What an oddball weekend (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

This weekend, I was in Catonsville, near Baltimore, visiting my friends aurienne and ironkite. I arrived Friday when ironkite picked me up, and we rode the scenic back roads of Maryland. His Navigational computer spoke Swedish for a bit, which was kind of confusing because I am not used to computer synthesized Swedish. Part of the problem was that it was reading the directions in English with Swedish pronunciation rules, so, "Main Road" would be pronounced "Ma-een Road-er" and so on. So he switched it to Aussie, which was better, but confusing.

"Roit mate. Ssee heah we gaw three myles teh the lift, pahst the boosh, then gaw walkabout till ye get to the dunny... moind the rivah..."

No. I made that up. But it was an Australian accent that one might hear in a news reel.

I hung out while aurienne made her costume out of nearly thin air. We also watched some pretty bad TV. The one that was hard to take was some version of the Superfriends called, Legends of the Superheroes, which was extremely awful. I mean, I wanted to mock it, but they had random laugh tracks (really, random as in not after jokes, just after certain lines) which made that difficult. I can't even convey the level of bad this TV show was. Beyond "Plan 9 from Outer Space" bad, it went into the realm one often finds plots made for coloring books you find at the dollar store. It was even worse than the Star Wars Christmas Special. It deserves no more attention in this blog.

We stayed up chatting late, and went to bed. I slept on a comfortable futon (really). I got up Saturday and helped them clean for their annual Superheroes Party. I also studied for my Network+ exam for a while, which gave me a headache.

The party was good, we had about 10 people, which is a comfortable level for their small duplex. The food was good, the company was good, and we were up until past 2am I think in a soft and comfortable company. Some of the guests were dressed in costumes; I was wearing my "Copyleft" shirt, which sort of looked like a hero logo, even with khaki pants. See some of the shots from my Flickr account.

Sunday morning, I was kind of groggy. ironkite and I drove from Catonsville to Sterling, Virginia, to visit the grand opening of NOAA's new weather center there. The kind of people who show up to these things are amusingly like the kind of people who I used to see at train museums as a kid. Nebbish parents, cub scouts, and some bored teens. *I* thought the place was cool, but then again, I am a total nerd.

We then went back to my house where ironkite helped repair the door to my den and cut some thicker brush by the side of my house. Now he, too, understand the rage of what I am starting to call "The Angry Thorn Tree." Like I have mentioned before, it looks like an acacia or a pyracantha but I am not a botanist. Grows like crazy, and the thorns are like rusty sewing needles. Horrid thing, but I admire its tenacity, and didn't wish to kill it even though I had to heavily prune it back because it was tearing apart my siding.

I am sooooooooooooooo grateful to ironkite, who pretty much did 100% of the work on the door, I just helped. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Before, my door was held in the frame by friction because CR has pretty much destroyed it in the years he had that room. Now I have a swinging door with hinges and a latching doorknob, and everything. Posted in: angry thorn tree , aurienne , den , door , house , ironkite , superheros party

My den move... continues (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Even though I have been working from my new den (CR's old bedroom) for a while now, it's been slow going to get it squared away. I still don't have all my stuff from my old den up here. Just most of it. A majority of the work has been going through my possessions and sorting them. This seems to be the sorting method:

1. If I don't want it, and it's trash, toss it
   
2. If I don't want it, and it's paperwork, shred it
   
3. If I don't want it, but think it's still useful to somebody, it's been put in a box labeled as such. So far the Heare kids are going to get many toys, and I have to sneak this past their parents, because with 4 kids, they have far too many toys as it is. They have even expressly asked not to give their kids any more toys. Of course I have to disobey this, it's my job as the "fun Uncle."
   
4. If I do want it, but can't let go of it for emotional bullshit reasons, it gets boxed and labeled.
   
5. If I do want it, but I won't use it for a while, it gets boxed and labeled.
   
6. If I do want it, and it's paperwork, it gets filed
   
7. If I do want it, and it's not paperwork, but small, it's going in a universal "junk box" to be sorted later
   
8. If I do want it, and it's not small... fuck, where am I going to put this? Try again from step 3.
   

Oddly enough, this isn't all that bad. I have generated a LOT of trash. Right now, I have more empty boxes than full ones. I have even had the "luxury" of throwing away cheap, torn, or stained boxes because I am keeping the more sturdy ones. A pile of empty boxes sits in one corner, waiting to be used, or given to anyarm and Brian, when the move out in just a few months from now (sad face). Posted in: cr , den , move

More moving (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, I did more moving of stuff Sunday from CR's room to my new room. I moved all my knick-knacks to my new shelf. I took several boxes of Legos and condensed them into three large bins, and then a few unopened complete sets were sorted into various smaller boxes. I have about 65-75 gallons of Legos, if anyone is keeping count. I know I do :).

