Do we know what really happened on 9-11?

First, let me say that I shudder to think that any government entity had any foreshadowing of the horrible events of 9-11, much less had an active part in planning and executing it. But, I will also say that there are many unresolved mysteries surrounding the event that make me think that, at the least, we are not getting the full story.

Some of the many questions that bug me:

1. Why did both towers fall down after burning only less than 2 hrs? A skyscraper in Venezuela burned for 17 hrs and still stood. One in Madrid burned for 24 hours and still stood. And, in fact, there are only three documented cases of buildings collapsing because of fire. They are WTC 1, WTC 2, and WTC 7 (which wasn't even hit by an airplane, btw).

2. Steel melts at approx. 2000 degrees F. Jet fuel burns at approx. 1300 degrees F. You do the math.

3. How were all four black boxes on the WTC planes completely incinerated, yet the intact passport of a terrorist, made of paper was found intact?

4. Why has the government not released the surveillance tapes of the plane hitting the Pentagon?

5. Why did the wings of the Pentagon plane "disintegrate" without breaking out the window frames on either side of the impact area? Where was the tail section wreckage? The engine wreckage?

There are many more, but I won't go on here. And lest you think I've turned into some crackpot nutcase, I'm in pretty elite company:

Here's San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford's column on the subject.

And here is New York magazine's take on it.

Finally, here is an excellent video documentary called 9/11 Loose Change that brings up a host of troubling questions surrounding the events of 9/11 and how the facts don't seem to jibe with the official storyline. Please watch this before thinking that it's all bullcrap.

The point here? We deserve a more thorough examination of the events surrounding the most heinous terrorist act in the nation's history. The victims deserve it, and so do we, the Vox Populi.

Fabu

Check me out...I SO have to recreate this outfit for Sylvia. I love it!
Also, I think Sylvia has my body, what do you all think? :O)
That's me at the beach w. my uncle feeding me some food.
Thanks Mom for getting me copies of these photos; they're the BEST!

Holy overtones, Batman!

So pretty much everyone reads comics as a kid, right? Well, the folks over at Superdickery.com decided that it would be fun to go back as adults and take a second look. What they found was interesting:

1. Superman is a total dick. The guy is constantly killing Batman, Jimmy Olsen, Wonder Woman, and even his beloved (or is she?) Lois Lane...again and again.

2. The guys drawing these comics back in the day were either really naïve or really naughty. After viewing some of the "unintended sexual meanings" cartoons, you MUST come to the conclusion that they were the latter. If you need examples, you can look here. But, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED, DO NOT LOOK AT THIS ONE. (I'm serious, don't look.)

3. Batman and Robin were gay. Look, this disturbs me as much as it does the next red-blooded American male, but the proof is in the pudding, folks. Read these comics! The truth will horribly reveal itself!

4. The guys that drew Wonder Woman just wanted an excuse to draw sexy girls in bondage. I mean, week after week, issue after issue, Wonder Woman is bound with chains, with ropes, with her own frickin' golden lasso. It's amazing, really, that she ever got out of the house.

Great weekend!

My Mom and Dad came up this weekend to babysit so Jenny and I could have a couple "nights on the town."

On Friday, we went to a fabu St. Patrick's Day party hosted by our friend Ed in D.C. The party was PACKED (at least 100 people in his two bedroom condo), and we lots of really nice folks.

During the party folks were giving out stickers for the benefit of single folks, gold stars for gay singles, and American flags for straight singles. Married folks like us were out of luck, alas. Of course, as usual, I was instantly asked if I wanted a star, since I looked so obviously gay. It's got to be the glasses.

On Saturday we went back into D.C. to Dukem, our newest favorite Ethiopian restaurant with two more new friends that Jenny knows from the neighborhood. The food and conversation were both excellent. Man I love Wats.

It was, of course, great to spend more time with my Mom and Dad, and the baby was LOVING her extended granmagrampa time.

To round things off, we planted some shrubs, bulbs, and seeds, and I hauled a crapload of junk from behind my shed to the bed of my truck. Looks like a trip to the dump is in order. The Spring cleaning frenzy starts now, people.

Comment problems fixed!

Hi everyone!

I was just alerted that when people have been trying to comment on our blog, it wasn't working properly....

