First off, how could Food Network start a new season of A Cook’s Tour and not tell me? Bastards! It looks like they’re on episode 7 this week (9:30 PM EDT on 6/13) – should be amusing: “Kansas City, Houston, North Carolina: The BBQ Triangle”

I just tried Lochjournal after a year and a half of using Semagic. The spell checking of Lochjournal was really crappy; Semagic invokes MS Word and uses Word’s spellchecker, which is fine if a little clunky sometimes. It’s certainly more robust than the one that comes with Lochjournal, so on that basis alone Lochjournal gets the boot.

Finally, check out the latest in electronic gadgets, circa 1983!
Laptops/PCs: GRiD Compass 1101
First clamshell laptop computer. The Compass has a black magnesium alloy case, a gas plasma display, 384KB of memory, and for hacking while on the road, a lightning-fast 1200bps internal modem.
Why do I see this as something posicat will enjoy? 🙂

First it hurts like hell all weekend, now it feels fine come Monday. Neat trick, huh? Go figure. Well, I’ll skip the doctor visit this time, but next time it flares up I’m definitely going to have it looked at.

Not too much going on today, just bumming around the house. Got my prescriptions taken care of – Aetna will definitely not cover Nexium, but my doctor switched it to Aciphex, which is fine by me as long as it works. I’m getting him to write the prescription for 90 days as opposed to 30 days + 2 refills because I’d rather a co-pay of $60 for 90 days’ supply than $30 for 30 days’. Not that you cared, but hey, it’s what’s occupying me these days.

The receptionist where Dan works didn’t show up to work today, and after a bit of a runaround it finally appeared she didn’t care for the assignment. So she’s gone – that’s six receptionists in six weeks. Very impressive. I even volunteered to do the job temporarily (hey, $7/hour > $0/hour, and my unemployment benefits run out this week), but it was decided that if they didn’t get someone into the position permanently, they may lose the position completely due to cost-cutting measures at home office. This raises an interesting possibility: I may investigate temp agencies next week (assuming I don’t hear from GLCC) to see if I can get some short-term assignments. I’d be ridiculously overqualified (yeah, I have a masters in chemical engineering), but I can answer phones and type reasonably fast with the best of them and I can make any Microsoft Office application jump up and do whatever I tell it to. I think it’s probably a low-probability source of income, but it doesn’t hurt to try and it beats sitting around the house all day.

So, Friday found me out geocaching again, trying to find that furshlugginer cache that continues to elude me (no link because geocaching.org seems to be down). As I was wandering about in the woods, my cell phone rings. It’s a recruiter: would I be available for a phone interview in three hours. Oh hell yeah! So I rushed home, printed out a copy of my resume, as well as the detailed two-page (!) job description and a copy of my notes from an earlier discussion with the recruiter. This one’s a doozy – a job in the pilot plant of Great Lakes Chemical Company, in Lafayette, Indiana. Oh man, I’d be all over that! It’s a perfect location for us – rural, which Dan likes, reasonably close to cities, which I like, and close to Chicago, which we both like.

So I chatted with the guy from GLCC for about 40 minutes, and I think we established a pretty good rapport. He stressed that they’re early on in the process and he had more candidates to talk to so he couldn’t start talking about invitations to visit or anything (if fact, I’ll bet I was the first candidate he talked to), but I think my chances are still pretty good. I should hear something within the next week or so. This would be a great job, a great location, and great pay. Keep your paws crossed!

I was riding on a high after that, so I was quite happy when we got an invite from me_not_you to join him and wildmouse for dinner Friday night. The reason for the occasion was Janelle’s final day of the school year – she’s a counselor at a local public high school, and really busts her butt yet receives very little recognition. It was definitely a reason to celebrate (we’ll celebrate more later this week with a shopping trip for Joseph Schmidt truffles and some tasty champagne!). We went to Biaggi’s, which was OK – think Olive Garden’s food in a better setting and slightly more expensive and you’ll be pretty close. We made it an early night, since Takaza had gotten up ridiculously early. Seeing him standing over me wide awake, showered, and bouncy at 6 AM was a truly surreal experience 🙂

Saturday was a downer. We were going to catch a canine Frisbee competition, but it was drizzly all morning and when we went to check it out, they had cancelled it due to rain. Argh! So we went and got breakfast, then bummed around the house for the rest of the day and watched accumulated TiVo goodness. Donald ICQ’d and suggested dinner, so we invited them over. I threw together a quick marinade and tossed a cut-up chicken into it ((canola oil, white wine vinegar, marjoram, shallots, garlic – no salt since the chicken was already brined), Dan, made some delicious mashed potatoes, and I steamed some green beans – simple, but yummy. For dessert, it was a run through a torrential downpour to Silvia D’Italia’s for gelato.

Today was even lazier. Watched some TiVo (highlights from about 8 Great Chefs of the World and learning to make sushi on East Meets West), went to the grocery store for the week’s shopping, and then watched some more TiVo (A couple of eps of Insomniac, as well a couple of Ground Forces). I grilled up some burgers and our roommate joined us for dinner, and Dan made some tasty cinnamon chip scones. A nice evening all around.

Two down notes from the weekend: First off, starting Thursday night my right knee started hurting. It got progressively worse until by Friday night I could barely move it. It’s gotten a little better – as long as I keep moving it, I can walk and get around through the soreness, but if I stop and sit for a while, moving it again it torture. I plan to see the doctor about it tomorrow.

Second, word on the CarolinaFurs mailing list is that Perro‘s apartment flooded last night in the midst of all the rains that swept through the area. Apparently his rug is soggy, but at least got back power early this afternoon. He got off lucky, because apparently the buildings in his complex (which are presumably further downhill) will have to be demolished. Our thoughts are with ya, mutt, and let us know if there’s anything we can do to help!

