Pot

During the last election, the voters of Massachusetts decided to decriminalize marijuana, at least in small amounts. The arguments in favor of the proposition were mostly along the lines of, it sucks to have a criminal record for doing something illegal. Apparently it is hard to get a job, or find housing when you have a criminal record (which you get by doing something illegal). Needless to say I was not a big fan of this proposition.

Another reason I am not a fan of this proposition is because marijuana is classified as a schedule I drug by the federal government. To have a state undermine the enforcement and viability of a federal law is a travesty. Unenforced and poorly enforced laws are bad laws.

Anyway, that aside out of the way... Since the proposition was passed (it still has not become law) I have smelled marijuana on numerous occasions. In fact just a couple of days after it was passed I smelled smoke coming in through my window. This morning on my way to work, I was standing on the subway platform and the foul odor came my way. I saw three high school age kids standing at the very end of the platform, and hiding behind a pillar. I suspect they were the ones doing the smoking.

So, I'm wondering if the passage of this proposal is going to cause an escalation in the amount of pot being smoked. Also will it encourage people to smoke in public.

My Niece

The first few days of this month saw me in Knoxville, Tennessee to visit my niece Veronica Marie Bartholomay. Usually I travel to Knoxville to visit my sister, but, then again my niece is only 2 months old so there hasn't been a lot of chances for me to visit her.


Anyway, in addition to being the first time I got to see my niece, it was also my niece's baptism. I was honored to be her godfather, or rather her baptismal sponsor. I even got to hold her during most of the service.

The other sponsor was Veronica Marie's cousin Marsha (Roger's brother's daughter). I'm bringing up the other baptismal sponsor because we both apparently share a good idea of what a two month old needs. A ninja doll!
Seriously, we both independently decided that Nica (short for Veronica, although with her being so small right now, it is easier to think of her as Veronica Marie) needed to have a ninja doll. Melanie said that when Marsha brought the ninja doll she said, "That looks like something that Peter would get" and sure enough...

As for little Nica, she is a beautiful wiggly bundle of joy. She was also pretty well behaved for me. She didn't fuss once during the entire church service, and was even awake for the first half. She got a bit fussy when we insisted on getting photos with her after the service rather than letting her eat. But once that issue was settled she calmed down and slept while the rest of us went to lunch.


This is my favorite picture from the trip down. My niece really isn't that small, she just looks tiny next to my enormous mug. She's about the length of my forearm, and the fist that she's cocking back in the photo is about the size of the last joint of my thumb. Actually, the size issue was rather funny when I tried to hand her back to my sister after the first time I got to hold Nica. I was being so careful to distribute the holding, i.e. spreading my hands, that my sister couldn't actually find anywhere to put her own hands.

Candy Corn Threshold

Halloween was a few days ago, and halloween reminds me of mellowcreme pumpkins. Mellowcreme pumpkins are a candy confection that is related to the candy corn. The ingredient list of both Mellowcreme pumpkins and candy corns are the same. Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, and flavorings. Alright so really it's sugar, corn syrup, salt, honey, gelatin, confectioner's glaze, dextrose, and various dyes and artificial flavors. But, corn syrup is sugar, honey is sugar and dextrose is sugar, so there is a lot of sugar packed into these goodies.

The mellowcreme gets its name from the gelatin portion. Gelatin is the primary reason that marshmallows are so fluffy. It is also used in the pumpkins (and candy corns) to make them soft and delicious. So really, mellowcreme pumpkins are a cross between marshmallows and rock candy.

Anyway, mellowcreme pumpkins fall prey to the same failings as candy corns: the candy corn threshold. I have had this theory for a number of years, ever since winning a "guess how many" candy corns are in a jar contest.

I started eating the candy corns. As I ate the candy corns I reflected on how wonderful they tasted, and how I could eat candy corns for my entire life. Then suddenly, I bit into a bad candy corn. It tasted disgusting. There must have been a bad candy corn in the bunch. So I fished into the jar and came up with another candy corn. I popped this fresh candy corn in my mouth, bit down, and was disgusted! What are the chances of having two bad candy corns in a row? Especially after having so many that were absolutely fantastic?

