Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Thursday, November 28, 2002
Happy Thanksgiving!
Things that I am thankful for include: My lovely wife Bridget. She's smart, beautiful, funny, exciting, patient, strong, understanding, an awesome mother, a fun partner, and maybe best of all, she's a rare woman with both self-esteem *and* common sense! My life with her is enriched in every way. My lovely children. Isabel is cute, sweet, funny, and oh so smart. It's amazing what she learns in a week. She's definitely working on being Bridget Jr. She imitates B in as many ways as she can, it's so funny. Harry is cute as hell, and rolls around on his own now, and can almost sit up now. The little %&*$$ still won't sleep, but he's a great baby all day long at least. My job. Sure I'm not paid what I would get in the private sector, and I haven't had even a cost of living raise in nearly two years, but I do get paid decently, and the work is rewarding, challenging, interesting, and the people I get to work with are for the most part great. As an added bonus, it's only two miles from home so I get to both bike to work and get home just after 4 so I get lots of time to spend with my family. Oh yeah, not having to work 50 or 60 hours a week for 40 hours pay is also a bonus. My house. While it's not my dream house, it doesn't even have a family room, and it costs basically 50% of our monthly income, it isn't tiny, it's in a great neighborhood, it's close to things I want to be near, the local school is supposed to be one of the best in the city, and it's gone up in value over $100,000 in just three years. Not a bad deal at all. Plus I have my own computer room with 120' of bookshelves for my paperback scifi/fantasy collection and a view of Husky Stadium. My cars. Ok, I'm not really thankful for B's car, in fact I sorta hate it, but I like the truck and love my Vista Cruiser. Neither are what I really want, but they are fun and make me happy. My family. I love having my brothers live near me, I wish my brother Lance would move here with his wife and get a faculty position at the UW. I love B's sisters, they're great people, and all her relatives are totally fun to be around. Neither of our familys have any of the weird backstabbing evilness that I hear about so much. My mother-in-law Peggy is awesome. She comes to visit nearly every weekend, helping out with the kids and is a joy to be around. Isabel gets SO excited when she comes, last night her feet were drumming up and down and her arms were flailing as she said "grandma! grandma!", and when Peggy came in, Isabel insisted on taking her shoes and coat from her and putting them away, apparently figuring Peggy couldn't leave without them. SO cute. I'm thankful for my health. I'm not 19 any more, but I still act that way sometimes. I'm thankful for my friends. I've got some good friends that have been around a long long time. I'm thankful to all the people who read this blog. You guys are great, I wouldn't be writing without an audience. Happy thanksgiving! Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Ugga, the boy was up from 3 to 4am. It gets damn tiring to be up at night.
I've gotta figure out some christmas presents for B. Looks like Harry's getting a highchair, and Isabel will get some toys or something. Man, in a few years it'll rule buying toys for the kids. heh heh. "Hey, that 6' toy crane looks awesome! Ooo! We also need this army action figure set. Ooo! And these legos! oooo! and this Xbox...." I've officially got Weds, Dec 18th off work to go see part two of the Lord of the Rings. WooO! Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Ah, yet another night of drinking. My monthly "investment club" (cough cough) meeting. We met at the Redhook Brewery pub, where many fine beers were consumed. Not a whole lot of meeting got done, but we finally signed off on a 18-month long saga to update our partnership agreement by-laws.
I need to find a second body to help me crate up the monster TV and take it back. Hmmmm. My brother Dan is leaving on Monday for Peru. He's going to spend the next four months in South America bumming around. Sounds like fun. Monday, November 25, 2002
Wooo! My Huskies beat the Cougs for the fifth year in a row, raising our record to 7-5, a winning season. Not bad considering we were 4-5 three weeks ago and basically left for dead.
