Trent the Uncatchable

If you *need* coffee and cigarettes, you're a goth.

Last night we went home and had leftovers for dinner, and watched the South Park episode I had recorded the night before. It featured goth kids vs vampire kids, and emphasized their differences. (And how tired goth kids are of being labelled vampire wannabes.) Also had a song called 'Burn Down Hot Topic'. I was amused. Then we played Daisy through the end of her solo adventure, the results of which ought to shake up the rest of the group. (No, she's not dead.) And then a Brisco County adventure, and then bed.

Tonight we have no plans except to pick Ben up at the end of his LAN party. Tomorrow we had hoped to go to Bardic Madness, but Laura expects to have homework - she has a big project due in a few weeks, and has been waiting for approval to proceed. Assuming that the professor approves it, she'll be working on that all weekend. I'm thinking it's time to cut the stairs apart, now that I have a saw. Also, I noticed yesterday that one of the steps is getting wobbly. Tomorrow also Ben is going to help set up for Sunday's Lego competition, and Sunday he'll be working there.

And now, meetings.

"I didn't know I had any joy left in my life to be sucked out."

Last night I presented a website for a group of attorneys, and they gave me some changes to be done soon. (This morning was the follow up meeting, with a few more changes.) Laura, who worked late (and did homework), picked me up and we went to Olive Garden for dinner. Then home, where we covered a little bit of Daisy's Solo Adventure in the D&D game, and to bed.

Tonight we have no plans. Other than Laura doing homework. I sort of think I'll be working on websites from home.

Ah, and the title came from an episode of Malcolm that was on this morning as I put on my shoes.

Tarantarah!

A Sartre says what?

Last night I worked late, then went to Curia early. And then went home, where Ben and Mike were soldering in the basement and Laura was asleep. I played Morrowind, did some more work (the joys of working for people on the coasts), and went to bed myself.

Tonight I have another late meeting. We have no other plans for the evening.

I picked up the reciprocating saw from Linda, who was kind enough to bring it Curia for me. Thank you! (Laura said 'I guess if it's a reciprocating saw we have to give it back someday?' And yes, we intend to return it. But not just to satisfy the name.)

We have no plans for the rest of the week, though Laura has homework to do. As far as I know, we're planning to be at Bardic Madness on Saturday. And now, plenty to do. Not a moment to waste!

Ooh

Last night we went home, then did all the pre-game cleaning. Ben went to a friend's house after school, and from there caught a ride to the community service thing, so we had dinner without him and got ready to play.

This community service concept is new to me, but is apparently a big deal in the Wisconsin school system. The NHS 'so you want to join the Honor Society' presentation we went to made a big deal out of it, and Wisconsin colleges and universities apparently require that prospective students perform a certain amount of 'community service' in order to do be eligible to attend their schools. Where I come from, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts (and Girl Scouts, for that matter) did things to help out around the community, or volunteered for charity events or functions. But we didn't have a big fat label of COMMUNITY SERVICE to slap on it. Community Service is what felons receive as punishment for minor infractions - Emilio Estevez had to do community service when he was nailed for drunk driving, and wound up coaching pee wee hockey. Adam Sandler got busted for something or other and had to coach basketball. In real life, George Clinton received 200 hours of community service when he was busted for possession of cocaine. It's not something that somebody does voluntarily, or something that *everybody* does. And apparently here everybody does it so frequently that it falls into a nice neat bucket. "I'm off to do community service." "Have a nice time, dear."

Tonight is Curia. Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday nights we're Ben-less as he has robotics, robotics, and a LAN party. Saturday is Bardic Madness in Chicago. And the beat goes on.

A weekend of stuff

Friday night we didn't have to pick up the car because Ben got a ride. We instead went home and Laura did some homework while I messed with the computers. And we had a nice evening together of playing Diablo2 and chopping badguys to pieces. Ah, love.

Saturday I went out and mailed a package to Ginger and almost mailed a package to Laura's parents ... but I have two addresses for them in Pinawa and I don't know which one is accurate. (A convoluted google might have answered that question.) And went to the Army/Navy store to exchange Ben's pants. Home, where Laura embroidered and we watched 'Worst Jobs in History'. (I didn't know this show existed. How fabulous!) Laura went out to run some errands, and when she returned I convinced her to watch the last episode of Brisco so that we could return it. And played some Morrowind, now on my computer instead of Laura's. I returned the DVD and picked up the first disc of Chuck, and we watched that until the wee hours.

