Live from the streets of New York City, protest coverage from the protestors. Live Blog at Razorwire, and PDX IMC radio live from Portland. Fascinating to listen to, and worrisome. I hope everything stays peaceful.

Oh yeah. That’s why I don’t make my own pie crusts.

Well, after a check this morning to make sure that Zenwolph is OK and not needing any immediate assistance (for those of you that missed it, his apartment flooded on Monday. They’re doing OK, just facing a hectic few days. He’ll be at MFM with lots of stories to tell 🙂 I puttered around the house a bit and took care of some MFF stuff like getting confirmation postcards dispatched, then ran some errands. And now in my continuing effort to keep busy and not stare at the phone waiting for it to ring, I’m making a nice apple cobbler with a flaky pastry crust (shhh, don’t tell takaza – it’s a surprise!). This is the first time I’ve tried to make pie crust from scratch, so it’ll be interesting to see how well this works.

I did put in a call on the Abbott position that I interviewed for last week; about all they can tell me is that they’re still interviewing for the position, which isn’t bad. It just means that they haven’t made a decision yet. Still hoping to hear from Corn Products on another interview with them.

Have I mentioned I hate waiting?

Geekiest. Protest. Sign. Ever.

I love it!

Link via BoingBoing.

So, after Friday’s awful drive home from Chicago (2.5 hours of sleep + 14 hour drive = BAD!) the last thing I wanted to do was jump int he car and drive some more. But drive I did, departing Sunday afternoon for Gastonia, North Carolina (conveniently located about 20 miles west of Charlotte). I spent the night in a Courtyard By Marriott which, though relatively undistinguished, at least had high-speed broadband in the hotel room.

This morning I woke up at 6 AM, cleaned the grease stains out of my dress shirt (well, maybe that’s why those cleaners were so cheap…), re-ironed my dress shirt, put on the rest of my suit and packed everything else into the car. I was at Noveon at 8:50 AM. The interview there seemed to go well – I had answers for all the questions they asked, my lack of experience in their specific technology didn’t seem to be a probolem, and I seemed to get along reasonably well with my potential bosses. I should know if they are interested in me by the end of next week, or so.

More to talk about, but I’m too tired. Maybe tomorrow.

Home. Exhausted. Eat, then bed.

Well, it looks like my time in Chicago has come to an end, at least for now.

Yesterday was quite busy, surprisingly. In spite of the intermittent downpours, I drove out to take a look at recumbent bikes (yes, it’s all xydexx‘s fault). Regular bicycles just tear my knees up, but I could use the recumbents at the gym without too many problems, so that seems the better way to go. I did a little online research and determined that the closest vendor to carry them is Kozy Cyclery, over on Halstead north of Addison. I drove over there (forgetting there was a Cubs home game – whee!) and took a walk through. The only recumbent they had on the floor was a very nice Cannondale model. It looks very comfortable, but I’m not quite sure I’m ready to drop $1,800 on bicycle. There’s another place down on North just west of the Kennedy, but I opted to skip that lest I have to fight traffic on the way home.

When I got back to Linnaeus‘ place, I was startled to see his car parked in front (this at about 3 PM). I was fearing the worst for why he was home early (given recent past experiences), but fortunately (well, sort of) he just came home early to avoid the onset of a migraine. After a nice nap he was much better, so we walked over to Lincoln Square. We hit some of the cool stores there and ogled the restaurants, then hit a nice wine shop I had noticed earlier. We looked around and I was really taken with their nice selection of small-run liquors – calvados, poire william, Scottish grain/potato vodkas, and a truly fascinating gin. While I was admiring the gin, the owner pulled out a bottle of it and poured a small glass of it for us to taste. Now, I’m not that much of a gin fan, but this stuff was fine! Linnaeus liked it so much he bought a bottle of it. Yum!

After we got back, we jumped into the car and headed over to the palatial apartment of daveqat, jimcyl, boixboi, and perro. We were joined by deccawolf, a recent Chicago transplant and very nice fellow, and headed out for some barbecue up in Evanston. The dinner conversation was lively and entertaining, and I had a really good time. I definitely hope to see more of those folks when we’re back up in Chicago!

Today I’m hanging around in a mildly sweaty apartment, waiting for the HVAC repair guy to come fix the underperforming A/C here. I’m hoping it will be a quick (and cheap!) fix; he was here earlier and had to go back to his shop for a ladder, so he’ll be back in about an hour. After that, I’ll be making a run to the store for dinner provisions, then (hopefully, her back being up to it), datahawk will join us for a tasty dinner of Linnaeus’ beef stroganoff tonight. Then it’s a relatively early bedtime since I need to get up godwaful early tomorrow to drive to North Carolina.

So, social gadding aside, where do we stand?
Takaza‘s position that he interviewed for in Mount Prospect – no word yet, voice mail left with potential boss but no reply received. Not a good sign, and we’re looking ahead to other possible positions with Siemens.
My interviews:
Abbott – Still waiting to hear back – hopefully by the end of next week.
Corn Products – Still waiting to hear if they want me to come in for a face-to-face interview.
Noveon – Interview with them on Monday in Gastonia.