A couple of folks have pointed out this story which was discussed on Slashdot yesterday. It’s old news, really – current policy for the North Carolina state parks system is that while caches are discouraged (virtual caches are preferred), caches can be placed in a park for up to three months if a $25 fee is paid. The reasoning for this is valid, in my opinion – I have seen places where a path has been work to caches placed off-trail, and a lot of the local vegetation has been disturbed. (OK, the bit about caches having “inappropriate or dangerous items” is a load of crap, though, considering the typical cache contains stuff on the order of toys you’d get in a Happy Meal)

I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to post a cache clue and to place a cache. If placing a cache in the woods, the right way is to put it somewhat near the trail, in a location that will not lead to too much disruption of the natural area. This is an example of a bad cache placement – the cache was hidden in a depression in the ground, under some leaves. This led to lots of tramping around the area, poking into holes with sticks, and pretty much as much disruption as you can imagine.

Geocaching is a lot of fun, but it needs to be done right. “Cache in, trash out” is a good code to follow (pick up trash on your way out), and be aware of where you’re walking. If it looks like getting to a cache might cause damage to the local ecosystem, skip it, and note it on the website – maybe this will drive the cache owner to place it in a less damaging location.

I finally got off my butt and posted the pictures we took at the North Carolina Zoo back in February when we visited with Partran and Luagha. They’re in our photo gallery – enjoy!

Not much going on this week, which is quite a difference from last week. Not much going on on the job front, though there’s a possibility in Columbus that I’m exploring. That would be a pretty good location, but we’ll see what comes to pass. Otherwise, there’s not much on the job listings I follow at the moment, but that can change quickly. So I wait, and call recruiters, and keep the faith.

Yesterday we went over to Thomas and Sherry’s for our bi-weekly Mage/Werewolf game. Just before we headed up there, while I was grilling up burgers on the back deck, we were paid a surprise visit by a local canine denizen – a very friendly guy who looked to be an akita/chow mix (maybe?).
Here’s his smiling face!

Not enough time to write a big journal entry right now. Takaza wrote a nice wrap-up of our weekend, so I’ll spare you that. I’m off to Kansas City in a few hours for a job interview. If I were less frazzled I’d write in detail about why I’m frazzled, but that’ll have to wait a few days. I’ll be back later tomorrow night, and I’ll be off the net for the duration (aaaagh!). Y’all will get a full report on things when I get back.

(Hmm – I just noticed my flight out goes though Midway. Geeze, I thought it was direct. Pity you can’t do much with a 30-minute layover!)

Because sometimes you have to speak directly to the source

Cartoon hidden here to speed loading of Friends’ Pages

Been remiss in updating here, mainly because I’ve been feeling pretty down. Things are on the upturn, so its time to bring things up to date…

This is gonna be a long one…

(LJ was barfing earlier, so here’s another shot at posting this. It should have been posted at 6 PM)

You now, the downside of having wireless access through a cable modem at home is that local WiFi/broadband hotspots don’t quite have the cachet that they could, but hey, it’s nice to have.

So, I’m sitting here waiting for Takaza to show up here at Dakota Grill, which offers the aforementioned WiFi access, allowing me to kill a little time by posting to LiveJournal. Dakota Grill, by the way, not only specializes in the cuisine of North Dakota (seriously – apparently there is a “cuisine” there) but it is also notable for being the only place in the Triangle I know of that offers that most unique of Canadian delicacies, poutine. Mmm, cholesterol goodness. On the bright side, I just discovered that Thursday night is 1/2 price “premium” beer night – hey, I’ll take $1.50 Sam Adams with a smile!

Anyway, after a tasty meal here, we’re headed over to the new Movies at Brier Creek to see The Matrix Reloaded. I’ll post my impressions on it tomorrow, suitably hidden behind a cut tag (thanks, rigelkitty!).

Well, it looks like we’re not going to make the shindig in Blacksburg this weekend – looking at our checking account balance versus the cost for gas and meals for two up there, it looks like we’ll be better off staying at home. We are kicking around plans to go up in June, though, to do some tubing on the New River – vt_komainu, I’ll give you a shout if that comes to pass. Instead, we’re going to check out Artsplosure here in Raleigh, and maybe catch a movie (Lost in La Mancha is opening at Madstone tomorrow, and I still want to see A Mighty Wind). Or we may just lay around Sunday and be slave to the Tivo. Either way is fine by me.

Hmm, my phone isn’t connecting to the Sprint network. This is Not a Good Sign. Given that it’s a reconditioned phone, it could mean that I’m on my way to a new phone. Ick – I’ll have to pursue that tomorrow.

Food’s here! Time to eat.

Well, it has been pointed out to me that I have indeed not posted this recipe, so here it is for your tasting enjoyment. These are wonderful, fudgy brownies.

Brownies with White Chocolate Chunks

Well, that was quite a lovely weekend. We had a nice lazy Saturday morning, then ran a few errands. First, a stop by Total Wine, a new wine superstore in the area. My assessment: I wasn’t particularly impressed by the selection – it seemed like a slightly expanded version of what you might find in the Harris Teeter wine section. They’d never heard of Marquis-Phillips, which is a definite strike against them in my book. I suppose their prices might have been good, though I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to save a buck on a bottle of Beringer Merlot. The beer section didn’t have anything I wouldn’t find at Whole Foods. Given that they’re in a very inconvenient location (in Crossroads Plaza, across from Beast Buy, for you locals), I can’t say I’d go out of my way to go there again. Besides, I’m very happy with the selection and customer service at Carolina Wine Company.

