Saturday, January 30, 2010

Augmented Collar Tracking System Alignment Tape

*I had a small emotional collapse this week. It was highly unpleasant. I hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon. I still haven't bounced back completely from it. I think that's all I'm going to say about it for now.

*$300. A nice amount of money. Not an excessive amount, but surely a nice chunk of change to have in your pocket. That would be enough to have a really nice day/evening out, and not feel overly guilty about how much you spent. For me, that is the amount of money it cost me to get an anal sac abscess on one of my dogs taken care of. Let me run that by you again in case you didn't quite understand: it cost me $300 (American dollars!) to get my dog's ass drained.

*Soon I will be eclipsing 40 years (+9 months) of existence on this planet. The two things I would like to do to commemorate this rather nondescript event both cause the Boss to become ill. Therefore, celebration plans are still in limbo.

*I never knew until the other night that my IPod Nano had games built into it. Go figure.

*It's really a pretty sad statement when you can recognize the movie "High Fidelity" just by overhearing the very beginning of it from another room.

*A few more days have wound off the clock and I am no closer to having a large piece to donate to the TAILS auction. A few fragmented ideas, and a couple pages of sketches, but nothing I can really run with. Or carve with, as the case may be. Was thinking I may actually just make a donation of a few of the smaller pieces. Might be a good chance to clear the shelves of those things I'm not so fond of. With the economy still sucking that may just be a better way to go. Or, I can get my lazy ass to work and do something amazing for a change.

*OK, after further thought on the subject, should I ever be in the position to have to have something in, near, or on my ass lanced, drained, and/or irrigated, and they told me that for $300 they'd knock me out before they did it- I would think that was a hell of a bargain.

*

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Communicable Sulfrous Celebrity Parsnip Fungus

*Somehow, they managed to do it to me again. I got my work schedule all shuffled around for the next couple of days so I could do my civic duty and when I get to the courthouse today, I find out the case has been continued. The judge apparently had an emergency and they pulled the plug on the trial sometime this morning. Great. The person at the desk at the State's Attorney's office said that it still showed the case as going on today. The people at the Circuit Clerk's office knew the case was off, but the prosecutor's office, which is right across the street, didn't know. Makes me wonder how any of these cases get prosecuted successfully. The other point of interest was that I didn't see anyone else who even remotely looked like they might be involved with the case in the area. The folks from the lab in Springfield would have been really close to, if not in Sycamore. Unless someone bothered to call them and tell them to turn around and head for home. Same goes for the arresting officer, the Dr from the ED, all the nurses from the ED, and whoever else the state went and slapped with a subpoena. Anyway, either they got notified, or just weren't going to show up. Either way it makes me wonder why the hell I should even bother to drag my ass over there in the first place. But, I did hear from one person that the case is supposed to be continued on the 9th of February. Gee, I'm going to be on vacation then. Oh, darn.

*Monstrous stack of boxes in the hall + me feeling Puckish = the bones of a great prank, should I have the time to pull it off...

*The bar is done (at least as much as I'm going to do right now), and is in the process of being populated. Turns out that I had held on to quite a stash of glassware (and plasticware) appropriate for bar usage and had tucked it away in a closet. Of course, this stash is large enough that I don't really have room for all of it in the actual bar. I also haven't dragged out all the misc 12oz bottles of alcoholic beverages that are stored in the studio closet (don't ask). Turns out that if you have a few parties at your place, you can collect quite a variety of leftover beverages. And then nobody will drink them. Anyway, I guess this was a good project for me, since I already have ideas for the next version I'd like to build bouncing around in my head. Maybe this is not only a good sized project for me as far as completion time goes, but something that covers just enough different skills to keep my interest.

*Now where did I leave the paper that had my PBEM chess game on it?

*Nice to have another trio of lovely ladies added to my friend list on Facebook. One old heartbreak, one not so old heartbreak, and one who has recently called me an ass. Business as usual in my world.

*Since when is shiraz considered to be the tequila of wines? Did I miss another memo? Was there a vote?

