<$BlogRSDUrl$>

THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news. You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

From one Dean's list to the other Dean's list

Here is an email from George:

From: George Weiss [mailto:gershonw@emailaccount.com]Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 10:58 AMTo: gershonw@emailaccount.comSubject: Fwd: 4.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just got my last grade back for last semester and like the rest of them it was an A.
first college 4.0 of my life. [that's one dean's list]..so I'm feeling pretty good right now. (especially considering leaving YU becuase I hated it and was failing half my claseses [that's the other dean's list] there)

Here is my response back:

Great shot.

Hope that wasn't as difficult as a direct hit on the center of the vent shaft above the main power reactor.

this is an example of our version of Godwin's law. In our case, the average length of a conversation before a reference to Star Wars, Buffy t VP or the Blues Brothers or the Great Escape is about 5 minutes.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:41 AM

Groundhog (aka woodchuck) family at White Flint - again

Disembarking from the Metrorail at the White Flint station, I was a huge groundhog on the hill on the west side of the tracks. In the wild, groundhogs usually are 10 pounds or less (according to the wikipedia entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodchuck). However, this critter looked to be at least 15 pounds.

This is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Hope the critter enjoys it.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:56 AM

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Detroit vs. Cleveland - More and More defensive

This series ended yesterday with a 79-61 win by Detroit. Cleveland was only 20-65 from the field and only scored 23 points in the second half.

Interesting to me was the evolution of the total points in the 7 game series.

Game One 199 points scored
Game Two 188 points scored
Game Three 163 points scored
Game Four 146 points scored
Game five 170 points scored
game six 166 points scored
game seven 140 points scored

Contrast this with the Phoenix-LA Clipper series
Game one 253 points scored (really)
...
Game six 224 points scored
Game seven 234 points scored

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:57 AM

Monday, May 22, 2006

Oral Surgery Appointment Kurfuffle with a call back

G has an appt tomorrow for extraction of a wisdom tooth. A few earlier he had made the appointment at the direction of his mom. At dinner,

Ann - so what time is your appointment and where is it

G - I don't know.

Ann - You made the appointment. How could you not know?

G - You didn't tell me to keep the information.

This went on back and forth for about 20 minutes. The argument getting heated. Then G went upstairs and found the where and with whom information on a piece of paper with pictures of teeth. The conversation went on to Ann's getting sick last week and who else got sick and which meals/snacks they may have had in common. Ann noted that it might have been a virus that was going around.

M - You should have gotten the virus's name and number.

G - You didn't tell me to keep the information

M - That's called a 'call back' in comedy.

G later found the rest of the appointment information and remembered he hadn't given the information to his mom at any time.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:13 AM

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Getting a date for a former member of parliment

I saw Harold Rhoad and asked him if he heard the news that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was coming to the US to work at the American Enterprise Institute. Harold said he had heard and in fact he was one of the people who helped work that deal.

"Oh." I said, "Well then is Ayaan hoping to meet any guys who are freethinkers, in their 30s with moslem ancestry and a decent job?" (this was just to tease Harold)

"Yes. " said Harold. "and as a matter of fact if any of them want to date her, I have to speak to them first." (because of her view of Islam as needing stringent change, Ayaan has been threatened with assasination).

Well I spoke with two people I know, both contractors who I thought fit the bill. Unfortunately, they seem to feel threatened by the fact that she was once famous (and may be again) and is known as a very bright woman.
a

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:38 PM

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Disturbing Dream

I dreamt that Beth had a job as a teacher and had won some sort of prize and Ann and I went to Israel for an award ceremony. It turned out the MC at the ceremony was the principal of the school. However, the principal was flagrantly gay and made out with a male friend during the ceremony. Yuk.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:36 AM

Friday, May 12, 2006

Unexpected Refund

I computed G's tax liability to the State of Maryland as $270.34, wrote them a check and sent it in. Maryland recomputed and said G was due a refund of $53.01. So Md sent us a check for $323.35.

My mistake was, apparently, an erroneous reading of the tax tables. I can't tell for sure because I disposed of the instructions.

posted by Martin Weiss # 7:18 PM

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I should work harder.

At work (may 5) we are trying to get a cooperative agreement executed. The most recent authorization language essentially requires us to do this and to have a specific organization as the funding recipient. The recipient-to-be submitted an application which did not identify the subcontractor. Our procurement office sent an email which said, in effect, "Make the recipient-to-be identify the subcontractor" and they cited the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs).

One of my staff was looking at this and said to me, "Well the FARs does say that the grantee should identify the subcontractor and supply a letter of commitment."

