Baseball Pictures on Web Site

We took the boys to the park last week to work on Alex’s baseball skills and Jen took some pictures of Alex, Andrew, and I playing which I posted here.

As an aside, I haven’t played baseball since I was in like grade 5 or 6 and I have to say I really, really stink.

Newfie Jokes

I’ve been on a Newfie kick the last couple of days and figured there’s no better way to celebrate then with a couple of good Newfie jokes.

There was a Russian, a Frenchman and a Newfie who were running from the cops. So they go down this side street and see three potatoe sacks and decide to hide in them. The police come along and think there’s something suspicious so they kick the first bag. The Russian’s in there and he says “Meow!” and the cops think ‘Oh, it’s just an ally cat,’ and keep on going. They kick the next bag and the Frenchman in there says “Woof!” so they think ‘Oh, it’s just a stray dog.’ So then they kick the bag with the Newfie in it and he says “PO-TA-TOE!”

A Torontonian, an American and a Newfoundlander are involved in a grisly crime and are all sentenced to death. The executioner told them that they would each get to choose the method by which they would die.
Their choices were: lethal injection, electric chair or by hanging.
The American was afraid of needles and didn’t want to be hanged. The American chose the electric chair.
He sat in the chair and they pulled the switch and nothing happened. The executioner said that if this happens a second time that he could go free.
They tried a second time and again nothing happened so they set him free.
The guy from Toronto was also afraid of needles and didn’t want to be hanged so he too chose the electric chair.
Once again, the chair didn’t work and he was free.
Next it was the Newfoundlander’s turn to pick how he was to be executed.
He said “I’m afraid of needles, the electric chair won’t work so you’re going to have to hang me”.

A Young, Newfoundlander man was walking around a field in Newfoundland, when he came across an old well. He walked up to the well, just to get a look. He noticed an old looking bottle in the well bucket. He picked it up. And suddenly a genie appeared before him.
The genie said, “For freeing me, I will grant you one wish.”
The young man said, “Ok. I wish that there was a bridge going from Newfoundland to the mainland, you know, like the P.E.I. one.”
The genie said,”I am sorry, but I can’t do that. That would be TOO much change. That would be ALMOST impossible. It would change too many peoples lives.”
So the young man thought for a second, then said, “Ok, then. I am a proud Newfoundlander, and I am sick and tired of everyone making fun of Newfoundlanders. SO I wish that Newfound landers were as smart, or even smarter than ANYONE else in the world. Or at least smarter than any other Canadian.”
The genie said, “So, do you want two lanes, or four?”

The Newfie Stud Bob liked to frequent the Newfoundland beaches, but was never able to attract the girls. He decided to ask his friend George the lifeguard for advice.
“It’s dem big baggy swimming trunks, my son. Dey’re years outta style. Yer best bet is to grab yeself a pair of Speedos – about two sizes too small, and drop a fist-sized potato down inside ’em. I’m telling ye, man…ye’ll have all de babes ye wants!”
The following weekend, Bob hits the beach with his spanking new tight Speedos, and his fist-sized potato. Everybody on the beach was disgusted as he walked by, covering their faces, turning away, laughing, looking sick!
Bob went back to George the lifeguard and asked him, “What’s wrong now?”
“Lard-Tunderin’ Jeezus b’y!” said George, “the potato goes in the front!”

And one last off colour one…

A Newfie walks into a bar, notices a very large jar on the counter, and sees it’s filled to the brim with $10 bills.

He guesses there must be thousands of dollars in it.

He approaches the bartender and asks,”What’s up with the jar?”

“Well, you pay $10, and if you pass three tests, you get all the money.”

The man certainly isn’t going to pass this up. “What are the three tests?”

“Pay first, those are the rules.” says the bartender.

So the Newfie gives him the $10, and the bartender drops it into the jar.

“OK,” the bartender says, “here’s what you need to do: First – You have to drink that entire gallon of pepper tequila the whole thing, all at once…and you can’t make a face while doing it.

Second, – There’s a pit bull chained-up out back with a sore tooth.
You have to remove the tooth with your bare hands.

Third, – There’s a 90-year-old woman upstairs who has never reached orgasm during intercourse. You’ve gotta make things right for her.”

The Newfie is stunned. “I know I paid my 10 bucks, but I’m not an idiot! I won’t do it!
You have to be nuts to drink a gallon of pepper tequila, and then do those other things….”

“Your call,” says the bartender, “but your money stays where it is.”

As time goes on and the Newfie has a few drinks, then a few more, he asks, “Wherez zat teeqeelah?”
He grabs the gallon with both hands and downs it with a big slurp.
Tears are streaming down both cheeks, but he doesn’t make a face.

