OK, so the bartender doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Yesterday, I called down to the front desk to ask about high speed internet. They said there was connectivity in the bar, but no wired connectivity in the rooms. So later, dad and I asked the bartender about it. Yes, there are connections along those walls, she said, pointing. And there’s wireless connectivity down here, but it’s $8 a day. There’s also wireless in the rooms. Ah, I thought, that might explain the WEP wireless connection I saw while in the room.

So when we were back at the lobby later, I asked the front desk re: wireless in the room and they said there wasn’t any. Just around the bar. And this morning? Well, I’m sitting at the bar (in a nice comfy chair) with my cat-5 cable hooked to the wall and getting NOTHING. However, I have my wireless card in and am online. And, oddly enough, I wasn’t charged.

Anyhoo, after driving all day Tuesday and most of the day yesterday, we’re finally in Minneapolis. This hotel is only a couple of blocks away from Amy & Rachel’s apartment. Last night we had a successful meeting of the In-Laws (and thankfully, no Peter Falk in sight!) After a nice dinner at the Black Forest cafe (I had hassenfeffer! Or however that’s spelled. Maybe elsaf knows how to spell it. Or at least how to cook it) we met in our hotel room and got the cards set up for the “blessings” segment of the ceremony. Cardstock was cut into 8ths (by treen with measuring done by Ame) and then Lynn (Rachel’s mom) punked a leaf-shaped hole into the corner and mom and Rachel strung ribbon (which mom had cut into 1 foot lengths) through the holes and these were placed in the programs which Lynn and Doug (Rachel’s dad) had folded earlier.

Amy showed me a map of the campground and I discovered something that will put judiang at ease. The cottage that she, Deanna, and I are staying in has it’s own toilet. And when we need to shower (and we WILL) we can walk over to mom & dad’s cabin and use their inbuilt one. And yesterday at the Target (tar-ZHAY) Mahal I got a bath robe for any trekking about in me nightie.

Today is grocery shopping and vegetable cutting and things like that. Should be a good day! (But first, I must wait for the ‘rents to get ready so we can have breakfast.)

This morning, the parental units and I will head Oop North to Minnesota (though we’ll probably stop in Illinois tonight to sleep). We’re off to help out for Amy’s Wedding! Hooray!

My little sister is 4 years younger (but often more mature) than I. And her girlfriend, Rachel, is 4 years younger than Amy. They’ll need to correct me on this, but I believe they’ve been going together for 2 years or so. And this Saturday, they’re getting hitched! Woohoo!

They have friends from all over North America and so wanted to have a longer period to have folks around so that they could actually see people. They came up with the idea of a camping trip! So Friday, folks will gather for a cookout at the campsite (which is in one of the state or national parks) and then play games (ooooh! Dutch Blitz! Played by people who know the rules!) Then sleeping in cabins (with bathrooms conveniently located down the path) and waking up for a pancake breakfast! After that is the ceremony, followed by (not necessarily in this order) a reception (where I do the toast – woohoo!), a puppet show, a softball game, and a talent show. (I hope to recite poetry why throwing (and catching?) a boomerang.) Saturday night, another sleep at the campsite, then Sunday folks leave (*sniff*).

judiang agreed to come along, so she’ll get to taste her first “real” camping experience. (Don’t laugh, barbthebrazen – cabins are camping, too!) I think she’s starting to get nervous, so any words of encouragement you can give her while I’m traveling will be most appreciated. 🙂

Once we get to the campsite, Judi and I will be ‘netless. *gasp!* I’ve no idea when/if I’ll connect before then. So this journal may get quiet for a little while. But I’m not promising anything! 😉

So, I’m off now to help pack up the car. Little Leo is in the hands of my cousin, Brandi. I’m sure she’ll do a great job looking after him. Ta ta for now!

I’m sure some of my readers have heard of wardriving. Others may recall the term that judiang coined, which is warbussing (wardriving for those who use public transport). Well, today, dad and I witnessed warwalking.

In order for our network to reach 3 classrooms which are too difficult to wire, we’ve decided to put in a wireless network. Today, our technology partner, Dean, came to the school to help me test some of the wirelessness. While he was on the second floor, I told him about the Linksys network that one of our wireless cards found. We went into the room and he tested with his laptop, and found it as well. The signal was sporadic, but definitely there. So dad and I started to speculate on which house nearby was the likely culprit.

There’s a church across the street and a house next to it – another house catty corner to that, and then another house down the block a bit. Dad wondered if maybe the used car lot might be responsible – it was two blocks away, but had a clear line of sight to this second floor office.