I responded, so what does the word "should" mean to you.

He answered, "they have to do it"

I replied, "No it doesn't. 'Should' is a flexible word and means we can ignore it if necessary. If its mandatory the word used would have been 'shall'."

He responded. "OK. I guess I should work harder."

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:55 AM

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

What if they find a broken Motivator?

The red 'engine' light in the Hyundai was coming on. I thought at least one cylinder was misfiring and I had G take it in to a trustworthy shop in College Park (in Jan). The shop said they thought it was in the transmission system and that only a dealer could fix it. Well we waited and then G had the accident. The car was fixed. The light was out for a while but then came on and stayed on.

G brought it to the dealer. They did say that there was a minor problem with the transmission system and that a cylindar was missing and that the brakes were slushy. Then they fixed the first two items and said that they couldn't get to the brakes without fixing a power coupling.

G relayed that story to me.

"I suppose they need to go into town for the power converters." M said. (Luke Skywalker wanted to go into town for power converters in SW: episode four 'A New Hope'.

G explained it again and got a kick when I called it power converters a second time.

What if they fix it and find a broken motivator. (Luke discovered the first cP0 that him and his Uncle were going to buy had a broken motivator also in the same movie).

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:23 PM

The IRS Agrees with me!!!

Back on Mar 15, Beth received a ding notice from the IRS saying she owed about $7000. Basically the IRS had misunderstood the redemption of a zero coupon municipal bond. I sent a bunch of stuff into the IRS via fax (actually I sent it twice to be sure) to prove that the bond really was a zero coupon and that it really was a municipal and that it really was a redemption (it took about 9 pages). There was another smaller issue (redeption of an Israel bond) also. Today we received a note from the IRS. I'll quote a section, "We are pleased to tell yuou that, with your help, we wer able to clear up the differences between your records and your payers records. If you sent us a payment based on our proposed changes, we will refund it to you..."