From there it was over to Whole Foods for ingredients to make brownies with white chocolate (have I posted that recipe to LJ? I need to go back and check). We splurged and got European butter (higher butterfat content) along with Ghirardelli chocolate. Once the brownies were made, it was off to fuzzytoedcollie‘s lovely home for dinner with him and darkwolph. I hadn’t met Wolphy before though I’d seen him around Furfest – he’s a very nice guy (and unattached, I hear, for those of you in the market 😉 Stories were swapped, much iced tea was drunk, and we all enjoyed the delicious rotisserie chicken that Joe prepared. Thanks again for a delightful evening, both of you!

Sunday. Well, there’s not much to report about Sunday because we didn’t do diddly, and it was quite wonderful. Our biggest accomplishment for the day was to reduce the list of programs on our Tivo down to two screens – pretty good for a day’s work I’d say! (Though that may be more episodes of “The Fairly Oddparents” than I ever want to see in one sitting again) We were up a bit late catching the disappointing “Survivor” finale (hey, we were pulling for Matthew – yeah he was a freakjob, but he was better than the ditz who won).

So, plans for the week – we’ve got the Mage/Werewolf on Wednesday, then we’re getting the Gang together to see The Matrix Reloaded on Thursday. This coming weekend is up in the air – I’d kind of like to go up to Blacksburg for the CarolinaFurs/VT-Furs meet, but Dan’s not sure. I note that there’s a bunch of geocaches in that area, so that could be a fun diversion. It’s been too darned long since I hiked Dragon’s Tooth, too (great views from there – that page also has some shots from McAfee’s Knob, a hike we did a few years back. Tough hike, but what a payoff!). I’m also thinking a nice Chappie’s Choice at Gillies would be pretty darned tasty. We’ll see what we can work out.

Insomnia sucks.

Well, all’s pretty quiet, actually. No signs of life from either Takaza (big shock there) or the roommate. Coffee is calling me soon, but in the meantime, here’s what’s been going on.

When we started the week, we had no plans for this weekend. That got changed somewhere along the line and I’m still trying to figure out what happened…

Here’s the rundown

For your viewing pleasure, I will not take that furshlugginer Dante’s Inferno test.

You’re welcome.

Well, first you take a convention that’s been around for over a decade and ride it into the ground like Slim Pickens at the end of Doctor Strangelove.

Then, you welcome with open arms two television programs that are known for their lowbrow humor and whose only purpose in attending will be to make fun of your convention attendees.

Wow! What a great idea.

There might even be a financial explanation for this, but if so it seems like a hell of a way to sell your friends up the river. Confurence is dead, and I suppose after this it won’t be missed.

This link’s for you, rustitobuck.

You know, wildmouse was exactly right when she opined last night that to have a LiveJournal account is to feel guilty for not writing in it…

So, to first recap the week: I finally got around to getting my bike tuned up and in rideable condition, so on Thursday it was off to explore Black Creek Greenway, a lovely green way I discovered during some earlier geocaching. It was a five-mile round trip (with some stops to hit caches, of course). Good gods, am I out of shape. Also, in hitting the last cache of the day I was walking back to my bike, all self-congratulatory, and didn’t see the big ol’ branch of thorns right across my path. Ouch. So now my legs look thoroughly frightful, but they’re just surface scratches. Anyway, biking and geocaching is an outstanding combination, but since takaza doesn’t really have a bike that’s rideable it’s something that’s a solo activity, which isn’t nearly as much fun. We’ll need to work on that.

Friday was a bit of cleaning and grocery shopping, and making more cinnamon scones, yum. wildmouse and me_not_you came over for dinner, and Dan got to work on setting up the DirecTivo unit that Brophey was so kind to lend us. As expected, we need to get a new card for it but they’re shipping it freebies. It should be here by Tuesday, and the only drawback is that we can’t get local channels on the unit until the card comes in, oh well.

For today? Hm, need to finally get around to cleaning out the garage so we can fit another car in there. Probably need to do some laundry, too. Oh, the excitement! We may wander over to Donald & Janelle’s later to be sociable, too. For now…time to make the coffee.

Mmm, after a hard workout at the gym, nothing counteracts all that virtuous burning of calories like a nice bit of baking. In celebration of the fact that Hershey’s is now making cinnamon chips (we bought two bags at the store this weekend), here’s today’s recipe for Cinnamon Chip Scones

We have succeeded in spreading the evil LiveJournal virus! Welcome to the fold, vileone and ladyinthetower!

Well, that evilness out of the way, what’s new? Not much. Dropped the car off for repairs yesterday (for an estimated $1,229 worth of work – glad I’m not the one paying for it!). I’m renting a 2002 Chevy Impala in its stead; it’s bigger than my Alero, and most definitely not the V6 I’m used to. It’s like driving a large boat through pudding. Lots of room in the passenger area, but I found one oddity – the rear seat doesn’t fold down. How useless is that?

Had an extended chat with a rep from my bank about investment possibilities and the pros and cons of rolling my 401(k) into an IRA – I’m probably going to do that, though my parents have sent me some pointers for other investment possibilities that I need to investigate as well.

Talked with a recruiter for a good long while about a job opportunity in Kansas City, MO. I’m not sure about this one – the job is an interesting one, but the location just doesn’t excite me at all. The third time he asked me if I was really sure I was interested in relocating to KC, I was starting to wonder myself. I need to send him more info by tomorrow, and I’m still up in the air if I should go for it or back out. Need to talk to Dan some more about this.

And finally, last night we went for our biweekly Mage/Werewolf game at Thomas and Sherry’s new place. Lots of fun, though combat in the White Wolf system has a bad habit of bringing everything to a screeching halt. Fun was had, regardless.

Today: Baked some nummy bread (first baking in the new house! Yay!). Did laundry. Dropped my bike off to have it resurrected from the dead (actually, it’s only going to need a tune-up). And tonight, we join the Gang for dinner at Lubrano’s for some tasty “red sauce” Italian food. It ain’t fancy, but it sure tastes good! To quote a certain someone: Arr num num num!

