Day 87: Star of Indi-blah (or, Spice Dildo)

On an IM conference about lunch today, I had the misfortune of being the one whose comments couldn't been seen by the others (Yahoo's latest updates have screwed up conferences when someone's on a Mac). Only Trish could see me, not Barbara or Tom. So Barbara took advantage of the situation to suggest lunch at Star of India. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the biggest fan of Indian food. But, what the hell. They should have tandoori chicken, and maybe they had biriyani, which I discovered I actually like. Plus, I'd spent the past couple days, including that morning, catching up on scanning photos from last year's trip to India, so it seemed oddly appropriate. So Barbara, Trish, Tom, Kristi, and I set off to meet for Indian food.

At the restaurant, they sat me and Trish (the first ones to arrive) at a table in the middle of the restaurant. Trish requested we be moved to a table out of the way, because as a group we tend to get, uh, loud. Turned out to be a good call. And given that Trish gave Barbara a shrink-wrapped spice dildo, which of course led the conversation into the gutter, it's good we weren't in the middle of the restaurant. (The "dildo" was actually a garlic salt refill, but it was shaped ... oddly for a spice. We tried hard to convince Trish she needed to change the shape of the refill.)

Turned out the buffet did include biriyani. And it was ... blah. Overall the buffet was okay, but it didn't convince me to come back.

But as our loud group was joking about something, mostly likely something inappropriate, I suddenly saw Craig's face peering at us from behind a wall. Yes, it truly is the year of running into people. I mean, what are the odds that Craig would be at an Indian restaurant at the same time I am, given that I go to Indian restaurants, well, practically never? So Craig stopped in to say hi and to marvel at the spice dildo.

After lunch I headed to Best Buy to finally replace my DVD player, which went on the fritz back in the spring. Back home, it was time to perform surgery on my desktop. I needed to upgrade my video editing software, but I was practically out of room on my hard drive. So it was time to swap in a new drive and reinstall all my software. Putting in the drive was the easy part. Copying over all my files was boring...

Day 86: Triumph and defeat

I realized when I left to meet Tom and Trish at Triumph Cafe (hmm, all T's except me...) that I hadn't actually driven anywhere in 2 1/2 days. But it's not like I'd been sitting around at home doing nothing either.

Anyway, Trish was running really, really late, so Tom and I had pretty much finished our lunch by the time she arrived. Then we had to find a shady table because it ended up being too hot outside in the sun. So much for fall. And by the time we actually left the restaurant, it was nearly 3 pm. Even by our standards that was a long lunch.

I decided to run some errands, and this one in particular meant heading for 2222. Which coincidentally was also Trish's exit. So while I was stopped at the light, Trish pulled up next to me and rolled down her window. As I rolled mine down, she proved how predictable I am by simply asking, "Dragon's Lair?"

Yes, sadly, my big errand was to go to pick up my weekly fix of comics at Dragon's Lair. And Trish knew immediately.

We continued our conversation through our windows until the light turned green and kept chatting at the next light. Then she split off for her house and I continued on for my quick dash into geeksville.

Back home, I continued scanning year-old vacation photos while researching the issues on the ballot for today's elections. For some reason, even though I had every chance in the world to go vote early the week before, I waited till Election Day itself. Getting my wireless working again had been more important than voting. Go figure. I also had a meeting downtown that evening for the six-man football movie I'm going to help edit, so I figured it'd be easier to just vote on the way to the meeting. How many people vote on an off year anyway?

Turns out, quite a few people vote if you dangle the Gay Boogeyman in front of them. I ended up waiting in line about 20 minutes to vote. I'd expect that in a congressional or presidential election, but in an odd-numbered year? But what did I know; I'd never voted in an odd-numbered-year election myself. And I only voted because of Proposition 2, and I figured my vote would be drowned out anyway. Which it was.