*I just realized that I have about a week until I have some time off. Joy! I know that if I can get the pile of filing out of the office during that time, it will greatly enhance the calmness of my living situation. Beyond that, might take a trip out to the burbs for a visit, or may head down Peoria way. Could be a good time to go out an do some antiquing. Maybe I'll see if Cromag wants to head up this way. I could also lay out some plans for the opening night of the tiki lounge. I could also start on the tiki I'm still thinking of donating to TAILS this year. Of course, if I opt for that, I'm giving myself all of 39 days to get it done. Completely done. Like walking out the door done. That's a pretty tall order. Especially when you're talking about a piece of maple that's 4' long and 14" across. Let's see, a short deadline, huge pieces of wood, chainsaws and other sharp whirly slicey type stuff...what could possibly go wrong??

*First Callie, now Toby. This winter has been unkind to many loved family members.

*Allied forces carried the day in my first run-through of the Pegasus Bridge scenario. But, the victory was secured by only one medal, which was far closer than I had thought it would be from just looking at the opening setup. The Germans were greatly hampered in their efforts by drawing very few cards that let them issue commands to units on either flank. The Allied forces managed to only capture one bridge, but managed to destroy enough German units to get their 4th medal. But now the board has been reset, and perhaps this time around the Germans will be able to hold off the Allies.

*I am bored with the internet. I guess it would be better to say that I'm not really bored with the whole concept of the internet and all, but at the moment I have no compulsion to spend a lot of time there either. I mean really, how much midget porn can you look at before it just gets old?

*Why can't I ever get an entire song stuck in my head? Why does it have to be one line, or a stupidly small fragment of one line that just goes on and on and on and on? And why Merle Haggard??

*I have been informed that any pranking efforts attempted at this particular juncture in time would not be met with the most positive of moods. Thus, my mellow has been harshed.

*

Friday, January 22, 2010

Left Handed Erotic Vampire Pineapple Boxes

*Strange as it seems, I think I am almost done with revamping the bar. The concept of an actual completed project is still boggling my mind a bit. I have maybe a dozen pieces of cane to attach, and then for all intents, it's done. The custom carved panels will come later, if at all. But then again, I may have just had enough fun working on this revamp that I may just build a new bar from scratch and make the custom panels for that one instead. What then will become of this current effort?, you may well ask. Probably just give it away to some fellow tiki freak. Or, it could become the garage bar.

*The irony of one person at work telling another that they were being unprofessional by yelling at them in the center of the lab was not lost on me.

*The forecast for the weekend consists primarily of rain. I can live with that. The overcast skies that tend to come with the rain are a bit harder to live with. As opposed to snow, you don't have to shovel rain. That I like. The mud that results from the rain that the Thundering Horde will bring to every inch of the house I don't like. And, as the snow vanishes from the backyard beacause of the rain, the time will soon arrive for the Great Mid-Winter Yard De-Turdification. At which point, I will get to put on the Boots of Trudging, pick up the legendary Silver Scooper, and slog around in the snow and mud whilst filling bag after bag with semi-frozen dog poop that's been laying around since November or so. It's such a blast. We have cake and balloons to celebrate. I just can't wait.

*Below the radar and off the charts, but not far from my thoughts: Bluegirl, Dhawk, Scart, Crookt, Mada, and far too many others...

*Of all the words in the English language that you can use to describe your urine, "lumpy" should never be one of them. "Crumbly" is another.

*In the process of using the cane to trim out the bar, a decent number of trimmed ends and castoff pieces are being generated. Of course, it came into my mind that these could also be carved into tikis of various types (I mean really, what else would you do with them?). Using a very fine X-Acto knife blade, I am pleased to say that this is something that can indeed be done. The most noticeable difference in technique is concerned with the actual structure of the cane itself. But, since the cane is hollow, the depth of surface you have to work with is minimal (and variable, to boot). Make one cut too deep and you run the risk of ruining the whole carving. Slip once with the X-Acto knife and you run the risk of ruining an entire finger. But, as I say quite often: it's not officially a project until you bleed on it.

