I have the tickets in hand now… 2-seat row outbound, 2-seat row inbound. Life is very good.
We are going to hawaii in December for Christmas. Three years ago we spent Christmas by ourselves after having travelled to see my family at Thanksgiving, and my wife’s mother the weekend before Christmas. Michele was sick with pneumonia from Christmas until late january, and didn’t fully recover until months later.
The following year, the holidays were spent with my family. This past year we went to Tampa to see Michele’s old stomping grounds.
This coming year Christmas is for us and us alone. I’m sure that we’ll see some of my family (as then all live within an hour’s drive) before going. But the main thrust of the season this year is on us.
Jingle Bells
We had a fabulous weekend. Friday evening we had pizza from Papa Murphy’s ~ they build it and you bake it. This way it is hot and fresh no matter what. Plus their pizza is good.
Saturday we had lunch with my mom, a belated mother’s day lunch. It was most enjoyable: good food, good company, and a pleasant visit. That evening we decided to take in a movie. We rarely go to the movies on a weekend night as that is when everyone goes and it is just too much hassle. However, we wanted to see Gosford Park, which was playing at the local second run theater. So we went and had a wonderful time. Excellent movie.
Sunday we had a lazy morning followed by a lunch out at Lone Star. We hadn’t been there for a while so it was very good. In the afternoon I went to see Spider-man. It was good, predictable in all aspects; the action scenes were well done. I must admit that I thought the Gobblin’s mask could have been much better.
After getting home I cleaned the pool and we had a two hour swim. The air temperature was only 65 or so, but the water was a comfortable 88~90 degrees. Michele must have gotten chilled towards the end as she became hypothermic almost immediately upon getting out. She has had trouble with this several times now that she is entering menopause. She was still cold and feeling puny when we went to bed several hours later. We are going to have to be more careful about swimming when there is that big a difference between the air and water temperatures.
I am sitting in carousel at the local Audi dealer writing for my car to complete its 15K service visit.
I use the term service euphemistically as this is not pleasant.
There are two places to sit here ~ in the room with the TV or in the room with the loud obnoxious music on. Furthermore, when I arrived here I was lectured by the twerp doing my vehicle check in.
When I bought the car I was told it had a service indication system that would notify me when it required service. So I waited until the computer display in the car said it was less than 500 miles from its next service point to bring the car in. The service receptionist chastised me because I hadn’t brought the car in for its 10K checkup. WHen I explained that the display hadn’t come on he said to ignore the display and bring the car in every 10K regardless.
Why put a system into car if you aren’t going to use it? This makes no sense to me at all. I can imagine that there was considerable time, money and effort put into the development and deployment of the diagnostic system in my Audi TT. Imagine the chagrin at Audi HQ if they knew a $7.50/hour high school graduate was circumventing the whole system.
I have to pay in order to park at work. 480 bucks a year, or roughly $2 per day. It isn’t much when you consider that the lot is close (less than a block away) and I always have a space.
That is unless the bozos across the street from the lot park there. Three times now in less than 2 months these morons have parked in my space. The first time I managed to attract their attention through an open window and they grudgingly moved their car. The last two times I’ve simply called the lot owner and he gives me a free space elsewhere in the lot for the day and has the offending car towed.
These cow-heads have been towed twice now in less than a month.
Stupid.
We have two house cats, Abby and Nekko. Some time ago we started giving them a small portion of canned salon each day to augment their dry food diet. Needless to say, the fish is a big hit.
Originally the salmon was put down around noon. Over time however the two of them have learned that pestering the staff (me and my wife) will get them their salmon fix earlier in the day.
How early? Try 5:15 am today. Abby comes in and stands on me, scolding me with her piteous cries and whapping any exposed part of my face and head with her paw. She is relentless as only a properly spoiled house cat can be.
I know that I am bigger, stronger, and I that have an opposable thumb; still I am at the beck and paw of this little 8 pound bundle of fur and attitude.
Four years of college, 20 years of work experience, head of my own company, and house-boy to two cats.
I want one of these. The power of Unix and the sophistication of a world class UI. Gimme.
Contact me here for shipping directions: mark@zanshin.net
I am typing this on my new Palm Portable keyboard. This folding device requires no power, no cabling, and very little space. My m515 plugs in quickly and easily and I am able to capture my thoughts at a moments notice.
It is most excellent. My hope is that this will help keep the content here fresh and lively. So many times in the past I have had thoughts that I wanted to capture, but writing them down wasn’t convenient. Not any more.
Some times you just gotta love technology.
Of course the flip side to this is the frustration when technology doesn’t work or breaks. The cradle for my Palm stopped working after only a couple weeks. I was forced to go by and new serial cradle and install it. That process was hampered by some incorrect settings on the desktop component of the software. Still, I’d rather have the technology and struggle with it occasionally, than not have it at all.
Call me a geek.
My brother and I have a strained relationship at best. He and his family do a lot with my parents without ever inviting my wife and I to attend. on the surface this may seem like a small thing, but in actuality it is getting to be a bigger issue. most recently they setup a day with my Mom for Mother’s Day and didn’t invite us to attend. Prior to that they ignored my 41st birthday altogether.
The telling event in this non-relationship is coming in June. Chris and Lisa are expecting the second child of their marriage and the 5th of their combined family. We were not invited to the shower (we were for the first baby of this marriage) and we haven’t gotten any “baby updates.” Granted we aren’t calling them, but at this point I am tired of always being the one who puts aside his feelings and needs and acquiesces to the needs of my brother.
A relationship is supposed to work both ways ~ I give sometimes and you give sometimes. If one side is always giving and never getting then it isn’t a relationship as much as it is painful.
Right now this is painful. If we don’t get a call/letter/e-mail directly from them about the birth of the new baby then I will know for certain where he puts this relationship and how he values it.
Stay tuned…
Quick how big is that? If you are from my generation you studied the metric system while in grade school. Days, weeks even were spent on complex conversion formulas all in a futile effort to move the United States to the same measurement system most of the rest of the world uses. Like so many grand social experiments, this one failed.
Still, we run into things that are metric in our lives. I know a few equivalents between US Standard and metric. One is that there are 24 MM to an inch. So 12 MM x 10 MM is roughly 1/2 inch in size both ways. Not terribly big as things go. Maybe the size of a lima bean. Small, then, insignificant.
Insignificant, that is until it is a “mass” in the cerebellum of a human brain. Today I got an e-mail from a very dear friend stating that the source of his migraines had been discovered. A 12 MM x 10 MM mass located in their cerebellum. The prognosis, while still early, is good. My friend is fortunate that it was discovered, and that one of the second opinions is coming from the world’s expert in these things.
Metric or English a lima bean isn’t really that big. The context is the real measure of size. When it is on your plate it isn’t very large. When it is inside one of your best friend’s skulls, suddenly it looms large, almost to terrifying proportions.