- I was approached twice over the weekend in two different stores by other shoppers who assumed (incorrectly) that I worked there. I could vaguely see the Target incident; I was wearing work clothes that superficially resembled Target's color scheme. But the other one just has me baffled. I was holding a shopping basket and actually *shopping* (reading labels and crossing items off a list), and yet the woman in the motorized shopping cart looked not only surprised but actually disbelieving and possibly offended when I responded to her request that I page someone to help her in the paint section with a sheepish "I'm sorry, I don't work here." Maybe I need to reevaluate my attire.

- I've been more annoyed than usual lately at the oncoming drivers waiting to turn left on green who actually start to turn as I'm entering the intersection, assuming my course and speed will remain constant and they'll just miss the back of my car. If I were more confrontational, I'd play "chicken" by intentionally slowing down to dispel their assumption and force them stop, but (a) that would disrupt traffic and (b) sooner or later I'd lose, neither of which is a good outcome. So I'll just swear at them as I leave the intersection instead.

Labels: amusement, annoyance, miscellany

Random updates, like the proverbial box of chocolates:

- I finally started the wedding DVD projects for my appropriate siblings (sorry, Haley, yours will be a long way off). Jeff and Shandra's is 90% done and I've even burned a test DVD to make sure it actually plays. Linde and Justin's is 75% done. I need to buy printable DVDs for the final product and then do the trial-and-error of learning how to burn a disc image and then make multiple DVDs from that (as opposed to waiting 5 hours for a DVD to render and burn, as the test DVD did) and then I should be done. All told, learning iMovie and iDVD, uploading about 5 hours of video, whittling it down to about 3 hours of video, making it into clips with transitions, composing the DVD menus and figuring out how to convert the PowerPoint slide shows into videos took around 17 hours. I'll be glad when they're done, mostly because they're way overdue, but partially so I can get my 65GB of hard drive space back (and I thought high-res pictures took up a lot of space). This should cover Christmas presents to my siblings for the next, oh, five years or so . . .

- I cooked fish for the first time last week. Although I'm not a huge fan of fish, I'm going to make an effort to incorporate it into my diet. I dug my George Foreman grill out of the oubliette into which it was tossed long ago (I don't think I've even plugged it in since I bought my house, given my non-meat-eating habits), dusted the fillets with olive oil and seasoned bread crumbs, grilled them for about 5 minutes and then flavored them with a honey glaze I made from honey, teriyaki sauce and seasoned pepper. When added to the steamed edamame and jicama and steamed brown rice I made on the side, it was probably the healthiest meal I've ever made.

- My route to work has been fraught with peril lately. Earlier in the week I spotted several soda cans rolling across the lanes in front of me. My initial impression was that one of the recycling trucks had lost a bag, a guess disproved when I caught up with the Mountain Dew truck one block ahead that had jettisoned several cases of soda from an unfortunately unsecured door while attempting to turn into a gas station. Today I was nearly in an auto accident when the person just ahead and to the left of my lane suddenly decided to have lunch at the Burger King on my right and entered my lane to make the turn without looking or signaling. A hard brake (and some swearing) on my part left a gap of less than a foot. Yay for adrenaline to prime you for work.

- My beloved iMac has been giving me fits. It has for awhile been randomly deciding not to wake up from sleep, a condition Lane has dubbed a "Mac coma." I've reset the system controller and PRAM, disabled Awaken and Weatherbug and pored over the console logs, with no luck. At the same time my Soundsticks have been failing (cutting out when anything else suddenly draws power, necessitating unplugging and plugging them back in, crackling when they kick in after not being used for awhile and humming very loudly when they're not plugged into the computer), which according to the oracle that is the Internet heralds a failed capacitor and the end of their lifespan. With any luck, the two are connected, and the replacement speakers that should be showing up any day now will solve both problems.

- Speaking of computers, I spent most of an hour on the phone with my mother last night walking her through the diagnostic and remediation steps of an A360 virus infection on her PC. I think we got a handle on it (although not being able to actually see the screen means I can't be sure). As much as my iMac is annoying me at the moment, I'm still trying to move my family to the Mac so as to avoid these sorts of inconveniences.

Labels: annoyance, computers, family, imac, miscellany

It's a good day to go get a Blizzard. All proceeds go to the Children's Miracle Network.

Labels: miscellany

It's been a long week so far. My car began stalling in traffic on Saturday (for a grand total of four times over the entire weekend; since my power steering goes when the car dies, it made for some interesting driving). Grand total to replace two failing sensors? $40 in parts and $400 in labor. Ouch. Thanks to everyone who offered to shuttle me around while my car was in the shop.

Because I was dumb and put my yearly neurologist's appointment off until the last minute, I had to settle for a 7 a.m. appointment on Tuesday morning (ouch again). The actual appointment lasted a total of 6 minutes, just enough time for him to ask me how I was feeling, do a couple of simple hand exercises and write me a new prescription (which, unfortunately, he wrote for the wrong drug; luckily I noticed it while I was making my copay at the front desk and managed to get a new prescription for the right one).

It seems to be a stressful week in general for the people I know. Plumbing problems at the Lisa household. Bent bicycle wheels for Meghan. I'm worried about another friend who seems to be stressed (either at me or in general). Maybe I'm a bad luck charm this week. Maybe I should charge people money to stay away from them . . .

Labels: miscellany

- Note to John McCain (as if he hasn't already heard it ad infinitum): Don't schedule fundraisers with supporters who compare rape to the weather ("As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." My god.).

- My next-door neighbors of the last four years (technically my only next-door neighbors, given my corner-lot status) are reluctantly moving in with their children after a stroke incident, something I was very sorry to hear given how friendly and upbeat they've always been. The family has been clearing out the house into moving trucks over the last few days, and an estate sale is scheduled for later this month. Given the dismal housing market, the family has decided to keep the house and rent it out. This means that I will now officially have an entirely different set of neighbors (on all sides) from the those present when I bought my house.

- As an addendum to the above, I learned from the adult children cleaning out the house that apparently either the wireless control for my garage door or the wireless keypad for my security system sets off the side doorbell of their house . . . and has been doing so since I moved in. Every time I come and go. For some odd reason, my elderly neighbors decided not to mention it to me, and instead have been treated to a few bars of a Dixie song of some sort day and night for years. I offered to try to track down the interference, but the adult children laughed and said they're just going to disconnect the doorbell instead.

- As a further addendum, I'm really starting to worry about my memory. My mother is suitably distressed that my neurological dysfunction has obscured or obfuscated a sizable portion of my childhood and my friends are routinely frustrated when I forget not just names and dates but entire conversations. One of the tricks of poor memory retention is not knowing you're forgetting the things you're forgetting, but when the adult children cleaning out the house next door ask what you were taking pictures of in the backyard a few nights ago, and you don't remember even being in the backyard with photographic equipment, you start to be concerned (the alternative is there was someone else in my backyard, which is equally disturbing). I'm hoping he just misinterpreted the cordless drill I was using to fix a bird feeder as a cell phone or camera of some sort.

