Asymptomatic

Apparently, there is a tropical storm bearing down on us this holiday weekend in the Northeast US, and watching (mostly listening to) the news has me wondering how serious this storm really is.

The weather service reports:

Ernesto is expected to weaken and become a tropical rainstorm within the next 6 to 12 hours, but will still pack strong winds on its trek northward Friday into Friday evening. ... The system will spread very heavy rain north across the mid-Atlantic states from North Carolina and Virginia Friday morning and during the day Friday, then into Pennsylvania and parts of mostly central and western New York state later Friday night into Saturday. ... Life-threatening flooding will occur across parts of North Carolina and Virginia and possibly north into Pennsylvania.

I'm not convinced that the weather service is above hyperbole for the sake of safety, but haven't we weathered tropical storms before? Was all of this hysterical panic present with all prior storms, or is it just overinterest caused by last year's bout with Katrina? ...

Friday night, while the remains of Ernesto howled through Twin Hills, Abby and Riley hung out at Pop-Pop's house and Berta and I spent the night alone.

Having recently watched a Food Network show, "Good Eats", where the host explains how to make your own sushi at home, we decided that we would rather have someone make it for us. We dined at Aoki, and sat at the sushi bar. We didn't get to order anything fancy, instead opting to eat off the menu. I don't think the chefs at the bar were too enthusiastic to be creative with their food construction, and have become a bit too Americanized with an expectation that if it's not on the menu, then it's not available. In any case, the food was tasty.

We considered going to see a movie, but the next showing of the movie we wanted to see was not until late, so instead we went over to the mall to shop for a bed. Yes, I know movies and beds are not even close to the same thing.

We came to the Sleep Number store in the mall, and waited for the sales guy to free up from these two daft ladies who weren't going to buy anything. We asked a few questions, tried out the beds. I think my sleep number is 35, but that might change with the arrival of our own bed.

The Sleep Number bed is basically a mattress with several air chambers that inflate to provide support. The mattress is fully inflated at 100, and gets softer the lower the number goes. There is a remote-operated pump that puts air into the mattress and lets it out. Each side of the bed can be inflated or deflated separately, so we can both sleep in comfort on our own side of the bed.

The bed we picked has a kind of cushion built into the mattress top. It's not that temper-foam stuff, but it's squishy and nice. It's a king size, so it should fill the room a bit more (our bedroom is big and looks really empty) than our current queen. The bed will also come with a wireless remote rather than two wired remotes. Our bedroom is going to have more remotes than the family room soon. One for the TV, one for the light/fan, and one for the bed. Crazy. more

A service called Bringo offers to wade through call trees (those mazes of menu options when calling a corporate phone number) and then call you when they've found a human to talk to you.

The Google Image Labeler is like a game where you and a partner try to give labels to images that match. I'm not sure how the point system works, but it's neat to see how you can guess similar keywords for images to someone else.

I find myself driving a lot more often than I would like. During those times, I am usually listening to my XM radio. The XM tuner uses an FM modulator that allows me to tune my radio to an otherwise empty channel and listen to satellite radio.

I also have a Creative Zen Micro that I use on longer trips to listen to audiobooks. I'm using some Belkin-brand FM modulator to listen to the Zen playback on channel 107.3.

The funny thing is that these two devices don't always work as intended, and I think it's the fault of the iPod. more