Poor Bridget had a house full of Husky fans whoopin' and hollerin' the whole time. Ah well, I'd rather have the Coug's 9-2 record and a chance at the Rose Bowl than our record and a chance at the Las Vegas Bowl. Still, we're happy to be going to a bowl game at all this year. On Sunday Bridget hosted the Estrogen Festival, err, I mean the Baby Shower with 15 women there. I and the father-to-be bailed out pronto, first heading down the the Duchess to drink some beer, but they didn't open until 3pm on sundays so we headed back, I snuck into the back kitchen door to get some beer and we went down the street to my brother's house to play pool a while. Two other husbands showed up, I had to head back to my back porch for more beer. When 3pm rolled around we headed down to the Duchess and played shuffleboard and drank more. Ugga. After drinking heavy two afternoons in a row, I crashed at 8:30pm. What a busy weekend. Crickey. Friday, November 22, 2002
Uff. B managed to fill our weekend.
Tomorrow morning we're going to have our family xmas picture taken, a friend just bought a new uber 6 megapixel camera with detachable lenses. Tomorrow afternoon is our Apple Cup party. Go Huskies! Too bad Pitt lost to Miami yesterday, it'd be more fun if the Cougs were #2 in the country going into the game. Sunday morning we're going to some brunch with B's baby group friends. Sunday afternoon B is throwing a baby shower for a friend of ours. I get to herd babies while they do so. B was knitting like mad this week finishing up an afghan for it. Thursday, November 21, 2002
Had the babies doctor appointments. Harry is 21 pounds at six months, Isabel is 28 pounds. A mere 33% more baby. heh.
Harry had four shots, Isabel just had a flu shot. They both dealt with it well. Isabel is feeling a ton better, she had a good time with the toys. Harry's still sick, but we got some antibiotics for him. This will be the first time either kid had antibiotics. The drinking fountain I use at work now has nasty discolored water with a creepy scum on top. Yuck. I've been trying to flush out the crud every time I pass it. Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Ugga. I have a pounding headache right now. A water main broke near my office so there's no water for the drinking fountains or bathrooms either, so I can't take an aspirin.
I'm also exhausted. Both babies have colds, and Harry was so sad last night, I think his throat hurt so he wouldn't cry, but he wouldn't sleep, he'd just moan. Such a sad pitiful little guy. They've both got doctor's appointments tomorrow. I ended up buying that 36" JVC tv, but I am so angry about it. Both the Worst Buy and the JVC web page describe it as having component video, s-video, and two a/v ports (one front, one rear). In actuality, it has component video and s-video in the back, and one composite a/v port in the front. Thus, no place to hook my VCR up. As an added bonus, you can only use either the component video or the s-video, but not both. Thus, I can either use my DVD player or my TiVo, but not both. Not that I've been able to get the component video to work at all anyway. Grrr. I'm taking the whole mother^&$%*$ back. What a royal pain in the ass having to haul a freakin' 160lb TV around, plus tear apart my working AV setup, all for nothing. GRRRRR. Since no other 36" tube fits my requirements and my cabinet, looks like I'm just going to stick with my old 25" Zenith. Blarg. Oh yeah, that WinXP laptop with the ethernet problem? Finally the owner remembered that he'd disabled the ethernet in the BIOS. Gaaa!!! Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Uff. One thing that is always tough here at work is when visiting scientists show up with laptops with an OS in their native language. Holy glub I have a hard time navigating around in WinXP in German, let alone in Korean. (shudder) Fortunately, DHCP normally just works, but today I had to deal with a Dell Inspiron 8200 that, at least as far as I could tell, showed two modem connections plus a firewire network connection, even though the laptop has ethernet. Gaaaa!!!