So what happens after Monday? I’m not really sure. A lot of it depends on what I hear from Abbott and Corn Products. I could be back as early as Wednesday, or I may stay in NC for a little longer, working on packing our stuff up there in preparation for moving. Many, many, many thanks to Linnaeus for being such a gracious host for these three weeks that I’ve been in Chicago, and for his offer of future lodgings. Absolutely no slight intended to Feren‘s fine hospitality, but this is closer to a lot of the places I’m interviewing, and that helps a lot.

And now it’s off to see if there’s some lunch to be found…

So today I had two interviews. Yay! And I learned that I didn’t get a job. Boo! Oh well.

First, the bad news. I didn’t get the job I interviewed for back on August 10. That’s not a big surprise – I don’t think I was a good fit.

This morning’s interview was at Abbott Laboratories, this time at their North Chicago facility. The position would involve calculating, documenting and reporting on pressure relief systems in manufacturing. I like it because it’s good, core chemical engineering stuff, and it’s always good to have a refresher in the basics. Plus, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of similar jobs out there, which is a good sign of what possibilities might be available after I have experience. Even better: the person currently in this position is being hired by Abbott after being there a year. I should know the results from this by the end of next week.

I was supposed to have a phone interview with Corn Products in Bedford Park, IL at 1:30 PM. They didn’t actually call until about 4:30, but that’s cool – I’m just happy they called. Again, this is a good, fundamental process engineering position. The interviewer seemed impressed with my credentials. I should hear back sometime within the next week or two if they want me to come in for a face to face interview.

In between the two, I stopped over at Manpower of Gurnee and chatted with the recruiter I’ve been working with there. I figured it’s always nice to have a face to put with a name, and hell, I was wearing a suit, so I might as well show it off 🙂 From there, I called Takaza and chatted a bit. I remembered that datahawk had injured her back the day before. Dan called her at home (since she had called in sick to work) and we had a quick conference call. She hadn’t seen a doctor yet, so we convinced (i.e. ordered) her to see one. Since she didn’t have a car, I drove over and picked her up and took her to a nearby urgent care place. After that it was over to Walgreens (Flexoril + Tylenol 3 = wheeeeeee!) and lunch at Culvers. I dropped Data off at her place and then it was time for the long slog back into the city. Two hours later (granted, with a half-hour of that parked in Skokie doing a phone interview), I’m back at Linnaeus‘.

Plans for tonight? Maybe bottle some beer. Hmm, maybe hit a restaurant in the area, too – we’ll see.

Wow. You leave things sit for a week and you sure have a lot to write up…

Happy birthday to the meanest, nastiest guy I know – and that’s a compliment!
Have a good one, feren, and drink some gin for me!

EDIT: It’s not out yet, otherwise I would have picked him up what would be sure to be the perfect gift, too!

Well, that was interesting.

I had an interview this morning at Abbott Labs this morning. It was with the diagnostics division, apparently, but I’m still not exactly clear what the job entails. It seems to involve a lot of tracking documentation of stuff that goes into manufacturing medical devices, and some possible lab work, though that was a bit vague. From what they described, though, it sounded interesting. The big question is, are they going to be able to look at my resume and say, “Hey, this guy has all the skills necessary for this job,” or are the going to look at it and say, “This guy makes glue. Next!” I got the impression that it is essentially a contract-to-hire position, but I still have no idea what the pay rate is. They’re still interviewing, and hope to have a decision by the end of the month. In the meantime, I keep looking…

Greetings from the Green Street Coffeehouse in lovely downtown Champaign, IL! Yesterday’s fourteen and a half hours of driving was nicely uneventful, aside from the hour-long detour to pick up some stuff for a friend. Not a lot to report at the moment, really. I’ll be heading out to grab an early lunch soon, then it’s off to Chicago where I’ll meet up with Linnaeus tonight and crash at his place. The job interview is tomorrow, and hopefully that will go well. We got some encouraging news on Takaza‘s potential job transfer, so that really makes me feel pretty good about how things are going in general.

Well, more news as it becomes available!

OK, I’ve finally gotten everything confirmed (or as confirmed as I can with this recruiter – grrr). So here’s my itinerary over the next week or so:
Sunday, 8/8 – Drive from NC to Urbana, IL, with a stop in Asheville to ferry some belongings northwards. Spend the night at mirkowuff‘s. (Mirko, because of the detour, I probably won’t be in until 9 PM at the earliest. If things run later, I’ll give you a call.)
Monday – Drive up to Chicago. Settle in for the next few days at Linnaeus‘ groovy pad.
Tuesday – Interview at Abbott at 10 AM. Scour the area to try to set up more interviews.
Wednesday – Thursday – Do whatever possible to get a damn job (maybe help Daveqat and Syn move on Thursday)
Thursday night – Pick up takaza at O’Hare.
Friday – Meet with folks on FurFest-related stuff. Do bachelor-party-esque things for Giles.
Saturday – Giles and Beth‘s wedding.
Sunday – Midwest FurFest staff meeting.
Monday – Friday – More job hunting. Dinners with friends. Maybe start work (Optimistic much?).

