Random Access

Tuesday – 07 Oct 2008
Happy Birthday to :

Last night, I hung out with SaraRules and her family and watched the rollercoaster (of love… say WHAT!?!) of a game that was Minnesota vs. New Orleans. Wow. There were a LOT of impressive plays in the game:

• Saints QB Drew Brees threw for 330 yards.
• Vikings QB Gus Frerotte threw for 222 yards and engineered a couple of impressive drives, despite taking a beating from the Saints’ defense.
• Saints’ RB Reggie Bush ran for a combined 176 yards, including two (2) punt returns for touchdowns.
• Vikes’ RB Chester Taylor (former Ravens RB) threw a touchdown pass
• And where did Vikings’ CB Antoine Winfield come from?!  He was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Special teams?  POW!  Defensive line?  BAM!  In the Saints’ backfield?  Yep. He was there, too.

Of course, there were some miscues, too:

• Martin Gramatica’s off-the-mark field goals.
• The Saints’ problems with holding on to the ball.
• Drew Brees’ interceptions.

I just noticed that this week’s NFL passing leaders are Kyle Orton (CHI) with 334 yards and Drew Brees (NO) with 330 yards. Both of them were Boilermakers.

This morning, the alarm went off at 6:20. I did my level best to ignore it. That didn’t work, so I turned off the alarm and laid in bed, pondering the prospect of starting the day.

Somewhere between “pondering” and “starting the day,” I nodded off again.

This is why I have a secondary alarm. It went off. I got up. Yay.

Stray Toasters

• LEGO Eggo waffles.
• WizKids has posted the new Batgirl figure on the Arkham Asylum page, but there’s nothing about it in their news headlines.



• In a rather geeky moment, I realized that 2’x3′ Heroclix maps will fit under the glass top of my living room table.
• 10 IT Power-Saving Myths Debunked
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Monkey waiters at restaurant
• Farewell, Opus; Hello, Pete, the Perfectly Practical Pig

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of joy comes from an IRC conversation:

(08:54:52) Ahpuc: When you are sitting on an airplane next to someone who is too chatty, what’s your favorite way to end the conversation?
(09:21:36) : Headphones.
(09:21:55) Xeen: falcon punch
(09:22:37) : Or open up manuals on taxidermy… and tell them you’re looking for test subjects.
(09:25:53) *** scratches their head and goes “hmmm!”.
(09:49:27) Ahpuc: A friend of mine was near a chatty 65-70 year odl woman, she was going around to everyone near here, asking what they did, etc…Like meet-me-get-to-know-me day on the damned airplane.
(09:49:55) Ahpuc: When she got to him and asked what he did he said he ran a porn site, and that they were looking for models for some of the sennior citizen porn.
(09:50:03) Ahpuc: She shut up for the whole flight at that point.
(09:50:10) : nice.
(09:50:34) : porn’s a good choice for that. It’s enough to shut people up, but not likely to get you thrown off the plane/mobbed like the other likely answers to those questions.
(09:50:37) : Win.
(09:52:50) Ahpuc: I was thinking of riffing off Fight Club: “Insurance Adjuster for the airlines. Do you know how many of these planes actually crash every year, due to poor maintenance? I mean, if it’s not near a big city, they just cover it up, it never sees the press…This airline in particular is notorious for painting over holes in the cabin. Hmm…Does it feel drafty in here to you?”
(09:54:38) : “No english. Arabic?” *fiddles with a box cutter*
(09:54:50) : CHOSEN WEAPON OF MY PEOPLE, BITCH.
(09:54:52) *** has more coffee.
(09:55:45) ***Ahpuc kicks off the airplane.
(09:56:11) : at 30,000 feet? that’s harsh.
(09:56:24) : That was my other thought – just reply only in Arabic.
(09:57:38) : or Esperanto.
(09:57:49) : or swedish chef?
(09:57:53) : klingon.
(09:58:06) : or KKKKKKKKHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!
(09:58:24) : You could just stare at her. Really up close in her face. Wide eyes. don’t say anything.
(09:58:34) : only reply with direct quotes from Airplane!. “looks like i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.”
(09:58:49) Ahpuc: Or reply only with Biblical quotations, carefully chosen for effect.
(09:59:13) : naa. just quote ricardo montalban at ’em.
(09:59:48) Ahpuc: Matthew 10:34 – Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Namaste.

