toigo

My basement and water just don't seem to mix well. Water heater burst. Only 6 1/2 years old. And the warranty on the heater is very clear about it being 6 years. So one large check later, I should have me a new heater.

Meanwhile back on the ranch, let me just say that its a little unfair to have 4 different project I am on all have deadlines for today. I'm just sayin'

I only made two. I'll just do some splanin' on Monday.

I can get 24hr/day Christmas music on my radio. Starting Today. Just thought I would share.

For those who know Shawn and Dina, who happen to live in Suburban Houston, I have an update from them. I just got a call from Dina stating that they are all fine, and wanted me to pass the word along.

The house suffered no permanent damage, just some minor water issues, and some downed trees - none of which fell on the house. They neighborhood looks like a hurricane blew through. They have no power, and and had no phone service Cell or otherwise for the past 24 hrs. So they have been cut off from the rest of the world. And very curious as to what happened.

It sounds like there is no Ice or Gas in the area, and grocery store lines are long. So they are hunkering down at her place of work for at least tonight.

So I am happily ignoring the political conventions, and natural weather events. Instead its been a lot of Rockband occupying the time. I didn't think you wished to receive an endless stream of updates, so I have avoided a daily Wii update. Suffice it to say I still have no sense of rhythm, no tone, and now I have a sore thumb.

( So my friends planned an 'intervention' - ok a party... )

So it turns out that my old Music teacher Mr. O'Brien was probably right. I am not a real good candidate for the drums.

I've joined the hoard!

I gotz me a Wii. With Rockband, no less.

( Pic of the extravagance )

Yeah - I know I have been quiet. Things are going ok here.

This is what I woke up too this morning
( Cut to protect flist )

Right now I am spending christmas eve night sitting around drinking with friends and family with the mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC on TV in the background. The two lazy catholics here are hoping the TV broadcast will count for our mass, since we have already drank too much to get up early for church tomorrow.

Up.. new bottle of blackberry wine opened (thanks immlass and mcroft) Gotta go.

Merry christmas all...

Flash Gordon. I loved this movie as a kid. The music, the bad dialog....

Well everyone else probably knows that its premiering as a series tonight on SciFi (9pm). Of course I have to be there. If nothing else just to list Freddy Mercury Belt it out one more time.

And on that note anyone feel like channelling him - or backing me up: Flash AAAAAAAH!!!!!!

On the mundane - I am off to learn far more about Java. I am going to a full weekend seminar in princeton of Java - or how to improve the use of it. They even have seminars sunday morning: Hope its worth it

sorry tryslora

To all my friends, old and new, who are going to Pennsic this weekend - have a safe trip and a wonderful time. While you are gone, I will be keeping mrbigsteve and aladdinsane amused and possibly delayed (a day) and some other mundane stuff like gaming (someone knows who I am trying to poke here). And maybe a reunion with some old college friends.

So I hope the stressing and planning leads to a great time - which I am sure it will. Say hi to people for me - even if they don't know me!!

Article about obsolete computer skills. I still actively use 1 (COBOL) & 2 (IMS DB), and only a couple of years ago I led a large project to remove the last holdouts of 6(C) & 10(OS/2) at our company - of course it was replaced by COBOL! And I was trained in 7 (powerbuilder).

So, almost 2 years ago I got into a scary accident when I swerved to avoid a bird.
( the old story )

Well...
Yesterday, Again I spot a bird walking across the highway (MUCH smaller this time). This time I don't swerve, I just slow down, until the bird finally remembers he can fly! Yes, I am coming to a near stop in the middle of a highway. Fortunately there was no one right behind me. Bird, Car and Toigo are all fine.
( unfortunately not all is happy in the avian world )

via tryslora and mshades

( What does your birthday Mean? )

Ok, so I am celebrating the second annual St. Singles Day in style. I am watching "Spaced Invaders" while downing a peanut butter and hot fudge sunday! A wonderfully silly movie - basically stupid martians pick up a broadcast of the "War of the Worlds" and mistake it for a real invasion by their bretheren, and attack middle america. hilarity ensues. Well, only if you shut your brain down....

Actually its been an interesting few days. I had the stomach flu last week, just before I was to leave for Las Vegas - more of the celebration ;) Anyway I was miserable for a couple days, even calling out sick for work. A diet of white rice and dry toast to calm my stomach seems to work, but it is not very filling. Anyway I fly to vegas, hungry and all... Long story short, I was wrong, I was not quite over all the flu. So first night of my vacation I spent huddled in the hotel room. Overall I spend a bunch of the time there, unsure what would be safe to eat. But it did get better. I was traveling with my brother and my old roomate Dave. My brother has become quite the poker addict on this trip, and converted Dave to the dark side also. They would play at any chance they could get, and I got dragged into a couple of games. I am not as excited about poker - I prefer Blackjack even if I am loosing. Overall I lost about $40. No biggie.

