THE WEISS CHRONICLES

George takes Beth and Ann for a little drive

Beth, who arrived here the day before Passover began, left today (the day after Passover). She was leaving from Dulles International Airport. George drove Ann and Beth to the Airport. On the way to the airport, he mistakenly took the toll road instead of the airport access road. He then exited the toll road at an intermediate exit and went back to the Beltway to get back on the airport access road but there wasn't a good exit so he had to go back across the Potomac and exit and reenter the Beltway from River Road (this time he got the access road).

The trip back from the airport was a problem also. He missed the exit for the Beltway (from the Access Road) but was able to use HOV lanes on I-66 because two people were in the car.

I have some really bad news.

This is what Ann said when she called me about 400 pm on April 24, 2009. I was worried that there had been a car crash or a fire or some other awful event. The actual bad news was that some left over meat liquid left overs, that I was going to use for a gravy starter, had been thrown out.

Whew.

Two Days Later -

A Different Team

One of the more astounding turn-arounds that I can remember happened yesterday.

Back on April 22, in game #2 of round one of the 08 NBA playoffs, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Wizards by 116-86 (the official Wizards spin was that "The Wizards Fall Behind Early" ).

On April 24, in game #3, the Wizards won by 108-72; the spin was, "Wizards Repay Cleveland with Franchise’s Largest Playoff Win".

The change from the previous game was Wizards +22; Cavaliers -44, change 66.

I wore this hat to work today (shown on the left). I have worn it to work at least 100 times in the past 3 years. No one ever asked me about the hat (although sometimes it prompted a question about basedball). Today, someone asked,

"I haven't seen that style National's hat before, is it new?"

I responded,

"Actually it's not a National's hat. The cursive W is the same as the Nationals use, but the hat is a reproduction of the Washington Senator hat". It was used from 1963-1967 according to the Cooperstown Collection website."

I almost lost the hat once. I left it at a bar where I was meeting some bloggers. One of them, a blogress named Emily (nicknamed Seafarious) who had organized the event (called a Rantapalooza) took it home with her and told me via email "I have the hat". She brought it by on Sept 4, 2007 when we had a card game. The phrase "I have the hat", is a reference to a statement made by Senator John Kerry who famously said,

"They gave me a hat, I have the hat to this day; I have the hat."

The issue was whether or not Kerry had actually been in Cambodia on Christmas 1968 or at any other time. He stated that the matter (which was about a Christmas 1968 event) was "... seared -- seared -- in me.." on a number of occasions. However, the type of boat used by Kerry could not have made its way into Cambodia because the rivers were too shallow and members of his unit were unable to remember such an event taking place. Subsequent to these facts being accepted, Kerry's spokespeople (Kerry never personally did so) acknowledged that this part of his memory was mistaken.

A Useful Dream

Yesterday (April 17) was a mess of sorts. G and I went out to eat (to avoid messing with the kitchen) and didn't get home until 930 pm or so I had meant to make the roasted lamb and egg for the sedar table but when I got home I was full and woozy (I had been fasting having missed the morning siyum) and went to bed soon after getting in. I had a dream that we were at the sedar and didn't have any roasted lamb. I woke up and realized that I hadn't roast it. That was about 430 am (Aprilo 19). So I ended up cooking very early in the day today.

14 Pages – zero $
16 Pages – zero $

My First Time in New Ballpark

I went courtesy of season ticket holder Stanley Cohen. It was the 2nd game ever played in this stadium.

We saw some notable firsts.

First dropped fly ball (Lasting Milledge who is shown in the image). First triple (Christian Guzman who got another triple later in the game). First game decisive error (also by Guzman - a throwing error which led to 5 unearned runs with the final score 10-7). First HBP (Willie Harris was hit by relief pitcher Justin Miller - as opposed to starting pitcher Andrew Miller). First back to back extra base hits (Guzman's first triple was followed by a Milledge double).

The game went 3:29 and it was in the mid 40sF the whole game. By the time we left (during the end of the bottom of the 9th), there were probably fewer than 3000 fans. The Metrorail worked very well but given the usage this was not a good test of the system.

They Didn't Get the Pun

This shabbat we were reading from the parsha known as Tazria so I wore my tie that has many images of the Taz and lady Taz, the cartoon version of a Tazmanian devil. Unfortunately, not a single person was able to put the two together. Sigh.

For what its worth, the real Tazmanian devil, a nasty tempered, smelly and carnivorous marsupial became extinct on the Austrailian mainland before European settlement. The island of Tazmania is trying to prevent extinction of the species, although maybe it wouldn't be such a loss.

E Filing in Maryland for 2007

Yesterday I filed our joint (Ann and I) tax return using the electronic option.

Unlike for the US, this was available for free. Not only that, but Maryland didn't require that I send hard copies of W-2s, 1099s, etc. They did have a glitch in their protocol because there wasn't any procedure to record a 1099-MISC. So I recorded it as if it were a 1099R.

We'll see what happens.

------ YES. It was deposited in my account on April 7-------