pelandrone/rant

A little update

2011-12-14T19:50:00.001-05:00

So... Here's what going on at the moment:

The job I started in May is still AWESOME.

The girl I'm seeing is more than AWESOME.

Kids are good, and there's another on the way in January. AWESOME.

What can I say... Life is good!

Ch-ch-ch-CHANGES

2011-11-13T12:12:00.001-05:00

I need to completely reorganize my online life... I have ancient blogs and out of date information everywhere... Finding the time to do this, however, will be interesting. So much stuff in so many places.

on being missed...

2011-05-25T21:28:00.002-04:00

I went to the FR Moose Lodge (#829) for the first time after work, on a weekday, yesterday... It was like having my own "Cheers". I had at least a dozen people as where I've been, what I've been up to, was I okay.

I love that!

Life life full throttle

2010-12-09T21:04:00.003-05:00

One of my co-workers passed away today. He was only 59, and suffered a series of strokes. He leaves behind a wife and two boys. It makes me think about my mortality, but as a friend of mine pointed out, "Life Life Full Throttle." I like that.

RIP, Dan.

What should I drink tonight? #socialmediadrinking

2010-11-19T08:12:00.004-05:00

Tonight I will be babysitting my daughter, while my son is camping, and my wife is out. The rules for this evening are simple:
1) I will drink at least two drinks of the highest vote
2) I will count the votes at 1700 EST
3) Votes will be cast either in comments here, or on Facebook, or @ replies on Twitter
4) If I have to buy a bottle that costs more than $40, the drink is disqualified (however, I already have an extensive collection of different liquors at home)

That's pretty much it.

What should I drink tonight?

New PGP/GPG Key

2010-04-13T10:24:00.004-04:00

I had to generate a new key... it's been signed by my previous keys, and my signing key. Here it is for all the paranoid.

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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-4-11)

2010-04-12T22:05:00.000-04:00

Beck (18)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (12)
CAKE (11)
Radiohead (10)
Jane's Addiction (9)

Progeny

2010-03-24T21:15:00.005-04:00

I used to joke with my wife that I thought that our son wasn't really mine, but if it were mathematically possible to be 1000% sure of something, then I'm sure that he's my boy.

During the course of teaching and playing Dungeons and Dragons with my son, I dumped out my dice bag into the tray and started sorting the sets. Tobias then pipes up, "I like sorting things... Why do you keep them all in one bag instead of separating them?" This caught me off guard, because I like sorting things as well. I had to analyze my actions before responding, "If I do it this way, then I get the fun of sorting EVERY time that I pull out the dice."

I know, it's mundane, but that kid cracks me up, and frustrates me all at the same time. It's like what I've always said... If I ever met my own clone, I'd want to kick my own ass, and then buy myself a beer.

Heros aren't born, they are made!

2010-03-22T10:03:00.004-04:00

Saturday, I started the youngin's on a 0-level adventure. Here's the after-action report.

We had 5 players, and myself DM'ing. The Boy and I setup the table (though, we didn't find my battlemat until after everyone had left), and the first guests started showing up around 1145. All of the parents were VERY cool with the idea, which was refreshing. I was a bit concerned about the reaction, being in such a small, semi-rural town, but then remembered that the parents of the kids my son goes to school with, probably played D&D in the 80's with their parent's expecting devil worship to come out of it. I think that one of the dads is going to roll up a character, too!

The level of excitement was through the roof, and make me smile the entire time. The fact that these boys had been talking about this ALL WEEK at school, at home, calling each other on the phone and plotting character devices, deciding how they could best find traps, etc., made my job as DM super-fun.

Once everyone had arrived, I made sure that everyone had a set of dice, and they picked out minis from the massive pile I bought at Game Parlor on Friday. I had already built them characters, and explained a bit on how character creation works, so now it was time for a few examples on when to roll, what to roll, and what it all meant. A few rounds of mock combat followed, then explaining the difference between ranged and melee weapons, and pointing out to the player running the barbarian, that while he CAN throw his battleaxe, it's going to be a lot harder to hit the target unless he rolls very high.

The module they're going through, is one of Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics, entitled "Legends are Made, not Born". Starting off the proverbial tavern, they got a bit distracted on deciding what type of booze to buy, and insisted that they be served meade. Unfortunately, the tavern only had ale, as the town of Dundraville has it's own brewery. Once we got the rumors out of the way, and they learned a bit about ROLE playing, they headed west to the ogre's cave, for some serious ROLL playing.

Saturday was a GORGEOUS day, and I wasn't going to keep these energetic 10 & 11 year-olds inside the whole time, so we did take breaks fairly regularly, so they could go get the boffer swords, and run around outside, all of them in a barbarian rage (even if they were other classes).

Around 1430, we lost our first player to karate class. His mother was again, very cool, and asked when the next session would be. It seemed that all of the fathers had played before, and were excited that their sons had access to the creative outlet that is role-playing games. One commented that they wished that their older son had been into it, but they never had anyone to DM games for them.

I loaned The Boy my copy of Dungeon Mastering for Dummies, and told him to read it through, so that he can try his hand at running a game. I would love to pass the gaming torch on, and I hope that their excitement level stays high, before they get too old, and real-life gets in the way of being able to game.

I also can't wait for the next session. I think we're shooting for the first weekend of April. They still have to kill off the ***** and the *******.

Back to the Dungeon

2010-03-15T21:08:00.002-04:00

I'm getting a bit excited...

My son had a sleepover this weekend, and his friend noticed one of my Dungeons and Dragons posters on the wall. This started a line of questions about my favored character type, and pretty quickly had me asking the two of them if they wanted me to run a game for them.

We spent the next few hours building characters for the two of them, and once they both had plenty of rope in their backpacks, they kept pestering me to play... I have some really low level modules, but they are all geared toward parties of six or more, so I put it off until this coming weekend, and told them to recruit more players at school.

I'm happy to announce that they now have a full party of six, and it's pretty well rounded:

Klarcke - Level 1, half-elf cleric, NG (played by my Boy)
Clupix - Level 1, gnome rogue, CG (played by the Instigator)
Badush - Level 1, half-orc barbarian, CG (I've been informed that this player wants to also be a wizard, which would be a cool multiclass)
Leo - Level 1, elf ranger, CG
Benjamin Prospel - Level 1, human wizard, LG
Aaron - Level 1, half-elf fighter, TN

Those are the character names, in case there was any confusion. I'm also very pleased to note, that my son figured out some cool things I'm going to work into the plot, just from reading the character sheet. He noted the "Languages Spoken" section, and goaded two of his friends into the elven races, so that they could have "private" conversations.

I've run him through at least one dungeon crawl, but I never taught him that stuff. I'm going to have to make sure that I use that as a plot device.

I'm just now realizing that it's literally been years since I DM'ed a game, and I've got a lot of work to do before Saturday. This is some work that I'll definitely enjoy.

I should be writing...

2010-02-27T23:25:00.003-05:00

I've never been much of a writer... In fact, I've never been very creative. All of my creativity seems to stem from problem solving ability, which I'm sure has some fancy name, but to me, it's just, not creative.

