Game Night

Tonight was game night at our house. Tom's stocking-stuffer from Santa was the game of cribbage. Tom played it as a little boy with his grandma and mom. Now cribbage involves math and if you know me I hate math. Well guess what, the final score of tonight's games. Amy- 2, Tom- 1. Woo Hoo- math challenged and still carried the night! Guess we will have to play again to see if was beginner's luck.

The Potato Flip Diary #4

The Quest For the Perfect Flip

Good heavens, today sucked.

The Players

The Pan	7" cast iron skillet, well seasoned(???)
The Ingredients	Russet potato (~7 oz peeled and shredded) White onion, ~2 oz Pepperoni ~1 oz Salt and pepper Shredded cheese (~1 oz)
The Fat	Vegetable oil, ~ 1 tsp

The Plan

The plan was to saute the onions in a small amount of oil, add to the potatoes and pepperoni mixture, then add the remaining oil to the pan, add the potato mixture and fry 5-6 minutes per side, flipping in the middle, then cover with shredded cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven until the cheese melts.

The Results

Everything went OK until the potato mixture hit the pan. I formed the mass into shape without a lot of pressing down to flatten, which I thought might have been part of my previous problems. Evidently that wasn't it, as the potatoes stuck so hard I actually had to move the potatoes to another skillet to finish cooking.

The Verdict

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hash browns and 10 being the "perfect flip," this experiment ranks about -10.

Lessons Learned

Today was awful. I had thought after last time that my pan wasn't seasoned enough, so I made sure that after last time, I greased it properly while still warm, something any number of sites tell me to do. It didn't seem to do anything. This was the worst stick of them all. I'm going to reseason the pan tonight, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get it right. If things keep going the way they are, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and start using regular non-stick cookware.

Something to Ponder...

I forgot about this picture...



This is from our fall trip to Hocking Hills. Questions you ask yourself? Where does Bambi, Yogi, Bullwinkle or Wile E. go at night? The Motel 6 down the street?

The Potato Flip Diary #3

The Quest For the Perfect Flip

Well, I've had better attempts.

The Players

The Pan	7" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	Red pototoes (~7 oz peeled and shredded) White onion, ~2 oz Pepperoni ~1 oz Salt and pepper Shredded cheese (~1 oz)
The Fat	Butter, < 1 tsp Vegetable oil, < 1 tsp

The Plan

The plan today was to sautee the onions over medium heat in the butter, then combine everything except the cheese and cook the flip over the same medium heat, this time in the vegetable oil. I extended the cooking time to ~8 minutes per side to get the nice GBD I wanted, before a quick trip to a 350 degree oven long enough to melt the cheese.

The Results

Failed. Miserably. The potatoes were so stuck to the bottom of the skillet that there was no way the mass could be flipped.

The Verdict

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hash browns and 10 being the "perfect flip," this experiment ranks: 1.

Lessons Learned

So, I had hash browns today. Good thing I like them :) I'm not completely sure where I went wrong this morning, though I think it may have been a combination of using butter and lowering the stove top. It could also have been the pan, it may not have been as well seasoned as it should have been. Next time, I bump the heat back up to medium high, though I'll give the split fat one more try. I'll also make double-dog sure that the pan is nice and slick before I try this again.

Son of a... part 2

Oops- I cut my thumb this morning chopping lettuce. Guess what it doesn't matter if the knife is sharp or dull- it still hurts!

The Potato Flip Diary #2

The Quest For the Perfect Flip

All in all, today's exeperiment went better, although the players changed up a bit.

The Players

The Pan	7" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	Red pototoes (~7.5 oz peeled and shredded) Bacon (1 rasher, crumbled) Misc dry seasonings Shredded cheese (~1 oz)
The Fat	Vegetable oil, ~ 1 tsp

The Method

Ack! I didn't have any onion this morning, so I had to make do without. Combined the potatoes, bacon and misc seasonings (I honestly can't remember what they are, how bad is that?). Put the pan over high-ish heat to get things hot before I begain, then added the oil to the pan, swirled to coat the pan, then drop in the potato mixture, and press very lightly into shape. Cook 4-5 minutes per side, flipping halfway through. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top, then bake in 350 degree oven about 10 minutes.

The Results

Mostly positive. There was minor stickage before the first flip, but it was easily dislodged. The flip itself took two tries again, but it wasn't like last week when it was the butter keeping the flip from lifting off. It was because I didn't account for the steep sides of the pan, and the flip never got to turning. After baking, everything was pretty much stuck to the bottom again, but wasn't too difficult to dislodge.

The Verdict

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hash browns and 10 being the "perfect flip," this experiment ranks about 8.5.

Lessons Learned

The vegetable oil is the way to go, at least for the cooking of the potatoes. Next time, when I have onions to deal with again, I think I'll sautee the onions in butter, but cook the flip in oil.

I need to keep in mind the sides of the pan when flipping. I almost had hash browns again this morning because of an uncareful flip.

I'm stumped why the flip would be sticking at all, both before the first flip and after the oven time. I'll have to check around the internet and see if I can come up with anything.

Son of a...

Again, I'm reminded that a dull knife is far more dangerous than a sharp one. We took our Henckels in to be sharpened tonight, and I was using an older one to cut up a potato. I had to push down way harder than normal, the potato slipped and nicked the middle finger on my left hand. Man, does it hurt! Can't wait to get our knives back...

Bah, Humbug!

Since the Christmas season began in August this year (just check the time the decorations came out in the stores!) I thought I was doing good and got 90% of our Christmas cards done and a gift for our Goddaughter bought and wrapped to send to California by December 5^th. I walked to the post office this morning and guess what- they are out of Christmas stamps!!! The postal worker was very rude when I commented that they were out the last time I stopped by in November. He responded in a manner of – “Lady they all ship the same get over it.” I know they all ship the same but I am the consumer and you make something I want to buy so have your holiday stamps in stock during the holiday season! Why do I want snowflake stamps in July?

Another post office grumble- Since I was steaming about the stamps I did not really pay attention to the cost of my shipment to CA. I am frugal- I admit it proudly. So when the smart-ass postal worker asked when I need my package to arrive I told him by December 25^th so nothing fancy (no special delivery, no signature required, no insurance etc.) Well it is going parcel post, which is fine with me. Well sending it parcel post is based on weight. If I sent it by priority mail (2-3 days) it is a flat rate of $4.05 Since I did not check the cost I ended up paying an extra $2.61 for slower service!

Another seasonal grumble. I was in JC Penney’s over the weekend. Shopping for birthdays (3 in December), a wedding (Dec 31st) and Christmas. I stood in line for 20 minutes to check out and when you ask for a box they tell you that they are out. Again- it is the busiest shopping season of the year. They should know folks are going to ask for boxes to wrap their gifts, PLAN AHEAD- order extra.

I hope the holiday season gets better than this.

A Long Way For Dinner

So, Amelia and I were supposed to pick up dinner to have with some friends this evening. Not being overly familiar with the area, I went to the company's website to look up the locations. Helpfully, they had all their locations linked to MapQuest. So, here's the location that we were going to head to. My mouse is next to the location, the one in Powell.

So, I clicked on the link to the Powell location, and I got this page on MapQuest. "What the hell?" thinks I. I mean, I know Powell is small, but I've found smaller locales.

So, I zoomed out, and kept zooming out until I finally saw this. Good thing that we decided to switch restaurants! We never had the optional water wings installed on Amelia's car!

The Potato Flip Diary #1

The Quest For the Perfect Flip

I've tried making potato rosti, which Amelia calls "potato flip," several times since I got our cast iron properly seasoned, with mixed success. I'm beginning to think that it's not the cast iron, but one or more of the following:

1. the ingredients
2. the methods
3. the guy holding the pan

To that end, I've decided to start keeping track of what I use and what I do when I make the flip, in hopes that I can get this figured out and start enjoying my breakfast again.

The Players

The Pan	7" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	Red pototoes (~7.5 oz peeled and shredded) Yellow onion (~2 oz minced) Pepperoni (~.1 oz minced) Seasoned salt
The Fat	Butter, ~ 1 tbsp

The Method

I used about 1/2 tbsp of the butter to sautee the onions in a hottish skillet. Add them to shredded potatoes and minced pepperoni, season with seasoned salt and mix thoroughly. Melt the rest of the butter in the skillet, then drop in the potato mixture, press very lightly into shape. Cook 3-4 minutes per side, flipping halfway through. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top, then bake in 350 degree oven about 10 minutes.

