A beautiful and relaxing weekend in July

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Joel

So my new thing is to avoid doing any work on my weekends and free time.  I have this guilt that I should always try to do more, but it’s not good for me long-term.  The weekends are there for a reason, you know?

On Saturday, my parents came over to help with the landscaping and general garden work at our house.  We had BBQ for lunch where I grilled….. chicken and hot dogs! I have to get better at this grilling thing, because the hot dogs burned a bit.

In the evening, we went to wholesale club shopping, because we were out of stuff like diapers.  I’m always amazed and saddened to find lots of families shopping on Saturday nights at the wholesale club.  Amazed that people are shopping at the wholesale club on a beautiful Saturday night.  Saddened to find myself shopping there as well, when we should be out doing something spectacular.

On Sunday, we had church, some minor errands to run, picked up new sandals for Lily, lunch, and then the pool.  After the kids went to bed, my wife and I watched about half of that 2008 Definitely, Maybe movie with Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin.  Barf. Who writes this stuff?

Man, great weather this weekend, and I’m glad we got to enjoy it.

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Baby Mama (2008)

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Joel

I hate to say I’m enjoying our free 3-month trial of HBO and Cinemax, but I am.  We are not going to keep them, but I will miss them when they are gone. I’ll miss such easily ready access to movies, especially the ones I wouldn’t even put on my Netflix queue, such as Baby Mama.

Baby Mama is one of those movies that I’m not against, but it doesn’t pass that threshold of interest to get me to put a lot of effort into watching it. Even though I like Tina Fey a lot, sadly, the effort we’re talking about is adding it to a virtual queue with a few clicks, opening the mailer a few days later, and putting it in the DVD player.  Sad, isn’t it?  26 years ago, did we not have to have to get up to change the TV channel?

Tina Fey’s character suffers from the dreaded ticking biological clock, and wants a baby.  She has difficulty conceiving in-vitro, so she hires a surrogate service, and that’s how Amy Poehler’s character comes into the picture.  Amy Poehler and her “common-law” husband, played by Dax Shepard, are the white trash types to add the comedy, resultin the ensueing hilarity.  Other supporting cast members are Greg Kinnear, Sigourney Weaver (who was actually funny in her scenes), Steve Martin, and Maura Tierney (total waste of her time.)  Oh, and the requisite slew of SNL former cast mates.

It wasn’t a bad movie.  It was okay.  It’s more chick flick than anything.  It had its funny moments, but not as wity as maybe Mean Girls, Tina Fey’s previous outing.  You could probably assess it right up there with the rest of the chick-flick comedies. There were certainly a number of times where Tina and Amy are just riffing against each other, and some of them were humorous.

Kate Holbrook: So… How long have you two been together?
Angie Ostrowiski: We met the summer after I discontinued high school, and we’ve been together ever since.
Angie Ostrowiski: He never officially asked me to be his wife but he never asked me to not be his wife either so, things are going pretty good.

This is a movie that is worth watching if it’s already on, your butt was already glued to the couch, and you caught it at the beginning. Sorry, Tina.

Baby Mama (2008)

Baby Mama (2008)

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Willis Haviland Carrier is the man

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Joel

First off, I thank Willis Haviland Carrier for inventing air conditioning in 1902.

Our central air conditioning system is working again. The repair guys came Friday afternoon. They found two problems:

  1. We were out of freon coolant, or specifically, “Refrigerant 22”. To replace, it cost us $4 per ounce, and $270 for replacing 4 lbs. of the stuff.
  2. Our air filter was filthy, which I hadn’t been replaced in years, as I didn’t know how or where. If I had a manual……

So yeah, whatever.  More refrigerant, replaced air filter (which I ran out and bought from Home Depot), labor, and taxes.  The house is comfortable again.

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New Uncharted 2: Among Thieves gameplay footage

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joel

I’m so looking forward to picking up this sequel when it is released this year.  That HIND helicopter looks like it is going to be a pain in the butt. Yes, the game actually looks like this. The original was so much fun.

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Green Lantern: First Flight

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Joel

Movie_GreenLantern-FirstFlightGreen Lantern: First Flight, a direct-to-DVD animated movie, is coming out July 28th.  I’ve already added it to my queue. Movie trailer looks great, and good voice cast too. Lending their voices to the film will be Christopher Meloni (Law And Order: SVU) as Hal Jordan; Victor Garber (ALIAS) as Hal Jordan’s nemesis, Sinestro; Michael Madsen as Hal Jordan’s alien mentor, Kilowog; and the lovely Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) as Green Lantern Corps member, Boodikka.

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Why I nearly had an Verizon-related aneurysm today

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Joel

To get all caught up, read this. Now for the weekend. As a reminder, the week of June 29th, Verizon promised to have a new fiber optic cable buried underground later that week.  Then about two days later, they called me to inform that they couldn’t be out there earlier than July 13th, and yes, I need to be home for them, 8am – 5pm. Now, continue below.

