Category Archives: Uncategorized

Another quiet Sunday morning – low-stress, which is nice. Because of soreness from my fractured rib, I’m finding moving around in the mornings to be exceptionally difficult – nothing like starting off the day with a handful of ibuprofen. I hope my liver can take it! Between that and Vicodin in the evenings, I’m staying mostly mobile, but the soreness never really goes away and gets annoying. takaza has noticed that it makes me irritable during the day – I’m sorry about that sweetie! As time passes and it lessens, I hope it will have less impact on my life.

So, what’s going on? Despite of the ferocious snow storm of Thursday night/Friday morning (hah! The streets were dry by 3 PM Friday), brophey and rasslor drove up from Atlanta Friday afternoon to join us for the weekend. Friday night was a tasty dinner with them and the usual suspects at Lubrano’s, followed by tasty gelato at Silvia d’Italia’s. We always have to visit there when Rasslor’s in town, because Sylvia really likes him. We went to bed early that night.

Saturday was a slow start – no big surprise. Once we got everyone motivated, we met Thomas, Sherry, and Rich for lunch at Bass Lake Draft House, then proceeded over to Carolina Wine Company. Thomas and Sherry and Rich took their leave of us then, and we drove over to A Southern Season in Chapel Hill to look at all the lovely tasty goodies there. Much chocolate was purchased, as well as a few other goodies. We headed home then, hung out and watched a couple of episodes of Super Millionaire, as well as last week’s Queer Eye, then ordered pizza. Rasslor and I enjoyed a very tasty bottle of wine, as well 🙂 Between the TV and just generally enjoying the company, somehow it got late and we wound up asleep by 11:30.

So, plans for today include a possible lunch at Crazy Fire, and the requisite return trip to Silvia’s, then Rasslor and Brophey will head back home. We’ll probably have a quiet night ourselves – I can see a hot bath and a nice book in my future.

For the week ahead: Need to get our finances in order and finish paying the first-of-the-month bills, apply to more jobs, and get ready for a drive up to Philadelphia next weekend. Whee!

Husky fall down, go boom.

So today started out pretty well. I had heard good things about Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area and wanted to check it out and enjoy some of the mild weather we’ve been having. The park doesn’t really have much in the way of trails – about two miles or so – but it’s an extremely pleasant walk featuring Occoneechee Mountain, the highest point in Orange County at all of 867 feet.

So the first quarter-mile of the trail was fine. Then I came to a spot where the trail went up a small embankment. I put my foot at the top of the embankment…and slipped. WHAM! I landed right on the bottom of my rib cage on my left side. Ouch. Damn, that hurt. I was able to get up, dust myself off, and slowly pick up the pace again, though my left side was now quite tender. I wound up hiking the entire loop trail as well as the spur up to summit without too much problems, besides the lingering soreness.

When I got home I was able to sit comfortably in the living room, though I noticed that coughing while in a sitting position was rather painful. When takaza got home, he asked me to lay down on the sofa so he could check to see if of my ribs didn’t feel right. As I was laying down I got a stabbing pain in my side, at which point Dan decided I was going to see a doctor now.

So, an hour and a half at Rex Urgent Care in Cary gave us the good news: I have fractured my tenth rib on the left side, though I did no damage to the chest wall, fortunately. Well, doesn’t that just suck.

On the bright side, it doesn’t really hurt to breathe, or take deep breaths, or even yawn. Coughing is a bit painful, though, and lying down is rather exciting. I think I’ll be able to get comfortable lying on my right side, but lying on my back is out of the question. As long as I don’t have to sleep sitting up, that’s fine by me. Unfortunately, treatment for a rib fracture is pretty much to just leave it be and let it heal on its own, which is going to take a few months. In the meantime, I’ve got a nice little bottle of Vicodin with my name on it and I’m not afraid to use it.

Every little bit

I posted yesterday about the idea of sending flowers to a random gay or lesbian couple waiting in line to get married in San Francisco. The only drawback to that is that after delivery fees, taxes, and everything else is taken into account, you’re looking at in investment of $50 or more. Not everyone has that kind of disposable income, though, so here’s a really nice idea: Darren Barefoot is organizing Flowers for Al and Don (get it?), which pools funds donated via PayPal, five or ten bucks at a time. As of 10:55 AM PST, he has raised almost $2,500 – very cool!

So, I had an interview today.