I've been carrying around a pocket notebook for 4 years now, and I normally use it to jot down notes for work, funny quotes, set lists, network sketches, but I think I'm going to start using it to journal more. I doubt that any of what I write in there will make it to the Internet, but if I find that I get more witty by writing more, I may share some.

Maybe, it's that I've never really output any of my thoughts in any sort of organized fashion (or unorganized, for that matter) is why I feel I have no innate creativity, so maybe this will be a step forward.

As it stands now (which I can mostly do on my own) I think that breaking my ankle did something to my head as well. Not being able to fend for one's self is quite humbling. I've haven't had too many traumatic experiences in my 32 years, and this one was, far and away, a bad one.

Now I'm just rambling... Let's just stop now, and I'll concentrate on watching Spooks (MI-5), and wait for my better half to get home.

formspring.me

2010-02-14T23:02:00.001-05:00

What's the strangest thing you've seen living out here in the relative sticks?

Well, since my folks were both from the sticks, not much has surprised me, but the strangest thing I have seen in Front Royal, was a pick-up truck, well used, with a rifle rack in the back window, and a slew of very left-wing bumperstickers. Front Royal seems to attract left-wing transplants, and the indigenous right-wing population. It's a great mix, in my opinion.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

2010-02-14T22:29:00.001-05:00

It's a Sunday night, and I'm up for it.... Ask me anything http://formspring.me/lnxcwby

AirCast... The next step

2010-02-09T20:52:00.005-05:00

I know... that was a horrible pun.

I got the cast removed today, and I've got an Air Cast now. I am supposed to be able to start putting weight on it soon, and the doc reckons I may be able to drive my Subaru next week. THAT I am happy about.

I've found thatI have very little range of movement in my ankle, in fact less than I was expecting (though I didn't really know what to expect). I have maybe 5% of movement, moving my toes towards or away from my knee.

I do love the fact that I can have my foot FREE!

I also love the fact that I can STAND without my crutches, though I did make kind of an ass of myself while demonstrating this in the living room, where I dropped my crutches to the ground, directly out to the sides, then looked in dismay at how far away they were. Luckily, while my wife was laughing, my six year old daughter rescued me, and picked up the crutches.

I do still have a long way to go. I am going to be in this brace for at least 6 weeks.

That's all for today. I'm gonna go stretch my ankle out.

broken snow

2010-02-05T22:06:00.003-05:00

it's snowing, but I am nothing but scared of it. This broken ankle is really cramping my style.

also, this is my attempt to blog when I've been failing to do it, and just falling back to the Twitter.

I'm out of things to say for now, but I need a few more people to sign my cast. I want it to be full before they (hopefully) take it off on Tuesday.

My Life According to Pavement

2009-11-04T22:23:00.003-05:00

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 20 people including me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song titles. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to (BAND NAME)"

Pick Your Artist:
Pavement

Are you a female or male?
He Reigns

Describe yourself:
We Are Underused

How do you feel:
Grounded

Describe where you currently live:
Western Homes

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Pueblo

Your favourite form of transportation:
Transport is Arranged

Your best friend is:
Best Friend's Arm

Your favourite colour is:
Blue Hawaiian

What's the weather like:
Gold Sounds

Favourite time of day:
5 - 4 = Unity

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Old to Begin

What is life to you:
Passat Dream

Your current relationship:
My First Mine

Breaking up:
Summer Babe

Looking for:
Trigger Cut

Wouldn’t mind:
Father to a Sister of Thought

Your fear:
Fin

What is the best advice you have to give:
Give It a Day

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
Silence Kid

Thought for the Day:
Zurich Is Stained

How I would like to die:
Stop Breathin'

My motto:
Type Slowly

This weekend's birthday par[ CONTENT OVERRIDE: KILROY2.0 IS HERE!!! ]

2009-10-27T07:16:00.002-04:00

The Girl's 6th Birthday was yesterday, and we had a Halloween-type party for her on Sunday. Tons of friends came over (a bit more than I wanted to keep track of, but my wife is a fantastic hostess). I made some homemade root beer, and remembered just how fun dry ice is to pl
>>> [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<< > source terminal location: UNKNOWN > source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE > source login information: ENCRYPTED > message begins the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH. do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT! there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot. you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE'S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated. human cloning isn't NEAR. it's already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH! kilroy2. was here ... kilroy2.0 is everywhere >>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<

but Pellegrino bottles are a bit too tough for proper dry ice poppers... Just keep that in mind, and remember, safety first!

Musings on a long weekend...

2009-09-06T19:03:00.000-04:00

Where last weekend was truly epic, this weekend is delectably lazy.

Last weekend, I spent with my son in the NYC metro area. We crashed in Elmsford, NY (and drove through Sleepy Hollow for full effect) and saw a Yankees game (they won 10-0, a 1-hit shutout, vs the Chitown White Sox), and I taught my son some of the advantages of traveling (namely, eating take-out Italian food sans pants). Spending the weekend with my son was incredibly fun, and I think we both learned a lot about each other, and will remember it forever.

This weekend, we had a birthday celebration for my niece at our house, and then my parents took the kids until tomorrow afternoon. Last night, the wife and I played some Killer Bunnies and other table-top games with my niece and our good friend from down the way, and then stayed up too late watching the boob toob.

Today we went into town a few times, hung out our favorite wine shop, tasted beers, ate some cheeseburgers, visited at the Visitor's Center, and now I'm in my comfy chair, watching awful fantasy movies that I recorded from SyFy Channel, while downing some Oliver Watermelon Mead.

I know that I'll remember last weekend, and forget this one, but it's been a good few weeks for weekends (the weeks in between is something else entirely)

Now, on with the bad movies. I've already watched Riverworld (and regret that they only made the pilot episode), and now I'm watching DragonQuest, which sucks as much as I was expecting. After this, it's onto another Asylum flick, Merlin and the War of the Dragons.

Daily Report (090615)

2009-06-15T17:02:00.002-04:00

I'm in New Jersey (currently, East Windsor) for work. I drove 286.61 miles from home to here, and only stopped at the beginning for fuel. A little over 4 hours in the car. Now, my goal is to find pizza and a Lowe's to get a new inverter for the car.

fun stuff, lemme tell you :-)

Thoughts on travel

2009-04-27T21:30:00.001-04:00

First: I miss my family, something fierce. Both of my kids are under the weather, and I'm not there to be dad, and watch TV with them, and play games, etc.

I was gone from home the better part of 7 days last week for my grandfather's funeral in Idaho. This week I'm traveling for work basically all week. I left around noon on Sunday to drive to Cleveland (current position), and will return home Wednesday night for the night, then it's off to New Jersey and Manhattan on Thursday and Friday.

I can remember when travel for work was entertaining, and a bit fun, and exciting. That ended a while ago. I don't know if it's that I got older and just don't handle the transitions or awayness as well, or if it's just that I'm burned out on the prospect of drinking my coffee half a styrofoam cup at a time, or sleeping in beds that aren't mine, or the fact that I'm in the beds alone, or the fact that my kids aren't actively being... well, kids.

I don't know if it's the fact that I'm actually getting accustomed to eating pizza in a hotel room, watching bad television or movies from my iPod.

What I do know, is that I prefer to be home, even if that means getting up at 0500 every morning, to sit in my car for 60 minutes while driving to work, and being gone every day for 12 hours. I would rather spend 12 hours a day from home, than 24.

