Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Thursday, July 31, 2003
We're still having a grand time. Spending about 3 hours a day in the lake, the weather here is right at 100F but with the lake to swim in it's very nice.
Last night I took the three neices to Stateline Autoway for their Wednesday Night Madness bump-to-pass races. It was great fun, they had a blast, I loaded them up with junk food and sugar (what are uncles for?) and they were laughing and screaming and having so much fun. There wasn't a real crowd-pleaser like the station wagon with the shopping cart welded to the roof like last year, but many of the cars were back this season, some much more thrashed... Fun fun fun. Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Yesterday I made a batch of chocolate ice cream and a batch of vanilla Heath(tm) bar crunch. Both turned out awesome. I will grant that the machine can turn out extremely high-end ice cream, as good or better than anything I can buy, but it takes a lot of work. Good ice cream involves adding egg yolks to the mixture, which means I need to heat the cream and sugar slowly, then add tiny spoonfuls of hot but not boiling cream to the yolks to temper them, until I can finally slowly add the yolks... It's nearly half an hour of cooking per batch, which then needs to cool for an hour or so before going into the machine. Definitely NOT the "pour ingredients in and have awesome ice cream in half an hour" as promised. Thus, it's really too much work for me to actually end up using it, so I am going to return it.
I also fixed an electrical problem my parents had with one of their circuits shorting to ground, I tracked it down to a mis-wired antique tiffany glass lamp, and I fixed my mom's complaints about her iMac I rebuilt last spring. I was going to rent a DVD to watch with the girls last night but the stupid local grocery store/gas station/laundromat/video rental place required my SSN. Nofuckingway am I giving some random small business my SSN, the last thing I need is identity theft. If they have a copy of my driver's license and credit card, they can charge me top dollar for DVDs that aren't returned, so they're covered, so why they require an SSN I don't know. If I'd been thinking I would have made one up. 532 3.14159 sounds good. Mmmm, pi. Looks like today B wants to take the girls window-shopping at the mall. I want to build a step at the end of the dock so when I go dock-jumping (oops almost typed dock humping) I can climb out instead of swimming back to shore. Monday, July 28, 2003
Man we're having a great time. My three nieces (aged 13, 9, and 9) and my 14 year old nephew are staying out here at the lake with us, we figured it'd be just as easy to watch all of 'em and we're having a great time. Sitting in lawn chairs on the sandy beach, playing in the water, my nephew goes fishing about 300 hours a day, just having a good time. Friday, July 25, 2003
Uff, been busy. Yesterday after work I loaded the van, loaded the kids, and we drove across the state. Got into Spokane at 11pm, to B's sister Annie's place at 11:15pm. Her dad had flown in earlier that day so the kids got to see that grandpa. Unfortunitely, they got way to jacked up, and didn't like sleeping in Annie's basement, so they both screamed and freaked out on us, finally going to sleep at 2:30am. Mind you, 8pm is their normal bedtime.
Then Harry got up at 6:30am... Uff-freakin-da! Tonight we're at my folks' place. Isabel knows this place so she slept OK, but Harry is still fighting it, he does NOT like to sleep anywhere but his bed at home. Thursday, July 24, 2003
Tonight we leave for a week trip, we're going to my parent's log home on the shores of Spirit Lake, Idaho. It's going to be a blast.
Anyone remember Telengard? It was an old C64 (and many other platforms) game from Avalon Hill in about 1983. Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Lately I've been playing Dungeon Siege. It's a fun beautiful rip-off of Diablo. If you like the Diablos, you'll probably like Dungeon Siege. Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Wooo! I have been occasionally playing Fishy, a Java or Flash game where you start out a little fish and try to get big by eating smaller fish while avoiding getting eaten by larger fish.
Today, I managed to get 85,584, with the message "You ate everything and completely destroyed the pond eco-system" Wooo!
Well, last night I returned my empty box DVD player and drove waaaay the hell down to Burien where they had one left in stock to buy one. Pretty slick little unit, it'll be nice having a DVD player for travel and for our bedroom.
Monday, July 21, 2003
I had a blast last weekend. We didn't end up having to cook at all!
