We kicked off this morning with a $70 breakfast at Disney World. … After that, the kids wanted to swim again, and so the four of us swam. No rain today — it was 70 degrees and sunny! After a couple of hours of that, we hit the road, heading south — er, more south. On our way to the Keys, we stopped and had a late lunch at Rickey’s Restaurant and Lounge. If you haven’t seen King of Kong, Rickey’s Restaurant is “owned” by Billy Mitchell, one of the subjects of the film. We were told at the restaurant… (read more)

Last night we arrived at a hotel in a town that I cannot spell or pronounce, Apalachicola, Florida. We got to the hotel late so it was hard to tell how close to the ocean we were or what the view was like. When we woke up the next morning, this is what we saw: While I had breakfast in the hotel (it was actually a two bedroom cabin, but whatever) Susan and the kids did a bit of exploring. Apparently the ice machine was invented in Apalachicola and they have a museum dedicated to it, which for $2 a… (read more)

Woke up in Metairie, just outside of New Orleans. We had breakfast at City Diner in Metairie. City Diner’s specialty are pancakes the size of pizzas, and they aren’t kidding. For $8 you’ll get a short stack (3) of pancakes, each one about the size of a medium pizza. Susan, Mason and Morgan all worked on the pancakes (with some sides of eggs and bacon) while I dove into a giant bowl of shrimp and grits. There was something else in my grits, and after re-checking the menu I saw they also offer shrimp and grits and crawfish, which is… (read more)

Happy birthday to the World Wide Web! According to news reports, the “WWW” turned 25 years old this week. My gateway to the internet was BBSes, which slowly began carrying Usenet newsgroups and offering internet e-mail addresses in the early 90s. I first got direct access to the internet in 1994, thanks to a co-worker who loaned me his college account. It was a Linux shell account, which meant text only — no graphics at all. With unlimited access to that account I used IRC to chat with people all around the world, FTP to download files, and Gopher, which… (read more)

For close to ten years, most of my carded Star Wars figures have been stored away in plastic bins. I just haven’t had a good way or place to display them. While out shopping this weekend I had a moment of inspiration. After moving a few things around, I freed up a 4×8′ wall area in the Star Wars room. I picked up a 4×8′ sheet of pegboard from Home Depot for $15. I quickly discovered that the pegboard was exactly 8′ tall and the wall is only seven foot, eleven and a half inches. The first thing I had… (read more)

Mason wasn’t the only O’Hara with a winning basketball season this year! Morgan decided she wanted to be like big brother and play basketball as well this year. Morgan’s team is more focused on the basics of basketball. They’ve been practicing twice a week, working on things like dribbling and passing. Most of the girls on Morgan’s team can’t hit the backboard from the free throw line, which (unsurprisingly) has led to some pretty low scoring games. Morgan’s team went 2-6 this season, which somehow qualified them for the state tournament. Everyone agreed that taking our girls to the state… (read more)