Gambling Online

Online Gambling sites like,  Casino Red , take the travel out of having to go to Vegas or some other far off place to lose your money. Instead of paying air fare and a hotel room you can just snuggle up to your friendly PC and place your bets. It's enticing but is it smart ??


Heck I have trouble trusting the Casinos I have visited in person, never mind the Virtual ones. Interestingly enough this is a billion dollar industry and much of the money being wagered is from the U.S. 

Trying to find out if it's legal?? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

It seems operating an online casino or facilitating the betting is probably going to get you in hot water here in the U.S.A.,  but merely making bets...as long as they aren't sporting bets.. seems to be ok, sort of. 

A man  from North Dakota, Jeffrey Trauman,  made some sports bets and won $100,000 online but he violated a State Law for which he was fined $500. It  still seems Jeff came out a winner in that. As far as I have been able to determine,  there is no specific Federal Law that prohibits people playing online it just gets tricky on how the money is channeled to and from the casino. 

Places like PayPal and many major Credit Card companies won't allow their customers to use their services to transfer money from their accounts to online casinos because of U.S. laws that prohibit that practice. But just because it's illegal for banks to do it, there are still those out there that want to help you find a way to do it 

So it's true that it is easier to gamble from home or your local internet cafe, but maybe it's better to have the Casinos a bit out of reach. Clearly online or when you are at your favorite Casino, gambling is a risk, and one should always be aware of what they are risking.


Good Luck whatever your choice might be and Happy New Year to all

Merry Christmas

Thanking the one's we could live without....

Without the people that make our blood boil, life might become boring. It's time to give thanks for those who have helped our hearts work a little harder by simply being themselves.  Help me start a new tradition by thanking the people we would love to send on a vacation to the Sun...

I want to thank all the nit wits, assholes, grumpy old codgers and little punks that pissed me off from time to time over the past year...Thanks guys, you make me feel like a much better person than I probably am.


Thankyou to Sarah Palin, without you, McCain might have gotten elected President of the United States...Thanks Sarah! 


Thanks to Senator John Ensign R-(NV) and the South Carolina Governor and leader of the Republican Govenor's Association the honorable Mark Sanford for having extramaritial affairs,  you have helped me to remember that most of you elected officials are lowlife scum, thanks guys!!


Thanks to Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service, if it wasn't for the zest your employees seem filled with every time they collect money from me I'd think that no one in government is doing their job, thanks guys...The check is in the mail !!


Thanks to the makers of Tamiflu and the Neighborhood Health Plan, you guys working together still managed to screw me for a $50 Co Pay for 10 pills,  I haven't been touched like that in years...Thanks Guys!!


I'll thank the nice people in a later post, is there anyone despicable enough out there that you would like to thank??


Please feel free to thank them in my comment section

Government at Work

OUR 
CONGRESS AT WORK.

Should we buy them larger screen computers - or - a ticket home, 
permanently?

Nothing else need to be said.  This is one of their THREE DAY WORK WEEKS that we all pay for.  I am ready to start from the beginning by voting out all elected officials and not letting any of them stay in office for more than two terms.  No more lifelong healthcare, retirement, voting in their own pay raises, taking perks on our taxes, etc.

House Minority Leader  Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far  right, speaks while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert,  D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a  new budget. (AP)

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two...  he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores. 

These are the folks that can't get the budget out by Oct. 1,  Seriously!!! 

So, weve got a 30 day budget extension. Well, guess what, 30 days from now we will be 
in the same boat. I guess this makes it easy for the news reporters as all they have to do is recycle the same headlines from this week and from 2 years ago. And these yo-yos will still be playing SOLITAIRE!!! 

I'm all for voting ALL out and start with a clean slate! Max terms and no life time benefits!!!

My First Demotivational Poster

CRAZY!

The Weather Ahead or Jealous in San Diego

Looking at the week ahead it seems that sunshine and 70 degree tempratures have been forecast for the San Diego, CA area. Poor miserable slobs.

Here in the Boston, Ma - We are , with the exception of a sunny dry day on Thursday, looking at rain over the next week !! Nice !!

Sorry San Diego !!

Remembering Mary

It's been 5 years since Mary passed away and every year whatever family we can put together remembers and celebrates the fun she added to our lives. Last night was no different as her nephew and niece danced and her brother in law Mark, sister in-law Linda, her big sister Kathryn, her two brothers Charles and John,her Mom Gailsie and I had dinner together, and kept Mary close to our hearts.

