This weekend I turn 30. That’s years, people. It feels...pretty much the same as 29 did. Plus it’ll be convenient shorthand for me to remember about how old our first kid is. My age minus 30, about. No specific festivities, but we do tend to spread celebration around, so I get a birthday in stages over the course of about a week, which is nice for me.
Thursday was sort of my ‘Birthday at Work (observed)’ day because Jess made me cupcakes the day before. Cupcakes are the way to go when there’s just two of you for the cake-based celebration. There’s no way for two people to eat an *entire* cake, and so you either have to stuff yourself with cake for days (tempting, but I’m trying to keep slim) or bring leftover cake to work, which is always nice, but cupcakes are pre-measured for your convenience, and very easy to distribute since we got our cupcake carrier. So I gave away cupcakes at work and got a lot of ‘happy birthdays’ for our trouble. I also ate several of them myself. Cupcakes are delicious.
Jess then organized a ‘Nerf fight’ for me. I’ve been buying and distributing Nerf guns around the office for a few years now, and there’s now enough of them that we can get a pretty good firefight going if we all show up at the same time. Jess ambushed me in my office and I retaliated with my ridiculous Nerf Machine Gun. Fun was had by all. Then my officemate got me a couple more nerf guns the next day. They’re clear! I’m hoping to get to home depot this weekend to buy some LEDs so I can make a *glowing Nerf gun*. I think home depot sells random electronic components. Where else would I go. Radio shack? Have you seen that place recently?
Friday, also ‘for my birthday’ but realistically just because the timing worked out, I got to see Rodrigo y Gabriella in concert. A blast! The wait was pretty rough, unfortunately. We got there at 7 and there was an opening act at 8:30, the concert proper didn’t start until 9:30, which is a lot of time to stand on your feet. My long-suffering wife decided to just go hang out in the back where she could sit, but I stayed up pretty close to the action for the whole concert. They were a blast to listen to. I’m not sure how they mic the guitars but every time they gave their instruments a smack it resounded through the subwoofers for a serious kick. They did a bunch of songs I’ve heard from their albums, though they tended to have neat variations in the performance. High energy and lots of fun, though I think I’ve burned Jessie out on concerts for a while. Between the close quarters, tired legs, big crowds, and smoke, tobacco and...otherwise, she was pretty worn out at the end of the night.
We got home before midnight and got to wake up early, though, to head out to the Velloway again, a paved loop in southern Austin that’s only open to bikers and skaters. Jess hung out and exercised with her derby girls while I rode around on my bike. 13 miles for me, 7 for Jess. Not bad for the start of the weekend. We stopped at a place called Moonies that we’d been meaning to try out. They’re up by us and they do a *great* hamburger and really good chicken burger, too. They may have displaced Hutts as my second favorite hamburger spot in Austin. They’re certainly closer to the house. I could walk if I want to.
Later, for my birthday again, heh, I’m going to head out to McCormick and Shmicks. I get fish on my birthday. Then we’re going to stop at Whole Foods and check out some of those pastries that always look so pretty in the display cases.
-N
Showing posts with label Roller Derby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roller Derby. Show all posts
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Random Shenanigans
While not speaking in front of any major national conventions, I’ve been up to some things of my own.
The “wow new toy” sheen has worn off the phones, and they’ve settled in as mighty, mighty useful pieces of equipment. I still haven’t explored all of the functionality, and it’s neat really just to browse around the phone and learn all the neat stuff it can do. I find myself using it for navigation, looking up silly things online at random, the occasional video and the so-useful-I’m-not-sure-how-I-lived-without-it functionality of a speaker phone. Jess really likes hers, too. It’s not cheap, but it promises to be, with luck, worth the cost.
I made some more bread this weekend. My whole wheat loaf is much improved over previous iterations, though I have to be careful to really let it rise like crazy, because unlike regular bread loves which rise pretty significantly after you put them in the oven, the wheat loves pretty much just bake into whatever shape they were when they went in there. And you can loose some volume off putting the thermometer in there, too. I also found, finally, a good way to make cheesy bread so that you don’t get loaves with big, cheezy holes in the middle. Essentially they’re just great big cinnamon rolls, except with cheese instead of cinnamon. Jess really liked those ones.
Judo, have I not talked about it much before? Well I’m still doing it and it’s a blast. It combines many of my favorite aspects of a martial art:
1) It’s competitive. Not aggressively so, but it’s always good to have an art where you can try things out and if you’re doing it wrong, you’ll know, because it *won’t work*. It’s also nice because the looser doesn’t get knocked out, just thrown down. I can take that kind of defeat.
2) It’s really good exercise. Mostly for those core muscles in the middle. Because it’s just fall down, get up, fall down, get up, for an hour and a half. Just standing up is enough to break a serious sweat.
3) I get to practice falling. Let’s be honest, here, I’m not likely to ever get into a fight. But I’m sure to fall over one day, and being able to do so safely is a very useful skill.
4) No contracts. I’ve learned my lesson on that one.
We’re in the summer doldrums, of a sort, for video games, in that there is little of note that is coming out until the really big stuff hits for the holiday season. Lucky for me, this means I get to go back and play some stuff I missed from last year. As well as catch up on reading and making music. And baking bread.
We found a farmers market! And, lucky us, it’s actually going to be moving *closer* to us next week. It’s peach season round here, so we got 8 or so of them for munching later. They’re ripening as we speak. I drool with hunger! We also got some veggies and made up some salad for dinner. Little (tasty) tomatoes and some sort of Zuccini variant that is crisp and delightful. I’m looking forward to learning my way around that place better.
Jessie has been skating like a maniac. She took, I think, one day off last week. The rest of the time she was on wheels either for hockey or for derby. Her recreational league had a (closed door) game this weekend and she has actually been a team leader for a few weeks. Well it turns out all that work on proper lineups and the excellent leadership that comes with a positive attitude rubbed off on the team because they *DOMINATED* the opposing team. From the sound of it, her team gelled quite well, everyone skated to their utmost potential, and Jess scored MASSIVE points when she got to be the jammer a couple of times. Next time you see her, make sure you let her know that you are in awe of her skills, because she doesn't quite seem to grasp how great she is on wheels.
-N
The “wow new toy” sheen has worn off the phones, and they’ve settled in as mighty, mighty useful pieces of equipment. I still haven’t explored all of the functionality, and it’s neat really just to browse around the phone and learn all the neat stuff it can do. I find myself using it for navigation, looking up silly things online at random, the occasional video and the so-useful-I’m-not-sure-how-I-lived-without-it functionality of a speaker phone. Jess really likes hers, too. It’s not cheap, but it promises to be, with luck, worth the cost.
I made some more bread this weekend. My whole wheat loaf is much improved over previous iterations, though I have to be careful to really let it rise like crazy, because unlike regular bread loves which rise pretty significantly after you put them in the oven, the wheat loves pretty much just bake into whatever shape they were when they went in there. And you can loose some volume off putting the thermometer in there, too. I also found, finally, a good way to make cheesy bread so that you don’t get loaves with big, cheezy holes in the middle. Essentially they’re just great big cinnamon rolls, except with cheese instead of cinnamon. Jess really liked those ones.
