On the way into work earlier this week the ‘Rolla rolled past 196,000 miles. The camera app on the iPhone took just a couple of seconds too long for me to snap a pic at 196,000 miles even. I am going to try to capture pics of the ‘Rolla hitting 197k, 198k, 199k and the covetted 200k!
laterz
And I know what you are thinking (maybe):
A) What were you doing with ‘purple’?
B) Why didn’t you just make more using a little ‘blue’ and ‘red’.
C) What the fsck is ‘purple’?
Imagine if you will that you have had a shitty week and you have been looking forward to hanging out with some friends at happy-hour on Friday, particularly since the previous week’s happy-hour was absolutely spectacular (which should be said loudly, slightly latin accent like ‘SPEC-tac-U-lar’). You are greeted by your friends and start talking about recent events and how you are doing. And as you sit down and settle in, the waiter comes by for a drink order (having noticed fresh blood at the table, ie good waiter). One of your friends orders for you and says “He will have the purple.”
When the drink comes it looks kind of like a purple frozen margarita. You taste it and think, “ummm, could be tequila, but tastes like something else.” You drink a little more, sucking down about half the glass and then ask “Is this tequila?”
Answer: “Nope, Everclear. And not the weak stuff, the good stuff.”
I believe there can be only one appropriate response to this, “Sweet. Hey waiter, I’ll take another.”
Happy-Hour with Eric, Audrey and Stacey was fun. Gina showed up late, she had to wrap up a couple of things before she could leave the office. Of course, by her showing up late, I mean she showed up later than me. I had to run to Pflugerville to get meds for Norbert (pain meds and some anti-biotics), so I didn’t get there until about 6pm. I believe happy-hour started at 5pm.
I wanted to another purple (ie numero tres) but that time never came, I had to take a couple of phone calls and that must have been when the waiter was coming around for drink orders. After happy-hour, Gina and I hit Rudy’s for some BBQ. As I was eating, I am fairly certain that it is a good thing I did not have a third round of purple.
But having woken up at 5:20am this morning, that kinda sucks. In general I can only sleep about 7-8 hours at a time. If I am sick or you know sufficiently inebriated then most definitely can sleep beyond the usual timeframe. I am a little fuzzy on when I fell asleep, but I am think it was between 10:30pm and 11:00pm.
I think I am going to play some video games, my Saturday morning conference call is at 9am today.
Oh yeah, so last weekend, we left my car in the parking lot of the Alamo Drafthouse from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. I wonder when we will retrieve the ‘Rolla from the parking garage outside of Baby A’s.
laterz.
I figured a big loaf of bread deserved a BIG picture on the blog here. This loaf was created using twice as much dough as I normally use for a loaf of bread. I was originally thinking about giving it away, but Gina said that it wasn’t allowed to leave the house. I think that it is definitely a good size for sandwhiches.
Back to the grind.
Laterz
That is a sort of what it sounded like at about 8am this morning in our backyard, there was some swearing that followed that as well.
The red mark is the aftermath of a tree limb thwacking me in the forehead this morning. The storm that blew through town last night and had us hunkered down in the guest bathroom has claimed one of the dead trees in the backyard. It had fallen over on the fence and I wanted to move it before it had a chance to sit there all day, potentially breaking the fence as they day went on.
The red mark was much more pronounced this morning, but I didn’t have a chance to mess with my laptop webcam until lunch.
As you can see the tree has fallen back onto the fence, those green leaves you see on the left are from a younger tree (maybe 2 years old) that got tangled up in the dead tree as it fell. I speculate that the younger tree’s limb was being thrown about by the strong winds into the dead tree and finally knocked it over.
You can also see, where the one root has been pulled up. From looks of it the tree twisted counter-clockwise while it fell as the root was actually sitting in the sort of dark line that starts at the left edge of the pic frame and moves on a jagged diagonal up to the hole where the tree once stood.
I managed to push tree up and off the fence and push it towards the shed. The picture below that is of the empty hole and what remains of the stump in that hole. (additional tree pics)
I will need to grease up the chain saw and cut this bad boy into much smaller pieces, bundle it all up and leave it on the curb this weekend. I hope that I can get it done early in the morning, else I might die, given that it is supposed to be 100+ degree out this weekend.
Back to the grind.
Laterz
Just doesn’t have the same ring to it as, “Bad Moon Rising” but all I could come up with at the moment.
I just baked what looks to me to be one of the most beautiful loaves of bread I have baked just far. (I have taken pics, but I need to upload them still.)
I have made a couple of dozen loaves of artisan bread now and feel like I am getting the feel for what a good artisan loaf looks like. Have started experimenting as well, trying to get a feel for what you can do, outside the regular recipe.