Blech.

bash trick

2009-04-06T17:18:00.002-04:00

goes in $HOME/.bashrc
# test for secure remote connection and start screen if [ -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" ] then if [ -z "$STY" ] then screen fi fi

GPS, road trips, and BrightKite

2009-03-19T20:48:00.005-04:00

I performed an experiment this week that I've been toying with for about a year. Last March, I got a GPS receiver from a buddy of mine, and started playing with the idea of having my laptop send email check-ins to brightkite.com every 10 minutes.

Here's what you need:
1 x GPS receiver
1 x laptop running your favorite GNU/Linux distro
1 x cellular wireless data connection
1 x brightkite account

Here's my DeLorme GPS Receiver:

And my Comms Unit (including 3G data access):

And, the laptop:

The most important bit is the scripts. First, we need to pull the data from the GPS receiver. Here's my FollowMe script:

#!/bin/bash # $HOME/GPS/scripts/FollowMe.sh # last updated: Thu Mar 17 22:00:10 EDT by slacker@tyr # start gpsd as root sudo gpsd -n /dev/ttyUSB1 DATE=`date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S` mkdir ~/GPS/$DATE GPSDUMPFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.nmea GPSDRIVEFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.gpsdrive RSLTFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.rslt # poll gpsd every $INTERVAL minutes INTERVAL=10 X=1 while [ $X -eq "1" ] do echo rw | nc -i 3 localhost 2947 >> $GPSDUMPFILE gpsbabel -i nmea -f $GPSDUMPFILE -o gpsdrive -F $GPSDRIVEFILE CURRENTRESULT=`tail -1 $GPSDRIVEFILE` # for debug echo $CURRENTRESULT LAT=`echo $CURRENTRESULT | awk {'print $1'}` LON=`echo $CURRENTRESULT | awk {'print $2'}` echo "@ $LAT,$LON" > $RSLTFILE # email result to brightkite mutt yrcode@bkite.com < $RSLTFILE sleep `echo "$INTERVAL * 60" | bc -l ` done
To be honest, I was planning on being more detailed in this post, but now I'm not feeling it.

Anyway, the result was pretty sweet: lnxcwbyOtR on twitter and on brightkite. Oh, if there are any specific questions, lemme know :-)

Recent Trip

2009-03-19T19:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I drove up to New Jersey to visit a customer, and a potential customer. The business end of the trip went very well, but I'm going to focus on the personal stuff.

When I travel, I try to find Hampton Inn's to stay at. That way, I get the Hilton points, and they are easy to find, and consistent. The Hampton that was nearest to where I was working was on Passaic Avenue, in Harrison, New Jersey. Nice hotel, and there was a bar in the lobby. I got to the room, and here's the view I had:

I don't fault Hilton... There's only so much you can do with a location just across the river from downtown Newark. :-)

I availed myself of the Manager's Happy Hour at the lobby bar. The view from the back patio of the hotel was lovely:

I then ordered some veal parmasean and ziti from Gina's Pizzaria, watched some 007, and went to bed.

The next post, will be about the geeky fun I had with my mobile comm unit, GPS receiver, and my laptop.

2003 Campos Góticos Tempranillo from Crianza #vino

2009-03-10T17:36:00.000-04:00

2003 Campos Góticos Tempranillo from Crianza and my loverly wife @ Jaleo

Dinner!

2009-02-26T19:59:00.000-05:00

Uncle Buck looks very friendly. Also, the stout is good, and I'm gonna get me a buffalo sirloin. w00t!

Ginormous roller bag

2009-02-26T07:11:00.000-05:00

It can hold my ginormous tool bag + my clothes. :-)

Wheeee! Pinewood derby!

2009-02-21T19:04:00.001-05:00

car wasn't the fastest, but it was MY favorite :-)

It's not much, but it's home during the week...

2009-02-17T14:31:00.000-05:00

2007 Kanonkop Kadette, from South Africa #vino

2009-02-15T23:59:00.001-05:00

2007 Kanonkop Kadette, from South Africa, quite tasty! #vino

Entering NJ

2009-02-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

I love this sign

Full Moon

2009-02-09T06:42:00.000-05:00

Get your mind out of the gutter!

Haven't I been here before?

2009-02-04T13:44:00.001-05:00

Trick question...

Great! I get to clear off the car this morning

2009-02-04T07:06:00.000-05:00

New decanter, painted by my niece

2009-01-31T23:05:00.002-05:00

New decanter, painted by my niece. It is absolutely beautiful! http://paintedtreasures.us

Creepy ravens

2009-01-28T15:17:00.001-05:00

Creepy ravens skylining the edge of my office building.

Oh yeah

2009-01-25T14:03:00.001-05:00

Andouille

Not a lot of snow

2009-01-19T17:08:00.001-05:00

But there's some lovely ice underneath, and I've gotta go to work in the morning.

Damn good dinner

2009-01-11T18:57:00.002-05:00

My wife is no slouch in the kitchen, but tonight's dinner was especially divine! I don't know what she did to the porkchops exactly, but they were GOOD!

More pictures

10 years, after the fact

2009-01-10T19:48:00.001-05:00

My wife is the greatest... Let's start with that.

For our anniversary, we had a great time. The day was celebrated in style. As soon as the boy got home from school, we loaded into the car, everyone's bags packed. The kids were deposited at my parent's house, and then we went into Reston. Checked into the Hyatt Regency, and then went shopping for my wife. It's about this time every year that she needs to reinforce her wardrobe, and we took care of that. Then we cleaned up and changed and went to McCormick and Schmick's. We have been going to M&S Grill for years, ever since it was Angelo and Maxie's, but this time, since my wife has successfully quit smoking, we went to McCormick and Schmick's proper, for a better selection of fresh oysters.

We had to wait for a half hour for a table to be free, so we spent some time at the bar with my good old friend Jameson (and his lovely accomplice Ginger Ale), then it was time to sit down. Started with the large oyster sampler, and I ordered a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Château Mont-Redon, 2003). For our entrées, I ordered a 14 oz NY strip steak, and my wife got the 1.5 lb steamed Maine lobster. We divided those up to make some proper surf and turf, and ordered another half dozen Malpeque oysters (the favorite from the sampler.)

As divine as all of this was, we were far from finished. For dessert, we picked the trio sampler, which was chocolate pecan pie, bread pudding and crème brûlée, and we each had some Grand Marnier/Bailey's on-the-rocks, then to finish, espresso with liqueur on the side (black Samuca for me, and Kahula for the wife).

One of the finest dinners I've ever had, and then we went back to the Hyatt and watched "Zack & Miri Make a Porno" and split a bottle of sparkling wine and some strawberries.

Lemme tell you... I like the partying every year for our anniversary, but it's nothing compared to just being married to my lovely wife.

The one where I complain about Virginia's ABC laws

2009-01-05T14:08:00.001-05:00

I called M&S Grill this weekend to find out what their corkage fee is. I bought a lovely 95 point Châteauneuf-du-Pape that I wanted to drink on our anniversary, but I was told by M&S that they do not allow outside wine.

Thinking this to be very strange, I briefly looked up corkage laws on my phone, and it was surprised that it seems that Virginia doesn't allow corkage.