We got home just in time for the snow. Its not as bad here as most everywhere else. I got just a couple of inches last night, and then today its was about 8 hours of sleet. We had a delayed opening, and maybe a 1/3 of the people showed up to work. Still the commute in was a little dicey. It was one of those suggestion drives - where you give the car a suggestion, and you hope it listens. Basically it did, but you definitely needed extra breaking distance. While there was not a lot of snow, there was not much plowed. Apparently this is because the DOT decided it was easier to clean the roads after the freezing rain they were predicting. So I had a nice slushy slide to work. All wheel drive is good as long as you have a wheel with traction. Oh well, fortunately no one else was on the road so it was an easy slide in to work. Also they were nice enough to have an early closing, so I only had to work a 1/2 day. And with very few people there to bother me, it was one of the easier first days back.

Well tomorrow should be back to normal for me. Such as normal is. Hopefully the same applies for all you, dear readers.

Two quick christmas stories.

Christmas, or more importantly Christmas Eve is a very ritualized holiday in my family. Every year of my life that I can remember I have spend Christmas Eve with my mother's family. We have what I think is a traditional Christmas eve meal - no meat, just home made Pierogi's with sauteed Onions and Mushrooms. By the way, if you think turkey tires you out, try eating that much starch in one meal and tell me how awake you are.

Since my mother's family is in Northeast Pennsylvania this means every Christmas Eve I am in the car late. So I also have fond memories of listening to the car radio on the way home. And one thing they have on the radio is NORAD tracking the progress of Santa! These reports came complete with a report from a fighter jet sent to intercept. It kept me fascinated when I was young. As I got older, it just became a cute - and somewhat Cheezy tradition listening to these reports between christmas music. But not tonight and I think I know why I could not find it. They are now covering it on the local news weather. According to the weather man, Santa has already been spotted this evening over Maine, Bermuda, and Quebec. (Mmmmm, Quantum Santa) Even the weatherman admitted he is taking a non-traditional path this year. Somehow though the have made is cheezier - much cheezier.

It was never so much a tradition in my family, but a big tradition in the NYC area was the Yule Log. No not something you burn, but a TV recording of a Fireplace, with christmas music. Well they now have a documentary about this show! Yep they made a documentary about show of a burning log. Gotta love it. BTW for those in the NYC area, you can catch the documentary tonight at 1:30am and Christmas day at 12 noon on Channel 11. Just after the showing of 2006 Yule Log.

May you all have a Merry Christmas. I am going to drift off into a Starch Coma now.

Suddenly my basement feels empty. As I sit here typing right now, the last of my brother's stuff is moving out of my basement. By the end of today, my brother's journey back from Japan will be (almost) complete - some more stuff is coming by slow boat.

He moved to Japan soon after I bought my house, so his stuff has been stored here for a while. But now he is back, with a wife! The reason I have been quiet for the past month is because I have been hosting them during their transition, and helping to show his wife America.

Its very interesting to see things through new Eyes. I guess its a little like having a child. This is my sister-in-laws first christmas, and she has been so excited about this. I think she has been humming christmas carols ever since she has been in America!

Some updates from my life. Right now I am writing to you through my new wireless router. Who hoo. So now I get to be a geek in other parts of the house. You already a geek whereever you went in the house rim shot..

Why did I need a new router? Well... My brother has returned from Japan with his wife. Permanently. And they have taken over the computer room, so I needed to become untethered to the cablemodem, and spending a week without a connection was not an option.

This is the permanent move home. Well step one. Step two is the slow boat to China - ok the slow boat from Japan with his stuff. Steps three and four are find a place to live and move his stuff. Thus liberating my basement. So somewhere soon-ish I will be in Ithaca, part of the moving crew. I will post dates if people want to meet up, when I have more info.

As a bonus when we get together in Ithaca, you can meet my amusing sister-in-law. Right now she is on Skype chatting with a friend of hers (turns out the wireless was real handy, since my brother and sister-in-law both also have laptops). She has a little webcam built into her laptop, and so she is walking around my house showing her friend my house through the little webcam. It is really amusing to watch. She is excited to be here, because so much is new and different. She will get to help decorate two houses for christmas. My house and my other brother.

Tomorrow its off to Atlantic City for the day.

Yep - I voted, and on an electronic machine. So am I the only one that looked down to make sure the machine was registering what I pushed?

And aren't you all proud. I found the public ballot questions last time. Yep, the last election, I forgot about them, when they were not at eye level. Its not just retired Floridians who are confused when they vote.

I just had to share this with everyone after I heard about it on the Radio:
I'm Dreaming of.... a White Wedding (Please read with a snarl in your lip)

Too funny. And if you go to his myspace page - its not terrible.

So Steve, what do you think. Christmas gift for Dave?

6 word stories
Why not join the Six word story meme. Blame tryslora and sort of mcroft
My own:

1. In Albany, Coat wows Haloween Revelers.
2. Forshadowing. Zebra Decor brought to life.
3. Dog Alex vs. Skunk. Le faint! *wink* pkdan and queenmabwords



I will be in Albany this weekend. Yeah! I could use the break, as perhaps you can tell by the writing! Anyone around?