- Omaha revalued thousands of houses last year (leading to massive criticism in the paper and a new business niche for attorneys offering to challenge valuation increases of up to 50% for some homeowners). Mine jumped about 40%, although I thought it reasonable given that my house had been undervalued given what I paid. Still, a higher value means higher property taxes, which showed up in the form of an increase in my mortgage payment of $130 a month starting this month. Ouch.

- For those of you who haven't seen me online lately: maybe I've been ignoring you, and maybe Adium hasn't wanted to connect to the Yahoo servers for about three days, a problem I originally thought was a server issue that would correct itself and only today discovered is a glitch in Adium itself (corrected with the new version). Whether I've been offline for technical reasons or actually ignoring you is up to your imagination to decide.

Labels: house, miscellany, politics

Things I learned this weekend:

- If you let a toddler crawl on her hands and knees on the pavement in new shoes, it scrapes the leather off the toes (which makes parental units somewhat unhappy).

- Twins can become addicted to turning over stones in the backyard once they learn to spot the centipedes and earthworms.

- "Lane's Cheerios" is colorful two-year-old language for "Count Chocula." Offering them regular Cheerios will earn protests. And oddly, Alec picks the marshmallows out and gives them away (those are the best part . . .).

- No matter how much your nose itches while you're shaving, don't scratch it with the electric razor . . .

Labels: miscellany, twins

Things I learned this weekend:

- "If you play in Wal-mart, you don't stay in Wal-mart!" (Instructions from an irate Wal-mart manager to a pair of obnoxious high school boys bouncing balls in the aisles, leading Meghan and me to wonder if there are additional corporate-taught rhymes for other infractions.)

- The common adage that hoses should be disconnected from outside faucets before freezing weather should be taken seriously. If you don't, when you go to fill up your bird bath for the first time in spring the puzzled furrow on your face at the hose's lack of pressure will resolve to a bitter "well, that was stupid on my part" irritation at the water flooding your basement floor. I do so love water in my basement. I have rough instructions from my father regarding the necessary repairs, but plumbing really isn't my specialty so I may be filling up the bird bath by hand until the next time he visits.

- Thrift stores are nifty repositories of photographic props. And apparently the final hiding places of large quantities of Barry Manilow and Kenny Rogers vinyl records.

- Alec was attached to me today to the point of insisting on sitting on my lap through dinner, which made eating rather challenging. Kyle is showing fine mimicry and rhythm skills by singing songs from her kids' shows after hearing only the first few words.

Labels: miscellany, twins

Miscellany of the random sort (as opposed to the rarer organized variety):

- Cris has a hilarious Easter set in his Flickr. All that's missing was for Cris and Mark to do a live podcast as they made the eggs.

- I saw a newer Dodge Ram (or some similar monstrosity with four doors and "dually" tires), brightly emblazoned in maroon and silver colors, drive past my house last evening . . . with a Domino's Pizza Delivery light on top of the cab. The ridiculousness of the image aside, your fuel economy is going to really cut into your profit margins there, pal.

- Lane is playing the new "Super Smash Brothers" on her Wii. I've been content to watch (because she kicks my butt at it), but I have been amused that the game features an assortment of "classic" characters Lane has never seen (such as the protagonist from "Kid Icarus" from the original NES, suitably upgraded from 8-bit graphics).

- Humanity is doomed.

Labels: cris, funny, miscellany

I'm not sure how this failed to even register on my radar, but a joint Jet Li/Jackie Chan movie is out next month. Very cool.



In sadder news, visionary author Arthur C. Clarke died this week. He will be missed.

Labels: miscellany

Happy St. Patty's Day, one and all. Not being Irish or having any fondness for fermented barley, this holiday doesn't have the impact that, say, Halloween does, but I did remember my green shirt. It's perhaps a throwback to grade school and its silly "pinching" rules (and the associated cheaters who insisted that the some part of their braces or the socks under their shoes counted). Although it seems unlikely any attorney will yell "No green!" and pinch me in the elevator.

I'm happy to see a handful of groups are capitalizing on the "green" aspect of the holiday to promote green technologies. I "celebrated" a week early by buying about $40 of compact fluorescent light bulbs last week and replacing every incandescent bulb in my house (save one three-way bulb that won't accept a standard CFL). I even ordered dimmable ones for my dining room.

On my way in to work today I passed the Scottish Rite Masonic Center (as I always do, although simply because my route takes me that way, not because I'm keeping tabs on the Masons or anything). The Center always has a large sign out front with its name on it (the Center's, not the sign's). Today, they've also tacked a sheet over it to announce a corned beef dinner something-or-other. Except the sheet doesn't fully cover the sign, leaving the "S" from "Scottish" on the left, leading to an amusing advertisement for "Scorned beef."

Weekend highlights: Meghan's dance performance at the Shark Club was good (in performance and turnout), which slightly made up for her overabundance of stress (apparently cab companies in Omaha can't be bothered to help find lost keys). The twins were happy to see me (Kylie moreso because I was carrying an umbrella she could play with). I ordered my copy of CS3 (Design Premium rather than Web Premium, as I'd originally planned; I've never had much interest in hard-copy publishing, the purview of the major difference between the two, but I've recently discovered a company that will make actual hard copy books of my photos, so I guess it's time to learn InDesign). My left eyelid is *still* twitching (grrrr).

Hope everyone is having a great St. Patty's Day. :)

Labels: computers, environment, holiday, miscellany, photography

In proper marching fashion:

- Meghan and I saw the "Elegance of the Qing Court" lecture and exhibition at the Joslyn on Friday evening, followed by (appropriately) Chinese food with friends.

- I spent 15 minutes and seven attempts before successfully tying my tie for the first time. Go Internet tutorials.

- Thanks to Meghan and Netflix, I've discovered 30Rock is a worthy successor to the Tiny Fey-era of SNL (sadly lost to us). I've always liked Tina Fey, and in this show she's a Star Wars-fan . . .

- I finished the first season of "Dexter." I have people waiting to borrow my DVDs, so I won't spoil the ending.

- It was 65 degrees on Saturday and then we had freezing rain/snow on Sunday. Nebraska is schizophrenic.

How is everyone else?

Labels: miscellany

-The lunar eclipse last night was pretty spectacular. Too bad it coincided with a typical Nebraska night in February. I tried taking some pictures out a window in my house, but I'm afraid the warm air escaping into the freezing dark may not have been the best photographic situation (they're still on the camera; no need to look for the missing link in this paragraph).

-This week's Tales of the Twins(tm): *Scott takes away Kylie's water cup* Kylie: "Why the hell did you do that? I not making a mess." There's something about two-year-olds swearing that's inherently wrong and yet engenders laughter all the same.

-"Dexter" is a fabulous show. I might have more to say about it later. If I can come up with a passable way of drawing parallels between my psyche and the main character's without giving off the creepy "wow, he might be a serial killer" vibe.

