Babes and Beer |
||
|
Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
Family Pictures Active blogs: Carpe Datum Cognitive Dissonance Dubious Quality Joe Delta Fishpimp A Clan Lord Journal Fun Turns to Tragedy! A Stitch In Time Free Market Fairy Tales Timmerov LJ & her dog The Phone Booth Chuck Pierce T-Homo The Brad Hole Greg Costikyan Phil Steinmeyer Ty Robin Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools Mostly inactive blogs: WOPR Spring Tide The Tangential Jeff Schell Clan Lord blogs: Fierce and Furry: The Adventures of Hor |
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Mmm, saturday we went to Costco and picked up a 5 pound sack of steamer clams. I have no idea why we don't do that more often, we all love them. Last weekend had had almost nothing planned, so I went to Home Depot and bought the hardware to put four 8' white melamine shelves in the kid's room. We got a bunch of stuff off their dresser and floor and it's amazing to see the floor in their room again. My friend Todd and his wife Dani and their six month old baby Yaris are in town and have been staying with us for the past 2 days. Oh my gosh that little guy thinks that B and I are the funniest thing ever. He's spent half his waking hours laughing and giving us these amazing whole-head smiles, mouth open as wide as he can get it. SO CUTE. Last night Todd and I played some Rock Band. I have *got* to put in the time to unlock the rest of the songs. This whole "locked songs" thing blows dog. We also fired up Guitar Hero III and B managed to finish her career mode on Easy, kicking ass in the last 3 songs plus the boss fight with the Devil. Harry gets to keep his long cast for 2 more weeks. The doc says everything looks great. He's super cute racing around in his tiny wheelchair, but he's totally ready for crutches. Maybe we can get some today. Saturday, July 26, 2008
Oh man I was bummed yesterday. At work for cost reasons I've always used desktop-class PCs running linux as my servers. I replace the mail server about every 3-4 years, and the replaced server becomes the new web server for another 3-4 years. (The dozen or so hosted web sites don't generally get enough traffic to matter, except the two times we got slashdotted.) Anyway, finally I decided to go non-ghetto, getting a new 19" rack, UPS, IP KVM, and six new Dell PowerEdge 2950 2U rack-mounted servers. (Two mail servers for two different groups, a web server, two backup servers (one to backup PCs/Macs and one for unix backups), and a hot spare. All are identical except for their disk configs. Anyway, after spending most of the spring figuring out exactly what to get, and finally getting it ordered in early June, it took a month to figure out that purchasing hadn't actually placed the order. After the gear finally got ordered, it arrived last week when I was on vacation, but they didn't call our purchasing to deliver, they called my office phone and left a message. I finally got back to them and they agreed to deliver it yesterday between 8am and 2pm. At 2:30pm they finally showed up, two huge pallets of gear. The rack comes fully assembled, it *barely* fit in the elevator. I was honestly expecting a bunch of boxes of rails to assemble. When I finally got it unpacked, there is a huge dent in the side of it. The side panel is bent so far that the right front rail is bent in 1/8", which makes the rack useless. Glub, more delays. My main mail server has reached the point where a full non-incremental backup takes it 28 hours, which only worked over the 4th of july weekend when nobody was using it. Too many people with too large of inboxes for it to keep up while backing up. I need to get the new gear in place asap, hopefully the replacement rack arrives soon. Last night we took the kids and met up with Jeannette at Luau, having a fun dinner of happy hour appetizers, a pupu platter, and a bucket of coronitas. The kids loved the umbrellas in their Shirley Temples. Afterwards I took the kids home and the girls went out to see Momma Mia. I fell asleep on the couch while the kids watched Man Vs Wild, they woke me up at 8 o'clock bedtime to tell me to put them to bed. Right now there are two things that I love to hear Harry voice. The first is how he says his sister's name, with each syllable separate. "Thanks Is-a-bel". Most people including myself run them together a lot more than he does. It's very sweet sounding. The second sounds very funny to me, but I don't really like him having to say it. When something is going on with his broken leg, he will say "It's very painful, daddy. It's very painful!". For some reason that just cracks me up. I don't want him to be in pain, but it just sounds so technical for a six year old. Friday, July 25, 2008