Next, he staggers out back where the pit bull is chained-up, and soon all the people inside the bar hear a huge, noisy, scuffle going on outside.

They hear the pit bull barking, the guy screaming, the pit bull yelping, and then…………silence.

Just when they think the Newfie surely must be dead, he staggers back into the bar, with his shirt ripped and large bloody scratches all over his body.

Now,” he says, “where’s the old woman with the sore tooth?

Newfie Music Earworms

I was playing some Sharon, Lois, and Bram for Caroline this evening and ended up with “I’s the B’y” stuck in my head. Apparently it isn’t exactly the most popular song since there are only two videos on You Tube.

A couple pictures of Caroline from a week ago or so. I’m not really sure what she’s making a funny face about in the left picture and she really doesn’t look very impressed hanging around in the baby carrier while I get a self portrait.

Caroline making a funny face. Caroline in the baby carrier

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me

Well there might no be pictures of you up here and I think there’s only one or two that I actually show up in but that’s beside the point. It’s been a while since I’ve actually posted anything on the web site and tonight I sat down and put together three updates. Count em, three. Never mind that I’m actually about to go blind after staring at this screen for the last three hours, it’s what I do to keep you happy.

First up are more pictures of Caroline. I’ve been told a number of times that people have been asking for more pictures so here you go. There’s some really good ones in this set now that she’s more alert and making some expressive faces. (That or she’s got gas.)

Second, I’ve pulled together a couple of pictures from Easter. We took the boys to Andrew’s school where they were doing a community Easter Egg hunt and to be honest I think they had more people show up then they anticipated. There were about a zillion kids running around, the lines for the activities where huge, and at one point the sheer number of kids overwhelmed the volunteers as they just started to Easter Egg hunt before they were ready.

And lastly, hot off the digital camera memory stick are pictures from Alex’s birthday party which we did this weekend. Last week we did a small family gathering and this weekend was the official broomball party at the ice rink with his friends.

Andrew talking picture

Adventure Guides Spring Campout

Last weekend was Adventure Guides campout weekend for Alex and I.  Just like the fall campout we were in the southern part of Oklahoma, but instead of the freezing weather we had last time this time it was quite nice.  We even got to wear shorts on Saturday.

I took a bunch of pictures and put them up in a fancy schmancy flash based photo album which made it much easier to pull together.  The only drawback was that I didn’t take the time to put comments on all the pictures so you’ll have to make up your own commentary.

Pictures are here: http://www.mceachernfamily.com/comanchecubs/2009springcampout/index.html

Pictures from Stars Game

Couple of pictures from the Stars Game that Alex, Andrew, and I went to last night. We all looked very sporty wearing our hockey jerseys. Stars ended up winning 3-2 in overtime which was pretty exciting though Andrew was more intested in seeing the Zamboni and Ice Girls.

Adobe Flash and Acrobat Upgrades

A couple of months back I installed Google Analytics on the web site as an experiment. Analytics collects various information about who visits the site, what browser you use, what pages you visit, if you got here via a search engine what search terms got you here, and other interesting stuff. I’m an information junkie and love sifting through this type of information.

One of the things it reports is the version of Adobe’s Flash Player installed. Since I work with computers and try and keep with the latest goings on in the security front I feel I need to tell you it’s time to update your flash player.

Why does it matter you might wonder? Virus writers and purveyors of spyware exploit vulnerabilities in software that lots of people use. Things like Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer, Windows, etc. A couple of weeks back Adobe released an update to Flash to address a vulnerability Players 10.0.12.36 and earlier which can allow attackers to take complete control of the affected machine.

Based on my Google Analytics results 93% of users visiting here in the last two weeks are running outdated flash versions. Nine different versions in fact.

How can you figure out what version of flash your running? Go to Adobe’s web site at the following link:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/

and it will show you the version you have installed. Here’s a screen shot:

If the version you have installed doesn’t match the version you should be running then upgrade from the following link:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

The installation should be pretty straight forward. I use Firefox and my install was to download the install program, close my browser and run the installation. Once you have upgraded go back to the about web site and verify that your installed version has been upgraded.

This is also where I warn you never to install flash from any web site other then Adobe. If you surf your way onto a site that tells you your running an old version of flash don’t believe them, check with the official Adobe site and verify. A very popular phishing technique is to tell you your running an old version and provide you with a convenient download to upgrade but it’s actually just spyware. Any reputable site will direct you to Adobe’s site to get the correct version if you really are running and outdated version.

Once you’ve upgraded flash go ahead and upgrade Adobe’s Acrobat reader if you use it for reading pdf files. On Wednesday they released version 9.1 which fixes a number of critical vulnerabilities . You can get that here:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/