If anyone needs to reach me, my net connectivity will be spotty but usually I’ll be able to get e-mail at least once a day. My cell phone always works. And hey, thanks to some of the discussion in Loxley‘s journal, I now have Skype; my username there is duncanhusky. (I won’t always have a mic handy, so you may want to IM me first if you want to talk that way)

Check out this video for Rockwell Automation’s new Retro-Encabulator! (WMV video)

(This is a beautiful thing – it starts out plausible and then – oh my. I was laughing till I cried.)

Kinda random and scattered this morning.

I have now proved that I watch too much Good Eats, having made some tasty chocolate chip cookies yesterday, as well as bread and butter pickles and pickled summer fruit. I’m much intrigued by the latter recipe and I look forward to seeing how it tastes. Heck, maybe I’ll bring ’em up to Chicago with me.

Had a nice night last night, with Donald and Janelle coming over to watch the latest Queer Eye and Amazing Race episodes with us. Also, I got a surprising phone call: I have a job interview at Abbott on Tuesday. Yay! Not sure which division it’s with, but I should have more info today when they confirm the interview time. Once I have that, I’ll let folks know what my itinerary will be.

A couple of interesting links to start the day:
If you use Firefox, first off there’s a security update out – time to go upgrade to 0.9.3. Second, I’ve looked over all of the extensions available, and I have to say my favorite by far is AdBlock. It lets you filter images (and Flash animations!) by domain or directory. I’ve used it to filter out stuff from the usual offenders (DoubleClick, Burstnet, Advertising.com), and I’ve found a really nice use for it: I can kill images from Quizilla, which makes skipping all those dumbass memes so much easier.

I notice that right-wingnut Alan Keyes has been chosen as the Republican candidate to face Barack Obama in Illinois. Just lovely. Be sure to check out Keyes’ lovely take on gays in American society. Oh, and an aside to 71% of Missouri voters in Tuesday’s state constitutional amendment vote: fuck you. See, what people are missing is that civil rights are not the purview of the electorate. If desegregating the schools had been up to the voters in the 1950’s, we’d still have separate water fountains for “Whites” and “Coloreds.” I don’t give a damn what Joe Sixpack thinks about my relationship with my husband, I expect the rights that are due to me by the United States Constitution. “Equal protection under the law” is not just a cute idea, y’know?

Well, it appears that there is indeed interest in Cooks Illustrated’s recipe for oven fries so here’s the recipe. Oh, and hi, Kat! Nice to meet you. Rob’s a good, upstanding guy – a fine catch! 😉

These were just delicious. The total time for prep and cooking is about an hour, but I think you’ll find it’s worth the effort! The foil allows the potatoes to briefly steam as they start cooking, and is the key to have a soft, creamy consistency on the interior of the fries.

3 russet potatoes (about 8 ounces each), peeled, each potato cut lengthwise into 10 or 12 evenly-sized wedges
5 Tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
Salt and ground black pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position; heat oven to 475 degrees F.
2. Place potatoes in a large bowl and cover with hot tap water. Soak for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, coat an 18 by 12 inch heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with 4 Tablespoons of oil and sprinkle evenly with 3/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper. Set aside.
4. Drain the potatoes. Spread the potatoes out on a triple layer of paper towels and thoroughly pat dry with additional paper towels.
5. Rinse and wipe out the now-empty bowl; return the potatoes to the bowl and toss with the remaining tablespoon of oil.
6. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 5 minutes.
7. Remove the foil, and continue to bake until the bottoms of the potatoes are spotty golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after 10 minutes.
8. Using a metal spatula and tongs, scrape to loosen potatoes from the pan, then flip each wedge, keeping potatoes in a single layer.
9. Continue baking until the fries are golden and crisp, 5 to 15 minutes longer, rotating pan as needed if fries are browning unevenly.
10. Transfer the fries to a second baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain. Season with additional salt and pepper and serve.

Notes: Take care to cut the potatoes into evenly-sized wedges so that all the pieces cook at about the same rate. A heavy-duty baking sheet is recommended for this recipe since lighter once will warp in the intense heat. Also, the fries brown better on the heavier weight sheet. I purchased some nice, heavy-duty half-sheet baking pans from my local restaurant supply store for about $5 apiece and they’ve proven to be a fantastic purchase.

Not much to report from the weekend. Things were generally quiet, and that wasn’t a bad thing. On Saturday we hung out and kept meaning to get out to the aforementioned computer show, but gave up when it became too late. I was hoping to head out and do something in the evening, so Dan decided that we were going to Xios for dinner. Yummy! I really enjoyed their moussaka. Afterwards we went to a new pool/darts place that was quite nice – not too smoky, nice equipment, and not too loud either.

