I dont even remember whats happened in the last week or two... excessive fatigue, lack of sleep, full work load, and taking care of wife and newborn have all contributed towards my lack of updates. I'm not even on my computer much anymore (I type this on a laptop in the nursery, in fact). I havent played a game in I dunno how long. I'd like to check out Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, but with Violet not working I cant justify the cost right now since I wouldn't have time to play them anyway. LOTS of people at work have been playing TF2.. I hope to join them at some point. In other news, EA bought Bioware / Pandemic. I think this is pretty awesome, myself. Well, Drake's starting to fuss (no surprise there) so that's it for this update.

Yes, I'm posting this at 530 in the morning. After having just changed the boy's diaper (it was soiled) and his clothes (and using socks as mittens to keep his little fingers warm), I've set the boy within his gym since he's still awake but so so fidgety. yet. he will be. He's fussy. but I think he's starting to sleep better. maybe.

Yesterday the three of us and Violets' folks drove through DC. We had McDs, Krispy Kreme, and saw the Washington Monument. Violet & Drake stayed in the car because the baby isnt allowed in public yet. His immune system is too immature to risk exposure.

It was closed when we got there, so we just walked around it. whoo hoo?
Once I get pics from Grandpa B's camera, I'll post them.

As the sun eases its tired smile upon the world,
As the day no longer competes with the night,
As leaves begin to show off their new Autumn colors,
As stars dance around Violet Twilight,

A sense of meaning fills the land,
A sense of belonging envelops the air,
A sense of purpose colors nature,
A sense of love surrounds Drake's Lair.

Avast me buckos, tis another fine day indeed. Since many of you land lubbers don't have a pirate name, I've taken the liberty to help ye out. Ye owe me a rum. ARRRRRRRR!

I've added a few web comics to my usualy reading. I only remember the address for one, so here it is.

The Secret Life of Mobs

Its great in that it a web comic about Warhammer, mostly Warhammer Online, the game I'm working on. Its pretty amusing.

So like, I've been pretty busy having a baby. I mean, *I* didn't have him myself, but I helped. Anyway, check out Drake's Blog for what been happening the last week or two, since I havent had time to update mine too much :)
Here's a quick list

• Worked a lot
• Celebrated Violet's bithday
• Violet went into labor
• Started paternity leave
• Tried (and failed) to find time to get enough sleep.

Lily is the name of Violet's 2000 Nissan XTerra. (She's blue). Yesterday Lily wouldn't start. This is not good for a 39 week pregnant woman with no real food at home and a hospital that is farther away than the front door. It seemed to be due to the battery not having enough power. Some lights flickered dimly, but not enough to start the car.

Not ever having got around to buying any kind of jumper cable kit, I stopped at Sears on my way home from work, but I didnt care for their choices. I went to Home Depot and picked up one of those units that uses the 12v DC adapter in your car instead of needing to use cables connected to the battery. Unfortunately it wasn't portable like I thought. It plugged into the DC adapter all right, but I then had to plug the other end into a 120v wall outlet, and THEN it still took 5+ mins to charge the battery enough to attempt a start. Bleh.

After going online I decided I wanted the Simple Start™ Vehicle Battery Booster, from Black & Decker. Pretty slick little device, small enough to fit in my glove box or rear compartment, starts the car via in-car DC adapter in a few mins, built in LED, DC accessory outlet, etc.. Nice feature list. Although Home Depot lists in on their website though, my local store didn't have any. It was close to 10pm, closing time, so my choices were looking bleak.

I did some searching online and discovered that Wal-mart also carries it. Most stores close at 9 or 10, but I called by local store just in case, and lo and behold, they're open till midnight every day of the week. Score! I ask if they have any in stock, and they do! and at 8 cents below MSRP. SCORE AGAIN! I race down there, buy it, and discover that it has to charge for 15 hours before I can try to use it. Bah!

So Lily didn't get fixed last night.
Today I got home and tried the device, and after 15 mins or so of trying to boost charge, and the car not starting still, it just wasn't working out. I kept getting beeping noises and LEDs indicating some kinda warning. I followed the instructions to the letter. I was about to go buy a new battery when I decided to unplug the device and yet again and try the headlights. They came on for a second. So I tried starting the car (without the device attached) and it started fine. Maybe the device boosted it and I need to disconnect it before I tried starting the car.. I dunno. We drove to DQ and back in order to ensure the alternator was charging the battery OK. We just got back and it seems OK right now.

I suspect that the very short distances Violet travels (< 2 miles once a day or two) isn't enough to charge the battery with the AC, radio, lights, or whatever else on. I hope the car starts tomorrow morning.

This week was busier than even most of my busy weeks.

I worked around 55 or so hours this week at work. Not because I had to or because we're in "crunch" mode. I'm just passionate about what I do and I want to ensure I get it done on time and with a very high amount of quality. I'm pretty much done, and my stuff isn't due until Tuesday, but this gives me more time to tweek, test, bug fix, and otherwise polish my work. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on "what" I've been doing, only that it's great :)

Violet's Birthday was yesterday. We didn't do much, her being 9 months pregnant and all.. (She's due Sep 19th, which is National Talk Like A Pirate Day). Besides, I'm not sure I can top previous years... last year we went to the Godsmack / Rob Zombie concert in Boston (Sully's home town) and to Wicked, the musical, in Chicago the year before. Maybe we can do something nice next year, like visit San Diego. I'm glad Drake wasn't born on Violet's birthday. It would have made the occasion less special for them both, me thinks. We had Wendy's for dinner on her birthday. I need to try one of their new Oreo frosty's.

Violet went to a Baby Shower yesterday, so I went to work :). I wasn't there long though before some friends of mine called for my help. The furniture people they got delivered their couch, but just left it at the front door. Apparently these guys didn't get any games as kids that involved putting the round cylinder in the round opening and the square peg in the square hole. I arrived shortly after the movers had left (given up and were dismissed). The couch had been removed from its protective packaging and several scraps and rubs were all over the walls and some on the couch. Sure the couch was longer than the doorway was high, and entering the front door leads to an immediate right hand turn. Seemed hopeless to the movers, I suppose. Fortunately, I got lucky and was able to help them put the couch in the apartment without any scraping or scuffs. We tilted the couch straight up, then tilted it under the doorway and slid it in and up. The doorway was too short for the length of the couch, but the ceiling certainly wasn't. It didn't take too long. It's a pretty nice couch, IMO.

As I was leaving the friend's apartment Violet called me saying she was done with the baby shower (I had driven her so she didn't have to find parking and besides, it was close to work) so I went and picked her up. So I didn't really get any work done, but that's OK. We had dinner plans at 6, and it was around 430ish. So not wanting to drive 30 mins home and then 30 mins back to the same friend's apartment I was just at, we went over there early. Violet wanted P.F. Chang's for dinner, so we decided to do it Sat night instead of Friday night. Friday was book club, which Violet and I made a cameo appearance at. The place was near the friend's apartment too.

Important Tip: If you plan to go out to a fancy place on Saturday night in ritzy Fairfax, VA. make a reservation.

I didn't even think of doing so, and so we waited over an hour to get a table. Our friends had 2 kids (a toddler and a baby), so the wait was somewhat difficult for everyone. I ordered the only thing I like at a Chinese restaurant: Chicken Fried Rice, no veggies, no soy sauce, and no scallions. Chicken, Rice, Egg. That's it. It was pretty decent, better tasting than the PF Chang's in Madison, Wisconsin (Though WI has MUCH better service). I still prefer Pick up Stix.

Today I trimmed the hedges near the community mailbox, because no one else has. I also applied a primer coat of paint to a glider bench I acquired from the side of the road. It's in good condition, but the wood is a little worn. Works well. I cleaned and sanded it last week. Next week I'll paint it and be done with it. It'll work out well in the backyard, I hope.

In gaming news, I created a website for my new D&D group. It only took like 2 hours to make. I'm quite proud of it though.

