Rolling Thoughts

LOL! It's amazing ...

... what a one line e-mail will do for you.

Master of the Cauldron!!

YAY!!! The newest Drake novel in the Isles series is out in a month!!! Woohoo!!

Comment experiment

In an experiment I turned the Comments feature back on.

I had dissabled it earlier this year because my Blog was getting spammed by bots. But I stopped 'pinging' the board sites that the bots scan so I hope that they don't find the new comment-on posts.

Well, we'll see how it goes. :-)

Ugh. Stomach bug.

I hate that icki, nasty, stomach rebelling feeling. Spent a good chunk of time last night in the bathroom and did NOT make it out of bed this morning.

Unfortunately my alarm clock still went off right in the middle of a really nice dream. (sigh)

I'm gonna do it

Well, I'm taking the plunge. I called down to Huntsville yesterday and talked to the property manager for the Loft Condo I saw last trip down ... It's still available, no one else has inquired about it, and the current lease-holder is moving out anyday now. So I said I was interested in getting more info on the numbers and such. What I really meant was that I'm going to buy it :-)

Now I'm not going to be moving down there anytime soon and I can't afford two mortgages. Bummer right ... well maybe not. I asked the PM about the possibility of leasing it out as corporate housing ... just like it is now ... and he said it's a definite possibility and that the lease should completely cover the mortgage payment!
Then just to make it better I talked to my boss and told him about the whole thing and he floated the possibility of our company leasing it from me as transient housing for the staff helping set up the new facility down there! That means mainly me!!! Best of both worlds :-)

So now I just gotta wait and see how the numbers look and go from there. It would be nice if I didn't have to do a line of credit on my current place to cover the down, but if I have to that's what I'll do.

More Friends for Thanksgiving!

After last years highly successful "Stranded European Thanksgiving" I planned on making food again.

I chatted with Pete & Lisa last weekend about it and they're going to try to make it. Cost is an issue. It's SO expensive to fly that week! And Pete's still in new job mode and is thinking that he can't get the time off. Well we'll see.

And last night I talked with Allison when she was driving back from a daytrip to her mothers house. In typical Allison fashion it went swimingly bad (Allison is the only person I know who has a more volatile relationship with her family than I do) and she mentioned that she wasn't looking forward to Turkey day with them. So I grabbed the chance to invite her and Ben to mine! She said she would talk to him about it and get back to me.

It'd be really nice if they could make it. The last time Pete, Lisa, and Allison were in the same room was when I had my moving to Germany party 3 years ago.

I also gotta thank both Pete and Allison for cheering me up. Neither of them knew they did it or that I was even depressed. Thank you both for putting my relatively (now) minor problem in perspective. And thank you Rebecca for taking my back.

Is that an Elephant in your pocket?

So I'm playing Rome Total War this weekend and I just finished a mission for the Senate. As a reward they gave me a special mercenary unit ... War Elephants.

Under the Special Abilities tab:
1) Frighten nearby enemy ... makes sense. I'd run if I saw a 15 foot tall beasty looking at me
2) Animals may run amok ... Uhm, sure. If a 15 foot tall beasty wants to go there ... who am I to say no?
3) Can't hide ... like DUH! I mean just the other day I came home and wandered through the house in my underwear for 30 minutes before seeing the ELEPHANT sitting on my couch! Yeah, right!

Insomnia

Can't sleep. Clown will kill me :-(

Let me just say that knowing what the problem is doesn't always make it any easier to solve ... or understand. That's the case with Shirly. We had a huge argument this week and both pretty much came to the conclusion that we can't even be friends anymore.
I'm not real happy about this, but unfortunately you can't go back and change things.

I keep going over in my mind the events of the last 2 weeks trying to figure it out. There were some definite misscommunications between us. We each said things that weren't listened to by the other ... or to be more generous, miss-heard.

Someone long ago said that I wear my heart on my sleave. Shirly said the same thing. I wish I didn't. This might not have happened.

ROME: TOTAL WAR

Oh my gawd ...

This isn't just a game. It's as close as you can get to the real thing unless you smell the septic and iron.

One of my onagers took out 30 skirmishers in a lucky shot.
The gauls are tough-ass bastards.
Elephants.... WHAT!! OH FUCK! RUN!!!

First time for everything(Was: Flipside of the internet)

I said once that my Blog is my business and if people don't like what I write, well don't read it.

