Our first family LAN party!

Karen went up north with Katrina and Beth and other friends to visit Karla -- a whole double-X chromosome fun-thing. So with the testosterone around here so think it was condensing on the walls, we had a LAN party.

Okay, not really, especially since prepubescent kids don't produce their gender's typical hormone yet... but Houston and i did play Flatout 2 for about three hours together. It was really fun and cute. Houston does the "YES!" fist pump just perfectly, he's a gracious loser, and a capable driving game player. I think it's safe to say that he LOVED IT, and i'm glad to say that we didn't play until dawn, which makes it not a proper LAN party. But with my lack of sleep recently, i feel as though it's seven thirty on the next morning. I hope Houston and Zane sleep until at least eight.

That picture up there is a screenshot from a modern game. My new billion-transistor video card pushes that quality video at full speed. It blows my mind.

Computer stuff.

There's a picture of my new (used) video card core. There's 956 million transistors on that shiny square of silicon. People, that's nearly a BILLION little electronic doohickeys. I just actually shuddered thinking about how crazy that is. So that thing is the most complex bit of silicon -- probably the most complex bit of technology -- i've ever seen. Plus, it's fast. My old, temperamental video card liked to freeze in 3D games, but was awesome in everything else, so it'll be going into our HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) where it will display movies and TV and... maybe lightweight games?

Now, also, all of our irreplaceable files are securely stored on a hard drive which is... um... in my car. But it'll be somewhere safer soon.

Also also, i've been getting used to getting all withheld taxes back at the end of the year, since i used to claim only myself as a dependent. But last year i declared everybody, so we would have more money for $4.80 gasoline and diapers. So how come this year we're getting another stupidly large tax refund? Are we really that poor that the gov'mint needs to subsidize us? Not that i'm complaining... :)

Sprinklers!!!

That's our new building. It's not very good. It is (was) pretty, that's for sure, and it's VERY easy to manage and supervise the milieu. But it was built to cheap residential (as in "a house where you live") standards instead of to institutional standards. Most shocking for me was the floors. The first time i walked into the building, i noticed the tapping noise my footsteps made. Turns out that laminate flooring, which is basically particle board with a wood-grain sticker on top, isn't glued down or affixed at all to the actual floor, thus the tapping noise. Weird, but not horrible. Then i asked a construction guy how we should clean the floors. The first thing he said was "It doesn't like water." Doesn't like water, huh? Do they understand what goes on in these homes? Kids get really out there sometimes, and mop buckets and cups of liquid go flying hither and yon frequently enough that "water resistant" would have been among the properties i'd have looked for in a floor. Already i have found little dents and holes in the flooring where something or other fell and broke through the "aluminum oxide coating".

But Monday, a girl upstairs was in the seclusion room (a room which is where kids go when they're completely out of control and need to be kept away from others for safety's sake) and she broke the sprinkler head off. I heard that and instantly said "SPRINKLER??? IN THE SR???" Again, did the designers of our building know what goes on in these homes?

To be fair, the sprinkler head was sort of hardened with a cone of stainless steel or something, but why was it not behind a very tough grate or something? It often amazed me how the old building had very strong institutional grade gadgets around like ventilation grates and stuff, and while it was still functional, it was all bashed up from decades of abuse. This new building is simply not made to last.

So anyway, the sprinkler was broken, so tens of gallons of water were dumped everywhere. So now there's no laminate flooring anymore, because it got ruined. There's blistering paint from where it seeped through the drywall. Drywall.

I'm going to quit complaining now. I need to take out the trash and then file our taxes. Or rebuild my computer. Depends on how TurboTax's site is working.

There's a picture of Katrina! And i'm not feeling well, so i called in sick. Mmmm, an extra day off. Mostly because i am sick, but also so i could cook a meal for the family, so we had sweet potatoes and venison Строганов (that's Cryllic for "stroganoff") with rice. Mmm, medieval Russian food. It was relatively delicious, but standing up that long made me feel pathetically overexerted. However, i drank coffee and had taken a nap, so i felt oddly wired. Exhausted and wired. Humph.

