"Fish are friends, not food!"

Yes, yes... I know the above are not really fish but you get the idea. Ever since I was young I've always been fascinated by turtles (among many other animals). These turtles are at my mom's house and the pictures were actually taken in August. They continue to grow and just keep growing. A few months before they were diagnosed ill with pneumonia and were also anemic. In the beginning my mom & sister restricted their portions as we didn't want them overeating and getting too big too fast. My mom & sister obviously feed them more now and they get pretty excited when they see you coming with food...which kind of makes me wonder.. do the turtles even love my family or are they just using them for food?

Frank and Carol's wedding

I kept my name placeholder. A lot of effort goes into these things you know ;-)

doh.. my tie is crooked..

Haha..Mel and Sabrina doing their fob pose :-)

Frank and Carol got married this past Sun at the Saratoga Country Club. Dang, what a smiley couple ;-) For those who don't know, Frank was my old college roomate....poor guy had to put up with my sunny dispositions, habits, etc. Seeing Frank that day along with all the UCLA people reminded me a lot of the old days in Tiverton. How time flies.. Frank, all the best to you and Carol!

Edit: The lovely shot above is courtesy of Jason Y. More great photos have been compiled here! Check em out ;-)

Crickets

When we first moved in, we had an ant problem. There were some holes & cracks where they would come in. Quik Seal, ant bait and bit of vacuuming didn't work out too well as they would keep coming. After a bit of Raid and after our backyard sprinklers were installed, the ant problem was abated. It was summer and pretty dry so I think the ants were just looking for water.

But lately you'll find one or two crickets in our kitchen. For the life of me, I can't figure out where they are coming from as the holes & cracks are now plugged up or are too small. We are also pretty good about closing the garage and front door. Perhaps it could be the vents? But it's not like I'm going to sit in the kitchen all day and stare at the vents just to be sure. Depending on my disposition, I trap them with a plastic CD spindle case and I'll either set them free outside or flush them down the toilet. But when I perform the latter I end up feeling worse. It is all very annoying.

In the grand scheme of things..

With all the recent natural and man-made disasters and the images/stories of countless lives tragically affected it really does put things in perspective. Sure many of us have "problems" of some sort and by no means do I mean to trivialize them. But if you are even able to read this right now, I think it's safe to say that your life is relatively pretty good at the moment.

MT700 is alive!

Ben, are you angry? Why is your face so red? Right, it's the not the MT700's fault. I need to calibrate it still. But at least your clothes are not yellow spotted anymore.

Ah, much better...Whites are actually white again :-)

I received my MT700 back from Toshiba/Tops last Friday.. I actually received it back on Tuesday. The original HDMI connection issue was resolved but I then noticed strange color issues. Scenes with white have a weird yellowish blotches. For example in the opening of Star Wars, Princess Leia's white dress and Luke's clothing had yellowish blotches as did the white walls of the Rebel ship. Desert scenes with sand were also discolored with similar yellowish blotches. Greys on the Deathstar had blotches of blue. From what I've read it could be the color wheel delay settings but you can only change these in the hidden Service Menu. Not wanting to do further damage, I sent it back again. But kudos to Tops as I experienced a fast turnaround time once again (sent Wed, fixed Thur, received back on Fri). Suffering from withdrawl I watched a movie on Fri, Sat and Sun night. Ok, it was partial withdrawl as I really wanted to make sure things were OK now and they seem to be. Although I wish all the issues were fixed the first time I sent it back I have been very impressed with Toshiba and Tops for the courteous service and extremely fast turnaround time. Should any future issues arise, I really hope to receive this same level service again as it really helped to alleviate the recent frustrations. A shot of "the Plastics" from Mean Girls above.

Edit: I called Tops today and the lady I spoke to indicated that the main board was swapped out so good thing I returned vs messing around with the Service Menu.