Larry

Lucky or Unlucky? You Be The Judge

ajacs — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:25:19 GMT

I occasionally carpool with one of my coworkers; we meet at the park-n-ride lot at the junction of 476 and 76. We had probably gone two months without carpooling before this week, when we decided to carpool yesterday and today. This morning, I was on the exit ramp from 476 to Matsonford Road, 100 yards from the park-n-ride lot, when, while changing to the correct turn lane, I felt a pop from under my wheels. The steering very suddenly became very unresponsive, and a sort of grinding noise came from the front wheels. I was moving at maybe 2 mph, so I was not in danger, and my first thought was that I'd hit some debris in the road that I hadn't seen, and either had a flat tire or was dragging something (like a cone) in the wheel well. I put my blinkers on, got to the side, and hopped out. Nothing was visibly wrong with any of the tires. I got back in, restarted the car, and the noise and steering difficulty persisted, but keeping the car in a straight line was pretty easy, and very slowly, I managed to make it the rest of the way to the park-n-ride. My coworker arrived a few minutes later, and he drove us to work. I now have the annoyance of arranging for service on the car, and the currently unknown expense of fixing it, but no other problems.

So, am I unlucky to have to deal with whatever this is, or lucky that it didn't occur 1 minute earlier, when I was traveling at 65 mph? I'm currently going with a little of both.

Train Blogging

ajacs — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:11:15 GMT

Glynhogen and I are now en route back home with Kaia. We're on Amtrak's Silver Line, and while we may eventually regret the choice not to fly, we've been on the train about 4 hours now, and we don't regret it yet. After consulting with Wayman, we decided that a Roomette would be sufficient, though a Bedroom would be preferable. When we booked the tickets, the rate for a bedroom was more than twice as much as a roomette, so we stuck with the roomette.

This obviously represents the longest train trip Kaia has ever taken, but it is also my longest; my previous record was Toronto - Philly, which is generally scheduled for 10 hours but in my case took 14. Glynhogen's previous long was just Philly to Boston, so this is the first overnight trip for either of us, and we're thrilled to be sharing it with our daughter.

Also of note, Sprint's 3G internet does not exist for much of the space between Orlando and Jacksonville, though I guess that should come as no particular surprise.

3 generations in one house

ajacs — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:13:27 GMT

We got to bring Kaia home from the hospital yesterday, where "home" means "my parents' house". We'll be here for about two weeks while the interstate compact clears and we are allowed to travel with her across state lines. Bubbe and Zeide are also completely over the moon. My mother has called everyone she knows, or ever knew, to share the news that she's finally a grandmother.

We're all doing very well, and so far are managing to get enough sleep. Thanks to all of you for your support and well-wishes.

Introducing Kaia Arianna Powell Miller

ajacs — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:43:59 GMT

Born 3:25pm, August 19, 2009. 7lbs, 4 oz via Caesarian section. Birth mother and baby are doing fine. Glynhogen and I are completely over the moon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajacs/tags/baby/

More photos and possibly news to come. Thank you all for your well-wishes throughout this process.

Not Entirely Unanalagous

ajacs — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:41:39 GMT

Imaging being a child, perhaps 4 or 5, just old enough to really enjoy Christmas (or it's your first Christmas for some reason), and learning that Christmas Eve lasts, effectively for the entire month of December, but on rare occasions will spill over into January, and you'll be given 6 hours notice before Christmas Morning. How would you feel on December 1st? Today could be the day, but probably not. How about on the 15th? 20th?

Or, imagine that Disney World is going to open just for you, for 24 hours. Some time during a three-month period starting in June, but most likely within a few days of August 17th. And it could happen at any time, and the clock starts ticking right before you get your phone call. You obviously don't want to miss any of it, but it's not plausible to spend three months in Orlando waiting for it. So you pack a bag in advance. You talk to various Disney officials who can't tell you when it's going to happen, but maybe have a little more information than you do. You download airline timetables. How do you keep from going crazy, trying never to be more than 2 hours from getting on a plane?

Or, imagine that the second trimester of human gestation took an arbitrarily long time, but that the third trimester still takes about three months and you know when it starts. Some people are pregnant for not much more than about 6 months total, and other people, more like three years. How would you feel if you were pregnant for three years and were finally getting to the end of the third trimester?

Or, imagine the "Antici.......pation" line from Rocky Horror taking four days.

Finally, imagine being told that, in two days (on Monday), a magic pixie will probably just tell an elf the actual date (if The Big Moment hasn't already arrived, of course), and then the elf will tell you. Then, on Monday, being told that the elf only met with the pixie's assistant, the actual pixie won't be revealing the information until Wednesday. And then Thursday morning rolls around, and you're getting freaked that you haven't heard from the elf, and then you learn that the elf had her days mixed up, and the actual pixie appointment is not until Friday.