Oh yeah, and then Corbyn came over, just by his very existence exciting the kids into a noisy frenzy of silliness. So the meal wasn't as pleasant as it should be. I wish Corbyn was as funny as Kramer or Urkel. Instead, he's just kind of a normal, somewhat annoying teenager. Also humph.

Finally, a new picture!

That's the first picture i took with my new new camera! It's a little weird having a new camera which is exactly like the old one besides not being the old one.

I didn't post yesterday. Or the day before. I frequently skip days, but rarely skip two days. I don't even know why i'm mentioning it.

In marginally less overwhelmingly boring news, i went to ZUMBA! twice today, even though i'm feel like i'm getting a cold. I talked to the lady who leads the 6am class, and she said ZUMBA! instructors get from $14 to $40 and up per session, with the standard rate being $20. So becoming an instructor would pay for itself in... well, a couple months. Maybe. Pondering.

Zane got his first haircut today! Karen took pictures. He is so so so so so cute with his hair all trimmed and little-boy looking. He has such big, cute eyes. He told me on the way to getting a haircut, "Getting! My! Haircut! ... Rana haircut. 'Morrow." He was really serious. Rana is how Zane says Katrina. He says Dada, and still sometimes says Tooton for Houston. I think he says Momma. Katrina and Houston (and perhaps Zane?) have a much different way of thinking of us and our names than i did. I called my parents Mumu and Daddy ever since i could talk, and remember thinking how weird it was that their names were really Aureol and Tom. They called each other, still do, by those names, and that's gotta be why i subconsciously think of them that way as well, still. But Katrina often as not calls me Dad. So does Houston. It's weird. I can't imagine calling Karen "Momma". It's her title, the kids call her that out of respect. So any title for either of us, as long as it's appropriate, is fine by the kids. Katrina accidentally called me Juanito one time. She thought that was pretty funny.

Okay, no more rambling.

Thursday and Friday

That's the kids back in... jeez... December first, 2005. I'm backing up pictures. All pictures! There's...... LOTS. About 170 gigs worth.

Lemme see... i can think of nothing at all to write. So a totally boring rundown of my life these last days: ZUMBA! on Wednesday morning. Tara, who leads the class Karen and i attend regularly, is crazy. Insane. Her classes are overstuffed and hyper, with kicks, jumps, and hooting. It's really hard not to kick or slap your fellow zumberos. "Zumberos" being the generic, male declension because that's the way Spanish works. But very nearly everybody in the class are girls, so "zumberas" would be more accurate while being less correct.

Um anyway, it's hard not to hit people in Tara's class, but usually i manage. I think Karen slapped someone once. And i run into her sometimes, sometimes on accident. The other classes i've been to are more sedate. Brandi's horrifyingly early class is very thinly attended. On Monday there were four of us, including Brandi. And usually my enthusiasm covers up my errors, but with the giant swaths of empty mirror in front of us, i could see (and work on correcting) all my goofs, and graciously ignore the endearing incompetence of the other two girls. They were really cute in the awkward shy way.

I think it was Wednesday night, by the way, (not like there is a way at this point) that some dude came up to me in the grocery store and asked me "Hey bro, do you have any idea where i can score some bud?" I retorted "What?" in almost the exact same way Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc says it to Sully when Sully says "Ooklay in the agbay". He repeated the part about bud, and i was like "Oh! Yeah, i don't smoke weed. I mean, i know i have the dreads and all, but i seriously don't smoke, and have no idea where to get any." My herb enthusiast friend said "Oh, i just assumed... the dreads and all," in almost the same way as The Abominable Snowman from Monster's Inc. says "I assumed, when I saw you hugging and all..."

Oh yeah, and on Wednesday morning, a new kid's little brother said "Are you from an island or something?" Also because of the dreadlocks, i'm sure. Island earth, i suppose.