Happy Sysadmin Day! Oh man, I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I went to see Judas Priest in concert with 3 of my brothers and my 14 year old niece. It was a lot of fun. The opening band, Testament, sucked majorly, but Priest was pretty good. WaMu Theater was terrible, it's a big open space where they hold home/auto/boat shows etc, with curtains and some bleachers in the back. Terrible acoustics. When we got into the line of buttrockers waiting to get inside, my brother Steve says, "Hey, these look like our people". LOL. I laughed seeing all the father/son buttrocker combos. "So THAT is what you'll look like when your hair falls out" Last night we had poker. B had a friend from Canadia in town and a bunch of them went out drinking. When 8 o'clock bedtime rolled around, Isabel came in to announce that I had to put the kids to be RIGHT NOW. Jeffe, a poker buddy with kids who are like 1 and 3, was totally amazed. The guys were annoyed that I had to stop playing for 20 minutes to put the kids to bed, but it's better than not getting to play at all. When I was putting Isabel to bed she was super duper excited about sunday's finale of "The Next Food Network Star". "Oh Daddy I can't wait to see who wins. I really really really hope it's Lisa". I laughed, but I hope it's Lisa as well. Thursday, July 24, 2008
Oh my poor Isabel. She found a small pool of water on a tarp that is awaiting the finishing of my shed, and it had wriggly little mosquito larvae in it. She was excited that she'd found tadpoles, and was crushed to find out they were baby skeeters. ok, back to vacation. I pushed Harry through the gravel trail at Trees of Mystery, they did have some cool trees. At the top they have a gondola to take you up to the top of a ridge, which was pretty cool as long as you aren't scared of heights. The gift shop there has a fudge shop with some awesome fudge. Eight bucks for half a pound, or ten bucks for a whole pound. B was going to just get half a pound of rocky road, but I added a quarter pound of raspberry swirl and a quarter pound of this chocolate/vanilla/caramel/walnut fudge. Mmmmmm. We drove back to Crescent City and went to Ocean World, a tourist trap aquarium there. It's a barge with underwater windows, but since the bay had such bad viz they moved it slightly inland and just have it sitting on filtered pools. Still, pretty cool views of the fishies, including a wolf eel that came out to see me. By far the best part of that aquarium was they had a tank upstairs with a pair of leopard sharks swimming laps in a tank that you could pet. Harry loved that, even I thought it was pretty cool. For dinner we all went out to a pretty fancy bistro. It was pretty tasty. Isabel was quite impressed to get an adult caesar salad with her dinner, she ate the whole thing. After dinner Jeannette went out for pie, coming back with a cherry and a lemon meringue pie. Mmmm I love meringue. It was a fairly early night for everyone. Sunday morning we got up, packed up, and drove home. 9 hours on the road, and ~2 hours worth of stops. Luckily our friednds were ahead of us and told us that there was a serious backup on I-5 at mile marker 72 in Washington. We stopped for dinner for an hour hoping that it would clear up, but it got worse, backing up to mile marker 60. Well, no way was I going to sit in a 12 mile backup for glub knows how long, so we got off the freeway there, and using a 1974 Mobil highway map I'd gotten from my Dad combined with our garmin GPS Navi, we took a highway through the countryside to get to centralia by the back roads. (Hwy 505 to Winlock, then then Hwy 603 to Napavine and Newaukum, then side roads to I-5) That probably saved us at least an hour. I was quite pleased. B and I listened to the newest Lois McMaster Bujold "Sharing Knife" (Volume 3, Passage) book-on-mp3. It was fun to have something we both liked. Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Well, I have to admit, Bridget was right. The kids did great on the long trip to the redwoods, it wasn't the disaster that I predicted. Thursday afternoon we got a Tiny Tim wheelchair for Harry, loaded up the van, and drove 5 hours south to Eugene, Oregon. After the first 5 hotels were full (some sports event of some kind) we found a room, in a place across the street from the University of Oregon. Yes, the hated Ducks. Ugh. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have snuck across the street and taken a dump in the bushes. Friday morning we got up, had a delicious breakfast at The Original Pankcake House, which I wasn't aware was a chain. I've been to the Portland one a few times, it is where I was introduced to Bacon pancakes, which opened my eyes to the many uses of bacon. (I *still* haven't found the time or company to go try chicken-fried bacon!) Afterwards we drove down Crescent City, CA. Our hotel had great ocean views, and Isabel and I took a walk down the beach, then found a kite at a surf shop. (I hadn't packed kites in the 90 minute rush to leave). We went back, got B and Harry, and wheeled him down to the beach. As we were going down a ramp to the sand, Harry was say "Oohhh too scary too scary TOO SCARY OOOOO! Crabs!" I nearly fell over laughing. The wind was whipping, but we managed to fly the kite anyway without the string breaking. We had dinner at a popular local joint called the Chart Room. It was packed. The rest of our friends had arrived by then. THat night B put the kids to bed in our room and the rest of us got pretty pickled on wine/beer/cider in another room. Saturday I was a bit oogy, some of that not-so-fresh feeling. We drove up into the Redwoods to scatter Chuck's ashes. It was beautiful. I managed to get Harry and his wheelchair through the whole unpaved hiking trail. After that I felt like nachos, we found some place claiming "authentic" mexican food. They did have authentic fish tacos, but their nachos had lettuce on them, a first for me as far as I can recall. It and a beer hit the spot, fixing my hangover nicely. After lunch we all drove down the coast to the Trees of Mystery, a funny roadside tourist trap. They had a 49' statue of Paul Bunyon and a big Babe the Blue Ox, complete with a large set of dangly blue balls. out of time, more tomorrow... Thursday, July 17, 2008
