Troy B. Thompson's Journal

Manufacturing Suspense

2008-08-20T16:12:44Z

From CNN: "Obama will announce his VP candidate as soon as tomorrow or as late as Friday."

That wide range of dates translates to: Either tomorrow or the next day. I don't want to talk about politics on here, but do we really need to sensationalize the news when it comes to a range of two days?

Hungry at Work

2008-08-14T14:25:28Z

One of my current website projects is a gourmet foods site. I spent most of yesterday doing data entry for the catalog of products. Now all I can think about is chocolate covered fruit, gourmet pretzels, things I could make with exotic seasonings, and dessert mixes...

Laurel is in the Hospital

2008-08-11T23:44:29Z

For the last week or so, my laptop has been having some stability issues. It'd be fine for a while, and then freeze with "static" on the screen. After rebooting a few times, it would eventually work and be fine for a while again. I reinstalled the OS and it worked for a few days and then went back to having issues. The same things happened when I booted off the OS Install DVD, so it's hardware.

I took it into Apple today and they shipped it off to be torture tested, fixed, and returned. 7-10 Days. So for the next week, I'm tethered to an old G4 desktop computer in my office. Luckily, since I sync to .Mac (now Mobile Me) I instantly had all my mail accounts, bookmarks, address book, calendar, and preferences ready to go on the new computer. So now it's just a matter of installing some software I didn't have on here. I grabbed the TV from the guest room to use as a monitor since, well, I'd been using the desktop machines through my laptop before, and a monitor is important. =^)

Wish me luck on trying to run my business on antique hardware for a while!

Six Flags

2008-08-07T01:06:28Z

misha9874 is on "vacation" this week (which just means she's taking a break from summer teaching, and classes, for a bit but still going to meetings and doing homework), but yesterday we went to Six Flags. Depending on the weather forecast you listened to, we were either going to have a nice day or have thunderstorms. It was pretty grey on the ride out there and we were concerned. We ended up with great weather, though. A little hot, but blue skies all day.

We went with Laura, Hari, Jessica, Xander, signal_chick, and Tim so there were eight of us. It made a good size group to split up and meet up at different times. The new roller coaster they advertised on the AAA brochure didn't end up getting built this year, but we ended up going on most of the ones that were already there. =^)

The rides kept breaking down. Several times the rides closed down right before we got to them or while we were in line. We kept checking back, though, and ended up getting on them eventually. I don't know if trying to get on rides that keep breaking down is a smart thing, though...

On the Blizzard River ride, we saw this sign. It's not often you see graffiti from the grammar police.

When we got home, we were exhausted, but we had fun.

New Twist on a Tradition

2008-08-02T01:06:44Z

There has been a long tradition at the Big Red House to have pizza on Friday night. We used to get it delivered or get it from Mama at Cafe Bravo, and then when our favorite places started going bad, misha9874 and I started getting frozen pizzas since they actually taste good now and come in all sorts of varieties and brands.

This week I decided to try something different. When I was little, we'd make pizzas. So I did some research at the grocery store yesterday. I looked at the pizza mixes and they didn't look too appetizing, so instead I came back with a tube of new Pillsbury thin pizza crust (hoping for Grands type crust), squeezable pizza sauce, red and green peppers, and a bag of mozzarella. (There's always a supply of pepperoni at the BRH.)

With the pre-made crust, preparation didn't take long at all, and it turned out to be the perfect size for my pizza stone. It came out fantastic. The crust was very yummy, and the peppers tasted fresh, not burnt and shriveled up like most delivery pizza. And it feels healthier, at least as far as pizzas go.

I think we have a new tradition.

I want to Believe in the Dark Knight

2008-07-30T01:01:09Z

Liz and Tim (misha9874's Liz and Tim) came up from NJ to stay with us for the weekend. It was a pretty relaxing weekend and we caught up a bit on new movie watching.