*It may be about time to watch "Ferris' Bueller's Day Off" again, and remember one of the greatest plans ever that never actually happened.

*I have the Pegasus Bridge scenario for Memoir '44 all set up and am only lacking one thing-an opponent. Looking at the setup and all the pieces gave me a neat idea, which means that someone else has already thought the same thing and acted on it to great success, but I'm going to describe my thought anyway. I recall having the little green plastic army men as a child, and it struck me that those would be good for use as the infantry units in M'44. Of course, that would mean completely rescaling the entire board and all the other components. Not to mention that I recall the army men having Vietnam era weaponry. And I don't recall any that could even remotely pass as German soldiers. Other than all of that, I think it's a damn skippy good idea. Or, I had also thought that having some type of counter system that fits right on the base of the infantry units might be nicer than having all the loose soldier figures. That way, instead of 4 figures per unit, you could have one figure with 3 counters on the base. Take away one counter per casualty suffered, and the remove the actual figure from the board when the unit takes the last casualty. Just a thought.

*Need to find someone that does furniture repair and see what it would cost me to get the seat frames of a couple of my rattan chairs fixed. Can't have the Tiki Lounge Grand Opening and Celebratory Bar Break-In without all the seating being in complete working order. I do have the vague thought that all the alcohol should also be in perfect working order.

*What massively sick and twisted evil could there be in the cosmos that would have caused a potential week in Hawaii to undergo shrinkage and perversion on such a cataclysmic scale that it would turn into a weekend in the Dells?? That is just so totally and completely wrong I can't even begin to contemplate it...

*Get to be up nice and early Saturday morning so I can be in Gilberts by 10 to drop off one of my empty carbon dioxide tanks. Figure I may as well swing by Spring Hill Mall (if it's still there and there are any stores left in it)since I'll be all the way out there anyway and see if they have anywhere I can scare up a copy of the new HeroScape expansion . But really, what are the chances of a mall actually having something that you're looking for??

*

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Degraded Omelet Basket Signage

*When you come into work with a headache, the last thing you really feel like doing is going to a monthly meeting. So I didn't.

*Went over to the coffee shop that our neighbor runs this morning, and through the course of the usual chit chat, she hints at the idea that I can/could do some type of artwork for the shop. Of course that piqued my interest. The problems I encountered was that there was no preference expressed on this being an indoor or an outdoor piece, and there is currently no real theme to the decor of the place. Well, forget the theme, there really is no decor as of yet. That leaves me with no place to start, or a wide open field, depending on how you look at it. The actual shop is a franchise, so there's nothing really distinct about it. The location is in with a gym that trains kids in acrobatics and the like. That I might be able to work with. Now that I've been sitting here thinking about it, I actually do have an idea. And it could be done on a fairly large scale. Guess I'll have to do some rough sketch work and see if I can develop this notion a little further. Might just entail a field trip and some staged photography. And a really big canvas.

*People make pies from lemons, and people make pies from limes, but do people make pies from oranges? And more importantly, can you make pie from mangos?

*Just heard from the State's Attorney, and it turns out that the case I was called on is going to be happening-no plea bargain or continuance. The only difference is that it will be a bench trial and not a jury trial. I can already smell the gathering weasels...

*It is simply not possible to have a good engaged discussion about religion in SMS format.

*Take one piece of cane from the bale and mark to the needed length. Trim down with fine toothed saw. Place in position, and drill nail hole with Dremel tool. Insert and hammer down nail. Drill second (third, fourth, etc) nail hole with Dremel tool. Insert and hammer down nail. Return to first step and repeat process ad nauseum. I think that this is how I will be spending a great deal of time in the near future unless I manage to discover some other miraculous means for attaching all the trim to the bar. But, after all the work so far, the bar is actually starting to look like something that really goes in the space. And when I get it done, the whole space will be one step closer to being complete. And the more complete it gets, the more time I'm going to spend down there. This will no doubt annoy the Boss. I also had the idea of just having evenings when the Tiki Lounge (and the Art Annex) will be open for anyone who wants to drop by.