The Results

Mixed results. On the plus side, the onions didn't stick during the sautee process, which leads me to believe that I should skip garlic altogether (I used to use a clove or two of garlic). I think that was the start of my downfall with previous attempts, because the garlic nearly always stuck, and it would go downhill from there. I had problems with the actual flipping, though. The potatoes stuck a bit to the bottom of the pan, but were dislodged without a lot of force. However, when I actually flipped, I had an issue. I think I had a little too much fat in the pan, because the pan didn't want to let go of the potatoes. It's not that they were stuck, because they slid around the pan once they were dislodged. So, the first flip attempt turned my flip into hash browns. I mushed everything back together as best as I could and tried flipping again, and got it mostly over. After baking, everything was pretty much stuck to the bottom again, but wasn't too difficult to dislodge.

The Verdict

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hash browns and 10 being the "perfect flip," this experiment ranks about 6.5.

Lessons Learned

I switched several things from previous attempts. First, I used a different pan, the 7" pan rather than the 10" one. I've had more problems with the 7" pan, but it really is the right one to use. Second, as noted above, I didn't use garlic. I think that throughout my experiments, I'll continue to leave out the garlic, but I'm looking forward to putting it back in. The flip is good without it, but much better with it. Third, I used different potatoes. Previously I had used russets, which are a lot starchier than the reds I used today. The reds aren't the waxy potatoes, I don't think those would work at all, but they don't have nearly the starch as the russets. I think that might have helped, and I'll use them again next time.

I'm a little confused about the fat situation. On the one hand, I think there might not have been enough fat, since my potatoes stuck before flipping. On the other hand, I think there might have been too much fat, because the pan didn't want to let go of the potatoes for flipping. It could be that butter is the wrong fat to use. Next time, I'll use a smidge of vegetable oil and see if that helps.

And, yes, I know I'm a nerd for blogging in such detail about making my breakfast :P

Today's Activity

If you are able, go do it. It doesn't take long, and it could really help out someone in need.

Whee!

You've read about my experience with getting a Belkin KVM switch. So, I did some research and decided that the right one for me was this little number, an IOGEAR model. Reviews were mixed, but most negative reviewes seemed to revolve around a lack of features that careful reading of the literature would have already uncovered (yes, I hear the pot talking to me, thankyouverymuch). It's USB, handles up to four computers at a time, claims to work with my toy, handles audio, and supposedly works with USB hubs, so I can actually connect more USB devices than just a keyboard and mouse.

I ordered it a week ago Friday, and it finally came today. Aside from a few glitches (my Linux box isn't completely happy, but since it's like 8 years old, I'm not overly surprised), it works pretty well. One of the cool features that I never knew I wanted but now I'm very glad I have is that I can switch everything except the audio. Right now, I have my iTunes running on my desktop while I'm typing this on my laptop, both of which are connected to the KVM. Pretty sweet!

Pictures

Got these pictures back from our friends, Piglet and Xabu, showing the extend of the damage to my car. I'll be honest, every time I look at the car now, I just giggle. It's kinda funny :)

Along the same lines, we got an estimate for the car yesterday. It wasn't nearly as hight as I'd expected, but the best thing is that I have a $0 deductible for accidents of this type! Woo-hoo! Of course, it'll probably bite me in the butt the next time I have to pay my premium...

Well Now, That Was Interesting...

Amelia and I were driving north to spend the night with her folks, and we had something happen to us that neither of us have ever had happen before.

I hit a deer.

Yes, with my car.

We were driving across US 30 coming through Wooster, and fortunately Amelia reminded me that I needed to slow down going through the city. I saw him as he darted across the road about 10 feet in front of the car. I hit the brakes pretty quickly, but I still clipped him. He got up and continued his sprint into the trees, so we're pretty sure he's OK. My car isn't badly damaged, but the hood is crumpled somewhat and the front right fender is broken (plastic, don'tcha know). But I didn't even lose a headlight, so it wasn't that bad. The impact wasn't enough to set off our air bags, and I don't even remember the seat belt grabbing. All in all, I think Bambi, Amelia and I got off pretty lucky...

Dammit...

Belkin sucks.

I've bought a ton of their stuff in the past and have usually been very happy, but tonight, I'm crossing them off my "vendors to do business with" list. What happened that's got my undies all knotted?

I tried to buy one of their products, and got screwed.

This product here is the one that has provoked my ire. For the non-technical in the audience, it allows several computers to all run from one keyboard, mouse and monitor. And since it's USB, I can share other things, too, like my printer and digicam. As I have four functioning computers in the house, three of which need external keyboards, mice and monitors, a USB KVM switch is a boon to me, as it means I can have a less cluttered desk. You try putting three 17-inch monitors, three keyboards, and three mice on one desk!

Anywho, back to the story. Tonight I was rearranging my office (with Amelia's help, God bless her) when I realized that my old KVM switch was dead. It was an older, 2 port model (meaning it could only handle 2 computers) that used PS2 connections rather than USB, and since one of my computers doesn't have PS2 connections, I thought I'd bite the bullet and buy a new 4 port switch with USB, plus a new USB keyboard (my mouse is already USB, I just have an adaptor that lets me plug it into a PS2 port). So, after dinner, Amelia and I went to MicroCenter to buy me a KVM switch and a keyboard.

Right when I walked in, I saw the KVM switches. There were several to choose from, but only the Belkin model allowed me to share my audio as well as everything else, so I picked one up and bought one. I looked around in vain for a keyboard (I'm picky about my keyboards), so we bought the KVM switch (plus a new DVI-VGA adaptor for my Mac mini, as my current one is on the fritz) and went to see if we could find a good keyboard somewhere else. On our drive, something finally occurred to me.

I had bought a Belkin KVM switch before. And I was initially very, very pissed off. You might rightly ask why I was so pissed off. Well, it's because the damned thing didn't come with the frickin' cables that make it useful!!! So, I had to go back out and plunk down extra money for the cables before I could use my purchase. And, as I found out tonight, they're still doing the same damned thing. We checked the box when we reached the next store, and it clearly stated that the cables were sold separately.

Since we were hitting other techish stores, I figured I'd be able to find some cables. In fact, at one of my stops, all I had seen in the KVM department on a previous visit was the KVM model I had just bought, plus cables for it. Of course, they didn't have any in stock tonight, and neither did any of the other stores, so it was back to MicroCenter.

Who also didn't have any cables.

I returned the damned thing, and I'm going to do what I should have in the first place: do my research and buy online. I can say in all honesty that I won't buy another Belkin KVM, I'm done being tricked by them. I'm tempted to completely write them off, but, as luck would have it, I finally found a keyboard which meets my exacting standards, and wouldn't you know who the manufacturer is...

Dammit...

Weekend update

Last weekend 8 women drove to the middle of nowhere Indiana to glue pictures onto paper create priceless family albums. Yep that’s right- Girls Weekend at the OldeGeneva Dairy Scrapbooking Retreat!

While some of us got 80+ pages completed some were more than happy to get 20. It wasn’t about the numbers.

That is unless you count the number of:

• stories told,
• games played,
• songs sung,
• glasses of wine drunk,
• fits of laughter echoing,
• calories from all the yummy food made by the proprietor
• the amount of left over Halloween candy eaten
• and the countless memories made.

Milestone

Woo Hoo! our 100th post!

Road Trip

Woo Hoo- Girl's weekend is finally here. I have been wait for this weekend since July! Tom is off to his own road trip this weekend to see his college roommate and old college friends.

Go Vote...

Yep that's right, tomorrow is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Please exercise your right to vote. Remember if you don't vote you have no right to complain about issues or elected officials. If you want my opinion on who to vote for let me know I am happy to give you my two cents or if you are looking for impartial information check out The League of Women Voters guide.

What?!

I was going through some of the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that Amelia and I have taken with our digicam, and I came across this particularly freakish one. Now, goofy pictures of me are nothing new, I take pride in making Amelia laugh with an odd mug shot or two most times that we empty the camera, but I didn't take this one! Amelia must have been taking a picture of me, and my freakish nature made it come out like so. It's fairly recent, too, as I only have one chin :P

Toasty Again!

Following up on yesterday's post, our furnace is again doing its job! Dennis from Total Comfort Heating & Cooling came by late this morning. Turns out that the problem was a sensor in the furnace was malfunctioning, something that could have been avoided if we'd have had regular maintenance done (oopsie). While he was in there, he performed some additional maintenance which we'd neglected, and gave us a little education along the way. If you're in the Columbus area and need to have your furnace/AC serviced, we'd whole-heartedly recommend Total Comfort Heating & Cooling.

