January 2002 Archives

I tried registering a name server with my original registrar but their stupid automated system wouldn't authenticate me and their support never got back to me (they've gone downhill since they merged with VeriSign). So, I changed my registrar to GoDaddy - which happens to be much less expensive and friendlier to use - and have successfully registered my name servers and now I'm in the process of moving my domain to the new place. If everything goes right, it'll happen transparently, if not, you may not see nonplus.net for a while...

I've upgraded to Blogger Pro™, for pretty much the same reasons that Cecily has. Well, that and because it allows me to check my spelling again :-)

I am the latest victim of the mouse that has been pillaging our food supplies at work. The bugger crawled into my file drawer and attacked two of my Twix bars. Tim has set up some traps, baited with Snickers (which the mouse used to prefer) but so far no luck.

Another successful dinner party and another overstuffed dinner - the third this weekend. We had Elizabeth, Dale and Jonathan along with Pat and grandma Karl over for dinner tonight. We made Wienerschnitzel which turned out quite well. When I asked for "cutlets for schnitzel" at Central Market, the meat counter guy called one of the butchers over and he said he could cut them for me in ten minutes. They were beautiful, almost paper thin. I love shopping at the CM. Of course, now we have to get rid of all the dirty dishes, which is not easy on a full stomach. Oh well, every once in a while is doable.

Well Meredith's domain mermu.net has been down for most of last week (I've learned my lesson to stay away from cheap hosts like HosTurbo). So, I've bitten the bullet and gotten a reseller account at MCHost.com which has good reputation. As soon as my name server records have been updated, I'll start moving my domains over there, starting with Meredith's. This site might be down for a day or two in the next couple of weeks while I'm making the transfer.

Oh, and I'll have plenty of hosting space and badwith to spare, so I may offer hosting myself, once things have settled down.

We had another gourmet club meeting last night. The topic was "Scandinavian Food" and Jennifer and I were responsible for salad and desert. We made a fresh mushroom salad which was very easy to make and quite tasty (you quickly cooked the muchrooms in water with lemon juice instead of sauteing them). For desert we made an Apple Cake with vanilla sauce, which was pretty easy, too. All of the scandinavian food was great, especially the appetizers. We had a new couple at the dinner and the lady, Karen, is danish and they provided the appetizers, including one which was a piece of bread, topped with a bit of anchovy paste, raw ground beef, a raw onion ring and a raw egg yolk. It sounds like a perfect recipe for food poisoning, but so far I don't seem ill affected (except that I'm still stuffed from last night). The steak tartar tasted pretty good, although I think I liked the other appetizers better.

I'm a fugitive no more. I called Juanita at Precinct 5 and she told me that my insurance info checked out and the fuz had been called off. So as long as I don't cross the law in the next couple of days - while my paperwork is making it's way through the bureaucracy - I may yet escape being some Bubba's girlfriend in the county jail.

We saw Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at the ALO last night. Wow, Stella and Stanley were both awesome. Their voices were great and the drama was there as well. I liked the jazzy sounds of the score, too.

Now I've never read or seen Streetcar before, but I assume that we're supposed to feel sympathetic with Blanche. Somehow it wasn't working for me that way. Yes, she is a tragic character, but the way she came across in the opera (a hysterical woman who thinks that she's the center of the universe and doesn't show much empathy for others around her) just did not strike my sypathetic chord. I'd like to see a stage performance to see if that's really her character.

I took Homer over lunch to the vet to get booster shots. On the way home, I noticed the driver of the Volvo behind me curling her eye lashes at the stop light (at least I assume that's what that evil looking implement is used for). I've seen make up applied before, but this was a first. And yes, she did continue when the light turned green and we were moving. It looked like an effective way of getting your eye poked out.

We went to mass at Holy Cross today to check out the church. It seems to be the only Catholic Church in Austin that does not have a Saturday night service, which would make a late afternoon wedding possible. The church is quite new and is quite a bit smaller than Jennifer's church. We think we could fill it out nicely with our wedding party.

Attending mass there was quite interesting. Holy Cross is located on east 11th street and serves a predominantly black congregation. Jennifer and I kind of stuck out. For one there were only two other white people at mass (and no hispanics). Second, we were dressed more casually (as is common at Jfer's church) than the other people - they were actually wearing "sunday clothes". Beside that, though, it was pretty much a regular service. That's one neat thing about Roman Catholics - you go to church and know that the same readings and the same ceremony happens all over the world at the same time. Oh yeah, and the music was cooler than at most churches. The choir was pretty rocking and the church uses an African American Catholic Hymnal - most songs in it actually had music for several parts in it. (To be honset, I don't particularily care much for contemporary christian music that you hear in most churches and I have always loved spirituals and ghospel influenced music - it's actually quite popular in Europe).