*Even Fuschia was not able to keep the secret forever...

*Will people ever stop blathering on about the Golden Globes or whatever awards show was on recently?? Then again, I guess I should just be glad they've stopped talking about Michael Jackson.

*Yearbook, Facebook, blast from the past, friend of a friend, one seat behind. Adds up to yet another pang in the heart and another set of haunting eyes shining from the computer monitor in the depths of the night.

*If my phone suffers premature keypad death, or if my left thumb spontaneously detonates, at least I will be able to blame someone other than myself. I could say the same about the reruns, but I just so happen to like those.

*

Pseudo Vented Squid Numbering

*Colored pencils? Check. Eraser? Check. Ink wash pen? Check. Pencil sharpener? Check. Source book? Check. Sketch pad? Sketch Pad?? Hmmmmmm.... Sketch pad....Awwww, crap.

*For those of you who may be considering doing it in the near future, take note: you cannot nail bamboo/cane to any other surface, because the nails will cause it to split. Not that I didn't already know that, but I somehow believed that I, mighty servant of the Tiki Gods that I am, could subvert the laws of physics and nature and cause it to not happen. I was wrong. Soooo, if I intend to use the cane that I harvested from the Miscanthus in the front yard to trim out the bar, I will either need to use adhesive of some sort, drill a hole in every piece before I nail it, or come up with some other brilliant idea for fastening it. Beyond that, the bar is completely reassembled and the rope light is installed. Even though is has a pronounced bow in it, I opted to reuse the original inside shelf, mostly because I didn't feel like climbing over everything in the garage to get to my stock piece of MDF. I figure the weight of all the booze bottles should straighten it out pretty fast anyway. I'm also going to work on custom carving some pieces for the end caps and probably the front section as well. Looks like my $40 bar is turning into quite a project. I don't know why I would even be entertaining the notion of making them for fun and profit.

*"Will work for cookies" just doesn't seem to be the best of business slogans...

*CrookT needs glasses? Oh, gee, that just completely changes my opinion....NOT!

*Outside, it's a damn near glorious day. One of those January teasers that causes you to develop the slightest ray of hope that spring may be close around the corner. Bright sunny blue skies, slushy melty snow, practically no wind-everything you could expect to get from a nice January day in IL. All I can think is that it means that the state will soon be going on full bore Sub-Arctic lockdown until around June or so.

*Challenged by Mango at the Fountain? A stab of jealousy towards TPQ at the party? Captain Jonathan with phone logs? It does appear that the dream wagon has launched itself way off the rails yet again.

*I could be very well sitting in court as part of a felony DUI case at this time next week. OK all you knuckleheads-calm down. I will be appearing as a witness for the state of IL. Supposedly. If I go to court, I don't necessarily end up working that same day, but then I'm stuck in a courtroom all day. I think I'd rather be at work getting paid than sitting on my ass watching someone try to weasel out of a DUI. The interesting thing is that since this is a felony case, there was maybe a death involved or something like that. Still, the weasel factor will be pretty high, I'm thinking. If I'm lucky, they'll do a plea bargain or something like that and get the whole deal settled before I even have to go. Or, as has been the case in several other DUI cases I have been involved in over the years, the state won't be able to get all their people in one place at the same time and the judge will toss the case out.

*Got a lot of projects lining up for Spring Cleaning time. I am thinking the garbage guy is really not going to be liking me if I somehow manage to get even half of them done...

*I do not recall giving the other side of my back permission to start acting fucked up.

*Munchkin Mondays. Got a decent ring to it, eh? People just love alliteration. Even though I have found some interest for this particular game, I would still have to make that work with the notion that I only get 1 of every 4 Mondays off. I am really starting to think that there is practically no way I can get the whole notion of a game group off of the ground. And that really sucks, considering how much $$ I have tied up in games. And after I decided to head over to the Goodwill before going grocery shopping, I now have another $10 invested. Got two vintage and one contemporary game for that price, though. Funny thing about that visit: in the parking lot at the Goodwill was a new H3 Hummer and a Ford F17000 Mega-Super-Awesome Duty truck. Go figure. Had thought about forking out some $ and starting a Meetup.com group, but after hearing of the lack of success BigBri had there, I'm not sure if I want to go that route.