An Album Of Recent Pictures from Tom's Hideaway

Toms' Hideaway

Any Favorites,

Post a comment on particular pictures or the whole set.

Some New Photos

 Two Hancock Buildings in the distance

I've been away for a few days working out of town and so I took a few shots from the porch of the place I am painting. I'll be headed back there tomorrow night for a while longer but I hope you enjoy the views from the top floor of a Brownstone in the South End (Boston, MA)

In the second picture the greens really came out, I was shooting the picture in Night Mode.

Sunflowers out side of  New Hope Baptist Church 740 Tremont St, Boston

Holy Flowers BATMAN !!

Gloucester Sunset

Celebrity Sightings

Mike and Tom

Seemingly everywhere lately, the  ubiquitous Tom, was sighted at Fenway Park the other night. He an his friend Mike were smiling on the way home from the Park as the Red Sox won

Whacked out ACID Trip

I've been experimenting with ,

NO not ACID !! I have been experimenting with ideas as to a title that might grab some poor suckers attention just long enough to write a damn comment !!

I also thought I'd throw in a few pictures of what I think it might be like if you watched the NFL on LSD

Really though,

I'm just guessing ....

Seems as though it would be a bit

surreal

Thing is, using Crazy Titles may be a little like the boy crying wolf.
Here I am promoting a story about a "Whacked out Acid Trip and there was really no acid involved!!

Think of this visit as being part of an experiment and you are one of the test subjects, sorry I haven't any drugs for this experiment. On the bright side, I don't have any surprise elctro shock treatments in store for you either !!

So how did you find this post? and What led you here??

Labor Day Weekend...The End

We are lucky to have a great weather for this Labor Day weekend.

The weekend that really spells the END of summer .

No more Beach Days....

The Party bear will miss those Beach Days !!

But the Fall remains my favorite season, the colors, the warm days with no humidity. Cool nights that are great for sleeping and Football !!

Thanksgiving, my Favorite Holiday in my Favorite Season

Every Sunday and Monday and sometimes Thursday...It's Football, Snacks and Beer !!

Of course there is also Baseball if the Red Sox can keep it going this October and if they only go farther than the Yankees I will be happy with their season.!!

Enjoy your weekend and let me know,

What will you miss about summer ??
What are you looking forward to this fall ??

Blast From The Past

July 4, 1937

My Dad is the Tall Handsome Devil in the front row, his little sister to his right and the kids from the neighborhood where he grew up in rural Pennsylvania. Also pictured are my Grandma and Grandfather.

Thanks to my cousin Tom, for digging out the picture and sending it to me.

The Power Of Suggestion

Have you ever wondered about the power of suggestion and how it might impact your life??


I read somewhere once that "only crooks and grave robbers play on our unfounded insecurities and use those to manipulate and control us." I wonder if the power of suggestion is really that strong??

In the 1950's a professor of psychology did an experiment to test his theories with regard to "social pressure." and to see if such pressures could make a person say something that was obviously incorrect.:

Here is a synopsis of the test results that I found at the wikipedia site:

This experiment was conducted using 123 male participants. Each participant was put into a group with 5 to 7 "confederates" (People who knew the true aims of the experiment, but were introduced as participants to the naive "real" participant). The participants were shown a card with a line on it, followed by another card with 3 lines on it labeled a, b, and c. The participants were then asked to say which line matched the line on the first card in length. Each line question was called a "trial". The "real" participant answered last or penultimately. For the first two trials, the subject would feel at ease in the experiment, as he and the other "participants" gave the obvious, correct answer.

On the third trial, the confederates would start all giving the same wrong answer.

There were 18 trials in total and the confederates answered incorrectly for 12 of them, these 12 were known as the "critical trials". The aim was to see whether the real participant would change his answer and respond in the same way as the confederates, despite it being the wrong answer.

Solomon Asch thought that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong, but the results showed that participants conformed to the majority on 37% of the critical trials. However, 25% of the participants did not conform on any trial. 75% conformed at least once, and 5% conformed every time.

Interesting that over one third of the people tested conformed with the obviously wrong answer. I guess they wanted to be part of the group. They felt comfortable in the first couple of tests and began to bond with those around them. Peer Pressure is what it is..