Sunday – 05 Oct 2008
Yesterday morning, I slept in… a little. Until about 8:30. I woke up when SaraRules got ready to head to her quilting club. I needed to get up then because I needed to get a team or two together for a ‘Clix tournament. I came up with a couple of ideas… none of which I wound up using. Instead I went with:

• Batman
• Captain America
• Elektra (Skrull)
• Merlyn
• Psycho-Pirate and
• Susan Richards (Skrull)

It was a good team, but I wound up going 1-2. One guy (not Chris, who had to work yesterday) went 3-0; I think that there was one 2-1 and three of us went 1-2. I liked the overall balance of the team and wound up loosing both matches on points. I also reaffirmed that I am not fond of the prison map – I am getting better need to play on it, but I need more practice with it.

I got home to find that my Kilowog figure had arrived. If it had gotten there earlier, I might have tried an even different team. Who knows? The Shadow knows…

After lunch at Hopper’s, SaraRules and I headed to visit Perry and the kids; Kate was at work. Back home for a bit and then off to breakfast. We tried a new location this week and it was a nice change of pace.

Today started off slowly. I actually managed to sleep in until a little after 9:00. Then it was time for breakfast and coffee… and EPSN’s football pregame show. And then… football. It was a good (2 for 3) day:

• The Ravens lost to the (then) 4-0 Titans.
• The Dolphins won over Sandy Eggo… and looked good doing it, too!
• The Panthers beat the KC Chiefs.

Tonight, after dinner, we’re heading over to Chris and Mary’s for horror movie night.

Stray Toasters

• Who would win: An Imperial Star Destroyer or the USS Enterprise?
• The OS that wouldn’t die: Windows XP Gets Another Six Months to Live
• Huh. I guess that’s it for the ‘Toasters.

Namaste.

Thursday – 02 October 2008
Last night, SaraRules came over and we watched Some Like It Hot before Project Runway. I’d never seen Some Like It Hot before; it was fun. It’s “a bit” dated, but it was a great rollicking way to spend a couple of hours. Checking out the credits, Grace Lee Whitney was in the movie. Fans of obscure trivia will recognize her as Yeoman Janice Rand from Star Trek: TOS.

And, speaking of obscure Star Trek-related trivia, today is Avery Brooks‘ birthday.

After the movie, it was time for the new Project Runway. It was funny – they are down to the final four designers and the moods and bitchiness were amped up. Well, that’s not entirely true: Korto, Leanne and Jerell were fine… towards each other; towards Kenley, however, they were a bit cool and removed. Kenley was… Kenley, as ever. The final designs were mixed – for the most part, there was a lot of good effort that went into them, but some of the execution was off across the board. And there was a surprise ending that neither SaraRules nor I saw coming.

Today: Sushi.
Tonight: VP debate. (It should be interesting, to say the least.)

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to mention this yesterday, but it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As such, Random Access will be going “Pink for October” again this year… as soon as I remember to change the template.
• I had a good eBay experience yesterday: I purchased a Kilowog ‘Clix in a “Buy It Now” auction. Within a couple of hours, I received an email thanking me for my purchase and stating when the figure would ship. I need to remember to do things like that when I sell things on eBay.
• By way of SaraRules: Manolo for the Men
• Rolling Stone presents 11 myths about Sarah Palin
• Hungry Scientist: nerdy cookbook for kitchen hackers
• From the combined “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” and “That’s Ingenious” files: Bank Robber Uses CraigsList to Hire Unsuspecting Accomplices
• By way of Derek: Amazing Stop-Motion Public Wall Painting

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 Sep 2008
This morning started out with SaraRules and me picking up her brother and heading up to Park City. We went to Cisero’s for brunch. Mmm, brunch… As usual, the food was quite good. After eating, we headed down to the Tanger Outlet to do a little shopping – Logan was looking for some inexpensive additions to his wardrobe for work. We were successful in that endeavor; SaraRules picked up a “fabulous, new purple coat.”

