Further Assimilations

My exciting New Year's: no party, no fancy dinner. I didn't feel well, so we stayed home to watch the ball drop on one of the excruciating network New Year's shows. We waited for the countdown to start... and waited... and waited... and looked at the clock to notice that it had somehow become 12:22. Yes, we fell asleep waiting for New Year's. Such a hardcore life we lead, eh?

I repeat what I said last year: if I'm planning to party or otherwise celebrate late into the evening, I'm at a point in life where an afternoon nap would be a wise preparation - especially if I'd gotten up at 5:30am that day to go to work.

Slept until almost noon on the 1st, because I'm still exhausted from last weekend. (Possibly from all of December.) Starr had to work, so after lunch I headed to Bert and Meche's, where they got a game of Munchkin Quest going. I'm glad they have it, because I want to play it again, but this time I don't have to buy a copy. It looks like an average game might well be 4-5 hours, though we had some non-gamer types at the board, which slowed things down a touch.

I'm tempted to say that my New Year's Resolution is "1280 x 1024, 32-bit color at 60hz". But in fact, the personal-improvement things I hope to accomplish this year are to keep trying to lose some spare tire, improve my education and my earning power, and do more non-journally writing. I'm especially unhappy with my writing output in 2008; I've stared at a lot of empty text files this year. That will be changing.

Happy New Year to all!

My "grown-up" moment for the week: not bidding on a Lego Mars Rover on eBay even though it came to $10 below retail. I just don't need to be spending $85 on Lego right now. But I thought about it for a second.

Worked on a shell script today which will automate and streamline installation and troubleshooting of our backup services. I keep forgetting how much I love writing code, especially the bit where it executes and everything works properly and I feel like Dr. Frankenstein shouting "It's alive!!" I caught the coding bug when the TRS-80s came out, and I've never gotten over it.

I headed in to work early today, to help install a glut of new monitors which arrived. Not my usual assignment, but I wanted to help out, and the monitors were the lightest of the equipment to be installed. On the other hand, that does mean a lot of crawling under desks, and even a 22-inch flatscreen isn't that light after you've lifted the tenth one onto a desk. I'm a little tired.

Going to try to get in touch with Mom again tonight.

Things to do today, in random order:

1) Have large breakfast so I don't mope all day.
Completed at 1:00 pm.

2) Call Mom and check up on her. Continue searching for home care.
No answer at Jon Reid's. Left message on his phone.

3) Clean gerbil cage.
Gerbils looking much happier. Cat still sad this is not a buffet.

4) Get badly needed haircut.
This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.

5) Get lamp for spare bedroom.
Lamp secure. Only been meaning to do this for months.

6) Do laundry.
Third load in dryer. That's all I have energy for tonight.

7) Contact plumber who fixed kitchen sink at Kentland to make payment arrangements.
Number not in phone. Left voicemail with neighbor contact.

8) Try for Azeroth Olympics tabard and pet.
Got tabard. Pet looking unlikely.

9) Clean up living room. Empty dishwasher from last night.
Dishwasher is empty and reloaded. Living room in progress. Vacuum cleaner belt is broken.

10) Make dinner.
Seared then baked chicken randomly seasoned with garlic, lemon, cumin, and cilantro, with couscous on the side. An Iron Chef would be appalled, but it came out yummy.

11) Call local lifestyle group about demo they asked for on Tuesday.
Done. No problem, they just need me to revise the entire presentation, that's all.

12) Buy new pantz to replace 1 holed pair and 2 pair falling off my hips (good thing, right?)
This is being put off for a week-and-a-half due to time and budget issues.

LiveJournal seems a little slow today. Wonder what their servers are dealing with.

Got a nice evening walk in last night, 1.66 miles according to the GMaps Pedometer, though I swear it felt like 2. Turned out that the exercise was a good thing; right after we got back, Dwight called, and invited us out for sushi and hibachi. Starr wore her new Questionable Content kitty shirt I got her. I told the story of the time that a bunch of us went to a hibachi place in Roanoke, and as we were served, we all eagerly grasped our chopsticks... except for the Japanese exchange student with us, who matter-of-factly picked up her fork.

You'd think that with all the exercise, I'd have slept great last night. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. While Starr said something this morning that cheered me, the weariness is still nibbling away at me. I think I may be naughty and pick up a Coke or two today.

This weekend we will be leaving Portsmouth around 7 or 8 p.m. and driving to Blacksburg. Saturday morning, we'll be catching up with some of Starr's family that will be in the general area, Saturday evening we'll visit my Mom, and then Sunday we'll be heading to my old house to survey what needs to be done to move Mom back in when she's ready. Then we'll drive back to Portsmouth. I may be pretty liberal with the caffeine this weekend as well.

