Dan's Webpage: Because everyone loves a farce

The one with the gigantic computer monitor

2009-10-18T19:10:00.025-05:00

It must be the right phase of the moon tonight, because my wireless keyboard is actually working as intended — which means the triumphant return of living room blogging!

I've felt a bit guilty about not blogging for those of you who actually read this occasionally. Moreover, I think it's bad for me personally to take such a long break from writing. My brain needs to write, and my life seems like it needs more pauses for writing and reading lately.

That's probably the main reason why I'm tired this weekend, although last night at Markie's annual Fall Festivus party I said that it's because I'm coming into work a half hour earlier this month or because I didn't have any heat in the house Friday night. Both of which are true, obviously. I don't know why anyone would lie about facts of this size.

Getting the furnace checked out for winter was a bit of an adventure. I called the guys Xcel uses over to do some preventative maintenance — it doesn't look like a professional has looked at the thing since 2003 — but after taking some readings the furnace man said he couldn't do anything for me and that I should get a new one.

Perhaps understandably, the home warranty people did not buy that line when I contacted them, and they sent out their own subcontractor to inspect the furnace all official-like. To my uninformed eye he seemed to do a much more thorough inspection than the first guy did.

Sometimes I'm perversely proud of this house, like when the electrician saw the ad hoc basement wiring they'd called out on the Truth in Housing, or whenever I show new visitors the hilarious upstairs staircase. I have to admit, when flames shot out a foot from the furnace panel during this guy's inspection... that was one of those times.

There was no CO2 in the air, but the CO2 readings from inside the furnace were really really high, and so the second guy shut it down for liability reasons. I spent Friday night buried in a mound of blankets, but the house only got down to the mid-50's so it wasn't bad.

I'll be far more miserable on the hunting stand in a few weeks, I promise.

Lucky for me that same company was able to send some people out to clean the furnace on Saturday, on my dime still, and I'm told everything is fine now. I'm not sure if I'd rather have the furnace break sometime this winter while it has a clean bill of health and is still covered by my home warranty, or have it shamble on for a few more years so I can save up to replace it with a super-efficient model without putting all my plants in danger.

It's nice to think that I might be able to go at least a year now without having to leave work to let some stranger into my house. Once I actually get the curtains done (I know! I'm getting closer!) I might even go a month without spending over $100 on home improvement.

Yesterday night I was talking to one of Markie and her-Matt's hippie friends — hippie being just about my favorite dysphemism in the world these days — about his buying a house, and I still think it's worth it, despite everything.

(I also really do recommend the 203(k) loan, no matter who you're going through to get it. Kick some ass with that repair money.)

Maybe this is me and my paranoia or maybe it's something very primal, but at night in my various apartments I used to feel like I was surrounded by darkness, and these days I feel like my boundaries are the walls of my house. I'm in my little fortress on the hill, and any trouble that wants to find me has got to come up all of those surprisingly uneven stairs.

Which reminds me. A few days go I watched Tooth and Nail, a post-apocalyptic defend-yourself-against-the-cannibals movie notable mainly for #1. The humanity-runs-of-gas-early apocalypse, still a fresh one as apocalypses go and #2. The casting of Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World) as one of the survivors. It was terrible, but that's the sort of nonsense I get up to on my instant queue.

More importantly, I finally watched Little Miss Sunshine this Friday, after having had the disc out for two weeks. (You're welcome Netflix!)

I had such a grudge against that movie, and it didn't help its case by showing me a preview for Sideways and some other movie I hated but can't remember beforehand.

But it won me over. It's amazing now to think of how much I liked American Beauty at the time, when I've seen probably a dozen better movies since then that have the same essential message.

I suppose I should go to bed though; I barely woke up at all today and I'd like to have better odds tomorrow.

In which I don't mention the time I got lost for an entire hour

2009-08-30T11:20:00.010-05:00

As a sop to the poor, housebound thing I'll be in a few months when Minnesota starts to become cold and awful again, I've been biking a fair amount lately. Not a lot — I haven't biked to work yet because I dread going up and down the ramps on Snelling — but prettymuch whenever I'm going to Minneapolis. Where at most it's about 30 minutes to anywhere I'm going.

I've had a few inconsequential, not-entirely-sober falls, and I've gotten pretty turned around in that strange city to the west when coming back at night, but for the most part it's been positive. I can get to Markie's or Town Hall or Cari's, and back again, without getting lost. Basically that's all I ever need to do, though there are rumblings about a more ambitious bike ride in the coming weeks. As long as it's not down that hill in St. Paul. I've pushed my bike back up that enough for one lifetime.

This was a busy week. I pulled out the carpet downstairs, which was dubious even if it wasn't visibly covered with the dread black mold, and I've pulled out what I can of the waterstained particle boards underneath. On Monday I have what I hope is my final code inspection, checking some work on my water heater vent that's been completed for months now.

I also got a letter this week telling me that I'm officially off of St. Paul's vacant house list, which saves me from a $1,000 monitoring fee.

