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This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.

This collection of entries is from April 2004.

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Friday, April 30, 2004

Another nest

The nest in Carol's truck
Back at the beginning of March, I talked about finding a nest on my engine. Last month, I was going to mention something else, but that's when my website went "Bandwidth Exceeded" and I couldn't blog, and I sort of forgot about it.

You see, on March 27, Carol had went to Jiffy Lube for an Oil Change. Her truck (one of those Suzuki Grand Vitara's) had been running fine except, in the middle of some bad weather, her windshield wipers had stopped working. When the guys started doing their little procedures under the hood, they all kind of stopped and one of them went into the waiting room. "Um, has your truck been running OK?" he asked Carol. She told him about the windshield wipers. "That's it?" "Yeah, why?" "I think we found the problem," he says.

read more of this entry »


posted at 04:33 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Thursday, April 29, 2004

May Sweeps

How the hell did May Sweeps come around all of a sudden??? I mean, it feels like the season just started, and now we have to sit through star-laden season (and series) finales, bad made-for-TV specials, and - even worse - those stupid, stupid, stupid local TV news special reports...

posted at 08:35 PM | Link | TV § |

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

IDES

Made my first call to IDES this morning in this go-around of unemployment. I'm hoping things will work out this year, though I'm not looking at full employment all year long. In other words - I'm hoping to catch the rest of the NMCI projects at Great Lakes, if they'd have me back.

It is windy as hell outside. We've been getting some pretty bad winds over the past month or so, but, damn, these are bad today. It's also 75 degrees out there today - wonder if the two are related.

I know one thing that seems to be related - again.

Almost every year we have had White Sox weekend Season Tickets, we've noticed that the weather just sucks in the spring. It's not every year, but it seems that this is going to be one of those years. I mentioned the crappy weather we had this past weekend. This weekend is supposed to 52 on Saturday (and we have our first night game) and Sunday is supposed to be 46.

Great.

posted at 11:18 AM | Link | Unemployment § |

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

The Mole?!?!?!?!!!!

The Mole
What the... ???? The Game Show Network is showing the first series of one of the best reality shows ever on TV - The Mole! Man, this was the one show that I really wanted to be on...

posted at 09:22 PM | Link | The Mole § |

Monday, April 26, 2004

You think you know people... but it turns out you don't...

I have been obsessing about something since the ballgame. I learned something upsetting yesterday, and I can't put it into words and it's bothering the hell out of me.

We all have people that have come into our lives: Family, close friends, co-workers, acquaintances, friends-of-friends.

The further down the "line of succession" you go, it's more probable that you will know less and less about these people.

read more of this entry »


posted at 05:16 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, April 25, 2004

White Sox 6 - Devil Rays 5

Chicago White Sox Tampa Bay Devil Rays

read more of this entry »


posted at 05:54 PM | Link | White Sox § |

Saturday, April 24, 2004

White Sox 1 - Devil Rays 4

Chicago White Sox Tampa Bay Devil Rays

read more of this entry »


posted at 04:47 PM | Link | White Sox § |
More fraud email...

Not a Nigerian 419 Fraud message, but... how stupid can people get? I hope to God no one actually clicks on these links if they ever get an email like this...

read more of this entry »


posted at 08:11 AM | Link | Nigerian 419 Fraud § |

Friday, April 23, 2004

Wolves 8 - Griffins 2 - West Division Semifinal Game 4

2004 AHL Calder Cup Chicago Wolves Grand Rapids Griffins

SWEEEEEP!!!!

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:38 PM | Link | Wolves § |

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Time to start the rebuild...

The Optiplex is alive...
Well, the new computer has arrived.

It's a 3.2 GHz Dell Optiplex GX270 with a Gig of memory. (I got it as a referb from Dell at a website I never knew they had - The Dell Outlet)

Now it's time to try to install all of my software, transfer some hard disks and hope to God that I didn't lose any data...

posted at 03:15 PM | Link | Computing § |

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Wolves 4 - Griffins 1 - West Division Semifinal Game 3

2004 AHL Calder Cup Chicago Wolves Grand Rapids Griffins

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:10 PM | Link | Wolves § |

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Chilly

Woke up this morning and it was 61° in the house.