Judo, have I not talked about it much before? Well I’m still doing it and it’s a blast. It combines many of my favorite aspects of a martial art:
1) It’s competitive. Not aggressively so, but it’s always good to have an art where you can try things out and if you’re doing it wrong, you’ll know, because it *won’t work*. It’s also nice because the looser doesn’t get knocked out, just thrown down. I can take that kind of defeat.
2) It’s really good exercise. Mostly for those core muscles in the middle. Because it’s just fall down, get up, fall down, get up, for an hour and a half. Just standing up is enough to break a serious sweat.
3) I get to practice falling. Let’s be honest, here, I’m not likely to ever get into a fight. But I’m sure to fall over one day, and being able to do so safely is a very useful skill.
4) No contracts. I’ve learned my lesson on that one.
We’re in the summer doldrums, of a sort, for video games, in that there is little of note that is coming out until the really big stuff hits for the holiday season. Lucky for me, this means I get to go back and play some stuff I missed from last year. As well as catch up on reading and making music. And baking bread.
We found a farmers market! And, lucky us, it’s actually going to be moving *closer* to us next week. It’s peach season round here, so we got 8 or so of them for munching later. They’re ripening as we speak. I drool with hunger! We also got some veggies and made up some salad for dinner. Little (tasty) tomatoes and some sort of Zuccini variant that is crisp and delightful. I’m looking forward to learning my way around that place better.
Jessie has been skating like a maniac. She took, I think, one day off last week. The rest of the time she was on wheels either for hockey or for derby. Her recreational league had a (closed door) game this weekend and she has actually been a team leader for a few weeks. Well it turns out all that work on proper lineups and the excellent leadership that comes with a positive attitude rubbed off on the team because they *DOMINATED* the opposing team. From the sound of it, her team gelled quite well, everyone skated to their utmost potential, and Jess scored MASSIVE points when she got to be the jammer a couple of times. Next time you see her, make sure you let her know that you are in awe of her skills, because she doesn't quite seem to grasp how great she is on wheels.
-N
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My Camera has been busy, even if I haven't
Hello,
Here we present a selection of pictures from the last few months. With captions.
Jesta Menace donning her All Scar Army duds for the tournament a few months ago. You'll take special note of the 'Mathematical Equation Armbands' provided by yours truly. I think one of them was the integral equation for the area of a sphere. The other one was gibberish.
Two cars in my two car garage! Victory is mine!
Here is our new car, a Mazda 3, in much the same style as Sandlin and Matt's new car, but without the crazy turbo power. We really like it. Having an Aux Audio input so we can listen to the ipod in the car is really fun.
My breadmaking binge continues. This is my most photogenic loaf to date, I think. I've been making whole wheat loaves, too, getting the kinks out in my technique. Definitely better for us, but not as devastatingly delicious as the white loaves.
Jess and Myself at a wedding in Florida. Not ours. Jess got to be a bridesmaid. SHE IS SO PRETTY LOOK AT HER IN HER DRESS AND ALL DONE UP AND EVERYTHING I HAVE SUCH A GREAT WIFE! Whew! Just had to get that out of my system.
Here are the birds from Nana's awning. They may still look like dependant little babies here, but just a few days later they were out and around and hopping around the yard, looking all adolescent and everything. They do grow up so fast!
We've had to scrap the idea of going to China. We might have both lost our jobs over it. It would have been, admittedly, an unlikely scenario, but the decisions would have been completely out of our hands. We'll make ourselves feel better by taking a Caribbean cruise. Seriously, that's our new plan. We've found some that fit in our schedule before the end of the year. We are also, therefore, pegging Australia and/or New Zealand for next year.
Other Micro News:
-Jess continues to both hem *and* haw about derby next year. I've decided to stop paying attention until she makes a decision.
-I got 6th rank in Wing Tsun. Hooray for me!
-It is officially too hot to go out running on Saturdays. Jess can go if it's under 101 degrees or so, but any hotter than 95 and I just have no energy to exercise outdoors. Texas, baby.
-I've received much lovely feedback about my second draft. Thanks to all that have read it.
Much love to one and all,
-N
Here we present a selection of pictures from the last few months. With captions.
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
Jesta Menace donning her All Scar Army duds for the tournament a few months ago. You'll take special note of the 'Mathematical Equation Armbands' provided by yours truly. I think one of them was the integral equation for the area of a sphere. The other one was gibberish.
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
Two cars in my two car garage! Victory is mine!
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
My breadmaking binge continues. This is my most photogenic loaf to date, I think. I've been making whole wheat loaves, too, getting the kinks out in my technique. Definitely better for us, but not as devastatingly delicious as the white loaves.
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
Jess and Myself at a wedding in Florida. Not ours. Jess got to be a bridesmaid. SHE IS SO PRETTY LOOK AT HER IN HER DRESS AND ALL DONE UP AND EVERYTHING I HAVE SUCH A GREAT WIFE! Whew! Just had to get that out of my system.
 |
| From New Pictures 8/09 |
Here are the birds from Nana's awning. They may still look like dependant little babies here, but just a few days later they were out and around and hopping around the yard, looking all adolescent and everything. They do grow up so fast!
We've had to scrap the idea of going to China. We might have both lost our jobs over it. It would have been, admittedly, an unlikely scenario, but the decisions would have been completely out of our hands. We'll make ourselves feel better by taking a Caribbean cruise. Seriously, that's our new plan. We've found some that fit in our schedule before the end of the year. We are also, therefore, pegging Australia and/or New Zealand for next year.
Other Micro News:
-Jess continues to both hem *and* haw about derby next year. I've decided to stop paying attention until she makes a decision.
-I got 6th rank in Wing Tsun. Hooray for me!
-It is officially too hot to go out running on Saturdays. Jess can go if it's under 101 degrees or so, but any hotter than 95 and I just have no energy to exercise outdoors. Texas, baby.
-I've received much lovely feedback about my second draft. Thanks to all that have read it.
Much love to one and all,
-N
Sunday, July 12, 2009
News from the Jesta Menace Fan Club
Could there possibly be a better way to spend a Sunday night than watching your sister-in-law school a girl in a roller skating pillow fight? The answer is obviously no, especially not if you are capping off a pretty mellow weekend otherwise. We went to a BBQ, we took a walk in the park, we slept a lot. Catching a roller derby webcast is a great way to wrap it up. Still not sure what illegal engagement actually means, but the Penalty Pillow Fight really got the crowd lit up, especially since Jesta Menace COMPLETELY DOMINATED. Shame that the Holler Rollers lost the bout, but our favorite skater was called out as an up and coming young defender.
Maybe my favorite bit though was when we saw the back of Noel's head leaning on the rail at the end of the game. Looks like a pretty fantastic spectator sport- I'll have to work on getting to a game in person, but the webcast was a good runner-up.