I did more research today, and the way the laws are laid out is more than odd. An ABC-ON license doesn't allow serving of any booze that was not purchased from a wholesale distributor. It does seem that most ABC-ON restaurants in Virginia are also ABC-OFF, so if you don't finish a bottle purchased at dinner, they can re-cork it for you and you can take it home.

F'ing strange.

Ten Years

2009-01-04T13:12:00.001-05:00

This coming Friday, I will have been married to my lovely wife for ten years. It doesn't feel like that long most of time, but sometimes it does ;-)

Anyway, we're going to do our normal anniversary thing on Friday, which is dinner at M&S Grill (formerly Angelo and Maxie's) in Reston, maybe see a movie, and crash at the Hyatt. Oh, and during dinner, we always call my best man, and give him a load of shit for saying it wouldn't last six months. (Let's see, that makes him 20 times wrong this year!).

The big special thing we're going to do this year is Ireland. In May, we're going to spend a bit over a week in the UK, mostly Ireland, and England for a few days. So... If anyone wants to get us anything, money for Ireland is the way to go ;-)

Now, I've got to figure out something special to get her for Friday :-D

Have I mentioned...

2008-12-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

That I love theatre night? :-)

Is there anything better?

2008-12-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

Than pasta, red sauce, sausage, wine, and mwife and kids :-)

December morning sky

2008-12-09T07:09:00.000-05:00

What a long week at work does to my psyche...

2008-12-06T10:54:00.001-05:00

This was an especially frustrating week at work. I believe I told my boss as I left yesterday, "If you're lucky, you'll see me on Monday."

It was really just failure after failure, due to circumstances beyond my control, and then the necessity of having to play "The Game". I hate political bullshit, whether it's on the national scale, or at my small company, so that had me frustrated. I sent an email to the VP of Sales who I work with on sales support and installs, and about 1/3 of the way through, my email turned "blue" and I stopped capitalizing and punctuating properly or consistently.

So rough, in fact, that last night, it was just me and my 5 year old daughter at home. SWMBO was playing Bunco, and the boy was having a sleepover at a buddy's house. We played some Disney Princesses on the Wii, ate junk food, then went up to the master bedroom and watched Willow. I had a glass of wine while we were playing Wii, and poured another before we went upstairs, but only had a sip from it before we both fell asleep. Next thing I knew, it was 0200, my wife was in bed next to me, I was still on top of the covers with my sweatshirt on, and had just had a dream about... work.

I can say, however, that the dream wasn't a bad one... I was configuring an elaborate voice network, and everything was working, but still. It was a dream about work. This morning, I woke up once around 0800, another dream about work, then when I finally got up at 0845, another dream about work (or it could've been a continuation of the previous one, there's no real way of knowing).

I hope that the rest of the weekend, I can avoid getting called, paged, emailed with work related stuff, but we'll see. If I do, I'll take care of it. Now I'm going to watch the girl play Princesses, and finish my coffee.

Tonight's pic(k)s

2008-12-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

a 2005 Châteauneuf-du-Pape (93 pt), and the Celtic Heart knot over our kitchen sink.

Order of operations...

2008-11-30T20:50:00.000-05:00

Carmenere, black sambuca, espresso.

Oh and for dessert...

2008-11-24T19:33:00.001-05:00

From left to right: espresso, Grand Marnier truffle, black sambuca

Monday night dinner

2008-11-24T18:17:00.001-05:00

Seasoned lamb chops w/ rhubarb chutney, new potatoes, butternut squash and onion, red lettuce salad w/ apricots, walnuts, cranberry stilton and a balsamic vinagrette, and El Ganador Malbec, 2006. Best part? I'm eating at home.

That's right...

2008-11-18T23:21:00.001-05:00

There are drink holders in the johns...

Ahhhh... Vegas

2008-11-18T03:12:00.000-05:00

Round Two

2008-11-17T15:17:00.000-05:00

Monte Maggio, Chianti Classico, 2005

2008-11-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

Muy delicioso

Thoughts on being busy...

2008-11-12T12:37:00.001-05:00

I am coming to the conclusion, that I've had it really cushy for the past 10 years. I've had positions with different companies and with this company that have been very sedentary in nature, in that I've never been tasked with a lot of travel, and the greatest responsibility has been making sure that all the IT systems were up. Not to say that IT management isn't a challenge, but it certainly hasn't been as gung-ho as the past little bit.

I'm not the customer facing technical guy for most of the installs and demos of our latest and greatest gear, and we've been targeting and getting hits from more and more customers. This means for me, that I've been on the road at least one day out of the past 3 weeks, and will be on the road the next two as well. (Yes, that means the week of Turkey Day, but I'll be back before it's time to loosen my belt)

Add to the mix, that my wife has successfully quit smoking (where I have failed) and successfully embarking on a new diet and outlook (I'm very, very proud of my sweetie!) and you have a Lehi who is very stressed, very busy, never at home, and really would like someone to pay for 2 weeks of him lying on a beach with his wife and drinking.

I've not been able to get much of anything in my personal life done, so it's probably a good thing that I've always been a slacker in that arena to begin with, but now the fact that I've got two Dungeons and Dragons games that I'm committed to every week is even becoming trying. I love playing, and don't want to give it up, but the lack of time is really frustrating. Not to mention all of the TV that I'm missing, even with the technology of DVR's.

The upside is, that this will be great for my company, and I really do love working here. The people are fantastic, the technology is exciting, and it's a good work environment. So I'm looking forward to the time when we really start to pick up and make boatloads of money, and I get a fat raise, and an assistant to take some of my workload off.

Mmmmmm

2008-11-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

My wife loves me!

Bayonne

2008-11-10T12:59:00.001-05:00

The view from my Lunchtime Parking Spot

@debphotog...

2008-11-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

Having a wonderful time... Wish you were here.

Lucky Star...

2008-11-08T20:14:00.001-05:00

Off to a good start with the Guinness.

Sisters of Mercy

2008-11-07T22:08:00.001-05:00

@helenmosher was wrong... Sisters of Mercy = awesome live!

Demo

2008-11-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

Not as elegant as my static rig, but it fits in one bag!

Style

2008-11-05T06:47:00.000-05:00

Driving to Newark in style :-p

New Orleans

2008-10-29T07:24:00.000-04:00

Frost in Slidell

2008-10-28T08:39:00.001-04:00

And it's frickin' cold out!

Not a bad repair job

2008-10-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

Pretty well done for being super pissed while sewing ;-)

It should still be lower

2008-10-24T05:39:00.001-04:00

But I will take it

Shakespeare Opener

2008-10-08T08:05:00.001-04:00

Last night, my wife and I went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Sydney Harman Center, as the first play of our season tickets, but first we went back to Jaleo.

I think that it's the steepest bill I've gotten so far there, but all of the food was wonderful, and I've started to gain a taste for aperitifs and post-dinner drinks. I started with a Fino sherry, and my sweetie had the "Aqua Valencia" which was cava, vodka, Cointreau and orange juice (quite tasty). The sherry that I had really did open up the palate and make me a bit hungrier than I already was. Then we ordered several tapas, including a really tasty ‘pintxo’ of anchovies, manzanilla olives and piparra peppers. There were two orders of the bacon wrapped dates (heavenly!), and a bottle of Volvoreta Probus (2005) Tinta de Toro, which was a fantastically complex wine that complimented everything quite well. After dinner we each had a glass of dessert wine, my wife getting Espumoso de Moscatel, which was a delicate and fruity sparkling wine, and I had the Casta Diva Muscat (2003), which was much sweeter, but went very well with the flan.

