Uncle Grayhawk's Front Porch

...but only $0.02 after taxes.

Hey there, how are ya today? Got a little bit of time right now, so I thought I'd drop by and rearrange some electrons. Maybe even post something? Heaven forefend!

OK, ok, enough of all o' that. Time for a Bullet List Of Doom (tm)!

DOOM! Doom, I say!

• Administrivia: Please give a warm welcome to the three newest readers of this little slice of insanity: leaf_kunoichi, jvmatucha, and mummoth, all of who found me through the friending frenzy I pimped yesterday. Pull up a chair and help yourself to somethin' to drink. I generally suggest that people read this post if they want to know more about me.
  
• Me: Doing well. Slept for about 10 hours on Tuesday night, and have felt better since. Looking forward to the upcoming 3 day weekend.
  
• Family: Doing reasonably well. Still have to occasionally sit on people to get them to do their homework. mousecat0 may be enjoying the next few days of work a little, since the boss will be in the Bahamas. B turns 13 in 18 days. Not sure I'm ready for a teenager yet. ::sigh::
  
• Work: is work. And nothing on the other front, but nothing was expected yet. Have about 2-3 weeks before I hear anything.
  
• Where we've been: Not much of anywhere, really. At home for the most part, relaxing, cleaning, gaming...you know the routine. Got some stuff coming up though, which I will talk about in...
  
• Where we'll be: mousecat0 & B will be at Katsucon this weekend, at least on Saturday. F & I will be at home doing some work, then probably going to stoooooooo & ginabeth's on Sunday for the Daytona 500. I'm not really a NASCAR fan, but F. likes it, and it's a chance to see family for a bit. Monday...is a bit of a treat/surprise for the kids. mousecat0 is gonna take a half-day and we're gonna take the kids to see the International Spy Museum. After that, we've got meetings, and scout functions, and birthday stuff...we'll be good and busy until the end of March. I think.
  
• Wisconsin: I need to take a moment here to talk about this mess. Let's leave aside the fact that I'm looking for a federal job, ok? If we are going to tak a serious look at things, we have to admit one thing: in certain ways, the unions are broken. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in any job where they have to deal with a union can tell you that there are some people who need to go, but you can't get them out because of tenure. And I'm not talking about some worker who has put in many long years and is kinda coasting the last year or two until their retirement - I honestly don't begrudge them that. But I am talking about those people who know that it's damn near impossible to get fired and who use that fact to get away with being obstructionist, petty, lazy, incompetent, burned out, or just plain useless. I've seen it in every government agency I've worked in. Every teacher worth their salt that I've known sees these people too. Yes, there's a place for longevity and not being able to fire people just because they're older, but there has to be a way to get rid of the deadwood. And this whole idea of stripping away the collective bargaining rights is also fucking stupid. Especially from teachers, who are not, and have never been paid enough. The unions may be a part of the problem, but the bigger problem (by far) is the ridiculous idea on the part of the American people that they want it all, they want it now, and they don't want to pay for it. Paying the people who run the government (and I ain't talking about the politicians - they're about as useful as a gnat's fart in a windstorm - I'm talking about the rank and file...the people who actually do the work) a good wage is neither wasteful nor unreasonable. Paying the people who we trust to educate our children a good wage is neither wasteful nor unreasonable. *IF THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB* The unions need to get off their ass and figure out a way to make merit part of the criteria for tenure. The politicians need to get over themselves and look at people and corporations and say "Hey, you want this stuff? Pay up".
  
• Gaming: Well, we're 3 sessions into the new Pathfinder game. I know I'm not "feelin' it" as a GM as I take them In Search Of The Unknown, but that's in large part due to the fact that this is a straight-out dungeon crawl with little to no story. In this case, it's probably just as well, as we're all learning the system. It's just that I like my adventures to have a little more story behind them. We'll get there. They've only got one more session in here, I think. Then it's on to the Keep on the Borderlands (I think).
  
• WoW: Still playing a few nights a week. Completed the new questlines, just have Dungeons and raids to see. Probably start leveling my Archaeology and Fishing.

