Thursday, March 28, 2013

2013.03.25 Monday

Another typical work day, but stayed a bit late again.

Worked on some fun stuff at home.  Kelc worked on some home movie stuff.  Also played some Tf2.  My days are pretty simple.

2013.03.24 Sunday

Slept in, because you know... weekend. Cooked up some breakfast for the broski.

I spent some of the morning playing some games, while still trying to ignore the fact that my next computer is somewhere out in the world not getting the proper amount of attention.

Cleaned up the kitchen area, then logged in to get ahead on some work.  Also able to watch some Doctor Who while doing that.  Eventually got tired of that, and switched over to some PBS channel, and they were playing a series of NASA related shows.  VERY AWESOME.  Kelc tried to get me to go to trivia.  Hmmm... feel stupid and not contribute to the team for trivia, or watch awesome footage from when we went to the moon.  Tough choice.

Kelc came back home from trivia, and I convinced her to do a late night grocery run.

2013.03.23 Saturday

Played games and picked up around the house while Kelc slept in some from her overnight shift.

Went for a walk to talk to neighbors and confirm that nobody had received my package by mistake.  Nope.

Kelc was up, we watched some Breaking Bad and cooked up some picante chicken.

Brothers came over to hang out.  We watched some ncaa basketball and chatted.  Went to dinner at Jersey mike's subs, which is delicious.

A friend/acquaintance I haven't seen in a long time, Will, came over to hang since he was in town.  We played some Cards Against Humanity, eventually Crystal came over and joined in.

Wrapped things up, bed time.

2013.03.22 Friday

Work.  Lunch outing to Donn's bbq. Yum.

Ended up working semi late, but that wrapped up a good week

I get home, feeling pretty good and ... no package.  Check the UPS tracking..."delivered".  I beg to differ, UPS.  Ended up walking around the neighborhood looking for it.  Nope.  Ended up having to file a claim for a lost package.  My mood turned pretty grumpy for the rest of the day.  Knowing that a business can just decline the claim, and I lose all that money.

Tried to play some tf2 and not think about it too much.

Watched some breaking bad with kelc before she went in for a night shift.

2013.03.21 Thursday

Slept in a bit today. Felt great.  Doesn't feel great that this isn't the end of the week though.

I worked a normal day.  Kelc worked a normal evening.  Not much different than other days for me, just games and Doctor Who in the evening.

2013.03.20 Wednesday

Hail woke me up in the middle of the night.  First of all, that sucks.  Second, what in the heck? It's like 50-60s in temperature, and late March, and we are getting hail.  COME ON NATURE.

Besides the broken sleep causing drowsiness, the work day was pretty quiet.  Not sure if everybody is gone because of the storm last night or what.

Did some general pick-up around the house.  Picked up the mail.  Swapped out the receiver and speakers in the living room. Cooked up some chicken. Watched Doctor Who.

Wrapped up the evening playing some TF2, felt rusty.

2013.03.19 Tuesday

Normal work day.

Met up at Pluckers with the guys.  This is Sir Kalen's second-to-last time to go, for a long time.  Next time will be the wall of flame challenge.

Went over to Brick House to join in some Geeks who Drink trivia with Habs and Seth and Sam+1.

2013.03.18 Monday

Normal work.  Home earlier than usual. Yay.

Trees are dropping leaves like no other. Raked some up, again.

Goofed around a bit, then went to HEB for groceries.  While I was walking in, a guy was walking out quickly with a basket packed full of beer.  An HEB employee ran up to him and grabbed the basket.  He kept walking and didn't break eye-contact with the horizon, then once he was around the corner, took off running.  Everything happened so fast, but I realized that he was trying to make a beer run.  Man, that's just wrong.  I actually thought about running after him, but it's not like he got away with anything, he just tried to be a dick.

Back home, watched a Doctor Who episode, then bed time.

2013.03.17 Sunday

Spent today with Kelc.  Started off with some errands (bank, petsmart).  Picked up a cat-tree that just barely fit in my car.  Had to drive with a window down.

Headed out to the lake house to pick up family tapes so Kelc could start a project that she had been putting off for a while too.  Picked up some Subway along the way, got to hang out with Kevin (surprise, he was in town).

Back home, watched some Breaking Bad, then met up with everybody at Mesa Rosa to celebrate Celeste's and the waitress's b-days.

Finished up Breaking Bad, then snooze.

2013.03.16 Saturday

Woke up and did some more yard work.  Winter was not kind to me, and let a good chunk of stuff invade.  Some visitors stopped by for a bit.  Then more yard work.

