Month: October 2008

Horror of Horrors!

No, my house hasn’t been invaded by ghoulies & ghosties in honor of Halloween – instead my main PC’s power supply went kaput yesterday. And college is overwhelming me this week.

But before I go there, I shall post a photo of me in my Halloween costume this year. (Yesterday was dress up day at school.)


The Good Grade Fairy (she’s on strike, so earn your own good grades!)

I had fun making that costume (the shirt says “The Good Grade Fairy”). Most people got it, too. Heh. The A-wand was something dad & I made together. He soldered the A and drilled the hole into the wood dowel that was the wand. I wrapped the A in red yarn and glued it into the wand. Then covered the wand base with purple duct tape. Basically, I wanted an excuse to buy fairy wings and The Good Grade Fairy was that excuse. 🙂

So, yesterday I get home from work and when I get into my den, I notice my main PC wasn’t on. In fact, my music server isn’t on either. I power up the music server and it starts just fine, however powering up my main PC gets nada. I did all the tricks I could think of, but no go on the PSU. Well, bummer.

I headed next door & asked the parentals if the power was off at our end of town today (it wasn’t off at the school any). Dad said that they had replaced a telephone pole and the power was indeed out for an hour & a half. That’s when my PCs went off unexpectedly. “So, anyone up for an emergency run to Staples?” I asked. (No nearby PC repair shops, but thankfully the Staples in Troy has PSUs and some other useful computer parts.)

Dad thought that sounded like a good idea. He said he should look at PC prices and maybe laptops for mom. Mom of course perked up and asked to come along too. We didn’t have long to be out & about however since it was after 4pm and Beggar’s Night began at 6pm.

I found a 500W Antec PSU that’s supposedly “cooler, quieter, greener” (than what, I dunno – it didn’t say). After I bought it, mom was standing in the aisle looking dejected. Didn’t we come to look at laptops for her? Heh. So we returned to the laptop area where she saw a purty HP for $700. It’s a 17″ widescreen which has a proper number pad on it. She also found a case that would fit it. (It’s probably no heavier than the 6 year old Dell she’s been using.)

We returned home where I straightened up the house a bit before my vast numbers of Trick or Treaters would start showing up. Then I nuked some soup and put Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on while I waited for the hordes.

I thought that I might actually get a few more kids this year than last because one of the main streets in town was torn up due to road work. However, I only got about 15 kids! I usually get 40-some kids (though one year got over 70 kids). I asked around at work today (only a teacher work-day, so no kids) and I wasn’t the only one getting few kids last night.

After 8pm, I returned to mom & dad’s to help them with a few Vista issues. I wound up staying past 10pm working on the thing. It’s very purty and the only thing it’s being truly stubborn on is in installing the Minolta printers. That particular printer is a few years old now so dad’s thinking maybe getting the $100 Brother wireless laser one of these days.

So I never got around to installing my power supply last night. Work today, as I mentioned already, was just us teachers. I had two groups of chemistry kids in my lab filming their Periodic Table Videos (one group putting alkali metals into water and the other group using the lab to be a mad scientists lair. They got every beaker, flask, and test tube out of their chemistry drawers, put colored water in all, then added dry ice that they’d brought with ’em. I think these videos are going to be a blast this year). I went to Indian’s Pizza for lunch and tried their spaghetti & meatball. Tasty! I didn’t get the quarter exams graded, but I got a lot of other stuff accomplished.

Our teacher’s association has a social committee this year and they have come up with several social events. Today we had such an event – after work, going to Applebee’s for half-price appetizers (and booze) and fellowship. It was quite fun – we were there a good two hours.

When I got home, I FINALLY put my new PSU into my PC. It wasn’t easy at first, but when I finally got it jiggled in properly, it worked just fine. Indeed, I am typing this from my main PC. Yay!

After I finished that, I returned to mom & dad’s to work more on mom’s laptop. And now I’m home to play on my own computer. 🙂

In other news, this weekend I’m going to have to batten down the hatches on my college work. What I really need this week is a “spring break.” I haven’t worked one jot on one course this week (the one which requires near daily output) and haven’t read any of the material for the other course. With the quarter exams to grade this weekend as well, I’m going to be a very busy trina. Blech. Still, it will start out nice cuz it’s pancake day at the UCC tomorrow and the folks are buying my pancakes. Here’s hoping that gets me nicely productive for the weekend.