I wish I could say that I know for sure I’ve got the job (or even that I don’t have the job – it’s nice to know either way). About all I can say for sure is that I went in and put my best foot forward. I had answers for everything that I as asked, I admitted the few areas where I might come up short, and overall seemed to come across well. They are interviewing five people for the position and I was number two. The person whose job I will be taking wasn’t in because he was working there over the weekend and was there until 4 AM this morning (oh, that’s auspicious!). If I make the initial cut, they’ll probably bring me back to talk with him one-on-one before they make any decisions. They should know who they’re going to go with in 2-4 weeks. The down side is that they won’t actually be hiring until April or May, but if we know that there is definitely a job waiting for me, we can figure out a way to work things out. I’ll let everyone know as soon as I know something.

Between worrying about the interview and the weather (original forecast: 4-6 inches of snow. Real snowfall: <2 inches), I didn't sleep very well last night. So after getting home and puttering around a bit, I took a nap and wound up sleeping for a good two and a half hours before takaza woke me up. While the sleep was needed, my timesense is totally scrambled and I have no idea if it’s bedtime or dinner time or what. I just hope I start to feel tired when bedtime rolls around.

Oh, one final note: I was poking through some old pictures and I came across some pictures that we never posted to our picture gallery from our visit to the North Carolina State Fair in 2002 in the company of mirkowuff. So Mirko, here’s one of the pictures we have of you, nicely done up as a LiveJournal icon 🙂

And many happy returns

Well, I thought that my birthday was going to pass quietly, but I should have known takaza wouldn’t allow that to happen. At around 6:30, wildmouse and me_not_you came in, surprising me. They brought chicken strips and fries, which is always yummy, but I was informed that wasn’t for me, but for everyone else. Not long after, Thomas and Sherry arrived with a large platter in hand – it was Dan’s other birthday present for me, a large and stunningly-presented tray of sushi from Wasabi (a place I’ve mentioned wanting to go, but hadn’t had the chance to visit yet). The platter included sashimi, several different types of maki and nigiri, and a tempura-fried spider roll, all of which were just delicious. Dessert was a tasty pound cake that Donald had come home early from work to make (thanks, Mister Cabbage!). After dinner a game of Lunch Money was played, and we were treated to the surreal images of Catholic school girls stomping, headbutting, and generally beating the crap out of each other for their lunch money. Somehow I’m not surprised that Sherry won 🙂

And so I don’t seem an ungrateful git, to all the folks who replied to my last posting:
To ramalion, posicat, shockwave77598, and genebreshears – Thanks, guys!
To sabotlours – Oddly enough, I don’t think I have any beer in the fridge, though I seem to have fifteen gallons of it fermenting in the kitchen! 🙂
To perro – It’s a fine line between bitchy and sassy, but I’ll take sassy!
And to quasiskunk, hartree, datahawk, and linnaeus – Yeah, now I can be all bad in my hot leather jacket, ’cause we all know what a badass I can be. I guess the assless chaps are my next purchase, just to complete the outfit?

So we have a busy few days coming up. Tonight we’re joining Thomas and Sherry for an evening at Charlie Goodnight’s to see Maryellen Hooper, an extremely funny comedienne. (And hey, browsing around her website, I see she’s even cooler because of the great charities she supports). Then tomorrow night we’re joining folks for an early Valentine’s Day dinner (because actually going out to eat on Valentine’s Day is insane!) at Rio Churrascaria, a Brazilian steakhouse known in our circle as “The Palace O’ Meat”. Mmm, meat. Remind me not to eat anything at all on Friday…

Now, off to start the day!

Woohoo!

I have an interview with Closure Medical on Monday, February 16th, at 8 AM. This is the company in Raleigh that I mentioned. Oh, and I didn’t mention it earlier, but one of their products is pretty recognizable: Band-Aid Liquid Bandage. It would be so cool to get in with this company, and I’m really looking forward to the interview!

Why should I care?

Just to preface, I’m not picking on anyone – this is a post I’ve been meaning to make for quite some time.

I’ve heard a couple of times, “Why should I care if I can’t marry my same-sex partner?” Well, in 1996, following the passage of the inanely-titled Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Rep. Henry Hyde requested that the General Accounting Office prepare a report to determine the federal laws that are affected by the legislation – that is, those which are triggered by “marriage” or relating to a “spouse”. The result is a collection of 1,049 federal laws classified to the United States Code in which marital status is a factor in thirteen categories.