In that vein I decided to never alter my blog once I posted something. Well, there's a first time for everything.

Icky feeling

I'm feeling icky.

Probably has something to do with getting less than 3 hours of less than satisfying sleep on a red-eye flight out of California this morning. :-(

It was really nice seeing Pete & Lisa this weekend ... and the big fluffy feet warmers of course.

Shirly might have some good news tonight. Crossing fingers for her!!

Ok, gonna go curl up for a nap ... I hope.

Good friends

I'm here in Elk Grove this weekend visiting P&L.

Ever since I moved away from Cali I don't get to see my friends that often. Maybe once a year if I'm lucky.

When I do visit what amazes me is that it's like nothing has changed in the last 3 - 6 or 12 months. We settle in as if nothing has changed ... and in truth nothing of substance has changed.

It makes me hopefull about maintaining new friends if ... and when ... I move out of Maryland.

Quick Alameda update

So while I finish my morning coffee I thought I'd give a quick update on my trip.

It's been fun so far. First, I went to the wrong airport yesterday ... my flight was out of Dulles, not Reagen. So high-tail it to Dulles for me. Good thing the flight was at BFE in the morning so there wasn't any traffic and I made it to the terminal with 5 minutes to spare before boarding.

Then we aborted ON takeoff. We were booking down the runway and then they spooled the engines down. Aparently there was a brake malfunction light that turned on during the spool up. So we taxied to the end and then back to the terminal where the mechanics replaced a faulty computer. All was fine and we left ... 2 hours late. All was fine that is except that I managed to wake up Shirly. Ooops. I thought she was getting up early so I called to complain ... and managed to wake her up. On the plus side, she's really cute sounding when she's waking up :-)

So into Oakland a few hours late, get car, go to work. And amazingly enough the part I dreaded the most went the easiest.

Also! Nice suprise. My friend Cirilo is here from Japan this week!!! Great to talk to him face-to-face. :-)

Last night I went to the Albatross to catch up with some friends. Jeff was there, but Rene was in Texas and Samuel only works Sundays. I left a note for Rene to get in touch when she had a chance. I love her artwork and if I get this place in Huntsville I'd like to have some of her stuff there.

So now it's a new day. Have plans to have dinner with Nikki. Tomorrow is a late lunch with Stevan. And then off to Sac to see Pete & Lisa. It's good to have friends.

Coffee Done. Time to work.

Fortune cookie?

Shirly's: "It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end."

Mine: "You talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded."

We were both laughing at these :-) oh and the typo was on the cookie, not me.

Letters from home

I've been growing more and more seperate from my parents over the last 15 years. It really started in high school. Got bad when I moved away to university. Broke when I moved to Germany. Things recovered for a time when I moved back to the States but then got even worse.

Over that last 9 months my mother (and maybe my dad) have tried various ways to open up lines of communication with me. Never mind that I told them explicitly in my last communication what they had to do to have me in their lives ... their attempts do not match.

So today I recieve another letter from them. Pretty thick this time. I'm not going to open it. In fact I'm going to send it back unopened. I might even tear out the page in the dictionary with the word "Estranged" on it. Maybe they'll clue in. But I doubt it.

ooops. Forgot something

I got a new kitchen toy :-)

A Kitchen Aid mixer. Didn't get the pro series, but it does look really spiffy in my Kitchen. Drrrooollll.

Promises, Trips, and Dinners

New photo albums:
http://www.tumbleweed.cc/gallery/albums.php

Dinner & Cards @ Lance's
Dinner & Cards at Angie's & Mike's
Loft Condo in Huntsville(drool!!!)

Life has been good this last week. Had a good talk with Shirly this weekend and a promise resulted ... why do we always have these talks at 3am?? But it was good and spent the next day doing your normal everyday stuff ... party cleanup, napping, reading Calvin & Hobbes, Waiting period signing, 7-11 stopping, scratcher playing, pawn-shopping, architechture drooling, movie watching, movie watching(2) [IT'S MY TURN NEXT BRUHAHAHAHA!!!!]. All in a typical day for us.