We're not bowled over by Chuck. The actors are *almost* actors we recognize, the characters are *almost* characters that we've seen in other shows, the dialogue is *almost* like other dialogue. It's not as well written as, say, anything by Joss Whedon. Or Dead Like Me, or Keen Eddie, or the other shows that we watch. The shows are really formulaic, and are set up with the 'We'd better include a recap just in case we have first-time viewers' attitude that I've grown to dislike. But, well, most anime series don't get interesting until the fifth or sixth episode where the Big Bad is introduced. Maybe this series is like that - maybe it just hasn't hit its stride yet.

Sunday morning we got up and drove down to Grayslake to get our hair cut. Ben's robotics thing was done early and he caught a ride home, so we arrived shortly after him. (That was frustrating, because we had skipped Walker Brothers in order to get home in time to pick him up; he called while we were about 45 minutes out to tell us that he was at the shop and needed a ride home. And then that he was getting one from Colin.) We menued for the week and I did grocery shopping, then we watched the Fox lineup (and Mythbusters, and Prototype This). Oh, and had dinner. And like that.

Tonight is D&D, though Ben's decided to join the robotics club for a community service thing. Tomorrow is Curia. Ben has robotics on Wednesday and Thursday, a programming competition on Friday during the day and a LAN party Friday night. Saturday is Bardic Madness in Chicago, which we will be attending. On Sunday Ben is chaperoning (and working a bake sale for) a Lego League competition as a representative of Robotics Club.

Anyone detecting a pattern here?

Hilarity ensued

Last night we went to the DMV to renew our license plates and put in requests for personalized ones. Then home, where we curled up on the couch and watched the second disc of Brisco County. Ben got home around 9 and immediately went back out to fill the car with gas, since he'd pretty nearly drained it dry. (I should note, he did this without prompting because he felt bad for having used so much gas.) At 10 I did some work, and Laura caught up on email and other computery things. She went to bed, and I joined her not long afterwards.

Ben, tonight, is headed down to Terra Haute with the robotics club. They're doing a presentation in Kokomo tomorrow from 1-3:30, talking mainly about the control system they've been beta testing. (I get the impression that it will be pretty similar to the presentation they did on Nov 1, which I linked to on their website.) Then they'll drive to Chicago, and spend the night there. Sunday they're presenting twice at UIC (at 9 and at 1). And then coming home. (Hmm. I wonder if there's a fighter's practice at Ida Noyes on Sunday. Right there on the same campus as Ben's robotics thing. Hmm.)

Ben also asked last night if I might consider being a (the?) mentor for the robotics group. I'm toying with the idea.

We don't have any real plans for the weekend, though we do have some things to get done. Chore-like things. Laura's got homework-like things, too. And gosh, I still have stairs to build. Though I was considering tackling the bathroom too...

Anyway. Work to do.

Bowled over!

Last night we went to the bowling alley. (Actually, Laura ran some errands on the east side, and I went bowling, and she met me at the alley.) And there I bowled while Laura did homework.

There were five web developers, five project managers, and five 'others'. (For some reason one of the project managers wound up on the 'others' team and the content manager was on the project managers' team, but that's okay - the PM did better than the content manager.) I was on the 'Others' team, which consisted of me, the rogue project manager, the business analyst, the department admin assistant, and her friend. In the first game, the Others won and the project managers took second, with the web developers a close third. In the second game, the Others won and the web developers too second, with the project managers in third. And in the third game, the web developers won by 2 points, beating the project managers. (The Others had retired after two games, so I got that news this morning.)

We went home after the second game, picking up Ben on the way there, and then I went back out on a grocery run. Home, where we watched some tv and went to bed.

Tonight we're stopping at the DMV to renew our license plates. Ben has robotics again, as a final prep for this weekend's activities. We have no other (firm) plans for the weekend - maybe I'll decide that I have the time and wherewithal to tackle the stairs. Which means a call to Linda to borrow her saw...

Gonna Bowl Tonight!

We're gonna rock, we're gonna roll, we're gonna bop, we're gonna bowl!