Then I headed into the heart of rush hour for my meeting downtown. What fun. I took some back roads to avoid the stop-and-go traffic, but in the end it probably wasn't any faster.

NOTE: In case you'd already read Day 81 before this entry, I just updated that day.

Day 85: Homebody

For some reason, I never got around to leaving the house today. Other than going out into the yard a couple times. I was even good about not eating out for lunch or dinner. I kept busy on the computer all day, scanning vacation photos from a year ago while modifying this spreadsheet I'd made for to keep track of our fantasy football stats. Tom helped me beta test it. Yeah, I know, not exactly an earth-shattering accomplisment. I also watched Warm Springs, an HBO movie about FDR's fight with polio. Pretty good film...

Day 84: Belly up to the Genius Bar

Bob had a hankering for lunch, so he, Tom, and I met at Mangia. Turned out my frequent diner card was full, so my lunch was free!

After lunch, I headed back to Apple Store. This time, I made an appointment online first. I got there about half an hour early, so I had to wait around for a bit, but they did get to me during my estimated time slot (it's no guarantee you'll get called at your appointment time). There were even more people in the store than there had been the day before. Most of the Genius Bar questions seemed to be iPod-related, but a lot of people were browsing the computers and even buying some. Apple's definitely got itself back in people's minds, and not just for iPods.

The Apple Genius that helped me went through all the troubleshooting steps I'd already done at home and confirmed that yes, my Airport base station wasn't receiving signals through the ethernet port. It was covered under my iBook extended warranty, but they didn't have any replacements in stock, so they had to order it. What sucks is that they would end up replacing it with the same model, which is almost 3 years old, rather than just giving me a new modern one. Oh well. At least it was covered.

It was about rush hour time again, but no one was ready to leave work for an early happy hour, so I headed back home. This time I avoided most of the traffic by taking 360 instead of Mopac, so I got home pretty quickly. Then it was back to editing Tom's business plan. I finally finished it and sent it back; I made so many comma-related edits that Tom said I'd been a "commakaze" about it.

That evening I met Anita and Bob at the Draught House for a beer; then we headed to Manuels for dinner before seeing Shopgirl.

Day 83: An interview and an Apple

My wireless hub still wasn't working, but I remembered that it might be covered under the extended warranty for my iBook, so I decided I'd head to the Apple Store and see. Glad we have one in town now.

I spent part of the morning editing Tom's business plan for the movie he's producing. Then I had to leave for an interview! Well, sort of. I met with the recruiter who'd called me the day before. Afterwards, she said she'd submit my resume to the client and let me know.

Then, it was off to the mall. I thought I'd see what the Apple Store could do about my wireless hub. Turns out, you have to make an appointment with an "Apple Genius" at the "Genius Bar" before they can really help you, and in the afternoons, the wait can be 2 hours or more. Hmm. Though you can set up an appointment from home on the web beforehand. Wish I'd known that. But I decided to take a shot, and I needed to eat lunch anyway. So I hit the foot court to eat some free samples before getting lunch where I already knew I was going to eat. I went back to the Japanese stir-fry restaurant where I had met the Indonesian and Malaysian employees weeks earlier.

It's amazing how many people there are at the mall at 2 pm in the middle of the week.

After about an hour, I'd done pretty much all I could at the mall. When I was a kid, I could spend hours at the mall. Now, if I'm not doing any real shopping, I get bored real quick. Barton Creek Mall has set up little oasises (oases?) where they put comfy recliners for you to take a load off. I actually took a couple of naps in those chairs while waiting for the Mac Geniuses to get to me. (And, as much as I love Apple products, even I think it's stupid to have something called the Genius Bar staffed my Apple Geniuses. Although I do have to say, the Apple Store was getting constant foot traffic).

As 4 o'clock approached, I decided it was time to leave. I didn't want to get stuck in rush-hour traffic. So I left. Still got caught in some slowdowns around downtown, but it wasn't too bad. Except that my trip had sorta been a waste of time.

