TG [h]

At the part of SNF where each of the players' heads introduce themselves, TG said, "I'm Tony Gonzalez? University of California." I guess he reads whatever's in the prompter.

Full frame [s]

I rented a d2x this weekend. It handles quite well, all the extra frills don't diminish usability. A d3 is probably out of the question for the next camera purchase, but I'll be interested to see how the d700 compares. The most noticeable differences are the focus speed and frame rate, also the color management blows the d70 away.



This afternoon I had a jonesing for ditch digging, so I bought some materials for a drip system. I have a half inch line running along the fence on the upper terrace and several quarter inch drip lines branching off. The big [known] unknown is how close the drip lines have to be to irrigate a continuous area. I have a patch of Korean grass with a drip underneath serving as the guinea pig. Either way, the papyrus and birds will be better off.

Said:

• Took a long walk, no pee. Back in the house one minute, pee on the bed. ... A sleepy puppy is a good puppy. - Another new puppy owner.
  
• Hey you over there with the big white butt! ... You got a puppy? What a little flirt! I thought you've already got a girlfriend. ... I may be willful but I'm still innocent! ... Ew ew ew. I have to scrub my eyes out! - Lover of exclamation marks.
  
• I'm not one of your kind [not a cannibal] so I wouldn't call it that [cannibalism]. - Indulger of jokes.
  
• It's a good thing I don't believe in karma or I wouldn't have a chance in hell at happiness. - Introspecticus.
  
• I'll just piss in the car on the way home. - Locked out of a bathroom.
  
• Went to work instead [of surfing]. Bad life choice, I know. - Hobbyless.
  

Settlers II [s]

There was more Settlers tonight. I did a short time-lapse.

Said the now-older one, 'You always go for the longest road. I know your game. I have your 411 down.'

New light source [s]

The pool light switch was backward. It broke the common so I was getting power to the light even with the switch open. That resolved, my sweet led bulb is working its magic at a whopping 2.75 watts, compared to the 500 watt incandescent I pulled out.

The long life of led is nice, considering the complexity of the fixture around it. The pure white color goes well with the bright white epoxy coating on the pool. And it's bright too, the above image is pretty close to how it looks, and it's currently directed at the wall. Hopefully tomorrow Jon will brave the cold to affix it, Rabot keeps getting entangled.

So as soon as we get a little more warm weather, there'll be parties that can go well into the evening at RFQ Memorial Pool.

Mother, Jon, Curt, and I braved the Settlers/Seafarers/Cities and Knights combination. The game duration was a mere two hours, though there was little seafaring. We only played to thirteen, which may have been a bit small on account of the extra terrain tiles. It was all made phenomenal by my Auntie Kathy's delicious chili.

Texted:

• Ian said he wanted to go riding then went back to bed.
• [Crossing the I-8 CBP inspection point] Better hide Ty.
  
• Screwmosas at Pizza Port in 45 minutes... be there or suffer my wrath.
  
• I didn't realize crosswords haunted your dreams.
  
• Someone's fishing for quotes to put on their blog... eat nards!

Multiple fronts [s]

Now that the downstairs floor is done, the floodgates have opened.

• Media room: Ty helped me return the couches from the upstairs. I affixed surround speaker mounts to the walls and tonight added some extender cables so there weren't wires in awkward places. The next step will be to change them to coax for a safer journey from the amp.
• Downstairs bedroom: It's slated for rental, but couldn't be until the floor was taken care of. This needs touch up paint and moulding, but it's close.
• Downstairs bathroom: Everything came out for the grinder. Sunday I primered and painted. I trimmed the walls and shower today, so now it's time to find a pedestal sink. I'm thinking maybe I can snag something from Dixieline that isn't horribly overpriced.
• Downstairs hallway: This could use a layer of paint, but the task isn't quite as small as the bathroom.
• Garage: Now that I'm not avoiding pools of drying epoxy, I can rededicate the car hold for vehicles and saws while the side room becomes storage once again. I'm thinking dark red walls in the garage, but leave the ceiling white. I snagged a couple sample colors and will be looking into that one. A big, awesome workbench is in the near future, but more immediatley I have to find a shelf to hold the sound system which as been pretty clutch so far.
  

