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

Weekend Wrapup: Thisby, Katsu, power, CR (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, I was on call this weekend, so I didn’t do much exciting. Oh, wait, I got cat food!

My cats are sooooooooooooooo friendly to me when they are out of food. Oh, even Thisby becomes friendly. She lets me pick her up and everything without goring me in the process. Thisby also attacked a cat for the first time: she jumped on Cosmo! It’s funny, that poor cat has spent so much of her life under the bed, that now she’s more out and about, she’s learning how to be a cat for the first time at age 8. She’s more and more curious about things than she used to be, although she’s still easily spooked. For instance, cat “fights” have been her new curiosity. Some of my cats fight, but not really. Most of it is wrestling, swatting, and dominance games; no yowling or fur flying. Cosmo and Taboo were hashing it out over a small clump of yarn, and Thisby, for reasons we can only speculate, jumped on Cosmo. But not like a swat, more like a leap of a flying squirrel that landed on Cosmo as awkwardly as a sack of rice. It scared the SHIT out of Cosmo, who was a surprised as the rest of us that Thisby had done anything. Thisby, who also surprised at the action, immediately ran off. It sure ended that fight. We think Thisby is sweet on Taboo, and was defending him.

Saturday, we went to the Katsu meeting in Baltimore (they have network access, so I was allowed to go). Some very important discussions and announcements were made, but I don’t know what can be public, so I won’t say anything. I was glad I went. There was some discussion about the Opening Ceremonies Movie: it can’t be done in the form we wanted due to time and personnel constraints. I had discussion with Alex who wanted a small five minute film “What We Do” sort of thing, and he’s going to see if he can budget some software for me to edit it. At the con, I am going to do Opening Ceremonies and AMV again (if asked), but to fill out some time to earn my way, I am also going to be working the staff suite.

After that, takayla and I had sushi. The Sakura (which, I have to point this out, is pronounced SAH-koo-ra, not “Sah-KYER-ah” or “Sah-kyur-a”, it’s Japanese for “Cherry blossom”) is a favorite place of ours ever since the Hama Sushi shipped all their good chefs to their newer DC restaurant. There is a waitress there named Eunice who sometimes has a Hello Kitty-themed obi. She’s almost always there. Like, she’s the hardest working girl I have ever seen. In the years that we ate there, she made her first mistake she has made with us, ever. I wanted to order “Blue Crab” Nigiri, but I got the “Giant Clam” (mirugai) instead. Ew. I mean, I’ll try anything at least once, but giant clams are safe from me for a very long time. It was rubbery and tasteless, just like tako (octopus) which I have tried in several different forms and it still tastes like I’m eating a pencil eraser. Eunice corrected the mistake without question, although I feel guilty having wasted mirugai (which is expensive) but... blecch.

I got Lego gummies at BJ’s. They did not stack. I am very disappointed.

Sunday I had some plans to clean and do laundry, but then we lost power. So we made plans to go to Starbucks, because CR’s nebulizer requires power. Then we got our power back. Crisis averted, although we still went to Starbucks.

But, CR is not doing too well. Last week, he went to the doctor, and while they can see his asthma problems in X-rays (like windpipe restrictions) they can’t find the cause (no pneumonia so far). He’s been on steroids, and then more powerful steroids, but he hasn’t been able to stay off his nebulizer (a machine that pumps medicine vapors via face mask) of more than a few hours. And the specialist is always busy. We had to fight like mad to get him to get an “emergency” appointment on Tuesday (from Thursday); usually they have a one-month waiting list. The general prediction is that it’s a bad cold on top of a severe ragweed alert for the area. The worst has been he’s been out of school for two weeks now, and I fear shortly they may have him repeat his senior year. And then there’s the concern, “How will he deal in real life?” Posted in: asthma , cats , cr , katsucon , legos , sushi , thisby

Happy Birthday, Scarlet (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My friend and small leg-gripping pal Scarlet turned 9 last week, and we celebrated her last era of having a single digit age with a small barbecue (thanks, cheesy_reads, for cooking). It was an interesting party. I got to see Lanning, again, whom I have known since he had long hair, way back before we worked at AOL. cyaneyed nicked a roommate's car to make it. After a ton of gifts and Target gift cards (to her way of affording a new bike), she was whisked away for an all-expense paid vacation in Virginia Beach, courtesy of Pop-pop Travel and Lodging.

I also got to hang out with aksident and her cousin Jessica, which is always enjoyable. I know Jessica has been through some rough times in the last few years, and I am always rooting for her and her mom to make it through.

takayla was in Baltimore over the weekend, although she came home Saturday and Sunday nights. She was planning and working her friend Jamie's going-away party, where he's moving to Japan to work with JET. She's in Baltimore all this week, too, but for business. At least they are putting her up in a hotel: two weeks ago she had to drive back and forth to Baltimore every day, which cost us over $120 in gas money. Jesus. The reason she's in Baltimore so much is that they are losing employees, notably management, in droves. takayla, who is head of IT, HR, payroll, and who knows what else; it's a small company. She's also in the middle of a huge office move and a VoIP install, which she's going to have at our house, too, and one of the reasons I had to upgrade our home network to GB.

Sunday, I hung out with anyarm and Brian to Potomac Mills. I also wanted to go to Ikea, but my back started to hurt for reasons I can only speculate that I must have slept on it wrong. I went to my Mecca: the Lego Outlet there. Sadly, my back hurt so damn much, I was unable to bend at the waist, so I didn't get everything I wanted to (or might have wanted to get; I couldn't even see what was on the lower shelves). I ended up getting a Lego plate, and a bag of assorted windows and doors (for my RHDA training, explained a little later in another post), a bag of axles and connectors (for a project I am doing this week: build a working 5-speed transmission and clutch out of Legos), a large green plate (RHDA), and some brick keychains. Hardly a haul. One cool new thing they have there is "build your own mini-fig." They have a box of assorted Lego mini-fig parts, and you can build yourself or others for $2.99 each. A bit steep, but I think I may do this for Christmas this year.

My back is fine today. Reminds me of a bad pun:

A Tibetan woman, smelling something burning in the kitchen, complains, "Oh! My baking yak!"

[rimshot] Posted in: baltimore , heares , legos , scarlet , work