That, in a nutshell, has been my last few weeks.

Baseball Blasphemy

ajacs — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:49:36 GMT

So, I haven't been getting much done at work the last couple days, being slightly distracted. But is has given me some time to chat with some nearby cube dwellers, one of whom is a huge baseball fan who, having grown up around here, favors the Phillies, and the other of whom is a huge Yankees fan who pays a certain amount of attention to the rest of baseball, presumably because sometimes those teams play the Yankees, or at least they play teams that play the Yankees. We got to talking about what will happen when Pedro comes back from his rehab starts, given that Blanton has been throwing extremely well, Hamels is the presumptive "ace", Happ, rookie or not, has been fantastic, and Jamie has a lot of wins and is a fan favorite. Add to that Chan Ho Park's success in long relief, and Myers could be back by the postseason, the Phillies can be said to have too much pitching, which is perhaps the best problem a baseball team can have.

My unorthodox solution: Moyer and Martinez can split starts.

It doesn't look like Pedro is going to be able to throw more than about 5 innings, and Jamie is never good for more than six, so why not give them about 4 innings each (pinch the starter at his second at-bat or so) and put the other one in. Obviously, it'll mess with stats, but I think it could work. I'd also be curious to see if Blanton could be turned into a closer if Lidge continues to struggle.

Poor Charlie

ajacs — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:13:12 GMT

Charlie, our 6-year-old springer mix, has been making "I'm in pain" yipping noises for the past couple of days, generally when changing position - going from sitting to standing, for example - and at occasional other times as well. He's been hesitant on the stairs as well, and hasn't wanted to jump up on or off the bed, which is pretty unusual for him.

So,glynhogen took him to the vet this morning, and she didn't fine anything specifically wrong with him. Of course he didn't do any yipping at the vet, our stoic little boy, so they are running some tests, and we'll know more on Monday. She thinks it could be Lyme's, which is very treatable in dogs. Kiko has tested positive for Lyme's before but never exhibited any symptoms. Seems not unlikely; we live in a very tick-intensive area, and despite the tick prevention they are both on, we find a few attached or crawling brown ticks (not deer ticks, which we'd never find in a million years) on each dog periodically.

* PERSONAL LIVE JOURNAL OF LARRY **

ajacs — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:25:39 GMT

MARCH 2, 2009 - Discovered 'Doogie Houser, M.D.' was on hulu a few days ago. Almost let it control my life. I guess you don't have to be a genius to know that you have to limit how much 'Doogie Houser' you watch in one day if you want to get your work done.

Back in the Book We Go

ajacs — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:20:36 GMT

As most if not all of you know, glynhogen and I were matched with a birth mother over Thanksgiving. That match has now fallen through.

We were aware that a big risk of being matched with a birth mother so early in the pregnancy is that something could come up later in the pregnancy that is outside our profile key; many tests occur between month 3 and month 7, and one of them could reveal a problem that we are not comfortable with. Our birth mother's last three appointments have revealed two of those sorts of things, such that if she were coming to the adoption agency now, we would not be shown to her. We wish her the best, but we are unable to move forward with her.

Naptopping

ajacs — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:08:54 GMT

naptopping: Climbing into bed with one's laptop computer during the day or early evening with the intent to re-emerge later. Sleeping, blogging, and reading blogs are all acceptable while naptopping; talking and working are discouraged but permitted.

Two astounding Oscar snubs

ajacs — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:55:49 GMT

The Oscar nominees have been announced. Notably absent altogether is "Gran Torino", Clint Eastwood's latest. I don't know that it deserved a Best Picture nomination, this is a really good year, but it certainly deserved something. Eastwood's direction was spot on, and while his acting was in a large sense a caricature of himself, that was what the role called for.

The far less forgivable snub was for "Rachel Getting Married", which is hands down the best movie I've seen in a number of years. The only other movie on the Best Picture list this year that I've yet seen is "Slumdog Millionaire", which I also quite liked, but was simply inferior to "Rachel Getting Married". All the other films on this year's list are films I intend to see but haven't gotten around to yet, so it's possible that I'll like them all (or even one of them) more than I liked RGM, but I doubt it. It's not an easy movie to watch; the lead character is so clearly uncomfortable in her own skin, in her own home, her own family, that the discomfort infects and intoxicates the viewer. But never before have I so empathized with a character so unlike me.

We got Slow-Roll'd

ajacs — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:20:36 GMT

It's the new RickRoll'd. Promise someone a picture of something, then link them to this photo from Obama's "Slow Roll" through Claymont, DE.