On a somewhat related note, Amelia wants me to plug Angie's List. It's full of user feedback regarding all types of service companies. We've used Angie's List several times now for a variety of reasons, and have found the feedback posted to be very helpful in choosing who we do business with. In fact, it's how we found Total Comfort Heating & Cooling. If Angie's List operates in your area, we'd recommend you give them a try. For us, it's well worth the cost of the service when we need to know who to call to do a job for us.

And now, it's time to find the shorts, t-shirts and take off my boots and get comfy again :)

Brrrrrrr.....

We came home from my sister's this weekend to a cold house. From our limited knowledge, it looks like our furnace is on the fritz. The furnace kicks on, runs for 1-5 seconds, then goes off. We tried a diagnostic that we found somewhere on the internet to determine if it's the furnace or the thermostat (Amelia had the link, I don't), and it appears that the thermostat is OK. Amelia will try to get someone out to look at the furnace tomorrow. Keep yer fingers crossed...

Date Night

Amelia and I went out for our anniversary tonight. For dinner, we went to Mitchell's Fish Market (formerly the Columbus Fish Market), and afterward treated ourselves to The Colin and Brad Show, featuring Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of the American version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" What a riot! They did two-man versions of a lot of the "Whose Line..." sketches, most of which were absolutely hilarious. We haven't laughed so hard in a very long time :)

November 1, 2006

Three years and counting :)

Happy anniversary, Sweetie.

Only One Word Is Needed....

Awwwww...... :)

Amelia and Sid were napping yesterday, so I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures before they woke up. Ain't they cute?

Unstuck

Amelia was out of town yesterday afternoon visiting with a friend up in Mansfield, so I took the opportunity to try, once again, to season our cast iron skillets. You might remember my previous attempt. Well, Amelia's uncle gave me a hint that I wanted to try out, and it seems to have worked! My problem with my previous attempt was the type of fat I was using. I had been using oil rather than shortening when doing the actual seasoning. So, after a trip through the self-cleaning cycle of the oven, I smeared shortening all over a couple of pans and tried again. Last night's dinner, "Kielbasa Surprise", didn't stick, but I rarely have trouble with that. This morning was the real test, the potato flip. It didn't stick! Yay! Thank you, Uncle David.

Hocking Hills: The Bald-Side View

So, before you read my post, go read Amelia's. It's much better than mine. Plus, it has lots of pretty pictures. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait...

You back? OK, then here goes.

As Amelia has already told you, we had a great day tromping around Hocking Hills. The leaves were all very pretty, the walks invigorating, the scenery breathtaking, the wonders of nature awe inspiring. There were so many wonderful memories made during our day in the parks, but one will stand out in my mind.

My wife fell on her ass. It was funny.

We had just explored Old Man's Cave, dropped down to view the lower falls, and then doubled back to the upper falls, and were going to head back to the car to do some caching. At the top of the upper falls, the water is very shallow and fairly slow moving, and there are a few small cascades that people were walking out onto. I started taking pictures, because it was very pretty, and Amelia started walking up the rocks to get into the picture. I got one or two with her there, and then as I was futzing with the camera, she decided to climb one more. I was setting up my shot when I heard a loud "THWAP" and I looked up to see Amelia ass-down, feet-up lying in a shallow pool of water on the rocks. My immediate reaction was concern for the well being of my wife (hence I missed a golden photo-op), but as soon as I realized she was OK, I was struggling to stifle a hellacious fit of the giggles. As we were walking away and I determined that she wasn't going to need medical attention, I burst out laughing. It certainly wasn't the best memory of the trip, but it certainly made the day brighter :)

Hocking Hills

A great midweek/birthday getaway to Hocking Hills in SE Ohio. Thanks Tom for a great time.


Ash Cave:




Upper Falls at Old Man's Cave :




On the way to the Lower Falls @ Old Man's Cave:

Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave

Question of the day

We had snow yesterday. It wasn’t enough to stick to the ground but enough to get the weatherman all excited. This change in the weather prompted me to add an extra blanket on the bed. The cats in true fashion were curious. What is this? What is she doing? Why is she doing this? Now you need to understand our cats, they love to help make a bed. They love to get under the covers while you are trying to straighten them, they move from corner to corner while you are working. They are a "big" help. This brings me to the question of this post. Who has trained whom? The cats taught me to make a bed with them on it or I taught the cat the importance of making hospital corners?

Fall Weekend

What a wonderful weekend. Tom and I spent the most of the weekend geocaching around town. The weather perfect- a great fall weekend. Geocaching is great sport/hobby. If you have, the opportunity- please try it or let us know and we will take you out for the day. Check out what we discovered this weekend on our adventures:

Who knew that just off a major road you could find some great city parks with such pretty scenery.

Thanks for a great weekend Tom.

PS - Finished the weekend off with a birthday dinner for Darrin- Hope you have a happy birthday!

Additional Weirdness from the Couch

Well, since Bec told me I had to, and since Amelia already did, I guess I'm obliged to confess five weird things about me...

1. I hate White Castle burgers. They make me nauseous and give me gas (like you wanted to know that). However, for some reason, I get a craving that can only be satisfied by eating a small handful of those gross little bundles of greasy fat-i-tude. I have no idea why.
2. I can neither play nor sing music from memory. It all stems from forgetting the words to the national anthem in front of 20000 people. As long as I have the words and/or chords in front of me, I'm fine.
3. I talk to myself aloud. Often. It's really the only way I can figure out how I'm doing and what's going on in my life. I try to do it when noone's around, but I'm always worried someone is listening in on me.
4. One of my most regular daydreams is that I'm a superhero. I'm not confessing to my super powers, however. A guy's gotta have his secrets :P
5. I hate wearing shoes. The worst part about winter is that I can't wear my sandals until spring. Of course, I only tolerate sandals because I don't want to step on anything pointy (well, that and my feet would really stink if I didn't wear anything). I walked around barefoot for an entire semester of college.

5 weird things about me...

At Bec's request I am adding my five "weird" facts about me...

1) I don't think it is weird but Tom does. When I buy something I will look at the one on top or in front, but will go to the bottom or back to get the one that I actually purchase. Tom just shakes his head. To me it makes sense. I can check out what I am getting but it isn't the one that everyone else has looked at/touched.

2) I love to sit outside and watching thunderstorms. Yeah I know it isn't "safe" with all that lightning but it it is pretty amazing.

3) I am terrified of deep water (aka anything over 5'7"). However I am fine if I am on a boat or any other flotation device. Odd I know - I guess trust them.

4) I still don't know what I want to be when I "grow up".

5) I am terrible at math. Example- how do I find the answer of 6+7= ? Well most people just have this memorized since 2nd grade. Not me- I have to do my "Amy math" One of the few math facts I know is that 6+6=12 so I go from there and add 1 more so in my head I literally have to do 6+6+1=13. You should see me trying to do percentages- that is a story all on it's own :)

It is your turn Tom...

Left Lane

Caution Rant Alert:

Dear cars in the left lane: You know that due to construction (that has been going on for OVER a year) that the left lane is closed ahead. But I forgot you are special. Since you are special, you don't have to wait in the right lane for 15 minutes while traffic slowly moves along.

Mr. & Mrs. left lane go right ahead- speed down the lane, pass the three warning signs, orange barrels and a HUGE flashing arrow- because you don't have to wait in line - you "deserve" to get in front of everyone. However, please don't cut in front of me... I am still working on my road rage management skills. Thank you.

New Job

I quit my job in May. With Tom's support, I took a break. I jokingly called it "my retirement". It has been a relaxing and reflective summer. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up but I do know that I have a great support system if I ever do discover myself.

Anyway...
I met Tom for lunch yesterday and had an impromptu interview! In my jeans and baggy sweatshirt! Well I am now a part-time admin/Girl Friday for his company. My first day was today- it was such a different experience. I can manage my own time (come in any day I want- leave when I want) so far a positive experience. Now is this "the career" for me? I don't think so but it is a job and one that I can do well and for that, I am thankful.

Thanks for the memories...

To Mom and Dad and the house on 23rd Street:

Thank you for so many memories:

- for the window over the sink- how many dishes were washed and dried while watching squirrels and chipmunks.

