Michael's Piece of the Web - Blog

The father of the Egg McMuffin dies

Michael — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:39:28 +0000

Here in New Jersey when we think of a delicious breakfast, the mind immediately conjures images of a diner. I’m particular partial to a bacon and cheese omelet, with hash browns, some toast and a bottomless cup of diner coffee. However, sometimes you don’t have time to spend in a diner. That’s where my second favorite breakfast place comes into play. I like just about anything from McDonald’s breakfast menu, but the item that most people associate with McDonald’s breakfast is the Egg McMuffin. It was created by Herb Peterson in 1972. After 36 years and more sandwiches sold than he ever imagined, I’m sure, Herb passed away at the age or 89.

Some people’s legacy is on a headstone, Herb’s will live on on the McDonald’s menu board.

Read his obituary on CNN.

Catching up on eBay

Michael — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:36:25 +0000

In an attempt to slowly start trying to get caught up with life, I’ve started posting stuff on eBay again. Check out what I’m selling and feel free to bid on something at members.ebay.com/aboutme/michaelgatti.

Geekiest Protester Ever

Michael — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:13:24 +0000

Whether you agree or disagree with the opinions of these people that are protesting the presence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, you have to check out the pink protest sign on the right side of the photo. For those of you who don’t know HTML, that’s a close tag, like what you’d put at the end of a war. haha

Clicking the photo will take you to Flickr, but you can see even more of this great photographer’s stuff at Daily Dose of Imagery.

Jack Hanna Show Photos

Michael — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:53:53 +0000

You might remember that I went to a Christmas show at the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA at the end of last year. We went back last week to see Jack Hanna and his menagerie of wild animals. The show was fantastic. It was a lot of fun to see him in person after watching him on TV for so many years. Afterwards, we went shopping at the Tanger and Rockvale Outlets.

We had dinner at a fantastic restaurant called The Family Cupboard. I’ll mention some more about that in a future post. Maybe a little review.

The only bad part of the day is that my father couldn’t have been with us. He would have loved the show. He’s the one who taught me most everything I know about animals. Nature shows were his favorite.

The photos can be viewed right here.

Newport RI Photos

Michael — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:06:55 +0000

I was in Newport Rhode Island on business recently. While I was there, the Newport Winter Festival was going on. It was the weather was beautiful for the two weeks that I was there. Of course, on the one day that I had free (the day I travelled home) there was an ice storm and the skies were gray at best. But I made the most of it and went out and did the tourist stuff and took a bunch of photos.

Check them out here.

Lancaster Christmas Show Photos

Michael — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:51:01 +0000

After a very difficult few months, I’m finally trying to start getting caught up with things. That includes updating my site. I just posted some photos that I took when we took my grandfather to the annual Christmas show at the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA. It was a christmas gift to him from my Mom & Dad.

This particular place holds a special meaning to him and me because the threatre is on the property where there once existed The Willows Motel that he and my grandmother used to take me to when I was little. The covered bridge on their property is what started my love of covered bridges.

Check out he photos right here.

Fighting Five Year Olds

Michael — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:28:17 +0000

Every so often you find a website that is absolutely hilarious. Maybe it’s the stress, but I couldn’t stop laughing at this site. It’s got a crazy long URL (www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com). You’ll no longer need to wonder how many 5 year olds you can defend yourself against. I went to a birthday party for a five year old yesterday. I felt very comfortable knowing that if they rose up, I could’ve fended them off!

Now that’s what I call Winter

Michael — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:46:19 +0000

I like the cold weather. I enjoy getting all bundled up and going out in sub-freezing weather. Sometimes I don’t even get bundled up.

However, even I have a limit. After reading this interesting article about Yakutsk, a city in Siberia, I’m pretty sure it’s WAY past my limit!

Read the piece in The Independent.

Cheeseburger in a can

Michael — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:18:41 +0000

I think the post title really says it all. What else can I say, really?

Check it out at the Emeril Blog.

Thank you for your kindness

Michael — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:57:57 +0000

Words can’t even begin to tell you how difficult the past three weeks has been for my family and me. It has only been made easier by something equally indescribable. That is the overwhelming support that we’ve received from family, friends, coworkers and even folks who never even knew my father. Cards, flowers, gifts, phone calls, e-mails, dinner invitations, visits are the tangible items that we’ve received, but what we’ve really received is kindness, love and comfort.

We’ve mailed out over 100 thank you notes, but no greeting card can truly convey how thankful we are for the outpouring of support that has been bestowed upon us.

Drop your message on NYC

Michael — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:48:02 +0000

For the past thirty years, I’ve spent my New Year’s Eves with my grandfather watching the ball drop in Times Square. This year, however, I was able to send a message to those brave souls that will spend the evening watching the ball drop in person.

You can too. Read about it at CNN.com then go do it right here.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Michael — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:12:58 +0000

Here’s wishing you have a jous and healthy Christmas. Hopefully you are as lucky as I am to be able to take the week off and spend it with family and friends!

Track Santa with NORAD

Michael — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:15:15 +0000

When you you hear about Cheyenne Mountain Complex, you probably think about a super secure military facility, men & women of our Armed Forces protecting us from attack from the sky, and maybe even the TV show Stargate SG-1 (a personal favorite of mine).

On this special day every year, the men and women of NORAD that serve 2400 feet under the ground add a very special mission to their other critical tasks.

As they have for the 52 years, NORAD will follow Santa Claus on his flight around the world. This year it’s greatly enhanced by teaming up with Google Earth to make it fun and educational. (But mainly fun!)

Track Santa at noradsanta.org.

