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,HumorMy Thoughts on the Michigan-Penn State game this weekendI'll be in Ann Arbor this weekend for the Michigan-Penn State game (among other things). And I think Michigan is gonna win.<br /><br />With Michigan ranking 7th in total offense (averaging 37.3 a game), and Penn State being #1 in total defense, it should be very interesting. Of course if you exclude Michigan's win over Delaware State, their scoring average drops to about 33 points a game, still good for around 18th. Penn State's offense is much less impressive if you take Eastern Illinois out of the mix too (they won 52-3)<br /><br />While Penn State has only given up 8.7 points a game, I think it's a LARGE factor of their schedule so far.<br /><br />
<ul>
<li>Akron (31-7)</li>
<li>Syracuse (28-7)</li>
<li>Temple (31-6)</li>
<li>Iowa (10-21)</li>
<li>Illinois (35-17)</li>
<li>Eastern Illinois (52-3)</li>
<li>Minnesota (20-0)</li>
</ul>
<br />They've had a REALLY REALLY weak schedule. Michigan is better than all of those teams except Iowa. And as bad as Michigan's defense seems sometimes, at 46th, they're not *THAT* bad.<br /><br />My point being, I think we're in for an exciting game on Saturday!<br /><br /><b><font size="5">Michigan 35<br />Penn State 31</font></b><br /><br />GO BLUE!
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/10/My-Thoughts-on-the-MichiganPenn-State-game-this-weekend.cfm
2009-10-21T05:14:44-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,SportsMichigan Stuns Notre Dame - and me!<p>Okay, I admit it. I may have picked Michigan to win but I didn't really expect them to. It is simply against my religion to pick against Michigan.</p>
<p>Anyway, some comments on today's game....</p>
<p>--<br />Matt Mille, former Lions President, was the color commentator for the game today. The Lions have been one of the biggest jokes in football for the last 7 years in large part due to his "leadership".</p>
<p>I yelled "EAT IT, MILLEN" at the TV several times, the first when he said the notre dame guy didn't step out and the review came back and said he DID step out. :)</p>
<p>Millen provided in his tenure with the Lions that he doesn't know shit about football.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Tate Forcier for Heisman!</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>I found this interesting bit of analysis on espn:</p>
<blockquote style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir="ltr">
<p><em>Second guessing: Protecting a 34-31 lead with under three minutes left, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis made a few curious calls. First, he handed the ball to fullback Robert Hughes on first down instead of Armando Allen, who had had a great game to that point. Hughes was stuffed for no gain. Then he threw the ball twice, both resulting in incompletions that stopped the clock and gave Michigan the ball back with plenty of time. The Wolverines also got to keep their timeouts, which came in handy on the final drive.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now I will grant that if Clausen had made either one of those passes, Michigan might not have won. But the fact is, those two incomplete passes left us with two timeouts that we probably shouldn't have had. Michigan called timeout after the fullback run, and would've called timeouts after two more runs probably assuming ND didn't get a first down. In either case, a first down would've been devastating, so Charlie Weis clearly made the WRONG call with the passes.</p>
<p>Regardless, this loss isn't gonna be good for Weis. the ND/MSU Game could be interesting next week. I'll be full on rooting for MSU in that one.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Noise - I've heard that the new construction is doing a wonderful job of keeping the noise in. I think that was evident today when Notre Dame seemed to be having trouble hearing and called several timeouts that were clearly caused by crowd noise, as well as a couple of delay of games that I think were probably attributed to crowd noise as well.</p>
<p>Even in 1997, when the crowd was as loud as could be, I don't think it ever really caused problems on the field, so this excites me very much.. maybe we'll know longer be known as the quietest 110,000 people in football.<br /></p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/09/Michigan-Stuns-Notre-Dame--and-me.cfm
2009-09-12T18:36:43-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan FootballReplacing brass doorknobs with bronze door knobs<p>Door knobs are expensive! </p>
<p>Our house is full of brass, and we hate it. We started by replacing all the outlet covers with nice venetian bronze plates that I found at Lowe's. The darker colors really go well with the decor.</p>
<p>Now, we've decided to replace all the brass doorknobs. Of course, this also means replacing the brass hinges as well.</p>
<p>We found some inexpensive Kwikset knobs on ebay, 6 passage and 6 privacy knob sets, for $150. I found 10 matching dummy knobs for our double-door closets in each bedroom and for the french doors to the TV room... about $75 for those. 60 bronze hinges for $0.99 each plus shipping, which also worked out to about $75. I'm one privacy knob short so I'll probably just pick that up at home depot for $20... which will bring the total cost of this little project to about $320.</p>
<p>Of course, it could've been worse.</p>