Here is a summary of the report. It’s a lot of material, but even if you just skim it you start to get a feeling for what’s at stake. Plus, you’ll have a little ammunition the next time someone asks you why they should care about same-sex marriage. For my part, I don’t care if it’s called marriage, civil unions, or purple tomatoes. I do care that whatever arrangement is arrived at is equal and identical to the benefits conferred by heterosexual marriage. It’s going to be a hard road to get there, but I believe that this is an achievable goal, one that we will see in my lifetime.

And the monk cursed him, “May you live in interesting times.”

It’s been an interesting week for me, emotionally. As I mentioned, my unemployment has run out (though there’s a slim chance it could be re-started. I won’t hold my breath, though). This put me into a flurry of applications and recruiter contacts, and I now have two possibilities out there.

The first one is back in Morris, IL, site of my last job in Illinois. It’s at a facility that used to be owned by my former employer but has since been sold. It’s not a bad opportunity, though I’m not thrilled that the possibility exists that it could be temp-to-perm. That would mean no relocation assistance and no benefits, probably. Even if they liked me and wanted to hire me, we couldn’t do it if takaza didn’t get a transfer to his company’s HQ in Buffalo Grove. Currently there’s no positions available that suit his background (the one that did closed out before he could apply), so there’s a whole lot of if’s in that scenario. It’s pretty early to say on this one since I haven’t talked to anyone but the recruiter, so we’ll see if the company is interested.

Then there’s a possibility which just opened up right here in Raleigh. This one fell right in my lap, but there’s a lot of amusing connections. First off, I interviewed at Closure six years ago. I didn’t get the job then, but that was because they had another applicant who had twelve years of experience in cyanoacrylates and was local. Tough to fight that. The other nice thing about this is that I have a friend who works at the company who has said she’ll be happy to speak well of me – ladyinthetower. In a small-ish company like that, connections can help a lot. Closure is growing well and their stock performance has been particularly impressive – always good when the company offers stock options to all its employees. Plus, the money is damn good. So, while remaining in Raleigh is what we would call a sub-optimal solution, there are enough other benefits (like, oh, I don’t know, HAVING A JOB!) that make it worth it. I spoke with the VP of HR there yesterday, and he said someone would call me in the next day or so to set a date and time for me to come in and interview.

Other than the job hunt, I’ve been keeping busy with work on the Midwest FurFest website. Hey, have you seen the new site design? It’s pretty spiffy. Also, did you know that you can now pre-order the 2003 DVD (with the entire FVS plus highlights from around the convention) online? You may now be impressed.

And on today’s agenda for excitement? Drop off my suit at the cleaners, and stop by Sam’s Club for the usual supplies (paper towels, TP, and dish detergent). I’d also like to get in some hiking, since the next few days are supposed to be rainy – maybe a stop by the American Tobacco Trail, since it’s all of two miles from here. Well, off to be useful!

Oh my god, it’s so true…

Disinformation gets the goods on the Society for Creative Anachronism. Never have I seen the SCA summed up so succinctly in a few short paragraphs, capturing all that I learned to dislike after seven years in the Society.

The preeminence of fighting is maintained, however, by the ‘kingdom’ system, since leadership of each group is assumed by a ‘king’ and ‘queen’ who are selected by means of semi-annual tournaments. All awards and prestige in the organization flow from this ‘king’ and ‘queen’, which results in internal group politics that put those of many academic departments to shame.

Then there’s the bad news…

Well, I put it off for a week in hopes that it would magically re-appear like last time, but after a phone call to the NC Employment Services Commission, it’s official: I will receive no extension. My unemployment benefits have been exhausted.

This isn’t that much of a surprise – we were expecting this at one point or another. It’s one less thing keeping us tied to North Carolina, though. Of course, I will continue to apply for jobs across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes areas, but in the meantime, Takaza is going to look into transferring to his company’s Buffalo Grove, IL headquarters. If that comes through before I can get anything going job-wise then we’ll be making the move up there, on our own nickel. I’ll continue to look for work in the Chicago area, investigating possibilities including short-term contracts or areas outside of chemical engineering.

It’s all rather disappointing, but you gotta keep moving because there’s only one way to get off this merry-go-round of life and I’m sure as heck not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil. I have Dan, and we have each other. With that, we can face anything that comes our way, I’m confident of that. I’m grateful that I’m blessed with such a loving and understanding husband who’s been willing to support me through all this mess. I only hope that I’ll be able to reward his patience in a suitable manner (like getting a nice job where we can afford for him to take some time off as well). We shall see…

Weekend Review

Had a pretty laid-back weekend, though lots of social goings-on.

