This evening I dropped Todd back at his house, and he and Heather fixed me a plate for dinner; their neighbors Mike and Meg stopped over with their daughter Catie as well. We sat out on the porch and chatted, and while Catie was busy playing I chanced to snap a few pictures of her. Thanks for dinner, guys!
catie, 8.20.03
Renie sucessfully kicked me into upgrading the truck. Thanks in advance for the sleep I’ll enjoy tonight, sis.
Today I’m making a bunch of calls to the various utilities I have to disconnect service and begin new service at the new house; this should be a wonderful symphony of phone menu systems and hold music.
I’m going to finally cut the cord and donate two computers to AmVets—the first two computers I ever bought, as a matter of fact. The first is Norman, a Mac IIcx I bought in the summer of 1995 for the astounding price of $400. Norman was a great old brick for a number of years, and helped me get online and into the computer age; I upgraded him several times until I just couldn’t use him anymore. The second is G-Force, a 7100/80 I bought new (the only machine I ever bought new) from MacWarehouse in 1998 on clearance. G-Force got me through the beginnings of web design, Director classes, and the first freelance gigs I got, as well as being the test machine for MKLinux, when I saw the writing on the wall and began to upgrade my skills. Goodbye friends, and good luck out there.
How about we schedule a meeting, and forget to tell people about it? Great. Sounds like a great idea. Yeeeeaaaahhh.
bar, frederick road, 8.13.03
nash rambler, 6.28.03
I boxed up a ton of stuff last night; my entire living room, front bedroom, office and dining room are packed, stacked, and ready to go. There are no pictures on my walls, there’s nothing on the shelves, or blankets on the front bed. It’s beginning to hit me finally.
Here’s the list for the rest of the week:
- Break down both tables and prepare for transport.
- Move all boxes and containers from basement to dining room.
- Move all boxes and containers from front bedroom.
- Break down front bed, dispose of (anybody need a 20-year-old Queen mattress for cheap? Free Hollywood frame!)
- Break down futon in basement and move upstairs
- Buy some more Rubbermaid bins for bedding, clothes, computer gear.
The objective here is to not pack anything I need in the next two months, and to get stuff moved in where we can get to it if we need to. Luckily, there’s a whole empty area in the front of the house where we can store everything while we clean, paint, sand, and restore.
Thanks go to Todd and Heather for lending us their wedding archives; they did a ton of legwork for their wedding and gave us the information they collected in a binder. We started really considering what we’re going to attack first, and made a preliminary guest list. One realization: When we start adding extended families, we wind up with a LOT of people.
myself, stas, jeff, and jon 7.26.03
We’re back from our trip northward to New York to attend the wedding; my fears were unfounded and we had a great time. I was able to connect back up with some old friends, catch up with people, and help celebrate Stas’ wedding. (When was the last time you heard “Enter Sandman” at a wedding? No, really. Played by a great cover band called The Nerds. It was better than you’re imagining.) I’ve posted a few pictures here. It was great to see everybody, and please stay in touch!
Looks like the house stuff is on track (when all this is over with, and the papers are signed, I may write about the process, but for right now I’m going to hold my tongue) and DSL is available at that address, which means we’re getting broadband hooked up immediately. Cable will most likely wait until later; the other major issue is wireless service. I’m doing some preliminary investigation into which service offers the most for a two-phone shared plan. More info to follow, and any input is welcome…
A very PBS night. Not ony did I get swept up into the Seabiscuit episode of American Experience, but after that I got sucked into Blues Story. I am now fighting the urge to buy hundreds of dollars worth of music from the iTunes store. The best part of the whole thing was watching Teller, who had nestled comfortably between my legs for a nap, jump four feet in the air when Big Mama Thornton suddenly belted out a verse about her low-down cheating man.
red, white, and blue, 6.04.03
Yesterday: 85 degrees. Water about 75. Sunny blue skies, Harry Potter and a can of cold beer. Barbecue at the farm, fresh cut grass, twilight, fireflies, breezes cool off the cornfields. Blankets on the side lawn, beer, fireworks drifting over the silo, and laughter. Happy Fourth of July, everyone.
they chose us!?, 6.01.03
Today, for multiple reasons better left unsaid, I am alternately giddy, heartsick, worried, and hopeful. We’re heading up to my parents’ place this weekend for some R&R by the lake, and when we get back we’ll be starting the process of living together.
There are not one but two home inspections on the way, which means another round of cleaning for my furry household (and a replacement vent pipe for the hot water heater, something I’ve never bothered to do since the last home inspection) and the possibility that our dreams may be dashed, twice.