We've got one of those situations that's impossible to handle at this time of year. Our upstairs gets very hot in the winter (duh, warm air from the furnace rises), so we close the vents in all the rooms upstairs. That allows us to heat the first floor (where the thermostat is located) to a comfortable level and any excess heat eventually finds its way upstairs. It never gets hot up there - in fact, it's always a bit cool which is fine for sleeping.

In the summer, it's the exact opposite. Turn on the air conditioning, open the vents upstairs, and cool air falls to eventually cool the first floor, still leaving it nice and cool upstairs for sleeping.

Then comes this time of year, where we turned on the air and opened the vents over the weekend and now it's getting down into the 30's at night and we no longer have that perfect mix of warm/cool in the house. Turn on the furnace? We'll be sweating in the bedroom... Don't do anything? Freeze on the first floor...

posted at 08:32 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Monday, April 19, 2004

Snoozy

So, since the weather wasn't the greatest, I was tired and my allergies are still a problem, Indy & I took a few naps today.

Yes, it was a lazy day. Yes I feel lazy. I don't want to touch my computer carcass until the replacement arrives, so I'm, just staying offline and catching-up on some TV viewing.

Ah, laziness...

posted at 05:56 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, April 18, 2004

86°, windy, and having withdrawls

It's actually hot outside. Went out to get some hot dogs for lunch and almost got blown off the road - there's high wind advisories and it's just causing havoc with my DirecTV system (the dish is moving ever so slightly in the wind gusts).

What's bugging me more than the wonderful, though breezy, weather is my dead computer. I have no friggin' idea how much data I may have lost (like how many of the 17,000 digital photos that I had only just started backing-up a week ago). I'm sick about it. I'm not going to touch the box until I start building the new machine - whenever I get it.

posted at 03:35 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Thunderstorm and a crash

Had a great spring thunderstorm sweep over the house at 3am. Love the lightning, though there was very little thunder if at all. And the wind and heavy rain hitting the siding made it feel like we were sleeping inside a dishwasher.

When I woke up and sat down at my computer this morning, it looked like it was in the middle of a reboot - and there it was on the screen. Hard disk drive error. Oh, crap, there goes my life... I've been working on it for a couple of hours - I'm not sure what has happened... Trying to run a CHKDSK...
Update: Now getting Floppy drive not found. What the hell happened? I think I smell ozone...
Update: I get the XP logo and it sits there and works for a bit... then it almost looks like it blue screens and then reboots.
Update: Yep, the machine definitely has an odor when it powers up. That's it - the machine is toast. Hell, it's almost 4 years old... maybe only 3... anyway, time for a refurbed Dell Optiplex... I can only pray that I didn't lose too much data...

posted at 09:58 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Friday, April 16, 2004

Sunny and 82°

YES!!!!! THIS is the kind of weather I've been waiting for!!! I had to actually turn on the air conditioning! So what did I do today?

Nothing.

Took a nap. I'm still not feeling right - it's some kind of upper-respiratory thingy. My first guess is just allergies. Gotta shake this crappy thing...

posted at 05:23 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Thursday, April 15, 2004

1040?

I totally forgot today was tax day, and it was wonderful. This has got to be the first year that we did our taxes early (we desperately needed the tax refund money). Since it was long ago forgotten, I was shocked to see news stories this morning about extended hours at post office locations. I have to admit that this is a pretty good feeling knowing that the whole tax "thing" was taken care of.

posted at 09:11 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

DVD!

Know what I did today? I burned my first DVD. I went out and bought a Sony DRU-530A and some blank DVD-R's and I burned my first video DVD. Very happy with the result, but now I feel the need to look at other authoring software. Anybody have any recommendations?

posted at 08:23 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Home Opener - White Sox 12 - Royals 5

Chicago White Sox Kansas City Royals

read more of this entry »


posted at 08:42 PM | Link | White Sox § |

Monday, April 12, 2004

Sick

That's me. Sick.

It started about 1 yesterday afternoon. My throat started burning. By evening, my eyes were burning. I took some Tylenol Cold stuff when I went to bed ... and didn't fall asleep until after 3am when the medication wore off. I'm cold. I'm cranky.