- for my "own" room with Peach Chiffon walls

- for the hours of our summers spent playing under the grape vine

- for yummy homemade grape jelly

- for every important picture taken in front of the blue spruce

- for Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter Dinner squeezed around the kitchen table

- for our small "bonfires" to make toasted marshmallows

- the endless games of euchre at family functions

- for the big driveway- perfect for riding our bikes or playing four square

- for the Amaryllis that bloom by the clothesline in August

- for the little garden behind the back porch- cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes

- for great neighbors- we were blessed with an extra set of "grandparents"

- for Alex and Max- two great "adopted" dogs

- for decorating Christmas cookies with flair

- for a time when it was safe to send your kids on their bikes "around the block"

- for a time when it was safe to send your kids out to play and they just needed to be home by dark

- for sitting in the front yard on a summer night with all of the neighbors coming over and shooting the breeze

- for finding 4 leaf clovers in the front yard

- for sitting under afghans made by grandma watching TV on a cold winters night

- for trips to the Open Pantry for ice cream and a newspaper

- for putting baby Jesus on the window sill so he can "arrive" in the nativity manger on Christmas day

- for the assigned seats at the dinner table

- for the little red cup that I used at each meal

- for all the memories - thank you. You were the house of my childhood

- for mom and dad- thank you for a great childhood. I hope you enjoy your new home. Looking forward to making new memories in your new home.

Hockey

Date: September 22
Location: Nationwide Arena overlooking the empty hockey ice
Time: 30 mins before game time

Tom: What are those black things on the ice?
Amy: hockey pucks :)

Lost Time

I'm learning more about my Mac by the minute. Actually, this particular lesson is one I had learned before and had forgotten, so I'm posting here so the next time I forget, I can come here and not spend three hours trying to "fix" my "problem".

You see in the image I've posted how the Documents folder has a thick, black border around it? For three hours this morning, that thick, black border appeared around every selected widget in every native Mac application running. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to turn it off. I even tried to use my favorite search engine to help me, but I couldn't figure out the magic combination of key words which would solve my problem. I tried things like "Mac border," "Mac highlight", "Mac assistive," but I never found anything that made any sense. I even tried reading the help manual (hey, I was desperate), but didn't see anything that looked right.

Know what it ended up being? You long-term Mac people probably already know.

It was the Mac's VoiceOver utility, which I had accidently turned on (Command-F5, for anyone who wants to know). I repeatedly missed finding this in the documentation and in my search results because I couldn't figure out why voice assistance technology would be drawing border boxed around widgets, but there you have it. Mystery solved, and I can go about my day now...

Stuck (Literally)

I've always heard that cast iron, when properly seasoned, is supposed to be nearly non-stick, requiring little in the way of fats when preparing food. If that's the case, then I'm doing something horribly, horribly wrong.

I have three cast iron skillets, and every time I make my potato rosti (what we here call "potato flip"), it sticks no matter which pan I use. I've thought that perhaps my pans weren't well seasoned, so I used my favorite search engine and found several sites with seasoning instructions. One site even recommended blasting off all the accumulated crud by running the cast iron through the self-cleaning cycle of the oven, which I tried over the weekend and then reseasoned. No luck. My potato rosti stuck again this morning. Maybe it's just that potatoes are somewhat sticky when raw (I use russets)? I'm using fats when I cook, so it's not like the pan is dry. Perhaps my pan is too hot? Is that even a possibility with cast iron? Anyone out there in the Interwebnetland have any suggestions?

Gramps

Amelia and I went to see Gramps today. He's really looking pretty good, much better than he has recently. We played a few hands of Skip-Bo with him, and just enjoyed each other's company. One thing that my mom suggested we look for to play with him is Yahtzee. I'm kind of concerned that he wouldn't be able to see the score cards, so we're looking for large-print score pads. We searched online and have so far come up dry. I've e-mailed Hasbro, but if any of our loyal readership have any suggestions where we might find some, we'd appreciate a pointer.

Comic Strip

We saw this Non Sequitur comic a few months ago and clipped it and hung it on our fridge, because it nicely summarizes our relationship. We're posting it for our good friend, Bec. Not trying to insinuate something, just suggesting that you keep the lines of communication open :)

I Learned Something!

These last few weeks have been, in a word, hellish. They've also been educational. Here's what I've learned over the last few weeks:

• Whenver I think things are going well, I need to be physically smacked back to my senses
• Never overestimate the intelligence of a customer
• There is no such thing as a "bug fix that doesn't touch anything else"
• When I'm the person primarily responsible for the quality of a product, I need to be an asshole and not cave into the business

Change of Stress

Well, one phase of stress has ended, and another one begins. Our product officially "released" today, which has no real meaning other than that our customers may now start having it installed. So, that stress is gone. Replacing it, however, is the stress of wondering what kind of horrible bugs they're going to find that I missed....

Holy Crap!

Five posts in one day!

Too Cute

Since I am posting pictures today I have two more to share. Our cute kitties. While we were busy documenting our canning adventure Tom snapped a few of the girls.

Kona:


Sidamo (aka Sid):

Canning Day

Tom and I have a "mini" garden in the flowerbeds around our patio. We have zukes, peppers and tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. We had yummy success last year canning spaghetti sauce so we did it again this year. Once again Tom's secret combination of spices and our homegrown tomatoes made a great sauce. We only had enough tomatoes for 5 1/2 jars today, but I am sure in a few weeks batch two will be in the works.

Starting out -

Peeling and removing the seeds-

The final product-

Thanks...

Flowers for no reason is the best reason of all. Tom sent me flowers earlier this week. We finally got the pictures out of the camera and I can share with you what a great guy he is. Thanks Sweetie!

Familiar Territory

I've been moping and fairly stressed after the dismal rehearsal on Thursday. Today, I decided to do something about it. Amelia and I went to Music-Go-Round to check out some used basses. The sales guy was really helpful and played several different instruments for me (so I wouldn't have to embarass myself). He even gave me a few pointers about holding my bass correctly to avoid problems with carpal tunnel syndrome. I ended up with a used Dean Edge, the same bass I bought years ago when I played for my home church. Aside from being the best sounding of the basses in my price range (very low), it felt familiar in my hands. I still have a long way to go before I'll feel comfortable playing again, but the guitar already feels like an old friend, so that should make the going easier.

A Lesson In Humility

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to volunteer to play bass for a church that Amelia and I have been recently attending. Tonight was my first rehearsal with them.

I sucked. Royally.

I think I may have played worse the very first time I picked up a bass. If so, it wasn't by much. Now, granted, I've never been a good bass player, I've only ever hacked around. But tonight was just awful. I didn't feel on the spot, though, because most people just ignored me. The worst thing is that I know they heard me. The leader gave me the forced smile, "boy, you're doing pretty good for not having played in three years" talk afterward which told me all I needed to know about my playing, as if I needed any confirmation.

Not sure how my self confidence could get any worse at this point, however, so I guess the only way to go at this point is up.

What's So Special?

So any idea what's so special about this picture? Click for a larger image if you're confused. Go ahead, I'll wait...

For those of you who are still confused, I'm running Windows on my Mac mini! You might wonder why this is significant, besides the fact that it's cool. Well, first, duh, it's cool! Second, I need to run both Mac OS and Windows at work, and I can now do both on the same computer at the same time, without rebooting the computer! And third, hey, did I mention it's cool? What this means to me is that I no longer have to tote both my mini and my laptop to work. I can leave my laptop at home, which is good since my laptop weighs nearly 20 lbs once you figure in all the weight of cables, backpack, etc.

For anyone out there interested, the application is called Parallels Desktop and in theory will allow me to run any Intel-based OS on my mini (though I haven't tried anything else yet). The down side is that you still need to own a license for Windows, one does not come with Parallels. But, for what I do, this is really peachy keen.

What?!

Can someone please explain to me what telephone conversations are so gosh darned important that people feel the need to continue talking on their cell phones WHILE THEY'RE USING THE FREAKING BATHROOM!?!?!!!??

Sheesh!

Smart Or Not?

I'm not so sure I did a smart thing today.

Since moving to Columbus, I haven't been in a rush to find a church, for a variety of reasons. Part of my reluctance is that, quite frankly, I was burned out. I had a very busy,very emotionally draining six years before moving, and I was just exhausted and needed a break. Part of my reluctance was that we are typically out of town 2-3 weekends per month, sometimes more, and I didn't want to commit when I wouldn't be around a lot. Part of it is that I still have strong ties to my home church. Part is that I've been lazy.

Well, since this spring, we've been church shopping. I think I've finally settled on one the next town over, now that they've acknowledged our existence and attendance. And, the thing that I'm not sure is so smart is that I introduced myself to the leader of the contemporary music team and asked if I can sit in. I'm sort of excited, because I haven't played with a group in over three years. I'm sort of nervous, because I haven't played with a group in over three years. I'm going to start taking my bass (the acoustic one) at first, but if in talking with them they want to learn some of the music I know, I'll start taking the guitar, too. We'll have to see what happens.