I didn't have hot water for a couple days. The pilot went out, it would relight with the manual override button pressed but would wink out as soon as it was released. The internet said the termocouple was the likely culprit, it shuts off the gas when the pilot is cold for obvious reasons. I was happy to hear Depot carried Honeywell universal thermocouples.

No dice.

I called a repairman. He walked out five minutes later with the burner working and an empty generic thermocouple package in the trash. Stuff you, Honeywell, and your unnecessarily long 'universal' thermocouple that produces signal below my valve's threshold.



My blurry faced friend dropped by with his kid.

A couple fun one liners:

• For some reason I'm attracted to bikes.
• I love it when you take hallucinogens and help me pick fruit.

Anticipation is high for:

• Fast and Furious, released Friday, its first installment still tops the leaderboard. Obtw, even though the post is backdated, I just published the reviews of Gumball, Ronin, 2F2F, FFTD, DR2000, and Movin Too Fast. There are a couple flashes of brilliance in those reviews, not so much in the movies.
• I finally remembered to replace the propane.
  
• Connie bought lots and lots of Settlers of Catan.
• The White Lambda may return. This time, it could be personal.
  

Keeping myself occupied [s]

By popular demand, I give you the area behind the fence. You can see the recently planted scotch grass that needs to get growing. Uh that's about it. It's steep, it's under some trees, yep. Nothing to see here, move along.



The fence isn't close to done thanks to the mere hour of daylight after work. Hooray for daylight savings on Sunday.



There's some more plants now. The one on the left is named Larry.



So I could leave the dryer vent alone and let it outlet under the house. Or I could go back to what I presume was OE and run it across the back of the garage to the side of the house. But in the interest of a clean looking solution I'm venting into a sizeable garbage can in the side room.

Of course, the only thing that comes from the pipe is moist, hot air so there isn't much for the bin to collect. It worked pretty well for my first load of clothes, there was condensation on the bottom of the can and nothing got exceptionally hot.

The above image brings about the important question of whether I should insulate and drywall the side room for style and comfort, or leave it as is for easy access.



Assignment five was due today. Tuesday night I hadn't shot anything so I made a few stops in La Jolla and Carmel Valley to basically document myself harassing friends. It went pretty well.





In class we did polaroid transfers. I dug up some old slides from Alaska and the '03 fires. The process loses a lot of color, some framing, and significant sharpness, but it's cool to be able to stick it on stuff.




Said:

• ... or maybe I am just making up the whole thing. But either way it starts a good rumor.
• doode.. you have to share the dream.. that's how it goes weasle!
• i woke up agitated like the D76 developer!
  

If you happen to watch Lost and tivo tonight's episode, check the teaser at the end for '... and loyal ties will be tested.'

Backyard work [s]

Okay let's get started. Chris? Present. Okay, item one: paint the deck. Behr redwood semi-transparent. Two gallons coated it twice (barely) with each coat taking a couple hours.





Item two: sauna. Why anyone would build wood straight onto concrete I cannot imagine, but that meant the sauna had to go.



Item three: hill behind the fence. Jon wreaked excellent havoc with the sawzall, I simply raked the vertical foot of branches and leaves to the bottom of the grade. I'm hoping the scotch grass I planted will fare well.

And Scotty sent me a bunch of photos from the animal park last week.





Connie's darkroom work, or in her words, 'I gots it in my flickrs!' In fact, I'll leave you with one more quote from the excitable one...

i want an A. i want an A. i want an A. i already calculate getting
docked points for assignment 2 since i turned in one out of two prints
required. that's a C right there. assignment 1 all turned in, but images
not impressive.. at least not compared to yours and curts of solarized
car parts. so that's a B. i need two A+'s to counteract assignment 1 and
2. assignment 3, my metering is all over the place..
.docked points right there!!! I won't get an A!!! i wont get an A!!!!

Preparing for the future [h]

There've been a few great quotables of late. I'm publishing these mostly for nostalgia's sake, but if you're real bored at work, read on. First, a discussion with my postdoctoral associate about the best course of action when the zombiepocalypse comes:
C:
Link [Ed: Humorous zombie survival guide from Wired how-to wiki].