Hogmanay 2009, and The Great Plague Thereof

ajacs — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:42:55 GMT

glynhogen always gets the week between Christmas and New Years at least sort-of off; she works for a company that a) manufactures things, and b) has many offices in Europe, so even though things are no longer actually manufactured at the location where she works (the world headquarters), they typically expect most people to spend vacation days and not come in. And this year, Christmas and New Years fell such that the vast majority of her office basically disappeared at about 4pm Tuesday the 23rd and wasn't coming back until Monday the 5th. This was true for a lot of people, in a lot of offices. That helped make this year's Hogmanay-related activity-sprawl positively massive. We had adfamiliares and jere7my staying with us, along with a friend of theirs who we'd not met before, but found delightful (and the dogs found everyone delightful, as they always do).

Waaay too much fun happened to go into it all, so I'm mostly going to talk about the dance itself. Glynhogen, as one of the two tea mavens, was obliged to get there early. I, as clean-up maven, was obliged to stay late. But as much as I want to kvetch on her behalf, that would not be fair to her, and as the clean-up did not go much more slowly than it did the last time I was clean-up person at hogmanay maybe 10 years ago, it would not do to complain now. And I at least got to dance as much as I wanted, which turned out to be about half the dances. I saw many people, and dances with lots of old friends and one or two new ones (I know, I know; as a local person I should seek out more first-time visitors to dance with). The music was fantastic on the quicktimes but a bit underwhelming on the strathspeys, especially Braes of Bredalbane, which was played so softly and, well, mushily, it took all the energy, all the pig-sticking, out of it. Glynhogen and our three houseguests all stayed until the end of the dance, and the housemates helped me clean up the non-tea related stuff (glynhogen did bug out after finsihing the clean up of tea, saving her perhaps half an hour of torment), for which I am extremely grateful. We got home around 5:30am and fell instantly to bed.

Next day, got up around 10:30 or something, managed to get to the after party by like 1pm. I played in the seisiun for a couple hours then took a break and mingled, got to meet J. and R.'s new baby Elaine, who was extremely cute and did not scream when I held her. Chatted with more out of town friends. Had a quiet dinner at a local Five Guys with houseguests plus Special Guest allecto , then the six of us came back to our place for an extremely uproarious Name Game, then went to bed.

Got up Friday around 10, as the houseguests were leaving, played some Wii games with allecto (who was not actually staying with us), then went to leepinleemur's house for more games. Met some charming people that I think I'd met once or twice before (at least some of them), played a game or two, started feeling like I was going to die. Was stuffed into car by glynhogen, vomited an alarming volume on the way home, and then even more when I got home. Was theoretically supposed to play Civ with folks on Saturday, emailed around that I was not going to make it. The rest of that night passed very unpleasantly, with a mild fever (I topped out about 100.5, but my usual is about 97.4 not 98.6), salmonella-like symptoms, fatigue and fitful sleep. I was too tired to read or do anything else useful other than take tiny sips of water (a losing battle), I couldn't sleep for more than about 2 hours at a time, and when I was awake, I would still be trapped in the fevered dreams for a while. This lasted more or less from 8pm Friday to noon Saturday, by which time I'd at least gotten enough sleep to stay awake for long stretches. I napped, and sipped water and diet sprite, for a few hours while glynhogen shopped for groceries and had lunch with allecto et al. My dad kindly called in some anti-nausea and anti-diarrhea drugs which glynhogen picked up on the way home. By that time, I'd stopped vomiting but the diarrhea was unabated, so I took that oneso that I could at least get some fluids and not be too badly dehydrated. They worked fantastically well, and from that point forward, I was able to keep liquids down. I sipped gatorade slowly for the rest of the day, even had some chicken broth and maybe saltines, and largely slept through the night Saturday night.

Sunday I woke up feeling a lot better, well enough to not take any more drugs and to attempt (successfully, it would happen) more saltines and gatorade, which all went fine. Glynhogen started making some fantastic chicken soup, and in the afternoon some kind souls had pity on me and kept me company for the Eagles game while I tried not to touch anything near them or breathe on them or whatnot. The Eagles obliged me with a win and I woke up Monday morning largely symptom-free.
Monday I began the slow process of digging out the work and messages that I'd allowed to pile up during the nebulous days leading to New Years and had been planning to at least triage on Friday after Leemur's house and/or Sunday before football. I think I'm mostly caught up now, so tomorrow I should be able to start on yesterday's work. ^_^

Obligatory Election Post

ajacs — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:16:35 GMT

I'm thrilled with the result. On the inside. On the outside, I'm so exhausted, I've barely even smiled about it.

Friday, after the parade, I hung out in center city with wayman for a couple hours calling and confirming volunteers who had signed up for shifts.

Sunday, glynhogen spent several shifts canvassing in Northwest Philly, while I was on the ABATE Toy Run, a very large motorcycle ride that starts on Columbus/Delaware Ave, and ends at CHOP, where tens of thousands of burly, tattooed, leathered bikers drop off big pink barbie toys for sick kids. I myself contributed a Darth Tater, and rode with about ten other scooterists whom I'd not met before in person. Fun was had by all. My personal estimate, based on a line of bikes four deep that was 1.5 miles long, is about 5,000 bikes, but I'm sure official estimates will be much higher. When I finished the ride, I headed over to 28th and Cecil B. Moore, where Glynhogen was canvassing, getting there at about 3:15. We grabbed a snack, visited wayman at a different nearby location, I handed out stickers to kids, and then we went home.

