SPANKLY FREAKING: ADIOS NATIONAL HOT DOG MONTH

This month we presented The Frankie Awards for Hot Dog Excellence on the 2nd, caught the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island on the 4th (in HD!), celebrated our 33rd year in the weenie trade on the 5th, touched bases with Mike Gassmann for the Catsup Bottle Festival's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 12th, showed you Martha Stewart's big weenie, told you about the Frankfort Indiana Hot Dog Festival (always the last weekend of the month), left a generous tip at Woodies Chili Dogs (it is NHDM), did a number of tastings (my brother Jim checked out 3 new places in Ohio, we had hot dogs @ home (hot dogs, chili dogs, corn dogs, 3 weenie salad, brats in beer) for a total 9 weenie lunches...

We also added 8 new comics or strips to Frankfurter Funnies (in the archives)...

And while I was transferring data between this computer, the wife's computer, the auxiliary hard drive and the relevant Zip disks, I counted at least 226 WeenieGrams and 77 issues of TFC (for a combined total of at least 303 since we moved here just over 6 years ago now). Of course that doesn't include the earlier print version of each (at least another 30 issues of TFC and dozens of WeenieGrams, etc)...

STATS: 10 contributors, 17 items, 18 photos & 27 links

THANKS (alphabetically): Alan Pesetsky, Chris Masterson, Frankie (Uncle Frank's nephew), Jim Webster, Jim Wilson, JFK (John F Kerr), Mike Gassmann, Ray Nelson, The Boy & The Darla

NOTES: Overall, we're pleased with the transition from email to blog (it went pretty well, contributions are up nicely and it's updated as we go, sometimes daily). And the computer is almost fixed now although I haven't written a lick on The Book since it went down.

Additionally, it may have been dropped in shipment as the metal side panel doesn't fit well, the plastic fascia seems to be dislocated and both doors for the CD and DVD drives no longer work.

But the computer seems to work fine now, otherwise. It appears to be quick and stable although it did require a heap of configuring (adjust the aspect ratio, reinstall the scanner driver, Quick Time, Norton, Photo Shop CS2, change the font size, change the DNS settings for Wi-Fi, sign in again on Netflix and delete a large number of older, duplicate files, etc).

We still haven't completely restored our address book (we're at approximately 95% now) and I miss the address bar that used to be on the bottom task bar (Thank you Bill Gates)....

And while I was testing the USB hub (digital camera, scanner, Zip drive, floppy drive and auxiliary hard drive, etc), I'd also plugged in Magic Jack (which started this mess a couple of months ago now) and it wasn't wasting any time trying to install and run itself. Soon...

Finally, an enormous thank you to Chris Masterson (the wife's cousin, our man in the Great Pacific Northwest, Frankie recipient and family computer guru) for saving this machine. It took hours of his time to figure it all out and we sincerely appreciate it!