I put the jar of candy corns aside, and pondered. Had I eaten past a line in the jar below which the candy corns were turned? I examined the jar minutely and could find nothing to suggest that the corns were tainted. I waited quite a while before delving back into the jar. With a good deal of trepidation I ate another candy corn. It was delicious! Perhaps there were only a few bad corns and I happened to get two in a row. But alas, this was not the case. I had a few more and then suddenly they turned sour again. I had gotten through barely a dozen before the taste turned from divine to damned.

So, that was how I discovered the candy corn threshold. You can only eat so many candy corns before some physiological phenomenon occurs which tells your taste buds that enough goodness has passed through. When that occurs you have to stop eating candy corns and allow the system to recover. The body does slowly recover, but it is a recovery and not a resetting. So if you press on while not fully recovered you will hit the threshold much more quickly.

Candy corns are not the only food that has a candy corn threshold. Marshmallow peeps also fall victim to this phenomenon. But peeps are much more insidious because there is a very real chance the the peeps have turned bad, especially if you have moved on to the second package.

For those who don't eat candy corns the same thing can be true of alcohol. You are having a blast, and then suddenly you lift your most recent drink and you feel sick. You put the drink down, get some air, drink some water, anything except taking another sip. You start feeling better, so you have another sip. If it doesn't taste too bad you start drinking some more, but it'll only be a few sips until you are at the threshold again. The point where your body says, any more alcohol and I'll puke all over your shoes. Unfortunately with alcohol, you can go well past this point before your body catches up on the scoring. So kids, stick with candy corns.

Terrible Grand Canyon movie

I went to see an IMAX movie with people at work. I thought it was supposed to be on the Grand Canyon, instead it was about the Colorado River and why it was at risk. Oh, and the movie was crap.

One of the major points they made about the river was that it was terrible how low the water level is going because of drought. Of course the drought is being caused by global warming. Then 10 minutes later they talk about a Native American tribe that stored water from the river. The tribe was wiped out when they had a 50 year drought. So when the Native Americans ran into problems it was mother nature, when it happens to us, it's our fault.

If that were the only faux pas, I might have let it pass. But they went on to talk about the dams on the river. First they talked about the Glen Canyon dam (which they just called the grand canyon dam) and Lake Powell. Then they went on to talk about the Hoover dam, saying it was built in the 60s. Just a little bit of effort would have corrected this problem, putting the right dam in the right decade.

And apparently engineers are evil. So are dams, since they only provide abundant clean energy and prevent flooding. Oh, and they make the water nice and clear by letting the sediment settle out. BUt apparently clear water is a bad thing (although they never explained why that might be, except to say that it was how the river got its name, which also wasn't explained).

They also showed before and after pictures of what the river looked like when it was first explored, then finding the places and taking new pictures. So the result was a sandbar disappeared (which given the 80 years between pictures was likely inevitable because that the sort of things sandbars do), and the other picture showed a lot of plants. Apparently when the river still flooded it killed all the plants (although in fairness the type of plant that was shown was a non-native species, so maybe a bit of biblical cleansing would be a good thing).

Anyway, the three minutes of factual, and perhaps useful, information hidden in the movie were completely submerged in garbage. Oh, and the information/misinformation was further submerged against in the story of a writer writing about the Colorado river and taking a rafting trip with his daughter. Because apparently in 40 years there won't be a Colorado river anymore.

Busy Weekend

Last Friday I had a meeting down in Virginia, and another meeting scheduled for Monday. Rather that make two trips, I went down for the entire weekend. Of course, I had other reasons for staying the entire weekend.

My friend Carrie got married on Saturday. Hi Carrie! She was lucky enough to schedule her wedding on the day tropical storm Hanna blew through town. So there were quite a few wet guests at the wedding, but in spite of that a great time was had by all. Also, the DJ at least had a sense of humor about the wedding, since the first song at the reception was "Rock you like a hurricane."

So, my new look, bearded with a shaved head, was sufficient disguise to prevent Carrie's family from recognizing me. Of course, it had been a few years since I'd seen any of them, aside from Carrie. But, it was enough to cause one of the guests sitting at my table at the reception to comment to her friend that I reminded her of her friend's father. The bald head and facial hair and an apparently distinguished look. Oh, and apparently he looks good for his age.