Labels: miscellany, science, twins

A humble offering in penance of a lax posting schedule.

I've been finishing the exterior trim painting on my house in small snippets, weather permitting, over the last several days. All that remains is the back of the house (the gutter and downspouts and three windows), which can ride until spring at this point (the other three sides color-coordinate). I'll have pictures of the various house upgrades sooner or later.

Saturday was spent with my surrogate family, and contained such interesting highlights as the trip to the pet store so Lane could finish her research on budgies (her upcoming pet) and an hour of playing in the dark with the surplus Halloween glowsticks I bought a few weeks ago (the twins enjoyed those immensely). Of more particular note:

- Kylie's fascination with oranges led her to actually take a bite out of a whole one, a bite consisting in its entirety of the rind. Despite clearly finding the taste unpalatable, she refused to spit it out simply out of stubbornness (giving me a mischievous smile instead as she shook her head when I held my hand out under her mouth). As I was proceeding to peel and cut the orange (and bundle her into her high chair), I was vaguely aware of Alec behind me in the kitchen, but it wasn't until I heard the crunching sounds that I realized she had pushed a chair from the computer room into the kitchen to give her access to the counter, from which vantage point she had delved into the cupboard and was gorging on parmesan and garlic potato chips. My first admonition (issued while still cutting up the orange) was met with no reaction, but when she realized I was washing my hands to come get her she began frantically gorging herself on the chips. When I finally arrived on the scene and relieved her of the bag, she gave me a guilt-free giant smile and said "Nummy chips!", as though she'd "accidentally" discovered them and had no idea I was chastising her. She's going to be a handful.

- I discovered a gap in my training program when I referred to Alec as "the little MacGyver" (for her ingenuity at reaching the cupboard) and the following conversation occurred:

Lane: Who is MacGyver?
Me: Alec.
Lane: Yes, but why did you call her that?
Me: Because she figured out how to get into the cupboard.
Lane: How does that make her a MacGyver?
Me: . . .
Me: You don't know who MacGyver is?
Lane: . . .
Me: The guy who makes plastic explosives out of chewing gum and old socks?
Lane: What?
Me: Wow, that's something we're going to have to correct.

Sunday found Meghan and me at the Orpheum, enjoying the Cirque-Works Birdhouse Factory, a curious (but fantastic) blend of storytelling (without words), machinery, contortionism, acrobatics and juggling. It was an excellent turnout to an excellent show.

Labels: lane, miscellany, twins

I have photo updates and descriptions for an assortment of events (almost like a variety pack of instant oatmeal flavors), including house updates, my Halloween party and the visit to the pumpkin patch today. Unfortunately, I've also had a little too much sun and not quite enough sleep, so they'll have to wait.

Just as a friendly reminder, Daylight Savings does not start until *next* weekend, regardless of what XP tells you.

Labels: miscellany

Someone needs to buy this for me, please and thank you. :)

Labels: miscellany

I'm still alive. Just preoccupied. I'm back to the office and trying to finish the projects I started in the wee hours after, hopefully in time for my Halloween party this Saturday. I have confirmed guests, including my sister who is making the drive all the way from western Nebraska to attend. If plans hold as they are, my mother will be visiting this weekend as well (something about not wanting Linde to drive that far alone, despite having no qualms about asking me to drive it alone twice a year . . .). The basement bathroom is not yet complete (inasmuch as bare concrete floors are a problem), but the kitchen projects are finally done (sealed grout and all). Pictures soon.

My apologies to everyone who thinks I'm ignoring him/her. Take heart in my offered explanation of project juggling. :) As a peace offering, I present a "nude font" generator (which, as the name implies, contains nudity; be warned).

Hope everyone is well.

Labels: miscellany

But being frustrated with the house. Today was better than yesterday. Tomorrow is still a toss-up. Any project that involves actually mixing and pouring new concrete in the basement is likely to have some degree of frustration built in. I'll have house pictures and updates as soon as the projects are finished (which will not be today).

Hope everyone is well.

Labels: house, miscellany

- My baby sister's campus is on lock-down after the get-away vehicle from an armed robbery at a casino was discovered in the vicinity. Scary stuff, but it's good to see the campus is taking it seriously in the wake of other recent campus incidents.

- There is a real decommissioned Titan missile base for sale on eBay. Perfect for an Evil Mastermind Lair(tm), a zombie-apocalypse retreat or a do-it-yourself Stargate facility. If only I had $1.5 million (plus another several million to renovate it, since it was "stripped for scrap" in the 60s). We could pool our money for anyone interested.

- As amusing as this video is on its own, it's compounded by the fact that the "blonde" second-from-left is one of my uncles. I'm glad to see he makes an even less attractive woman than I do.

- Although not a cup of tea palatable to everyone (both musically and politically), I found the song "Empty Walls" (even if the video quality on the official site is somewhat lacking) a sad-but-moving entry. For those trying to place the voice, this is the lead singer of "System of a Down" on his first solo outing.

Labels: amusement, haley, miscellany, music

Although the term "weekend" is at times vague, encompassing, on those rare, happy occasions, as many as three days (and not always those beginning with an "S"), I'm using it in a looser context here, referring to a time period stretching closer to five days. It seems an overabundance of accrued leave is a bad thing in the modern work world, and thus my house received (and will continue to receive in sporadic chunks throughout this month) extra attention beginning last Wednesday.

I'm continually amused at my vast underestimation of the time investments required for projects I've never undertaken before. I accomplished but a fraction of what I had expected, leading me to believe that either my expectations are unrealistic or I'm simply lazy. I did, however, sand, prime and repaint my garage door, put a layer of fibered aluminum roof coating on the garage roof (which has still not completely fixed the target leak, to my consternation), reorganize a few of my kitchen cupboards and paint the registers and socket covers on the main floor. I took some time out to fraternize to greater and lesser extents, meeting one new person, consoling another friend through a difficult time and going on safari with the twins. I also rented "1408," which was not nearly as scary as promised. I will at some undisclosed point in the future have "before and after" photos of the house, preferably when I've accomplished enough for the changes to be more noticeable.

For those who follow the adventurous exploits of the Wonder Twins, Kyle's new catchphrase is a very gravity-laden rendition of "it's very dark!", applied on a regular basis to everything from the space beneath her crib to holes in the backyard to the inside of the "cave" we made from blankets and furniture. The admonition is given more as a statement of fact rather than any hint of concern, and is at times accompanied with a smile. The twins have also developed a love affair with sidewalk chalk, going so far as to carry it around the backyard even when no concrete is in sight, and Alec in particular has a similar crush now on crayons, which she has secreted away all over the house to challenge the inevitable moments when Lisa relieves her of her current implements.

Lane's family interaction has been somewhat curtailed by her constant hyperventilation over the distant-yet-concrete release of Spore.

As a token of humor to reward those of you who slog through my writings, I also present a (very) rare glimpse of me with facial hair (of a sort; that's almost a week's worth of not shaving, which on most men would be something more than stubble . . .).