Oh, and I've created a page for Jennifer's wedding dress she's trying to sell. If you happen to know anyone who's looking, please send them the link.

We tried to see A Beautiful Mind at the Alamo Drafthouse on Saturday, but as usual they were sold out. So we headed over to Gateway and it was sold out there as well. Pretty much everything was sold out everywhere. So we went to the Arbor to see Amélie. That was almost sold out as well, but we managed to get tickets and even got a pretty sweet spot in the middle of the theater. Everyone one has been raving about Amélie and it really is a good movie. It's got a feel good message, but unlike Pay It Forward which also wants you to make a difference in other people's lives, Amélie keeps it nice irreverent. Audrey Tautou is great - I can definitely see why they compare her to Audrey Hepburn.

I heard rumors that Arbor might be closing down this year. I hope it's not true, there wouldn't be enough screens left for these kinds of movies. Watching Amélie reminded me how fun some of those foreign movies are. Make sure you see it and also rent Run Lola Run if you haven't seen that one yet, it's anoth of my favorite "Arbor" movies.

We're planning to board Homer while we are in Brazil, so we looked at two places today. Both Triple Crown and Dog Boy's came recommended from people at work and although they are very different from each other, they both appealed to us.

Tripel Crown has this incredible state of the art facility. They kennels are immaculately clean and very well maintained. They offer all sorts of training (obedience, agility, K9, Schutzhund, etc.) and pretty much every weekend some event is going on at their facilities. Today we witnessed a Flyball tournament and Schutzhund trials. All those things are open to public and we may make a trip there to watch some day.

Dog Boy's has a much homier feel to it. It's out in the country and grew out of a home business. The really nice thing we like about Dog Boy's is that compatible dogs get to spend the day together in play groups. Homer would really dig that.

In the end, we've decided to go with Triple Crown. We'll have Homer spend the two weeks under the In-Kennel Training program. This means that he'll go through obedience training three times a day - that should keep him occupied and I bet he'll improve his manners tremendously. The trainer Kim Kelly was highly recomended by Jason and Mystique and we liked him in person as well. Homer will be in good hands.

My crime saga continues. Last night I received a letter from DPS informing my that I'm not eligible to renew my drivers licence because I owe the state fines from that ticket thing (they're up to $500 now). I did manage to talk to Juanita and she sounded quite nice and competent. Apparently my insurance agent info I faxed them in July never got into my files. So I told her the number in person and she promised to check into it and call me back. I haven't heard back from her yet, so I'm still runnin' from the law.

So last night in my mail I received a Notice of Arrest Warrant! It looked a little fake, a small green, badly photocopied card on which the phone number was corrected with Whiteout. I called the number and it was always busy. So I looked it up on their web site and found out that they recently changed phone numbers, but the correction on the card I received was incorrect. So I called the real number and got a message that the number I called was incorrect, I should try again or call technical support(!) - without giving a technical support number to call. I figured they had some problems and put it off until today.

So today from work I called again with the same result. I tried several other numbers at the court house with the same error message. Eventually I tried dialing the area code (although I shouldn't have to) and that finally worked. So warrants told me that it was for the ticket I received last July and which I cleared up (or so I thought). I had to call the courthouse again and after being on hold for a while I was told to call back tomorrow for the person that originally helped me.

So I get to call Juanita tomorrow and hopefully get things straightened out. I am really glad that I kept the paper work around and that I managed to find it - not something that I usually do.

Anyway, I feel like I'm a fugitive from justice and I wonder if it's going to stain my unblemished record.

On Friday we went to Houston and got our Visas to Brazil. Mine only cost $20 while Jennifer's was $45 - sometimes it pays not to be an American. To kill some time, we also visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science (their web site sucks). We spend most of the time at the Cockrell Butterfly Center which was very cool. The day was overcast, so there weren't too many butterflies flying around, but it was still neat. We also got to see the huge Iguana "Stanley" that hangs out at the center. Thanks to Felicia for letting us borrow her membership card.

Before we left to enjoy Houston traffic on the way tot he embassy to pick up our processed visa applications we made a quick dash throught the "Energy" section of the museum. It was a very impressive collection talking about all sort of aspect of oil exploration and production (I finally learned how directional drilling works). The oil propaganda section ended with three small displays about alternative energy (solar, wind and tidal). Yep, we were in Houston where oil is (at least until fairly recently) still king.

On Friday night we had fun at Tim and Felicias having wonderful dinner and playing on their pinball machine and got home to Margaret's around two AM. On Saturday we also got to visit the Houston Arboretum which I highly recomend. Although visiting it in the spring would allow you to see some animals (I only saw half of a squirel, one tiny brown bird and a couple of labrador retreivers - Jennifer missed the bird).