One, really disappointing aspect of the storm, was that I didn't get to take White's Ferry. I could have, but I figured taking a ferry across a river in a tropical storm, might not be the best option. Although it wouldn't actually have saved much time anyway, since it takes miles of backroads to get there, compared to miles of interstate.

I also got to spend some quality time with my dad this weekend. After work Friday, I drove to his house, and then Dad, Tracy and I went out to dinner. Saturday morning we got a chance to do some bonding over breakfast and then watching Monk and Psych.

Not to take anything away from the wedding, or bonding with my dad... The most exciting part of the weekend was getting a call from my sister. I had literally just walked in the door of my father's house when she called to tell me that she'd had her baby! Veronica Marie Bartholomay is the newest member of the family, and absolutely precious. Of course, I've already decided I'm going to call her "Nica" because I'm going to be the cool uncle. And I have a lot of competition on Roger's side, or at least competitors.

Air Travel

This weekend I went to visit my sister for her baby shower. It was good to see her and spend time hanging out. But I have to say the travel down there, and back, left something to be desired.

Almost all of my recent travels had been on another airline. An airline that doesn't charge extra for checked bags, and doesn't charge for drinks once on board. Seeing both of those shocked and annoyed me. As if travelling these days isn't annoying enough.

Security for me has generally been pretty smooth, if at times a bit slow. But I know for a lot of people that is the first annoyance they encounter. But on this occasion, my frustrations started before security: at check in. It seemed the airline lost my seat reservations. So rather than getting an aisle seat near the front of the plane, I got a middle seat at the back of the plane. Oh, and the AC thing didn't work (but that's another story).

As I said, security wasn't a problem, so I'll skip to boarding the plane. Once boarding started a mass of people clustered around the boarding line while waiting for their zone to be called. Of course, this meant that the people who's zones had been called had difficulty getting to the line. Once on board there is a struggle to get your bag into the bins, because people disregard the carry on limits. They bring on enormous bags, or three or four normal bags.

The well-travelled know that carrying on all your luggage means you save time at your destination and lessen the chance of losing a bag. Unfortunately too many people know this and there is a dearth of space for all of everyone's stuff. It probably doesn't help when the airlines charge extra for checking bags. Wouldn't it make more sense to charge people for the additional carry on bag? Or actually enforce the carry on rule? On the last leg of my trip back, a number of people had to check bags because the overhead bins were full. Big surprise.

On the first leg of my trip back, I was a bit excited because I managed to get the aisle seat in the front row. Unfortunately right before the door closed the passenger who had the seat next to me got on. He looked, and worse yet smelled, like he hadn't bathed in a day or two. I'm glad it was a short flight.

On the last leg of my trip, the guy sitting next to me was an armrest hog. He had the aisle seat, so was uncontested for one armrest. But he took over the armrest shared between us, and kept jabbing me in the side with his elbow.

I'm really trying not to be one of the jerks who complain about what jerks other people are. But as is obvious by this blog, I'm not entirely succeeding. However, since my readership is so low, I figure this is more like writing therapy. I can pretend I'm actually venting to someone.

So, the next time you travel, consider whether you're exceeding the carry on limit, and if the five minutes you save is worth the frustration to yourself and the other passengers. When you go to put your seat back, take a look behind you and see if you're about to smash the knees of the man or woman behind you.

First Houseguest

I survived my first house guest. Although to use such strong terminology implies something about my house guest that I don't intend. Since the trepidation I felt had more to do with my lack of housekeeping than any stress actually caused my my guest.

My cousin Elizabeth came to Boston to attend an APA convention and she stayed with me for four nights. It is always good to see her, even though in many ways we are diametrically opposed, specifically politically and in terms of diet. But we do have similar tastes in movies and can enjoy a bowl of popcorn together.

In other news, I'm totally vegging out watching the Olympics. Although, I tend to prefer the events that don't make primetime. I've really gotten into watching handball, waterpolo, weight lifting, wrestling, etc. I also prefer indoor volleyball to the beach volleyball. Indoor just seems faster, crisper, and the athletes don't look like postergirls for skin cancer. Now I'm looking forward to the track and field events, mainly the field events.