<p>There are 20 interior doors. Home Depot sells the bronze hinges in sets of 3 with screws for $9... that's $192 with tax. The passage knobs are $15, the privacy knobs are $20, and the dummy knobs are $10... so for my counts, with tax, that's $353.</p>
<p>Total savings by going the ebay route: $225, or about 41%.</p>
<p>Not bad!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/09/Replacing-brass-doorknobs-with-bronze-door-knobs.cfm
2009-09-07T15:06:23-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,HouseCFUnited 2009 - Why I want to go<p><a href="http://cfunited.com/2009/">CFUnited</a> is the best Coldfusion Developer's conference out there I think. I've been to several CFun/CFUnited confernces in the past. I skipped last year so I could go to MAX (and then had the MAX conference pulled out fron under me), and was scheduled to go to CFUnited this year but had that pulled out from under me too due to budget cuts at the University. So I'm not going. At least not on the University's budget. And not on my own budget if I have to pay for my own registration.</p>
<p>But thanks to <a href="http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1672-Win-A-FREE-Ticket-To-CFUNITED-2009.htm">Ben Nadel</a>, I might yet have a way of going.</p>
<p>I supposed to look at the <a href="http://cfunited.com/2009/topics">list of topics</a> and pick one that I really want to attend and why. This is extremely difficult because there are a multitude of topics that I'd like to go to. You see, I have two jobs. I have a "real job" where I work 40 hours a week and get salary and benefits at Duke University. And then I have a freelance job with Classcreator.com, a <a href="http://www.classcreator.com">web site tool for planning class reunions</a>. Most of the topics that would interest me are related to Classcreator - scalable applications, geolocation, performance tuning, APIs, etc.</p>
<p>I think, if I have to pick one, I'll go with <a href="http://cfunited.com/2009/topics/241">Geolocation with Coldfusion</a>. We're still building out Classcreator, but eventually we're going to need to target products and services towards a user's physical location.</p>
<p>Or maybe <a href="http://cfunited.com/2009/topics/238">Design Patterns and Coldfusion</a> - a good generic topic for solving problems. And let's not forget the <a href="http://cfunited.com/2009/topics/324">SciFi BOF Session</a> (or is it ScyFy)? We must discuss how we felt about the end of Battlestar Galactica, or maybe we can talk about the upcoming Stargate Universe!</p>
<p>Does it count as an entry if i can't make up my mind?</p>
<p>BTW if I win a ticket I'm going to have to share a room with someone!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/07/CFUnited-2009--Why-I-want-to-go.cfm
2009-07-31T12:41:50-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,ColdfusionMore fishing humorDave and his buddies were hanging out and planning an upcoming fishing trip.<br /> <br />Unfortunately, he had to tell them that he couldn't go this time because his wife wouldn't let him. After a lot of teasing and name calling, Dave headed home frustrated.<br /> <br />The following week when Dave's buddies arrived at the lake to set up camp, they were shocked to see Dave. He was already sitting at the campground with a cold beer, swag rolled out, fishing rod in hand, and a camp fire glowing. "How did you talk your missus into letting you go Dave?"<br /> <br />"I didn't have to," Dave replied. "Yesterday, when I left work, I went home and slumped down in my chair with a beer to drown my sorrows because I couldn't go fishing. Then the ol' lady snuck up behind me, covered my eyes and said, 'Surprise'."<br /> <br />"When I peeled her hands back, she was standing there in a beautiful see through negligee and she said, ' Carry me into the bedroom, tie me to the bed and you can do whatever you want'.....<br /> <br />So, Here I am!"<br />
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/07/More-fishing-humor.cfm
2009-07-23T09:01:16-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,HumorVacation Day 7 - Friday, June 19<p>Today, our last full day of vacation, we decided to go to Cape Lookout, and we did it by way of Harkers Island. I picked a ferry at a place called <a href="http://www.capelookoutferry.com/" target="_blank">Calico Jacks Inn & Marina</a>. Harkers Island is a quiet little island nestled in the Back Sound behind Cape Lookout and Shackleford Banks. We took our time getting ready as we had made no ferry reservations, and weren't sure who was going with us, etc. As it turned out, Bill and Lin joined myself, Emily, Adrienne, and Erin. Thanks to the GPS, we took some shortcuts that cut our drive time to Harkers Island to about an hour and 20, and we arrived at the marina right about 12:15 - just in time for the 12:15 ferry. But we hadn't eaten lunch, and the marina really only had snack food, so they recommended a restaurant about 2 miles down the road called <a href="http://fishhookgrillnc.food.officelive.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">The Fish Hook Grill</a> where we could go get some carry out and maybe make it back for the 12:45 ferry. They were busy but got our food together pretty quickly but we didn't make it back to the marina until about 12:50 so we missed the boat and would have to wait until the 1:15 ferry. So we hung out and ate our lunch on the front porch of the marina.</p>
