Here’s a link especially for wildmouse:
Hershey to acquire Joseph Schmidt Confections Inc.
Oh dear. As Linnaeus said to me, if they’re smart they won’t tamper with J. Schmidt – that’s too good a thing to mess up! I’ll note that in the same article it’s mentioned that Hershey is also acquiring Scharffen-Berger. WTF? Are they out to destroy all good and tasty chocolate in the world?
Submitted without comment: Today’s Speed Bump.
It’s been a pretty good week. We got a new car, and he passed a huge hurdle once we got online registration up and running for MFF. Work has been steady and shows signs of getting even busier, which is not a bad thing.
The one down note was that my dad had to go back into the hospital Wednesday night because they found he was leaking cerebrospinal fluid – about 100-150 cc’s worth. Eek! The whole idea gives me the willies. The good news is that they were able to go in and fix the problem last night (there was a small laceration in the dura, or membrane around the spinal cord) They patched the hole with a surgical cyanoacrylate adhesive. Yep, super glue. Hmm, I wonder where that came from, eh, ladyinthetower? He’ll be in the hospital until Sunday, but I think that’s more to make sure that he stays flat on his back and doesn’t push himself quite as hard as he did initially after the surgery. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated!
Tomorrow afternoon we’re off to the wilds of McHenry County once again to take takaza‘s mother to lunch for her 60th birthday. Sunday we’ll be gadding about Chicago on a top-secret mission! Woo!
Finally, and this is going to come a huge surprise to everyone, I know, but it’s true: Roger Ebert hated Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo. But it sure makes for quite the entertaining review!
{looks at Panera cup in front of him, takes a sip, and makes a face}
Oh yeah, this is why I usually make my own coffee at home. And don’t get me started about this scone…ick.
Midwest FurFest is happy to announce that online registration is now open!
Memberships are $30 until September 30, 2005, and $40 thereafter and at the door.
Sponsorships are only $100. And what do you get with your sponsorship? You get a free T-shirt, a print from our Guests of Honor, a limited-edition commemorative pin, a delicious brunch with our Guests of Honor, and a special surprise gift!
To register, simply point your browser to http://www.furfest.org/regindex.html and follow the link.
For more information about Midwest FurFest, visit our website at http://www.furfest.org
Well, I said I hoped to have a couple of good announcements this week, and here’s the first one:
New wheels for Duncan! Woohoo!
Yes, the 2001 Alero, lemon that it was, finally proved to be just too much aggravation. Takaza has had such good luck with his Element and I enjoyed driving it so much, I figured it would be perfect for my next car. And thus we now have The Box and The Blue Box. Yay!
This weekend was a fun one. Friday evening we opted to stay in and enjoy a nice quiet night. Then on Saturday we met up with roho, genet, skorzy, was1, and Roho’s cousin Lori at BD’s for usual Saturday lunch there (sans Feren, who obviously doesn’t love us 😉 Lunch was delightful, as always. Afterwards we retired to R&G’s place in Antioch, but not before making a stop by Antioch Packing House to pick up a huge sirloin steak and three pounds of hamburger (ground right in front of us). Once at R&G’s,we chatted for a while and generally lolled about in digestive torpor. Eventually we got motivated enough to roll out Cranium Turbo Edition, which we just picked up. The game was a real hoot, with charades, pictionary, trivia, and all sorts of other stuff. The Turbo Edition is a marked improvement in gameplay over the original version, and that made the game that much more enjoyable. After we wrapped things up (Will and I won! W00t!), we made quick trip to the local Jewel for snacks and condiments and such, then it was time for meat on the grill. Arr num num num! Roho was a fine griller, as always, and everything was delicious. Sadly, due to a nasty headache on my part we had to bow out early from the Apples to Apples and rum sampling that followed.
Sunday found us on our way up to Milwaukee for the wedding of aureth and jenwolf. The service was lovely (great job, werellama!) and the meal afterwards was good. It was a nice day and even if it got a little warm in the building we were in (un-air conditioned, ack!) it was nice to see many of our friends there. Afterwards we headed home (with a stop by the store for the week’s groceries) and takaza made some delicious mac and cheese (with BACON! yum!).
