As of noon, we were due for maybe an inch of snow, if that, according to forecast. But looking at the radar even then, it was clear that the cold line was further south than predicted. We’re at about three-four inches on the deck, maybe two in the street, and I’m guessing another inch or so before it’s all done. Um, yay?
Two Wednesday holidays back to back makes for broken work weeks and broken routines. I like routines – a well-ordered life makes me happy. That said, we had a nice, quiet Christmas day at home. We called relatives here, there, and everywhere. For supper, we enjoyed more turkey.
The next evening we watched the Doctor Who stuff that we’d picked up on the DVR on Christmas night. I enjoyed that immensely.
I got some work done over the weekend – not as much as I’d hoped, but that’s the joy of doing things that need to be done off hours. This afternoon, I broke from that and we attended a surprise birthday party for a neighbor. That was fun!
* * *
Our condolences to the family and friends of Capt. David I. Lyon, 28, of Sandpoint, Idaho, who died on Dec. 27, 2013, from wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Kabul, Afghanistan.
That is arguably one of my favorite blooper scenes from the Carol Burnett Show. No Harvey in this one, but Vicki as Mama kicks butt. At least as much fun as Christmas, eh? Speaking of the holiday, we’re having a quiet one, at home. No travel, etc. Keeping expenses way down, since we might want to get Marcia a new hip this year…
Missed my post two nights ago. I was confused on Sunday – it was so bloody warm. Two nights ago it was mid-60’s after Lexi’s supper – shorts and t-shirt. Tonight, thirty and snow flurries. Weird.
* * *
Our condolences to the families and friends of these fallen warriors:
Lexi is a little dog, but that doesn’t mean she can’t deal with toys. I think that she actually dislocates her jaw in order to deal with some of them, but Lexi is our first dog that actively seeks out and plays with her toys.
What stuns me is that she manages to bark with that in her mouth!
For Marcia and I, this was a fairly uneventful weekend. Marcia got some quilt assembly done, I patched some systems. Chores and cooking, shopping and cleaning. Life.
* * *
Our condolences to the family and friends of Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Rodriguez, 19, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He died on Dec. 11, while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The next suggestion was to throw away half of the broken chips at home, and the other half at work. But I *know* someone will suggest eating the refuse, then “depositing” the processed output in multiple lavatories along the eastern seaboard. Me, I think that’s a bit over the top.
This morning, I’m back at work. The roads were in okay shape, but there’s still a bit of ice hanging about, a tenth of an inch or less on trees and such.
* * *
Once again, I’m happy to relay that DoD reported no US Military casualties during the last week. Ciao!
This SSD wouldn’t keep recognizing its own existence for long enough to even run the SMART tools against it. I ordered a Samsung 840 Pro yesterday, it arrived this morning.
I’ve installed (k)Ubuntu on it, updating now. In a bit I’ll strip the chips off that board, and crush them – that’s the only way to securely destroy data on an SSD.
Today: More house cleaning. Ciao!
Paul guessed that the pictured object was a vertical file holder. Ye..ess, depending on what you’re filing. What I’m filing with it:
Pushed back to the edge of the counter, the holder keeps the boards from using too much counterspace, while still easily available for use. I made these two boards to replace two bamboo boards that cracked. We’ve also moved our two large boards (including the one made by Marcia’s dad many moons ago) up off the counter and above the fridge. We don’t need those too often.
We hope y’all had a nice holiday (if you celebrate). I’m celebrating by taking the upcoming week mostly off – I’ve got a couple of work tasks during the time, but only a couple at this time. The balance of the time is taken with house cleaning and other indoor chores. For example, I’m pivoting my *NIX system over to the Illumos-backed OpenIndiana distribution. I’ll have some Linux running as virtual machines, but this Solaris fork is going to be an interesting and useful platform for me. Today I’m migrating data onto it from backup disks.
* * *
I’m happy to relay that DoD reported no US Military casualties during the last week. That’s definitely something to be thankful for! Ciao!
What is it? What would *you* use it for? No, NOT for skinning a cat… It’s almost certainly more boring than you can imagine.
Now, here’s Lexi, curled up on as much girly afghan as she can find:
And for Jen, who hasn’t seen Lexi in a while:
This mutt LOVES crawling up inside our coats when the weather starts getting cold!
Well, I got a fair bit done, and some reading, and learned a bit about Puppet, too! I also got the fence sealed:
They’re coated in Olympic Maximum stain/sealer, “Natural Cedar Tone.” From this vantage, it looks a bit like spray-on suntan, but I’m sure it’ll weather in well. I’ll probably recoat in the spring.
There’s more of course. I finished reading The Hydrogen Sonata. I wish Banks were with us still – there are plenty more tales in Culture Space. I also got through John Arundel’s Puppet 3 Beginner’s Guide. I’ve been wanting to get into Configuration Management for a long time, and haven’t had the cycles to address the issue. Very cool stuff. Overall, a good week. I’ll be doing another one, starting next Saturday, after a “3-on, 1-off, 1-on” work week. Then it’s the death-march to the end of the year, with a brand new project and short timeline deliverables attendant thereupon.
* * *
Our condolences to the family and friends of Staff Sgt. Alex A. Viola, 29, of Keller, Texas, who died Nov. 17, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device while on dismounted patrol.
