Gas Prices

Ya know, it's been nearly three months since I left my job and became a freelance web developer. So, I went to do some grocery shopping and noticed the gas price at the pumps. The price has jumped 70 cents in ten weeks! Good grief. :(

Elevator small talk

So, I'm heading off to lunch. It's been a hell of a day already. I get on the elevator and there's one guy already in it.

"Is it Friday yet?" I ask.

"Man, I'm wondering when the next holiday is," he replied.

Things to do before Christmas

Househould things, that is. My mom is coming by for a visit next Friday so not much of this list is going to get done before then but I should most of, if not all, this stuff done before Shell comes by in December(!) Something tells me this is going to replace our (mostly) annual NYE get-together.

• plant winter grass (winter rye or fescue?)
• install medicine cabinet in second bathroom
• buy guest bedroom furniture
• replace showerheads in both bathrooms
• put up xmas light decorations on front lawn and windows (after turkey day)
• make sure house is baby-proof for Cameron
• new home theater system? maybe

Random thought

I like walking barefoot around my backyard. It feels great.

Halloween aftershocks (afterthoughts?)

Well, in spite of the plumbing problem last night, everything went off pretty well. A lot of kids showed up to get candy. More than I expected for a housing community with maybe 50-60 occupied houses. My filled-to-the-brim candy bowl (one of the big ones you can get at Wal-Mart) had only a few pieces left by the end.

Next year's going to be better. More lights and spooky stuff, which I couldn't do this year because of last weeks' car problems.

Boo!

gotcha! ;>

Punk'd on Halloween

While the kids were putting their dentists' kids through college tonight, I got tricked while they treated. A water pipe broke in the front yard. After an emergency call to the plumber, it turned out that a valve in the sprinkler system chose tonight to commit seppuku.

Fortunately, the house and sprinkler systems use separate lines so I was only without water for a couple of hours (a precautionary move done by a neighbor).

Darnit! This place is less than six months old. Three months since I moved in. This shouldn't have happened for a long time. Everything's still under warranty so it's not going to cost me anything to get it fixed.

Just goes to show: plastic parts are cheaper but not stronger than metal ones.

Car-blang!

Ouch! This was a painful week. My trusty ride, a 98 Jetta, has spent most of the week in the repair shop. The little slut's took most of my bank account with her. Fan belt replacements and fixing a busted cv boot on the axle will do that. When the service techs showed me how the axle was, I found myself being confronted by the ghost of Henry Ford, who looked at me and said, 'Didn't you learn auto maintenance 101?' 'Dunno,' I replied. 'B&N is backordered on 'Car Maintenance for Morons trying to be Dummies but failing.''

Call it 'bad carma'. :)

Anywho, at least my car will be good for another 100,000 miles or so.

Days like this

Days like today make me glad I live in a house, instead of an apartment.

• I have a nice, new home with an equally new roof!
• I have a garage so I can keep my car nice and dry in case I leave the windows down (which I do frequently).
• I have a garage door remote so I don't have to get out of the car in the pouring rain!

Wishy Washy

Pardon me a moment while I emote on my new washer and dryer. I know you're thinking 'Big Deal!' Well, it's not. After years of being reliant on apt complex washers, I now have my own washer and dryer. It's oh so nice not to be forced to wait on someone else to finish their laundry so you can get started on your own. And, even better, not have to wait on the weather to be favorable! OR have to wait for the laundry room to open in the morning! OR have to time it so that your laundry is done before the laundry room closes! GAH! I hate that crap!

Never more. Never more.

Washin' that whatever away

Wow. This house is getting expensive. I've already spent a lot on a new refrigerator (which is the size I was looking for but the water filtration system is hit-and-miss. the ice side is fine but the filtered water tastes n-a$$-ty!) So, today being the end of the week, I ran out to the Sears Outlet store in Addison to go looking for a washer and dryer.

Well, I found a nice matched pair of Kenmore Series 500 washer and dryer. The prices were pretty decent but it still set me back a bundle. I should get it delivered this weekend. Now, I can start doing some laundry!

The interesting thing is that I came in under budget for those three items. In fact, I came in $100 under! Although that number is probably off another $200-$300 since I didn't factor in shipping and taxes and was looking at some decidedly cheaper (and probably lesser) models to begin with.

just waiting for the weekend now. the laundry's starting to pile up!

The Move! The Move!