Today, it was Phoebe's turn to throw up. Okay, that was enough, so I gave both Phoebe and Meeka anti-hairball medicine. But Phoebe's voice sounded a little strained, so I decided to stay home a bit and make sure she was okay rather than leave early to practice tennis with Craig and Dave. So I settled on the sofa with the girls to watch a couple hours of TV.

By evening, Phoebe seemed fine, so I felt comfortable leaving to go Guys' Night Out (GNO) at 219 West. Talk about a happy hour deal: six of us had dinner (consisting mostly of mini-burger appetizers) and 4-5 rounds of beer ... for a grand total of $66 before tip! Daaaaamn...

Day 82: Unemployed Guy to the rescue yet again

Was kinda groggy today for some reason. Took awhile for the gears in my brain to start clicking in sync. So when I went to Taco Deli to meet Trish, Tom, and Kristi for lunch and heard my name being called and saw someone who wasn't any of those three people, I probably looked very confused. Turned out, Hope was also at Taco Deli, waiting for Kurt. Then Kristi was trying to get my attention too, so I got really confused. Trish had already gotten a table for us, which was good because it got so crowded, Hope and Kurt decided to eat next door at Mangia instead.

This year really has been the year of running into people. I used to almost never run into people I knew. Now it happens all the time. Wonder what's changed.

Being the busy guy that he is, Tom is working on another movie unrelated to the one I may be helping to edit. He's actually the producer on this one, which means he needs to have a business plan. So who might have time to edit such a PDF file? Unemployed Guy! So I spent a good part of the afternoon reading through his biz plan and doing a thorough edit.

Meeka threw up again, though. This time, it was definitely a hairball. Cat vomit is usually an occasional thing, but sometimes there are a few clustered around a week's time for some reason. And then nothing for months. I wondered if it was the changing weather causing her stomach to be upset.

The rest of the day was also filled with the usual computer/TV stuff. No PS2, though! Also, a recruited contacted me about a contract job. The pay rate was lower than I want to take, but I figured I should at least look at it, so we made an appointment to meet the next day.

Day 81: Unemployed Guy answers the call again

One thing I forgot to mention in Day 80: As I was shopping at HEB, having fled from the approaching storm to avoid being in my house listening to thunder all around, I still couldn't quite escape the nasty side of electricity. I don't know how it happened, but as I was reaching for a bag of chips to entertain those who might go over that night to watch Monday Night Football ... the goddamned shelf shocked me! My fingers grazed the metal rack, and I heard a loud pop and felt a big shock. Not a tiny shock like you get in wintertime when you walk across carpet in socks. This hurt! And later on another aisle, I got another shock from a shelf, though this time it was more like those winter shocks.

In all the years I've gone grocery shopping, I've never gotten a shock from a shelf in the store. Never. I didn't even think it was possible. I mean, the floor is tile! And sure, I had one hand on the metal grocery cart both times it happened, but aren't the tires insulating? Let alone ... may I repeat ... the tile floor?!? What the hell?!

Now, on to Day 81. My wireless hub still wasn't working, so I was reduced to surfing on my laptop connected with an ethernet cable. Oh poor me. It was mildly inconvenient, but not as aggravating as everything had been the day before.

I can't remember, but I don't think I went out for lunch this day. On the other hand, Meeka vomited a couple of times. Seemed like she ate her food too fast.

I finally finished watching Scent of a Woman. Al Pacino's character wasn't quite as annoying as I thought he'd be, given the clips I'd seen over the years.

I also got a job. Well, a non-paying one. I agreed to help edit a documentary ... no pay, though. Tom's been helping on this documentary on six-man football in small-town Texas, and they're pressed for time and understaffed, so ... Unemployed Guy to the rescue again! Should be good real-world experience, at least. Could use some resume-building in the film editing arena, after all.

