The Chaiten volcano erupts during storms in the middle of the night on May 3, 2008 in Chaiten, Chile. The Chaiten volcano, located some 800 miles south of the capital Santiago, was considered dormant since it had not erupted for hundreds of years. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area. (UPI Photo/Carlos Gutierrez) / eyevine Contact eyevine for more information about using this image: T: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709 E: i...@eyevine.com http://www.eyevine.com

Since these photos were on Google, though, I felt right as rain linking to them. Enjoy!

Ha, ha.

“We had a BBQ yesterday and JD reminded us the turtles should hatch soon. So I slowing started uncovering some sand. I went down about 6-8 inches and found nothing. Stated going down a little more when I felt something move under my finger. I stopped and we all waited. We then saw the sand start to move. About an hour later a little turtle came out about 1-1.5 inches long. He crawled around a bit, but mostly was staying still. I picked him up and placed him down about 3 inches from the edge of the water. After a few seconds he crawled in and swam away. Going back to the nest a saw the sand move some more, but it got dark and we had to go to bed. Before a left I smoothed out the sand to see if I could see any tracks the next day. In the morning I saw 5 separate tracks leading to the water!”

In this picture, you can see the cage my brother John put up around where the eggs were laid by the mom turtle. She laid the eggs in the beginning of the season.

I am reminded of Lisa and my honeymoon, on Jumby Bay Island off of Antigua. At the resort, there was a turtle nesting grounds and we were able to request a wake-up when the turtles were set down in the sand. It was an amazing midnight spectacle when we were roused from our bungalow and brought out to the beach. We saw at least six giant turtles laying eggs and we watched quietly in the bushes until they finished and crawled back to sea. When the beach was quiet, the nauralists dug up the eggs counted them and placed them back at specific depths before covering the eggs back up. A turtle’s sex is determined by depth (temperature).

This is the second year turtles hatched in my brother’s back yard. A good omen, I say.

I am told that after a day here, I’ll just say, ’screw it’ and stop communicating with the outside world. I promised to send e-mails to my kiddies, though, so I will search for WiFi.

Peace.

Before we set out, I set up everyone’s bikes. I called them out when their lunch was good and digested. Here is a picture of our rides. That mountain bike on the left is over 25 years old and still working great.

For the past few weeks, Giovanni’s riding helmet has been MIA. We have a spare, but it had a lame Transformers logo on it. Every time he has to use this helmet, he complains. So, I decided to pull out my handy can of black spray paint and go to work on it. In seconds, I had a brand-new jet black helmet. I set it in the sun and it dried in just a few minutes. There were still some traces of the underlying Transformers artwork, but a second coat would take care of that.

Here is a link to our route, a mere 7 or so miles. This route had minimal street traffic, which was a big drag with the route we took last week. If you click on the image, you’ll be taken to the Google Pedometer.

Marco definitely had the toughest time, being the youngest. His pace was very slow and I had to frequently motivate them. I promised the kids that if we made it to the second of three bridges, we could stop and have a snack. Well, they made it. See if there at the bottom of the map? That’s the bridge over Goose Creek, a popular little fishing spot. We saw lots of people on boats and jet skis out on the bay. I hope next year my brother and I will buy a couple of those. He has a house on the water and jet skis would definitely make for some good times. We also saw some people tubing. My brother and I tried to convince the kids to go tubing one day i n July, but they were too scared. Maybe next year.

Here are a few pictures of me and the kids sitting on top of a big rock at the end (and beginning) of the journey. The entrance to the bike path is in Cedar Creek Park.

From left: Antonio, Marco, Giovanni.

There I am with Giovanni and Marco. Yeh, with some moose antlers.

Thanks Kevin!

Thanks Kevin!

“Teach them well and let them lead the way…”

Thanks John!

We set off around 9:30am and made our way to our local bike shop, Brands. My father went to High School with the owner. They’ve been around for 40 years or more. When we got there,  I dumped off my own bike for repairs and picked up my wife’s which had recently had a tune-up. My mountain bike is at least 25 years old. I got it in High School. For whatever reason, it’s in perfect running shape so I never saw fit to have it replaced. Which is surprising since I spend more money than I ought to. The bike is a bit heavy by modern standards, but built like a tank.

From Brands, we went down Park Avenue in Wantagh. We passed Mulcahy’s, the train station, the fire house, and World Gym. This is where we were confronted with the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway. We rode north a little ways, parallel to the highway until we reached DeMott Ave. When we cut under the SOB, DeMott turns into Clark St. We took Clark St. through Seaford and into Massapequa. My biggest challenge was keeping the kids safe. I tought them how to stay close to the curb, constantly look back at cars passing them on the left, and how to safely deal with parked cars in their path. We took sidewalks when we could, but often sidewalks disappear in some neighborhoods. The kids were in good spirits and so far the trip was going really well.

When we got into the preserve, there was an easy entrance to the trail from Clark St. The trail went North/South and we wanted to go North so we could visit my friend Joe. Antonio is in class with his son. Going South would have brought us to the beginning of the trail which ends at Sunrise Highway.

On the trail, we saw all kinds of ponds and animal life. In the next two pictures you see a nice view of one of the ponds on the way. After that, you can see the hungry raccoon scouring the side of the road for something to eat.