I've fixed the problem now, I think, so please comment away!!!

J,J, & S

Future pianist?

We went down to Joe's parents' house this past weekend and Sylvia indicated that she'd like to play the organ. So, here she is, playing her debut piece, "Minuet in Geeh:"

Generation Make

It seems that DIY is quite the rage these days. The hipster culture has embraced everything from quilting to cooking to wine making to guitar amp building, and personally I think that's pretty freaking cool.

I learned my DIY skills from my dad and mom. My dad always taught me to break down problems into component parts and solve the bits to make the whole work. My mom was DIY when DIY wasn't cool, teaching herself to speak Spanish, quilt, paint, refinish furniture, etc.

I've refinished an old guitar, built a handful of amps of my own design (or based loosely on previous designs), made my own soccer goals, and done a few other neat projects.

If you haven't made anything with your own two hands, you should give it a try. It's a very rewarding feeling to use something that you have personally crafted.

Try these links on for size to get started building, cooking, knitting, whatever....

AX84: Build your own guitar amps!
Make Magazine
Indestructables: Millions of cool projects here
ReadyMade Magazine

BRRR

Well, I am happy to announce that it is currently 17 degrees here in DC.
I really want to go to sleep but am hiding out in our guest room b/c Ms. Sylvia is having sleeping issues due to teething and if I walk out in the hall she can "sense" me and pops up and wants to play. Oy. Hopefully Joe will get her back to sleep soon -- so I can go to bed also.
The weather has been so weird this past week. We had the major snow dump last weekend, then we had 3 days of ~60 degree weather, then on Friday we had major winds (so fierce that it ripped one of our storm windows off of the house), then today the temperature dropped to the bone chilling 17 degrees that I mentioned above.
We have a fire in the fireplace and plan on camping out at home tomorrow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Love,
Sylvia

Knife fight in D.C.!!! I got on the news!!!

Holy. Crap.

So I'm walking out of my office to go to the dentist yesterday. I'm passing the little mobile hot dog stand outside my office's front door (the corner of 17th and L, NW--this is the HEART of downtown people!) when I hear shouting from my left. I turn to see a homeless guy and a Hispanic guy arguing loudly. Many "f%$ks and "hijo de p#$as" were heard. Like any red-blooded American male, I hark back to sixth grade and hang out to see the inevitable punch-up. That's when I see the knife.

The homeless guy is holding a big ol' hunting knife with a blade that looks to be about four or five inches long! Woah. I grab my phone and scream at them, "I'm calling 911 right now!" in the hopes that it would make the homeless guy run off. They both ignore me. The hispanic guy goes over to his three friends, one of whom hands him a handled box cutter to defend himself with. This is getting uglier by the minute.

As I'm on the phone with 911, out of nowhere a paramilitary looking D.C. cop comes striding down the street, gun drawn, shouting at the dudes to get on the ground. They do. Then up runs a TV cameraman and reporter, who happened to be driving by at the right time. As the cop is starting to arrest the hispanic guy, I went to the cop and told him that he was only defending himself. (We found out on the news later that he was not charged, thankfully.) Other cops quickly arrive on the scene, one of which takes my detailed statement, and the TV crew interviews me. Crazy stuff.

And then, at 11 o'clock, comes my brief moment of stardom. Sweet! Already, I've heard from two of my printer contacts that saw my interview on the news...it's only a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling. I won't forget you all at the Oscars.

Blog tagged!

Thanks Sarah! I'll do this one (Xose)

Four jobs I’ve had:
Printing salesman
Archaeological Assistant
Deputy Editor in Chief
Sales dork at Heck's Dept. Store

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
Star Wars
This Is Spinal Tap
The Jerk
The Blues Brothers

Four Places I’ve Lived:
Montgomery, WV
Oviedo, Spain
Oakland
Durham, NC

Four TV shows I love:
Buffy
The Shield
The Wire
Angel

Four places I’ve vacationed
Chile
Morrocco
England
Finland

Four of my favorite dishes:
Asturian Fabada
Spanish chorizo
Jenny's pork chops, kraut, and apple sauce
Pote Asturianu

Four sites I visit daily:
AX84
Questionable Content
Diesel Sweeties
Asturian-American Migration Forum

Four places I would rather be right now:
At home with Jenny and Sylvie B.
On the river in WV
Honalulu
London

Four bloggers I’m tagging:
No tags....

photos from the weekend

Cool weekend trip

This past weekend we went to the Virginia mountains with some friends of ours, Allison, Etienne, and their baby, Beck.