PA: Shipping container? As shown in that Will Smith movie, zombies learned how to use tools and simple associative learning (low level brain function). Living in a container would be akin to being a tin of potted meat. The authors of the article would be the first to be eaten. To survive, you either live on a large ship, an island like Hawaii (UK has the Chunnel to mainland Europe - very bad) or oil platform. You would also need lots of guns and napalms like the ones in Aliens. Also, play RE.

C:
Pretty nuts the statistic that police have a less than 25% hit rate within three feet. Makes Rambo movies significantly more plausible.

I think the shipping container is based on the premise that you're coexisting with photophobic zombies, so you just need to hunker down at night. I'd be hard pressed to open one of those things if it were locked from the inside (which would require a hack for obvious reasons), zombies would need some serious tools to break in within one night.

The ship's not a bad idea, some of the denizens of Fallout live on a docked aircraft carrier and it's pretty effective. Has zombie effectiveness in the water been demonstrated anywhere? Hawaii is big and populous enough that any contamination would easily survive. Remember the 28 Days Later virus didn't start in the UK, it came over on a plane.

And consider the possibility of zombie birds. It just takes one peck, and they can spot and reach you from far away.

I'm going to say a remote location that cannot sustain itself - like an oil platform - will suffer the fate they mention where you go to the grocery store, are not on your game, and die. If you're lucky you can get freshwater from rain and grow your own food, but this is not an option for non-vegetarians who dislike fish.

How about Montana? First, it's often cold which, as discussed, severely affects zombie metabolism. Second, it's got a statewide population of 12. You just have to split a few wigs and you're in relative safety, assuming zombies don't make road trips. And though you'll always have to be on your guard, it's not much worse than living in LA or New York.

Montana is large and flat, there are no sewers to hide from the sun or plan a subterranean assault. Life is good when you can pick off the undead with a psg at 2,000 yards (and miss a few times), instead of duking it out with a chainsaw and hoping their blood doesn't mix with yours. Also there's a grip of self-sustaining land up there with roaming animals that will be uninfected if you do your job.

Napalm booby traps, lights, motion sensors, you'll have plenty of time to set it up and everything works on x10!!!

PA: I did not consider birds as a biological vector. If this is a factor, then no island or boat is safe. On a boat the radar operator would tell you if there was a flock of birds in the area. A single bird would not appear on the screen. I think cold is a pretty good deterrent. I don't care if the muscle cell is dead or alive, the effects of extreme cold temperatures would mechanically limit motility. Plus, there are no birds in cold places. I guess you could live in Iceland, Greenland or dock your boat in Antartica?

C:
Plus you're on a boat so there's always going to be a flock of birds in the area. Especially after the outbreak when there'll be lots of decomposing corpses for them to pick at.

The only problem with cold is that it's cold. Brrrr. One could definitely go for severe cold, but it's a tradeoff between zombie deterrance and providing for your own survival. You wouldn't last long in Antarctica, though it'd be a great place to find non-infected if you like scientists (I do not).

And from a recent Mazda 3 purchaser:
Freezing, foggy, wet, and muddy the whole time. However, my car is
thoroughly broken into now! We were rolling in mud and dirt... I wanted
to spin donut holes but Ryan had to remind me that I wasn't in an
off-road vehicle.'

And regarding the recent Casbah concert featuring Canadian band F*cked Up, two buddies of mine separately decided to attend and invite me. Alas, I was in the darkroom that night:
Concertgoer 1:
When the naked 300 lb Canuck covered himself in honey, I was amused.

When he walked around the audience giving hugs covered in honey/sweat/hair, I thought to myself, "Please God, let it be me."

It was not to be. I was forsaken.

Concertgoer 2:
Yes, but did you happen to see the coup de grace? Pulling his shorts down, revealing his ample and fleshy buttocks, immediately ending my life.

I write this email from beyond the grave. My only advice is Chris, quit being such a photography maniac so you can have ringing ears like me and [CG1], go to the Saturday Coachella show for a second chance at a hug.

CG1:
Ah yes, I am trying to repress the memory of his hairy plump ass. Thanks for ruining my day man.

I am buying tickets for Coachella. Sunday night will induce face melting. I saw MBV played at 132 db in LA. I want to re-live the 30 minutes of 132 db's. It was like staring at the face of God.

