PixlBit

There have been eight ships called the Enterprise in the US Navy from 1775 through 2011. The one that battled the Boxer was the third of that name. Go to this page and click on "The Legend" for more information. They boo-booed the name "Pemaquid", though, and it reads "Penequid" (which is better than "Penguin Point", which is what some history books have it written as). Blyth was the first  captain killed, he was hit with one of those 18 pounders in the torso in about the second volley. Not much left of that boy. Burrows took a grapeshot to the groin, and bled out or died of shock on deck, refusing to be carried below. The Boxer was getting pounded by broadside after broadside, the poor sailors on her unable to surrender their colors because Blyth had nailed them to the mast. Little bit of arrogance going on there, I think.

Brat. Watch it, I might start twitching and then go fire up the chainsaw... And upon doing a little research, it was actually the third ship of that name in the US Navy. See my reply to KnightDriver below for more info.

Hard for me to forget, having had breakfast with someone who died on Flight 175 the week before.

Arrrgh! Not THAT Enterprise!!!!!!!

Oh, you should see my headache! My beloved landlady Elizabeth, who is like a second mom to me, realized that her plans might be a little too grand and scaled back, so we are just replacing the shower and sink and the rotted-out subflooring, dry wall, and insulation. And Bill the contractor is redoing some of the screwy plumbing to make everything fit better and be easier to maintain or repair in the future. But in the meantime, chaos are us. I will be showering at work for the forseeable future.

Is hard cider sweet? Depends. Have you ever had cider before it's "turned"? It pretty much tastes like that, but with a bit of fizz and a lovely alcoholic buzz afterwards. Woodchuck makes a bunch, the Fall limited edition one is pretty sweet, but it also has nutmeg and cinnamon, hence my comment about apple pie in a bottle. They also make a Dark and Dry, which is less sweet, and may be my favorite. The 802 (named after Vermont's area code, which is where thw stuff is made) is more on the dry side as well. The Amber is the most common, and that one is fairly sweet. Two of the other varieties are Granny Smith (sweet and tart at the same time, but a little too sweet for me), and a Pear, also very sweet.

Blow torches are awesome! I have FIRE, mwahahahahaha!

War of 1812 is later than the Colonial Period. That stopped when we declared independance from England. Technically, that would be the Federal period. And that was the first USS Enterprise, you ninny.

John, I'm even more disappointed in you than I am in Kevin. He at least has youth as an excuse! I'd start with the Zork series, then check out some of the others. You can get the whole Zork anthology through GoG, and maybe Steam, too. I had Enchanter when I was in high school, Christmas gift from my parents, picked out by my step-dad. The biggest issue with getting them as DL is that you don't get all the cool goodies that came in the boxes - scrolls sealed with real sealing wax, spell books, etc.

Kevin - go sit in the corner! How can you never have heard of Zork?! At least give it a playthrough at some point. The only problem with that site is that you can't save and start back up where you left off. You can, however, buy most of those games through GoG.

Infocom games aren't really that long, once you figure out what you need to do. I'm looking at it like it's an old game from the SNES/Genesis era. You get so far, you die, you start over. And this way I get a better score by the end, because I will have cut out all the trial-and-error stuff along the way. See, glass half-full.

As for the home repairs...twitch, twitch.

Actually, the tables are all pretty different. Especially the Marvel tables. This is one of the better pinball games out there, in my opinion.

So many, many people I haven't managed to keep up with! I've missed your thrift shop score blogs. Always fun to see what your grabbing for music.