So Dean decides to find out. And with laptop in hand, he started walking around the neighborhood in front of the school. During the course of this warwalking, we discovered 4 wireless networks other than our own (only one encrypted). As Dean and I walked down another block near the church, dad went across to the car dealership. Then as Dean and I neared the dealership, we confirmed that it was his wireless network that we were seeing.

Dad had already introduced himself to the owner and then introduced me and Dean. And turns out Dean knew the fellow. So we told him about unencrypted wireless networks and that the school techs are available (on our limited schedule) to help out local business owners but for really good service, Dean was the man.

We returned to the school and then checked to see if we could see our wireless network in the basement. Thanks to metal walls and doors, the simple answer was “no.” But we think we might be able to drop a wire to the basement so that the custodian/maintenance guy can talk to the rest of us.

So a piece of unasked for advice to those of you playing at home… If you have a wireless network, put encryption on or any ol’ wardriver, busser, or walker can hack into your network! And that could be BAD. (And Trina, when you’re done testing your new wireless network which doesn’t have encryption on yet, turn it OFF before going away on a trip to Minnesota.)

In other tech news, Dean also showed me Ghost 8 Corporate Edition and Ghostcast. Man alive! I never set up a classroom full of cloned computers so fast! This is going to be a mega time saver for me! Woohoo! Shame I’m going away for a week, or I could set up the other two big labs tomorrow!

So, today dad did his E=mc² sermon. It was very well received by the congregation (the UU church I talked about two weeks ago), though they did wonder about spirituality and how that figures in. So I see a sequel sermon… 🙂

Afterwards, dad and I had Mexican at a place in Greeneville we’d never been to before. It was good, so it’ll have to go on our list of places to eat on the way home from church. We headed on to the Lake to get things ready for mom’s gathering of friends. She invited some folks from work to help her clean out the freezer. So we had grilled hot dogs, smokies, steaks, and burgers. And managed to get most of it eaten. I made vanilla ice creams and one of mom’s coworkers’ hubbies made brownies. Good combo! Someone also brought evil no-bake cookies. I hope I never find out how those are made. I’d be 400lbs in no time!

I had 3 amaretto sours and am feeling mellow. 🙂

Woohoo! I have cleaned out my den closet and my reading room closet! There’s actually room in both to store a bit more stuff, if needed. And there’s some semblance of order in them.

I’m currently working in the reading room and have all of my books to reorganize. And maybe *sniff* find some books to take to a Used Bookstore. (There’s a boatload of old physics/chemistry books already earmarked. Since I have a further boatload on my shelves, I’m not too distressed about them.)

BTW, if any of you are in need of old Dreamwatch or Dreamwatch/Doctor Who Bulletin magazines, let me know. I’d like to get rid of ’em and I have a LOT of ’em. They’re currently just taking up space in my den closet. (Along with other magazines and comics that I should also get rid of, but not yet.)

I’m easily pleased. Despite the fact that my attempts to set up a wireless (sub)network at work felt like a waste of a day’s work, I had a good day today. And what made it a good day? Cream of Broccoli Soup, CD Connection and Staples.

My favorite soup of all is cream of broccoli soup. My favorite cream of broccoli soup is made by Frische’s Big Boy. They don’t have this every day, alas, but from time to time I call to see what the soup of the week is. Today, I got lucky. When I arrived at Frische’s, I ordered the soup, salad, and fruit bar. I had salad and 3 bowls of soup, but no fruit. (Most of it was melon – blech!)

Contented from supper, I moved onto CD Connection, a New/Used CD store. I only ever seem to get there when I go to Frische’s since they’re near each other and otherwise, it’s inconvenient to get to. I bought a used Rasputina CD for $6. (Alas, they had no Pet Shop Boys! Well, I think I have all the Pet Shop Boys CDs, but still! And no Pulp or Oasis either.)

I returned to the car and drove across the street to Staples, an office store chain. Mmmmmm! Office Stores! Does anyone else get all tingly inside when they walk into an office store? It’s so exciting! Everything you need to Get Organized! (Except for the Get Organized Gene, which I don’t actually have.) I needed some printer ink, so I got that and some more t-shirt transfers. Seriously, I was excited to be shopping at Staples. (And they had all sorts of Back to School supplies. I may not be ready computer-wise for school, but I love Back to School supplies!)

I finished off my pleasant evening at Walmart where my sole purchase was 4 litter box filters. Wow, you say, a year’s supply? Well, no, Leo’s toilets require 2 filters each – and he has two toilets. Still, 4 bucks every 3 months isn’t *that* terrible. It sure beats litter box smell! 🙂

So, all in all, a good evening. It’s the little things in life that make it all worth while, you know?

