Random Access

Friday – 27 May 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off… and it’s the start of a four-day weekend. I’m good with that. I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime this weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! and I hit the local Noodles & Company for dinner, ran a few errands and then came home for a quiet evening in. I fired up the 360 and tried my hand at the CoD: Black Ops mission that’s been kicking my ass for the past little while. I finally had to look up some hints online. Same result, but I think I finally figured out what I need to do differently. (Aside from the general “not get killed” concept.)

This morning, I slept in… until 8:15. Hey, it’s later than my normal mornings, so it counts as “sleeping in.” After seeing SaraRules! off to work – and puttering around the house for a bit – I dragged my sorry carcass out of the house and into the gym for the first time in [REDACTED]! I have witnesses to prove it — I ran into ‘s dad and former coworker/current co-gamer Josh. Today’s workout consisted of:

• Elliptical: 20 mintues/Level 3/Random, pacing between 5.0 and 5.5 MPH
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 135 lbs.  (Gotta start somewhere…)
• Curls (dumbbell, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 20 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with Flys): 2 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/8 reps, 30 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/8 reps, 100 lbs

Not too bad for the first workout in a while. It’s my One Little Victory of the morning.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! found – and sent – a link to an alternate version of Starfish and Coffee. I like it.
• Union Pacific’s Great Excursion Adventure is under way!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Tiki Barber under fire for outrageous Anne Frank comparison
• 
• 2011 Twilight Concert Series Announced
• I caught this item, Christopher Meloni responds to my SVU comic, by way of Comics Alliance yesterday. What cracked me up was the following:
  

  I got the email at work, and as soon as I read it, I said “HOLY SHIT” pretty loudly (and I then had to explain the whole thing to my boss, because you don’t get to say something like that and then say, “Oh, nothing”). First, I was excited because Christopher Meloni is totally rad (if you somehow have not seen Wet Hot American Summer, what is wrong with you?). Second, I was even more excited that Ice T had seen my comic and apparently liked it; I had assumed that if he ever saw my comic, he’d tell me to eat a hot bowl of dicks. (Thanks, Ice T, for not telling me to do that! Because I would have done it, out of respect. Respect and fear.)

  What made it curious was that the “…eat a hot bowl of dicks” part had a link attached to it. That bore investigation. The link led to was: Ice-T to Aimee Mann: ‘Eat a Hot Bowl of Dicks’, which was apparently the Twitter equivalent of a drive-by. And the account was hilarious. It almost made me want to sign up for a Twitter account. Almost.

• 
• Shore Things: 12 Essentials for Every Man’s Beach Bag
• Passenger coached to fly plane after pilot incapacitated
• When Children’s Scribbles Hide a Prison Drug
• 
• Study Questions Treatment Used in Heart Disease
• Mahna Mahna…
  (do-DO-do-do-do)

Time to find some lunch and get on with the day.

Thursday – 26 May 2011
It’s my “Technical Friday.” And, since we’re going into Memorial Day weekend, that means that this is a four-day weekend. Win.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went to Rodizio Grill for dinner. At least one of us (*raises hand*) decided to indulge in one of the Seven Deadly Sins. When we left, I was quite full. When we got home, I read the day’s four-color haul before calling it a night. (And I was still very full from dinner.)

Stray Toasters

• Roger Goodell: Time coming soon to cancel first NFL game due to lockout
• Studying the Frequency of Redaction Failures in PACER
• I should play DCUO or City tonight…
• 
• NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016
• Less Active at Work, Americans Have Packed on Pounds
• Egyptian pyramids found by infrared satellite images
• Sony expects to spend at least $171 million over breach
  • If I ran the zoo…
• Operation Seduction
• 
• Boeing considers replacing the best-selling 737
• Lawsuit claims Cisco bears blame for Falun Gong abuse
• John Edwards to Face Criminal Charges

Namaste.