Maybe my favorite bit though was when we saw the back of Noel's head leaning on the rail at the end of the game. Looks like a pretty fantastic spectator sport- I'll have to work on getting to a game in person, but the webcast was a good runner-up.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Weekend over, now we rest
Jess is at home right now. She had a really, really busy weekend and I convinced her she should stay home and relax today. That's also the reason you know she needed to stay home and relax; if she had the energy to come in to work, I wouldn't have been able to convince her to stay home.
Anyway, the tournament wrapped up in energetic style last night. The Austin team, unfortunately, lost the battle for 3rd place, but it was a hard-fought game. Jess didn't play, though, so I didn't have to worry about her getting injured. That's pretty much the only win-loss statistic I care about. Anyway, I took Mom Swanson home and did some writing and game-playing to unwind. Jess got home relatively late and was very, very tired. So we relaxed for a while and then just konked out.
I hear tell fathers day went very well up with the Alaska-based Preecs' family. Dad Preecs rode this awesome zlipline at the behest of his youngest daugther. Then she took him out for a beer afterwards. Aah...we're getting old. Also, dad is thoroughly enjoying his new Ipod and the complement of Harry Potter audio that has been ripped down to it.
We're having Noel-Pizza for dinner, which is the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD.
-N
Anyway, the tournament wrapped up in energetic style last night. The Austin team, unfortunately, lost the battle for 3rd place, but it was a hard-fought game. Jess didn't play, though, so I didn't have to worry about her getting injured. That's pretty much the only win-loss statistic I care about. Anyway, I took Mom Swanson home and did some writing and game-playing to unwind. Jess got home relatively late and was very, very tired. So we relaxed for a while and then just konked out.
I hear tell fathers day went very well up with the Alaska-based Preecs' family. Dad Preecs rode this awesome zlipline at the behest of his youngest daugther. Then she took him out for a beer afterwards. Aah...we're getting old. Also, dad is thoroughly enjoying his new Ipod and the complement of Harry Potter audio that has been ripped down to it.
We're having Noel-Pizza for dinner, which is the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD.
-N
Sunday, June 21, 2009
It's Derby Time
Jess took to the banked track yesterday as part of the TXRD All-Scar Army for the first round of our local Roller Derby Tournament. They were up against a relatively novice league from Corpus Christi, down the road from us. A sister league, if you will. It wasn’t a very close game, but at halftime the TXRD girls decided to change up their strategy and try some different things, so the final score was 75 to 14 or so. Some of the other scores from the first round were on the order of 150-0, though, so this was a slightly less blow-outy game.
Jess did great, blocking jammers and assisting her team all over the track. I took some video of her that I might edit together later and throw up here, but I did hear the announcers say her name a couple of times during the bouts. She’s starting to make a name for herself in the league. Go Jessie!
The rest of the tournament happens today. The most likely scenario is that Jess will get subbed out for some of the faster players that they were holding back for the bigger games. TXRD will be playing the LA team today. (By the way, when I wrote yesterday that Jess was on the LA team as an alternate? That was a typo. She’s on the Austin Team.) Last year, the LA team came in and just smoked the Austin Team, and so Austin has been really training hard to even the score. It’s definitely going to be a tough race, either way.
I’ll let you know how it wraps up later.
Also, Happy Fathers day!
-N
Jess did great, blocking jammers and assisting her team all over the track. I took some video of her that I might edit together later and throw up here, but I did hear the announcers say her name a couple of times during the bouts. She’s starting to make a name for herself in the league. Go Jessie!
The rest of the tournament happens today. The most likely scenario is that Jess will get subbed out for some of the faster players that they were holding back for the bigger games. TXRD will be playing the LA team today. (By the way, when I wrote yesterday that Jess was on the LA team as an alternate? That was a typo. She’s on the Austin Team.) Last year, the LA team came in and just smoked the Austin Team, and so Austin has been really training hard to even the score. It’s definitely going to be a tough race, either way.
I’ll let you know how it wraps up later.
Also, Happy Fathers day!
-N
Friday, June 19, 2009
Things that Happened
Stuff happens, I report on it.
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Yet More Adventures in Home Ownership
I received a call on Sunday from the company doing our roof. They said that they'd be out on Monday and wanted to verify that the materials were already there. I looked out on the driveway to double check but...nope, no shingles. The guy said he'd take care of it, though he may have to reschedule.
Lucky us, though, it all got worked out. When we came back home after work on Monday, our house was swarming with workers, busily banging away and tearing off old shingles. Very exciting, though a little loud. They finished off the work today, and we have ourselves a brand new roof! I've taken some pictures, but I'll have to put up those later.
They did leave one bag in our tree branches, though, and I wanted to get it down. Well I tried throwing a broom up at it to knock it down and I know you've heard this joke before, but it got stuck up there too. Well we had just purchased a ladder, but it wasn't tall enough. Ever the engineers, we taped two hockey sticks together to get the reach necessary to get down both the bag and the broom. Take that, altitude!
On Saturday, we were sitting around and planning a shopping trip (full of new, experimental crockpot recepies) when we heard something banging around downstairs. Well it wasn't either of the cats, and a thorough search of the house revealed it also wasn't in any of the rooms. It was in the wall. In our laundry room. So I saddled up my man-clothes, put on some gloves, and pulled the appliances away from the wall. I took the output hose off the the drier and sure enough was greeted with a burst of lint as whatever had gotten itself stuck in there thrashed around and tried to scrabble back up. On the plus side, it did manage to clean a lot of lint out of the output tube.
Uncertain of what we were dealing with, (Squirrel? Bird? Mouse? Rat?) we first tried to look up with a mirror, and then poked with a coat hanger. Eventually, I just put some peanut butter in a couple of plastic grocery bags and started duct taping it to the vent. Well no sooner had I started, but something fell in. I grabbed the bag off the wall, and we went outside to let it go. We have some video, but both Jess and I got an unexpected surprise when we opened up the bag and a bird flew out. Starling, I think.
Never let it be said that home ownership is boring.
Regardless, I felt very manly and productive, and as a bonus, I don't have anything rotting in the walls, which is usually a downer.
We've also gotten a couple of neat packages in the mail. One, Jess got her plaque for her patent, which is awesome, and we also got a gps unit. We've been playing around with it for a while and I think we've settled on a female, English voice. Very soothing.
Jess's team had a game on Sunday that Jess sat out due to her shoulder being sore. She still attended, though, still walked out during the intro, arm in sling, and I even saw her offering up a couple more signatures to some fans after the game. Not even injury can stop fame.
-N
Lucky us, though, it all got worked out. When we came back home after work on Monday, our house was swarming with workers, busily banging away and tearing off old shingles. Very exciting, though a little loud. They finished off the work today, and we have ourselves a brand new roof! I've taken some pictures, but I'll have to put up those later.
They did leave one bag in our tree branches, though, and I wanted to get it down. Well I tried throwing a broom up at it to knock it down and I know you've heard this joke before, but it got stuck up there too. Well we had just purchased a ladder, but it wasn't tall enough. Ever the engineers, we taped two hockey sticks together to get the reach necessary to get down both the bag and the broom. Take that, altitude!