Too Close for Comfort

With Amelia out of town for the day, I was spending the afternoon downstairs in my lair when I heard a loud thud from somewhere above me. I went upstairs to investigate, and saw a red firetruck in the driveway! My first thought was that the house was on fire, because I had been seasoning our cast iron, but there were no flames or smoke that I could see, and I was in the kitchen. So I headed outside, and saw that there were two ladder trucks two doors down from us. Evidently they had an electrical fire that started at the box in the basement and spread through the walls and ceilings. From the front of the house, there are a few broken out windows, but I'm told that the inside is gutted.

Amelia, first thing next week, let's call the power company and have someone check out the frequent power surges we have...

" Honey, Where's my super suit?"

Answer: It is in the closet!

I got a super duper bargain today. I saved $175.20. This wasn't a full suit just a jacket. Gotta love a sale and coupon. Since my retirement this summer, I have been on the look out for an interview suit for my next job. I have decided that I have odd proportions. I can find a suit jacket that fits but then the bottoms are huge and vice versa.
Well today on the clearance rack was a black pinstripe button-down jacket. It was a good quality brand and I only tried it on because it was marked down so much. It fit wonderfully. I can button the buttons without the chest area gapping and still move my arms. YEAH! I have a great black skirt and pair of black dressy pants at home, so I now own an "interview suit" or to quote Frozone a "Super Suit". Bring on the interviews!

PS- Who in their right mind would buy a jacket that costs over $200?

Weird

Someone carelessly left the coffee off the burner here at work, so my pre-lunch cuppa was pretty chilly. "No problemo," thinks I, "I'll just nuke it."

So, I popped my cup of chilly joe in the zapper, set the time and set about contemplating my navel for the 2:25 I thought it would take to make my java nice and toasty. About 2:10 in, I heard this "whumph" noise from the wave, and when I peered in, there was coffee all over the inside and my cup was only half full. My coffee asploded!

Dilemma

I have a bit of a dilemma here, so I'm going to take this space to vent, and hopefully think things through a bit.

Up til now, I've been working my new job without a contract or agreement of any sort. It's been the source of a bit of amusement as I'd regularly pester people at work about the need for one, and there'd always be some reason for not having it. Well, now I'm kinda wishing it had stayed that way.

You see, there are at least two problems with my contract, both of which I've recently discussed with my boss. The first is that there's no provision in the contract for me leaving of my own accord. Usually in these contracts, there's something about the agreement being "at will" and that either party can terminate the contract at any time for any reason. Not so with this contract. There's gory detail about how they can sever the relationship, but nothing about my rights. Of course, there's nothing to explicitly stop me from quitting should I so choose, but I suppose that if my employers wanted to be jerks, they could sue me or something. I'm not overly worried about this point, it's more amusing than anything.

The thing that is frosting my Cheerios, however, is a clause that more or less states that my employer claims the rights to anything I create in the world of computers or computing, regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with my job. Basically, if I were to write a piece of software, they own it, regardless of whether I wrote it as a part of my employment or in my own free time using my own equipment. Now this strikes me as a bit of slavery. Basically they're saying that I don't have free time in which I can do anything I please. Well, I can, but if I do anything that they find interesting, they reserve the right to take it from me. Which sucks, because I do like to noodle around with software, and I've some ideas of things I'd like to write.

When I brought this up to my boss, his response was pretty close to, "tough". He feels that it is my company's right to take my creations, since they're paying my salary. I got him to agree that I can keep any of my recreational pieces as long as they don't pertain to work, but one of the things I'm thinking of writing would be very helpful to someone in my profession in general, and he said that they would take that out of my hands.

So, now I'm stuck. The project I'd really like to work on is out of bounds, probably forever because I'm sure that my next employer will have the same crappy clause in the contract. And as I've been thinking about other things which interest me, it occurs to me that there would be enough things about them that they could become interested in those projects as well, if not in whole, then in part enough to render the remainder of the software useless. How the heck do I get the freedom to work on the projects I'd like to work on without the fear of it all being taken away from me on a whim? Do I just give up and get other hobbies? I'm angry and confused at this point, and I'm not sure when I'll get around to signing my contract at this point.

Gonna Be a Long Day

You know it's going to be a long day when you stand, staring for several minutes at your belt in the middle of the locker room, trying to decide which way is right-side out...

:

:

:

... and still get it inside-out.

You can dance if you want to....

Saturday night was a night out with friends to hear my favorite band play. It is a true sign of your age when you go to listen to music from twenty years ago! However, the place was packed with other 30+ somethings reliving the music of our teenage years. The sad thing is that they start playing at 10:00pm and play until 2:00am and I am too old to stay out that late! I need my sleep (ok I can do it but I do need a nap... hee hee).

Fair Food

... or

Ohioans Will Eat Anything If It's Deep Fried And/Or On a Stick

Yep, my Sweetie and I went to the Ohio State Fair tonight. She's worked at the fair a few days this summer but hadn't really looked around (except for finding her beloved french waffles, of course). I hadn't been since the summer we dated, so we dodged rain drops and headed out.

If you haven't been to a fair recently, well, I'm not kidding about the fair fare. If it's edible, you can find it either deep fried or on a stick. Most usually both. From the traditional corn dogs to the "newer" fads like candy bars, there's almost nothing that hasn't been fattened up. Here are the things I noticed today, in no particular order:

• corn dogs (deep fried on a stick, DFS )
• elephant ears (deep fried only, DFO)
• "texas tenderloin" (stick only, SO, and no, I have no idea what that is)
• candy bars (DFS)
• ice cream (DFS and SO)
• pickles (DFS)
• cheese (DFS)
• zucchini (DFO, yes mom, they had fried zuke, no I didn't have any)
• funnel cake (DFO)
• french waffles (DFO)
• french fries (DFO)
• chicken on a stick (SO)
• fried corn on a cob (DFS)
• "blossomed onion" (DFO)
• deep fried Hostess products (knock-offs included, DFS)
• deep fried cheesecake (DFS)
• deep fried pie (I didn't look at the varieties, DFS)
• deep fried mushrooms (DFO)
• deep fried bananas (DFS)

No, I'm not kidding.

So, in the spirit of the fattening of the Midwest, I offer these suggestions for next year. Vendors, please send me royalty checks for the scads of money you're bound to make:

• deep fried shrimp kebabs (DFS)
• deep fried oatmeal raisin cookies (DFO)
• okra on a stick (SO)
• deep fried peanut butter sammiches (DFO, my homage to The King)
• deep fried butter-on-a-stick(DFS)
• sushi on a stick (SO)
• deep fried salmon nuggets (DFS)
• deep fried lettuce, for the health conscious (DFO)
• deep fried watermelon (DFS)
• deep fried lasagna (DFO)

Gas Company Grumble

I figured if the Tom can vent on this blog so can I, so here it goes:

We received a terse letter from the gas company last month. Basically it said that they attempted several times to contact us on the lack of our gas usage. So we called them and said that we have never been contacted and confirmed that they had the correct phone number. We also scheduled a time for them to come out and look at our meter. Get this- they scheduled a time window of 12pm and 11pm - you guessed it- an eleven hour window with no call ahead option. Lovely.
Well today was the day of their visit. I was all set for them- I had the last few months bills and the stats to show that our gas usage is comparable to the usage from last summer. I was also ready to show them that we paid a huge estimated bill in March and for the last few months we have had a credit since the furnace has been off and the only other gas user in our house is the hot water tank.
As luck would have it they showed up today just after 12:00. They spent all of three minutes at our place. They looked at the meter and said- "yep it's working" and that was it. One rude letter, One upset phone call and One afternoon wasted since nothing was planned all for a "yep". I guess the gas company doesn't believe us when we tell them it was more their fault than ours that they estimated too high in March.
I now know why our gas bill is so high- it took someone to print the letter, someone to answer the phone call, two people in the truck to look at the meter and the gasoline to drive to our house. That is 4 salaries wasted for three minutes tops say- "yep it's working".

I Am a Snob

I am a snob, and I make no apologies.

<rant_mode>

At varying points in my life, I have been somewhat musically inclined. I played violin and trombone growing up, and by time I graduated from high school, I had a fundamental understanding of playing most brass instruments, though I was never very good. I currently play a smidgen of guitar, and I used to play bass (very badly) in a CCM band. But of all my musical talents, my singing ability has always been the best.

I was actually fairly "old" when I learned I could sing (I was 14 the first time I really tried), but it seemed that I had some natural ability. I sang for my church choir and local show choir as a teenager, in college I sang for two school choirs, the school show choir, several churches throughout the years, and I even learned to sing opera. Since college, I've soloed a few times, and continued with church-related musical ventures, including the CCM group mentioned above.