I have experiemented with adding more whole wheat flour to the dough, I like it, though Gina only like the white bread (unbleached all-purpose flour). I have even gotten a little adventurous, we had a spare jalapeno and some shredded cheese in the fridge, so I whipped up a half batch of dough and made some Jalapeno Cheese bread. It turned out pretty well.
The Jalapeno Cheese bread turned out well enough for me to ask the folks in the office if they wanted some. I got six takers. In retrospect, I should have whipped up a double batch of dough, but I managed to stretch the full-batch of dough into six loaves (I gave Jeremy the smallest loaf).
I got a few compliments and no complaints, so definitely a good sign in my book. When I was originally taking orders, Eryn asked me if “Is this for profit?” I had not thought about charging my coworkers, though I have thought about trying to perfect a few breads and maybe, just maybe trying to get into a farmers market.
I think I could easily get $3-5 a loaf. I mean for the loaf of bread I just baked I definitely think $4 would be a fair price for a GOOD sized artisan loaf. I think that a decent size loaf of Caraway Rye would go for at least $5. And I am certain that the Jalapeno Cheddar bread could snag $7 for a big loaf and $4 for a small.
Jeremy is planning to delivery some fresh basil from his herb garden, meaning that I will be doing a thing of herb bread this weekend.
After all of the excite of the storm this evening, I am beat. I think I am going to try to read a little then go to bed.
Laterz.
The tough economy hit home this week, there were some layoffs in the office this past Wednesday. I won’t get into the particulars, but needless to say I will definitely miss a couple of the folks around the office. It is a tough fact of life and business.
At the previous company I managed to survive several, several rounds of layoffs. Early on, I could be heard on occasion responding to the question of “What is your goal here?” with “To be the longest running Simplified employee.”
As it turned out, that was not the case. I was hired by my current employer before the rest of the folks that they hired out of Simplified. But in regards to my immediate department, I was the last. I have to say that the week has been a bit of a blah one. I fairly certain that I will be back to my normal self next week.
On a side note, Gina and I were out shopping (oblivous to the BAD storm that was rolling into the area) and were suprised that the store was closing at 8pm. Normally shops are open to 9pms on weekdays. One of the other shoppers was also QUITE surprised as well and inquired as to when this change (and subtley asking WHY).
So rather than cut staff, the retail chain took the approach of closing all the stores an hour earlier. While the folks that get paid hourly will feel the crunch in their paycheck, the positive aspect is that they are still receiving a paycheck.
I really need to do a longer post on this, definitely will as I get more details, but I am going to be volunteering my time with TechRanch as they help to promote Entreprenurship in Cedar Park. I am excited (and a little nervous) about the opportunity, I definitely will have the chance to learn some new tricks and finally get out and about into the community. I also volunteered to be the Volunteer Team lead for the upcoming ProductCamp:Austin.
Ok, well looks like it might be safe to vacate the bathroom (storm has died down).
Keep you posted.
laterz
So the weather here in Cedar Park is no bueno at the moment.
Gina has rounded up all the animals, the two rabbits (Nortbert and Zoe), the bird (Jasper) and the pups (Buddy, Emma, Curly and Basil). To be honest, the guest bathroom is feeling a bit like Noah’s ark. We heard some nasty sounding hail about 10 minutes ago. We had a quick dip in the power for a second, not enough for everything to actually go dark.
The radar is showing that there is likely a funnel cloud up there in the general area, hence the fact that we have hunkered down in the bathroom (being the interior room with no windows). I am going to contact a roofer after this and see if the roof has been damaged.
The radio just made an announcement about the storm, from the sound of the announcement the storm is south of us now. I just checked the Weather Underground and it looks like the storm is pretty much south of us right now.
We are going to hang out for at least another 20 minutes and then see venture out, see if there is any damage. All the animals are taking the little field trip here fairly well, with the exception of Basil who is always a little tweaked.
From the date that my old Mavica placed on these pics, the year was 2001 and the month was September. Sandy Williams, the mother of Ricky Williams had brought in his Heisman. I was working at Simplified Development and took the opportunity to take a few quick snapshots of the trophy.
I also was permitted to take the trophy home overnight. Yup, that is the trophy sitting up on my (old) fireplace mantle. I remember that I hung my keys on his outstretched hand, but doesn’t look like I snapped a pic of that. I mean, if I had won the trophy, that is what I would do. Just being honest.
(The stuff on the left is from my trip to Taipei, on the right is my yo-yo collection and it’s Kenny from SouthPark.)
And last but not least, the pic that made me think about writing this little post. Yup that is me, wearing my beloved Baja and hold the Heisman, doing my best to imitate the little bronze man who I am at this point am holding like a football. (Well, sort of.)
Back to the grind.