On Saturday, we were sitting around and planning a shopping trip (full of new, experimental crockpot recepies) when we heard something banging around downstairs. Well it wasn't either of the cats, and a thorough search of the house revealed it also wasn't in any of the rooms. It was in the wall. In our laundry room. So I saddled up my man-clothes, put on some gloves, and pulled the appliances away from the wall. I took the output hose off the the drier and sure enough was greeted with a burst of lint as whatever had gotten itself stuck in there thrashed around and tried to scrabble back up. On the plus side, it did manage to clean a lot of lint out of the output tube.
Uncertain of what we were dealing with, (Squirrel? Bird? Mouse? Rat?) we first tried to look up with a mirror, and then poked with a coat hanger. Eventually, I just put some peanut butter in a couple of plastic grocery bags and started duct taping it to the vent. Well no sooner had I started, but something fell in. I grabbed the bag off the wall, and we went outside to let it go. We have some video, but both Jess and I got an unexpected surprise when we opened up the bag and a bird flew out. Starling, I think.
Never let it be said that home ownership is boring.
Regardless, I felt very manly and productive, and as a bonus, I don't have anything rotting in the walls, which is usually a downer.
We've also gotten a couple of neat packages in the mail. One, Jess got her plaque for her patent, which is awesome, and we also got a gps unit. We've been playing around with it for a while and I think we've settled on a female, English voice. Very soothing.
Jess's team had a game on Sunday that Jess sat out due to her shoulder being sore. She still attended, though, still walked out during the intro, arm in sling, and I even saw her offering up a couple more signatures to some fans after the game. Not even injury can stop fame.
-N
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A Non-tragic injury
Jess was at Derby practice last night and jammed her shoulder. It kept her up during the night, so we went to the hospital in the morning and got her checked out. Luckily there appears to be nothing broken, but they have prescribed her some pain medication and given her a shoulder strap. She's iffy for the Sunday game, but as it is, essentially, a bruise, we just have to wait and see when she heals up. I'll make sure to keep her benched if she's not ready to play. It's my job.
Also, teaching Sandlin how to make bread has kicked off a spate of loaf-making at my house. The third loaf is in the oven now. I've had pretty good luck using the food processor to make the bread, even though it is pretty hard on the motor. I'll give my stand mixer a workout next time and see how it compares. Jess is, of course, quite happy with the baked goods, and the lunchtime sandwiches have taken on an entirely new dimension.
-N
Also, teaching Sandlin how to make bread has kicked off a spate of loaf-making at my house. The third loaf is in the oven now. I've had pretty good luck using the food processor to make the bread, even though it is pretty hard on the motor. I'll give my stand mixer a workout next time and see how it compares. Jess is, of course, quite happy with the baked goods, and the lunchtime sandwiches have taken on an entirely new dimension.
-N
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Uncle Noel and Aunt Jessie
Last week we had some nephews up to visit us. Oh, and they brought Jessie's sister along with them too. The stated purpose of the trip was to watch Jess do some roller derby, but mostly it was an excuse to hang out with the younguns. Some stuff happened!
We, of course, spent a lot of time playing video games, because that's how uncle Noel rolls. Mostly we played smash brothers, but we also threw in some rock band for good measure. The boys had to team up on the drums to do it, often with Mom, but fun was had by all.
We went out shopping on south congress street, which is awesome. They have some really neat local shops. Mom liked the shops with neat stuff of hispanic origin. The boys liked the costume shop and the candy shop. (I got sweet tarts!) Here we are eating at Home Slice Pizza. Good stuff. We also took them to some good ol' Austin BBQ. Yum.
This is the Bat Tour. We'd done it before, but it's still really neat. There's this urban bat colony that lives under the congress street bridge. They are migratory, but during the summer there are hundreds of thousands to millions of them. We took the boat tour which lets you see the underside where they fall out. They came out a little early, which meant we could see them pretty well against the sky, and there was a lot of wind so, unfortunately for bats but fortunately for us, they were blown out of their traditional big clusters and scattered around where it was easy for us to see. If you click through to the album, you can see a lot more pictures. Some came out pretty well.
And, of course, here is Jesta Menace with her nephews. We had to take them home early, because they are kids and need their sleep, and were traveling the next day besides, but Jess did really well. Grats to her.
There are, of course, other pictures to view. You may observe them by clicking the link on any of the albums. Hurrah for the internet!
-N
 |
| From New Album 4/5/09 5:15 PM |
We, of course, spent a lot of time playing video games, because that's how uncle Noel rolls. Mostly we played smash brothers, but we also threw in some rock band for good measure. The boys had to team up on the drums to do it, often with Mom, but fun was had by all.
 |
| From New Album 4/5/09 5:15 PM |
We went out shopping on south congress street, which is awesome. They have some really neat local shops. Mom liked the shops with neat stuff of hispanic origin. The boys liked the costume shop and the candy shop. (I got sweet tarts!) Here we are eating at Home Slice Pizza. Good stuff. We also took them to some good ol' Austin BBQ. Yum.
 |
| From New Album 4/5/09 5:15 PM |
This is the Bat Tour. We'd done it before, but it's still really neat. There's this urban bat colony that lives under the congress street bridge. They are migratory, but during the summer there are hundreds of thousands to millions of them. We took the boat tour which lets you see the underside where they fall out. They came out a little early, which meant we could see them pretty well against the sky, and there was a lot of wind so, unfortunately for bats but fortunately for us, they were blown out of their traditional big clusters and scattered around where it was easy for us to see. If you click through to the album, you can see a lot more pictures. Some came out pretty well.
 |
| From New Album 4/5/09 5:15 PM |
And, of course, here is Jesta Menace with her nephews. We had to take them home early, because they are kids and need their sleep, and were traveling the next day besides, but Jess did really well. Grats to her.
There are, of course, other pictures to view. You may observe them by clicking the link on any of the albums. Hurrah for the internet!
-N
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Rolling Along
Hey, all,
So those of you paying attention may want to know how the derby game went. Well, I’m here to say it went fine. We had Jessie’s sister and our two nephews there to watch and it all went pretty great. Jessie has improved a lot, I mean A LOT since her last game. She was railing people and hitting girls and made some impressive plays here and there. She also makes a great pivot, that’s where you skate in front and control the pace of the pack. Jess remains injury-free, though, and that’s what counts for me.
I, unfortunately, didn’t get to see the whole game because we had to take the boys home and put them to bed, but there were lots of people there from work, and lots of fun was had by all. Jess was even playing sick, having a stuffy head from some bug she picked up before the boys came over. But she toughed it through and did well. So yay for that. Her team lost, unfortunately, but she had a good time and skated well.
I’ll write more about the weekend with the nephews later, but for now, I’ll close out with this bio I wrote for Jesta Menace. I think I did a pretty good job.
