mdlbear | Done last week (20121221 Fr

We had a good Christmas weekend. And week, for that matter, though it had its major low points as well. Monday -- Christmas Eve -- was the worst, between Colleen's temporary crown coming off, her scooter battery not charging, the fact that I hadn't bought any stocking stufers... Add back pain, sleep dep from a long night Friday (don't ask), and general grumpiness.

At least I actually noticed that I was depressed, angry, disappointed, and anxious. (And that the anger and disappointment were largely directed at myself, as usual.) Things improved from that point, thankfully. The evening and Christmas were lovely, with Naomi and her kids, Chaos and Rabbit, and Chip and Eli on Christmas.

We had roast beef on Monday, and borscht on Tuesday. I think the borscht was my best ever.

Boil about 3 lbs of beef roast, an onion, two carrots, four peppercorns, and two bay leaves in water to cover for about two hours, until the meat is cooked and the veggies are nearly falling apart.

Meanwhile, cut the tops and tails off three or four bunches of beets, and roast them at 350 degrees until you can push a fork through a beet. This takes an hour or so.

While the beets are cooling and the beef is boiling, cut three parsnips, four turnips, and four carrots into julienne strips.

Set the meat aside, and toss the veggies.

Put the cut-up veggies into the broth, and start peeling and cutting up the beets. Expect to be caught red-handed.

Add the beets to the broth. Shred half a red cabbage and toss that in,

Cut up the beef and toss that in. Add a little more water if it looks like it needs it.

Serve with sour cream and dill.

Tasty. We have, of course, been eating left-over roast beef and borscht all week. Only the YD is complaining; Colleen and I are not.

Naomi gave me a lovely REI Quantum Shoulder Bag for Christmas; it seems to want to be called "Red". I think her real name is Veronica, but she won't admit to it.

Red is about half an inch too short for my 15" work laptop -- the two corners stick out like little silver ears. Terribly cute. It can be forced into the main compartment, but my plan is simply to put a waterproof flap over it in bad weather. Other than that it's perfect; I really like having a bag that zips on top instead of having a flap, stays vertical when I swing it around to the front, and holds 9x12 envelopes without crumpling them.

A reasonably productive, if short, week at work. I made several stupid mistakes, but was able to recover fairly quickly thanks to git.

The usual collection of good links. Cringely has a post on Reagan and Newtown, about how Reagan destroyed the country's mental health system. There weren't nearly as many homeless people before Reagan, either -- there were places where crazy people could go to be taken care of. I read that Monday morning; it added to my depression.

Every once in a while I want to take a vacation -- just me, and nobody I had to be responsible for. *sigh*

1221 Fr
  * up 6:18; W=202.4; d, n, t, h, l; 
  * as expected, the world didn't end.
  * 3pm - launch party at work.  Beer and food.  
  * Dinner with Chaos, Rabbit; Blue Fin sushi and seafood buffet.  A little
    pricey.  Could have sworn there was a Blue C in Northgate, but I was
    apparently thinking of the one in Alderwood.
  & 4:30am bed

1222 Sa
  * up 11:10; W=202.2; d, n, t, h, l; 
  * Chaos mentioned LARPers making cloaks out of old army blankets, so I gave her one.
    Always fun when I can pull a rabbit out of the hat like that.
  * Shopping with Colleen and both daughters at Northgate.  Fortunately, with
    Colleen's scooter, we don't *need* a handicap spot.
  @ Grapefruit and Drugs Often Don't Mix - NYTimes.com 
  @ The Power of Concentration - NYTimes.com Holmes and the Buddha
  $ 500 to Chaos
  % conical glasses can be somewhat deceptive.  Chaos didn't want any of the
    last batch of gin, which was slightly more than one normal serving.  Cheers!
  : dumb bear.  Norwescon sold out.  I *knew* that would happen!  For Norwescon,
    let's go for La Quinta - reasonable rates; get an ADA king room with
    rollaway.
  * Consonance hotel:
    https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=10147011 

1223 Su
  * up 8:10; W=200.2; d, n, t, l; exercise
  * started carnitas in the crock pot.  Still partly frozen; I put in a little
    water for steaming, and used the small crockpot for better seal and better fit. 
  @ Why Walking through a Doorway Makes You Forget: Scientific American Fascinating!
  * grocery shopping with Chaos and Cat.  Kat and Cat?  Anyway.  Colleen was
    thinking that the Christmas farmer's market was this weekend.  It wasn't.
    I'm guessing last week.
  * Christmas shopping with Naomi.  REI and Barnes and Noble.  Lunch at YuShan