We headed back down Parley’s Canyon and made a side trip to the local Stein Mart. I showed Logan a few items that would also make good additions. He came out of there with a new shirt and tie. He seemed to like the store – and the prices; I think that he’ll be heading back there relatively soon.

Next, we went back to SaraRules’ parents’ for football. We’re also fixing jambalaya for dinner. (“We” meaning “I peeled the shrimp.”) Then, there will be more football, a little later.

Stray Toasters

• Eventually, I’ll stop going on about last week’s Project Runway. But today’s not that day. I mentioned how bad Kenley’s “Hip Hop”-themed outfit was. Now, you can check it out for yourself. And, as an added bonus: Check out Tim Gunn and Craig Ferguson talking about the episode, during Tim’s appearance on The Late Late Show. (Thanks, to SaraRules for the link to Project Rungay)
• By way of : IKEAhacker
• Brickarms Zombie Defense Weapons Pack Features Glowing Minifig Zombie Head
• 
• First Look and Full Details on the XM25, the Most Lethal Army Weapon Ever
• What the Hell happened!? WHO let the Browns win!?!
  (I just realized that I could have gone with “Who let the Dogs/Dog Pound out…”, but I’m glad that I didn’t.)
• The IKEA naming system

Namaste.

Saturday – 26 Sep 2008
Yesterday, after work, I went to Far West and played Matt in a friendly game of Heroclix. He won. My dice hated me, especially in the middle of the game. They proved this by missing any target number I needed by 1. Almost consistently. But, it was a fun game.

Post-game, I came home and watched part of the Presidential debate with SaraRules. I’m still curious about CNN’s real-time stat tracker, used to get the mood/opinion of Democratic, Independent and Republican voters. I’ll have to look up information on how it was gathered/tallied.

Clitorati was up next.  Coffee, dinner and the conversations were all good. I still need to finish the crossword puzzle I started, though.

This morning, “sleeping in” was over a little after 8:00 AM. I think that I’ve figured out “why” I’ve been getting up so early on the weekends: I have been pushing my weekday wake-up time forward (I’m close to 6:15 at the moment), so my body feels that 7:30 – 8:00 IS sleeping in. Oh, well. SaraRules fixed omelettes and hash browns for breakfast. They were a nice change of pace. Then we got ready for the day.

Today was “Company Party Day,” as both of our companies held their end-of-summer get-togethers today. SaraRules’ was up first; it was at Boondocks. We played mini-golf and arcade games (including Galaga and skeeball) and just hung out for a couple of hours. Next was my party; it was at Lone Peak Park. As this party is our “family-friendly” gathering, they had an inflatable balloon-house where the kids could jump around, a climbing wall, games and cotton candy. It was fun. SaraRules and I ate with Dwim and his wife. We talked about comics and politics and other assorted and sundry things.

We stopped in to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ family on the way back to my place.  They were watching Doom (not to be confused with Dhoom). “Somehow,” I’d managed to miss that movie when it was in theatrical release; seeing it with the family-unit, however, allowed for some prime MST3K-ing.

Wednesday – 24 Sep 2008
Some of my recent forays into The Dreaming have been odd. This morning, my subconscious apparently found a rather twisted path along the wildways in a dark area of The Dreaming… and skipped merrily along its way. Thus, I’ve been awake (for the most part) since 5:30 this morning, thanks to a lovely dream about my apartment being broken into. It was “a little” disturbing. After proving to myself that it was just a dream – but being too keyed up to sleep – I wound up sprawled on the couch watching SportsCenter. I apparently dialed down enough to nod off somewhere around 6:10. Just in time for the alarm to go off at 6:20. Yay.