Last night we went to the Army/Navy Surplus store in downtown Milwaukee. We looked at boots. After some hemming and hawing, I decided on the Corcoran 10" Leather Plain Toe with Lug Outsole. Laura looked at the Jump Boot, which has a cute cap toe. (She looked at a men's boot because the store doesn't carry women's sizes as a matter of course, but will order them on request.) We decided that, though it was cute, it wasn't cute enough for the price yet. (She has boots. My pair is pretty much dead, so I needed something.) So we bought mine. As an added bonus, we bought Ben a pair of jeans.

Got home, and found out that the jeans didn't fit Ben. Or, I should say, they didn't fit Ben the way he likes them - he wears his pants baggy enough to carry the contents of his backpack in his pockets. (Not baggy like all the kids are wearing them these days, but ... baggy.) This pair was too tight for his liking. (He also pointed out that this pair was actually a size smaller than his current pair, so maybe it *was* too small.) So, fine. After dinner he and I went to Kohl's and got him some 'relaxed fit' and 'comfort fit' jeans.

Tonight I'm going bowling with the web developers and project managers. It's a duel to the death in the alley! Laura will drop me off and then prowl the East Side, and then we'll head home. And do homework and system testing. Hurrah! Tomorrow night, no plans. Friday afternoon Ben will catch a ride to Indiana. And we have the weekend plan-less.

A friend just lost his job in the IT Consulting world. If anybody has leads in the Milwaukee area drop me a note and I'll put you in touch with him. He's kind of a jack-of-all-trades - network, servers, maintenance. And like that.

Sleep

Last night I went to the Sleep Wellness place, where I met with the nurse practitioner and she said, basically, "You seem to be doing fine - no reason to have you come back in for a sleep study." And "The insurance company will pay for a new machine this year or next year, but if yours is okay there's no reason to replace it." And "We can replace the reservoir and hose, sure. ... We don't actually have your machine listed in your file. Call it in to us and we'll arrange for you to get a reservoir and hose." So.

So, grocery shopping on the way home. And then home, where I tested some security things and played a game of C&C:G.

Tonight we're planning to swing past the downtown Army/Navy store to get boots. No plans for the rest of the night, other than more security testing and Laura doing homework. Tomorrow night I'm going bowling with some work people. And that's it for the rest of the week. Note to self: Ben needs to find out when he's leaving on Friday.

Zut alors. Isn't this cute?

Robots and Stuff

Friday night after work we went to the Admirals game. The Ads, as they are locally known (though I prefer my nickname, the skellies), did well in the first period, though they let San Antonio score once. The second and third periods were rocky, with lots of fighting and not as good skating. The Ads tied it up ten seconds before the end of the third period, putting them into overtime. A five minute overtime period ended scoreless, so they went into a shootout. And the Ads won.

While there, Laura bought me my jersey. (A few years ago she offered me a jersey of my choice for Christmas, and I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted. I finally chose.)

Saturday I went out and ran errands - visited the Milwaukee Army Navy surplus store to look at boots, since mine are pretty well dead; they have some, but I'd like Laura to see them before I get them. I also picked up Morrowind for the PC to see if it would work on Laura's computer. We did some things around the house, none of it too stressful, and watched Get Smart on DVD in the evening.

Sunday I dropped Ben off at the Robotics place (he had another demo, this time at one of the museums downtown) and drove down to have breakfast at Frank's with Todd and Chelsea. Among other things we discussed possible plans for next year's Halloween. While at Frank's we got to see pictures of Chantelle dressed as Sarah Palin, which happened last weekend (Ginger and MB, be sure to ask). And I discovered that Mike who kept all the animatronics, smoke machines, and general electrical stuff at Fright Fest last year is working at Frank's in the off season.

Down to Faire to pick up some things that Ginger left behind. Then home to sleep off the garbage plate. I got up to do some other erranding and pick up dinner, and we had a nice evening in front of the tv.

Tonight I have an appointment at the Sleep Wellness place - it's been a few years since I've been in, and they'd like me to come in for a checkup. Tomorrow night we might stop by the Army Navy store on the way home. Wednesday night the developers are going bowling. And that's the plan for the week. Ben's going to Indiana to present some more robotics stuff over the weekend, and I believe we're staying home.

While looking up the URL for Ben's thing, I found video with him in it. It's here. (He's introduced at 1:41. He actually speaks at 25:15.)

Go Ben. :)

Something...