The highlight, though, was heading downtown to the courthouse to photograph Andrew and Liz's wedding. The civil ceremony, that is; their wedding ceremony is later this month. The building felt old and musty, and it was very quiet inside the judge's office. Liz and Andrew were giddy and nervous at the same time. I used Andrew's digital camera to record every step. I'd never seen a j.p. service before. I thought you needed a witness and all that, but I didn't have to sign anything. So it was just me, Andrew, Liz, and the judge, who was very friendly. Before doing anything, he asked each of them about themselves and their professions and the like. It was all very laid back.

Afterwards, we went to Halcyon (nee Ruta Maya) for snacks and coffee. Andrew and Liz were now giddy and kinda in awe of it all. They were married!!

Oh, I should also note there was a mass of media vans outside the courthouse to see them march into wedded bliss. Either that or they were there to cover Tom DeLay's trial. Not sure which...

Day 80: Running from the storm

The morning was fairly uneventful. I invited people over to watch the Steelers face the Ravens on Monday Night Football and settled down to watch some TV. I was even good about eating lunch at home for once. But I was down to almost nothing as far as groceries went. I figured I couldn't put it off any longer. So as I grabbed the remote to turn off the TV, I accidentally changed the channel to News 8 Austin in the middle of a weather report. First thing I saw was a huge red and yellow line of clouds just northwest of Austin. I hadn't even known there was a chance of rain. Turned out, it was a fairly severe line of thunderstorms ... heading our way.

Oh joy. Last thing I wanted to do was sit in my house as a bad storm pounded away, flinching at every nearby crackling boom of thunder, wondering which one would strike my roof. I looked at the radar, looked at the ominous gathering of clouds outside, and decided to be a chickenshit. So I fled to HEB ahead of the approaching storm, partly to do much-needed groceries, and partially to avoid sitting nervously in my house.

I pulled into the parking lot as the rain started to come down. After I ran inside, it really started to pour. The water was pounding the roof of the store so hard it sounded like we were under Niagara Falls. I heard a few booms of thunder, but nothing that sounded severe. This seemed to be a rain-heavy storm but not too bad electrically.

As the rain started to taper off, I headed back home. Everything seemed fine. Didn't even appear to have lost power for a second. But I still felt like a coward. Phoebe and Meeka greeted me at the door immediately, which is unusual, because they usually take a minute or so to stretch from their sleeping positions and head to the front door when I come home. And both Andrew and Tom, who work within a mile and a half of my house, commented over IM on how bad the storm had sounded. Not just the rain, but the lightning. Turns out it might've been similar to the storm that had caused me so much annoyance 4 months ago. So while I was glad I hadn't been sitting around alone in my house trying to anticipate each lightning strike, I still felt like a coward and a total chickenshit. I felt bad for leaving the girls too, as they were a little on edge for a while after the storms passed. It was probably best I wasn't at home for the storm, but still.

Then I realized that my internet access was now mysteriously slow. I could get through on IM, but web surfing or email was slow to non-existent. It didn't seem like my cable modem had been affected, but who knows. So I went through troubleshooting every component. Nothing. The speed issue was even more prominent now. Yet all the correct lights were blinking the way they should. There was no apparent reason for the problems. Time Warner's tech support found no problem with the lines in my area either. So with each failed attempt to solve the problem, my frustrations grew. And grew. And grew.

Fortunately, I live a mile away from the Time Warner Cable office, so I made a quick run there to exchange the cable modem. I hoped it was as simple as that. Maybe a power surge had gotten to the modem through the cable line. Though why it would only partially damage it? But I had to try.

But no. Like a casino that's sold all its gambling equipment, no dice. The problem wasn't any better. It even seemed to be getting worse. So my frustrations boiled over. I yelled myself hoarse. I was, to say the least, pissed. It wasn't just the internet access, of course. After months of enjoying my layoff times, I was starting to get a little annoyed with promising leads falling through here and there. And also, I was also getting tired of losing my tennis matches on the weekends, being dead last by a long shot in our Tom-organized NFL picks league and also being the cellar-dweller in our NFL fantasy football league. (Yes, I was 2nd place in our college picks league, but I do that by using a strict formula that works well, so I don't see that as a reflection of my ability to pick winners. It's stupid, I know).