Well, it's but time for the moving all the furniture, etc. today. I don't know why but I just can't seem to find the motivation to finish packing. It's not like the last time when I dumped, literally, nearly a dozen trash bags full of junk. I just don't want to do it. What's up with that?

Oh, well, regardless, tonight will be my first night at the new place.

Oh, yeah. Once the move starts, I'm going to be offline for a couple of days. I don't get internet service till Tuesday. :(

Cool-ness

Well, last night was pretty uneventful. I left work a little early to get to the sales office to get the keys. The house hasn't changed much in the last twenty-four hours. :) The main difference is that it's all mine now. Mine! My Own!

After a run to the local Wal-Mart, I picked up a few things to make the house a little cozy and grab some non-perishable food. Dinner at the house consisted of a Coke, a peanut butter sandwich and same sour cream and onion potato chips. Yum.

it arrived today. My fridge, that is. It's a lot bigger than I remember from when I saw it on the outlet center showroom. I need to find something to clean all the smudges off the front doors. I also need to call Sears and see about getting a copy of the instruction manual.

Well, back to packing and stuff. Gonna be a looong weekend.

Who needs caffeine on day like today?

I'm less than two hours away from closing on the house and I'm so pumped up right now that I don't need caffeine. 1 hour 44 minutes and counting!!

1st sign of the impending

I bet you thought I was going to say 'Armageddon', didn't you? HaHa.

It's more like 1st sign of the impending move. I close on the house tomorrow so today, at lunch, I went out and bought a (slightly used) refrigerator. It's a nice model made by Kenmore. Side-by-side. Stainless finish with a lot of fingerprint smugs and a few scratches. Nothing I can't live with. The price was pretty reasonable, too. It cost a few hundred less than a brand new model.

(I'm one step closer to the edge and I'm about to break!)

Weird Dreams

So, okay, I put in a lot of hours in Saturday on my current work project. Naturally, on Sunday, I can't hook up to my work pc to keep working.

Well,I'm kinda stuck. There's still plenty to do, but I can't access the files to work. What's a guy to do?

Segue back in time to earlier last week. Revenge of the Sith came out on dvd, so naturally I bought a copy.

Since I can't work on Sunday, I figure that if God could rest on Sunday, so can I. I spent the entire afternoon watch Episodes I, II and III back to back to back. Yeah, I know. It's a sucky way to spend an afternoon.

Anyway, last night, I had another weird dream. I'm in a music video, with Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl' playing, and instead of Gwen, there's Darth Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi battling it out with lightsabers.

Here's where it gets a little surreal. Instead of the 'Shit is bananas' line from the song, the video keeps cutting to a headshot of Obi-Wan saying 'The Sith is bananas. b-a-n-a-n-a-s' over and over.

Really, really weird.

welcome to the inside of my mind.

Vacation day

I don't often take vacation days. Well, I do but I rarely go anywhere or do anything. This weekend was different.

I was supposed to go visit friends this weekend, but those plans fell through. So, I took the opportunity to go to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Tx. It's been nearly fifteen years since the last time I went. The rides are much the same as they were when I last visited and, surprisingly, little has changed. There are a number of new rides, of course. Most of which I wouldn't go near if you bet me.

I realized early on that I don't really care much for the first second of weightlessness when you make those sudden drops. That was made very clear when I got on the Conquistador. It's kinda like a really big schoolyard swing shaped like a Spanish galleon that goes nearly straight up as it swings back and forth.

As the ride got into full swing (pun intended), my stomach would rise up into my chest and for a moment I couldn't breath. Then, there's another moment as the ride swings back in the other direction and my stomach returns to its normal place. It's fortunate that the rides generally only last a couple of minutes. I'm not certain how much more abuse my stomach could have taken before things got really messy.

There's something about roller coasters that just make me queasy. I don't mind the speed the operate at, but those seconds where they defy gravity are tough to handle. Whenever I hit that moment of freefall, it feels like the whole world comes to stop, then it kickstarts with a bang as gravity reasserts itself and you hurtle around at breakneck speeds. Intellectually, I can see the appeal, but my stomach wants to know what the blazes was I thinking.

Not all the rides are quite as stomach churning. Some are worse. Heh. Runaway Mountain is a little daunting cause it's an indoor roller coaster. Pitch black indoors. I distinctly remember moving at angles I didn't think possible. The two ten year-old boys riding a couple of rows before certainly enjoyed, judging from all their screaming. I recall them saying they were going to do it again. Crazy kids.