In the five years I’ve been a network administrator/computer repairman, I’d yet to have any computers catch fire on me. I’ve seen power supplies fried by others. I’ve heard power supplies fried by others. I’ve smelled – well, you get the picture. I once had a monitor catch fire while I was teaching. (Simply unplugging it put out the fire.) But today, I got to have a REAL power supply fire! Flames and everything!

It was an old 233MHz machine that I had turned on looking to see if there was anything that needed saving off the hard drive. It had just finished its POST when I heard snaps, crackles, and pops and then saw fire. I turned off the power strip that the computer was plugged into and rushed into my computer lab for the CO₂ fire extinguisher. Alas, by the time I returned, the fire was out. I sprayed it anyhoo. (Actually, I sprayed the one next to it first, accidentally.)

So now I’ve had a real computer fire – pretty cool. (Well, cool in that it wasn’t *my* computer and there wasn’t a lot of collateral damage, especially to *me*.)

The hard drive, BTW, didn’t have anything useful on it after all. I ended up reformatting it and using it in one of the first grade rooms.

Well, no, we’re not doing this for profit. But we sure as heck had fun doing it. And today I have the results of yesterday’s tie-dying experience. The shirts are currently air drying and I took photos of each. And here are the five shirts that judiang and I did yesterday.

Here is my rainbow colored attempt. I need to remember in future to wrap a bit looser and then I’ll get more color and less white in the shirt.

This was Judi’s tightly wrapped shirt. You will soon see why tightly wrapped isn’t as nice as loosely wrapped…

This is my red & yellow shirt. I love the colors! And you can almost tell there’s a spiral pattern there…

I *love* this shirt! It’s my favorite! Alas, it’s Judi’s shirt! (She did the wrap – and it was a wonderful loose spiral wrap. I did the actual dyeing.) You know, she lives ALL the way in Chicago… And it’s at MY house… And it fits me, too! Hmmmm…

Yet again, a spectacular shirt. This one was 100% Judi – the wonderful loose spiral wrap and her own dyeing method. She’s got talent, has our Judi!

So, a wonderful set of shirts, if you ask me! Judi’s a natural, in my opinion. I last did tie-dying nearly 10 years ago, but it was her first attempt at it. It was fun and messy – the best sort of activity. And we got to do it in my chemistry lab – another plus. Can’t wait to make some more shirts with Judi!

“Trina, how do you spell ‘zyland’?”
“Can you give me some context, Taylor?”
“I wanna do a cheer for King Zyland.” (Heh, doncha just love 1st graders?)

Well, judiang and I went to King’s Island yesterday. It was mucho fun. We started out riding the Racer, an “old fashioned” wooden coaster that has a forward route and a backward route. So we did them both. I didn’t squeal or scream during the forward run, but a few escaped during the backward one. It’s a bit more surprising if you can’t see where you’re going!

Sunday, when the folks were visiting, Deanna & Abby warned Judi and I about the new ride called Delirium. It spins and swings at the same time. I wasn’t too sure I wanted to do that one. I’m not terribly good at spinning things. (I used to be fine with spinning. But anymore I get nausea. Heck, I spin once around in a wheely chair and I get ill!) However, I told Judi I’d go on that ride (she was looking forward to it) if she’d go with me on the Drop Zone. So when we walked by Delirium, I had to get in line with her. As with the Racer, the wait wasn’t too bad. Only about 20 minutes. (The Racer was probably 15 for the backward, less for forward.) And it was FUN! I didn’t get ill at all, and we LOVED the blasts of air we got as we zoomed back and forth and round and round. Heck, we were nearly upside down at one point – that was pretty cool.

We were heading for the Action Zone where most of the thrill rides were and saw the Drop Zone next. The wait for this ride, alas, was almost an hour. Though I think part of the problem was the crew didn’t have a fast enough turn-around. I would imagine that they could have gotten the number of punters in the line through in half the time had they been a little more efficient. The Drop Zone itself is pretty basic – drop you from a massive height. Still, 315 feet is a damned impressive height. I don’t have a fear of heights, but was willing to have one once we got to the top. The drop itself was fun – though I think Judi had some interesting pressure changes in her head.