I bought a PS3 Slim, or rather Barry floated the purchase for me for a month so I could play Borderlands co-op with him and Nick on the platform of his choice. Pretty excited about that, since I was planning to purchase one later this year but didn't expect to have the money for a while yet.

I'm sending back the Season 2, Disc 2 DVD of Pushing Daisies as soon as I get it on Monday, so that I can finish watching the (fantastic) series on Blu-ray.

I bought curtains, yes, the expensive curtains from Sears that I was complaining about on Facebook if you saw that, after pricing similar curtains elsewhere. It turns out decent pleated curtains are expensive, outrageously so if you don't get buy readymade from a chain store, and I refuse to get blinds.

(As everyone I've ever lived with has at some point or other noticed, I cannot operate blinds correctly. But I also prefer the look of curtains in any case.)

On Thursday a few of us got together at Cari's for Project Runway, which so far has been enjoyable, the terrible ads we have to watch now that it's on Lifetime notwithstanding. I pre-partied with a homemade and thus way too strong gin-and-tonic before I left, which I'm guessing was my downfall, as Jenna would say.

Downfall because even though I felt fine all night, I woke up at 2 in the morning, startled to find myself throwing up Girl's Night red wine all over my white sheets. I have to say, I'm really, really impressed by the effectiveness of Shout Gel Advanced. They should do a viral marketing campaign featuring twenty-somethings who make bad decisions.

On Friday on the way home from work, I realized I had a flat tire. Like really flat, either because I ran over a nail in the alley that morning or (I can't resist a paranoid twinge) because someone had let the air out. I filled it up again and drove home; it'll be interesting to see if the air has leaked out while it's been in my garage this weekend.

I should mention that when I was walking to my house that night I saw a squirrel, a rabbit, and several birds all fleeing in separate directions from the same spot. Another secret conspiracy against me!

Rather than deal with my car I biked to a coworker's housewarming that night, which was a good time. I don't know those people too well so I got a bit too quippy, which was unfortunate albeit expected.

Everything stayed low-key, but at one point one of his housemates was on my case for occasionally (and legally) biking on the sidewalk, claiming I could kill a pedestrian, which I think is far less likely to happen than my getting hit by a car.

(I can't remember who I was talking to about this a week or so ago, but I don't understand why some bikers insist that we all act like traffic, when casual riders like myself appreciate having the sidewalk as an option. There aren't too many pedestrians to yield to around here at 10 at night, and I don't count on drunk drivers noticing my LED taillight.)

Since I was still a little hungover from Thursday night's debacle, I biked home early, after three hours and three beers. And of course after assuring everyone that three lager beers over that timeframe is not enough to get me drunk, and it isn't, I immediately crashed my bike in a hidden sinkhole in my coworker's front lawn. I'm guessing that no one in the backyard saw that, because how could you not laugh?

Also happening this week: my littlest brother, Josh, is engaged now, which I found out on Thursday at Cari's (same place I found out about Matt, as I recall) so yesterday I had those guys (plus Paul, my brother-in-law once removed) over for pizza and videogames. Which is to say, the usual. I'm sure there will be grander festivities sometime next spring.

Books and circuses

2009-08-09T11:36:00.002-05:00

The walls are painted, the dining room furniture has been placed although I'm already starting to rethink the arrangement, and right now I'm sitting at the computer (which I've set up here in the living room, using the rather large t.v. as a monitor: yes!) eating some of the copious leftovers from last night's visit to Senor Wong. I am apparently the only one in my family who wants to deal with restaurant leftovers. Ridiculous and fortuitous.

It was my parent's anniversary weekend, so after hitting Wong last night we walked over to Cirque de Solei, where the eight of us had seats in the second row.

What I saw of the show was pretty cool, but unfortunately about halfway through we heard sirens in the background... and they had to evacuate everyone to a nearby parking garage to wait out the tornado warning. Picture white pillars everywhere, paint peeling off the ceiling in envelope-sized chunks. I resigned myself to not seeing the rest of the show basically immediately, and after about an hour they made it official and we headed back to Wong to retrieve our cars.

There were some seats available this morning, but not together and not in the second row, so we ended up accepting the refund. I guess that's a free hour of Cirque de Solei then?

For my own entertainment I've been playing Red Faction Guerrilla a.k.a. Explosions on Mars, but I've also been reading a fair amount, most recently God is Dead — the August selection for Noble Joshua's book club. It had some good bits.

I checked out China Mieville's The City and the City a few weeks back — I think he may be my favorite author these days — but it wasn't quite what I expected. I wanted a hundred little ideas, but as far as I could tell there was just one big one.

I'm reading a Tim Powers book at the moment, since he's apparently one of Mieville's influences. It's been slow-going so far though, not because it's bad but because there's been so much to make sense of. Crossing my fingers.

Well, I suppose I should go look at curtains. One of the houses across the street doesn't have any either, and I'd like to be able to look out at the street occasionally without creeping out the neighbors.

In which I triumphantly return

2009-08-04T21:35:00.007-05:00

When we last left Our Bold Hero...