Friday – 20 May 2011
It’s my working Friday. We’ll see just how much monkeydom there is to deal with today. Hopefully, it won’t be too much.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went out for dinner at Pawit’s Royale Thai. As usual, the food was delicious. Pawit came out and chatted with us for a few. After that – and a quick trip to say “Hi” to the in-laws – we headed to one of the local Home Depot stores to look at bathtubs. That’s right, we’re about to kick “Project: Renovate” into gear.

Tonight, I get to hang out with a friend of mine from home whom I haven’t seen in roughly ten years.

Stray Toasters

• After talking about the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, Corey sent me this link about Odyssey Marine Exploration: A Bountiful Undersea Find, Sure to Invite Debate
• Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending
• Gas prices could plummet for summer driving
• 
• The Real and Fascinating Origin of the Bikini
• America’s First Monorail
  • 1943 color photo of a Topeka, Kansas train yard
• Implant Allows Paralyzed Man to Move
• I’m getting tired of all of the “event” comics series coming out.  When it was one every few years, that was fine. You had an event and it meant something. Now, it’s just “Hey! You!  Buy this mini-series… and while you’re at it, buy all of these tie-ins!” Blah.
• Deal Reached on Extension of Patriot Act
• 
• Playboy puts all 57 years of its magazines online
  But, you’ll probably just click on it for the articles…
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yes, a Cat-Food Brand Has Created Three iPad Games for Cats
• I think that I’m going to try and fix my 360’s RRoD.  God help us both.

Namaste.

Thursday – 19 May 2011
It’s another grey and rainy day here. I’m beginning to wonder if someone switched Seattle and Salt Lake City’s locations in the middle of the night.

Yesterday was not only new comics day, but also D&D 4.0 game night. We broke in a “new” venue: Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection, as we had become… disenchanted, shall we say… with Hastur Hobbies. It was a good change of pace — we could actually hear each other and the store wasn’t all asses-and-elbows. Thanks again to Dave and Jeremiah for letting us use the store to geek out.

Long Train Running
As I’ve been working on my home layout, thoughts of running multiple trains has been part of the nominal planning process. One of the ideas I’ve had included a three-level design, with a subway, a main/freight line and an el/commuter line. This put me right on… umm, track… for that, although I may no longer do a three-level design, with the current layout.

As I’ve noted before, my mother got me the MTH Bantam J Steam Freight Set for Christmas. For my birthday last year, my father got me a copy of The Illustrated Dictionary of Trains of the World. Inside was a note:

Rob,
The Powhatan Arrow (1, 2) came through Keystone, WV (and stopped at Northfork) en route from Norfolk, VA to Cincinnati during my childhood.

When you and I traveled from Baltimore to Bluefield, train (passenger) service had been curtailed greatly…

While I wanted a passenger train line, I didn’t really have much in mind as to which road name I wanted. The Bantam J was the engine that pulled the ‘Arrow. That started wheels turning in my head. I started looking at Norfolk & Western passenger cars.

Earlier this week, I received my first passenger cars in the mail, three cars from Lionel (#16062, #16063, and #16064). These were good. I put them on the rails and ran them. And, I was pleased.

Yesterday I received another package… another package with train cars. They were three of the four cars from MTH-67418. And these were even better. The detailing on the cars – especially since these were “just” from MTH’s Rail-King (their lower price point) line – was fantastic.

And, of course, I took pictures of the new cars on the layout.

There’s something fun – and somewhat special to me – about having a train on my layout that’s representative of something that my parents would have seen in their youth.

Stray Toasters

• How to Choose a Tie
• By way of SaraRules!: The Cosby Sweater Project
• An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant
• 
• Starbucks is/are everywhere.
  Lady Gaga seems to be everywhere.
  So, this sounds pretty much like a match made in Heaven.
• Raiders allow employees to sell season tickets in lieu of furlough
• Corey and I just (re-)introduced a couple of coworkers to two songs that were (for some reason) hits in the 70s:
  • Escape, by Rupert Holmes and
  • The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot… which I contend is one of the – if not THE – most depressing song ever.
• In Florida, the Natives Are Restless
• Olive Garden lasagna!
• New tax deal may speed Cottonwood Mall revival

Namaste.

