Got fed up with work today and left just a little after 5. Leaving at this time is unheard of in my bidness. When I got home, I decided to mow the lawn. It really needs to be mowed twice a week, like all my neighbors do.
I grabbed HannahC, and she mowed most of the back. She's getting to be a good driver, though I still have to work the pedals cuz she's not even 4 feet tall.
Then HannahC had to go inside to practice piano and viola, so MaxieC came out to help me finish up. He went around in the back a bit and was quite upset at how HannahC had already mowed most of the tall stuff. So he insisted we go out front.
We did. He's a terrible driver in comparison. And he had a hard time sitting still. Then, he fell asleep. I finished the front, but the back is still only partially done.
It rained on us a little bit right after MaxieC came out.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
An Extra-Boring Post
Today I heard thunder. I don't know if it rained because I was at work, and I would have had to stand up to look over my cubical wall to see out the windows that are about 25 feet away. And I didn't look cuz it wasn't anywhere near time to go home, so it did not matter if it was raining outside.
I didn't not even matter that there was such a thing as outside.
I had to work.
I met a new guy a work today that I had conversed with a bit on email, and I decided it would be easier to talk to him in person than to try to go back and forth a bunch via email. So I walked over to his cube. We chatted a little bit, and he asked me, "So, can we work with you on this, or do we have to work with [this other guy]?"
I said, "I should be able to give you all the help you need."
Then he said, "Good, cuz if we had to work with [the other guy], I was going to say, 'No. We're too busy to help.'"
I guess in person, I am very charming. Despite not having coffee or my muse.
I had someone in my office a couple times today for a total of two hours. She wanted to discuss the methods used to compute reliability of certain components and whether the follow-on project to mine is doing it differently from the way I do it, and which way is right, etc. At the end of it all, I think she may have decided that the whole field is so f'd up with warring factions that she should find a different part of the design to work on.
I actually said this to her, "Yeah. That's how I ended up with this job. See, I hate everything about equally, so I just take the jobs no one else wants. So I ended up in [this field] I hate, but everyone's always looking for someone in [this field] on account of how horrible it is to work in, so at least it's a little job security."
It's hard to blog while sitting at the bar staring at my muse. I cannot touch her, though. Not until Thursday.
It will be a happy Fat Camp.
MaxieC and I played air hockey today. He told me we had to play "gently and quietly", so we played in slow motion. Nobody scored. I was boring as all hell, but better than work.
Someone drank all the Diet Cokes from my bar and filled up my bar fridge with Sprite Zero instead. I am not at all happy about this. Jack will be angry later this week, too. I imagine there's time to fix this if the person who did it is reading. You might want to drop her a line on the matter just in case she isn't.
Our deck passed inspection today, though The Mrs. had to beg the inspector to sign off cuz there was a violation of 1/8" on one step.
HannahC wants me to go cut up an apple for her. Joy.
I didn't not even matter that there was such a thing as outside.
I had to work.
I met a new guy a work today that I had conversed with a bit on email, and I decided it would be easier to talk to him in person than to try to go back and forth a bunch via email. So I walked over to his cube. We chatted a little bit, and he asked me, "So, can we work with you on this, or do we have to work with [this other guy]?"
I said, "I should be able to give you all the help you need."
Then he said, "Good, cuz if we had to work with [the other guy], I was going to say, 'No. We're too busy to help.'"
I guess in person, I am very charming. Despite not having coffee or my muse.
I had someone in my office a couple times today for a total of two hours. She wanted to discuss the methods used to compute reliability of certain components and whether the follow-on project to mine is doing it differently from the way I do it, and which way is right, etc. At the end of it all, I think she may have decided that the whole field is so f'd up with warring factions that she should find a different part of the design to work on.
I actually said this to her, "Yeah. That's how I ended up with this job. See, I hate everything about equally, so I just take the jobs no one else wants. So I ended up in [this field] I hate, but everyone's always looking for someone in [this field] on account of how horrible it is to work in, so at least it's a little job security."
It's hard to blog while sitting at the bar staring at my muse. I cannot touch her, though. Not until Thursday.
It will be a happy Fat Camp.
MaxieC and I played air hockey today. He told me we had to play "gently and quietly", so we played in slow motion. Nobody scored. I was boring as all hell, but better than work.
Someone drank all the Diet Cokes from my bar and filled up my bar fridge with Sprite Zero instead. I am not at all happy about this. Jack will be angry later this week, too. I imagine there's time to fix this if the person who did it is reading. You might want to drop her a line on the matter just in case she isn't.
