Humor

I remember an electrical appliance we used for starting charcoal briquettes in the barbecue. You put in half of your briquettes, then lay down this loop attached to an electrical cord, and put in the the rest. It’s basically a heating element, so you plug it in, and it heats up the briquettes.

Apply this to snow: You’re expecting a storm (we are right now, anywhere from 6 to 16 inches), so you have something that looks like an electrical cord, but that puts out heat when you plug it in. Leave it turned off, let the snow fall, then plug it in in the morning. it puts out heat, and while you eat breakfast, your snow melts, and you can walk to your car without shoveling.

Maybe you need two, one for either side of the walkway.

You could also put them behind your car, on the driveway, where your tires will go, so you can drive out.

Maybe it’s a net between two of these cords, that melts the whole patch.

Another way to think of it: a waterproof outdoor heating pad. Or a drip hose that puts out heat instead of water.

Add an automatic timer so you can set it to start while you are still asleep. The other idea was a remote control, but a timer is better.

Alternative: do you put these on TOP of the snow instead of under it?

You also want to plan where the water will run off to. You don’t want it to refreeze and create an ice rink.

#2) We have these basic, plastic sleds, with a rope attached, for sledding. Leave these outside while it’s snowing, in a line behind your car’s tires. In the morning, grab the rope and drag off piles of snow!

Only problem is when it’s windy. Like what we are expecting today. They would fly off into your neighbor’s yard. So have to temporarily secure them.

Other problem is when your family calls you crazy for leaving sleds behind your car.

Skymall catalog, here I come!

Oh, it brings back memories…

You Know You’re from Cape Cod when… — A list of funny stuff from a group on Facebook.

With over 50 items on the list—here’s the first thing on it:

• …you know where Truro is

I actually get most of it!

Web 2.0 is full of faddish, trendy and cleverly constructed domain names. It’s practically a necessity to indicate you’re in the “cool club.” They favor words which tell you nothing about the site and make it as difficult as possible for you to get there.

Here’s some guy’s list…

And the ones I think are really bad:

• Qoolsqool
• BookReyvoo
• Complore
• Commentful
• Naymz
• Adveracio.us
• Nowsy
• Talkety
• Lingr
• Calcr
• Empressr

The day every dad dreams of: Nathaniel just got his first credit card offer: Jet Blue American Express. They grow up so fast…

Tricks of the Trade

I get hooked on this stuff. It’s pretty useless but I love to hear insider secrets about practically anything.

Arggg… I just can’t stop myself… will I ever get my project done… TradeTricks.org

This comes just in time for Halloween: Jabberwocky Variation: Jabbercandy. If you want the original, I found it here: Jabberwocky and here are Jabberwocky Explanations and Origins. And here are More Jabberwocky Variations and Parodies. I told it to Nathaniel but he just wanted to throw my slippers over the bannister.

Every time there’s talk of a “‘Con “, there has to be a link to the Tron Costume Guy.

Wordspy.com offers this relevant “new word”:

unturkey n. A vegetarian substitute for turkey, particulary a turkey-shaped “bird” made with wheat gluten, soy, and other vegetarian ingredients. Go to full entry

I just like saying “Tofurkey” whenever we talk about these “Star Trek” foods because it sounds funny. And why do I call it a “Star Trek” food? You know how they can choose any food they like and it materializes in the machine? What is that made of anyway? I think it’s all soy mushed into different shapes.