My german is limited to "zwie grosse bier, bitte" (two big beers, please) which doesn't help in this case. I think I finally broke down and decided to buy a bigger TV to replace the 25" one I have. I want one that just barely fits my TV cabinet, which limits me to 36", which is around my max price range ($700). I need component video input for my DVD player, one S-video input for my TiVo, and two A/V inputs for my VCR and my DV cam. Right now I'm thinking the JVC 36320, which is $700 at WorstBuy, and $680 at CircuitShitty. I need to check Cost-a-ma-co. I can't afford widescreen or HDTV yet. My current plan is to wait five years when it's cheaper and more ubiquitous. Monday, November 18, 2002
WooooooooooooooOO!!!!!! My Dawgs beat the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, 42-14. They went down 0-14 in the first quarter, giving up 177 yards and two touchdowns on Oregon's first two possessions, but shut them totally down after that, holding them to 123 yards the rest of the game, dominating time-of-possession 40 minutes to 20, and scoring six unanswered touchdowns. We've averted having our first losing season in 25 years and put a lot of confidence back into the program, plus made us bowl-eligible. This win puts a lot of confidence back into our team. WoooooO! What a glorious win. Get a nice lead, and then put the game away rather than let the other team get back into it.
This week is our last regular-season game, the Apple Cup, our annual cross-state rivalry with the Washington State Cougars, who are currently ranked #3 in the country and a Miami or Ohio State loss away from going to the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship, but they've got to beat us first. We've won the last four in a row, not that that matters, but we've got serious energy going into this last game. Woooo! Typical Apple-Cup week smack-talk: "Why do WSU grads put their diplomas on their dashboards? So they can park in handicap parking spots". "What does a WSU student say after graduation? Hi, welcome to McDonalds, can I take your order please?" "Why doesn't WSU take their cheerleaders with them to Husky Stadium? Because they can't keep them from trying to graze on the Astroturf" heh. My favorite Husky joke this season is "What's the difference between the Taliban and the Huskies? They're both getting their ass kicked, but at least the Taliban has a running game" Ouch! Too true, however. It was funnier when we were 4-5 than now that we've won two games so go 6-5. Bridget went to WSU, it's always been a funny issue in our marriage. Cats and Dawgs. Speaking of B, we had a dinner party on Friday night with some families from one of her baby groups. It was pretty fun, although I'm always slightly uneasy having an alcoholic over since I have two freakin' HUGE booze cabinets on display full of hard liquor. The babies running around were hilarious. Friday, November 15, 2002
My Huskies play at Oregon this weekend. A victory means we don't have a losing season. If we win this week and next, we'd have a winning season and might actually get a bowl game. Odds are highly against us, however.
I have to laugh. My younger brother Dan is very hippy. He protests everything, and only *he* has a clear open mind, since I don't think like he does, I am obviously a pawn of the media, a cog in the corporate machine. My friend Sean is very Republican and Catholic. He's thrilled that the Republicans have taken over Congress, and thinks that much good will happen with the appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court, the right will control all three branches of government and we'll soon have paradise on earth, plus no unborn babies killed. When I mention that I kinda prefer the compromises that a gridlocked Congress makes, and that I fear the rampage the Republicans might make, he says I am just a pawn of the media. I guess I'm not allowed to form my own opinions about anything, I just lap up the spoon-fed pap the media delivers. Thursday, November 14, 2002
Four day work weeks throw me off entirely. I think it's Wednesday. Ugga.
I have *got* to get a second hard drive into my TiVo. Last weekend a recording of a college football game on "best" caused it to dump all the old "The Book of Pooh" shows from Disney channel, causing Isabel MUCH distress. She didn't understand why we wouldn't play "pooh" for her, even after she both said and signed "please! please!" It was pretty sad, she's such a good little girl. I can't believe how much she's grown up, she's not yet 18 months old yet seems more like a little girl than a baby. Doesn't help that she's got an amazing vocabulary and a quick sharp brain. The other day she spilled some milk onto the couch, and said, "clean clean clean" and went into the kitchen, opened the drawer with the towels, brought one back, and patting the spot on the couch, saying "clean clean". Holy glub! The things she picks up, it's sorta amazing. Wednesday, November 13, 2002
What a difference a day makes. Today's bike ride in was sunny and beautiful. Not even particularly cold. Weather like this makes the ride a joy.
