In what other family could I be sitting at table on a Monday night, eating some great steak and cottage potatoes, drinking some excellent Hansen Zinfandel, and discussing amongst…
In what other family could I be sitting at table on a Monday night, eating some great steak and cottage potatoes, drinking some excellent Hansen Zinfandel, and discussing amongst all three of us the origin of Spider-Man’s black costume and who the participants were in the Marvel Secret Wars?
I love these people.
So, how did I do with last year’s resolutions for 2007? Spend at least as much time with Kitten. Preferably more “quality time” — getting her involved with stuff at…
So, how did I do with last year’s resolutions for 2007?
Spend at least as much time with Kitten. Preferably more “quality time” — getting her involved with stuff at home, and being more involved in some of her other activities. She’s growing up into a fine young lady that I want to spend time with.
Well, something that was already in the works last year, but which came into fruition in 2007, was the whole karate thing. That’s been a lot of fun, and good exercise, but most importantly it’s something we’ve been able to share.
Beyond that — I keep trying. I’m going to call this a hit.
Keep the house in a bit more order — a bit tidier, pursue projects and maintenance a bit more diligently, etc. This is going to mean (gasp) maybe doing a bit less of other activities. These sorts of things work better as routine, so I need to figure out how to do that in a flexible fashion.
We finished up some big projects, but I don’t know that our overall “organization” has gotten any better. Gotta deem this a miss.
Write. Edit. Write. Yeah, yeah. Need to think of some good strategies here, though, that don’t involved Daily Stuff — because my Daily Stuff queue is pretty much full.
Near zilcho in the writing department. I’ve been hit-or-miss on the 100 Words stuff, and I set up a special blog to cover things, but it’s just been (despite a novel bubbling in the back of my brain) something I’ve simply not taken the time or energy to pursue. A disappointing miss.
Be fit. Keep the weight off, exercise more, and walk 1,500 miles to nowhere. Heck, how’s this — drop down to 185 by the end of the year. There’s an (un-)stretch goal for you! Or, more precisely, for me. But one I believe I can reach.
I actually hit my 1,500 miles to nowhere, and in the last few days of the year. After a very lackadaisical spring and summer, I (ahem) hit my stride and caught up with that.
I also seriously started exercising more (and stretching), via my karate class begun in February.
As to the weight …
Well, the good news is, I did actually get down to below 195 or so in March. The bad news is, I’ve not been at all diligent about tracking my weight, though still trying to maintain a modicum of good habits (but further hampered by losing my Geek Diet technical platform). Which means, my 31 December end-of-the-year weigh-in was …. 210 (approximately).
Hrm.
I’m going to call this a hit, if only because I feel like I’m more fit than I was, though I can also feel the pounds regaining.
And, lest I forget, this addendum resolution:
And, it should go without saying (but I say it nonetheless) that I resolve to be the bestest partner, lover, hubby and friend to Margie, the most wonderful woman in the world.
Well, I’ve certainly given that one the ol’ college try, and she keeps telling me I’m doing it, so I have to trust her (admittedly biased) judgment and call this a hit.
So — 3-2, in favor of hits (or even 2.5-2.5 if we split the Fitness one). That’s not too bad.
Now … what about next year …
Margie’s family is in Wikipedia. To wit, the entry on “With Every Heartbeat.” “With Every Heartbeat” is the second UK single released from Swedish pop singer-songwriter Robyn’s 2005 self-titled…
Margie’s family is in Wikipedia. To wit, the entry on “With Every Heartbeat.”
“With Every Heartbeat” is the second UK single released from Swedish pop singer-songwriter Robyn‘s 2005 self-titled album. A collaboration with Kleerup, it was released as a non-album single in Sweden and reached number 18. With Every Heartbeat Video Clip
A physical single was released in the UK on 6 August 2007. It was named as both Jo Whiley‘s and Scott Mills‘ “Record of the Week” and has been A-Listed on BBC‘s Radio 1. Robyn performed the song live on Radio 1 during the Jo Whiley show (although hosted by Sara Cox at the time) on 8 August, 2007. It has also received strong support by Popjustice.
The “Kleerup” referenced is Margie’s Nth cousin, Andreas Kleerup, one of the “Sweden” Kleerups. This is much more impressive if you realize that there are probably all of a dozen or so “Kleerups” in the world (and I’ve met all the ones in the US, I believe).
