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!

Great linkage

For those of you with any taste in design or architecture (or just want a good laugh), I would like to direct you to James Howard Kunstler’s Eyesore of the Month, a showcase of design disasters with suitably pithy and amusing (and occasionally profane) commentary.

For those of you who went to Virginia Tech, I especially point you to the April, 2001 edition – I agree wholeheartedly with his comments!

Link provided by the always-fabulous BoingBoing

On a more serious note

We also got some important news yesterday. takaza‘s surgery has been scheduled for Friday, December 19. There are two possible outcomes: the good one has him in the hospital overnight then recovering for a week or two before going back to work. The not-so-good one has him in the hospital for four to five days and recovery will take more like four to six weeks. It’s impossible to know which outcome we’ll be seeing until after the surgery starts, so I’m preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. We appreciate all of the good thoughts and prayers from all of our friends, and we’ll be sure to keep everyone updated as things progress.

As an aside, I’d note that unfortunately we may not be able to host our annual Orphan’s Christmas dinner – we’ll have to figure out on the fly if Dan will be up for it. Likewise the New Year’s Eve Party, though I’m a bit more optimistic about that. Again, we’ll keep folks updated once we know what’s going on after the surgery.

And now, off to make myself useful!

It was a good night.

People liked the music (and I just want to say that I would never use Kazaa Lite to track down requests on the spot for people. That Would Be Wrong). Hell, they were actually out on the dance floor, for the first time in three years. We walked away with $150 from the “Money Machine” (bunch of bills blown around in a chamber) and a couple of nice gift certificates.

A pretty good night overall.

Happiness is…

Having to DJ your husband’s company’s Holiday Party and discovering that the building has unencrypted wireless access with broadband Internet.

Damn, this evening just got a whole lot more entertaining…

Well, that’s that

So, wildmouse was kind enough to proctor my final exam for my Introduction to HACCP class last night, a favor for which I thanked her with a Granny’s Apple Pie apple from Rocky Mountain Spotted Chocolate Factory. Nummy! The test was easy, all of twenty questions, multiple choice and true/false. It took maybe 20 minutes, then I spent the better part of an hour and a half chatting, helping her and me_not_you plan for their Christmas party next weekend, and enjoying a glass of their excellent Remy Martin XO cognac.

The good news is that with that exam, in addition to the three papers and other final exam I completed earlier this week, I am now completely finished with classwork for this semester. The feedback I’ve gotten from my professors has been rather minimal, but as near as I can tell I’ve gotten well above the 80%-or-better grades required to get my HACCP certificate. If all goes well, I might even get a shiny star on it if my grades are over 90%.

Does this certificate actually get me anything? Probably not. But it improved my knowledge of food processing a bit, it put my student loans on hold for four months (which more than covered my tuition!), and gave me the ability to say that I was taking classes for the last few months instead of sitting on my ass. I doubt I’ll be taking the second tier of classes because it just doesn’t seem to really get me anything. A cursory review of “Food Safety Manager” jobs listed on Monster and Careerbuilder shows one or two jobs at most, and those require a minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in the food field. So no more school for me, at least in the near future.

This leaves me with my life again. Now that I’ve wrapped up classes and MFF is past and hiring is pretty much completely dead until after the holidays, I’ll have a lot more time available to me. This is nice, because I’ve got a number of things I’d like to do. I need to wrap up some stuff from MFF this year and planning for next year. I also want to cook a bit more – we’ve been getting by on a lot of really boring and uninspiring dinners, and now I have the time to do something about it. And finally, I want to get outdoors a bit more – some more hiking, and also get back into geocaching. I’ve been too much of a couch potato for the last three months, and I want to do something to improve on that. On the entertaining horizon, we’re going to host an Orphan’s Christmas Dinner the night before/night after Christmas to which the Gang and all of our friends are invited. We’re also hosting a New Years Eve party, though we’ve not even begun planning that one.

So that’s the current state of the husky. For today: meet takaza at Carolina Wine Company to pick out some wines for his company’s Holiday Party (which I am also the DJ for). Also, I need to get some lists of cheesy dance music and check our MP3 directory to see if we have it, otherwise it’s off for a little P2P surfing. Tonight, dinner with friends at a truly yummy restaurant! And tomorrow evening, the Holiday Party. And on Sunday, we rest. Yay!

MFF report still to come. Really! I mean it!

Husky’s Return English Special Bitter

(Just to commit this to Memories, and to share with all you brewers out there)

Husky’s Return English Special Bitter
Brewed by Duncan da Husky, 26 October, 2003

Ingredients
7 lbs Pale/Light Malt Extract
2 lbs Amber malt extract
2 oz. Galena hop pellets (60 minutes)
2 oz. Goldings hop pellets (15 minutes)
1 tsp. Irish moss
1 oz. Goldings hop pellets (10 minutes)
1 pkg. Wyeast London ESB liquid yeast #1968

Instructions
(Directions assume you’re using a turkey fryer burner and a 5-gallon brewpot)
1. Place malt extract in hot water to thin it out
2. Place 2 gallons of water into brewpot and put on burner on high
3. When water comes to a boil, turn off burner
4. Add malt extract to the pot – pour off unused amount first
5. Stir until completely dissolved
6. Restart the burner and partially cover the pot.
7. When pot comes to a boil, add the first hop addition
8. Skim the foam from the pot from time to time
9. Add second hops addition and Irish moss
10. Add third hops addition
11. Turn off the heat and cover the pot with foil then the lid
12. Cool the wort as quickly as possible by placing the pot in a sink and submerging the bottom with cold water and ice while stirring constantly
13. Pour three gallons of water into the fermenter
14. When wort if cooled to 120 F, add to fermenter (Aerate!)
15. Wait until the wort is below 80 F before pitching yeast
16. Check and record specific gravity
17. Place blow-off tube on fermenter, place other end of tube in pot of water, making sure the end is submerged.
18. After blow-off period (2 days maximum), replace blow-off tube with airlock.
19. Ferment at 65 F for a total of ten days before bottling (air lock will stop “blooping”)
20. Let condition in the bottle at least one week before drinking, and preferably at least two weeks.