So what groups are you a part of? Maybe it is a Religious group? Political ? Are you Conservative? Liberal ? Maybe it's a combination of them all. Maybe religious people tend to find themselves locked into a conservative political group because they find that the liberal groups that are around tend to be at odds with their conservative religious views. After all, Liberals might as well call themselves Communists, right ??



Where do we form our opinions, beliefs? Do we come up with them ourselves or are they formed within our groups??


Maybe we share opinions that are popular and promoted by our favorite media outlets? Take Glen Beck for example. Here is a guy that has great popularity. If you are a fan of Glen Beck then it is likely that you are a conservative.

He describes his show as a "Fusion of entertainment and enlightenment" He has suggested that Obama's Health Care reform is a means by which he can effect reparations for slavery. If you are a fan of his then it is likely that you believe that. One because you like Glen Beck and two because you want to be part of the group that likes Glen Beck. Peer Pressure, just like in High School !! Cool (-:


His shows are filled with moral outrage and apocalyptic views of the future. Basically if you are part of his fan base, his group, then Glen Beck can scare the shit out of you. That is certainly not his primary purpose but it sure helps the ratings.


I am wondering these days where all the conservatives get programmed and I think I am on to something even bigger then Glenn Beck !!


Talk Radio !! Did you know that among Americans 12 and older, that 90 Percent of them listen to radio each week. That is more than the Television, Newspapers Magazines or even the Internet.


Through 1700 radio stations across the US, some 50 million Americans are listeners of the news/talk format every week. GUESS WHAT ??


Of the 257 News/Talk stations owned by the 5 top commercial station owners:
91 Percent of those stations are Conservative
9 Percent are Progressive or maybe prone to expounding on more Liberal Discussions of the daily news.


Which group are you in??


I got these stats from this report: The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio. Read it if you dare!!

Of course if you like Glen Beck then you will likely dismiss me as a rabble rousing communist. That is, if you want to stay comfortable in your group of peers, even if they are wrong about so many things!!


Bottom line here is be your own group and step away from the traditional biased media and start trying to find the real problems in America. One of them is the News. Another is the Insurance Companies. Is Obama the enemy, I don't think so. The Savior, no. But he is someone trying to make a change? Unfortunately in this political climate that we live in. The money being thrown at Washington's legislators from the private sector will only dilute and muddy the change.

We need to make Health Insurance AFFORDABLE for everyone.


I didn't say FREE, I said Affordable.


Don't let the crooks, (The Insurance Companies) win.

Crazy People At The Beach

Normally Long Beach in Rockport looks like this...

With a Hurricane offshore it's more like this..

Smart people are observing, morons are actually in it!!

It's all fun till somebody gets dragged out to see and dies.

Lasagna Smack Down

On the banks of a local pond, at a house tucked away - on an island I never new existed -  in a town I spent a good part of my youth, was the first LASAGNA Smackdown I have ever been to.

I arrived at  the secret island location by crossing a bridge (Arrow top right ) And then found the home of Fred and Michelle's tree shrouded villa. (Arrow on left)

A cook off which put 6 variations of Lasagna up for tasting. 

While everyone at this gathering had good things to say about all the entries, for me there were 3 stand outs


There were 2 Mexican Variations of this Italian Classic, the Meat one , a bit spicier and the Chicken one, a bit milder  = BOTH delicious.


My favorite, prepared by the Hostess of this Food Fiesta, was the Cold Lasagna filled with vegetables and just seemed a perfect pasta dish for the hot summer night.


There was no official vote taken and all but one pie, which was good but found to have been purchased at an Italian Bakery and was entered into this contest under the guise of homemade,  could have been winners.  


A special note: the contestant that entered the illegal pie was later exonerated for his underhanded entry after he produced a bottle of Homemade Sambuca .=  Delicious!!


All in all I am looking forward to another food smackdown!

picture courtesy of Google Maps

ASk and you shall receive

The Bonster

My friend Bonnie, "The Bonster" Commented on my last post and one thing is certain, when it comes to this Health Care Reform that President Obama is trying to push, not everyone is on the same page.

Anyway, Bonnie asked me to post her comment on my main page. I'm gonna..it's here....I always take a dare.

Thing is, I read the comments somewhere else already but I'll get to that later.