The single release cover art (above) is interesting. According to Jim, Andreas was impressed that my brother Eric’s alarm system showed their last name on it, so he took a picture of it, which then got turned into the “KLEERUP” LED display cover.
Kleerup (Andreas) has a MySpace page (where you can listen to the tune in question, along with others). Interestingly, over thanksgiving I got an e-mail from his music company (or perhaps his agent) asking about my ownership of the kleerup.com domain. I suggested back that he get in touch with Jim & Ginger (since they’re the ones I maintain the domain for; I’m sure we could work something out), but they’ve not heard anything as yet.
So … my most recent brush (very indirectly) with fame.
It is way past time I cleared off some tabs from my Firefox … Harrumph. I purchased a copy of Contacts Plus as a way to use my Outlook…
It is way past time I cleared off some tabs from my Firefox …
Greater love hath no man than that he spend his Friday evening (until the wee hours) helping his wife do a work assignment that involves a really annoying third-party web…
Greater love hath no man than that he spend his Friday evening (until the wee hours) helping his wife do a work assignment that involves a really annoying third-party web site whose response is slow enough to be distracting but too fast to allow one to actually do anything between the multiple clicks required to do what’s needed.
Sunday: Flew out to California in the morning (plenty of chill air, but no problems driving), going into SNA and picked up by Jim and Ginger. Finally got eulogy…
Sunday:
Flew out to California in the morning (plenty of chill air, but no problems driving), going into SNA and picked up by Jim and Ginger. Finally got eulogy faxed off to the coordinator at the church.
Bummed around the Ks for a while, at which point people started gathering and, after various bits of trimming, we had a tree-lifting party: brought it (13-odd feet of it) into the living room, got it latched to its base, and got it set upright (including a couple of chains toward the top to pull it back to the wall).
Ate pizza and drank wine. Good.
Monday:
Headed up to Santa Barbara around 11 a.m., and did the trip in almost exactly two hours (very light traffic from Villa Park, even on the 5 and 101). We took one of the Ks’ cars, they drove up in the other.
I’d opined earlier in the day that I wanted to eat at In-n-Out some time over the trip. And what should happen to be literally across the street from our hotel (itself just around the corner from Nona’s condo) than an In-n-Out. Yummy lunch.
Mom and Dad had headed down to the funeral home preliminary to the “visitation” to determine if it was going to be a “viewing,” too. Margie and I drove downtown for that (Kitten stayed with Jim & Ginger), and attended the visitation/viewing, which was wrapped up with a Rosary at the end (which tested my own long-past memorization, let alone poor Margie who’d never done that sort of thang).
After a bit of milling about and exchanging condolences with sundry family members (I’d say there were about 50 people at the event), we headed back to the hotel, then we all went over to the condo where Mom and Dad were having wine and cheese for close family. (The condo has gotten much shorter than I remember … though it’s possible I’ve become taller.)
Dinner that evening was at a nearby Outback — John’s clan, mine (including the Ks), Elda and Dave and Lynn, Dina, and Carmen & Ian. Katherine stuck with her cousin Sean (which was the trend for the whole trip). Good time.
Afterwards, went back and slept on a very hard bed. We were at an ExtendedStay America, because of the convenience; it was okay, but it’s really designed less for “visitors” than “folks needing a place to stay for shorter or less inconvenience than renting an apartment.” So, for example, no shampoo, and a rather “functional” feel to the whole place. The beds were, as noted, pretty darned hard — but the place was clean and convenient, so no worries.
Tuesday:
Decided to skip breakfast. Got all dressed and headed to the Funeral Mass at the Santa Barbara Mission (where, it was pointed out to me, Nona had taken all her sacraments — baptism, confirmation, and marriage).
I got to be a “triple threat” as far as responsibilities — I was a pall bearer, I gave the eulogy, and I did the non-Gospel readings. For the latter (Wisdom 3:1-9 and 1 John 3:1-3), in case I might have gotten a swelled head, I got credited as “Dave Vial.”
I’ll print the eulogy separately here, as folks have asked for it. I got a lot of complements for it (which was less my doing than my having a good subject), and a lot of people said it described Nona perfectly, so I guess I did a good job of it.
Katherine had been kind of hinky about the whole funeral and cemetery thing, and we did not press the issue (she was invited to come, she was allowed to bow out if she wanted) but when she discovered that Sean was going to be there, she decided she wanted to go. She ended up walking up the aisle with me after I did the initial pall bearing up the steps of the mission, and sat next to me through the service (being Episcopalian, she’s had good training for ritual). She was spectacularly well-behaved, friendly, did lots of hugs to people, and was an all-around princess.