I didn't mean to go dark for quite that long, but blogging does eat up a fair amount of mindshare and I had — still probably have — plenty of more important stuff to think about.

The house continues to be expensive, just less so now than during that fateful month when I had to buy all the major appliances.

I've made a lot of progress: I have a nicely furnished living room now, and I'm sleeping in the bedroom of all places!

(It was only after my brother Matt's wedding that I realized sleeping in my then-damp basement was probably the source of the mild "flu" I'd had for the previous week, but fortunately I never got seriously ill while I was living down there.)

My dad and two of my uncles spent two days here last week helping with some of the stuff I couldn't do, e.g. installing new kitchen stairs, so at this point I'm just a dozen curtains and two gallons of Weeping Willow away from having this place up and running. Then the remainder of my chores will be minor enhancements.

I'm dreading painting the living room though, in part because I used three different colors in my bedroom and it took almost an entire week for me to anal-retentive my way to the end of that project. My hope is that since this green stuff is the only color I'm using, with any luck by the end of the week I should be done painting for a while.

More on what you've missed later, probably-maybe. I need to get through this last push before I add another way to slack off back into my repertoire.

In which I have not yet painted my kitchen

2009-04-12T21:40:00.006-05:00

This is Our Bold Hero, coming to you Galaxy News Radio–style from a makeshift setup in the attic of my new place. My wood floors are done, but I want to paint and hang up some curtains before I move to the main floor. So in the meantime I've been coming up here to use the internet and going down to the basement to sleep and watch t.v.

That basement room is kind of nice, actually. There's not much about it that's correct, but I like what they were trying to do with that loose carpeting and cracked wood paneling. Add in a minifridge, my Xbox 360, and my parents' hunting lodge loveseat and I may never see the sun again.

I'd say that it'll probably be three weeks before I can get really settled in. I lived here for almost two weeks without water until I finally bought a $1 pipe cap for downstairs and turned the water heater on, but the plumber will have plenty to do when he finally arrives tomorrow. You can hear water dripping from prettymuch anywhere in the house.

The awesome fridge is coming on Tuesday glory glory hallelujah, and I should be done painting everything I want to paint (i.e. most of the main floor) by sometime next weekend. My contractor assures me that the garage door will open soon.

There's still plenty to be done besides that, but I look forward to the point where I'm not longer spending all this money and I can just relax, even if everything isn't perfect. Working plumbing and cold beer will help with that.

Arrg

2009-03-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

Snow on the ground! Nature, what did I just say?!

As Red Leader would say

2009-03-19T18:42:00.006-05:00

It's been a quick week, and I've been tired for most of it. There've been too many hours at work, too many loose ends to take care of before I finally buy the house on Monday. That's the official day now.

It annoys me — and annoys my brother's anxious fiancee even more — that I won't be able to move all my stuff in immediately because of all the work that needs to be done on the house, but I'm planning to spend this weekend packing and (if all goes well at closing) much of next week repairing the house and getting settled in. The best part about this move will be not having to do it again in a couple years.

In other news, I just got back from a week in Bonita Springs with my family (except for Matt, who'll be in Florida while I'm moving out of his place). I didn't do anything particularly exciting, but it was warm and relaxing down there and that was all I needed.

We ate out for dinner every night — I'm trying to eat only "happy meat" at least until Lent is over, so I had a lot of shrimp and stone crab and grouper — but during the day everyone prettymuch did their own thing.

My thing was hanging out by the pool and reading: I must have read at least 3,000 pages last week, all of it sci-fi. Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light was pretty good, but I was only about five pages into Dan Simmons' The Hollow Man before I remembered why I'd never bother to finish the Hyperion Cantos.

When I wasn't reading I was usually either biking around while listening to podcasts, or wandering the nearby outdoor mall. The World Market store there had cool furniture and imported beer, although I only looked longingly at both offerings. Neither was worth carting all the way home.

On Tuesday or Wednesday of last week we saw The Watchmen, the story to which I only vaguely remembered from when I read it seven or eight years ago. Apparently there was a squid? And some stuff about a boat, which I'm sure I skipped over.

Anyways, I thought Rorschach was extremely well done and that's all I wanted. I can't remember where I heard it, but I like the idea that geeks should see the movie as an accessory to the graphic novel rather than an adaptation.

My littlest brother Josh left on Friday and my mom arrived late that night, so on Saturday we hit up a garden center and two flea markets in nearby Fort Myers.

There was a lot of cool stuff at the garden center (I've been thinking about getting a tropical for the bathroom), but I didn't see lemon verbena or miracle fruit. I might have to go to the seed catalog for some lemon verbena this year if I can't find a plant. After killing my last one and not being able to find another place in Minnesota that has them, I consider finding and growing lemon verbena a personal challenge.