Last night was very uneventful. I played my guitar for the first time in weeks. Adam called while I was cooking dinner – baked chicken over spaghetti, with a side of spinach; he had picked up The Invincible Iron Man animated movie that came out last year and had a couple of questions about it and how it related to the mainstream Iron Man. That led to questions about Watchmen – he’d seen the trailer and wanted to know if it was based on a comic. I told him that it was and that he should check it out. He then suggested the new Fox series, Fringe, to me. The show happened to be just starting as I finished cooking, so I watched it. It was good, but it may take a week or two to fully grow on me.

I also read two-and-a-half TPBs of Gotham Central (1, 2, 3). I had read the first and second ones before, but it has been a few months; I’d forgotten their storylines. I like what I’ve read of the third book, which I will probably finish tonight.

Stray Toasters

• Jeff came by – to ask if SaraRules had already gone by (she had) – and noticed a pile of hard drives near my desk. He asked what we were planning on doing with the dead ones. I told him that we were keeping them aside and preparing them for destruction/disposal. He said that if it involved thermite or shredding, he wanted to watch. That reminded me of a video of a BMW getting shredded. I contacted Oracle for information on the video, which was on YouTube. But, there was a link to the main shredding site, where I had originally seen the video – SSI: Watch It Shred!
• Blend-Tec: Will It Blend?
• By way of SaraRules and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: PETA Urges Ben & Jerry’s to Use Human Milk
• By way of : Former National Review Editor Endorses Obama
• I think that I need this t-shirt.
• SaraRules, Tyranist, and could probably use this t-shirt.
• What is the nature of an IT worker?
• For the gamers: World’s largest wargaming table art installation

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Sunday – 21 Sep 2008
Happy Birthday to

A few of us went to The Melting Pot last night to celebrate ‘s birthday. Many of us had never been there before, so it was an interesting – and fun – experience.

After dinner, SaraRules and I headed back to my place to watch The Orphanage. Good movie, but I was tired from having gotten up far too early, so we stopped the movie early so I could call it a night.

Today, nothing much on tap… and there may be a trip to the Garden of Sweden. We’ll see…

Namaste.

Thursday – 18 Sep 2008
Three down.
One in the chamber.
One to go.

Yesterday, after work, I went home and enjoyed a tasty dinner prepared by Ms. SaraRules – baked chicken with rice and a salad. Yes, I said “salad.” As in “food that food eats.” Move along. After dinner I stretched out on the couch… which lead to intermittent bouts of non-consciousness. I did the only appropriate thing to do in that situation: I took a nap. An apparently much-needed nap.

After the recharge, I played a City of Heroes, for the first time in a couple of weeks. I was invited to a group shortly after logging in – we had a nice balance of damage-dealers and a good healer, not to mention a non-tank Warshade who did a good job of tanking. I was a couple of bubbles from 29 when I started; by the time I finished, I was almost halfway to 30. Not bad for less than two hours’ worth of play time.

The alarm went off early again this morning. I opted to stay in bed for a little while longer, but I still managed to get here a few minutes after 7:00.

Stray Toasters

• I got to chat with for a while this morning. It was a fun way to kick off the morning.
• Giant Rocketeer Mosaic by Dave Ware (done in LEGO bricks, natch!)
  Check this site to get a better sense of the scale.
• The Omega Concern
• Pickens says Wal-Mart to study switch from diesel
• By way of come the following…
  • Goon City
  • Paging Leonidas to the Front Desk
    
• 
• : I don’t know if you’ve checked out HeroClix, but you might want to take a gander at this.
• How SEC rule exemptions led to Wall Street Collapse
• 
• Hitchhikers’ Guide series to ride again
• The mysterious Racer D…

He gets right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Friday – 12 Sep 2008
Last night, SaraRules came over and fixed dinner (fajitas!) and we watched The West Wing and 21. Nice, quiet evening in. After SaraRules left, I hopped on the nerd and surfed for a while. Then – in a stroke of genius – I decided to stretch out on the couch “for a few minutes.”