  1. On Sunday, I thought to myself, if the cable-burying guys are the same as last time, they won’t come into the house.  Doesn’t a tech have to come too?  I called tech support and they confirmed that I was right, and there should be a tech present.  The rep schedules one, but won’t provide an exact time.  He will just come along at some point in the day with the cable-burying subcontractor.  Why does the customer have to remind Verizon what they need to do?
  2. By 4pm, I’ve seen nobody from Verizon, and it’s just an hour to go before quitting time at 5pm. Calling again, the Verizon folks couldn’t tell me if they came or not. That’s right.  After holding again, the rep told me it was scheduled for tomorrow (July 14th.) And they had no idea what time a tech should come out – again estimated 8am-5pm. Tomorrow?  It’s been July 13th for two weeks, and now it’s another day?  I’m supposed to change my schedule again for them?  Furious with him, the rep backtracked, and recommended me to call the subcontractor directly to complain. Do you know who he gave me?  Regular (non-FiOS) Verizon Billing and Sales. And they didn’t know anything about the contractor.
  3. I later discovered the cable-burying folks did the work at some point over the weekend without needing me to be home, because the cable I saw over the weekend came from underground.  Why was I told to be home in the first place?
  4. Still, the folks in Dispatch (the DRC) confirmed they could only send a tech out to connect me at the earliest on Tuesday.  There was no way I was taking another day at home.  My boss would kill me. What happened to working until 8pm like the installers?  They said installations are different. For techs, the cutoff time is 5pm.  If I can’t change my schedule, it will have to wait until the weekend. I really complained at that point, absolutely furious.
  5. The dispatch center called back, and offered to try for the weekend. I said sure, and they would call me back by 5:30pm. BTW, they never called.
  6. Unbelievably, the same Verizon tech who came out to do repair work last Tuesday July 7th rang my doorbell at 6:15pm.  The Dispatch center called him last second, and sent him to my house.  I was glad, but see rule above about not working past 5pm.  It’s the rule, eh?
  7. After a brief scare, the new underground cable works.  The tech cleaned up, and left around 7pm.

Seriously, my wife said it best.  I almost had an aneurysm today. God strike me down if I’m lying, but these people are out of their collective f#*king minds.

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It’s getting hot in heeere, and I’m takin’ off my clothes

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Joel

Geez, it was hot in the house today.  I was working from home today, waiting for Verizon to show up all day, and no central AC. I opened every window in the house, hoping for the fabled “cross-ventilation”, working in the dining room, with a fan positioned 2 feet from my face.

With the downstairs hot, the upstairs is naturally an oven.  It’s been so hot that I can’t even use my PC, as we’ve been receiving warning messages from my NVidia video card within the PC that it was slowing down to compensate for the heat.  According to what I saw on the temperature monitor, it’s been about 135 degrees in the PC case.  I figured that wasn’t good.  There was probably too much accumulated dust in the case, plus the circulation under my desk has never been good with that stupid crow’s nest of wires everywhere.

Monday night after my parents left, I moved my desk a few inches to the right, cleaned out the PC chassis, and redistributed the wires to power strips on either side of the desk.  This way, I get more air circulation, and hopefully lower temperatures. With all of our troubles, my wife wouldn’t take well to finding my PC turning into a molten metal, and burning through the floor into the living room below.

I took a screenshot tonight, and so far, so good. I did see it reach 109, but it dropped after that. It appears to be holding at around 100 degrees or less.

NVidia video card temperature monitor

NVidia video card temperature monitor

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June and July 2009 photos posted

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Joel

Ya see, I’m catching up.

I’ve posted June 2009 and July 2009 photos.  Highlights are Nicholas’ baptism, Premod & Ishk’s wedding, the Kurians coming to visit, and the grea inaugural Ipe BBQ.

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The day the central air died

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Joel

So yeah, the central air conditioning appears to have heaved and died.  It’s been between 75-77 degrees in the house today, and it feels hot!.  Stuffy is more like it.  We last had the system serviced in 2006, but I’m hoping it’s not too serious.  I will have to call a few places about getting a diagnosis, but I don’t know when I can get someone this week to come to our place. I’ve already got both Verizon and my parents coming over sometime. Monday.

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We got ourselves a BBQ grill

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Joel

Stupid BBQ grill.

I don’t consider myself an expert, but I think I’m decent and sufficiently manly enough to put stuff together.  Maybe it’s from all those GI Joe toys during my formative years, who am I to say?  It continued with desks, bookshelves, bicycles, etc. I finally met my greatest challenge — the Kenmore Liquid Propane Gas Grill, model number 415.16127800.

I’m glad I didn’t attempt to put it together Saturday evening, as it was not a 90-min job.  I  spent approximately seven hours on Sunday afternoon in the backyard doing my best to put that thing together, spewing popular profanity, and inventing some choice new ones that generations will be using for centuries to come. Seven hours.

My sister and brother-in-law decided to come over that evening for a BBQ dinner, so now the pressure doubled.  When they arrived, my BIL was able to help with the last 45 mins of the endeavor.  In the end, we vanquished the beast, and then grilled hamburgers upon its corpse. Grisly pictures below.

Seems innocent enoug

Seems innocent enoug

The pieces

The pieces

How many pieces?

How many pieces?

Coming along

Coming along

Still coming along, but with help

Still coming along, but with help

Part 6

One grill ready to go

If were done, why do we have extra pieces?

If we're done, why do we have extra pieces?

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