Year: 2005

Yeah, I really needed to find out that this was already on shelves. For the love of all that is holy, I just got started with SSX On Tour (don’t worry Mark, details shall follow), but I simply MUST buy any Civ games that are released. Seriously, it’s like a law or something.

Did I mention that Lisa was in a car accident a couple months ago? I see I did. You’ll notice that was back in August. Lisa finally has the minivan back. If only it had been totaled…

The Odyssey’s hood had been collapsed, which means lots of bodywork with little internal damage. At least, that’s what you’d like to think. But once a vehicle has been hit, it’s rarely ever the same. With the accident occuring on a Friday afternoon, parts being on backorder, and Labor Day creating a short week it was something like 3 weeks to a month before we even got to take it to the shop. I don’t even remember what the delays were once they had it, but we didn’t get to pick it up until the middle of last month. And then it died.

That’s right, it died the night Lisa and I were rushing off to see Franz Ferdinand. It shuddered a bit on the way to her job, and then refused to start again once there. All sorts of wacky stuff going on – the dashboard would blink like crazy just by opening a door. This was not a dead battery or a bad starter, but something electrical seemed to be toast. So they tow it back to the shop and proclaim, “IT WAS OUT OF GAS!”

Uh, no way. Half a tank of gas does not go in 4 days of limited use – even in today’s economy. But the mechanic insisted, much to the irritation of one Lisa, that she had let the tank go dry. So, after fixing a headlight that was also faulty, they cleaned her up, put half a tank of gas in, and… let her die. She was leaking like… like a minivan with a very leaky fuel line or something (don’t you just love analogies?) At least it died on them, and not while Lisa was on the Parkway. Plus it left us smug and vindicated!

After fixing some switches and such, we finally brought the car home last week – albeit a tad shakey. So yesterday it went back to Honda for some more work. Just a routine oil change, but the tires were also unbalanced – which caused the shimmying and whatnot.

There’s still a bit of a smell, and Lisa is getting her… road legs… back. But at least our household might have somewhat of a return to normalcy – in other words, I won’t be driving all over this dman state all week long anymore.

If anybody actually knows what the title is a reference to, just ignore it. Highly inappropriate. But I forgot to mention that I renewed my license yesterday. Not a bad experience at the DMV, but the timing for the picture was horrendous. I was going to go two weekends ago – showered, clean-shaven, wearing a nice shirt (the aforementioned greatest shirt ever) for the inch of collar that appears – but couldn’t figure out what ID I needed since apparantly a current photo driver’s license from New Jersey isn’t worth crap even to them.

So thanks to my schedule it came down to the last day of the month (on which my license expired). And in I trudged – scruffy, hair sticking out, dreary eyes, and some boring shirt. Oh well, I can live with the results for 4 years – it probably matches my everyday look more accurately. Lisa thinks I look cute but she’s… biased. Hey, at least I’m smiling.

It cracks me up, though, that this “new and improved” license now features a blurry, discolored picture of me on a bad day – very secure. I guess it’s still better than that cheap piece of laminated crap that was easier to forge than my high school ID I used to carry around.

Yeah, I’ve been busy. Work has been pretty hectic and the home front has been rather full, too. Since Lisa’s minivan continues to have problems (more on that later), I’m still waking up earlier than usual even on days I’m off. That’s left me with little sleep and barely any time just to relax. And now we’re going through another seasonal change. Add this all up and what do you have? It’s beyond just being a little rundown, I’m pretty sure I’m sick. Since popping pills (Tylenol Cold & Allergy Sinus Relief… or at least the Target equivalent) at night alleviates some of this, I’m pretty sure there really is some kind of bug running through my system.

Total lack of decent free time hasn’t been the only reason I haven’t been writing. Actually, I’ve had plenty to say and enough time to say it. But I’m so hung up on trying to find time to design and open the replacement site that I’ve postponed just posting things here. Not that it really matters how frequently I update, but in addition to keeping some people informed of my life (Hi Laura!) the very exercise of writing daily has improved my style and ability. When there is a big gap – as with this past month – the strain can be frustrating as I try to get back into the flow.

So, no apologies here; this is my site afterall. But I am hoping to put more effort into the things I really enjoy, which includes this site. Ugh, I’m still just doing the typical blog bumbling here while trying to get myself restarted. I’ll just shut up now, get back to my movie (In Good Company – definitely enjoyable), and hopefully get some sleep tonight.

I just got this e-mail from my sister Christine:

A friend just informed me about this and I thought I should pass it along. Now you can see anyone’s driver’s license on the internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it was. . .
picture and all!!

I removed mine. I suggest you do the same… Go to the web site and check it out. Just enter your name, city and state to see if your license is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked “Please Remove.” This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement databases.

Go to: License Database

I have to admit that this one got me. I totally bought it, and I’m usually very skeptical. I guess I just needed a pick me up this morning.

I’m sure I’m not the first to break the news (ah, yes, already Slashdorked), but that doesn’t take away from my excitement that OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been officially released today. Sure, it’s a tad lame that this excites me, but I think it’s a cool product. I use it at home, and if not for the decades of info at work we’d have to convert I’d love to switch to it there.

