Out of town

Michele and I went out of town for our Anniversary. The kids were with my parents and Michele made reservations at a hotel in Indian Wells, near Palm Springs.
On the 60 Freeway, there was a brushfire that slowed down traffic to a near halt. We spent 90 minutes going about 8 miles to get past the problem. I was fit to be tied.
Once we made it out toward the desert, we saw the windmills.

Windmills in Palm Desert

There were several hundred large windmills in the canyon valley generating electricity. I twas amzing to see them all spinning.
We got to the hotel, took a break and had a nice dinner. The next morning we ate breakfast outside on the room patio while we watched hummingbirds flit around. Quite relaxing.

Luxurious Breakfast

Michele wanted to do some shopping at the Outlet Center at Cabezon, so we did the tourist thing and wandered around looking for deals. I’m not a big shopper, but I did indulge myself at the Brooks Brothers store. They make a line of dress shirts that are called ‘No Iron’. Take it form me, they really mean it. You can wash the shirt, put in in the dryer and it pops out ready to wear. No ironing needed and it looks great. I cannot resist them.
After our fill of shopping we hit the road for home ready to start the next ten years of marriage.

On the road

Ten Years

Ten years ago today Michele and I stood under a canopy in Cincinnati and said “I do.”.
Ten years has seen us all over the world from China to San Francisco to a Uhaul driving across the midwest.
Ten years has seen the birth of our daughters and the deaths of family members we grew up with.
Ten years has seen us go from a 1200 baud modem to broadband and from one Mac laptop to six PCs.
Ten years has seen us go from unruly to respectable and from young to ‘aging well’.
Ten years of reading the newspaper together every morning.
Ten years of arguing the value of video games.
Ten years of arguing the value of art.
Ten years of gaining new friends and drifting from old ones.
Ten years of dealing with her endless bottles of ‘product’ in the bathroom.
Ten years of dealing with my endless numbers of t-shirts.
Ten years of unfunny fraternity jokes and confusing photography and quilting facts.
Ten years, and we still argue about how to organize the fridge.
Ten years and she still leaves the butter out till it melts.
Ten years and I still don’t pick up my socks.
Ten years of love and happiness.
Ten years I wouldn’t change.

Coyote

Today Michele and I saw a coyote.
Last night around four-something in the morning Michele heard sirens and cops and firemen show up behind our house. Behind our house is a power line right-of-way (think open space), and behind that is a small apartment building. Of course, I slept through this and only woke up when the turned on the friggin’ chainsaw at about five.
We went outside to see what they were doing, but with my eyes, I couldn’t see crap and went back to bed. Michele’s conjecture was that they were removing a 800 lb. person from the apt. and were widening the door with the chainsaw. I asked, “Why would they do that at 5AM?”, turned over and went back to sleep.
After taking the kids to school, we drove around back to see what had happened to the building. Evidently there had been a small fire and the firemen had been using the chainsaw in some fireman way.
I looked into the right-of-way and saw a coyote.


I tried to sneak closer for a better shot with the trust phonecam, but the coyote started to walk away. Immediately, I ran after the coyote. Don’t know what I was doing by running after the coyote or what I would if I caught up to it…
Just something in the back of the brain saying strongly to me, “GET COYOTE NOW!!!”. Instinct ranks high in my book and I tend to follow it. So there I was in my work clothes, running flat out after a coyote at 8:30 in the morning for no apparent reason.

The D

Tonight I was folding laundry and watching my DVD of Tenacious D, the greatest band in the world.
Michele walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom while the video for Tribute was playing. I said, “Shel, check it out, it’s Tenacious D!” She watched the end of the video.
I said, “Do you want to watch a few of their short movies?”, and I picked up the remote to play one. She said she just wanted to go to sleep. I replied, “But it’s Tenacious D…”.
Then she said, “Tenacious D sucks.”
Anyone know a good divorce attorney?
UPDATE: Michele has responded…

Passkilling

Once again this week, Michele noticed that the Sopranos had not been recorded to Tivo on Sunday night. WTF? This happened two weeks ago as well and was a pain to get a copy.
We’ve been noticing that several shows that we have on Season Passes for are missing shows that should have been recorded. I was a bit baffled as to the problem and started checking the To Do List to ensure that everything was scheduled correctly.
This morning Michele and I realized what the trouble was. It’s the kids.
We’ve known for a while that the girls can drive the Tivo remote like pros. What we’ve figured out is that the girls can be watching TV and the “Tivo wants to change the channel to record * ” dialog box comes on screen. Since we have season passes to a variety of shows it’s usually OK if an episode of Good Eats or The Saddle Club is missed. The trouble is that the girls are willing to cancel and kill any show that tries to get recorded when they are watching TV.
The girls also know how to record a show they are watching and are will to tell Tivo not to record the previously scheduled show. Damn smart kids…
I’m not sure how to deal with this situation, but I have named it.
Passkilling is when someone cancels a Tivo request to change channels and record a Season Pass show.
A Passkiller is someone who cancels an in-progress Season Pass recording or cancels a channel change request.
Can anyone else share passkilling stories? What essential TV have you missed due to passkillers?

Sunday stuff

I still haven’t finished my E3 stuff yet. I suck. I know.
Dad Stuff
Zoe and I went to a horse show where she won her event.


She’s becoming quite the horsewoman.
Other stuff
My project for the day was making some pulled pork. I bought a pork shoulder at the supermaket. I had spoken to Martin about it previously and had my game plan laid out.

I put my smoke rub on the shoulder and got the smoker smoking.

This is what the shoulder looked like after eight hours in the smoker.

The pork fell apart in my hands and I was able to easily shred it and discard the bones. The fat had all melted away and the meat was easy to handle.
I made a BBQ sauce based on KC Masterpiece that I found on the net. The sauce was pretty good, but a little vinegary. Perhaps overnight in the fridge will mellow it a bit.