<p>The ferry arrived and took us over to the island, dropping us off at a dock near the lighthouse. We signed up for the 4pm return ferry so we had about 2-1/2 hours to hang around.</p>
<p>A nice boardwalk ran from the doc to the bathhouse and gift shop, then to the lighthouse and keepers quarters and all the way across the island to the beach on the ocean side. After checking out the gift shop and hitting the bathrooms we wandered over to the ocean beach for some shell hunting and some fun. The waves were gigantic (some as high as 8 feet) and there were some surfers out in the water. I never went in deeper than about waist deep, though yes, the occasional 8 foot wave did tower over me! But since Emily couldn't go into the rough surf, we shortly headed back over to the sound beach for a swim (just me and Emily). The rest of the gang went to check out the lighthouse and keepers quarters.</p>
<p>The water in the sound was WARM. Very shallow, and a good 10 degrees warmer than the ocean... the top 2 feet of water must've been between 85 ad 90, it was very warm. Emily and I had our goggles so we did some pseudo-snorkeling, looking for shells. Of course there aren't a lot of shells in the sound but Emily did manage to find a "kitten's paw". After about a half hour of tooling around the waters of the sound, we headed back to the ocean. I wanted to get some time in the waves.</p>
<p>I managed to convince Emily to stay up on shore where the waves had already broken and just washed around her feet mostly, while Erin and I played in the waves and the rest of the gang hunted for shells. They actually found quite a few cool ones.</p>
<p>However, the coolest shell was "found" by Emily. A shell hunter in the water tossed a big whelk near her. She didn't seem him toss it, but she did discover the shell laying there, and she thought she'd "found" it herself. Who are we to tell her otherwise? the guy who tossed it up near her had obviously found plenty of his own otherwise I suspect he would've walked it up and put it with the rest of his shells.</p>
<p>I wish we could've stayed another hour, as 4 o'clock rolled around pretty quickly, and we headed back to the docks for our return ferry trip.</p>
<p>Nothing else interesting to report. Bob returned this evening. We got home around 6:00. It was Bill's birthday, so to celebrate we ordered take-out again from the Hurricane Restaurant.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/07/Vacation-Day-7--Friday-June-19.cfm
2009-07-02T09:05:56-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,Humor,Vacation,TravelClearly, I'm not a grownup yet....<p>The Tigers are playing the Cubs tonight, and I noticed their centerfielder's last name is Fukudome.</p>
<p>I'm sure it's not pronounced the way I'm pronouncing it... but.. hah.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/06/Clearly-Im-not-a-grownup-yet.cfm
2009-06-24T20:01:16-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,Humor,Vacation,Travel,HumorVacation Day 6 - Thursday, June 18<p>I was very excited today about our planned trip to Cape Lookout. We'd made reservations on the 8:45 ferry with <a href="http://www.islandferryadventures.com/" target="_blank">Island Ferry Adventures</a> and a guided tour with <a href="http://www.tourbeaufort.com/moreheadcity/index.htm" target="_blank">Port City Tour Company</a> to visit Shackleford Banks, part of the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/calo/" target="_blank">Cape Lookout National Seashore</a>. Shackleford Banks is a 9 mile island at the southern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks, and is home to over a hundred <a href="http://www.shacklefordhorses.org/" target="_blank">wild horses</a>, left by the sunken ships of Spanish explorers over 400 years ago.</p>
<p>the ferry dropped us off on the southern end of the island, and there happened to be a small herd of the horses right at the ferry dropoff, so we didn't actually have to go hunting for them. However, we'd paid an extra $10 for the walking tour, so we followed our excellent guide Larry off into the wild, where we learned about the horses, fiddler and ghost crabs and other wildlife on the island. We also spent some time on the ocean side of the island where the surf was quite rough, looking for shells. The water felt great.</p>
<p>After the walking tour (about 2 miles I'd guess) and the shell hunting, we headed back over to the sound side for some swimming. I was the only one with the sense to put my suit on when we left in the morning, so me and Emily were the only ones who went swimming.</p>
<p>I guess I should mention that this trip was just Adrienne and I, Emily, and Erin. Bill and Lin and Marnie and Derrick stayed at the resort (and Bob had actually gone home Wednesday morning).</p>
<p>The water on the sound side was surprisingly deep. It actually dropped off to 10' or more only about 20 feet offshore.</p>
<p>We got on the 12:20pm ferry back to Beaufort, and hit up <a href="http://clawsonsrestaurant.com/" target="_blank">Clawson's 1905</a> for lunch on the recommendation of our ferry boat captain. Lunch was excellent. Emily and I went into the General Store afterwards to look around, and on our way out, Emily tripped down the stairs (about 3 steps) and went face first into the sidewalk. Very unpleasant. Amazingly she survived the incident without any blood or broken facial parts. And I really was amazed because after seeing her face hit the sidewalk, I thought for sure I was going to pick her up and have her nose be bloodied at the very least. She managed to calm down after about 5 minutes but during most of the ride home she was telling us how certain she was that something was wrong with her. My little drama queen, I love her!</p>