I think that's all I got for now.
I remind you all to have a good day. The very fact that you woke up on the proper side of the grass this morning makes it a great start to a good day.

Peas. Out.

Convention Countdown
Origins: 125 Days!
TCEP 18: 197 Days!
Intervention: 211 Days!

I do believe I have found the candidate I shall vote for for State Senate:

My good friend, Royce Day.

Well, I like his platform...

Yeah, I've been meaning to try and post for a few days weeks now. Thing is, every time I was up for writing, I was either not near a computer or bogged down with work. When I had the time, I had no interest.

Hate that crap, I do.

Enough, I say. Time to put fingers to keyboard and get some of this crap rollin' about in my head out and down on e-paper. And, I think, time for a Bullet List of Doom (tm)!( Cut for length and stuff )I think that's about it for now. I'm a-gonna see if I can crank out one or more of the posts alluded to above.

I remind you all to have a good day. The very fact that you woke up on the proper side of the grass this morning makes it a great start to a good day.

So, hi there.

Yeah, I feel like I should update. And I actually feel like updating.
( But it's been a while, so behind the cut it goes )

Howdy folks.

Yeah, I know I said I'd try to write more, but weekends are difficult for me to write on. I've got stuff to do, dammit! So, here I am. And there you are. And that wierd guy is over in the corner doing...odd things...to his Star...Wars...collectibles...ODEARGHODS! Stop THAT!

::ahem::

OK, seriously, hope everyone is doing well.

As for me, I am. Day 1 of the second week of the new job, and things are going well. Still don't have a badge, or full access, or useful things like that.

I have coffee though. And my 3 liter bottle of water.

Friday night was uneventful, really. Got home, had some dinner, played some WoW.

Saturday, I got up and went to BestWorstBuy to get some movies for the Easter Baskets. The Easter Bunny (or Easter Spider, if you prefer) has been putting movies into the Easter baskets for a few years instead of a lot of candy. Oh sure, there's SOME candy, but not a lot. I picked up Next Avengers for F. and Pokemon Battle Frontier, Vol 2"> for B. I already had Top Gun for mousecat0. Well, once I did that, I met everyone else over at Giant for some grocery shopping, then mousecat0 & B went off for the monthly Chivalry & Sorcery game at MSD HQ, while F. & I went home. We put groceries away and cleaned the living room a bit, then settled down to watch Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Although it doesn't lose much in translation to the small screen, I'm still glad I say Iron Man in the theater. I also liked Incredible Hulk, but...it seems to suffer from the same damn problem that the comic went through from the late 60s until the early 80s: Predictability.

• Something or someone shows up.
• Hulk comes out.
• Hulk beats on it.
• Hulk gets madder and stronger.
• "HULK IS STRONGEST THERE IS!"
• Antagonist gets crushed.
• Hulk jumps away.
• Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

So, anyway, we had some fun & played around until the girls got home. The kids went to bed, and mousecat0 & I put the baskets together, then I hid the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. Sleep beckoned, so I answered it's siren song.

Well, on Sunday, F. was up first, so he got us all up. In my basket was the twin pack of Rocky and Rocky II, as well as some goodies. mousecat0 had, in addition to her movie, had 2 cookbooks (Tis the Season to be Baking: Christmas Reflections and Bread Recipes & Bake And Be Blessed, both by Fr. Dominic Garramone), as well as Chocolate Truffles from Glenstal Abbey, Ireland.

While the kids made sure that the table was ready, I set about preparing Easter brunch, consisting of:

• Homemade kielbasa
• Krakus Polish canned ham
• eggs
• fresh rye bread
• OJ
• milk
• coffee
• butter lamb
• lamb cake

And yes, F & I once again shared the lamb butt. ;-)

Afterwards, we cleaned up, then emptied the pantry. Once empty, mousecat0 & B. cleaned out the area, while F & I disassembled the old shelf unit. I had purchased a wire-frame shelf unit a few weeks ago, and we finally had the chance to put it together. The other advantage, of course, is that we could get rid of canned goods that have since expired (including a box of store brand jello that had a date of June 2002 on it...)