On Saturday, Takaza and I joined Thomas, wildmouseJanelle, and me_not_youDonald for lunch at Bass Lake Draft House in our old stomping grounds of Holly Springs, then went over for the brewery tour at Carolina Brewing Company, which Thomas and Donald had never been to. Now, I know several of our friends have done this tour with us, so you’ll appreciate this – when we turned down the street, all we saw was a line of cars a good quarter-mile on either side of the brewery. I would estimate there were at least three hundred people there – this on a tour that in the past has had maybe 30-40 people. It would appear that the combined fact of the Super Bowl the following day, plus they had a stout available for pretty much that only, plus people have figured out that there’s this tour where you go in and get free beer, as much as you want, well…ka-blooie! We stuck around for part of the tour then bugged out when it became apparent that there was no way to hear what the guide was saying. Donald and Thomas bought a case of porter and a case of stout, and our mission was accomplished.

After that, it was off to Durham for a trip by Fowler’s Gourmet Market, where they were doing a syrah wine tasting. There were some real clunkers in there (the carbonated shiraz was just wrong!), but Thomas and I both picked up a bottle of an excellent Aussie shiraz that was a good deal at $8.99/bottle. We browsed over the other offerings that the store had, and Janelle marveled at the $4.99/lb cream cheese (“Is it that much better? Is it any different? Is it worth it?”) though in the end we left without answering those burning questions. The overall impression we got from the store was that it was extremely yuppified and expensive (“It’s like Whole Foods Market without the facial piercings”). This also allowed us to hear Janelle’s stunning rendition of Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” on the drive home. We retired to Donald and Janelle’s, where Takaza and Sherry joined us. Munchkin and XBox games were played, pizza was ordered, and we all lounged on the Couch of Doom before heading home…

Sunday, Dan and I cleaned up the place and I did some grocery shopping, then the usual suspects joined us for a fun Super Bowl party. Being that we are in North Carolina, Thomas was a big Panthers fan, though honestly I couldn’t care less (I’ll still take some of Tom Brady’s paycheck, though!). We made up some burritos, Thomas brought some hot wings, and five or six different kinds of beers were sampled. Despite the late night, we had a great time. Next time, though – about half as much ground beef for the burritos and about a third of the cheese that we grated. Ouch.

Time to trim a bit

I’m afraid I need to do a little trimming on my Friends list. I assure you that if you get dropped I’m not crossing you off my Kwanzaa card list or moving you over to my Enemies List (though such an implementation on LJ would be amusing…). If you have any questions, I would refer you to my Friends List policy on my userinfo page.

Now here’s something that we all need: Uncle Patrick’s Advice to Children!

Don’t use one of those little Handi-Vac things to empty an ashtray. Because the inrush of air could potentially reignite any fading embers. And, uh, a big jet of flame might shoot out of the thing, surprising you and making you scream like a ten-year-old girl. And you might knock over your beer.

If you’re ever fishing, and a poisonous water moccasin swims up to try and eat one of the fish on your stringer, and you think that maybe flipping the snake out of the water and onto, say, me is a good idea, please reconsider.

Just because you can stick toothpicks in your forehead and they’ll stay there and it doesn’t really hurt all that bad doesn’t mean you should go ahead and do it, at Denny’s or any other restaurant.

Yeah, we were dumb

But on the bright side, we got the laptop taken care of.

After a day and a half of snow, sleet, and freezing rain, we finally succombed to cabin fever and decided to see just how bad the roads are around here. The answer: pretty damn bad. The primary routes have been plowed, so they were just slushy. The secondary roads and those out of our subdivision haven’t been plowed at all, so they’re a mix of snow and ice. We didn’t really slide around, but I drove incredibly conservatively and left plenty of room between me and the car I was following.

Why were we out? Today was the last day for me to return the Compaq Presario laptop to Beast Buy. I had been assured over the phone that I could probably bring it back tomorrow, given the weather conditions, but I didn’t want to gamble the $1,000 or so if it was at all avoidable. So we drove out to Crossroads Shopping Center in Cary and, although precious little else was open, Beast Buy was indeed open and well-staffed (man, you know those employees were pissed about having to go in). I returned the laptop with no problems and paid their 15% restocking fee – hey, it was cheaper than having the buy the darned thing! We kicked around maybe getting some lunch while we were out, but given the increasing freezing rain, we decided it would be wiser if we just headed home.