Whitehouse.org is hilarious. I especially like the White House for Kids page.

I needed a passport photo for by visa to Brazil and went by Kinko's this morning. The place is almost deserted so I preen by the mirror and get my picture taken pretty quickly. After waiting for close to ten minutes, I'm told that it was "bad film", they install another pack and I re-take the picture. After waiting another ten minutes I'm told that the "camera wasn't adjusted correctly" and I had to re-take the picture again and, after another 5 or so minutes I finally receive the pictures. Sheesh!

I suspect the guy had the lens cap on...

Yesterday I went by the Sears service and parts store to pick up the replacement part for my garage door opener. I gave the guy the 7 digit part number and he immediatelly knew what I was talking about, which was actually a little scary. The box came with detailed and correct instructions and I successfully replaced the worn out parts last night. It took me about two hours and, as a bonus, I got to break in my pneumatic wrench. The garage door now opens smooth as buttah.

I took the Belief-O-Matic test from BeliefNet to discover "what religion (if any) I practice...or ought to consider practicing". According to the test my thinking aligns the most with:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (97%)
3. Liberal Quaker (91%)
4. Liberal Protestant (85%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (76%)
6. Neo-Paganism (71%)
7. other religions and non-religions (<70%)

So I've been fighting with my ailing garage door opener - even replacing the springs - and it finally bit the dust last night. A couple of days ago I saw a story on Dateline about how repair people - and garage door people in particular - rip off consumers, so I decided to tackle this myself. I opened it up and discovered that the plastic gear wheel was completely worn out. I was all excited about buying and installing a new opener, but Jennifer suggested looking at replacement parts. Although my opener is more then ten years old, the Sears Parts Store has the right parts available online - and it even allows you to check if a service center in your area has it in stock (which it did).

Jennifer is off with Elizabeth visiting bridal stores and looking at dresses (we still have to figure out how to sell her existing wedding gown - eBay just doesn't seem to be the right venue). Meanwhile I'm supposed to be prepping the foundation for the shed we're in the process of errecting. I got the shed kit and the plywood for the foundation when Jfer's dad was in town with his truck. Today I needed to cut the plywood to the proper size. I originally was going to do that on the garage floor but luckily discovered that the clamps I was going to use for my rip fence where the wrong kind. While at Home Depot I decided that it might be a good idea to get some sawhorses. I bought the sawhorses along with some more lumber (we need to replace some more sections of the fence) and once again appreciated the trunk pass-though in my car. After setting up the sawhorses I finally got to use my circular saw! I love it and I can now understand what the appeal of the Home Improvement show was. I can't wait to work on Homer's dog house. Oh, I also discovered that a couple of sawhorses and a 4x8' plywood make an excelent work table.

Well, Jfer is back, so I need to pretend like I'm working again.

I unpacked the circular saw that I bought two days ago and managed to immediately injure myself. It's nothing serious, just a stupid paper cut from the box the saw came in. I'm looking forward to cutting the plywood for the shed.

I'm back at work and can hardly remember what I'm supposed to be doing here :-) I could so get used to retirement.

There was a beatiful sunrise this morning (I have not seen the sun rise since before Christmas, 'cause I've been sleeping in during the break). I was walking in the park, and you could see the rays of the morning sun starting to hit things around me. First the tip of the tall power tower and then the roof tops and tips of the tallest tree began to look like they were being sprayed with glowing rust. The orange color crept lower and lower, but when I looked behind me, you still could not see the sun - just a strip of bright light under the light cloud cover. Eventually the sun hit me and when I looked over my shoulder, the glowing ball was rising towards the clouds and everything around me was golden. By the time we started walking home, the sun was already halfway behind the clouds and soon the whole park sank back into a somber gray again. A very cool experience (Homer was oblivious to it, of course).

Happy 2002!

Last night we went to the "Hyde Park Parade of Homes (of Drunks)". We made it to the second house (Tim's) and then walked to Omid and Amy's house where we celebrated the new year with party trumpets, bubly, and lots of cool illegal fireworks. I think it was freezing last night because the walk between the houses and back to the car was mighty cold. Jennifer enjoyed getting quite tipsy - she didn't even think about poor ol' Homer freezing his heiny off back home (although I did buy him new treat to keep him entertained).

So now we're getting ready for our almost-annual-New-Year's-Day-party. Jennifer's making some chocolate marnigue cookies. I'll be making an Apple Strudel when we get back from our grocery shopping trip. I know we'll have way too amny cookies and such and too much food in general, but such is life.

I dreamt last night that my brother called with questions about the Christmas gift I gave him - alas I don't think the package has made it to Switzerland yet so I shan't talk any more about it, in case this is being read from there.