Lest you think that I'm overmuch bragging at this point, let me assure you that I've got my abilities in perspective. In my prime (college and shortly thereafter), I was reasonably good, probably better than average, and I'm well past my prime at this point. But, I can hold a tune in a bucket, I have a pretty agreeable tone, and as long as I'm not stretching too much at the top or bottom of my range, I'm pretty good at keeping on pitch.

"So, Bald Man," you're wondering, "what're you getting at?"

By and large, the people who sing the national anthem at minor league sporting events suck.

There, I said it. So shoot me.

Now, I'm all for people exploring and using their musical talents. Really, I am. I've been known to encourage people to go out on a limb and try soloing. But not at a place where they're going to rain terror down on thousands of unsuspecting victims.

I am, of course, well aware that nerves can affect the overall quality of a performance, especially a vocal performance. The voice wavers and pitch flucuates, particularly during an a capella rendition such as the singing of the national anthem. I'm fairly forgiving of nerves. What I'm not particularly inclined to forgive is those individuals who try (and fail) to emulate their favorite recording artist du jour. I blame Whitney Houston for starting the trend of making a spectacle out of the national anthem, what with the vocal gymnastics and all, but for the love of Pavoratti, why does every Bob, Jane and Chris think they need to try their hand at it? I didn't like it when Whitney did it at the Super Bowl all those years ago, I get positively grumpy when Susie Six Pack does it at my local minor league ball game! Makes me want to stick my head in a fry vat for the duration in order to excape the pain. Not that I could hold my breath that long. Because, the other piece of the Whitney Effect is that the song gets drawn out to painful durations. Most amateur warblers want to drag the song out to operatic lengths. The tune is from a drinking song! It was meant to be a quick diversion between pints, maybe lasting a minute, a minute fifteen, tops! So, we've got Johnny Adenoid nervously yodeling like a wounded llama for two and a half minutes, which is a recipe for disaster in my book.

Not that all the blame can be placed on the vocalist in question. Someone, somewhere within the sports arena's front office is responsible for choosing the people who will sing in front of their team's patrons, and that someone needs to be able to distinguish reasonably good talent from a steaming pile of dreck. Unfortunately, a disturbing number of ear splittingly awful vocalists make their way onto the playing field to unleash musical horrors upon the masses.

So, I make the following requests on behalf of people everywhere with musical sensitivities. If you're a vocalist, keep it simple. The national anthem isn't there for you to showcase your impressive musical prowess. It's presented to show respect for our country. If you're the front office person assigned to review musical applicants, if the demo is longer than 1:30, pitch it. If you have trouble following the tune for all the vocal gymnastics, pitch it.

The music lovers of the country will thank you.

</rant_mode>

Hot

For the record- It is HOT and Humid in our little corner of the world. I am thankful for our AC, ceiling fans, and popcicles :)

Summer Memories

Mom and I made homemade zucchini bread tonight. Wow does the house smell yummy. It sure does bring back happy memories of summers growing up.

Bachelor Days

Amelia is heading out for a few days, so you know what that means.... It's BACHELOR DAYS for this bald guy! Meals of pizza, pork rinds, beer and deep-fried lard! Unwashed dishes all over the house! Dirty clothes hanging from the ceiling fans! Movies of questionable content! Going to bed at 4AM and not getting my lazy butt out of bed until 10PM the next day! Work? Eh, who needs it? Not like Amelia's gonna know any different! She won't have Interwebnet access until she gets home, and by then, it'll be too late!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Sometimes.....

Sometimes it pays to be bald. Today was one of those days that made me want to rip my hair out.

First Harvest

After watering the garden tonight I picked our first tomato of the season. It was a little grape tomato. We also have 3 green peppers, 1 sweet pepper, and 2 zucchini that are ready to be picked. Another sign of summer is that we stopped at the farmers market tonight and got some homegrown corn. Looking forward to a big harvest in the coming months. Stay tune for our adventures in canning!

YAY!

IT'S HERE!

GAH!

Patience really isn't my strong suit.

My new toy is supposed to arrive today. I've been looking out the window for it all morning.

Nope. Patience isn't my strong suit. Still not here...

Visit with Gramps

Today we visited Tom's Gramps in his new digs (aka assisted living). He is much better than when we saw him a few months ago. The trick to the visit is to play Skip-Bo. This is a fun little card game for all ages. Tom was the lucky one today. He won both games.

Trip to Canal Park

An open letter to my beloved Akron Aeros:

To whom it may concern,

One of the great joys of my summer for the last ten years is enjoying Aeros baseball at Canal Park. The Aeros and the teams of the Eastern League provide a glimpse into the future of my favorite pasttime at a reasonable enough price that I can see several games per year. Add to that the fact that Canal Park is one of the most beautiful fields in minor league baseball, and every trip to see my beloved Aeros is a treasured experience, win or lose.

Now, one of the more important pieces of the whole baseball experience is the traditional "eating of the hotdogs". Hotdog consumption is deep seated in the traditions of our national pasttime, and is not something to be taken lightly. There is a correct way to consume the traditional hotdog: 1) slather as much brown mustard (never yellow) as the bun can hold over said hotdog, 2) pile on enough onions to hold the Canadians at bay, 3) eat and blow mustard/onion breath on your wife until she beats you with your own mitt. This is something that my father taught me, and, if I have a son of my own, I'll pass on to him. To my great shock and dismay, however, Canal Park is no longer providing fresh onions for condiments! The blasphemy! The heresy! The... the... ignominy! And to make matters worse, the onions have been replaced by some insipid concoction called Heinz (R) Chopped Onions. Oh, the humanity!

In all seriousness, even though my game got rained out, I enjoyed my trip to Canal Park. I don't get to see the Aeros as often as I used to since I moved to Columbus (against my will, I assure you, and I won't deign to root for the Clippers), but I still fondly follow the progress of my favorite team. Keep up the good work with the park and the team, and bring back the onions!

You'll of course remember my opinion on the subject of baseball food.

Oh yeah, the game itself got rained out. Bummer...

Joining the 21st Century

Coming to my doorstep sometime late this week or early next.... a new toy.

I'm a happy, happy boy :)

Idiot Update

I think I've gotten lucky. No itchies on my head this morning. Of course, the last rash took about a week to fully disclose itself, and I'm still on prednosone which might be muting any inflamation, so it's not a sure bet yet...

I Am An Idiot

Amelia and I were out in the back yard again tonight, finishing up a new bed we'd been working (slowly) on. The same one, you know, where I found poison sumac a few weeks ago. So, taking no chances, even though I didn't see anything even remotely reminiscent of what I'd seen last week, I donned gloves for the duration. After finishing that bed, we went about weeding some other beds around the yard, and there were a few things that did bear a passing resemblence to the itchy stuff. So, I very carefully pulled and immediately bagged everything, making sure that nothing came in contact with skin. We moved off to another bed where I pulled out some ivy, working up quite a sweat. So, I wiped the sweat off my face. With my gloved hand. The gloved hand that might possibly have come in contact with poison sumac.

I took a shower right after coming in, and I scrubbed my pate pretty hard. We'll see tomorrow if I was right about the poison sumac...

Superman Review Part 2

Yep, as noted by Amelia, we went to see Superman Returns last night. As she stated, Brandon Routh was a fine Man of Steel, though I didn't care much for Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor. While I understand that this movie was a sequel of sorts to Christopher Reeve's Superman II, I've been more enamored with the way Luthor was depicted in the WB's animated series, a good guy to the world at large, with his villany more subtle. The movie as a whole was fun, and I definitely am looking forward to a future installment.

Superman Review Part 1

Last night we went to see Superman Returns. Two thumbs up from this humble critic. I think my biggest concern was believing in Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent. My memory of the character was of Christopher Reeve (Yes I am dating myself). Brandon did a fine job and I look forward to another Superman movie in the next few years.