After a couple of games of darts and a few rounds of pool (good gods, do I suck at pool), we were pretty much done. I wish that I could say I was rarin’ to go rushing out and dance the night away or some such, but the sad thing is that it was 9 PM, and I was getting tired and was ready to go home. Man, that sucks. Dan suggested we stop by Blockbuster to rent a movie, and I was reminded yet again of why we never go there anymore and don’t even have a membership – crappy movies, assloads of the crappiest movies and one or two copies of movies I might actually want to see, annoying, ignorant people, and rugrats running unfettered throughout the place. Although we found a couple of likely candidates, in the end we elected just to leave.

On Sunday we really meant to get out to the computer show, but just never found the drive to go. We spent the day instead working on Midwest FurFest stuff, working on website stuff, sending nagging e-mails, etc. We watched the first episode of the Denis Leary show on FX, Rescue Me. We were extremely impressed, and we immediately added a season pass for it onto our Tivo. I highly recommend this show, although it is pretty intense viewing. (A funny thing that I noticed – really, with the exception of saying f*ck and showing skin, there’s pretty much no difference between shows on FX and stuff on HBO or Showtime).

For dinner we made cheeseburgers and oven fries. Cooks Illustrated had a fantastic recipe for oven fries and they came out wonderfully – soft and creamy in the middle crisp and tasty on the outside. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested. Anyway, after dinner we worked on con stuff a bit more, watched some Tivo, then went off to bed a bit early.

Today hasn’t been nearly as productive as I would have liked. There was a chance that I might have an interview in Chicago on Wednesday, but that didn’t come to pass. I will definitely be up there next week, one way or another. With Dan applying to positions up there, I’m thinking that in the absence of movement on some other nibbles I’ve had, I’m planning on not leaving Chicago until I have a job nailed down, at whatever pay rate I can get. We’ve been getting a pounding from heavy rain with thunderstorm after thunderstorm courtesy of Tropical Storm Alex, and that’s been bringing me down a bit too. Ah well – just have to keep on trying.

Break out the balloons and silly hats! Today is the day that we celebrate the birthday of a dear friend, someone who I count as family, someone who can wear a hat and drive a car with the best of them, and (yes, Dali) someone who is a major hottie!

Happy birthday, Linnaeus!

Well, getting the laptops into shape is taking longer than anticipated. I had forgotten how much of an adventure in pain setting up networking in Windows 95 could be. So far it looks like I’ve got a couple of Dell Latitudes, a P150 and a P166, both running Win95. Next up is a couple of Digital laptops that have Win98 – maybe that will be easier (ha!). Of the six laptops we have here, takaza tells me that four of them should actually be in working order (the one with the shattered screen is definitely out). Mmm, I love sorting through hand-me-downs.

It looks like there was very little interest in the football pool that I proposed. Linnaeus and cuttercoon mentioned off-LJ that they might be interested, so that would give me four people (including Dan and myself). I’d need a few more folks to make a go of it – if you’re interested, let me know by LJ/ICQ/AIM/e-mail (how quaint) and I’ll figure out if this is something worth pursuing.

Nifty link of the day: One Million Free and Legal Music Tracks! Someone is setting up a list of links to free music all over the net. I’m only just getting started on it, and I’m really liking a lot of the music I’m finding on SoundClick. It’s similar to the late, lamented mp3.com, with lots of unsigned and unknown bands. I’ve only investigated the Acoustic and World sections, but I really, really like what I’ve found (the stuff on the World Fusion chart is great!). The quality of the performances varies a bit, but the one thing that impresses me is that the sound quality of all of the recordings has been excellent. I need to investigate how they handle playlists (probably with their My.SoundClick thingy).

Looks like a pretty quiet weekend ahead, which is cool. I need to figure out how I’m going to cook this huge pork roast that seems to have finally defrosted in the refrigerator. Yay for leftovers!

By the way: a couple of times this week, we’ve gotten some late phone calls. No one has woken us up or anything, and there’s certainly no hard feelings. For future reference, though, unless you check with us online first by AIM, ICQ, or FurryMuck, assume that any time after 9 PM Eastern Time is too late to call.

I’m a bad boy. I haven’t been following the orgy of self-congratulation going on in Boston that closely, though I will admit to keeping up with events through weblogs. The newest addition to my blog roster is John Aravosis’ AMERICAblog. He’s helping out with the Sirius OutQ coverage from the DNC, so that provides an additional bit of interest. It’s amusing to see pictures of OutQ’s posh broadcasting facilities at the Fleet Center.

Meanwhile: we had a lovely dinner with tervicz last night at the Mad Hatter. We’ve been remiss in meeting Vish all the years we’ve been down here and it’s nice to know another friendly face in the area. We’ll definitely have to get together again soon, maybe to hit the new Greek place down here in Apex.