Since that ride’s line was so long, we figured we’d best get Son of Beast done before it got too hot in the day for waiting in line. And then were shocked to find the wait was about 20 minutes. Three years ago, when we came to King’s Island on Memorial Day, SOB wasn’t opened that day. The ride was brand new, but they didn’t have all of the rides open yet (season only just started) and that was one of ’em. So, after 3 years of waiting and anticipation, was it worth it? Hell no! SOB is a good name for the ride. Like Daddy, Sonny Boy is a hard ride. Knocks you around considerably. Why King’s Island insists upon wooden rides when the steel ones are so much smoother, I’ll never know! (Millennium Force, which was Cedar Point’s answer to SOB, is a far superior ride. It was even worth the hour and a half wait that Judi and I went through.) We’ve decided that we never have to do that ride again. (The only plus for this ride was the loop – that was the smoothest bit and I love a good loop.)

Since the wait wasn’t long and Top Gun was right next to it, we went on that ride next. Ah, a nice, smooth ride! And thrilling! And only 20 minutes wait! Just what we needed to recover from that SOB. And we also headed over to Face/Off before we attempted lunch. When we got to the line there (again, no more than 20 minutes), the line for front/back seat was the same as for the regular seats. So we went in that line (and then the boys in front of us let us go before them – very nice!) It was fun being in front, even if it was only for half of the ride. Face/Off is another smooth ride and has a wonderful loop that you go on the outside of.

Lunch was at the FestHaus, the only air conditioned eating establishment. We needed a/c by then. I got two pizza slices, fries, and water. Judi just the two pizza slices and Coke. They had ranch dressing packs, which made the already tasty fries even better. The pizza had a crust like a Chef Boyardee pizza but without the yummy sauce). It was good getting food and a/c, but it made me even more susceptible to the heat once we left the FestHaus.

Judi loves the old carnie style rides and decided to try the Monster. I sat and waited while she went on the spinny thing. (Spins three ways – the car spins, it’s on a mobile with 3 other cars and that spins, and then that’s on a mobile with 5 other mobiles and that spins.) She said “wee!” a lot, she assures me.

Next was the Vortex. It used to be my favorite King’s Island ride. (I think Face/Off is, now.) It’s got 6 loops and I normally love it so much, I have to ride it again. But for some reason, my head got battered like nobody’s business on this trip. That, added to the slight nausea I had from lunch/heat/dehydration and I wasn’t feeling too well afterwards. I sat and waited while Judi rode it again. She then rode on the Flying Eagles and whizzed around over my head.

It’s rare that I poop out so early. I’m going to blame the heat on this one. Judi will back me up on this – the heat was miserable. So with my tender stomach and now aching head, Judi and I moved on to the Tomb Raider ride. I needed a/c and bad. I knew there would be a/c in an indoor ride. And, thankfully, there was. We were only waiting outside for 15 minutes or so, but inside – ooooooh! It was wonderful! The ride was fun too. I probably wouldn’t have gotten any nausea in normal circumstances, though I got a twinge this time. And you get to dangle upside down! And belly down! It’s pretty cool. Literally. Heh!

Feeling a world of better, Judi and I compounded that good feeling with a mango smoothie and an ice cream cone, respectively. The mango smoothie tasted good, but I needed something a wee bit blander. And the vanilla ice cream cone was just what the tummy ordered. Once replenished, we returned to Monster so that Judi could ride it again. This time with cooler seats. (Did I mention it was hot?) By now, it was finally starting to cool off.

I went on the Scrambler with Judi – this is an old carnie ride that I used to go on at the fair. I sat in the fat people seat and Judi whammed into me several times during the ride. It was mucho fun. We then got in Dodgem cars and whammed into each other and other peoples cars. On our way to the next carnie ride, Judi paid $5 to see how well Curves was building up my arm muscles. I did the ol’ sledgehammer thingy. Scored a 76 (out of 100) on the first hit, an 83 on the second, and a measly 70 on the last). Judi got a stuffed shar pei out of the deal, at least. And then we rode the Shake, Rattle and Roll. It didn’t shake, rattle, or roll, but it did spin. So Judi talked to me to get my mind off the slight nausea that was starting, and we survived the trip.

Well, by then it was after 8pm and we’d ridden all the rides we wanted to. (We avoided The Beast and Flight of Fear because we’d done them before and they were just too hard on our old bones). So back to the car for the drive home! Only to discover that Trina had left her window open! Silly gurl! Thankfully, my car was full of crap that no one in their right mind would want to steal, so everything was just as it was when we left it.

When we got near the Dayton Mall (which is in Miamisburg, go figure) area, we looked for someplace for supper. First place we saw was Steak & Shake – so we were about to head there when I saw the Atlanta Bread Company. Hmmmm, a restaurant I’d never heard of. I drove there instead and we arrived 15 minutes before they closed. I got half a chicken & pesto panini and a half bowl of baked potato soup, plus an IBC cream soda. Ah, just the type of comfort food I needed. And since we were at a bakery, I bought us croissants and cheese danish for breakfast. Best of all, they were buy one get one free since it was closing time. Mmmmm!