Monday I went down to the Newtown Square field office, which was in the basement of one of the most stunning homes I've ever seen. I did a lit-drop, which took several hours, then came back, fixed their wireless via the complex technical process of discovering that they'd written down the wireless password ambiguously and mis-entered it. Speaking of which, Apple Fanboys, why the fuck didn't the airport whatever tell these poor people that the password was incorrect? In this case, it didn't (to be clear, the laptop in question was apple, the router was not). It just told them that they were connected, good signal strength, but wouldn't connect to anything. After earning the nickname "the wizard" for this, I was upgraded to "genius" because Friday's experience taught me the basics of VoteBuilder.com, so I was able to run a report on the locally scheduled volunteers that nobody else seened to know how to do. I then made about 50 phone calls to people who'd gotten the wrong literature dropped at their door the previous day, apologizing and telling them that door-hangers with the correct polling place information should already have been delivered. This, I think, was the Election Kobayashi Maru: people who aren't pissed off about the bad drop don't need an apology, and people who are pissed off certainly don't want yet another damn phone call. Yet, you can't merely drop off a corrected one, right? You have to at least try to apologize, and point out to those who might not notice that in fact, they were different? Anyway, I finished my phone calls as Dinner and Glynhogen arrived nearly simultaneously. Other folks were dispatched to Glen Mills to go do something, but Glynhogen and I stayed behind to help parse incoming packets to prepare for Election Day. On our way home, we both wished we had started in Newtown Square previously, perhaps even forsaking Wayman altogether, because the Newtown Square office was a) much, much closer, and b) filled with people who were bright and enthusiastic, but also exhausted and not terribly well organized. And our workflow efficiency-foo came in handy.

We returned after work Tuesday evening, but things had gone pretty smoothly. Abu, one of the long-time local democratic movers, asked for some people to come up to Upper Darby to bring refreshment to some folks up there, so we piled into a car with one of the staffers and brought snacks to four polling places and then stayed to work till closing at one of them. In the meantime, we heard that the regional person, Iona, had asked for all hands to get to Chester; we thought about trying to get there, but in the end our staffer decided to stay where she was because Abu had been so great for the campaign and we were now at least a half hour from Chester. The entire rest of the Newtown Square field office had in fact gone to Chester, so it was believed to be covered. I never did find out what the issue in Chester was, and if I could have been more helpful there (Wayman? Any ideas?). We got back to Newtown Square at about 8:30, and rather than go down to Chester from there (our staffer was going to her host's house to go to sleep; AP had already called PA for Obama), we just went to eclectic_boy 's apartment to watch the returns. Got home at 12:30am, very soon fell asleep.

So I can't really take any credit for the victory, but I'd like to think that at least one of the center city volunteers I called on Friday maybe helped one voter get a ride to the polls who wouldn't have otherwise voted, and that thanks to the work we did on Monday night, some of the tuesday volunteers were able to reach just a few more houses than they otherwise would have, and maybe one extra person's mind was changed or one apathetic person was convinced to vote. So I may not be key to victory, but I did get to vote like three times.

A more detailed account to follow

ajacs — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:15:03 GMT

but for now, I'll just say that the parade was surprisingly fun for me (a person who hates crowds and doesn't particularly care about celebrity), and that the Rt 100 High Speed Line remains full of win. I got to Bryn Mawr at about 10:50, just missing a trolley that wasn't full. Several trolleys went by without stopping, but one of the advantages of Bryn Mawr is that some scheduled trolleys originate there. By 11:30 I was inbound. Also on the trolley were 4 college kids who had been waiting at the Bryn Mawr R5 for something like 2 hours before bailing and coming over to the trolley. Once at 69th street, the El was packed but moving well, as was the BSL (a situation that would apparently change later, but not for SEPTA-specific reasons). I was crammed into an El car filled with high school girls, a not completely unpleasant experience, as crammed El experiences go. It was the highest ratio of white people I've ever seen on the MFL, and the highest I ever expect to see again. If you need proof of white flight in philadelphia, ride the El and the regional rail on any normal day.