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:17 PM

Archives

09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008 01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008 03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008 05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010 01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010 02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010 03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010 04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010 05/01/2010 - 06/01/2010 06/01/2010 - 07/01/2010 07/01/2010 - 08/01/2010 08/01/2010 - 09/01/2010 09/01/2010 - 10/01/2010 10/01/2010 - 11/01/2010 11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010 12/01/2010 - 01/01/2011 01/01/2011 - 02/01/2011 02/01/2011 - 03/01/2011 03/01/2011 - 04/01/2011 04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011 05/01/2011 - 06/01/2011 06/01/2011 - 07/01/2011 07/01/2011 - 08/01/2011 08/01/2011 - 09/01/2011 09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011 10/01/2011 - 11/01/2011 11/01/2011 - 12/01/2011 12/01/2011 - 01/01/2012 01/01/2012 - 02/01/2012 02/01/2012 - 03/01/2012 03/01/2012 - 04/01/2012 04/01/2012 - 05/01/2012 05/01/2012 - 06/01/2012 06/01/2012 - 07/01/2012 07/01/2012 - 08/01/2012 08/01/2012 - 09/01/2012 09/01/2012 - 10/01/2012 10/01/2012 - 11/01/2012 11/01/2012 - 12/01/2012 12/01/2012 - 01/01/2013 01/01/2013 - 02/01/2013 02/01/2013 - 03/01/2013 03/01/2013 - 04/01/2013 04/01/2013 - 05/01/2013 05/01/2013 - 06/01/2013 06/01/2013 - 07/01/2013 07/01/2013 - 08/01/2013 08/01/2013 - 09/01/2013 09/01/2013 - 10/01/2013 10/01/2013 - 11/01/2013 11/01/2013 - 12/01/2013 12/01/2013 - 01/01/2014 01/01/2014 - 02/01/2014 02/01/2014 - 03/01/2014 03/01/2014 - 04/01/2014 04/01/2014 - 05/01/2014 05/01/2014 - 06/01/2014 06/01/2014 - 07/01/2014 07/01/2014 - 08/01/2014 08/01/2014 - 09/01/2014 09/01/2014 - 10/01/2014 10/01/2014 - 11/01/2014 11/01/2014 - 12/01/2014 12/01/2014 - 01/01/2015 01/01/2015 - 02/01/2015 02/01/2015 - 03/01/2015 03/01/2015 - 04/01/2015 04/01/2015 - 05/01/2015 05/01/2015 - 06/01/2015 06/01/2015 - 07/01/2015 07/01/2015 - 08/01/2015 08/01/2015 - 09/01/2015 09/01/2015 - 10/01/2015 10/01/2015 - 11/01/2015 11/01/2015 - 12/01/2015 12/01/2015 - 01/01/2016 01/01/2016 - 02/01/2016 02/01/2016 - 03/01/2016 03/01/2016 - 04/01/2016 04/01/2016 - 05/01/2016 05/01/2016 - 06/01/2016 06/01/2016 - 07/01/2016 07/01/2016 - 08/01/2016 08/01/2016 - 09/01/2016 09/01/2016 - 10/01/2016 10/01/2016 - 11/01/2016 11/01/2016 - 12/01/2016 12/01/2016 - 01/01/2017 01/01/2017 - 02/01/2017 02/01/2017 - 03/01/2017 03/01/2017 - 04/01/2017 04/01/2017 - 05/01/2017 05/01/2017 - 06/01/2017 06/01/2017 - 07/01/2017 07/01/2017 - 08/01/2017 08/01/2017 - 09/01/2017 09/01/2017 - 10/01/2017 10/01/2017 - 11/01/2017 11/01/2017 - 12/01/2017 12/01/2017 - 01/01/2018 01/01/2018 - 02/01/2018 02/01/2018 - 03/01/2018 03/01/2018 - 04/01/2018 04/01/2018 - 05/01/2018 05/01/2018 - 06/01/2018 06/01/2018 - 07/01/2018 07/01/2018 - 08/01/2018 08/01/2018 - 09/01/2018 09/01/2018 - 10/01/2018 10/01/2018 - 11/01/2018 11/01/2018 - 12/01/2018 12/01/2018 - 01/01/2019 01/01/2019 - 02/01/2019 02/01/2019 - 03/01/2019 03/01/2019 - 04/01/2019 04/01/2019 - 05/01/2019 05/01/2019 - 06/01/2019 06/01/2019 - 07/01/2019 07/01/2019 - 08/01/2019 08/01/2019 - 09/01/2019 09/01/2019 - 10/01/2019 10/01/2019 - 11/01/2019 11/01/2019 - 12/01/2019 12/01/2019 - 01/01/2020 01/01/2020 - 02/01/2020 02/01/2020 - 03/01/2020 03/01/2020 - 04/01/2020 04/01/2020 - 05/01/2020 05/01/2020 - 06/01/2020 06/01/2020 - 07/01/2020 07/01/2020 - 08/01/2020 08/01/2020 - 09/01/2020 09/01/2020 - 10/01/2020 10/01/2020 - 11/01/2020 11/01/2020 - 12/01/2020 12/01/2020 - 01/01/2021 01/01/2021 - 02/01/2021 02/01/2021 - 03/01/2021 03/01/2021 - 04/01/2021 04/01/2021 - 05/01/2021 05/01/2021 - 06/01/2021 06/01/2021 - 07/01/2021 07/01/2021 - 08/01/2021 08/01/2021 - 09/01/2021 09/01/2021 - 10/01/2021 10/01/2021 - 11/01/2021 11/01/2021 - 12/01/2021 12/01/2021 - 01/01/2022 01/01/2022 - 02/01/2022 02/01/2022 - 03/01/2022 03/01/2022 - 04/01/2022 04/01/2022 - 05/01/2022 05/01/2022 - 06/01/2022 06/01/2022 - 07/01/2022 07/01/2022 - 08/01/2022 08/01/2022 - 09/01/2022 09/01/2022 - 10/01/2022 10/01/2022 - 11/01/2022 11/01/2022 - 12/01/2022 12/01/2022 - 01/01/2023 01/01/2023 - 02/01/2023 02/01/2023 - 03/01/2023 03/01/2023 - 04/01/2023 04/01/2023 - 05/01/2023 05/01/2023 - 06/01/2023 06/01/2023 - 07/01/2023 07/01/2023 - 08/01/2023 08/01/2023 - 09/01/2023 09/01/2023 - 10/01/2023 10/01/2023 - 11/01/2023 11/01/2023 - 12/01/2023 12/01/2023 - 01/01/2024 01/01/2024 - 02/01/2024 02/01/2024 - 03/01/2024 03/01/2024 - 04/01/2024 04/01/2024 - 05/01/2024 05/01/2024 - 06/01/2024 06/01/2024 - 07/01/2024 07/01/2024 - 08/01/2024 08/01/2024 - 09/01/2024 09/01/2024 - 10/01/2024 10/01/2024 - 11/01/2024 11/01/2024 - 12/01/2024 12/01/2024 - 01/01/2025