Jesta Menace was a model student at the Sacred Heart School for Girls. Top of her class, friends of both jocks and nerds, and constantly volunteering her time to feed the homeless, often with her own lunch money. She started the “Fuzzy Kitten Rescue and Toddler Tutoring” club her sophmore year in high school and was voted “Least Likely to Ever Get in a Fight With Anyone” three years in a row. Her friends and family had high hopes for her, but all of that changed when she started expanding her horizons into sports.
Jesta Menace has wreaked havoc through more sports teams than she can remember. She tried water polo, but was kicked off the team after trying to drown the opposing coach in the kiddie pool during an away game. She was banned from the hockey team after setting new records for both time in penalty box and number of sticks broken over opponent’s heads. She refused to try any ‘traditional’ sports on the insistence that “there aren’t enough chances to make the other ***** bleed.”
Fortunately, she found roller derby. As a newly-minted member of the Holly Rollers, Jesta Menace has finally found a way to vent all her suppressed rage. Her friends say she’s much more even tempered now, though she will occasionally hip-check strangers into trash cans in the hallway. She’s quick to make friends and hardly ever gets arrested any more. Just don’t get on her bad side.
Which side is that? Her Rail Side.
-N
So those of you paying attention may want to know how the derby game went. Well, I’m here to say it went fine. We had Jessie’s sister and our two nephews there to watch and it all went pretty great. Jessie has improved a lot, I mean A LOT since her last game. She was railing people and hitting girls and made some impressive plays here and there. She also makes a great pivot, that’s where you skate in front and control the pace of the pack. Jess remains injury-free, though, and that’s what counts for me.
I, unfortunately, didn’t get to see the whole game because we had to take the boys home and put them to bed, but there were lots of people there from work, and lots of fun was had by all. Jess was even playing sick, having a stuffy head from some bug she picked up before the boys came over. But she toughed it through and did well. So yay for that. Her team lost, unfortunately, but she had a good time and skated well.
I’ll write more about the weekend with the nephews later, but for now, I’ll close out with this bio I wrote for Jesta Menace. I think I did a pretty good job.
Jesta Menace was a model student at the Sacred Heart School for Girls. Top of her class, friends of both jocks and nerds, and constantly volunteering her time to feed the homeless, often with her own lunch money. She started the “Fuzzy Kitten Rescue and Toddler Tutoring” club her sophmore year in high school and was voted “Least Likely to Ever Get in a Fight With Anyone” three years in a row. Her friends and family had high hopes for her, but all of that changed when she started expanding her horizons into sports.
Jesta Menace has wreaked havoc through more sports teams than she can remember. She tried water polo, but was kicked off the team after trying to drown the opposing coach in the kiddie pool during an away game. She was banned from the hockey team after setting new records for both time in penalty box and number of sticks broken over opponent’s heads. She refused to try any ‘traditional’ sports on the insistence that “there aren’t enough chances to make the other ***** bleed.”
Fortunately, she found roller derby. As a newly-minted member of the Holly Rollers, Jesta Menace has finally found a way to vent all her suppressed rage. Her friends say she’s much more even tempered now, though she will occasionally hip-check strangers into trash cans in the hallway. She’s quick to make friends and hardly ever gets arrested any more. Just don’t get on her bad side.
Which side is that? Her Rail Side.
-N
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Other sports note
I know the world's attention is aimed at the football game, but I wanted to pass on the information that the Roller Derby thing that Jessie (what is her skate name again??) is involved in is featured in a New York Times Magazine article this morning.
It makes the whole thing much more understandable to someone like me who's been asleep since the 1970s . . .
PS: As recently as 2005, I was rooting for the Steelers for a variety of reasons . . . Despite the feel-good story of those towels and the school they support, I'm no longer enthused about the whole 'win one for the thumb' idea. Today, and today only, I'm Go Cardinals! Don't quote me.
It makes the whole thing much more understandable to someone like me who's been asleep since the 1970s . . .
PS: As recently as 2005, I was rooting for the Steelers for a variety of reasons . . . Despite the feel-good story of those towels and the school they support, I'm no longer enthused about the whole 'win one for the thumb' idea. Today, and today only, I'm Go Cardinals! Don't quote me.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Also wants to travel!
Well, with regards to travel, I'm actually tasked with figuring out my 'personal travel' list pretty soon. Japan was my pick, and Costa Rica was Jessie's. Jess is gung-ho about China, which makes me a little wary unless we could get some sort of guidance, either professional or a friend, to take us around (we totally could). But it's my turn to pick a place, and after Japan, my list is pretty much empty, so I'm watching everyone's list with interest. I've never really done the 'Europe' trip, which could be interesting, but I don't know what I'd do at most places, and 'seeing old buildings' could get old after a while. So I've been tasked with figuring out where I would like to go on vacation this year, and soon. Thanks for all the suggestions, then!
Though I may end up getting a bonus free trip to England. For work! The details are still rolling in, but it sounds like Ticom wants to send me to England for a week to help support one of the projects I'm on. I don't have all (read: any) specifics yet, but it sounds pretty fun, and Jess is determined, if I go, to fly out with me, for at least part of it, and have ourselves a discount bonus England vacation. Whee!
Jess and I have had a pretty busy week, actually. Jess did a lot of roller derby practice to make up her requirements of 8 a month, and she got a pretty spectacular bruise on her rear end when they were practicing with a partner and her partner kept her skate in the wrong place and Jess landed right on the wheel. Ouch. We've taken some pictures, they'll just need to be...carefully cropped.
We went out shopping this weekend for random stuff and I ended up in Best Buy checking out various home theater systems. I had found one I liked, but the price was a little more than I was hoping to pay. Jess came up as I was thinking and told me 'well we use it all the time, you should just buy it' and then proceeded to buy me a preposterous amount of A/V gear for the home. So in short, I have the best wife in the world. I've stuck the speakers on the wall and even routed the wires all sexy and hidden-like, so before long we'll be listening to Rock Band MUCH LOUDER.
Of course, in exchange for all my audio gear, I bought her a tree! We wanted to put another tree up in the backyard for privacy and because Jess really likes trees, especially ones she can climb. We got a Burr Oak and had it delivered over the weekend. Three burly dudes did the big work of delivering the 100 gallon tree (that's the size of the pot it was in) and digging a hole for it. They had to bust up some seriously big rocks to do it. But no granite, so it went okay. They piled up some mulch and layed down some fertilizer too, and put in some posts to keep it upright. Seriously professional job. I'll put some pics and videos of that, and the rest of our house, pretty soon.
Brief notes!: House is coming together, we really just have to figure out our entertainment center and assemble a master bedroom. I've discovered that I can bike to Wing Tsun pretty easily, so we can put off buying a second car for a while. The front door blew open while the tree was being delivered and the cats got out of the house. I found Tigger in the garden, and Nagano came back when I called. I've turned Jess onto the joys of NPR for our morning drive to work, we get to listen to 'All things considered' and the Austin Music Minute. Jessie has officially changed her last name, or at least started the process.
Consider yourself updated.