*I was not very impressed with the pear+gorgonzola salad dressing I picked up at the store. Well, I was impressed with it when I picked it up, which is what actually caused me to buy it. When I tasted it is when I ceased to be impressed.

*A picture may indeed be worth a thousand words, but the current bone of contention is how many questions a picture is worth.

*The leak in the new shower seems to have been mended by Horst's last visit. The check was handed over at that point, so the bathroom is technically done. The Boss picked out all the other stuff, and all that remains is for me to attach it all to the various surfaces in the bathroom. Aside from the fact that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of water pressure, I really like the new shower. Of course, when I have the on-demand hot water heater put in I could just have them install a pressure booster at the same time. I am still wanting the tube lights, though the stack for the old wall heater is starting to look pretty scary where it comes up out of the roof. Guess I'll just wait and see what in, or on, the house is falling apart the worst when I get done paying this job off.

*Hehheheheheheheheheh..heh...heheh...you said 'merged'....heh..heh...

*

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Fish Phone

*Sorry to hear the prognosis for Callie.

*The sides have been reinforced and are now re-attached to each other and the top. Just need to put a few more brackets on, which will secure the body of the bar to the base, and then all the structural work should be done. That will leave me with figuring out the trim, installing the shelves, and figuring out the lighting. When you look at it that way, I'm only about half way done with this bar project.

*Whilst trying to clean out and rearrange the garage during my time off, I was rewarded with another painful reminder that my back had most likely not recovered from the last time I had injured it. The end result was that I got to spend a couple of days reeking of Ben-Gay while flat on my back on the living room floor on a heating pad.

*I continue to be amused and somewaht confounded by DJ's questions. I may have to dig out the Zobmondo book to keep things interesting from my end.

*OK, I really need to work on remembering to be quiet when someone asks my opinion at work. Whenever I indulge my notions of speaking my mind, it does nothing more than generate unwanted attention.

*Took a long weekend off of work and as usual, I didn't end up getting a lot done, which is really annoying. Not that I really have any reason to be annoyed, since it was my fault that nothing got done.

*District 9 was my first Blu-Ray movie experience. I enjoyed the movie, and the visuals were quite impressive indeed.

*Having exhausted her enthusiasm for Bones (at least for now), the Boss has moved on to yet another TV show on DVD. Burn Notice is her latest series of interest.

*It's finally done! (well, almost....) While Horst packed in his tools earlier this week, the bathroom is not quite done yet. The Boss needs to find some towel bars she likes, and when I put those up, I also need to reinstall her funky swing arm mirror. And a garbage can. Need a new garbage can. But before that gets done, I need to put a call in, because I think the sill plate for the shower door isn't sealed properly.

*I thought I had been getting better about being more safe in my general work practices. The idea of keeping the working area free from clutter seems to have escaped me this past week and resulted in the breakage of one vintage tiki mug, and the near breakage of several more. Quite a rude, yet effective, wake-up call regarding my work practices.

*OK, the construction is pretty much over, but I still can't account for the sheer quantities of dust present in the house. May have to try one of those electrostatic dust attractor thingies to see if that helps. I'm already using fairly expensive furnace filters, and training the dogs to eat the dust hasn't gone very well.

*I am debating as to whether or not I should remind Mr. Koch that it's his move in out PBEM chess game. I recall being in a less than tactically advantageous position, but sneaking away from a potential loss doesn't seem quite sporting.

*Online access from work has been all but eliminated. Rats.

*

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Black Wooden Secondary Crutch Tip Cap Protectors

*Been getting lots of questions from DJ lately. What makes all of it interesting is that a lot of it is stuff I haven't thought much about for a while. This is in spite of the fact that I have been told numerous times by numerous people that I think way too much already. It's also interesting to run up against someone who looks at things with an artistic eye. But, trying to format my answers has been challenging, and my thumb is starting to click much more than it used to. And I'm pretty sure that there have been things that have been inadvertently skipped. On the plus side, I got one signed up for this year's H'ween event already!