In case you haven't figured it out by now - I don't do "sick" very well. My first day off in a while and I'm sure the hell not enjoying it.

posted at 11:14 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Happy Easter!

Indy trying to keep her part of the website up and running
Happy Easter everyone.

Indy is busy trying to keep her BunnyCam online and answering a few emails. She always gets quite a few hits on Easter Sunday.

I had no idea what this noise was that I heard coming from my bedroom. Turns out, it was a signal I've never heard before - I got my first honest-to-God text message on my cell phone this morning. Juliet sent me a "Happy bunny day!" message! I guess I'm going to eventually have to learn how to do SMS messaging...

posted at 11:05 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Easter Bunnies
I am re-posting this entry from last year and the year before.

I know I don't get a lot of traffic here at this Blog, but, please, take a moment to read this and help out this cause.

Carol and I have a pet rabbit named Indy (She has her own WebCam over on the Right-hand side of the page, if you want to visit). We love Indy, and have loved the rabbits that have been part of our life over the past 20 years.

Every year, at Easter time, people think about buying a rabbit for their kids. Bunnies really are great, but they have special needs and care and are not like dogs & cats. There are many rabbits that are abandoned each year after Easter when the kids lose interest or when they become a burden to the owners.

If you have a website, please visit the House Rabbit Society's Easter Page and get a banner to put on your page until after Easter (April 11 for those that don't know) to help raise awareness of the problem (I've got mine over on the left side as well). There are also PDF's to print up and post in your cubicle of wherever if you'd like to do that to help spread the word (as well as a damn sad poem that just just rips at our heartstrings).

Indy thanks you and Carol & I thank you.

posted at 10:50 AM | Link | Bunnies | 1 comment § |

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Wolves 1 - Admirals 3

Chicago Wolves Milwaukee Admirals

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:28 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Two in a row...

Two in a row...
Sorry... not much going on in my life, so watching baseball is key.

Two wins in a row against the Yankees.

I like it.

Sorry, Erin.

posted at 02:58 PM | Link | White Sox | 1 comment § |

Friday, April 09, 2004

That's better...

This one felt good...
So the Sox and Cubs start the day even - both with 1-2 records and in 4th place in each of our divisions (OK, tied for 3rd actually). I feel good about that. <snicker>

read more of this entry »


posted at 06:20 PM | Link | White Sox § |
I made the call...

Well, I slept-in as much as I could. Carol is off today, and it's my first day of unemployment this time around. Made the obligatory phone call to my recruiter (I guess that's necessary to tell them "I have completed the project. What else to you have for me?", which - somehow - triggers eligibility for unemployment.

And so it starts again...

At least there's baseball to watch this afternoon...

posted at 11:21 AM | Link | Work § |

Thursday, April 08, 2004

DONE

Juliet's Happy Bunny - let's focus on me
That's it. I'm through.

The day was hard - Jonathan and I had some last minute deployments, orientations, and even some boxing of legacy machines to do. There was paperwork, agreements that these machines have actually been deployed, everyone agrees on the counts, the sign-offs completed. Then - gone. Again, everyone disperses around the country, the project officially closes...

...and the job ends.

Unemployed again, waiting for another project. Or another job.

With the team that we had for this project, even though it wasn't smooth sailing, I'd do it again. Maybe I can later this year - there is one project and potentially a second project later this year with different organizations on the base (one's with the Marines and the other the Naval Hospital). I don't know if we can wait that long without a steady income.

We'll just have to see.

read more of this entry »


posted at 06:13 PM | Link | Work § |

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Wolves 4 - Rampage 3

Chicago Wolves San Antonio Rampage

read more of this entry »


posted at 10:07 PM | Link | Wolves § |
DISBANDED

Most of the NMCI Deployment Team and staff
So, today was the last day of work for my team. My team. I'm still having problems grapsing this meaning, especially when one of the guys, when introducing me to his wife, refered to me as his boss. His boss. As far as I was concerned, I was just one of the team that kind of directed things. We struggled all week to come up with enough work for these guys to do - in the end, it just didn't work out. All they wanted was a full day's work and full day's pay.

I miss these guys already. They made it to the end after all of the cuts we had to do as the project slowly wound down, so you know they had to be good people. Now, they're gone, litterally dispersing across the country.