-N
Though I may end up getting a bonus free trip to England. For work! The details are still rolling in, but it sounds like Ticom wants to send me to England for a week to help support one of the projects I'm on. I don't have all (read: any) specifics yet, but it sounds pretty fun, and Jess is determined, if I go, to fly out with me, for at least part of it, and have ourselves a discount bonus England vacation. Whee!
Jess and I have had a pretty busy week, actually. Jess did a lot of roller derby practice to make up her requirements of 8 a month, and she got a pretty spectacular bruise on her rear end when they were practicing with a partner and her partner kept her skate in the wrong place and Jess landed right on the wheel. Ouch. We've taken some pictures, they'll just need to be...carefully cropped.
We went out shopping this weekend for random stuff and I ended up in Best Buy checking out various home theater systems. I had found one I liked, but the price was a little more than I was hoping to pay. Jess came up as I was thinking and told me 'well we use it all the time, you should just buy it' and then proceeded to buy me a preposterous amount of A/V gear for the home. So in short, I have the best wife in the world. I've stuck the speakers on the wall and even routed the wires all sexy and hidden-like, so before long we'll be listening to Rock Band MUCH LOUDER.
Of course, in exchange for all my audio gear, I bought her a tree! We wanted to put another tree up in the backyard for privacy and because Jess really likes trees, especially ones she can climb. We got a Burr Oak and had it delivered over the weekend. Three burly dudes did the big work of delivering the 100 gallon tree (that's the size of the pot it was in) and digging a hole for it. They had to bust up some seriously big rocks to do it. But no granite, so it went okay. They piled up some mulch and layed down some fertilizer too, and put in some posts to keep it upright. Seriously professional job. I'll put some pics and videos of that, and the rest of our house, pretty soon.
Brief notes!: House is coming together, we really just have to figure out our entertainment center and assemble a master bedroom. I've discovered that I can bike to Wing Tsun pretty easily, so we can put off buying a second car for a while. The front door blew open while the tree was being delivered and the cats got out of the house. I found Tigger in the garden, and Nagano came back when I called. I've turned Jess onto the joys of NPR for our morning drive to work, we get to listen to 'All things considered' and the Austin Music Minute. Jessie has officially changed her last name, or at least started the process.
Consider yourself updated.
-N
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Jessie's Highlight Reel
Okay, finished up the movie with some of Jessie's best, though very fuzzy, moments. There's some extra before-and-after stuff that wasn't in the previous movie, so give it a watch and just assume that if you see someone doing something awesome, and they're wearing a white shirt, it's Jessie.
-N
-N
Monday, January 12, 2009
Jessie's Full Game
Hey,
So I decided not to make you guys wait anymore. Here's pretty much all the raw footage of Jessie in her first roller derby game. I split it up into two movies. In a bit, probably a few days, I'll finish up my 'highlight reel', if you want to wait to see that. Enjoy.
Part 1
Part 2
-N
So I decided not to make you guys wait anymore. Here's pretty much all the raw footage of Jessie in her first roller derby game. I split it up into two movies. In a bit, probably a few days, I'll finish up my 'highlight reel', if you want to wait to see that. Enjoy.
Part 1
Part 2
-N
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Currently Reporting From My Living Room
HOUSE!
So we're most of the way to getting our house turned into a home. As you can tell, we have internet set up, which is *very important*, and much, though not all, of our stuff is in its proper place, at least for now.
The upstairs is...well, empty. The master bedroom and bath have nothing in them. We just closed off the doors for now. We moved both of our beds into the guest bedrooms while planning to get a larger bed for ourselves (and the cats), so the master bedroom is not occupied. I'm currently posting this from one of the other bedrooms upstairs...let's just call it the blogging bedroom. It's the bedroom we use for writing blogs. I just decided that. We have so many extra rooms we can just assign random ones for random tasks. It's not like they're doing anything else.
The rest of the upstairs rooms contain little things here and there, but we haven't even bothered to set the other guest bed up upstairs. We're not using it. We're pretty much living downstairs, where the action is. The office, such as it is, is pretty much together, and consists of two computer desks and some lamps. The library is still a mess, but that's mostly because I want to go get some more shelves to store all our books and random displayables.
The Living room is pretty well set up too, but mostly empty. We went out and bought ourselves a reclining sofa and love seat after finding ones we liked, but they won't give you a delivery window, so we had to wait until next Saturday to deliver, being as we don't really have the luxury of sitting around all day while they do-or-do-not show up. We work, after all.
We've been in and out of a few places looking for beds/nightstands/chests of drawers that we like too, but we haven't found anything yet. So for the moment, we sleep downstairs in one of our 'guest bedrooms'. The cats, too, have adjusted well to their new house. Nagano likes running up and down stairs and is adorable when he slips on the concrete floors and whumps into things. Tigger has just found a few place where he can sleep and he's happy.
Much of our house-assembly work has been slowed, though, with the impending start of JESSIE's FIRST ROLLER DERBY GAME! So exciting! It happens tonight, and it's her team (the league champions) against the all-stars (all-scars) from the rest of the league. I just have to keep reminding her though, that it's just a game, and she's doing it because she likes to skate. She's a little nervous, and between that and the house, we've had to slow down and take some cuddle-breaks to help relax.
Yes, there are pictures and video of the new house and I'll put some stuff up from Jessie's first game, but I'm busy with a house and a host of new video games, so be patient. It's coming, promise.
Happy new year!
-N
So we're most of the way to getting our house turned into a home. As you can tell, we have internet set up, which is *very important*, and much, though not all, of our stuff is in its proper place, at least for now.
The upstairs is...well, empty. The master bedroom and bath have nothing in them. We just closed off the doors for now. We moved both of our beds into the guest bedrooms while planning to get a larger bed for ourselves (and the cats), so the master bedroom is not occupied. I'm currently posting this from one of the other bedrooms upstairs...let's just call it the blogging bedroom. It's the bedroom we use for writing blogs. I just decided that. We have so many extra rooms we can just assign random ones for random tasks. It's not like they're doing anything else.
The rest of the upstairs rooms contain little things here and there, but we haven't even bothered to set the other guest bed up upstairs. We're not using it. We're pretty much living downstairs, where the action is. The office, such as it is, is pretty much together, and consists of two computer desks and some lamps. The library is still a mess, but that's mostly because I want to go get some more shelves to store all our books and random displayables.
The Living room is pretty well set up too, but mostly empty. We went out and bought ourselves a reclining sofa and love seat after finding ones we liked, but they won't give you a delivery window, so we had to wait until next Saturday to deliver, being as we don't really have the luxury of sitting around all day while they do-or-do-not show up. We work, after all.
We've been in and out of a few places looking for beds/nightstands/chests of drawers that we like too, but we haven't found anything yet. So for the moment, we sleep downstairs in one of our 'guest bedrooms'. The cats, too, have adjusted well to their new house. Nagano likes running up and down stairs and is adorable when he slips on the concrete floors and whumps into things. Tigger has just found a few place where he can sleep and he's happy.