*So far, it hasn't really been anything much as far as snowstorms go. Tonight could be the real test of things. The snow that's come down so far is really light and dry, so when the wind kicks up tonight, the drifting could end up being pretty significant.

*There was no evidence of soup, and I have decided that the window squeal will remain a mystery until a later date.

*Just. Not. Quite. Done. But soooo close. The light and the mirror need to go up, the trim needs to go back on, and I have to find out what he's going to do about the door. Oh, and the vent cover. But that kinda goes with the trim, I guess. So, now it looks like early next week will be the time of completion. That's OK by me. Gives me time to not only do some cleanup, but to brace myself for the bill.

*OK-here's the rule: Unlabelled pills in a baggie are OK to take if and only if they just happen to be stamped with your name.

*Somehow, I managed to get the FILs project done today and still squeeze in a nap. I think it took me longer to remember how to connect all the cabling so that everything worked right than it did for me to actually do the recording and stuff. At least between all the trips up and down the stairs and shoveling snow I got my workout for the day. Got Pinklady doing a test play of the CD on her way to and from work tonight, just as a double check of the recording. If the brunch thing happens tomorrow like it's supposed to, the whole project will have been completed in a mere day and a half. On a side note, I was a little disappointed to find out that my copy of "Women and Children First" by Van Halen was warped. Not sure what I can do about that, if anything. On a second side note I realized that I need some more Swiffer dusters.

*An unexpected butterfly made for an interesting moment in the day. How it's related to the Chinese, I have no idea.

*It's always nice when you get a phone call from your insurance company and discover that they're looking to pawn your bill off on someone else, if at all possible.

*The new neighbors remain a mystery, except for SweatSnowPerson. The information gathered regarding this person is very slight, in that it amounts to the facts that we've never seen then in anything but sweats and they shovel snow. Gender remains indeterminate. My opinion? I think they're all Druids. Isolationist Druids. They could possibly even be Cyborg Isolationist Druids.

*Confirmation of the whole 'small world' notion is when you find out that the neighbors that just moved out from across the street now live right next to someone else you happen to know.

*

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Hokey Alchemy Biscuits

*Torqued out my back again. Same spot as before. At least all the Ben-Gay vapors are keeping my sinuses clear. Plus, I don't need to wear any cologne.

*Tomorrow, the plumber. And then, the whole project should be damn near finished. That is a very good thing, since Pinklady is basically about at the end of her rope as far as patience goes.

*More snow on the way, or so the forecasters are saying. Somewhere between 1" and 12" between now and Friday morning, and after that the drifting starts. Whoopee. I'd consider moving to Florida if it wasn't so damn cold there.

*I've gotten back to working on my photo inventory. Two boxes of tiki items have been dutifully photographed. One box worth of photos has actually been edited and posted. Zero boxes worth have actually been described. But, hey, gotta start somewhere, and if PinkLady was to see me working with a maul and chisel, I would be on the business end of a scowly face for quite some time. So, taking pictures is something I can do with a minimal chance of re-injuring myself. Then again, I can't recall how many times I've thought that in the past regarding a wide variety of activities, only to end up finding some way to injure myself.

*"Revolver" was the first disc I pulled from Pinklady's Beatles box set to listen to.

*Need to get a hold of CroMag tomorrow and see how things are going down there. Between the weather, my back, any any further issues he may have encountered, I may have to skip going down there. Of course, I could always see if he's interested in coming up this way. Now, if I were to revert back to my superstitious/religious/fatalistic nature, I think I would have to say that the universe/God(s, esses)/fate seemed to be conspiring against me.

*Got to get the FIL's record recorded, coverted, split, ID'd, cleaned up and burned tomorrow before I head into work. Nothing like a little pressure to make the work go faster.