Then i slept at work, thus skipping the Friday 6:00am ZUMBA! class which Linda says had 17 people attending. I could probably have kicked someone there, if i'd tried. Then i worked, where i got to distract kids from talking about drugs and farts by explaining the feeding habits and physiology of hagfish. They actually showed a great deal of interest, having been primed well by a fun cut and paste activity where they matched terms such as vacuole and endoplasmic reticulum to their definitions. At least two of the kids pasted the papers randomly, after which one of those rolled his envelope into a pretend joint.

In very much related news, i applied for a new job. "Parent Mentor". It's totally an outside shot, but i have kids of my own, we're managing okay, and i've been "parenting" teenagers for almost nine years. And i'm older than many parents of Wedgwood kids. So we'll see if they even call me for an interview.

Treasure from Facebook

One of the people we used to live with down in Peru posted this picture on Facebook. Right there in the middle is Phoebe. On the left is Susie, who was always so quiet but really nice. Then there's Richie who told me he invented the bicycle chain. Then there's... Stephanie? Who i remember peripherally. Next to Phoebe is the other Susie, who made "Fi-Sue Magazine" with Phoebe, and who is one of only two people in this picture who are on Facebook. What's the deal? How is the internet supposed to become self-aware unless it has information about EVERYBODY? Slackers.

Obama is now President Obama!

Yesterday, while George Bush was still the acting president, some local crook stole some stuff out of our house. This morning, while George Bush was still the acting president, Graham pooped all over our carpet. Also, i got a flat tire, and my spare tire bolt was seized from rust.

But then, Barack Obama was inaugurated. Clouds moved aside, angels sung, and doves flew into the sky.

Then, Karen's other, better camera broke. So i guess i have to admit that Bush wasn't responsible for EVERY bad thing ever. We got to watch the inauguration as a family (besides Houston -- he was at school) and it was a very joyful affair for us. We rushed into the front room where our little TV sits to watch. Zane rocketed after us saying "Obama! Pesinnt! Movie!" Cutie.

We tried to impress on Katrina the historical importance of this moment, and she took pictures of whatever tickled her fancy, and Zane got his diaper changed. Karen and i discussed what was going on, like one of the Obama daughters shooting video of her dad (her Daddy!) on her cute little $80 digital camera. His speech was moving and powerful, poetic even (unlike the actual poet, who sent me into paroxysms of boredom -- sorry poetry fans). He said that we "will defeat" the terrorists... and i wish he'd said that we will refuse to be terrorized. That's more peaceful.

But yeah, i have hope, joy and pride in my country right now. I just hope i can fix Karen's camera.

Our neighborhood.

Our house got broken into today. Stupid Jaquez.

But later. First: Tom. Today, early in the morning (but not so early that i hadn't already been to a 6:00am ZUMBA! class) my neighbor Tom started banging on our screen door. His first question: "Izzz yerrr 'lectriz'ty out?" I reported that no, our electricity isn't out. So he expressed his incredulity that my electricity could still be on while his was out. "It's not like i'm an old stoner or anything," he quipped, looking at me balefully, with somewhat concerning scratches on his face. Then he asked me again the question about my electricity, and added that it's so cold. And his sweetie -- who at a very not well preserved 63, is nine years older than he -- is handicapped. And he's afraid they're going to freeze.

Well, i left the gentleman shivering on my front steps, and called the power company. But playing whack-a-menu on the phone wasn't getting me anywhere, so i established that my dear neighbor pays his rent, and the rental agency is responsible for the utilities, and he wasn't desperate enough to have me give him and his sweetie a ride downtown where the homeless people go when it's dangerously freezing. "I'd be so embarrassed!" he said.

He also said he wasn't drunk, and wasn't sick, and then introduced himself to me for the fifth time. Ahhh.... humans. So i visited his house. I will respect the fellow and his mistress by not describing his home, but there was dog poop. And it was warmer in there than it is at my house. I used my best social worker skills to persuade him that he and his belle won't be freezing anytime soon, bundle up in lots of clothes, and get under some covers. He remembered who his house is owned by, so when i got home i found their number and called them, and they sent someone over "right away". I was confident that my new friend wouldn't be over again soon, since it took him five minutes to walk back to his house (next door) in the snow, with me holding his arm.