Monday – 16 May 2011
A new week begins.  My week, however, will begin a little later than some others’, as I started the day with a trip to the doctor’s office. It was another appointment to make sure that Babies A & B are progressing as they should. (They are.)

This weekend was a good one:  Saturday, I stopped in at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection to say “Hi” to Valerie Finnigan. She was there for a book signing and to promote her horror book, which is due this fall. After that, I traipsed up to Clearfield. (Hey… I had air and opportunity.) I picked up a few track pieces. I also stopped at The Train Shoppe when I got back to SLC, but left empty-handed.

Back home to clean up and get presentable for Utah Opera’s opening of Falstaff (1, 2), adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The cast and crew of the production put on a delightful show. Although it’s a comedic opera, it didn’t suffer from being “too” over-the-top; director Christopher Mattaliano did an excellent job of balancing the opera’s humor with just the right amounts of (semi-)seriousness. It was quite a fun way to spend the evening.

Sunday, SaraRules!, Angy, and I went up to Millcreek Eggworks and Cafe for brunch. Mmm, coffee cake…  After a very satisfying meal, came back and helped me get the sprinklers online. (No busted sprinkler heads! Hoo-AH!) Later in the afternoon, SaraRules! and I made a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. We didn’t buy anything, but we did come out with a couple of ideas. In the evening, we headed up to John’s (one of UO’s resident artists) for a birthday cookout. That was a LOT of fun. And we capped the evening with a visit to the in-laws… for yet more dessert!

Stray Toasters

• Space Shuttle Endeavour Is Readied, Once Again, for Its Final Launching
  • Farewell, my space shuttle
• An Explorer of Black History’s Uncharted Terrain
  • Entry from January 2010 I wrote about seeing Freedom Riders
• 14 Ways to Make Yourself Better Right Now
• 
• Rhode Island’s Medicaid Experiment Becomes a Talking Point for Budget Cutters
  • The real reasons why our health care costs are so high
  • Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law
• I finally remembered to get some pictures and video of the new train layout.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car up for auction
• Renaissance at Salt Lake Art Center
• The 43 best obnoxious responses to misspellings on Facebook
• Welcome back, Sony Online Entertainment and Playstation Network.
  • 
• I discovered something while reading a blog entry from . I didn’t realize that William Marshall (1, 2) the actor who played Dr. Richard Daystrom on the Star Trek: TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer,” also played Blacula in two movies AND was the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse.  For some reason, I just never connected the dots.
• Foods With Benefits, or So They Say
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Australian dies after ‘planking’ on balcony, police say
• War Machines (with Gymnasts)

Namaste.

Thursday – 12 May 2011
It’s NBN Technical Friday again. Amen.

Today is also marks two years since my friend, Jessica Porter, passed away from pulmonary hypertension. In some regards, it seems like it’s been shorter than that; other days, it seems like it’s been forever since we’ve talked. I miss her being around. She was a fantastic friend and an all-around great person.

Last night, SaraRules! came home from Boston. Hallelujah! She said that it was a good – though busy – trip. As a souvenir, she brought me a new pint glass from the Samuel Adams Brewery… where she took the tour yesterday morning. (Yeah, I was a little jealous of that.)

Today has been busy. Busier than expected. An employee from another division come in – for the second time in two days – to deal with a problem on his laptop. We got his problem sorted out. Then there was a meeting… that I had spaced off… on top of my usual Thursday meeting, plus the meeting that I had to schedule. Did I mention that I’m glad I’m off tomorrow?

Stray Toasters

• I’m blaming/crediting Will Smith for my fashion choice this morning. As I was preparing to get into the shower, this song started running through my head:

  As a result, today’s attire is:

  Black suit, the black shades, the black shoes
  Black tie with the black attitude

  Yeah, I know that’s from Nod Ya Head (Black Suits Comin’), but it still applies.

• At 100, Still a Teacher, and Quite a Character
• ‘Better Book Titles’: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Existing Cover
• Esquire Style Presents: The American Revolution
• Squeezed Cities Ask Nonprofits for More Money
• Marvel Unveils ‘I Am Captain America’ Variant Covers

  
  Click link above to see other covers.

• The New Hip-Hop Royalty
• Utah Opera’s production of Falstaff opens on Saturday. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend – or through next week – consider seeing it.
• Fan-made Fables poster art
• Cars So Stunning, They’re in a Museum
• 
• Revised Spider-Man Musical More Heroic, Less Nightmarish
• In a Green Town, Activists See Red Over Lockheed Martin
• Software piracy hits record high of $59 billion

Namaste.

Tuesday – 10 May 2011
Another grey day in the valley. The forecast says we have a 60% chance of rain. With as much rain as we’ve had lately, it’s hard to remember that we live on a high desert plain… where the streets have no name.  (No, the song wasn’t written about Salt Lake City, but it was a reference that I couldn’t pass up. And, besides, it has a fun video…)

Today is also my friend, Justin’s, birthday:

Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from my mother-in-law, inviting me over for homemade banana rum cake. Not being completely foolish, I told her that I’d be there. After work, I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso and chatted with Jim on the way home. I remembered that I needed to pick up a few track pieces for the new layout idea, so I jetted up to West Valley Hobbies before heading to the in-laws’.  When I got there, my MIL asked if I had eaten dinner – I hadn’t – so she fed me, as well: She’d made an amazing chicken curry dish whose exact name eludes me. After I’d finished, we – MIL, FIL and lj user=”djviking” – had cake and chatted the rest of the evening away. As if feeding me and giving me dessert wasn’t enough, I was even sent home with leftovers for lunch. Win! (In case I haven’t said it before/recently: I totally hit the jackpot in the In-Laws Lottery.

When I finally made it home, I decided to mess around with my train layout. This came under the heading of “Good Idea/Bad Idea,” as it was slightly more of an undertaking that I had planned on. I was up until [REDACTED] working on it. Yes, I know… I’m going to have to tear the whole thing down (again) when we start framing the room, but I was in the mood for something different. The trackwork is almost finished and I need to figure out where buildings will go and in which areas I’ll be able to add the SuperStreets track.

It probably goes without saying, but I made this morning’s coffee extra-strong. Thank God.

Today is also a suit day. (Added bonus: It was clean and required no prep work.) Today’s option: Navy suit, white spread-collar shirt, pink-and-blue tie, pink pocket square, maroon loafers.

Stray Toasters

• Navy chaplains cleared to perform same-sex marriages
• A Brewery Is Recreating George Washington’s Personal Beer Recipe
• Flight Attendant Fashion Through the Years

  

  Hmm, that looks vaguely familiar.  I can’t remember where I’ve seen something like that before…

  

  Oh… right.

• Microsoft in Talks to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion
• For Journalists, a Call to Rethink Online Models
• More Familiar ‘Spider-Man’ Hopes to Bury the Dark
• Star Wars PSAs

  

• Amtrak, 15 states get Florida’s $2B in high-speed rail money
• The Town That Banned Pac-Man
• 30 Geeky Weddings
  I have actually been to Metropolis, IL and stood in front of that Superman statue (7th pic from the bottom)
• Exonerated Inmates Fight Lawyer’s Lobbying Fees

And…. that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 May 2011
It’s Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother, stepmother, sister, mother-in-law, grandmothers and a certain mother-to-be, as well as to all of the mothers whom I count among my family and friends…

…as well as to the fathers who have picked up and carried the torch when a mother wasn’t around.

Okay, okay… let’s be serious here…

Alright… don’t literally drop the kids. But, you get the idea.

Today is also my stepmother and younger brother’s shared birthday:

I met Chris and Alex yesterday afternoon for lunch. We were going to David’s Kitchen… but they were closed. We wound up going to La Puente, instead. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. After lunch, we headed up to Dr. Volt’s. I picked up some FCBD books – and the FCBD Green Lantern HeroClix figure – and hung out for a bit before kicking off last night’s tournament: a 1,000-point brawl. We had a good turnout (16 players) and a few new faces.

