Another week, another update...
Feb. 25th, 2005 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikeknSo, when last we spoke I had a few things to work on and a few things planned. Let's see how it worked out...
I managed to get through most of our taxes last week. I still can't submit them because I'm waiting on one form that is always late (for Schedule K-1). It never negatively effects our taxes, so I at least know that we're getting a decent refund this year, but not an amazing one.
Got the comics ordered; just over $300 worth this month. Mind you, that's a group order for 10 people (but it's also the discounted price, not retail, so it's still a lot of comics). Because of the size of our order we got another 11% discount - which doesn't suck.
I even managed to get some cleaning and laundry done :p
Last Thursday I visited one of the local beer distributors, The Beer Yard, to see what interesting stuff they may have. I completely lucked out and was able to pick up a case of the Dragon's Milk beer I mentioned last week, plus a nice German Sour ale. Interesting difference between them, with one being 10% alcohol and the other around 2.7%.
That evening I worked on some EK History stuff. Did a few look ups for people, need to do a few more this week.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kathy_the_geek helped my inventory a few more newsletters, but we couldn't load them onto the website. I needed to update some code since the EK server move (thanks alphaggek for the help there!).
Friday was gaming night - sweet, glorious gaming :) We had a good sized crowd of gamers and non-gamers, some new faces, including nearly complete strangernotshakespeare, who fit in well with the group. rarcke and neoparn brought along a newbie to the SCA (even though she arrived before they did...). From the LJ crowd we also had: singewulf, beckishadow, sansobel, mare_in_flames, kathy_the_geek, vonbryan and maybe some others...
I got to play some Fluxx and Settlers of Catan, both of which are always cool. Didn't try any new games - maybe next time (just need to figure out when next time is...)
Sunday we putzed around the house some, then went over to Iron Hill Brewery with Sabatina to hear them announce the winners of the War of the Worts and get dinner. They were still doing some of the judging when we got there, but Amy was able to pick up our score sheets before we got seated for dinner. It was interesting to read through some of the comments, especially when comparing them to my opinions of the various brews. Meads and ciders were broken into three different categories for rankings. My Grimalkin Metheglin took first place in one, and my Riesling Pyment took third in a different category. I'm happy for the pyment one since that is my favorite right now, and I was surprised by the metheglin because it's flavor is so very "different". Most of the feedback I got was in line with my own impressions, but now I want to try and make some of these again to see how I can improve them.
Sunday we visited our friends Paula and Kevin to help celebrate their kid's birthdays. I brought some games along but there really wasn't enough room to play anything. Later in the evening we did get a short game of poker going. I met one of their neighbors and popped over to see his "man room" - basically the room where he keeps all his Star Wars toys. Oh my! He's got a ton of stuff, not just the figures and toys I had as a kid, but movie props, custom made costumes, etc. We need to have him meet our friend Rick, who is another big Star Wars fan. He and his wife have an interest in SCA so we may be able to get them out to an event or practice in the future.
Monday I had off, so I just relaxed around the house. Watch the first two episodes of the new Battlestar Galaticia series. Read some comics, played some Warcraft. Didn't get much done, but I was glad for the quiet time. After Amy got home, we went out to try and rent the next Alias disk, but no one carries it yet.
Work has been pretty busy recently, which is ironic because things have been slow enough the last few months, that Mark needed to rearrange our work setup. Up until now (and through the end of this month) I've either been a full time or half time salaried employee of his. But because of the lack of work during the end of last year, we've been bleeding money so I'm going to switch to a consulting basis. I've still got a half time job with Spectrasonics, and it might, someday, switch to a full time job, but for now it doesn't look that way. Hopefully I can make enough doing the consulting thing to make up for the lost regular paycheck. If not, then I'll need to seek out a different full time job - and that would suck royally.
Tuesday I signed up for Blockbuster Online's movie rental thing (basically Net Flicks, but a little cheaper - not sure how the selection compares). Put the missing Alias DVD in the queue. Didn't do much that night, popped on to WoW from time to time, watched some TV, relaxed.
Wednesday evening I put aside for seriously playing WoW (like actually trying to do quests and stuff as opposed to just visiting the auction house...) Had a fun evening - didn't get all the quests done that I wanted to, because one of them turned out to be a long travel quest (run here, fly there, take the boat over there...)