Watched a couple Doctor Who episodes, and started Vim Tutor, an electronic walkthrough to get started with Vim.  Vim is a text-editor.  It has a steep learning curve.

Decided to spend my evening working on the LED project that I had been putting off for a while.  Made a lot of good progress, but ran out of materials.  Also decided that I should really make the time tearing apart the car a bit more effective by putting the sound deadening material at the same time.  Now I need to shop for that.


2013.03.15 Friday

Triple Breaking Bad this morning.  Score.

Consumed the pot roast that had cooked over night.  It is delicious.

Kelc and I decided to let Kitty outside unsupervised.  I was pretty nervous about this, especially since Kelc was leaving for work, and I saw Kitty jump up the fence.  Luckily, she came back.

Took a little trip to Home Depot for some gear.  I found some galvanized metal that I cludged together to fix the feet of the grill that I have been working on.  I think I can now finally call it finished.

Spent a little time clearing out some weeds in the yard.  Then went inside to relax the remainder of the day.  Decided to buy a computer, finally.


2013.03.14 Thursday

Already wrapping up the work week, feels great.  Good to know I accomplished a good chunk of work, and also didn't have to take much vacation time from the vacation trip over the previous weekend.

Goofed around at home.  Insomniac Ray came over to hang out.

Started up a slow-cooker beef pot roast, just onions, potatoes, carrots, beef, and a smidgen of salt, pepper and water.

Watched some Breaking Bad with Kelc and called it.

2013.03.13 Wednesday

Back to work like normal.  Stayed late.

Once at home, up a little late with Kelc watching Six Feet Under, Korey stopped by to take a shower since her place had no running water.  Not a whole lot going on today.

2013.03.12 Tuesday

Slept in a bit.  So glad I took off an extra day around the trip.

Eventually logged in to work from home, able to get a chunk of work done (except for the cat pee and cleaning I had to do).

Evening rolled around, and it was time to header over to Pluckers to hang out with friends.

Back home, Kelc and I watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad.

2013.03.11 Monday (New Mexico)

Woke up nervous, but less so than Saturday.  Invited out to breakfast but I declined because I wasn't feeling well.  We made a quick trip to Frontier instead.

We were ahead of schedule, but the car was blocked into the parking spot by a big truck doing something with sewage that smelled pretty bad.  This made me a little more nervous, but not terribly so. Instead we spent some time at the library/bookstore on campus.

Dropped off the rental car, shuttled over to airport, went through security, then arrived at the gate... to wait.  We had a chunk of extra time.  And this time around we were much higher up in the boarding line.

Flew to Houston, which felt substantially longer than the other flights.

With our layover in Hobby, we stopped by an airport restaurant to see an old acquaintance, Oscar.  Lots has happened since the last time we hung out.

Waited around a while, then flew to Austin.  Hopped of the plane right next to Ruta Maya... there we said hi to Ruth for the people we met in Albuquerque.  Crazy world.

And of course, we had to enjoy some good Austin eats, Thunder Cloud for dinner.

Kelc and I went to go pick up our bags and ... nothing.  Cool.  We had to talk to a Southwest luggage agent to track them down, and schedule a drop-off at home.  The layover in Houston should have been plenty of time to load it up, but when we thought about it, that plane pulled in, unloaded people as fast as possible, then reloaded people, then took off.  Guess the luggage is sitting elsewhere.

Shuttled over to the hotel, then a quick drive home.  We vegged out with a couple episodes of Breaking Bad, then bed time.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

2013.03.10 Sunday (New Mexico)

Woke up for the tail end of breakfast.  Mmm waffles.

Watched TV most of the day, just sat around, relaxed.  I watched a couple of tv-movies and Kelc just read.

Into the afternoon, we noticed the time... got dressed quickly, headed over to the hotel where the wedding was held (we think).  The area we were heading to was in like a downtown area, but didn't seem like parking lots were full, streets weren't busy, and nobody walking around.

Once we got our bearings, we arrived right on time.  Short and sweet wedding.  The amount of people there was smaller than I imagined in my head, but it made sense to me when I started thinking about it.

Cocktail hour.  I sipped on some vodka tonic and nibbled on some finger foods.  At some point, the young ones found some swords and started running around battling everything.

We sat down for dinner with the pastor and his family.  Somehow I got skipped for soup.  (The wait staff was a tad askew.)  For the speeches and introductions, Nick's dad came out in a Darth Vader costume and the imperial march.  Pretty funny.

Wrapped up dinner, then headed out to the dance floor to get things rollin'.  Kelc and I had to pull people out onto the floor.  If you know either of us, that should sound weird to you.  Some dude threw a glass onto the dance floor and put a break in the partying.  The open bar was pretty nice touch too.