So that was our excitement for the day – the last two days, really. Otherwise, we’ve been noodling around on the net and clearing off the TiVo. Sadly, we’re down to two things to watch (both from the Sundance Channel – Into the West and a collection of short films), then we’ll have – gasp! – cleared the TiVo. Scary. Looks like tomorrow is going to be pretty crappy too – there’s supposed to be more freezing rain coming and they’ve already cancelled school around here (congratulations, WildmouseJanelle!). Now we just get to deal with the boredom…

I {heart} Sirius!

So, we’ve just returned from a nice 1,600-mile round-trip to Chicago. How did we stay sane? Why with our Sirius Satellite Radio, of course! I know this sounds like a crass commercial, but this is really the greatest thing to hit long-distance driving trips since the advent of the audio book. Here’s the streams (Sirius’ version of stations) kept us occupied during the 28-or-so hours of driving:

Sirius OutQ – 24-hour gay talk radio. This just kicks butt! Their morning show is a stitch, and John McMullen is engaging. Michaelangelo Signorile provides a little name recognition, but his is the only show that doesn’t really interest me. A bit too much preaching to the converted, I think. But the real gem of this stream is Derek and Romaine – they’re bitchy, profane, and an absolute hoot to listen to! You can listen to OutQ for free from their website, though only through Windows Media Player.

Spectrum and The Pulse – Adult album alternative and “modern mix” stuff. Not too different from what you might hear on your local radio, but at least it’s commercial-free.

Octane – Fuel, Puddle of Mudd, Trapt, Saliva…you get the gist. Pop-metal, with a occasional offbeat track by Tool or Ra.

Sirius Disorder – Formerly “Organic Rock,” some nice indie and cross-genre performers. The strangest thing I’ve heard was an Italian rap-remix of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”. Not one of Dan’s favorites, but I enjoy it as a good place to find good stuff I hadn’t heard before.

Faction – Hard rock, hip-hop, punk. Everything from System of a Down to Wu-Tang Clan. I knew I’d like this stream when we turned it on and heard “50 Inch Nails” by 50 Cent vs. Nine Inch Nails, a remix of “In the Club” run together with “Head Like a Hole”. Damn, that rocked!

Chill – This is another new stream that I’m really enjoying. Moby, Massive Attack, Dido, Radiohead, and Groove Armada – a really great mix when you’re in the mood for it.

Add to that occasional stops by NPR Talk, NPR Now, PRI Public Radio World, and Raw Dog (uncensored comedy channel), plus guilty pleasures like E! Entertainment Radio (True Hollywood Story: Cheers got me through boring parts of eastern Kentucky) and Hair Nation (Def Leppard, Poison, Bon Jovi, aiee!) and you have a couple of extremely satisfied customers. The Audiovox unit with car installation kit was $150, plus $130 for a year’s subscription. Pricey, yes, but it was worth every damn penny as far as I’m concerned.

Holy crap!

Remember I was talking about how my Vaio laptop crapped out on me and I had to send it in for repairs? I just got it back today. Here’s the somewhat cryptic parts list of what they replaced:
COMPLETE PWB MBX-67
I/O DOOR
ASSY DISPLAY HOUSIN
THERMAL SHEET, CPU
ASSY LCD BEZEL 15
COMPLETE PWB PWS-18
KEY BOARD UNIT

WE REPLACED YOUR MOTHERBOARD, POWERBOARD, AND KEYBOARD.

Total invoice charge: N/C

This is a unit that was two months out of warranty. The pretty much overhauled the whole damn thing and sent it back…for free.

Wow.

The only thing I can figure is that the problem I was experiencing was a known problem. Either that or some technician took pity on me – not sure what it was, but damn.

All that’s left now is to return the Presario laptop to Beast Buy tomorrow or Sunday and the whole mess will have cost us a total of $225. Well, damn. A heck of a lot better than expected!

I hate memes

(Thanks Mirko for the friends-page-friendly formatting)
Bold the states you’ve visited.