Harry has been awfully cranky lately. He's been wearing Bridget down, so I offered to make dinner last night. I decide to try making fried rice, and having never done it before I totally winged it. It turned out pretty well, all things considered, I was pleased. Since B was at the end of her rope and we needed milk for Isabel, I drove to the safeway to buy some, and picked her up a piece of cake as well. I surprised her with a piece of cake and a glass of milk, she was very happy with me. Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Wow. Today was the first time I biked in to work when it was raining pretty darn good. Not 40-days-and-40-nights wrath-of-god type rain, but heavy. Kinda fun, nobody else on the bike trail. I've got a gortex jacket, nylon pants, and neoprene shoe covers so I was mostly dry. Mostly.
Monday, November 11, 2002
First off, WOOO! My Huskies licked the Beavers, UW 41 OSU 29. We're back up to 5-5, so if we win one of our last two, we'll have avoided a losing season. We didn't get rained on hardly at all, but did get rained on walking home.
Yesterday was the 227th birthday of my beloved Marine Corps, and we had a lovely party to celebrate. We had nine guests total including two other former Marines, one of whom brought his NCO sword for the cake-cutting ceremony. Dinner started off with red wine and caesar salad, while we waited for the prime rib roast to finish up. I'd looked online on foodtv.com to see how to roast one, and after reading four different ways of doing it, decided I liked Alton Brown's scientific approach the best. He said to cook it at 200F until it reached an internal temp of 118F, then remove it and crank the oven to 500F, put it back in for 15 minutes to get the lovely outside crust, and then let it sit for 15 minutes while the absorbed thermal mass finished cooking it to a perfect 135F (rare, the only way to have prime rib). It exceeded my expectations to perfection. I'd encrusted it with salt, it was just a perfect piece of beef. Before we could dig in we had the official "Tasting of the Beef" ceremony, dating back to shipboard times when the ceremony was about tasting it when a new barrel of beef was opened, and the words after the tasting are "I declare this beef suitable for human consumption". Mmmm! There was also bread and garlic mashed taters. After dinner was consumed we brought out the ceremonies 1775 Rum Punch. It's four parts rum, two parts lime juice, one part maple syrup, with a splash of grenadine. We'd made a full pitcher of it, four cups rum, two cups lime juice, and a cup of maple syrup. The maple syrup was because apparently in 1775 the British were blockading Cuba so sugar was in short rations, so they would cut the nasty rum with maple syrup instead. This was supposedly the drink that was used in Tun Tavern, Philidelphia to convince people to join the newly formed Corps of Marines authorized by the Continental Congress. It's relatively foul, but after a few it doesn't taste that bad. Along with the rum punch we had a birthday cake, and Sgt Joost used his NCO sword to cut the cake. After cake was served, it was time for the reading of the Commandant's Birthday message, followed by the traditional reading of the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Lejuene's birthday message from the early 1920s. After that, it was toasts and sea stories. (What's the difference between a Marine Corps sea story and a fairy tale? A fairy tale starts out "Once Upon a Time", while a Sea Story starts out, "This is a real no-shitter!" ) Many stories were told of our days in Desert Storm, including my adventure on the USS Denver, after each story we'd toast. I suppose I may as well tell the tale of myself and the USS Denver. We had been in-country living a few miles south of the Kuwaiti border in the desert a few miles inland from the coast. Our mission at that point was to drive water trucks to a Navy desiel-powered desalinization plant on the coast, fill up with water, and drive it 100 miles inland to fill water bladders there. My squad had managed to get put on local water detail, filling showers and water trailers in local camps, a much easier duty. Lance Cpl Urie was in my fireteam and we had our own truck we used daily for these local water runs. We were filling our truck with water one day around noon and saw that