New toys hitting Toy R Us this week.*

* Ipecac and civet oil not included.

So, what the heck is going on in my life?

Well, here’s the deal.

First off, thanks to everyone who sent congratulations on Thursday. It’s much appreciated!

A quick recap of the weekend: Saturday – Frys, Sam’s Wine and Liquors, Caipirinhas, Brats, good company. Sunday: MFF Staff Meeting, dinner with friends, early bedtime.

On Monday I started work at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, IL. I’m working in the Pharmaceutical Products Division (makers of Clear Eyes, Norvir, and other pharmaceutical goodness) as a Validation Engineer. It seems to be a pretty good gig, though the 60-80 minute commute each way is gonna wear on me. Right now I’m crashing at Linnaeus‘s place and enjoying the excellent company.

If it wasn’t clear from my last post, there’s a downside to this arrangement: Takaza is still back in North Carolina, and he’ll be staying there until he can transfer to a position somewhere in the Chicago area. I can’t begin to describe how much this sucks. But we’ll ride this out, and he’s got a line on some possibilities already. With luck, this separation will be brief and I can be back with my wuff soon.

To top things off, we need to move our stuff to thebroomecloset and ovrclokd‘s old place in Durham the weekend of October 8th. I’ll be flying down that weekend to join in the fun (nothing like starting the money coming in then sending it right back out!).

And now I’m going to space out before heading off to bed.

The end is near!

Well, the end of cheap pre-registration for Midwest FurFest 2004, anyway. Yes, after September 30 pre-registration jumps from $30 to $40, so if you’re going to pre-register, now is the time to do it!

Speaking purely hypothetically, since I’m sure you’re rushing to register right now, if you don’t pre-register by September 30, does that mean you can’t attend the convention?

Of course not! We will continue to accept mail-in registrations until November 1 and online registrations until November 13. And you can always just come to the convention and register at the door. But if you want to pre-register and save ten bucks, well, you’ll have to do it by Thursday, September 30! And just think of what you can buy in the Dealers Room with the ten bucks you’ve saved. Or in the Artists Alley. Or that’s ten bucks that you could donate to our charity, Furry Friends Foundation. Heck, you could even walk to one of the many nearby restaurants and get a meal with that ten bucks. So pre-register now and make your plans on how to best spend the ten dollars that you so wisely saved!

Online registration and mail-in forms are available at http://www.furfest.org/registration

So, I heard back on the Abbott job I interviewed for back on Tuesday.

Truth or Consequences

So, last night was quite lovely. Linnaeus returned from his long northward sojourn, and datahawk and posi_cat came over for dinner. We ordered some tasty pizza from Leona’s (and of course, some Twinkie-sized cheese sticks!) and watched the finale to The Amazing Race. I won’t go into any spoilers except to say this is one of the most satisfying race finishes I’ve seen in the five seasons we’ve been watching the show.

I got word from one of my references yesterday that he received a voice mail from the person I interviewed with earlier this week at Abbott. I’m taking this as a good sign. He’s going to call her back today (with an excellent reference), so we’ll see what happens. I also have a phone interview this afternoon with the company out in the middle of freakin’ nowhere, Illinois. Hey, if it could lead to a well-paying, permanent position I’d gladly consider it. Still waiting to hear back on the Gastonia position, too.

Meanwhile, back in North Carolina, life is interesting for takaza. The good news is that it appears that we’ve got a good short-term solution thanks to Mike and Lisa (y’all are awesome!). It saves us a little bit of money monthly, though hopefully that will just be a month or two until Dan can transfer to a position up in the Chicago area. It sounds like things are moving along on the moving-out front, and friends have been volunteering to assist with that process. I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to make it back to help. This sucks, but we have to do what we can afford (and, if I’m working, what time I can or can’t get off from work. “Gee, boss, can I take a few days off?” = Bad way to start a new job).

So now we’re into the downhill slide to the weekend. Besides the phone interview this afternoon, I hope to swing by an art supply store and pick up the remaining easels I need to buy for MFF. Mirkowuff, I’m gonna have a pile of receipts for you this weekend! Tomorrow, Dan flies in and we’ll be hanging out with a Gin-Soaked Panther all weekend. Got the staff meeting on Sunday, which should be good. We’re getting a lot of stuff done, and there’s always more to do!

Well, off to go shower and start the day. Yay!

Goodness, a week without a substantive post.