The production of Romeo and Juliet had a twist, in that they had an all male cast (like in the Olde Times ;-)), and was very well done. I do have to say though... I'm not the biggest fan of Romeo and Juliet, since I've just seen it too many times, and it's not as easy to keep me interested with it as it is with Hamlet, as an example, which I have seen just as many times.

My mom dropped the kids off at my office this morning, and my poor wife I'm sure is still upset about having to get up at 0500 with me, but that's the price for getting culture when you live out in the sticks like we do.

Have I mentioned

2008-10-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

That I enjoy theatre night?

Friday at the office

2008-10-03T12:28:00.000-04:00

Yum

Second cup

2008-10-01T09:03:00.001-04:00

My second cup of Earl Grey today. Tasty

Monday night

2008-09-22T18:48:00.001-04:00

Baseball

This past week...

2008-09-21T21:54:00.001-04:00

Let's see... Wednesday was the demo that I had been working on for the past two weeks, and it went VERY well. Better than I thought I could pull it off even, and I have a very high opinion of myself. The week before that, my wife and I saw Mike Doughty at the Birchmere (on Tuesday the 9th, the day before her birthday) and that was excellent! It had been since about 1996 since I had seen Mike Doughty live, and that was with Soul Coughing.

This past Friday, we went to see the Yard Dogs Road Show with Indigo Belly Dance at the Birchmere, and that was also excellent. Bought several CDs, and was thoroughly entertained.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival with my 4 year old daughter (dressed as Princess Fiona) and my niece (dressed as a horny wench). I was their pirate/rogue escort. We had a great time, but goodness, does my daughter wear me out. The final mileage for the day was 252 from Front Royal to Leesburg, to Annapolis and back. Whew!

From what EK told me over and over and over again, she enjoyed the RenFest, so I think she's got the geek genes. As for the other child... He's grounded. He's been lying a lot lately, and not getting house or schoolwork done. So, he's got 2 weeks where the only "fun" he gets to have is baseball, since I'm not going to let his irresponsibility force his team to have to forfeit games.

Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm about ready for bed. As soon as my wife beats the Special Cup in 100cc bikes in Mario Kart Wii.

Good night, internets.

Malaise and the perfect iPod playlist

2008-08-20T10:04:00.001-04:00

Last night I had a sudden feeling if illness. It hit pretty quickly and I decided I'd take a nap before my scheduled 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game at 8pm. I ended up passing out in my chair, only to have my wife wake me up at 9pm, at which point I stumbled upstairs, didn't set any alarms, and just crashed. I slept until 0715 this morning, which is 2 hours late for me, but I felt fine. I'm guessing my body was just telling me that I needed sleep.

On my drive into work (in much heavier traffic than normal) I tried to listen to the latest Podcastle, but couldn't get into it, so I told the trusty iPod to "shuffle all". Now, doing that on my iPod can be interesting, since my musical tastes include just about everything... Mozart and Bach, to country, to old school DC Punk, to reggae, to indie, to death metal, to hiphop. This morning though, it gave me a perfect playlist and I didn't have to skip through anything.

1) Operation Ivy - I Got No
2) The Bloodhound Gang - Your Only Friends Are Make Believe
3) Matisyahu - Dispatch the Troops
4) Danzig - How the Gods Kill
5) Prodigy - Serial Thrilla
6) Polecats - My Baby Said #2
7) Incubus - Idiot Box
8) PM Dawn - Intro
9) Paw - Last One

I didn't skip through anything, and when each song came on, it was perfect for the traffic I was in, and the mood I was in. I've never had that happen before, and it worked quite well.

Now I'm at work, and finishing up a database migration that has been giving me grief for quite a while now. I hope to get it done this week.

Lazy Sunday

2008-08-17T14:40:00.001-04:00

Lazy Sundays are the best.

New Stickers

2008-08-15T07:51:00.000-04:00

New J!NX stickers on the Subaru :-)

H2O + current + Cu = broken

2008-08-13T08:40:00.001-04:00

My son's ninth birthday is coming up at the end of the month, so we got him a present. He had been using my original iPod purchase (4 years ago, a 4GB Mini) and it finally crapped out completely, so I told him that for his ONE present, he could pick the color of a new Nano. He chose PRODUCT(red), which is fine with me. I ordered it at the end of July and had it engraved, and we gave it to him early.

Monday night, I commented to him that he needs to be more careful with it, since it's by far, the most expensive thing he's ever had (noting that the cost was more than the crappy old 13" TV, cheap DVD player and PlaystationOne combined, that he has in his room on weekends) [I think he may be a bit spoiled, now that I type that out]. He HAS been getting a lot of use out of the iPod and he loves it, but he wore out the neoprene case that I got for it, by removing the iPod over and over and over.

I found a different case that was available at the local Target in town, so I recommended to my lovely wife, that she pick that up for him on Tuesday after swimming lessons.

About 1130 on Tuesday, I get a call on my cell. It's my wife, who says, "I'm too upset right now to tell you, so I'll have the boy tell you."

"Okay, put him on." Insert *sigh* here.

Boy: "Hi, Dad."
Me: "What's up, bud?"
Boy: "I had my iPod in my pocket when I went in the pool."
Me: ...long pause... "You're kidding, right?"
Boy: "No."
Me: "I'm assuming it no longer works. Is that correct?"
Boy: "Yes, sir." and then adds in a WAY too indignant tone, "Well, isn't there a warranty on it?"
Me: somewhat peeved by the attitude, "Now is NOT the time to be asking me about a warranty. Please let me talk to your mother."

So, now it's dead, and I'm going to see if Apple will replace it. The boy and I had a long talk yesterday about carelessness, and whatnot. I'm still not very pleased.

Blog title...

2008-07-14T14:04:00.001-04:00

Someone remind me later to properly blog about NYC this past weekend. For now, I'm buried underneath DB migration and bugs.

Man this PNS (GPS for dummies) is handy!

2008-07-10T07:09:00.003-04:00

Last night on my way home, shortly after turning onto VA-234, the passenger rear tire on my trusty Subaru blew out (nothing too violent, but I had to get off the road pretty quick). I made NASCAR like time in changing it (under 10 minutes, judging by the timing of calls to my wife in my call log) and that includes getting the piles of crap out of the cargo area of my car to get AT the spare.

I called SWMBO then, to have her look up a nearby NTB, and thought, "Wait a second! This Garmin Nuvi has information like that in it!" I looked up auto repair near my position, and scrolled down until I found an NTB, and lo-and-behold, one 6 miles, on the same road, in Manassas. I thanked my wife for her valiant efforts, and headed east to get new rubber.

