Man, today was a great day. I'm incredibly tired. Andy (@NerdGod) and I met up at 8:30 this morning, picked up my kayak, and headed over to Dinky Dock. The weather was absolutely beautiful as we paddled from Lake Virginia to Lake Osceola and Lake Maitland. Between us we just about hit my kayak's weight limit, and with the wind the water was a bit choppy. Despite a few unnerving moments and a bit of Soggy Bottom Syndrome, we did pretty darned well.

Andy had never been kayaking before. Gotta say he did a great job. We were probably on the water for 3 hours, including the brief rest stop on Dog Island. I'm a little sore from the trip, but it was so much fun to be out on the water again. Well worth the effort and a bit of stiffness.

Also, we found this:



I came home for a bit, took a shower, and then blew off my intended housekeeping to head over to Erica & Sarah's apartment for some hang-out time. Their friend (and now my friend) Tracy was there, too. Sarah's cat Casanova got out during the party on Friday, and unfortunately we weren't able to catch him. We spent a couple of hours that night looking. Tonight we went around and put up posters with his picture on them.

After the kitty crusade we watched Role Models, which I enjoyed more the second time around. I don't think I was in the right mood the first time. I hadn't met Sarah or Tracy until the housewarming party, but hanging out with everyone today was very cool. They don't mind my horrible (and often abhorrent) jokes. Lots of fun.

Tags: kayak, videos

I just realized that I missed the memorial service for my friend and co-worker, Avondale Fleming. We weren't very close, but Avondale was a good person. I met him when I first started working for Bright House Networks. We sat near each other, and he helped me quite a bit. We joked around at work, and I got the sense that he was an all-around good guy. He's one of several people I would've liked to hang out with outside of work, but plans never quite came together. We lost touch when I was out of work for a few months because of my back, and as with so many other people we really lost touch when I moved to the night shift.

Last week I found out from another co-worker that Avondale had been found in a coma. The exact details weren't available, but once he was taken to the hospital the doctors pronounced Avondale brain dead. His family had a very hard decision to make. Ultimately they decided not to keep him on life support, and he passed away. I've got sketchy information because everything was circulated word-of-mouth at work, but I believe all of this happened about a week ago.

Today (Saturday) was when his memorial services were to be held in Altamonte. It slipped my mind until I came home and logged into the computer, at which point my calendar reminder popped up. With all of the drama I've had in my life these past few days I'd completely forgotten.

I feel bad for missing the memorial. I liked Avondale, and I would've liked the chance to tell his family how highly I thought of him.

Tags: remembrance

I've had a few fillets of tilapia in the freezer for a while now, and they'd just about run up on the last chance to cook them. I decided to breathe new life into the tilapia with a brine.

I tossed the fillets into a bag, filled it with enough water to cover them by an inch or so, and then added garlic powder, onion powder, way too much salt, and about 1 tsp dried rosemary. I squeezed out the air, closed the bag, and tossed it into the fridge for about an hour. (If you include citrus or any other acid, you can only marinate for about 20 minutes before the acid starts cooking your meat, as in ceviche. With a non-acidic brine, I could've let it sit as long as I wanted.)

The rosemary really provided a kick. It's easy to overdo, but with the brine I think I struck the right balance. I dried each fillet, cut them into 2-3 bite chunks, breaded with a cornmeal & flour mixture, and fried in canola oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes.

Tags: cooking

You'll never guess who I'm supposed to be.

We had fun at Bruce's Halloween party tonight. Last night, technically. Lots of good conversation and bad jokes. Inappropriate flower references thanks to Pat's costume.

I'm still camera-less, so the G1 is all we've got. One of these days we'll find the battery charger for Steff's camera or just break down and buy a new one. I'm hoping someone else got a good photo that'll show up online. Steff didn't want me to photograph her after we got home, so here's hoping someone got a shot of her costume. We left the party a bit early because she wasn't feeling well. Come to find out her sugar was sky high, so no wonder. I'm keeping an eye on her while she rests.

[edit 3:14 AM: Steff's in the clear again. Sugar's still high, but at least now it's manageable.]

And yes, I shaved for the costume. Immediately regretted it, too. I did it on a whim and belatedly confirmed what I've said many, many times before: I have no chin and therefore need a goatee. (heh)

Tags: costumes, halloween, indiana jones, photos

(insert Tim Allen grunt here)

Steff has had a sliding dimmer switch for her floor lamp for a long time now, but the switch recently broke off. Instead of being controlled by your foot, it turned into a very awkward lean down and try to grab it with your fingernails sort of deal. Not much fun. Kind of annoying.

Manly Man to the rescue! I bought an inexpensive on/off switch at Lowe's, spliced it into the power cord for the dimmer switch (so I didn't break her lamp without her permission), and FIXED THE LAMP!

Also, I saved the world. True story.

