Category Archives: Beware of Leopard

Not exactly “the town”, eh? In my case, it was the shutters on the second story front of the house that I painted red. And by “red”, I mean Classic Burgundy, a Benjamin Moore color. Six windows, twelve shutters, 6 hours total time on Saturday spent alternately crouching on, and stretching up from the porch roof. Didn’t fall, #FTW!

Shutters, faded, “Before”

Shutters, shiny, rich, “after”

Today: shopping, started the laundry, cleaning, mowing. We went out for an early supper at Mi Hacienda.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Spc. Terry J. Hurne, 34, of Merced, California, died June 9, in Logar province, Afghanistan, from a non-combat related incident.
• Staff Sgt. Scott R. Studenmund, 24, of Pasadena, California, died June 9, in Gaza Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered while engaged in a combat operation.
• Staff Sgt. Jason A. McDonald, 28, of Butler, Georgia, died June 9, in Gaza Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered while engaged in a combat operation.
• Spc. Justin R. Helton, 25, of Beaver, Ohio, died June 9, in Gaza Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered while engaged in a combat operation.
• Cpl. Justin R. Clouse, 22, of Sprague, Washington, died June 9, in Gaza Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered while engaged in a combat operation.
• Pvt. 2nd Class Aaron S. Toppen, 19, of Mokena, Illinois, died June 9, in Gaza Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered while engaged in a combat operation.

First, a correction (fixed already) – I had the umlaut in the wrong place in Zoë Keating’s name last week. Sigh. I wouldn’t have these problems if I’d listened to more metal when I was growing up.

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The house in Kensington, California, where I spent my first four years, was sold last year. Zillow has pictures … and at least one of the stirs some memories.

The living room on Norwood

Note the cabinets flanking the demarcation between living room and dining room. Note the glass front doors on the right cabinet. Note the LACK of glass front doors on the left cabinet. Yeah … that was me. Sometime between three and four, I was running hell bent for leather through the house. There was a sofa there, and a rug. I tried to corner around the sofa and lost all traction. Head first into the glass cabinet doors I went. I can report with some authority that scalp slices do in fact make one bleed like an actual stuck pig. The scars are with me to this day, as the glass is not with the house, also to this day. Thanks to my mom for bringing this memory back to the top of my brain (right near the scars, one suspects).

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I killed myself yesterday in the yard – all of the front beds are now weeded and mulched. In the evening we went over to supper with Linda and Mike. Yummy, yummy lamb, veggies, potatoes, and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Excellent company, and excellent victuals. Then we played Ticket to Ride, in which I eked out a two point win with the longest train. Not sitting on the Loser’s Couch last night, Mr. Wheaton!

Today was shopping for food, then shopping for paint. It’s time to clean, lightly sand, and paint the trim, front and back. Sadly, the local Sherwin Williams store, which is the local listed seller of Duron paint (an off-white for the porch and window trim), had a singularly unhelpful person who told me they couldn’t help me with the paint, even though I had the color codes. So screw that. I chiseled out a paint chip from one of the posts. Then I headed over to Will’s Home Decorating in Beltsville, where they still had a can of the original Benjamin Moore Classic Burgundy color which is the second trim color. They also matched and mixed me a gallon of the color I need to replace the Duron brand. Guess who’s getting my continuing business, eh?

The rest of the day? A write-off, frankly. I burned through most of my energy yesterday, and I’ll do another round of stuff tomorrow, so breaking in the middle seems like a good idea.

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Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Marcia and I have a number of people in our families who served in our nation’s armed services. It’s good to take the time to reflect on their service, and remember their stories, and their sacrifices.

Our condolences to the family and friends of Spec. Adrian M. Perkins, 19, of Pine Valley, California, who died on May 17, in Amman, Jordan, from a non-combat related injury.

Productively, my weekend was full of remote work for $OFFICE, and yardwork. I did a fair bit of lawn work, and installed the pepper seedlings that Rich sent down from Michigan with Marcia. They were pretty droopy, the plants nearly drowned (I think) in the deluge of Friday, with no drainage in their holding tray. Good thing I transplanted today, eh?

