Liloia.com

Fireworks this Weekend

This weekend the local "box" stores hosted a huge fireworks display for the area residents. Apparently they do this every year as a thank you to the community for their patronage of their businesses. We headed up to the empty field next to "Bed, Bath and Beyond", and "Pet Smart" and munched on some sandwiches while we watched the display.

From the spot we were sitting, it felt like we were "at war", or at the very least observing an attack from the perspective of Wolf Blitzer or Christiane Amanpour.

Trevor very quickly made it clear that we were sitting too close to the fireworks (so what if they were exploding over our heads and raining debris on us!) and made Mom and Dad move back to a "safer distance".

The next thing you know he will make me move back from the TV, and not let me drink cold milk while eating hot soup. No worries Trev, I brought my umbrella. Grr.

Cub Hike

Today Trevor and I went on a 2 mile hike through Shelburne Bay Park with Cub Scout Pack 22. It was a great time and a really nice hike. Not too hard, but also not too easy. There were plenty of challenging spots for the cubs and lots to see.

In a few weeks the pack is headed to see an air show with the Vermont Air National Guard. Should be fun!

Trevor's Deli

I will NEVER eat at Trevor's Deli, when and if he ever opens one. Today he made a traditional Trevor sandwich that included...

- Whole Wheat Bread
- Bologna
- Mayonaise
- Mustard
- Pickles
- Olives
- Franks Red Hot Sauce
- Fresh garlic

That boy, he just ain't right.

Survival of the Fattest

Arsenio says, "Things that make you go 'Hmmm'" (from Chapter 2 of Cory Doctorow's Themepunks):

"Sure, will-power. Will-power nothing. The thing is, when three quarters of America are obese, when half are dangerously obese, like me, years off our lives from all the fat -- that tells you that this isn't a will-power problem. We didn't get less willful in the last fifty years. Might as well say that all those people who died of the plague lacked the will-power to keep their houses free of rats. Fat isn't moral, it's epidemiological. There are a small number of people, a tiny minority, whose genes are short-circuited in a way that makes them less prone to retaining nutrients. That's a maladaptive trait through most of human history -- burning unnecessary calories when you've got to chase down an antelope to get more, that's no way to live long enough to pass on your genes! So you and Perry over here with your little skinny selves, able to pack away transfats and high-fructose corn-syrup and a pound of candy for breakfast at the IHOP, you're not doing this on will-power -- you're doing it by expressing the somatype of a recessive, counter-survival gene."

This morning I noticed there was high fructose corn syrup in my daily vitamin.

Play Lacrosse

This one's for Dave's license plate collection (it's from some dude who works in my building):

Goodbye Ed

One of the Engineers at work decided to depart the organization to pursue other ventures. In an effort to say goodbye to a cherished friend, and trusted comrade, the men in the engineering department said goodbye the only way a man can.

They wrapped his car in plastic.

Parenting a 7-year-old...

...means checking behind the shower curtain for neighborhood kids playing hide and seek before going to the bathroom. Yikes.

Quantico, VA

Yesterday after getting through two security checkpoints, ID verification and bomb-sniffing dogs (seriously) I made it onto the US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA. The first show I am doing on this trip is called "Modern Day Marine" and is specifically focused on introducing products to the Marines here, and in turn potentially for those Marines based around the world.

Most of our shows are in large convention halls, with air conditioning, catering and plenty of other amenities. When I arrived yesterday, I discovered that we are exhibiting here from inside a huge tent placed outside on the tarmac of the air base. It is predicted to hit 90 degress today, and there are supposed to be thousands of attendees. The only redeeming factor is that the show is only 6 hours long, so we just have to make it to 4 PM this afternoon.

Spherical Cakes

The sphere cake mold that Wilton makes is well worth the ten bucks it costs. We had a chocolate planet cake and a vanilla sun cake at Trevor's party.

I think it'll work well for a pumpkin at Halloween too.

VT to VA

Today I packed up and left the house for a two week road trip for work. I stopped off in NJ where I am hanging out with my family for the evening and then heading down to Quantico, VA for a few days. There I will be hanging out at the Marine Corp base talking to them about our products.

Next I'll be heading back to the NY area and talking to Coast Guard/Border Partrol agents at the Javitz Center. It won't be fun to be away from home for so long. I already miss Tara and Trevor a lot, but there is an upside. I'll get the chance to hang out with some of the people I don't see all the time. I am going to try to take some interesting pictires while I am away, and I will post some of my activities while I am there (if they are interesting at all).

Anyway. Stuff. Yeah. Oh, and Tara...my Millenicolin and Mr. T Experience CD's are awesome, so expect me to buy more of them this week. Heh.

Trev's BD

Tomorrow (today) we will be having 12-13, 7-year olds in our house for a big ol' shin-dig. While Trevor's birthday was over two weeks ago, we held off on having a party for him then, due to the fact that most people take Summer vacation right befor school starts up again.

The party is completely Space themed. We have stars and moons hanging from the ceiling, space shuttle toys for the kids, flying saucer decorating, light sticks, and a Space Shuttle pinata.

All of this is nice, but the best part is that Tara is making Planet Cakes for Trevor's birthday cake. These are spheres propped up in Margarita glasses and decorated to look like the Earth and the Sun. They are really cool looking, and I will be taking some pictures of them tomorrow for posting to the site here.

Aaron Brown rocks!

For the last few nights I have been glued to CNN to watch as events unfurled in New Orleans. What a horrible situation, with many questionable elements and serious concerns. After 5 days, troops are finally starting to arrive but I don't think that the number of troops will be anywhere near enough to help recover this large region with any speed.

Aaron Brown is so completely floored by the lack of response, by the poor response from our government and other issues that he is openly scoffing and chastising these groups. Often, we complain that the press is biased either to the left or to the right, but in this case it is really great to see a member of the press asking some hard questions (indirectly) to our leadership.

Oh, and what the heck is the deal with gas prices? When are the 36% of you that still think Bush is doing a good job going to wake up and see that he is only serving his personal interests, and not looking out for the people of the US. And why is it that he visited Mississippi, but hasn't come to visit the center of this disaster?