Much of our house-assembly work has been slowed, though, with the impending start of JESSIE's FIRST ROLLER DERBY GAME! So exciting! It happens tonight, and it's her team (the league champions) against the all-stars (all-scars) from the rest of the league. I just have to keep reminding her though, that it's just a game, and she's doing it because she likes to skate. She's a little nervous, and between that and the house, we've had to slow down and take some cuddle-breaks to help relax.
Yes, there are pictures and video of the new house and I'll put some stuff up from Jessie's first game, but I'm busy with a house and a host of new video games, so be patient. It's coming, promise.
Happy new year!
-N
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Hi,
So the house buying is still on. We had an inspection which turned out just fine. There's never anything 'good' on an inspection report, but the only things we might have worried about were minor, easily reparable, or due to code changes since the house was built. It's a little older, compared to some of the houses we've seen, but certainly still a really good house. There are some minor repairs we'll want to make, (to the roof, mainly) but we'll get a professional on that. It's a really steep roof.
We've done some mortgage shopping, and settled on a mortgage broker that's giving us a really good rate. If they don't pull through for some reason, we even have a backup broker. Next up is insurance, which I keep looking around at because the costs I've been told by my broker and real estate agent that I should be looking for...I'm just not getting. Which means either they are wrong or I'm doing something wrong with my quotes. But I have plenty of time to work on that, though, before closing.
So that's been keeping us pretty busy, all in all. We had an inspection on Sunday, and then met with a mortgage broker monday and tuesday. Wednesday I was supposed to go off to Wing Tsun, but we were so tired after being so busy that we just stayed home. We spent a lot of the rest of the week relaxing as well. I spent a lot of time at work this week not doing anything, and having nothing to do all day is *exhausting*.
We've started packing, too. Just a few boxes here and there of stuff we obviously won't use in the next month. It'll make it easier to pack our things up en mass when closing day comes around. New house, how exciting!
Jess is currently off getting her final evaluation for roller derby. They have yet to cut *anyone* from the team, so I'd actually be a little surprised if they told them how they did today, but today does mark the end of the training season. She'll either get picked up by the team, used as an alternate, which is good because there is less responsibility but she still gets to go skate, or let go. Wish her luck everyone.
-N
So the house buying is still on. We had an inspection which turned out just fine. There's never anything 'good' on an inspection report, but the only things we might have worried about were minor, easily reparable, or due to code changes since the house was built. It's a little older, compared to some of the houses we've seen, but certainly still a really good house. There are some minor repairs we'll want to make, (to the roof, mainly) but we'll get a professional on that. It's a really steep roof.
We've done some mortgage shopping, and settled on a mortgage broker that's giving us a really good rate. If they don't pull through for some reason, we even have a backup broker. Next up is insurance, which I keep looking around at because the costs I've been told by my broker and real estate agent that I should be looking for...I'm just not getting. Which means either they are wrong or I'm doing something wrong with my quotes. But I have plenty of time to work on that, though, before closing.
So that's been keeping us pretty busy, all in all. We had an inspection on Sunday, and then met with a mortgage broker monday and tuesday. Wednesday I was supposed to go off to Wing Tsun, but we were so tired after being so busy that we just stayed home. We spent a lot of the rest of the week relaxing as well. I spent a lot of time at work this week not doing anything, and having nothing to do all day is *exhausting*.
We've started packing, too. Just a few boxes here and there of stuff we obviously won't use in the next month. It'll make it easier to pack our things up en mass when closing day comes around. New house, how exciting!
Jess is currently off getting her final evaluation for roller derby. They have yet to cut *anyone* from the team, so I'd actually be a little surprised if they told them how they did today, but today does mark the end of the training season. She'll either get picked up by the team, used as an alternate, which is good because there is less responsibility but she still gets to go skate, or let go. Wish her luck everyone.
-N
Monday, August 18, 2008
Nine inch Bear Claw Nails
This weekend, Jess and I took a trip out to Houston, TX to see Nine Inch Nails (NIN) in concert. We left on Saturday afternoon after Jess had an evaluation for Roller Derby. They do a couple of those and everyone who makes it to the end of the training season and passes gets brought into the league. Woot.
Right after the eval, we hopped into the car and drove to Houston. It's a 3 hour drive, and we stopped on the way to have some dinner and then again to check into our el-cheap-o hotel. The concert was going to be late, and we didn't want to be driving home until 3 in the morning.
We had floor tickets, which meant we got to get down in the middle of the stadium with a whole bunch of others. We also got really close to the front, which was nice. Lucky for us, NIN has been around long enough that the mean age of the concert-going-crowd had gotten out of high school, and that meant that, all in all, it was a pretty civilized concert. I got bumped a couple of times due to proximity, but for the most part people just stood around and listened to/watched one heck of a good performance. There was some amazing stagecraft, including huge interactive light screens. My favorite part was when the drummer came out and started touching a bunch of squares on the back display. It turned out it was actually a massive, interactive drum machine, and he built up the drum loops for one of the last songs. It was a pretty long concert, lots of great songs, and a really good vibe. Jess, of course, was totally enamored by Trent (lead singer, composer, and all-around musical guy.) I gotta admit, the man looks good in a black t-shirt.
After the concert, we went back to the hotel and slept. We got up in the morning but, since we were in Houston anyway, we decided to try and check out the Zoo. It was a bit of a trail to find the darn place, but perseverance paid off and we tracked it down. I'm really glad we did, it was pretty spectacular. Most of the animals were awake and being interesting, so we got to see a lot of neat animals. My favorites included the primate exhibit, which held a bunch of small primates with bat-like faces. Cute, but I can just imagine people 1000 years ago assuming they were demons.
Other highlights: a family of giraffes. I only came up to their legs. The african elephants were awake, and the mommy and the baby were rolling around in mud to keep cool. Then they got their daily bath. They had been trained to lift up a leg on command so that the zookeepers could get all over with the hose. There was one small-cat exhibit with a wildcat about twice the size of a house cat that woke up while we were watching. He was very cat-like, he even did the 'wake-up-and-stretch-out-with-clawing' thing that our cats do, except that when he did it, he dug some pretty impressive furrows in a log. There was a petting zoo with some goats that were so fat they were nearly spherical. We got to see a nautilus, too, a crazy, deep-water crustacean that propels itself with a jet of water and always swims backwards. There was a family of orangutan in one of the displays, too. The mom and dad were busy being lazy, but the kid was playing around with a empty, plastic, tidy-cat bucket of litter. He would jump up on it and then fall off, or crawl around inside. It was all very entertaining until dad got annoyed and started coming after Jr. Mom rushed to his defense. Crazy but amazing.
After that, we had some diner, drove home, and wrote this. Coming around, full circle.
-N
Right after the eval, we hopped into the car and drove to Houston. It's a 3 hour drive, and we stopped on the way to have some dinner and then again to check into our el-cheap-o hotel. The concert was going to be late, and we didn't want to be driving home until 3 in the morning.
