Notival

I drilled a hole through the refrigerator last night.
On purpose.

It was surprisingly easy. Iceboxes aren't made of much. Outside of insulation. Anyway, I drilled a hole and installed a keg tap. Tonight, I may go buy a keg. Beer on tap - an American Dream. I reckon I can check that one off my list. After I have verified operation, of course.

Ninsi leaves for Vegas today. I'll head out to join her Friday morning. She has to go for work. I'm going for the Hell of it. Never been. We'll hang out and try to take in a show. Should be good times.

Ninsi and I made it back from Vegas. We were at the airport ass early Sunday morning to try to catch an earlier standby flight than what we were actually booked on. Our flights had us arriving at 11:30 pm. We finally managed to get onto a flight to LAX, and connected there to a DFW flight. So we made it home around four.

The dogs were not home though. They had managed to get out of the backyard. But they were just down the street, and came running when they saw Ninsi.

I want one of these 'water powered heaters', but I would have to mortgage the house and put Ninsi into white slavery to afford it. The process by which it works is super simple, so Im not quite sure why it costs $50,000.

Hoeing is hard. At least, hoeing up ground that has not been broke before is hard. Im tempted to rent a tiller and bust it out real quick, but the amount of ground I want tilled up is so small that a tiller would be such overkill. But, oi vei, hoeing is teh suck. I feel that I need to get it done soon though so I can plant some stuff by the end of next week. That is my timeframe.

I also have a lot, i mean a LOT, of weeding to do in the front yard. So I really need more daylight. By the time I get home, I have maybe an hour and a half tops to work outside. It's not quite enough right now.

And it tuckers one out pretty fast.

I bought the movie Maverick yesterday. (Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster) and last night, Ninsi and I settled in and watched it. That was pretty much all we did last night. Could we be more like an old, married couple?

Actually, that wasn't too bad. Most of our evenings lately are spent trying to get the house in order for the wedding. You'd think it wouldn't take too long. But there is quite a bit involved. Apart from just the general cleaning, there is the yardwork/landscaping that I need to get done. Getting all the stuff out of the house that is going to the garage sell, and organizing it in the garage so it doesn't drive me nutters when I am out there. And there is still at least one room we must paint. Always something to do.

Florida news is teh suck.

First, they came out with the release that NASA was going to be making a huge announcement today about a new discovery possibly point to evidence of new life relatively close to earth.

Now, they have changed their story. This from Channel 13 News in Florida.

"Exact details of what we can expect to hear have not been released.

Earlier reports about the announcement were not accurate."

Sounds like they are backtracking already. Their site has been up and down all day because they have been getting slammed since they made the first post to which FJ has posted the original text.

Sure, they are still going to make the announcement at 2, but now they have already started spinning. Fuckers. You don't make an announcement like 'new life!' and then retract it before the real story airs. I need my little green men.

My hands have been sore for the past couple of days. My arms are a little bit, but mostly my hands. From all the gripping and pulling needed to hoe and weed and plant and dig. But, I know have two more rose bushes planted. A lot more mulch laid down. A fence to keep the dogs out of what will hopefully be a garden. And I suspect, that when I get home, I will have a nice new chewed up sprinkler. Damn dog won't leave anything alone. But I think I have a plan to prevent that next time too.

There was some wedding related drama yesterday, but we settled that. Ninsi, I'm sure, has retold it all on her blog.

My brother would like everyone to know that it is now 100% certain that his child to be born in July is a boy.

My first instint is to giggle at this. But I know that would be wrong.

Time is growing short.

Im ready to go to Greece. It should be a good time. Apart from the food. I've had Greek food, and wasn't a big fan. But I will give it another chance next month. Along with authentic Italian food.

My co-worker keeps forgetting that we're not going to Rome. We're going to Venice. Italy, yes. Rome, no. So even though I will be Italy on Easter, the odds of me seeing the Pope are very, very slim.

That's not to say that a good old fashioned Catholic Mass won't be in order though. They better deliver it in Latin...