They rent a small house in the middle of a field right at the foot of a mountain range that is simply beautiful. The place is really in the middle of nowhere (actually, Syria, VA), which is fantastic when you're trying to get away from it all. The place doesn't have a TV, which was great for conversation and ghost stories. At one point in the '60s, some farm worker murdered his wife in the house's living room (or so the story goes), so we were freaking on that for a while! :-)

We also discovered that Allison and Etienne are huge Buffy freaks, just like us, so we compared favorite episodes while listening to the soundtrack from "Once More, With Feeling." (Allison had it on her iPod!)

Sylvie and Beck had fun playing together, as usual, with the only bummer being that they both had colds (as did Allison and I) and so couldn't really romp that much.

All in all a great trip and we hope to go back if they'll have us! Jenny will post pix soon, I'm sure.....

Happy Friday

It's Friday. Yah! Here are some shots of tulips that were given to me by my cousin Jane.

Need more $$$ from the Internet

I've decided that the Internet needs to be generating more money for us. How to get it to generate that money, I'm not sure. I have a Web site that sells custom-made amplifier plates (Amplates), but it's not bringing in the killer flow, so I need something else. A money machine like this one, if you will.

But how? Adsense? Click-throughs? WTF? Self-help e-books? I'm at a loss here, people.

Nite out!

We went on our first nite out since being back here in DC. We ate dinner (at this neat place in Silver Spring called, Jackie's and had a drink (at the Quarry House) with our neighbors and friends, Bill and Kim. They are cool as they put up w. our constant Sylvia talk! Though we really tried to keep it in check tonight.
My mom's in town and babysat for us...
Here's a photo our petite fashionista wearing a handknitted hat and sweater, made by my mom.
Sorry this is a random blog but I am tired.

Blog slacking

Just wanted to apologize for the slack blogging lately. Things have been pretty crazy at the homestead and office, and honestly, we haven't had time.

Jenny's mom is in town this week to get some Sylvie time, which is nice.

Can I just say that I don't know how I lived without DVR capabilities for so long? When we got the DISH Network installed (including butt-ugly satellite dish on our roof...bah!), our package included DVR for two rooms. Now I have it set to record EVERY televised English Premier League and Spanish La Liga soccer game! OH MY GOD I'M IN SOCCER HEAVEN NOW!!!! :-)

Wee Ones

In our neighborhood we have all these playgroups for the kids (and for the moms) so you can get out of the house and meet other people.
I went to Wee Ones yesterday but decided that I will wait before I go again...the kids were way older than Sylvia and it was quite chaotic. Sylvia, though, was a star and just sat on my lap and smiled at everyone. I found it a bit brain jarring with all the kids yelling and playing and trying to not let them paw at Sylvia...Everyone there was really nice and hopefully I can get to know them better later.
Luckily there is a 'mini' wee ones group that formed for those of us with the infants...I may try that one next week. I also joined a neighborhood walking group of all moms. We're going to try to meet up at least 2x per week.
That's the report from my end.
Here's some cute snaps of my favorite human being:

Happy New Year/Christmas wrap up

Well, we got back from our Christmas/Channukah trip to St. Augustine, FL on Tuesday. What a wonderful trip! If you've never been to the oldest continuously occupied city in North America, you're missing out! From the old Spanish quarter, where you can see how the Spanish colonists lived, to the old Fort, which is replete with real, live cannon fire, the whole town brings history to life.

Sylvie was showered with grandparent affection the whole time, naturally, and it was fun to get together with my cousins for Christmas.

Jenny got a new Canon digital SLR for Christmas, so be on the lookout for Sylvie shots that are more glorious than ever!

Happy Christmakkahwanzaa!

We would like to take this time to tell everyone how much we value your friendship, especially at this reflective time of year. We feel very blessed to have so many loved ones all over the world, and we sincerely hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season!

Love, Joe, Jenny, and Sylvie