Oh yeah…Livejournal. I’m supposed to keep this thing updated, aren’t I?

Actually, this week has been so full of mundane stuff that it’s almost not worth documenting. All the stuff you do after you move – unpack, sort stuff, put up curtains, that kind of thing. To give people an idea of where we are now: We’re sharing a 2,000+ square-foot house with a bachelor friend, John. He’s had several roommates in the last few years and they all seem to leave their stuff with him. This has the benefit that if we need space we can box up whatever’s in the way and make room – he doesn’t actually have much furniture here. We have two roughly 12 x 12 rooms upstairs – one for the bedroom and one for an office. The bedroom is pretty much consumed by our king-sized bed, unfortunately, though we’re able to squeeze in our dresser and headboard. In the office we have the loveseat, Dan’s desk, a filing cabinet, the phone stand (with cookbooks, of course), and our TV/Tivo/DVD setup.

The kitchen is an interesting problem. Lots of stuff in there belongs to an old roommate, though John has some staples in there. He doesn’t really cook much, so he hasn’t had much use for all the cooking equipment. We’re going to try to box up everything that we can this weekend and see if we can fit all of the crucial stuff from our kitchen in there. I tried cooking a few times last week and between not knowing where anything was and having to dig through boxes to find some equipment that was missing, I was going nuts. So that’s tomorrow’s project.

The other project is to move the last bit of stuff that’s occupying the left side of the garage to the basement, or at least move it out of the way enough be able to park our car in there. Oh, and return the ceiling fans we bought, since we can’t install them since there aren’t proper fan boxes in the bedroom and office.

But that’s for the weekend. Now…now we go out for dinner at Spartacus, yummy Greek food and flaming cheese! Opa!

That’s all it took. Ten people and one twenty-four foot long truck moved the entire contents of a 2,050 square foot house out and into our new place in three hours and fifteen minutes, and that includes a fifteen-minute lunch break. Afterwards, Donald and Janelle kindly provided kitchen facilities and many burgers and much other good food was consumed, though we were a tired lot. We did, however, prove that ten people will fit on the Sofa of Doom!

Many, many, many thanks to Donald, Janelle, Rob, Beth, Thomas, Sherry, John, and Datahawk for providing moving assistance!

Oh, and as Takaza mentioned, my neighbor at our old house was kind enough to mark the occasion of our moving by hitting my car. It’s a minor dent on the rear door of the driver’s side – nothing incapacitating, but quite annoying. She was extremely apologetic, and quite nice about it. We exchanged contact and insurance information, and I’ll be calling my insurance agent tommorow.

On the agenda for tomorrow: Data and I will be cleaning the house in the morning, then the closing on the house is at 2 PM. After that – probably blessed relaxation.

Up at 6:30 this morning – I would have slept later, but I woke up and thought of everything we have to do today, and then there was no going back to sleep.

We (me, Takaza, and Datahawk) got a lot done yesterday: took over all of the hanging stuff from our closets, as well as the bulky kitchen stuff that wouldn’t box up easily, most of the A/V equipment, and all of our desktop PC’s (we own too many freakin’ monitors!). We also picked up the moving truck yesterday – a 24-foot long behemoth. With the cab, it’s probably about 30 feet long. Hey, did you know that our driveway is just about 30 feet long? Neither did we! It’s parked in there quite snugly right now, and we’ll probably have to pull it into the street a little bit when we extend the ramp and start moving stuff in.

Anyway, after we got the truck and moved a few items over to the new place, we headed over to Sam’s Club and picked up a huge number of hamburgers, buns, and cheese for tonight. We dropped those by me_not_you and wildmouse‘s place and got to meet their Sofa of Doom! We helped them move their old sectional sofa upstairs, and then we all adjourned to Lubrano’s for yummy Italian food and good company. Good times. Afterwards, we headed home (with a short stop by Lowes to pick up doughnuts and stuff to drink for today). I headed to bed moderately early, but Takaza and Datahawk stayed up…late. Maybe 1 AM? Silly people, we’ve got work to do today!

So, looking around here, there’s nothing left now except lots and lots of boxes stuffed into the dining room, the furniture (still arranged as normal, which lends a surreality to the place), and a scattering of the usual unsorted leftovers that can be boxed up in a few quick minutes. I need to drive up to Manhattan Bagels and pick up a dozen or so bagels to feed the masses helping us move. They should start arriving by 11 AM (though if I know some of them we might even see them by 10:30). Meanwhile, I’ve got a couple more Starbucks Doubleshots to get me kickstarted while I quickly peruse the morning paper. Whee!

Well, packing is going slowly, but then quite frankly there isn’t that much left to pack. We boxed up the garage yesterday, and took stuff to Goodwill. We still need to go through the master bedroom closet and pull out clothes that can also go to Goodwill. I have two sets of crutches and a couple of canes left over from my ankle surgeries that need to be donated…somewhere. Not sure just where yet, but I’d like to take them someplace where they’ll do some good. Did lunch at Suchi yesterday with Datahawk – very tasty Indian food, and I’m always a sucker for mango lassi. For dinner we went out to Playmakers and played some trivia and had (so-so) chicken sandwiches and pizza for dinner. Tonight it’s “let’s save money and eat in” night, with pork roast or pork chops, depending on whether I feel like cutting up the roast or not.

The phone interview yesterday went reasonably well, though it’s strange interviewing for a chemical engineering position with a company that has never employed a chemical engineer before. There is a distinction between someone who knows how to make a product, how to package the product, and how to apply the product – I have experience with the first two but not the last, which is what they want. I would feel comfortable doing it, and they are aware of my lack of experience – let’s see just how big of a risk they’re willing to take.

