will and emma

there must be a zillion blogs out there. nitram stumbled across will's blog and sent the link to me. will has great writing style that cracks me up sometimes. the post about the cheese is a beautiful work of prose that fully examines one cheese relationship. after lurking about will's place i began to notice a dialogue between will and emma in many of the posts. i began posting subtle comments on both blogs and then began to notice a few here at the strorgatorium. i've come to look forward to my dialogue with my new british pals. i wish i could get back to london for a few pints.

boiled egg

off to the mill now after a lovely boiled egg for breakfast (and two cups of coffee). i love boiled eggs...could eat half a dozen in a sitting if it weren't for the associated gas. no carpool this week since rms is traveling.

back to work blues...

well the party has to end sometime and i guess the time is now. sunday evening at the ass-end of a week off from work. i am proud to say that i didn't even get the laptop out of the bag or check voicemail...i'll worry about that shit tomorrow. fired up the grill to sear some burgers and sippin' on a bushmill's while it heats up.

went out to the in-law's this morning and tried to track down an electrical problem. charlie and helen both got zapped in the tub the other day (not at the same time) and i think they may have a water heater on the blink.

watched some crappy movies this weekend: the day after tomorrow (don't bother) and terminal (even worse). need a good fix of pulp fiction or snatch or lock, stock and two smoking barrels. by the way, i need some new music to listen to.

Dauphin Street Location

We went and looked at a building for Tracy's studio yesterday. There is a good building in a great location on Dauphin street right next to the Bakery Cafe`. Last tenant was a photo studio as well, so it's already rigged with some lights and such. Been empty a couple years so it needs some clean-up. John has agreed to let us use much of his equipment in return for use of one small room. He has tons of lights, stands, background rollers, and a full professional darkroom setup. Might try to get the building mid-December so that I can work on it during my two week vacation. Might try to solicit Nitram for assistance with computer network set-up and electrical work.

Rain today...glad I got the yard done yesterday. Need to pay some bills and do some filing. Guess I ought to log on to the laptop and triage the inbox. Fun stuff, eh?

Later...Strorg

Friday

Beautiful cool fall day. Need to get out and get some fresh air. Steph and TJ are gone after their visit. Rachael and Tracy plan to do some Christmas shopping. A fire and a bottle of wine (or maybe a bottle of Bushmill's) are the order of business tonight. The snot machine is running out of steam finally. I think is was Will's advice that did the trick.

Some time off

Have a few days off from work for the Thanskgiving holiday. Feels good to be away from work for awhile and I may not even power up the laptop for a couple days. About over the crud that invaded my head...even had a couple glasses of wine last night. Wanted to sleep in but up at 5am as if the alarm went off.

Ford came over for a visit last night. I asked her what she wants for Christmas and she asked to have her car painted. I might wrap a can of spray paint with a couple $100 bills in the cap and send her to Fact-O-Bake. Rachael wants an iPod. That is perfect for her...she can load it up with her favorite Black Sabbath, U2 and Elton John tunes. That child has some strange taste in music, I'm proud to say.

Tracy asked what I want. I never know what to say. I would like a vid card for the PC. Maybe something for the car, like that Neuspeed supercharger? Artwork and sextoys are always good too.

Dreary weekend blahs...

Came down with some sort of bug starting Thursday. Worked Friday for a while then came home and got on the sofa, where I have spent most of the weekend. Too much to do to be laying around, but just don't have any energy or motivation right now.
The Firefox browser that I installed the other day is a bit buggy. Some sites don't display as they do in IE in that some tables seem to misalign. That's the only thing I've noticed so far.
Might go get some breakfast with the neighbors. First a shower to clear the snot from my head.

Later...Strorg

Hand colored B&W print by Tracy.

Firefox Central

Installed Firefox browser. Pretty cool stuff. Many of the features of IE so it has a familiar feel. Seems much faster than IE and has additional features as well.
Firefox Central

American Soldier

American Soldier

Dry Spell

Been a few days since my last bloggage...
Sunday night we drank beer and tequila with the neighbors. Closed the night out with the rescue squad hauling Janie off on a backboard. Amazing what happens to your head when you numb the brain cells with alcohol and then crack it on the concrete. Fortunately a night in the hospital and few sutures fixed her up, but it was kinda scary for a bit. I must agree with Tracy's comment about that being the longest I've been around Janie without her talking your ear off.
Tracy and I had dinner last night at Cafe` 615 downtown. Disappointed in the food and service but the company was good and the Bushmill's smooth. Ron G was in town along with Mark from the UK. Steph joined us along with Doug and his wife Heather.
Work piling up on me faster than I can tackle it. I'll catch up one day.