*

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Stocking Syntax Misalignment

*The definition of irony: discovering the week after Giftmas that you actually need new socks.

*A groggy morning accident the other day left me cleaning up a bunch of ground coffee that I had spilled on the kitchen floor. The unforeseen consequence was that today it smelled like I was vacuuming the house with the coffeemaker.

*It's cold outside. Not that 50 degree cold that sends Floridians into a state of apocalyptic panic, but that <-20 wind-chill cold that makes it hard to breathe and causes things, like your pancreas, to freeze solid. I know that it's a little warmer south of here, but I'm still deeply concerned over CroMag's housing situation during this weather. Well, not just this weather, any weather, really. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that his place doesn't burn down or fall down around his ears. I don't like doing that, and I really don't like him living in that situation. Not sure what my options are though. That's a bit frustrating. No. Not true. That's a lot frustrating.

*An incomplete discussion regarding the nature and intent of teasing remains my current sore spot for the day.

*Newman's Own Lime Vinaigrette Dressing: really like it, but it makes me burp citrus for hours afterwards...

*I have discovered that the really time consuming part of cataloging my collection is not actually taking the pictures. The part that really runs into a lot of time is doing all the photo editing. Cropping the shots, renaming them so they all line up in the right order, and the annotating them once I manage to get them all uploaded. Takes freakin forever. I have had a box of stuff out that needed to be cataloged sitting at the end of my workbench for who knows how long, so I finally set up the camera and all the other photo stuff today and went through the box. I think there were 11 things that needed to be shot, and that was after I decided to put another few things into a 'tropical, but not strictly tiki' category. So, only 11 items, and I still wound up with 120+ photos to go through. And that was a small box of stuff. I know there's boxes under that bench that have to have 30 or more pieces in them. Plus I'm not really sure exactly how many boxes there are. And the cap to the whole situation is that I'm not really sure that I like the pictures I took, even after throwing out more than half of them. Just been long enough since I've done this that I'm out of practice, I guess. And then, as one last insult, I somehow managed to not grab the sheet that had all my measurements and notes on it as I went out the door, so I couldn't finish what I needed to do on the computer anyway.

*While watching The Princess Bride this afternoon, I found myself looking at Robin Wright and thinking of RedWindow. Inconceivable! Or maybe not. Could be the eyes, or maybe the dress color, I don't know.

*Had a good visit with SwishB on Saturday, even though the topics of conversation remained rooted in the safe and well-worn. I think was the single best haul of Giftmas stuff that I pulled in at once this year, though. I do so enjoy Pearls Before Swine. And tikis. And Andre the Giant.

*I should pull all the stuff for the bathroom that's out in the garage into the house when I get home so it has time to warm up before Horst shows up in the morning.

*Why the hell would the dog have decided to throw up on the stairs, of all places?

*

Friday, January 1, 2010

Strobing Macaroni Phone Apps

*Not only was it fuckingdamnwitchasscold last night, it was also freakishly bright. It was pretty cloudless, and there's just something about the winter sky that just seems to intensify the light from a full moon. Not to mention that all the snow on the ground right now acts like a big reflector. Really pretty. To bad it doesn't happen when it's 75 degrees outside so I could take some time and really enjoy it.

*Haven't had any really striking ideas for the remodel of the bar I recently acquired. First thing I need to do is shore up the general structure before I go adding to anything to it. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I could fit that bubble light I have in the bottom center of the bar. I'm thinking that would look pretty cool.

*I have read all the rules to the new games I acquired over the holidays. Now I just need to get some playtime on them. I'm sure I can get Dewey to play Memoir '44, but I'm not sure who else might find that one interesting. The Scrabble card game I know will be a tough sell to all the non-spelling folk I know. Easter Island I like the concept for, but since it reminds me of an inverse Black Box, I doubt I'll try and get Stories to play. On another game related front, I may try and roll out Munchkin as a way of trying to entice some more members of DRMG over to the board game side of things. Still waiting to hear back from Rover to see if I'm still going to be running a HeroScape exhibition game at the next game day. And that reminds me that I need to paint the bases of all my duplicates different colors if I intend to make matched squads for a mirror map,

*While I don't really enjoy cleaning out Lucy's funknasty yeasty ear infection gunk, it's better than finding out some of your pet's teeth have just rotted off in their head. Also, it's kinda funny to see her run and hide at the sight of a Q-tip.