1) Alabama, 2) Alaska, 3) Arizona, 4) Arkansas, 5) California, 6) Colorado, 7) Connecticut, 8) Delaware, 9) Florida, 10) Georgia, 11) Hawaii, 12) Idaho, 13) Illinois, 14) Indiana, 15) Iowa, 16) Kansas, 17) Kentucky, 18) Louisiana, 19) Maine, 20) Maryland, 21) Massachusetts, 22) Michigan, 23) Minnesota, 24) Mississippi, 25) Missouri, 26) Montana, 27) Nebraska, 28) Nevada, 29) New Hampshire, 30) New Jersey, 31) New Mexico, 32) New York, 33) North Carolina, 34) North Dakota, 35) Ohio, 36) Oklahoma, 37) Oregon, 38) Pennsylvania, 39) Rhode Island, 40) South Carolina, 41) South Dakota, 42) Tennessee, 43) Texas, 44) Utah, 45) Vermont, 46) Virginia, 47) Washington, 48) West Virginia, 49) Wisconsin, 50) Wyoming, 50.5) Washington DC.

International: Canada (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia), Mexico, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland

I’ve visited every state east of the Mississippi except Michigan. Strange, since it’s not too far away from Chicago, but I’ve just never had occasion to go there. Maybe we’ll swing through on the way home just to say I’ve been there.

Back on the net!

Well, after about three hours on the phone with Sony yesterday, we determined that the video problem I was experiencing with my Vaio was definitely hardware-related. Fortunately I was able to boot up and access my files over the network so I was able to back everything up before scragging the drive in an effort to do a system recovery.

So, the next step is to send it to Sony. They’ll charge me a minimum of $27 just to look at it. Then it’s $250 for a minor repair (keyboard, small parts) or $800 for a major repair (motherboard, LCD screen). Fortunately, they give you the option of notifying you before they do a major repair so if that’s what it takes, I’m going to tell them to just send it back and we’ll do something with the parts.

In the meantime, we went to Beast Buy last night and bought a Compaq Presario (gotta work that 12-month-same-as-cash, baby!). Being extremely gun-shy after my last laptop biting the big one after 14 months, I also bought the extended warranty for an extra $250. The good news is that if Sony comes through I can return the laptop within 14 days, though I’ll have to pony up a 15% restocking fee.

So let’s do some math, shall we?
Option 1: Sony can’t fix laptop cheaply
Shipping laptop to Sony $46
Diagnostic fee $27
Return shipping $25
Presario $1150
Extended Warranty $250
Sales tax $80
Rebates -$250

TOTAL: $1,328

Option 2: Sony can fix laptop cheaply
Shipping laptop to Sony $46
Diagnostic fee $250
Presario restocking $175

TOTAL: $471

Well, if they can do it cheaply, we won’t come out too badly. Not exactly an expense I was looking for while unemployed, of course…

Well, poop

The display on my laptop is now officially hosed. I talked with hartree and we looked at the symptoms and took the laptop apart and it would appear that the video card is glitched. Since on Vaios (it’s a Sony Vaio PCG-NVR23) the video card is integrated into the motherboard, this makes for massive ugliness. So. We can try to work through Sony to repair it (price to be determined but surely not small since it’s out of warranty). We can try to find a Vaio on eBay with a broken display and remove the motherboard. Or we can buy a new laptop. I hate the notion of the later option – the damn thing is only fourteen months old. Grrr.

Anyway, obviously my online presence is going to be limited for the next few days.

Feeling all efficient

Having a great weekend so far. We’re enjoying the company of hartree and linnaeus, as I mentioned before. Last night was as late as I expected – I headed off to bed around 2:30 AM, and Hartree and takaza were up until 5 AM. The morning was understandably late in starting, though it was improved with a nice round of pancakes for everyone. Once we got motivated, we drove up to A Southern Season and had a lot of fun shopping. We then walked around the mall and stopped by Cameron’s (my favorite store for kitsch and off-the-wall weirdness). Dinner at Copeland’s was quite tasty, with the obligatory dessert trip to Silvia d’Italia for gelato. Yummy!

We got back and I went ahead and took care of something that I remembered that I needed to do: reserve a room for Anthrocon. Bang, done. We now have a junior suite reserved at the Adams Mark Philadelphia from Thursday until Monday of Anthrocon. Yay!

Now, the next bit of good news: next week, we’re on the road again back to Chicago! Since Takaza is out from work until February 1, we’re going to spend a week up in Chicago to deal with Midwest FurFest stuff. I might even try to put together a Western Suburbs Dinner while we’re up there – we’ll see. We’re looking forward to the trip, though there’s still a few logistical things to be taken care of.