Commodore 64 lives forever

Michael — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:53:31 +0000

You probbaly know that I’ve worked with computer’s all my life. What you might not remember is that the first computer my parents bought for me many years ago was the venerable Commodore 64. With it’s 64 bytes of RAM we played games like Choplifter, Tooth Invaders, Clowns & Bruce Lee. I also wrote my first computer programs in BASIC. And should I even mention the Datasette? Gee, loading computer software onto audio cassettes seemed like such a good idea at the time!

It’s amazing how 25 years later, all of those hours sitting with my mom and trying to fix the syntax errors in the tapes my Uncle Ott would send her actually seem like fond memories when at the time we wanted to throw the machine out the window.

Yes, the Commodore 64 is 25 years old now. I still have mine packed away. I could never get rid of it. CNN has a great article about the historic anniversary of everyone’s favorite home computer. Read CNN’s article here.

Peddlers Village Christmas Festival

Michael — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:12:15 +0000

You’ve seen my photos from Peddler’s Village taken during the summer. (If not, view them here.) Their annual Christmas Festival was this past weekend, so Kelly and I went back to see what it’s like in winter. It’s a whole different experience. The sub-freezing temperature was made bearable by marshmallow roasting over an open fire, hot cider cooked over a fire, carolers and even a little parade to welcome Santa Claus. Add thousands of Christmas lights and you have a great start to the Christmas season!

Click here to view my pictures from the festival.

Deadliest Catch Returns Soon

Michael — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:19:32 +0000

I just happened to read that the Discovery Channel is is going ot start airing Season 4 of The Deadliest Catch in only a few months. I know I’ve talked about this show before in the blog so I won’t describe it again, but check out the Deadliest Catch Blog to learn more about what’s going on with the show. That’s where I found out it’s due to come back on in April.

Now with tagging goodness

Michael — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:40:08 +0000

In version 2.3 Wordpress addedtagging to their blogging software. I finally have updated my custom template to support this new feature. So now you can search my blog by tag. I’ve been slowly going back through old posts and tagging them. You can see the tag clod right there oever on the left side of this page.

Covered bridges are so cool

Michael — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:42:52 +0000

After many planned but postponed trips to Lehigh County, PA to go on a self-guided tour of the area’s covered bridges I finally made it there a few weeks ago. I tried to time it so the leaves would be changing but excessive heat this year didn’t do much to help that.

However, it was a really relaxing day and the photos came out great. I thnk I’m now going to start planning to go see more of the many covered bridges throughout Pennsylvania.

The photos came out great! Check them out now!

A fall day on the AC boardwalk

Michael — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:41:19 +0000

Most people might think the summer is the best time to go down the shore. I much prefer to go in the fall or winter. The crowds are smaller; the weather is so much nicer and much less smog. I just added some photos from Atlantic City that turned out great because it was such a clear day.Check them out right here.

Big Photo Update

Michael — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:31:56 +0000

I just added a bunch of new photos to the photos sectoin of the site. The first group is from July and is just a few snaps of flowers in the yard and a baby bunny rabbit in the yard.

The next contains photos from a Camden County Board of Freeholders meeting during which the man who saved my father’s life when he was choking at a diner was honored for his heroism. View those here.

Another small new album contains a few photos of a squirrel that I thought came out kind of nice. I’ll fill you in on the other bigger additions in separate posts. In the mean time check out all of my photos.

Ask a gas pump for directions

Michael — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:45:10 +0000

Back “in the old days” when you were lost you’d stop at a gas station and ask the attendant for directions. Here in New Jersey we still have the luxury of having an attendant come to our car when we pull in, but in the rest of the states where they have self-serve gas, you’d be hard pressed to find an attendant. You swipe your card, pump your gas and go.

Luckily, getting lost isn’t much of a problem now that we have GPS, cell phones and Google Maps. But now things have gone full circle. If you leave home and forget to map your route first, you can pull into a gas station and ask the pump for directions thanks to an internet connection and Google Maps.

100,000 Spammers

Michael — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:41:35 +0000

My little website reached another milestone today. I received my one-hundred thousandth piece of comment spam.

Spam is a problem on the Internet. I’ll give you a minute while you recover from that shocking revelation. If you think spam in your inbox is annoying, you should try dealing with comment spam on a blog. I get thousands of them per day. It is debilitating because you can’t possibly find any real message in the pile of crap. Thanks to Akismet spam filtering software, it’s more of an amusement than an annoyance.

What I wonder is why they bother. This blog isn’t exactly the most popular on the web and no comments get posted without moderation. So of the 100,256 comments that have been caught so far, ZERO have been seen by any human being. Oh well, if it gives them something to do instead of e-mailing me viagra ads and bank scams, then maybe it’s a good thing.

And in case you’re wondering, 44 more pieces of spam were caught in the time it took me to write this.

Batsto Photos

Michael — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:17:57 +0000

If you’ve never heard of Batsto, it’s an historic village in New Jersey. It’s an old 18th/19th century bog iron and glass industrial center. I’ve been there many times through the years and took some photos on a recent trip.

Check them out here.

Lots of Fluffy photos

Michael — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:11:33 +0000

I’ve updated the album featuring our cat Fluffy. It includes photos from his entire life including photos that were taken before digital cameras were around. We lost him recently and I figured this was a fitting tribute to his memory.

View them here.

and then there were 6

Michael — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:02:28 +0000

Just when I thought the Gatti family tree was up to date Debbie’s branch of the tree has sprouted yet another new leaf. OK, maybe I’m taking the tree metaphor a bit far! Please welcome Micah John Bowling to the family. He was born August 24th to Wendy and Michael Bowling.For those keeping score, that makes 6 members of Generation H of the Gatti tree, all of whom are grandchildren of Debbie and great-grandchildren of Sonny and Dot.