Tags: home improvement

I'm pretty much broke until we get the whole apartment/moving thing done, and even then there are no guarantees. Steff is probably going to quit working and apply for disability, which is necessary and in my opinion a good thing. In the absence of money, I can dream. *grin*

The Middleman
I fell in love with this TV series, but like so many brilliant, unique things it got canceled. At least the DVD set is relatively cheap. It's just a matter of time. For that matter, I'd love to check out the original comics, too.

Lego Batman: The Video Game
Seriously, how did I not know this existed? My two favorite fictional characters are Batman and Indiana Jones.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Video Game
'Nuff said.

Playstation 2
Gotta have it to play those games, after all. I imagine I'll find a used PS2 fairly cheap someday. Not a big priority. Just fun to think about.

Touchscreen Open-Frame monitor
This particular monitor is a 17" ELO, but I'm more interested in the idea for now. I'd love to make my own coffee table with 50's futuristic styling and embed a 17" or 19" touchscreen monitor right in the middle. We're not far from the media PC as it stands. All we need is an HDTV and a remote that'll control Windows Media Center. Add this as the second monitor in easy reach of the couch, and you've got a pretty awesome setup. We'll get there one day.

USB Doomsday Device Hub
If we do go the route of building a new coffee table it'll probably be easier to actually build in space for USB ports and/or a DVD drive. (Ooh, a pop-up DVD drive! Gotta do that.) In the meantime, if I'm going to stick with my wired Reclusa keyboard so Steff has the blue backlit keys, it wouldn't hurt to have a USB hub sitting on the table for keyboard & mouse connections. If you're going to do it, do it with style.

And if you're going to have a Doomsday Device sitting on your coffee table, shouldn't you also have the standard war movie Red Emergency Telephone?

Tags: wishlist

My weekends lately have not been my own. There was always something that needed to be done, so my cooking has been limited to short-prep dishes. Earlier this week I thawed a bottom round roast, thinking I'd get the chance to cook it on Friday. Earlier today I had trouble sleeping, which turned out to work in my favor. After the third attempt by the cats to compete for my affection (despite the fact that I was unconscious at the time) I gave up on sleep entirely and got up to cook.

I'd guess it was a 4lb roast. I dabbed it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled kosher salt all around. I seared each side in my big dutch oven, then added some tomato sauce, thick-sliced onions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, and a few crushed garlic cloves. I added about half a cup of water to the sauce so the liquid covered about 1/3 of the roast. Add the lid, and pop it into the oven at 250 degrees for about 2.5 hours.

Here's where it gets easy. I've been making rice every few days, it seems, so I had some left over in the fridge. I should probably have gone to the trouble of cooking a green vegetable too, but I was pretty tired. I'll make up for that if we have any leftovers. In the meantime, I polished off about half of the zucchini ribbon salad that was left over.

The roast cooked just in time for me to eat a bit before I headed off to work. I also managed to pack myself a lunch that was more of the same. Gotta say it was better the second time around. I guess it's because the rice had time to sit and soak up the sauce.

Can't wait until we use up the Mahatma rice in the glass jar by the stove. Mom dropped off some Basmati a few weeks ago, but I wanted to burn through what I'd already put into the pretty container rather than switching and stashing the cheaper rice in Tupperware. It's been so long since I've cooked with the stuff, I've kinda forgotten how to do it. Either that or I'm getting myself too distracted. I usually have the rice going on a back burner while I'm working on the main dish. The last two batches have been inconsistent. I come across a crunchy bit every 9th or 10th bite. Not good eats.

Tags: cooking

"I'm not spamming. I'm just changing my router's MAC address to get a new IP address about 15 times a
day. I work for a car dealer, and I have to do that so I can get around Craigslist's maximum post limit
that's based on your IP address. I don't understand why you can't help me."

I apologize, ma'am. You may not realize that is the very definition of spamming, which of course you're not doing. Unfortunately, this is against our Terms of Service and not something I can assist you in continuing to, uh... not do.

Tags: rocket science

Steff's doing okay. I really just wanted an excuse to roll out another James Bond pun. This may be my last attempt. I can't come up with anything else.

Steff went back to work on Monday. She convinced the doc to sign off on her release, but I'm not sure it was a good idea. We'll just have to see what happens. In the meantime she's still tired and sleeping all the time.

We've got a big weekend. Bhren is playing a show in Sanford on Friday. Halloween party Saturday night, and we'll be spending the day in Viera with Steff's mom. Sunday we're heading out to Homosassa Springs to meet up with hedgegoth for the first time in quite a while. Ought to be fun.

Tags: hospital, steff

Tonight I made zucchini ribbon salad again. I tried to go easier on the rice vinegar than last time, and I used rosemary as the primary flavor with just a little thyme as backup. I think it was a good choice, but the salad still isn't quite where I want it to be. Just a matter of time before I figure out what's missing.

Tags: food, photos