Fleamasters, the second flea market we went to, was bustling with tourists and stocked with an incredible variety of cheap merchandise. It was like the Minnesota State Fair — without the gouging or the impassible crowds. I got some (happy meat–hypocritical) leather belts and an old book on growing herbs, and managed to purchase a neat German goblet at one of the garage sale booths just before the whole place shut down. St. Paul garage sales are up there with sandals on the list of things I'm looking forward to this spring.

I really like the idea that I left for Florida for a week and almost all the snow melted while I was gone and we're not going to have any more until November. Yeah, let's do that.

Getting closer

2009-03-01T13:57:00.004-06:00

I've been cleaning Matt's house all weekend, in the aftermath of my highly successful War on Mice. Those little guys just love poison. Can't get enough of it.

My plans to move into the new place continue more or less on schedule; however, the water wasn't on when we inspected the house last week, so I have to look at that this Wednesday.

There are still some minor loose ends, but everything else is basically ready to go once the plumbing checks out, which is good because I'm off to Florida this coming Friday. I'm counting on all this snow being gone when I get back.

Theoretically I could close on the new place as soon as I'm in town again, and then move in once the electrical system is brought up to code. Crazy to think that this could be my last weekend living in Matt's house.

My Wikipedia album cover

2009-02-25T17:44:00.002-06:00

So here's the meme I just checked out:

Here's a totally random way to make your new random band's new random album cover. Post one! Go to "Wikipedia." Hit "random" and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to "Random Quotations" and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on "Explore the Last Seven Days" and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

And here's the amazing result:

26

2009-02-14T23:55:00.003-06:00

I turned 26 on Thursday. So I feel old, but some of that is probably from all the beer I had yesterday night. After Winterfest and my birthday, I think I'm done binge drinking for a while.

Actually though, I think I'm dealing with this pretty well. Most of my friends here are older than me, and I did a lot of cool stuff when I was 25, so I don't feel like I've completely wasted the past year or anything like that.

Winterfest

2009-02-08T10:43:00.007-06:00

If all goes well, this week I'm going to make an offer on a house, turn 26, and have a bunch of people over on Friday for drinking games. Things could get hectic.

I went to Winterfest with Jess this weekend. It was fun, but not quite as good as last year: there were less people I knew and the venue was more cramped. The glasses were way cooler though. Little mini-goblets.

The beers... I think the beers were better this year, though part of that may just be my palate changing. I actually didn't like Fitger's last time I had their stuff, but this year they were one of my favorite brewers. I tried about 30 beers; here are the ones that stood out:

Schell's U Bier, an uncarbonated, unfiltered pilsner. Reminded me of sitting around drinking kölsch in Germany.

Cold Spring's Moonlight Ale, a 50/50 blend of porter and bock that really worked.

Cold Spring's Honey Almond Weiss, an unfiltered honey wheat beer with almonds. Not mind-blowing or anything, but it had a cleanliness I liked.

Fitger's El Diablo, my favorite of the three Belgian golden ales they had. We recommended this to an older couple that liked lighter beers, and they thanked Jess later for the tip.

Fitger's Procrastinator Doppelbock, which was... delicious. Love the style, loved the execution.

Fitger's Framboise, the sour result of a 5-year wild lambic project.

Great Waters' King Boreas Imperial Witbeer, a 8.25% ABV witbier.

Lift Bridge's Imperial Stout, for which my only note here is "good." I'm a Darkness guy, but I liked this better than all the non-Surly stouts on offer.

Lift Bridge's Belgian Biscotti, which I foisted upon Jess immediately. I told her I'd double her vote if she picked something delicious, so this is what we both voted for.

Rock Bottom's Tripel Framboise, which was fruity and drinkable. Good, but not sour like you might expect from the name.

Surly's Three was good, 50% honey, 50% German Dark Munich malt. That was a nice surprise, since I didn't like Two when I tried it last year. I had this late in the night though, so ideally I'd like to taste it again on draft, unrationed.

Surly's Darkness is still good, still exactly what I'm looking for in an Imperial Stout. This was my original vote before I changed to match Jess.

Friday

2009-01-30T16:51:00.004-06:00

Off to the bar. I discovered that I won't be paying any income taxes this year or the next because of this house I'm buying, so I actually feel a bit rich today.

Grandpa: What the... what the hell is this?

John: That's lite beer.

Grandpa: Gee, I weigh ninety goddamn pounds, and you bring me this sloppin' foam?

John: Ariel's got me on a diet because the doc said my cholesterol's a little too high.

Grandpa: Well let me tell you something now, Johnny. Last Thursday, I turned 95 years old. And I never exercised a day in my life. Every morning, I wake up, and I smoke a cigarette. And then I eat five strips of bacon. And for lunch, I eat a bacon sandwich. And for a midday snack?

John: Bacon.

Grandpa: Bacon! A whole damn plate! And I usually drink my dinner. Now according to all of them flat-belly experts, I should've took a dirt nap like thirty years ago. But each year comes and goes, and I'm still here. Ha! And they keep dyin'. You know? Sometimes I wonder if God forgot about me. Just goes to show you, huh?

John: What?

Grandpa: Huh?

John: Goes to show you what?