Oh, and SEPTA's problem is that nobody ever thinks they care about them. Part of this is just human nature; we only think about whether or not we're valued when we feel we are not, but part of it is just poor customer focus. I came to this conclusion today reading an email (upon my safe return home) from a friend whose typical commute is point-to-point in the opposite direction (as in, she starts at one station, and ends at a different station (but neither the origin nor the terminus of the line) that is further out than when she started. This morning, she felt some minor sympathy for the thousands of Phillies fans waiting at her station going inbound, but was mostly pissed off that her outbound service was disrupted, and while she herself was not inconvenienced more seriously than a delay, she was offended on behalf of those who were completely screwed as they were kicked off their outbound train early so that it could turn around early and head back towards center city. This was happening while reldnahkram was watching countless trains going by on the very same line. They had the opportunity to show how hard they try and how much the region benefits from having them around, and instead they showed several hundred thousand people who almost never ride SEPTA why they won't ever ride SEPTA again.

So I guess that was more detail than I intended, but it was all SEPTA; next time parade and post-parade fun.

A MUCH better Week

ajacs — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:55:31 GMT

Kiko's tail is doing pretty well, the Phillies won the World Series. What more could I ask for?

Friday:

On a whim, decided to find some kind of City Paper-like community calender online to see what kind of non-movie, non-dinner options for entertainment existed. Consulted gophila.com, and learned that the Colonial Plantation was offering "Ghost Tours" that night. This was absolutely perfect: very nearby, very cheap, and very different from what we usually do. Mostly, this was volunteers in colonial garb telling ghost stories, with the very occasion person jumping out at you and making noise. Definitely fun.

Saturday:

D&D in the afternoon, in which many kobolds were slaughtered, and kobold abortion and child-care was discussed (as sylvansafekeepe has already noted). I then tagged along with sylvansafekeepe and reldnahkram to Fox and Hound, where they were meeting some guys from the philly gamers group. It was of course loud and crowded, especially considering that there was a Penn State game scheduled simultaneously (though due to the weather delay, the PSU game finished before the world series game got started). I don't usually like crowds or noise, but the guys from the philly gamers had siezed a fantastic table that prevented me from getting mushed and jostled, which is what I usually don't like about crowds. The Penn State fans were divided into two main groups: The extremely hard-drinking frat boys wearing PSU jerseys and caps, and the "reformed alumni" who weren't quite as hard drinking, and it being saturday night, had dressed like they were ready for the clubs. I had a great time watching the game, screaming about bad calls, and of course watching all the people. Had a moment of minor crisis when I realized I was dressed the same way as many of the "reformed alumni" - striped button-up point collar shirt, untucked, dark jeans, and black shoes. However, I believe most of those guys had gel in their hair, so I retained some superiority.

Sunday:

Had brunch with glynhogen at Koffee Korner in Media. It was charming, relatively inexpensive, and had the best omelette ever. Rode the scooter through Media, up to the Tyler Arboretum, and through Ridley Creek State Park. Got home, watched the Eagles defeat the Falcons, then met Kathy G. and Elena at the Plymouth Meeting Mall, where Elena rode the carousel and we all then had dinner.

Monday:

Got a very respectable amount of work done despite having discovered "Okami" is out for the Wii. Watched the first 5.5 innings of Game 5 of the World Series.

Tuesday:

Met with the Executive Director of Open Arms Adoption, who told us how to move forward with them, and who let on that we were not the only couple they'd met with who were leaving Adoptions From The Heart. The meeting was followed by a seminar on transracial / transcultural adoption, which had the effect of making each of us feel better for different reasons. Or rather, we each latched on to different bits. One of the messages of the seminar was that the way people see our child, should our child turn out to be brown, will be different from the way people see us. There was a lot of discussion about the sort of "onion layers" of potential issues; will we treat race respectfully in our home? How about our families? What happens if Aunt Bitchface makes a rude or ignorant comment at Thanksgiving? And what about our neighborhood? Or at school? I feel pretty confident in my ability to deal with this stuff, or in any event, I feel no less insecure about it than I do about parenthood in general.

Wednesday:

took Kiko to the vet to check up on her tail. Vet gushed about how well she's doing. Took Kiko home and immediately turned around and headed to the dentist, where I got a completely good bill of health. Good teeth, good gums, no complaints, keep up the good work. And, thanks to Glynhogen, I didn't even have a co-pay. Watched the final three innings of the Phillies game, went briefly apeshit, then went to bed.

Someone explain this to me:

ajacs — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:01:41 GMT

(Warning, this is a football post)

During last night's Bucs / Hawks game, Ike Hilliard was hit so hard that he lost consciousness and fell limply to the turf. Hilliard had Totupu on his back when Hill hit him from the front. Here's what I don't understand:

(for however long it lasts, here's video):

This is obviously helmet to helmet. The above video is okay, but watching the countless replays during the broadcast, it was staggeringly obvious. Hill hit Hilliard's helmet so hard that Hilliards helmet hits Totupu's helmet, Newton's Cradle style, and Totupu also gets a concussion. Why didn't anyone mention that it was helmet-to-helmet? Isn't that still against the rules? Why was the only discussion (aside from "I hope everyone's okay") about whether or not the ball came loose before Hilliard was down? Wouldn't it be moot if you cause a fumble with a personal foul?