Friday, we went to Natick and ate at a new Indian restaurant there. The food was great, but they were still getting organized so Tim didn't get his food until a few minutes before we had to leave. The good thing is that we ended up with leftovers for Saturday night.

So we saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, in IMAX. It was well worth it. Very dark movie and violent, but very well done. It easily lives up to the hype and I can see why people are calling it an instant classic. Yes, Heath Ledger was amazing. It was very intense and reminded me of the feeling I got watching the first season of Prison Break. Times ten. My legs were sore afterwards from tensing up. Now I really need to see Batman Begins.

Oh, and Liz and Tim were absolutely amazed by the experience that is Jordan's Furniture.

Saturday was a relaxing afternoon out in the back yard. The weather was perfect. We made beef as well as salmon burgers on the grill. The salmon was really good. Must get more of those.

To wrap up the evening, we decided to put another new movie under our belt, and went to see The X Files: I Want to Believe. It wasn't getting great ratings, but it's X-Files, we had to see it.

It wasn't that it was a bad movie, it's just that, well, I just didn't see the point of it. It was a TV episode, it wasn't worth a movie. Much less a movie that came out after waiting ten years since the last one.

So first of all, it has nothing to do with aliens, black oil, any of that. If you want to see that plot line progress since December 22, 2012 is when the aliens make their move, you'll be very very very disappointed. This is just a standalone episode that happens to be longer than necessary. We got bored. This movie could have been done with any generic detectives, unrelated to the X-Files world. Why would they wait so long to not even answer any questions people are asking? I just don't get it. No wonder they're not talking about the plot in interviews.

Sunday, we went to Cracker Barrel. Always a good thing. Quite the fun and relaxing weekend.

My cat is "special"

2008-07-23T17:04:57Z

For some instinctual reason, our cats love boxes. Absolutely love them. If there happens to be one laying on the floor, they clamor to get into it, sleep in it, taunt each other from it.

Usually around here, they're paper boxes which are one cat boxes. They also like sitting into the paper box covers. They both fit into the Christmas tree box. Sometimes the boxes are small and they have to contort to try to fit into it. It's amusing trying to watch them feed their addiction by trying to squeeze into something that's too small for them, then watch as they try to pretend to be comfortable in weird positions just so they can be there. Many times the goal seems to be in the box simply so the other cat can't be in there.

My office is still in the process of being unpacked. A state it's been in for more than a year now. So there are boxes. Many of them are open and still have stuff in them. Sometimes this does not even prevent the cats from trying to lay in them.

Today, however, I saw something new. I heard a repeating fur on cardboard sound and looked over to see Wiley utterly confused. I had an open paper box, and the cover was still opened downward, but straddling two boxes. She was standing under the cover and pushing her head up into the box.

Repeatedly.

She's not marking it. As far as I can tell, she's trying to figure out how to defy gravity and lay inside it.

I'm so proud...

Thrill of the hunt

2008-07-13T02:43:16Z

Everyone thought I would get an iPhone when the original came out a year ago, but after buying the first iPod, I learned to wait until other people worked the kinks out. The second version is always much better.

Yesterday, Apple released the second generation of iPhone - twice the speed of the first, and half the price. And my four year old cell phone has been having several issues lately which has been interfering with my business.

So after doing tons of research as usual, we headed over to AT&T Friday when misha9874 got home from work around 1:00. They were sold out. I wasn't surprised - they had opened at 8:00 and the iPhone was being talked about in every form of media. People had been camping out for weeks in front of the Apple store in New York City. The sales person told us that all the AT&T stores were sold out, and I didn't think driving an hour to an Apple Store would have been a fun or rewarding experience. But they were getting another shipment and told us to come back in the morning and they'd have more.

The AT&T store opens at 10:00 on Saturdays. Knowing how obsessive people are about iPhones, and knowing that the store probably wouldn't get many in, what time do you go so that you can wait in line a minimum amount of time and still procure the prize? misha9874 thought 9:00. I thought 8:00.