That turned into 3 hours.

I woke up and dragged myself to bed. That’s when the odd, 21-inspired dreams set in. Thugs, money and lots of running. Whoop-de-damn-doo.

So far, the work day hasn’t been too bad.
And, it’s Friday. A short Friday, to boot.
Win-Win.

Stray Toasters

• As 2008 Multicultural Week draws to a close, I am reminded of this post that sent me back in July.
• Folks were talking about WoW‘s Harvest Festival in a chat forum this morning; that reminded me that it’s almost time for the 2008 CoH Hallowe’en Event.
• Speaking of Hallowe’en: Dress up your PS3
• 
• The CrüxShadows 2008 US tour brings them to SLC on the 28th. Hm.
• Sunday’s Ravens game has been moved to Monday night, thanks to Hurricane Ike. I’m not sure if there will be coverage outside the Baltimore and Texas areas.
• Your Mama Don’t Dance and Your Daddy Don’t Rock and Roll
• Vintage Monkey Cartoons
  
• 
• LEGO Album Covers on Flickr

Soon: Hometime
Next: Lunch with SaraRules
Later: Errands… and maybe a pickup game of ‘Clix

Namaste.

Thursday – 04 September 2008
Wow. The day is better than half over and I’m just getting to this. It’s been a busy day, but that’s good because it has also been productive.

Last night, SaraRules and I had a date night. There are, indeed, definite perks to living in the same city. We had dinner (spaghetti, homemade sauce, garlic bread and a bottle of Pinot Noir) and decided to watch TV rather than a movie. We watched… three (I think) episodes of Project Runway, with an episode of The West Wing and an episode of Cold Case thrown in for me. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

Today, aside from being busy, was also sushi and comics (and a couple boxes of ‘Clix) day. Tonight, there will be packing for tomorrow’s camping trip… and maybe, just maybe, a little CoH before bed.

Stray Toasters

• For the third day in a row, I’ve been able to see SaraRules as she drives past the office on her way to work. This morning was a bit of a fluke, though: I got to the office and happened to be looking out the window and she drove by; I was fairly certain that I would have missed her by a few minutes and wasn’t expecting to catch her today. When I talked with her a little later, she asked me if this was becoming a new tradition; I told her that I didn’t know… but that if it did, it was one that I was beginning to like. What can I say? It makes for a fun – if odd – start to the day.
• Tonight is the beginning of the 2008 NFL season!
• As I’ve mentioned before, I have an… unusual… desktop wallpaper image. One that gets noticed. This week, it got attention from our COO, in fact. The image is a Photoshop-manipulated version of the cover from Incognegro, which is discussed in this article from BoingBoing.
• By way of ThinkGeek: The Encyclopedia Shatnerica
• Abandoned Space Technology
• had an interesting item in a recent post: Apples to Apples – a look at the current presidential/vice presidential tickets compared to tickets of the past 30 or so years.
  
• Star Wars + LEGO + Olympics = Imperial Sportstroopers Invade Beijing Olympics
• Elderly Superheroes Never Looked So Good!
• 
• Linux Motivational Posters
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” files:
  • Elephant cured of drug addiction
  • Girls warned playing didgeridoo could cause infertility
• Dad builds dream tree house
• Evolution of the AT-AT

Bonus Points to anyone who knows – without looking it up – the relevance of today’s title AND what it’s from.

Namaste.

Sunday – 31 August 2008: Coda
Saturday marked one year that SaraRules and I have been dating.

We kicked off the day by sleeping in. It might sound mundane, but it was a great way to kick off a long weekend. After we got up and decided what we wanted for breakfast we were up, out and on our way! We had breakfast at The Other Place.