Grandpa: Well it just goes... what the hell are you talkin' about?

John: Well you said you drink beer, you eat bacon and you smoke cigarettes, and you outlive most of the experts.

Grandpa: Yeah?

John: I thought maybe there was a moral.

Grandpa: No, there ain't no moral. I just like that story. That's all. Like that story.

The Great Hunt

2009-01-28T22:31:00.002-06:00

It's been an odd few weeks. I'm looking for a house now — have I told you that? With my brother Matt getting married in April, it's either buy a house or move into yet another rented space. That would be my 15th move since high school, by my estimate.

I'm looking at another batch of homes this Saturday, but I've already seen two or three in my price range that I'd be happy with. So that's exciting. But all most people need to know is that I'll be living in St. Paul soon, whether I've successfully bought a place or not.

Five: Best New-to-Me Webcomics of 2008

2009-01-07T11:31:00.002-06:00

I already read a lot of webcomics, but I'm always trying to find more that are actually, you know, good. Here are the five best webcomics I discovered in 2008:

Pictures for Sad Children

One of my all-time favorites, it's best read in order. The same artist is also currently drawing a comic for every hour he's awake in anticipation of Hourly Comic Day.

Daisy Owl

A low-key comic about an Owl, his adopted human children, and a Polar Bear. Also best read from the beginning, although it's a bit slow to start.

Bellen!

A feel-good relationship comic you can read in no particular order. I especially liked this one.

Beartato

The various adventures of Beartato (a bear + potato) and his friend Reginald. Mostly absurd one-offs.

Kate Beaton Comics

Actually from December 2007 or so, but I can't think of anything else really good from this past year. She's best known for her History Comics.

New Year's

2009-01-01T11:43:00.004-06:00

Still recovering somewhat from yesterday's New Year's Eve party at Markie's: champagne and I do not get along. Ugh.

Also, I resolve in 2009 not to play King's Cup as anything other than a pre-party drinking game. That is its only rightful purpose.

Since my last post the situation at my workplace has deteriorated a bit, with everyone being forced to take 80 hours of time off, either unpaid or covered by as much vacation time as we could muster. I was one of the lucky ones with almost a week's worth of "real" vacation saved up, so last week was covered but this week is like college winter break all over again.

For better or worse, Fallout 3 has been a great time-sink; I've logged more than 100 hours and I think I'll finally go and complete the final mission either today or tomorrow. I don't think I should have to defend single-player videogames from the charge that they're a "waste of time," but I'm guessing I might have read a bit more this past week if I hadn't had the Capital Wasteland to explore.

Ben is back for the holidays, so yesterday and the day before we played through some of the Left 4 Dead campaigns, killing zombies in co-op. That and fancy dark beer more than sufficed as a pre-party yesterday, but we also hit up the Flat Earth Brewery for the last day of Porterfest.

This probably sounds more exciting than it is: with Jess gone and Ben returning to Florida this weekend, I'm doing more drinking than usual in preparation for the drier days ahead.

Which is kind of fine, because I need to save up some more money starting... now.

(Barry rented season five of The Wire — as I said last night, it's the one show I like that I've never had to apologize for, and I insist that you check out season one — and I'm looking forward to being extremely entertained on the cheap this month.)

I think I've told you before that I'm not a big fan of public New Year's resolutions, so there's not much I can say here to mark the date, January 1st, 2009, the current big deal.

I will note that I've had some mediocre years but 2008 wasn't one of them: I think I did pretty well, life-wise, and if I'm not exactly who or where I want to be yet, I nonetheless think that I'm getting there.

It's not exactly a resolution, but blogging/writing more is part of what I need to do this year, so expect a post every week, at the very least a "Five" on Wednesdays. My Christmas was fairly epic (and it's not quite over!) so I'll have to write something about that too once the dust settles.

Ready for Y2k or a Financial Meltdown

2008-11-14T17:37:00.003-06:00

I paid off all of my credit card debt today, and now I'm poor again.

Poor in the twenty-something sense, obviously: most actual poor people probably don't have Fallout 3, a month's supply of beer, and a freezer full of venison.

Did I tell you I'm getting half a deer now? No one shot anything the whole time I was up north this year for hunting, but my dad and uncle had more luck once we left on Sunday.

This was my first time deer-hunting with snow on the ground, which meant that I couldn't hear anything, which meant that instead of just shivering and reading, I had to spend 10 hours a day staring at trees and snow, occasionally imagining that this swaying branch or that misshapen log was actually a deer.

It seems like each year I either have to listen for deer, or I have to watch for them. And I'm fine with that, as long as I get to use one of my senses to entertain myself. If I go next year I'm bringing headphones in case it snows again.

I am also seriously contemplating rigging up some sort of luxury heated hunting stand as well. You know what I like? Room temperature. It's fantastic.

I finally broke down and bought Fallout 3 last night after an interlude at the Flat Earth Brewery with Barry. (About which more here.) The game is enjoyable, but it hasn't really drawn me in yet. Maybe I need to go exploring...