Labels: house, me, miscellany, twins

For any of you who have seen those "Now What?" viral marketing commercials (where something bad happens, such as a rock climber accidentally dropping a boulder on his SUV, followed by a panicked look and a "Now What?" logo) but never felt enough energy to actually type in the Web address, allow me to dispel the mystery. It's for a State Farm Insurance site.

Labels: miscellany

The tangled webs of historical wordplay entwined within the last day of the week are complex, and possibly trivial to the unconcerned masses, but suffice it to say that it is a day named, uniquely among the largely Norse-inspired week, for a Roman deity adopted from an earlier Greek deity who, among his other charming attributes, swallowed all of his children. To honor this great paragon of parenthood, we named a planet after him.

There was some sort of sporting event of note in the state today. Its existence was presaged by mumblings at work on Friday and a cacophony of red "N" sweatshirts and flags today (along with one odd woman wearing an orange shirt with similar "Husker" markings; even a heretic such as I knows the proper color for the state's quasi-religious following). I was vaguely aware of it (more so than my usual indifference) due to friends attending and the "flexible" television scheduling that "slides" shows I might otherwise watch to later time slots. Of the actual event itself I have no knowledge.

Some gas stations, in furthering efforts to attract customers to the insides of their establishments (for, despite outrage to the contrary, gas stations make very little money off gasoline itself and instead make most of their profit from marked-up consumables), have expanded their beverage fountains. One particular place on my drive home includes not only six flavors of slushies, eight flavors of coffee and a do-it-yourself-from-pre-frozen-fruit-cups smoothie bar but also a panoply of soda flavors bordering on silly. My personal favorite addition, however, has been the "old fashioned" soda fountain flavors, dispensed at the push of a button, which allow anyone to become a connoisseur of fine carbonated masterpieces; in my case, this means a cherry vanilla Dr Pepper roughly twice as "cherry vanilla"-y as the cans in my refrigerator, a concoction with clearly visible stratified layers of red and yellow filling a full third of the cup before the final mixing. This is a luxury I find wholly unnecessary and overly indulgent in the context of global poverty and conflict, and yet I continue to plunk my dollar down on the counter.

I stood in line at Wal-Mart today for most of half an hour waiting for a photo kiosk to become available. Until this point, it had not dawned on me that anyone would actually use the primitive cropping and adjusting tools built in to such machines; compared to even the simplest photo manipulation programs (let alone Photoshop) they seem clumsy. Nevertheless, two different women patiently resized, cropped and removed red eye from, between them, over 200 photos. The Zen aspect of my mind understood for the first time that the digital revolution has not distributed itself equally, and there is likely a substantial minority, perhaps even a majority, of the population forced into digital photography without a corresponding interest in (or access to) computers, and to them the kiosk fills a void that those of us on the bleeding (or even near-bleeding) edge of digital technology take for granted. It occurs to me that my mother would likely still be using a film camera, or at best using a digital camera and taking the card directly to Wal-Mart, but for my patient prodding and explaining, and I'm probably in the small minority of people who spend time adjusting the histogram channels and other quasi-arcane-sounding hoopla. On the other hand, the petulant aspect of my mind was annoyed that their imperturbable manipulations tied up the only gateways to the actual developing process, which seems something of an efficiency issue on Wal-Mart's part. I think it's possible to send photos directly to a Wal-Mart store over the Internet. I may have to explore.

In a further degradation to one of the strong influences on my formative high school years, the SciFi Channel premiered the direct-to-tv presentation of "Highlander: The Source" tonight. In keeping with a franchise of such strong potential and fan passion, the show was of course promoted so well that I wouldn't have even known it had premiered if I hadn't looked at the television schedule tonight to see if there were any CSI reruns. For those of you unaware of the schizophrenic thrashings of the Highlander mythos, suffice it to say it has produced one classic movie, one six-season television series with some very good (and some rough) moments, two movies that were officially written out of canon, a fourth passable if not great movie and now this monstrosity, which went through multiple scripts, staff and edits over two years before being released to DVD in Europe to dismal reviews, then more edits before what was at first promised to be a theater release, then a DVD release and finally a direct-to-tv movie. It sounds like a train wreck from what I've read (Mad Max-esque future anarchy and superhuman blue-skinned villains; for crying out loud), so I'm tempted just not to watch it. Ever. The show was one of the defining influences on me in high school and college (I was wearing trench coats before they became "scary" and one of my high school yearbooks had a quote from me about being immortal, not to mention the swords and the fencing . . .), so there's a degree of sadness at the franchise's failure to live up to the fan expectations.

To those of you concerned about my online scarcity and my last few "away" messages: thanks for the concern and inquiries. No worries. I'm trudging, sometimes mechanically rather than energetically, through rugged landscapes of eddying and chaotic emotions, beautiful, in their own way, as the black clouds of a particularly impressive thunderstorm evoke primal wonder and awe despite their dark hues. The signposts have long ago rusted away to useless mockeries in the shifting sand, and it may be that the path I once believed to be linear is in fact spiraling across previous forays, a frustrating experience for which I have no immediate solution. Such are the foibles of human existence. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, take comfort in the cryptic and nod along.

And finally, as a direct address to my MarioKart partner: Hey, Lane, I have this fantastic idea. Why don't we, and I'm just going out on a limb here, *not* punch other karts while we're crossing rickety bridges. You know, to keep us from falling in the water. Just a suggestion. (It's an inside joke; Lane is already laughing.)

Labels: introspection, lane, miscellany, social commentary, stress

On a Tuesday, I know.

Any sort of whining or implied discontent with my lot in life cowers in humbleness at Lisa's week, which, in one day alone, involved a brand-new-yet-broken refrigerator Sears is adamantly refusing to fix on a technicality, an auto accident with an uninsured driver and an overflowed toilet. Bad things come in threes, right?

Saturday my friend Elizabeth and I attended Film Streams, Omaha's valiant attempt at a non-profit art-style theater (showing independent and artistic films), where we saw "Lady Chatterley." The film was good, although the eventual shifting of the audience leads me to believe I was not the only observer who felt 3 hours was probably too long for a movie with a single plot line.

Sunday the twins and I explored the backyard, where Kylie delighted herself with chastising the birds for not taking their baths as she splashed in the bird bath. Later, while exposing Lane to a variety of musical samples on iTunes, we discovered that Alec has a marked preference for techno (she literally had no reaction to top 40 or Weird Al, but started bouncing in my lap and swinging her arms on both of the techno songs I played). As a foreshadow, Alec has also learned to ask "Go shopping? Pweeze?" after Lisa took her on a quick shopping trip to a bookstore.

I've begun rewatching my Sports Night DVDs as a "comfort food" of sorts the last few nights. On the surface it would seem perhaps ironic that someone with such an antipathy for organized sports in general would enjoy a show called "Sports Night," but anyone who has seen the show will agree with the show's one-time tagline "It's about sports the same way Charlie's Angels was about law enforcement."

