Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hosting Your Windows 7 Launch Party

Everyone wants their friends to hate them, right? But for some reason, yours don't. So sad.

Well, it's time to get with the program, man, and host a Windows 7™©®¶¥ Launch Party!

Here, let these marketing droids show you how:

You'll be despised in no time!

Better version, here.

Duke's Lemurs

On my birthday, my supa-fine woman surprised me with a trip to Duke University's Lemur Center. It's a preserve, out in the wilds of Durham, NC, where Duke keeps 200+ lemurs; and you can go visit, if you make an appointment.

Nikon D90, 18-105mm

That's a Coquerel's Sifaka.

The lemurs we saw were all in outdoor pens, but there is an enclosed chunk of forest where they get to run free. I think they said you can get tours of that, too. Next time!

Nikon D90, 18-105mm

Those are some ringtailed lemurs. They have a ton of ringtails.

The tour was an hour long, mostly spent going from pen to pen, looking at the different species - none of whom seemed at all interested in us. Unfortunately, they were all behind chain-link fence and it was hard to get pictures where the sun wasn't glaring off of it. But, I got a few.

Nikon D90, 18-105mm

I don't know what species this guy/gal belongs to.

They were all a lot smaller than I thought they'd be. The ringtails, for example range from 5 to 6 pounds - less than half the size of Pepper! And most of a lemur is tail - at least by length. They look a bit like a cross between a fox and a monkey. And their fur is very soft - as we could tell from the pelts they had laying out in the gift shop. Yipe.

Most of the lemurs we saw were outdoors, in the pens, but there are also a few nocturnal species in their own windowless building. There was an Aye-Aye, Lorises both slow and slender, and a "fat-tailed dwarf" lemur - maybe something else, I forget. We got to see them, through glass, but there was only a dim red light (like a darkroom), so I got no pictures. But, they were cool - very small and very quick, almost like lizards.

A good time. I'd like to see some more of them, running around in the woods, especially. Maybe I could take some classes and get to experiment on them... think Duke would take me?

Fine Ham Does Not Abound

WRAL:

Cary, N.C. — An employee at The HoneyBaked Ham Co. store in Cary who was shot while on the job is now without a job.

Richard Huether was closing the store in Crossroads Plaza in April when, police say, a gunman approached him, attempted to rob him and shot him.

An employee for three years and general manager for 16 months, the husband and father was shot in the stomach – about four inches from his heart.

Several surgeries later, he's still unable to go back to work. Doctors tell him that the earliest he could return to work would be in December.

Huether has been on worker's compensation since April. When the benefits expired, he received an official notice that HoneyBaked Ham terminated his employment and canceled health benefits for him and his family.

This store is just a few miles down the road from our house. I walked by it twice last week. Now I know not to go in, ever.

On a lighter note: