Moving MacDude Musings

MacDude Musings

I'm moving. I'll try to get these posts moved over, but I probably won't try too hard. iBlog is super cool, and I'm sure I'll have fun messing with the css over there too.

Come on over and find out what's happening.

Landlording at the beginning
For those of you who don't know, Shawn & I are now landlords. I guess we have been for a while because we've been renting half of a duplex to Shawn's parents. But now, we've bought the other half of that duplex from my Mom and we're renting it out to three ladies who we have only met once.

My Mom and step-dad, Ed, officially moved out yesterday. They've been moving stuff by the van load to their new house in Roseville, which is just east of Sacramento. Yesterday the moving van showed up and hauled all their remaining stuff (except for some stuff in the garage) off to their new home.

But our story starts before that. My mom and I had purchased this duplex about eight years ago. Each side has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths (sort of), and each side has about 1700 square feet (is there an HTML glyph for the square foot symbol? I don't see one in BBEdit. I suppose you could use [|], but it's not quite right.) Anyway, because it's on a busy street and it doesn't have a very big yard, we decided to find another place to call home and raise our boys. During the time that we were there, Shawn's mom, Faith Gibson moved in with us. When we left, she stayed behind and became our first tenant.

Over the years, my mom met her husband via Third Age, (which didn't start out as a dating service, but looking at their page now, it seems to have that aspect) and they lived very happily in the "back half". However, neither is a spring chicken (who is?) and the fact that the place has two floors started to become a problem for their knees.

So, they found a new house in a new development in Roseville. Why Roseville? It's a nice place and my oldest sister, LeeAnn and her family live. Plus, it's a lot cheaper to buy a home there than in Palo Alto. They got a lovely 2400 sq.ft. place on near a new shopping center. Fun stuff, but there's not much work to be had up there, so it's not an option for us.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks has been a series of events leading up to now that involved trying to get new carpeting (old ugly brown carpet has to go!), moving bits & pieces, boxing up stuff, and eye surgery for Ed (better vision is a good thing!) Throw in the fact that they are A's fans and go to games on the way to and from Roseville and you can see that they've been busy. We've been trying to help them too. Yesterday (moving day) we got a call at 6:30 AM from my mom asking if we could come over and help before the Van arrived... I was there from 6:45 until around 10 and Shawn got the kids to school and showed up around 8:15. She was there all day. Wow!

Ask me about Home Depot. We're trying to get carpeting installed before Monday

Lost in my garage
Ok, so Neal Stephenson is coming to Kepler's for a book signing! Yay! However, there are signing regulations:

SIGNING REGULATIONS: Neal will sign one non-Quicksilver item for every copy of Quicksilver purchased at the store and signed by him on-site. No flash photography.

Hmmph. Since I've already ordered a copy of Quicksilver from Amazon and it' s being preped for shipping and cannot be cancelled, I think I'll only buy one copy and get him to sign my first edition of Snow Crash.

Easier said than done. We moved things around a bit ago and I lovingly packed up all my books and put them in the garage... Then Shawn hired ClutterBoy to rearrange things, and our garage now has more room, but the things that are stored are pretty inaccessible. Yuck. I've got four days to find the right box (I labeled them). and get the book to Kepler's.

I hope it's worth it

Way, hey up she rises!

In hon'r of Talk Like a Pirate Day , I'd like to giva ye a song or two.

What shall we do with a drunken sailor? (midi file)

A piratey haiku:

a goblet of grog
soon is, when drunk very quick,
a bucket of chum.


Oh and they've put the older translator back into action:

Aye, ye scurvy dog! Arrrr! Arrrrr! I've a fierce fire in m belly t' pillage an' plunder.

Ahoy! Merchant ship to the starb'd bow!!

No news for today
I attended a manager training session on how the law effects managers in the workplace. Pretty straightforward. In our seemingly litigation centered society, this stuff is important. unfortunately.

Ok, so I'm off to Home Depot to get a deal on slumlord carpeting. I'm thinking a nice cappuccino. I'm against berber carpet, I've seen it unravel and it's not a pretty sight.

You want to install it when?!

ShawnieBear Blog

ShawnieBear Blog Look there's a new blog in town. The ShawnieBear blog is by my wife, Shawn. Welcome to the blogsphere!

now I just need to get her to post

A friend ...
... is someone who'll let you borrow something to check it out.

A good friend is someone who'll warn you what to look out for when you do.

My buddy Schoun (not my wife Shawn), loaned me a variety of music to listen to. Some of it was interesting (such as the extensive "Pickin' on" stuff), then there were the more interesting things like Crank Calls, 70's collections, Dr. Demento, Rock versions of Cartoon Themes and Schoolhouse Rock.

So anyway, I've been listening to this stuff for a while and every once in a while I have to slap my keyboard (or speakers depending on what's close). Ya see, I'm listening to it at work and some of it is "inappropriate". Then this morning, I get an iChat from him letting me know that I need to be careful with some of the content. It turns out that he had to be aware of it because of his daughter.

Being a parent makes you grow up. If it doesn't you may be doing something wrong.

Arrrrr! Cap'n on Deck!
As you should know by now, September 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day! I went to their site and took the "personality" test:


You are The Cap'n!

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.
What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

w00t! ;-)

A beautiful blog entry
No, not mine, Mark's. It's a wonderful, informative ramble. He seems calm and collected, happy and satisfied. He talks about TiVo, trees, babyproofing, spring cleaning...life.

I read Mark's site more for his insight into various web standards and such, but over the year or so that I've been reading it, he has allowed people to read about him and his life. I think it's what really keeps me coming back. After all, if i really want hoo-hah on CSS or some such, I could just Google it and find stuff.

Thanks Mark

Turn off your light!!!
Last night was one of the worst night's sleep that I've had in a long time. The neighbors behind us had their rear porch light on all night and it was visible from our bed. Ugh. And of course, I get up at 6 AM on Mondays...

Ack!

Football is here
So, I went to the Stanford/SJSU football game. It took forever because the teams combined through 112 passes, so the clock was stopped a lot (especially since the SJSU QB missed more than half the time.) The next three games will be very telling for Stanford. Either way, I'm really looking forward to next year already with the talented Freshmen they have.

Now if the band would play better...

G5 arrived
I got one of the G5s I ordered for work today. It's the 1.8GHz model and I've not had a chance to do much with it. having said that, there are some goodpictures of one on the net.

I was able to plant more of the Elfin Thyme in my courtyard yesterday and also got three morning glories in the ground and strings put up for them to climb upward on.

Off to try out the G5 graphics

Productive Weekend
I spent the weekend cleaning house (literally) and getting it ready for a birthday gathering form my wife's grandmother. FayeGram turned 80 last week and her sister and brother-in-law are flying out from Birmingham this week. After the inside of the house was cleaned up (including sorting a huge pile of Rory's toys), I started in on the outside.

Mostly, that involves ripping out weeds and the dead spring flowers. Then planting the new Sword Fern, Australian Tree Fern, Coreopsis , Cyclema, Lantana, English Lavender and tiny thyme. I didn't buy enough of some of these, so I'll have to go back...

Many thanks to my buddy Daryl Alt, who is now working at a nearby Garden shop.