Bonnie wrote:
ok tom, there is no big conspiracy here these are lifted word for word out of the proposed healthcare bill that you think is sooo good for us our country etc.

Bonnie says:
page 30 sec 123: there will be government committee that decides what treatments/benefits you get.

Tom's response:

Section 123 establishes a Health Benefits Advisory Committee that makes recommendations on what types of health insurance coverage will be defined as basic, enhanced or premium. The committee will be chaired by the surgeon general, with members appointed by the president, the comptroller general, and representatives of federal agencies. This committee makes recommendations on insurance regulations, so in that sense it does set standards for benefits. But it does not make decisions about treatments for individuals.

Currently an Private Insurance Company, with profits in mind, makes coverage decisions for you Bonnie

Bonnie Reports:

page 42: the heath choices commissioner will choose your health care benefits for you (No choice)

Tom Responds:
Section 142 outlines the duties of the Health Choices commissioner, who is charged with regulating insurers. The commissioner should seek insurers to offer different types of insurance, including basic, enhanced and premium. Individuals will be able to choose among competing insurers who are regulated via the exchange.

Bonnie tells me :
page 50 sec 152 Health care
will be proved to non -US citizens,illegal or otherwise.

Tom Responds:
Section 152 includes a generic nondiscrimination clause, which says insurers may not discriminate with regard to "personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services." It says nothing about "non-US citizens" or immigrants, legal or otherwise. In fact, the legislation specifically states that undocumented aliens will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance, in Section 246 on page 143.

Bonnie Writes:
page59 lines 21-24 Goverment will have direct access to your bank accounts for electronic funds transfer

Tom Responds: First with a question, are you talking about the Patriot Act now, cause Bush pushed that one through and can already look at all you banking activitiess?? But with regard to the Health Care Bill:

Section 163 sets out goals for electronic health records. One of the goals is to include features that "enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation" between payment and billing. The legislative summary says the intent in the section is "to adopt standards for typical transactions" between insurance companies and health care providers. The legislation generically describes typical electronic banking transactions and does not outline any special access privileges.

Bonnie states:
page 85 line 7 Specifications of benefit levels for plans=the government will ration your health care! page 127
lines 1-16 the government will tell you what salary you can earn.

Tom says: Ration is one of those scary words people are using to frighten people..It isn't used anywhere in the bill, the benefit levels are set in three categories and if you want to pay additional amounts for those enhanced plans you are welcome to, the bill basically says the following......
Section 203 sets rules saying that plans must offer basic plans before they can offer plans with extra benefits. These extra benefits are defined as enhanced plans and premium plans. (The unstated assumption here is that enhanced and premium plans will be more profitable for the insurance companies.) But this isn't the page number that requires health plans to participate in the exchange. Technically speaking, private insurance plans are not required to participate. Rather, only insurance sold on the exchange will satisfy the mandate that people have health insurance. In effect, private health plans that want to sell to individuals will have to sell through the exchange, under the terms of the bill. The current subsidized health care benefits available in Massachusetts are based on the Salary of those applying, certainly if you are applying and exceed those Salary Levels you would not be approved for any subsidy.

Bonnie says:

page 145 line15-17 ; an employer must auto enroll employees into the public option plan. there will be no choice.

Tom replies:
It says that individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid only if they have "not elected to enroll in an Exchange-participating health benefits plan." So the auto-enrollment only happens if they have not chosen another plan.

Bonnie Says:
page 167 lines 18-23; any individual who doesn't have acceptable health care according to the government will be taxed 2.5 percent of income. page 170 lines 1-3; any non-resident alien is exempt from individual taxes. ( AMERICANS WILL PAY ) page 195: Officers/ Employees of the government will have access to ALL Americans finances/ personal records.

Tom Replies as best he can to all those things one at a time:

Section 225:discusses payments for physicians who choose to accept the public option insurance. Again, there may be a broader case to be made that the government can compete with private insurers through the public option, but this section of the plan only applies to payments to doctors for patients who are part of the public option. The government does not set wages for doctors because doctors are free to decline to see the patients.

The 2.5% tax, xouldn't find that number anywhere; however if one does elect a Private Insurer that hasn't met the Standard approved by the government. But again, Private insurance, more than likely the plan you already pay for, will be available through the Health Exchange and should not be TAXABLE!.. Tax is another one of those Scary words!!