It turns out that Hilliard is okay, might even return next week, and of course the Bucs won, but I still feel like I must be missing something so painfully obvious that neither Al Michaels nor Chris Collinsworth felt the need to explain to me why the helmet-to-helmet hit from Hill was okay.
.

I will be avoiding mid-October from now on.

ajacs — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:55:48 GMT

Monday, October 13th:

I go to the doctor about this sinus thing I can't get rid of. Get even more drugs that may or may not work.

Tuesday, October 14th:

glynhogen goes to the doctor because she too, has developed a wet, hacking cough.
Our beloved 13-year-old cat, Groundskeeper Willie, goes to the vet, because we've noticed a lethargy and disinterest in food over the past several days, both of which or uncharacteristic of him. The Vet says he looks pretty sick, and gets bloodwork. Warns us that whatever the answer is, it is likely to be bad.
Glynhogen discovers a deep gash in Kiko's tail. Kiko is our youngest pet; she is a three-year-old springer/lab/whatever mix. She is also terribly injury-prone.
We stay up much of the night, alternating between sitting with the sick cat and the injured dog, who, unfortunately, don't get along with each other. Willie eats some of the special vet food, but throws it up several hours later. His movements become labored and off-balance.

Wednesday, October 15th:

Kiko goes to the vet to get her tail looked at. She is extremely unhappy in the exam room when the tech removes the bandage we'd applied the night before. The gash is pretty serious, but the worst case scenario appears to be that Kiko could lose a chunk of her tail. Best case scenario is that she heals without amputation and keeps her whole tail, and just has a big scar. Kiko's tail is bandaged and she is put in the lampshade-like "e-collar".
While at the vet, Vet informs me that Willie's numbers are off-the-charts bad. The Vet is a relatively young man, and tells us he's never seen numbers this bad. We could try to treat him, but he'd be at the vet for a week and likely not get better.
Glynhogen and I discuss it, and decide to put him down. We can't think of a reason to wait an extra day that isn't selfish, so we return to the vet that afternoon, with my first ever pet as an adult wrapped in a blanket. I hold him while the vet injects him. We both cry. Willie goes very peacefully and quickly.
After the ordeal, we still have to deal with income tax paperwork that must get filed.
I do not watch the Phillies game, nor do I rejoice in the news that they win and will be going to the World Series.

Thursday, October 16th:

Glynhogen and I are each unproductive at work, though my conference call occurs in a hitch-free manor. My co-workers wish me well.

Friday, October 17th:

This is the 14th anniversary of my sister's death during a carjacking. Glynhogen and I had originally intended to visit her grave on the way up to Dutchess County, NY, where we'd planned to spend the weekend with allecto and visit the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. Those plans are now gone, though I still hope to visit the cemetary on Sunday.
Kiko returns to the vet to have her tail looked at; the vet says she's doing okay but not fantastic.

Thank you to all of you who have already posted your well-wishes on glynhogen's lj. When he died, Willie was down to 7 pounds. For those of you who never met him, he spent most of his life around 14 pounds, which was only a little chubby for him. We got him down to around 11 pounds when he was about 10 years old which was perfect, and at his last checkup in March, he was just over 9 pounds, so we'd switched from the indoor weight control type food to a more standard food in hopes he'd gain a little weight. He seemed to be eating, at least until last week when he was off-and-on about food.

We will miss him.

First and Goal from the three...

ajacs — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:55:35 GMT

...and not ONE McNabb bootleg left? Are you freakin' kidding me? That was a very winnable game, and I'm actually pleased with almost every decision. The Bears front four on defense are just gruesome this year, and Westbrook's pass-blocking is a lot better than Buckhalter's, and vastly better than Booker's. In my opinion, the two strategic mistakes:

On 4th an 1 from the Bears' 33, go for it. Don't kick a 50 yard field goal. The McNabb bootleg option left is a much higher probability play for short yardage than a 50 yard field goal attempt, and if you don't make it, you aren't giving the Bears an extra 7 yards.
On the 1st and goal from the 3 (or maybe 4), there are 11 navy blue jerseys between the hash marks. Try a slant on 1st down, then maybe Buckhalter on 2nd and 3rd, but if you take a time out to go for it on 4th down, I expect something better than "Buckhalter up the middle".

Now, maybe the lack of Westbrook impacts the blocking assignments on a bootleg option, but I can't imagine that the impact is worse than it is on the actual running game.

But hey, the Buccaneers won, defeating the not-bad Packers. And my absolute favorite team, the "Whoever-is-playing-against-the-Dallas-Effing-Cowboys", won as well. Unfortunately, this week that team also plays in the same division as the Eagles. Oh, well.

Community Theater

ajacs — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:01:04 GMT

Thursday, following a remarkably efficient I Do Foundation staff meeting, Megan and I attended a special Township Board of Supervisors meeting about the proposed Town Center.