I Learned Something

So, I learned something last week that I haven't yet shared. I learned all about Toxicodendron vernix, also known as Rhus vernix, ALSO known as Poison Sumac. What did I learn about it, you might ask? First off, I learned what it looks like. Second, I learned that it was growing in my back yard. Third, I learned that, unlike other members of the Toxicodendron species, I'm allergic to it. Tuesday evening, I was digging in the garden and pulled up a plant that I didn't recognize. Wednesday morning, I had a rash all over my right wrist and the top of my right hand. Thursday, it had spread to my left wrist and hand, had spread to my right shin, and had deepened on my right hand and wrist. Friday, things were worsening. Saturday, it started appearing at my belt line. By Monday, I couldn't take the itching any more and, while at Conneaut Lake on a family vacation, I ended up going to the emergency room in nearby Meadville (no urgent care facilities nearby) to get things looked at. The overwhelming response from the fine medical professionals was, "Bummer, dude..." Turns out that with as far as it had spread by that point, there was no point in giving me an injection, and no topical ointment they could prescribe was any better than the OTC hydrocortizone stuff I could buy at my local pharmacy. So they gave me a prescription for prednozone, collected my copay (OK, I had to remind them to do that), and sent me on my way.

Today, things are still spreading. The patch around my belt line has wrapped nearly all the way around my back. While the prednozone has made some of the redness go away, I've got more bumps than before. And, best of all, I'm only half way through the episode. The fine medical professionals in Meadville let me know that I could expect this pleasantness to last about two weeks in total. Lovely.

The really sucky thing is that I've given it to Amelia, too. She's really happy, as you can imagine. She's being a champ, though. At least she hasn't tossed me out on my ear yet :P

Pavlov's Cat

We got our two cats from the humane society when they were 9 months old. In our house we feed, them dry cat food. However, I do believe that at one time in their lives they were fed food out of a can. For lunch today, I had a bowl of soup. Campbell’s now has the easy open tab cans. It must sound exactly like a can of cat food opening up. I was in the kitchen all by myself. In a flash two cats come running in and being very vocal on what was for lunch. I find it amazing what they remember.

Neighbors Yard 1, Bald Man Tom 0

Now, we're not the best yard keepers in the world, but our neighbor hasn't done anything with his in at least the amount of time since we've lived here. The big issue is that there's lots of wild stuff growing along and through our fence, and there's one near the front of the fence that we have to keep trimmed back or we can't get out of our back yard.

Today, among other yard tasks, was "Hack Back the Neighbor's Jungle" day. We were going along pretty well, mostly just whacking at stuff that had grown through the chain link, with the occasional "preemptive strike" when it happened. I reached across to pull up a big chunk of stuff, and something in the chunk refused to budge. Deciding that I needed to exert my dominance over said stuff, I pulled with all of my might. My back took a holiday. It was at that point that I realized that the particular "chunk of stuff" included a sapling tree. It wasn't going anywhere.

So, here I sit, taking a dose of pain reliever every few hours. Time to break out the corn bag again, methinks...

Coming This Summer...

Tune in, yo!

Questions, Questions...

I need to learn how to ask questions.

I've come to this conclusion over the last several days, having conversations with various co-workers. I'll ask questions, such as, "what is the default value for this flag supposed to be?" and get a response like, "well, if it looks like a bug, file it." Thanks, how can I do that? I don't know what's supposed to happen, so I can't tell when something is wrong. Or, there was a situation where an intern asked me about what a particular menu item does. Now, the menu item in question appears to me to be from a custom package, but since I'm still learning my way around, I asked the local expert whether or not the package was custom or default. And got a dissertation that had nothing to do with the default-ness of the package.

These aren't isolated instances, either. I'm wondering if it has to do with the training levels of the people with whom I'm interacting. Many of the folk around here have doctorates, and those are the people that most often fail to answer the questions I ask. Devs give me a black-and-white answer to a black-and-white question, or explain to me why a question really isn't black-and-white (I love my Devs). Everyone else assumes that I'm asking a multispectral question and never gets around to actually giving me the info I need. Heaven knows I'm not a black-and-white kind of guy, but this is ridiculous!

Signs of Summer

Tom and I were out working in the garden this evening. We have blossoms on our zucchini, tomatoes and peppers. I am very excited over the zucchini. We tried to grow one two years ago and it died.. this year is looking promising.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago today, on a Thursday no less, I worked for a day out of an office 120 miles from home, just so I could go on a date with My Sweetie. We had met a few weeks earlier, and had e-mailed each other nearly daily in the days leading up to that Thursday, but we were still a little nervous. Four hours, a dinner, ice cream from Graeter's and a loooooong walk later, the nerves were gone, and I knew that I had found the right woman for me.

Thank you for four fun-filled, wonderful years, Sweetie. I love you :)

Parade of Homes 2006

Around these parts, there's an annual event put on by the local Building Industry Association called the Parade of Homes. Amelia and I have gone the last several years, partly to gawk, partly to get ideas for a house that we may never build. This year's event featured 12 houses. Some were nice, some made us wonder, "Who the hell would buy this piece of junk?" Here are a few pictures of homes that piqued our interest.

This was the first home on the route. From the outside, my first thought was, "Hot damn! It's got a turret!" Inside, the "turret" was a two story solarium. It was very, very nice, and appeals to my desire to not just live in a box. However, the rest of the house made me say, "Meh. So what? Nice turret! Any more around here?" Sadly, there were no more turrets, on that house or any other. The rest of the house just had what you'd expect from any other over-priced, oversized house.

This was the interior of the second home on the tour. The home itself is a largish ranch (though not nearly the largest home in the area) that we thought was fairly nice. The master suite was uninspired, and the three other bedrooms were very cramped compared to the other houses (with a very, very narrow hallway connecting them). This picture shows what we both think is the strength of the house. The living room, informal dining, and kitchen are all one large room. It's ideal for entertaining, IMHO. There's also a nice sun room off to the right (in the picture).

The house this little room was in doesn't even bear mentioning. However, we both thought this was a great little room, and would like to figure out how to incorporate this into our own design (when/if the time comes). I think it's called a "butler's closet," sitting between the kitchen and formal dining room. This particular one was set up as a "wine closet," which suits my world just nicely :)

The other really nice feature of this house is the "outdoor kitchen." It's essentially a split-level deck with a grill and fridge on the upper level, and a nice six person table on the lower level. Now, the kitchen part needs some additional thought (possibly a sink, a freezer, a charcoal grill to supplement the gas grill, and a larger gas grill), but it's a great idea, one that I need to keep in mind and convince The Boss that we absolutely must have.

This is the exterior of the house that we both agreed we really liked. It has a really great layout, a lot of garage space, lots of living space, it's a ranch, and the basement (read space for this Bald Guy) is friggin' HUGE!!! The master suite was the best one that we saw, which led out to a balcony that crossed over into the sun room, and had entrances into the main living space. The main living space had a fireplace separating (but not obtrusively so) the living room from the formal dining room/kitchen. The kitchen itself was pretty sweet, but in all it's sweetness, they forgot to design in a friggin' pantry! Of all the things to forget...

Now, this didn't honestly have anything to do with how much I personally liked the house, but the basement had really been tricked out. Coming down the steps into the basement, this is the first thing you see. Yep, that's right. A wall-to-ceiling (about 8' high by 12' wide) wine cellar. SWEET! We have a couple of friends (Piglet and Xabu) with whom we could put this puppy to good use! Additionally, they had created a section which they set up as a pub, complete with bar tables, bar stools, mood lighting and the whole nine yards. Again, lots of ideas...

I suppose that's enough for one post. The rest of the houses didn't really light our fires anyway. But, we had a lot of fun, and got a lot of ideas, which I suppose is what the Parade of Homes is all about.

Pretty Darned Funny!

According to our friend, Piglet, if you Google "thoughts from our couch" (without the quotes), our blog is the first non-paid hit. Pretty funny, no?

I guess it shouldn't be all that surpising, since Blogger is owned/partnered (can't remember which at 2AM) with Google...

Trip to the Library

Review of my last selections:

I FINALLY finished the autobiography by Madeline Albright. 700+ pages long. It was an interesting and educational (gasp) book. I would recommend this one however it is not a "beach read".

I enjoyed "Camel Club" by David Baldacci. It is a very timely fiction book with a post 9/11 terrorist plot. A quick read.

The final book was "The Woman who Waited". I was disappointed with this book. However I have a hard time understanding a book when one phrase is supposed to have 17 layers. I read fiction to enjoy not to analyze. This would be a book that you can find in an English Lit class. Too much symbolism for me.

I checked out two books today:
Fiction: Jeffrey Archer's "False Impression". I am a long time fan of author and picked up the book in the "new release" section for that reason alone.

Biography: Representing the "B's" is "Tony Blair" by Philip Stephens. It is MUCH shorter than the Albright store (500 pages less!). Blair is mentioned frequently in Albright's book so it will be interesting to read about the same timeframe but from a different view.

Cavities...

