Wednesday, February 28
I could never, ever, ever be an accountant. Or a salesman. Or work in one of those kiosks in a mall. That much I know.
Tuesday, February 27
At the behest of Diane D., I have posted junior prom pictures on our Valley High School reunion site. She sent the originals to me to scan. To see the fashion travesties of 1980, click here, choose the Who's Who link, and scroll almost to the bottom. I am in the first and second photos captioned "Junior Prom 1980".
Monday, February 26
Yesterday was a beautiful day, so I worked in the backyard and went for a long bike ride. Then I came home and fell asleep, which is why I didn't write anything here.
The people who made the offer on the house next door rescinded it - for the second time. We're still hoping John and his wife move in. John has lots of tools. Which reminds me of a cute story: a few weeks ago, he had the property line on the other side of the new house marked off with white flags so he could have a fence built. He has surveying tools and a laser level, so everything is always very precise. Anyway, that weekend Ed and I were in the alley and we saw the little kids behind us playing a war game, each with two white flags in their hands, running around and yelling. We noticed later that they had put the flags back, but laughed because we're sure the lot line has moved slightly. Yesterday the kids were playing cops and robbers, but they all wanted to be robbers rather than cops so they were having trouble getting the game going.
Saturday, February 24
I got a spam last week guaranteeing I could add inches to my penis, but I guess I accidentally deleted it. Rats.
I went to the nursery today (gosh! the nursery! on a weekend! what are the odds?), and stopped on the way back at a Kool-Aid stand for a refreshing very sweet strawberry beverage. The littlest boy there handed me $1.25. And the little girl said "We're the customers."Luckily they had an older brother who set them straight.
Ed is in Tahoe this weekend skiing with Erica. If the webcams are any indication, they don't have very good visibility.
Update: Just had a voicemail from Ed explaining that snowboarding is not for him. He's exchanging the snowboard for skis. Seems it's a little hard to get up once you fall. And he evidently didn't think to try not falling.
Friday, February 23
My boss sent me this today...I thought it was pretty funny but assumed it was a coincidence (i.e. the person was named Williams, not the company). Then I checked out the original, and realized that someone had doctored this version (he said his wife sent it to him).
Thursday, February 22
It is early spring here....leaves are emerging, trees are blooming, and one of my daffodils showed it's little yellow face today.
Last fall we bought a shrub/tree called a Turk's cap. Then we weren't sure if we liked it, so the poor thing has spend the entire winter in a pot, usually tipped on it's side in the space between the garage and the fence. Sunday Ed took pity on it and planted it out behind the garage in the alley. And this morning I noticed it was blooming. Now I feel guilty.
Wednesday, February 21
Ed is out of town, in either El Paso or Mexico, so I am filing his junk. We have let the office be our catchall of paperwork and boxes for 9 months now, but since we now have both of our computers in there, things must change. I'm not throwing anything of his away, I'm just filing it in three boxes labeled "Needed for tax season", "May be needed within next six months", and "Hasn't been touched in years". That should cover it. I hate not having a basement!
When we moved, one of the packers asked us which was the saver and which was the tosser. Unfortunately, we're both savers....but believe it or not, Ed's worse than I am. He's vindicated tonight though. He is going to California on Friday and turning that business trip into a ski weekend with Erica. And among his junk I was sorting through tonight I found brochures from all the Northern California ski resorts. From 1994. It's a good thing he saved them!
Tuesday, February 20
Our favorite grocery store here is Whole Food Markets, a sort of cross between an organic food co-op and McGinnis Sisters. They have great meat, great produce, great cheese, prepared foods, bulk foods, organic foods, and most of all, Tofurkey (now with Wishsticks! - see lower right corner).
Monday, February 19
We had a nice dinner
last night. I really like Mike's mother because she puts him in his place
- he was complaining that when they traveled together, people referred
to her as his wife. To which she answered "As if I would choose someone
like him as my husband. I would choose someone like Ed." Another
time everyone was commenting that Mike could eat whatever he wanted and
never gain weight. Hoda nearly wept, saying it was so painful to watch
her son get fat, her only child!
Here she is in Ed's Triumph
jacket.
Sunday, February 18
The house next door did sell today to the people we kept seeing over there - two women who live up the street (we live in a very diverse neighborhood). We haven't met them yet, but they seem nice from afar. People are still showing up at the open house, though. We were sort of hoping it wouldn't sell yet, because John (the builder) had said he and his wife would move in rather than have it sit empty. We really like them, and since the house has sold they are moving to Ohio to be closer to family.
We're having Ed's friend Michael and his mother for dinner tonight. Mike's mother, Hoda, is about 90 and lives in Egypt. She comes here for the winter. She's a very sweet lady. When she left last year, I said "See you next year", and she said "Yes, if I live". She seems pretty healthy still, though.
Saturday, February 17
Here's Dad's Pittsburgh panorama in QuickTime format (it's a very big file).
Thursday, February 15
We need to learn to check our voice mail more often. Without an answering machine to blink at you and remind you to check, it's easy to let it go for a few days. Which is why I just got the message from my old boss Tim just checking in, seeing if we watched the Three Rivers implosion on Sunday.
Moral of the story: if it's urgent, call Ed's cell phone. Also, I need to get cell phone service again!
Here is an anemone that is blooming right now. And here is a bush (one of six) that is going nuts. I forget what it's called...Chinese something or other. It's an evergreen (or rather an everpurple). More this weekend. (Sorry for the blurriness...next on to-do list: read how to take macro photos with camera.)
