Tom Simpson and the Raiders of the Lost Blog

A guy out in the UK built a Death Star subwoofer! The front of the speaker is where the laser fired from in the movie. Pretty cool! The auction is here and when that goes offline you can check out a screenshot of the auction here.

I was walking home the other day and on the way I spotted three raccoons who crossed the street in front of me and ran down into the brook. A few minutes later they were joined by their mother. They hung out in the water a while and let me take some pictures which you can view too. I also included a few other shots around Woodbridge I didn’t have anywhere else to post.

Chris and I went to the Jersey Shore on the 4th of July weekend. We hit Belmar, New Jersey, an older resort town. It was very nice, not too hot, not too humid. Anyway, click here for pics.

This was back in the heyday of xenafan.com. I received this on Sunday, August 11th, 1996.

From: “Shawn C. Fry”
To: thomas@xenafan.com
Subject:
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 16:08:25 -0400

Hello friend, I love the warrior princess, however do you have any pictures the warrior princess with midgets? naked is a plus but not demanded

I never did respond to that one…

My friend Mark and his wife Lisa just had a baby! Here’s the skinny:

Dear Friends, Family, Co-Workers, and other interested parties:

Eric Steven Middlemas arrived July 12, 2005 at 9:15 a.m. He is 9 lbs. 11 oz. and 22 inches long. Lisa labored for nearly 55 hours. The worst came last night around 10:00 p.m. and continued until 5:30 a.m. when it was determined that despite the intense contractions Lisa could not dilate beyond seven centimeters. Apparently the baby’s head was too big to fit through Lisa’s pelvis and he could not make it through the birth canal. In addition, baby had a bowel movement during labor and meconium became mixed in his fluids. At one point his heartbeat crashed, but he recovered. It was quite a night.

Exhausted, Lisa finally accepted an epidural and pitocin around 5:30 a.m. She caught a few hours sleep while her body continued to labor. By 8:30 a.m. there had been no progress and it was apparent that a c-section would be required. Lisa was calm and beautiful (unlike Dad) and even watched the entire surgery in a mirror over the operating table (if anyone is interested I have some great shots of my wife’s internal organs).

Deft hands brought little Erich out into the world without complication. Modern medicine is pretty cool. His APGARs were 9/9 and he is a healthy as can be. He looks great, has big feet and a grip of steel. Lisa will be recovering at the hospital until Friday and will be under restrictions at home for about six weeks. Isaac, our son #1, is unconcerned and was more interested in the state of Elmo and the front room wall socket. I just want to get some sleep. Despite the exhaustion, we feel blessed and grateful that Lisa and the baby are happy and healthy.