I guess that's all for now. Leave a comment sometime, eh?

Happy Birthday to Violet. May your special day have more fun than candles.

Since its been so long since Ive last posted I'll just summarize as much as I can remember.

Lots of work.
Great relaxing weekend with the wife. She working fewer hours. Mmm Clifton Ice Cream was good. Saw Stardust last weekend, it was really good. Cleaned and sanded a bench. I was gonna paint it, but got lazy. I've been putting in a lot of overtime at work so I've just been sleeping and working mainly, and just got caught up on all my TiVo'd shows. At some point I should probably list what those are. I bought and played BioShock for a little while last week, but havn't got around to continuing it. ALso been trying to put in some Brain 2 whatever ya call it on the DS. I have the brain age of a 50 year old. I guess that makes me wise at least. I got the A Team theme as a ring tone on my cell phone. Took the dog to the vet and Gwynn is fine, just needs to heal a bit more from her apparent neck injury or whatever it was that was causing her to squeak. I started a new D&D game with some co-workers. I'm actually a player for a change. I'm, playing an Elven Cleric of Corellon. SO far so good, we've only had 1 game. I tossed together a quick website for it too. Once its DM approved and I get more info on it I may post a link.

Thats all I can think of for now.

If you thought my post on dangerous beavers was amusing, you should check this link.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/swedenanimalsoffbeat

I got a ticket about a month ago (41 in a 25) and appeared in court Thursday. I could have paid it online or via telephone or via snail mail, $145 bucks or so I think, but I never got around to it so I had to appear in court. Parking wasn't great near the courthouse and I ended up parking several blocks away. But it was free.

While walking towards the courthouse I passed an old building that used to be a school. Apparently when they were building it "way back when" they discovered civil war soldiers buried on the hill. Well, instead of making a big deal of it they built the school on top of the hill anyway and declared it a memorial to those unknown soldiers.

There was a line outside of probably 50 people trying to get into the court building. Two metal detectors and a half a dozen armed police guarded the entrance. I stood in line for about 5 mins or so and got about half way through when a cop came out and told everyone in the line that recording devices were not allowed in the court building. This included cell phones with built in cameras. Seeing how I recently got a phone with a camera on it, I was forced to go back to my car and leave my phone in it. Then I returned to the end of the line which had somehow gotten longer.

About 10 mins later I'm in the building and there's 5 court rooms. I have no idea which one is me since there's no signs indicating who goes where. I walked around a while and talked to a clerk who said an information desk back at the elevator was where I needed to go. I went there, saw my name on the docket for courtroom# 3, and off I went.

The courtroom wasn't too large, probably 100 or 150 seat capacity. It reminded me of a small church. Bench seats were arranged facing a large altar, err I mean desk, and a man in robes behind it preached the law. The room was about 75% full. The judge (not a commissioner like in San Marcos, CA) went through all the name to find out who pleased guilty, not guilty, no contest, or weren't present. The docket contained all kinds of offenses, not just minor traffic violations. A prosecuting attorney was sitting in the room taking notes. Several people with "fix it" tickets, like expired tags or forgot their license, were instructed to show the cop evidence of the violation being fixed and were immediately dismissed. One lucky gal got off because her officer was not present. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. My cop had about a dozen cases. I figured he would be there though, it was a total speed trap scenario (Of which there are MANY in VA).

After having contemplated pleading no contest, not guilty, or asking for a continuance, when my name was finally called I simply pleased guilty. I sat back down and waited for the rest of the names to be called. Afterwards the attorney went out into the hall to consider plea bargains. I waited out in the hallway and finally spoke to the attorney. I had no real recourse or excuse. The cop had a laser device, did his due diligence, and I wasn't especially paying attention to my speed since the flashing school zone 25 sign ws NOT blinking. If it had been, I would have set the cruise control at 25 and not sped. I see cops in this stretch of road all the time.

I was adjacent a large white truck and when the cop stepped out into the road, I swore he was motioning for him, not me. I was a little surprised. Anyway seeing how I have a clean driving record and I wasn't reckless driving, the attorney offered 50 dollar fine (plus court costs) and traffic school (which I could do online). He suggested I get a VA license instead of the Wisconsin license I still held since the law says I should have done that within 30 days of being here.
I agreed and went back into the court room. After a time the court got back into session, my name was eventually called, I agreed to the attorney's terms, and the case was dismissed pending proof of traffic school. I paid 64 bucks and got a list of approved traffic schools.

Overall, fairly easy and efficient. I was there around 70 mins or so, and it took another 25 to wait in line, walk to and from my car several times, and find the courtroom. I was fairly angry after I got the ticket but I calmed down after a few days and simply accepted my wrong-doing. It wasn't so bad after that.

This is assuming you are part fey, otherwise it's kinda random.
I happen to be:



What type of Fae are you?

Last weekend I decided I needed to organize all the loose gaming papers I've accumulated over the last 20+ years. Dozens of folders, piles of unsorted papers, character sheets, and a few boxes filled to the brim (Gaming, School, Work, etc) have been littering our front room for months. Violet offered to help me, being the Virgo type she is. She also loves going to Staples. She didn't really want to work anyway, heh. (Organizing isn't work, sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day doing data entry is) I think her prime motivation was trying to find her old Star Wars character. Anyway, I grabbed an empty 2-drawer metal filing cabinet from the garage and used the top drawer for gaming files and the bottom drawer for everything else (old school stuff mostly, but also some work related files).

After several hours we got most of the loose stuff organized within hanging folders by game genre (Car Wars, DnD 2.0, DnD 3.x, Changeling, GURPS, Marvel Super Heroes, Star Wars, just to name a few) and then smaller manilla envelopes within them were sub-sorted, usually by player name (if there were a lot of files) or by GM (if they were NPCs or if a PC didn't warrant their own sub-folder).

It was a worthy effort and I FINALLY found the Super Hero HQ I made. It's a large foldout hex map of the HQ done in colored pencils.

Spoilers below.

I'd use the title of Transformers: The Movie, but the cartoon version took that title, thus the movie is simply named Transformers. Some people call it Transformers: The Movie 2, which is silly. I'm shocked they didn't call it something stupid, like "Michael Bay's Transformers". Whew. Spielberg was a rather un-hyped executive producer.

Violet and I actually saw this a few weekends ago, but I've been a slacker and haven't posted about it until now. So here's my review: 7/10.

• Great acting by many (but certainly not all) of the "human" cast.
• Decent story, sorta.
• Really good sound track, even without Soundwave :( Seriously, that little radio dude could have totally been Soundwave. We were jilted. I guess they're saving SW for the sequel...
• Special effects were really good most of the time, but the camera was so close you couldn't really tell what was going on. I guess that's "war-like" though.

Transformers: I liked the vehicles, for the most part. I'm bummed VW didn't give them permission to use the new beetle, but cest le vie, what can ya do. The camero was OK. I didn't care for most of the Decepticons. The tank, Devastator, was a good name for a tank, even though Devastator is supposed to be the combination of the constructicons. Meh. I also really didn't like how the tank and skip loader could travel across the vast distances as fast as Star Scream, the Jet Fighter. I really didn't like how the cube only produced crazy destructive robots. Bleh.
Oh. And my MAIN issue? The robots look dumb. Can't see or tell anything that they do. I hated the CGI robots.

I liked how the humans dealt with the aliens, although I couldn't decide if the agent dude was there for comic relief (and failed) or was just annoying. The techie cast were kinda stupid, and the hot blonde chick seemed outta place and underused. I really liked the military guys. Next movie: G.I.Joe!

My main issue is that I didn't care for the retreat to the city while being chased by the bad guys. BAD idea. Lots of innocent people were hurt and killed, not to mention the massive amounts of destruction. Hey! We're being chased by Decepticons! Let's drive from Hover dam all the way to LA and THEN evac the human with the cube. Smart!! Couldn't the choppers just evac them from the middle of the desert, or just outside Hoover dam? And didn't they realize the choppers were a bad idea cuz Starscream would blow them up? Oh, Jazz's death was kinda gratuitous. I didn't care for it. Optimus Prime having lips really disturbs me. I was happy a lot of the original voices were used. Neat!