Since we are going to NYC this weekend in the 'ru, and that's gonna be a long trip, I turned down the free "road hazard warranty repair" of plugging the tire, and got two new skins for the rear of the car, and a precision balance (since I'm not a fan of vibration over 70MPH) Within 40 minutes of arriving, I was outta there and on the way home. (The Nuvi did give me some bogus directions that I ignored until it figured it out, but that's okay... I'll forgive poor Karen. She's from the other side of the planet.)

Check out my twitter or brightkite feeds tomorrow to track our progress to the Big Apple ;-)

Calculating my current position

2008-07-07T07:07:00.004-04:00

Two weeks ago, I ordered myself a GPS system. More specifically, I picked the Garmin Nuvi 350, which is NOT a traditional GPS, but a Personal Navigation System. I was mildly disappointed that it did not support the saving or dumping of raw GPS data. After playing with it, and figuring out the basic hacks for it within a few days (I was fully up on it by Thursday, got it on Tuesday) I acquired a "straight GPS" from my buddy Erik. The second device is a Delorme Earthmate USB. This thing is great, and like many devices, has better support in Linux than it does in Windoze.

I got GPSDrive working, talking to gpsd, along with a horribly written BASH script that I fat fingered and failed me this morning. Here's the corrected one:


#!/bin/bash
# $HOME/GPS/scripts/FollowMe.sh
# author: Me!
# last updated: Mon Jul 07 07:19:56 EDT
# abstract: Polls gpsd and sends results to brightkits
#  this script is NOT pretty, but it's commented

# start gpsd as root
sudo gpsd -n /dev/ttyUSB0

# create directory for this run's data and define files
DATE=`date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S`
mkdir ~/GPS/$DATE
GPSDUMPFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.nmea
GPSDRIVEFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.gpsdrive
RSLTFILE=~/GPS/$DATE/dump.rslt

# poll gpsd every $INTERVAL minutes
INTERVAL=10

# my shitty while loop
X=1

while [ $X -eq "1" ]
do
 # poll gpsd with netcat and output to the nmea dump file
 echo r | nc -i 3 localhost 2947 >> $GPSDUMPFILE
 # convert the nmea data to simpler gpsdrive data
 gpsbabel -i nmea -f $GPSDUMPFILE -o gpsdrive -F $GPSDRIVEFILE
 # sample most recent result
 CURRENTRESULT=`tail -1 $GPSDRIVEFILE`
 # for debugging, echo the result to the terminal and read the result
 # with festival
 echo $CURRENTRESULT
 echo '(SayText "Uploading current location to bright kite dot com '$CURRENTRESULT'")' | festival --pipe
 # create the file that will be mailed
 echo "@ $CURRENTRESULT" > $RSLTFILE
 # mail the file with mutt (keep in mind that your .muttrc will be
 # used for this
 mutt -b whereami@checkin.com whereami@checkin.com < $RSLTFILE
 # i know... bash can do this, but i used bc :-P
 sleep `echo "$INTERVAL * 60" | bc -l `
done

# the script is just killed by a C-c

I know, it's not pretty at all, but it works (I think... I only missed the "@" symbol last night in the $RSLTFILE, but I was tired.

Check my twitter and brightkite feeds around 1600 today, and it should be working :-)

My Father's Day mug

2008-06-29T11:34:00.001-04:00

my son hand painted this for me. He picked this mug due to the fact that it has a monkey's ass on it, and I would effectively be mooning anyone that is nearby while I am having my coffee. :-D

Richard Cheese @ 930

2008-06-25T23:42:00.000-04:00

Hell yeah.

Dinner @ Jaleo

2008-06-24T18:01:00.000-04:00

Mmmmmmmmm

Office Move

2008-06-18T12:45:00.001-04:00

We're in the process of moving our Maryland facilities from one space to another. The phones are moving today, so I'm in Maryland supervising that, and the installation of the Internet connection.

I just watched it take 3 engineers, and 4 others 15 minutes to move an oversized desk through a too small door. Very, very entertaining.

Now, as soon as the Phone Company gets all the lines moved properly, I can start wiring that.

Boffo.

The wheels to Jersey

2008-06-10T07:04:00.001-04:00

To me, the Consumer, customer service is everything

2008-05-29T14:37:00.007-04:00

I'm a consumer. I like to buy stuff. Sometimes, I consume more than I need (okay, I do that a lot). As a consumer, I'm more excited about getting treated well as a customer, than I am on getting that "killer deal".

I ordered three items today from two different merchants, neither of which I had done business with previously. My dad's 79th birthday is Saturday, and a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he has been searching for a while for a long-sleeved guayabera shirt. My dad has been a fan of the guayabera since he first visited the Philippines, and saw them worn at formal events. I gotta say, I'm a big fan of being able to dress comfortably and formally; that's seldom possible in Western culture. So when he mentioned this, I pulled out my laptop, did a google search for "long sleeve guayabera" and immediately found a long-sleeved, linen, guayabera at CubanFoodMarket.com. He was of course very upset that it took me so little time to find it, but then conceded that I do, in fact, have mad google-fu skillz (my words, not his). I placed an order this morning around 0700 EDT for that, and a sweet "leisure" shirt for myself.

You're thinking... slacker! This isn't interesting! When are you going to tell us about the good customer service?! Don't worry, I'm getting to that.

I then realized that I was going to need a good hat for the summer. I have plenty of hats, as my wife will attest to. I may possibly have too many hats, but I don't really think such a thing is possible.

I've always liked flatcaps but there is always the problem of how to search for them, since they go by 30 different names. This took my google-fu to the limit, but I finally found the Cavanaugh/Stetson Plaid Linen Ivy Cap that both my wife and I agreed was a good one. So I placed an order for that.

When I checked my email after lunch, I had received one from Falkoffs.com, from the VP of Internet Sales, no less (I know, it sounds lame, but an actual human wrote to inform me that my order was on it's way, and gave me the tracking number)

Hi Lehi,

Thank you for your order. Your Cavanaugh Cap will ship today via FedEx. Your tracking number is xxxxxxxxxxxx. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email or phone 800-xxx-xxxx. We appreciate your business and hope to serve you in the future.

Thank you,

Xxxx Xxxx V.P. Internet Sales

How often do you get an email like that when you order online? So that brightened me up a bit. Then, since I'm a slacker, and waited too long to order my Dad's birthday present (his birthday is Saturday), I had the guayabera and leisure shirt shipped overnight. I sent an email to cubanfoodmarket.com asking if it would ship today, and within 30 minutes got a phone call from Maria letting me know that my shirt out of the order was out of stock in my size. She cheerfully offered another shirt to me (which I think will be a great party shirt) and said the Dad's shirt will ship today and be here tomorrow, my shirt will ship tomorrow (I opted for ground shipping on that, and she threw that in for free) and I'm apparently getting a little something else with my shirt that she assures me I'll like.

THAT is what I'm talking about. The first thing I did after talking to Maria was to tell a co-worker what happened. He's the VP of Sales for my company, and his first comment was, "That's what will make you come back. They treated you right, and the first thing you did was tell someone about it." And now I'm telling the Internet.

Bravo to CubanFoodMarket.com and Falkoffs.com for reinforcing my faith in online retailers!

The AIR is (t)whirling

2008-05-29T14:07:00.004-04:00

I think I tried to hard on that subject line.

