Month: June 2008

Weekendified.

Crazy weekend. Saturday morning, some friends came over, and we cleared out the bulk of the garage, then we grilled up a whole mess of veggies on the gas grill. Then, I went and ran a bunch of errands, spent a good chunk of the afternoon sorting out stuff from the garage, and took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. Had a random assortment of foods for dinner, and watched a couple episodes of Battlestar.

Sunday, played some Condemned (the first one – trying to get through it so I can start the second) hung out with Unknown & his fiancee, then came home, spent some time in the back yard tidying up the path in the back, went to dinner at some other friends’ place (make-your-own sushi with some homemade strawberry sorbet we brought), then I came home and from the end of dinner ’till midnight, put everything back into the garage. I’ve gotta re-hang the bikes (unfortunately, they didn’t mark where the old holes in the joists were, so I’m a little worried it’s gonna actually be pretty tricky…), but once I do that, we’ll actually have a LOT of space in the garage for the first time in many years.

I’m beat, though.

Insane week, though, progress-wise:

1.) The stairs are now completely rebuilt
2.) The garage has been drywalled (though not “finished pretty” – it’s “finished technically complete)
3.) The garage has been sorted and reorganized, with two full carloads of stuff getting donated to the local Goodwill
4.) The front and back yards have been cut back to a manageable state by some AWESOME gardeners, who did astonishing work for an incredible price. If you’re looking for someone to do some gardening work – even hardcore, intense manual labor-related garden work, give me a shout, I’ll gladly forward on contact info.
5.) As an early b-day gift for Ei-Nyung (part of her total b-day gift), we got a Char-Broil gas grill. It’s encouraged us to eat a radically increased amount of vegetables, as grilled veggies are DELICIOUS.

While I’ll be a little tense until the inspections happen (about two weeks from now, due to various scheduling issues), this whole kitchen/stairs/garage stage of the remodel has been pretty damn substantial, and goes a HUGE way towards making the house feel more finished.

I’ll post pictures sometime in the next few days – I’ve got photos from three weddings and home repairs to get off the camera and onto Flickr.

Crazy weekend.

Kickin’ It Old-Skool

While cleaning out the garage for the impending drywall, I happened across both the player, and the parallel port connector for my Rio PMP300. Ei-Nyung got me for this way back in the day. With its whopping 32 megabytes of storage, it could hold 10 or more songs at a time!

Astonishing!

I also found our old Creative Nomad players as well, before we hopped on the iPod bandwagon.

As much nostalgia as the PMP300 has for me, though, and as nice as the Nomad was for the time (and a much better value than the iPod for the storage), the iPod kicks the living crap out of them, UI-wise. And the UI makes such a huge difference in this case that it was absolutely worth the switch.

Still, looks like the PMP300 is still fully functional. I could either use it, or get a whopping 0.99$ for it on eBay. w00t!

Crossed the finish line

In the last three weeks, we were invited to four weddings. We weren’t able to make S&H’s, because of a conflict with S&S’s, but I figure that was alright, ’cause a.) we see S&H substantially more, and we were at their actual wedding (which was a couple weeks earlier). Then there was H&M’s, which the cupcakes were for, and tonight, C&J got married, which was awesome. Lots of friends in from out of town.

I’m really happy for them all, but I’m also glad that we’re done with weddings for the forseeable future. It’ll be nice to have a whole weekend again. 🙂

Congrats to everyone!

Privilege Meme

…I’ll just do as the rest of the blogosphere has done and bold the items that apply to me.

Step forward one step if:

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children’s books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Had or will have less than $5000 in student loans when you graduate
Had or will have no student loans when you graduate
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs*
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs*
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

I don’t think my kids will have all these things checked off, but they will undoubtedly have most of them barring financial catastrophe of some sort. There are some things I’m strangely unsure of. I know my mom went to the local community college while I was in school, but I don’t know that she got any sort of degree. I should ask. Also, while I have been on a large ship (for a trip between Germany and Finland with my grandfather and cousin), I wouldn’t call it a ‘cruise,’ though I could see other people doing so, perhaps. I don’t recall well enough to say whether it was or not.

Yeah, I had it good growing up. My parents did a lot for me, no question, and I definitely appreciate it, and hope to pass on even better to my child/ren. Part of that was knowing the value of the advantages I was able to partake in, and an appreciation for not only what we were able to do, but what others couldn’t.

BE ON FUCKING TIME

Okay. If you agree to be somewhere at a specific time, BE THERE ON FUCKING TIME.

This shouldn’t be too hard to understand. If multiple parties have agreed on a time, BE THERE ON FUCKING TIME.

If you’re not, you’re telling me that your time is more important than mine. That I should adhere to a schedule, but that you should be free to do what you want. FUCK YOU.

Short of a dramatic catastrophe, if you fail at this beyond maybe a 5-10 minute window (or 10% of the expected duration of the event, whichever is shorter), you’re an asshole. Period.

seppo