<p>I have no recollection of what we did for dinner that night. I think Emily and I had leftovers while Adrienne and Marnie and Erin had dinner at the Hurricane Restaurant.</p>
<p>Tomorrow - back to the islands!</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/06/Vacation-Day-6--Thursday-June-18.cfm
2009-06-24T13:44:54-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,Humor,Vacation,Travel,Humor,Vacation,TravelOlive Chapel Otters vs. Eagle Ridge<p>Emily had a swim meet last night, her first of the summer swim season. It was at Eagle Ridge in Raleigh, and thankfully I was not volunteering. Of course, the benefit of volunteering is you're not bored.</p>
<p>Summer swim meets consist of "main events" which are scored, and "heats" which are not. The top swimmers typically get to swim in the main events.</p>
<p>Emily got to participate in her first ever relay events. She swam the backstroke leg of the medley relay for one of the Otters 7-8 girls relay teams, and her team took third place. She also swam the anchor (4th) leg of the freestyle relay at the end of the meet, and took third place in that race as well.</p>
<p>In the individual events, she was in main events for both freestyle and backstroke, and in heat 1 for breaststroke and butterfly. She finished 3rd (of 6) in freestyle, and 2nd (of 6) in backstroke, won her heat for Breaststroke, and finished 4th or 5th in Butterfly.</p>
<p>Overall, an excellent outing. She had a good time, and won some place ribbons. I'm anxiously awaiting her times to see if she set any personal bests.</p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/06/Olive-Chapel-Otters-vs-Eagle-Ridge.cfm
2009-06-24T07:09:23-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,Humor,Vacation,Travel,Humor,Vacation,Travel,Swim Team,EmilyVacation Day 5 - Wednesday, June 17<p>Today was our day to stick around New Bern. We intended to go down to historic New Bern and have lunch at <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=the+cow+cafe,+new+bern,+nc&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&latlng=16338616911134864714" target="_blank">The Cow Cafe</a>, a cool little place we discovered on Middle Street last time we were in New Bern, then visit <a href="http://www.tryonpalace.org/" target="_blank">Tryon Palace</a>. Tryon Palace was build in 1767 as the home of the Royal Governor, but it burned down in 1798 and wasn't re-built until the 1950s. </p>
<p>Anyway, lunch was good, but as we finished it started to rain. So instead of heading over to Tryon Palace, we shopped. There are a lot of cool little shops on Middle Street, including <a href="http://www.pepsistore.com/" target="_blank">The Pepsi Store</a> which was supposedly the place where Pepsi was invented, then called "Brad's Drink". The pepsi Store consisted of a soda fountain where you could sit at the bar an order a Pepsi for 50 cents, and a bunch of pepsi-branded merchandise. It was kinda lame, actually. Plus, I'm a coke drinker. Coke Zero, actually.</p>
<p>We ended up spending a couple hours wandering up maybe 3 blocks of Middle Street before getting ice cream at the end of our shopping trip. By that time it had stopped raining but it was very wet, so we just headed back to the resort. We ordered take-out from <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=The+Hurricane+Restaurant,+new+bern,+nc&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&latlng=7530131083785184247&dtab=2&ei=hSZCSsiOE4SHtgfOhsHcBA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=result&resnum=1" target="_blank">The Hurricane Restaurant</a>, which was onsite at the marina. I wrote a review of this experience on Google:</p>
<blockquote style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir="ltr">
<p><em>We recently stayed at the Fairfield Harbour Resort, home of the Hurricane Restaurant. We had a large party and ordered carry-out from the Hurricane twice. Everyone in our party enjoyed their food. For my part, I had a full rack of ribs the first night, which were good... fries and slaw on the side. The second time I went with the Seafood Fra Diablo, which was shrimp and scallops over pasta with a spicy marinara sauce - also good. This isn'ta "top of the line" or fancy upscale restaurant, but as far as "resort/hotel restaurants" go it was good enough for us to eat twice at in a week. Of course, it has the convenience of being the only nice restaurant within 10 miles of the resort.</em> </p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Off to bed early as we had a big day planned for tomorrow - our trip to Beaufort and Shackleford Banks.</p>
<p> </p>
http://www.rickroot.com/blog/1/2009/06/Vacation-Day-5--Wednesday-June-17.cfm
2009-06-24T07:02:51-08:00Personal,Personal,Humor,Humor,Yard and Landscaping,Gardening,Cooking,Gardening,Gardening,Humor,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Gardening,Yard and Landscaping,Cooking,Sports,Health and Fitness,Health and Fitness,Humor,Sports,Michigan Football,House,Coldfusion,Humor,Vacation,Travel,Humor,Vacation,Travel,Swim Team,Emily,Vacation,Travel