I stumbled across this tonight… http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

I use the Google image search function almost every single day. If spending a few minutes of my time will help make it better, then count me in.

<rant>
At just about $4 a gallon it’s going to cost me $120 to fill up my truck!
</rant>

The one nice thing about being able to work from home as often as I do is that you can save a lot of $$$ by not commuting on a daily basis. If you can do it, I highly encourage it. Not only do you not have to deal with the high price of gasoline these days, but you get to see your kids a lot more. There’s nothing in the world quite like having your 4 yr old bring you a plate of lunch that Mommy made for Daddy. And of course, who can pass up the little surprise visits where they come running over to see what you’re doing or ask when you’ll be done.

But seriously, what’s going on with these gasoline prices? I consider myself to be fairly intelligent, but I can’t get my head wrapped around why these prices are as high as they are. I don’t understand the speculators, I don’t understand the record breaking profits, I don’t understand the discrepancies in price between here and Jersey or here and my inlaws, or the price at the station down the block as compared to the station one mile from here. Just like it has with many other people I’m sure, it’s jolted me into a state of awareness of how much we really depend on oil. Between the price of food, to shipping costs, to the drive down to the shore this summer – I’ve become a lot more conscious of how much of an impact these gasoline prices are going to have on our life – and I don’t like it.

It spurs thoughts of solar panels and wind turbines and re-usable energy sources… electric cars anyone? Hmmm.. how about a middle ground. What about the idea of installing solar panels on the caps of my truck and a D.C. motor that I can switch to while driving? I can’t be the only Avalanche owner who’s thought of that while paying $100 to fill up…

We spent this past weekend up in Jim Thorpe for our 6th anniversary. Believe it or not, it was the first time we had been alone for a night without the girls (4+ years). It was well worth it… Neither of us could remember the last time we woke up in bed without a child sprawled out between the two of us.

Saturday we spent our time walking around town, stepping in and out of the shops, and even took a tour of the Asa Packer mansion. – This place had some insane woodworking and carvings all throughout the house. Lunch was had at JT’s Steak & Ale and dinner at a place called Moya. – We recommend both.

That night we ended up staying in a B&B called the Minnie Victoria. Susan, the inn keeper, was such a pleasant host that it made our stay even that more enjoyable. Her house was gorgeous and she made us these delicious little heart-shaped waffles in the morning. How we ended up there was a bit comical… We had reservations at another B&B downtown, but when we got there to check in we were greeted by an individual that my wife uses the anology of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, as a way to describe him. This guy’s creepy factor was through the roof and the inn itself was something left to be desired. We couldn’t run out of that place any faster than we did.

On Sunday we went hiking up and down the rails to trails along the Lehigh River. Here was a small set of falls that we came across:

We also picked up a few loose railroad spikes that were strewn around the old tracks:

I like to fly a flag outside our house during the nicer months and for the past few years we’ve had one up, but it’s taken a beating through the elements. The sun had faded it and worst of all it was torn up beyond belief, because every once in a while the wind would be so bad that it would get itself caught on the roof gutter above it. I finally got around to buying a replacement for it a few weeks ago, but it didn’t seem right to just throw out the old one. I did some reading, and it turns out there’s a proper way to dispose of the American Flag – See Title 4, Chapter 1, Sec 8k of the US Code Colletion. So I did as this mentions; respectfully folded up the flag and burned it in a fire this evening.

Went down to DC yesterday to take some photos of the Capitol complex for a project at work (some more photos to come). But, the highlight of the afternoon was when we met Circumcision Dude out on the West Lawn. This guy was standing out there with giant posters, advocating a ban on circumcisions in the U.S. - For about ten minutes or so he went on about the evils of circumcision, why it was ever done in the first place, how it adversely affects your sexual senses as well as your partner’s, and so on. I honestly only half paid attention to what he was saying, but after doing some searching on the web, I found there’s quite a lot of information about this topic out there. Enjoy!

We like to watch the CBS Sunday Morning show and this week they had a story that really struck a cord with me. Out in Kansas City, this minister has come up with a program to help people stop complaining. It involves people wearing these purple bracelets (think LIVESTRONG) that you switch from one wrist to another, everytime you catch yourself complaining about something. The goal is go 21 days straight without complaining. It’s pretty tough – I was barely able to go 2 hours today without complaining about something or other. We tend to complain a lot in our daily lives… but when you think about it… do you really have anything to complain about?

…Well, in reality this isn’t my first blog post. Perhaps it’s the first post of this particular blog, but this is the 4th installment of a blog that I’ve decided to record my not-so-random goings on in.

 A little history…

My first blog, which really wasn’t a blog at all, but had some blog-style components to it, was a site I had put together to show my paintings. This thing was started back in 2000 and lasted a couple years, as back then I was producing a lot of new work on a fairly regular basis. It’s still up on my server, though not publicized at all.

The 2nd one, launched somewhere around ‘00 – ‘01, was a repository of design-related things and was my first official play in the yet-to-be-named ‘Blogosphere’. It held the title of this blog, and even had it’s own domain. Much of my random Flash creations and fun-with-Photohop-experiments called this site home for a couple years. I kept it going at the same time as my other site, but lost speed with it too after some time. When I finally realized that was the case I buried it on the server and have since removed it.

Not too long after that I started yet another blog – this time around it was focused on my photographs. Some of the images were artsy, but most were just of random things happening in my life at the time. This particular site lasted up until the summer of ‘03.

So now it’s 2008… Weddings have taken place, relocations have occurred, and children have been born. Much has taken place since back then and much is going on right now – and that’s what I plan on making this version of my blog all about – my life, right now.

Enjoy.