I'll tell you this: Next time I choose to make nacho fixings or anything that requires refried beans? I'm making my own. We had *6* bags of pinto beans in the pantry. Mainly from Angel Food, and I know they don't go bad...but 6 bags? Oof. That's a bit much.

Finally, we got all that done. mousecat0 & F went to her mother's to feed the cat B watched some of her new Pokemon, and I took a nap. When they got home we got ourselves cleaned up a bit and headed to Hamburger Hamlet for dinner. 2 reasons for that: 1: I forgot to take anything out for dinner and 2: Kids ate free. So, Hamlet it was. So, we came home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

And now, a few notes:

( On the Amazon Kerfluffle )
( On the so-called 'Tea Parties' )

Going to do Mother's Day dinner at my place again. Not sure how many people we're going to have yet. Definitely 8, maybe 10-13. I'll do the proposed menu as a separate post later, as soon as I figure out what I'm going to do with the asparagus (I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss for asparagus!), as well as what appetizer and dessert I'm doing.

Crap. Just got the following article from tenku_no_shiro via Twitter: Harry Kalas Taken to Hospital Harry is the long-time voice of Phillies baseball.
EDIT: In the time it took me to finish writing and posting this, Harry Kalas has died. My thoughts on this can be found here.ENDEDIT:

That, I think, is all I have for now.

Remember: You woke up on the proper side of the grass this morning. By definition, that makes this a good day.

Peas. Out.

Welcome to Wednesday, folks. Time for the weekly bullet list of doom!
( Doom I tell you! DOOM! )
Remember, you woke up on the proper side of the grass this morning. By definition, that means it's a good day.

Peas.

Out.

Well, no real updates in a while. Again.

I tried to update yesterday, but ran smack into a full blown case of "don'tgiveaflamingcrapitis". That happens to me sometimes. What can I say. Must mean I'm human.

So, on with the bullet points!

• Me: Doing reasonably well. Health is good. Life is good.
  
• Family: Also doing well. Kids are actually off from school today for Rosh Hashana, and as such are at my sister-in-laws for half the day and at my mother-in-laws for the other half. mousecat0 should find out this week when the person she's replacing will be coming back, so she'll know how much longer she'll be there. It's a shame, in certain respects, that the person isn't leaving for good, as mousecat0 seems to like it there. Hopefully, the temp company will be able to find something else quickly.
  
• Work: Well, it's work. Doesn't suck too badly. It's starting to look my schedule will actually be shifted in the next week or two, which is good. Still no word on who will be awarded the new contract, or even when it will be announced.
  
• Condo Asshattery: Apparently, someone around our unit is having problems of some sort. The Condo management announced last Wednesday (24 Sept) that they were going to inspect all the units in our section on Friday (26 Sept). Now, I have never professed to be a perfect housekeeper, but we've been keeping things in reasonably good shape for a while, so it was reasonably easy to straighten up to something closer to my grandmother's standards. I was there for the inspection, and aside from one or two things that I knew they'd mention (ex. faucet in bathroom), things went well. I just get annoyed by their "fishing expeditions" - they were obviously looking to blame something on someone. I'm pretty damn sure that they weren't able to blame anything on us.
  
• The weekend: Once we got through the inspection, the weekend was pretty good. B. & I got more videos packed up Friday night and we all watched some more of Heroes Season 1. Saturday, we picked up our Angel Food order. Shortly after we had gotten the food put away, the phone rang - it was the HellDesk manager from work, asking me to call the head of IT Security to fix a problem with his laptop. Since I was 99.9% certain of the problem, I agreed to take care of it. 20 minutes later, it was done, and B & I proceeded to replace the hardware on the bathroom sink. A leak had developed where the faucet met the hot water pipe. The only irritating thing about the whole project is that the cabinet that the sink sits on is about 24" wide. Those of you who know me IRL know that my shoulders are far wider than 24". This led to some interesting contortions on my part. But it's done, no leaks, and the faucet and handles do look MUCH nicer. That night I went to tth & aylinn's for a get together. Sunday was more football, food (Irish theme week!) and fun at stoooooooo & ginabeth's.
  