Lastly, Megan Fox needs a shrine or sumthin. I have two words for her. D and AMN.

I finished the nursery this morning. All the furniture is in and the shelves are up. Violet still has some stickers to put up, but my job is finished. I even added a shelf to the closet for more storage. I'm pretty happy with the results, though there are several imperfections that glare out at me, like scrap marks or extra holes in the wall or something. But oh well. I know it can't *BE* perfect.




The Cherry Wood Crib with the pooh themed crib set. It doesn't have the mattress protector or pad on it it, but those can't be seen anyway.






Violet's Glider chair. The footstool was too expensive, so we didn't get it.






A pic I got for 2 bucks at a yard sale, and the painted shelves from my previous blog post. On the left is the Cherry Wood changing table, ready for some poop-inspired diaper changing goodness.








The most expensive piece in the set, this Cherry Wood Armoire is where we will keep his Diaper shirts (The term Onesie is a TM of Gerber), diapers, wipes, current wearable fashions, blankets, and large stuft animals that don't fit on the shelves, such as Tigger there.

Well over a month ago, probably 2 months ago, I bought some shelves from a yard sale. They were cheap and looked pretty cool, and I thought they'd look good in the nursery. Unfortunately, Violet didn't agree. Their coloring scheme was green and natural wood brown, which doesn't match our nursery's color scheme.

Apparently Home Depot has specific Disney color swatches. So I bought a gallon of paint for each of the two colors we're using and a quart of white primer.




Disney Link to colors

I spent a few WEEKS prepping and painting these shelves. What a pain. Anyway, I didn't get around to taking pictures of the shelves before I painted them, unfortunately. Hey, there was a rogue beaver in my garage, gimme a break. Here are pics of the finished products though:

I was thinking of selling my transformers on Ebay to make some money, clear out my old crap, and help pay some bills. Nearly all of them are in poor to fair condition, and I probably wouldn't get much for them. (sigh). So instead I dusted them off (see previous blog post) and put them on a shelf. It would take a long time to list them all out, and several are not Transformers at all. Some are Go-Bots or Japanese imports. For the record, I've been wanting to do this well before the movie was announced. Now that its out though, they may fetch some mediocre prices, but I doubt it.

The ones I recall the names of from the top of my head are:
(top) Metroplex, Perceptor, Omega Surpreme.
(shelf 1) Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus.
(shelf 2) Shockwave
(shelf 3) All the Predacons (They form Predaking), All the dinobots (Grimlock is a japanese import, not the real thing, but I think he looks cooler) [Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Swoop], Blaster, Soundwave, all their cassettes
(shelf 4) The combaticons (They form Bruticus, I think), a pair of rock transformers, and some weird water transformers that I dont remember the names of. Turtle, shark, piranha, and a manta ray.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not immune to disease.
Last week I had a bit of a cold.

Now, I realize the cold that's been going around has made people sick for over a week, and that their symptoms are more sever that what I experienced. Maybe I didn't get that cold. I've been digging around my old transformers and setting them up on a display shelf. Since they've been caked on with dust and dirt and grime over the last 20 years, I'm not too shocked I got sick. I wiped them all down with one of those disinfecting wipes, and I washed my hands often. Apparently not often enough.

However, it's possible I contracted the disease while playing with our friend's kid in their apartment complex's kid play area. I knew that touching any of that playground stuff (slide, ladder, teeter totter, swings) spelled doom. I totally think it was the kid play area.

I had a bit of a sore throat last Saturday, and then some congestion on Sunday and most of Monday. Tuesday was more or less recovery with a few coughs.

Most of the time the Nightquil / Dayquil saw me through it. I also had some honey based cough drops. Cough drops are actually great for sore throats. Much to my chagrin however, I ended up taking Monday off of work. I made it up by working late Tuesday and Thursday though.

During my sick time I mostly took it easy and read A LOT.

In order to not get Violet sick, I found a free full sized mattress a few miles away via Craigslist, and so I used that to sleep on in the other room. The mattress is good, but a little too firm for my tastes. It'll come in handy when we have guests though.

Today, 07/07/07, marks the 7th anniversary of Violet and I's first date.

On our first date, I picked Violet up in my mom's Mercedes. We went to Claim Jumper and had a really nice meal. We then drove to a spot that overlooked the Flower fields of Carlsbad. On the way home we stopped at AM/PM (a mini-market+Gas Station). Very romantic, I know. When we got back to her place we didn't even shake hands. I'm an old fashioned kinda guy, and besides, I had a cold and didn't want to have her catch it. This was easily one of my favorite dates ever though.

We were going to get married on 7/7 for one of several reasons. First, her birthday is on a 7th (Not July). Second, having our wedding on the anniversary of our first date seemed appropriate. Third, and probably most important, having everything fall on the 7th would make it easy for me to remember. :)

We did end up getting married on the 7th, but not of July. Because of our honeymoon plans in Florida and the Bahamas, we decided it would probably be too hot around July 7th. Since we wanted it on a weekend, we choose April 7th instead, which although on a Sunday, was much better for us. So that's the date we set. Oh, and just for the record... no... we did not get married at AM/PM.

I suppose somehow on the cosmic scale, the 7th works for us. Violet is also on her 7th month of pregnancy. Time's have changed a lot these 7 years. They'll change even more in the next 7. I'm overjoyed and thankful at how much happiness my life contains.

In random order, I spent Independence day:

• Played Command & Conquer 3
• Watching a TiVo'd movie with Violet (You, me, And Dupree.. it was meh)
• Finished painting the nursery shelves (Pictures coming eventually)
• Cleaned the house and especially the Garage a lot
• Fixed the lawnmower. (I haven't testing it yet tho.. heh)
• Watched fireworks for a few mins from our backyard
• Went out to eat at a Mexican food place (We tried good 'ol American Dairy Queen, but they were closed).

Overall a fairly relaxing and productive day.

Plans for July 4th include napping, watching TiVo, cleaning the garage, and maybe watching fireworks on TV. You would think that being so close to the capitol of our country there'd be a lot of fireworks around here. Well, there are. There's more firework "Buy One Get One FREE!" vendors than there are Dunkin Donut stores.

My fried Derek created an artistic interpretation of my beaver hiding behind a dishwasher in my garage story. Since I thought it was neat, and with his permission, here it is.

In other news, I repaired the chewed through wires of the lawn mower this morning. Hopefully it won't blow up or set the lawn on fire.

I don't read that much. At least, I stopped reading novels and the like somewhere around high school. I guess reading textbooks substituted for reading books. Besides, reading makes me very sleepy. Over the last decade I've barely read a handful of novels. But the last year or three, thanks to Violet who reads a lot, I've gotten back into the reading habit, sorta. I read when I'm able to goto bed early and I'm not quite tired yet. As a result I've read, albeit slowly, a few books this past year or so. My most recently read, currently reading, and soon to read lists are now located on the right column. Start of Darkness counts, even though it's book full of comic strips. I love Order of the Stick :)

I've somehow managed to snag myself on some bad luck.

A few nights ago I heard a mouse and saw some rodent droppings in the garage. I bought a mousetrap and set it up with peanut butter. The next day the trap was sprung but only bits of fur, and the peanut butter, remained.

Since I've been painting in the garage this concerned me. (More on that later, when I actually finish the project) Also, some items had been knocked off the shelves and several cardboard boxes had been ripped up, nearly through to the containing artwork.