*Every last cent of gift money that we got over the holidays, plus a decent amount more, is now gone form our bank account. And not a damn bit of fun was had in the process. Between her car and the dogs, it all just went away. In rather painfully large clumps. And speaking of her car, since UPS had the day off on New Year's Eve, MotorWorks didn't get the delivery that contained the tires they were going to put on her car. First of all, I had never thought of UPS delivering tires. Not sure why, just never crossed my mind. Secondly, that means her car has to go in yet again, to have the tires put on and the alignment done. I find I can now appreciate a little bit more the headaches endured by one-car families.

*This time it was purely accidental that I noticed Mango's stripes.

*I really had no great hopes for the NYE party at the Graham's new house, and in spite of my work day starting off with a dead 11 year old, I ventured forth into the frigid night and journeyed off to the barrens of northern Cortland. Their new house is nice. Not my style, but nice. But the whole idea of being one of maybe six houses in this little cluster at the edge of the airport in a bankrupt subdivision creeps me out a little. Reminds me of a setting for a Twilight Zone story. Anyway, most of the usual neighborhood players were there, and the evening actually proved to be more entertaining that I had thought it would be. As has been a recurring theme for the holidays this year, I ate way more than I should have and have been feeling rather logy and gross all day because of it. I was chastised for my lack of H'ween party hosting as well as my seeming unwillingness to walk two doors down to fetch a book. I also came to the conclusion that everyone who brings food to one of these events brings enough to feed the entire 5th Army. I will be imposing strict limits on the quantities involved in the next 'dish to pass'.

*Sparkly vampires? Really?? Give me a freakin break...

*My log is drying out. Quickly. And this happens to be one of those rare times when it's easier to work with soft wood. So, I really need to get this current tiki carving done pretty damn soon. The checks are getting to be huge, and it's getting to be more and more work to drive the chisel through that dried top layer of wood. Once I get down into it a bit, it's still a little softer, but this piece is gonna be unbelievably hard when it cures completely, which is exactly what I would expect hedge to be. The part I didn't expect was the seeming lack of the characteristic yellow color of said wood. All the tiny little lifts and lips that I put into the surface when I was doing the lay-in work have hardened into nice sharp little knife-like edges that are just so quick to slit the side of your hand open. All the checks are now guarded by needle-like splinters, too. Makes me really appreciate having sharp tools to work with.

*Had an absolutely fascinating TXT chat with EPro. Can't wait to see what comes of it.

*While it was nice to actually see that someone had posted a comment on one of my blog entries, it was slightly less exciting to see that it was from the author of a book I had recently read encouraging me to read the follow-up book. Still, I guess it's better than a kick in the head, and I will be adding that book to my 'want to read' list.

*Finally all of the required parts for the completion of the master bath remodel are on-site. Horst will be back on Monday morning, and maybe by the end of the week I will be writing yet another hugemongous check. In that situation, I still don't know which is the cloud and which is the elegant brushed nickel lining.

*It was just a mole, or maybe a it was a skin tag, but I still couldn't take my eyes off of it.

*I was asked by DarkAer if I was going to make any resolutions for the new year. I decided that I wasn't. I've found over the years that I wasn't any more likely to keep a resolution made on Dec 31 than I was to keep a resolution made at any other time of the year. I have also found that the notion of 'actions speak louder than words' rings a little bit more true with me the older I get. So, nope, no resolutions. I do have something I have already put into action rather than just talking about it, and that's good enough for me.

*Sized the band, read the manual, and got everything set to the right time, so now the Anniversimas watch is in use. And I've already scuffed up the band.

*I am fairly sure I will be getting several thank you notes from the folks who issued me my credit cards, maybe even candy or flowers.

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