Saturday morning we went over to my friend's house for breakfast, she had bought all the food for camping and when one couple didn't show we had a double-extra-boatload left over, so we had french toast, bacon, and fruit. Oh, and mimosas. A couple of those on a bright sunny morning sure starts things right! In the afternoon B cut my hair and I ironed my dress shirt, and B and I showered and dressed up (me in my suit, her in a nice dress) and left the kids at home with grandma and B's sister (isn't fish sticks and tater tots the classic "folks gone, eating with babysitter" dinner?) so we could go to our friend's wedding. The wedding was held in Mary Gates hall on the UW campus. This used to be the old Physics building, but they got nice new ones, so this cool old brick building which was in an L shape got renovated, they filled the L in to make a rectangle, but left the outside wall inside the L exposed in a large airy 2-story courtyard inside. Very pretty, very cool job. On the outside you can't tell what is 100 year old brick and stone work and what's only 5 years old. The reception was at the Harbor Club, a hoity-toity club on the 17th floor of a building downtown right near the water, with amazing views in most directions. It was a gorgeous sunny day, the waterfront was beautiful, Mt Rainier was looking totally stunning as only it can, awesome time. The reception was great, there was an open bar, I think I ended up drinking a bombay saphire martini, 2 or 3 manhattans that people gave me, two glasses of red wine, a corona, a guinness (for strength!), and at least 4-5 Chivas Regal (neat). Uff. It was the first time I've ever been cut off by a bartender, but it wasn't because I was obnoxiously drunk or anything, it was because I was hauling drinks into the library which was the only place people could smoke cigars, and there wasn't waitservice in there. They had a DJ and dance floor, of course, and B and I were dancin' fools. She's an awesome dancer, and I am a spazmatron 3000, but when I'm drunk I like to dance, and it's fun. I drug the bride out onto the dance floor a bunch of times, under my theory that brides should enjoy their wedding. She did have a blast. Everyone was having a great time. B felt so adult, here we were, out alone, dressed up fancy, at a fancy place, and our kids were home with a babysitter. WooO! We didn't end up leaving until around midnight. On Sunday I was massively hung over, but it was SO worth it. I've sorta been in the market for quite a while for a portable LCD DVD player, to keep the kids occupied during the 5 hour drives to Spokane and back. I also figured it'd be nice to use in our bedroom as a 2nd DVD player (our only one now is in the living room), it would be good at my parent's lake place since they don't have one and it gets boring without TV sometimes, and it would be useful during the flight and when we're at Cabo this December. I'd been saying that when they hit $300 I'd buy one. Well, Frey Meyer had an ad for the Audiovox 1501 5.6" screen for $270, and the Audiovox 7" screen for $319. Isabel was napping, and Harry was just up from his (they love to tag-team us so we're stuck) so I took him with me, leaving B home to nap or do whatever she wanted. We hit BestBuy and Target first, to comparison shop (I'd done some online as well) and then went to Freddys to see what it looked like. The 7" was MUCH nicer, so I wanted to buy it, but they were out. They called the Ballard store, they were out too. They called the Greenwood store, they had one and would hold it for me. At this point it was 3:40pm, and we had an engagement party to go starting at 4pm, but I could be a little late for that. It took 20 minutes to drive to the Greenwood store, 10 more to buy it, and only about 8 minutes to get home. (For some reason, westbound traffic on 85th street is always royally fubar, but eastbound traffic never is.) I picked up B and Isabel and we headed over to the party. The party was a lot of fun, ribs, tater salad, awesome cornbread, and I had a few beers as some hair-of-the-dog. Aaaahhh, sweet sweet beer. When we got home it was nearly 8pm, time for the kids to get a bath and go to bed. I open up our new DVD player, and the box is divided into two parts. Half is a cardboard box with batteries and all the adapter cables. Half is two little bits of styrafoam, and some bubble wrap, and NO FREAKING DVD PLAYER. Gaaah! Boned again! With the weight of the battery, and me not knowing how heavy they were supposed to be since the floor models are always bolted down, I didn't notice. Of course, the two guys who sold it to me didn't notice the box was light either. B called 'em up and they said "D'oh! We sold ya the box the floor model came in!" so at least they aren't saying we stole the damn thing. Grrr. Still, fighting the traffic on 85th to get to Greenwood again is going to suck, not to mention they're out of stock right now, they better get one before we leave on Thursday night. Bastards! Friday, July 18, 2003
#1 ingredient in Oh Boy! Oberto brand pepperoni stix? Pork heart. Mmmm!