• 11:51 .67 miles again this am. Working my butt off. Also, found a pic of G.Lucas wearing a "Han Shot First" shirt. tinyurl.com/5ms88t #
• 13:30 20 min. into lunch: not a good time to find that Quiznos no longer carries my favorite sub. Prime rib cheesesteak okay, but too much onions. #

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Finished my 10th mile of the new mile-a-workday program. At this rate, I should reach Rivendell by Christmas :) Yesterday and today were beautiful walking days - 70 degrees, light breeze, cloudless skies. I notice that I'm slightly less overheated and winded than I was two weeks ago, though much progress remains to be made.

With the removal of two 200-calorie Cokes from my day, and a 200-calorie walk in addition, I'm hoping I see even a tiny bit of body difference in a month or two. I mean, I figure my diet beforehand was in the 2,200 - 2,400 calorie per day range, so that's a fairly big cut.

After around 20-years, I have reconnected with cynical_prophet. He and I used to be thick as thieves in the Pathfinder days, but we had a falling out. That water's long passed under that bridge, and I found him through clicking random LJ links - it's good to hear from him again. Hard to write a short letter about "here's what I've been up to for the last two decades", though.

Hey there! I need opinions from the wise folk of LiveJournal.

So, I'm getting about a mile of walking in per day, but after a week, I'm still a bit winded and overheated when I finish.

[Poll #1185211]

Starr showed me YouTube footage last night of several Discovery Channel stars singing the Boom-de-ah-dah song live at some promotional event. I was tickled by the Alaskan ship captains jumping in, and am more convinced than ever that Mike Rowe is insane in a wonderful way.

We had multiple friends ask us out last weekend, and politely demurred every time; this was our first unscheduled time in months, and we were determined to enjoy it quietly at home, with no stressors, expenses, or travel. So, of course, we ended up at Busch Gardens.

Yeah, that plan worked out great, didn't it?

But it was a gorgeous Saturday, and I've been trying to visit the park since moving to Hampton Roads. We'd purchased Virginia resident Fun Cards earlier, and the Old Country was calling our name, so out we went! The weather might have been a bit too gorgeous, actually, since we left the sunscreen in the car and Starr got a bit roasted. There were also a couple of lines where we were minutes away from abandoning our place and running for the nearest air-conditioning.

But we had a great time. The DarKastle ride may be our new favorite - the 3-D is quite effective, if artificial. I rode the Battering Ram for the first time, which was a mix of fun and "ohcrap ohcrap I am falllinnnngg!" Seriously... rides where I fall make my internal organs shift positions and are an exercise in endurance for me, not entertainment. I don't know why.

The Big Bad Wolf, on the other hand, didn't have too much falling for a roller coaster, and a lot of swooping. I love swooping :) It was almost dark by the time we got to that one, which added a dimension. The turkey sandwich I ate at the Festhall was pretty yummy, if overpriced, and I made sure to eat it in small, well-chewed bites, in hopes of avoiding motion sickness later. The Corkscrew Hill 3-D simulator nearly defeated that strategy, however.

We also got to see live wolves and huge bald eagles in a predator show, and a pretty good Irish music and dance show. So, even with sunburn, exhaustion, and expense, I'm chalking it up as a success. On the other hand, Sunday was quiet, lazy, and cheap after all. It kind of needed to be.

Rough start to the day.

Didn't sleep well - under-hydrated, I think. 200 spam messages from last night in my inbox: the Russian spammers are trying some new tricks. I can't even read most of the e-mails. More idiots driving 45 in the passing lane, then shifting right and doing 70 in the slow lane; and to top it off, my morning podcast glitched out halfway into the drive.

On the other hand, I was greeted again this morning by friendly ducks on the way out to my car. Last night was great, with pizza and WoW provided by Starr and a remarkably clean apartment she'd spent her "lazy day" scrubbing. And this morning I heard that my longtime partner-in-crime Tom Monaghan, one of the few Starfleeters to hold officer posts on USS Heimdal, Pathfinder, McKay, Yeager, and Ma'at, signed his first fiction book contract! Awesome!

So karma balances, and if the rain lets up at all I'll get some more walking in today. Into the fray!

Today I have:

Climbed to the roof of our building to help check a wi-fi link (I am not doing that again, I had no idea the last part would be a 30' foot wall-mounted ladder. I don't like heights and I don't need to break the remaining organic bits of my left leg. They can find someone else next time.) Climbed back down.

Walked 4 blocks to the boss man's loft to check the other end of the link, then back.

Walked 4 blocks to the local mall for lunch (I ran out of frozen stuff to microwave and eat at my desk), then back.

Headed up and down 3 flights of stairs all day servicing machines.

Walked 4 blocks to the boss man's loft to re-install the hardware we uninstalled the first time.

Walked 5 blocks to the bank from there.

Walked 4 blocks back to work.

Much more of this and I won't miss the gym membership I left back in Roanoke. At least it's only 85 and breezy out, as opposed to yesterday's 103 degrees.