Also: I'm increasingly impatient with Western RPGs that haven't learned anything from the interactions in Mass Effect. Last year's big RPG.

It might have been a bad idea to spend money on a game right now, but the cost probably works out to $1/hour of entertainment, and I thought it would be good to get set for December before forcing myself back to fiscal discipline.

Back to the budget! In a week I should be OK again. I can do basically everything I want to do on the budget, anyways — and why not? I've lived on much, much less — it's just a matter of paying attention, which I'm apparently unable to do during a credit card's no-interest trial period. Curse this pretend money.

Jonas and Sarah's Wedding

2008-11-04T16:00:00.000-06:00

Every year I wonder if Halloween — funny, party-focused, completely secularized — is indeed my favorite holiday. I think it just might be: I mean, if you put any amount of effort into the day at all, your worst-case scenario will be staying in and giving out candy to little kids in costume.

This year I spent my Halloween in Appleton for Jonas and Sarah's wedding. Here's most of the Lawrentian delegation outside the church after the wedding on Saturday:

So let me tell you a tale. On Friday (that would be Halloween for those of you following along at home) I left work early, drove to Appleton, met up with Ben and Nora at ORC (where I also either met or re-met Ging... all these young kids at my college nowadays...), hung out for a while, and then went with my favorite Floridians to the rehearsal dinner after-party at the hotel.

I'd seen a lot of the Lawrentians who were there earlier this summer at Bill's purportedly semi-annual cottage get-together, but I haven't seen any of them often enough to stop each meeting from feeling like a mini-reunion.

And there were other people at the hotel whom I hadn't seen in years: Jonas' friend Jeremy certainly, and Bill's Beth, who insisted that we hadn't seen each other since her wedding.

(That seems impossible. Are all my recent memories of her really from the defunct Bill & Beth in Boston blog?)

The Politician was both my ride and the guy whose couch I'd supposedly be sleeping on, so I ended up joining Bill and Beth and Bill's family at the bars for Bill's sister's 21st birthday. We left the reliably-sketchy Firefly at 1 and even though this was the Night of Complete Lies (e.g. Meghan was singing an aria at the wedding, Jubb was Matthew's secret guest), Bill was as good as his word.

The wedding itself was pretty casual, especially for someone more used to the pomp and circumstance of Catholicism. There was no kneeling and just one hymn, which we rocked pretty hard. Jonas said that the ceremony clocked in at about 18 minutes all told.

Given that, I think it's fair to say that the reception afterwards — rather than the wedding itself — was the highlight for me, not least because it was a costume reception. As in, Halloween costumes.

A bunch of us had rented out of the fancy alumni house for the night for $13/person, so after taking some pictures we walked back to change.

I'd kept my costume a secret because that's part of the fun, and I have to say that I was proud of what I accomplished and pleased with the reactions I got from all the Losties at Lawrence. The only good snapshot of me in costume so far is irredeemably rakish, but here are some pictures I took yesterday night:

Maybe from now on I won't be terrible at Halloween? We'll see.

Lawrentians are inveterate theme partiers, so the other costumes were pretty great. Here're the bride and groom at the reception:

And here's Luigi and Mark Antony with the two Dorothys. I guessed "Evil Dorothy" and "Good Dorothy" and got yelled at — did you know that The Wizard of Oz was shot in both black-and-white (Kansas) and Technicolor (Oz)?

Not pictured: Matthew as Captain Mal, Meghan as Smurfette, Nora as Cleopatra, Annie as Sarah Palin, Prichard in a wedding dress, and Bill and Beth as Jareth the Goblin King and Sarah Williams from Labryinth. My selection of good pictures is still pretty limited right now, but you can see all of these costumes on Facebook.

Jeremy's pirate outfit was pretty good, but my favorite costume not worn by a Lawrentian was probably the Tony Stark outfit one of the groomsmen made by sticking a glowing circular light beneath his tux and wearing sunglasses. Easy and clever.

Highlights that evening included a choreographed performance of Thriller and the Politician's fantastical Magic Dance. Jonas and Sarah had selected all the music, so the unofficial Lawrence school songs — "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" and "Africa" — were both played at one point.

There was also an ongoing drinking contest between Ben, Meghan, and Our Bold Hero — I can't remember who won, so let's just say that we're all winners. Or that I probably won.

The party wound down back at the house with a game of King's Cup — which Miss Manners would tell you is a pre-party game — and the weekend wound down the next day at Perkins, where everything looked unappetizing and I decided that a vanilla malt was the only food worth consuming.

A decision I've made a few times before, actually.

We said our goodbyes and I drove home. I'll see Ben in December and many of these people next January, which doesn't actually seem that far off.

With just the usual concerns about the back

2008-10-28T21:57:00.002-05:00

I just finished shaving my head, and of course I feel wonderful.

It's almost as if my negativity is stored in those hairs — encoded along with where I've been, what I've been eating, and what if any drugs I've been using. I imagine an arcane science devoted to measuring hairs and determining the history of our moods.