Tired, bed time for Kelc and I.  Road trip time for most of the wedding party.  Yeah... they limited their energy exertion so they could start the journey home.  Crazy.

2013.03.09 Saturday (New Mexico)

Most of the preparations for the journey were done last night, but I still had some last-minute things to do.  And of course, I woke up before my alarm and was a bit worked up about getting everywhere on time.

Kelc drive us to the hotel, I didn't feel good most of this morning.  From the hotel, we caught the shuttle to airport.  We took the new security line they opened up, which was very short, but off in the corner.

We were early for our flight by a fair margin, which is good and not good at the same time.  Kelc ate some breakfast, I sat there feeling crappy.

Quick zoom over to Dallas Lovefield airport, Southwest's major hub.  Wasn't there for very long, then zoom over to ABQ.  The pilot actually had to try twice to land here, because there were sheer winds throwing off his approach.  I could tell people around me were getting nervous, I was already there the entire time yo.

Picked up our rental car, quick few-minute drive over to the hotel.  The room was nice, but didn't have a fridge or microwave.  I'm spoiled.

We spent the afternoong in "old town", a kind of touristy market place.  There we stopped by a few stores, then to our main goal, the rattlesnake museum.  There they had all kinds of poisonous creatures.  Some were cool, some not.

Headed back to the hotel to relax a bit, then get dressed for our upcoming dinner plans...

A Murder Mystery Dinner!  It was pretty fun, but more like a semi-interactive play while being served a meal.  The setting for the play was in a restaurant, and obviously one of the characters die, so the audience gets a paper to write their guess down, potentially winning a prize.  The meal they served was pretty good, and the people we sat with were very cool.

Back to the hotel, tired, watched some SNL.

2013.03.08 Friday

Woke up fashionably late.  I decided to check and see if I could remote-connect to work, but I'm still having to do it a cludgy way since IT broke something.  Grrrr.  Used some time to clear up a bunch of messages and get things organized.

Next on the agenda is cleaning the house some.  Within a week, we have hair clumps floating about.  Maybe a roomba wouldnt be a terrible idea... maybe.  The house isn't that big/unmanageable.

Next, washing dishes that have piled up.  Then shower.  Then HEB for some groceries.

Back home, played some games with Hasbro.

Kelc arrived at home, we made a quick trip over to Hasbro's to drop off something, then I went to go get a much needed haircut.

Back home, preparing for the trip and updating my blog.

2013.03.07 Thursday

Hit a sweet spot in traffic this morning, got to cruise near the speed limit the entire time and hit most green lights.

I was able to hit some milestones at work that I didn't think would have been possible.  It might not be pretty, but it gets the job done.

Home late, Kelc also home late, watched some Breaking Bad again.  After which, I went to go play games while she went to sleep.  Weekend baby yeah!

Friday, March 8, 2013

2013.03.06 Wednesday

Slept in a tad this morning.  Feeling a little funky again.  I'd really like to know why, but everything looks fine.

Long day again.  I enjoyed some leftover Jason Deli for dinner.  Played some TF2 while eating, and into the night.

Kelc arrived, we watched some Breaking Bad, then sleepy time.

2013.03.05 Tuesday

Got in to work on time for a change...then left work later than I wanted to.

On the way home, I felt like complete crap.  Picked up chik-fil-a for Habs and I, and just laid there while the food was getting cold because my body is not happy.  We watched some Tosh.0 on his sweet new cable setup, that helped get my mind off things.

Played TF2 for a bit.

Cooked up Kelc some dinner. Watched Breaking Bad.

Late bed time.

2013.03.04 Monday

Started the week strong by being disconnected from all of my work.  IT, you will pay for this...but probably not.

Worked a longer than usual day; just felt like getting stuff done.

Home, simple dinner, played some games then went to bed.

2013.03.03 Sunday

This morning was focused on a house cleanup.  The animal living among us is very good at creating and releasing hair.  Somehow that hair ends up in my face at random times throughout the day.  Bleh.

Did some laundry, watched tons of Dr Who, and did some work that I know will be needed and loved in the near future.

Kelc came home, we watched most of Pitch Perfect.  The Blu-Ray that Netflix sent had an almost crack going through most of a radius.  I didn't notice until we were halfway through the movie and it was just frozen completely.  We ended up skipping a handful of chapters and watching the ending.  There are a ton of one-liners from the movie... that I suspect the general population would not pick up as a reference.  Other than that, just another happy-funny-competition movie.