Wednesday, February 14
News Flash: Garden pictures postponed again due to tiredness.
We had a big company-wide video conference today with the management and the new management. Obviously, no real answers were divulged. Decisions are still being made. It will all be for the best. Yes.
Anyway, there was an article in the current InfoWorld about avoiding workplace violence. So now we are having fun 'diagnosing' each other's obvious signs of 'desk rage'. Don't worry, though - I really do work in a relatively low stress environment where people like each other and are not likely to go postal. It's just fun to point out to someone that their behavior is actually a sign of sociopathy.
Tuesday, February 13
I meant to post some garden pictures tonight, but that will have to wait until tomorrow since it's late. A busy day, broken up by beating people up in karate. Yay, martial arts! (I still apologize when I almost break someone's arm, though).
And in lieu of actual content, here's a very good simple, free, yet addictive (because there's strategy involved) game.
Monday, February 12
We thought the new house next door was sold, since we saw the same couple looking at it several times in a row, but tonight there is a new real estate agency sign out front. It's just about done, and even has landscaping. They get a lot of people in on the open houses, so I think it will sell soon. The front porch was just painted this week - that made a big difference.
I spent the evening looking at slides.
Sunday, February 11
A boring day. I had a lot of work to do, and Ed did his taxes.
Has everybody seen the PETA Bad Cats ad? (warning, kitty porn).
Saturday, February 10
We just got back from Cosi Fan Tutti. We invited our friends Brian and Laura along. It was their first opera. At dinner beforehand I was explaining the plot. Laura (who by the way is a very intelligent attorney with two law degrees and a nursing degree), responded immediately "Oh, so it's like Temptation Island." Which it was. Rats.
Thursday, February 8
Work is really, really, really busy. I haven't even been able to attend karate for the last two weeks. Hopefully it will let up after next week. I like what I do, but when I can hardly take a long enough break from web programming to go to the bathroom, it makes it hard to come home and do personal web design. And I have a meeting tomorrow at 8 AM. Rats again.
Wednesday, February 7
The house next door was wired for electricity today, which unfortunately meant that a big telephone pole was installed right next to our backyard (on the other side of the fence). Rats. I guess we'll get used to it. It's not like we had an unobstructed view anyway, what with the garages right there.
On the plus side, the Port-a-John which appeared on our lawn this morning (moved to make way for the fence) has disappeared, leading me to believe that the plumber made a visit over there as well.
Tuesday, February 6
Ed logged on to his computer for the first time tonight connected to cable. He was surprised he didn't need to connect or supply a password, and when it retrieved his e-mail in seconds, all he could say was "Wow". I'm not going to bother with the printer yet....I got home late. I need to think of all the programs that need to bypass the firewall. I already have a free software firewall that I really like. One of the things that I like about it is that it tells you when something is trying to get through it, you just click yes or no to configure the firewall to allow access for that program. The side benefit of this (and it's not accidental, that's the design) is that any program that is trying to access the Internet (including Trojans) asks for permission the first time. With the hardware firewall, the program just sits and waits and doesn't tell you why. Then you have to go in and set up the bypass. I have a friend with the same router and cable service who also uses Zone Alarm. He just set the router for DMZ and lets Zone Alarm handle the security. I might do that, too, since our cable server uses DHCP. I don't think we're at any higher risk than when we used dial-up.
Monday, February 5
Not much new today - I've been spending the evening configuring our router. Hopefully I'll get that done tonight, and can install the printer on it. Then, other than immense mess of boxes and cables, our home office will be set up.
Last night we went to dinner at Ed's friends Mike and Carla's house. They gave us a housewarming gift of Laguiole steak knives. They're really beautiful (and really sharp). As we were drinking the wine with dinner, Ed mentioned that red wine gives him insomnia. So of course I had insomnia last night because of him.
Sunday, February 4
Today's run was around the campus of Rice University. It's a beautiful campus with lots of live oaks. Another place I had driven by but never ventured into.
The rest of the day was spent gardening. Yesterday we bought three antique roses and some other perennials. And alyssum. Ed loves alyssum, and buys it whenever we go to a nursery.
We did not go to Kaldi Cafe for breakfast this weekend, but this weekend is when I got around to downloading the photo from last weekend's trip there, so here it is.
Saturday, February 3
Note to self: the apple trees bloom here on February 1st.
Ed and I went for a really fun run today in Memorial Park, which is not far from our house. The park has an official running trail - a three-mile flat loop which we've taken many times. This time I suggested trying one of the trails through the woods. It led up and down small hills, along Buffalo Bayou, across from some of the oil baron mansions (we saw ponies!). We then bushwhacked through thick brush and piles of timber to the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, where we learned about all the poisonous snakes that live in thick brush and poisonous timber (yikes!). The arboretum was a treat - lots of paths and ponds and a prairie, so close to the city. I drive past it every day on my way to work, but didn't know what was there.
Friday, February 2
This past week (month?) was certainly one of upheavals - reminders not to take things for granted.
I just got back from a funeral home 30 miles from here, where I and several of my coworkers attended the visitation/viewing of the daughter, aged 16, of another coworker who died in a car accident Wednesday on her way to school. The cruelest part is that her 17th birthday was yesterday. I will remember January 2001 as a month of deaths, near-misses, and life changes.
Thursday, February 1
We got cable Internet access this morning. I've been spending my evening trying to set everything up, which included moving my computer, desk, accessories, etc. into the office, since that's where we decided to put it. It's bedtime already, so not much other news to report.