Got a surprise phone call last night that could mean a couple of trips out to Asheville next week. Depending on the timing, I may look into spending the night at my parents’ place, which is only 90 minutes from there (Mom, Dad: Surprise! Just when you thought you were going to get some peace and quiet…) I’ll be in touch with the relevant folks as soon as I know more.

Speaking of driving and other fun stuff, I’ll probably be driving up to Chicago sometime the week of August 9 in preparation for the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. Our accommodations for the weekend of the meeting are covered (yay!), but I’ll need to get in touch with a certain panther about imposing on his generous hospitality yet again. Likewise, I need to shake some of the dust off my employment contacts and once again investigate possibilities up there. Not sure how long I’ll be up there this time, but as soon as I have a general idea of my schedule, I’ll let y’all know.

In the immediate future: we’ll probably be hitting a computer show this weekend, just to browse around a bit. Also, Janelle mentioned some possibilities about celebrating Donald‘s birthday, so we’ll block out some time on the calendar for that as well.

And now it’s off to shower before heading out to do the weekly grocery shopping. Also on the menu for today: checking out and rehabilitating five laptops (to be named Nikki, Muk, Luk, Dixie, and Sylvie) for MFF’s Registration system.

Mr. Sun answers the question we’ve all been asking: How can I score at the Democratic National Convention?

First off, I would target a delegation with really bad seats. You’ve got to come home with something, and if you can’t see any of the political superstars up close then perhaps copulating with a pseudonymous blogger would suffice.

I would look forward not backward: urging hot delegates to sleep with me not out of frustration over the past but hope for a sexy future. Having said that, some truly nasty bitterness sex sounds really hot. The more I think about it, I remain open to going off message for some hate-sex.

So I’m toying with the idea of creating a college football pool for the fall. No money involved, just bragging rights, really. This would involve furry folks from all over – if people seem to be interested I could put out the word to a couple of different furry communities. I would use an online pool manager like the one at Sportsline.com so everyone could follow the action easily. Leave a comment here if you think would be something you’d be interested; keep in mind, this would be a weekly commitment for a span of 12 weeks or so.

So. Back to the grindstone or some such.

Friday was a nice break from the ordinary. After lunch at takaza at Dakota Grill (love their fish and chips!), I went over to Trinoc*con and wandered around a bit. I suppose that since I’m in the con business I shouldn’t be quite so critical but wow – if a con I was associated with was ever that disorganized on a Friday afternoon I’d go insane. Rooms that are supposed to be open hours earlier were not open. No idea when Registration opened on their website, let alone a schedule of when stuff opened and closed (OK, they had a programming schedule up there, that was good). In general, just not a lot going on. I’ve gotten used to cons that kick off around noon on Friday, I guess.

Anyway, I bought a one-day pass (because ghosting offends my sensibilities as well) and wandered around a bit. I was unsure about dropping off MFF flyers until I got a look at their freebies table – flyers for cons all over the country, including the CECE at the repulsive Ramada O’Hare. I was delighted to find a flyer for the Chicago in 08 Bid, not just because I saw some familiar names on the committee, but because they were kind enough to list Midwest FurFest in their list of annual cons in Chicago (the fact that Uncle Vlad is on the committee might have something to do with that). Finally, when the dealers room opened I stopped by to see Ursula and James and bought a couple of prints. Then it was time to head home.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the company of my parents, my sister, my nephews, and an old family friend who I hadn’t seen in years. It was extremely pleasant, and it made me quite happy that our friend gave Dan her stamp of approval 🙂 The weekend was low-key, and we got in some nice swimming in my parents’ pool (thanks for the quite time Sunday morning, guys! It was much appreciated).

Today has been busy – had lunch with Dan at Lubrano’s (yummy cheese steak sandwich!), then took care of some laundry at home, dispatched the latest round of MFF registration confirmation postcards, and fired off another shotgun blast of resumes around the country. Also got a nice call from a recruiter with a possibility in Gastonia, NC, near Charlotte. Not my first choice of locations, but a job is a job. We’ll see if anything comes of that.

I just got back from Trinoc*con, so I didn’t have a chance to post this earlier…

Happy birthday, Rusty!

(Watch your inbox 🙂

So, two days ago, we bottled/decanted into minikegs Donald’s Imperial Stout.

For those following along at home, it was brewed on May 31, 2004, placed into the secondary on June 8th or 9th (I can’t remember), and bottled on July 20.

The Original Gravity was 1.097. The Final Gravity is 1.030. By my calculations, that amounts to a beer with 8.8% alcohol by volume. And it ain’t done yet! The malt in the beer will continue to ferment over the next 8-12 months to yield a beer with a kick like a mule. But damn, it’s tasty!

From Inverness, Scotland, we have today’s story of unintended consequences:

Hardy Highlanders taking part in a giant charity zip slide this weekend are being asked to cover their modesty to avoid scaring tourists.

“Highlanders have a lot to be proud of and that is allegedly one of them. However it is a fun day out for the whole family so people should cover themselves up. Also the wind-chill factor high up at the top of the slide could be potentially damaging.”

