Why supporting a child is good.

Frankie is our pride and joy in life.

She is also a tad expensive. Kind of like a lifetime car payment. Not always a bad thing I realized this morning.

I stopped in to the place I have to admit I'm addicted to - Starbucks. After they stole my $1.65 this morning for my cup of flavored water, I left and noticed a guy walking in. He had a Coach bag over his shoulder (I used to work in Filene's Basement in Boston in handbags, for ONE semester, ugh). I looked closer and realized it wasn't just a cool leather bag, but a man-purse. A really frigging expensive one. I think it was this one. Four hundred and frickin' twenty eight dollars for a bag that is undeniably ugly. It must be a little bit nice to have so much money you get bored spending it, but I'm pretty content with what I've got. Even if our dishes are 20 years old and were purchased used for $9 at a yard sale.

OSU Forestry Sale for Xmas Trees!!!!

I posted this morning on ColumbusUnderground.com to see if anyone knew of the dates for the upcoming OSU Forestry Department's Xmas Tree Sale. Jeff from the Wexner Center at OSU kindly emailed me the following:

The dates for the tree sale are Nov 30 and Dec 1, 8AM to dark, while supplies last.

The location is the parking lot behind the new 4-H building on the NW corner of Lane and Fred Taylor Rd. Enter the parking lot in front of the new building from Fred Taylor Rd.

Thanks Jeff!

Leaves Part I: Front Yard

This morning I bought 60 30 gal lawn leaf bags. Thirty have been used. And, the trees in the back are only about 1/3 fallen.

Next year, we write the check.

Columbus Public Schools

Artie Isaac has a great piece this morning in The Dispatch. From all of our visits to open houses for Columbus Public Schools and my many interactions with CPS teachers, it is an accurate description of the School System.

The test scores say little about our great public schools amidst their challenging demographics.

Also good reading, his blog.

Last Night's Debate

administration against ahead america american believe bush care china country debate education governor health illegal important iraq issue issues lot military national nuclear number pakistan people percent plan president question really rights security something stage start states support sure talk thank think trade understand united vote voted war years yes

created at TagCrowd.com

Columbus Computer Repair, where to go??

Frankie's teacher has a computer hobbling on one leg and trying to stay alive. I can pop in a pci card and maybe swap a drive, but what to do when the problem needs serious diagnostic evaluation? I hate the knee-jerk solution so common today of "just buy another ...". Yeah, just pop the piece of junk in the dumpster and no one will care and go to Dell for a cheapie. It's an easy solution, but if a repair is possible, it doesn't just fix one machine, it prevents another from being tossed into a landfill.

So, where to go? My favorite was Computer Success off Bethel, but they went out of business. My next shot? Dos-Boot. With a clever name like that, I thought I couldn't go wrong. It's next to Joy's Kitchen in the Ohio Stater Mall. Easy parking and some hard-working lads. Brought in the machine today and although it's still in critical condition, they have a promising and inexpensive lead that may save the machine. And, fast too. Give 'em a shot.

[Dave received no compensation for this, just promoting local business.]

OLPC

Give One, Get One, if I had an extra $399, this is where it'd go! The only problem is, Frankie and I would fight over it. The functionality and durability of this machine looks amazing.

Mom? You out there? Frankie's looking at this and asking if she can have one.

This thing works!

I'm considering bringing this thing to Starbucks during a really heavy traffic period. It weighs about 35 pounds and actually works. They go for about $300 on ebay (and about $60 shipping!). Can you imagine the looks I'd get from the type-A crowd buzzing in and out in the morning?

It's Here! Happy Holidays.

Will Curious George bring manufacturing back to US?

An interesting site I stumbled on recently is Google Trends (updated hourly). The popular search expressions, when clicked, show a trendline and top web/blog/news posts related to the search expression. It's an interesting way to see the news via the interaction of popular web, news and blogposts.

Curious George is one of the latest failures from China. His cute yellow paint seems to have lead in it. I don't know if this is something I should hope for since I don't understand the economic implications, but, I wonder if these recalls continue, if manufacturing will slowly come back home?

Safe food or overregulation?

Columbus Public Health Dept. is now posting inspection reports on their site. Since we dine out quite a bit, and go to inexpensive places, I think we'll be paying close attention to the places we go. I haven't seen these signs posted yet on restaurants but you can look them up on their website.

One interesting inspection came from Hometown Buffet on Morse (I don't like to admit this, but we actually like this place):

Violation: Food employee was touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands.

Correction: Food employees may not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands and shall use suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment, except when washing raw fruits and vegetables to remove soil before being cut or prepped.

Comments: Observed employee touching ready to eat melons with bare hands. The melons were voluntarily discarded. Corrected.

Status: Corrected - No further action required - violation corrected at time of inspection

Food Employee? I believe nearly half of the patrons touch the food with bare hands. Too bad they don't expect the customers' behavior.