Last night I decided to further investigate and used a push broom to move a bunch of stuff outta the way when I heard rustling coming from behind some boxes. I see something large and furry crawling back behind more stuff. (My garage is quite full of stuff). It didn't look like a mouse. Or even a big rat. It was certainly bigger, and faster, than a rat. I kept moving stuff outta the way, keep at broom handle length, when suddenly out jumps a Beaver, easily the size of a small 15 or 20lb dog or cat. I wasn't startled or scared or anything... I just watched it crawl behind a dishwasher that I had in the garage (I told you it was full of stuff). At this point I ID'd it as a beaver and went back inside the house to hit the Internet. My local Humane Society was closed at 8pm at night, but the site said to call the local police, which I did. 5 minutes later 3 cop cars show up. They can't trap him, only scare him out of the garage. I considered keeping him in the garage until the next morning so the HS could trap him, but then I noticed, to my financial horror, that the little bastage had chewed through the power cable of my electric lawn mower. This did not make me a happy camper. The police offered to either scare it outta the garage so not wanting anything else to be destroyed, I accepted their offer. I really didn't want the sucker to get caught in someone else's garage, or run over by a car, but I couldn't afford any more damage. Heck, I can't afford the current damage done. As they scared him outta the garage he came straight at me. I calmly but quickly braced myself between the 2 cars I was standing between and lifted my legs to let the dude pass right under me. Wish I had taken a picture of him at some point. It woulda made a nice blog entry.

The other major suckage is that Violet's Xterra's AC is out. I bought some refrigerant and filled it just fine, but it only lasted a few days. Figuring I may have done it wrong (Getting pressure was difficult in 95 deg weather) I checked the Internet and found some Nissan forums. The compressor wasn't kicking in, and I read that after 400 bucks of hose replacement repairs and diagnosis by several people, the Thermal Control Amplifier is what ended up needing replaced. 40 bucks. SO I went and bought one and tried to replace it myself. The Thermal Amp, or AC Thermistor as some call it, is a temperature gauge that overrides the AC compressor switch to make it kick on. Something like that. Anyway, The part I got wasn't even close to the original so I took it to the dealer this morning and had them troubleshoot it. They're results were... unfortunate. The compressor and hose line both had a large leak in them and needed completely replaced. Parts were due in on Wed. This isn't something I could do myself since I don't have the tools and vacuum equipment required for this sort of repair. Total cost estimate at this time is about 850 bucks. Le Ouch. So much for that new mattress I promised to buy Violet. ;(

This movie stars Jennifer Garner as a woman trying to pick up her life after her fiancee dies unexpectedly. The movie is full of assumed and subtle back story that I found to be very distracting. I didn't "believe" anything that was happening plot-wise. The dialog wants to be good, especially for Kevin Smith, but isn't. The scenes want to flow but instead they crash. Acting was OK, but I never cared much for Juliet Lewis. This might be a decent date movie via Netflix (it was for us) (Who JUST Lowered their Price. Hurray!) but I definitely wouldn't have wanted to see it in the theatre, and I wouldn't buy the DVD.

Overall, I didn't think it was terrible, but it certainly wasn't 'good' either. Bottom line is that I found myself asking "What?!?!" and "Why??" and "How??" so often that I was distracted from enjoying the film. I give it a 5 / 10.

Craigslist.org is awesome. Low cost and free stuff appears there all the time. Weird stuff too. How weird? I saw a free skeeball machine once. Looked like it was in good condition too. Washers, dryers, weight equipment, shelves, couches, chairs, pianos.. its crazy. I didn't have a way to haul the skeeball at the time, but since I bought my trailer, I can pick up all kinds of things. Including my latest acquisition, The Catapult. Of course, it uses a spring, not a weight, and it uses a sling head for more distance like a trebuchet. Doesn't matter. It was free.
If he who dies with the most toys wins, then craigslist will help a lot.

Is it me, or is anyone else really irritated that everyone in the world who tries to explain something starts their sentences with "Basically"? I've heard some people who didn't know what they were trying to say use the word like 8 times during the explanation. Wow.

I'm also noticing more and more that people are ending their sentences with "so...." and then trail off, not finishing it.

Basically, I just find the whole thing a bit distracting and a little irritating, so....

An old friend of mine was recently hired at the place I work. It's great to see him and I really look forward to having him and his family move out here. It's been busy trying to find him a place to live but today he finally settled on a place. Cool beans.

I've been trying to diet again but thus far that's only last like, 2 days in a row before I quit it again. Being the husband of a pregnant lady isn't good for the waistline. Yes, I totally blame her :)

I've been trying to figure out retirement and financial stuff for the past week or so. I'm terrible at this stuff. Besides, I have a lot of TiVo to catch up on. I like the new tv show Army Wives. I'm watching a few others, like episodes of Two and a Half Men that I've missed. I like that show too. I'm only watching Celebrity Fit Club because Tiffany is on it. Dustin Diamond is a pure jerk and doesn't deserve the camera time. He may have a split personality.

City of Heroes just had a double XP bouns weekend so I played as much of that as I could. Which wasn't too much. I only gained a level and a half. I'm a sad, sad gamer. DDO had a double XP weekend too, with bonus loot, but well, I didn't get a chance to play that at all. Sad Panda.


I'm sure I've done / accomplished / attempted other stuff in the past week or two, but I don't recall any of it right now. sigh.

Wow look what a slacker Ive been.. no updates in a while.
Ive been busy with the baby blog, work, and my mom visiting. And playing games.
Alrighty then....

My mom came and visited last weekend. She was in the area (North Carolina is considered "In The Area") and so drove the extra 5 hours and stayed the weekend. I haven't seen her since Guildhall graduation, so like, just over 2 years. We got lots of great baby stuff, so that's really exciting. As a result, I cleared the baby room, umm I mean nursery, and am about ready to populate it with cool nursery stuff. Violet's really excited too, this being both mine and her first child.

Work's been going pretty good. I've finished my tasks early again so I'm fixing bugs and adding new cool stuff. I haven't had any overtime in quite a while so that's good.

Today on the way home a Shetland Collie was out walking along a fairly busy two-way-traffic road in a residential neighborhood. I turned the car around and drove back down the road towards the direction he was running to try and grab him to safety. Unfortunately, the car ahead of me didn't seem to notice him and when the dog ran out into the road, which I knew he would eventually, the car in front of me slammed on his brakes.. ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Whew. The dog didn't get hit. Yet. He decided to run across the rest of the road, and oncoming traffic had to go up a small hill and then down a small hill. We were at the bottom of the hill, so it was unlikely oncoming traffic would have seen him. So I started driving on the left hand side of the road. That seemed to work because oncoming traffic stopped. Good thing too because the dog might have been hit a 2nd time. He ran into a small grass clearing and started running in circles. He seemed pretty happy with his daredevil antics. Anyway, I pulled up and over into a side road and tried to convince him to come to me. Surprisingly he did, and I grabbed him and put him in my car. He was a very nice, healthy looking collie. I checked his collar. DOh. Flea collar only. No tags, no phone number. Well I guess I'll take him home and wait for a lost poster. As I was about to close the door a man walked up and claimed that was his dog and thanked me a lot. He looked like a military man. Anyway, Apparently the dog's name was Andy and lived a few blocks down the road. They had just moved here and Andy had accidentally escaped from the garage. He had been calling the dog when he heard the car screeching and ran towards our area. He thanked me and I gave him the dog and he carried it back down the road towards his house. I drove away content that I had done what I could to help. In Wisconsin our dog escaped (from a fenced in yard.. still not sure how she did it, probably went under the fence) and I was relieved when our neighbor was keeping her safe. I'm happy both instances turned out OK.

Mmm I retook the test again, and got a halberd instead. I scored higher than 99% on both power and speed. I never thought of myself as much of a polearm kinda guy.. I tend to prefer the sword in one hand and a morningstar in the other. Or duel pistols. Or both depending on the circumstance. Ah well.

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii

Your Score: Desert Eagle

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii

A while ago Violet bought some cheap movie tickets from a solicitor that came to our door. I know, bad idea. But anyway, we went tonight. Normal movie price was $7.75.