Going back ( AMERICANS WILL PAY ) the legislation specifically states that undocumented aliens will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance, in Section 246 on page 143.


Bonnie Says:

page 241 lines 6-8 Doctors , no matter what specialty they have will be paid the same.

Tom Replies...Other than what I said earlier about Physician Payments I couldn't find anything...I hope this means we can pay Dentists less..They are Highway Robbers !!

Bonnie Says:
page 253 line 10-18 Government sets values of doctors time, profession, judgement, etc. Literally the value of humans.

Tom Replies:
Well this sounds like a contradiction to what you said earlier about Physician payments...Doctors time, PROFESSION, and Judgement should be considered.. Especially BAD Judgement but in any case there should be standards for those things.

Well, this is not my typical post but I value my readers and felt that when one of my favorite people asked me to post her comments on my fron page...Well I had to do it!

Thanks for adding to the discussion Bonnie. Certainly there are so many views about this legislation. My feeling is that even though I believe that it is time for health care reform, the major insurers that I mentioned in my earlier post will infiltrate congress and shape the bill more to their liking by buying off our elected officials with campaign promises and what not. The other big impedement to change is fear. So many Americans that are already insured and have voted for or against Obama are scared that the coverage they have now will be taken away from them. I

They have been made scared by Viral emails and Media outlets with agendas of their own. I think the big winners in all this will be the Health Insurers and that is really too bad.

Another huge cost associated with health care is the TORT Reform, eliminating frivolous lawsuits that force doctors to pay outrageous Insurance premiums in order to be able to do their jobs. Again, Insurance Companies don't want the government to address TORT reform while working out the Health Care reform.

Why not? Certainly lowering the costs Doctors pay for insurance would lower the cost of delivering care!!

One last note. My mother, and she's gonna hate being used as an example as she thinks just like you. BUT, My mom just had Brain Surgery recently and a couple days ago she made a Blueberry Pie, She's walkin and Talkin and Baking and guess what ???

Both of her insurance plans are, that's right, from the Government !! So I guess they can do it...

Some Facts

The top 5 Insurance Companies made some serious money in 2008

Insurer	Company Profits:	CEO Total Compensation:
UnitedHealth Group	$2,977,000,000	$5,030,000
WellPoint	$2,490,700,000	$4,070,000
Atena	$1,384,100,000	$38,860,000
Humana	$647,000,000	$2,390,000
Cigna	$292,000,000	$30,016,000

In 2009 they are waging a battle in Washington to keep those profits coming and believe me it's war.. January through March of this year the health insurance industry and their lobbyists spent 1.4 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY to fight or rather structure health care reform so that they won't lose a penny in profits.


The cover of the Aug 17, 2009 edition of Business Week Magazine - "Health Reform - Why Insurers Are Winning"


These guys don't want to see there Billion Dollar profit margins go away and they will do everything they can from greasing the palms of fiscally conservative Democrats like Congressman Jim Matheson, leader of the Blue Dog Coalition,
to scaring the general public with expensive commercials insinuating that the government will somehow deny care to the sick

(Nearly 54 percent of the Blue Dog PAC’s haul this year comes from the energy, financial services and health care industries, up from 45 percent in 2004: according to analysis of CQ MoneyLine data by the Center for Public Integrity:

And yet those same insurance companies pay doctors in their own employ bonuses for DENYING care to their own customers.

What totally mystifies me is that there are so many people out there don't realize that the President of the United States is fighting to make changes in this broken system of health care, they just see him as the enemy!!


Guess what!! 5 percent of the U.S. Economy is spent on health care and what does all that money get you?? The worst results of any Western Civilized Nation.


Here are some links to those better informed than myself...

American Lives vs Insurance Company Profits

CEOs Reap Benefits While Insurance Companies Systematically Deny Care to Ill Policy Holders

Insurance Company Rules

Daily Dose

The Work Room

Don't believe that because you currently pay for private insurance that you will be covered for everything...read more about those people in the same position as you that are paying the far higher price of watching a loved one suffer because their insurance company has denied them for the care they require.

The Insurance companies are spending over 1 million dollars a day to keep things the same, to slow reform or to make it more profitable for them than it is already. It's hard to compete with that.