Not a whole lot going on this week, which explains the quietness in my journal. Back over the weekend, we had friends over for a fun night of Chez Goth and bukkake bul kogi. Didn’t do much on Sunday, but enjoyed the quiet day.

Last night I helped Donald bottle his Imperial Stout – things went well despite the fact that I brought the wrong tubing, forgot the hydrometer, the bottles weren’t done cleaning, and pretty much every other thing that could go wrong. Even despite that, we managed to maintain sanitation and filled three five-liter kegs and eleven bottles. Now the stuff needs to sit for a good 8-12 months. I’ll get the spare bottle that I set aside (but forgot to take home) last night and get a measure of the final gravity sometime in the next few days.

We’ve got a busy few days coming up. Tonight we’re going over to Thomas and Sherry‘s place for more gaming. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating Janelle‘s new job as well as Rich’s birthday by a trip to The Angus Barn, one of the finest steakhouses in the Triangle. Friday evening, we hope to swing by Trinoc*con, drop off some Midwest FurFest flyers, and maybe say hi to Ursula Vernon in the Dealers Room, if it’s still open when we get there. I notice that an old friend is scheduled to perform at 7 PM, so it might be fun to stop by and say hi. Hey, tervicz – interested in doing dinner that night, since we’ll be up in The Bull City?

Then we’re up early Saturday morning for a trip down to my glorious hometown for a visit with my parents, my sister and nephews, and an old friend of the family. Should be a fun trip!

In other news, I finally finished my report on Anthrocon’s Artists Alley and Con Store (all five pages of it!) and sent it off to my bosses. After a little back-and-forth, it appears that I’ll be in charge again next year, and I’ll be handling staff scheduling independent of Operations. It’s a daunting task, but it’s fun in it’s own way. The set of challenges presented are very different than what I see at Registration, but at the same time some of the difficulties are similar and I can carry over a lot of what I’ve learned. If anyone has any feedback on Artists Alley or Con Store, I would love to hear it! You can either comment here or e-mail me at the address in my profile.

Oh, and about my current music: the new Carbon Leaf album rocks my damn socks off. It’s much more cohesive than their previous albums, and has a nice selection of musical styles from the boys. You can also buy the album from iTunes Music Store, or just listen to the majority of the album on their website.

Sunday, Monday, and Final Thoughts

Saturday

Friday

Well, if I don’t sit down to write a report about Anthrocon now, I’ll never get around to it (witness my oft-promised-but-never-delivered report on Midwest FurFest 2003). Later: Oh yeah, that’s why. It took me the better part of two hours to write this up. I reckon I’d better post it in parts…

Wednesday and Thursday

We’re home safe from Anthrocon. Yep, I’m exhausted.

My laptop is dead. Again. Will be dealing with that tomorrow. Donald, I may need some assistance from you. I think the problem lies in the hard drive, so my next step is to get a new one.

As soon as it’s cool enough upstairs (had the AC set to 85 while we were gone), we’re going to bed.

(Yeah, I’m posting a lot today. You won’t see much after tomorrow, so I’m making up for it 🙂

The home that Alton Brown used to film Season 5 of Good Eats is for sale on e-Bay.

Atrios nails this candid picture of the men of the hour, The Two Johns:

(Oh yeah, and some local guy was picked as vice somethingorother by some other guy from up north, too…)

So, the weeds have been evened out (I’d call it mowing the lawn, but there’s not much grass there) and all the laundry is done. Yay. Still to do today: run some errands and start making a pile of stuff to pack into the car. Make dinner when takaza gets home, then pack everything we can into the Element. Break at 9:30 PM to catch the premiere of The Amazing Race 5. Go to bed far too late, but oh well. Then it’s Wednesday, and the fun starts:
Pardon me while I indulge my OCD

I think I have finally, after several years of looking, found an RSS/Atom aggregator/reader that has a user interface that doesn’t make me run screaming. And I found it in a most surprising place!

Sage, an extension for Firefox, has a pleasing layout, an intuitive interface, and is remarkably easy to install. As a test I set it up with feeds from Slashdot, Gizmodo, BoingBoing, Engadget, and Fark and it works like a charm. Very, very cool. I am a happy geek.

So, it’s a Monday that feels like a Sunday. Man, three-day weekends always mess with me.

The weekend was quite enjoyable, though. Friday evening was grilling with friends , accompanied by some surprisingly good (and surprisingly bad) wine. Saturday was a complete wash, spent catching up with the Tivo and generally lazing about the house with takaza. On Sunday we went to see Spiderman 2 with me_not_you, wildmouse, scarlett_fire, Thomas, Echo, and Richard. The movie was…OK. It was better than the first one, but still had a goodly number of flaws. At least I was kept entertained looking for cameos and those weird Sam Raimi touches (*boom* zoom in *boom* zoom in *boom* zoom in). Afterwards we did a nice collaboration dinner at Donald and Janelle’s and discussed redecorating their house. It’ll be fabulous!