It has 4 screens and is in terrible condition. Many of the ceiling tiles showed heavy water damage, the general decor was old and dirty, random plumbing parts were missing from the bathroom stalls, boxes and junk were strewn about, and overly large movie cut-outs were used as walls. They also feature a "dinner theater" where you can watch the movie while eating dinner. I'm not sure I'd care to try that though... I doubt they have an "A" rating for food prep. I did however get a free pinball game because the 50cent machine apparently was already paid for or a bonus game was awarded that no one continued. Instead of "Theater Seating", this theater featured "Dip" seating. The middle rows are lower than the front or rear rows, and the screen is higher up. its an interesting, if very old, way to seat people. No stairs involved too. I kinda liked the concept. The drink holders were attached to the rear of the seats that were in front of you instead of on the armrest like I'm used to. The parking lot was small and part of a small strip mall but there was amble parking since it was Wed evening.

We were the only 2 people in the movie. The popcorn was good but since I'm semi-dieting I didn't order any other junk food. The seats were comfortable enough but I noticed some of the seats weree ripped out or in dire need of repair/replacement. Its kinda like the place you'd see a Live Rocky Horror Picture Show being played, but alas, all they offered was a poster for that event.

Shrek The Third was pretty decent, I laughed out loud a few times. I liked the general story. The animations and voice acting were fantastic. It was a little predictable in places, but I liked how things generally wound up. I don't think I liked 3 as much as 1 or probably 2, but it was worth seeing. I recommend it.

The company took us all to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Friday. I thought it was a good movie, but not "great". It had a lot of stuff in it and was a pretty long movie. Definitely worth seeing. I thought it was a little too much stretching on the weird myth stuff and a little light on the actual piracy side. Oh, there were some good piracy-type scenes, but they were forced and short while not blending in too well with what was going on. I did like how they spotlighted so many characters throughout the movie, giving them their chance to shine. I didn't care for the ending. Perhaps the DVD will feature an alternative that better suits my non-tragic romantic side. The movie featured lots of gross stuff and violence, but the only bare skin was 5 seconds of Keira Knightly's knee. Oh, also, it's a Disney movie, so the previews were somewhat questionable. Even Underdog. That's not the kind of thing I would make up.

Since Ive been working late a lotta night this past week (66 hours) and the one before that, I haven't had too much time to do much else.

Company Softball game was Sat. I thought there'd be a lot of people (30 or so signed up) but like a 1/3 of them dropped so we were short 2 full teams. I did prtty good as first base and pitcher, hit a triple, home run, and left-handed batted a single. We didnt keep track of points though since we were all there to just have fun.

I FINALLY fulfilled my goal of having a pool table with a ping pong table on top Sunday. Craigs list had one for sale (2002 Old Chicagoan drop pocket billiard, 3/4" slate, really good condition with table tennis table that goes on top. Included all balls, paddles, cues, etc. ) New this stuff would be like 2k or so, but I bargained his asking price of 850 down to only 750. Sweet!
Best of all, I finally was able to use my trailer.

Moving it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I had three friends from work that I game with help out and the four of us carried it out the owners backyard without an issue. The fence and gate presented a problem, and we tilted it sideways and slid it on some carpet covered grass to get it past the fence part. Unfortunately, some of the varnish on the side rubbed off. doh.
Then we carried it to the trailer and hauled it back home (the previous owners lives about 15 miles south of my house) without issue. We didn't want to try and truck it through the garage or front door, so for now the table lives in the garage. I'm going to try VERY hard to not use it as a shelf.

Lastly, I reactivated our City of Heroes/Villains accounts. Violet and I are playing at random times when she can stomach it. I miss CoH/V. Its my favorite MMO (for now).

Sat was our company picnic. Violet and I had a pretty good time. Since we dont really have any friends yet we kinda wandered around talking with different people. She usually hung around the many other pregnant woman and new mothers. For myself, I pretty much stayed near the giant air-arena thing. Kinda like those things the kids jump in, but there were three. A huge maze for little kids, which I though was cool, and the normal party jump thingy. But between them was a open square jumper with 2 pylons in the middle. With it came two 6' tall cushioned battle arena jousting gladiatorial combat staffs of honor. Or whatever you call it. But it was fun. Unfortunately they 10yr old kids thought so too and took up most of its time. The adults didn't get to play very much :(

There was pretty good burgers, hot dogs, and bbq chicken there, as well as chips, beans, and trays and trays of cookies. They had ice cream too but i didnt have any :( It was kinda warm, around 75 ish, and mostly overcast, so it was a pretty nice day overall.

I also got a pretty cool bag-thing that had an inner lining for keeping ice and cold drinks like a cooler, but also had several more pockets and compartments for stuff too. Nice coloring and design, its a cool bag.

I would like to take this opportunity to direct you to my wife's site for Sonogram pics. That is all.

My company took us (and our signigicant others) to see Spider Man 3 last friday (release day). We had the whole movie screen room to ourselves. K-nifty.

I liked the movie. I though the acting was very good and the special effects were great. The storyline was OK, could've been better in some areas. My main dislike was the theme.. it was kinda forced and didnt flow very well. "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" worked really well for the first film, but this "friends and forgiveness" or whatever they were doing didnt work well. A few people clapped when Bruce Campbell graced the screen. I guess only a geek would know why. I didnt know he could do a french accent. it was ok.. not great. Too much drama between MJ and Peter. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. Geeez. BTW, What Peter did.. totally stupid. I was happy to see Bryce Dallas Howard, even though she had blonde hair.

It wasn't as good as 1 or 2, but it was still good. I reccommend it.

I've been reading this for a while now. When I first learned about it I read a few strips somewhere in the middle and was kinda lost. Its like a soap opera I guess. But since I started from the beginning I've enjoyed Too Much Information a lot more. I've added it to my Web Comics favorite links on the right. Enjoy!

Mainly because of my job, I decided to become more familiar with MMOs. To accomplish this great feat, I figured I should play some of them. To do that for any reasonable amount of time, I gotta buy and or pay a monthly fee. I let all my subscriptions expire last year, and new stuff came out recently.. so I bit the bullet and took the hit.

WoW: Burning Crusade. I made a blood elf warlock. Red hair, (a free) Nightmare mount, and a Succubus pet. What else could I ask for? I subscribed for 3 months. This should make Violet very happy. Playing WoW with her counts as a date night! If you have WoW but not burning crusade and want it, let me know. I'll email you a free 10 day trial code and if you subscribe to it, I get a free 30 days. hurray!

LOTRO: Would people please start calling this RO (Rings Online). The Lord of the Rings Online is too long a name. And an acronym. Its quite the "bargain" to sign up for lifetime membership for 199 (or pay 9.99 a month, or even less a month if paying for more than 1 month at a time). This is the "founders" fee which is anyone who pre-ordered the game. Nice deal, and some cool loot in game. Unlike WoW, Violet and I are sharing the one copy.

CoX: I'd like to reestablish my City of Heroes / Villains account. I really would. And play it. But with costs and time so limited, I can't justify it.

GW: I have Guild Wars (not the expansion though). I really like this game and should play it more. Especially since there's no monthly fee. I've been saying this for well over a year.

Warhammer Online: This highly anticipated MMO was just announced as being postponed. Awwww. Early 2008 now I guess. That's OK.. I can wait :)

Being addicted to Craigslist, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a trailer so I can haul stuff like free pool tables and shelves and crap. So I bought a nice 5x8 utility trailer from Lowe's. Note the link isn't the trailer I bought.. it just looks like that one. Lowe's has a link on their website that allows you to get an emailed coupon for 10% off. So I saved about 70 bucks. But umm, anyway, I had some problems:

The ball and extension I bought from UHaul to tow the rental trailer I rented during the move a month or two ago, I thought, was 1 and 7/8". Which is standard size for the class 2 trailer I rented. I think. Anyway...