Labels: alec, kyle, lane, miscellany, theater, twins

Although of little but trivial note, this seemed important to me at the time.

Yes, I was firmly parked. Although I had to drive around a parking lot a few times to get it to click over onto 100,000.

Labels: miscellany

(Not Gallifrey, sorry Lane. Different word entirely.)

Speaking of Lane, the Girl Wonder is running for student council president (good luck!). Slogans were solicited from her closest advisors. My pick, recalled from a "Cthulhu for President" mock campaign, was "Why settle for a lesser evil?" The most popular, but least politically correct, was Scott's suggestion of "Vote for me or my dad will kill me" (accompanied with suitable guilt-invoking sad smileys). The winner was Lisa's school-friendly (and rhyming) "If you have a brain you'll vote for Lane!"

Also on the Lane front, Apple released its new iPods yesterday. While Lane already has an iPod, this release is (or will be, when she sees this) of interest to her because, while she salivated over the iPhone when it was released, saner heads prevailed (I might have had a small part in it by, um, calculating how much it would cost over the two-year contract and telling her parents . . .). Descending from the digital heavens yesterday, though, came the iPod Touch, which, in its most basic description, is an iPhone without the phone part (which, most importantly, means no monthly contract). Since Lane never cared about the phone part anyway (she just likes the touch screen and "wow" factor), I have no doubt she'll switch all of her begging energy to the Touch.

On a non-Lane note, this is just golden. I'm constantly amused by the trinkets that show up on Craig's List.

Labels: lane, miscellany

I actually have a day off (or an illusion thereof, anyway; I have to work yet today, but under the nebulous and appreciated auspices of "come in when it's convenient to you" rather than the draconian edicts of "be here at 10 a.m."). Consequently, it's 1:30 in the afternoon and I'm sitting at my computer in my pajamas (today consisting of black pajama pants and a vintage Rogue t-shirt I've owned since high school; yes, I'm aware real women aren't shaped like that, but anything purchased during the formative years of awkward social development is grandfathered in), eating Fudge Stripe cookies and drinking Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper (Breakfast of Previous Champions Who No Longer Give a Damn (tm)).

I've spent the better part of the last hour engrossed in iTunes (searching, nay, scavenging for resplendent harmonies, as survivors of zombie plagues furtively scour the ruins of dead cities for canned goods and ammunition). Should you have iTunes installed, the following links should open directly to the album pages in said program; if not, you have utterly failed to maintain your place in the technological advance and I shun thee as a heretic.

I first looked at the Hinder Live album. I admit to owning a few Hinder songs. These songs, however, were recorded directly from a concert. A concert where apparently the lead singer was slightly inebriated. Allow me to transcibe the lyrics of "Get Stoned" as you listen to the clip:

"Just hear me out. If it's noparatropafenkatilma heart explodes. I highly doubt, that I can make it through another of your episodes. Lashing out. Whethilabennywushubumaforya lose control."

I briefly looked at The 21 Funniest Songs on iTunes (which is more than a little subjective). I know Lane is a fan of "White and Nerdy," and I was amused with Willie Nelson's "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other" (I'm sure that one went down well, pun possibly intended, in the country-fied areas of the nation). My favorite, however, was Jonathan Coulton's mellow acoustic version of "Baby Got Back" (already an amusing song, here taken to a different level with heartfelt crooning by a white guy).

For Tim's benefit, I also picked up a couple of songs from Blaqk Audio's "CexCells" album (tracks 1 and 8), Nicole Atkin's "Skywriters," Paramore's "Misery Business" (whose opening riffs sound disturbingly similar to "The Ketchup Song"), half an album from Charlotte Martin and a full album from Holly Brook.

Labels: miscellany, music

Excerpts from the wedding trip:

- I averaged 43 mpg on the trip by hypermiling.

- The wedding went off without any serious hitches (I think the most pressing issues were the non-dance-friendly nature of the bridesmaids' dresses, two of the three of which broke and/or came undone during the reception, and the near-unfortunateness of planning the reception for 200 people and having 196 show up).

- I was originally supposed to video from a second floor (through a window), but my previous scouting of the spot was done on a day when the air conditioners were *not* running; the proximity to those behemoth noisemakers made the recording location worthless, so I ended up recording from the side of the crowd on the main floor (an inferior viewing angle, but at least you can hear things . . .).

- It was nearly 100 degrees. October weddings, people . . . (I've been told that's "football season," whatever that is.)

- Certain unnamed culprits (of which I was not one) vandalized my brother's house during the reception. I don't have a complete list of insults, but apparently they involved removing all the light bulbs in the house, removing the labels from all the canned goods in the pantry, putting Icy Hot on the toilet seats, putting sugar in the bed, writing on the mirrors with deodorant, rearranging the furniture, toilet-papering the outside of the house and putting all of my brother's and sister-in-law's underwear in plastic bags of water in the freezer. There is some confusion as to why exactly my brother left his house unlocked, but there is no confusion about the fact that my brother quizzed everyone involved and is keeping a list of names for future references (none of the culprits is currently married . . .). He asked me for prank advice. I suggested an inflatable kiddie pool full of Jell-O and random objects from the house in the middle of the living room floor.

- I actually danced. Albeit only with people to whom I'm related, as there were no single unrelated women within 10 years of my age (either way) to be found.

- My mother refused to dance at the reception. So Haley and I requested my parents' wedding song (Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle") from the DJ. You can't really say no to your own wedding song.

- I prepared a 90-slide PowerPoint photo show for the reception (using primarily old photos from physical photo albums that I had to scan and clean up; how quaint). It was well-received. The Shakespeare quotes were less of a hit than the final Ogden Nash quote ("To keep your marriage brimming, with love in the wedding cup, whenever you're wrong admit it, whenever you're right shut up."). I may try to convert it to a video file later and post it (I'll have to do it eventually if I want to add it to the wedding DVD).

- I spent half an hour trying to fix my mother's EarthLink e-mail account before its user-unfriendly nature irritated me enough that I bought her a domain name (as an added bonus, now I can build my dad a Web site for his company, although he says he has so much work that I have to leave the contact info off . . .).

- Linde joked while setting up the reception hall about cheating to catch the bouquet (her solution was to tie fishing line to it and just pull it into her hands). When the time came to throw it, certain people (again unnamed) were vandalizing my brother's house and were not available, so the toss was put off. I wasn't in the room when it was later tossed, but I'm told Linde caught it fair and square. I'm also told Haley's boyfriend told her to sit down when she joined the group . . .

- I printed about 75 photos from my portfolios and put them in a photo album (not all of my family has the Internet or is familiar with Flickr . . .) and passed it around at the various events. It was generally well-reviewed. Several family members have expressed interest in hiring me to do (or guilting me into doing for free) their photography (senior pictures/wedding photos) in the future. There were several slight pauses from various reviewers, however, due to my inclusion of two pages of photos from my human studies portfolio (I picked photos that don't actually show nudity, but it's clear the models are nude). I took a lot of jokes for them . . .