So everybody get cracking – we’ve got download servers to crash!

What a performance! Franz Ferdinand has been my favorite band of this whole Post Punk revival thing ever since my friend Heather first spun them for me way back whenever. As soon as I found the CD in a store it entered heavy rotation in my car – the kind where I don’t even bother swapping it out after the first (or sometimes second) listen. It just kept going and going. And, much to my delight, the second CD is pretty damn good, too. But I really didn’t expect them to be as amazing live as they were last night at the MSG Theater.

Actually, the entire evening blew me away. Even the first opening act, Cut Copy, was pretty cool – enough that I’ll be checking them out. After them, however, TV on the Radio came out and blew the audience away. I already like the couple song of theirs I had heard, but wow! They were such a brilliant combination of noise, funk, soul, and rock I couldn’t stop tapping my feet.

Then came Franz. I was a little nervous because the first couple songs seemed a little low on energy – I don’t think the were mixed well. But once they broke out with “Do You Want To” it was a non-stop musical frenzy. Not only were the songs fantastic, but these guys know how to put on a show. It was a mixture of your typical live rock improvisations, cool lights, a stage design befitting post-punk modsters and regular crowd interaction. Most of their two albums were played, and by the end I was just amazed at how they continued to top themselves. After one song in the encore included three guys bashing away on the lone drumset, they managed to pull out a stunning rendition of “This Fire” to wrap it all up.

Now I’m just waiting for my chance to see the Killers, the Bravery, and Bloc Party. Just call me a wannabe hipster…

This was supposed to be my day to sleep in. Lisa picked up her minivan from the shop on Thursday, which meant she could drive herself to work for the first time today. Unlike the last three weekends, I didn’t have to get up by 8 AM, drive her to the school, and then head over to do some work of my own. So what happens? The doorbell rings at 7 AM – hardwood flooring installers for the landlords. Do you have any clue just how loud that kind of work is? When it’s being done on the floor above you?

Don’t get me wrong, my landlords are very considerate. I think we were very lucky to find this place. And when it comes down to it, I know they had a fairly cold winter last year, so all of the renovations they’ve been doing this past week are very necessary. Still, my luck just stinks these days. I’m hoping tomorrow I get to sleep much more, but with the way this last week went, I need all that I can get.

This story is actually a week old. It kind of makes me ashamed of my blogging that it takes me a week to tell the tale of the little froggie.

Late one night last week, Lisa and I did some shopping. During that trip we purchased some escarole for the piggies – they love it, and it tends to be cheaper than romaine and some other greens. The next morning, I head off to work without a thought of this rather mundane activity in my head. Around 11 AM or so, Lisa calls me. She found a frog in the head of lettuce.

That’s right, she found the tree frog pictured above inside the escarole. This little guy had traveled from some farm to A&P (or was it Shop Rite?) and then sat in our refrigerator overnight before finally being liberated just before his piggie fate had been sealed! And, even more bizarre, he poked his head up and showed signs of life almost immediately.

That was definitely one of the most bizarre phone calls at work. As usual, Lisa gre attached to her new founf friend very quickly and called me later to tell me more about our “new pet.” But a trip to the pet store started adding up quickly, and she soon decided to donate him instead. Luckily I was able to visit him on my way home – yes, he was very cute.

But because I accidentally took the 1GB flash card with me, Lisa was only able to take a couple pictures. Which will lead into my next post nicely…

Okay, not literally. It’s not like anyone died or anything (knock on wood). And considering the nonstop disasters encircling the globe these days, my crappy three-day weekend really doesn’t rate. Nevertheless, I feel like I’ll be stuck in one wicked funk for a couple weeks as a deal with a whole lotta crap at work and at home. And this weekend was a terrible kickoff.

Saturday I tried to do some work, but a power failure the night before left me with a lot of stuff to take care of before I could even start my weekend tasks. After picking up Lisa from her new job and grabbing some Chick-fil-A to cheer myself, we got stranded all over New Jersey thanks to the storm. Of course that was the second time that day I got stuck in the wrong parts of this crummy state thanks to the rain. So the weekend started with a thud.

Sunday started with some limited work before heading out to a realtor in the first step towards figuring out when Lisa and I can start looking for a house. Most of that went well, but watching the Eagles be absolutely humiliated by the Cowboys chipped away at what little happiness I had managed. I even bailed early on the game deciding doing work would be better. Sadly, it was.

But coming home led to the discovery that not one, but two of my hard drives are failing in my server. That’s 450GB of storage (oh yeah, and data) that’s about to go down the tubes. Yee haw! And to top it off, this morning I found out that they are out of warranty. More credit card debt is on the way!

You’d think I could at least relax on my Monday off, but instead I’ve been trying to do work that should have been finished weeks ago for tomorrow morning. And tomorrow morning I’ll be heading into work about 3 hours earlier than usual. And since I’ve been so restless today, I’ll probably be up late working on these documents. Joy to the world – this month can’t end fast enough.