Category: general

Today I wore a new shirt (well, new for me, I actually got it for Christmas last year from Sharaun’s family in Florida). It has “pronounced” collars. So pronounced, in fact, that my shadow in the parking lot while walking to my car for lunch made me laugh.

To me, it looked like the kind of ornate future-space uniform an intergalactic planetary overlord might wear.

Fear me, air-breathing planetwalkers; fear me.

A grumbly harrumph to you, early morning Tuesday friends. Hope your coffee is strong and hot, and you got at least six hours of peaceful sleep last night. Me, I don’t know, because I write this business the night before. Go back and read a few, maybe check out the random posts over there in the sidebar – yeah, right over there – that’s right You’ll pick up on the timing pretty quick.

‘Round about 6:30pm on Monday and I’ve got the bluetooth hanging from my ear as I sit in one of those late-day Taiwan meetings. I’m listening, to an extent, but I’m also monitoring the baked ziti Sharaun left me for dinner before going up to run the teen-moms thing she does. She told me what temperature it’s supposed to bake at, and for how long, through rolled-down windows as I was pulling in the driveway and she was pulling out (at the same time, I could see Keaton mouthing “I love you daddy” through the glass as she blew me kisses). But, by the time I got in the house I’d forgotten both. I chose 375° for about thirty minutes – seems to be working OK so far (just need to make sure I get that crispiness on top, you know). On my own again for the evening, I suppose.

Before my 6pm call I pulled on some crappy shorts, dirty flip-flops, and no shirt to go plant some plants in the backyard. It’s hot outside here lately, and I wore nothing on my head so the sweat dripped down my face and burned in my eyes. I enjoyed it. And now, jumping around in time even more – that hot air is filling the house I opened up after my meeting ended, and I’m listening to this new album that’s supposed to be rad. I haven’t made up my mind.

This morning at work I decided to get some breakfast. I don’t usually eat breakfast at all, but occasionally I’ll go down to the café for my coffee and be tempted by the breakfast burritos or serve-yourself tater-tots and cheese-eggs. Got a small bowl of the latter this morning, spooned some salsa on top, and it made a great start to my day. Funny how little things can improve the outlook of a day, huh?

I’ve been going a bit crazy with Summertime “to-do” items lately. First up, the landscaping work I did on the sideyard out front, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Next on my list is redoing this little walled-planter/garden area we have along the sidewalk from our garage to our front door – it’s been in disuse now for too long, and looks a mess. I plan cunningly make use of the leftover pavers I had when I did the backyard porch so many years ago to create a nice little area for a swing or bench or something, and possibly even incorporate a little pond installation.

And, speaking of pavers, I guess it’s about time I finally clean and seal the porch in the backyard – and spent some time last week getting smart on the procedure and necessary materials. Finally, re-planting the retaining wall slope out back (filling in with more groundcover) and planting a tree in the corner out front. Realistically it’s a long list of work, but I’d like to make as much progress as possible over the next month – as we have a procession of family and friends coming to stay beginning then. Gotta keep up appearances, you know. Now, if only I can get Sharaun to care about the inside of the place… sigh…

Let’s switchum gears, as the old Indian used to say.

The other night, I booked a rather impulsive trip to Florida for Sharaun, Keaton, and I. We’d both been sort of bummed that our only planned visit this year was over Thanksgiving, and I was acutely bummed that it would mean I’d not see my new nephew until he was nigh on nine months old. So, I set about looking for stupid-low prices on plane tickets, and managed to find a great deal at the beginning of June. What’s more, United was offering double miles as a promotion during that time – and before I knew it I’d clicked through to a purchase. I immediately sent a note to my old cronies asking them to reserve me an evening for reminiscing and catching-up in a smoke-filled pub of their choice. Really, though, we’re excited about getting back to the place I still refer to as “home.”

And, mmmm… before I go, I see my friends are more disciplined than I, and some have already posted images from our weekend camping outing not but two days gone now.  Check out some images of the fun here, and look for an update from me sometime in the coming days…

Holy crap guys I’m really sorry about this mess of paragraphs. I feel a little aimless this week, just writing about things to write. Hope you can put up with it.  Goodnight.

Happy Monday friends.