Not too much on tap for tomorrow, though we’re going to try to stop by the wonderful French bakery in North Raleigh. We’ll see what the day brings…

The long-lost update

Hmm, been reading a lot but not posting. I should work on that.

Hung out with friends last weekend, and that was cool. Did a little hiking and enjoyed the 70-degree weather while it lasted.

jlfranklin, our roommate/landlord, has gotten a job up in the DC area so he’s moving at the end of this week. Fortunately, he’s OK with us staying here until someone rents the house at market value. If we have to move, that’s fine – we can handle that. That puts the house in a bit of an uproar, though, as he packs and moves his stuff out and we move our stuff up from the basement to replace it.

While they were over for John’s going-away party last night, I helped vileone, thebroomecloset, and me_not_you (with consummate bottle-wiping help from wildmouse) bottle the porter and oatmeal stout that we brewed up about three weeks ago. Both beers tasted excellent going into the bottle and I’m certain they’ll be even better after a few weeks of conditioning. It was a nice reminder that while brewing is fun, brewing as a social event is a blast!

Thanks to the many folks who have been asking about Takaza‘s condition. I’m happy to report that he is healing well and although still feels an occasional reminder from his body that, yes, it’s only been a few weeks since he had surgery, he’s recovering nicely. Although it wore him out, we made a two-mile walk last weekend without any problems – I’ll take that as a good sign. We’re going to see the doctor today to have his (29!) staples taken out. Although it might be slightly uncomfortable while they’re being removed, it will make him feel much better and allow everything to heal up faster, I’m sure.

Later tonight, we’re expecting a bit of company. Linnaeus and Hartree are joining us for a few days. I’m really looking forward to that. Nothing much planned, just a nice, low-key weekend, though there will probably be much convention discussion going on. (I hope no one feels slighted that they were not invited down this weekend as well – as I said, low-key is the order of the day, and with the house in its current state we’re pushing it with two guests – any more would be…difficult.)

So, that’s the current state of the husky. Looking at my to-do list today, we need to move the other guest bed up from the basement, find the sheets and blankets for the guest beds in the boxes down there, and probably bring up a few more kitchen items as well. Well, off to get motivated…

Quote of the day

A slight paraphrase from the commentary on “The Train Job” episode of Firefly:

Tim Minear (executive producer): You know would have been great? Airing the pilot first!
Joss Whedon (writer, exec. producer): Madness! Madness!
Tim: They laughed at him at the Academy!
Joss: Well, they showed the pilot last. Last is like first, but not.

The day after

Though after what? Christmas was an entirely low-key affair around here, and that was just fine by me. We exchanged presents on Christmas Eve, and while they weren’t big, both Takaza and I appreciated the presents we got for one another. Here’s hoping an end to lean Christmases after this year, though! I got the one thing for Christmas that no money could buy, though: my wolf home here with me. That’s worth more than anything.

Dan shocked me by being awake before I was yesterday. We sat and watched a bit of TiVo, then got some breakfast downstairs. The stairs aren’t presenting the problem that I had worried about, so that’s a great relief. After a walk in the neighborhood, we watched the first episode of Firefly, “Serenity.” An excellent episode, methinks. Then we watched it with the commentary, which was hilarious but also bad because Dan was laughing so hard it made his stomach hurt. This was followed by a batch of yummy chicken and dumplings for dinner, and then an early bedtime for Dan. He had a fever of 100.2, which worried me, but it’s the nature of things I guess. I stayed up a bit too late surfing the net, though my evening was brightened by a phone call from datahawk – it’s always wonderful to talk with you, babe!

So, today. It’s a quarter after 10 and there’s no signs of life. I checked Dan’s temperature a few hours ago and it was down to 99.1, which is good. He went back to sleep and I’ve been having a nice, lazy morning, chatting with folks online and enjoying my coffee and paper. Once Dan is awake and I finish doing laundry we’ll see about maybe going out someplace for a walk – something different, a little change of scenery.

We have the best damn friends in the world

wildmouse and me_not_you came over tonight, with Thomas and Sherry and Rich. Janelle, amazing person that she is, cooked up a wonderful dinner of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, green beans, and fresh homemade bread, and a yummy bundt cake to boot. They brought it all in, served it up for me and Dan, and packed it all out again, cleaning the kitchen before they left, but not before tucking away some leftovers in the fridge for us for later.

I can’t begin to thank you all enough. This was exactly what we needed. We couldn’t ask for more wonderful friends.

Merry Christmas, everyone!