Ninsi's site is down. I reckon it is my fault. The hosting company automatically drafts the annual fee from a paypal account. The paypal account did not have enough money in it. This is because I don't normally just leave money in my Paypal. If I have money in there, it is because I have just bought or sold something. It's not exactly what I consider a long-term repository. Anyway, I put some money in there, and the host will redraft in a day or two. I could probably do something to scoot the process along more quickly, but I'd have to find the email first, and I dont know where that is.

In short - Ninsianna.com is down, but not out. Expect it back this weekend.

Of something to that effect.

One more rose bush and I am done.
I'll probably attempt to procure it while I am out buying shoes. An endeavor which must be accomplished this weekend. They won't let me on the cruise in any of the shoes I currently own. Which means my flip flops will probably be hiding in my bag so I can stow them on discreetly. Can you be tossed overboard into the Mediterranean for dubious outfits and bad footware? I doubt it. I have a suspicion that they will want to toss me though. I will try to wear on the cruise what I am wearing today.

It's not too bad, right?

It has been raining nearly non-stop for two days now. All morning it has just been coming down in buckets. My front and back yards are both trying to flow away. Observe:

This is the empty lot next to us. Water is coming in from two directions, meeting at a right angle, and then flowing on down towards the white fence in the background. That is a huge pond developing around that fence. They may be getting actual flooding in that house.

This is the front yard. Note the large standing body of water. The brown water by the road is actually flowing steadily through the colvert.

The back yard. It's a little harder to see. But near the back fence, there is a steady stream that is actually creating the stream in the first picture.

Since the great Deluge of '06, i.e. all the rain we had Sunday, I've been stupid busy at work. The web server I put out there last week has decided to crash on a daily basis since we got it installed. It ran fine here in the office for a couple months, but as soon as it started taking a lot of web hits, it started crashing. I've had to go out there three times since Saturday to get it running again.

Currently building a new server to take out so that we can run redundant servers. Which we should have anyway. But it'd be nice to not be forced into it right this instant.

I used to play a lot of PC games. MMORPs among them. I gave up those, and pretty much all games a couple years ago. Until yesterday.

I have always liked strategy games. Turn-based things like Civilization, Risk, Spaceward Ho, etc. So I went and bought Galactic Civilizations II. I probably shouldn't have, with so much to get done in the next month. I doubt that Ninsi really wants to be orphaned to a game right now. But I'm not sure there is really a whole lot I can do about it.

It's the game, you see. And it may happen again next month if I go buy Heroes of Might and Magic V. One of my all time favorites is back.

must. play. games.

One of my friends here at work was laid off Tuesday. Very sad. I talked to her more than anyone else here. I knew something was up when towards the end of the day, the girl from HR was hanging around in my friend's cube a lot. And then I noticed she was packing up a small box.

I left work, and waited out in the parking lot, and a little after 5, she came out carrying her sad little box. They just fired her, on a Tuesday, no less. But they gave her severence. And my friend was fine with it. So I talked to her for a few minutes and went on home. Seems like we're averaging about one a week right now...

This is Ninsi guest blogging due to my blog still being out of commission.

We've got 8 days 'til the wedding. And I'm seriously losing sleep over it, or at least having very restless sleep. I've been going to bed earlier and earlier every night, and I wake up every morning less and less refreshed.

Stuff I'm worrying about:
Will there be enough time for everyone to get their hair/make-up done?
How am I getting to the wedding?
What am I forgetting?
How can I be sure everything goes as planned?
I'm the only one who knows what's going on the day of, my bridesmaids won't be getting in town until an hour before the rehearsal, assuming they actually leave on time, they can't decide on how their hair will be done, despite me telling them how I want it done - I don’t want to turn into bridezilla, but how can I be sure the whole thing doesn't turn into a huge joke of a fiasco.
I know stuff will go wrong. I know it wont' be perfect. But my concern is that it will be complete chaos with no one knowing what's going on.

On top of that the weather man is getting increasingly more adamant about it raining on Sat. 60% chance now.

We do have a back up plan, and in reality, the back up plan will make things simpler, since there will be no transporting btwn ceremony and reception sites, and we'll have an extra hour to get everything ready.

