A former classmate from the year I spent in Minnesota (at a small Lutheran bible college) has pointed out in response to my last blog post that if I want to see a greater prairie chicken, all I need to do is drive the Interstate 94 past the outskirts of Rothsay, Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota.
One more reason to make a long-overdue trip back to Minnesota.
I own a bright red denim shirt that usually hangs in my closet for weeks without being worn. I like it, but since my tastes run more to earth tones, I usually ignore it.
However today I was feeling bold so I donned it, together with a pair of blue trousers.
I was halfway through my day at the office before someone pointed out that Premier Wall, in recognition of the Saskatchewan Roughriders going to the Grey Cup, has declared this Green Week, encouraging everyone to wear Rider Green.
And then another co-worker, who originally hails from Montreal and still cheers for the Alouettes, pointed out that I was wearing the Als’ colours.
I didn’t go home to change, but I tried to keep a low profile for the remainder of the day.
Now to check my closet for tomorrow’s attire … I wonder if khaki is close enough to Rider Green?
My deer rifle is a 30-06. It’s the same calibre that Tom Waits sang about in his song “16 shells from a thirty-ought-six”.
The designation 30-06 means that it uses a 0.30 inch calibre bullet and it was first manufactured in 1906. A hundred years ago apparently it was common for the number “zero” to be referred to as “ought”, hence the “ought-six”.
Of course the use of “ought” is a misnomer; a more proper term for zero would be “naught”. However I can’t imagine referring to my rifle as a “thirty-naught-six”.
And of course there’s the question of which decade followed the nineties. Most would agree that the eighties were followed by the nineties, but are we now in the oughts, the naughts, or some other decade? Maybe the zilches?
One of my kids created this kitchen mascot from a scouring pad. The name was an obvious choice.
Since it’s been more than a month since my last post, I thought I’d better post a picture of the house renovation project. I set up the camera on a tripod so that I could be in it. Here’s where things are at as of today.
(Click to enlarge … I’m the one in the background behind the Crasher Squirrel)
As I mentioned awhile ago, the job of Lumberjack rated 200th out of 200 in a recent analysis.
I’m not sure where this job was ranked.
In my continuing research on low-flush and dual-flush toilets (following up on my previous post), I came across a fascinating report. It describes the standardized methodology for testing how well various toilets do at flushing away the solid stuff.
Apparently people in a lab somewhere use 50 gram preparations of soybean paste in latex casings.
The pass/fail level is 250 grams, i.e. five chunks of soybean paste.
The original minimum performance benchmark adopted by MaP was 250 grams (250g) of waste. That is,
a toilet fixture should completely evacuate at least 250g of waste in a single flush action. This value is
based on the results of a British medical study (Variability of Colonic Function in Healthy Subjects) that
identified 250g as the average maximum fecal size of the male participants in the study. Thus, any toilet
that meets or exceeds the 250g performance threshold should meet customer expectations for flushing.…
Now I know that the people who produced this report are performing a good public service, since not all toilets are created equal and the consumer should know what to expect before testing the new throne out. However the image of white-jacketed lab workers flushing re-usable tubes of soybean paste down the toilet while taking notes on a clipboard just strikes me as funny.
But it sure beats some of the possible testing options.
Anyway, yesterday I installed our new dual-flush toilet. It’s a Rona Collection EL, made by Foremost (MaP Test Report No. 8-530). It’s rated as capable of evacuating 700 grams of solid waste (i.e. 14 chunks of soybean paste) on a 6 litre flush, so I think it should meet my solid waste removal needs.
For more stupid warning labels click here.
Following on the Spinal Tap theme, here is my favourite scene from that movie – Nigel showing off his guitars and amp.
It’s Valentine’s Day, so here for my sweetheart is one of my favourite love songs …
Why do you love me?
Why do you need me?
Always and Forever
We met in a chat room
Now our love can fully bloom
Sure the World Wide Web is great
But you, you make me salivate
Yes I love technology
But not as much as you, you see
But I still love technology
Always and Forever
Our love is like a flock of doves
Flying up to heaven above
Always and Forever
Always and Forever(stifled sobs)
Yes our love is truly great
Always and Forever
…
(from Kip and La Fawnduh’s wedding scene after the end credits in the movie Napoleon Dynamite … I couldn’t find a video clip but a sound clip can be listened to by clicking here)