We left there and headed up to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to take in the Monet to Picasso exhibit. It was a great exhibit. There were over 70 pieces, paintings and sculptures. And you could get very close to most of the pieces – within 9 – 12 inches, in some cases. Looking at these works this close was a great treat. I believe that we are planning on revisiting this exhibit before it leaves UMFA; I highly recommend seeing it, if you get a chance.

After a couple of errands, we headed to the store to pick up a few things for the barbecue that was throwing. In fact, we ran into her at the store on the way there. Surreal. (And, yes, Ms. , I do know what the word means.) The barbecue itself was fun… and wound up turning into a poker game a little while into it.

We left a bit early and came home to watch Stardust… which we both wound up being too tired to finish last night. Seriously, with about twenty to thirty minutes left in the movie, we were both nodding off. We managed to watch the last bit of it this afternoon, though.

Sunday proved another fairly lazy day. SaraRules fixed breakfast and we lazed about for a bit. When we decided to venture forth, we did so with gusto. Our first stop: The embassy of “…a land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size.” That’s right, the Garden of Sweden, itself – IKEA. We didn’t go with much/anything in particular in mind, but wound up finding a few things of use.

Next, a quick trip to Kohl’s. I have been looking for a decent pair of olive slacks for a few weeks; I figured that since I was near the store – and it was a holiday weekend (read: “Sale”) – I might have a bit of luck. And I was correct.

Back up the valley to hang out with SaraRules’ parents for a bit before heading back to the apartment. Tonight, we watched Clear and Present Danger. I still prefer Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan to Adam Baldwin’s; I never saw Ben Affleck’s take on the character, though. Aside from a few anachronistic items (the types of cell phones and computers), this movie could have taken place in any modern time.

Tomorrow… don’t know what’s on tap yet. And that’s fine with me.

Thursday – 28 August 2008
Three down, one in the chamber… and I’m taking tomorrow off.

Last night, I headed up to SaraRules’ parents’ house for dinner. Ms. SaraRules cooked a pasta in carrot sauce dish that was very tasty.

After dinner, she and I headed back to my place to hang out. We started off watching coverage of the Democratic National Convention… but we watched it on BBC America. I may start watching all such events on BBCA, at this rate. The coverage was good and they have some of the fastest display typists I have ever seen: There were a couple of occasions when Joe Biden was speaking and – seconds later – a quote from what he said would appear on the screen.

We were going to watch Project: Runway, but either Bravo and/or my cable box was/were being a steaming pile of something left in Grace’s diaper. Instead, we wound up chatting the night away.

After SaraRules left, I toyed with the notion of playing City of Heroes, but seemed to be more in the mood to play City of Sleepy People… so I went to bed.

Tonight, I’m not sure what’s on the agenda. But, as it’s my “Friday,” I’m pretty sure that there will be some manner of gaming involved.

Stray Toasters

• From MTV.com: Should Superman Go Dark?
• Henchman T-Shirts



• Make-believe police in UK have power to issue on-the-spot fines
• Meetings. Blah. Because of meetings, I’m going to miss out on sushi today.
• Love and Rockets: New Stories, Vol. 1
• ::: jawdrop :::

More later.

Namaste.

I just got back from lunch with SaraRules; we went to Dask’s.

Just before leaving for lunch, I noticed that my last four or five Random Access posts did not get crossposted to LJ. Curious. I’m fairly certain that it was due to some changes in the Live+Press plugin; at least, that’s what I’m attributing it to.

The errant posts have been crossposted.
All seems right with the world again.

Selah.

23 August 2008
And the whirlwind is over, it seems.

is in Las Vegas.
SaraRules is back in SLC.
He and she are in the house
But there’s only me at home.

After I wrapped up the workday on Thursday, and I hit the road for Cedar City. SaraRules preceded us by a few hours, as she had to do her Capstone defense (which, I heard from the other MFAs, was amazing). Once we got in and took our things to the hotel, and I headed to Applebee’s to get a bite to eat; SaraRules was supposed to bring Lish with her… but he punked on us. The three of us sat and talked and hung out for a while.

