E's journal thingy

Jan 2007 updates

Some new pictures in the picture gallery.

I've started posting some things in my livejournal. Mostly my friends do not really read here (just family, from the looks of it) so I think some posts are more relevant to the people who do read LJ. This is not to slight anyone.

I may actually move posting over to LJ full time. If so, I'll put a clear notice here with link.

Stuff of late

I guess there is a lot going on lately. Despite this, I haven't had a lot to say.

We finished work on Colin's new (temporary) room and moved him into it. It's a nice, small, snug size. It would probably make a good play room when we are done with all of the changes. Redoing kiddo's old room is going to take a lot more time and effort, though.

Chelle's dad and I built the new retaining wall. I'm pretty happy with it. I might try to put up a picture here.

Big nothing

A new Big Lots store opened nearby, in Homestead. Yay!!

Well, not really. I've seldom been this disappointed, actually. I think the store at Century III Mall is bigger, and has a much better selection.

Darn it!

better

And suddenly, things calm down. Or I do.

Worked at least one of the pissing off things out with responsible party, and it was an important one. Evening with Colin was fantastic. Sometimes when he's sick it's hard to see, but when he's well again (or in this case, even just recovering, since his meds started Wednesday), he's a totally different person. So happy and alive. Makes me feel the same. Even though he didn't seem especially tired, after we read his bedtime stories he wanted to go right into bed and asked me to turn out the light.

Bleargh

Right now I feel pissed off at everyone.

Realistically, I'm not. But a bunch of people are in there. Unfortunately, at least some of them almost certainly don't know who they are.

nothing much

Nothing much going on. Sorta bored.

Steelers won today. Unlike most weeks when I've watched, they played really well. I guess it could be said that the Bengals just totally lost it in the second half. I'm just happy that my watching (parts of) the game didn't hex Pgh into losing.

Colin's going well. It occurs to me that though we'd speculated about it earlier, Colin's only recently hit the "terrible twos." I think that's sort of good though, since it implies he'll grow out of some of his current, more extreme behavior.

Playing "Castlevania: Curse of Darkness" on the Xbox. Not bad, not the best ever. Fun, at least, which is what matters. I'm thinking of going back to City of Heroes / Villains if I can find the latter cheap (most likely at a closing Media Play). But it feels sort of good also, to be "free" of the MMO leash. No level grind. Don't have to play tonight to get my money's worth.

Thought about maybe selling part of the Transformers collection. I don't know. For the most part it is just taking up more and more space. But collecting is a hobby that I really enjoy, and I'd miss it if I didn't do it anymore. It wouldn't be the same to just hunt for new things but never to buy them.

VVoohoo

The last volleyball night of the year was pretty darn good. My play was exceptional. Being "on" for things like sets and spikes is great of course, but my blocking was just awesome tonight. The good feeling of tonight should carry me through 'til next year just fine. :)

Hyundmmm.....

It occurs to me that, even though they didn't start out that way, Hyundai seems to now be trying to bootleg the looks of other car manufacturers.

The new Tiburon looks like a Celica.
The new Santa Fe looks like a Rav4.
And the Elantra 5-door does a really good impression of a Saab.

40+

Now have finally passed the 40+ pounds lost since exercise / not-really-diet have started last year.

WIN

homemade pancakes + cinnamon Country Crock (no syrup) = YUM

Mental notes on paper

1995 summer - sublet
1995 - 1998? - Beacon
1998? - 2000? - Fred's
2000 - 2001 - Beechwood
2001 - 2005 - home

Need ?s

Remove outdated concepts

I really hate daylight savings time. Just totally throws me for a loop twice a year.

Only now I have to deal with it messing with Colin too... since he's usually on a pretty rigid schedule of food and naps and such.

Can we just get rid of it? Indianapolis suonds better every year...

Cold head

The other day while I was driving to work, I saw someone standing, waiting at a bus stop. He had a shaven head. His head was covered only with one of those headband things that's meant to cover your ears. But it's intended for you to like, you know... have hair too.

Sure his ears must have been warm and okay, but uh... yeah. I hope you can see what I am getting at here.

Huh

Looks like I lost another 5 pounds (total: 25 since gym start) while I was sick, and did not work out.

Maybe I burned all that energy with stress (over Colin being sick); by eating less. I actually have no idea.

I mean, it's nice, but maybe I need to shop for some new pants now.