I never want to know what is in sausage. (shudder) Well, today I sorta slipped a cog and when checking my Amazon.com Gold Box, they offered me $90 off a $600 ice cream maker. It'll make 1.5 quarts at a time, in 30 minutes, as many times as you like. No sticking part in the freezer for 8 hours. There was a $100 rebate as well, so my cost is $450 with tax. Crickey. If I end up using it a lot instead of buying ice cream, it'll pay for itself in a year or two. Looks like I'm gonna get fat. If I don't like it, I still have the 30 day return period. Thursday, July 17, 2003
Uff-da. Uff-freakin'-da. I think I need to repeat myself once more: Uff-da.
Last night we had a special poker night for our buddy who is getting married on Saturday. We all missed the bachelor party last saturday (a day of fishing in the sun in Puget Sound, then dinner at chez expensivo, then at a bar till last call, and the festivities didn't end until 5:30am, damn good thing I missed it or I might not be alive) so we wanted to do something nice. The original plan was to book the poker table at the Wooley Toad, a fancy cigar bar at this new country club out in the 'burbs, so we could drink single malt scotch, smoke cigars, and play poker there, but the table was already reserved. Instead, at 6pm last night we met at the Bueno Aires Grill, an Argentinian steak house that's new in town and getting raves. I was organizing it and got there early, and had my first mojito. I'd never heard of this drink until a few weeks ago all my friends were going ga-ga over them, apparently they were trendy a year or two ago or something. Being almost completely non-trendy, I not only missed that boat, I didn't even know it existed. A mojito is rum, triple sec, sugar, mint, and lime juice. Basically a mint julep with rum instead of bourbon, so I prefer to call 'em rum juleps. DAMN tasty if you like sweet mint, I couldn't taste the rum (but boy howdy could I feel it!) It better be tasty at eight freakin' fifty per pint! Uff-da, drink prices remind me why I don't frequent trendy bars and make me kinda glad I don't get out much anymore. For dinner we all had the mixed grill. There was a word for it, I forget. Basically, it's all you can meat. Err, eat. All you can eat meat. MEAT! Mmmm, meat. There were six kinds of meat: Skirt steak, short ribs, some bigger steak cut that I can't name, chorizo sausage (basically hog lymph nodes and hog anus ground up, damn good), blood sausage (with blood as a thickening agent), and sweetbread (aka brains. Now I can shuffle around with my arms out and hands hanging down going "brains! brains!" like a zombie!) They were all pretty good, and we ate amazing quantities of them. No pansy appetizers or salads, we just ate pounds of meat until we were fairly bursting. I actually had more room but he brought more chorizo at the end and I can only take so many pounds of chorizo, if he'd brought more skirt steak and short ribs I could have kept going. The waiter lost his bet with the cook, he figured us for more meat capacity. I feel like a Chicagoan. After dinner we headed over to my friend's place were we'd set the poker table up on his back deck so we could drink beer, drink single malt scotch (he had Glenlivet 12 year aged in French (some adjective) casks), and smoke cigars while we played. I had a blast, winning $8. On of our other poker buddies works for the concessionaire for Safeco field, and brought a case of cocktail pepperonis, and I ate about 10 of those, grossing out some of the more full members of our group. Ah, more meat! Of course, today I'm suffering from a Severe Meat Hangover. Uff-freakin'-da. Wednesday, July 16, 2003
So my TiVo has been recording Monster House on Discovery for me. It's like Monster Garage, except not as good, but with a much larger budget. Basically a crew of 5 yahoos gets 5 days to implement a "theme" in somebody's house, and the homeowner gets zero control over it. After they are done they bring the homeowner back to see what their house has become.