We made it all the way up to the Southern State parkway where we went on-road again and went to Joe’s house in Massapequa Park. Antonio jumped in the pool and played with their kids for a while. Giovanni and I sat by the pool and talked with Joe for a while. We left after about 30 minutes and headed back.

On the way back, we decided to take the wooded route and do some real mountain biking. It was hard going for the kids. There were lots of mud spots, tree roots, and difficult terrain to deal with. It was mostly flat, though, which made progress pretty steady. Here are a few shots of the kids.

Below is a picture where we stopped for lunch right before the shots above. A man and his dog came by and the dog helped himself to our bowl of Tuna! No worries, it was leftover as we’d already made our sandwiches.

Here is a map of our trek. Each way we biked about 6 miles. I’m surprised the kids made it through a 12 mile bike ride. That’s nothing to sneeze at for an 8 and 9 year old. We made plenty of stops to make sure they were rested and riding strong. I also gave them plenty of sugar. At one point, we stopped and just listened to music on my iPod which sent tunes out through it’s external speaker.

Good times.

It looks good so far, but don’t know if I can post photos yet.

If I could use a rusty boxcutter to carve a new orifice in my body that’s compatible with this link cable, I would already be doing it. I can just imagine the pure musical goodness that would flow through this cable into the wound and fill me completely — like white, holy light. Holding this cable in my hands actually makes me feel that much closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I only make $6.25/hr at Jack In The Box, but I saved up for three months so I could have this cable. It sits in a shrine I constructed next to my futon in Mother’s basement.

I only gave it four stars in my review because I can’t find music that is worthy enough to flow through this utterly perfect interconnect.

And a link to the description for the cable. I tend to agree, what’s the big deal here?

Wow, you have to watch the video… pretty cool math stuff…

Cool painting of Ultron.

Thanks John!

Do you like these alternate renditions of popular super heroes?

“I’ve never really did one of these things so I
thought I’d show you guys my version of Petey and Spidey. I’m a big fan
of the Super Dorko Peter Parker from the early 60’s more then the
modern cool ass Petey of today. To me the Geek Pete was the ultimate
mask. No one ever suspects a friendless braniac loser with a hunch to
be the super strong, wall crawling, web swinging hero. I wanted to
elongate his porportion and give him very lanky figure. This look to me
sort of makes him look more “SPIDER” like when he pops on the suit.
Anyways…Tell me what ya think of my version fellow devs.”

This is one of the funniest things that I have ever seen.

Favorite quote, “Airplane, Eight Ball, Yin Yang, Glasses, Mailbox, Open Mailbox!” I just wish that translated to something intelligible. I get Q[$-. and I’m missing eight ball… not sure what character that maps to.

Check out the FAIL blog for more FAILing goodness…

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How do people do this? I can’t draw a real cheetah

At lunch, we sat with a pad and thought about what we wanted for dinner. Seafood came up and since I had been wanting to grill some shrimp at some point, I thought this an excellent time to try it. Shrimp went on the list.

When I got to the seafood store, I noticed how good those scallops looked and I thought they would cook equally well on the BBQ. I was a little torn over bay or sea scallops. Bay scallops are much smaller than sea scallops and I wondered which might fare better on a skewer.

When I got home, I rubbed some Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Seafood Magic on all of the seafood and stuck all of the meat onto skewers. I fired up the BBQ and layed down some tinfoil as I was afraid the scallops would fall apart. You can see here a mixture of bay and sea scallops simmering.

As it turns out, sea scallops suck ass on the BBQ. They get all tender and fall apart, leaving behind a big mess. The bay scallops clung happily to the skewer and came out fantastic! Once the scallops were done cooking on the tin-foil, I placed them directly on he grill so they would get seared a bit to add to the flavor.

Still, the king of the BBQ today, in my eyes, were the shrimp. Shrimp are extremely sturdy on the skewer and cook in moments. It took about 60 seconds on each side and they were done.

We served a salad with dinner and I made some homemade guacamole. My dad bought a raw piece of tuna and sliced it sashimi thin. We mixed up some of our own wasabi from powder, poured on some soy sauce and enjoyed some of the best tuna sushimi I ever had. Sorry, no pictures.

old man skate party, originally uploaded by yerko.

A few friends from the office, just chillin’

I wonder if there are any mathematical proofs proving this.

Big Brother, Little Sister, originally uploaded by NickCody.

A few weeks ago, the family went upstate to rural Long Eddy New York for a weekend getaway with the Peake clan.

My friend Bruce’s father, Gary, has built quite a compound o n his 300-acre wilderness. It’s got a log cabin, an outhouse, two man-made ponds, a man-made lake, shooting targets, wilderness trails up the wazoo, and best of all a clubhouse complete with satellite TV and a keg on tap.

We slept in my new Mountain Hard Ware tent and it weathered a pretty strong rainstorm. I was on a camping trip a few years ago where my tent “failed” during a torrential downpour and the inside of the tent had puddles in it. It was a horrible night. Glad my Everest tent held up!

In a few weeks, we’re going camping with the Zingers and the Bortko’s so I’m looking forward to that.

Here, we see Antonio leading Serafina toward the clubhouse. There was a caged rattlesnake up there and I think they wanted to hear it get mad.

Thank goodness that I used FeedBurner to manage my feed! Three cheers to starting my tag cloud all over again! Yay!