We finally got back to the cottage around 10:30 and promptly crashed. By 11:30, we were in bed.

This morning, we slept in until 9:30am and had our lovely baked goods. Then we putzed around (oh, OK, we slept, all right?) until 12:30. I started a fire and we grilled hot dogs and ate grape salad. Then we picked up the place (though I still need to go back and vacuum the place) and packed the car. Onto my house and then to the school. We had shirts to tie-dye!

This was Judi’s first time at tie-dying and it’s been a few years since I last did it. But we did it and we think we’ll have some pretty cool shirts when they’re done. I’ll find out tomorrow evening when I rinse them out. I’ll have to take photos for Judi – and might even put them here as well. 🙂 After the job was done, we drove to Friendly’s for supper (which is becoming a tradition by now) and had a nice meal – carribean grilled chicken & shrimp with broccoli & garlic bread. Very nice healthy meal – only it had a free sundae attached to it. Which, of course, we both partook of. I got the hunka chunka PB fudge ice cream with hot fudge topping for my sundae. Judi went for traditional vanilla with chocolate topping.

After a short stint at Meijer where Judi bought a couple of computer games (what, Diablo isn’t enough for you?), we headed for the airport. I dropped Judi’s sorry butt off and returned home, where I’ve since been reading e-mail and LJ and writing up this long piece. Judi’s home, BTW, and hopefully will be posting about a VERY interesting sight that we both had the misfortune to witness at King’s Island. It was a great weekend (as I expected it would be) and I thank Judi for coming! PS – don’t forget to order your MSP tix!

Thanks to dreethal and barbthebrazen on IRC last night, judiang and I finally got our ad hoc network working. And then we played a TCP/IP game of Diablo II. My assassin was having trouble killing the Big Bad at the end of Act II, but Judi’s druid recently kicked butt and got him, so she joined into my game and we killed Duriel together. Woohoo! Thank you, Judi!

So anyhoo, that’s how Judi and I spent the last 3 hours of the evening last night. 🙂 As for the rest of the time…

Well, on Saturday, we tootled about all day, having lunch at El Sombrero in Piqua and going to see I, Robot at the Piqua Mall. ($3.50 – such a lovely price for a movie.) As Judi said, it’s based upon Asimov’s book title, but is still a fun movie. And I experienced plenty of “edge of my seat” action. (Well, those robots swarming over things – eeek! It was like spiders crawling on things!)

We then shopped around Piqua, Troy, and eventually down at Stop Eight (a little restaurant infested area along I-75) looking for stuff to tie-dye. When we were finished there, we drove back up to the Lake and grilled steaks, veggies, and peaches for supper. Once again, the folks joined us.

The evening was then spent unsuccessfully creating an ad hoc network and we then played Diablo II separate from each other. For about 3 hours straight. (Well, for Judi it was more like 4 hours since she was still going at 2am when I went to bed.)

Yesterday I went off to the grocery, hardware store, and Pizza Hut to get the last ingredients that we needed for ice cream and the gathering (and to get Judi and I some lunch). Thankfully, the 3 bags of ice didn’t melt away to nothing while I waited for our personal pan pizzas to bake.

The folks arrived around 2pm while I was working on the ice cream. Aunt Becky, Granny, Deanna & her friend Abby all arrived around 3:30. Since Abby was able to join us, we were able to play a game of Dutch Blitz. This is one of the most violent card games to come around since Spoons. 😉 As usual, Abby & Deanna won. And, oddly enough, Judi & I lost. (Mom & Becky, therefore, in third. With some spurious points that we gave ’em.)

After the game, Judi and I worked on freezing the ice cream and grilling the chicken boobies. (And managed to not mix those two jobs up.) Supper was a success, as was the ice cream (on brownies that Becky brought – mmmmm!) We cleaned up the table and it was time for Shanghai Rum!

Mom was the early leader, but Judi eventually took over the number one spot. However, as often happens in our games these days, Becky was lurking around the 3rd place spot throughout the game. And in the very final round, she passed both Judi and Deanna. (I came in a respectable 5th. At least I beat Granny & Abby! Oh, Abby managed to get a record 1040 points! That’s pretty bad!)

Everyone bugged out soon after and Judi and I were left to work on our ad hoc network and Diablo II game. Now we’re getting ready and will soon be off to King’s Island for a day riding rides! Woohoo!