After the game, I came home and pondered what to do. I resolved the dilemma by fixing myself a bowl of ice cream and watching some DVR fare.

I’m not sure what I have on the agenda for today. If the weather holds, I might try to mow the lawn before it starts to rain.

Stray Toasters

• Word To Your Mother: The 1o Gushiest Mother’s Day Rap Songs
  • Hey, Mom, What’s Your Favorite Song?
• I should give some thought to the whole “breakfast/brunch” thing.
• Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain
• 
• New Board Game Coming Soon — Star Trek Expeditions
• Thanks (I think…) to for pointing me towards: What Not to Crochet
• Johnny Depp Can’t Watch 3D Movies
• The Joy of Seersucker
  • Spring 2011: Trends That Matter
• 
• The art of Dan Hipp
• A Tour of an Abandoned Amusement Park in America’s Heartland

Namaste.

Thursday – 05 May 2011
It’s not only a NBN Thursday, but it’s also Cinco de Mayo.

…and the “obscure Mexican battle” was the Battle of Puebla.

Last night saw something of an exercise in futility in trying to accomplish the very simple goal of finding something to eat. SaraRules! was going out for dinner with a couple of friends from the Justice League Junior League, so I was on my own for dinner. Ordinarily, this would have meant grabbing a burger before heading to play D&D… but was still under the weather, so our game was cancelled. Thus, my options for dinner opened up a bit…

…and thus began my dilemma.

I finally figured out – about 8:00 PM – that I wanted Greek food for dinner. This would be easy to fulfill as City Creek Grill was close by!

Or so I thought.

They closed at 8:00. *sigh*

Okay. Fine. No problem. Dask’s wasn’t too far away. So, off I went…

…only to find that they had closed at 8:00, as well.

*grblsnrkx*

Leaving Dask’s, I tried to figure out what I had a taste for.

• Burgers? No.
• Rumbi Grill? No, I’d had that for dinner Tuesday night.
• Outback…? Maybe, but I would have preferred having a dining companion.

I wound up going to Barbacoa. I had a steak burrito. It was a good call. I got back home and started to catch up on Fringe, when SaraRules! got back home. All-in-all, it was a good evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Jill Pantozzi, self-professed Geek Girl and blogger, wrote a good article about what it means to be a woman and to be a geek: I’m a Geek, Girl (& You Can Too!) In her article, she also extends her to comments to talk about peoples’ senses of identity, in general:

“…people, female or male, should be free to identify themselves however they like without being persecuted or looked down upon. Someone being proud of who they are or what they enjoy should be applauded.”

It’s a good read and one that I recommend to all.

Stray Toasters

• Mr. Lucas, the 4th is not to be trifled with
• Superman Actor Jackie Cooper Passes Away at Age 88
  • Jackie Cooper Dies at 88
• Mind-Controlled Artificial Arm Begins First Human Testing
• 
• Amazon cloud failure highlights customer responsibility
• The Limits of Nostalgia
• A Diamond in the Roughage
• With the movie opening tomorrow, I thought that this might be a (semi-)helpful primer on the God of Thunder: Comics, Everybody: The History of Thor Explained

  

• Last known World War I combatant dies at 110
• Sony breach prompts House data theft hearing
• Department of Justice asks NCAA why it does not have football playoff
• Intel Increases Transistor Speed by Building Upward

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 04 May 2011
It’s the middle of the week.
It’s also new comics day.
It’s also game night.

Today is also Star Wars Day.

I also found this picture…

…but it’s this one that actually echoed exactly what was going on in my head:

Last night was D&D night with and company. We…

1. Got into a fight.
2. Ran into a situation that we weren’t expecting (read: “A priest trying to bind a goddess to our plane”).
3. Played the D&D equivalent of Ghostbusters.
4. Survived the adventure.
5. All of the above.

Yeah, we were about as surprised as anyone. But, we lived to adventure on another day. And that was a good thing.

Stray Toasters

• Freedom Rides Turn 50
• I found the following on Facebook; I like the assertions that it presents: While You Are Entitled to Your Own Opinion, You Are Not Entitled to Your Own Facts
• Robots Now Catch Balls; World Domination Imminent
• Minnesota politician blasts Neil Gaiman as “pencil-necked little weasel”
• Thanks to MarknTyme for pointing me in the direction of the newest Green Lantern trailer:

• Happiness != Discovering that you have to completely redo a spreadsheet that you worked on two days ago because it did not save.
• Zoot Shooters Bring Gangster Style to the Gun Range
• From the “Add to The Covet List” file: “Young Justice” Arrives on DVD in July
• 
• Sony to restore PSN services, compensate customers

Yeah.  I think that’s good.

Namaste.

Friday – 29 April 2011
It’s my 9/80 Friday off.

It’s also 7:30 (well, it was when I started this…) in the morning. So, why am I up so early on my day off, especially if “early morning feedings” don’t start for another four or so months? (Sleep Can Wait. The Birds Are Angry) No… the real reason is: I took Logan and Swiz to the airport this morning; they’re winging their way to the California coast. I figured that I’m used to being up this early and I could easily deal with getting up and getting them to the airport. Ain’t nothin’ but a thang. Besides, I don’t have a whole lot on tap today, so if I need to catch a mid-afternoon nap… I can.

Last night, SaraRules! went to visit a friend whom she hadn’t seen in close to ten years. I got to stay home and be a bachelor for a few hours. This translated to: “Rob sitting on the couch, eating pizza and drinking Guinness, while watching the 2011 NFL Draft.” And it was good. Selah.

• Carolina Panthers select Cam Newton with No. 1 pick in NFL draft
• Ravens pick Jimmy Smith No. 27
• Welcome to Miami, Mike Pouncey

Good picks all the way around. And a good way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Congratulations to Prince William and Princess Catherine.
  And that pretty much concludes my royal wedding chat…

  …except to say that I caught a couple of minutes of George Michael on Piers Morgan Tonight while flipping channels last night. That was rather unexpected. 

  • I should see if Netflix has Royal Wedding — I’ve long admired the scene in which Fred Astaire dances on the walls and ceiling of his room, but never seen the movie. That scene was also… “somewhat replicated”… in the video for Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling.
• South Assesses the Toll After a Deadly Barrage of Tornadoes
  • Tornadoes kill over 200
  • The complicated science of tornadoes and climate
• Endeavour’s Launch on Target for 3:47 PM EDT
• For SaraRules! (and other fishers): States start to ban felt-soled waders
• 
• Whenever I read a comic from this story arc (start at this comic and keep going through April) in Real Life Comics, I always think, “This sounds almost exactly like something that Justin would do…” and it makes me laugh.
• A Family’s Legacy, Afro-Cuban Jazz
• It’s sad, really. I watched the new trailer for Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon… and I liked it. It looks like a movie that has my three of my top requirements for a Transformers movie:
  1. Giant Robots. Check.
  2. Shit blowing up. Check.
  3. Megan Fox. Check.
  4. Optimus Prime being the heroic leader – and kicking ass – even in the face of oppressive/overwhelming odds. Check.

  In fact, it looks like a movie that I might even want to see.  But… and this is a big “but” (and I cannot lie): I still feel burned by the last movie with the name “Transformers” and that had Michael Bay’s name attached to it. Feh.

• George Michael – Flawless

  What… did you seriously think that I’d make a reference to George Michael in this post and not throw in a video?  Really?! Have you met me!? Besides, what were you expecting?  Something like this?

• U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 1.8% Rate in Quarter
• 
• Most hackable Android phones
• Star Wars Funnies by Kevin Bolk
• What in the Nine Hells is this…?!

Monday – 25 April 2011
A new work week begins. Is it a “bad” thing that I’m happy that it’s my short week?

The weekend was a good one. I talked with most of the family unit yesterday, everyone is doing well.