After the Mass came the interment at the mausoleum at the cemetery. Again, Kitten decided to go, and, again, was perfectly behaved.
(Side note: the Santa Barbara Mission is run by the Franciscans, and is the only one of the California missions to remain in church hands since its founding. The priest doing the ceremonials was a Franciscan, and under all the finery he had a brown hoody andwell-worn sandals. It’s a gorgeous building, inside and out, and worth visiting if you’re ever in town.)
After the bits at the cemetery, we went to the reception, held at “Mulligans,” the restaurant at the Santa Barbara Community Golf Course — where Nona used to play quite a bit in her day. It was a very nice gathering, with a great collection of pictures of Nona, and a chance for everyone who was still there to sort of wind down and say good-bye to each other.
Jim and Ginger headed back down to home after that, taking Katherine with them. We had a bit of time in the afternoon to relax, and Margie I drove up to the old De La Guerra Terrace house to show it to her. Then she and I took my folks and my Aunt Carmen and her husband Ian to a nice restaurant downtown, Olio e Limone, where I’d gone during a business trip a few years back.
Wednesday:
We were headed out of town (after a big breakfast at a good local joint, Cody’s) by quarter after 9, and it took just a bit over two hours to make it back down to OC. We hung out for a few hours, then off to John Wayne Orange County Airport (SNA), where we let Frontier wing us back to Colorado, and home, and a well-deserved rest.
Many thanks to Jim and Ginger for the logistics — including bed, car, and Kitten-care — to Margie, for all her support — and to my folks for giving us a role in saying good-bye to Nona.
A few selected quotations on the day and subject: ‘Twas founded be th’ Puritans to give thanks f’r bein’ presarved fr’m th’ Indyans, an’ … we keep it to…
A few selected quotations on the day and subject:
‘Twas founded be th’ Puritans to give thanks f’r bein’ presarved fr’m th’ Indyans, an’ … we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr’m th’ Puritans.
— Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) – Mr. Dooley’s Opinions, “Thanksgiving” (1900)
ANYA: To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It’s a ritual sacrifice. With pie.
— Jane Espenson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Pangs” (19 Oct 1999)
All jocularity aside, I am thankful this day for all that I have. A lot of that is material, a bounty beyond anything the Pilgrims could have dreamt of, but more important are the people in my life.
I’m thankful for my friends, too many of whom I don’t get to see nearly often enough. Good times, bad times, soap operatic times, they are all good people to know.
I’m thankful for my family back in California — my parents, Nona, my brother and his clan. It is always a pleasure to be with them, and I’m grateful to share the bonds of relation.
I’m thankful for Margie’s family, too. Stereotypes about in-laws are, mercifully, just fodder for jokes, not any sort of description of what they’re like.
I’m thankful, of course, for my daughter, the greatest kid in the whole world, the light of my life.
And, of course, I’m thankful for Margie, who makes it all worthwhile — and who makes a pretty spiffy Thanksgiving dinner, too. Yum! Yes, I give many, many thanks for her.
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
I will admit that I am neither as trendy nor as youthful as Doyce, but this particular problem doesn’t get any easier with age. And, yes, that sounds like a…
I will admit that I am neither as trendy nor as youthful as Doyce, but this particular problem doesn’t get any easier with age. And, yes, that sounds like a fine idea, though I strongly suspect that Margie would beat me regularly. Not that there’s anything wrong with that …
I had separate posts for all of this, but time’s a-wastin’ … FRIDAY: Bits of this and that during the afternoon, keeping me out of trouble. Margie got the…
I had separate posts for all of this, but time’s a-wastin’ …
FRIDAY:
Bits of this and that during the afternoon, keeping me out of trouble. Margie got the cookie for the day, though, dealing with folks who couldn’t be bothered with deadlines until the final deadline, and who couldn’t be bothered to key in something online but could be bothered to scribbled it on hardcopy and fax it to her for data entry.
In the evening we went over to Doyce’s for the next installment of The Century Club Presents! (SOTC). This one was a murder mystery at a government lab “on the moors” kind of thing.
My favorite moment came at the end, when the Daring Magpie — being charged by the lunatic killer wielding a brandy snifter of virulent nerve poison — took advantage of her murdered father’s ghost arriving on the scene at just the right moment (tosses in a Fate point) and uses Sleight-of-Hand to delicately remove the snifter from her hand without spilling (thank heavens) a drop.
