![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Done last week (20131222 Su - 28 Sa)
2013-12-29 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbearLast week we celebrated our first Christmas in Rainbow's End -- Colleen, me, and both of our kids; Naomi, Glenn, and her kids. The pile of presents under the tree was impressive. We never did find the ornaments, lights, and stockings from the apartment -- they must be there someplace. In a box.
Afterwards a succession of friends and relatives came by. Fun, and cozy. I set up the old TV in the Great Room (where the fireplace used to be), and put on a fireplace video (from YouTube, of course). Eventually we'll move the screen up to the master bedroom. The new one is a 38" Westinghouse that Office Max had on sale for an improbably low price the week before last.
It was also my first paid Christmas in Seattle -- I started work as a full-time employee at Amazon on Monday. This meant a week's worth of breaking in a new laptop (easy, since I don't use Windows for much of anything) and desktop (hard, because persuading Ubuntu to play nice with a guest VM turns out to be non-trivial, especially if, like me, you prefer focus-follows-mouse and raise-on-focus.
I also made reservations at The Herbfarm. And, last night, reservations at the Willows Lodge next door, since I finally figured out that I'd be in no shape to drive home after a 9-course dinner with wine. Pricey, but it looks wonderful. It's still cheaper than a weekend at a con, with hotel and meals. Which is kind of scary. Hmm.
We finished off the week with last night's concert at Wayward Coffeehouse -- Sunnie Larsen, Betsy Tinney, and Kaide Tinney. Fun! We went to the Indian restaurant next door for dinner.
... and some lovely cat cuddles with Curio when I was awake at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. I am so pwned.
Links in the notes, as usual.
1222 Su
* up 7ish; W=207.4; d, n; shower
* track down SS card for i9 -> wasn't in the safe, but in a stack of cards from the last
time I changed my wallet, months ago. Silly old bear!
* Colleen's tablet shut itself off and refuses to turn on. It shut itself off yesterday
but at least it rebooted. Growf! Getting more and more fed up with Samsung.
-> bad charger cable, as it turns out. It was an old Kindle cable :P
* Request reservations at Herb Farm for Jan 10
* set up to hang stockings (Add walldog hooks; string rope across the fireplace)
* wrap presents
* clean lower oven (scrape out mess, put in clean mode)
* 15min: move powerstrip to the space between the chairs in the Rainbow Room; it's a
part of the chairside table originally intended as a magazine holder, so it's safe.
& making chicken tikka masala for dinner because it's that or leftovers, and it's
easier. Having a glass of sherry because we're out of gin.
% I'm exhausted; not sure why; probably stress. Probably? Stress.
! down. Was pretty contented this morning; now stressed and mildly depressed.
% at least I seem to be getting somewhat better about noticing my moods. Of course,
there aren't all that many of them.
% Actually found myself telling myself to calm down and breathe at one point. Cool!
* went upstairs 10ish; started going to sleep around 11
1223 Mo
* up 6am; W=207.2; d, n
o leave by 7am for NHO
@ Litany For A Season of Night and Storm
@ 5 Lies You Were Told about Grief. | Rebelle Society (dsmoen - “Getting Over” Grief: Yeah, Right)
"5. The Lie: Time heals all wounds.
The Truth: The truth is there are losses you never get over. They break you to pieces
and you can never go back to the original shape you once were, and so you will grieve
your own death with that of your beloved lost."
@ The Joy of Tech comic... The Cat Carol very sad, but sweet
1224 Tu
* up 6:30; W=207.2; d, n
@ Pandora Celtica - Mega Music Download Page
* went to old office hoping to get data off desktop; discovered that I had packed the
wrong cable for my portable hard drive. :P Lugged it back to new office and fired up
rsync.
* Heiffer contrib - a goat and a "flock of hope"
: Yummy roast beef for dinner - Emmy, Glenn, and G (with help from Kat and the Cheshire)
have been cooking all afternoon.
1225 We Christmas
* up 8:45; W=208.2; d, n
* Opened prezzies 10ish, after everybody was up. Our first Christmas at Rainbow's End.
It's a lot of fun having small kids around again.
* Installed new TV (easy) and set up a fireplace loop on the old one, on the great room
hearth. Hard, because I had to find a charger with a decent Acer tip -- turned out
the iGo was the only one that worked. Will have to order some more.
* ordered a couple of iGo chargers from Amazon.
1226 Th
* up 6:40; W=209.8; d, n
* Spent pretty much the entire day struggling with Ubuntu and my development VM
-> eventually decided to give up and run the virt headless. This will work better
anyway, because it has enough cores and RAM to go around.
1227 Fr
* up 7:10; W=209.0; d, n
* left the netbook at home.
* Added a second monitor to my desktop box, and now things work like they did on the old
one. :P Annoying.
@ The Entire IPCC Report in 19 Illustrated Haiku | Sightline Daily f(Tom Smith)
* took work laptop home; signed up for benefits. FSA is still capped at 2500, thanks to
the ACA. So that sucks. We really could have used $5K last year.
1228 Sa
* up 8:45; W=208.4; d, n
: The washer/drier has a clogged drain pump, thanks to my not cleaning out the filter.
Will probably require repair.
@ The Ancient Greeks' 6 Words for Love (And Why Knowing Them Can Change Your Life) by
Roman Krznaric — YES! Magazine (ysaetwordsmith, who suggests "collect the whole set")
@ Over-Extended Metaphor for the day - Charlie's Diary (gmcdavid)
@ All Linux Distributions Store Wi-Fi Passwords in Plain Text If You Don’t Use
Encryption, but it's not a serious problem: one shouldn't count on WiFi
encryption to do anything but keep spammers and other riffraff off your network.
* Shopping - gin, eggs, supplies for Colleen, catfood, piggiefood, etc.
@ Surveillance marketing meets sales norms
: Maybe not -- sounded like it was draining now.
* confirm credit card info at HerbFarm - had to give them another; the WF Visa didn't go
through, but the SW Visa did. Go figure -- that's the one I had trouble with last.
* Called Mom to wish her a happy 93rd birthday; missed her callback because concert
* 7:00 concert at Wayward: Sunnie, Betsy, and Kaide. YD has a date; Colleen and I plan
to drive around some, then go around 5pm for Indian
* Ordered my (free with Kickstarter support) tickets for Betsy's concert on the 11th
& Booked the ADA room at the Willows Lodge for the 10th around the Herb Farm dinner.
Weekend after next is going to be busy.
@ Historian Says Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife - NYTimes.com
: YD and date left after the first set.
* posted party invite on FB, DW, LJ (at Colleen's prompting)
& wakened at 3:30; got up 4:30ish, put on a bathrobe, and went downstairs in search of
something to read. Ended up with an extended cuddle with Curio, and a pleasant hour
or so of catching up on my browser tabs.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-01 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-29 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-29 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 01:54 am (UTC)This will be my fourth trip. It makes for a rather expensive weekend, but actually not as expensive as a con with meals in the hotel all weekend.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 01:58 am (UTC)It's hectic, especially Q4, but there's a lot of team spirit and a really collaborative, customer-oriented corporate culture.