Or I could draw a diagram like the water cycle, with arrows going from things like "stress at work" and "messy room" to my eyes and ears, from there to my head, and finally from my head to the trashcan and back into the world.

Mulling over the future yet again

2008-10-26T11:11:00.003-05:00

Hung out with Barry, Jess and Rae on Friday: a nice end to a less-than-relaxing week. Except for parties and Girl's Night, I haven't really hung out with my friends much this fall, so it was nice to just sit around with a few people, some beers, and no schedule.

My annual review at work went well, really well I think, but with the raise freeze still in effect and winter making its first appearance (right now), I'm leaning more and more towards leaving the country.

I'll be moving out of Matt's place in mid-April in any case — I can officially tell you now that my little brother is getting married. Huzzahs all around! — so it might be interesting to just put most of my stuff in storage and head over to Korea or Japan or Germany or something for a year.

I know that as an introvert I can handle living prettymuch anywhere, and if I went with Korea I'd have friends already there waiting for me, which you have to admit is a nice setup.

Especially if (as Caitlin claims) I can make enough money to pay off every single one of my debts in a matter of months. I've got a master's in English, I like teaching, I have some experience: it seems like a good fit.

So. Considering it. I'll need to have this discussion with myself a few more times before expatriating really seems like a real possibility. I promise not to blog endlessly on this topic, but it's one of my main concerns right now.

Either I go abroad, or I'll find a place around here where I can actually settle down and live for however long. A house isn't that plausible at my current hourly rate, but I should be able to find something that I can make mine. Preferably with a source of light for my nomadic garden.

An apartment with suitably low rent might even work (shall we say, Summit-University neighborhood?), if I still can't decide where I want to be in the long term... but that's not really progress.

I keep telling myself that I've got some time. Probably I'll know what I'm doing next year before this year is out.

Hottoberfest

2008-10-19T22:08:00.005-05:00

The big event this weekend was "Hottoberfest," as I insist on calling it. Prettymuch everyone came over for German food, German beer and colaweizen, and — this is key — a subtitled showing of Germany's Next Top Model, hosted by Heidi Klum.

I went way overboard (my mom would be proud) and prettymuch everything came together only at the last minute: the files took forever to download and even with subtitled versions already on YouTube, it took even longer to create and encode hardsubbed versions that would play on the big screen downstairs.

I had fun, but if I ever, ever do that again, I'm giving myself three months of lead time.

But hey, I won't see any of these people for Halloween, and this is probably my last party here until February or something. I keep rationalizing this stuff on the grounds that I'll spend less and less money as more of my friends leave the state and/or country.

(My own future also looks increasingly unpredictable in the particulars, however optimistic I am about it in general.)

The rest of the weekend was sedate, too much so considering how nice the weather was. I read, ran errands, etc. I got some thinking done, but not enough. Ultimately, if Our Bold Hero were some character in an RPG that I was playing, I would not be satisfied with his progression lately.

Tonight I made ice cream. I guess I should say "today," because I was chopping up chocolate at 2 this afternoon and taking the finished ice cream from the freezer at 8:30 tonight. I haven't made ice cream in a year and a half, but somehow I've gotten way better at it. I can actually make a custard now.

The flavor was mint chip. At this point in the season my garden is half dying tomato plants, half rampaging mint, and I've been trying to use up as much of the mint as I can before the season is over. I had mint pesto last week; it's not bad, actually.

Sunday Blarrg

2008-09-28T17:45:00.002-05:00

Today I went to the Twins game (woo!) and yesterday I went to the Renaissance festival (huzzah!), but I don't really have anything I want to blog about right now. You'd think I would, but no.

Still, I thought I'd let you guys know the sort of weird stuff I've been up to.

Michellapalooza (an annual tradition)

2008-09-22T12:59:00.003-05:00

So I went to Dylan's this Saturday for Michelle's birthday kegger — which is funny, because I think her b-day party last year was the last time I'd seen Dylan.

We're working on that, if the drunk talk this weekend is to be believed. We're neighbors now, sort of, and Dylan and I have always been able to pick up our friendship right where we left off.

The party. I think I'm getting better at socializing with strangers, although for all I know they were all patronizing me. The line between polite interest and bemused disinterest is hard to pinpoint at a kegger.

We played some foosball, did a shot, and (with the declaration "Sir, I studied under Aaron Jubb!") I entered and lost a chugging contest.

I have never seen anyone finish a cup of beer that quickly. This wasn't "wow, you're fast," it was "wow, I didn't think that was physically possible."

Dylan had an "Obama on a stick" sign from the state fair, so there was some talk of the election. On the way back from Stillwater last Friday I'd gotten into a typically combative conversation with Graham, so it was nice to talk politics with people who keep the emotional stakes low.

(Move to Minnesota, Bill: I don't care that you've reversed polarities. And I'd extend the same invitation to Alan if he weren't on the moon or wherever it is that he's gone now.)