On the agenda for today: wake up Datahawk eventually (she was coughing terribly last night and probably didn’t sleep well, so I’m just going to let her sleep as late as she likes), have lunch with Thomas, then pack up the living room closet and bathroom cabinets when we get back. Tomorrow is the biggie: packing up the kitchen. Then on Saturday we’ll pack up the last bits and stage it all in the dining room and move it all out on Sunday, whee. I’m very rapidly approaching the stage where I just want it done.

Hmm – I should probably change some more addresses online. Off to take care of that…

So now we’re into crunch time on the move.

I picked up Datahawk at the airport last night at around 11. Predictably, we stayed up too late chatting (and Takaza, silly wolf that he is, came down to join us), so when the alarm went off at 6 AM, we were both hurting. I wish I was the kind of person who, when woken, can easily roll over and go back to sleep. I’m not. Oh well. Gonna be an early night tonight…

So the plan today is to move some of our accumulated artwork (30 or 40 pictures, I think) over to the new place. We also need to move the dozen-or-so boxes in the garage down to the basement to make room for two cars to park there. Once we’re done with that, we’ll see what else needs doing – maybe take some of the smaller items over as well, we’ll see.

Some bright news on the job front – I have a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon with a company outside of Rochester, MN. It’s an odd fit, and neither the recruiter nor I thought they’d be interested in my resume but we were both wrong. A phone interview certainly doesn’t cost me anything so we’ll see what happens.

As stated before, Casa di Canine has been sold. We passed all the inspections with flying colors (need to do some minor touch-up stuff myself, nothing that we have to bring in help for) and the closing is on Monday, April 14. We have a 24′ truck reserved for Saturday, April 12 – Monday, April 14 and will be moving everything on Sunday the 13th – hopefully in just one trip. We’re even bringing in help for packing and moving – Datahawk will be joining us for a little over a week starting next Monday. For out-of-town folks who offered to help: it looks like we’ll have at least six friends showing up locally to help, so I think we’ll have it covered. Thanks for the offers, though!

The new place is less than ten miles away, in the teeming metropolis of Apex, NC. One nice thing is that although our postal address will change (let me know if you need that), nothing else will – our phone number will remain the same. Of course all the usual e-mail addresses won’t change.

The house in currently in a modest state of disarray – I broke down the dining room table and we’re staging boxes and easily-movable furniture in the dining room, right next to the front door. The front guest bedroom is completely empty, and the back guest bedroom is about a third full of boxes or stuff to be boxed up. We’ve taken all the art off the walls and the place seems pretty barren, even more oppressively beige than before.

I’ve moved a lot in my lifetime (and I mean a lot – this will be my twenty-third move, the twelfth since I left for college). I don’t tend to get sentimental over real estate, but at the same time I find this is a tough house to leave, even more so than the house in Joliet. This is a house that Takaza found for us, and deciding on it was a joint effort. As much as I hate the neighborhood (we’re don’t socialize with the neighbors and we don’t have kids – two strikes around here) and the shoddy construction of the house (the plumbers should have been shot), we created a lot of really good memories here. We hosted the Gang here for multiple New Year’s parties, where we ate ourselves silly and enjoyed great company. We’ve hosted our close friends Thomas and Sherry and Donald and Janelle here many times, and watched Janelle fall asleep in front of the fireplace many times 🙂 Then there’s the furry parties – we perfected the hang-out-with-the-canines-and-let-the-inertia-set-in model here. We found out just how many laptops you can add to the Wi-Fi network before you start to slow things down. We spent many mornings, coffee in hand, watching bleary-eyed guests trickle down from their rooms upstairs, and fed them well with French toast and pancakes. We grilled, and stir-fried on the patio. We had many, many discussions here with friends – frivolous, deep, technical, and everything in between. There’s a lot of really good energy in this house, for want of a better term. And we’re leaving it behind – I’ll miss it, a lot.

We’ll get a new place. I can say for sure it won’t be a new and shiny (and beige) as this place was – we learned that even though you buy other people’s problems when you buy an older house, if you buy a new house all you get are new and exciting problems no one’s dealt with yet. The new place will be nice and big, like this house is, and will have lots of room for guests. I can say this with confidence. The only thing I don’t know is…where or when. And that’s unnerving. I’ll have faith, though. Casa di Canine will rise again, and you’d better believe we’ll have a party to celebrate!

Because I’m really tired of paying for a service that I don’t use, I’m in the process of phasing out my Concentric e-mail address (tabrady at concentric dot com). I’ll keep it active for the next few weeks, though I’ll only be checking it about once a week to see if there’s any stragglers that still use it. Pretty much all it’s been used for for a good six months now is collecting spam by the bucketload. As has been the case for about a year now, my primary e-mail address is and will remain duncan at wolfhusky dot org.

On a less serious note…

Courtesy of Daze Reader, we have this charming Japanese festival (be sure to check out the pictures, too!):

Kanamara Festival is held every April 15th at Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine in Kawasaki Japan, this is about as wild and pagan as it gets…The festival celebrates the vanquishing of a demon that lived in a woman’s vagina and would bite off the penises of her lovers! According to legend, a local craftsman fashioned a steel phallus which broke the demon’s teeth.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I’m gay.

🙂

This one is especially for hartree: The Agonist, a weblog that monitors an insane number of media outlets and posts it all in real-time in digestible form.

Also, here’s quite an amazing weblog, posted directly from Baghdad by an Iraqi citizen (in English): Where is Raed?

Also, Technorati is a great tool that scans the blogosphere for what news items are getting the most buzz then gathers it all together in one place, with context from the individual blogs.

