Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

It’s Thursday night and I’m still awake. I’ve slept more in the last two days than in the last month. My internal clock is fuxxored.
Michele cooked up some homemade matzo ball soap today. Delicious! I’ve only eaten soup for the last few days due to my sore throat and the Matzo Ball soup was a treat. Sitting at the table with the girls for dinner was a nice break from sitting on the couch all day.
Oh yes, FUCK Delta Airlines. Due to my throat, I can’t fly to New York for my Alumni Weekend. It is quite a disappointment. I called Delta to tell them I couldn’t make the flight. They said I could postone the exact flight up to a year from when I made the reservation. This doesn’t work since I made the reservation in Sept. and Alumni Weekend ’03 will be in Oct. She siad I could turn my ticket back into frequent fliers miles. Sounds great, right? Then she said I had to pay $100 for the priviledge of not flying on Delta. So it was either pay $100 or lose a frequent flyer flight. Bastards. Go bankrupt on your stupid as fees and nonsensical fare system. I hope Southwest ends up running your stupid asses into a Chapter 11.
On a lighter note, I watched two movies today. I watched The Hidden Fortress and The Last Castle. The Hidden Fortress is one of the Kurosawa films that I haven’t seen. I had heard that Lucas based some of Star Wars on the film. I could see a few ideas, but overall it’s quite a different story. I do think the idea of the lightsaber duel does come from this film. I enjoyed the film, but like many subtitled films, you need to be paying a lot of attention to avoid missing anything. I have to rewind a couple times to catch what was going on. The second film, The Last Castle was good, but not great. Imagine Braveheart taking place inside a prison. The film is well acted but some of the scenes telegraph the plot way in advance.
The rest of the day was filled with weak daytime TV and naps.
Here’s the Friday Five for your amusement:
1. How many TVs do you have in your home?
Two. The 27″ in the front room and the 13″ in the bedroom.
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?
Maybe an hour per weekday and perhaps 2-3 hours per weekend day, depending on what sports are on.
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children?
Nope. There are television programs that are wrong, but television in itsself isn’t bad.
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken?
I’m not really heartbroken over TV shows. I don’t like to miss the Sopranos or Good Eats, but if they spend a couple days on the Tivo, it’s no big deal.
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?
Hrrm. Junkyard Wars, Insomniac, Jeremiah, Sopranos, The Wire, Good Eats, Call for Help, Antique Roadshow, The Daily Show.

Here’s the update. I have strep throat.
I left the meeting this morning early and drove up to see my doctor. He looked in my mouth with his light and said, ‘WOW!’. You really don’t want your doctor saying ‘wow’ when he looks at what is hurting you. He said I have a fairly bad infection and that it will take several days to feel better.
I’ve got a RX for anti-biotics and Vicodin. The Vicodin definitely takes the edge off the pain in my throat, but I’m still stuck eating only soups. I hadn’t eaten much in the last 24 hours and the chicken & rice soup tastes good.
I’m currently laying down on the couch with the laptop. Michele is flittering about like a nervous bird. She really doesn’t like it when I’m sick. I need to be careful to not give this to Michele or the girls.
I’m going to take a nap now. Later.

It’s six in the morning and I haven’t slept much. My throat is swollen, I have chills, and sweats. I think I’m sick.
I spoke to the hotel nurse and she said I should see a doctor in case it’s strep throat. Fuck.
There are two more days of this business meeting here in Anaheim. It would be good to be around, but I can’t even think straight right now.
I don’t want to end up in the hospital again, so I need to go see a doctor today. The joy.

I just got back from Martin’s house. I was trying to ge his computer up and running again. I think I suceeded.
We drank some Michelob Ultra, the low carb beer. Not bad, but not good either.
It’s late, I’m going to sleep. I’ll post more soon. It’s been a busy week.

Michele returns home in a little over 20 hours. After a full week of being a full time dad, I am ready for the arrival of my partner from her trip to Virginia.
The girls are currently in the tub. A 5 mintue break from the action.
I completly replaced the internal workings of the toliet today in my attempt to fix a leak. It was to no avail. After finished the replacement, I still saw a leak. It appears that the one thign I did not replace, the cutoff valve sticking out of the wall, is the leaky bit. To fix theat means anohter trip to the hardware store and then shutting off water to the entire house while I remove and replace the value. That is assuming I can get the valve off. It’s probably been on there for 30 years. If I can’t get it off easily, I’m going to call in the plumber. I do not want to fuck up the pipe in the wall or crack the tile. Where’s my WD-40?
OK, time to get the girls out of the tub.

After a week I finally wrote up our last geocache.
Enjoy the story of our 16th geocaching trip.
I’m going to bed now.

While going through the digital photos that have built up over the last few weeks, I found this gem.

When I was doing work on the girls computer I had to take the outer casing off. Mira decided to become the Kitty. She walked around a bit wearing the case, meowing the whole time. Unspeakably cute, I know.

It’s been a busy weekend. Friday was Brownies and then soccer practice. Saturday was a soccer game then a trip to my parents house. Sunday was a birthday party, a trip to the local fair, and dinner with the Diggs.
We had fun, but I am bushwhacked. After the kids went to bed I got a chance to watch the Sopranos. After that, I started watching Regarding Henry. I almost got sucked fully in, but pulled myself away.
Over the weekend, I d/led Mandrake 9.0 and got it installed on my old drive. It came up OK, but when I tried to upgrade the video drivers to the real Nvidia ones I screwed the entire X11 install to the point that the X server wouldn’t come up. I think I’ll stick to 8.2 until 9.0 gets a little more well supported.
More later…

From the Friday Five:
1. What size shoe do you wear?
9 1/2 or 10
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
8 or so pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of boots.
3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)?
I think that a well made tennis shoe is most comfortable for day to day wear.
4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite?
I like the tennis shoes from Simple Shoes. The do not have big logos or flashy colors. They are simple shoes that are well made and comfortable to wear. They remind me of the Vans shoes I used to wear as a kid. Too bad that Vans shoes these days are crappily made and styled for teenagers.
5. What’s the most you’ve spent on one pair of shoes?
$250, and yes, Michele made me do it.

I am sitting in Round Table Pizza. Thanks to a laptop & Sprint’s wireless net access, I am live on the net.
I headed out to pick up a new cell phone for Michele. Radio Shack had the model she want’s on sale for $99, that’s fifty bucks off the best price I could find on the net. The flyer said the deal was only valid until Friday, so I had to act to save the cash.
Since the last time we visited the Round Table pizza, the girls have wanted to return. The place has a video game section and since the girls are my progeny, they crave video games. They demanded that we eat out dinner at ‘the game place’ and I gave in.
I have a mug of beer, a nice salad, and i’m waiting for the pizza. The girls are playing games. Not a bad way to wait for dinner.
The Angels are playing the Yankees on the TV. I’m not really a big Angels fan, but I’d sure love them to smack the taste out of New York’s mouth and boot them out of the playoffs in the first round.
Check that, it’s San Francisco vs. Atlanta on TV. I hope SF loses.