Numnum

It occurs to me that two of my favorite deserts lately are from Eat 'n Park.

Pistachio whip, and grilled stickies a la mode.

My mother was visiting and we ate at Eat 'n Park, and I got the desertsalad bar. The pistachio whip is awesome and I proclaimed it to be so. My mother asked something along the lines of how one might make it. I boldly proclaimed that I believe it to be equal parts pistachio pudding, and Cool Whip. Simple, no?

But the grilled stickies a la mode are something else. The hot and cold combination is just perfect (assuming you get them at one with a good chef). Kinda like that failed McDonald's sandwich, only really good. But I keep not actually getting them because whenever I go lately, I get the salad bar and I fill up on that...

POKEMON causes cancer!!!

Some people are just out of touch.

But see for yourself.

Argh

I keep thinking of all this stuff about which I want to write, but I am either nowhere near a computer, too busy to use the computer, or at work (where I'm not allowed to write).

Then when I get near the comp again, I have no recollection of all the multitude of stuff I wanted to put in.

STEELERS WIN BY INCREDIBLE STROKE OF LUCK

That's what the sports headlines should say today, at least...

Aaaaaaaaaa

I feel like total crap. Seems like I am insomniac lately.

Total @#$%!!@@

Mm.

If the scale at the gym is to be believed, I didn't gain any weight over Thanksgiving, and actually even lost some since I last weighed in there.

Uh

Okay, I admit this is the first presidential election in which I have voted. Cut me some slack.

So why the !#%!@# aren't the results in yet?

Something new

I just got my gym membership card for the place near work.

I feel healthier already!

Green is distinctly different from black

I am going to have to stop asking for "black pepper" on my subs when I order over the phone.

It is pretty sad when you tell someone something like this (and even say it more than once) and they put #$%!%^^@# green peppers on your sub.

Come to think of it I'm not sure if they know what crushed red pepper is, better not risk it. At least they get garlic right.

I know I know, lowest common denominator and all that, but still.

Aww Yeah

They're putting a Big Lots in what was originally Hills, then Ames, nearby Burlington Coat Factory at Century III Mall!

It's our anniversary!

And Chelle probably thinks I forgot! Well, I didn't, of course.

Not like she ever actually checks here :) So there is no chance she'll see this.

... mutter...

Forgot half of what I wanted to rant about.

Mostly work. Not sure how much I should go into here but if you work with me and you know something that is lacking, well get a move on, because you aren't doing your job. And I hate Windows XP, and hope to never touch it again after this small project.

Hate the faulty memory almost as much as I hate the things I wanted to remember to be mad about.

Edit: Oh yeah. Last night while eating dinner I bit my tongue, possibly the worst I've ever done that. Hurts like mad.

Also was in need of a shave, at least on the neck part. Incredibly itchy = frustrated throughout day.

And I don't Dew windows

Longtime readers may or may not know that I am a longtime fan of Taco Bell. Taco Bell is of course one of the restaurant chains formerly owned by Pepsi. TB also seems to get some Pepsi items ahead of the pack or such, sometimes. For example, Taco Bell got Mountain Dew Code Red not long after it was released.

Well, now TB has a new soda flavor that's actually exclusive to it -- not even available in regular stores! Probably a good reason for that though. It's some kind of "Baja" Mountain Dew. The stuff is sort of green... let's call it green-teal. And it tastes like... well... what color liquid would you combine with Mountain Dew (yellow) to get green? That's right, you would add something blue. This crap tastes like window cleaner or something. It's horrible.

Ziggin' Zaggin'

Couple of random observations lately.

The Gold Company or whoever runs the Pgh buses anymore has this thing where they pick some sort of theme of words and plaster it all over the buses. Like some of the buses say "Go" all over them in a few different colors. Some say "Movin' Shakin'" which isn't even that bad. But I don't get the ones that say "Ziggin' Zaggin'." That's about the worst you could advertise for a mass transit system. Hey man, our buses are all over the friggin' road!

We were at Kennywood this last weekend. Didn't really end up riding much, but we got the highlights (Phantom, Pitt Fall, Exterminator) in early before the lines got big. Rode the "new" ride, Garfield's Nightmare. This ride sucked. It's basically the same thing as the Old Mill but with a fluorescent Garfield theme, and nonworking 3D glasses. And of course since it's "new" the line is huge. But the ride is so dull. Actually I liked the old Old Mill better. We ended up riding it most every year, because it was pleasant and the line was never too long.