The Castle theme one was my favorite, they put giant foam faux wood beams on the ceiling, and a large foam foax rock fireplace that was awesome. Unfortunately, the homeowners hated it and yanked it all a month later. The 70s theme house was pretty cool too. Eh, if I lived in LA and still lived in my old rental house I'd let 'em do a theme. Egyptian, maybe. Or underwater. That'd be a cool theme. Tuesday, July 15, 2003
How annoying. I had a mosquito bite right next to my watch band, and it irritated the bite so now it's not going away quickly. I'm wearing my watch on my left wrist now, which is bizarre to me, and also interesting that my left wrist is thicker than my right. Not surprising since I'm left handed, but visually I can't see a difference.
Harry is getting ever closer to walking. He took three un-aided steps to me yesterday, and he cruises behind his push-along toy, holding on with just one hand. Soon! Monday, July 14, 2003
Camping was loads of fun. Harry couldn't believe there were that many rocks and sticks in the world. Isabel had a great time with the tent as well.
We did a hike on Saturday morning going up to Barclay Lake, it was about 1.5 miles and 300' of elevation gain, not too bad if you don't have a 34lb 2 year old strapped to your back. Uff-da. The lake itself was a gorgeous little alpine lake with a HUGE freakin' monolith of rock right above it, SO amazingly beautiful. There were some mosquitoes, not too bad, but I've got a bite right on my wrist next to my watch band so I can't wear my watch because it irritates the bite. Friday, July 11, 2003
Wooo! Leavin' in a few to go camping. Most of our camping gear is in a bunch of large bins, so loading up to go was a breeze.
I normally bring a large 20lb propane tank to power the BBQ and stove, I hate using the deposable little propane bottles because I can't refill them and they run out, so I got the adapter hose to use one of the two I have for my BBQ. (I keep two so I never get caught without gas!) This year I bought a 30" mast that attaches to the tank and has two ports low down for things plus a port at the top where I can attach a propane two-mantle lantern. Now I won't have to deal with white gas lanterns and pumping their pressure back up. Thursday, July 10, 2003
Wow, I cleaned up at poker last night, winning $34. Next week one of the poker guys is getting married, so we're going to have poker at this fancy gold resort's cigar bar. Should be fun if expensive.
Between refinancing, tax cuts, and a 2% merit raise, we've got a lot more income than we used to. We're going to dump it all into paying off the truck in the next year. Harry is getting closer to walking. He can take a few un-aided steps now, but generally chooses to hold onto things, dropping down to a crawl between objects. We're going camping this weekend, leaving tomorrow. First time this summer, hopefully the kids will have a blast yet behave reasonably. Wednesday, July 09, 2003
In case anyone was wondering what a minor surgical procedure followed by a night in the pediatric intensive care unit costs, so far it's $8,000. Good thing we're only on the hook for a $200/night hospital co-pay. After ten years of paying a ton of money each money for health insurance, I'm finally getting some benefits.
After three years of biking with flat pedals and normal shoes, I finally got clipless pedals and biking shoes for my father's day present. Holy smokes it's awesome. Before my pedaling went powerstroke pause powerstroke pause repeat. Now I can pull up as well as push down, and I can push forward and pull back. I can use different muscles groups, which makes the ride a lot easier, plus the best part is it's all one smooooooth motion. Very very nice. Friday we're going camping up in the north cascades, so last night we went shopping. We bought Isabel a sleeping bag and pad, she's finally old enough to not need the playpen. We also took one of the sides off her crib to convert it to a youth bed. B was worried that she'd fall out so we put some pillows down below. When I checked on her at 5am she was sleeping on the ground near the bed, but looked happy so I left her alone. Yesterday's nap she managed to stay in the bed. I managed to eat over 20 ice cream bars last weekend, dunno why. Probably because it was hot in Spokane. Tasty, however. I love orange creamsicles. Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Ah, good to be home again. Had a great extended weekend in Spokane for one of B's cousin's wedding.
Harry is mostly healed up, but now he's cutting teeth again and it's driving him and us crazy. Little bugger won't sleep much at night, but is mostly fine during the day. Isabel was so damn cute, after a few songs during the wedding reception, she got up her nerve and stormed out onto the dance floor to dance! She was pretty jacked up on jellybeans and wedding cake, so after about 4 songs she crashed bigtime. I really wish we'd brought our video camera, but I was thinking why the heck would I want video of B's cousin's wedding? Oh well. |
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