At 7:00am we were wide awake and ready to go. Sure, why not? Better safe than sorry. We expected to be the only losers sitting in front of a store early on a Saturday morning. We were wrong. There were already five people there. As we walked up to the store they tell us, "They said they only got five phones in." and apparently we paused because then they started laughing.

This was our company for the next three hours. In our rush to get out the door, we had forgotten my paperwork from my current cell phone company, which we needed. So I got in line and misha9874 went to get the paperwork, breakfast and chairs. It was a random group of people. The woman first in line had gotten there at 10:00 the night before, had left for a little bit, then came back at 4am. She deserved to be first in line. One of the guys in line had his brother drop off McDonands. The woman in line in front of me called her husband to come and substitute for her for a while.

Apparently, on Friday, they had 40 phones and said there would be less today. But as #6 and #7 in line, we figured we still had a good chance. Around 9:40, the manager came out and started taking an inventory of what everyone wanted. After he made it past us, I figured that was a good sign. We would be victorious. Another guy came by with a checklist of what accessories and plans we were interested in and made sure we had all the info to make the process go smoothly. They were surprisingly well organized.

When the doors opened, they let in the first group of people, one for each of the registers. We were in the first group. Twenty minutes later, we left with two activated iPhones.

We're geeks.

But geeks with shiny new iPhones....

Berkshire Museums

2008-07-09T00:57:16Z

Saturday was predicted to be the rainy day so we decided to do indoor things. First stop was MASS MoCA. All of their gallery areas change so it's always something new when you visit.

The first exhibit was "Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape". One of the sections had hanging terrariums with big holes in the bottom and step stools under them, so you could poke your head inside. It was pretty fun. Another projected a fractal tree on the wall that swayed back and forth which of course appealed to the geek side of us.

My favorite part of MASS MoCA is a huge room that always has something surreal in it. Last time it was pitch black and filled with slow moving lit carnival rides you could walk around. This time we opened the doors and once again, it was dark, with projected poetry scrolling from the floor to the walls to the ceiling. There were projectors on either end of the room so the words overlapped, and since the walls and ceiling aren't flat, it was difficult to read. On the floor were huge grey beanbags that you could sit/lie on and watch the words scroll by. I approve of any art involving beanbags.

Walking around the museum wasn't too painful considering the day before. Except when we got to stairs. Our legs did not approve of going up stairs.

After MASS MoCA we found a Chinese buffet and ironically, misha9874's fortune cookie said, "A nice cake is waiting for you." Not only was it a rare actual fortune, it knew there has been a cake waiting for us for over a year in our freezer that we were planning on eating Monday.

Next we went to the Clark Art Institute. This is a much more traditional art museum. We had gotten a dual ticket to the two museums, and when we got there she asked us what we thought of MASS MoCA. When we told her how much we liked it, she gave us a disclaimer how this museum was nothing like that one. We assured her that was OK.

The Clark isn't as thought provoking, but they have a great art collection. They opened a new building for more of the collection so we went to visit it. There were two paths there, one with and one without stairs. Guess which one we chose...

Mt Greylock

2008-07-07T12:51:27Z

The outlook for the weekend was rain, but Friday had the least chance of thunderstorms so we decided that would be the best day to hike. So after a great breakfast inside the main house, we headed out for Mount Greylock State Reservation to climb the highest peak in Massachusetts. Did I mention we don't really take relaxing vacations?

When we got to the visitors center we found out that the road to the top was still under construction and should be open next year. The only time I had been to the top of Mt Greylock was driving, so we talked to the person there and she picked out a trail for us. It was a 10 mile hike so we stopped and grabbed a lunch to take with us on the way to the trailhead.

The Roaring Brook Trail started out very nice. Very lush forest and of course, a brook. It wasn't hot out, but it was very humid so it was like walking through a wet towel. Typically, paths up a mountain meander a little. This one was always climbing. It wasn't very steep, but it was constant with hardly any flat stretches. This means for three hours, we were dripping with sweat from the humidity and taking lots of water breaks. We almost gave up. Towards the top it got nicer, and we met a group of kids hiking up the mountain, so if they could do it...