And today it’s back to work. Eh. At least with the hot and muggy weather we’re supposed to have all day I know I’m not missing anything by not being outdoors. Looking to the rest of the week, I don’t think we have a lot going on except for taking Dan’s mom to lunch for her birthday on Saturday. I’m hoping to have not one but two exciting announcements in the next few days, though – watch this space!
A couple of things at random…
First off, it is with much relief that I can report that father’s surgery yesterday went well. For those who didn’t know, over the last 4-6 months he’s been having terrible pain in his lower back, to the point where he wasn’t able to walk. It was diagnosed as spinal stenosis, which means that there were bone spurs on his spine that were compressing the spinal cord. Yesterday morning he went in for a decompressive laminectomy and when I talked to him last night (!) he said he had been up walking around and it really seems to have worked. Amazingly, he’ll be out of the hospital this afternoon (barring complications) and then it’s several weeks of convalescence and physical therapy. The prognosis is pretty good, though, and I have really high hopes. I’m hoping to make a weekend visit to Mom and Dad’s in South Carolina the weekend of August 27th – it’s been far too long since I’ve been down there.
Secondly, Dan and I were looking ahead later this month and it looks like the weekend of August 20 is Milwaukee Irishfest! Woohoo! I will definitely be going on Saturday the 20th – anyone interested in joining me? This will be my third year going and if you like Celtic music at all this is THE PLACE to go. The lineup on Saturday includes some of the biggest names in Celtic music: Schooner Fare, Tommy Makem, Danu, Green Fields of America, Cherish the Ladies, Gaelic Storm, Leahy, Seven Nations, Black 47, Young Dubliners, Wolfstone, Liz Carroll, and the list goes on. The only problem is going to try to figure out who to see among the great stuff that’s all scheduled on top of each other!
Finally, I can say that in regards to the event I mentioned last week – we’re going to have some good news in the next few days, I think.
(Wow, am I dating myself with that subject line…)
So, con reports aside, what have we been up to? Well, the past weekend was quite entertaining, really. The fun started on Friday when Takaza and I played hooky from work to meet Mirkowuff and Siegferret at Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mirko and Siegfried experienced some delays getting to the park, unfortunately. We missed the top of the first inning, but once we got seated things were fine. And those were some really great seats! Section 215, Row 2 – about a third of the way up the third base line with a great view of the game. I will freely admit that I am not the world’s best baseball fan – hell, after football season is over, I usually throw away the sports section unread. But I learned that actually being there at the game is far more interesting, and I really had a great time. Mirko and I swapped rounds of (expensive, nasty) beer and Sieg and Dan each got some hot dogs. The game was great, too – a real thriller, with the Cubs pulling it out in the bottom of the ninth. I would actually be willing to catch another game this year, albeit maybe from the cheap seats.
After the game we fought the teeming throngs to get out of the park and onto the El, taking about a half-hour to go a few hundred feet. We eventually made it onto a northbound Red Line train and rode up to DaveQat and Jimcyl‘s place. We hung out there, and were eventually joined by boixboi and perromutt. Perro stuck around to wait for Darkwolph (who was apparently traveling in low orbit, since he got from Lafayette, IN to the north side of Chicago in 90 minutes, on a Friday afternoon) while the rest of us tromped off to Evanston to the Asado Brazilian Grill. We dove into the tasty food and copious quantities of meat, and Perro and Wolphy joined us not too long after. The meal was excellent, and the company grand. We parted ways afterwards and went home and to bed.
On Saturday Dan and I set forth once again to the wilds of downstate Illinois (i.e. south of I-80) towards the Champaign-Urbana metroplex. We arrived at Mirko’s in time to do some birthday shopping, then it was over to Siegfried’s place for a fun night of games with Mirko, Sieg, Lycaos, and Wolftail. We played Malarky (very fun game, though I’m not sure about the scoring system) and Cranium (always fun) and had a great time.