I’ve also picked up a few new blog habits, not necessarily war-related:

I first came across Todd Morman in the Independent (the Raleigh-Durham alternative weekly) and later the late, unlamented Spectator. His commentary on the Triangle media and media in general is on target, in my opinion. He’s a big ol’ fag, and as much of a lefty as I am. He’s got a great weblog of his own now: Money Media Report.

Also from the Indy (and alt.music.chapel-hill) is Ruby Sinreich, a well-spoken and intelligent progressive activist. Her blog is Ruby’s Rants and Randomness.

Techdirt has some good commentary and pointers to technology blurbs. I like this one.

Click away, kids!

I’ve found the Americana channel on Music Choice this week and I’m really liking the wide variety of alt-country and bluegrass they play there. It’s the perfect soundtrack to this Sunday morning – blue skies, temperatures in the upper 60’s.

The week has been a bit crazy. Takaza has had some health problems of late and that’s taken a lot of my attention. Since we won’t hear anything until Monday, this weekend has been an exercise in taking our minds off things. We had a slow start yesterday, which was just fine. Dan slept until 11 and woke up feeling pretty good, which was great. I went out and mowed the lawn for the first time this season – I’ll probably have to mow it a couple more times before we move, unfortunately. Ah well, it’s good exercise at least. Then it was off for a bit of clothes shopping (Kohl’s has some really great prices!) and then the weekly stops by Whole Foods Market and Lowes for groceries. After that went over to Donald and Janelle’s (me_not_you and wildmouse) to join them and Thomas and Sherry for a tasty dinner of burgers and such, along with stories of their trip to Disneyworld, from which they had just arrived home Saturday morning.

Other news of the week: I reactivated my gym membership, made easier by the $50-off-initiation-fee coupon that the receptionist just “happened” to have on hand. This will be a big boost for me, since I’ve been needing to get out of the house and actually exercise lately, and just walking around the neighborhood wasn’t cutting it. As expected, I’ve put on about 11 pounds since I stopped going in October, but the real shock was that my stamina has gone to hell; I damn near killed myself on the treadmill doing only about half the time I was doing in October. That’s going to take some work, but I plan to go five days a week, so with luck I’ll be back up to speed in a few weeks. Actually, with luck I’ll get a job and will have to move by then but we’ll see.

Things have been pretty bleak on the job front. I heard back from the company in Carol Stream, IL with whom I had the phone interview back in February. They found someone with 22 years of direct experience in their technology (compared to my 4 years of peripheral experience), so I was out of luck. I’ve been sending out resumes at a furious rate this week, and intend to keep it up. The one good thing is that I’m seeing more relevant job listings on the Internet sites I use, so that’s promising. I have a possibility with one company in Columbus, OH, but we’ll see if the recruiter gets any nibbles once they see my resume. On the bright side, with the federal and state unemployment extensions in place and with the money we’re saving by moving, we’re good at least through September. The downside is that we won’t be paying down any of our accumulated debt during that time, but at least we won’t be incurring more debt.

So, the plan today (once Dan wakes up) is to do some quick packing in the guest bedrooms, consolidating the boxes there and breaking down the beds. After that it’s off to see Daredevil with Thomas and Sherry, and who knows what after that. Just good to keep busy right now…

In case anyone ever wonders…

Livejournal calls the page of other users’ journals that you read your “Friends” page. To me, that’s something of a misnomer. I regard that as my “Journals of Interest” page. This is a place for people’s journals I find interesting, relevant, or those of close friends. If anyone has ever added me and wondered why I didn’t reciprocate, or wondered why I stopped watching their journal, I want to assure you that it isn’t because I don’t like you or don’t want to be your friend or even that I’m a stuck-up bastard. It merely means that I just don’t find your journal particularly relevant at the moment or within my interests. This may change at a later date – I do actually review the journals of everyone who has me as a friend on a frequent basis. One thing I can assure you is that it is never due to any personal grudge. I can’t think of anyone on Livejournal whose journal I wouldn’t read because I have something against them personally.

Hope that clarifies matters.

Well, it’s official. We sold the house today. With no job offers on the horizon it looks like our best and most economical next move is to move in with John Franklin, who has a larger house than ours (only a third full of his furniture) and he kindly offered the space to us at a price that beats the hell out of any apartment we could rent (plus, he has a basement that’s nice and dry and almost empty. Just the place to store our stuff, yay!)

Closing will be on April 15, so it looks like the weekend of April 12 will be The Big Move. Anyone want to come help?

(I’m not really expecting anyone to come help but if you want to, you’re more than welcome. And I’ll cook for you!)

And so, when last we left our intrepid husky, he was off in the frozen wilds of Chicago (that would be last Wednesday, for those of you playing along at home). On Wednesday I had a great afternoon of socializing with Osiris (Kittylad), Barbarian and Chouette. After a tasty lunch, then some lazing about rustitobuck‘s apartment playing Sly Cooper (yeah, I’m addicted – probably a good thing we don’t own a PS2), we headed out for some impromptu geocaching. We found the cache after a little tromping around in the mud (here’s a pic of the hearty crew) and a good time was had by all. Well, most (And what does Anubis say?). Barbarian and Chouette had to depart soon after, and the rest of us headed over to Portillo’s. Good food, good company, far too little time to socialize. I spent the night sleeping with datahawk (woo!), who so kindly got up at an uncivilized hour of the morning and took me to O’Hare for my flight back to North Carolina.

It was fantastic to see most of our old friends up in Chicago. Thanks ever so much to Rusty for putting me up, and to Linnaeus and Datahawk for just being themselves 🙂 I was really glad that I got to spend more time around Osiris and get to know him better, too (incidentally, I saw The Birdcage yesterday and now everything makes sense!). I really hope that we’ll be seeing more of y’all soon – I’m trying my damnedest, that’s for sure!

