Columbus Needs a Streetcar to Remove Shit Piled Up On High Street

I must be the only person in Columbus vehemently opposed to the streetcar project. It's 100 million dollars.

I think I could revitalize the corridor for about a few thousand bucks.

I was out early Sunday morning on my way to Spinelli's Deli to get a bunch of Columbus' absolutely best bagels for a Sunday get together. I drove up and down High Street in the University District. It looked like SHIT. Trash everywhere. We recently moved from the area, so I was even more sensitive to it now than I ever was.

I know the connection may be odd, but when I observed the surrounding neighborhoods of IU, UM and Purdue, the neighborhoods are beautiful. Speckled with Craftsman homes, clean, nice shops, quaint, not too many franchises. Comfy. OSU's surrounding neighborhood is dingy with trash and shit everywhere. Landlords must receive bonuses for moving to Florida while their properties decay.

Instead of taking care of the area holding the greatest density population in central Ohio, the current administration wants to replace the old Honda with a big friggin' expensive (hybrid) Hummer. And, waste a shitload of money doing it.

A shiny, clean campus, I argue, would provide a major boost to Columbus. People would want to live closer to campus, the surrounding neighborhoods would be stimulated, more would use the bus system that seems to be working just fine. Why the obsession with this streetcar thing? Hearing about it in the news is more painful than a Mariah Carey ballad.

• Dispatch Updates sorted by date. Many opposed.
• Editorial Thomas Sawyer's editorial (former Akron mayor, Dispatch 12-Apr-08.

She's not four and a half and three quarters forever anymore.

She's 5.
I can't believe we all survived.
She has a pretty grueling schedule for the next few days; parties, dentist, circus, etc. If you call to wish her a happy birthday, call tonight between 7-7:30 (to try to keep her schedule) and don't worry if you call sometime during the weekend. Sunday evening she may not be home.

Today, I spent the morning with her doing science experiments with her and her friends and teachers (whatever they're paid, it's not enough) at school (we made slime). All had a blast. Pics and movies will be distributed later.

Amazing

This past weekend, Suze went to camp with one of our dedicated dog walkers and we took a break to Coco Key Water Resort. It was kind of interesting to go only 40 minutes away to vacation. Fun actually. The fun of a new setting and none of the exhaustion of long travel.

The indoor waterpark is pretty intimidating at first but much like Vegas for the 12 and under crowd. Got to get out early and claim your lounge chairs or cabana. Once your turf is established, the fun begins. On Saturday we went to the water park from 9 until 5, no breaks. Frankie had a friend join her and we even met some neighbors for a dinner there on Saturday night. A bit pricey, but I think we'd go back sometime. Here's a very brief clip of a quick pan of a chunk of the water park.

Coco Key Water Resort from dave_scarpetti on Vimeo.

Frankie imitates Leslie Nielsen

Frankie walks in today after school with a basket made of hardened dough containing two colored eggs.

Frankie: "Papa, they're edible!"
Me: "They're what?"
Frankie (exasperated): "You can eat them!"

And in the aftermath of one of the greatest auctions in history, we are left with absolutely hilarious detritus

--created with togo.ebay.com (it's a fun tool)

Why is this happening??????????

This absolutely fascinating. Currently bid at $2,225 and 52,000 visitors to ebay.
ebay listing.

$200,444.00, I ... can't ... go ... to ... sleep ...

What if it gets moldy?

Did I win?

About a 2 or 3 times a year I buy one of these things. Why do I get the urge to toss a dollar away? For some reason it makes thinking about the financial fortune and what I'd do with it a bit more fun. I usually don't check the ticket for days.

My most recent lottery fantasy is pretty simple. I'd probably keep my job, maybe knock it back to part time. Go on a trip with the gang to Lyon, give my family a few bucks. The material stuff? I'd get an F-350 lifted with duallies, a hard hat and go rebuild homes around the city and sell them at cost to deserving families.

Ayone got a good lottery wish?

Blogrush, Site Traffic and WorldCooking123

If you fantasize about someday getting rich and/or popular via the internets, site traffic is pretty much the holy grail. Projects such as BlogRush give you some way to get more traffic by linking you to other like-minded blogs. Doesn't work very well. Despite their "evaluation" of the content of your site, they make a judgement about whether you're worthy of the almighty Blogrush widget.

They actually approved a site called World Cooking 123. This site has approximately 18-20 clickable ads above the fold. Don't visit, the site will likely crash your browser. It's a detestable site (and, yes, I'm hoping they Technorati themselves 'til they're blind and see this post) I've ever seen. Once you page down a few times, there's a blip of content. I never made it, my browser kept crashing.

I can never figure out sites like this. They usually don't get any traffic, they're ugly and I suspect they make about a nickel per thousand visitors. Fortunately, these sites languish quickly. Everyone's busy and everyone knows how to buy stuff, going to some obscure site isn't the major path to buying cheap shit for your kitchen.

Fortunately, quality content trumps all. Smart, clever and not greedy people rule the creative web.

Tonight, we will eat spaghetti and meatballs!

brrrr

This is not what you want to see in front of your home.

So I get in this afternoon, excessively salivating over the meatballs I made last night for tonight's dinner. Hmmm. Chilly in the house, gas burner not turning on, paid the bill on time, ...?

That was about 4 hours ago and it's now about 58-deg-F in my home. We're especially close tonight. Columbia Gas is in my front lawn digging holes playing utility CSI. Most evidence points to water in the line - on their side fortunately. I suspect they'll get the heat on by about 5 in the morning Wednesday night. We hope.

I just over seeded the lawn this past Sunday.

How's Suze taking this ...



At least it makes her pooping in the living room much less of a problem.