Weird.

Corbyn, who's always over here, has NEVER stolen ANYTHING from us. He mooches a lot, but he's a moocher but not a thief. But one of his friends is less well adjusted than he is. I know this because he attends the school on Wedgwood's campus that is custom made for kids who've been kicked out of school. So this other kid brought a couple of HIS friends over, and one of them was, in retrospect, casing our house. He asked about my Palm Pilot, which was hanging from its charging cable. Then, on his way out he asked another interesting question: "So how many dogs do you have?" Because the one he had met was wagging his tail and sniffing his cuffs.

So anyway, Jaquez was over here with one other guy and Corbyn's friend, and was being deviously observant, and we rushed them out of the house because we were going to ZUMBA! and took off watching them walk down the street. We're sure that Jaquez turned around, broke in our back door, swiped our laptop and three cameras (the one which took that picture down there and Karen's new camera and Karen's old camera. Her Very Fancy camera was spared, as was everything else in our house). The total stolen goods might have a replacement value of... maybe a thousand bucks. Jaquez will be lucky to get $400 for everything. Which might be just fine with him.

You know, just today i was thinking of how our neighborhood is safe from career thieves, and that kind of crime is not going to rear it's unattractive head around here. Like people backing up a U-Haul and making away with everything. Nobody around here has enough to make serious theft worthwhile. Throw a digital camera in our neighborhood, however, and you'll hit an opportunistic thief. If a bike is left on a lawn (as a kid at work once told me, and who would fit in nicely with this crowd) this kid walking down the street might as well steal it, because if he doesn't, someone will. May as well be him. So our stuff was stolen by an opportunistic thief, who has probably turned this into his career, since now he's guilty of a felony.

Tragedy: he's a young black man. On Martin Luther King the Second's birthday, and the day before the first black man becomes president.. Thanks, buddy. You've done your part to eradicate racism in my little corner of the world. Jerk.

New fun thing to do

Today in church i wrote a little book about a guy making scrambled eggs, including a dinosaur, and gave it to Houston to draw pictures. He can read, obviously, so i didn't have to tell him what to draw, and he illustrated the book. It was fun. I'll do it again someday.

Then, Katrina and i baked a cake, including imaginary ingredients and bacon, lettuce and the bottom half of a hamburger bun -- all rendered in plastic -- and fed it to her baby who was having a birthday.

Before that (like, the last couple of days) i deleted a TON of duplicate and obsolete files and folders from my five hard drives, and now have a whole 665 gigabytes free. Wow. That's out of 1.5 terabytes (1,532gigabytes), so i have a lot of data. Some of it is backed up data; all my pictures, Karen's pictures, these weblogs, and all the movies, videos and DVDs we've made over the years. Oh yeah, i've harped on this before, and hard drive space is DIRT CHEAP right now, so please please please if you have data which you'll never be able to replace, like family photos, figure out a way to back that data up. Bring your computer over here with $100, and i will install a 1TB hard drive in it for free. Except give me a week so i can order the hard drive online. Unless you work from a laptop. Then, buy an external hard drive and backup your stuff to that. That's what we're gonna do, besides all the redundant data floating around our network, which would be lost if a meteor hit our house or something.

Oh yeah, the reason i started that story is that in deleting everything, i zapped the "Program Files" on my D drive, which isn't where i've been putting my programs since eight months ago, or however long it's been since i reinstalled XP. Well, that utterly broke my Firefox installation, which i had grown fond of. So now i'm using Chrome, which cleverly knows all my Firefox bookmarks and passwords and stuff, but i don't have my Adblock+. So i kind of fixed that. But what's really needed is a complete Windows reinstall. Awesome.

It's COLD!

That's Josiah's sweatshirt. Hello Kitty... chaingun... awesome.

And it is COLD! I went outside to shop, and that was it. We nearly froze. In fact, the dribbles of pop in the bottles we returned did freeze while we were going to the store. Nuts.