Blogging via iPhone again. My wife, being totally insane, has the whole famn damily in the van on the way to Crescent city,CA. We got a tiny Wheelchair for Harry. Isabel answers obvious questions with a sarcastic "cha" just like WOPR. B is not happy with this. 3g rules, EDGE drools. Remind me not to leave civilization. Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Yesterday we took Harry to see the orthopedic doc. He said Harry's leg is about as good as it can be, should heal great and is in great alignment. He got his splint removed and a new cast installed, it's green of course. He's doing a lot better, much less pain. He's got a full leg cast for the next two weeks, then two weeks of a short cast, then some kind of boot for the last two weeks. Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Well we're home now. Isabel and I went to Toys R Us yesterday to get Harry a Leapster handheld video game/learning thingy, since he's going to have quite a bit of couch time in the next few weeks. He isn't eating much, which makes it hard to give him painkillers, and oh lordy is he whiny. We put up with it yesterday, but today we're going to start putting our foot down. We know he's in pain, but he can still be polite to us. Isabel has been pretty much an angel through this, despite having her highly anticipated vacation ruined. She thinks that she and I should go to the Redwoods together. The Oregon coast hotels cancelled our reservations without charging us. She drew a picture of a T-Rex with Harry riding on it's back as a get-well card for Harry. Awwwww. We see the orthopedic doc this afternoon, hopefully his swelling is down enough to get his real cast. (Right now the leg is in a splint with flexible wrap) It's a bummer to be on vacation and be too depressed to drink. (I only enjoy drinking when I'm happy) Monday, July 14, 2008
Well, Isabel's finger injury was minor, but Harry managed to one-up her. While B was getting ready for dinner, the kids were jumping between the beds. I told them to knock it off, but they didn't listen and I didn't force them to. (They're kids, they're on vacation). Harry missed a jump and landed hard, getting a spiral fracture in his right leg. (Both tibia and fibula). B took him to the local ER, and now he's in a cast and needs to see an orthopedic doc in Seattle today or tomorrow. That's the end of this week long road trip. Easy come, easy go. My poor little guy is in a lot of pain. Sunday, July 13, 2008
blogging at 65mph on I5. The iPhone works great at freeway speeds. Had our first injury. Isabel managed to stab her finger with a lollipop that she licked sharp. I tried hard not to laugh but failed.
Bastards! B and I went to go see Hellboy 2 last night, and as I stepped off my porch onto the top step, a bee/yellowjacket/wasp of some sort stung me on the back of the calf twice. Grrrr! This morning Isabel and I took the van in to have an oil change before our 8 day road trip and walked over to a drugstore to buy some raid bee spray. (We walked past the Apple store in U village, about 40 people in line at 9am for a 11am opening, and the store had about 20 employees inside already). I found the crack the bees were coming out of and sprayed the crap out of it. Hopefully they'll have died off by the time I get back. Theoretically, all the hotels we're staying at have wifi, and I'm bringing Lappy, so hopefully I can blog. (and play WoW. Speaking of World of Warcraft, I got bored last summer and didn't play for 3 months. This summer it's again sapping my will to WoW. I'm not really complaining, just curious) Saturday, July 12, 2008
Aw man. iPods originally used Firewire for both data and power. Eventually they switched to being able to use both USB and Firewire, since PCs rarely have firewire. Both interfaces can provide power. Then Apple dropped support for firewire, but many peripheral manufacturers still used the firewire pins for power. The iPhone 3G drops the ability to charge via those pins. Thus, my iPod car charger won't charge my new iPhone 3G, but it still works for all older iPods and the original iPhone. Looks like I'm stopping by the Apple store tomorrow to buy a new iPhone car charger. I was there just today, the place was nuts. There were over 50 people in line, huddled under the mall's rain umbrellas (it's an outdoor mall) to ward off the sun as they waited their turn for new iPhones. Too bad I didn't know then that my car charger wouldn't work with my phone.