- I encountered multiple people I had not seen in 10 years or more, including former teachers, friends of my parents and second cousins. It's interesting how some people change and some people stay exactly the same.

Labels: family, jeff, miscellany, photography, shandra

FYI: Yoplait's Apple Turnover yogurt is disgusting. Stick with apricot mango or peach.

Labels: miscellany

The office move is progressing in tolerable fashion, festooned with only the occasional glitches (on my shifts, anyway). What was projected to be about 24 hours a weekend has distilled into a measly 4 (way to overcalculate, people), so the overtime pay won't be what I was expecting, but it's also far less stress. My "second shift" has already set up shop in the new building, and my "primary shift" moves tomorrow, so by Wednesday I should be permanently in my original (yet more grandiose) office building.

Jamie and I saw "A . . . My Name Is Alice" on Saturday. Fantastic show. I chastise all of you for not attending (except Cris and Mark, who attended on a different night). My favorite skit involved a secretary projecting her romance novels on her real life; Jamie favored one involving a strip club. I will refrain from psychoanalysis on those choices. Cris was at least mildly concerned about how aggressive the play might be (it being loosely affiliated with the Vagina Monologues). Having seen the Vagina Monologues (twice), I can say without hesitation they weren't comparable (or perhaps comparable in the way apples and pineapples are both fruits); it wasn't really a "for women" show as it was an "about women" show. Granted I wasn't really uncomfortable at the Vagina Monologues, either, so I may not be unbiased. In any case, it was, as noted above, fantastic.

We stuck around for a bit afterward to chat with the numerous members of the crew Jamie knew from her own theater experience (including the musical director who played the piano onstage in a wig to fit in with the "women" theme). Jamie knows a lot of theater people . . .

I spent Sunday in photography mode (to the extent permitted by 90-degree temperatures). The infrared photos appeared in my blog yesterday; the cemetery photos will likely show up tomorrow.

I also epoxied the lid onto that bird feeder (which means I have to take it apart to refill it, which is a pain); I noticed the squirrel perched below it today, but I haven't seen him actually try to open it yet.

Labels: friends, miscellany, photography, theater

I'm not understanding jazz. I've given it an honest listening, really. I just don't get it. Maybe it's a sign of my deep-seated need for structure.

My office began its inexorable advance back to its old digs over the weekend (the first of three). I volunteered for shifts on all three, although I was put on "special assignment" this weekend rather than supervising the move with the other volunteers (I spent a few hours photographing all of the offices in our current building and printing them to hang in the empty offices in the destination building in hopes of avoiding the confusion the moving crew faced in reassembling the furniture this weekend). Two more weekends to go.

I was amused by the audacity of some of the movers; apparently a minimum-wage job and boxers above baggy pants are not impediments to hitting on, well, anything cute and female. I'm unfamiliar with that level of machismo; is the shotgun approach of flirting with everyone really the reason most people find more relationships than I do? Women, do you really find that flattering? I've always found such behavior irrational and uncomfortable, but then again the things *I* think potential dates would like have obviously not panned out.

Lane and I saw the latest "Harry Potter" yesterday. I thought it was okay, if not as memorable as the others (it lacked some of the visual impact, or perhaps I'm oversaturated with well-done CGI). Lane was disappointed in some of the shortcuts they took to fit it into the allotted time, a common malady among hardcore fans of books-turned-movies. She also dismisses my theory that Harry goes back in time and becomes Voldemort in the last book . . .

Labels: lane, miscellany, social commentary

I need to renew my CPR certification. I'm planning on taking the CPR for the Professional Rescuer course next Tuesday and Thursday evenings (6 p.m. to 10 p.m. each evening). It's an eight-hour course that includes adult and infant & child CPR. Does anyone else need (or want) to take the class? Let me know.

Labels: miscellany

Although I spent the majority of the Earth Day event at work, I did catch the last couple of hours. It seemed not as energetic as last year, perhaps due to the wind that attempted to collapse the booths every 20 minutes or so, or perhaps I just went later in the day and missed the "main attractions." I sat under a tree and listened to one of the speakers for about half an hour; it reminded me of a lamentation I had years ago that the persuasiveness of an idea is usually related more to the charisma of its presenter and less to its validity, as this poor gentleman read from a prepared speech with very little crowd interaction or tonal inflection. I agreed with him for the most part (although some of his solutions were clearly infeasible), and I still wouldn't want to sit through that speech again without a book to read.

The live music after that was good, and I ran into Tiffany quite by accident. I'm also submitting my second nomination for parent of the year (and I'm being puzzled by the fact that in the 24 hours since I posted the set, the other photos have garnered between 8 and 10 views and that one has 130).

Sunday was rainy. Cris and I discussed a hodgepodge of topics over dinner and then Jamiela and I saw "The Reaping," which I found rather unconvincing (the only saving grace was the presence of Idris Elba, one of my favorite British actors).

Labels: miscellany, social commentary

To contrast with the monstrosity of the post antecedent to this one, I present a tidy collection of random events, each as special as a tinfoil-wrapped chocolate egg, minus the whole tooth-decay thing . . .

- I received my baby sister's graduation announcement. Family jokes aside, there was of course never any question about whether she would graduate, but I do find it amusing that their "class song" is Bon Jovi's "It's My Life," a song that was initially released when she was 11. I will refrain from further examination, however, as (a) it's not a country song and (b) if I remember correctly, I suggested Queen's "Princes of the Universe" when I was a senior and was shot down in flames (my proposal to use the "Imperial March" in lieu of "Pomp and Circumstance" was likewise dismissed with rolling eyes).

- Apple has officially postponed Leopard, and hence my iMac purchase, to October. Stupid iPhone.

- It's hard to be a crimefighter in the days of caller ID.

- I read a couple of science articles over the last couple of days that are, to me, at least, very interesting. The first is about a quark-gluon plasma generated at Brookhaven National Laboratory that has the same mathematical signature as five-dimension microscopic black holes. The other involves the hendecatope, which I don't fully understand so I'm not even going to try to explain it. Let's just say it's really interesting.

- The latest abstinence education study, commissioned this time by Congress, has found that they're completely ineffectual. To be fair, they also don't increase the rate of unprotected sex, as some critics have maintained. But that's really not a good reason to keep funding them.

- I snapped a photo of the billboard I mentioned in the previous post. In the process (which involved some swearing as I'm not familiar with that part of town, especially after dark), I noticed that the backside of that billboard has the other billboard that has made my blog lately; I thought they'd taken it down, but it turns out they just moved it (both billboards are together in this composite picture). I'm curious if there was coordination of if they ended up together by chance.

- Being third in the nation on the list of music piracy means you should just expect the lawsuits.

- I've been meaning to link to this page for awhile. There's some good stuff there. This is my favorite.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. :)

Labels: amusement, funny, miscellany, quantum mechanics, religion and atheism

But now it's cold again. Silly winter.

