Monthly Archive for March, 2008

dead headphonist

A Lot…

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 31, 2008
in UFO
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Current Mood:Loopy emoticon Loopy

Hi all.  It’s been a while since an update, so I figured I’d drop a line and give a run down.  I’ve started to use Twitter a little, so if you’re following the “Twitter Fits” box on the right, you’ll be pretty informed about the day-to-day goings on (at least from my perspective).

We’re finally all mostly well.  This flu was not fun at all and has left both Char and I with a chronic cough that doesn’t seem to be improving much.  I’m also still not able to get enough sleep in a night.

We haven’t gotten really anything done on the room.  This weekend was spent cleaning, relaxing, and playing Wii with Clare (one of her favourite pastimes).

In other news, my wonderful neighbor found my wedding band!  I’m EXTREMELY excited about that.  We had pretty much written it off completely, but we got a knock at the back door this evening and she returned it back to me.  Absolutely wonderful!  I have to send her a fruit basket or something…

I’ve been doing a lot of practicing piano, guitar, and bass lately as well.  Blues scales and chords have been the focus, though I have been working on more complex scales on the guitar and piano.  Bass is slow-going because everytime I start really getting into it, I get a really bad blister on my index finger.  Not too fun…

Expect that guitar review I’ve been promising and some BCAR’s coming soon (I have a TON of new music to review).

dead headphonist

winter-ific

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 24, 2008
in UFO
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Current Mood:Ill emoticon Ill

Bah.  We’re still both pretty sick.  I spent most of today sleeping.  I got up this morning and it took so much energy to take a shower that I couldn’t imagine actually going to work.  Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

We should be investing in the company that makes Vernors. For those not from Michigan, it’s a highly-carbonated, highly gingered soda that most everyone here drinks when they are sick.  I think it’s actually the only big commercial ginger ale actually flavoured with real ginger.  It’s full of HFCS, but at least it settles your stomach and when you’re not getting calories from anything else, some cheap carbs are probably not too bad (right?).

We both thought we’d get through this winter without a major sickness.  Apparently, not so.  Hopefully we get over this soon and back to the regularly scheduled programming.  This sucks!

charmaspice

Weekend Warrior - Not so Much

Published
by
charmaspice
on March 24, 2008
in Health and Updates
. 2 Comments

Current Mood:Sickly emoticon Sickly

sickWe had big plans this weekend.  We decided due to the cost of gas money (as it now costs me $65 - $70 to fill my car), and with the house projects we’ve begun that we’d stay home.  We are not big celebrators of Easter, some how though for the past few years we’ve ended up at one parents or the other, but this year we decided it was best just to stay home.  It’s a good thing we opted to stay home too, Friday all day and evening we were pelted with about 4-5 inches of snow (making driving conditions less than appealing Saturday morning).  Friday night Brad came home coughing and hacking, and just not sounding good.  I should have known - that morning he kissed me on the cheek, as I have a thing about not getting what he has if I can help it. 

On Saturday we were going to get up, get some breakfast out, and hit our errands with gusto.  We made it to breakfast with success, although the roads were essentially a sheet of ice at 11am!  Then it was on to Lowes to pick out paint for my office.  I tried looking at colors online, but let me tell you - go in person, they are WAY off in their hues of color.  Brad found exactly what I wanted.  It’s a new texture for us as it’s a Suede (rather than a satin, matte, or other finish), so we’ll see how it goes.  By the time we were done in there I didn’t know if Brad was going to make it home, he was pastey as all get out.  I was starting to feel achey too, and I had things to do - laundry, paint my office, clean, you know the usual.  After Lowe’s Brad wanted to stop in at Fire House Music to see if they had a Bass that was to his likings.  He already has a Bass, but it’s fretless, and it’s not get for a beginner.  He found one under $200, so we called it good and headed for home.  We got home, and we parked ourselves on the couch.  I have never felt so achey - or maybe I did during Labor I’m just blocking it out.  I felt as though I had been hit from all directions by a Mac truck.  That and I just couldn’t get warm, I had 3 blankets on me and I was still cold.  Since I was the one that was slightly less ill I ran up to the CVS for some meds, some soup, and cough drops.  Whatever we had was a wierd one.  We both felt incredibly achey, and the other other thing we had was a barking cough.  It’s a strange virus whatever it is.  It was a good thing I went to the store too, because I came home and I suddenly felt hot.  I checked my temp and it was 101.5 degrees Farenheit.  Within about 10 minutes of taking a multi-symptom Tylenol it began to drop.  We huddled on the couch watching cruddy TV, and were in bed by 10pm. 

