Arthur and Melissa’s Notes on Everything

If you watched Dateline this week and saw the show on iPod thieves, did you spot the amusing statistic that nobody mentioned? It seems like Best Buy is the favorite store among petty thieves in affluent neighborhoods. Only two of the people they talked to on the show who took their planted iPods said they got them from Circuit City; the rest claimed to have bought them at Best Buy. Personally, I wouldn’t set foot in Best Buy unless they were blowing out something for at or below cost — they’ve basically said that educated customers aren’t welcome in their stores.

We were having lunch today, and a large after-church group was in the restaurant with us. All the adults and toddlers were at one big table, while all the school kids including a bunch of teenagers were at another table. No surprise, given that I’m writing this, the kids table was loud and a bit out of control. The funny part came when right before the waitress brought the check for the kids table, one of the fathers turned to the kids table and told them in a religious, fatherly voice, “Give a good tip, and put some love in it.”

The really sad part? As best as I could tell, the kids ended up passing the check back off to the parents despite the fact that they’d obviously been given money for or told to pay for their own lunch.

This morning I was caught by surprise when it was snowing (or flurrying, I suppose) when I took Fezzik out for his morning business. Usually when I see snow, it has made it up to the big hunks of ice stage where there’s no particular aesthetic quality to it. But this morning I noticed that little asterisks were landing on my jacket – almost nothing but perfect little snowflakes, exactly like you see in textbook pictures of a snowflake under a microscope. They were light enough to float on to my jacket without slamming in to me and disintegrating on impact, so I had time to get a good look at them. It was cool, but I’m not sure that it was worth standing out in the cold to see it.

While visiting Houston, we attempted to check out the observation deck in the Williams Tower. When we got there, security told us it was closed after September 11, 2001 for terrorism concerns. For some reason, I had an urge to leave the building with my arms outstretched, making airplane noises and running into walls.

Sigh. The terrorists have already won, and nobody seems to have noticed.

I noticed something on all the big cable news networks the other day — anything major happening in the world is “Breaking news” until it’s over. Now perhaps I’m a bit simple-minded, but after Israel and Hezbollah have been going at it for a few weeks, is it really breaking news that one has attacked the other for another day? Breaking news would be that they’ve stopped.

When we came home from shopping this afternoon, I asked Melissa, “Didn’t we adopt a dog?” We’ve got a one dog menagerie — when he’s really worked up and exited, he snorts like a pig. Fezzik frequently hops around like a rabbit when he’s running, which is really cute with his poodle ears flopping up and down. Other times, he’s climbing around on the backs of the couch and chairs like he’s trying to be a cat. A drunk cat, perhaps. Poodle mixes don’t really have that kind of balance…

Good news! Our web server is finally back online after an extended disappearing act. It’s just in time for me to report on a little amusement this week…

The management company for the office building I now work in sent an announcement this week that they’re putting in a fitness center for the tenants to use. Good idea, nice perk. Obviously, this fitness center will only be open weekdays during business hours. <scratches head>

One comment I heard was:

I wonder how long that’s going to last. It’s like, hey, here’s a free Coke. But wait! You have to perform a back handspring over this 6-foot wall while signing some forms in triplicate, wait 30 days for approval, then use your super secret id badge to access it. However, you can only drink it when you’re not thirsty, or in the 5 minute interval before or after becoming thirsty, only on Tuesdays when there is a waning gibbous moon at 37 degrees azimuth.

I think I’d die of thirst.

Twinkle, twinkle.

We took this picture out at our house a couple of nights ago. The large star on the left is Venus and the smaller one on the right is Jupiter. Obviously, the big thing in the middle is the moon. Hopefully we’ll be moved into the house soon enough that we can get a good view from the telescope on the back porch.

What is it?

Earlier this week, Melissa noticed that we have blackberries growing along the fence behind our lot. Mixed in with the blackberries is a thorny bush that’s growing some golf ball size hard green fruit things that we don’t recognize. After Melissa smacked one against the foundation of the house, it didn’t break at all, but it did start to smell like citrus. Perhaps we’ll find out what these things are when they grow up and ripen, or perhaps somebody else recognizes what this plant is, because without a doubt, I am not a botanist!

No, wait, this is Independence Day… Enjoy it anyway!