A housewarming gift only I could think of…

When I last left off about my visit to Amy & Rachel’s, we had just received the Jakeeno’s Pizza we’d ordered. We ordered a regular pizza with Italian sausage and also ordered one of their specialty pizzas – the Spinach Special. I gave Amy a bit more money so we could also get their artichoke dip. The pizza was tasty and the artichoke dip wasn’t as cheesy as we were expecting, but it was all good. We watched Willow while we munched (and drank – mmm mmm tasty amaretto sour). Then we decided to call mom & dad for a little bit. We started Tron as well, but Amy finally crashed so we went to bed. (Well, I worked on college stuff then turned in.)

On Monday, I worked on Amy’s laptop looking to see how best to speed it up. But it was cleared out pretty nicely, so I decided to start looking at RAM prices for their laptop (a Dell Inspiron 5160). Although I found some good prices online, I got to thinking that, if I could find a local store I could install the RAM for the girls. I asked Rachel if she thought a gift of 2GB of RAM for their laptop would be an appropriate housewarming gift. She thought so (especially coming from me) and told Amy, who also approved. I found a Micro Center which said they had the RAM in stock and it had a rebate attached (which I still need to send in). Rachel figured out how to get there, so we decided to go there, get some lunch, then get me to the airport. Sounded like a plan.

I researched how to install the RAM on the laptop and it looked pretty straightforward. Amy found a Phillips screwdriver that fit the screw in the back, so we packed the laptop up with the screwdriver in tow. I packed all of my stuff up (conveniently forgetting my jacket – whoops!) and the three of us headed down to Micro Center. Despite it being a Columbus, OH company, I’ve never been to one. Ah, I must go to one again. The salesman who helped us found two 1 GB sticks of the RAM and they confirmed the price for me and the existence of the rebate. And while in the checkout I saw they had a 16GB flash drive for $40, so I put that on my tab as well.

Amy & Rachel decided that Patrick’s would be ideal for lunch. It’s a French Patisserie which was on the way to the airport. I ordered a fruit tart (my favorite thing from any patisserie) and a ham & cheese croissant. Yummy! I installed the RAM once we were seated and the laptop started up without a hitch. Hopefully things are going a little faster for the girls now when they’re on it.

Rachel then drove us to the airport and dropped me off at the terminal. I hugged ’em both tight and thanked them once again for letting me stay. I’d had a blast visiting. Check in went smoothly and I was soon sitting and reading up on nanotechnology (from PDF files I’d saved to my laptop while at the girls’) in order to write my essay which was due by midnight that night.

During my Milwaukee layover, I wrote most of the essay. And when I finally got home, I looked after the kitties (they’d done well during my absence but they seemed to miss me), had supper (McDonald’s from the drive home), and then read through my essay, made some changes and finished it, then turned it in. Yay! Best of all? I got the highest grade so far on an essay for the semester with that one. Heh. 95%.

When I got to school the next day I found out that the sub had not destroyed my classroom, always a good sign. The week was a busy one with an egg drop contest in the middle. And yesterday the Fisher’s had several of my coworkers (and former coworkers) around for steaks. I brought two funny cakes (recipe from justspies) which I’d baked in the morning (very tasty – thanks justspies!) There were so many desserts that one was unmolested, so I brought it home and have it in the fridge hoping it’ll last until mom & dad get home Wednesday.

Today is laundry day. I’ve cleaned the kitchen and will soon need to bake brownies for a Information Fair & Social we’re having at the school tomorrow. I also have another essay to write (due tomorrow by midnight) and some stuff to read for college. So a busy day for Trina! We have only a four-day week this week (with kids) and the first quarter ends Thursday. Friday is a teacher work day to get grades and stuff done. So it’ll be a busy week! Will be nice to catch my breath next weekend (which I’m hoping I get to do).

Gracious Hostesses

Amy & Rachel have been wonderful hostesses. And excellent slave drivers. 🙂

Friday night, their friend Melissa joined us (it was her 33rd birthday) and Rachel drove us to the Craftsman Restaurant. This restaurant focuses on using only local ingredients and then making superb dishes with them. A&R and I had surfed their site looking through their menu (and looking terms up on Google and Wikipedia) and had pretty much decided what we wanted. We met seven other people at the restaurant for our birthday gathering.