We must have looked as miserable as we felt because people coming down the path near the top of the mountain would make jokes such as "Just another mile or two left!" Although one man we passed said that if we did this in only three hours, we were really doing pretty good, so that made us feel better.

Eventually we made it to the top. It was much more satisfying to see the memorial tower hiking up there than driving. The tower and lodge up there are closed until the road is redone, but it was still nice walking around up there. We sat and ate our lunches and drank a lot of fluids.

We took another route down which passed an overlook and was a little longer but more gradual. Stony Ledge overlook was almost better than the view from the top of the mountain. I couldn't believe we had walked so far, the tower looked tiny from there.

The hike down was much faster. It was more controlled falling than hiking. Needless to say we were very happy to see our car again. Everything ached.

We had pizza for dinner, took another shower, and went to bed at 8:30 Friday.

Anniversary Trip

2008-07-06T19:48:01Z

Thursday after work, we drove to Upland Meadows Farm Bed & Breakfast Inn in the Berkshires to begin our 1st Anniversary weekend trip. We took the more scenic drive down Rt 9 rather than the Pike which was much more relaxing considering it was the evening before a long 4th of July weekend.

As usual, we listened to an audio book on our drive, and this time it was The Audacity of Hope. It was actually a lot more entertaining than I had expected, considering it's a political autobiography. It's pretty funny. It's also interesting hearing an insider's prospective as to how and why politics is the way it is these days, different ways people perceive major issues, and how partisan relationships and events are very different than how they're portrayed in the media.

The road leading to the farm is amazing. Ancient trees line the road - the kind you'd expect to see in a movie, with glimpses of gnarled faces in their trunks. I'm hoping for a foggy night to take some photos of them properly.

We arrived just as Judi, our host, was leaving so she showed us our room, one of two off a long porch attached to the main house. As she started to leave, I asked, "Keys?" "No Keys," she said with a smile. "OK, then..." Things are a little different out here that will take some getting used to.

For dinner, she recommended the place with a big cow on the roof. We followed her directions and sure enough, there it was. It's a combination cafe, deli, grocery store, convenience store. Most of the shelves contained packages of things I've only read about, or brands I hadn't heard of and were almost all natural or organic. These are the kinds of places where I have a hard time finding things I like to eat on the menu.

To my joy I found old fashioned lasagna with three Italian meats. They had snuck portabella mushrooms into this dish as well, but I can live with that. When I went to order, she warned me that the lasagna contained meat. I caught myself before saying, "And thank goodness, everything else here is riddled with tofu!" and instead said, "Yes, I know. Thank you." Then something I wasn't expecting, "How much?" Apparently most people take a slab of lasagna to go rather than eating it as an entree here. I have no idea how many pounds of lasagna I normally eat at a sitting. I awkwardly made a square with my fingers and they agreed.

Our food was delicious and we'll probably be eating there again before we leave.

When we got back we explored a little bit of the farm. Lots of old buildings and fields and gardens. Signs of animals, but we didn't see any out. We walked down the road to the Bryant Homestead which is just down the road and looked around. We'll have to come back during the day at some point.

On the way back, we saw an old dog and a little boy on a tricycle. The dog ran circles around us, I don't know if he was trying to herd us or what, and followed us back to the farm. As we sat on the rocking chairs on the porch outside our room, the dog lost interest in us, and eventually the kid on the tricycle came by. He didn't look at us but slowed down and rode around the parking area in front of us. It turns out he's Judi's grandson and his parents live on the other end of the field. She yelled out to his father where his son was and we kept an eye on him until he was retrieved.

Very relaxing day.

WALL-E

2008-06-30T13:24:18Z

Saturday night we went to see WALL-E. It amazes me how Pixar is able to consistently put out such good movies. I think I have a new favorite. We're already talking about things we'll look at again when we buy it.

