AQUMINI license in Delaware

Not sure what AQUMINI is supposed to stand for on this Delaware license plate but I have never seen a Q on a Delware license before so I captured it in a photograph.

This license also declares it self to be a centenial license plate 1909-2009, but I am not sure what centenial it is celebrating, maybe of the DMV.

Speculations from the crowd?

Venn diagram of Baseball team names and origins

This fascinating diagram of Major League Baseball team names groups them together by type and origin.


There are more links with the origins of the team names at FlipFlopFlyBall.com. The name origin of "Phillies" is obvious, but did you know the Detroit Tigers are names after the Detroit Light Guard military unit, known as "The Tigers." So they are only named after an animal because what they were named for was named after an animal.

(via Neatorama, via Kottke)

Magenta Screen of Death?

I have heard of the blue screen of death, and like everyone I have, very rarely, had my computer reset suddenly, but has anyone ever heard of the magenta screen of death?

Every so often my computer screen suddenly goes blank and shows one color like this, one time it was bright green. The hard drive light blinks still so I suspect that the computer us still working but the video output is broken. Turning the monitor off and on doesn't fix it, and I have been to lazy to unplus the monitor from the computer to see if haty fixes it. Any ideas?

Ambulance in front of Five Guys

On Friday I went to lunch at Five Guys, a nationally syndicated burger joint with the best burgers. They are delicious and I think they butter the buns I suspect they have other delicious and unhealthy characteristics like adding bacon and cheese and all the toppings you could desire.

The ambulance was there when we got there and we wondered if someone had had a heart attack from eating the delicious burgers inside. To a certain segment of the population, an ambulance taking out a heart attack victim of the burgers would serve as a great advertisement for the burgers, others might take it as a warning.

Turns out there was no drama; they were just getting lunch themselves.

Tetris Tiles for your remodeled bathroom

Lynn and I are remodeling one of our bathrooms. We have already picked tile, but I like to throw a wrench in the works and jokingly sent an e-mail today asking to use these Tetris tiles in blue instead:


Her clever answer was:

"But I'm too good at playing Tetris so the tiles will never build up enough to cover the bathroom."

Game, set and match to Lynn. She really is good at tetris.

History and the Presidents quiz twofer

Mental Floss has a presidential lunchtime quiz today, "Who was president when? Part 2." So I went back and found quiz 1. These are hard since they give you the event and you need to guess who was president. I did alright on quiz one, but the questions grew more obscure on quiz two. I will probably tank quiz three when it comes out.

Part 1

My Results:

Part 2

My results:

Alright history buffs, tell me how you do.

Astronauts in the Movies quiz

AMC has an astronauts in the movies quiz written by a contributor to sfsignal. I think that if you like movies and science fiction you may find it easy. My score as 100%.



I am sure you will do as well.

FOTOG license in Delaware

This person is probably an avid photographer albeit some one who will changes spellings for the convenience of a FOTOG license plate. Perhaps they are an advocate of the simplified spelling and they are a fotografer.

I would bet they have some great pictures of Grateful Dead concerts and Key West by the Grateful Dead and Conch Republic bumber stickers.

Update on easing restrictions on raising chickens in New Castle County

I have received an e-mail last week from Nellie Manlove who is Council member Tansey's legislative aide, that the ordinance to ease restrictions on raising chickens in New Castle County will be discussed (.pdf agenda) at the Council's Land Use Committee meeting on Tuesday 9/15 at 3:00pm. This is open to the public and public comment is encouraged. It takes place in the 8th floor Council Conference Room of the City/County Building, 800 N French Street, Wilmington, 19801.

I expect to attend the Land Use Committee meeting tomorrow at 3pm, though I am not sure what to say or what is expected. I certainly can speak in support of the change to the ordinance. My concern is that I am not a Land Use professional so I am not sure what the objections to the change in the amendment are.

I stand by my earlier comments that the county ordinances already allow chickens (and other farm animals) on parcels of greater than one acre, and that this easing of the restriction is a small change addressed primarily at raising hens.

From a common sense perspective it seems that the council members might need to know the following to be swayed to adopt the easing of the restrictions to allow raising up to 4 hens (no roosters) on parcels of at least one acre no nearer than 25ft to property lines in New Castle County.

1.) Why was the first restriction against farm animals on parcels smaller than one acre first enacted.

2.) Is there a reason we cannot just discuss chickens (really just hens) and not open up the discussion to all farm animals.

3.) How many parcels in New castle County are one acre or more and could have chickens right now, and how many do have chickens right now. How many are a half acre or more, or would be added to the parcels allowed to have chickens? This would help us know the scope of the change and its effect. I suspect that there though there are probably a lot of parcels with 0.5 acre or more, we should consider only those that will be added as the change, and how many of those really have people that would want to raise hens. That is the new set of hens that anyone could raise an objection to.

4.) Are there other concerns. Health concerns, noise concerns, nuisance concerns, and doesn't New Castle County already have regulations for those. Thus should anyone who raises chickens and causes these issues can be addressed through existing ordinances.

5.) How many other counties or similar sized municipalities in the country have similar restrictions or ordinances? Is there something we can learn from them?

The ordinance should then come up for a vote at the 9/22 Council meeting, which takes place at 7:00pm in the 1st Floor Council Chambers, also in the City/County Building.

What do you say in support of an ordinance at a Council Land Use Committee meeting? Anybody gave any suggestions?

More views of the fallen tree

This view of the fallen tree let's you see that it was a pretty thick limb and that no car was leaving the garage until it was cleared. This is probably the largest tree or branch that has fallen on our property since we got here. One fell into the creek from our side, but it wasn't in the way or even as large. The large trees that have fallen in the creek were from the other side.

We thought we heard some branches fall on the roof this morning but they sounded small and near the bedroom. Little did we know that they were large and on the other side of the house.