Last night we stopped for GPs on the way home. Then we watched a couple episodes of Brisco County, Jr and started watching the pilot with the audio commentary. (Did you know that the cave entrance shown in the pilot episode and later episodes was the same cave entrance as the Bat Cave from the Batman tv show? *And* the same cave that they park the car in in Army of Darkness? I had no idea!) Eventually Laura moved to her computer, where she showed me her photos from TRF.

At dinner in Texas one night, Laura handed out pieces of paper and markers and had people write messages for me. Which she then photographed (that is, she took photos of the people holding their messages), put in order, and showed to me. They were cute, fun, meaningful, important. It's things like that which make me really appreciate my friends. And especially my wife, who came up with the idea.

Afterwards, I flipped over to watch the new South Park. (Which I taped, because I think Laura would enjoy it.) And we went to bed relatively early.

Tonight, no plans as such. We might rent a movie, might go see one on the big screen, might stay home and relax. (We're not going to Clothiers Seminar.) Ben has robotics stuff on Saturday and Sunday, and otherwise we don't have anything planned over the weekend either. After I discuss such things with my wife, I might give Gwyneth a call and borrow her reciprocating saw and take apart the stairs...

Right. On to work.

Whizz Bang Pow

Last night I stopped on the way home to pick up prescriptions and groceries. Then I mostly messed with computers and Laura worked on homework, while Ben was at robotics and then went to a friend's house. Oh, I blew some stuff up on the porch in honor of Guy Fawkes Night, but it was too warm (for my tastes) to have a bonfire. But it's supposed to snow in the next few days, so ...

The doctor changed my prescription. In a couple weeks (and I made a note this time) I need to call him with my blood pressure and the answers to some other questions. This new one might make me dizzy at first, so that should be a good time...

Tonight we have no plans. I'm going to try to hit the gym. We need to decide whether or not we're going to Minneapolis this weekend so that I know if I can declare things like 'We have no plans for the weekend', and so on.

And, um, yeah. Like that.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

Happy Guy Fawkes Day. Er, Night.

Last night we went home, then I grabbed my gym stuff and drove to the polling place. I was in and out within five or ten minutes - didn't even have a chance to crack open my book. I'm glad I didn't have to wait seven hours, or wait in the rain, and that the process was painless. Then on to the gym, where I did enough damage to myself that my shoulders hurt this morning.

Home, where I grabbed some food and abandoned my wife to her homework. And left again, to go see Tropic Thunder.

There was lots of buzz about this movie, both positive and negative. I was a little shocked by the strong language at the very beginning, but I've seen Deadwood - I learned how to relax into it. (The little old ladies a few rows behind me weren't as relaxed. But they made it through the whole movie.) The 'retard' stuff was, as I had read, taken far out of context by the protesters, and fit with the storyline, with the characters, and weren't in fact actually criticizing 'retarded' people - they were picking on actors and their methods of portraying handicapped characters. All in all, explosions, tongue-in-cheek overacting, blood and guts, and likeable characters made for a good movie. Did I mention the overacting, and acting against type? Tom Cruise as the foul-mouthed balding hairy troll of a film exec, dancing to rap music and cursing up a storm was a laugh riot, though had it been anyone other than Tom Cruise I don't know if it would have been as funny to me. Would I recommend it for everyone? Not in the least. Did I like it? Yup.

Home again, where I joined Ben on the couch to watch the Comedy Central news coverage. And we switched back and forth between that and CNN to watch the talking heads' version of the same coverage. And we watched Obama win the election. And yes, I cried too. But come on, who didn't?

Interesting, though, to look at the big red stain across the map. It's almost as though the country were drawing sides for the next civil war. But that couldn't happen here, could it?

This afternoon I'm headed to the doctor to discuss my blood pressure some more. And maybe my dry eyes. Tonight we have no plans, other than Laura finishing her current assignment, and I was hoping that she and I might curl up on the couch and snuggle. Though I might first blow stuff up and/or burn stuff in the backyard. Also, no plans for the rest of the week.

Right. Work to do. Did I mention that we hired a new person to take the project management stuff off my shoulders, so that I have the potential to 'exceed expectations' on my next review?

Vote!

Last night I picked up Thai for dinner, then GP for Ben, and then went home. Changed, checked Laura's flight status a couple times, and went to pick her up. Her flight was about twenty minutes late, but I had a book. I bought her a chai about five minutes before her plane landed, and handed it to her when she got past the security point. (And hugged her, and kissed her, and welcomed her home.) Home, where we had dinner and watched the pilot episode of Brisco County Jr. The pilot turned out to be a double episode, so after that we went to bed.