After Mass yesterday, I went out for a bit and wound up at West Valley Hobbies. (Shocking, I know.) They didn’t really have anything that I couldn’t live without, so I left empty-handed. Since I was on that side of town, I headed up to Black Water Coffee Company (Pin-up Girl Espresso’s shop on the west side of the valley). I chatted with Jim for a few, while getting a mocha to go. Next stop: Toys ‘R’ Us. I saw a few things there that registered as minor blips on The Covet List, but still managed to leave without parting with any money.  I headed back home and hung out before we headed to dinner at the in-laws’.

Dinner was a small affair this week, just SaraRules!’ parents and the two of us. We had lamb, broccoli and rice pilaf. Everything was very good.  Post-dinner, we watched Defiance. It wasn’t quite the movie that I’d expected. It was, however, quite good. From the IMDb synopsis:

Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.

We all enjoyed it.

On the way home, SaraRules! and I noted that despite the fact that neither of us is Jewish that – between A Child of Our Time on Saturday and Defiance tonight – we had a fairly Pass0ver-related weekend.

Stray Toasters

• The Curious World of Zombie Science
• Beyond Imagination: a LEGO exhibit in Hong Kong
• Slutwalks Sweep the Nation
• Ravens safety Zbikowski improves to 4-0 after knockout
• 
• Thousands of devotees rush to pay homage to Sathya Sai
• Norio Ohga, former Sony president, dies at 81
  • Rest In Peace, Former Sony Chairman Norio Ohga
• 
• Pokemon’s Ten Most Disturbing Pokedex Entries
• One Size Fits No One: Seeking a Steady 4 or a 10
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Concierges confess hotel guests’ most memorable requests

And, with that… on to the day!

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 April 2011
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley. It’s partly sunny, but at least it’s not raining. For the time being, anyway…

Last night was Game Night 2, with and the gang. Actually, it was an abbreviated gang, as a couple of our group weren’t able to make it. But, we persevered and adventured on without them. And we lived to tell the tale.

Back at home, I joined SaraRules! in watching Real Salt Lake take on Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions League Final match. RSL looked a bit tired by the time I started watching (second half), but they held their own against… and the refs. I – along with a couple of the announcers – thought that the refs yellow carded a couple of plays that shouldn’t have drawn penalties AND they completely missed/ignored a red card offense against Monterrey. *shrug* RSL came out of the game with a 2-2 tie and the second leg of the match will be held at Rio Tinto Stadium next Wednesday.

Stray Toasters

• In a follow-up to yesterday’s post: Weird Al posts Lady Gaga parody song (incl. link to song)
  It turns out that her manager never forwarded the song/request to Lady Gaga in the first place.
• Mail Rail: London’s long lost underground postal railroad
• 
• For SaraRules!: Behold: The world’s most complicated Rube Goldberg machine
• In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers
• 2011 World’s Ugliest Couch Contest
• 
• I wonder of SaraRules! would let me build one of these…
• Despite threats, security not enough of priority at utilities
• FDA warns Delta over rodent droppings ‘too numerous to count’
• Burning Question: Is Wi-Fi Squatting Illegal?
• 
• The Man’s Guide to Marriage: A Timeline
• Stumbling Into Bad Behavior
• Utah attorney general says he will file antitrust lawsuit against BCS
• Engineering a real-life ‘Star Wars’ AT-AT

Namaste.

Tuesday – 19 April 2011
It’s a kind of grey-ish day. It’s currently not raining; it would be nice if that holds up for the rest of the day.

Last night was a very casual night around the house. SaraRules! and I had dinner in front of the TV. Our viewing choice for the night: Big Trouble in Little China, a movie that I had somehow managed to go twenty-five years without seeing. To her credit, SaraRules! warned me – before the movie started – that it was a “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale kind of film. She was right. (But, it was fun. Silly, but fun.) We also caught an episode of Top Gear.

Stray Toasters

• William Donald Schaefer, governor and mayor, dies
  • Remember Baltimore’s Champion, William Donald Schaefer

  

• Figure Out Where Your Tax Dollars Went
• Lucasfilm Animation’s New Building Is a Sandcrawler
• What Makes Music Expressive?
• BrikWars!
• 
• Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: UK gets Viagra-laced beer
• Adrianne Palicki, Chris Hemsworth and other superhero actors Simpson-ized
• Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?
• Here comes the sun (do-do-do-doooo)
  Here comes the sun
  And I say: It’s all right…
• How big an explosion could you realistically survive?
• 2nd teen survives leap from Golden Gate Bridge
• Malls Across America

Namaste.