I decided to start with an amaretto sour and ordered the pork rillettes with crostini, mustard, and pickles as an appetizer, which I shared with A&R and anyone else interested in trying it. It was very yummy! For my entree, I had picked the confit of rabbit leg with creamy polenta and a sauté of greens garnished with a honey gastrique. It was heavenly. And Amy wanted to marry it. The sautéed greens were kale and very yummy. I tasted Amy’s order too, braised beef short ribs with spaghetti squash and braised root vegetable. Also yummy and with the best spaghetti squash I’d had. (Amy suspected it was simply seasoned with salt and pepper.) For dessert, I ordered the chocolate boca negra (which came with creme fresh, which I had to scrape off. Blech.) I also had a bite of one of Rachel’s cinnamon beignets.

We were at the restaurant for two and a half hours, enjoying the food and the company. I think Melissa had a very nice birthday indeed. I know I enjoyed her birthday! Heh.

Just as we were heading home, Melissa realized she couldn’t find her phone. So Rachel pulled over, Amy called the phone – no ringtone in the car. So Rachel drove back to the restaurant. Melissa checked inside all the while Amy dialed and redialed the number. Then Melissa walked down the sidewalk toward where we’d parked earlier in the evening. Sure enough, when we got to where the car had been, there was her cell phone ringing away on the sidewalk. Crisis averted.

We returned to the house and got ready for bed. I worked a bit on coursework and finally went to sleep on the futon in their “den” on the second floor.

The next morning, I got up when Amy & Rachel were getting ready for Rachel to get to work. (Amy had to drive her there). Meanwhile, I decided to get online to check the weather in order to know what to wear. Unfortunately, the USI modem (really an antenna, receiver, amplifier, router) wasn’t working. I tried rebooting it a couple of times, but still no go. I found a weather channel on Amy’s TV and saw it was going to be a nice day, so picked out my long-sleeve t-shirt instead of one of my sweat shirts.

After my shower, Amy was back so I told her about the tech troubles. She agreed that I should call tech support, so I did. After awhile on hold, I talked with a really nice tech who listened to what I’d told him and didn’t have me do all the stuff I’d already done. During some of the tests that I ran on the modem, we had time to chat, so I mentioned it was Amy’s new house we were in. He said he had just bought a new house as well – just a month ago. When he needed to talk to Amy to schedule a time for a tech geek to come by, he congratulated her on her new home. Best of all, he was able to schedule a tech guy to come on Sunday between 4 and 8pm. Hooray!

Amy and I then headed off to Trotters Cafe again, this time for breakfast. I ordered the cornmeal pancake that’s one of their specialties and a link of sausage, plus milk to drink. Amy ordered their special scramble which had kale and shrooms and thyme. Breakfast was good – I thought the cornmeal pancake was an interesting flavor and even more fun texture. And they have real maple syrup too. I still had milk left after breafast, so I went back to the counter and picked out one of their chocolate mint cookies. Yummy! Rachel finally got her breakfast break and joined us as Amy had a third cup of coffee and I had a bit more water. But eventually we had to stop procrastinating and head off to A&R’s old apartment. Amy and I had some cleanin’ to do.

Nearly everything was out of the apartment, but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. I packed up the router and DSL modem and then began vacuuming the floors. After Amy finished cleaning the bathroom, I mopped the floor of it. Then I took several recyclables out to the various tubs and threw some trash away. After two hours of working, Amy took me out to lunch to Brit’s Pub. It was a pleasant day and the walk there was very nice.

At Brit’s, I ordered the fish & chips while Amy ordered a fish sandwich and cole slaw. I shared some of my chips with her (they were very tasty but also very plentiful). We had water to drink. I enjoy having beer batter fish and unfortunately there aren’t many places where I live that have it. So yay Brit’s Pub!

Back at the apartment, we continued cleaning and were nearly done when Rachel joined us, having already worked the morning and bussed home. She thought it would be a good idea if she rode her bike home and maybe we could fit the other bike in the car. Amy and I were pretty sure we couldn’t fit it with all the stuff going in, but I offered to ride Amy’s bike home with Rachel leading the way. So we packed up Amy’s car and I followed Rachel home on Amy’s bike.

It was a 2 mile (or so) ride back to the house, and though I’m not in the greatest shape and probably should have put Amy’s sit down a smidgen, I managed the ride and didn’t feel sore at all today. There was only one time when Rachel got across an intersection while I got stopped, so she waited until I got a green light and we continued on home. It was a nice day to bike ride (though I’m glad I wore my jacket).