a Navy ship was pulled up to the pier. We looked at each other and said, "Hey, I bet they have *real* food on boad that sucker!" We were mightly sick of the food we'd been getting, nasty 100-man rations in a chowhall for breakfast and dinner, MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) for lunch. Completely without permission of any sort, we drove our truck out onto the pier, acting like we belonged (which is always most of the battle) and just friggin' parked it. Out we hopped, and we walked over to the gangplank of the USS Denver. We walked up, saluted the colors, saluted the squid at the top of the gangplank, and walked aboard like we belonged. Heading into the bowels of the ship, we soon hear the clanking of silverware and trays indicating where the mess deck was. Upon entering, we started to salivate smelling food. We grabbed trays and nearly freaked out upon seeing actual LETTUCE for the first time in months. Soon my tray was sagging under the load of chilimac, vanilla pudding, and salad. We took our trays and sat down at a small two-person table, and started chowing down with our implements in a constant circling pattern, down for food into the mouth repeat. Chomp chomp chomp chomp. Most of the way through the meal, we started to slow down, completely happy, but with this weird feeling that something wasn't right. All of a sudden I noticed that most of the people in the room were looking at us, most trying to pretend they weren't. I looked around, and went, "oohhh shit!" as I figured it out. In a game of "One of these things doesn't belong here", I noticed that all the Navy guys and Marines in the room were freshly showered, with clean clothes and fresh haircuts. Urie and I were in desert-pattern camo, dirty as hell since we only got hot showers once a week, plus we had our typical load of gear you can't go outside your tent without: Helmet, gas mask, cartridge belt with ammo, and M16 rifle. We had long hair from no access to barbers, and we looked like we'd been living in the desert. I nearly busted up laughing. We quickly finished and left before someone asked what the hell we were doing. Down the gangplank to our truck, which fortunately nobody had stolen, and back to base where we had a great story and everyone was most jealous that we had chilimac and salad. So of course I had to propose a toast to the USS Denver. I still can't believe we killed two bottles of red wine plus that entire pitcher of hard liquor. No wonder I feel hung like a french monkey. Friday, November 08, 2002
MARINES' HYMN
From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea. First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean; We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine. Our Flag's unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun. We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun. In the snow of far off northern lands and in sunny tropic scenes, You will find us always on the job, the United States Marines. Here's health to you and to our Corps, which we are proud to serve. In many a strife we've fought for life and never lost our nerve. If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.
Isabel loves to dance these days. Unfortunately, she's learned from her father how to dance like a spaz. I'm sure she'll get better once she gets older, but for now it's too damn funny to watch.
Harry turns six months old on Sunday. The US Marine Corps turns 227 on Sunday as well. We'll be having a USMC birthday party, details afterwards. Bridget's mom group "happy hour" is at our place today. Booze-o-riffic! I'm happy that they let off some steam, it's good for them. Tomorrow is my last home Husky game of the season, and it looks like rain. This will be the first time I've been rained on in several years, I've been pretty lucky. My seats are in the second row of the upper deck, so unless the wind is coming from behind me I don't get protection from the roof. Actually, water can pool up on that roof and if it's windy slosh over in large waves, causing multiple-gallon deluges upon us. Heh. Splooosh! I fear my poor Huskies are just going to be beaten again. No bowl game for them. Sigh. Thursday, November 07, 2002
Last night's poker game got moved to my friend Dee's house because his wife had a PTA meeting and he was on the hook to watch their kids.