In the-opposite-of-related news, (it turns out that hair grows slower in the winter because there's less circulation to the hair follicles in the cold weather) my dreads are getting long. I made it through the Bad Hair Year of '06 and '07, have proper, tight, locked up dreads, and now... what to do? Shall i cut them in a... style? I just don't know.

Did i say we went shopping? Finally. We now have "food" and "milk". And i stocked up on air quotes. There was a sale.

Day 1 of 4

Mmm, i've got a four day weekend going on. And Houston has been doing so well in school that we got to reward him by going to Play Zone with him. Now, the last time i went to this giant fun zone filled with human-scale hamster tubes and bouncy inflatable jumpy things, they let grown ups participate. But this time, the gerbil warrens said "NO ADULTS". So all Karen and i could do is follow our squealing kids around, watching them attack everything with the sort of feverish glee one might imagine Don Quixote to have as he rushed windmills. By the time we were ready to leave, they all had flushed pink faces, and were all extremely happy and worn out.

So we had a good day, even though i didn't get to climb around on stuff made for kids. I imagined doing so, and enjoyed that. And talking with Karen is enjoyable. And also rewarding is the last thing Katrina said to me as i put her to bed: "You know what my favorite part was?" Significant Pause. "You!"

a and b.

a) Why do i always get hiccups on Thursday?
b) There's another silly drawn animation for ya.

That's all! :)

Hmm...

The other day, i saw a condom display which exhorted; "EVOLVE: Use One Every Time."

Do they know what "evolve" means? Like... you need reproduction to get anything to evolve. Um, duh?

Also, the dentist told Katrina yesterday that she wasn't supposed to suck her thumb. So today, even in her tiredest, most emotionally needy moments, she would curl up today and put her fist right under her chin. She is SO COMPLIANT. Like, when we offered her and Houston ice cream if they glided during swimming lessons, and she refused to glide, and then a couple weeks later we went to get ice cream at the store, she said "But I won't get any, because i didn't glide, right?"

Sometimes i'm so overcome with love for my kids it feels like my heart is going to burst.

Yum, tooth work!

While Karen went to a kid's birthday party, i got to go to the dentist! I like going to the dentist, even though there's the shots which hurt, the drilling which hurts, and the other stuff which hurts. Like when he put etching stuff on my tooth. Ow. And then there's the burning smell. And the comments "There's a lot of bleeding, I can't see what I'm doing, put some suction there..." Yeah, that's not too pleasant. But the idea of getting problems taken care of, of damage being stopped, that is really a good feeling.

Now i have to work on making my dentist visits more regular.

In related news, i chatted for a while with our ZUMBA! instructor, and she said that getting certified to be one of those (ZUMBA! instructors, that is) is extremely easy, no prerequisites, and not horribly expensive. And she's right -- $215. I will talk to more people, see if you can make any money, and stuff... Oh yeah, and on Saturday our ZUMBA! class was featured on some local news show. The clip is after the jump. You can see me for a few seconds looking kind of uncomfortable -- i came in late and was WAY at the back, trying not to poke anyone or run into the equipment, and i couldn't see. Plus, i had excuses.

Speaking of excuses, i was with the kids at work in class, when one of my coworkers stopped by. He said "You guys don't know it, but Juanito's got MOVES!" I was like... ? ... and Andre said that he'd seen me at the ZUMBA! class, and i actually blushed. I guess i'm secretly embarrassed by silly dancing, but maybe i'm too much of a showoff to care? I dunno.
___more___

Mostly just a story about Houston:

Today the kids were all playing in the basement of Karen's parents' house. They beg me to play with them often, especially Katrina; "Pleeease will you play with me, Daddy?" -- not as hard to resist as you might expect. Houston had found something he wanted to do, though, and was wandering off and BOOM! I swooped in like a hungry barn owl to snatch Houston off his feet, and i held him upside down for several seconds, just hugging him. Then i put him down and said "Okay, you can go do whatever you were going to do."

Houston said "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You said you wanted to do something, remember?" said I.