The State of the Eric Two months ago I went in for my 40 year old physical, and while I was mostly ok, my blood work wasn't super great. My vitamin D level was 28, recommended range is 40-100. My cholesterol was 214, borderline high. HDL was 32, they want it above 40. LDL was 139, they want it below 100. I weighed about 204 pounds, which is heavy for my frame. After two months of increased exercise, doing Wii Fit 30 minutes most days and increasing my bike ride home from 4 miles to 10 miles a few days a week, my new lab results are back. Cholesterol was 161. HDL was still 32. LDL is now 112. I'd like to get that HDL up and the LDL down, but it's still vastly better. I weight about 194 pounds. I still plan on losing another 10 pounds. I'm definitely stronger, and my body fat percentage went from about 21% to about 19%. My vitamin D is now 48. I'll keep up taking 1500mg in the summer and 2500 in the fall through spring. I haven't had a cold or anything when the rest of the family has been laid out. I *feel* better. Now I just need to go see my doc for a referral to an orthopede to figure out why my left knee is gimpy and how to fix it. Friday, July 11, 2008
My iPhone is up and running fully. I'm surprised there isn't a ssh client for it yet, but I'm sure that'll be soon. It's pretty cool so far. I was outside at lunch time and tried the GPS. It's slow compared to a garmin, and very amusing to watch the pushpin start out half a mile away and sloooowly wander closer to where I was. Last night B and I went on a date to Luau polynesian restaurant where we got a bucket of seven coronitas (7oz baby coronas) and their tasty pupu platter. Very fun. On the way home we stopped by my brother's place to see some more Sequoia. Now that I have an iPhone I can take some pictures of the cute lil guy.
There were 30 people ahead of me in line at 6am, I got through before 9am. I got the very last black 16Gb iPhone, the people around me in line had to get the white ones. It's not unbricked yet, iTunes is basically crashed. Hopefully sometime today.
Waiting for iPhone.... 5:40am, I'm up, so I'm off to the local AT&T store to try to aquire the iPhone 3G that I've been waiting a year and a half for. ooooo! If the lines are huge I'll bag it and go to work, trying again tomorrow. I'm hoping the nutball large crowd is over at the Apple store. Monday, July 07, 2008
B threw a party for 4th of July. On Thursday night we went to Costco, and holy friggin moley it was packed. Luckily we'd brought B's mom, who now has a handicapped parking permit, so we got to park in front. Friday morning we got an early phone call, it was one of B's cousins from New York. Her aunt had been shopping the day before and keeled over in a butcher shop, and by the time they got her to a hospital she'd died. B was very sad, and said that she wished we had money so she could go out there. I was like, "um, we might not be flush, but we can get you a ticket to New York. Crickey, we probably do it on miles". Sure enough, on short notice Alaska wanted 40k miles for a ticket, but seats were available and I had 80k miles in my account. After thinking about it for over an hour and over 30 phone calls, B and her sister were going to go. Annie was going to pay $600 for a flight, so I suggested we just use the other 40k miles and they fly together. B decided to go Saturday morning, then return Monday morning. I told her she could go that day (Friday the 4th), I'd be able to throw the party without her, but she decided to go on Saturday. The party was a ton of fun. We had 14 adults and 8 kids. I stuck a USA tattoo on the back of my head. I made 4 racks of ribs that turned out awesome. I couldn't pick up the rack without it falling apart. I used a glaze of half jalepeno jelly and half rose's lime juice on half of them, and regular BBQ sauce on the other half. 5:30am the next morning B got up to go catch her flight. I was a little under the weather from the party, el Parquito had shown up with some 22 ouncers of strong IPAs, which contributed to me getting tanked up. The kids and I pulled out our pirate costumes for our friend's Pirate Party over in West Seattle. Saturday was the start of Seafair, but we didn't go to Alki to watch the Seafair Pirates land. I didn't think I'd be at the party all day, but the kids were having a blast so we ended up staying until almost 7:30. Sunday morning we went to Dunn lumber to get more parts for the fort/shed, and then went to the Zoo. Holy smokes I'd forgotten what a zoo the zoo can be in the summer, the parking lot was totally full. Amazingly, after having been there at least 50 times, Isabel took me to a part that I did not know even existed, with a red panda and a bunch of cranes. It was freaky, sort of surreal. I thought I knew that place pretty well. After the zoo we went to Tutta Bella for a pizza lunch. The rest of the day was lazing around on the couch watching the marathon of "The Revolution" that I'd recorded off History Channel on the 4th. What a nutball war that was. I can't believe the British coug'ed it so much and lost it. |
|