The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • Minor Annoyances and XM Comedy

    These are unrelated topics, but since I only post once a quarter, I figured I’d group things together to make them worthwhile (and I use worthwhile loosely).

    Several things annoy me throughout the day, but some just keep repeatedly presenting themselves so I just need to get them off my chest. First, places that have double doors, but keep one locked at all times. WHY?! If you have 2 doors, use both, or don’t put in double doors, or if you purchased a building with double doors, replace the door you aren’t going to use with a large window or new wall. Don’t leave a handle on it and expect people not to use it or try to use it. I think some places have cameras and watch the ‘door footage’ each night just for laughs. This also applies to places that have multiple entry locations but put a sign on one of the doors directing you to use the other door. Again, replace extra entry location with a wall or window.

    Secondly (or B – whichever you prefer) are young people who drive vehicles that they clearly couldn’t afford without help from mommy or daddy. And I’m not talking about the ones that borrow their parents cars, that’s expected, I’m talking about the ones that own the vehicle. You can always tell its theirs by the crap they have hanging from the rearview mirror or the tinting the windows. It just irritates me when these ‘kids’ pull up in their cadillac’s and bmw’s and glance over at my vehicle with that “I’m sorry you have to drive that” look. The look I try to give back is “Hey, I like my minivan and I didn’t have to have someone else buy it for me”, but I don’t think I quite pulled that off. Instead, its probably coming across as “Hey ****** mind your own **** business”, but I’ll continue to work on it.

    Finally, XM Comedy. I’m blaming it for making me late to work. I can’t exit the vehicle in the middle of a really funny skit, and they are never timed right so it never fails that I get back to work and end up sitting in my car for another few minutes until it’s over. Of course I’m laughing too which probably makes others arriving around me wonder what is going on and looking for a cell phone or bluetooth device to explain my behavior. This doesn’t happen daily, cause lets face it, XM plays a lot of not so funny stuff, but has happened more than once.

  • Kindle: It’s Here!

    Ana’s Kindle arrived today!

    The sharpness of the text is unbelievable!  Larger photos in gallery.

  • Setup

    For the first time in a long time (10 months or so I think), I have my telescope seutp and getting acclimated out back. I probably won’t be out long, but I’ve had the itch lately to get back out beneath the stars.  If you’re in my area, come on by for a look!

  • Lots Done

    Today was an extremely busy day – after getting breakfast made and eaten I ran a half dozen errands, came back and mowed the lawn, ran more errands (with Ana and David this time), then came back and did some more work on the garden we’re putting in this year.

    Today I got the frame of the raised bed put into the ground, so we’re ready for some dirt!  Last weekend I sprayed roundup in the area with the dead grass because that will all be covered with landscaping rock.  It should be a lot of fun once it’s done and we can get things planted.

  • Platelet Update

    I just wanted to give all of you a heads-up on Ana’s platelet counts.   As most of you know, her counts were up to right around 300,000 after getting her spleen removed.  They stayed this way for a couple weeks, but two weeks ago she dropped down to 64,000. Yikes, we were a little freaked out, but a week ago she went up to 224,000 without changing any medicines or getting any other types of treatments.  Very encouraging since in the past her counts never increased without some intervention.

    Due to that increase, she has resumed her taper off of the steroid prendison.  This week she dropped down to 15mg/day so we expected her counts to be down as a result.  Nope, this morning she was tested and she’s at 384,000. Woo!

    She hasn’t heard from the doctor yet, but we’re expecting to be able to drop to 10mg/day.  Wait..what is that?!  Is that the light at the end of the tunnel?  We’re sure hoping so.  Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

  • Food Post II

    Tuesday night I decided I would like to grill some brats for dinner.  After picking up David from my mom’s, we went to the County Market on South 6th street to buy some. I wandered around for a while unable to find the uncooked, unfrozen bratwursts so I asked the butcher if they had any.  He said the only unfrozen ones were the ones in his butcher case – go figure!  So I had to resort to buying those.

    I got home and grilled them up, but they had almost no flavor whatsoever.  That’s not good when all you wanted was the taste of a good Johnsonville Brat.

    Soooo, avoid the bratwursts being sold at County Market’s meat counter.  Well, unless you like crappy flavorless brats I guess.

    Btw, leaving the butcher counter I passed the unfrozen ones….grrr…

  • Food Post I

    Just a heads-up to anyone in the Springfield area that shops at Meijer and likes sweet corn.  They’re selling some now, but it doesn’t taste very good. 😦

  • More Internet Issues

    I apologize for the issues thejohnsonblog may be experiencing with connectivity – Comcast is apparently still learning how to run a network.