I miss the lugs.

posted at 06:14 PM | Link | Work § |

Monday, April 05, 2004

Oh, so this is how it's going to be...

What a way to start the season...
How the hell can this happen?

The White Sox are in Kansas City and lead them 7-3 going into the bottom of the 9th.

read more of this entry »


posted at 04:55 PM | Link | White Sox § |

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Peeps!

Peeps at Target
It's that time of year again, when Peeps are flooding store shelves.

Let us not forget the Evil Peeps Bunnies Survival Tests, which always comes up each year, as well as Bunnies Strike Back.

But here's something that I haven't seen until this year (link blatantly ripped from Christine): yes, it's One Peep to Rule Them All - The Lord Of The Peeps!

posted at 10:33 AM | Link | Odd § |
TAR6 Casting, TAR5 Sighting, new rules... and a Big Brother Tie-in?

The Amazing Race 5 THEME
Well, it looks like The Amazing Race 5 is still shooting and has made a stop in Canada. According to the Calgary Sun, the racers had a challenge - either a Roadblock or Detour - at Bow Falls near the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

Also, in something of a shock if you follow the show, casting is now active for The Amazing Race 6, which is due to shoot in August. Applications are due April 13.

Another article also mentions that CBS will couple Big Brother and the Amazing Race to create a two-hour reality block on Tuesdays from 9-11 (8-10 Central). Both shows will have 90-minute season premieres on Tuesday, July 6, and will remain on Tuesdays. (Big Brother 5 will be Tuesday nights 9-10pm ET, Thursdays 8-9pm (evictions live in the eastern timezone), and Saturdays 9-10pm ET.)

In still another twist and tie-in, Big Brother 4 Runner-up Alison Irwin and her boyfriend Donny are one of the teams on Amazing Race 5.

There is a report that The Amazing Race may have two new twists (other than Alison):

During non-elimination weeks, the team that finishes last will be stripped of all their money -- and not be given any coin at the start of the next leg of the race.

There'll also be a new "yield" component to the game that will let each team slow down someone who's lagging behind them in the race. The "yield" can only be used once by each team.

posted at 08:17 AM | Link | Amazing Race § |

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Wolves 2 - Griffins 1

Chicago Wolves Grand Rapids Griffins

read more of this entry »


posted at 11:08 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Crap, that was fun...

Juliet shooting pool at Bumpers
Well, I'm just getting up from a very hard sleep. I went out right after work yesterday to actually hang out with some coworkers and party until midnight. (Hey, midnight was my cutoff time... who knows how long everyone else lasted...) Played a drinking-game version of the card game... um, let's call it "President" as the other name of the game, if spoken on radio or TV may get the FCC upset. I've never played a combo card game/drinking game before, especially one that requires you to changing the seating arrangements around the table with the conclusion of each game. That loosened-up everybody. Then we decided to go to Bumpers to shoot pool and drink even more. So we played pool for at least 3 hours. They had a band there (a local - Khaos Theory) that started up sometime around 10. The place is a bit small for a band - it's hard to talk in the pool hall when you have to actually yell in the person's ear. God I suck at pool. I'm not as good as Juliet or Jonathan, but I think I held me own against everybody else... I think.

So, let's see, what's the tally for the evening... 3 Vodka & Tonics, a Mike's Hard Lemonade, a Washington Apple shot, a shot of Jägermeister, and the one that finally did me in - a shot of Sauza Tequila, I was fine up until then. That's when I got really tired and needed a Coke to start waking me up for the drive home. I hope everyone got home OK.

Damn, that was fun...

posted at 09:29 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Oops

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Apache/1.3.29 Server at www.reallans.com Port 80

Well... what the hell was that all about?

I apologize to those who actually stop by and read this blog. My particular blog page is a bit large and takes a little time to load. Now, I have extra incentive to trim it down as I've actually hit my dandwidth limit for the month of March.

I'm open to technical suggestions on paring down the page.

posted at 09:25 AM | Link | Blogging § |

 

That's it for the entries in this particular Archive of my blog. If you want, you can look through other entries by selecting the links in the right-hand column of this page under either Archives by Month or Archives by Category, or you can search the site for specific keywords by using the Search page.

This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
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