Wrong German Anthem

Apparently those running the show at the Euro 2008 soccer championship posted the wrong words for fans to sing. It seems they used the Naz-i version instead of the current version. They apologized today.

Germany vs Spain

Germany lost the Euro 2008 soccer (aka football) championship to Spain today by the score of 0-1.

Counting the Cost

[For 6/28]

Projects (like re-shingling a roof) always cost more than expected due to unexpected costs. (Duh.) And here's another bit of wisdom...You get what you pay for, so expect to replace things like rotten wood when re-shingling a roof, if the wood was cheap to start with.

Sto

[For 6/27]

A big line of storms that was passing through Wisconsin broke up just before it hit Waukesha. So we only got a few drops and our re-shingling project could continue without a pause. Yay!

New Roof

[For 6/26]

My brother-in-law will be coming down from New London tomorrow to start work on re-shingling our roof. My sister and their son will follow later to help with the project.

Nothin'

Nothin' (alternate title: Nuthin')is a pretty good song my son wrote (that is, finished) today. I get to play bass guitar and sing part of it ("Nothin', nothin'") this weekend (if it doesn't rain) at the Hollyn benefit concert.

Steve Deam

A teacher, Steve Deam, from whom I learned a lot of COBOL at UW-Milwaukee 10 years ago died last week. One of my fellow MICAP students told me about it today.

George Carlin

George Carlin died yesterday of heart failure at age 71. For some reason, I wonder if he's in heaven or not. Most Christians would probably guess he's not. But I still wonder....

Music Stands for the Hollyn Concert

The Heralds won't need to supply all the music stands needed for the concert for Hollyn. We own 2, but we need 5. The sound crew said they'll actually provide 6 for whoever needs them. Nice.

Yamaha Motif ES8 Buttons

The Yamaha Motif ES8 (and probably other similar instruments) has over 100 buttons, knobs, wheels, sliders, etc. That's more than the 88 piano keys actually used to get sounds out of the machine.

Bought Their First House

[For 6/20]

My niece and nephew-in-law-to-be have bought (are actually in the process of buying) their first house in metro Milwaukee.

Ice on Mars?

Scientists are pretty sure the Phoenix spacecraft that recently landed on Mars blew away some of the surface dirt to reveal some ice below. It will be interesting to see if they are right or not. It won't really change anything back here on Earth, but it's interesting enough anyway.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 installs really quickly. If...er...when you install it, if it seems like some add-ons can't be updated, look for them manually like you probably did when you first added them. There's likely a totally new version, as opposed to an update, that will work with Firefox 3.

Financial Goals

[For 6/17]

We've had real live financial (i.e. retirement) goals for about a year now. Our financial guide tells us we're still on target -- even though the target can move a bit.

Google Docs vs MS Word

I can open a browser and get to a new Google doc faster than opening MS Word on my local machine...I think. I didn't time it, but it sure feels faster. It's much easier to share a Google doc too. And well it should be since that's one of the main purposes of using online docs.

Pager / Cell Phone Charge Life

My pager / cell phone will not last the entire weekend without being recharged. Best not to leave the charger at work on Fridays.

Deck Stain and Waterproofing

You don't need to apply a clear waterproofing solution to a backyard deck if the stain you're covering it with already accomplishes the same thing. One or the other is enough.

Trimming the Lawn

I cut the lawn this morning. I noticed I forgot to trim the edges after the previous cut.

[This post will probably receive the award for most trivial in this blog during 2008.]

Cedar Rapids

The city of Cedar Rapids is pretty much under water this week. I continue to be thankful that the worst we've had at our house is a drippy bathroom exhaust fan. Hardly compares, does it?

Yamaha Motif ES8

The Yamaha Motif ES8 is an excellent keyboard that I was able to purchase for our church at an excellent price. (No seller fraud involved this time.) I hope it arrives early next week so I can learn how to use it in time for the concert at the end of the month.

Shady Sellers on eBay

[For 6/10]

I was almost taken in by fraud on eBay. Some shady seller was offering a keyboard that was priced just right. Unfortunately he was also offering several other pieces of electronic gear at the same time and for the same price. This made him look suspicious. His "post-sales" emails weren't quite up to snuff either. I came out of the near-deal unscathed.

Cheap Parts for Saturn Cars

The ignition of some (i.e. our) Saturn car is apparently made so cheaply (i.e. poorly) that it needs to be replaced every year or so...just after the warranty runs out. I guess in a weird sort of way that makes sense, doesn't it?

Sound Check

The Heralds sound check for the Vibes on the West Side concert for Hollyn Peterson starts at 12:30 P.M. on June 28.

Lotsa Rain

We got 4 inches of rain this afternoon in the space of about 2 hours. And we got more after that. I'll know in the morning if our rain gauge could handle it all!

Colosseum

You might think the game of Colosseum is about throwing people to the lions, but it's really about buying and trading for resources to put on plays for an audience. It's fun.

Wellington Windows

The special of the month at Wellington Windows (of Wisconsin) for June is buy 8 windows and get a bay window free. We don't have 8 windows to replace. We would have, but we replaced one last year. We do want to replace some of the others this year, but I think we'll see what the July special of the month is first.

Pandora on Your Desktop

You can now get the Pandora streaming music service via your desktop instead of through a Web browser. There is still a window that has to be open, and it shows ads, but it supposedly takes up less memory this way.

Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley died yesterday at the age of 79. His real name was Otha Ellas Bates.

Two-Player Games

"Charlie" will play 2-player games more readily than "Tarquin". That's not a slur against "T", just a difference. I really like playing games with either and both of them. A lot.

Ant Hill

We have a decorative tile (about 1 foot square) in the back yard under the faucet coming from the house. In the past couple of days, ants have built a multi-entrance/exit hill all around the tile. I've seen large ant hills before, but never anything quite like this. It looks more like a miniature mountain range than a single hill.

Detour

[For 5/31]

There is currently a detour of Wisconsin state highway 45 between Oshkosh and Waupaca that reroutes you to highways 76 and 10 instead. Fortunately, the detour doesn't take much, if any, more time to get from Oshkosh to Waupaca.