Sunday morning, we met everyone but Lycaos (who was flying out that day) at The House of Lard, aka The Original Pancake House, for breakfast. Yum! Very tasty. I drove home, and on the way back we finished listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have…comments. But I think I’ll wait a bit and think it over some more. Anyway, we arrived home just in time to meet up with Rustitobuck and Linnaeus and strike out for Linnaeus’ birthday party. Paul has documented that well, so I’m going to be lazy and just point to his entry 🙂
And today it was back to the grind, woohoo. Ah well. Now, to figure out what we’re going to do for dinner tonight…
So, do I win the prize for most-delayed con report yet? Probably not, but it is about time that I commit this to LJ. This is going to get long, so I’ll split it over a couple of entries.
For those of you who have yet to slip the surly bonds of over-the-air radio, I present an amusing tidbit: a 60-page PDF of e-mails detailing what Sony was giving/paying to radio stations to play their crap music, as well as a nice sprinkling throughout of what radio stations were on the take (this is part of the $10 million settlement that Sony just paid for Payola).
Link via BoingBoing
Godspeed and good luck. And many thanks and congratulations to all of the good folks who worked so hard on our return to space.
And after long silence, I finally emerge. What’s the occasion? I finally got a computer at my desk at work, which means I can grab the occasional break and write a bit. Does this mean I’ll finally get around to writing my Anthrocon report? You damn betcha. But first, I have to talk about the weekend.
See, Takaza called me on Thursday with the odd request: all weekend plans would be his to make. It’s usually something of a joint effort between us, but I shrugged and said sure. He was quiet about any developments until that night. It turns out that we were going away for the weekend. Not too far away – only Elgin, maybe 30 miles west of Chicago, but that wasn’t the point. Since Anthrocon, we’ve been both been a bit stressed and snappish, and a nice weekend, with no convention duties and no chores around the house, was definitely a good idea. Just the two of us taking some time to reconnect.
After work on Friday, I drove out to Dan’s mom’s house in Wonder Lake. Her computer had gone belly-up and Dan left work early to do some repair work on it. The repairs took longer than expected, and we didn’t leave until 8:30. We headed south on IL 31 and stopped off in Crystal Lake for a tasty dinner at Outback. After dinner we continued southwards and got to the hotel at around 10:30. Now, when Dan originally reserved the room on Priceline, all he knew was that he was getting a room for $60/night at the Holiday Inn Elgin. When he called Thursday night to verify the room, he found out it was a Queen Suite, which is lovely except that that had a queen bed, which doesn’t work for us. So they upgraded us for free to a King Suite. Well, as we checked in, they looked at what rooms were available and went ahead and upgraded us to a Jacuzzi Suite for free. Nice! The room was fabulous – two rooms, really, with a comfy sofa, a two-person whirlpool tub in the bedroom, and a huge bathroom with a roomy shower with two shower heads. We watched a bit of TV, chatted a bit more, then went to sleep.
Saturday morning, I discovered one drawback to the room: the curtains hung to just below the windows but no further, which allowed quite a bit of light in once the sun came up, waking me at around 6:30. I decided to get up around 7, and surfed the net on Dan’s computer for a bit (yay for free Wi-Fi!) then went down to the lobby and got the paper. By that time, Dan was awake and we had a lovely shower then went to get breakfast at Baker Hill. On the way there we saw the Days Inn Elgin, which seems to have really slid towards meeting its nickname of “The Dead Hooker Inn.” After breakfast, we walked around Spring Hill Mall and drove around West Dundee and Carpentersville in a half-hearted search for a place that might rent boats. Failing in our quest (but not too upset about it) we returned to Elgin and wandered a bit until we found ourselves at the Grand Victoria Casino. We wandered through the place and I was amazed at the brutal efficiency with which the place is designed to separate suckers from their money. I even gambled! Well, I put a dollar in a slot machine. I lost. That was fun, or something.
