Hi, all. Every once in a while, the computer network at work dies. When that happens, the only programs that work at all are the ones that run locally on your machine. In my case, the field is narrowed to Notepad and not much else. So...here's my Happy Holidays e-mail, written on Notepad.
I haven't written in a while, and for that I apologize. Margaret and I took a quickie vacation to Florida in early November. (A nice change in weather from Minnesota during that time of year.) We spent three days in Tampa for our niece's christening, and we found the coolest restaurant in all of Florida. "La Teresita" (The Little Terry?) was recommended in our little restaurant book - the same book that recommended Nick Tahou's in Rochester NY, and a fine restaurant or two here in the Twin Cities. The book gives selections that best reflect the local cuisine, and I can attest to that based on the inclusion of Nick's. (For those of you who have been to Nick's, I don't have to say anything; you can probably still taste it.) Anyway, La Teresita was the only restaurant listed in the entire state of Florida, and it turned out to be a little Cuban restaurant, set up sort of like a Wendy's with table service. The book recommended the Cuban Sandwich, which is pretty close to a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant. Very tasty, but the side dishes were even better. Margaret and I basically ordered one of everything, and we are now hooked on fried plantains, which are a yummy cross between french fries and bananas. (Trust me - soooooper tasty!) We'd never had Cuban food before, and it was fan-tastic! (Nothing at all like Mexican.) The restaurant was a 16-mile drive from where we were staying, and it was so good we drove back for dinner the next night. Many miles for food, and worth it.
After Tampa, we spent a few days visiting Grandma in Fort Lauderdale. We managed to synch up with my brother Kenny (better known as "Gerbs" to all his friends, some of whom don't even know his first name) and his friend Pete, and we all stayed at Grandma's house. Aside from spending time with Grandma, the high point of Fort Lauderdale was challenging Gerbs and Pete to an eating contest at one of the Chinese buffets. (We Gerbers are very food-centric.) Food was et, belts were loosened, and a good time was had by all except the restaurant owners.
And interestingly enough, we spent election day in Fort Lauderdale. (We'd already mailed in our absentee ballots in Minnesota.) We watched a bunch of TV coverage, just like the rest of the country, but we noticed that the local stations ran out of pre-produced segments around 10 PM, and they were just stre-e-e-e-e-e-etching the same sketchy details out to fill the time. Around 1:15 in the morning, somebody announced that Bush won Florida, and I went to sleep. We got up around 5:30 AM to go the airport, and the same TV people were still on announcing election results, looking mighty frazzled. You know the rest, but it was kinda cool to be in Florida to see the start of the mayhem.
December's been really cold out here. After three record-setting warm winters in a row, we're back to reality out here. The wind chill was -41 degrees this morning, and we have plenty of snow out here to kill off all living creatures. Now THAT'S winter! (Which starts tomorrow, actually.)
Margaret and I are looking for a new couch. That's been the big excitement lately. We know exactly what we want, and we're taking our time trying to find it at the stores in town. If we can't find it by spring, we'll order it by mail from one of the furniture places in North Carolina. No big hurry - the old couch still works, even though it doesn't look so good.
"Crap From The Past" has been going nicely. My website was chosen as Site Of The Week from e-crap.com, which is into entertainment stuff. The link that they set up to my site generated a total of 8 hits. 8. Which is a good indication of both the popularity of my site and of e-crap.
Our fifth anniversary is today. Now I'm discovering what it feels like when kids have their birthdays at the end of December - everything gets lumped into Christmas/Hanukkah and that's that.
Oh - U.S. Patent #6,084,846 cleared, of which I am a co-inventor. "Liquid Immersion Lens For Optical Data Storage" may very well be the least useful invention EVER, but at least I'm on it. Huzzah.
It looks Margaret is going to win the Emergency Room game for 2000. I took the lead in March with pneumonia, but Margaret tied it up over the summer with a gall bladder-ectomy, and then a bee sting. Unless I stick a fork in my head - twice - it looks like Margaret will win 2-1. At least next year I'll get a good draft pick...
Update on a good joke from two years ago: Remember how I bought $50 worth of Pinnacle Micro stock when the shares were around 10 cents each? And how we joked that I was now the majority shareholder? And how the day after my purchase, the price went up to 43 cents a share? And how we laughed and laughed? Well two years later, the stock has fallen a bit - now it's 0.8 cents a share and my huge investment is worth exactly 4 dollars. Frankly, I don't think it's fair that the price per share can dip below a penny. That's cheating! I'm still going to hang onto it, and I wonder exactly how low this thing can go...
Hope all is warm and fuzzy in your respective necks of the woods. Have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a pleasant Festivus, and a Happy New Year.
Ron & Margaret