The girls napped some while I worked some more on my coursework. Amy told me what her password was to get on the metro wi-fi so I was able to read the class discussions. I got some stuff done for the classes and eventually the girls were ready for me to treat them to supper. I suggested they pick a place they either haven’t been to or they liked but don’t usually think to go to. They chose a Malaysian place they’d been to once before and really liked.

Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine is a nice restaurant. We started with golden crab meat balls and chicken satay with peanut sauce. Then we shared three entrees: mango tofu (tofu and mango in a sweet sauce), kari sayur (spicy mixed veggies), and the one the girls were most excited about, a Buddhist yam pot (“crisp fried taro nest filled with shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, snow peas, baby corn, & cashews”). Although I didn’t care much for the yam pot of the Buddhist yam pot, I enjoyed the pickings a lot. I also had a mango smoothie with black tapioca pearls. There was even some leftover kari sayur for the girls. And the whole meal for the three of us was only slightly more than my solo supper the night before. Heh.

We headed off to Ikea next so the girls could look at curtains and other items. Although we didn’t find what they wanted there, we had fun looking at all the cool stuff. I need to take a trip to the Hamilton Ikea with mom one of these days. We then headed to Target for some essentials (and it turns out curtains) and then to a liquor store for a few more essentials.

Once we were home, Amy attached rabbit ears (bought at Target) to their TV so we could get NBC good enough to walk Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. The hook up went smoothly and they now receive several channels quite well thanks to the antenna. (Only the ABC channel was worse after the hookup. Go figure.) Then we watched SNL and the girls finally headed off to bed.

I stayed up for another hour or so working more on college stuff. But then I, too, returned to the world of sleep.

This morning, I slept in a bit. Amy and I had bagels for breakfast, along with regular and strawberry creme cheese. Rachel was, once again, working at Trotters. I got a lot more work done on my college stuff after breakfast. Then Amy and I made potato & leek soup for lunch. With the bread that Rachel had brought home from work on Friday, it was a very tasty combo. We then spent the day working in the house getting the kitchen sorted out.

When Rachel returned, she also had some soup and declared it good. She also had some cookies from the restaurant – including the mint chocolate ones. Yay! While finishing mine up, the tech from USI arrived, so Amy and I went with him to the den to see things get fixed.

Jeremy was his name, and he started by trying to reset the old modem. It didn’t do anything once again, so he swapped it for a new one. He also tested the antenna and was getting 5 bars from it. Considering there are two nodes on either side of Amy’s street, that’s no surprise. Once he got their modem installed, he also put Amy’s router in place and got that set up for her home network. So now we can all geek at once in Amy’s house. Yay!

I’ve been working on this post for most of the afternoon with many distractions. But now I’m nearly done. Yay! We have ordered pizzas from Jakeeno’s Pizza, a pizzaria near here, and they’ll be delivering soon. Amy and Rachel are sorting out drawer items for the kitchen and I’m getting the occasional “we don’t need this anymore” things. Good thing I had plenty of room in my luggage.

This has been a fun visit. It’s always lovely to see Amy & Rachel and little Fruvous. And it’s especially nice to see their new home.

Oh, and yay, the pizza’s just arrived!

Minneapolis, not Appleton

Unless you’re hard of hearing, you probably don’t see any problem having one gate serving flights to both Appleton and Minneapolis which are 10 minutes apart from each other. But I found it a bit on the confusing side of things today. Thankfully, I got on the correct plane in Milwaukee (after flying there from Dayton this morning) and Amy picked me up outside of the baggage claim.

She drove us first to the post office to pick up the modem & antenna for their new ISP (they’re using USI Wireless with their metro wi-fi) so that I could hook it up later. Then we went to Trotters Cafe where Rachel works (and was working) to have a late lunch. We ordered the two specials (Mexican casserole and a turkey on wheat sourdough sandwich) to share. Amy and I chatted and ate and had a really nice afternoon. Then, with 10 minutes or so left of Rachel’s workday, we returned to the counter to order dessert. I ordered the Chocolate Torture (a dense chocolate cake with creme anglaise drizzled over it) and Amy got a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. When we reseated ourselves, Frannie Franken, Al Franken’s wife, stopped over to talk us into voting for Al Franken for US Senate. Amy’s first comment to her was “Don’t talk to her” pointing at me “she’s from Ohio.” But Frannie addressed both of us just the same. She was very friendly. Rachel eventually joined us just as we were finishing our desserts.

Amy drove us home to their NEW HOUSE. They have a garage and everything! They gave me the tour of the house, with Fruvous leading the way. He even gave me a bat on the ankle so that I knew I was at Amy & Rachel’s place. Such a friendly cat.