So – back to North Carolina, and home to my wonderful wolf. Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder, and we had a lovely time proving this fact (Whee!).

Friday night, Brophey and Rasslor drove up from Georgia to spend the weekend. We spent Saturday doing some geocaching, but mostly we just hung around the house, geeked, and relaxed. It was quite a lovely weekend.

And so here we are today. After seeing our Georgia friends off a few hours ago, I’m back home doing laundry, tidying up loose ends on my job hunt, and waiting to hear back from our realtor on a possible final offer for the house. If this comes to pass we have numerous options ahead of us, all of which we are exploring (though I don’t see a quick move up to Chicago in the cards – the money just isn’t there right now). I’ll have more to write in the next day or so – I’ll keep y’all up to date!

Such a night last night.

Yesterday I took the train out to justincheetah‘s place at about noon and we went to work on putting together dinner for ten – me, Cheetah, rustitobuck, Colin, Datahawk, Posicat, kittylad, linnaeus, Innerwolf, and Skip Ruddertail (a fellow who I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before, but was quite nice).

The menu was:
“Brie slag” (brie, butter, and brown sugar melted together into a big ol’ puddle – it sounds appalling but was quiet delicious!)
Homemade white bread
Roasted red pepper soup
Rosemary couscous
Sauteed escarole in garlic and bacon
Roasted orange chicken
Chocolate mousse

The plan was to have dinner on the table between 7 and 8 PM. I’ll just pause here for a moment for the giggles in the peanut gallery to subside.

While just about everything came out the way it should, a few minor setbacks (including the kitchen sink getting clogged and needing to be disassembled) pushed dinner time later and later. I believe food was finally on the table by 10, and the kitchen was, well, a disaster to put it politely (as my mom would say “It looked like someone spit at it and missed, and sh*t at it and hit”). After some relaxing after dinner and some quickie plumbing repairs, cleanup was finally wrapped up at around 2 AM. I regret to say I was of little assistance, since I crashed on the sofa for a bit after being plied by Cheetah with some outstanding rums and cognac. After dropping Osiris off, it was a little before 3 AM when we got back to Rusty’s place and I fell into bed. Waking up at 8:15 this morning was just painful.

You’d better believe I’d do it again, though! Cheetah and I work very well in the kitchen together, cooperatively and not getting in each other’s way. It helps that his kitchen has all the toys I’m used to in a kitchen, plus quite a few more. We probably overreached a bit on complexity of the recipes, but that’s part of the fun (yes, as we were planning the menu the phrase “I could make that, but it’s too easy” was actually uttered). Next time I’d throw in some dishes that could be prepared ahead of time to reduce the stress somewhat, though.

So – today, my last day in Chicago before flying out at an unspeakable hour tomorrow morning, I’m having lunch with Barbarian, Chouette, and Ed, then dinner with a small group. It’s definitely going to have to be an early night, particularly considering how little sleep I got last night. If you’re in Chicago and I didn’t get a chance to see you, my apologies! There’s only so much that can be done in a short period of time. With any luck we’ll be able to hang out with all of our friends when we move back up here (as soon as I can find a job up here, that is!)

Well, he’s in Chicago, that’s where he is!

Yes, this part of my “weekend plans” I’d been so cryptic about last week. With the assistance and collusion of Priceline, Linnaeus, and Rustitobuck, I have sneaked off to Chicago for a week to visit friends here and escape the cabin fever which had been setting in down in North Carolina. The reason for the secrecy was to surprise Datahawk, something which was accomplished quite well and enjoyably 🙂

I spent the weekend at Congenial in Racine, WI, a nice, quiet relaxacon, hanging out with the good fen there, as well as Data, Rusty, Linnaeus, Kodian, Osiris (kittylad), Crim, and Wyldekitten. It was great to be able to hang out in a relaxed setting.

So now I’m hanging around Chicago until Thursday morning, staying with Rusty. Plans are rather few so far, although I’ll be over at justincheetah‘s place tomorrow; we’ll be working together to put together a tasty meal, yay! I still need to set up some plans to see Chouette and hopefully Barbarian and Ed as well, and I’ll probably give Osiris a call at some point to see what’s shaking (since he lives all of a mile or so from here). As for today: shopping in Oak Park at Penzeys and Fannie May, with dinner tonight to be determined. But first, a late breakfast at the cool little diner a short walk from here and a leisurely reading of the Chicago Tribune. More anon!

Ginger-flavored shot put.

Smells good, though.

Carbon Leaf was great. Great Big Sea was fantastic! Very smoky, crowded venue reminded me of why live music can be fun, but also a big pain.

Plans for the weekend are in place – should be lots of fun.

A bit jumbled today, it seems…

No real updates of late because things have been a bit dull. Did some geocaching over the weekend (Whee! 13 caches so far!) and hung out with Thomas and Sherry, which was cool. Spent Monday and Tuesday futzing around the house and making bread. Mmmm, fresh bread…

I sent an email yesterday afternoon to the company in Chicago that I interviewed with two weeks ago, a kind of gentle prodding and “So am I in or out?” sort of thing. Every time the new mail alert dings on my computer I’m rushing to check it to see if it’s their reply. Gah!

Theoretically, I’m supposed to be picking up steviemaxwell at the airport this afternoon. I have no idea what happens after that, except I have to be home in time to make a somewhat early dinner (mmm, London broil…) I assume someone will provide me with guidance somewhere along the way.

Tonight Takaza and I heading out to see Carbon Leaf and Great Big Sea in concert here in Raleigh. We’re looking forward to that – we love both bands, and getting to see both live is a real hoot. The downside is that I have an early, early appointment tomorrow morning so I’m going to be hating life because it looks like the show won’t wrap up until midnight or 1 AM. Ah well.

Making plans for the weekend – got a few things on tap that should be a real hoot. More on those anon.