Did you buy a mixtape? I bought the old one, I wish I bought the newest one also.

PS. I hate the bald bouncer. He is always harshing on everyone's vibe.

C:
Hah hah hah, clearly I should have blown off class and attended. But I was torn, I had received two concert invitations the same night. What's a girl to do?

CG1:
A simple choice really, there was no other show of note last except the one we attended. Even the opener Miko Mika were great. I am a sucker for props, in this case a telephone microphone.

The city's purveyors of hipness were in full attendence, as evidenced by [CG2] and I making an appearence. The Artfag and Skullcontrol people were also attending.

After much labor I turned in my first and second assignments. The 6x6 was very challenging and rather unfulfilling. Next up: portraits that tell a story. So, like, photojournalistic portraits or something.

The unnerving bits [s]

New lighting for the living room:



You probably didn't notice, but I ms painted in a bookshelf to indicate what it'll look like sans line of sight to the light sources. Here's how it is now:



I've got them wired up to a motion sensor that can operate in daytime since led bulbs don't really use any power. For whatever reason the switch is still supplying 60vac in the off position, probably because of the low load. I'll figure something out.

I'm very happy about the upward facing wall mounted lights for vaulted rooms and will likely continue elsewhere. Of course halogens, hids, or even cfls would provide a fantastic indirect reading light in this formation. And wiring them requires no pre-existing outlets or fishing, you just go straight through the wall into the attic.

And while I was in the attic I spent some time protectanting the near-vent lumber both chemically and with a layer of 4 mil clear plastic that also makes moving around up there much more palatable (insulation, dust, other).



I also installed the dining room light fixture, though I have grander plans for the next revision. What's also evident are the baseboards and pain-in-the-ass circuit that's not getting any power. I had to sort out quite a few electrical issues this weekend, most surrounding preexisting two-node outlets on switches where they still supply the neutral line for various fixtures downstream.

Juvenile:
C: You going to be in the lab in the 6:00 area? Got a class at the craft center at 6:30...
?: Craft center? Can you make me a bong shaped like you?
also
"I was on a cruise, and there were all sorts of games, and I won first place in the ping pong challenge."

In other news I've got to be able to get a Nikonos V for not expensive. Have to.

Oh and a bit more on Fallout. It's significant release and requires significant praise and critique. First, the visuals in this game are stunning. Normally this means smooth polygons and fancy lighting effects - but as we've seen in GTA et al, pretty graphics cannot coexist with open environments. But Fallout excels at presenting a world that looks very natural and occasionally very unnatural. The scenery of the wasteland is cohesive but nonrepetitive, and you always feel under the watch of the nigh-unreachable Capitol dome. Wallowing in the carcass of civilization naturally draws you to the occasional outcropping of habitation such as the marooned carrier that houses Rivet City or Tenpenny Tower that looms over the western frontier.

But the DC in 2277 isn't exactly as I would imagine; the line between civilization and chaos is too fine. That's not to say there aren't gun battles in the towns and roving traders in the wasteland, but it's a bit too artificial to have a few islands where you're perfectly safe in a sea of constant danger. I grant that pragmatically speaking each town would need fortification, but castle walls were built beside cities, not around them. It'd be nice to stroll the Patomac, see a couple nonmutants and know that the area is at least somewhat safe and an urban area is nearby.

Most games will incessantly push you toward the end, either by offering penalties for slow play or providing constant reminders of unfulfilled objectives. Even the GTA:IV featured an endless flurry of phone calls and high maintenance associations. A harried existence does not mesh well with the world of the post-apocalypse and thankfully Fallout supports listless wandering. The pace and atmosphere lend to a distinct similarity to the arechetypal western. Yet when I saw my character in spiked armor and a white vintage motorcycle helmet I realized there is also a distinct Mad Max vibe. Finally, the omnipresent relics of pre-doomsday society suggest a bleak 1950s-meets-Clockwork Orange feel.

You can imagine where it goes from here [i]

I played around with the cable on account of laaaaag.