Around dinner time on Sunday and I’m home alone listening to some music. We got back from a weekend spent camping today around noon, and after unpacking, washing up, and making and eating a sandwich, I curled up on the small two-cushion-long couch (gave the three-cushion-long to Sharaun) and took a sound nap. I’m still attempting to shake the last of the cobwebs from my head even now – naps can be solid things you know, like I was knocked out.

Camping, getting back to things, was great. The weather welcomed us, and showed up warm and beautiful. The food was the usual small-army variety that car camping so seems to inspire, being more than enough for our little group of weekenders for twice the time we stayed, and tasty to boot. There were five two year olds on this camping trip – making it clear that the physics of the activity have forever changed. Not in a bad way, it’s just a new twist. Keaton seemed to have a great time, running around covered in dirt head to toe, taking naps in the tent in the afternoon, and curling up with mom and dad on the air mattress in the evening (yes, air mattress – car camping, remember?).

Switching gears a bit, money and stuff.

Last week, I was talking with my buddy Jeff about the pending large-payout Sharaun and I are making as a death-blow to our lingering college loans. I have written before about how I hate debt, and explained how our loans, while not bad in terms of the interest they accrue, are like a burning coal in my shorts. I just can’t stand to have them on our dockets, just sitting there, looming all large and menacing. So, I vowed this year to pay them off. Anyway, as I often do, I was trying to scheme a way to get airline miles from the large expenditure. Anytime we decide to drop a large amount of scratch, I’m always looking for a no-hooks way to get free flights out of it.

Jeff suggested I get Sharaun and I both a certain United Visa card which lets you earn miles on those “convenience check” things. Last year, Sharaun and I each signed up for a different breed of United Visa card because they were offering 20k bonus miles just for opening an account. As a result, we ended up with a completely free trip to Florida for the both of us – not a bad deal. Turns out, the Visa that allows you to earn miles also offers the same 20k signup bonus.

So… in the end, we both got the new Visa, I’ll end up rolling the old Visas into the new one (we don’t carry a balance on any cards, so it’s just open-ended accounts), we’ll both get 20k bonus for signup, and I’ll earn mega miles paying off the student loans. That’s two free continental-US flights (or perhaps a return to Oktoberfest… ?) all for paying off a debt (well, and, technically, a $99 fee for using the balance-transfer checks) – and I call that a good deal Thanks Jeff, don’t expect a consulting fee or anything. Free stuff is the best.

Well now, seems like we’re drawing to a close for Monday. Sorry it wasn’t anything super impressive. I’ll try and get a proper set of pictures from camping up later in the week. Goodnight.

Hump day on a short week for me because I’m taking Friday off because…

This weekend we’re going camping, the season’s inaugural trip. Yeah, some may say it’s still a bit early for camping in the foothills, but the weather gypsies say the weekend will be in the mid-eighties, which seems right-fine for me. The water in the river, on the other hand, is a hypothermic 49 degrees – which likely means I won’t be spending much time in it (even though I think I’ve been divinely cured of my former affliction). There’s a big group going, lots of kids too. Should be a good time, and I’m excited about getting up there.

We’ll be going to our “standard” place again, just because, for me, it’s the easiest (yeah, I “planned” this one). Later this year though I hope we can branch out and explore some of the hundreds of other places around here. Anyway, I’m taking Friday off to head up early and stake out spots for the crew, who will arrive later that evening – and I’m looking forward to the short week and some time sleeping outside.

Lately, I’ve been evaluating a couple big-ticket purchases. As I’ve written about before, I’ve been somewhat keen on getting a newer, more 2000s TV, and a new audio system to accompany it, for a while now. And, Sharaun’s also been on me to get one of those fancy-shmancy SLR digital cameras. Neither of these items are low-cost impulse buys (and, I wouldn’t likely classify them as such even if I were making 3x what I am today, it’s just my view of money), so I’ve been waffling back and forth about each. On the one hand, I’d love to modernize our boob-tube, get something thin and flat and that we could hang on the wall – I’d love to do that. I’d also love to take stunningly clear and beautiful pictures of Keaton for posterity and artistic purposes. Sure, both of those things would be awesome.