I've become weirdly averse to sleeping on people's couches — I think it's the autonomy issue rather than any worries about being a bother — so I stopped drinking right before they unveiled the Disney princesses ice cream cake.

My piece had Ariel: this has been the month of The Little Mermaid references for some reason. I hope, hope that I didn't sing Shelley's cigarette version of "Part of Your World," but I don't remember and it seems at least possible that I did.

Oh, ice cream cake, how I love thee. Hurrah for birthdays.

In which we drank like pirates

2008-09-20T11:24:00.005-05:00

Went to the Pirate Bar in Stillwater yesterday to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day. Basically everyone was there.

The food was a bit odd (Jamaican rather than the familiar Southern-style BBQ), but my mojito was tasty and the rum selection was impressive. There were free jalapenos for the daring — very spicy, obviously. And Lawrentians will be pleased to hear that they had three different varieties of Appleton Estate rum, the official drink of Mayor Hanna. No one walked the plank — their three-shot combo — but I certainly wasn't going to. Not a fan of shots.

It was a bit of a trek to get there, so I'm not sure I'll go back unless I'm in the area. Still, it was a pretty good time. Talk Like A Pirate Day doesn't yet rival Halloween or Thanksgiving or even the 4th, but it's gaining ground as one of my favorite secular holidays.

Some thoughts on adventure

2008-09-14T09:50:00.006-05:00

Still sick, although I don't feel nearly as miserable as I did last week. I've decided that I'm getting a flu shot as soon as I'm (temporarily) well again. And maybe an allergy test to be on the safe side. So I can be like: this is me.

So apparently Jenna is in Korea now, which doesn't feel real to me at all. For now I'm going to act like this is some scurrilous rumor; she'll explain everything when I see her on Wednesday.

I'll skip the pseudo-eulogy I would usually give in this situation. Suffice it to say that I'll miss Jenna, and that it's weird (incomprehensible!) to think that I might not see her for a year.

We had a going-away party on Thursday, starting at the Dinkytowner and ending up at the Kitty Cat Klub. Excepting a long-running argument about the merits of Dinosects over Insectosaurs, there was little in the way of conversation that night. But there are many, many pictures.

I was too sick to drink much of anything, so I volunteered to be the designated driver. Jenna had planned on an "early night," but after all the Minnesotan goodbyes it was probably past 1 by the time I dropped off my last passenger and headed home. I slept in the next day; hurrah for flexible work schedules.

Whenever one of my friends goes on an adventure, I wonder if I shouldn't do something too. I mean, I'm young, unattached, self-reliant, usually in good health, and my finances aren't in any sort of trouble. This is the time to do it. And as a former tutor with a master's degree in English, I could presumably get a teaching job in one of any number of interesting places.

On the other hand, I like my current job, I'm presumably getting a raise this November, I like where I live, I have an enviable housemate situation, and I like Minnesota eight months out of the year. I'm also already fairly well-traveled, having spent a good chunk of time in Europe during college.

Also important: I hate starting over. I've had to completely bootstrap a new social life four or five times since high school, and that's not easy or fun. With the Lawrentians scattered to the four winds, most of my social capital is still concentrated here in Minnesota.

(Although that's less true with every passing month.)

So I don't know. I'm not sure whether it would be irresponsible to step off the quality assurance ladder or if it's something I need to do. I'm moderately happy, but am I in a rut, or is this the foundation for the life I want to have? The future is so vague and so malleable...

If I could go somewhere for three or four months this winter without upending my life or draining my finances, I think I would, but I'm not sure that's possible, or where I'd go, or exactly when.

Jenna's been telling everyone to come to Korea and make some money with her and Caitlin, but while the promise of adventure and some familiar faces is tempting, the year-long commitment is more than I could probably handle.

It seems like I'd be putting my life "on hold" for too long, if that even means anything. I don't know that it does — or maybe that's what I've been doing already? I'm well-aware that I've been afraid to take chances these last two years, but I suppose that's a topic for another post.

I do know that I'm jealous of Jenna for doing this instead of getting stuck at Comcast for another year. The status quo is the path of least resistance.

I'll be sticking here (for now?), but I wish her luck.

Our Bold Hero vs. the Common Cold

2008-09-09T21:30:00.003-05:00

It would figure that, with the world ending tomorrow and all, I'd get sick.

Some inconsiderate or careless person no doubt infected me (ladies, there are literally men out there who have never washed their hands after using the restroom), but this is still basically my fault. After successfully staving off infection last week, I got home on Sunday and proceeded to eat nothing but dairy and stay up too late every night. Not a smart plan.

(Although it was worth it, last night, because I unlocked another animal orb in Castle Crashers. Marvel at my enhanced jumping ability!)

During my lunch break today I put in a call to my dad for some free medical advice, went to the grocery store for supplies, and then mounted a total assault on my illness. I hate this cold like Lyle hates hemorrhoids.

Obviously I stayed in tonight. The plan is to be asleep in about 30 minutes because I think this is my last quiet night all week.

Fringe was pretty good, incidentally; Lost fans should give it a look.