Happy 80th Anniversary!

February 14th, 1929
Chicago, Illinois, Garage of the SMC Cartage Company

Six members of Bugs Moran's Irish Mob and a mechanic were inside.

Two members of Al Capone's Mafia (Bugs's rival) entered the garage, dressed as policemen.

Bugs's gang thought they were actually policeman, and obeyed their orders to line up against the wall.

The "policemen" then let two plain-clothesed gang members into the garage through the rear door.

Armed with shotguns and Tommy guns, they opened fire.

The four were able to leave the scene quietly by having the pair of men in plain-clothes escorted out by the pair dressed as police.

When the real police arrived, one of the dying men was asked who shot him. He replied "I'm not gonna talk - nobody shot me."

There was one survivor - a German Shepherd named Highball, found trapped and howling under a beer truck.

Happy Valentine's Day!!
(And yes, you have seen this before, and yes, if my blog sticks around, I am going to post this every year, because we all need some morbidity on a day so full of MUSH.)

Nerd Camping

Go to Steve's Blog for an alternate version, but here's the REAL story.

Joe and I were mall-walking, when suddenly my toes froze and started falling off. I couldn't walk any further, so we had to stay where we were -- in front of Office Depot.

Luckily, we had all this stuff with us:

So began the Nerd Camping.

We ate wholesome food (There's a picture of corn on the back! It has to be good for you!) and did math exercises for fun!

Yes, that is a computer and 22" monitor in a tent. No, those aren't cheetos.

Steve Dawg Son Boi, a famous rap star, walked by for no apparent reason, saw how much fun we were having, and crashed the party.

A bum came along looking for cans in the shopping carts. We asked him to join us.

Steve Dawg Son Boi gave us some entertainment.

Steve Dawg Son Boi wouldn't stop entertaining us, despite being kindly asked not to.

10 hours in, the nerd party was still going. Tyler played a game called "Memorize the IPs" while I played Air-COD4.

Joe played the "Visualize the Algorithms" game.

Around 4:30, we looked outside our tent to find a huge line. The brilliant mob was lining up across the drive-lane rather than wrapping around the building on the sidewalk.

The line turned out to be for Best Buy (visible in the distance), where Steve Dawg Son Boi was scheduled to have a concert. We were under the Office Depot awning seen in the foreground.

Eventually Office Depot opened and we went in for no reason. The guy in the black baseball hat was upset to find out he was in the wrong place to hear the Steve Dawg Son Boi concert.

An hour later we somehow walked out with laptops.

Like we said last year... Never again.

A poem, inspired by Steve

This is the house that Dan built.

This is the Dave

That lives in the house that Dan built.

This is the Joe

That helped the Dave

That lives in the house that Dan built.

This is the Mike
That worked with the Joe
That helped the Dave
That lives in the house that Dan built.

This is the work
Finally done on the house that Dan built.

This is the house that Dan built...looking much better than it did a week ago. It needed some siding replaced and a new paint job. Now that is has that...it needs a new yard. :-|