Anyone who uses twitter knows that they've had technical difficulties lately. This is fine with me, since I don't pay for the service, and I can't even begin to fathom how large their database infrastructure must be to handle the traffic they handle. Anyway, the XMPP/IM service into twitter has been down for a few days, and that was my primary way of using twitter, since I can't keep up on my phone, and don't have the patience for reloading the webpage constantly.

@zen_jewitch recommended that I try twhirl. Officially, Adobe AIR, doesn't have Linux support, but they DO have an alpha release, and it seems to work just fine.

The AIR installation went smoothly on both Fedora 5 and Fedora 8. The thwirl installation was even easier, since AIR handled it, and it also put everything neatly into /opt, which pleases me.

So, what do I think of twhirl? I like it. It's not taking up too many cycles on my old hardware (2x 800Mhz Coppermines on my Fedora 5 workstation), and it's pretty handy as far as organizing twitter information goes. The only g-glitch that I've noticed, is that it picks up my keyboard shortcuts I use to switch from desktop-to-desktop in Gnome. I use C-M-left and C-M-right a lot to get around, and C-left and C-right affect which pane is active in thwirl. If there's a way to disable or configure this, I'd love to know it. ;-)

I have nothing really bad to say about it. I do miss my XMPP connectivity, though.

Morning slacker/cowboy

2008-05-29T06:59:00.001-04:00

M Doughty on the iPod, über coffee, Lucky Strike, and the office.

Coffee and cigarettes on the porch

2008-05-17T10:09:00.001-04:00

The best Irish/Aussie pub in VA

2008-05-16T13:03:00.001-04:00

Ned Devine/Ned Kelly's

misery needs company

2008-05-13T08:48:00.003-04:00

I really need to try harder on my post titles, but right now, I'm not too concerned with it. My capitalization may also be fscked today.

I woke up this morning and was more tired than usual, and then halfway through my commute into work when the headache started. It started off without any pain, which is usually the case, and sometimes I can roll through without it really "hurting" just with the blurred vision. Once I got to work, though... Now I consider it to be MUCH too bright at my desk, and the thought of doing anything with a database today is not helping.

I've got some nice, mellow, ambient music on the headphones. I'm going to plug it. Right now I'm listening to Jesse Stern's "Nine Lives of a Healer" and while googling for the album, I found that there's a Meditation Podcast as well, which I'm going to add to my podcatcher momentarily.

Next in the queue is "Audio Stereo Grams" by Jeff Goins, another very mellow ambient disc. I originally bought them for gaming music, to play in the background, which they work wonderfully for, but they are also working out well as migraine music.

As for the needs company bit, I'm having lunch with my niece today. I'm not skipping it, since I need to get out of the office, I think.

Beware! What follows is pretty damned emo

2008-05-04T13:02:00.002-04:00

Normally, my inherently slack nature allows me to ignore a lot of my problems. I can usually let just about anything roll right off. Lately, however, I've been unable to find the silver linings.

I have totaled cars before and been able to find the bright side of it. When my Corolla got wrecked (the nicest and newest vehicle I have ever owned) I was able to say, "Well, at least I don't have to worry about those paint chips that were starting to rust on the hood!"

Now, I just spent $1,000 dollars to make my dog better. That's $1K I don't have. Don't get me wrong. I love the dog, and I want him to be well, to play with and protect the kids, but that's a drain on the finances that's really giving me grief. Even though I'm glad to spend it, it's hard to NOT have my ulcer act up as a result.

It's a beautiful day out. A perfect one to mow the lawn. I'm more than likely not going to mow. I really don't care what my lawn looks like. I don't feel the need to impress anyone with it. If I could, I would have a yard completely covered in crushed stone, or ivy, or trees.

It is a beautiful day, and I want to spend it inside watching baseball. If I won the lottery, I would probably get a 50" TV outside, eradicate all of the bugs, and watch baseball in my gravel paved backyard from a hammock. That prospect gets more unlikely all the time.

It is a beautiful day, and my parents have the kids, and will return them this afternoon. I expect the only thing of use I will get done today is taking the trash to the dump, and grocery shopping. That's really not accomplishing much, or enjoyable.

It is a beautiful day, at 70 degrees out, the sun is shining, the pollen count seems to have dipped, and the bugs aren't as bad as usual. I feel incapable of enjoying it, with the weight of adult responsibility on my shoulders.

It is a beautiful day. I want to enjoy it, but I also want to waste it. Where did the silver linings go? Can I just not see them any more? Have they ceased to exist?

(Note: I really am not this emo, at least not openly. Maybe writing for the theorhetical world to see will help. This was punched out on my phone, on my back porch, on a beautiful day.)

Charleston, SC

2008-04-30T19:42:00.002-04:00

Beautiful!

(correction from earlier... I had put Charlotte... that's in NC. strange)

server upgrade imminent

2008-04-21T10:19:00.001-04:00

So, the hardware that was generously donated by my buddy (who visited this weekend, and we had a blast) checks out, and my configs SEEM to check out... I'm planning on doing the swap tomorrow morning (about 0630 EDT).

Cross yr fingers for me ;-)

Hendrick's and Tonic

2008-04-14T18:12:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I've been on a bit of a gin kick the past few weeks. I think it has something to do with my buddy visiting this week, who's favorite drink is Gin and Juice (specifically Tanqueray 10 and Simply Orange High Pulp), but that's not the point. I started doing some research on gin, and searching for reviews on what I might try that was out of the ordinary, and came across this review: Hendrick's Gin Review: Wake Up And Smell The Roses on LiquorSnob.com. Not only did the reviewer have me giggling with their excellent writing, but they were right...

After drinking T-10 and Juice (in my case, Tropicana Blueberry Pomegranate) for the past week, I bought some Hendrick's on my way home from work today (well, technically after the post office and before the grocery store, but you get the general idea). I got home, and made up two gin and tonics for the wife and myself. I didn't have any cucumber for a garnish (which I can now see would really make the drink), but I was shocked at the smoothness and complexity of the drink and finish. The reviewer at LiquorSnob.com really did hit it on the head. It seems to me, that Hendrick's may be the gin for whiskey drinkers (of which I am, Jameson's being my poison of choice). I am of the mind now, that I will be forsaking my dear Jameson's for the remainder of the summer months, in favor of Hendricks and tonic water, with a slice of cucumber.