There's usually a subtle social commentary in Pixar films. This one is in no way subtle. It's actually a pretty dark movie. But it's also hilarious. I was actually crying I was laughing so hard and that never happens to me. The combination is a very powerful movie and I felt overwhelmed even after we got back home. Great plot, well executed, powerful message but not preachy, curling up in a ball funny, and aside from the humans, the rendering is almost too realistic at times.

I'm not sure about the G rating. Kids won't understand why the movie is depressing and controversial and they won't get the adult jokes, but there's a lot of firepower for a G movie (comedically excessive robot violence), and I think the climax would be too intense for really little kids. If they can take action movies, go for it. If not, sneak out and see it without them, it's worth it. =^)

Oh, and the opening short is definitely the best ever.

Heart and Soleil

2008-06-30T02:55:08Z

The summer members exhibition at ARTSWorcester this year is "On Pins and Needles: The Art of Touch and Sensation" and has the theme of tattoos and artistic exploration of being in our own skins.

I always submit outdoor nature things so this one was out of my normal realm but I thought it would be fun. Since misha9874 has a tattoo, guess who got to be the guinea pig.

I had the idea when I learned about the theme and pitched it to her and even though she doesn't like having her picture taken, she agreed. This is what we ended up with:

Now, it looks simple, but this was our 37th take. Why?

Well, first of all, I don't normally do this kind of photo so there was a lot of trial and error. I also don't have professional indoor lighting to do something like this. I didn't want to use a flash so we ended up putting an adjustable floor lamp on a chair to get it high enough, and we had to swap out the bulb so it'd be more like sunlight and more direct.

Next is a matter of geometry. Those are my hands, and I'm clearly not holding the camera. The camera is on a tripod. misha9874 took the photo, but she's facing away from the camera so she can't see what she's taking the picture of, and she's pointing the remote shutter over her shoulder to take it.

I'm facing forward, but I can't see my hands. So we setup a mirror so I could line up my hands correctly. The best place for the mirror, though, is behind the camera, so I had to line up the shot, put the mirror in place, then get into position. I have to look over her shoulder to line up my hands correctly around the tattoo, try different hand shapes to get the right feel, and have her arch her back and angle it just right to make the sun perfectly round. It was basically a complicated new version of Twister.

Then we learned that for my hands to be even, I have to look directly at her, so we get into this position, I stop looking at the camera, inhale so I don't show behind her, and hold perfectly still since it's a long exposure because of the light and depth I want.

Take a few photos at a time, look at them on the laptop, lather, rinse, repeat, until we get one we like.

It was really quite comical and I wish we had another camera to take photos of how silly we looked contorting to do this when the end result is to look clean and simple. I now understand the concept of an assistant - that would have made life much easier.

Yes, this is what we do on a Sunday night, cramming to get a photo done for a deadline. If you're interested, the exhibition is at ARTSWorcester and runs from July 11 - Sept 5, 2008.

Return of the Gameshows

2008-06-25T16:05:29Z

I was raised on TV game shows. Clearly with the barrage of new ones coming out, game shows are making a comeback, and are overtaking reality shows, which is fine by me.

Last night, we watched the premiere of Wipeout which is ABC's obstacle course game. It's a blatant rip-off of my embarrassingly favorite show Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, which is of course a remixing massacre of footage from the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle. Follow that? But in this one, everyone speaks English, and what you hear is actually the real comments that the contestants are making rather than humorous redubs. And when I mean a rip-off, I mean one of the events is directly from Takeshi's Castle. The slight twist is that the contestants compete together in most of the events which is great.

If you're not familiar with any of the shows, it's a train-wreck. But in a good way. You just can't take your eyes off it no matter how much your conscience is telling you to change the channel. It involves physical challenges which, when not executed properly, result in getting hit by something large and padded or inflated, falling into water, falling into mud, or all of the above, or all of the above multiple times. It's like American Gladiators, but for the every day Joe who may or may not be in shape, and without the comically overdone oozing of testosterone.