2013.03.02 Saturday

Slept in some, then went over to Lowe's.  Picked up some more things for the grill, and a florescent light fixture for the garage.  The first thing I did when I went back home was installing the light fixture.  The part that made it more complicated than it should have been was the electrical junction box being the wrong direction by about 90 degrees.  I ended up using the toggle bolts I picked up as a "just-in-case" solution.  Go me.  The first hard part was trying to figure out where to drill some holes for the toggle bolts.  I ended up have to use a stud finder to mark where the joists were, with the goal of just avoiding hitting one, then I eyeballed it...while up on a ladder trying to hold the fixture up.  Whatever, it's a garage fixture, right?   Drew some marks, then drilled some holes, move along.  Unfortunately the toggle bolts were kinda crappy, so after you punch them through the hole, only one leg would pop up. Go me.  Anyways, once the base of the fixture was secured to the ceiling, the rest of the installation was a snap.  (Pay no attention to the dents and scratches.)

Spent a little bit of the later afternoon finishing up what I could with the grill.  I picked up a couple bolts that needed replacing.  Now I just get to wait for the remaining parts to arrive.

Spent a good chunk of the evening doing a computer case swap.  If you have never done one, it's tedious, and pretty much a complete disassemble and reassemble with the hopes that everything still works perfect after you completely broke it.  I had to take notes for some of the cabling I did, but everything worked after pushing the power button.  Hooray.

Time to play some games and relax the remainder of the evening.

2013.03.01 Friday

Another one of those glorious off Fridays.

I spent the morning putting together all the paperwork and plugging numbers into a website to file my taxes.  Everything is so complicated, but not, but is.

Left later than expecting, but met up with the guys at Texadelphia.  It didn't really feel like it, but this would be the last time I see Mark before his big journey across the ocean, hopefully coming back in a few months.  I expect we will keep in touch, thought not as much as when we were at work together.

Spent the afternoon and evening working on the grill.  Made some leaps and bounds in progress.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

2013.02.28 Thursday

Slept in a bit, then ran a quick errand to send off this heart monitor that I had been living with for the past month.

Work, late, home, snooze.

2013.02.27 Wednesday

The started with a Dr Appointment.  Felt like I was mostly wasting time, since all the results sounded inconclusive of anything.

Off to work, the over to a lunchtime gathering.

Arrived at home somewhat early.  The computer case I ordered had arrived.  Should be fun.

A couple visitors came over to hangout, might be a while before that happens again.  Watched some Breaking Bad with Kelc, then sleep.

2013.02.26 Tuesday

Another lengthy day. Stopped by the hotel on the way home to see how things were going.

Watched some newish Doctor Who that was on tv.  Almost like a spoiler for me, but not really.

Started a Breaking Bad episode with Kelc, but couldn't stay awake.

2013.02.25 Monday

Wow, I could not sleep last night.  I kept looking over at the clock just watching potential sleep time go away.  Feeling funky this morning, but I decided to shower up last night so all I had to focus on was packing up and driving.  The day begins...

Not much different than any other day.  I started feeling better throughout the day.

The rest of the day ended up being pretty typical.

2013.02.24 Sunday

Watched an episode and half of Breaking Bad with Kelc, then she had to go in to work.

I spent the afternoon/evening working on the grill again.

Once I started wrapping up that effort, I started getting phone calls to take.

Spent later evening frying up some bacon.  While that was cooking, I powered up the laptop to fix the wireless with Linux Mint.  Success.

Watched some Doctor Who to wind down a bit, then Kelc arrived.  Switched gears to Breaking Bad.

Trouble sleeping... :-(

2013.02.23 Saturday

Started off the day strong by vacuuming and mopping the house.  Cat hair is starting to get worse and worse.

Cooked up some potatoes for lunch, then watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad before Kelc had to leave for work.

Back to working on the grill project.

2013.02.22 Friday

Slept in today since yesterday was such a late day.

A lunch outing was planned, but by the time the vehicles were leaving I was feeling pretty bad.  Decided to stay at work and just sit around for a bit.


Ended up staying late at work too.

Kelc and I watched triple episodes of Six Feet Under, then fell asleep.

2013.02.21 Thursday

Fun lunch meeting planned for today.  Ended up staying late at work again

Used what was left of the evening to play games and eat some dinner.

Quickly zzz'd.

2013.02.20 Wednesday

Had a difficult time getting up this morning.

Good day at work.  Productive all the way up to late evening.

Home, cooked up a quick dinner.  Played some TF2, then went to get some Zs.

Kelc came home as I was drifting into slumber, and I had difficulty getting back asleep.