For the first time in my life, I've got cavities. Four of them, to be exact. This afternoon, I had the first two addressed, both on the teeth on my bottom set in the back of my mouth. Three hours later, my mouth is mostly un-numb, all except my lower lip, which is nowhere near the dental work. Actually, I'm kinda dreading the un-numbing, as I've bit my lip several times during dinner, a couple of times hard enough to draw blood. It's going to be very, very sore in a little while.

Oh yeah, my teeth hurt a bit, too...

Play Ball!

In addition to celebrating our younger nephew’s birthday over weekend, we went and saw his older brother play T-Ball. The game was three “innings” long and what a joy to watch. The enthusiasm of 5 year olds makes you smile. This week our nephew played second base. He did a great job. He has excellent hand and eye coordination and could easily throw the ball from second to first with no problem.

Before we left on Sunday, Uncle Tom was out playing ball with the nephew and a few neighborhood kids. It was so fun to watch Tom out playing with “the boys”. I hope that Tom’s love of the game carries on.

Natural Birth Control

(The will probably earn us a lot of blog-spam, but oh, well...)

Amy and I are in northern Kentucky today, visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and two monst... errr... nephews. The younger one's birthday was last Monday, and we're here to have a party. Nephew #2 turned three. His two's were pretty turbulent, and lived up to the "terrible twos." Well, it looks like things aren't going to be any easier now that he's left his two's behind. My sister has dubbed this phase "the horrible three's" and he's off to an incredible start. I'm sure that he'll turn out fine, just like his big brother is, but honestly, I don't think I could have asked for better birth control than a weekend visit.

Berry Goodness

Aside from baseball, nothing quite says "summer" like strawberries. The really good ones are only around for a few weeks (if that), and you have to get them locally. If they're shipped from too far away, they tend to be underripe or watery, IMHO.

Well, today Amy brought home some strawberries from the local farmers market. Oh, my. I mean, wow! Seriously. Wow! They are SOOOOOOOOO good! They're sweet, juicy, gushing with flavor, they just kind of melt in your mouth. A pure taste of unadulterated bliss.

I love my sweetie :)

sigh..

Today is a cool rainy day. Great day to feel blue. Not much else going on... sorry my life is boring.

Tech Support

From time to time, when Amy and I head back to NE OH, I'm asked to provide tech support for varying family and friends. Being the pseudo-tech-weenie-wannabe-in-training that I am, I'm happy to help. This past weekend involved two separate support calls, both of which were simultaneously edifying and frustrating.

The first call was for my in-laws, and requires a bit of background. When Amy and I first met, she was a dial-up girl using an old Compaq all-in-one computer. It did what she needed: e-mail checker, minor word processing, a game of solitaire here and there. However, when we decided to get hitched, and we found out that I would be moving down with her, the first thing that had to be changed was the computer and her connection. I spruced up one of my computers for her, we got a cable modem, and we've been a high-speed family ever since. At that point, rather than sacrificing the Compaq to the scrap heap, we wiped it out and introduced her mom to the internet and e-mail. Again, it was perfect for her: e-mail checker, mah jongg, a little surfing over a dial up connection. And all was bliss and peace for two and a half years.

A few weeks ago, the sturdy little Compaq started giving indications that it would not be much longer for the world. I happened to luck into a deal for a spanking new Dell that was a definite upgrade from the Compaq, but wasn't needlessly powerful, and didn't break anyones wallet. I purchased it, got it last week, and spent the week loading AV, anti-spyware, OpenOffice, and a few utilities on it in preparation for the swap. Friday night, we made the trip, and my adventure began.

You'd think that MS would make moving from one Windoze computer to another an easy thing. It, in fact, is, so long as you don't want any of your old data. The Compaq didn't have any ethernet connection, nor did it have even a serial port, so a direct connection with the new computer was out of the question. There wasn't a lot of data, so I could send it through e-mail over the 28.8 connection, but I saw that as a last resort. Ah, it has several unused USB ports! I have a thumb drive! I'll use tha... hmmm... Drat. I forgot, Windoze98 doesn't natively support USB thumb drives. Well, OK, I'll download a driver. Crap. Doesn't look like there's a universal driver. At least not according to MS. Well, lets download one and see what happens. Hmmm... it's a zip file. Crap. The Compaq doesn't have an unzip utility. OK, download one of those. 'K, install the unzip utility, open the driver, install, reboot and.... nothing. USB thumb drive is dead as a door knob. Figures. I wrack my brains, but aside from physically removing the hard drive and installing in the Dell, I'm stuck with sending data through e-mail. Sigh...

So, it turns out that I only need to transfer e-mail address book and folders. Mother-in-law uses Outlook Express 5, so I find the export utility in the application and export the address book... WHAT?! What's this mean, the address book is corrupt?! It works fine within OE5, how can it be corrupt? I try a couple more times, I can't even export as a freaking CSV file. 'K, fine. I poke around the file system and find the actual WAB file and copy to the desktop. Now for the mail folders... figures, OE5 doesn't want to export those, either. I can't figure out where they are on the file system, but after a bit of internet searching (all on the blazing 28.8 connection, mind you), I learn where to look, and copy all that data to the desktop as well. Zip, zip zip, and e-mail to myself. Finally, I'm ready to fire up the Dell. Disassemble the Compaq, assemble the Dell, connect to the internet, wait for the file I mailed to myself to download, unzip and try to get things working. First the address book. Try the "right way" first, using Outlook Express 6's import utility. Yep, you guessed it, it claims it's corrupt. I try a few permutations, no dice. Fine. I know where the local WAB is located, copy the old address book into place... Yep, corrupt. The old address book is shot. Fortunately, we found a hard copy of the addresses that someone had mysteriously printed, so Amy offers to re-enter all the old addresses by hand. Now for the old e-mails.... yep, those are corrupt as well. No matter how many permutations and kludges I try, the old e-mails are lost. Fortunately, mother-in-law says she doesn't need the old e-mail anyway, and gives me a beer as a consolation prize.

Next morning, mother-in-law asks, "Did you save my favorites?" Well, no, noone mentioned those. Re-assemble the Compaq, find the bookmarks file, send to self, fire up the Dell, download, install, and... hey, it worked! Woo-hoo! I'm one for three, batting .333. I'd be a star in the major leagues. Too bad this isn't baseball...

Now that you've stopped reading my rambling, we get to my second support call. I provide infrequent support for my friends, Xabu and Piglet. I've helped throughout the years assemble computers, reformat hard drives, I set up their original ethernet network, as well as their current wireless network. This weekend, the task was to finally lock down the wireless. Without going into details, MS and Belkin should both be taken out and shot. Each does rather stupid things that the other isn't expecting, turning a 10 minute job into a 2.5 hour ordeal. Lemme just say that I've boned up on my ASCII to hex conversion, and leave it at that.

But, at the end of the weekend, with both jobs done and all my customers satisfied, I feel pretty good. I'm glad that my meager technical skills are sometimes useful. So tonight, as I sip my port and solve my Sudou puzzles, I'll toast myself to a job reasonably well done. And hope that the next tech support call is easier to handle.

The World's Best Cat Toy

It's not Squeaky Mouse (a mouse with a microchip that chirps whenever the mouse is hit), it's not Feather On a Stick (just what it sounds like). Those are wonderful toys, and they have their place. Nope, there is a better toy out there.

It's a plastic milk ring.

Yep, that's right. The little ring that seals the cap on a gallon (or half gallon) jug o' milk. The things you normally just throw away. Yep, that's the world's best cat toy. It makes noise on a hard surface, it bounces irregularly when whacked, it catches in the carpet. Kona and Sid go absolutely nuts with the darned things. The best thing is that it's free, so long as you like to drink your moo juice.

My Hero

So we finally caved and put the AC on today. All day long I could hear the fan but it sure wasn't getting "cool". Tom came home and found the problem - the outside circuit needed "flipped". Glad he figured it out otherwise we would be calling the repairman.

Random Thoughts

Just a few things to get out of my head so I can sleep tonight :)

Did I say I was done with my former employer? Well, it looks like that observation might have been premature. I got another deposit, though looking at it, they may just be paying out my remaining vacation. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to contact HR about this. Not like I'll actually talk to anyone...

Cool day today with the present employer. One of our employees works with the summer service team at NWMC, and is going with the team to Siberia this summer. He's leaving this weekend, so we threw a pot luck lunch to bid him farewell.

Damon's.... Gooooood.... mmmmmmmmmmm.............

In other news, I've been doing some pre-emptive tech support tonight. We received a new computer we've ordered for Amy's mom, and I've been spending the evening pimping it out. AV, anti-spyware, firewall, plugins, OpenOffice... Good stuff.

Colin Mochrie is one of the funniest human beings on the planet.