another picture from the drive back

Result of an afternoon rainshower at the beach

Awesome PMB concert at Kelly's tonight.

Me and Pat

In honor of Pat McGee Band playing in Nags Head, NC while I'm going to be at the Outer Banks next week, here's an oldie for you.




Laurelie Wallace, Pat McGee, and Me after a Pat McGee Band concert on January 27, 1999 at The Stadium in Oxford, OH.

Couch picture

Thanks, Jakki, for sending this picture out. Who knows when all of the cousins will be in one room again.

From L to R: Ross, Eric, Evan, Eric, Jakki, Eric, Monica, Eric, Jessica, Eric, Lauren

Icing on the cake

It is never a good day when one must attend the funeral of a loved one. However, it makes for an even worse day when you get in an accident on your way to the service after the funeral.

As I was turning into the driveway, a Ford Taurus that was traveling behind me crashed into the left rear corner of my car. The impact caused the Vibe to spin around 180 degrees and did significant damage to the rear and side of my car.

My car had to be towed because the accident rendered it un-drivable while the Taurus was able to leave under its own power. Now the fun of dealing with an out-of-state accident begins...at least it wasn't my fault.


The immediate aftermath of the accident. Notice that even though I used to be traveling the same direction as the Taurus, the Vibe has been spun 180 degrees and is now facing South.


View of the driver's side rear section of the Vibe


You can see how badly the rear wheel was damaged in this picture


It is common for people to congregate and watch the aftermath of an accident. However, it is not usually your entire immediate family that is present to watch.


This is the extent of the damage to the Taurus. It was still drivable after the accident.

Mobile Post

Me and Ross in Grandpa's garage. You'd think I'd remove this picture since Ross has his eyes closed, wouldn't you?

Glad I got out

"Federated plans to eventually convert many May stores to Macy's as the department store operator accelerates its strategy of creating a nationwide brand that will allow it to expand marketing initiatives. That means May store nameplates such as Hecht's, Foley's and Kaufmann's could soon disappear."

Tom Cruise Stricken from my profile

In honor of Tom Cruise being officially insane, I have replaced my Top Gun image in my user profile.

Crazy sparkler action

These folks take sparklers to a whole new level

Keyhole is now free

Thanks Ross, for pointing out that Google Earth has left the Beta stage and is now a full release (and free).

I've demo'd Keyhole (and Google Earth Beta) for many people, including family, co-workers, and Lindsay's classroom.

Everyone who's seen Keyhole has been quite impressed but did not want to pay the $20 registration fee to unlock the trial version.

Since Google likes to give away great software, the full release of Google Earth is now free for everyone to download.

Just head on over to Google Earth and grab your own copy.

Save our country

A little light reading for you while you watch the Republicans dismantle our Constitution.

Palm w/ 4GB HD? Sweet!

Looks like the first of the hard drive based PDAs have arrived.

These new devices will most likely reinvigorate the PDA market and start to make laptops less appealing to some people. Should be interesting to keep an eye on as the prices fall and capacity increases.

Palm Store - palmOne™ LifeDrive™ mobile manager

Star sighting

Congrats to Monica and the rest of the Roanoke Stars for the @ss whooping that they handed down to all of their competition in this weekend's basketball tournament in Cincinnati.

Good luck at Nationals!

Mo Boat showing the other team how it's done

Cleveland made Daypop...for an alligator

Why have a guard dog when you can have a guard alligator??

Gator found guarding suspected drug house

So much for the Hwy Patrol

Tonight, on my drive home from work along I-90, a pickup truck in front of me began swerving erratically all over his lane. At first, I thought they must just be talking on their cell phone, changing cds, or maybe they were simply a woman driver. However, this erratic behavior did not stop; they swerved left onto the rumble strips, then they would swerve back to the right and encroach on the neighboring lane. They would also randomly hit their brakes while travelling in the left-most lane with nobody in front of them.

I decided that the driver was either drunk or dying, so I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number for the Ohio Hwy Patrol (1-877-7-PATROL).

When a dispatcher answered, I explained the situation to her. She then asked me if I was in Ashtabula county. I told her I was nowhere near Ashtabula county, that I was currently in Elyria, just east of Rt-57. The dispatcher told me to wait while she transferred me.

The Elyria police dispatcher then came on the line and I again repeated the situation
with the truck in front of me. By this time, I was just approaching Rt-611 which is almost to Avon. The Elyria dispatcher told me that since I was almost in Avon, she was going to transfer me to the Avon police department.

When the Avon police dispatcher came on the line, she was so quiet that I could barely hear her over the noise of traffic (even with my cell phone volume turned up to full volume). Even though I could barely understand what she was saying, I explained the situation with the dangerous pickup truck for a third time, and gave the woman a description of the vehicle and the license plate number.

I think that the woman said that she would have somebody look into the situation, but I can't be certain. By this time, however, the truck was just approaching the Crocker Rd exit which marks the beginning of Westlake, and Cuyahoga County.

Unless the Avon (Lorain Cty) police put out an APB into Cuyahoga Cty, I have a feeling this guy was never going to be stopped.

I got off the highway at this point though, so I guess we'll never know.

My point of this story is this: In an era of increased homeland security concern, how can still be stuck in a situation where our police departments have no way to track somebody as they cross from city to city on an expressway?

When I spoke to the Ohio Highway Patrol dispatcher, why did they care if I was in Ashtabula county??? Shouldn't the Ohio Hwy Patrol cover all of the highway's in OHIO???

What kind of America is this???

So the White House has some master black-list of Democratic supporters and they're using that list to prevent members of industry from participating in international forums.

Damn all those red states...

Weekend in Oxford

Between the shooting on I-71 (causing an 8-hour drive from Cleveland to Oxford),the fire that killed 3 people 2 blocks from my hotel, and my 25-year old friend getting an open container violation it was definately an eventful weekend.

The Forbidden Couch

Lest some people get the wrong idea about Lauren's "Forbidden Couch" comment below, here's a picture.



Eric, Grandma, Lauren, Me, and Ross on the couch-that-nobody-ever-sits-on...aka. the Forbidden Couch.

(you can click the thumbnail image for a slightly larger, although still low resolution, copy)

15 Passenger SUV???

Gotta love Cleveland...we have SUVs driving around stuffed with illegal immigrants. How the heck did they manage to get FIFTEEN people in a Ford Expedition? I know those gas-guzzlers are huge...but come on!