One minute I was sweating so much the sheats were wet, the next I was freezing so much I had goose bumps.  I even got up to put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt to help warm me up, and nothing could warm me up - and we sleep with a down comforter.  Yesterday was much the same, sleeping on the couch, getting Clare the meals she needed, and more sleep.  We did make it out to a fine Easter meal at Q doba, it was all the energy I had to get there and home.  So, alas, no painting for us this weekend. 

Today I forsee much of the same except that I need to get Clare to school.  I did however find an old inhaler to help ease the cough, unfortunately though because it’s old, and not full, I forsee a visit to the doctors for me in the near future.  Apparently last summer I found out that I have bronchial asthma when I’m sick, and that’s the reason my coughs linger.  I used to just deal with it, not any more.  Here’s to hoping we’re better by mid-week so I can start painting, and get my house clean!

dead headphonist

The darkest depths of the hell

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 21, 2008
in Rants
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Current Mood:Pissed emoticon Pissed

darkrainbow.JPGThings should be fucking rainbows on Sunday. Things should be light, airy, and unassuming in a way that makes old ladies cry and little children squeal with glee. Things should be considerably better than I imagine they might be.

Things should be that pale color of old nitrocellulose guitar finish, with a smell that surrounds memories of happier days that never happened.

Instead, darkness follows me like a heavy black cape waving in the water behind me. Its fabric, old and worn, draws everything in around it like a black hole. The future disappears as soon as it becomes the past.

Humanity wastes the very air all around, a drain on my ability to draw the heavy breaths required to stay under through it all; just to return to the surface and find not enough air before being lunged back into the cold, lifeless, dark abyss.

It’s all around, in everything that happens and everywhere I go. It sits on my chest, rips at my hair and laughs maniacally while eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Relief, I’m afraid, is no option. Relief’s not on the menu; and the ingredients aren’t to be had at this juncture.

Hope’s cruel joke is played on the Hammond yet again. Man… is that butter sweet.

charmaspice

Feeling Not so Wordless Today

Published
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charmaspice
on March 19, 2008
in Family, Housework and Updates
. 1 Comment

Current Mood:Ecstatic emoticon Ecstatic

oh helloSo, I would normally be doing my Wordless Wednesday post today, but I feel like breaking from the realm of norm to blog about something else - my sanity - if there is such a thing!  I’ve been posting alot about my Wish List this past week in all the things we’ve been working on around here, and as I looked at a copy of it I printed off this morning I can actually say we’ve crossed some things off of it.  It’s a miracle, but we’ve actually accomplished something around here, and the end result is me getting a little bit more of my sanity back. 

Number 1 is done.  The office is now Clare’s room.  It’s been patched, painted, and all cleaned up to look like the pink aisle in Toys R Us at home.  Literally, it looks like you could be in a mock room in a store fit for a princess. 

Number 2 is done.  Last week & weekend I spent a few days going through the toys.  I think the garbage bag total to Good Will is 3 by the time I sorted through it all.  You’d think 3 full bags is a lot - she still has a lot in her room.  I bought some super cute soft side bins at Target (they are pink & purple of course).  There are some small ones & big onese for the larger amounts of toys.  Now all of the tea party/food/kitchen stuff is in one bin, all of the doll house/Dora castle stuff is in one bin, all of the Barbie stuff is in one bin, all of the Littlest Pet Shop stuff is in one bin, etc. as I think you’ve got the idea.  It took me most of Saturday to sort through the crapt that was in her old room, as things just were everywhere.  I was very proud of my little pack rat though as she willingly put some things in the Good Will bag herself.  I think the new rule will be that when something new comes into the house, something old will be going out.  She has been so blessed with presents from our families growing up, but after this major overhaul I am ready to say that I want to stick to the bear minimum.  When she gets too many things, she has too many choices, and it results in me hearing “I’m Bored”.