• Football: Speaking of which, I was very happy with the defensive efforts of my beloved Philly Eagles on Sunday night. The offense, and more specifically the play calling, was freaking horrible. I seem to remember a definition of "insanity" being "trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results each time". 3 times up the middle, and you got stuffed. So why would a 4th time be better? Grrr. OK, we need the win this week. Down with the Washington Redskins!
  
• Current Financial Crisis: Yesterday's silly post aside, here's the problems I've been having with the "crisis" and "bailout".
  
  • Bernanke and Paulson have been saying that everything's all right for what, a year and a half, and then they want an ungodly amount of money with no accountability or supervision? Yeah, I don't think so, Scooter.
    
  • Why, exactly, do I and millions of others have to pay for the bad decisions of a relative few? And, I might add that if these asshats had come out ahead, they sure as hell wouldn't be spreading their wealth around.
    
  • Didn't we see something similar when the "d0t-c0m" bubble burst? Only this time, it's the housing market?
  
  I just can't help but wonder how this is all going to play out. And if perhaps we shouldn't let this play itself out.
  
• Events we're hosting: Game Day date is yet to be determined, but I'm thinking early November. Starting to think I might need to order 2 copies of Munchkin Quest. (jk) New Year's Open House is a go, to be held Dec 31/Jan 1 as usual; details and eVites will come out around Thanksgiving, I think.
  
• This weekend: The plan is to be at the Maryland Renaissance Festival on Saturday. I don't know what Sunday will bring, except that we'll be at home, watching football and engaged in minor chores.
  
• Holiday Goodness: Not only have I scored a copy of The Peanuts Holiday Collection, but also copies of The Original Christmas Classics and Christmas Television Favorites. We've watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, mostly for the extra stuff. The extras on the Charlie Brown Christmas DVD, well, we've seen that. So it can wait.

So, that's it for the moment, I think. I'll likely do a post sometime soon about Holiday Traditions; blame delazan for that one - she started it. Seriously though? for me, it's a nice walk down memory lane, and it's neat to see and hear what others do as well. The holiday season, for me, is as much about family as it is anything else. Reliving old memories and making new ones with the people that mean the most in our lives.

And for me, that includes you, my good readers.

Remember, you woke up on the proper side of the grass this morning. By definition, that means it's a good day.

Peas.

Out.

From the Reuters website:

McCain says will suspend campaign to return to Washingon Thursday to help with bailout negotiations, asks that Friday debate with Obama be postponed so bailout negotiations can continue.

Edit: Here's the Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE48N7ML20080924

Good one, dipshit. Way to try to capitalize on a crisis that you helped create.

I feel like I should be entering something here.

Problem is, there just ain't much going on.

School starts on Tuesday.  Kids are ready to go back.  Not ready, however, to go back to homework.

stoooooooo and ginabeth are taking the kids for their annual weekend stay.  I expect them to spend 90% of their waking time in the pool.  I expect on Sunday to pick up 2 pink & tan raisins that sorta look like my kids.

In the meantime, I'll be picking up our order from Angel Food and putting the ceiling fan back up.  Plus trying to get things together for TCEP.

And maybe some WoW.

I've put in applications for a number of jobs, both locally and in the DE area.  I'm just tired of the half-assedness of stuff here.  Plus it'd be nice to be paid more. 

An interesting political thought:  Not too long ago, I observed that Senator Obama was rising in my opinion because of his lack of attack ads, and that based on the last several presidents who had a "lot of political leadership experience", that it was perhaps time for someone without so much experience.

My observations were countered with the rebuttal that based on that logic, if my car was broken, would I then take it to a vet?

My answer then, as now, was simple:  Right idea, wrong example.  If the mechanic who has been working on the car has not only not fixed it but made it worse then it would be wise to find another. Now, if you did this with a series of mechanics who graduated from the same school, it would then make sense to find someone from a different school, since it would appear that the first school is doing something wrong.

I don't know if Senator Obama can make a real difference.  But maybe it's time to try something new, because continuing to use what ain't working is nuts.

And yes, I joined the Pro-Obama D&D Crowd.