I was tired of losing, period. Even though these were all stupid small things. But it added up, and losing my internet access for no apparent reason after cowardly fleeing a bad storm was the last straw.

But then dusk fell and I had to put on a happy face to hand out candy. I retrieved my jack-o-lantern from the freezer, where it had been for a week to stave off its decay (I'd been to a pumpkin-carving party the weekend before), lit up its candle and set it outside. I got more trick-or-treaters than I had last year, but they were all in big groups. About 15 kids in 3-4 groups. A mere 20 minutes' worth. Even before 7:30, the trick-or-treaters were done.

Then it was time for Monday Night Football. And except for their first drive, the Steelers didn't look very good. Welcome back, frustration! So by the time Anita and Bob arrived to watch teh game, I was Grumpy McIrritable. I think I softened a bit as the evening wore on, but not much. They left in the 4th quarter, and Tim arrived shortly after in Napoleon Dynomite gear. With Tim I got to watch Pittsburgh lose the lead for the first time to a team they should have slaughtered, then claw back to win in the final 2 minutes. So sure, the Steelers won, but it was ugly and not at all satisfying.

Before going to bed, I at least got my internet access working again by going directly through the cable modem instead of using the wireless router. And after doing some quick calculations, I got a pleasant surprise: The fantasy football game in which I'd been losing big to Craig had turned in my favor. Seems the Steelers defense and the two Steelers starters I had on my team earned me enough points to turn a 25-point deficit into a rare victory for me.

Is it sad that this made me feel better? Yes. Very, very sad. But it did. And so I went to bed, hoping to let my frustrations drift off into the night...

Day 79: Winning the Super Bowl!

The big accomplishment of the day? Sadly, it had to do with Madden 2005 for the PS2. After having played through the 2004 NFL season over the past couple of weeks, I was now leading my unbeaten Steelers into the playoffs. I decided I should probably finish off the season entirely so I could put the game away again and stop wasting my time on it. So I played three games in quick succession, breezing through the playoffs (nearly shut out New England), then finding myself facing Green Bay for all the marbles. Green Bay!? Clearly, the PS2 version didn't go anywhere near the way the real NFL season went last year. I actually struggled a little in this game, which was annoying, because the whole point of playing at the default difficulty setting is so I can get 500+ yards of offense and blow out everyone. And yet, I was even losing 21-20 at one point in the Super Bowl. But in the end I won 61-28. Sure, I should up the difficulty level, but then it won't be nearly as fun. And I don't really need to play another whole season of Madden football right now. So, I'm done with it. Well, except for the Pro Bowl. Yes, the game even includes a virtual trip to Hawaii for a game made up of the top players for the season, as "voted" by the virtual fans.

Like I said, pretty sad. But that's what I did. Plus the usual computer stuff, of course.

Oh yeah, also, Batman Begins arrived. The special edition DVDs of this summer's Batman movie, as well as the newly released special editions of the two Tim Burton/Michael Keaton Batman flicks, arrived from amazon.com. So, more geeking out for the day.

But that evening I rejoined the real world. It was off to Gingerman ... for the second night in a row, which was odd given that I hadn't been there in months (we'd also swung by Gingerman after Fox & Hound last night for one round). I met up with some of the old tech pubs NI gang ... that is, the "2nd generation" tech pubs NI gang (people like me, Trish, Tom, Barbara, Steph, Lisa, Tim, Tamara, Caroline, etc. being the "1st generation" of tech pubsters. The current crop of 20-somethings at NI, most of whom I don't know, would be the 3rd generation). I hadn't seen some of these 2nd generation people, like Eric, Laura, Kelly, Erik, and Gary, for what seems like a long time. So it was fun catching up. And it was great to spend that much time in a bar and not reek of smoke. It turns out, all these years I thought it was the alcohol that would wear me out over the course of an evening. But no! It was the smoke! I still had energy to burn when we all headed for home. I love the smoke-free bars!!