After the tour, Rachel took a nap and I set up Amy’s new modem. I posted two answers to one of my college discussion boards which I’d answered during my hour layover in Milwaukee. Heh. And now I’m writing this.

We’re in the process now of getting ready to go to the Craftsman Restaurant for Melissa’s birthday (she’s a friend of Amy & Rachel’s). We’re all plenty hungry and looking forward to trying the place out.

Yet Another Political Debate

A live blog (ish?) account of the debate.

Hear what we haven’t heard before? I’ll believe that when I see it.

Fannie & Freddie Mae? And I thought we were the people who didn’t know what they were, McCain.

Obama checking off his points again.

McCain talking to a Joe not named “Joe Six-Pack” – impressive.

Politicians ignore reality? Never! (snerk)

Grief, they use the same words over & over again.

They have set answers, so they take the asked question, find the already written question, hatchet it into fitting, then say it.

McCain looks mischievous, Obama looks suave (but needs to smile more).

Heh – good one, McCain. “I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

LOL – “even Fox news disputes it” sayeth Obama over one of McCain’s claim. Even McCain looked shocked.

Ooooh – good question about the tone of the campaign. It has grown ugly.

Yes, we folks are cynical. Most politicians are liars.

Shit – now McCain’s picking on ACORN.

LOL – ACORN + Ayers + Obama now a conspiracy in McCain’s eyes. McCain must be nuts. (Actually…. )

“Americans have gotten to know Sarah Palin” – yeah, and I reallllllly don’t like her. And a role model for women? Fuck no!

Yay – the rains come. (Not due to politics, but due to Mother Nature.)

McCain just said he’s a free traitor! (Oh wait, free trader. Never mind.)

It’s hard to do college work with these politicians talking. I should play Bejeweled instead of trying.

Oh lordy – health care next. Listen to the bullshit flow!

I really don’t care for that $5000 tax credit idea of McCain’s – I don’t know if Obama’s is any better in the long run, but McCain’s just sounds wrong.

“Too much government” from the guy in the party that wants to curb the rights of women and gays.

Go figure: Roe vs Wade is next topic. Hmmm, I wonder what I’d do. Fairness & Justice important in a supreme court judge. Would I have a litmus test? Dunno. I’d hope whoever is on the Supreme Court knows not to REDUCE the rights of the people.

YAY! Preventing unintended pregnancies – that’s something we need to do more of. And Sarah Palin? Teaching abstinence only doesn’t work!

As always, education is last. And as always, people in Washington talking education scares the shit out of me – they haven’t clue one how to teach. (Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I feel like I know better how to do it than either McCain or Obama.)

Fuck choice & competition for schools – it doesn’t work. Especially “vouchers” which suck donkey balls.

Heh – NCLB where they left the money behind. Unfunded (or poorly funded) mandates SUCK and have REALLY hurt my school.

Yay – Obama is anti-voucher! Go Obama!

Heh heh – Linus is sleeping on the sofa with his paw over his head (probably trying to block the sound of politicians talking).

Thank god, it’s over. Closing statements.

“My friends” – honey, you ain’t no friend of mine.

Uh oh – forgot to eat ice cream. Guess I’ll eat it while I watch Olbermann.

“Country first” – a slogan that scares me, too.

Linus now on my chest. Yay kitty! 🙂

Lucy “watched” the last debate with me. That probably explains why she’s not here now. Heh heh.

Heh “Go vote now, it’ll make you feel big and strong” – Bob Shieffer’s mother.

Soupin’ it up

With Autumn firmly upon us, I decided this weekend that SOUP was what I needed. I already have mom’s recipe for vegetable soup and have successfully prepared it before, but I decided I also wanted to make mom’s chili soup. So I called her up on Sunday and asked for her recipe. I bought ingredients for both soups later and made the vegetable soup on Sunday. It is very yummy and I have lots of leftovers.

Today was my day to make the chili (my first time ever!), so it’s now simmering on the stove. I’ll post later to let y’all know if it was successful as well. It does smell right, at least. Heh.

Tonight I intend to watch Debate #3 with (I hope) judiang along for commentary. I should pick up some more ice cream from the gas station so I can properly celebrate my third Debate Party. (Must admit, debate parties are more fun with parental units around (and virtual elsaf and Judi), but they’re in Cali and I’m not, so I’ll stick with virtual Judi and ice cream. Heh.)