Time to do something about that.

Here’s the McEwan’s Scotch Ale clone we made a few days back. This should be an interesting one.

Beery goodness lies beyond, again

Here’s the Mackeson’s Stout clone we made a few days back, entered here for reference.

Beery goodness lies beyond

Well!

Yesterday was interesting. First off, the Gastonia job: I called the recruiter, and well, he hasn’t had a lot of luck. I interviewed the Monday before Labor Day; the HR rep left for maternity leave the Friday afterwards. Ever since then, the recruiter hasn’t had any luck contacting anyone at the plant or getting them to return his calls about this position. I gave him the names of the two people this position would report to, one of whom had told me he would be taking over the hiring process – both of these names were new to him. Sheesh. This doesn’t reflect poorly on the job, necessarily, but I’m not particularly impressed with this recruiter. So that’s currently up in the air.

I called to check on the Abbott position again. The guy there is still interviewing people (I think he’s been through ten or twelve candidates so far). This does not inspire confidence, and it tells me that the probabilities of that one are diminishing. As I was afraid would happen, the recruiter indicated that the client probably thought I was overqualified for the position. I technically am, but at the same time it would be a good return to chemical engineering fundamentals. On the bright side, the recruiter got an interview for another position for me. Yay! The interview is on Tuesday, September 21, at 3 PM.

And so it looks again like I’ll be driving up to Chicago. And since it would be stupid to turn around and come home when the MFF staff meeting is on the 26th, I’ll be sticking around for that. In the meantime, I’ll be looking for jobs and trying to nail down something. Current plans are that I might be driving up on Sunday, though a lot depends on where Ivan tracks – right now it’s forecast to advance to the southern Appalachians and just sit there through Monday, so that would make the first 6-or-so hours of driving extremely unpleasant. Hmm, if only I knew a couple of foxes who lived along the way so I could break the trip up. Whoever would that be, I wonder? (Hey, aerofox or loriana – gimme a shout and let me know if you already have plans for this weekend. I’m assuming that your bright.net addresses no longer apply. I can drive straight through if need be, but with the slowdown from the rain, well, it’s not my first choice.)

I need to fire off an e-mail to my contact at Corn Products and let him know I’ll be available for an interview next week or the one after, too. Off to be useful…

A couple of geeky things for folks this morning:
First off, there’s a new Windows vulnerability. Yay. This one’s kinda nasty – it’s a security hole in JPEG image files, and it affects Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Office XP, Office 2003, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, Project, Visio, Picture It and Digital Image Pro. Anyone who’s already installed Service Pack 2 is OK, but for the rest of us who are too cautious/just waiting/don’t want the hassle, here’s Microsoft’s site on the vulnerability and how to patch it.

Next up, a note to T-Mobile Sidekick owners: that trade-in for $100 credit on a new SK2? Yeah, they’re having a few problems with it. Apparently, it’s still on, but they are completely swamped. Just an FYI.

And finally, something non-geeky for the rest of us: ZOMBIE CAKE! (link cribbed from lokilinks, a collection of fun links that I picked up yesterday)

So, I’m sitting in Donald‘s garage right now, working on my latest creation, a Mackeson’s XXX Stout clone. Donald, Janelle, Dan, and I went to out local homebrew supply store yesterday, and while I picked up supplies for this batch and my next one (a McEwan’s Scotch ale clone), Donald and Janelle decided to upgrade to the Cadillac of brewing equipment: a nice 60-quart brew pot, with built-in thermometer and spigot. Add to this a nice wort chiller and a couple of other items, well, that’s why we’re brewing at his house today 🙂 I’m all jealous, I might add, but I really appreciate his sharing his equipment. Pictures should come later, once Dan arrives with the digital camera.

So, after homebrew supply shopping yesterday, Dan, Janelle, and I went over to Thomas and Sherry‘s place. We were joined by Rich and had an enjoyable evening playing a bit of poker, followed by a rousing game of Dork Tower. Much fun was had, and we packed it in around 11:30.

And today, we brew. Well, for now, anyway. After this batch, we’re going to make a Guinness clone for Donald, then the Scotch ale will come later this week. And of course the MFF staff meeting tonight. Busy busy busy!

Another quiet week. That sucks. Still waiting to hear back on the Gastonia job, as well as the position at Abbott. Apparently, the story on the latter position is that the guy is interviewing a crazy number of people for it – wants to be sure he gets right one, I guess. The recruiter has also submitted my resume for another validation position with Abbott. We’ll see if they want to interview me or what.

