When I got home from walking Barley today, there was a message on the phone. Its usually one of Michelle’s friends, but this one was different. It was weird. I’m not sure what you do when you get a message that really isn’t for you, but must be important because the person talks for two minutes in a different language. Anyway, listen to it and you can decide.
Engagement
Some close friends of ours got engaged in Venice today. Or yesterday I guess… Time differences. Michelle and I are so very excited for the both of them. They’re traveling in Europe right now; Prauge I believe. Either way, its wonderful to see. We’ve watched them flirt, start dating, fall in love, and now this. Congrats.
Makes you wonder who might be next… them? him? them? him?
Anyway, this can be attributed to Michelle’s killer arm. She knew exactly where she was throwing that bouquet.
Spiders
Last night I was sitting at the computer, trying to figure out wireless networking in Linux, and a spider crawled over my laptop and onto my hand. It was dark, and I was started. Its the second spider to go scampering across my desk in as many days. I saw another spider on the floor by the surge protector, and another on the ceiling. I’m not sure why they all decided to come indoors this week.
In 7th grade, my art teacher told me about a spider that had made a web and laid an egg sack in his floppy drive. That really disturbed me. I was especially pleased when Apple quit using floppy drives. I used to hate spiders. Now I dislike them, mostly because I can’t tell what they’re thinking. They’re so damn unpredictable. Michelle thinks she got bit by one in th shower.
You’d think we lived in a barn. Its actually quite clean. I guess I”ll have to pick up all the power cords behind my computer and vaccum there. Maybe its because we leave the door open, and lots of flies get in, and they’re just following the flies…..
Maps
Today I recycled a map that came with National Geographic. This decision, though seemingly benign, has set me apart from the cartographers, geographers, and map librarians everywhere. I’ve committed a cardinal sin. But then again, it was a map of the Incan empire, so it had little practicle use. Hopefully future generations weren’t depending on my copy as the only link to Incan civilization. I doubt it.
Jiffy Lube
I went to Jiffy Lube to get an oil change today. I went there because they did it last time, not because I like them. In fact, I don’t think I’ll go there anymore. I think they use a commision system for employees.
The guy who was “getting my information” tried to sell me all sorts of stuff, including a new belt because mine had cracks in it. He showed me the cracks. They were evenly spaced, every 2cm or so for the length of the belt. I asked him why they were all so evenly spaced, knowing the answer, and he told me that’s just how they wear. I quit listening to him after that. He followed instructions with pictures on a computer screen, trying to sell me all sorts of things, because the computer showed that I hadn’t had any of them recently. I really was getting a lube job.
I miss Oil Can Henry’s in Yakima. They never wanted to sell you extraneous crap, and they had newspapers, and I enjoyed going. Sadly, the Oil Can Henry’s here doesn’t service Previas.
Food Frenzy
Michelle and I were watching the Food Network last night after taking Barley for his evening hill climb. We had already had dinner, but the urge to make food was almost overwhelming. We decided to make dinner tonight, and borrowed ideas from some of the shows we had watched, and elsewhere.
I ran to the store today to get some lime, cilantro, ginger, red chillies, and shrimp. We had everything else. Sadly, I forgot my wallet, but the nice mini-Mr. Clean checker watched my bag as I ran home. I went over to Scott’s to keg my beer. It looks/tastes like it’ll be good, I keep you posted on that.
Anyway, after I got back, we started cooking. Stir fried shrimp and pork in a red chilli, sesame oil, fish sauce, ginger, peanut and coconut milk mix. Smelled heavenly. Mixed that with rice noodles and a mess of fresh cilantro, chillis, garlic and ginger. It was really great. And there are left-overs.
Chat Failure
I suppose I’ll have some explaining to do tomorrow. My Unix class had a chat tonight, but the chat wouldn’t start because of permission issues. Oh well.
Instead, Michelle and I played with Google Sets, and its quite scary how accurately it predicted Michelle’s music taste’s with just 4 sample artists. When I tried, I had less success, unless I stayed with 1 genre.
Rice Cakes
When I was in elementary school, these really cool pieces of styrofoam were repackaged as rice cakes. My sister and I loved them, and I used to make sandwiches with them. I think I only made them with peanut butter and jelly, but there are probably other worthy combinations. I had some rice cakes today. These ones were from the health food section, and they had flavor, something I don’t remember from the old Quaker brand.
I was eating one at work and the phone rang. I had just taken a big bite, and I tried to quickly crunch and separate it into my cheek pouches. I was worried I’d spit on the phone or something. I don’t remember what the call was about, but after I hung up, and started chewing again, I realized there was nothing to chew. It had dissolved in my mouth. Its the perfect cubicle/phone support food. A food for which chewing is optional….no wonder I’m out of shape.
Dog Therapy
Sorry for the delays. I’ve been busy at work upgrading WebCT and the Student Web Server. I didn’t feel much like being on computers. I had to post to Alan’s Blog because he’s gone, and I volunteered for a week or something.
Anyway, Barley had physical therapy today, which is the highlight of his week, because he gets to play how he used to. He’s in water, so there isn’t the same stress he’d feel otherwise. This was the first Saturday session, so I was able to go. It was such a blast. I took some pictures and video because it was such a spectacle. The therapist says Barley’s the most playful of the dogs. We expected that though.
Father’s Day
Yesterday Michelle, Barley, and I drove to Hood River to meet my parents for a picnic. It was really nice, and Barley got to swim in the Columbia a little. Afterwards, we toured the Full Sail Brewery. It was cool, and humbling. I can’t imagine how bad I’d feel if I scorched 650 barrels of beer, versus the 5 gallons I scorched on Saturday.
Right now I’m waiting for some insight as to how I can upgrade WebCT. A hastily changed cron job changed the apache error logs so only root can read, write, and execute them. This is bad, because it caused Apache to die, and I can’t start it until we change the owner back to WebCT. The sys admin is in Colorado on a bike ride for 2 weeks.