Introduced one of my friends to one of Shirly's. They seemed to hit it off. Both good folk and I hope things work out between them. She certainly likes his guacamole :-)

Today has been a relax one for me. Just kicking back and enjoying a little quiet time. I started reading Memoirs of a Geisha and I'm finding that the style suits my reading tastes quite well. Very descriptive and matter of fact. I'm selecting a Drake book for Shirly to read tonight. If she appreciates that style I think she will like Drake. Tonight we might be doing dinner again. Salmon with Asparagus and caper sauce. Yumm!!!

Enough for now ....

"A promise is a binding resolution on your soul."

Hehe :-)

The Rules of Bedroom Golf
1. Each player shall furnish his own equipment.
2. Play on a course must be approved by the owner of the hole.
3. Unlike outdoor golf, the object is to get the club in the hole and keep the balls out.
4. For most effective play, the club re-quires a firm shaft. Course owners may check shaft stiffness before play begins.
5. Course owners reserve the right to restrict club length to avoid damage to the hole.
6. The object of the game is to take as many strokes as necessary until the course owner is satisfied that play is completed. Failure to do so may result in being denied permission to play the course again.
7. It is considered bad form to begin playing the hole immediately upon arrival at the course. The experienced player will normally take time to admire the entire course with special attention to well-formed bunkers.
8. Players are cautioned not to mention other courses they have played or are currently playing to the owner of the current course. Upset course owners have been known to damage players' equipment.
9. Players are encouraged to bring proper rain gear for protection.
10. Players should ensure themselves that their match has been properly scheduled, particularly when a new course is being played for the first time. Previous players have been known to become irate if they discover someone else playing on what they considered to be their private course.
11. Players should not assume a course is in shape for play at all times. Some players may be embarrassed if they find the course to be temporarily under repair. Players are advised to be extremely tactful in this situation, while more advanced players will find alternative means of play.
12. The course owner is responsible for manicuring and pruning any bush around the hole to allow for im-proved viewing of alignment with, and approach to, the hole.
13. Players must obtain the course owner's permission before attempting to play the back nine.
14. Slow play is encouraged, but players should be prepared for quicker play, at least temporarily, at the course owner's request.
15. Time permitting, it is considered outstanding performance to play the same hole several times in one match.

Memory is a tricky thing

I was driving back from the glass blowing studio today picking up these pieces when a story on NPR brought me almost to a stop ... which would have been bad on a 2-lane road in the middle of nowhere. :-)

Today is the traditional first day of school for most kids. NPR did a story on the FIRST day of school for many families ... kindergarten for a youngster.

The family in the story enrolled their kid in a montesory school. The same type that I went to. I had this vivid recall of one day when my mom dropped my off at school and left ... without the customary hug goodbye.

I've always had an incredibly active imagination. For some reason when she drove off I knew. KNEW that she'd die and that I'd never say goodbye. I immediately broke down in tears and the teachers flagged my mom down and she came back to say goodbye. She didn't die though so it was thankfully just an overly active spurt of my imagination.

... a pity that it now looks like she will die without my saying goodbye afterall. :-(

Fun weekend

Shirly invited Michael and I to a bbq party up in Fredneck on Friday and we had a really good time. There were a couple of kids that were incredibly cute and one a devil in training.

The food was yummy (especially the apple sauce) and Michael had his first daiquiri ... which was also pretty yummy.

After dinner we played some odd card game with 7 decks and a lot of math invloved. We figured out the rules pretty quick and settled in to have a good time.

After all was said and done we rolled home around 3. Thankfully I didn't have to get up early! :-P
We've got tentative plans to do it at my place this weekend when the kids are being sat with one grand-parental unit or another ... I think. Well, we'll see. Itd be a lot of fun to do a dinner again. It's been a while. Unfortunately, Michael is going to be in Alabama for the weekend. :-/

Owe you again Stevan

Good advice never goes out of style. Thanks my friend :-)

Trust

I was sent the link to a friends blog last night. This is a new friend in my life and someone that could potentially grow into a really wonderful relationship. At the very least it is someone special. :-)

The trust comes because she wrote about me in her blog and described what she was feeling/thinking during our conversations and dates. She asked me if I wanted to read it and I did, but only if she was comfortable with my reading it. She sent me the link as an answer.

Trust.

Expresso for the soul

Roast & Salad ... Fruit desert and fresh air.
Dog playing and biscuits waiting.
Movie flickering under etherial glow.
Friend held close and tender talking.

Thank you for letting me be the person I need to be.