Two different developers were attempting to build pedestrian malls in our town. One of the proposals was across the street from us ("Marville"), and one was about 1.5 miles away at the main crossroads of the township ("Town Centre"). Each developer sent postcards talking about their dreams of a society where kids can play and people can shop and dine at restaurants in peace. About a year ago, the Marville site was given approval, and since it seems folly to build two of these things within a mile and a half of one another, it seemed to be the death of the other. When we learned of the meeting, we assumed that something had happened, Marville was back on the table, and the fight was on again. We also learned that a group trying to build a Performing Arts Center somewhere in Delaware County has had some kind of positive talks with the Town Centre people. Such a PAC would have very positive implications for the local Scottish Dancing community.
We attended the meeting, where we learned that:

The Marville project is still approved, and will be built when they can figure out sewers (which, as an added bonus, will likely give us access to sewers as well), and the Marville people will be putting a big box behind it, between Mostardi's and Campus Blvd.
Both developers are sleazeballs; Marville probably bribed some people on the Board of Supervisors to get it pushed through so quickly, and the Town Centre people had several lawsuits pending against the township about other, unrelated buildings on the property and were offering a settlement of "we'll drop the suit about parcel A if you let us ignore zoning ordinances on parcel B."
The Town Centre people are no longer interested in building any sort of cultural arts center, apparently opting for an art-house movie theater instead. They are also not planning for any public transit access, besides potentially the bus, but there were no bus shelters or anything like one on the plans.

Of course, learning this took four hours, 1.5 of which were a sales pitch from Town Centre explaining what their development rights are under current zoning and why we'll all be thrilled with accepting the settlement and giving them their variances, 1 hour of which was self-righteous blather in opposition from two Town Supervisors who seemed to me to be obviously bribed, or otherwise simply despickable, and 1.5 hours of public comment, some of which was in favor and some of which was against. There was a lot of booing, yelling, and even some name-calling. One of the anti-Town Centre Supervisors was interrupted by the Town Center people, so she yelled "Show me the same respect that I showed you", and one of the Town Centre people yelled back, "You deserve no respect, Linda!" He was then soundly booed by the room. At least nine different people used the phrase "The Devil is in the Details."

The alternative to the Town Centre (known as the "By-Right" plan; what they are allowed to build under current zoning) is apparently a couple of large retail stores (not quite "big box"; the biggest would be 100k sqft, which is more like a Circuit City than a Walmart) and a large amount of elderly housing, and three big office buildings instead of two (one of wich is already built). I guess I won't lose much sleep either way, but I think the By-Right plan is strictly preferable as long as Marville is getting built anyway. I like the idea of a nearby pedestrian mall, and Marville by the plans is more like Suburban Square (not counting the big-box behind it), and Town Centre is more like Main Street at Exton; very pretty along the one street that does look like Main Street USA, but just like any other big strip center around the edges. I'm also not impressed with their traffic abatement plans; I can't imagine Winding Way still being useful to bypass the 252 / 3 intersection, and their edge road connecting rt 3 with 252 has two traffic circles in it. This seems like trying to cut through KoP mall to get from Kildare's to the movie theater; technically possible, but ill-advised.

So after the meeting, I feel substantially more informed than I was, and I feel that is strictly in my best interests that the by-right plan go forward and the settlement be scuttled.

The Only Time I've Ever Been Glad to Leave a Ballgame Early

ajacs — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:29:19 GMT

As some of you are no doubt aware, yesterday the Phillies came back from a 7-run deficit to beat the Mets in 13 innings during a 5 hour, 17 minute slug-fest. This also happened to coincide with the day leepinleemur, his wife R, and I were volunteering for Red Goes Green, the Phillies' recycling awareness program.

At each game, volunteers in green smocks go up and down the aisles between innings collecting empty bottles.
Only bottles are recycled; since there is no glass at the park, that means plastic and aluminum. No plastic cups are recycled, even though they probably could be.
In addition to the volunteers, there are still recycle bins in the concourse, and allegedly, all the trash in the regular cans is sorted for recyclables. The volunteers therefore just make things a little easier and "raise awareness."

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So the volunteers were supposed to arrive by 6pm for the 7:05 start; we arrived at 5:30 (in one car). Basically, in exchange for admission to the game (with no seat) , you have to collect empty bottles in the stands between innings. But this particular game was completely rammed; all the standing-room space all around the park was completely full, and in my assigned section (101-102, right next to the bullpen, Chickie's & Pete's, and Ashburn Alley), people were stacked two and three deep in the standing room. Maybe some of the other volunteers grabbed railspace and managed to hold it the whole game, but we didn't. So we really couldn't see much.