The Sun Going Down

August 8th, 2009

Sunset over Essex , Ma from parking lot of Woodman's Restaurant &Clam Bake

Same night, great sky, looking from Bridge St. Bridge crossing over to Salem, Ma from Beverly.

I did not re-size these pictures so they can get pretty large and could be used as Desktop Backgrounds or whatever you might want to do with em..


They are free for the taking (-:

Calories are Making a comeback this week.

Just a little over a week ago....

1. I was of jumping up on the Elliptical Machine and burning off 800+ calories in a sweaty 45 minute workout.
2. Taking multi vitamins and having a low sodium vegetable juice followed by a bowl of plain shredded wheat and low fat milk.
3. Making sandwich wraps for lunch at work filled with lettuce, onions and a scant slice of 99% Fat Free Turkey
4. I was losing weight and against all odds quitting the cigarette habit all at the same time !!

BACK TO REALITY:


While I have slipped with the cigarettes a couple times, I have gone nearly a week again without those awful things but the calories have made a comeback and the Elliptical may need to be dusted off.

I found that calories come in a lot of exciting shapes and sizes !

• Chocolate Ice Cream topped with toasted coconut and walnuts !
• Grey Goose Dirty Martinis with a side of sliders served at an Oceanside bistro
• Key Lime Pie
• 5 Guys Burgers and Fries
• Sam Adams Summer Beer served in 22oz frosty glass
• Pot Roast with mashed potatoes and GRAVY
• Egg sandwiches grilled on Scali Bread with CHEESE
• 3 Egg Omeletes with everything and a side of BACON

So I figure that what I need to do is fight one demon at a time !! While I did feel guilty, more like a guilty pleasure really, after eating a 5 Guys Hamburger and Fries which I followed up by eating a Bacon Cheese HOT DOG too. Yes food is a DEMON, the smell the taste but cigarettes are worse because they really don't have any added benefits...So...


I walked home about 3 miles yesterday after work hoping to reduce some of those calories as I knew I was headed to a family dinner of Pot Roast, mashed potatoes and GRAVY!!


I am going to stay away from cigarettes and slowly work on the diet..One thing at a time!!


Martinis are sooooo GOOD!

The Wedding Made the Fox 25 News

John's due back for surgery and we all wish him the best of luck in his recovery.

Wedding scheduled for Saturday and Murphy's Law

The House and Yard

The  Mermaids View

Porch and Garden

 The Quarry off the back yard

A beautiful setting. A friend and I  rushed  to paint his  house, a wedding scheduled in just 3 days and then Murphy's law comes into play.


The groom, home alone and trying to get the house shaped up climbed just a few feet up a ladder to fix a broken eave ,  a bee came flying towards him. Highly allergic to bees, he backed away, lost his balance and fell from the ladder shattering his knee.


After crawling to a phone and calling an ambulance he was taken to a Boston Hospital where he has had 2 surgeries, pins inserted in his leg and  all sorts of other crap that he and his fiance were not planning to do for this wedding to take place Saturday, just 3 days away.

He has vowed not to cancel a thing and while I believe he may be at the mercy of some of his doctors right now, I kinda think he will make it, in a wheelchair, but he'll be there. 

I'm rooting for him !

The good news:

He's alive, which is far better than the alternative

He didn't get a head injury,  but his fiance may still want to inflict that one.

Another view of Sunrise on Long Beach, Rockport, MA

Waking up in Rockport , MA "Long Beach"

 Was up at 5am and waited for the sun to rise, on Long Beach in Rockport, MA

 

 The morning light reflecting off the cottages

 

A Panorama of the Long Beach at Sunrise

Little Jazzlyn

Jennifer, Jazzlyn and Raine

Haven with G-Tom,  that's Grampy Tom but G-Tom is just so much more stylishly Hip !!

My Own Fish Tank

I just put a fish tank gadget on the blog. It's on the sidebar.

It's another gadget Google has come up with that you can easily insert easily on your blog page.

Try moving your mouse over the fish and they think you are going to feed them.

Please don't tease the fish too much !!

If you are getting this post in your email,
you will just have to click on Here to see the fish.

Cherry-Walnut Scones I made, who wants the recipe??

Another gadget I added last week in the sidebar are recent comments that my readers have left.

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment recently , as always, your comments are truly appreciated.

If it wasn't for those comments I would feel like I am just talking to myself and if that was the case... Well I might find myself getting committed to a psychiatric ward or something.