Having a bunch of folks over for dinner tonight, so I’m doing my usual thing to distract myself: cook 🙂 On the menu for tonight is Boeuf Bourguignon, as well as a simpler beef stew for folks that aren’t big fans of wine or mushrooms. There’s rumors of brownies for dessert, and I’m sure that Donald will be supplying some tasty wine. I had to pick up a Dutch oven, but it’s been something I’ve been wanting for quite a while – more stews for the winter, yay!

Not a lot planned for the weekend, except that we need to clear out by 11 AM tomorrow so they can show the house. Dan’s a bit grumpy, as this means an early wake-up for him, but I suggested we make use of the time to do…something. We’ll see what comes of that. Other than that, there’s the MFF staff meeting online on Sunday, and that’s about it. Crunch time is on the horizon!

Edit: Just got a phone call from Corn Products – they’re interested in possibly setting up an interview. Yeah! That was a call I was definitely waiting for. We’ll see when they want to do it; I mentioned I would already be up there at the end of the month.

After the Puzzle Party on Monday, we drove over to Brier Creek and saw Garden State. This is Zach Braff’s new movie (he stars in “Scrubs”), which he wrote, directed, and starred in. I have to say, I thought it was a genuinely outstanding and convincing movie. It’s frustrating the way Braff underplays his role early in the movie, then you learn that there’s a very good reason for it.

This isn’t one of those epic, globe- and time-spanning stories, this is an almost-claustrophobic view into a few days of one man’s life, and that takes some getting used to after some of the summer blockbusters drek I’ve seen lately. I can’t say it had quite the resonance for me that kittylad found in it, but at the same time I can see why he would feel that way. I left feeling like I had seen an excellent story played out by excellent actors who immersed themselves in their roles. Braff, Peter Sarsgaard, and Natalie Portman (!) all were fabulous. I need that soundtrack, too.

You really should see this movie. Interestingly, a lot of other people feel the same way. Wow. That’s pretty damn cool.

Incidentally, be sure to check out Zach Braff’s weblog -fun stuff!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty dull, unfortunately. We didn’t get too much done around the house, though we did get a start on bringing boxes up from the basement and going through them. We sorted through five partially-filled boxes of kitchen equipment, threw out the stuff we didn’t want/need any more, and reduced that down to two boxes. There’s a lot more of that sort of thing to be done, including several bags to be prepared for Goodwill.

On Monday, though, we finally got some motivation into ourselves and headed out to the News and Observer’s Downtown Puzzle Party in Raleigh. The weather was pretty spotty – on-again, off-again rain, which is never fun. We braved it, though, along with about 400 other people. The idea was that you would visit four locations throughout downtown Raleigh (the clues to which were given in the newspaper earlier in the week). In reality, it wasn’t that hard, since they advised that everyone visit the locations in order. This meant that even if you had no idea what the clues were, you could just follow the mob. That was kind of a bummer, but oh well.

The first clue was a couple of street preachers extolling the virtues of suffering to get what you desire. They cited Job, Chapter 8, verses 3 through 6 repeatedly. Hmm. OK. Is it a cryptogram? We puzzled over it a bit while heading over to the second location.

There, we found a couple debating what shows to see. They mentioned Broadway Series South prominently, that he liked shows about death while she liked perky shows about rainbows. As this was going on, a homeless guy behind them held a sign that said, “Please Help” and kept asking for $2.88 for bus fare. Takaza started to piece it together at this point – I admit I was still mystified.

At the third location, a duo on guitar and bass played a cover of Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” while a chalk artist drew pictures on the sidewalk in front of them – five stick-figures, five suns, five hearts. When they were done, they talked about how they really wished they had more people – a quintet, even. Dan had a pretty good idea of what the answer was at this point, but I was withholding judgment until we hit the fourth location.

At the final location, we found a mother who was trying to get her son to call her on the phone. She kept telling him that the last number of the phone number was five, and stressed that he really needed to call her more often. That confirmed to us that Dan had the right answer.

So, what was the answer, and what was the outcome?

I seem to have six Gmail invitations. Comment here with your e-mail address or e-mail me and let me know if you’d like a Gmail account (though it looks like they seem to be flooding the market a bit).

Update – All gone, folks! Sorry. I’ll post again when I have more.

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