Thursday I was supposed to go to NYC for work, but opted to not risk getting stuck somewhere in the snow. We got the Alias DVD in the mail, so we watched all four episodes back to back. It's really going to suck when we catch up and have to wait a week or more between cliffhangers. We also watched yesterday's episode of Lost which was pretty good.
Now the question is, do we keep the Blockbuster membership, or do we cancel it during our two free weeks? We've got two more DVDs on the way, but I've taken everything else out of the queue.
Tonight is dance practice. Not sure if we're going or not. My mom wants us to come visit and help her install a chandelier and curtain rods. Saturday there is an Archery clinic that I want to go to, but I've not heard back from the host with directions. Sabatina is going to do some brewing that afternoon, so we're going to join her for that. Sunday my sister has invited us to go to brunch with them
And for those of you who read through all this (or just skipped right to this), a list of 10 things I've done that you probably haven't:
1. Driven for 26 hours straight to go to an Anime convention (Project A-Kon, Dallas TX)
2. Operated an EEG / EP machine during spinal surgery.
3. Visited Emperor Norton's grave.
4. Had a needle puncture my eye.
5. Gotten Timothy Leary to sign a piece of medical testing equipment called the Grateful Head.
6. Written heat seeking missile code for a Mac Asteroids clone (Star'Roids 7.0 - we decided the enemy space ships needed better weapons).
7. Received an offer to buy a christmas card from Charles Manson (the card was from Manson, not the offer).
8. Been the best man at my father's wedding.
9. Assisted in medical testing on animals.
10. Beaten Steve Jackson in a game of Get Nifty! (but I had help)
I managed to get through most of our taxes last week. I still can't submit them because I'm waiting on one form that is always late (for Schedule K-1). It never negatively effects our taxes, so I at least know that we're getting a decent refund this year, but not an amazing one.
Got the comics ordered; just over $300 worth this month. Mind you, that's a group order for 10 people (but it's also the discounted price, not retail, so it's still a lot of comics). Because of the size of our order we got another 11% discount - which doesn't suck.
I even managed to get some cleaning and laundry done :p
Last Thursday I visited one of the local beer distributors, The Beer Yard, to see what interesting stuff they may have. I completely lucked out and was able to pick up a case of the Dragon's Milk beer I mentioned last week, plus a nice German Sour ale. Interesting difference between them, with one being 10% alcohol and the other around 2.7%.
That evening I worked on some EK History stuff. Did a few look ups for people, need to do a few more this week.
kathy_the_geek helped my inventory a few more newsletters, but we couldn't load them onto the website. I needed to update some code since the EK server move (thanks alphaggek for the help there!).Friday was gaming night - sweet, glorious gaming :) We had a good sized crowd of gamers and non-gamers, some new faces, including nearly complete stranger
notshakespeare, who fit in well with the group. rarcke and neoparn brought along a newbie to the SCA (even though she arrived before they did...). From the LJ crowd we also had: singewulf, beckishadow, sansobel, mare_in_flames, kathy_the_geek, vonbryan and maybe some others...I got to play some Fluxx and Settlers of Catan, both of which are always cool. Didn't try any new games - maybe next time (just need to figure out when next time is...)
Sunday we putzed around the house some, then went over to Iron Hill Brewery with Sabatina to hear them announce the winners of the War of the Worts and get dinner. They were still doing some of the judging when we got there, but Amy was able to pick up our score sheets before we got seated for dinner. It was interesting to read through some of the comments, especially when comparing them to my opinions of the various brews. Meads and ciders were broken into three different categories for rankings. My Grimalkin Metheglin took first place in one, and my Riesling Pyment took third in a different category. I'm happy for the pyment one since that is my favorite right now, and I was surprised by the metheglin because it's flavor is so very "different". Most of the feedback I got was in line with my own impressions, but now I want to try and make some of these again to see how I can improve them.
