January 2008

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Links are good as of their posting date. Comments may be directed to bradley@wogsland.org.


30 January 2008

Watching all the building that is happening near my home lately I've been wondering why nobody's thought to put in a liquor store. Karns is going to get a fourth stoplight soon and a number of low scale restaurants have been built in shopping centers that keep popping up. So I thought to myself, here's an economic need because we know Tennesseans love to drink, and decided to do a feasibility study. Licensing is relatively simple enough in this state, even for a liquor store. Financing looked possible considering the obvious market potential and my anal attention to detail in protecting my credit score. So I started looking into the various items required to create such a store: available retail space, shelves and refrigerators, inventory, etc. The economics seemed to fit and a look into public records showed that such establishments had been started in town for as little as $50K just last year. Now I was starting to get excited. So this afternoon I started talking to distributors, the fat cats of our 3-Tier alcohol laws. It was the general manager of D & V Distributing who clued me in to the real reason no one has exploited this obvious economic opportunity: State Law requires liquor and wine stores and restaurants serving wine or liquor to be located within the limits of specific municipalities. We are well outside Knoxville's city limits. That also explains why our nicest restaurant is Gatti's Pizza, just a step above fast food. Perhaps I'll have to vote for the city/county government consolidation on the ballot this Fall after all...


28 January 2008 - more tidbits

This morning I noticed a large square of thicker frost on the roof - right over where I put in the R-30. Of course then I noticed the rest of the roof and thought of the power bills . . .

Yesterday one of the kids tracked in dog poop on the front mat so I hosed it off and set it out in the sun of the driveway to dry. Well, I forgot to bring it in so this morning it had frost on it . . . and some dog had decided to rechristen it, this time with urine.

The other day I heard Maxwell explaining to Boodle that "w" is really lower case "M". I tried to correct him, but he was pretty certain . . .

Alora and Brittan have ordered 25 chicks as part of their 4-H project. They're going to raise them and then auction them of at the Karns fair this summer. They plan to get rich selling fresh eggs to the neighbors, which reminds me of when I was a kid and raised silkworms . . . I just couldn't kill them and ended up with a bunch of moths instead.


26 January 2008

Ray and Bev are up for the weekend. We've hung out, caught up, and had a lot of fun. Ray has decided he needs a Wii too.


24 January 2008 - Don't Bleed on the Carpet

While working on my latest home improvement project today I came up with a great title for something like a book or blog on home improvements. You can imagine where the inspiration came from... Being that our house is a "Cape Cod", there is quite a bit of unused space on the second floor underneath the roof. Ever since I saw the house I have been dying to cut into these areas and add them in useful ways to the two upstairs rooms. I cut into the office first because we need more storage space for the Christmas stuph which remains in my office because it doesn't really fit in the attic. Having knocked out a wall I was excited to discover a passageway across the ceiling beams in the front of the house to our bedroom. The kids will have quite a bit of fun crossing through there once I put a floor in. I also discovered why the upstairs is always so hot in summer and cold in winter: R-11 insulation was used. At least in the new storage area this has now been replaced with R-30. Eventually I'll do more. With four such areas available there are quite a lot of things I can do.


22 January 2008

Lately it has been cold and rainy here. To the north and south of us they have gotten plenty of snow, but not us. Somehow it manages to be below freezing and rain ... for days. The kids had a four day weekend, so we have watched a lot of movies and the house is very clean.


18 January 2008

The past month or so I've learned alot of Italian. Why? Well, I decided the best way to get TheWineRater.com noticed was to have the most complete English description of Italy's many wine appellations. I think I've succeeded (read the full article), but the fact remains that the website doesn't even pay for the wine I drink. So ist das Leben... This leaves the conundrum of what to do next. Foreseeing this eventuality I've been out prospecting for quant jobs, but it seems my half-heartness about leaving Knoxville again has probably shown through - nothing's panned out yet. I suppose I'll have to expand my interests to find something more local, which is what we all really want. Why do I love Tennessee so much? People here have freedom in their bones. This past month there was a fatal shooting at the nearby Hooters which killed an assistant manager and wounded several patrons. The police managed to hunt down the guy responsible, but he prefered death to capture. This morning I opened the paper to see the response of the legislature to such incidents. More police? More gun control? NO! Concealed carry gun permits were extended to include establishments serving alcohol. Next time a robber enters Hooters he won't know if the manager's packing.


16 January 2008 - Wii Sports Boxing


11 January 2008

"I go see the Brittans down stairs." announced Boodle this morning as she headed out of our room - where she still ends up sleeping most nights. With so many of us in the house the nomenclature gets rather complicated. While it is somewhat obvious that a two-year-old would lump her twin sisters into a single category, I find it rather funny that Maxwell and I enjoy the same distinction, if in a smaller degree. At least once a day I get addressed as Maxwell or I here her call Maxwell "Daddy". Not surprisingly her most anticipated moment of the day is the trip to pick up Maxwell from school.

Confusion, however, is not limited to the youngest among us. We call Zara the third twin because she resembles her sisters in so many ways at this age. Now while this resemblance diminishes as she develops her own personality it is still very strong. The interesting thing is that no one ever calls her Brittan. Alora and Zara are just too similar sounding! Two days ago even Alora herself addressed her sister by her own name. We joked that she was having an identity crisis.


5 January 2008


Yesterday Maxwell had 11 cavities filled or capped. How do they get a four year old to sit still that long you might ask? General anesthetic. Actually Maxwell was quite good, and never really experienced any pain. He even ate a burger on the way home.

The kids don't go back to school until Tuesday, but they are rather done with vacation. Alora and Brittan have taken to irritating eachother for a little mental stimulation. Brings back memories of my own school breaks...

Cara is really enjoying her job at the hospital and gave us all a little tour the other day when the kids and I stopped in for lunch. Hospital food is still hospital food though. Zara was mesmerized by the myriad choices and quite insistant about carrying her tray like the bigs kids - who are all of course familiar with cafetarias from school.

My favorite Christmas present was a Wii from my parents. The sports games which it came with are incredible, but many of the others are still sit on the couch types. Not that I ever had a problem with those...

...and yes we are sending out cards. We just have to finish addressing the envelopes. Next week maybe?


Wishful Thinking


3 January 2008 - Alora & Brittan painted stools for the kitchen.


2 January 2008

I hate Bank of America.


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Last ∆ on 28 January 2008 by Bradley James Wogsland.
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