Numbers indicate splitters, previous configuration:
..|- room
..|--------2- cable box
--5- room..|- cable modem
..|- room
..|- room

New configuration:
--2- cable modem...|- room
..|----------------5- cable box
...................|- room
...................|- room
...................|- room

This has fixed my slow internet issue, though one contributing factor may be the new position of the wireless router. Lessons learned:
1. Splitters divide signal even if one connection is open (unlike regular circuits).
2. Cable boxes have an upper bound to the amplitude of signal they can receive, in addition to the obvious lower bound. I discovered this after trying:
--2- cable modem
..|- cable box

In other news, the last Top Gear was pretty brilliant on account of:

• GT-R looking good and doing very well on the test track.
  
• Hammond comparing Max Mosley to various cruel dictators.
• Jeremy's comments about tank slapper and getting 'perilously close to Wales'.

It seems I know some people that are equal parts nefarious, bold, and dumb. Quoted:

• yr [associate] stole me a tiki torch, a pumpkin, and a new year s tiara
• # of illegal actions > # times caught
  

Christmas and New Year's [s]

Erik's got a blog now. My forecast is interleaved Penn and Teller Bullshit-style rants and updates on the reich rocket (pictured). If only Connie, Curt, and me could convince him to join the photo class there'd be some great imagery to go with it. Relatedly, sign up for intermediate black and white at UnEx if you like to party.

Rob's got another photo site/blog/what have you. How long before he assumes another alias and registers a new domain? Only time will tell.

To show my support for these newly registered bloggers, I'll throw some ancient memes into the rest of my post. But it's not all love toward StrippedThreads and RoughOperator.There's an enormous amount of material getting dumped in the tubes closest to mine, I hope this doesn't mean kilroy will get delayed or I'll have to get a separate internet for it.

On Wednesday I enjoyed a low key New Year's with the aforementioned Allegoren and two fine ladyfolk. Team xy maintained a 3:1 margin over team xx in both Trivial Pursuit and champagne. But it was all in the spirit of good holiday fun. High fives to Jes for triumphing in the battle of table talk/psyche outs, Kat for partying through sickness, and Erik for verifying the floor's resistance to ember exposure.


Notes: almonds in cashew jar, classy champagne bucket, Kat's characteristic trail of hair bindings, neatly-placed tools where the fire was burning the night before, painful new Trivial Pursuit color scheme.

Connie stopped by to say hi. She got me a house gnome. In case you don't know, but end up at my house, here is a gnome primer:

1. Gnomes are always on the move. If you see one, help him find a new spot.
2. Gnomes are like flies on the wall. They see all, but go unnoticed. Gnomes do not hide, but never stand out. Likely places to find gnomes are on bookshelves (at the edge of the highest shelf), on window sills, and occasionally atop a cluttered desk.
3. Gnomes do not like to be pigeonholed as lawn-dwellers.
   

You know that dream where you're on a plane and the flight attendant comes on the pa and shakily inquires if there's an electrical engineer aboard? So you retrieve the multimeter from your carry on, stride confidently to the cockpit, and save the day? Well it came true on Monday. Sort of. The overhead lights (fasten seatbelt, service, reading lights, etc.) on the port half of the cabin were nonfunctional and (presumably) faa rules wouldn't let the plane take off. Of course the Patriot Act would forbid any sort of superherolike intervention so we sat on the tarmac for over an hour while throngs of Virgin personnel stood around. The captain ineffectually 'rebooted' the plane and eventually resolved to fill out the paperwork required to fly without fasten seatbelt lights. Somehow the lightless survived.

So mixed impressions about Virgin America. It was nice to play Doom on the flight up and back even if I should have brought headphones. The jets in Virgin's flock are modern but euro-proportioned (Airbus, you know). When the electrical malfunctioned the crew didn't do much to make the wait more palatable, but at least they didn't cancel the flight and declare bad weather as most patriotically-branded airlines would.

The northward trip featured several grudgematches of Jon's new pasttime, Settlers of Catan (+ Seafarers). More complex than Risk, more distilled than Axis and Allies, Settlers is like putting Sid Meier on a coffee table.

The annual Christmas football game was great fun. Newcomers included Mom, Ted, and Christine. Team Laura/Ted/Chris triumphed over team Mom/Arthur/Jon. Keys to the match were Ted drawing the number one coverage while Laura raked in the receptions - not so much on account of loose coverage, rather a legendary ability to hang onto the ball. MAJ played the traditional no-huddle offense while LTC deliberated and fully utilized the reverse, flea-flicker, and wildcat. The play of the day had to be Ted's asomugha (read: awesome) pick-six, followed by Jon's failed attempt to juke a parked car.

