Technology gave my wife the pink slip

With the release of Firefox 2.0 my wife has lost a job. Since I am a horrible speller, she checks over my blog postings to laugh at, and correct my spelling. But, with Firefox 2 and its built in spell checker, I have a running spell check with everything I write on the web. Yes, I know you can get spell checkers for WordPress. I have used one in the past that for some reason just stopped working. The one I currently have works sometimes, but mostly does not. Therefore the spell check in Firefox is perfect for me.

Other features with Firefox 2 include some extra tab browsing features. Also supposed to help against phishing scams. I am not really sure what all the new features are. It does not look a great deal different and I can’t really tell if it is much faster. Though I have “broadband,” it is just barely that. So any speed issues I have, I am sure is a matter of connection, not browser.

Now I am not sure how I am going to get my wife to even read my blog. Of course, this frees me up to say things about her that she probably will never read. Like that time…

Missionary Talks

I am proud to introduce my own podcast. Mr. Critical is now opening himself up to the criticism.

Check it out at: www.missionarytalks.com

Right now there is just a promo piece up there. Within then next few days I will have the first episode up and ready to consume. I will be releasing my shows about once a week. So far I have 4 interviews (but not all edited) that should give me enough of a buffer to stay on track for a weekly release for a while. My first 2 shows will have information about the shows purpose and direction. After that, it will just be an interview without much commentary. Show notes will be provided with each show to give more information and how to contact the missionary.

Audio quality will hopefully get better as things progress. If you are interested in interview style podcasts or with missions work, I think you will really enjoy the show.

Now I will put it out here in writing so that when I stray people can beat me back to my roots. I will attempt to stay around 15 minutes for each show. Can you forgive me 1 minute here or there? Thanks. You are such a good friend.

I look forward to seeing how this goes over.

Quittin’ the day job

I have found a source of income that just might have me turning in my ordination papers.

As you may know, my son and I played in a chess tournament over the last two weekends. We did not do very well. But, we did place. We each took 5th place in our divisions. And there were even more than 5 people in each!

For his 5th place spot, he won $150 (MXP). My 5th place garnered me $250 (MXP). That is about $36 US Dollars. That will keep us eating for a few days.

I think I will hold off on contacting my source of income for a little while until I know we can do this well on a regular basis.

Exchange a VCR and buy a belt

There is a chain of discount stores here in Mexico that Wal-Mart bought out some time back called Bodega Aurrera. As we were in need of a new VCR and my wife was headed to Aurrera to do some shopping, she picked up a combo DVD-VCR player today. I mention Wal-Mart because, regardless of some people’s opinions, it is still one of the easiest places to exchange or return merchandise in my opinion. Most stores here will require that you fill out the warranty card in the store each time you purchase an electronic item. This causes you to have to return the item to a certified repair center or directly to the company. The store will not take the item back even if it was dead right out of the box.

We went back to Bodega Aurrera (Wal-Mart) this evening to return the unit. They switched it out without any problems. When we got it home, we found that it worked perfectly.

While there I needed to purchase a new belt. We did not see any right off in the men’s section. I thought it was odd and teased to my wife that it probably was not the season for belts so there were none on the racks. After a fruitless hunt all through the section I went and asked one of the workers in the men’s department about them.

I laughed with the answer all the way back to where my wife was standing. It seems that they have not received their shipment of belts yet for the upcoming season. So, yes, there is a season to buy belts.

It is funny that they sell pants year around.

On a cooling trend

100 degree daysAt least the low temperatures are getting lower. It has been down right cool the last couple of mornings. 73 degrees is a welcome change.

But, as you can see the high is not getting any lower. That changes today though. We had an early morning storm come in and it has rained off and on all morning. Looks like it will clear up this afternoon, but not enough to give us 100 degrees. We will probably only hit mid 90 today.

Of course the humidity is high, but with sub-90 degree weather up to this point, it feels very pleasant. Now we just have to decide what to do with this nice weather. Maybe I will try my hand at an evening run. I don’t normally have Monday evenings free, but I do this week.

It would be perfect golfing weather if the cost of golf was reasonable here. From what I have been able to find out, the local course cost $60 (USD) per round. That was before it was taken in by Jack Nicklaus and has been converted into a Nicklaus Signature Course. I think it probably costs a good bit more now.