1224 Mo
  * up 9:10; W=200.8; d, n, t, l; light
  @ Reagan and Newtown - I, Cringely R. destroyed the country's mental
    health system.  There weren't nearly as many homeless before Reagan, either.
  * Colleen's temporary crowm came out; closest appointment is Thursday noon.
  & scooter battery not charging; no stocking stuffers bought.  
    ! depressed, angry, disappointed, anxious, annoyed.  At least I _noticed_
      that I'm depressed, which is unusual for me.
    % I want very much not to be the one that everyone else is depending on.
    % I want a vacation, all by myself, far away.  I know I can't have one.
  " Oh, and Colleen's temporary crown came out, and the appointment for getting
    it put back in is Thursday at noon.  So that's definitely a WFH day.  And
    much as I'd like to spend it actually working, I'm more likely to be
    spending it chasing after a set of scooter batteries. 
  * Kat and James, Naomi and the kids over for roast beef dinner.
  * started upgrading Barnard (Kat's netbook)  This required resizing the
    partitions to give her more room in root.  Started upgrade to 11.10.
    Booting from my USB drive is slow, but it works well for gparted and serves
    as a good test of whether 12.04 will run after it's installed.

1225 Tu Christmas
  * up 6:50; W=200; d, n, t, l; hair, Exercise, dishes, light
  * Completed Kat's upgrade to 11.10, started 12.04.  Stupidly forgot to do an
    apt-get clean, but squeaked through the second upgrade.  Just barely.
    Almost(?) all of the space came back after the cache clean.  
  * The kids gave me a very sweet card.
  * 11ish: borscht started.  Using the large stockpot, not the giant one.
  * 2:30ish: borscht finished.  Only used half of the cabbage.
  * N and the kids arrive
  * Chip and Eli arrive
  @ Stewart's Meat Market, 17821 State Hwy 507, Yelm, Washington 98597
  * WFH
  * REI Quantum Shoulder Bag from Naomi.  Only catch is that it's spec'ed
    for a 14" laptop, and the compartment is about 1cm too short for the
    macbook.  There's a little strap that keeps it in, so the fact that it
    doesn't zip is only a problem in bad weather, when one can force it into the
    main compartment or maybe put a bag over it, or make a flap.  The organizer
    doesn't have quite as many pockets as I'd like, but that's minor; I'll
    probably change my wallet, perhaps to a small shoulder bag like the
    mini-sidekick.  It's very comfortable, in a wide variety of positions, and
    it's right side up when hauled around to the front, which is a huge plus
    over my last two sling bags.  Overall huge win.
  : Naomi gave J. a cute little Kocaso Android Mini Netbook - surprisingly capable.
    Running Android 4.0; has ethernet, HDMI, 2xUSB.  I was startled to see a
    PPOE setting - you could easily use it as a router.  Somewhere around $70. 
    It's aimed squarely at kids, but it's a real Android machine inside.
  @ Flip Ahead and Fast Forward. Providing hints to detect the next page 
    [link rel=next... ]

1226 We
  * up 6:20; W=200; d, n, l; light
  @ Everything You Need To Know About LinkedIn Endorsements - Forbes 
  * reasonably productive at work.
  : leftovers for dinner.  This is not surprising.  YD somewhat under the
    weather.  Hope it isn't serious.
  & 10:15 very sleepy - head off to bed.

1227 Th
  & awake 5:30; laundry, cuddle
  * up 6am; W=201.2; d, n, t; exercise, dishes
  ~ WFH -> N. will be Colleen's taxi.  YAY!
  * 12:20 Colleen - dentist
  * walk:  4th ave to Jackson, back on 3rd.  ~40min, so ~2mi.
    lunch at the Thai place in the building at 3rd and Marion.

1228 Fr
  * up 7:10; W=202.6; d, n, t, l; dishes
  * late getting to work, and quite late getting home
  & some stupid mistakes at work, resulting in my having to do some stuff over.
    No great loss -- the first time was when I did all the learning.  Should
    probably do my work on a private branch, though, to make merging Cos's
    changes easier.  It'll let me rebase.
  : an old friend from SCA days has pancreatic cancer.  Maybe a month.  FUCK CANCER.