Sunday, February 08, 2004

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First Pinewood Derby Seth and I completed his first Pinewood Derby this weekend. It went pretty well. He finished third in his den of eight, which meant he secured a trophy (they are pretty generous with the trophies). We had fun, and he got to do his fair share of the work. Some things have changed since I was a Cub Scout. They have these segmented lead weights--they look a bit like a chocolate bar--so you can break off small increments, to get very close to the max weight of 5.00 ounces. But that wasn't the coup de grace. The pack had lead tape, to fine-tune the weight of each car. So the result was that every single car was 5.00 on the nose. That took away one major source of advantage, when you had to be somewhat determined to get your car just right. The lead weights are sold by the BSA, I'm not sure about the lead tape. I think it may be a 3M product and thus a local innovation. 11:24:23 PM    comment []

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Caribbean Cruise, Here We Come Got our cruise booked! Carnival Elation, sailing out of Galveston, TX, calling on Progresso, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize. Rates are stunningly low--for 7-day cruises, $350 at the extreme, but lots just below $500. If only we didn't have to fly to get to the port, I'd probably want go every year. The airfare was kind of weird. You can buy airfare as part of the cruise, and that is supposed to be cheaper. I haven't researched that extensively in the past, but I assume it to be true. At least not more expensive. Imagine my shock when the airfare (Minneapolis to Houston) cost was quoted at slightly more than the cruise: $500 per passenger!! If purchased separately, it was $314. Higher than I would like, but not entirely unreasonable. I'm holding off in hopes of improvement. I set up fare watchers on Travelocity and Expedia. 11:12:11 PM    comment []

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It snowed almost an inch this evening. What a pain! 11:05:14 PM    comment []

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There has been, predictably, a tempest about the lewd halftime show from the Super Bowl. 95% of the spilled ink has focused on Janet Jackson's bared breast. In my opinion, the crotch-grabbing rapper (no idea what his name is) was far more offensive, and probably the same goes for the Jackson-Timberlake interaction prior to the infamous bared breast. All of that, while clothed, was more overtly sexual and generally repulsive. 12:00:58 PM    comment []