But, every time I think I’m ready to pull the trigger, I start running arguments in my head: How often do I really watch TV? Not Sharaun, but me. It’s an important question because, honestly, a bigger, flatter, higher-definition TV would mean almost nothing to Sharaun – it’s a luxury item that would be enjoyed largely be me and me alone. Sure, she’d appreciate it, but, in her mind, the TV we have is just fine. And, that’s a valid opinion if you ask me. So, asking myself how much TV I watch, or perhaps more importantly, how much TV I want to watch, becomes a really important determiner of value. However, rather than just asking myself, “Dave, how much TV do you watch?,” because I think the answer to that can always be an HDTV-justifying “enough,” I figure I should venture to determine how much enjoyment I derive from television… where it ranks in my list of “ways to waste time.”

Aside from interaction with real humans, including family and friends, my #1 source of entertainment is music. I will almost always choose to listen to music over watching TV, mostly because when listening to music I can do other things (write, surf the internet), whereas TV just sucks attention too hard. I don’t watch many movies, only own a handful of DVDs, and am not too religiously attached to very many shows (OK, I like Lost a lot, and Andy Griffith, and enjoy The Office and the news, but, y’know). My #2 source of entertainment or enjoyment is the internet, and within this #2 is my #3 – writing. I’d like to say that my #4 is something highbrow like reading or something, but in reality it probably is television. So, there you go, watching TV is fourth on the list of ways I’d chose to spend my lazy-time.

If that’s true, do I really care about having a bigger and better TV? Maybe not. In fact, if I spend a couple thousand dollars on a TV I’m sure I’ll feel compelled to actually watch it more in some attempt to get my “money’s worth.” That’s not appealing to me at all. More TV? Yeah, that’s what I need.

Oh sure, as a status symbol it’s undeniably appealing, almost as much as the idea of the point-cases where I’d absolutely treasure having HDTV (drunken communal gatherings for sporting events, for one). The draw is intense, I don’t deny that – all my friends, my family, everyone is upgrading their TVs. Maybe my brain is just inventing this logic as a way to protect my pocketbook, but I think I’m genuinely torn. Does my television really deserve this much money? I just can’t seem to make up my mind. One day I’m a breath away from dropping the dosh on a new home theater setup, the next I’m criticizing myself for wanting to waste that much money on something I won’t use enough to justify it.

When I mentioned this to some friends the other night, they smirked and commented on the large size of our TiVo list. This is a fair point, as there’s quite a bit of stuff on there. But, I could put that money into a college savings account for Keaton or something and probably be just as happy (or perhaps only slightly bummed) with our current stupid TV.

Next up, the camera. Again, I start to question the expenditure. I liken it to the idea that going out and spending thousands of dollars on oil paints, brushes and canvas would magically transform someone into a painter. Same thing with a thousand dollar camera. Just because I have it, does that really mean our pictures will be that much better? Certainly technique and skill are the lion’s share of what it takes to compose a good picture, and equipment, while not insignificant by any means, is just a way to get there. I’ve seen crappy images from SLR cameras, and I’ve seen beautiful images from point-and-shoot models. Just because I drop a grand doesn’t mean I’m going to be better at framing shots or maximizing the use of natural light. I dunno, maybe I’m just feeling cheap.

Enough about all that, it’s almost time to go anyway.

Before I do, though, I wanted to mention something I bought at lunch today (since I seem to be on a “buying”, or “not buying,” theme today). After a nice buffet-style Indian lunch Pat and I swung into the local Wal Mart so I could checkout those pull-behind bike trailer things for Keaton. I decided I’d like one of them a week or so ago, when I got the idea in my head that Keaton would likely enjoy it, it would give us a chance to get out together just daddy and daughter, and it would get me ambulatory.

Anyway, they only had one, and it looked like it may have been returned before – but the price and features were right so I bought it rather impulsively. I couldn’t wait to set it up when I got home, and set about the task no sooner than I’d walked in the door. When Keaton asked why I was “building a new stroller,” I told her it was a gift for her and that we might be able to test it out a little later. Sure enough, the thing went together quickly and, after firing up the compressor to fill my flattened bike tires (told you, I don’t ride enough) and the trailer tires, I had the thing hooked in. I strapped her in and we were off.

Despite the helmet I bought for her being a little too big and sliding down over her entire face, she really seemed to have a good time and shouted “Whee! Whee! Whee!” as we circled the block a few times to get the hang of it. Hopefully we can make a regular early-evening ride a somewhat regular occurence. I’ll try and post some pictures of her in the thing later this week.

Goodnight.