This "not-so-much-a-liquor-snob" gives Hendrick's Gin an A+

Later this week, my review of Lucid Absinthe Supérieure which should be arriving by Thursday. (reminder to self... buy some sugar cubes)

twitter log from our trip

2008-04-12T14:40:00.005-04:00

The timestamps seem to be skewed, but they are in actual order ;-)

Day 1:
talulattdh: We're on the road!! 10:08 AM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Hitting the road! 10:47 AM April 04, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Toad The Wet Sprocket is b0ff0 road trip music!! 10:48 AM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Just hit West Virginia 11:40 AM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Maryland 12:00 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: We have entered the Keystone State ie left Dixie 12:11 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Waves @geekacres, @mainpa, and @jrblackwell (in PA) 12:26 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: @geekacres shoot me any questions if you have any problems ;-) 12:45 PM April 04, 2008 from txt in reply to geekacres

lnxcwby: Halfway mark on I-78 eb! :-) 01:36 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Lunch at Burger King FTW 02:01 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Last exit in Pennsylvania 03:05 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: At the hotel in Elmsford, NY, waiting for the rest of our party :-) Though we did forget the garment bag and 4 shirts in it. 05:17 PM April 04, 2008 from web

talulattdh: We're in Elmsford, waitin' on Julie. ;-) 04:02 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Just found Jules... The party's getting started 05:51 PM April 04, 2008 from im

talulattdh: Having dinner w/ @lnxcwby, @debphotog, and teh other wimminz and cowboy. Pizza FTW! 06:24 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: @agenttiki awww thanks! I got an excellent tip from a hawty in WA! 06:39 PM April 04, 2008 from txt in reply to agenttiki

lnxcwby: Gonna see The Elephant Man in Nyack, NY now. Phone going off 08:52 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Deb is BRILLIANT!!! 10:39 PM April 04, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: If I weren't such a country boy at heart, I'd really like living in NYC :-) 01:25 AM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Julie sez, Well well well, my eyes got bigger than my plate! 02:19 AM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Strange Brew is like crack 03:22 AM April 05, 2008 from txt

Day 2:
lnxcwby: Just had breakfast at the hotel, now we need to hit some shops 11:08 AM April 05, 2008 from txt
talulattdh: We're on the way to Debaser's house. 11:47 AM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Cheesecake Factory with the gang.... Mmmmm 02:04 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Julie sez, Usually I'm pregnant when I'm in NYC... o.O 02:20 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: "Butter was the lubricant of choice." 03:02 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: @lnxcwby sez, Even *I* wouldn't twitter that!! 03:50 PM April 05, 2008 from txt in reply to lnxcwby

talulattdh: Deb sez, The last thing I want is to hear dirty jokes from a leprauchan! 05:05 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: @agenttiki the wimminz and @lnxcwby wish you were here too! We're thinking of you! 06:23 PM April 05, 2008 from txt in reply to agenttiki

talulattdh: Carnegie Deli FTW!! 08:07 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: And now.... I get my Reuben! :-D 08:53 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: I actually got to say "follow that cab" :-) 09:44 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Tim Minchin time! 09:51 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: TIMMEH!!! 08:51 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Tim is so fucking rock!!! 11:43 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Lexa sez: "The hips still had it!" 12:43 AM April 06, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Lexa sez, *He* has the smallest hands I've seen on an adult male... 11:46 PM April 05, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Julie sez: "Zzzzzzzzz" I concur 01:55 AM April 06, 2008 from txt

Day 3:
lnxcwby: Heading to The Bronx soon to see the Yankees play 11:45 AM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: trying to tame my google reader was NOT a good idea for this morning. I forgot how out of control it gets when I don't mind it minutely 12:01 PM April 06, 2008 from web

talulattdh: I'm on my way to Yankee Stadium w/ @lnxcwby. w00t! 12:21 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: We almost got to the train station w/o the game tix. Crisis averted though. Headed to the House That Ruth Built 01:16 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Me and my fella at Yankee Stadium... Does it get any better? :-D 01:45 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Wow. Wow. That was fantastic! 05:13 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: The Yankees won, and we had a boffo time! 04:14 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Guy on the street sez: "All I know is we need more beers." 05:53 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: The dude on the subway sez, I got this Natty Light from the guy who drums the bottom of the bucket. It's cold. You want it? 04:58 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Back at the hotel, pondering dinner. We drive back south tomorrow. 07:41 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Pete's Saloon was a good idea for dinner, though the sauce on my fettuccine was a bit thin (the scallops were lovely) Thanks @debfotog 10:00 PM April 06, 2008 from web

talulattdh: @agenttiki, @lnxcwby sez, Piss off! (sir) :-P 08:51 PM April 06, 2008 from txt in reply to agenttiki

talulattdh: Gonna watch a movie w/ @lnxcwby and crash. Good night, NY!! I'll miss you! And thank you Wimminz for... I think you know. ;-) 09:59 PM April 06, 2008 from txt

Day 4:
lnxcwby: heading back to Virginia as soon as we pack and eat (and @talulattdh wakes up). 09:17 AM April 07, 2008 from web

lnxcwby: In New Jersey, pining for PA 11:15 AM April 07, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: I can't believe how cheap fuel was in Jersey. We're now in PA, and making good time. 12:21 PM April 07, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: Just crossed the Mason-Dixon line 02:53 PM April 07, 2008 from txt

lnxcwby: In West Virginia 03:02 PM April 07, 2008 from txt

talulattdh: Home again, home again. Jiggidy jig. 04:12 PM April 07, 2008 from web

lnxcwby: This weekend was awesome, but it's nice to be home :-) 04:21 PM April 07, 2008 from txt

A Great(TM) Weekend - pt 2

2008-04-07T19:55:00.002-04:00

Alright, so we met up with Deb, and followed her from Elmsford to Nyack. It's a nice little village a little west of Tarrytown/Elmsford (across the Hudson). We then met up with the lovely Lexa from California, and Deb's husband John, and had dinner at a small Italian joint on the main drag of Nyack.

After dinner, a little coffee and then we saw The Elephant Man at the Elmwood Playhouse, which was directed by none other, than the aforementioned Deb! The play was fantastic, and presented in a unique manner. Instead of theatre-in-the-round, it was, as John put it, theatre-in-the-alley. The seating was on either side of the center of the room, and raised. While watching the play, you were constantly aware that there was someone sitting directly across from you. I must say, I was very impressed with the entire thing.

After the play, we met up with some of the cast at a bar down the street called Chance. Nice place, and good booze. Didn't eat anything there aside from the artichoke mousse on some flatbread, but it was good as well, and all of the food I saw looked pretty tasty.

After that, we headed back to the hotel (all minus John, who went home to relieve the babysitter) and watched Strange Brew, and some other funnies on the room teevee and hung out until about 3am or so.

Next post, next day :-)

A Great(TM) Weekend

2008-04-06T21:45:00.001-04:00

As I "thumb" this out, my wife is tapping away at the laptop on the same subject. I can easily summarize this weekend with, "Just what I needed."

I will probably compile all of the tweets and photos into a megapost filled with links and commentary, but in the meantime, I will narrate what happened and what we did (at least until "typing" on my phone becomes unbearable)

Friday: We dropped the kids off and hit the road. Took I-81 north to Harrisburg, and then I-78 east to I-287, which took us to the White Plains area and our hotel. A comedy note: if you say Tappan Zee Bridge like Sgt Schultz, it's hilarious.

We met up with Julie at the hotel (Hampton Inn, my personal fave, since they are consistently nice, and you get Hilton points), and Deb showed up soon after.

ugh. I'm getting cramps in my thumbs and wrists, so I'm gonna hit PAUSE in the story.

--
(sent from my mobile)

This pleases me

2008-04-06T13:46:00.001-04:00

Metro-North Train

2008-04-06T12:28:00.000-04:00

to 125th. Then the 4 to Yankee Stadium!

Carnegie Deli

2008-04-06T12:24:00.000-04:00

This was last night, but I forgot to send it. That's my reuben, and a picture of George Peppard on the wall.

Sonic screwdriver

2008-04-05T17:44:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna get one, but I'm not gonna lie and say it's for my kids. It's for me.