Sunday we visited our friends Paula and Kevin to help celebrate their kid's birthdays. I brought some games along but there really wasn't enough room to play anything. Later in the evening we did get a short game of poker going. I met one of their neighbors and popped over to see his "man room" - basically the room where he keeps all his Star Wars toys. Oh my! He's got a ton of stuff, not just the figures and toys I had as a kid, but movie props, custom made costumes, etc. We need to have him meet our friend Rick, who is another big Star Wars fan. He and his wife have an interest in SCA so we may be able to get them out to an event or practice in the future.
Monday I had off, so I just relaxed around the house. Watch the first two episodes of the new Battlestar Galaticia series. Read some comics, played some Warcraft. Didn't get much done, but I was glad for the quiet time. After Amy got home, we went out to try and rent the next Alias disk, but no one carries it yet.
Work has been pretty busy recently, which is ironic because things have been slow enough the last few months, that Mark needed to rearrange our work setup. Up until now (and through the end of this month) I've either been a full time or half time salaried employee of his. But because of the lack of work during the end of last year, we've been bleeding money so I'm going to switch to a consulting basis. I've still got a half time job with Spectrasonics, and it might, someday, switch to a full time job, but for now it doesn't look that way. Hopefully I can make enough doing the consulting thing to make up for the lost regular paycheck. If not, then I'll need to seek out a different full time job - and that would suck royally.
Tuesday I signed up for Blockbuster Online's movie rental thing (basically Net Flicks, but a little cheaper - not sure how the selection compares). Put the missing Alias DVD in the queue. Didn't do much that night, popped on to WoW from time to time, watched some TV, relaxed.
Wednesday evening I put aside for seriously playing WoW (like actually trying to do quests and stuff as opposed to just visiting the auction house...) Had a fun evening - didn't get all the quests done that I wanted to, because one of them turned out to be a long travel quest (run here, fly there, take the boat over there...)
Thursday I was supposed to go to NYC for work, but opted to not risk getting stuck somewhere in the snow. We got the Alias DVD in the mail, so we watched all four episodes back to back. It's really going to suck when we catch up and have to wait a week or more between cliffhangers. We also watched yesterday's episode of Lost which was pretty good.
Now the question is, do we keep the Blockbuster membership, or do we cancel it during our two free weeks? We've got two more DVDs on the way, but I've taken everything else out of the queue.
Tonight is dance practice. Not sure if we're going or not. My mom wants us to come visit and help her install a chandelier and curtain rods. Saturday there is an Archery clinic that I want to go to, but I've not heard back from the host with directions. Sabatina is going to do some brewing that afternoon, so we're going to join her for that. Sunday my sister has invited us to go to brunch with them
And for those of you who read through all this (or just skipped right to this), a list of 10 things I've done that you probably haven't:
1. Driven for 26 hours straight to go to an Anime convention (Project A-Kon, Dallas TX)
2. Operated an EEG / EP machine during spinal surgery.
3. Visited Emperor Norton's grave.
4. Had a needle puncture my eye.
5. Gotten Timothy Leary to sign a piece of medical testing equipment called the Grateful Head.
6. Written heat seeking missile code for a Mac Asteroids clone (Star'Roids 7.0 - we decided the enemy space ships needed better weapons).
7. Received an offer to buy a christmas card from Charles Manson (the card was from Manson, not the offer).
8. Been the best man at my father's wedding.
9. Assisted in medical testing on animals.
10. Beaten Steve Jackson in a game of Get Nifty! (but I had help)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 05:26 pm (UTC)Is Emperor Norton's grave of much interest, aside from his Emperorship?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 05:38 pm (UTC)The grave itself is pretty unremarkable, although the tombstone does list him as Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 05:43 pm (UTC)BTW, my speech sucked.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 05:47 pm (UTC)Glen (notshakespere) is an old friend of Deni's.
Damned small world syndrome again...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 07:23 pm (UTC)Don't know, but maybe. I had cataracts removed when I was five, which was way before laser surgery and stuff. I was, of course, not awake for it, so I do not know what the surgical procedure was.
Probably a scapal rather than a needle, now that I think about it. Or do they just go in through the pupil?
I think I'm going to shut up before I squick either of us any further. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-25 07:43 pm (UTC)As a result of the needle, I did develope a cataract. My understanding is that they normally remove the lense and replace it with a plastic one. The only cutting is on the surface of the lense to get access to the cataract. For various reasons they never put a replacement lense back in on me.