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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, July 26, 2007

Haircut $6

Yesterday (7-25) I walked from my office (at about 2nd and M, SE) to the Navy Yard (at about 4th and M, SE)expecting to get an $11 haircut at the retail area there but the guard said that, for some reason, non DOD personnel (other than official visitors) were banned from the Yard. So I kept on to 8th St SE and went north to a barber shop (which charges $15) near the Marine Baracks. It was closed so I started to walk back. I saw another barber shop and went in. It was very 1950s with an all (or mostly all) black client base, information (e.g., pictures of Serena Williams) and a sole propriator. I asked the price of a haircut. The propriator said, "$6". I waited for two people in front of me and then got a reasonable hair cut. The propriator must have thought I was someone important and he asked me some fairly sophisticated questions about Pakistan (e.g., how big is Waristan, why is the President also the top military official). I tipped $2.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:29 PM

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Another Blender arrives.

Ann and Beth purchased a blender a few days ago and Ann announced today that she planned to use it to make banana blended drinks. G pointed out we all ready had a blender. Ann didn't believe it but G showed it was in the cabinet over the refrigerator. Does it work? Ahh there is the question.

Update July 25: Yes the old blender works. Ann returned the new blender.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:31 PM

Friday, July 20, 2007

Beth Arrives

We picked Beth up from the airport today (she had visited Atlanta for a few days while on break from teaching in Israel). We all met at National Airport. G and Ann took the car, I took Metrorail. G and Ann were late because of some missed exits and/or wrong exits taken (3 of them) but still got in before Beth whose plane was late. G and Ann had gotten some pizza but left it at home. Beth is staying about a month.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:27 AM

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The stealth ship passes in the river

I was on the south side of the building for a meeting and the Navy's newest ship, a stealth material clad cruiser was doing a bit of a circle between the Anacostia River and about the Memorial Bridge. One of our guys had a telescopic digital camera and got some clean images. It looks a bit like the old civil war iron clad, the Merrimac.

It (the new ship) looks a bit like the image at:

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_StealthShips,,00.html

The merrimac, post iron cladding, is the third picture at:

http://www.klaus-kramer.de/Schiff/Panzerschiffe/MONITOR&MERRIMAC/MONITOR%20and%20MERRIMAC_engl_top.html

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:11 PM

Monday, July 16, 2007

Easter Lillies Bloom

Well my ornamental (Easter) lillies finally bloomed (a nice multihue purple this year). They are only a few weeks after the solstice (instead of a few weeks after the equinox), but certainly out class the cone flowers and the cosmos (the cosmos plants are new this year and so far doing very well). If I could get them to bloom just a few weeks later they wouldn't even have to share the spot with the cone flowers.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:06 PM

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Suppertime Consumer Counter Attack

When I got home on today (July 10), George was on the phone with the cable + landline phone + internetprovider company getting us $60 credit for two months of premium service we didn't order (but apparently we used some of the channels). He finished with them, or so he thought, and then he received a call back from an insurance company which he thought was running foul of the law by excluding him. He was on the phone with them when the cable-etc. company called back. In the meantime, I was on the phone with the county arranging for a dead deer (about a 70# doe) to be picked up from an intersection about a mile from the house.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:49 PM

Where's the phone -- Oh there.

Ann couldn't find her cell phone. We called and heard a distant ring. The ring seemed to come from the dining room. After a few more tries, we went in there and called again and the ring seemed to come from the kitchen. We went in there and the ring seemed to come from the refrigerator. It was in a lunch bag.

Ann said, "how did it get there?" then, of course admitted the error.

She saw she had 8 unheard messages. "What are those?" she said.

"Uh... those are the calls we made locating your phone." George said. "and we didn't leave any messages."

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:55 PM

Monday, July 09, 2007

Lasik for George

G received the Lasik treatment today. A topical analgesic/anesthetic was placed in his eyes and they cut away a bit of cornea, then gave him some dark glasses. The total time in the Lasik center was about 1 hour. The total time for the surgery was more like 2 minutes.

As we went out to the car, G, in a salute to the character of Colin in the Great Escape, said,

"Ridiculous. I can see perfectly. Perfectly. See that pin..."

It turned out that G got a prescription for Percocet in case of pain. With the switch to generic (oxycodone + acetamenophen) and the Blue Cross offset, the prescription was $0.89.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:32 PM

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Does a Bear walk in Potomac

Over the past week there were a number of bear sightings within a few blocks of our house, They were followed by more sightings further away and yesterday someone got a photo (cell phone quality). At first I hadn't understood the timeline for the spottings and thought the bear sightings in our neighborhood and those a few miles away were only 30 minutes apart. I declared "there had to be a second bear" and George said, "near the grassy knoll".

In the Baltimore paper (reported by Irwin), one of the spottings was reported to the police who sent out an officer to get a description.

Here is a hypothetical conversation (we'll call the spotting officer #24):

HQ - #24 do you have a description on the bear?

#24 - Yes, sir. It looks like a bear.

HQ - What looks like a bear?

#24 - The bear does, sir.

HQ - A bear. Please confirm.

#24 - Sir, the bear looks like a bear.

HQ - OK. We'll take it from here.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:37 PM

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Another Cleaner Story

There was worldwide interest in the lawsuit of a customer suing for $50M+ on the basis of some pants being (maybe) lost.

Another interesting story happened last week.

On June 27 (a Wednesday), Congressional Cleaners opened a store on the ground level of the Capital Hill Tower which is at about L and New Jersey Ave SE. About three hours after being opened, the store was robbed.

This is of interest to me since I work only about 2 blocks away from the Robbery.

This was reported in a Washington Post reporter's blog:

http://www.jdland.com/dc/index.cfm?id=1746

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:40 PM

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Self Powered Exercise Equipment - Really

Yesterday (July 2) we had a partial electrical outage in the exercise area at work. The machine I was on - the stair climber - went out as did the treadmills and the wall climbing machine. However, apparently the stationary bicycles, the rowing machines and the elliptical x-country skiers are all self powered. The room got dark but their displays stayed on.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:22 AM

Monday, July 02, 2007

Witness to an Unusual Wedding

Ann and I were at a wedding in Baltimore yesterday (July 1). Unusual in many ways. It started with the hoopa ceremony. Nobody stood for the wedding party (except Ann and I). We had snacks just before sit down meal. The bride (and I think the brides family) were Iranian coverts to Judaism. The music was traditional American with some Persian. There was no woodwind playing of wedding melody.

I was both a witness to the marriage and did one of the Shiva brachim. At the sit down dinner, Ann and I were at the table with the Groom's parents and the officiating Rabbi - who has a good sense of humor - when he sat down he said 'its an honor to sit next to you'.

Other than the no standing for the wedding party it was very nice.

After we left the wedding dancing I noticed that they started Mincha at about 7pm; a full 80 minutes earlier than at our synagogue - and they did Maariv right after it with no kaddish derabonin.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:02 AM

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