I wish I had more Lego time. I was trying to think of the last major Lego set I built, and it was the Viking ship I got for my birthday years ago. I have about 10 sets I haven't even built yet. That's why I stopped asking for Legos as presents (for now).

Then the power went out around 3. That pretty much killed my day. The wind was really bad yesterday, and finally, it took down some power lines nearby. I couldn't do much but move boxes around until it got too dark to see, and then the house was pretty cold because I have electric heat. I couldn't watch TV, and CR left to go eat Pho with his friend Eugene. I couldn't do dishes, vacuum, laundry, or anything but read Mad Magazine by candlelight.

My house was without power until maybe about 7pm. When it came back on, it stuttered a while until it finally stuck. During the daylight, I got some cleaning down that didn't require electricity, like some good scrubbing in the kitchen (until I ran out of hot water) and then the long terrible task of cleaning up foam peanuts.

Because of takayla's Slumber Party business, she was out all day. Another issue we have with her business is that she gets products packed with those foam packing peanuts. Lots of them. Generally we have about a trash bag a week filled with excess peanuts. Latte got into one of them, and scattered them all over the house. In addition, she decided that not only are foam peanuts fun to play with, they were also fun to burrow into and sleep in. We only knew she was in there because she snores very loudly. It took me an hour to clean up all the loose peanuts Latte scattered everywhere. Posted in: den , foam peanuts , legos , move

More housework (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I got a lot done today. Not as much as I would have liked, but a lot nonetheless. Several loads of dishes, many loads of laundry (yay) and more boxes from my old den to my new one.

In the move, I found (sniff) some old photos I thought were long gone. This is in GREAT thanks to my friend Neal, who sent me these photos in a package of "memories I got from you, since you lost a lot of memories in the flood."

Photos from 20 years ago. A few con photos, notably Disclave 87 when I was still in high school, and Evecon 5, when I lived with Bruce and Cheryl. I will post them when I have time to scan them. Posted in: den , disclave , evecon , fantek , housework , move

punkwalrus @ 2007-11-27T15:56:00 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR finally got his hair cut. It had been very long, and I think it was starting to bother him. He got it cut short like mine, and he looks very nice. While I didn't like him having long hair, he always kept it clean. The way I saw it is that this was the time he could have long hair and not worry about the stigma you get as a male adult.

He's still sick, however. Well, I am not sure it qualifies as "sick" anymore, because now it's more of long-lasting thing with his asthma. He sees the pulmonary specialist again on Thursday.

The progression to move my den to his room and vice versa still goes on. It's slow going because I am the only one who can move anything, and I am down to furniture and boxes. Actually, part of the problem is I am out of boxes. But the last 4 day weekend gave me enough time to move myself to his old room, so I am hoping that the rest of the move will go quicker. Posted in: asthma , cr , den , medical , move , room

Massive ... fall cleaning? (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

There is a pile of trash by my stairs about 4 feet tall. It's about 11 bags, I figure. It represents about a day's worth of cleaning of my son's old room, my old den, and the bedroom. To be fair, some of it is a bunch of crushed and damaged empty boxes.

I moved a majority of my critical items from my old den to my son's old room. The swap is mutual: my son wanted a smaller room closer to his bathroom, and I wanted a larger room with windows. Also, my old den has no carpeting, so it should better for his asthma (so they say).

Part of the house's "computer operations" originated from my den, which meant a lot of yesterday was not only cleaning up my son's room, but moving all the computers and networking stuff to the closet up in the bigger room. Luckily I had a lot of boring meetings recently, and planned it all out on paper while my boss and some of the other admins took 20 minutes to discuss a minute's worth of material.

My son's old room still has no working door. I need a circular saw to cut the new door to the size of the old one, plus a little smaller since the old door didn't quite fit. But using a power screwdriver and a rigged spade bit, I was able to make some holes in the old door that make it friction-fit to keep the pets out.

My cats love computers. They want to sit by the hot fans and clog them with cat hair. They also love chewing on cable ties, Velcro wraps, and then fight over who gets to be near a window. Sometimes, they hide so I won't see them to shoo them out, and they get locked in, and poop on the floor.

Yeah, my den has to be a cat-free zone. Posted in: asthma , cats , computers , den , pets