Houston said "Oh, I don't remember what it was. When you put me upside down, all the pictures fell out of my brain."

Awww! Sometimes my kids do stuff which is so cute, i can't even believe i just witnessed it. Later we played the game where you hum a tune or say a line from a movie, and the other players have to figure out the context. Katrina is remarkably good with tunes, and Houston can remember quotes very well. When Katrina hums something that she "just now made up", well... at least she's still really cute.

Wedding!

Houston is silly and wiggly. Katrina is an insatiable dancer. Luckily, i like dancing too. Zane is incredibly cute.

So Houston got to be the program hander outer, and Katrina was a flower girl. In every wedding, there's the little girl or two who is just SO CUTE -- it's cool for one of those girls to be my little daughter. Zane kept toddling up to the bar and getting stuff... i think water? Or lemonade? I didn't get a chance to ask the bartenders what he was saying, but watched the exchange from across the room.

So after dancing the night away (ZUMBA! sure makes me more comfortable on the dance floor), i need to go to bed. Plus, i need work early in the morning. Ugh. And i am so, so happy about Alisha being my new sister! It just makes me so happy -- Jim and her are very fortunate to have each other.

Just a word or two...

I have a kind of bad attitude about work right now. I feel like i'm doing more work than anyone else. That's probably not true. That's why it's "bad attitude" and not "realistic". Grump grump.

I'm also really sad about Israel and Hamas shooting each other up. I've gotten Facebook requests to join groups "supporting" Israel. But both these sides are dropping thousands (Hamas) and millions (Israel) of dollars on rockets, fuel, salaries... all the costs of combat. And they're mostly hurting people who are already starving. Every war is a war against the innocent. Utterly outrageous.

But i've got a job, a healthy family, and this Saturday, we get a new aunt/sister! Karen's brother Jim is getting married. Oh yeah, and my brother JJ and my dad (Tom) are currently on a trip to and around Peru! Here's the blog. It's interesting.

New building.

That's the office. It's small. The kitchen has a glasstop electric range (ew, but better than coil) which includes a convection oven (wooooot!) and a fancy stainless steel fridge with a pull-out freezer on the bottom. It's pretty, but the drawers and shelves include plastic, so they'll break in a couple months.

Um... we have RFID chip fobs which open doors, so our keys won't break when we look sternly at them. By the way, did i ever tell the internet that our old keys, which were chosen for a residential facility, featured a very deep notch RIGHT in the middle? With a big mountain at the end? Which means the tumblers grab most firmly RIGHT as the narrowest part of the key is just emerging from the keyhole? So they broke ALL THE TIME. Stupid.

There's a unit right upstairs. They walk from one end of the floor to the other, and our ceiling goes THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP. So loud. And the place is really echoey. Okay, the kettle is boiling. Bye.

LAST DAY!!!!!!

Oh man. I really like being on vacation. So tomorrow? I go to work? And i don't want to? Ever notice how some people talk like every sentence ends with a question mark?

Another thing which annoys me (besides work -- the question mark thing doesn't bother me at all) is foamy ice cream. Every couple of years i buy a pint of Very Nice Ice Cream for Karen and myself. Häagen-Dazs coffee for me, Ben & Jerry's double brownie for her. Ingredients of my ice cream, off the top of my head: cream, milk, sugar, coffee. Seriously, that's it. The ingredient list of the Edy's Grand Cookie Dough includes, i'm sure, carageenan, tara gum... all flavorless ingredients whose job is to keep the ice cream from going bad if it gets warmish, and MAKE IT FOAMY! Seriously, after the dense, creamy magic of my coffee ice cream, the Edy's was like grainy whipped cream. Which isn't too far off, now i think about it.

Last day off! For Houston!

The vacation is dwindling to a close. It's... sad. Houston has school tomorrow morning, meaning we'll have to wake ourselves unnaturally -- with an ALARM! Shudder. And then Tuesday i have to go back to work, like pretty much everyone who earns money to pay for stuff. Like electricity and diapers. These are a few of my favorite things. When the lightning strikes, when the pee stinks, when i'm feeling bad.... have i mentioned i can't remember the words to songs?