It was good to see Dave in classic form. When I invited him to poker Tuesday before Christmas, he explained that he hadn't finished shopping, but could attend if he did. As I was taking a break from the table I got a text, 'Well so far all I've managed to buy is a latte. So, not that it needs saying at this point, but I'm not gonna make it tonight.' It happens every year...

He did manage a visit later that week, and capped a three hour stint of catching up/Halo 3 with, 'I've come a long way [since Goldeneye].'



Moving things to the new property was made difficult by the mud. The Bobcat was clutch, especially in setting up a decent failblog contribution.

Touches of civility [s]

The rest of the blinds went up in a few short minutes - the difference being that they mounted inside a sill. That left enough time to put a few base boards down. I threw a few videos up for comparison.




They're not too far from the, er 'simulation'.

Today:
>>>> why is he jsamo?
>>>> he's suppose to be tsamo@...

>>> I think maybe he used to go by
>>> James back in high school. 'Ty' is a
>>> pretty silly name, so it makes sense.

>> don't make me go on the rant about
>> how some dumbass probably thought
>> that, upon seeing my name, ty is not
>> a real name and thus used my middle
>> initial. [friend]. well thanks a lot uno,
>> looks like i ranted anyway.
>> since we're on this subject, how come
>> you're not uno.d.ritchie@... isn't
>> there like some precedent for false
>> identification here? and the "d" is
>> for dumberson.

> haha ! dumberson.. haha!


I framed my door.


Upstairs west bedroom.




Upstairs south bedroom with a couple base boards.

Compromising admissions [s]

Dear Miss Manners,

Say you're at work and, er, laying cable - so to speak. Then, hypothetically, the [insert business unit] manager walks in and takes a nearby stall. You know who it is because he's talking on the phone. But you're all done, so you...

1. Flush and go knowing full well the associate he's talking to will become immediately aware of his locale.
2. Be courteous to him and discourteous to the next person in your stall.
3. Hang around until the conversation is over.

You might say he's as culpable for the fallout of his conversation venue as a driver is for bumpering someone while talking on their cell. But who really wants to adversely affect the operation of their company nowadays?



The mirrors add light and space to the bathrooms. I can get away with the panels for the sides of the upstairs bathroom and all of the downstairs. I shudder to think of how much a custom 5' x 3' is going to run me for the main, upstairs piece.

Also shown is the untrimmed switchage. A big feather in my cap is knocking the switch count from four to one (but really zero since the light and fan are on motion). A black eye is the annoying drywall work needed to cover the unused box components and the wire spanning them to connect the light and fan leads.



Another column will be good once I find my drywall anchors. The frameless door can be seen in this one.



I yanked the door to the storage nook in the media room. Then sent the electrical from under the tv to said nook. The end result should be clean stowage of the cable box, xbox, wii, and perhaps a dvd cart.

Rebroadcast without expressed, written consent:

• Never mind. Found yer seat. I'm booking 13B, although one usually does not want to sit in aisle 13...
• I will never speak Singaporean to you! Never. Even if I were pissed drunk.
• I'm pretty sure I'm the only one out of the 4 of us that can get hammered off of 8 tasters.
• And you'd best not be moving the bear skin rug. It really ties the room together.
• Oh, and there's a Sephora in Omaha!

Time lapse blogography [s]

So the ol' 1.6 Athlon setup finally choked. Hard to say what it was, I've failed to diagnose the problem hardware having independently swapped everything out. I'll revisit when I'm setting the box up as a terminal in the garage.

The new stuff:

• ASUS M3N78 Pro mobo. $100. Supports all the nice things, particularly sli and 1066 ram.
  
• AMD Phenom X3 2.3. $110. Three core, their second tier.
  
• PNY GeForce 9800GT. $160. Listed for a whole lot more. The gig of video memory should help with photo editing.
  

Of course, Fry's gave me the X3 2.1 and I didn't realize it until they'd closed. I had to stop by the following day and recover the 200,000,000 hz they owed me.