Might happen anyway, who knows.

Another Note...R.I.P. Walter Cronkite, he was the news, not the entertainer so many of today's broadcasters are. His concern was keeping people informed about the stuff that matters. He lived a good and memorable life.

Finally, it's been 20 days since my last cigarette and at least 20 years since my last confession....

Have a great weekend everyone!!

New Music Source

Sad Steve

That's the place. I love music and it's even better when I can listen to just about anything I want, anytime. Since becoming a chronic web surfer I have found Last FM, Pandora, Limewire and many others. Recently I was told about Sad Steve and this site allows you to listen to songs from virtually any artist. It doesn't require you to install any software or pay a fee for listening or downloading songs.

They do have some songs that don't work or won't play, but I like the variety and often go to the page they refer to as "The Percolator" which plays a wide variety of music. They also have mixes for workouts, just chillin or world music.

If you are listening to a song you really like you can share it with others via email, posting it on facebook or just downloading it and putting it on a cd for your next car ride.

If you like music, like variety..check out Sad Steve

It turned out that the weatherman was wrong !!

I had planned to wake up this morning and hear the all to familiar patter of rain outside my window, instead a blinding light woke me early and I saw the same thing I did yesterday.

THE SUN !!

2 Days in a row? What the hell is happening?? You might get the idea that it is summer around here or something!!

I was all ready to go over to my favorite Donuts Shop ( Last Post) and enjoy one of their tasty creations and now with all this bright sunshine I just didn't think I could hide away inside munching on those calorie rich delights and sipping my black coffee.

That damn weatherman..I want his job so I can be wrong most of the time and still get paid!!

The sunny day that greeted me, sent me straight to the coffee machine, a bowl of Raisin Bran and a healthy 45+ minute workout. The Treadmill, The Elliptical and some weights, if this sun stays out for awhile and I can avoid those sinful donuts.......

I'm going to be BUFF !!

No Cigarettes for 13 DAYS !!

Thoughts on Sunny Days and Donuts

The weather around here has been extremely wet. I cannot remember a June or July when it has rained this much. While it is good for the garden, the ducks and the local reservoirs, I am really getting tired of it.

Yesterday was beautiful and I was inside painting all day and really couldn't appreciate it.

Today looks like it's going to be clear and sunny all day with temps in the upper 70's F.

I will be at work all day and really won't get to appreciate it, but it is Friday. Looking ahead I see that there is a chance for rain both Saturday and Sunday. Nice, give us the nice weather in the work week and then let the rain come in on the weekend !!

Well with all this rain and the fact that I have quit smoking, really I mean you have to go outside and smoke these days anyway and I was getting soaked !!

This is day 12 without a smoke !!

Anyway, with all this rain and no smoking I have been thinking a lot about DONUTS.

Not just any donut, KANES Donuts. There is only 1 KANES Donut Shop and if you are going to go ahead and eat a donut, there is no such thing as a "diet donut" then you should really consider eating quality calories. Don't waste your time at Dunkin Donuts or any of those mass produced donuts shops...

Get up early and bring an umbrella. I am headed to Saugus, MA tomorrow morning and I am going to get me some donuts and sit in the house and watch it rain.

Have a nice weekend !!

Oh, and I don't get paid to promote or advertise anyone on this Blog. I just consider this a public service announcement.

Momzy is Back with the Million Dollar Brain!!

I have been a rather inconsistent blogger since about June 4th, 2009

That day I was filling up my camera with great shots of Cambridge and my youngest son graduating High School in Harvard Yard, I did post that good news, but just before Pat was to take the stage I made a call home to check with my sister to see how my mother..AKA Momzy..one of my faithful Trivia players and frequent comment makers here at Tom's Hideaway was doing as she had not been feeling well. Headache...Nausea and I had asked my sister to check in on her later!!

Well, I heard very quickly that things had taken a turn for the worse. Momzy was fresh out of a CAT Scan and had a large subdural hematoma, a brain bleed if you will. Her brain was being compressed in her skull from bleeding in her head.

She was rushed to Mass General Hospital in Boston. My daughter and I finished celebrating with my son at his graduation and a short subway ride from Cambridge across the river to Boston. We met up with Dad, my sisters and there husbands and went in to see mom before she went to surgery.

She was already on a breathing tube, totally unaware of anyone being there...Scary, that's what it was.