Tonight after work I'll go vote. (As long as I'm in line before 8 PM, I'll get to vote.) Then I might hit the gym. Laura has a homework assignment due tomorrow, so she'll do that. And Ben's decided to hang out at Rusty's house and watch the election coverage.

Tomorrow night Laura will probably complete her homework. I have testing to do on some of our network security gear. This weekend we might go up to Minneapolis for the Clothiers Seminar - we haven't discussed it yet. And that's what I know.

Now, off to my review.

Not all here...

Friday I left work a couple hours early and went home, then Ben and I went to Todd's. We finished setting up, got Ben dressed, and hanged him from a tree. (That is, we adjusted the noose so that he could rest his chin on it and appear to be hanged.) Then I went behind the house, smeared my fingers with ash, and used it as black makeup around my eyes and across my cheeks. (Like the ghoul makeup from Fright Fest.) And took my place standing in the bushes, a few feet from Mr Ghoul. Todd dressed all in black and picked up his (bladeless) chainsaw and chased people up and down the driveway.

So. The yard was edged with 'Crime Scene' tape. The driveway was lined with tiki torches with skulls set into them. A few gravestones decorated the yard, along with signs advertising 'Cemetary' and 'A grave for you'. The doors and windows were boarded up, except for the large window with a giant green eye peering out of it. One tree featured two hanged men - one was Ben, one was the dummy. A large crate rattled every few minutes, and behind it a couple fog machines belched smoke. Once the sun went down far enough, a projector showed scenes of horror on the garage. And the speakers were cranked, to the soundtrack of the scenes on the garage. People had to 'run the gauntlet' of the driveway to get to the side door, where Chelsea handed out candy; Todd waited behind the house and chased people back down the driveway.

We got some decent scares out of people, though the target audience was small - Todd turned off the chainsaw if there were little kids (toddlers to about 8 years old), so I didn't jump out at them. And his mom came over for a little while, so I didn't jump out at her. All told, I didn't get to scare that many people. But the ones I did get, I got good. Ben, too, got some shrieks - he swayed with the wind, mostly, and sometimes lurched around towards people. We tag-teamed one group, which was nice. When 7:00 hit we turned everything off, packed things away, and headed home. Where we enjoyed a quiet night. Chelsea took pictures and video, I think, so I'll see if we can get copies of that.

Saturday morning I felt pretty awful so I slept in. (And called Ed and Kate to let them know I wouldn't make it to the event.) And wound up doing some things around the house. When Ben got home from his robotics presentation, he decided that he wanted to learn to wire circuit boards, so we ran out to Radio Shack to get him some basic equipment. (He's starting with a microcontroller.) Saturday night we rented Run Fatboy Run and The Incredible Hulk, and Ben fried his first LEDs. I liked RFR, though it wasn't the Edgar Wright Simon Pegg humor that I was hoping for. And Hulk wasn't as good as Iron Man, but was still decent ... though he looked too CGI for my taste. (I know, he kinda has to.)

Sunday I got up and ran errands. Then did stuff around the house, and spent some time slacking. (It was a weird weekend of watching movies on tv - I caught chunks of Ice Princess, Sky High, Mean Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen... weird, I tell you. High school drama for days.) And I spent a couple hours in the basement going through old papers and receipts, and emptied almost an entire file drawer. And organized what was in there, so now we can find things better. We watched the Fox Sunday night lineup, and that was enough for the weekend.

Laura comes home tonight. I didn't do everything on my list, but did do the following things (which doesn't look like much, now that I'm looking at it):
Rearrange the boxes of books so that they're not as obvious in the living room
Clean up all evidence of pork consumption
Hang shelves in the vicinity of Laura's computer
Patch the holes and repaint the basement stairwell
Clean up file cabinet and loose papers
Clean porch
Paint shield (at least the first coat)
Make new swords, repair existing swords

Things I didn't get done:
Invent bookshelves
Sand, clean, stain, and move the furniture in the garage
Dig a trench for a drainage pipe in the driveway/yard
Paint my device on my heater shield
Clean/dup the cassettes on the porch
Build cat 'stair' thing

...but hey, there's plenty of time.

So, tonight she comes home. We have nothing else planned for the rest of the week, and haven't discussed whether or not we'll go to the Clothiers Seminar on Saturday. I'll be happy to have her home again.