Category: General Nonsense

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  • Up early; to work.
  • Feel like I have the beginnings of a cold. Oh bother.
  • After work Emily and I hopped in the car and scooted down to Crofton, MD to visit my sister, her husband, and their menagerie (OK, well two cats and a dog).
  • The drive down was beautiful. I wish all of my relatives and in-laws lived to the east/south of us rather than make us drive through Ohio to get to them. There is just no comparison.
  • Somewhere in the middle of Pennsyltucky we became part of a parade as we were directed off of our road into a little town where anxious onlookers lined either side of the street awaiting what was sure to be the biggest event of the year for them. We did wave, but sadly we had no candy to throw at the kids.
  • As we hit Cumberland, MD it was time to stop for gas and a bathroom break. Cumberland is a cute little town, but it’s easy to get lost in the maze of side streets. We hit the restroom at Wendy’s and even picked up some Frosty™ Shakes (as a side note, the Frosty™ shake is what the now-defunct McDonalds shake once was. I don’t know what Mickey-D’s did to their shakes but they’re awfully disappointing now. It’s nice to see Wendy’s picking up the slack).
  • We went across the street to an old-timey gas station which was so old-timey that they had different pumps for each of the various quality levels of gasoline. Being ever so observant I didn’t notice this until I had already started pumping the “Super Awesome 20¢ More Expensive” (paraphrasing) variety. After paying (an actual human!) I drove away, enduring no small amount of ridicule from my apparently much more observant wife about the gas mix-up.
  • We arrived a few hours later at my sister’s house, were welcomed by a very enthusiastic six-month-old chocolate lab (“Reese”, get it?) and two somewhat more hesitant cats (“Joey” and “Gus”). We sat in the living room and got caught up for a while, then it was time for bed.

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  • Up late; to work.
  • More requirements review. Also started some prototypes to test the feasibility of some of my crazier ideas.
  • Went out to Dick’s to find a backup Father’s Day gift for Dad in case my Plan A doesn’t come together. Which it likely won’t.
  • While I was out Emily made a nice dinner of chicken and corn on the cob, with Lipton Herb and Butter rice. That’s some good eatin’.

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  • Up late; to work.
  • More requirements review. Nice to do this before promising anything to the customer.
  • After work biked to 1947 Tavern in Shadyside to take part in the Beer Meetup. Lots of good beer and interesting conversation. Food was okay. Had a club sandwich that didn’t impress but was welcome after the bike ride.
  • Biked home. Getting old. Or I just need to ride my bike more often.

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  • Up early; to work.
  • Spent most of the day reviewing customer requirements.
  • Took advantage of my lack of Super Seekret hardware to walk to lunch at Uncle Sam’s, followed by working the afternoon at Commonplace Coffee.
  • Walked home to meet Emily, only to walk back and have dinner at How Lee.
  • Stopped at Rita’s on the way back to make sure that all this walking wouldn’t actually improve my health.

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  • Up early; to work.
  • Grilled up some chicken thighs with a pineapple juice and rum glaze for dinner. Had some trouble starting the grill. Propane tank is probably empty. Luckily we have a spare. Unluckily, it was also low and couldn’t get the grill hot enough to fully cook the chicken. Oh well, that’s what the toaster oven is for.
  • Chicken was tasty at any rate. Went well with some mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.
  • Spent the rest of the evening trying to un-break whatever the GNOME3 PPA did to Unity on my desktop. Finally fixed it by reinstalling libdconf. I have no idea why it worked but it did.

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  • Up early. Went to see Emily play at church.
  • Killed some more weeds in the back yard. I’m not proud of it but it had to be done.
  • Emily and I rode our bikes downtown to see Buckwheat Zydeco play at the Arts Festival. Love the free bike valet from Bike Pittsburgh.
  • Mr. Zydeco’s show was energetic and had people dancing in the park. He made many references to being brought up on the bayou and even lapsed into Creole/French occasionally. Loved his set, but was disappointed not to hear “When the Levee Breaks”. I know it’s a cover but it was the song that first introduced me to his music.
  • After consuming greasy fair fries and funnel cake we rode back home. Greenfield Avenue is quite a challenge now that I don’t ride up it every day. One of the few drawbacks of my new job.