It was a crazy-stupid heroic thing to do, but as I told Doyce, “Hey, if I can’t do something crazy-stupid heroic in a pulp game, when can I?” Much fun.
SATURDAY:
The Official Celebrate Margie’s Birthday Day. No breakfast in bed, but plenty of relaxation for the Lady of the House, along with opening of gifts and a nummy dinner at The Fort (review to follow eventually). She seemed to enjoy herself, as did Kitten and I.
SUNDAY:
Light errands, bill-paying, movie-watching, and general whiling away of the hours. Nice.
Who was St Cadfarch? Historical anatomical drawings. Cool. It’s amusingly recursive to go on the Internet to see a map of the Internet. Kottke asks, what order should you…
Via Doyce: Two Names I Go By: 1. Dave 2. Three-Star Dave (on various net sites, with or without asterisks) Two Things I Am Wearing Right Now: 1. “Bring on…
Via Doyce:
Two Names I Go By:
1. Dave
2. Three-Star Dave (on various net sites, with or without asterisks)
Two Things I Am Wearing Right Now:
1. “Bring on the Bad Guys” Kirby villain t-shirt
2. Banana boxers.
Two Things I Would Want in a Relationship:
1. Margie
2. More Margie
Two of My Favorite Things to do:
1. Play games (online, offline, face-to-face, whatever)
2. Blog (duh)
Two Things I Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. To discover it’s actually Friday.
2. To finish welcoming Margie home.
Two things I did last night:
1. Karate class.
2. Dinged Lady Zebra to 23.
Two things I ate today:
1 Some leftover Chinese from Wild Basil.
2. Some pasta.
Two people I most recently talked to:
1. Margie — she’s home, huzzah!
2. Katherine
Two things I’m doing tomorrow:
1. Going back to the office (been working from home the last couple of days).
2. Karate class.
Two longest car rides:
1. Denver to Indianapolis (with a “this was further than we thought” impromptu overnight stay somewhere most of the way there).
2. Denver to Los Angeles, non-stop, two or three times, over the holidays.
Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas
Two Favorite Beverages:
1. A big, spicy Zinfandel.
2. White Rascal Hefeweise
Two Things you may not have known:
1. I’m on the CoX I11 Close Beta … oops, shouldn’t have said that.
2. My greatest speech success in High School was an expository speech on left-handedness.
Two jobs I have had in my life:
1. Jack-of-all-Stations at Burger King.
2. VM Systems Programmer at Pomona College.
Two places I have lived:
1. Centennial, Colorado
2. Mountain View, California
Two of my Favorite Foods:
1. Apple Crisp
2. Chili Cheese Fries
Two Places I’d rather be right now:
1. Wales
2. In bed with Margie.
Margie’s usually the one single-parenting, but this time she’s the one off on business, I’m the one at home. No problems with Kitten, managing the parenting and home front. And,…
Margie’s usually the one single-parenting, but this time she’s the one off on business, I’m the one at home.
No problems with Kitten, managing the parenting and home front. And, of course, Margie only left yesterday morning, and is back tonight.
No, the impact is less on Katherine, or on keeping the house from burning down, than on just my missing her something awful.
I miss her when I’m off on business travel, but that’s a generally stressful barrel-forward kind of situation anyway, so it’s tolerable. The setting is different, so Margie not being there is just part of that difference. But when she’s gone, and I’m at home — that absence is the only difference for me to dwell on.
And …
… I’m glad she’s coming home tonight.
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
It’s not warm when she’s away
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
She’s gone much too long
Any time she goes away …
Any story that involves a long-distance Internet romance, the TV show Deadwood, a fire-fighting cowboy poet with post-traumatic stress syndrome, blogging, “True Luv,” and Harlan Ellison, has got to be both…
Any story that involves a long-distance Internet romance, the TV show Deadwood, a fire-fighting cowboy poet with post-traumatic stress syndrome, blogging, “True Luv,” and Harlan Ellison, has got to be both twisted and interesting. It is.
In case I haven’t mentioned it of late, I am blessed with a truly wonderful wife, friend, partner, lover, “helpmate,” co-conspirator, complement, and all-around bud, in Margie. She makes…
In case I haven’t mentioned it of late, I am blessed with a truly wonderful wife, friend, partner, lover, “helpmate,” co-conspirator, complement, and all-around bud, in Margie. She makes my life infinitely better than it would be without her (shudders), and brings me joy in ways both great and small on an unbelievably regular basis.