Friday morning, SaraRules got up and did her “exit interviews” with the Dean and other faculty members. I slept in. Apparently, wasn’t able to sleep in. After I woke up and got ready, he and I headed to Cafe Orleans for lunch: I had the Shrimp Etouffe, he had a Shrimp PoBoy.

After polishing off lunch, I took up to Cedar Breaks. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one for whom the phrase “sphincter pucker factor” comes into play when driving/riding on high-altitude roads without guardrails. We made the journey up to Cedar Breaks and took a few pictures at a couple of the overlooks. (To be posted later) I also took him along the Alpine Pond Trail that SaraRules and I hiked last year. He seemed to enjoy it. Once we got back into town, we met SaraRules at the local Dairy Queen. We needed our ice cream fixes. We also took in a bit of people-watching. Chalk it up as an afternoon full of “Win.”

After a little down time, SaraRules and I headed over to SUU to meet the other MFAs for dinner and a show. Dinner was at Costa Vida; the show was Fiddler on the Roof, which I had never seen… although I know three or four songs from the production. Go figure. I enjoyed it and thought it was a fun production. The pre-play plan was that Lish and Steve would come back to the hotel with us and have drinks. The reality was that everyone decided that they were pretty tired – and the MFAs were going on a hike this morning – so drinks fell by the wayside. Again. Oh, well.

This morning, the alarm went off far too early. 6:00 AM. I managed to hang in bed until almost 6:30, though. SaraRules and I got up, ready and were on our way. I headed over to the grad house, to say goodbye to Lish and the others before I headed north. I was pleased – and a bit shocked – to note that gas was cheaper in Cedar City than in Salt Lake City. I made decent time back to SLC. I came home to find that there had been a power outage in my absence. This was a “good thing,” as I realized Thursday evening that I had neglected to turn off my alarm clock. Whoops.

I shaved (including adding a new cut that required a Marcellus Wallace-like bandage) and headed out to meet and her teammate, JillDozer, for breakfast. I managed to catch , , and OnlyAly and invite them along, as well. We met a couple other skaters, only one of whose names (Movin Violation, from Salt City Derby Girls) remains with me.

When we broke from breakfast, I headed to Far West Comics. Today was their first anniversary and they had Lou Ferrigno there as a special guest. I told Matt and Nano that I’d be available to help out, if they needed an extra body around; I wound up manning the cash register. There were a LOT of people there; I’d say somewhere between 200 and 300 showed up, including ‘ sister and her family. Mr. Ferrigno seemed to be a nice enough guy. He took pictures with the patrons and signed autographs. Three hours later, he packed up and was on his way… to wherever it is that Lou Ferrigno goes. But, before he left, we (the guys working the event) were able to get a few pictures with him, too. (Also to be posted later)

Home.
Shower.
Back out again – I had to put a couple of eBay items in the mail.

Back home.
And, in a few minutes, I’m heading out again: SaraRules and I are meeting and some of the skaters for dinner.

*whew*

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 August 2008
The end of the work week is nigh. Selah.

arrived last night around 5:30 PM. He came in and gave us (SaraRules and me) a quick recap of his trip, thus far. Then, it was time for food! The three of us and went to Poplar Street Pub for dinner.

Post-dinner, SaraRules, and I headed home. He and I watched some of the Olympics, while SaraRules worked on her Capstone presentation. I watched Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win their second consecutive gold medal in Women’s Beach Volleyball against Tian Jia and Wang Jie. In the rain. In two sets. It was an amazing match to watch. Next, we watched South Park. I haven’t watched the show in… at least five years. It was amusing, but I’m not sure that I feel compelled to tune in next week.

This morning, the alarm went off at its appointed time… but I wasn’t ready to let go of the pillow. So, I didn’t. I waited until about 7:20 before either SaraRules and I were ready to greet the day. We got ready, while slept in. She got on her way to Cedar City; I headed to work. As today is my “Friday,” and I are heading to southern Utah to hang out with SaraRules and the other MFAs for a couple of days.

And on to more server surveys!