We returned to the hotel and passed the afternoon swimming, chatting about our upcoming shindig in October, and relaxed a bit more. Decadent, I tell you! We were both feeling hungry, so we wandered up to West Dundee to check out a couple of restaurants. The first looked tasty, but a bit pricey and not particularly Dan-friendly. We opted for the second, Emmett’s Tavern because they brew their own beer – always a selling point for me. The dinner was outstanding! I had a nice sampler of five different beers, then followed that with a pint of their Old Dundee Porter, which was just fabulous. It probably didn’t hurt that I was slightly tipsy, but that’s OK. The food was excellent – Dan’s applewood-smoked bacon/white cheddar burger was tasty, and my Boursin burger topped with a portabella mushroom was to die for. We had a great time and I’m really glad we went. After dinner we went back to the room and had some really nice together-time.
I was up again at 7 AM on Sunday, curse my evil internal alarm clock! I surfed the net for a while then Dan finally stirred an hour or so later. We went down to the hotel lobby and opted for the hotel restaurant for breakfast, since the 20%-off coupon we got when we checked in brought the prices down to normal levels. The breakfast was OK, better than the day before, but nowhere approaching the quality of, say, Las Vegas Restaurant in Antioch. After breakfast we relaxed in the room for a while, soaking up every last second of our extended checkout time. Finally, at 1 PM we left the hotel and drove back into the city. The romantic weekend was over, but I’m sure it won’t be our last. I had a lovely time, and I was reminded once again of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband.
Here is my final report for Artists Alley/Con Store at Anthrocon 2005. The short version: We kicked much ass!
Remember that Anthrocon report I promised? Still coming. Eventually. Between trying to get back into the swing of things at work and continuing computer issues, a con report has gone to the back burner. I’ve made copious notes, though, and I’ll be writing something up, probably this weekend. I also still need to put together a final report on Artists Alley, and while it won’t be quite as exhaustive as my annual MFF Registration report (less numbers to play with 🙂 I’ve got a good bit to talk about.
And now, I go make dinner…
Anthrocon was excellent. I will write up a full report (of my experiences and for Artists Alley as well) tomorrow. The flight home had no major mishaps, though our suitcase is now in the dumpster in the alley.
Also: I GOT THE JOB! I start Wednesday. More info on that tomorrow as well. For now: sleep.
Job interview went well. It took all of 20 minutes, which means either they really like me, or they’ve already hired someone and are going through the motions. I’m holding out for the former.
Spent the afternoon making 96 scones. Exhausting. Want to try one? Find me at con. I’ll be easy to find – go to the Artists Alley.
We get up tomorrow at 4:30 AM to take the El to the airport. This means I’m off to bed now. See some of you at the con, otherwise see you on Monday!
I seem to have bad luck with computers and Anthrocon. Last year my Vaio’s display crapped out at Anthrocon; last night the backlight on my Compaq Presario died, leaving the screen extremely dimly lit and the bottom left of the display dim to the point of illegibility. Takaza (who is the best husband in the whole wide world, I’d like to point out) braved the HP/Compaq tech support phone slalom last night and got them to admit that yes, it’s the backlight and yes, it will have to be sent in for repairs. The stupid thing is only six months old, for chrissake! Fortunately, while inconvenient, it’s not crippling for the work I have to do at Anthrocon. Linnaeus has been kind enough to offer the use of his laptop (identical to mine, but one model up) for the con, which will be a godsend. For now, I’m making do with one of Paul’s old monitors he had lying around hooked up to the display output. The laptop will get sent off sometime next week, I expect, once I figure out how to back up everything on it.
