Sugar water

I usually make myself a cup of tea when I get into my office in the morning.... Typically some variation of Japanese green, such as with lemon & ginseng, or with roobios. Christine tells me that the proper method for making tea, (and I stress proper because last year she spent two weeks in Scotland drinking tea with her British Aunt), is to let the tea bag seep and then remove it before mixing in the sugar and/or cream. I couldn't be bothered, I throw in a cube of sugar and the tea bag at the same time and stir the whole works up. I've even been known to forget to take the bag out before I start to drink. Yeah, yeah.. I'm going to commoner's hell.
Anyways, the point of the story. This morning I poured some near-boiling water into my mug from the kettle, then sat done at my desk and dropped in the sugar cube. Before adding the tea bag though, I just stopped and watched the sugar at the bottom of the mug. It was really trippy. The hot water penetrated into the cube very quickly, filling the small gaps and forcing the air out in tiny bubbles. The color changed from solid white to a dull opaque silver. Then the walls started to crumble. Chunks of the sides dropped away like giant sheets of ice dropping off the edge of an ice cliff into the ocean. The crumbled remains would simply disappear shortly after hitting the bottom of the mug. Eventually the cube was whittled down to a small spherical core. That core fell over on it's side, then just disappeared as well.
So if anyone out there has never watched a sugar cube dissolve in hot water, I highly recommend it... I'm still recovering from the rush.

My tummy hurts

I went to the dentist yesterday, wanna see?

After about 6 years of just "not bothering", I finally called up the ol' dentist's office and made an appointment. There aren't any problems, I just figured I was overdue for a cleaning/polishing.
Things have changed in there... now they got this full panoramic x-ray machine. You stick your melon inside a clear plastic box, and the scanner rotates around you, it was pretty nifty. And those little chunks of sharp cardboard that they make you bite on for the up-close x-ray don't hurt like they used to. Inside the checkup area there was an entire wall covered in Polaroid pictures, all of sub-12-year-old kids, all grinning big toothy smiles, and each was labeled with their name and "No cavities!". Big deal. I was gonna ask to get my picture taken for the wall, I'd put all those woosie kids to shame... "Jeffrey, age 27, No Cavities, EVER!!"

Born again at level 40

I finally reached this anticipated milestone with my Paladin last night. Now in addition to being able to learn all kinds of new retribution and protection spells, I can equip Plate armor, and *giddy giggle*... summon a horsie. As far as I know, the Paladin is the only class that receives a free mount at level 40, all other classes have to save up and buy one... and they're really expensive. Finally, after weeks of plodding my slow human ass along behind other teammates, while they activate their "aspect of the cheetah" or some such thing, and burn off ahead of me... now I've got the real speed... +60% movement rate cross-country when riding Mr. Ed here.
Hahaahahaaa, eat my dust assholes!!

Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten.

I wanted to send Christine an email that would cheer her up... and I couldn't think of anything to write at the moment, so I drew a picture on the computer. This is the two of us outside our little blue house on the hill, with Spike and Sam (the cats) playing in the grass.
She wanted to pin it up on the fridge, but the damn color printer is on the fritz. So I guess putting it up here is the next best thing.

Golly-gee... mathematics sure can be fun.

I was reading an online press release the other day, covering the unveiling of the 2006 C6 Corvette. The horsepower figures on the Z06 performance version are unreal…. 500 NET horsepower, from a small block engine that they somehow managed to squeeze 428 ci out of. If only dreams were money. At any rate, what really got me thinking while reading this article wasn’t the details on the Vette, but a quote from one of GM’s reps. He mentions that this latest incarnation of the tried and true pushrod V8 comes after 90 million predecessors. 90 Million small blocks produced since 1955; from the original 265 to the 400, and everything in between. This inspired some quick curiosity math on my part:
Given that a conservative figure for the dimension of a typical Chevy small block, from flywheel to water pump pulley, is about 27 inches... (Buick, Pontiac, and Olds were typically a bit longer) Now let’s say we were to take all 90,000,000 and line them up, end-to-end. We would wind up with a train of engines that would stretch approximately 61722 kms, or 1.54 times around the circumference of the earth. Or we could look at it this way: Assuming that GM engine production facilities had run continuously for the last 50 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... that’s a new small block rolling out the door every 17.52 seconds.
Stay tuned all this week for more fun with math.

Someone once brought in a whole basket of those mini-muffins. It was the best day....

Just got off the phone with the sales rep from one of our major vendors.. he's on his way out to see me so that we can discuss some product changes. Just before we ended the conversation though, he says to me: "So, how many people do you have working in your area? I was gonna hit Tim Horton's on the way out and pick up some treats." I say, "Downstairs here? Um... about nine or ten of us." And he says "Alright, so three dozen donuts should do it."
So now I'm in full anticipation of multi-pastry sugar overload, when another bomb drops. I walk past the production supervisor's office, and there's a leaning tower of cases-o-pop on the floor. Turns out today is a pizza day. What's the occasion you ask? Nothin... shits n' giggles... keep the masses happy. And the icing on the cake: IT'S BEER DAY AGAIN!!!
I love Fridays.

The wheels are a-turnin.

I need some bamboo.
About four to six feet of 3" diameter, and another few feet of 1" or 2".
Then I need a half of a wooden staved barrel, and a cylindrical humidifier filter, and some old 70's style wooden salad bowls, and a tube of mildew-resistant silicone.
Oh, and some black mesh screen, and a piano hinge.
The cats are gonna love me.