nothing grows... except hilarity

Since early spring, Susan and I have been carefully tending our garden. We bought the seeds, planted them, and watered the soil (almost) daily.

OK, maybe we forgot to water for a week. Or two.

And maybe the plot that we chose only gets sunshine for five minutes a day.

Still, we were disappointed with the harvest that can be only described as disastrous. The tomato plant yielded approximately two tomatoes. Not two pounds or bushels - two tomatoes, period.

Carrots didn't do much better. The one that did grow is, umm, a little too awkward to serve to guests:

people of walmart

Definitely the funniest site I've seen in a while: People of Walmart. Why didn't I think of bringing a camera to the store before?

Update: John Michael has pointed me at another treasure, "People of Public Transit". Excellent compilation!

slappin' paws

Oreo shows off his listening skills:

royal visit #2

So now the second October visitor - Daisuke (accompanied by Cecilia) - has come and gone. Daisk got lucky, though, since his visit coincided with a Yelp event at the Microsoft office in Cambridge. Not a shabby place, I must admit, esp. when it is filled with people handing out free food/coupons/baby bottles of vodka. Unfortunately, Daisuke didn't make it to Burlington in order to meet Oreo - oh well, maybe next time!

don juan

Jonny made an appearance in Burlington, seeing that he's had an interview with Tufts Medical School. He said it went well, so there is real hope that Jon will make it back to Boston!

Susan made us a very nice breakfast before Jon had to leave for the airport, and it was warm enough to eat outside on the deck. Awww. Maybe the food will contribute in luring Juan away from Florida!

again, google...

Minding my own business, I went into Google maps to find directions - and was stunned to see the property lines drawn in. Holy sh#t! I can see a very detailed representation of all the plots in the neighborhood, including our very own patch of dirt. The neighbors across the street have a strange driveway configuration, and sure enough, it's on there. Wow.

we're so predictable...

I stumbled upon Google's Domestic Trends data visualization, and found some of the patterns very curious. All that Google doe is track the number of search queries across many categories - such as "Air Travel" and "Unemployment". Take a look at "Computers & Electronics": every Xmas, the searches spike in exactly the same fashion. I bet the searches on "batteries" spike even higher after Dec. 25th...