Our deck passed inspection today, though The Mrs. had to beg the inspector to sign off cuz there was a violation of 1/8" on one step.
HannahC wants me to go cut up an apple for her. Joy.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
MaxieC and I Mowed the Lawn
We had nice weather today. It was sunny and warm for HannahC's belated birthday party. They did arts'n'crafts and spent a lot of time in the hot tub. At one point, there were seven kids in the hot tub. Two of them kept fighting with each other.
My two.
The others, even the ones who were siblings, all got along great.
Later, after dinner, I was snoozing on the loveseat in the fambly room while MaxieC was watching a DVD. Suddenly, I got smacked in the face by a book. MaxieC wanted to read.
No wait, he wanted to play upstairs.
No wait, he wanted to read a different book.
No wait, he wanted to go downstairs.
No wait, he wanted to watch the DVD.
No wait.
"MaxieC, how about we go outside and mow the lawn? You can drive."
"Oh, right Daah. I'm gonna drive. Rrrrrrrr!"
So we went outside to mow the lawn. We went to the back yard first, as it's easier for MaxieC to drive back there where it's a lot more open and expansive.
The lawn was quite long. Last week, I got to thinking how Rico had told me that he always mows his lawn on the highest setting, and I said to myself, "Self, maybe you should try mowing the lawn on a higher setting on account of the grass growing so fast." I use height five out of seven normally, with seven being the highest. So I mowed the lawn last week at setting six.
This week, the whole time I kept thinking, "Rico is a moron." The grass grew faster, given its larger surface area, and it looked like hell in just six days.
On top of that, the mower kept bogging down. 20 HP would seem like plenty to mow a lawn, but I could only move about 3mph without sputtering.
I was OK, though, cuz MaxieC isn't all that great a driver, and going less than half speed makes it easier for him.
My two.
The others, even the ones who were siblings, all got along great.
Later, after dinner, I was snoozing on the loveseat in the fambly room while MaxieC was watching a DVD. Suddenly, I got smacked in the face by a book. MaxieC wanted to read.
No wait, he wanted to play upstairs.
No wait, he wanted to read a different book.
No wait, he wanted to go downstairs.
No wait, he wanted to watch the DVD.
No wait.
"MaxieC, how about we go outside and mow the lawn? You can drive."
"Oh, right Daah. I'm gonna drive. Rrrrrrrr!"
So we went outside to mow the lawn. We went to the back yard first, as it's easier for MaxieC to drive back there where it's a lot more open and expansive.
The lawn was quite long. Last week, I got to thinking how Rico had told me that he always mows his lawn on the highest setting, and I said to myself, "Self, maybe you should try mowing the lawn on a higher setting on account of the grass growing so fast." I use height five out of seven normally, with seven being the highest. So I mowed the lawn last week at setting six.
This week, the whole time I kept thinking, "Rico is a moron." The grass grew faster, given its larger surface area, and it looked like hell in just six days.
On top of that, the mower kept bogging down. 20 HP would seem like plenty to mow a lawn, but I could only move about 3mph without sputtering.
I was OK, though, cuz MaxieC isn't all that great a driver, and going less than half speed makes it easier for him.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Is it fall already?
No.
But it's cooling off nicely. The hot tub is maintaining its temperature more closely to the setpoint, as when it is hot and sunny, it tends to heat up beyond the setpoint despite not running the heater. I think I have the hot tub chemical thing figured out now. It's quite different from a swimming pool.
We have 50 bazillion crickets. The babies that finally hatched are each about 1/4" long now.
HannahC's birthday party is tomorrow. Her birthday was like 6 weeks ago, but we didn't have a deck. So we held off until we had a deck and hot tub, and she's having some of her little friends over for a hot tub party. Then, of course, the contractor comes back to tear up the deck on Monday in order to fix the steps that failed code inspection.
I need to defrost my bar refrigerator. But I probably won't any time soon.
My whole house fan sucks air in from the garage. This is making the garage smell like dirt, as outside the garage the dirt was recently dug up to run the power line to the hot tub. I need to replace the weather stripping on the door from the house to the garage, it seems.
I can hardly wait to mow the lawn again. I should fertilize more often. When the grass grows this fast, I can't run drive the mower at full speed (~8mph) and still achieve a good cut. So I get to drive more slowly and thus spend more time mowing.
I did not die this week from any chronic health conditions. Keep your fingers crossed for next week.
No one dies from male pattern baldness. One fewer thing to worry about.
Rico was asking me today what kind of whiskey Jack Daniels was. I said it was just whiskey. According to wikipedia, "Tennessee sour-mash" is actually a classification of whiskey. I did not know that. It's bourbon without any of the quality control rules for bourbon.