The trailer I bought is 1 7/8" so no problems. Except the ball was 2", not 1 7/8". So I went back in and bought a 1 7/8" ball. But then the lowe's employee and I couldn't get the ball off the extension.. there was a HUGE nut on it and it was loc-tite'd. Lowe's couldn't even get the ball off the extension. They didn't have an extension that was the same shank width as the 1 7/8" ball I bought, so I ended up having to buy a combo extension with 3 balls on it (1 7/8", 2", and 2 1/8")
This took well over an hour, during which time Violet sat, very unhappily, in the car. And cost about as much as I had saved with the coupon.

The trailer is pretty nice, wasn't too expensive, and Lowes gave me the title to take to the DMV.
It now sits in my garage, waiting for use. and a license plate...

DMV Trip #1. Oh yes, I have to number these...
I went to a DMV "Select" location, which is a DMV with fewer services than a regular dmv. They needed the bill of sale, which I didn't have with me.

DMV trip #2: I went back the next day with the receipt. They couldn't help me because I didn't have a VA license (and selects don't do new licenses) nor a proof of residency. I had to goto a different DMV in the mall down the road from work.

DMV Trip #3: I goto the DMV at the mall again with a utility receipt as proof of residency. They can't help me because Lowe's didn't sign the title.

Lowes Trip #3 (I had already went there twice to look at trailers, and then a 2nd time to purchase one.. I didnt care for the trailers avail via Craigslist). They didn't know what I was talking about regarding signing a title for a trailer... they've never had to do that before. I said the dmv said they should be doing it, and showed them the pen park that the DMV wrote on the form. A manager eventually came out and signed it.

DMV trip# 4: I show up with all the paperwork, signed, sealed, etc. They charge me 97 bucks (Lowes doesn't charge sales tax for trailers, the DMV does that.. + 20 bucks for a permanent license plate). 30 mins after entering I leave.

I never waited too long at the DMV, since I sacrificed my lunch hour (or half hour) each time.. but that's a lotta wasted lunch times.

Well I heard that this movie wasn't so great, but that's never stopped me before.
It showed up in the mail via Netflix a few days ago and having just watched it last night, I liked it. so there. There were a few parts that were kinda.. well, done "wrong" IMO, and a few parts seemed to carry the cinematic camera vistas into boringville, but by and large I enjoyed the movie, most of the actors, and the dragon herself was great. Besides, I always enjoy a Joss Stone cameo. And who would have guessed that Sienna Guilory is the same Sienna Guillory that starred as Jill Valentine in Resident Evil:Apocalypse? Not me.

I'd give it a 75%

(Warning.. contains explicit language.. well.. for me.. )

So here's the deal: I have a credit card with Citibank. I stopped receiving paper statements and so didn't pay the bill for 2 months in a row. This is not good for my credit rating. They jacked the account interest to 35-sumthin % and flagged it for no more authorized charges. This is also not good for my credit rating. After some negotiating I was able to have them credit my late fee charges for non-payment, but they refused to honor my initial interest rate. So I paid the card off. I used Bill Pay so the amount was paid electronically online direct from my bank. No worry, no fuss.

Except the payment was "too high" and so Citibank didn't honor it! WTF?!?!?! They want me to give them my bank account number and routing information "for verification". Hell No!! The bank paid it electronically! There's a authorization number! Frickin accept the payment and be done! Noooo they want to talk to my bank directly, even though my citibank account has already been credited with the payment! WTF?!?!?! So while I'm busy at work Citibank wants me to call them and conference in my bank so the three of us can "verify" whatever. Its crap. My balance is ZERO. I paid off the credit card because I want to close the account. Screw Citibank. Too bad suckers! The payment's been made. Deal with it. Move on. I ain't giving out my account info to you, or anyone else that asks. Not even my own bank. Forget it. I'm sorry you can't handle "large payments" (we're talking like, 4k, not exactly a really HUGE amount...). Citibank Procedure can bite my ass. Verify THIS!

Not much to post lately. I've been working a lot. I can't talk to much about it, I'm afraid.

I'm also in negotiations with several people to start up a role playing game. Several people from work have indicated interest in my Evil Rises campaign. I can't decide if I want to start the campaign from scratch and have the players go through the same things my last players did (Act I: Finding the first Shadow Gem) or start at a higher level and continue the campaign from where the last game left off (begin Act II: Finding the 2nd Shadow Gem). There's pros and cons to both.

Also, gas is too expensive.

I don't talk about my job much. Most of the stuff I do is protected by an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) anyway, so there isn't too much I can say about work. I also like to try and stay a little more anonymous to the general internet world.

Friday my team (which is large) did so well with our last milestone that the company took us all out bowling Friday afternoon(We reserved the entire building). Free bowling for 3 hours plus free food and drink. (The pizza was pretty damn good). We also each got a cool T-shirt. With my right hand I bowled 138. With my left hand I bowled 98. I got lucky the first time. These scores reflect my typical range of bowling scores.

Add the fact that the entire company gets free doughnuts every Wed, and you would be safe to assume that I'm liking my fairly new (Ive been there 4 weeks now) job a lot.

Hydrogen Peroxide? Really? And no by-products... it runs on steam? How safe is that thing?
Sign me up!! I want a jet pack too!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=A49E6E18-0101-4EEA-A7C6-53D1D137F9F5&t=c156&f=06/64&p=hotvideo_viralvideos&fg=&GT1=9246

I setup a blog for the baby. I've backtracked it to conception but I hope to add more posts to catch up to the present. Well worth the read, IMO.

http://whowillibecome.blogspot.com/

Today is no normal day. Today Violet and I celebrate our 5th year wedding anniversary.

The traditional gift for the 5th anniversary is something crafted from wood. The modern gift is silver, especially silverware. I find the material used for the different specially numbered anniversaries interesting, from cotton to diamond.

Back near our first anniversary, I promised her a 3 gemstone ring by our 5th. This was a perfectly reasonable request. After all, our wedding bands and the engagement rings were inexpensive, and Violet has spent nearly nothing jewelry related since then. I'm lucky her preferred gifts are $13.00 CDs and $10.00 books instead of pieces of jewelry costing hundreds of dollars. But even so, due to financial issues these past several years (losing my job twice, moving 3 times, going back to school for 18 months, huge credit card bills, and being unable to sell our houses quickly enough) we just can't do it. Also, being pregnant, the ring won't fit on her finger in a few months anyway. So once again I will have to delay the delivering of my promises. They may be late, but I'll make good on them as soon as we are able. At least 2 of my promises have been fulfilled: A good home and a baby (which is on the way). And those are more important anyway. One day I hope to buy her everything she wants. But today is not that day. I got her a card. From Wal-mart. Happy Anniversary Violet Twilight. These have been the best 5 years of my life.

We've been in this house for about 3 weeks now so there's a nice layer of black fur all over the carpet. So we just picked up the Dyson DC-07 vacuum. It works really well, even on all the pet fur. The model line up is a little confusing at first but basically there's the base model, and then as you ADD attachments that come with it the model# and price go up. And the color of the plastic changes. Funky. They're horribly expensive, but thanks to Craigslist (I've been addicted to this for the last month or two) I got a used one (about a year old or so, with manual and all accessories, excellent condition, for only $160. I saw another one for 120 but that was sold so fast I didn't have time to respond to it. Anyway, these things retail for $399.00 new so 160 is still a great bargain, and only slightly higher than a mid-grade vacuum. The "wand" (Hand held hose tool attachment) is a little awkward to wield sometimes, but pushing and operating the Dyson is very easy otherwise. If you can find it cheap, I highly recommend it, having only used the thing once. I believe mine came with a 2 yr warranty but the newer, higher end models come with a 5-year warranty. Of course, they also cost 499+ and come with crazy attachments and cleaning solutions. Happy cleaning!

OR IS IT???!?!?!