In one event, they strap the contestants to a modified merry-go-round on an island, spin them for a good while, then they have to balance, run, and jump to things to get to shore. The first one to make it without falling into the water wins. The rest get strapped in for another spin and they continue until they eliminate enough people. After a few rounds of this, they hardly have to spin to get disoriented.

In MXC, the key is the commentators. I was concerned this aspect would fall flat in this version as usually happens with remakes, but they did a great job. We'll see if they can keep it original throughout the season. In addition to funny lines, they make liberal use of the telestrator, such as indicating when the broadway guy made unintentional "jazz hands" while bouncing off a huge ball into the water, or by showing where the contestant should clearly have gone instead of plummeting off the edge of the path.

It's a good show if you're in a mindless eye-candy mood. I got absolutely no work done while watching it unlike most shows.

Keeping with the theme, this was followed by I Survived a Japanese Game Show. This is a hybrid reality show and game show.

A group of people sign up for a reality show without knowing the plot. They're excited.

They're flown to Japan. They're more excited.

They're shown their new home complete with "weird" food and a remote control toilet. They're insanely excited.

While exploring their new home, they meet their Mama-San who quickly secures her Alpha role in the house by ordering their shoes off and then sending them to bed. They're scared.

The next day they go to take a tour of Tokyo. They're excited.

During their tour of a TV studio they're led into a dark room, and when the lights are turned on, they find themselves on stage surrounded by bleachers full of Japanese people screaming and banging noisemakers. They're scared again.

They're on a Japanese Game Show and all the weirdness that that entails. They explain that the translation of this particular show is something along the lines of, you'd have to be crazy to do this show, and almost on cue and with pride, the Americans start acting crazy. Sigh. The host looks like a Japanese version of John Larroquette speaking used car salesman English and he gets them to dress up in team costumes and start the competition, while making fun of them in Japanese.

In this event, one team member was the eater. The other members wore plates on their heads with food. The team members would have to run on a treadmill while the eater stood on a platform and tried to get the food without using his hands. When he got it in his mouth, he'd hit a buzzer and the plate headed member would fall and slide off the treadmill into a bin of flour. For each ball of food he ate, they got a point. Really, that's the game.

The winners get a helicopter tour of Tokyo, the losers have to provide rickshaw service in Tokyo, much to the dismay of their passengers. Two of the losers sent to the elimination round dressed up like flies and had to jump unto a big cartoon car windshield for points. Did I mention Japanese Game shows are weird?

It's kind of a reality show meets weird game show meets fish out of water story meets cultural awareness meets revenge on annoying American tourists. Strangely, I like it.

Clients with Benefits

2008-06-24T17:23:21Z

The best part of having a bakery as a client is leaving meetings with a box filled with cake....

Stormy Weather

2008-06-23T20:10:27Z

Today has been a stormy day. This morning, it was a blur of wind and rain when looking out the window. A little bit ago, I heard what sounded like a long scraping sound. I looked and misha9874 was on the other side of the house so it wasn't her, and it was too loud for the cats.

I looked out the window and saw something out of place. That something would be about a quarter of one of our maple trees much, much lower than it should be.

All things considered, we were very lucky. It missed my car and missed the patio table. It did land on the grill, but from what we can tell, it's just surrounding it and didn't damage it. Same for the big potted plants that were on the wall which misha9874 just rescued. We'll do a little more investigation when the rain stops.

Glad we weren't outside when that happened.

George Carlin 1937-2008

2008-06-23T11:50:49Z

Thanks to our fear of death in this country, I won't have to die...I'll pass away. Or I'll expire like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital, they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient-care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice, they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure.

George Carlin died yesterday. Many of the stories are not using the phrase "passed away" which I'm amused by. As many of you know, he's one of my favorite comedians. I have most of his videos and books, and even saw him in concert when I was in high school. I went with my family and my friend Allison and got a "Sometimes a little brain damage can help" t-shirt. My mom was mortified by what Allison would think of the language during the concert, but my friend ended up quoting him more than any of us.