But it's cooling off nicely. The hot tub is maintaining its temperature more closely to the setpoint, as when it is hot and sunny, it tends to heat up beyond the setpoint despite not running the heater. I think I have the hot tub chemical thing figured out now. It's quite different from a swimming pool.
We have 50 bazillion crickets. The babies that finally hatched are each about 1/4" long now.
HannahC's birthday party is tomorrow. Her birthday was like 6 weeks ago, but we didn't have a deck. So we held off until we had a deck and hot tub, and she's having some of her little friends over for a hot tub party. Then, of course, the contractor comes back to tear up the deck on Monday in order to fix the steps that failed code inspection.
I need to defrost my bar refrigerator. But I probably won't any time soon.
My whole house fan sucks air in from the garage. This is making the garage smell like dirt, as outside the garage the dirt was recently dug up to run the power line to the hot tub. I need to replace the weather stripping on the door from the house to the garage, it seems.
I can hardly wait to mow the lawn again. I should fertilize more often. When the grass grows this fast, I can't run drive the mower at full speed (~8mph) and still achieve a good cut. So I get to drive more slowly and thus spend more time mowing.
I did not die this week from any chronic health conditions. Keep your fingers crossed for next week.
No one dies from male pattern baldness. One fewer thing to worry about.
Rico was asking me today what kind of whiskey Jack Daniels was. I said it was just whiskey. According to wikipedia, "Tennessee sour-mash" is actually a classification of whiskey. I did not know that. It's bourbon without any of the quality control rules for bourbon.
Monday, August 20, 2007
A Change in the Weather
We've been getting a lot of rain this past week. The grass is quite green and growing like crazy. Sunday, it decided to pour while I was mowing the lawn so, like a good little law-abiding automaton, I flipped on the headlights. Then I said to myself, "Self, I sure am happy the doctor confirmed that we do not have pneumonia, cuz this rain is mighty cold and would kill us for sure if we already had pneumonia."
Then, strangely, my self replied, "Go get your fireman coat before you catch pneumonia and kill us both, you moron."
See, I got a "Las Vegas Fire Department" coat at one of my neighbor's garage sales a couple years ago back in San Schmose. Her son had used it as a Halloween outfit. It's a real fireman coat, not some stupid costume version, though I can't attest to whether it's really from the LVFD. I needed a rain jacket, and it sure seemed like this would do the trick. It turns out to be great. Waterproof. All kinds of straps and bindings to seal against wind. Big pockets. Reflective tape. And warm as hell. All for the garage sale clearance price of zero (she comp'd me the coat in the great Las Vegas tradition cuz we were regular customers at her sales).
Now that I have my waterproof hunting boots, I am in no way hindered by big rainstorms when I want to work outside. Nice and toasty warm. Though my baseball cap has a tendency to soak through after a while.
If my sprinkler controllers supported "rain" mode, I might even be able to stop watering the lawn for a few days.
But they don't.
Then, strangely, my self replied, "Go get your fireman coat before you catch pneumonia and kill us both, you moron."
See, I got a "Las Vegas Fire Department" coat at one of my neighbor's garage sales a couple years ago back in San Schmose. Her son had used it as a Halloween outfit. It's a real fireman coat, not some stupid costume version, though I can't attest to whether it's really from the LVFD. I needed a rain jacket, and it sure seemed like this would do the trick. It turns out to be great. Waterproof. All kinds of straps and bindings to seal against wind. Big pockets. Reflective tape. And warm as hell. All for the garage sale clearance price of zero (she comp'd me the coat in the great Las Vegas tradition cuz we were regular customers at her sales).
Now that I have my waterproof hunting boots, I am in no way hindered by big rainstorms when I want to work outside. Nice and toasty warm. Though my baseball cap has a tendency to soak through after a while.
If my sprinkler controllers supported "rain" mode, I might even be able to stop watering the lawn for a few days.
But they don't.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Oooooh yeah
We had a nice cool rain this evening. The Mrs., MaxieC, GrammaC, and I hit the hot tub.
I still gotta figure out the chemicals. Seems like I gotta add bromine every time we go in, but my ozone generator claims that shouldn't be necessary.
I still gotta figure out the chemicals. Seems like I gotta add bromine every time we go in, but my ozone generator claims that shouldn't be necessary.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Excellent!
We're having a massive thunderstorm this evening. Lots of rain, which we can really use. Thunder, lightning, the whole nine yards. I missed this kind of weather in San Schmose.
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