At 3am on June 5th they opened her head up and drained the blood , cauterized 2 areas that were bleeding and then put her all back together.

For the first couple weeks after the surgery, Mom made great strides and while the day after surgery she looked like she had gone 12 rounds with George Foreman, she quickly improved.

They shaved off half her hair and she looked like she might be the next lead singer for some new Punk Band but as I said each day she improved and instead of Blog posts I tried to keep the extended family up to date as to how she was doing.

I think she stayed in the hospital for about 4 or 5 days and then went to Rehab for another 5. By then her German had kicked in and if someone didn't take her home I think there was going to be a fatality. Luckily all the kids live close by and we were able to stay with her in shifts and now I'd say she's doing Fantastic!

I found her making her bed this morning and I told her that she should come over for dinner tonight.

She's coming!!

She scored a perfect 10 on Tom's Trivia Challenge today.

Momzy is BACK!!

Not quite ready for Beer Pong yet but she turns 80 this September, I think she'll be ready then !!

Mint Tins..A Starter Collection

My first real Mint Tin Find..Is that Dick Cheney in Pin Stripes ??

I love having mints handy and I am a real fan of Altoids the "curiously strong peppermints" from England.

I wonder if he will go after the Candy Tax???

I find that the original can was too big to fit in my pocket, but Altoids came out with a handy smaller version of their mints.

Crazy thing is they charge just as much for the Smalls as they do for the larger mints

These Manly Mints were made with me in mind of course..

I love the tins though, they can be pretty funny depending on your political persuasion or your general manliness given the last can that was given to me...

I still buy the Big Can of Altoids and I just refill all my small cans of mints...that's how I roll in these tough economic times..

In The Garden

Worth at least 1000 words

Have a nice weekend!!

Obama, Cold Blooded Killer

Flies Have Feelings too..


Photo Courtesy of tombunny.com


Coldly, with deadly efficiency, President Obama killed a fly during an interview at the Whitehouse the other day!!

The purported leader of the Free World apparently has no room in his world for the Fly!!

Who's next???

With this type of behavior it is easy to think he may just start bombing another country with little or no evidence of their wrongdoing...

Wait Bush did that in Iraq!!

The fact that the President swatting a fly even became news is the most surprising thing about this story.

P.E.T.A., the organization rallying around the rights of Flies, and all other bugs I can only assume, make statements about atrocities like this in order to get on the news and get free advertising at the same time. Yes, that's right someone out there is really going to be upset about this dead fly and send money to these lunatics....

They got upset about the death of cock roaches too!!

I am upset that any news agency at all even reported this, and here am lending them a hand!!

Well if you haven't seen a snuff movie before this is your chance...to see one:

Tastes like What?

I was reading an article in the The Atlantic by Wayne Curtis titled "Cocktails of the Past"

The article spoke about how some of the mixers that were once used in drinks of the past, like The Doctor or the Diki Diki were, until recently no longer available or very hard to get . He reports that a company seeking and importing these hard to get mixers, liquors and in some cases contracting with companies to make some of these rare spirits.

It was all quite interesting until he started to tell us how these things taste and that's where he lost me.


When he described a liquor as being pine flavored, I couldn't really picture it but I was at least left with some idea of what it might taste like. Having never drank the floor cleaner Pine Sol or tasted pine scented air freshener , I am pretty sure I would stay away from that one.

It was when he got to Batavia Arrack that he lost me completely. I mean I finished the article but the description of a liquor that is "pleasantly musty" kinda leaves me wondering. How is musty, pleasant?? He went on to further describe it as "Aromatic with a roguish sensibility," err ah what? I'm thinking why doesn't he just come out and say it's a cross between a peach an watermelon or kumquat?

Aromatic with a roguish sensibility? You might as well say it has a fragrance with a mischievous refinement for all that tells me what it tastes like!!

Very Busy But like Arnold says....

I'LL BE BACK !!!

Congrats To Patrick

How cool was it to see Patrick graduate from High School and to do it AT Harvard University, right there in the Yaahhhd, that's Havaahhd Yaahhd !


With his big sis, visiting from Smith Nation



At John Harvard's Brew House in Harvard Square, wearing an Armani Jacket, what just prior to graduation ceremony!!


With Dad after getting his High School Diploma

Great Job PATRICK!!