We had floor tickets, which meant we got to get down in the middle of the stadium with a whole bunch of others. We also got really close to the front, which was nice. Lucky for us, NIN has been around long enough that the mean age of the concert-going-crowd had gotten out of high school, and that meant that, all in all, it was a pretty civilized concert. I got bumped a couple of times due to proximity, but for the most part people just stood around and listened to/watched one heck of a good performance. There was some amazing stagecraft, including huge interactive light screens. My favorite part was when the drummer came out and started touching a bunch of squares on the back display. It turned out it was actually a massive, interactive drum machine, and he built up the drum loops for one of the last songs. It was a pretty long concert, lots of great songs, and a really good vibe. Jess, of course, was totally enamored by Trent (lead singer, composer, and all-around musical guy.) I gotta admit, the man looks good in a black t-shirt.
After the concert, we went back to the hotel and slept. We got up in the morning but, since we were in Houston anyway, we decided to try and check out the Zoo. It was a bit of a trail to find the darn place, but perseverance paid off and we tracked it down. I'm really glad we did, it was pretty spectacular. Most of the animals were awake and being interesting, so we got to see a lot of neat animals. My favorites included the primate exhibit, which held a bunch of small primates with bat-like faces. Cute, but I can just imagine people 1000 years ago assuming they were demons.
Other highlights: a family of giraffes. I only came up to their legs. The african elephants were awake, and the mommy and the baby were rolling around in mud to keep cool. Then they got their daily bath. They had been trained to lift up a leg on command so that the zookeepers could get all over with the hose. There was one small-cat exhibit with a wildcat about twice the size of a house cat that woke up while we were watching. He was very cat-like, he even did the 'wake-up-and-stretch-out-with-clawing' thing that our cats do, except that when he did it, he dug some pretty impressive furrows in a log. There was a petting zoo with some goats that were so fat they were nearly spherical. We got to see a nautilus, too, a crazy, deep-water crustacean that propels itself with a jet of water and always swims backwards. There was a family of orangutan in one of the displays, too. The mom and dad were busy being lazy, but the kid was playing around with a empty, plastic, tidy-cat bucket of litter. He would jump up on it and then fall off, or crawl around inside. It was all very entertaining until dad got annoyed and started coming after Jr. Mom rushed to his defense. Crazy but amazing.
After that, we had some diner, drove home, and wrote this. Coming around, full circle.
-N
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Holy pants it's hot!
I saw a newspaper article that says Austin has had 37+ days of weather over 100 degrees. I checked on weather.com after Jess and I went out today, and it was 103 outside. I don't think I've lived in a places this hot *ever*, and that's including Kentucky, where I wasn't even old enough to remember how hot it was. 'Twas hot, though.
Today we went out to get some stuff for our big Honeymoon vacation down to Costa Rica, which, coincidentally, also looks like clothes for crazy-hot summers in Texas. This includes shorts, light pants, and other things that dry off quickly and don't retain much heat.
Though the one thing that this shopping trip did afford me was the ability to get some new shirts. Either I'm getting bigger or my shirts are getting smaller. Probably a little of both, considering that Wing Tsun works out my upper body and I'm not really great at laundry.
Jess is still recovering from yesterdays Roller derby practice. They did endurance training, which is where you skate around for 40 minutes while one of the established trainers yells 'Stand', 'Sit', 'T-stop', 'Pushups', 'Knee stop'. Crazy. Good exercise, though. Jess is going to end up way more fit than me.
Also, I think I may have *finally* figured out a way to rewrite chapter 7 of my book in a way that is more interesting. Perhaps this means I'll be able to do some actual writing.
That's all that's interesting for now, talk you you later!
-N
Today we went out to get some stuff for our big Honeymoon vacation down to Costa Rica, which, coincidentally, also looks like clothes for crazy-hot summers in Texas. This includes shorts, light pants, and other things that dry off quickly and don't retain much heat.
Though the one thing that this shopping trip did afford me was the ability to get some new shirts. Either I'm getting bigger or my shirts are getting smaller. Probably a little of both, considering that Wing Tsun works out my upper body and I'm not really great at laundry.
Jess is still recovering from yesterdays Roller derby practice. They did endurance training, which is where you skate around for 40 minutes while one of the established trainers yells 'Stand', 'Sit', 'T-stop', 'Pushups', 'Knee stop'. Crazy. Good exercise, though. Jess is going to end up way more fit than me.
Also, I think I may have *finally* figured out a way to rewrite chapter 7 of my book in a way that is more interesting. Perhaps this means I'll be able to do some actual writing.
That's all that's interesting for now, talk you you later!
-N
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Heck on Wheels
Yesterday Jess got an e-mail from a girl she had sent a message to a while ago telling her that open tryouts for the Texas Roller Derby league were that evening.
Yikes!
So I may have mentioned it before, or not, but Jess has been looking to join roller derby, as a substitue for the Ice hockey that she had been doing before. They have a hockey league here, but she doesn't like playing in mens leagues. 'Too much drama', if you can believe that.
So anyway, Jess had about 3 hours to prepare, so she quickly went off to the local open rollerskate park to brush up on her wheeled transport. There were some differences, including the fact that she couldn't do hockey stops anymore and that when you step off the rink, you keep moving.
Dutifully refreshed, we went down to the specified location. It was...pretty ghetto. It was litterally just a warehouse with a banked track and a bunch of stuff piled all over. There were old 'side-of-the-road' couches that people could sit on and a whole bunch of stuff all over the walls. I'll get some pictures eventually.
Jess was really nervous, and wasn't sure she'd be able to pass the test, but she was *easily* the #1 or 2 girl there out of about 15. The other one, I think, had done roller derby before. But she tore up the tests they gave for her, only having trouble where there's a difference between ice skates and roller skates. (read: stopping).
So yeah, we're supposed to hear back in a few days, but unless they don't have a lot of spots open (and we believe that they do) it looks like Jess might be joining a Roller Derby league. Prepare for brawls and cursing
-N
Yikes!
So I may have mentioned it before, or not, but Jess has been looking to join roller derby, as a substitue for the Ice hockey that she had been doing before. They have a hockey league here, but she doesn't like playing in mens leagues. 'Too much drama', if you can believe that.
So anyway, Jess had about 3 hours to prepare, so she quickly went off to the local open rollerskate park to brush up on her wheeled transport. There were some differences, including the fact that she couldn't do hockey stops anymore and that when you step off the rink, you keep moving.
Dutifully refreshed, we went down to the specified location. It was...pretty ghetto. It was litterally just a warehouse with a banked track and a bunch of stuff piled all over. There were old 'side-of-the-road' couches that people could sit on and a whole bunch of stuff all over the walls. I'll get some pictures eventually.
Jess was really nervous, and wasn't sure she'd be able to pass the test, but she was *easily* the #1 or 2 girl there out of about 15. The other one, I think, had done roller derby before. But she tore up the tests they gave for her, only having trouble where there's a difference between ice skates and roller skates. (read: stopping).
So yeah, we're supposed to hear back in a few days, but unless they don't have a lot of spots open (and we believe that they do) it looks like Jess might be joining a Roller Derby league. Prepare for brawls and cursing
-N
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