I just dropped Beth at the airport, hope she has a safe trip home. We went to Montreal this weekend for a little exploring and it was a blast. The island was wet early on but the afternoon was warm and dry. It's a very old city with great architecture and bridges. One bridge over the St. Lawrence River has a lane on each side and rails in the middle. Instead of concrete, it has a metal mesh bottom and it crosses the tracks between it a couple of times. And by the way, I have also deemed the above street "The Most Beautiful Street".

Better safe than sorry but we went crazy getting Beth's birth certificate here and they didn't even ask for it when we crossed the border. Our trip was delayed a day but the jeep makes for good substitute action.

Last week, while in Vermont, we picked up some real Vermont Maple Syrup. It's a little pricey, but you can get a half pint for about five bucks. Tonight for dinner, I decided it was pancake time. It was so freaking delicious, sweet, almost alcohol like. I see why the people of Vermont are so laid back.

Thank you pothole patrol.

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Much of this afternoon was spent with a fire truck in front of the house. My neighbor smelled gas and called Niagara-Mohawk, the local power and gas company. Seems there's a gas leak in the front yard so the pipe will have to be replaced. They tested the basement to make sure there was no seepage as well as all the surrounding basements. My next door neighbor wasn't home so I got to watch them circle the house trying to figure out a way to get in. I eventually told them where she worked so they could find her. I so wanted to ask the hottest fireman in the world if I could take his picture but didn't have the nerve. What I really wanted to ask him was to hold me while another firefighter took the picture.

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Gas has gone up 15¢ in the last several days. The Sunoco and the Hess down the street always have the lowest prices in the area and today they are $1.89 and $1.87 per gallon respectively. It pisses me off more and more that the oil companies are making record profits and nobody seems to care. They keep letting the oil companies merge and get bigger and bigger and shut down more refineries just to drive up prices even more. If any other industry (non George Bush) did the same thing, the government would be holding hearings.

Poor Krispy Kreme, a phrase never heard before.

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While doing a little touch up painting today, I did the smart thing and laid the cap on the porch floor and just painted out of the can. Even though Kaleb had her choice of the whole porch floor to sit on, she decided to sit her little butt on the wet paint can top. A bath soon followed.

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I drink too much soda. I used to drink too much tea, iced tea. There is no good iced tea in New York. If you go to a restaurant and ask for ice tea, it'll probably be instant, definitely unsweetened, and even worse, it may be that raspberry shit. (When you say shit, please draw it out to where it is almost two syllables, raspberry she it) Going to the grocery store doesn't help. There's no Luzianne, and to make matters worse, in the tea section, they do have this raspberry shit (remember she it) that you add to perfectly good tea to turn it into raspberry shit. There are plenty of hot teas but why would you drink this stuff? It's like coffee, it's nasty and it burns your tongue. It's like drinking a cigarette. I want to stop drinking so much soda. I guess I'll suck it up...Why doesn't water have caffeine?

Time for a little Terence Trent D'Arby and then some Cops.

And don't forget, tomorrow's Mother's Day. Call her if you can't see her.

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Ahh, those French.

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I don't know why I did it, but I did. I was strolling a news site and came upon the Nick Berg story and it contained the video. I don't why I thought I needed to see it. I thought it would've been shorter. It was five and a half minutes. All but the last minute were the terrorists reading off a bunch of crap. The last minute was the beheading. It was long and he was screaming. I wish I hadn't watched it but maybe it was good I did. I won't supply a link. If you come upon it, heed my advice. Keep going and just know it's there.

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I had some old friends who were in New York visiting family so I took the chance to drive downstate to see them. Bob was having some serious health problems last time I saw him so it was good to see he was doing well. I got to drive on the Taconic State Parkway for the first time and the views are breathtaking. It was like exploring a new road with nobody on it. And note for the future: Pee and gas up before getting on the parkway. After a while, the woods were starting to look pretty good.

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It's the 50th anniversary of Brown v. The Board of Education. We studied it extensively in 8th grade and I'm always grateful I went to school in an integrated/bused system. It's sad how today schools are more segregated than they were 10 years ago because kids today are missing out on a great opportunity to learn from other kids who are different from themselves.

And 50 years after Brown, another court order makes gay marriage legal starting tomorrow, in the state of Massachusetts. People say the courts should stay out of people's lives and the state's right to pass laws as they wish, but is is the court's purpose to rule on the constitutionality of a law if somebody challenges it.

This morning at breakfast, on the specials board, was Southern Fried French Toast. Never heard of it. We asked what it was. It's deep fried french toast.

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On a beautiful day like today , I drive through the neighborhood and it's easy to be nice to everybody. 4-way stop? You go first. Dumb pedestrian walking in the middle of the road? I'll stop for ya. What about a bike riding in the road against traffic? Yea, you must wannna die, but I'll avoid ya without getting mad. And lastly, strange person who insisted upon pulling out in front of me only to slam on brakes to stop and turn left. You're forgiven. What a beautiful day.

Duncan's out of town tonight and I miss him.

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Today I'm wearing my Adidas shirt. In 8th grade I had two Adidas shirts that I wore what seemed like every day. (See Above) Of course, Adidas stands for "All Day I Dream About Sex", however, in 8th grade, I was totally clueless about sex. 7th grade sucked. 8th grade was a blast. I remember a gang of four of us who hung together in several classes in an everlasting battle to see who could cut each other down the most. There was Judy, who I haven't seen since, Mark who was probably gay but was a cut down king, and Beverly who I've known since 3rd grade and I still talk to occasionally today. It may have been then that I developed my sense of humor at that time. Nasty cut downs with good intentions expecting a come back.

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Last night, sitting in the recliner, reading a book, watching TV, I about jumped out of my shorts when a bird flew by my face. "Duncan, a bird just flew by my face! Do you see it?" "I see a big bug or something." It then came by again and again making a circle downstairs. It flew by several times coming much to close to my face each time and then went upstairs. We followed it up trying to trap it in a room but it was fast. We finally shut it in a bedroom and opened the windows. It flew in circles time and time again coming close to my face each time. I turned out the lights so it could see the lights coming from outside but it just landed and when I turned on the light again, I saw it was a bat. It started circling again and finally went outside. We're both clueless as to how it got in. Our wonderful watch dog didn't move from the couch the whole time.

When I woke up Sunday morning, I turned on the TV and a TV preacher was on. "Can you believe what went on in Massachusetts last week?  ... Some will have you believe that you should be able to marry who ever you want. That's not true, not last week, not ever. You've never been able to marry your mother, you've never been able to marry your daughter, and you've never been able to marry your cocker spaniel." Silly man, dogs don't get married. Thanks to all who turned their back on Mitt Romney Sunday. No thanks to the Union College alumni celebration who had a great fireworks show two blocks from the house after 10:00 Sunday night. I didn't know about it and thought their was a shoot out in the street.

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I thought the season finale for Star Trek was great last night but I wish there would've be more closure instead of a cliffhanger. I guess my geekdom is really shining through. And Fantasia rocked American Idol, too. The gas company has fixed the leaks in the area lines. Instead of having to dig up the yards, they just inserted liners into everybody's existing pipes. You're now safe to smoke a cig while you walk down the street.

Duncan's mom and sisters will be arriving Saturday for several days so we should be having a full house next week.

And it's fleet week, sweet.

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