If I were not a religious fellow, I’d still be inclined to take up belief in a beneficent deity if only because of her presence in my life.
All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love. — Spinoza
Who was St. Anastasius the Fuller? “A kiss is just a kiss”? Not for the lady-folk. A blast from the past — why doomsday devices and accidental nuclear war…
Observation: When juggling IM windows between a subordinate, your boss, and your wife, it’s important to make sure which window has the focus when you send a “kiss kiss” message….
Observation: When juggling IM windows between a subordinate, your boss, and your wife, it’s important to make sure which window has the focus when you send a “kiss kiss” message.
(And, no, I didn’t make any particular error there … but I did suddenly start triple-checking my windows very carefully before hitting enter …)
All the TPB reviews will link to Amazon for your convenient buying pleasure. Yes, I get a trivial affiliate kickback if you follow the link. Feel free to not. …
Well, not quite, but cool map here showing that the West Coast has a surplus of single men, the East Coast a surplus of single women. Colorado/Denver shows a surplus…
Well, not quite, but cool map here showing that the West Coast has a surplus of single men, the East Coast a surplus of single women.
Colorado/Denver shows a surplus of guys, too, which may be good news in some quarters I know — though there may be a reason why so many of them are single.
Since the map doesn’t really discuss the reasons for the disparity, the suggestion from many that some of these folks should meet in the middle and hitch up probably isn’t very helpful. It also presupposes that they are on the market for an opposite-gender mate …
(Note: The map claims to be from the February 2007 issue of National Geographic, but there’s no sign of it online.)
(via Doyce)
The guy at the art gallery where we ended up dropping a lot of money commented that Margie and I really seem to have a lot of fun together. And…
The guy at the art gallery where we ended up dropping a lot of money commented that Margie and I really seem to have a lot of fun together. And … that’s true.
But the whole Big Art Purchase thing this week (which really came out of the blue as far as we both were concerned) really outlined for me something special about my relationship with Margie.
I would love to be a fly on the wall for most of the gallery’s transactions, but I suspect they most often fall into the following categories (when dealing with couples):
With Margie and I, it wasn’t so much a matter of having similar tastes (we both like a lot of the same things, but we also have our unique aesthetics that sometimes jar the other), as much as seeing the whole process as a mutual effort — subject to compassionate veto (and respectful understanding thereof) by either side, dealing with surprises (“Wait — you want what?“), balancing weaknesses (“She’s Impulsive! He’s Risk-Averse! Together They Fight Crime!”) and strengths (“That could go there” “What if we placed that over by that other thing?”), and recognizing that, especially with something like house decor (and significant dollars to be spent on it, making it more than just “decor”), this really needed to be a joint decision that we would both be happy about when all was said and done.
And it was.
And, y’know, after all the good food and interesting sights and moments of passion and moments of quiet and all — that is what is going to remain as my most pleasant memory of this trip. We worked well as a team.
Neat.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Got up at a decent hour. We’re on summer schedule at our parish, so instead of going to the middle service at 9, we…
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Got up at a decent hour. We’re on summer schedule at our parish, so instead of going to the middle service at 9, we go to the second (final) service at 10. That lets us sleep in a bit, but since we were all up before 8, we ended up going to brunch before church, rather than after.
Made a mad-cap race through Kohls between brunch and church to pick up white t-shirts for KOA next weekend (eek!).
I was filling in for Margie at church as a LEM (“Lay Eucharistic Minister” — one of the guys in funny robes up there who helps with giving out Communion). We were down a couple of Acolytes (Altar Boys/Girls) so I got to fill in there, too — carrying the cross, ringing the bell, all that good stuff.
I really enjoy doing those kind of things, participating in the service. It’s easy, though, to slip into it being a “performance,” rather than “worship” (a big reason I don’t join the choir).
Afterward, we headed to the store for dinner goodies, then home.
Played Scrabble, Junior, with Kitten and Margie. I am 95% certain that I had a version of this as a kid. They let me win, since it was Fathers Day, and was much fun.
Chatted with Jim, made sure that our Fathers Day gifts were scheduled to arrive in California this week (as we are, so we can hand them out), and failed to get hold of my Dad (hopefully he enjoyed the picture).
Margie and I spent most of the rest of the day doing City of Heroes, which was fun. Broke for dinner around 8, and Margie BBQed up a nice steak, sauteed some mushrooms, whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes. Sat on the couch and watched Casablanca.
Not a bad way to spend Fathers Day.