Opening Credits

As old TV series are released on DVD's, it has become more apparent that, at least in the 80's, action footage is recycled from episode to episode. You don't notice it as much when the episodes are a week apart, but when you have the ability to watch several back to back, it becomes more obvious. I noticed this awhile back, and it has become sort of a recurring conversation between me and my wife.

I recently started watching CHiPS again. My wife commented the other day, while watching a segment where Ponch and Jon were merging from an on ramp to the highway, that "they sure use that footage a lot." My reply was, "yes, once a week for 6 years, it's the opening credits sequence."

In her defense, my wife doesn't care for my taste in old 80's TV shows. She tolerates them, but doesn't care to watch them. That being said, she often sees parts of them if she's in the room doing something when I'm watching them.

And there is a trend with TV shows now days where opening credits have been replaced with just a graphic with the name of the show, and the actual credits are displayed during the first minute or so of the show. This allows them to pack more into an episode, by not taking up time with opening credits. More likely, it allows them to have more commercial breaks, without reducing the content of the episode.

R.I.P.

In Memory of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). You will be missed.

More Meh

If I can get through May, I think I'll be able to relax again. I know, just three months ago, I was saying, If I can just get through March, I'll be able to relax again. The difference this time is that I said "I think."

I'm traveling more this year. If nothing changes, I will be on more planes this year than any other year in my life. Maybe, I should say, I'll be on planes more days this year than any other year in my life. I say this simply because, three of the trips I have are all non-stop flights both ways, and I can only think of one time in my life prior to this year, where I was on a non-stop flight. And it was only non-stop one way. So in the past one trip would mean 4 planes, where this year, one trip means 2 planes for all but one of my planned trips.

My favorite airline is now Airtran, as opposed to my previous favorite, Delta. Unfortunately, I will also be flying United and Delta this year. Airtran has been consistently arriving early to my destinations. And that whole upgrade to business class for $49 is well worth it for someone who is 6'2". You get lots of extra room and you get more drinks, even before you take off. The minute you sit down, there is a flight attendant taking your drink order. In addition you get to check two bags for no additional cost (almost worth it for that alone). You also get to go through the employee security line, which for Baltimore International Airport means, you go through the shorter line that doesn't have the look-at-you-naked booths and the touchy-feely TWA people. And snacks; I almost forgot snacks. You get a choice of a good, quality snack; not just peanuts. You can get chips, cookies, etc. my favorite is the twice backed potato sticks, that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. You are also the first on and off of the plane.

Dogs With Lasers

Diane bought a laser pointer to play with the dogs. The youngest dog is amazed by it, and is constantly jumping and pouncing on it. He even tries to eat it. Our idea was to give the dogs a little exercise using it, but knowing how OCD the dog is, I feel sorry for him. He really wants to catch it and eat it, and he seems so frustrated when he can't. last night, we put a treat on the floor, and ended the game by putting the red dot on the treat. Hopefully it gave him the satisfaction he needed.

The oldest dog doesn't care for it. In fact the only thing that has changed for him, is that he tends to hide behind my chair because the youngest dog is jumping around so much that it scares him.

I thought it would be fun to put the red dot on the older dog, to see if the younger one attacks him. It didn't work. Probably for the best.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Not all of the time, but easily most of the time, if I spend a lot of money on something, it usually stops working, or something goes wrong with it very quickly. Last Saturday, I took the new lawn mower out for a spin. The back yard had not been mowed yet this year, and needed it more, so I decided to start with the back. The lawn mower cut beautifully. It ran well, was comfortable, had plenty of power. It was the best mowing experience of my life for 20 minutes. Then the engine died, and it wouldn't restart. Of course the place I bought it is only open until noon on Saturdays, and since I was heading out of town on Monday morning, I didn't even get to call them about it until yesterday. They came to pick it up today to fix it. The good news is that they tried to start it and gave it a once over before taking it with them, and they couldn't figure it out. So at least I didn't look like an idiot. The day it happened, I was sure it was something that I had done wrong, so I reread the manual, and even checked some of the troubleshooting tips (which are written for morons by the way, and didn't help a bit). Hopefully it's some easy fix, and I will have it back soon. I guess it's back to the old lawn mower for tomorrow.

Also on last Saturday, I decided to change the light bulbs in our garage, that had suddenly a week earlier, decided to all go out at once. I broke one of the fixtures trying to put the first bulb in, so decided to wait for a day when everything I touch wasn't breaking.

Also on last Saturday, during the middle of all of this, our Internet went down. Spent about 30 minutes on it, before deciding it was a service issue, which fixed itself a few hours later.