Sadly, the news that Zoë Keating’s guy has cancer landed in my twitter feed this evening. Sending Jeff, Zoë, and the CelloKid all the good vibes I can lay hands on. I’m a huge fan of Zoë’s work, and y’all should be, too.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Chief Warrant Officer Deric M. Rasmussen, 33, of Oceanside, California, died May 11, in Mazar E Sharif, Afghanistan, as the result of a non-combat incident.
• Command Sgt. Maj. Martin R Barreras, 49, of Tucson, Arizona, died May 13, in San Antonio Military Medical Center, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, from wounds suffered on May 6, in Harat Province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Yes, yes, I called my mom. Thanks for checking, Internet. Also for Mother’s Day, Lexi had me wash Marcia’s car. Marcia was effusive in her thankage. All you other Mothers out there, you be happy, too, mmm-kay?

Me, I’m headed back to work tomorrow after a few days off. Nice and relaxing. (Work, I mean. Time off is exhausting!)

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Pfc. Daniela Rojas, 19, of Los Angeles, California, who died May 3, in Homburg, Germany, due to a non-combat related illness.

The League of Professional Systems Administrators (LOPSA) puts on an east coast conference each Spring. We just finished up LOPSA East 2014 last night. An excellent two days of technical training, invited talks, and superb keynote speakers. I’d say that in terms of technical conferences, it’s the best value for money around. You’ll be hearing a lot more about that from me for the next couple of years. Why? It appears that I have volunteered to shadow the Program Chair next year, and be the Program Chair for LOPSA East 2016. Woo hoo! I’ll have a better write-up on this year’s event in a couple of days, when I’ve caught up on my sleep.

Today I drove home, unpacked, started the laundry, and went out to do the shopping. Back from that, I mowed the lawns front and back … then vegetated for the balance of the day. Tomorrow I’ll retrieve Lexi from boarding at the veterinarian, and we’ll wait for Marcia to come home from Michigan later this week. Plenty of stuff to keep busy with around here, as I’m taking this whole week off from work.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Pfc. Christian J. Chandler, 20, of Trenton, Texas, died April 28 in Baraki Barak District, Logar province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.
• Sgt. Shawn M. Farrell II, 24, of Accord, New York, died April 28, in Nejrab District, Kapisa province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Then why post, might you ask? Well you might. But sometimes, “nothing” is good. For instance, I’ve nothing to report from DoD for the week past. That’s good – no reported casualties.

There’s been no frost, so none of the veggies I’ve planted are dead. That’s good. Also, I made the lawns flat this weekend, and got a bit of work done at the office on the virtualization infrastructure … neither of which is “nothing”. But lawns are boring, and by policy I can’t discuss details of work. So … pretty much nothing to see there.

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Someone wants lots of flashing lights near schools for child safety. Sigh. Virtually everyone I grew up with was safe, and we didn’t have much in the way of flashing lights, or school buses with 10 mile visibility exclusion zones. Much better to do two things: one – teach kids to pay attention again. Two – kill a kid on purpose or by accident: Death penalty, fast lane. Result: safety and road courtesy. Seriously. It wouldn’t take too many public executions, well publicised with cheering parents all round to bring most drivers to their senses. The rest would end up victims of Papa Darwin.

This is nothing new from me. I’ve been a crusty, get-off-my-lawn type since I was 4 years old. Enough nothing. Ciao!

Frankly, I don’t know what happened on Sunday. It wasn’t a particularly stressful day, I got some stuff done, but not much. Not much at all since I managed also to forget to post, and continue forgetting until Marcia reminded me just now. What’s been going on? Today:

Yeah, more snow

You wouldn’t guess it was Spring already, eh? In other news, I’ve been a much better boy when it comes to sticking to the exercise routine this year. I picked up in earnest in early February and have been improving as I went along. Today, along with sit-ups and a few push-ups, I managed this on the elliptical:

Today’s elliptical workout

So I’ve got that going for me.

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Good news, no new casualties reported by DoD (none announced since March 3). Ciao!