In other news, I have a job interview in two hours. Yay! More on that later today…
Wow, a week since a substantial update. Impressive! Well, maybe not. We just survived the exhausting Weekend of Doooom and let me tell you all about it…
I’m running into a bit of a pinch with staffing, so I thought I’d see if anyone in LJ-land would be willing to help…
I need help with Artists Alley Payout at Anthrocon. We’ve got a good number of folks but I need two or three more to really make things run smoothly. What’s involved? Just an hour to an hour and a half of your time on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of Anthrocon, starting at 4:45 PM on Friday, 2:45 PM on Saturday, or 3:45 PM on Sunday. It’s pretty easy work – you’ll just have to do one small thing, like filling out receipt forms or adding up numbers on a calculator. What’s in it for you? Um, my gratitude, and the gratitude of the artists in Artists Alley for having expedited their payment. You can help each day, or only one or two days – any time you can spare would be appreciated! If you’re interested, you can comment here, or e-mail me at duncan at wolfhusky dot org. Thanks!
Good thing: Listening to The Lion King on Broadway soundtrack at Very Loud Volume on the way in to work, with all the windows rolled down and the sunroof open. What a great way to start the day.
Bad thing: Asshats on mailing lists. Let the beatings commence.
Some weekends are too busy…some are too lazy. This one was juuuuust right.
On Saturday I left takaza hugging his pillow and mumbling “G’way!” and struck out for Vernon Hills to join roho, genet, feren, and datahawk for lunch at BD’s. The lamb there is just delicious, and really lends itself to my favorite combination of soy, ginger, and garlic. After lunch Data and I headed back to our place where we bummed around for a bit then took the El down to the Lincoln Park Fest (which, it turns out, was right outside the Zoo. We probably still missed you by an hour or so, Quasi). We were joined by chouette and Ed and saw moryssa as well. Carbon Leaf just flat-out rocked. We were standing front and center in front of the stage and I really enjoyed the 90-minute show. There was a huge crowd of fans and it seemed like everyone knew the words to the songs, which is always cool and must be really gratifying to the band. I took some okay pictures of the show with my cell phone – at least you can make out who’s who.
After the show we repaired to the Golden Nugget at Clark and Diversey. We speculated whether this was the diner that was featured on This American Life (it wasn’t) and had a so-so dinner. At least the company was good. Linnaeus, having freed himself from his familial obligations, joined us to mill about a bit and figure out what to do for dessert, but eventually we just decided we were too tired and headed home. We watched a bit of “I’m Alan Partridge” which strikes me (like “Father Ted”) as one of those Britcoms that I should probably find hilarious but I just, well, don’t. Eh. I dozed a bit while we were watching it and eventually was ordered off to bed.
We puttered around a bit on Sunday, relaxing and watching TV a good part of the morning. Eventually we got motivated and Data and I did some shopping while Dan worked on preparations for Anthrocon. I picked up a dandy charcoal chimney at Home Depot and was able to get a lovely bed of coals going in the grill in about 20 minutes. I cooked up some delicious cheeseburgers (garlic overload! woo!), which we finished just in time for the Midwest FurFest online staff meeting to start. We’ve got a lot of work to get done in a short period time (like, before Anthrocon!), so it’s going to be a challenging week or so ahead. After the meeting we chatted and Dan and I talked out a disagreement that we had, much to Data’s amusement. Finally, laundry was folded and we were off to bed.
And so we’re at a new week. Manpower has been prodded that yes, I would in fact like a new job at the end of the month, thank you. I applied for a couple of positions on Careerbuilder, and got a call from Aerotek Scientific about a 6-12 month contract position in the O’Hare area. At this point, there’s no a question of turning down contract positions in hopes of something permanent – I’m all about the paycheck. We’ll see if I can poke this along to fruition. Additionally, I hope to be meeting with unclevlad sometime this week to work out some Registration issues for MFF. But for now I need to figure out what we’re doing for dinner and get ready to head on home. Whee!