I just feel so not prepared, I know I'm forgetting about a million things.

I still need to make the final payments on the cake, caterer and chairs. And I know I'm forgetting something else. And I just don't feel sure that someone will tell me if I've forgotten something. I just feel it all sitting on my shoulders and it's weighing me down. My shoulders and back hurt almost constantly from the stress. The pain in my left shoulder sometimes runs straight up and down my spite, into my head, and down my left arm. Every now and then someone will come up behind me and squeeze my shoulders, and I want to just beg them not to stop.

I do have a massage scheduled for Friday, but I'm not sure if I can make it that long, or if it will even do me any good, because I'll be spending the day with my mom, who is notorious for adding more stress.

On top of all this mess my bachelorette party is stressing me out. No one who's coming knows anyone else who is coming very well at all. At most they've met once or twice (except bunny and chicken). Yesterday I was ready to call the night off because I've been too worried about people enjoying themselves.

I'm able to put off most of the stress about the honeymoon off until after the wedding, I've got 2 weeks to worry about it then. But I hate that all I want is for everything just to be over with. I'm not looking forward to anything anymore.

Saturday night, I meet up with everyone fairly late at Stan's Blue Note in Greenville. We're sitting around, drinking some beer. Donut is there. He's been flying solo for a while now. After a while, a woman sits down at the bar by herself.

Before long, we all have noticed that she is frequently looking towards our table. At whom? Possibly Donut, possibly Zero. Either way, Ninsi takes it upon herself to invite the woman to our table. That was a mistake.

She was one of those people that looks better the further away they are. Not that there was anything especially wrong with her, she just gave the impression of having been ridden hard and put up wet. She looked a lot older up close as well. And she was drunk. And mostly incomprehensible. But the damage was done. She was at our table.

Eventually, through musical chair finagling, Donut was sitting next to her. And the bar was about to close, so most of us left. Most of us being everyone except Donut, and his new friend. The rest of us went to Cafe Brazil and just prayed that he would use protection.

While we were at the cafe, waiting to be seated, talking about Donut and what would be a sad conquest, he burst through the door. Triumphant - not in conquest, but rather in having chosen the better part of valor and run away.

He had seriously thought about it, but she was just to crazy for him. And couldn't remember his name. And he almost couldn't make it past walking her to her car. She was driving an SUV. And had parked in a handicapp spot by the handicapp ramp. Moreseo, she had driven up partially onto the ramp, going so far as to actually jump the front of the car onto the curb and stop a mere foot from actually hitting the building.

Poor Donut had to make the decision of wether to tell the nearby cops she was obviously too drunk to drive, or just walk away. Again, the better part of valor, people. Although I'm not sure I would have thought less of him if had had slept with her, I do somehow think a little more of him because he didnt. She was just messed up.

If you use anti-dandruff shampoo, it will show as green flakes if you get a picture taken with a digital camera. Did you know that? I didnt. But I'll take the word of the photographer. Not that I use anti-dandruff shampoo, but you know, just in case someone tries to douse me with some.

Cuz people do that, sometimes.

Also, gas pumps are inexact. They have people that test them. They are allowed a plus/minus range of about half a cup per five gallons dispersed. That is, if the pump says five gallons, you may get up to four ounces more or less than that. Not much, but it can add up. But every pump is different, and they seem to *slightly* favor the consumer.
Plus, if you pump slower, if will favor you more. I dont think it favors you enough more to warrant the extra time it takes to pump at the slowest rate though.

Make of it what you will.

This will probably be the last post til around Tuesday or so. Barring something extraordinary like drunkeness occurring over the weekend. And that never happens.

Prosper and my brothers arrive in town tomorrow. And festivities then begin. With some golf on Friday. Then more festivities, and then some more. And sometime Sunday, I have to take Prosper back to the airport. Curse her for getting a 12:00 flight out on Sunday. I should even be awake by that time, much less driving to the airport. And I think we're going out Sunday night as well. Planning for that, anyway, so Monday I am off either way.

Just a few things left to take care of, and then we're done.

Then a fortnight of waiting til we go to Greece.
mmmm, Greeeeeece