So, as I sit here I realize that we depart for Anthrocon in, um, 55 hours. Wowsers. We’ve still got a lot to do – I need to finish lining up some folks to help with Artists Alley, Dan needs to finish newsletter preparation, then there’s the grocery shopping, baking (scones make wonderful breakfasts and keep for days!), and packing. What fun! I’ll post our detailed itinerary tomorrow, probably.

Oh yes, and that dessert surprise I mentioned on Friday? It was the result of some ideas that Dan and I had about how to improve on ice cream cakes, which I generally despise. I started with the wonderfully moist yellow cake recipe from The Best Recipe, only I halved the recipe (since it’s for two 9″ cakes). I divided the batter equally among eight 3″ ramekins that I had buttered and floured and put a round of parchment paper in the bottom of each. I baked these small cakes and then carefully removed them from the ramekins once they were cool. I cut the cakes in half, then popped them into the freezer. Meanwhile, I made a batch of Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream. Once that was ready I pulled the cakes out of the freezer, removed the top half, slathered on about a 1/2″ layer of ice cream, put the top half back on, and popped it back into the freezer.

The verdict? Pretty damn good. After being in the freezer for a few hours, they benefited from sitting out at room temperature for about ten minutes before eating. It was a great mix of flavors and the chocolate ice cream was delicious, if extremely potent. Next time, I’d want to put a little less batter in the ramekins so the cakes wouldn’t stick up quite as much, and maybe top it with some kind of whipped cream frosting just before serving. But hey – for something made up of whole cloth, I was pretty happy about it.

Back to making lists now…

Going to have a few friends over for dinner tonight, so I’m putting on my Martha Stewart hat and trying out a new recipe. Not just a new recipe, but something I’m pretty much making up out of whole cloth. I’ll give more details later – surprises are fun!

It’s been a pretty quiet week overall. Working around the house, applying to jobs as usual, etc. The one notable thing is that takaza and I agreed that, after Anthrocon, he’s going to start the ball rolling on getting a transfer to his company’s headquarters in Chicago. For what we’re paying here we could easily live in Chicago, and his job is the only thing that keeping us here (well, and the wonderful friends we have, of course). There’s pretty much no hope of me finding anything locally but I’ve gotten several leads for stuff in the Chicago area, but it’s stuff you can really only pursue if you’re local. So we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.

We have no real plans this weekend, save for working on preparations for Anthrocon. The Fourth of July has never been that big of a deal for me, and the idea of fighting huge crowds to watch fifteen minutes of “Ooh Ahh!” just doesn’t excite me. Plus, given the amount of money we’re going to be spending next weekend, the idea of going anywhere and spending money is, well, unappealing. We’ll probably just stay close to home this weekend.

As for Anthrocon, I’m working and reworking the Artist Alley payout process, trying to make it as efficient as possible with the fewest number of people. I think between Dan and I we’ve nailed down something pretty good. He’s working on the newsletter, and I’m really hoping he’ll have it mostly ready except for the stuff that needs to go in on-site by the time we leave on Wednesday. Dammit, I want my wolf in bed before 4 AM – I need someone to snuggle with! I’m needy that way.

Well, I’m off to do a touch of housecleaning in preparations for company. Hope y’all have a great (and safe!) holiday weekend.

Via megadog, I present to you:
The Cutie Bunch Friendly Pal Pack!

So, you’re a paid member of LiveJournal, but you don’t read ? Then you might not have heard about the free two weeks they’re offering to tack on to the subscriptions of all paid members because of the recent server problems and DDOS attacks. Read all the dirt here. It’s pretty cool – follow the link they provide, click a button, and *bang* two free weeks.

So now we’re into this weird interstitial week, between last week’s non-interview and subsequent drive home from Chicago and next week’s departure to Anthrocon. I don’t have a lot planned for the week, besides more job hunting and the usual housework, though there will be some brief departure from the usual when I go to pick up me_not_you and wildmouse from RDU this afternoon as they return from their two weeks in Hawaii. I’m going to need to get out of the house a bit more this week, though, or I’ll go stir-crazy.

BoingBoing delved into the subject of obsessive coffee enthusiasm yesterday, and…I fear. I fear getting hooked, that is. This site is a treasure trove of information about coffee making equipment and paraphernalia. When the money comes available, I have my eye on the FreshRoast roaster and I found a really nice place to order green coffee beans from (I especially like their “Coffee Matrix” to help you narrow down which beans to buy). Checking out some of the beans I might like, it looks like they run around $4.50/pound. I like that price! And hey, if you thought I was obsessive in my instructions on how to brew coffee, this guy has me beat all to hell.