It’s been a roller coaster of a week (and not in a good way!). My employment is still very much in limbo but I’m attacking the problem on several different fronts. I’ve applied to a couple of positions at Hospira, a couple at Abbott, and Manpower is pursuing at least one for me as well. I also sent resumes off to a number of places in the Chicago area. With any luck I’ll see some things come to fruition next week.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking I see some steaks in the immediate future for dinner tonight. As for the weekend, it looks like we’re doing the weekly Lunch at BD’s with the usuals, then we’ll be going to see Carbon Leaf at Lincoln Park Fest. Sunday we don’t have too much planned besides the online MFF staff meeting. I’d like to maybe do some grilling on Sunday, too.
Oh, by the way – here’s a couple of fun links for folks to amuse themselves:
Do you think is a good start but would like to see more? Check out flickrDogs for more fun pics.
This is a short, screamingly funny ad. I won’t say what it’s for because that gives it away, but it’s worth seeing.
If you have a Sirius Satellite Radio subscription and want to listen at your computer but don’t want to use Sirius’ crapass player, check out Siriusly. As a bonus, it can be combined with ConRec (CONtinuous RECorder) to act as a Tivo for Sirius! (Well, for the streams they put over the net, anyway)
Oooh, I get to go home in an hour! Guess I’ll get some work done in the meantime…
…and maybe drink another Monster…
Plans for Anthrocon are continuing apace. We’re flying in on Thursday, July 7, arriving at PHL at about 11 AM. The train geek in me hopes it will be a nice day, not too hot, to we can take the SEPTA train in, but more likely we’ll be taking a shuttle to the hotel. We’ll be flying out on Monday afternoon.
An interesting note about the Wyndham Franklin Plaza: I know that Anthrocon didn’t have a lot of choice in what hotel they got this year, and I know it’s going to be a bit rocky. However, I was doing some research on tripadvisor.com and the reviews of the hotel are, ah, not good. Pretty bad, actually. Essentially, be prepared for an older hotel that, even though it had an update a few years back, clearly needs another one badly. From the reviews, it looks like the housekeeping service is spotty, but at least the customer service is generally good. As for restaurants, Shula’s Steakhouse gets rave reviews on Citysearch, but be prepared to pay $25-35 for a steak there. The Terrace Restaurant, the other restaurant in the hotel, is pretty much what you would expect of a hotel restaurant: breakfast and lunch only, OK food, prices about half again what you might pay elsewhere.
Why do I say all this? I’m not trying to deter anyone from going, or even from staying in the hotel. To be honest, a lot of this is exactly what was seen at the Adam’s Mark over the past few years. And besides, no one goes to Anthrocon to sample the delectable food in the hotel restaurant or to worry about getting their bed turned down every night – they go to see their friends and to have fun at the convention. And the hotel seems more than up to that. I guess what I’m trying to say is know what you’re getting into, and adjust your expectations accordingly. Hey, it’s a short-term solution, and next year will be much better.
The good news is that from what web-research I’ve been able to find, there’s plenty of places within walking distance for food, and if you’re driving then you’re good to go. I highly recommend a trick that we found a few years back at the Adam’s Mark after a long day of working the convention: get a couple of your friends together and order food in. It saves so much hassle and time, and you can spend more time with your friends. I plan to hit the concierge desk early on and grab a couple of delivery menus, if they have any.
Something Good: Your employer sponsoring a lovely cookout on the shores of Lake Michigan on a beautiful, 72-degree cloudless day, with a soda, chips, and a burger or chicken breast or a bratwurst all for only $1.50.
Something Bad: Karaoke at said cookout.
Something Disturbing: Karaoke to a stupidly jingoistic song done really poorly.
Wow, that was a short lunch…
This is worth mentioning. Three original pieces being sold by genet…Auctions are over in a couple hours!
https://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction/search.pl?action=search&querytype=3&query=ldunn
She is the creator of the excellent icon you see here (and more that I’ll show off as soon as I get off my lazy butt and buy more user pictures 🙂
And here we are at Monday again. I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath to hear about my weekend, so who am I to leave you in suspense?