You know, the next time I need to give a gift to someone that has everything, I’m going to get them a Thing in a Jar! (link via Metafilter)

Hey, how about a rousing game of 20 Questions? (Link from BoingBoing)

The ultimate accessory for the laptop geek: a USB toothbrush!

In these uncertain times, dating and romance has become even more difficult. You can find some great tips in “Love in the Time of Smallpox”:
* Go to a symphony concert, musical, or theater production, preferably a local-community performance with audiences of fewer than 30 people. You’ll find the atmosphere more intimate, and smaller crowds are less likely to be targets for attack.
* If you plan on making love, use condoms and water-based lubricants. Petroleum-based lubricants can compromise the strength of latex condoms, as well as certain kinds of protective HAZMAT gear.
(Link courtesy of Daze Reader)

And finally, check out the plot summary Hasbro released a few weeks ago for Disney’s upcoming Brother Bear (to be released Nov 7, 2003):
This holiday season, kids will be introduced to Walt Disney Pictures’ Brother Bear, an epic animated tale about the true meaning of brotherhood. In a tiny village, when the Earth was young and ice still covered the land, a headstrong teenager, Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix), has an issue with bears. And why not–the bears compete for the same food and land, loot his village, and ruin his coming of age ceremony. When his oldest brother is lost in a perilous battle with a ferocious grizzly, Kenai ignores the village teachings of brotherhood, choosing instead to track down the bear and satisfy his thirst for vengeance. Kenai is changed into a bear by the Great Spirits, forcing him to examine the world through the eyes of his enemy. In his quest to regain his human form, Kenai enlists the help of an adorable, talkative and sometimes-pesky bear cub named Koda (Jeremy Suarez). Their journey propels them across the northern territory, through glacial caverns, frosty tundra, a valley of fire and treacherous gorges. Over the course of the journey with Koda, Kenai is forced to question everything he knows and learns many important lessons about the true meaning of brotherhood. Ultimately, he realizes that his physical transformation from a man to a bear is insignificant compared to the change that has occurred within him.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

This is a nice short piece that appeared in the local alternative weekly. It’s a lovely story that made me just a bit misty…

Click here for the story

So, I was getting the latest critical-your-computer-will-explode-if-you-don’t-install-this update for my Windows XP Home Edition last night via Windows Update (in spite of some very good reasons why I should avoid Windows Update), and after installation and rebooting (uptime? what’s uptime?), everything is fine…except Trillian, the client I use for ICQ, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger crashes. Badly. Like, every time I try to run it. Reboot. Still crashing. Something in the update very obviously broke something with Trillian. Fortunately, I was able to find a patch on Trillian’s site that seems to have fixed the problem – evidently, given the recentness and urgency of the patch announcement, I’m not the only one this has happened to. So, if you use Trillian 0.74 or Trillian Pro 1.0, there’s patches available for download that will keep it from crashing after the latest Windows updates.

Crappy weather around here this morning – pouring down rain, which is freezing in the trees in places. We are quite literally right on the freezing line – if you go five miles north, they have ice on the trees and power outages from branches falling on the power lines. Here at the house, no ice in the trees at all. Man, North Carolina can be weird sometimes.

Tonight takaza and I will go to dinner with friends to celebrate the fourth anniversary of our first date. I’m amazed it’s been that long, but it’s been a very good four years, that’s for sure!

So, it’s Wednesday, which means we’re hosting Poker Night tonight. Yay! To back up to the weekend, though…

On Saturday we did some last-minute shopping before heading over to Rob and Janet’s for the extremely-delayed Secret Santa party. My gift for Sherry was a cell phone charger for her car – utilitarian, yes, but something she had mentioned she needed. Janelle (wildmouse) got me a wonderful book, The Art of the Cake. I still need to dig further into it, but it looks like a terrific resource. The party was quite entertaining – good company, good food, good wine (mmm, that was a tasty Cote de Provence!). The evening ended with a fun poker game, and we decided it was so much fun we needed to do it again, hence the Poker Night here tonight.

Sunday we had to clean the house up for a showing in the afternoon, which is fine because it kind of needed that extra polish to be in showable condition. We vacated the house in plenty of time and took care of our weekly grocery shopping, then had a nice quiet evening snuggling on the sofa and watching Tivo.

Monday was gaming, and another attempt at a chocolate layer cake. This took a lot more time than I expected, mainly because the first cakes were a mess (too much baking powder in the recipe leads to uncooked centers in cakes. Bleah!) and I had to remake them, then the buttercream frosting didn’t work nearly as well as it should have – it came out quite greasy and…salty. I really should have double-checked I was using unsalted butter. Ah well, it was a learning experience, and the cake (with chocolate ganache between the layers) was quite tasty. I’ll just have to keep inflicting cakes on the Gang until I get it right.

Not much going on yesterday, except a little cleaning and job-hunting. Today? Well, I already took care of re-seasoning our cast iron pan, since it was showing a bit of rust (my life is so exciting), and in a bit I need to take a shower and meet takaza for lunch. Laundry this afternoon, and maybe make some kind of dessert to go with the pizzas we’re ordering for dinner.

On the job front: no word yet from the company I interviewed with last week. I hope to hear something by the end of this week, but nothing is definite. One bit of amusement – a recruiter called Monday afternoon pitching me a job that sounded very familiar. After he described it a bit, I finished it for him, told him who the company was, and what they were willing to pay. He was trying to sell me on the same job I interviewed for last week (and he said he was surprised they wouldn’t meet my salary expectations, but hey, that’s the way the game is played). Anyway, I e-mailed him my resume anyway, since he has a partner that specializes in the urethanes field, an area in which I’m well-versed.

And so we wait, and apply all over, and hope something comes along…