My other memory was going on a long drive with amymarr and listening to his CDs on the way. To this day, I'm thankful she didn't crash the car from laughing.

He caused a Supreme Court ruling about obscenity, and voiced kid shows like Thomas the Tank Engine. He made people laugh, and more importantly, made people think. Many times, you'd feel uncomfortable if you discovered he was making a good point. Even if you didn't like him, he definitely made his mark and will be missed.

I wanna live. I don’t wanna die. That’s the whole meaning of life: Not dying! I figured that sh*t out by myself in the third grade.

Hiking Trips

2008-06-15T02:10:27Z

On Thursday morning, we woke up to a chilly room. It was wonderful after the heat wave we'd been having. So much so, in fact, that before even getting out of bed, misha9874 decided to play hookey from work so we could go hiking. She had to take a day off before the end of the school year anyhow, and school ends on Monday so why not.

We got to Wachusett Mountain State Reservation around 9:00. We climbed up to the top and back in a few hours with perfect weather. It was strange being at the top of the mountain by ourselves, but that's what happens when you're there on a Thursday morning, I guess. On the way back we stopped at the Arisettys to say hi.

Then this morning we headed out again for more hiking. This time, we went to Leominster State Forest. We had never been there before and there are a lot of trails to explore. The most amazing thing, though, was how the trails we were on had Mountain Laurel wherever you looked. They were in bloom and it was a beautiful hike surrounded by white flowers for three hours.

We took the Ball Hill Trail to Fenton Rd to Rocky Pond where we stopped for a little while. There were tons of dragonflies, and a frog that we never did find. Got some nice photos, though. The bugs were getting pretty bad so instead of going back on the trails, we walked down the unpaved Rocky Pond Rd which was a nice change of pace. Then we took Wolf Rock trail back to the parking lot.

By this time we were hot, sticky, and I had some nice mosquito bite welts on my arms where I had apparently missed with the repellant. And with a half a mile to go we heard a sound. No, it wasn't one of the dozens of chipmunks we had been seeing throughout the hike, nor the few snakes. That sound was the sound of ice cream. That's just plain evil marketing right there.

On the drive there, though, we had seen an ice cream place that we'd already talked about going after the hike so we were strong and walked past the ice cream truck on the way to the parking lot. I think it was worth the wait - my butterscotch sundae was great.

Tonight we had chicken, pepper, and onion kabobs on the grill. I've missed summer.

Smoky

2008-06-10T20:30:32Z

This weekend misha9874 and I both noticed this campfire smell in the living room. The neighbors must be cooking outdoors, we thought. Except we couldn't smell it outside...

Of course the next possible solution is that our house is on fire. No, the smell seemed confined to the living room and we couldn't see any flames.

After lots of sniffing around, we locate the source of the fire smell: The fireplace, of course. Except we haven't had a fire in the fireplace since Christmastime. As far as I can tell, now that we have insulation in the walls, our previously drafty house doesn't dissipate smells anymore.

I have mixed reactions to this. On one hand, the house is sealed better which is good. On the other hand, if the house isn't breathing much anymore, a little voice in my head is telling me to buy an extra carbon monoxide detector...

Heat Quote of the day

2008-06-09T15:43:15Z

Office Security Guard: "I finally got you the heat you've been asking for."

Caribbean Accented Man: "Yes... but more than I needed..."

Birthday Part II

2008-06-08T02:03:39Z

Friday night we celebrated my birthday with friends at the big red house. With all the kids in the group now, it's much simpler to do that than going to a restaurant for dinner. So we had catered Moe's - lots of burritos, lots of things to put in them, and well, practically a trash bag of chips. There's no way we could come close to eating all the chips.

We waited until most of the kids were entertaining themselves in the kitchen to open presents. This ensures that I get to keep the presents with minimal wrestling. Of course there were the usual disturbing birthday cards, along with DVDs, music, popcorn, gift cards, a handcrank flashlight, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and a bendable tripod that's strong enough to hold my camera. Thanks, everyone!