Before that, however, we had a nice weekend. Except for Saturday, which rained me out of working on my yard, so I spent 5 hours at work preparing a report that's due tomorrow. There's excitement for you.

Sunday I spent babysitting. I took the twins to the local miniature-hedge-maze park (waist-high to me but perfect for them), where they contented themselves for a few hours. Then I pulled a rather sneaky April Fools Day prank on Lane. For those "Princess Bride" fans, Lisa and I have dubbed this "the sound of ultimate suffering." Someday she'll start pranking me back and then I'll probably regret this. (I swear though, Lane, if I ever come home and my iMac is encased in Jell-O, you're going to be in big trouble . . .)

Linde, for those curious, is doing well. She sent me a picture yesterday I affectionately dubbed the "Night of the Living Dead" photo. She sent me one today that's *much* better (just a faint red line on her face). :)

Labels: amusement, holiday, lane, miscellany, twins

My left eyebrow has been twitching randomly (a few times a day) for a couple of weeks now. Two people have assumed I'm winking at them. Yay for vague body signals.

"Don't You Forget About Me" Calls Sent to Cris ("DYFAMCSCs"): 2

I unloaded my old washer and dryer. I've discovered that apparently the key word on Craig's List is "free." Even after I listed all the problems I've had with the set, I still had three responses within 5 hours and one of them picked up the set on Tuesday evening. I'm happy. It's better than putting them in a landfill.

Over the four days from Saturday to Tuesday I finished hooking up my washer and dryer, ran an entirely new dryer vent line, sealed the window the vent line uses, sealed off the old dryer vent line inside and out, unloaded my old washer and dryer, patched a hole in my roof, patched a hole in my gutter, installed an illuminated address plaque above my garage door, unpacked and put away my Christmas presents, cleaned the basement, swept the garage and went for a couple of walks. It would appear that escaping reality is good for my productivity.

I'm amused that Carrie Underwood currently has two music videos in Yahoo! Music's Top 100, "Before He Cheats" (a song about graphically defacing a cheating boyfriend's car during a vengeful rage) and "Jesus, Take the Wheel." There seems to be a disconnect there, but perhaps I simply lack an understanding of modern country music.

Labels: cris, house, miscellany

I've been out of circulation for a couple of days. One might even call it an exercise in reclusivity (which all the dictionaries I have consulted inform me is not a word, but the morphology seems completely sound to me so I'm using it anyway and Webster be damned). While anyone with nominal counting skills will recognize that "stress" is not a four-letter word, I think a general consensus can be reached that it's bad anyway, and thus I have put my black belt in compartmentalization to good use.

The world moves on, however, and the marshmallows in the Lucky Charms of life continue to provide some sense of flavor:

- I hear through venting that one of my extended family members took it upon himself to call one of my siblings at home and inform her that her decision to move in with her boyfriend will result in a black mark in God's book that will forever ruin her chances at a happy marriage due to active divine disapproval. Oddly, I remember no such admonition when my brother's girlfriend moved in with him, and to date my dismissal of said deity as mythological has likewise earned no personal correspondence. My Spider-Sense detects a double standard of some sort, although whether based on gender, geographical distance, social intersection or the perceived likelihood of success is beyond the scope of its powers. I told my sister that I consulted with Buddha and Ahura Mazda and they're okay with it, which makes two to one.

- I spent the better part of the weekend working on my house. My washer and dryer are hooked up and functioning and an entirely new dryer vent line is installed through what used to be a pane in a window (house post to come later). Likewise, the small hole in my roof and the hole in my gutter have been patched (we'll just ignore the fact that I made both of them in the first place . . .). I also have all the parts to install my new illuminated address plaque, but a lack of daylight impeded its completion.

- I watched all 26 episodes of the anime Blue Gender over three late nights. I enjoyed it, although the ending was moderately disjointed.

- Although I feel largely fine, my cough has yet to dissipate. What fun.

- The new commercial for lavender-scented laundry detergent lies. My flannel sheets do not smell like lavender. In fact, they smell the same as they do when washed in my regular detergent.

- And finally:

Labels: miscellany

A quick update for those of you monitoring my condition. I'm still sick. Less sick than yesterday, but still sick. :P The body chills have gone away and the sinus headache comes and goes, but the sore throat and stuffy nose are still here (and I keep having violent coughing fits until I hack up that icky green stuff that coats the inside of your throat when you're sick - that's *always* pleasant).

I spent all day Saturday on the couch, minus the time I spent shoveling my sidewalks. I actually showered and went out today, but only long enough to do grocery shopping. And discover yet another Taco Bell that irritated me enough to preclude my future patronage (that's four in Omaha now, one of which messed up my order on three consecutive attempts). When I placed my order tonight, rather than bring it up on the electronic screen under the menu the woman simply said "Um, I'll figure it up at the window." When I pulled up to the window, she asked me to repeat my order and she yelled corrections into the back as I repeated it. Two minutes later another (obviously irritated) employee brought my order and then, to my disbelief, *chastised* me for "making changes" to my order after they'd already made it. "Next time we'd appreciate it if you'd finalize your order at the menu so we don't have to remake things." Etc. I was, erm, "displeased" would be a good word, and being sick didn't improve my social tact. When I rather humorlessly interrupted her to tell her that I did, in fact, order exactly what I wanted at the menu, she had the nerve to say "Oh, well, nevermind then. Have a good evening." and closed the window before I could say anything else. It annoyed me enough that I used their Web site to register a complaint (a first for me).

I managed to watch about 6 minutes of a History Channel special on Nostradamus, enough to remind me that the History Channel is full of crap about half the time. They let Nostradamus conspiracy theorists explain all the silly "meanings" they've tortured out of his quatrains (including the ridiculous explanation that "Mabus," a cryptic figure he mentions, is a sneaky way of saying "OsaMA/BUSh" and a verse about a "new city" burning "at 45 degrees" was obviously referencing the 9/11 attacks, despite the fact that New York is below the 41 degree mark), while the skeptics got a couple of seconds to try to explain how you can always find meaning in "prophecies" *after* the fact but none of the quatrains have yet been able to predict an event *before* it happened. The lopsidedness was appalling.

I also saw a rather disturbing commercial for a Barbie that comes with a dog that you "feed" and then it "poops" the things you feed it back out (and Barbie, of course, comes with a pet scooper). I think the Amazon description sums it best: "Tanner, Barbie's dog, eats and ejects waste from her body. At this point, Barbie can pick it up with her scooper, and then Tanner will eat it again-- just like your real dog!"

Did I mention I tend to be more critical when I'm not feeling well? Hopefully it will pass soon.

Labels: miscellany

(1) I received the new non-credit catalog from the local community college yesterday. It offers a three-hour class on how to use Google . . .

(2) On my way to work today I heard a version of "Play That Funky Music." By the Chipmunks. With the word "chipmunk" replacing the words "white boy" throughout.

I'm waiting for number 3.

Labels: amusement, miscellany

New on the buffet, pictures from the capitol building in Lincoln.