The near-term purchases include a sata disk, another two cheap gigs of ram, and maybe a new display.

And, well, I'm borrowing Curt's monitor, the power supply is sitting on the case, and there are boards sprawled about my desk area. But at least everything is functional.

The hiatus is explained, now rewind.



Thanksgiving was good. The new house accommodates well.



I snagged Madden '09 for entertainment purposes. My dad picked it right up and Jon wouldn't be separated from the game, save for by real football. There's not much to say about it - being an EA franchise - except it's generally enjoyable, graphically unimpressive, and Cris Collinsworth follows Madden's act very closely.



Taboo was a riot, particularly the last round where Mom, Connie, and I netted several points from Mark, Jon, and Erik.





The hallway floor went in fine. 'How did you overcome the itis?', you might ask. Well I peered in the fridge and made a glorious connection:

1. Red Bull
2. Orange juice

Iced and stirred together, pure genius. It's like Sunny D with stimulants.



The stairs are the only remaing hardwood to be done. You've come a long way, baby. The constructon tiredom led to my second genius (derived re-)invention: post-Thanksgiving pizza.

1. A fresh pizza from Round Table: the canvas.
   
2. Leftover turkey piled on top.
   
3. Mashed potatoes piled on top.
   

Delightful.

Thanksgiving weekend also saw d'Chris's d'Brickapult claw its way from the grave to a winning record and fourth seed in the Medieval Gridiron playoffs. Similarly, Santos surmounted the impossible and overcame a large point differential to knock James out of contention. It's been a white knuckle end to a unimpressive season.

This weekend I'm up against Potats' team, which is predicted to beat mine by 25 points even after his tight end netted zero on Thursday.

Sunday also featured the long-awaited return to the water. It was pretty good-sized, but rides were characterized by straight drop-bottom turn-close, so not exactly elegant. It's phenomenal how life on land maintains absolutely zero of the muscles required for paddling.

A few quotables:

• Schooled three little college guys. They seemed not happy to lose to a girl.
  
• Go Raiders! ... We're horrible. Marty! Marty! Marty!
• I heard you put Rob and Dave against the glass.
• I am ridiculously addicted to yr blog. Will you please update it more often?

Epilogue:
I'm a firm believer in giving the people what they want, so I'll break you off one more piece of culinary revelation.

1. Sirloin burger with ample Dorchestershire sauce. You probably don't have that, so you can substitute Worchestershire sauce instead.
2. Leftover turkey.
3. Fried onions.
4. Sourdough.
   

Cahoots [s]

Bobby called to chat me up and managed to suggest moving the tv to the east wall to better accommodate passengers of the media room thrillride. Coincidentally - or not - when I returned from work I found the room arranged as such. Oh well, in the words of Franco, 'give the people what they want.'

The couch is now elevated in a mock up of what could become stadium seating (with a real couch). Wires are all over the place since I finished splicing audio to coax way past my bed time. It's all for the surround though, most lines are now going through the crawlspace. They pop out a little under the tv, but will soon be obscured with a duct or behind tiles. The various electronics are now in the recess under the stairs, next up is arranging them elegantly.

And soon I'll be grabbing a few boxes of these, painting them matte grey or black, and darkening/deafening the walls.



I'm interested to hear SFS's second opinion on the bathroom door. Most people go to another person for a second opinion. I've found I can get a different viewpoint from him by asking the same question a second time. His first response invariably describes his own style/renovation.

CR: What do you think of skylights versus solar tubes?
SFS: Big glowing wall! 3form4lyf.
CR: Does that really say 'oceanside mountain home' to you?
SFS: No, but that's what I'm getting, it's kewwwwl.

CR: Should I get a grey slate or a green slate for the shower?
SFS: River rocks in a concrete matrix!
CR: Huh? I'm not sure that really goes with my...
SFS: True. Grey slate. I decided on the floor for my bathroom, river rocks in a concrete matrix.
CR: I wouldn't have guessed.

So I'm interested in what he'd think of a single slider as it carries the benefit of a pocket door without the feeling of being in some sort of mass transportation vessel. It's also good to know he doesn't lock the door when he's laying cable.

That said, I was at SFS House this weekend and it is the illest.