As long as i'm being random (accidentally, too); i hate it that pop is made of mostly water and has caffeine. And tastes good. Because what could be more basic to the human condition than being thirsty and tired? I'm practically always a little bit tired, and very frequently thirsty. So whenever either or both conditions creep to my attention, i naturally want a slurp of Diet Pepsi/Coke. Instead of practically free water from the tap. Sigh. I thought about giving up pop for 2009 like i did in 2004 and 2006, but i didn't. Maybe 2010.

Antenna, being sore, and having a weird face.

Laughter! Hilarity! Okay, so if you want to duplicate this at home, and you ran out of 9V batteries, peanut butter, or dogs, you can take flash pictures of people while they're shaking their heads very quickly or going "BBBBB" or however you write the extreme bilabial fricative. Oh man, endless fun. Karen took one picture of herself, but deemed it too "ugly" (um, i think to myself, that's the POINT) and deleted it right away. I confirmed by looking on her picture folder network share. Only pictures of me looking "ugly". But in our culture's double standard, it's okay for the men to be odd looking or ugly.

Being sore: yesterday i showed the family my bruises from paintballing. Houston said "Okay. As soon as I saw those, I decided that I will never do that." Katrina looked a little sad, and agreed with Houston. Karen dealt with me in the same "ignore the behavior and it will go away" manner we've learned works well with people who are inappropriately seeking attention.

And you know the Yagi-Uda antenna i mentioned recently? Well, i rebuilt it, and now it's stuck to the ceiling upstairs. It's wires of exact length, taped to the ceiling with green painter's tape at exact distances from each other and as close to parallel as my artist's eye could manage, with two single-conductor wires from a fifty foot length of network cable (extracted and untwisted at much trouble) connected to the halves of the one driven element. Then, the two wires snake downstairs using the least obtrusive path i could use. The two-wire ribbon is not pretty, and i don't know if it's degrading my signal at all to have the wires not be an exact, even distance from each other... i don't really know how these things work. But it does function just fine (except for stupid channel 3, which is so low on the frequency spectrum i'd need a much bigger antenna to pull it in, especially since it's coming in from a tower almost forty miles away) and now we can watch TV! Which we did for about three minutes on New Year's Eve. We're looking forward to watching dozens of minutes of TV this year alone! In perfect OTA HD reception! And i'll get around to painting the green tape the same color as the walls and ceiling.

Mum and the boys go home. Also, Jim's Bachelor Party

Today i fed my family cinnamon rolls, and then as soon as they were cooked and consumed, Mum and Antony and Josiah left to go back to Kentucky. Thanks for visiting, people! I really enjoy spending time with the fam. And having the house less crowded now is nice too, i must admit.

Right as they drove away, i left as well to go to Jim's batchelor party. He's getting married! We went paintballing. It's SO MUCH FUN! Halfway through, a blow-up doll was produced which was taped to Jim, to... encourage him to remember to protect his wife in the future?? My tendency is to rush around like a crazy person and get shot right away, so most of the rounds saw me providing somebody with a nice moving target. To practice on. I don't mind, really. But then we did 15 paintball rounds, where we limited ourselves to that much ammo. That was better, because i don't shoot very much (most people pull the trigger as fast as possible, what's known as "spray and pray") but the best round of all was the last round. This was when we got unlimited retries after simply walking (running!) back to the save box when hit by a paintball. Well, i got tagged by paintballs 14 times, and surprisingly my teammates had run out of paint. Including the guy who carried 3 tubes of about 100 paintballs each. Weird. So after that i just decided to walk around shooting everyone i saw with paintballs. I got hit So Many Times. And this is the second time i've ever been paintballing, and the second time people have said i was "like Predator" -- that's the alien hunter who has dreadlock looking tentacles things. Awesome. I counted 40 paintball welts on my torso.

Then there was the real party, which is still going on, and which i had to leave because my stupid toothache. A week and a half! Then it's fixed.