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  • Up sort of late.
  • Took some old electronics out to Robinson for a Hard to Recycle collection. Got rid of some old batteries and an archaic stereo receiver.
  • Stopped at IKEA for lunch and browsing. I was looking for an anti-static mat for my office chair, and Emily was after a specific bookcase. We both came out empty-handed.
  • Tried looking at Office Max for my floor mat and much to my surprise they had exactly what I was looking for, and for relatively cheap. Victory!
  • Finally we stopped at REI so Emily could pick up some new sandals and I could get new running shoes. I’d been putting off getting new ones since my old ones are still technically functional, but now they’re covered in paint and various residues from household projects so now they’ve been demoted to “shoes I don’t mind getting messed up” status.
  • All that shopping left me exhausted so when we got home I collapsed on the couch and dazed for a while. I awoke to find Emily offering me her phone. Russell was on the line saying he had a spare ticket to tonight’s Pirates/Mets game. I grabbed my ball cap and went to pick him up.
  • Of course, with the Arts Festival, Pride Week, various cultural goings on, plus a Pirates game featuring Skyblast, parking was a nightmare. After nearly an hour trying various Downtown garages I resigned myself to overpaying at the stadium lot. As luck would have it, as we passed a garage a block from PNC Park that was normally presold-only a young gentleman with brightly colored flags waved us in. I got to overpay for a garage space only a block away rather than a lot space which would have by that time been essentially at Heinz Field’s front door. Victory again!
  • The game was fun. A close one, with the final score 3-2 in favor of the Buccos. The victory was surprising since the Pirates’ pitcher looked like crap all night and kept getting into bases-loaded situations.
  • After the game was a spectacular Skyblast show, with Zambelli fireworks and musical entertainment by none other than Huey Lewis and the News. I had not been aware that these guys were still touring, but it turns out they have a new album. They of course played a few selections from it, which interested no one. Toward the end of the show they busted out the hits everyone was waiting for. “Heart of Rock and Roll”, “Workin’ for a Livin'”, and “Hip to be Square” sounded great, but by the time they hit the finale with “Power of Love”,  it sounded like Huey’s voice was going. Not bad though for a man pushing 61.
  • Surprisingly enough getting home after the game was a breeze. Russell and I, upon seeing the huge lines at the elevators in the garage, decided to do the unthinkable (for those people, at least) and took the stairs up 8 flights to the very top where I had parked. This was apparently a very good move since we were able to cruise right out of the garage while those suckers were probably still waiting in the lobby.
  • After dropping Russell off I promptly headed home and went to bed.

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  • Up early; to work.
  • During my lunch break I walked over to Murray Avenue and got a haircut at Darlene’s Place. Then as it began to storm I ran over to Kristopher’s for a burger. The burger was pretty tasty, enough so that I’m interested to go back and try their deli sandwiches.
  • Went Me Lyng for dinner with Emily. The Pho Xao there is to die for. In all a good day for the part of me that’s all gung-ho about supporting local businesses.
  • Moved my beer to a secondary fermenter. Now we play the waiting game. Again.

P.S. This video is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYEgwwCYWw

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  • Up early; to work.
  • After work Emily and I walked to Hough’s in Greenfield for dinner. If you haven’t had the Cowboy Mike burger there, you haven’t lived. Also had an Otter Creek Alpine Black IPA on draft which was pretty good and went well with the meal.
  • Stopped for ice cream at the Rialto Pizza at the corner of Greenfield and Ronald (at the end of the Greenfield Bridge). Despite the claim on their sign they do not have the best soft serve in the city. So far in my book that honor goes to Weiner World downtown.

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  • Up early. Happy World IPv6 Day!
  • Found out that I may not have Broken The Build™ but just uncovered an existing bug in the build. Will know more tomorrow.
  • More research. Learning how to write browser extensions.
  • Bought some new toys, which I’ll claim are for work. One of these, one of these, oh, and one of these!
  • Grilled up some steak for dinner, while Emily made mashed potatoes. Starting to get the hang of grilling, though I think I left the steaks on a bit too long this time.
  • Fermenter is still bubbling, but it seems to be slowing down.
  • Watched Brazil, the “Love Conquers All” cut, from Netflix. Now I want to go back and see the original cut to find out what the studio messed with.