For my birthday cake, I had not one, but two sampler cheesecakes. Mmm... cheesecake...

Great food and friends. No better way to turn 35.

Birthday Part I

2008-06-06T03:18:02Z

Yesterday at 6:25pm, I turned 35. This means I get to check the next box over on many survey forms.

It was a dreary day, but I woke up to lots of birthday kisses and a choice of two sealed birthday cards. One I had to save for the party on Friday. I picked the thick card. =^)

In the morning, the blown insulation people finished up their part of the project. It was supposed to be a two day project, but they had a few setbacks including a few misplaced drill holes that took out two electrical outlets and a network and telephone drop. The boss wasn't too happy with the new guy about that unexpected repair expense. Luckily, I called my electrician and he had new lines running in a few hours. The only other casualty were the sunflowers in front of the house which were pretty much trampled out of existence.

Ironically, before they left, Rick, our landscaper showed up because of the rain, along with replacement sunflowers. He also brought the next wave of our vegetable and herb garden. We now have tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, chives, oregano, cilantro, and basil. (Tonight we had fresh cilantro on our spinach and chicken ravioli and it was great.) If people want some fresh herbs, I'm sure we'll have more than enough.

[I forgot this part while writing late last night]For lunch, amymarr, my bestest friend in the entire world, picked me up and treated me to lunch at the New Pings. It looked a lot fancier, a lot more food and variety, and was pretty decent. I've been reading bad reviews about it, but seemed fine to me. Of course, they won me over by having leechi fruit on the buffet - one of the few foods I get cravings for. They were having issues finding soup spoons, though.[/forgot]

That evening, we went to dinner at LongHorn Steakhouse and had amazing food and a fun waiter. The only downside was that we were too full for dessert. We planned to come back later, but it got too late.

Afterwards, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. There are an unusually high number of movies I want to see out right now or coming out soon. Iron Man was great, and the new Narnia one is too. So far so good! With the body count of the Narnia one, though, I'm surprised it's only PG. I guess as long as they don't show blood when throats are being slashed left and right, or if it's being done by cute rodents with tiny swords, it's ok for kids. =^) It was fun, though - good acting, decent plot, and great special effects as always. I'm still trying to decide if Anna Popplewell's eyes were special effects.

Now I just have to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, and probably wait to rent Get Smart and some other comedies whose previews made me laugh despite myself...

Swiss Cheese House

2008-06-02T12:49:28Z

Today they started drilling holes every 16" around the house on each floor to fill the walls with insulation. Unfortunately, we just had the house painted last fall. Fortunately, I have extra paint, and they say they'll touch up for me.

Wisdom

2008-05-30T17:15:58Z

I still have my wisdom teeth. Whenever I get a new dentist or dental assistant, we have the same conversation. They're surprised I have wisdom teeth and want to know why. I tell them my wisdom teeth and I have an understanding - they behave and I let them stay. Apparently, having wisdom teeth at (almost) 35 taunts the dental profession. They want to get them out of there even if there isn't a problem - you can just see it in their eyes.

Today, I had my teeth cleaned by a new person, so of course, we had this same conversation. She wasn't satisfied by my intracranial entente. Throughout the cleaning she came up with new reasons I should have them removed, or casually mentioning "when I come in to have them removed".

The best one was "They not giving you any wisdom. The only thing they good at is collecting bacteria."

Now only if I could exploit their new found talent for monetary gain...

Trust and Cats

2008-05-28T13:57:22Z

So I'm sitting in the living room and Wiley jumps up onto the couch arm behind me. I think nothing of it as she pauses and then proceeds to climb up onto the back of the couch as she always does.

I turn around as I realize that my glass of milk had been sitting on the table next to where she jumped up and paused. My stomach sinks.

"Did you taste my milk?"

She looks at me as her tongue leisurely licks all around her mouth with a look that's not quite innocent nor defiant. Who knows, it's a cat.

Sigh.