Paranoid Conspiracy Theory #2

Fast food restaurants who provide free drink refills are making their straws more narrow so that people will drink less.

Actually this one isn't quite so paranoid unbelievable for me; I think it's really the case.

Anymore when I go to Taco Bell I have to get two of their straws to get the normal soda throughput.

Popeye's is the one remaining bastion of free drink flow through single straw.

Paranoid Conspiracy Theory #1

This is the first in a new line of paranoid conspiracy theories of mine. I don't necessarily believe them, but they're random things that occur to me.

Here's this one:

Fast food restaurants' condiments are chemically formulated to only taste good with food made by said fast food chain.

Think about it. If you've ever tried using, say, Burger King BBQ sauce with a McDonalds' hamburger, it doesn't quite taste right. Taco Bell's taco sauce doesn't really taste good on anything else, not even other tacos that didn't come from there.

Ahhh

This was a really nice day.

Early in the day, Collo took a nice hour and a half long nap and woke up incredibly fresh and happy.

Weather was perfect, mildly warm and breezy.

Popeye's for lunch. One of my favorites.

Got to see Jen Hancocardillo one last time before she moves to Providence.

Fun at Wildwood Highlands (though didn't get to play Laser Tag).

It doesn't get much better sometimes.

Finally!

Very minor point, but one of my long unprayed prayers has been answered! Yes, Wal-Mart now offers a 2 liter of caffeine-free, but non-diet soda!

Unbelievable but true!

Urge to move, rising

So I can't seem to sleep. Darn heat. I hate it being this hot.

Whatever happened to those two seasons, you know, spring and fall? Where the temperature is mild and there is often a nice breeze. You remember those seasons, Pittsburgh?

I want my spring and fall!

I think I want to move somewhere where it never goes above 70 degrees F and below 50 degrees F. Does such a place exist? Eastern US preferred currently but not required, I guess.

The score so far...

Keep in mind this is all based on personal experience and opinions. You ought to know that already, but there you go.

Church with the most comfortable pews ever: Seven Sorrows, Middletown/Harrisburg (padded seats, so nice)

Church with the least comfortable kneelers: Seven Sorrows, Middletown/Harrisburg (the "flat" parts seem to be built at the wrong angle so the edge digs into your knees)

Church with the most elitist summer policy: Seven Sorrows, Middletown/Harrisburg (if you're wearing shorts or sandals, you're not welcome)

Had to be said. Thanks :)

What's up lately

Lots of stuff going on lately, so I don't have much time to write in here so much.

Like I said before I am in the City of Heroes beta, and that's taking up a bit of my time. It is hard to juggle baby and beta time but I think I am doing okay in that respect.

I have been watching a lot of movies on DVD. I upped the Netflix subscription to having up to 5 DVDs out at once, but I think it's just too much -- I seem to be more obsessed with watching movies so that we can get more out. I put it back to the default, up to 3 out at a time, as I think it will relax me more. I might some individual movie reviews, but probably not. S1M0NE -- very good. GHOST SHIP -- very bad, and a knockoff of EVENT HORIZON (which is the most $!%!^!@#'d up movie I have ever seen).

Two snack items I've recently tried: Lay's Stax (Pringles knockoff) (BBQ flavor) and Sour Skittles, both of which are incredibly good. I had a moment where we were in Wal-Mart (one of the big ones with the groceries) and Colin's mom went to the bathroom, so naturally (being unsupervised) Colin and I headed to the snack/soda aisle. This is a dangerous place for Colin's dad as he doesn't really know when to stop putting the stuff in the cart. This is why he doesn't tend to go to the snack aisle anymore at all; better sometimes to remove the temptation altogether than to try to resist it once it's out. E is proud to say he didn't eat the entire can of Stax in one sitting, at least.

Just put up some recent photos of Colin and related people. Colin's aunt and cousins came to visit and some pictures were taken. The primary purpose of the visit was to go skiing at Hidden Valley :) which was tons of fun, but Dana, T-Bone and Kitkat had never met Colin either, so it was a nice time.

Worst week ever

Hopefully we just used up all of our bad karma for the coming year or something. Totally crappy week.