The most fun I had was on the Splash Water ride. It's one of the shorter rides, timewise, but is guaranteed to get you soaking wet. You go up an incline, roll gently around a bend, then wham! Down at a steep 60 degree angle as the ride slams into the water, kicking up a huge wave of water that completely drenches you! Even more fun is, as you exit the ride, you have to cross a bridge which places you in the path of the water wave. Two dunkings for the price of one! LOL!!

The rest of the park is pretty much as I remember it. There are more restaurants and snack shops (including Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops which had my favorite B&J Triple Caramel Chunk. yum.)

The great adventure only lasted a few hours. The temperature was a scorching 102 when I left. All in all, it was a fun day. Lots of good clean fun and a day away from the ratrace.

Next time, I'm going to the museum.

Zünch and the Art of Füzball

"D'oh! You've been Gomez'd!"

I'm hearing that more often these days. Generally, it's right after I've just made a tricky angle shot with the five man, caught a ball on the rebound and slammed it in for a goal or stuffed the defender when he tries to make a shot. Yeah, baby!!

Early on, when I first started at Zunch, I was pretty pathetic. I was leaving huge holes, regardless if I was playing offense or defense. I was game and slowly learned to play better. Game after game. Day after day.

It's been eight months since I joined Zunch. My defense still sucks, but not as much. My offense is a lot better and I've become a lot better at anticipating shots and blocking them. Quite frequently, stuffing the shot into the goal.

Some of the guys are really, really good. Scoring on them is almost as hard as defending against them. The shots they make are incredibly hard to predict, much less block. It makes the rare times when I beat them that much sweeter.

Ok. time to go. The füz table calls.

Life as a web geek, pt 2

Big things are going on here at Zünch.

First, I'm working on my first solo project for a ticket agency. It's supposed to work via XML feeds from a web service. Cool to play with and figure out. But, it's a major hassle since the system doesn't provide the data in the manner and need and it's incredibly slow. IMHO, any process over ten seconds long is an eternity online. The web services, as they exist now, take MINUTES to run!! Ah, well. The company providing the web services has agreed to look into some recommendations I've come up with to speed things up. Hopefully, it won't take to long for them to implement them and get back with us.

Sadly, Zünch is losing two programmers within a week of each other. Sona's leaving to pursue other interests and Wyatt's moving to Mississippi. (Fortunately, Wyatt will still be working for the company, albeit from a remote location.) Both of them have been invaluable to me, especially in my early days at Zünch when I was a itty bitty tadpole learning to swim in the great big Sea of Zünch.

The next few weeks are going to be interesting. We've got one new programmer starting on Monday and there's talk of hiring one or two more.

more l8r as it happens.

Strange dreams

Like everyone else, I don't remember most of my dreams. The other night, however, I had a doozy that keeps popping into my head at the oddest times.

Remember, this is a dream and not a reflection of my tenuous grasp on reality. ;>

So there I am, sleeping the night away after a long day of coding. Then, I find myself up against Chucky (from the Child's Play movies) and his bride. Ok, yeah, right.

Being the selfless hero that I am, I do battle with the homicidal doll and his plastic, um, moll. Good triumphs over evil and Chucky and his bitch, Tiffany, are destroyed forever.

Yawn. back to sleep.

Chucky returns. WTF?! Ok, it's just another dream. Same bat-time, different universe. Chucky, Tiffany and I do battle (I think I had a sidekick, but can't remember any specifics) again. Once more, I defeat Chucky by tossing him and Tiff into a black hole. ooookkkkaaayyyy.

Blissful sleep. yawn. Better to dream about code than some psychopathic imaginary doll. (although, I do kinda wonder if there's some bizarre relationship between coding and psychotic dolls. It also occurs to me that I've never seen one of these movies in its entirety. Just a few moments here and there.)

Chucky returns. yet again. oh, crap.

So true

I was glancing at my daily horoscope on Yahoo and found something interesting.

In addition to being good at your job, you also pride yourself at being an expert at your hobby. Regardless of what it is, from sewing to photography to an artistic way with words, you should know that you're plenty good enough at it to make some part-time cash, and that earning from what you love doesn't lessen its value. In fact, it increases it. Don't pass up any chance now to share your skill with others.

Every once in a while, I see a little gem like this. It's like the daily quotes you see on different sites. A little 'pick me up' to brighten the day.