Apparently the Dinosaurs (that's the name of my team - and yes, our uniforms are Barney purple) did ok this past weekend without me, but still lost 3-4.  Maybe we can pull off another win this season.  I will miss the next game, but should be there for the next two.

So we made it to Orange Beach in one piece...  and were greeted by swarms of Dragonflies.  Here's one taking a break on our deck:

There were at times swarms of them all over the place, and then at other times, none to be seen.  Very strange.

I did have had a few good chances to play with camera settings, etc, while I was down there.  Here is the moon on Saturday night.  The other light spots are (I assume) fishing ships that were a considerable distance away.  The moon looked cool since it kept getting shrouded in clouds.  In this picture it is just about to pass below the horizon:

Here is Orange Beach during the daytime (morning):

And here are a couple sunset pics:

I really like that you can see the moon in the second one.

Laura gets to stay down there all week, but I have to go to work this week.  Bummer.

So Laura and I packed up the cats and headed off to Orange Beach on Saturday.  And when I say packed up, I mean we caught them, rammed a pill down their throats (they loved that part), and when they got groggy, we made them ride in the car for almost 5 hours.  Funny thing about a high cat...  you can tell instantly that they're on something.  I bet this would be a very different world if it worked that way on humans.  Cats look a bit like they're cross-eyed:

You can't tell as much on George since the little eye cover that makes him look cross-eyed is white (so it just looks like the white of his eye in this picture).  You can definately tell that Laura is on something though...  You can see it better on Bella:

They're both back to normal now, but it was amusing but sad all at the same time.  Thanks to drugs though, we made it through the trip without too much trauma.

Seemed like a couple hundred.  I'm assuming these were going to Katrina relief since they were headed south:

Interestingly, they were just long enough that you couldn't put two on a flatbed railcar together.  That made this train incredibly long.

I don't normally write too many serious things on here, but this is one that I think might become a huge issue in the future.  Microsoft is apparently trying to patent the FAT filesystem.  That might not mean a whole lot to the non-computer folks that read this, but that should be a huge deal to the rest of us.  This is along the lines of someone patenting paper.  The FAT filesystem has been around as long as Microsoft DOS has.  The first IBM PC was released in 1981 and DOS was around then.  FAT pretty much defines how files are stored on floppy discs, zip disks, hard disks (until recently), and most importantly flash memory. 

I'm not sure what Microsoft plans on doing with this patent once it is approved, but if they decide to enforce it, it could be huge.  Just thinking about stuff I have in my house that uses the FAT filesystem...  MP3 player, digital camera, camera phone, computers, etc.  I think the kicker for me is that my TV will take a flash card and display the pictures on it.  If Microsoft decides to start charging royalties for this patent, someone might have to pay a little bit more for their TV just because it can read the FAT filesystem.  I seriously doubt there is a way to enforce this retroactively, but this could be huge in the future. 

George is ready for Christmas.  How about you?

So the other day I was getting ready to work and had the feeling that someone was watching me:

So where did Bella's head go?

Guess this is her way of saying she needs sunglasses.

We lost our soccer game this past sunday 0-10 or so.  We lost count at around 8.

I think I will be unable to go to the next two.

It is truly sad when I am excited that gas is below $3/gallon.  (keep in mind this completely filled up my tank - a very small tank at that).

This is our neighbor Jennifer almost strangling Laura.  I just thought this was a funny picture.

I just thought this was amusing.  There were four people in this picture, but at least three of them were frightening, so I cut two of them off.

We lost our soccer game today 2-3.  I think really the wind beat us in the first half and we never recovered.  There's always next week.

What do you think my friend Chris is dressing up as for Halloween?  I bet it's a flight deck crew member:

This is an amazing picture he took with (I am assuming) his new Nikon D70.  Glad he was able to get it up in his plane.

Another amazing picture from his plane. 

Click on them and you can see a larger version.

We won our game today...  2-1.  Yay.

I know I am a little late in getting these up here, but here are a couple pictures my friend Chris sent from his latest deployment.  I'm hoping he'll send more soon.  (This isn't actually Chris flying since he's the one taking the pictures.  I really hope he gets someone to take a picture of him at some point.)

So we lost our first game :(

It was a very disappointing 0-7.  I'll blame the heat for now.  I need to remember to bring two gallons of Gatorade to the next game.  It should be next Sunday.

Sunday is my first game of the fall season.  Yay.  This is the league I play in.  Hopefully we'll do better than we did the last couple times.

Please go to the Capital One Bowl page and vote for Buzz over Purdue Pete.  He is a much cooler mascot than some plastic-headed freak.