OK, off to shower…

In the absence of anything interesting to talk about, here’s some fun links:

Spiderman just got a whole lot more interesting! (refresh the page for new strips – there are about 20 in all) (Oh, uh, by the way – this contains Bad Words and may not be work safe)

Office Space + Star Wars = Office Space Wars

Gizmodo has a great profile of cell phones currently available to Sprint customers. Hopefully, they’ll be covering more providers soon. (I’m keeping my eye on the Treo 610/660/Ace, though)

A little something for the railroad geeks out there: I came across this collection of pre-1900 railroad maps from the Library of Congress (may require installation of MrSID browser plugin)

For those who missed it, Graham Norton’s new show premiered on Comedy Central this week. It is typical Graham: lewd, juvenile, and very, very funny. I like!

In other good news, Something Positive is (theoretically) going to seven days a week. Yay! Plus, new New Gold Dream strips three days a week. Keen! (Plus, via a link on S*P, I really like the T-Shirts for sale at Goats) (Something Positive also contains Bad Words and is by no means safe for work)

Enjoy!

Slow Livejournal. Annoying.

Anthrocon preparations. Worries about Artists Alley logistics. Worries about hotel room logistics. Worries about worrying too much.

Househusbanding. Laundry. Cooking. Mowing. Yay.

Job hunting. Shotgunning resumes across the Internet. No nibbles.

Quiet weekend ahead. More posting later.

Fourteen hours and twenty minutes later, I’m home. Long, uneventful drive, but it’s nice to be back with Dan where I belong.

So I came up near Abbott early, figuring I’d find a place with wi-fi, grab some lunch, and prep before my interview at 1 PM. At about 11:30 AM, I get a phone call from the recruiter. There’s a slight problem: Abbott has cancelled the job order. No interviews, no nothing.

I could rant and whine and complain here, but that would be counterproductive. Thanks anyway to roho and genet for their support and feren for his extended hospitality. Maybe there’s still some possibilities at Abbott – I’ll keep chasing it down until I’m sure there’s nothing to be had.

Meanwhile, back to the drawing board.

After getting up at a godawful hour of the morning and taking takaza to O’Hare in time for his 6:30 AM flight yesterday, I collapsed back into bed on my return to Z’Ha’Dum. Four hours later I woke up feeling much better albeit with my internal clock completely out of whack. Feren was feeling under the weather so he was around when I woke up. We trekked to Meijer in search of storage containers for the MFF Art Show components, then grabbed some lunch. After that I hit the phones, calling ten different temp/contract agencies around Chicago that I had identified as handling technical/engineering placements.

Around the last place I called, lightning struck. By the time I hung up, I had an interview at Abbott Laboratories lined up for the afternoon of Monday, June 21. The job description sounded vaguely familiar. Hmm. After all the phone calls (and getting my ass beaten in Bloody Roar Extreme a bit more), I met roho, genet, linnaeus, datahawk, and posicat for dinner at a yummy brewpub in Libertyville. Over dinner Roho confirmed my suspicions: the position I’m interviewing for is in his group. We’re going to meet for dinner later this week and discuss more about the job, but from what it sounds like there’s a very good probability that I’ll get the job. Wowsers!

Granted, it’s only a 6-month contract making about 75% of what I used to make, but that is still a hell of a lot more than the zero income I currently have! Plus, of the people hired for similar six-month contracts in January, there’s been no word about getting rid of them, so this could last for a while. This opens up several useful possibilities: it gets me a toehold at Abbott, and it opens up a new possible career direction. I may or may not pursue either, but more options are always good. The position starts with four weeks of classes, and those start on July 12 – the day after Anthrocon. This means I’ll probably be flying out Sunday night of Anthrocon, which sucks but it’s unavoidable.

In the meantime, I’ll still be looking at other positions – a salary matching my last one and a full-time job are always preferable, but I’m grabbing whichever real, paying job is made available, be it at Abbott or someplace else. The time for holding out for other possibilities is past – it’s time to lock something down now.

In the short term, the one downside is that I won’t be in North Carolina with my love until next Tuesday at the earliest. Yes, I’ll get to spend more time with the friends that I care for so much up here in Chicago and even catch a Carbon Leaf concert on Saturday, but it’s not the same without Dan. I saw him off yesterday morning and I miss him already. Not much to do but try to be as useful as possible up here and stay busy. And by the way, special thanks to Feren for letting me stick around for a lot longer than expected! His hospitality has made this whole venture a lot less stressful and it’s very much appreciated!

My god, I need some caffeine.

Road trip, baby! Details within…

Well, in about an hour I’ll be heading out of here. First up: a “meeting” (not an interview, apparently) with a prospective employer in Winston-Salem, NC. After that, it’s off to points north! I’ll be driving as far as aerofox and loriana‘s place tonight (thanks again for putting me up on such short notice!). Then tomorrow it’s a short(er) drive over to Chicago. takaza flies in at 9 PM and then it’s over to feren‘s lovely home for the weekend (and then some, for me).

Looks like we’ll be at LAFF softball on Saturday, and of course the MFF staff meeting. I’ll be sticking around into next week making the rounds of temp agencies and possibly meeting with a prospective employer while I’m up there. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get motivated enough to put together a short-notice Western Suburbs Dinner.

Well, it’s off to pack the car and get my butt outta here!