Sunday – 16 April 2011
Today is Palm Sunday (1, 2).

And every time I think of that, my mind wanders off to Palm Sunday Downpour, by the band a friend of mine used to be in…

…which, apparently, one of his former bandmates has covered/released on his own. Huh. Go, Power of the Interwebs!

Yesterday was a good day. It was, to be certain, a long day, but it was a good one, all around:

The morning started with SaraRules! and me heading over to say “Goodbye” to Kate, Perry and the kids. They moved out of town this morning. I’ve known Kate for… close to ten years and I’ve known Perry for 8 or 9-ish; they’ve been very good friends. They’re going to be missed.

Next, we headed to Thanksgiving Point to check out:

“Eye-Candy Overload” was a wee bit of an exaggeration… but I think that was only because of how much the weather has flip-flopped from warm-to-cold-to-warmish over the past couple of weeks. Yes, there were tulips in bloom. But, upon our arrival, there weren’t as many as we would have expected. As the morning wore on – and as we neared the end of our excursion – more opened. This isn’t to say that we had a bad time, though. Far from it. We had a good walk and I got a lot of pictures around the gardens.

On the way home, we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch and at the local Kohl’s, so that I could look for a couple of pairs of slacks. Lunch was successful; the clothes shopping, not as successful.

I decided to venture northward. I stopped in at Almosta Junction in Clearfield, where – for the first time in all of my trips there – their layout was in operation! That, of course, meant that I was compelled to shoot video (15 MB, m4v file) of it. I left with a couple of books and an O-Scale BMW 6 Series car. Next, I headed up to The Wonderful World of Trains. There were plenty of things there that could easily wind up on The Covet List, but I managed to leave with just the first FasTrack book that Lionel put out.

Back home. It was almost time to start getting ready for the evening’s outing. Black suit (Nod Ya Head), white shirt, black tie (with grey squares and white dots), black shoes. I had the good fortune to accompany both SaraRules! and to dinner and the symphony. We ate at Settebello; I had the Margherita pizza (with sausage) and a couple of cappucinos. After dinner, we walked to Abravanel Hall to hear Utah Symphony perform

(click image to see the program for the evening)

We missed most of the Mozart – we were a bit late, due to how crowded Settebello was – but the rest of the concert was quite good. Despite having heard Also Sprach Zarasthustra and On the Beautiful Blue Danube numerous times before, it was quite another thing to hear them performed live; I should think that Maestro Fischer would be proud of how the symphony performed under Mr. Schwarz’ direction.

Before heading home, we stopped at Capo for gelato. It was a good way to end the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Inability to Detect Sarcasm, Lies May Be Early Sign of Dementia, UCSF Study Shows
• From Jill Pantozzi’s “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” blog: New York Times insults female readers, they write back
  • How to Pick a Local Comic Book Store
  • Block Quote: The Case for Comic Books
• Trebuchette – the snap-together, desktop trebuchet
  These guys are only a few dollars – and a few days – from having their project fully funded. Why not pitch in and help them meet their goal? (Besides… who wouldn’t love to have their own trebuchet?)
• Keep Your Thumbs Still When I’m Talking to You
• Appalachian History Boxed Up in Shuttered Museum
• Ouch. Talk about “poor product placement.”

  

• FBI shuts down poker sites in online gambling crackdown
• You vs. the TSA: How to Survive an Invasive Pat-down
• She keeps her ex’s pistol
  On the table beside her bed
  To scare the ghosts that come
  As the bourbon slips to the back of her head
• Eight Is Too Much for ‘Short Sleepers’
• ‘Sweet Valley’ Twins Are Back, and, Like Readers, Fully Adult

Time to start getting ready for Mass and the rest of the day…

Namaste.