His daughter just turned 9 and had an assignment from school to interview a veteran. They picked me. Kaitlyn: How long were you in the Army? Me: I was never in the Army. Kaitlyn: Dad said you were. Me: Dad would be horribly wrong. Dee: Kaitlyn, I told you to ask about which branch of service he was in. Kaitlyn: What are the branches of service? Me: Well, there is the Navy, they sit around in boats drinking coffee. Then there is the Air Force, they fly around in planes and drink coffee. Then there is the Marine Corps, we jump out of little boats onto shores and fight until the beach is cleared. Then the Army lands on the beach, sets up tennis courts, and drinks coffee. Kaitlyn: Oh. Ok. What branch of service were you in? Me: Marines Kailyn: How long were you in? Me: Six years Kaitlyn: Did you choose to join or were you forced? Me: I choose to. Kaitlyn: Did you ever get hurt in the Marines? Me: Nope. I did watch a lot of Air Force and Navy guys drink coffee. Wednesday, November 06, 2002
"We've got to build one before Shelbyville!"
Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth Like a genuine, Bona fide, Electrified, Six-car Monorail! What'd I say? Ned Flanders: Monorail! Lyle Lanley: What's it called? Patty+Selma: Monorail! Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail! [crowd chants `Monorail' softly and rhythmically] Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud... Lyle Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud. Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend? Lyle Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend. Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs? Lyle Lanley: You'll be given cushy jobs. Abe: Were you sent here by the devil? Lyle Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level. Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can. Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man. I swear it's Springfield's only choice... Throw up your hands and raise your voice! All: Monorail! Lyle Lanley: What's it called? All: Monorail! Lyle Lanley: Once again... All: Monorail! Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken... Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken! All: Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! [big finish] Monorail! Homer: Mono... D'oh! Looks likely that Seattle passed a 1.7 billion dollar plan to build a 14 mile stretch of monorail, the start of a program of actual mass transit. Coool. Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Back when I was in college, Dominos had their "Avoid the Noid" campaign. It was stupid. A local pizza joint (Atlantic Street Pizza) had a special they originally called the Noid Basher, but Dominos threatened to sue, so they just called it the Basher. $8.99 for an extra-large double-pepperoni double-cheese. It was damn good, but greasy with all that meat and cheese. It was never on their menu, just in their ads in the student newpaper, and after a few years not even there, but if you called 'em up and asked for a Basher you'd get one.
Last night we gave 'em a ring to see if they still had it. Sure enough, over a decade later they still do. It's $12 now, and more of a medium pepperoni pizza, slightly heavy on ingredients but nowhere near the double it used to be. Damn good sauce however. Monday, November 04, 2002
Owowowowowowow. I went to the Husky game on Saturday afternoon. The start had been delayed from 12:30 to 4pm so TBS could air the game nationwide. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the sun was setting by the time the game started, and partway through the second quarter the temperature was plummeting and the icy mist was rolling in from Lake Washington. It was pretty cool seeing all the boats people take to the game moored on the lake in the mist, but BRRRRRRRRRR it was freakin' colder than the yeti's left testicle as it drags unrestrained across the tundra, so to speak.
Anyway, looking at the stats we should have done well. 500 yards vs UCLA getting 320. 31 first downs vs UCLA getting 13. Time of possesion 33:30 vs UCLA 26:30. However, 4 interceptions vs 0 for UCLA, and you have a final score of UCLA 34, UW 24. We're now 4-5, with three tough games left. It's been 25 long years since the Huskies have had a losing season, and it sure looks like this is going to be one. We basically have to win all three to have any shot at a bowl game, sigh. Ah well. B is happy, her WSU Cougars are going to the Rose Bowl this year. Friday, November 01, 2002
Ugh. Harry had some serious issues last night, only sleeping for 20 minutes at a time before crying unconsoleably. The first time was at 11:10, I'd gone to sleep at 11 and had *just* gotten fully to sleep. (yeah I generally fall asleep as soon as I lie down. It's a talent I picked up in the Marines). Anyway, we ended up basically not getting any sleep all night, and took him to the doctor today. He has an ear infection, but she's sure it's viral so we're not using antibiotics, just infant sudafed to dry him up and ibuprofen to help with the pain. Poor lil guy. Half the time he's his cheerful happy self.
Personally, I feel like I'm dying. Ugga. |
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