CNet (via TiVo) referred me to Windows X's Shrine. There I downloaded and installed the Windows Vista Transformation Pack. Beware though, that this package includes system changes and UI enhancements to make your Windows XP appear to look like Vista. It's all free. I encountered a common problem with Firefox that caused the window to jump up and down, but its a flaw in Firefox, not the GUI, and its an easy fix. I kinda like the updated graphical overhaul. I especially like the new widgets, which Violet has had for a while now on her XP machine but I never got around to it. Its nice to have it integrated into my control panel though. Fairly useful stuff like calendar, Weather, Clock, Picture viewer, Multimedia Center, et al. I only use the calendar and weather widgets though. I have no intention of buying Vista. Well, not until I 'have" to.

...the need for speed !!!

Just a quick note that even though I had a few problems with Comcast during installation, I cannot complain about the speed. My tested speed via CNet's Bandwidth Meter is

28.8 Kbps Dial-up 28.8k
33.6 Kbps Dial-up 33.6k
53.3 Kbps Dial-up 56k
384.0 Kbps DSL/Cable 384k
768.0 Kbps DSL/Cable 768k
1500.0 Kbps Cable/DSL 1.5Mbps
1544.0 Kbps Full T1 1.544Mbps
3000.0 Kbps N x T1 3.0Mbps
3578.9 Kbps - You 3578.9 kbps
6000.0 Kbps T3 6.0Mbps
15000.0 Kbps T3 15Mbps
30000.0 Kbps T3 30Mbps

So uh yeah. pretty damn fast. Of course I can only go as fast as the server lets me, and I've never actually SEEN a throughput of 3500+k/sec, but on a decent connection I'll get 500k-700k / sec with bursts just topping 1000. Pretty frickin fast. I am pleased with it.

Oh, and only $33.00/month for 12 months. I am quite pleased.

We went and saw Ghost Rider last night. Not just because I wanted to see it (it was only like # 3 on Violet's top 2 list), but mainly due because its start time was 725pm, and that allowed me to leave work at 6, arrive home around 635, leave the house with Violet around 640/645, goto dinner (fast food, no time for a good sit down dinner, which is ok since we had just went to Bob Evans (first time we've ever been to a Bob Evans) the previous night, and we really liked the restaraunt. It's like a good IHop I guess.), and drive to the theatre arriving around 710ish.

At least, that was the plan.

Unlike most good stories, there was no drama. We had a decent dinner at Wendys, arrived early at the theatre, there were very few people around and we had our choice of seats.

I really liked the movie. Violet thought it was too hokey. I really liked the fire effects and the way things played out. I didn't realize Eva Mendez could fill out a dress so well. Jeez. A few parts were kinda glossed over and pointless/useless, so that was a let down cuz they coulda made something outta those parts. Anyway, I liked it a lot, and reccommend it. BTW, I know nothing about the comic or character really so I have no idea how much the movie deviates from anything. A lot, I suspect.

Well I had hoped to play Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) all weekend since its FREE and has a +50% bonus XP along with other goodies. But well, there weren't very many people online. Yesterday I found a group and we all died several times due to lack of party cooperation. Eventually we got our act together and completed the quest, which was good once we got going. The game is real good with a good party, and suck otherwise. I logged back in this evening with various characters and just didn't seem all that motivated to play it. I'm more tempted to reinstate my COH/V account and play that instead. At least I know what I'm doing and where to go in that game.

I unpacked some more stuff, put together the futon, and spent about 90 mins putting empty boxes in the garage's attic. There's a lot of space up there. It could almost be its own room. Tomorrow I plan to swap out the landlord's Washer+Dryer for ours, cuz theirs sucks.

I saw a free pool table (legal sized, but need felt replacement) on craigslist that I wanted, but without the means to take it apart and transport it, I couldn't go get it. (sigh)

While I unpacked I rocked out (Kelly Clarkson and then Josie & The Pussycats, if you're curious) using my pair of Sharper Image Wireless Headphones. They worked really well. I was pleased. I got them like, well over a year ago from a gift certificate I was given. I've used them occasionally and they've worked pretty well. Sometime I get some static if I'm far away or near a bunch of heavy metal objects.
I also like them because I can just set them on the recharging station instead of replacing the batteries every so often.

Well I suppose that's enough rambling for now. Time for another doughnut. That's a lot of typing.

When the pregnant wife wants something, she usually gets it. Especially if its food. The fact that Krispy Kreme doughnuts is nearly 30 miles away (which equates to about 55 mins of drive time here in Northern Virginia) is irrelevant. Oh sure, the grocery store down the street has 'em, but apparently they're not fresh enough. So we drove to KK and then came home and she ate two and is saving her other 4 for tomorrow and the next day. Mmmmmm. I find that odd. So far I've eaten 5 of my 6 doughnuts. I doubt they'll last until morning but I'm trying to hold out.

to the east side...
We finally got a piece of the pie

(or whatever the lyrics actually are)

My computer is now assembled, mostly. I'm missing the keyboard pull out tray supports so until I find those, my KB is ergonomically unsound for me. I've been using the wireless laptop for email and stuff around the new house, and its working pretty well. But all my bookmarks, like this blog, are on my main system so I haven't updated my blog since the move. It's nice to be computing from home though and not have to drive to the local Panera Bread for free WiFi.

So anyway we're settling in. Violet's office is mostly setup, she just has to organize her books. The kitchen stuff is put away, and the living room has its furniture in place. There's a lot of paper and bags all over the floor though to help with the dirty puppy paws from their back yard frolicking endeavors. We also have a front room, which I'm using for my office and the gaming + multimedia room. It's large enough to accommodate my needs. Theres even enough room left over for a pool table. Mmmmm pool table. Too bad I don't have one. Yet. The garage has a bunch of crap and empty boxes, so I cant park the car in it yet, but since it isn't snowing anymore I may not bother trying to squeeze in there anyway.

The wife and animals seem very pleased with the house and its location so that's all good. I really hate my commute though. 13 miles which is about 35 mins. Dayaaaammm.

Virginia that is...
Swimming pools... movie stars.
No wait, that's someone else. We're moving to Virgina. Had a much better with the movers from Mayflower than the other movers thus far. I rented a seperate 5'x8' trailer to haul the futon matress, fragile stuff, and other things we'll need to live on for the few days until the movers arrive. The rendevouz will hold all 4 animals, Violet and I, and probably my 22" computer monitor. The rest goes in the trailer. That way we'll all be fairly comfortable and not cramped during the drive down there. I hope.

More breaking news as we arrive.

I just drove back from Manassas, Virginia. 9 hours. 460+ miles. I'm too tired to really tally the exact distance, time, or toll charges... but all three things were a lot. I drove down to Manassas from Tewksbury, MA. on Sunday evening and arrived late Monday morning. I spent all day Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wed exploring around, driving by houses, and calling people to request a look see. I finally narrowed it down to one very nice house, and even though its a little more expensive than I wanted (1800/month rental) and perhaps a little farther from work than I wanted (13 miles ~21 mins) its a nice house with a large fenced backyard for the dogs. Most houses that met my specs were in the 1800-2000 range anyway, so its not too terrible. This whole thing is for the stupid dogs. Otherwise we coulda got a cheap townhouse or condo 5 mins from work for like 1400 or less.

Yes I realize Manassas is a terrible name for a city, especially if you put a space between man and asses... but if that wasnt enough, the city just north of it is Manassas Park. Silly Virginians.

Check out the new videos, previews, and such for Wahammer Online. Will it overthrow World of Warcraft? HAHAHHAHAHA probably not. But you never know. I'm definately looking forward to checking it out. And I mean that literally.

I've been pretty bored lately. I've done a lot of work packing and preparing and yesterday the mover guy and I went through the house for an estimate. But overall I just keep having to wait on other people. I won't hear back from Mayflower until Monday. Mayflower is what my company recommended so that's who I'm using. They seem to be a good moving company and have several safeguards in place to ease all the issues I had with our previous moving companies. But they're probably a lot more expensive. But its only like 450 miles so hopefully it'll be within my relocation budget.

