Linda back in town

Feeling the need to no doubt buy something at Pottery Barn, Linda scammed another trip to the US for something 'critical'.

Good timing too, since I needed her video for Patrick's birthday (more on that later).

We headed over to Mr. Green's house for a quick dinner - since her social calendar was already full - ahem, but a nice time had by all. Well, except for Liam, he was a bit over the whole thing until Barney was turned on, but what do you expect for a two year old. Liam, not me.

Kelly trying to be like Wade

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so it all went to Kelly's head when I stole her Mother's matching baby blue jacket. Actually I was just making fun of Kelly in the fact that she matched her mother - who does that?

Kind of shocking that you can't even tell us apart.

Brian is in town

Nothing says I'm a poor college student than visiting your relatives in Indianapolis for Spring Break. Granted I'm a cool Uncle and everything, and Patrick's a keeper - but I don't know about the rest of them . . . Kelly.

In truth it was good to see Brian again, and he was in Indy for a couple of days. This is us at Taste, a quaint little upscale, now too popular on Sunday morning hangout that actually doesn't do too bad a job of melding french and American foods together.

And that's also David holding Kelly back, since she wanted to sit next to me the whole time.

Disturbing fruit images

If the chocolate fondue incident was not enough, we also had time at Chris and Jill's to do disturbing things with fruit.

Just to clarify, this is not photographic trickery, said strawberry, otherwise known as the pelvis region, was actually one (and apparently non-organic) piece of fruit.

Ad you thought mad cow disease was scary.

Watch Tim Whittaker blow

Nothing says fun than making a Swiss snob break down into a crying baby fetal (is that redundant?). How was this accomplished you might ask?

Turns out to the shock of most Americans, the Swiss don't actually make chocolate fondue - as far as the Swiss concerned it was an abomination dreamed up by someone like Charles Manson or Walt Disney. So imagine Tim Whittaker, ex-Swiss citizen wannabee from spending years in Geneva, seeing chocolate fondue at Chris and Jill's house one night.

Fortunately we were able to talk him down from the ledge, but it involved poundcake smothered in a sauce that we just told him was brown cheese fondue.

The sacrifices we make in the name of diversity.

No more basement drying . . . maybe

One definite way to save on the electricity bill (even though Greta pays it in leiu of rent) is to stop using the dryer. Since we've been back from Ireland and had to use a "dryer" that took 4 hours to make a pair of jeans wearable - we're in the habit of just hanging our clothes up to dry. OK, so I'm also too cheap to fix the dryer we have, but it's all in the name of save up my carbon credits.

Well, in winter it's a bit of a bummer, since you end up drying clothes in the basement instead of on the line, but now with the days heating up, we should be able to have whiter whites and faded colored clothes.

Checking electricity usage

Knowledge will set you free.

Reading one of my left-wing eco-friendly blogs (yes, Treehugger) - I found an article about this little contraption. I forget the name, but it quickly measures your electrical usage in your entire house without calling out an electrician to install it. Had some quality issues with the received, but once they sent us a new one, everything was working great. Even bought the PC software package that graphs the usage. You can also set off audible alarms for when your usage goes over a certain threshold.

Key findings - we don't use a ton of electricity thanks to some non-incandescent lightbulbs, but irons and HVAC systems are killer. I don't think we'll end up saving the World with conservation - we'll need a smartgrid for that - but it is interesting to see what your usage is.

SCUBA: Puerto Rico

Couldn't pass up a SCUBA dive while working in Puerto Rico, so I went out Sunday. I didn't realize this but apparently most of the Carribean wildlife is pretty standard whether you're in San Juan or Curacao. Definitely the water visibility and quality is better, and probably some specific species that show up more places than others.

Regardless the dive was great, even if the water was a bit cold. If I were diving again, I'd at least would have worn a shortie. We did a beach dive and went two places. First dive was just around a huge loop, and then the second dive was more towards a pier. Lots of swimming in, up, around, and over various coral formations - which can be a bt tricky with the currents until you realize to just go when the other fish go.

We did see tons of wildlife: Conch, Clown Anenome Shrimp, Slippery Disk, Porgy, Coney, File Fish, Hogfish, Copper Sweepers, Feather Worms, Brain Coral, Gorgonians, Mantis Shrimp, Clown Wrasse, Smooth Trunkfish, PR Butterfly Fish, Butterfly FIsh, Scorpion Fish, Drum Fish, Yellowtail snapper, Chubs, Sargeant Majors, Blue Tangs, Surgeonfish, Rainbow Parrot Fish, Spotlite Parrot Fish, Cocoa Damsel Fish, Trumpetfish, Squirrel Fish, French Angel Fish, Yellowtail Damsel Fish, Pork Fish, Grunts, Wrasse, Blue-headed Wrasse, Brittle Starfish, Arrowcrabs, Goatfish, Seafans, Anenome, and Beau Gregory.

Coolest stuff had to be the brittle coral that only live in some caves - beautiful purple. There was also another coral that was the brightest orange, I've ever seen. Parrot Fish are always a favorite, and most interesting animal had to be the Mantis Shrimp that lived in holes in the sand that you could coax out with some seaweed.

SCUBA details that no one else would really care about (except my old instructor who would be proud of my small use of air):
Dive 1: (Figure 8 Reef) 45m, 30ft, 12lbs, used 1100. Too heavy (no wetsuit)
Dive 2: (Horseshoe Reef) 50m, 30ft, 9lbs, used 1100. Perfect (no wetsuit(

Patrick get an iPhone (that twit)

Yes, that is a smug face.

Since Patrick returned from France a month earlier than I did two years ago, his mobile phone contract is up before mine. Of course, he has patiently waited for the contract to end so he could buy an iPhone, and he's been an anti-social Apple geek for the past several days.

The phone is cool, the applications are cool - heck, even the ringtones are cool. I want one !!!