There is the happy thought of all the legal mumbo-jumbo which will involve signing not one but TWO chest-high stacks of documents (hopefully).
There is the exciting prospect of boxing all my stuff and moving it across town, and then mingling it with Jen’s stuff, so that it becomes our stuff.
A message to two of our best friends: We love you, and please let us help in any way we can.
…
Ric Ford is asking for help with the Macintouch site; his business model has become untenable and he’s asking for donations to keep the site going. I sent him $15 through Kagi to keep the site going. It’s one of my daily links and something I could not do without. If you run a Mac, you should consider helping out too.
I don’t know if I’m mad or just upset about this, but I didn’t know anything about it until just now. Dennis Miller has become a tool of the Republican party. And a tool.
Jesus, when the wheels of Fate get moving, they really get moving. I just got some news that, while not unexpected, has me a good deal worried.
8:35: Choices: American Idol, or something, American Junior Idols, or something, some nameless sitcom, or 60 Minutes. What a brainer no-brainer.
Selected pictures from last night, before I dropped my camera
Can’t party like I used to. Jason and I went out for some drinks last night, and wound up staying out about a beer beyond my threshold. I’m a little foggy today, but slowly regaining my wits.
I set up my camera on a tripod in the kitchen window this weekend and played with the time-lapse feature, in a fit of KOYAANISQATSI-esque experimentation. What I got were some pretty interesting results, the best of which came this morning at about 5am-6:30 or so.
For my next trick, I’m going to set the intervalometer on the camera to take a picture every 2 minutes for a total of 3 hours’ change (the current video is 1 picture a minute at 12 frames a second) to hopefully bring out more of a difference in change.
Jen and I got the first two sections of fencing up as well, after some abortive attempts with inferior materials, cussing, sweat, and frustration. The backyard is a little smaller but a lot more private. Once the gate is built (probably tonight) and installed, I’ll feel a heck of a lot better. (You’ll be able to see the fence on the left side of the video and in the picture to the left.)
And for anybody who hasn’t seen KOYAANISQATSI, you should check it out when you can. My local Blockbuster does not have it (go figure), and it’s been a long time since I saw it (ten years or more) but it is a phenomenal movie, and I recommend it, as well as the film score, composed by Phillip Glass. Great music for working to.
comet, 6.2.03
Huh. I had a boss who bragged that he had done this a few years before September 11. I thought it was an asshole move then and it’s an even bigger asshole move now.
I called my realtor yesterday to begin the process of selling and buying a house. Talking to her was great (She’s the friend of an old friend, and did a fantastic job for me last time) and I’m excited to see what she can do for us now. Hanging up the phone, however, I began to realize just how much work there is left to do to sell my house. I bought an Idiot’s book on buying and selling houses, and I have to read that (I don’t have time to wade through mountains of books on this—just give me the important stuff) as well as get with my bank (not the original bank, but the bank that merged with the bank that bought the bank that bought the loan from my bank, which reminds me, I should be getting another new masthead on my mortgage statements soon) to set up a bridge loan and pre-approval. Big fun!
I realized that I’ve got a backlog of photos featured on the home page stored away, so I set up a quick & dirty page with all of them accompanied by a brief description. You can find it here, if you’re interested.
arabber, formstone, 5.15.03
I stopped on my way home this afternoon to take a picture of a vanishing Baltimore icon: an Araber stopped by the side of the road, selling produce from the back of a cart. Jen and I have heard them wheeling slowly through the neighborhood over the last few months, and it occurred to me that I haven’t bought produce from one in a long time. This gentleman gave me two bags of seedless grapes for $4 and let me take his picture. I consider that a pretty good bargain. I hope I see him again in the neighborhood. note: (I would have linked to a good info site on arabers, but there don’t seem to be any.)
Huh. People are all freaked out about the journalist who got fired by the New York Times for making stuff up, which comes right on the heels of the announcement by the journalist who previously got fired for making stuff up writing a novel…about a journalist who makes stuff up. Ain’t America sweet?
Jen is in the middle of talking to my alma mater about teaching a flex class there in the fall, and wanted to know if i was interested in teaching a web design class as well. I’m intrigued and hopeful that they will call me back, as I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the last time I did it, and would like to try it again.
This morning I loaded Miramar’s PC MacLAN on my PC at home, looking for a way to get around the ._ hassles that OSX comes with; I was also hoping I could use the Mac volume as a storage facility for music files with iTunes as well. We’ll see how it works over the network tonight—I’m still working out some of the bugs in the system. It would also be nice to have the printer shared throughout the network.