Sunday, Chelle's having horrible coughing, she is diagnosed with bronchitis.
Tuesday night / Wednesday, Chelle and I are incredibly sick. Seems to have been a 24 hour flu.
Tuesday overnight / Wednesday, furnace dies completely.
Friday, flood of water in basement, clogged sewer drain. Probably what caused the prior flood too where a bunch of stuff was damaged.

ARGH.

Dear @$$#013 drivers

To the aforementioned parties:

Learn how to drive. If there is a stopped bus or whatever ahead of you, and it's a two lane road, do not blindly follow the moron in front of you who went around the bus, because there's more than likely someone trying to come the other way. Don't be a sheep. Pay the !#%! attention when you're driving, especially in crappy weather, and don't be such an idiot.

We look forward to your improvement.

Sincerely,
The Management

What have we lost?

Just sorta ranting about a bunch of personal crap, I guess.

They are loving it or something

Who on earth thought this was a good slogan?!

bleah

Early Xmas list

Evanescence: Fallen
Activision Anthology (PS2)
Simpsons Hit & Run (PC)

Looks

I've been doing a bunch of messing around with the stylesheet for this site... changing individual aspects one at a time, seeing how that looks, seeing how it interacts with all of the other elements. The default styles for Movable Type have all these interwoven elements that depend on other things. It's pretty interesting, but at the same time it's pretty confusing. And most people probably can't tell the difference. :)

Sigh

How ironic is a spammer that spams you to tell you about anti-spam software that will stop spam?

Hey you

Scott should really move back to Pittsburgh.

weekend

Pinburgh seemed pretty successful. I did not play at all. Seeing the scores in all the divisions, I figured my money was better spent elsewhere, for the most part. :p

The trip to Paul's CDs was a good one. Five CD's for $60 is hard to beat. I purchased some CD's by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds; the new Karl Hendricks Trio; a Tortoise CD chosen at random; a Morphine album I didn't have; and a The Sea And Cake CD I didn't have. Well, obviously I didn't have any of them before I bought them, but some of the choices are just that. "Hmm, I like this band, and I don't have this here album. So I will buy it."

So far the Nick Cave album is doing the most for me, with the Tortoise album second. I am thankful to the helpful person working at Paul's. I asked if he had any familiarity with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He responded yes. I was looking for something more along the lines of The Boatman's Call than Nick's other albums. Recommended was No More Shall We Part. Good recommendation. :)

Tortoise is (at least on this album I got) an instrumental band, somewhat light rock almost bordering on jazz. It's just plain enjoyable.

I was disappointed that I couldn't find the Last Great Liar EP I wanted or anything by Icebreaker, but them's the breaks.

Nothing really new to report about baby.

Random crap

This weekend is Pinburgh. I will be working there some and also hopefully playing some.

C goes in for another NST today, hopefully this one will be pretty mild. She seems to do better at the NST's than she does at the regular OB appointments.

I am way overdue for a trip to Paul's CDs in Bloomfield, so I think I'll head there after work. Karl Hendricks has a somewhat new album out; I want to check for the Last Great Liar EP I don't have; I've been meaning to pick up some Tortoise and Icebreaker; and I just like to look for anything new that I might have missed, by my favorite indie bands. I usually come away from Paul's with at least 5 CDs. Fortunately these are Indie CDs that have nothing to do with the RIAA. Evil RIAA. Am I rambling yet?

Uh... yeah.

stupidity reaches new bounds

Holy crap

The new Super Wal-Mart built in the West Mifflin / Century III area is the most ginormous single store I have ever been in, ever.

PennDOT sucks

Driving from Pittsburgh to Erie (approx. 120 - 130 miles) we encountered road construction no fewer than six times.

AFJ

Our niece and nephew, as well as parents-in-law, have been visiting and I have not had much time on the computer. Playing mostly GTA: Vice City in the small amount of time I have on the comp.

Bad joke

I have to start a comic strip or maybe write a movie or something with a character named Holly. Then Holly has a double and they get into some competition and each claims to the other to be "Hollier-than-thou."

Luser

64.85.227.206 (astound-64-85-227-206.ca.astound.net) has been banned from the land. Oh yeah. No tolerance for the stupid. Also he's caused me to turn off comments. I guess if you have something to comment, e-mail it to me directly.

Careless people suck

I think it was the garbagemen who hit the utility pole, but I am not sure. Image included.