We also have a preview of an upcoming episode of "Blue's Clues" (entitled "Blue finds the third clue and discovers the Necronomicon buried in the backyard . . ."). "Blue's Clues" is Kyle's new favorite show (she'll look longingly at the tv and say "Coos coos?"), so I bought the twins some plushies from the show. Lisa vetoed giving them a plush Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep. (The shoggoths are kind of cute, though. Maybe I can sneak one of those in.)

This is one of the chairs that has been sitting outside my office for the last week (a candidate for replacement chairs for the secretaries, I think). I've never seen a chair that reminds me of lingerie before.

And finally, courtesy of Lane, proof that America is destined to fall from its superpower status. In the words of Lane, Oh. My. God.

Labels: cthulhu, funny, miscellany, photography, twins

As I'm sure my mother has noticed, I've been lax about updating here in the last week. Not to fear, all is well. We've had some snow, and now some bitter cold. I spent about a day suffering from what I'm assuming is mild food poisoning (that's one of those "wow, I'm tempted to just curl up and die" maladies), but I seem to have passed through it sometime during the night last night (which meant I could actually eat this morning for the first time in 32 hours). I've taken some photos lately, but I haven't downloaded them yet (soon, I hope). I'm thinking of buying a snowblower (shoveling sucks). I'm jealous that Lane made it to the Apple Store in Omaha before I did (and the fact that I haven't heard from her in several days has nothing, I'm sure, to do with the fact that she found a copy of Neverwinter Nights for the Mac there . . .). I hope everyone else is well.

Labels: miscellany

It's a been a long week, although not due to any particular mishaps. Just good old-fashioned "lots of work" and "miscellaneous items." I was chastised by my car place for not checking my oil more often. I watched 15 minutes of "All in the Family" for the first time (due to sharing the waiting room with an older couple who was there first), which gave way to me hearing certain pejorative terms on a scripted television show for the first time (I'm shocked they can still replay those episodes). I was nearly in an accident tonight because of the brilliant driver who turned the wrong way onto my one-way street, panicked and tried to pull a U-turn across four lanes of traffic. Two of my siblings, independent of each other, asked me to help them find new computers today. I bought a 5-lb. bag of frozen mangoes at Sam's Club for smoothies. We're supposed to get a foot of snow and highs in the low teens over the weekend.

Labels: miscellany

A grand gathering of friends helped me mourn my 30th birthday this evening. Thanks to everyone for showing up. :)

My mom sent me a link to this site, which has pictures from the fantastic ice storm that crippled some of the counties in central Nebraska last week. I drove that route just a few days earlier, so I'm glad I missed it (although the pictures would have been cool).

From Cris comes random Star Wars humor. :)

Labels: amusement, friends, miscellany

I spent the majority of the weekend at work, for a grand total of 13 hours. That more or less ruins a weekend, but it does provide a little boost to the paycheck; the grand game of trade-offs. That does mean I'll likely take a day off this week to do all the things I'd planned to do over the weekend.

I did babysit for a couple of hours on Saturday night (we watched "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree"). Then Lane and I tied five games to five on Soul Calibur (she's banned me from playing Link because I just sit across the arena and shoot arrows at her character - hey, if it works). I told her I'd bring MarioKart over next time. In the meantime she's almost finished with the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, a week after starting the first one . . .

Labels: miscellany

Amazon officially moved the shipping date on my family's Christmas presents from two days ago to February 5th. Bastards. But I guess my family can look forward to getting a second round of presents in May.

Cris and I stopped by Forest Lawn Cemetery to take pictures on Sunday, but I don't think he even turned his camera on and I only had two photos turn out.

These are absolutely fabulous. Although they get stale in a hurry. So, really, you *have* to eat the whole box in one sitting. Really.

Labels: miscellany, photography

We had enough fog last night for one-block-or-less visibility. It was very cool, in the "I can't see the stoplight; what color is it?" kind of way.

My family's Christmas presents still haven't shipped. I've been advised to have a backup plan, which I do. "Congratulations, you're all getting a second Christmas at Haley's graduation in May."

I have all of my other Christmas shopping done except for Lane (because someone bought her the book I was going to buy her . . . *grumble*). Maybe I'll get her a shirt that says "Wake me up when Spore(tm) is released." We've been having an ongoing dialogue about the proper term of reference to describe the two of us. She prefers the appellation "nerd," while I'm more inclined toward "geek." Given our respective family histories of stubbornness, it's not likely to end anytime soon.

My mom had her first non-sedated MRI last week (an accomplishment for someone with severe claustrophobia). She's had some back problems, but apparently they're going with physical therapy and over-the-counter pain medication for now.

Alec's new favorite word is "apple" (because she likes these little freeze-dried apple pieces Lisa buys). Kyle's new favorite word is "tickle," which she employs liberally when she actually tickles Alec.

Labels: lane, miscellany, twins

This is impressive. How long before you can do this, Tim?

I caught up with the entire season of "The Office" last night. In retrospect, staying up until 6 a.m. to watch them all was probably a bad idea, but it's like crack. Or Count Chocula. Which is like less unhealthy crack.

The "Angela" character on the show reminded me of a woman I overheard in conversation at a restaurant on Sunday night (yes, I eavesdropped; shame on me). The "So, tell me about your life" questions implied a first date of some sort, one brought crashing down by a violation of one of the cardinal first date rules: no talking politics or religion. A mutual disdain for atheists (yes, how ironic that I was sitting right behind them) started them on the right foot, but theological differences proved a pitfall. I can honestly say this was the first time I'd heard, in person, someone use the sentence "Do you know what it is that bothers me about people like you?" (If you're curious, what bothers her is people who don't go to the same church every weekend, because they're not submitting themselves to an established authority and thus are going to Hell. It's all about the membership card, you know.) I'd wager my as-of-yet-theoretical Christmas bonus that Date Number Two failed to transubstantiate.

I have heat! It's not entirely finished (some venting lines to permanently attach and a new programmable thermostat to install), but there is, in fact, a brand new piece of machinery standing defiant where the petulant scrap heap previously squatted. Still, that old furnace had a hell of a lifespan; if the inspection tag that was tied to it is to be believed, it was over 40 years old, double its projected life. I'll have pictures up later to amuse people with its quaint construction (it didn't burn buffalo chips or anything, but the filter system should be good for a laugh).

The Christmas presents I ordered in October have been back ordered again. My family may be getting little boxes saying "Quantum Christmas Present: Until opened you both have and do not have a gift. Open at your own peril!" I see Target is carrying the gifts I ordered now, and I could cancel the online order, but because I got a promotional discount on each gift it would cost me almost $100 more to buy them in the store. I'm really not that attached to the whole "December 25th deadline" thing. Besides, if I'm going to spend $100 on something, I have other things picked out, like a really cool towel rack or a voice-activated R2 unit, or, given the "responsible adult" image I'm expected to maintain, a furnace.

Labels: holiday, house, miscellany, quantum mechanics