Original Gravity (5 gallons): 1.060
Final gravity (at bottling): 1.014
Alcohol content: 4.83%

Notes: Extremely vigorous blow-off – lost a good two quarts of wort (sob!). Finished product is excellent – malty, not too hoppy. I’d make this one again.

Actual content coming soon

Yes, I’ve got a con report in the works, but I have a paper and two finals still to go this week, so that will wait. In the meantime, may I present you with this lovely, Not-Safe-For-Work link for the latest in personal hygiene:

Sphincterine!
It’s refreshing! It tingles!
Available now at http://www.mintyass.com/!

Explanation: We heard about this on Sirius Satellite Radio‘s OutQ Network, on the fabulous Derek and Romaine Show as part of their “Naughty But Nice Holiday Gift Guide.” Very, very cool!

Registration Musings

Well, I have yet to write up even a semi-coherent post about Midwest FurFest, but in the meantime, I want to address a topic near and dear to my heart: Registration. It’s funny, because in all the con reports I’ve read I haven’t seen a lot of mention of registration, something which is just fine with me. Reg is one of those things you only hear a lot about when things go wrong, and things went spectacularly right for us this year.

Preparations for this year were more stressful in years past. I was stupid and didn’t follow the timeline I set out for myself last year (you know, the one that I made so I wouldn’t go insane?) and for that I paid the price of large quantities of stress. Everything came together on Tuesday before the con when the registration bags arrived five hours before we drove out for Chicago. That’s cutting things a bit too close. Next year, this Will Not Be The Case.

We also got an unpleasant surprise when we arrived at the hotel: the coat closet that we had used in previous years was completely unavailable to us due to being flooded two weeks prior and they had STILL not found or repaired the leak. This meant that we had to set up in the hallways in front of the coat check, and in hindsight this was actually a Good Thing. We had a lot more space to work with, and I think we actually handled attendees better with this configuration than we would have otherwise, although it was at a cost of packing everything up every night, something that was distinctly unpleasant but not too onerous. We’ll be sticking with this configuration for next year, with some minor adjustments (and having the coat closet available for storage will make it much more livable!)

Then the people came. And came. And came. This year we added a time stamp to every badge printed, so I was able to do traffic analysis. At the peak of processing on Thursday night, we registered one person every twenty seconds. On Friday morning, with fewer people and fewer stations that went up to one person every thirty seconds. Damn. To the best of my knowledge no one waited longer than fifteen minutes to get their badge all weekend. I consider that damn good, but there’s still room for improvement. We have some changes to make to our system, both in software and hardware, that will really speed things along. Next year, my goal is that no one waits longer than ten minutes. We’ll see if we can hit that.

I suppose I’m making this all sound like I did it myself, and I want to assure everyone that I am laboring under no such delusions. This was very much a team effort, and there’s a great many thank-you’s to go out, starting first and foremost with rustitobuck. Rusty is responsible for all the programming for the registration database, and this is the third year in a row that it has worked and worked well. Even in the face of printer issues (as in, nothing would print!) hours before Registration opened on Thursday, he held everything together and came through with a system that withstood the beating that we gave it. You’re awesome, Mr. Wookiee, and I can’t thank you enough!

My second-in-command, DaveQat, did a fine job of keeping things running and sorting through issues in my absence and even when I was there. Be ready for a lot more to do in the coming year, Dave, ’cause I’m ready to offload some of these preparations to you!

Then there’s my staff. At times I feel sort of like an Amway salesman, dragging friends onto Registration staff whether they like it or not. They put up with me, though, somehow, and do an amazing job. It’s because of these great people that we were able to be as efficient as we were and they deserve your thanks:
Ramalion (I so owe you for this, and the next time I’m at MFM I know where I’ll be working!), Osiris (kittylad), Tsuki, Benjie (boixboi), Rasslor, Feren (because, you know, Art Show didn’t give him enough to do…), Jackie (my mother-in-law :-), Synicism, Tecknow, damnbear (hey, how’d you get in there?), and Rolliebear. Y’all are all fantastic, and I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for your help during the convention.

Many thanks, too, to the fabulous gophers cuttercoon (you were there when I needed you!), bakimono (so quiet and efficient I forgot to mention you), and Cheesecake (chsck83) (damn, even I don’t pull six-and-a-half hour shifts at Registration!). I appreciate the time you volunteered and hope you enjoyed it as well.

And finally, thanks very, very much to my beloved husband, Takaza, who not only put up with my annoying crap leading up to the con, but provided support throughtout the con and ordered pizza for us on Thursday night so my Registration staff was fed and happy! He’s really neat, and I’m going to keep him 🙂

So there you have it. We rocked this year, quite frankly, and we have set the standard for next year. And with the crew that I have (and any other interested folks who care to join us), I am absolutely certain that we can be even better next year. Way to go, folks!