So I went in super-early today (though I do have to admit you can’t beat the traffic at 5:30 in the morning) and that, coupled with a little bit of going in early and staying late this week, allowed me to leave work at 11:30 AM and still have put in 40 hours this week. Yay! I made the long-and-tedious drive from North Chicago down to Bedford Park, near Central and 63rd, in relatively little time and had plenty of time to primp for the interview. The interview itself? Well, it lasted all of 30 minutes. Imagine going into an interview like this:
You: “I have many years of experience at grinding flour, churning butter, and refining sugar.”
Potential Boss: “We need someone who can bake cakes.”
Yeah, that’s about how it went. After we each said our piece we kind of looked at each other and realized that this was pretty damn pointless. I didn’t even finish filling out the application they gave me – he made it clear it wasn’t necessary.
On the bright side, it gave me a reason to leave work early, it only cost me a few bucks in gas, and it gave me time to play Ratchet and Clank relax a bit at home before Takaza and Linnaeus come home from work. I think I’ll read the paper a bit, then start in on making some tasty chicken burritos.
Yes, it’s another round of sneak previews for Serenity. The twist this time? Canadian showings! Well, Toronto and Vancouver, anyway. Sorry, plonq and atara! There’s also some US cities they missed before. Buy your tickets now before they sell out – and they will, quickly!
Things I learned today:
1. Sometime next month (after I leave), my department may start experimenting with “summer hours” – four ten-hour days then a day off, with staff alternating who gets Mondays and who gets Fridays off. Bastards.
2. Never, ever ride in the hobo corner on CTA trains. I don’t have any good stories, but I don’t think I want any, thanks.
3. Soviet imagery + terrornoia = Really Creepy Posters.
4. Moving colored dots are totally rad. (thanks me_not_you!)
5. A month from today, we’ll be at Anthrocon. Good gods, I have so much to get done in the next 30 days!
Hmm. Thunderstorms popping all over – looks like it’ll be a wet drive home. @whee.
Well, that was an unproductive weekend. Not that I’m complaining – not every weekend needs to involve carving Mount Rushmore or something…
I was feeling pretty good when I got home on Friday. I’ve found that the radio stations I listen to on Sirius on the drive home directly affect my mood. I try to stay away from Alt Nation or Octane (what I usually listen to on the drive in) and instead listen to more mellow, melodic stuff. On days where traffic is beyond stupid, my secret weapon is Jam_ON. This is funny because I’ve never particularly cared much for jam-band music (i.e. Grateful Dead, Leftover Salmon, Phish, etc.) but in this particularly situation it’s good to listen to – doesn’t require too much attention, sets a good beat, but not aggressive or pounding. A lot of the stuff they play has folk and bluegrass influences, and I appreciate that.
It’s a big step, but I think it will be a good move for them.
Wow, what a great weekend. We got together with some friends and hung out at a nice hotel over the long weekend. It was really nice to spend the time with folks away from the bustle of conventions, and to just relax. Swimming was great, and the heated pool made up for the less-than-ideal temperatures (as long as you stayed in the water). We tried a bike ride on Saturday that seemed a good idea at the time, but after realizing that the route had a heck of a lot more hills than I was used to dealing with, I had to turn back. It’s a bummer, but it’s obviously something I need to build up to. I will go back and do that loop before the summer’s out, dammit!
Tired now, though. I’m going to nibble on some food and head to bed soon.
Yet another reason that Hollywood sucks and why I haven’t been to a movie theater since November is this quote from the Chicago Tribune’s Kevin Williams on the remake of The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler:
Yet the biggest mistake of this “Yard” is that it all hangs on on Sandler, whose acting is as inept as the rest of this movie, serious dialogue issuing from his dead face like Clutch Cargo doing “Hamlet”
Rating: One star out of a possible four stars
Not much to say right now. Been preparing all week for some fun stuff going on this weekend. I came in at 6 AM this morning so my butt is out of here between 2:30 and 2:45, woo!
In lieu of actual content, I give you: The Guinnessicle! It’s Guinness…on a stick!
** Edit – the site has been BoingBoing’ed. Ah well – you can see a picture of the finished product on BoingBoing’s site. **