Day 78: And even more sports!

Today involved one more evening watching sports with a group. Even I'm starting to get weary of it.

During the day, it was the usual: on the computer, playing PS2, watching DVR'd movies, etc. Also made more fruitless attempts to arrange an Astroworld farewell trip, and tweaking/updating Andrew and Liz's wedding website.

Also met Tom and the other Sierer for lunch at Pars Deli. Mmmm, gyros. Tom got to ride in Brian's fancy new truck.

Then, more sports watching. It was off for GNO at Fox & Hound to watch Brian's alma mater beat Boston College.

Day 77: More sports!

A bit worn out after watching that long World Series game last night. Doesn't really make sense, since I didn't go to bed much later than normal. I guess it was the beer.

So, after an uneventful morning of trying to wake up, I met Matt for lunch in Round Rock. Had a pretty good french dip sandwich (though nothing tops the $15 prime rib french dip from Houston's Restaurant).

Back home, tried to make a work contact that Eric had forwarded to me, but the woman never returned my voice mail. So I went off to run errands at Target. I was actually quite proud of myself because I ended up buying Halloween candy in advance. Normally I'll run to the grocery store mere hours before trick-or-treaters are due before I stock up. This year, I was on the ball. I knew I was buying way too much, but it was just too tempting to get all the difference varieties of Reese's peanut butter cups (regular, white chocolate, "inside out," and Reese's Sticks). Plus some Skittles, Milky Way, and M&Ms for variety. Also bought an air duster at CompUSA. Yes, it's stupid to buy air of all things. But it helps me clean dust of 35mm negatives before I scan them.

That evening I headed to Plucker's, where a surprisingly big group met to watch what turned out to be the final game of the World Series. Well, the guys had turned out for the game; the girls in the group were there for the wings and such. Of course, the Astros lost, but hey, I'm only a fair-weather fan, so no biggie.

Day 76: Extra innings

Can't remember anything significant from the day today. Seems like I mostly did the usual computer stuff, played Madden on the PS2, and so on. I also tried to organize a weekend trip for Astroworld's final weekend, but that wouldn't work out in the end.

The evening, though, was dominated by the World Series. Craig and Tim decided to watch the game at Double Dave's because the Astros had lost the last two times he'd watched them at Tim's house. I didn't feel like a dinner of pizza and "pep'roni rolls," though, and neither did Tom, so he, Bob, and I met to watch the start of the game at Chili's.

Yes, Chili's.

And it was Tom's idea.

I personally have no problem with chain restaurants. And as far as chains go, Chili's is pretty much at the top of my list. But a fair number of people in Austin subscribe to the anti-chain philosophy. Or at least, anti-national/global chains. For me and someone like Anita or Trish to eat at Chili's wouldn't be the least bit shocking. Someone like Tom, much more so. Let alone for the suggestion to be his.

Chili's turned out to be good for the Astros. They led 4-0 by the time the Chamberlain brothers and I finished our dinners and headed out to meet Craig and Tim. But while we were at Double Dave's, the Astros lost the lead. On the other hand, Tom and Bob were kind enough to treat Unemployed Guy by sharing their pitcher of beer with me.

Finally, near what we thought would be the end of the game, the Astros tied the game! Extra innings! But by the 11th inning, we were worn out and Double Dave's appeared to be closing, so all of us sans Craig headed to Tim's house. The 12th went by with no change. So we all headed home. As I was falling asleep on the sofa past 1 am, the 'Stros blew it in the 14th to fall behind in the series 0-3.

Sigh.