After the 5th inning, we had to go turn in our bags, as well as our smocks, but were permitted to stay for the rest of the game. By the time R had finished greeting the other suckers she'd gotten involved with this, it was like 10pm, because Pedro is effing slow, and we'd been standing nonstop since 5:30. Additionally, we were parked in the employee parking lot next to the Eagles practice field, which is serviced by a shuttle bus, but we'd been told that at the end of the game, the shuttle is slower than walking, because the line instantly gets really long. So we decided to leave. Not because the Phillies were behind 7-5, but because we couldn't see anything, and it was even tough to tell from the sounds of the crowd, because so many Mets fans were there.

We got to the car really quickly, as there was no line at the employee shuttle, and the radio instantly told us things we'd been unable to pick up on, despite largely paying attention; that Rollins was like 4 for 4 with two swipes, for example. I got home and watched the 10th and 11th innings on TV, then went to bed. I checked the score when I woke up today.

So the moral of the story is, if you get a standing room ticket, pick your spot and stay there in a group to hold on to it, and if you volunteer to pick up recycling, try to pick a game that doesn't sell out.

Charlie is Home!

ajacs — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:36:29 GMT

So, many of you know from glynhogen's lj that Charlie was in the animal hospital for the entire weekend. I'm happy to report that he is now home, and has been eating his bland diet of boiled chicken and rice with as much gusto as could be expected, and keeping it all down. Kiko is very happy to have her brother back, and Charlie seems genuinely better to be home. He still has some pills to take and he'll be on the bland diet for another 4 days or so, but he's himself again.

Though in the meantime, I've started getting sick again. For most of my adult life, I used to get semi-annual post-nasal-drip infections, until the combination of nasonex and a neti pot all but wiped them out three years ago. Since starting the neti pot and nasonex regime, I've gotten no infections, because every time I felt maybe one was starting, I realized I'd been a little lax in my regimen and resumed the once or even twice daily nasal irrigation. This would tend to nip things in the bud.

And then, about six weeks ago, I got a PND infection that caused me to cough up some green phlegm, even though I never really got stuffy and sniffly. It's as if the infection managed to bypass its normal entryway of my nose. Well, I took some antibiotics, and it cleared up. Until we got to Tampa 3 weeks ago, at which time it came back. I did a course of Cipro, and it went away again. And now, for a third time, it's back, and for a third time, my nose doesn't seem to be a big problem mucus-wise. Also, I haven't really been coughing. I'm going to see the doctor later today; we'll see what his guesses are as to what could cause a sore throat with only minimal stuffy nose that goes away with antibiotics but comes back two weeks later.</div>
It's been good to be back home again. On the weekend of the 16th, we had a Scottish demo in Harleysville that went very well; it was a customer appreciation day for Harleysville Savings Bank, and we actually got fed, which is somewhat rare for at least the demos I've been part of. That was Saturday afternoon, and on Saturday evening, we saw "Clone Wars" with jedibl and Sensei Justin, both of whom are old-school Wars fans who, like me, didn't really want to see the movie, or in any event didn't expect it to be good, but just couldn't imagine there being a Star Wars movie in theaters and not going to see it. It had some decent moments, but was overall pretty cringeworthy. The action set-pieces were beset by staggeringly poor tactical decisions that came off not as mistakes by the commanders, but as mistakes by the writers.

All Hail!

ajacs — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:48:36 GMT

We got pea-sized hail rather suddenly started falling from the sky about 25 minutes ago. It lasted about 5 minutes, and we also got a rather large bit of rain at the same time. And now the sun is out again. Had I thought about it in time, I would have gone outside to gather as much hail as I could, and stuck it in the freezer, but I didn't, and now I suspect it's just about gone. Ah, well.

The Long Wait Begins

ajacs — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:12:41 GMT

We are now officially in the book at Heart of Adoptions in Tampa. In theory, this means we could get a call about a match at time, though of course we don't expect such a call any time soon. The process of dropping off our paperwork was remarkably painless; we met with the ED of the agency, who ran through our documents, said they were okay, looked at our scrapbooks, said they were okay, and answered our few remaining questions.

We are still at least somewhat likely to list with an additional agency, but we're not in a terrible rush to do so at this point. Being "In The Book" just feels so nice.

We also had a lovely visit with my parents. However, this was the 4th consecutive weekend that we were out of town, and that's gotten extremely old. I think we'll be staying in for a while.

You younguns might know him as "Mr. Feeny"

ajacs — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:40:27 GMT

I don't even really want a dashboard GPS, but boy howdy do I want this:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/20/mios-knight-rider-gps-speaks-with-the-voice-of-kitt-were-in/
Of course, I know nothing about the hardware under the hood, only that it talks with the voice of KiTT / Dr. Craig / Mr. Braddock, William Daniels. I think if it has voice recognition, and you call it "KITT", I'll totally get one. Or if it has lots of cool easter eggs or something. But I'd hate to be disappointed in it.