Speaking of relocation budget, my new company is paying for my move, but only a set amount. So I have to be careful not to go over that amount. It should be enough though. We'll see. We have about 12,000 lbs worth of crap, 4 animals, and 2 SUVs. Of course, we'll be taking the computers, work stuff, animals, and 1 SUV with us. I'm considering renting and pulling a small trailer to carry the things we'll need the first week after the move, before the movers arrive.. like our mattress to sleep on, some folding chairs, etc. I think that'll be covered too.

The relocation budget is very strict, and does not cover temporary housing. Thus I have to pay for my own hotel when I go down there to look for a place to live. I'll probably be leaving tonight and looking Monday through Thursday. 3 or 4 days should be long enough. I hope. I've been trying to find a way to avoid hotel room costs (40-70 bucks a day) but so far no luck. It's kinda cold to sleep in the car and apparently all the rest stops in the area have a 2 hour limit.

I've been looking online and rent.com and move.com and all those places suck for finding a single family detached home for rent. I've found craigslist very useful though and I have about 20 rental homes to look at once I go down there.

I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic about this move. Maybe its because we just moved back in July, or perhaps I'm not looking forward to the area. The company is great and the project is outstanding. I just wish they were located near San Diego. With the baby coming it would be nice to be around friends and family. I also miss everyone and everything. Especially gaming with friends and eating at familiar restaurants. Besides, we're gonna need free baby sitters later this year. I'm sure we'll make new friends and find new places. But going through all that again is getting tiresome.

Ah well. Violet commented that I hadn't posted anything in a while so I figured I should ramble something off before driving down to Fairfax, VA. I think I've accomplished that.

I'm a big fan of the personal video craze(YouTube, Flixxy, etc), as I'm sure millions of others are. I debated putting up a "Favorite Videos" link on the right, but for now I just decided to make it a regular blog post. When you're bored, check these out.

Man Flies. For real. With a jet pack. For about 4 mins. Back in 2004. Why isn't this mainstream yet you ask? Cuz the government doesn't want people flying around doing stupid stuff, which is why poor Moller International's SkyCar, which I'm a big fan of, still has yet to see market. :(

Speaking of flying vehicles, here's one that really works. It's a flying motorcyle. (No resemblance to the Battlestar Galactica TOS version)

Cat plays Piano. Need I say more?

This could have been done better. I really like the premise of Medieval Tech Support, and its kinda funny, but it could be so much better.

I've always been a fan of Nikola Tesla, and I think he really got a bum deal. So I'm happy to see his spirit in this car.

Maybe I just don't know enough about it, but Section 8 pisses me off. Millions of Americans work their asses off to barely afford their inflated rent. Then a "low income" family comes along and lives in the same nice house right next door and pays nothing. The government pays their rent for them. That kinda pisses me off.

Section 8 is part of a larger government subsidized program created during the Great Depression. Its changed a lot over the years but in essence it lets poor people live beyond their means, thereby encouraging them to stay poor. The middle class, once again, picks up the slack by not only paying for their own full rent/mortgage, but also paying the taxes that pays their Section 8 neighbors rent. There is currently no time limit for how long someone can stay on the program, and no cap for how much rent can be subsidized. That kinda pisses me off.

Sure, I could rent my house out to a low income family and get guaranteed rent payments from the government, thereby getting back a few of my hard earned tax dollars... But I won't. I don't agree with the program. Violet works her ass off to pay for that home's mortgage.. I don't agree with some low income family moving in and getting a free ride. Besides, it could lower the property value too. I'm just not sure if I'm legally allowed to say no to them based on their use of Section 8 due to Equal Housing Opportunity laws. That kinda pisses me off.

Here's the wiki page for your info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(housing)

Well, it's pretty bad when someone misses your birthday. But when that someone is yourself, I guess that's pretty bad too. I was in Seattle, WA. actually, and couldn't remember my Blog Password so I was unable to post anything. I was on-site for a job interview so I didn't really do anything else during my B-day. Doh. But my mommy called me and sang me Happy Birthday like usual, and Violet sent me a nice e-card. Being outta work right now, we kinda had to skip presents for Valentines and my Birthday. 36 isn't all that special anyway.. Now I'm even closer to 40 than 30. Ack!

Happy Valentines Day,
And I'd just like to say,

Though the trees may be bare and could give you a splinter,
snuggle with your mate and some hot cocoa for the Winter.

Even if you're solo the love that the holiday brings,
could potentially net you a mate well before the Spring.

I well understand being alone and yes it's a bummer,
but try to find Love now and don't wait for the Summer.

But you have to love yourself first and be beyond rock bottom
so don't worry if your Valentine is you this Autumn.

I'm so overjoyed that Violet chose to be mine,
she'll always be my most beloved Valentine.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Well apparently I haven't been posting enough. Not a whole lot of new news on the homefront though. So I'll just rant. (aka ramble).

I'm at the later stages of my job search and will probably be making a decision by the end of this week or early next week. It's very likely that we'll be moving to Fairfax, VA (Near DC) by the end of the month. It's a good offer and a great opportunity, but the location is still somewhat questionable. I've been researching a place to live down there.. and well, it certainly isn't cheap. We still haven't sold the house in Madison so that's been the main source of our financial burden.
So anyway since its pretty certain that we'll be moving, I've been packing the house. I saved all the boxes from our last move to here so at least I have a lot of boxes. We also never finished unpacking everything so lots of our stuff is still in boxes ready to go, so that's good.

We moved here to Boston from Madison on July 1, 2006. Legally the moving company was supposed to deal with my claim within 90 days of me submitting it. Its been WAY past that. And there were LOTS of emails, phone calls, red tape, and other hoops I had to jump through to even file a claim to begin with. Moving companies are a total rip-off scam. Anyway, this company (National Movers) have historically been very rude and unresponsive to my inquiries. I finally found a website where I could complain about them.

http://www.1-888-dot-saft.com/CC_main.asp

Soon afterward, the moving company contacted me in a polite but legally professional manner and worked to actually settle my claim. They emailed me a sum that they'd be willing to pay me for all the stuff they lost or broke. But, it's like 1/10th the replacement cost of everything. More Suckage.
I certainly will be VERY WARY of any moving company or moving broker in the future. Most of them suck. ALWAYS get the more expensive "Replacement Cost"insurance, not the default 'Replacement based on weight" insurance. You'll get like under 4 bucks for your 6 pound, $2,000 painting or sculpture or whatever. You get like 60 cents per pound... the replacement cost of the item is irrelevant. It's total BS. Stupidest 'insurance' coverage I ever heard of.
Don't do it.

Time's a ticking, and I cant find anything that rhymes good with that which makes sense for where I'm at in the interview process. I'm at the later stages now. I've done several onsites, but Im still waiting for the results from several tests. I HAPPILY have an offer already, so if all else fails at least I'll have a job. Its a pretty decent offer with a good company. But it would be unfair of me to not follow through on my other commitments (I still have a few tests to finish) and unprofessional OF me to accept an offer while still inthe mIDDLE of other people's intervIEW PROcess. stupid SHIFT key Keeps sticking. and I didnt even press it! Damn this keyboard is filthy. ack>

oh anyway I hope to decide on whatever offers I have before Feb 16 and start on march 1. TODAY I'm going through all my job hunting logs. I keep a text file of all jobs Ive applied to and all correspondence with all the people Ive talked to or emailed for that job. Its just a simple dated sentence or two but its very useful to me to KNOW where I stand with everyone since my memory is pretty poor. I update it right after the occurrence so I don't HAVE to go back and remember how the interview went, if I emailed so and so.. etc. So anyway today I went through the list and emailed a bunch of people whom I haven't heard from in a while requesting an update as to the status of my candidacy. Probably pointless since if they really wanted me they wouldn't wait a week or more to tell me I'm moving onto the next step.. but people get busy, their email boxes get filled up, etc.. so who knows what could happen. Besides I don't have anything scheduled today so I'm really bored. Which is why I'm blogging about it. Blogging postpones the boredom for another 10 mins.