Later...Strorg

On Her Own

Tracy gives her notice at Olan Mills today and plunges into the world of self-employment. Going digital with a Nikon D70 to start and a fairly good Epson photo printer. The printer will be for doing on-site dances and balls. Digital-to-print will be done via bulk processing company that John K has hooked us up with. There is a fucking ton of money to be made doing portrait photography.

CNN.com - Rapper O.D.B. dies at recording studio - Nov 13, 2004

CNN.com - Rapper O.D.B. dies at recording studio - Nov 13, 2004

Now that's just a damn shame.

Friday at the Salt Mine

I actually like working Fridays. Since we are on a 9-80 schedule with every other Friday off, half of the offices are empty, few meetings are called, and distractions are rare and usually welcomed. I'd like to swap my 9-80 off-day to Monday but I haven't run that by the boss yet.

I usually sleep in a bit and straggle in to the office at 8 or so instead of 7 or so. Hell I generally work an hour past quitting anyway. Tried to catch up on some paperwork this morning and then lunch with GMEE at the Mexican joint on 90. Actually made progress on several things today which always feels good. The week in general felt unproductive with Jeet and Company visiting, so I was please to close the books on a thing or two.

T should be home soon. We are going down to talk to John and Laurie later. John deploys to Kosovo on Sunday. Not sure how this will impact the photog business for T, but we'll work something out.

Spoke with Kit today and we might get together later on this weekend. Penny is running tomorrow so they didn't want to get go out tonight.

Sorry for the dull blog...Strorg

Black Bush

I've poured up a couple fingers of Bushmill's Irish Whiskey. That stuff is so damn good...I wish I could get my hands on another bottle of the Black Label (Black Bush, they call it) at the Cape Town duty-free, but I don't see myself back there anytime soon. I imagine they have it in New Orleans. Speaking of Cape Town, I've been feeling a bit out of sorts due to the way that whole project has panned out. Fourteen months, eight refineries, tons of good people, food and drink, beautiful sights in faraway places...truly a good experience. We delivered a great product...one we thought the customer wanted. But locally anyway, it's taken off like the proverbial lead balloon...and my name is securely attached.

I've been trying to cut the strings since Sam left so I can focus on my new job, but now that somebody else is doing the cutting for me, I wonder if it's because I didn't deliver.

Anyway...Rachael is off on a long weekend camping trip with the HBO (Hiking, Biking, and Outdoor) club. I haven't heard from Elise in a few days. I imagine she has been busy at the candy factory. Tracy should be on her way soon...I better have a G&T ready for her when she gets home or my ass is grass.

Ciao...Strorg

Not enough sleep...

I woke about an hour before the alarm went off and lay in bed for 45 minutes trying to get a few precious minutes of sleep. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to sleep once you start to imagine the worst possible outcome to every aspect of your life? Here are just a few of the questions that I perused while tossing and turning this morning:

1. What if my kids both grow up to be leeches that live with me the rest of my life, instead of becoming rich and buying me a house on the beach?
2. What if my wife runs off with her best friend?
3. What if I can't find any clean socks while I'm getting ready for work?
4. What if I can't make the deadlines on the 87 things that I've committed to at work?
5. What if my zipper is down and I make an ass of myself in front of the leadership team during my presentation?
6. What if my zipper is not down and I still make an ass of myself in front of the leadership team during my presentation?
7. What if I start blogging when I finally get out of bed, thereby wasting precious time that could be spent looking for socks?

All kidding aside, that was one hour that I would rather spent sleeping...Strorg

Fine Wine in Crack Town

Had dinner at the Gaston's last night. They have some really cool digs in Washington Square, a couple blocks from Calaghans Irish Grill and just on the outskirts of crackville. The purchase and restoration of old homes is slowly reclaiming that part of town. The Gastons back yard is like a New Orleans courtyard and the night was nice so we ate outside. Tracy and I brought a bottle of wine that I bought in Cape Town and it was excellent.

Well I'm blogging from work which is probably not too cool so I'll keep this short.

Later...Strorg

Complex Model

Hmmm...blogging. I actually had a blog set up a year or so ago but never did much with it. Nitram cranked up a blog over at http://rms2.blogspot.com/ that got me thinking, why not? Let' s see where it goes.

I've spent most of this beautiful Sunday writing some code for a project at work. I can get more done in five hours at home than I can in a whole week at work when it comes to coding, especially if I stay away from the Bushmill's Irish Whiskey.

The neighbors across the street are nursing hangovers. I hate that I missed the party last night (especially seeing 'Mellow Moves Meek" on the dancefloor at Martini's) but I feel much better for it today.

Later...Strorg

Coming soon: "What's in a Name" or "The Origin of Strorg"