Number 3 will be happening this weekend, as Brad is bugging me to pick colors.  I’ll get there - I’m just in break mode after finally finishing up Clare’s room.

Number 4 is pretty much done.  I started this a while back, I just need to go through our closet one more time to make sure I have everything.  Then it’ll be loading up the car and getting everything to Good Will!

Number 8 has actually been worked on.  Brad sold a bunch of stuff, and used it to buy his new keyboard/piano, a guitar for both him & Clare, some cd’s that he’s been longing for, and some other stuff.  He’s since taken a break from the world of E-bay, as it really is work.  I’m kinda glad, because I was getting tired of going to the post office every day with large packages that I had to rangle in by myself.  This project will begin again soon, as when I put the office back together there will be more things to get rid of.

I think number 1 & 2 have helped the most though.  Clare now plays happily up in her room with all of her toys for hours now, leaving me to do my own thing without much bugging.  Every night she is to clean up her room, putting everything back in the bins I’ve determined to be used for certain things.  She now has all of her toys in one place, and doesn’t really have to look for things.  I’ve even noticed in the 5 days that she’s been in her new room I have not heard once “I’m bored”.  I hope that I haven’t jinxed myself by typing that, but it’s been nice.  I know some of you regular readers are on pins and needles waiting for final pics of the room, but we have yet to put up the curtains.  I am waiting for warmer weather this weekend to paint the rods & hardwear a new prettier color of green to help break up the pink & purple.  After we get those hung I’ll be sure to take some pictures for posting. 

Now, for the rest of my sanity to come back into play I just need to get the office done.  Working from the ottoman in the living room or the kitchen table just isn’t cutting it for me anymore.  Every night things end up in a pile at the end of the dining room table, and bad things like me being late on bills happen.  As soon as the office is done I think I can officially say I will have most of my sanity back, because most of the clutter on the main floor will go up there to be dealt with.  Mainly because I have things like my Pure Romance stuff in a corner in the living room, bills at the end of the dining room table, and things just not where they belong.  All in good time though, as I have a feeling most of that will happen as Brad pushes me to pick colors and paint this weekend.  Sometimes I need a little push, and he’s always there to give it to me when I need it - thanks hunny!

charmaspice

Geek Girls Rock

Published
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charmaspice
on March 16, 2008
in Raves
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Current Mood:Jammin’ emoticon Jammin’

geek girls ruleEvery woman has a group of women they love to hang out with.  I find it’s a necessity in life, and if I go for long periods of time without interacting with any of my friends I find that I tend to be in a bit of a lul.  I fortunately have a couple of groups of women that I am able to hang out with.  I’ve got my Mommy group to chat about all things mommy & dealing with a rambunctious 5 and a half year old, my friends that kinda don’t fit in a select group; they are always there for me no matter what - so we talk about everything, and my Geek Girl group.  This group truely is one of a kind, and we are known to always have a good time.  Most of us have a significant other of sorts that has hung out with the other guys doing computer LAN parties since I don’t know when.  Some of the guys went to the same high school Brad went to, most all went to college together, and some work at the same place.  It’s a wierd mix, and for the most part we all get along and hang out having parties every few months.  Well, at one regular party about 4 years ago some of us girls began talking, drinking, and shoving lemons in our mouths from the Yucca jar, and we’ve been hanging out and talking ever since.  We try to get together every few months for a girls only evening.  We aren’t all always able to get together, but no matter who is there a good time is there.  Sometimes we drink 7 bottles of wine, sometimes we cook and eat dinner together, sometimes we make desserts to go with our wine, and sometimes we go out to the bar to people watch and shake our booties.  We always have a good time, and  I always leave happy having had some good laughs with the girls.  While we talk about our significant others some times, we also talk about other stuff, and I always leave with some good gossip.  Last night I was able to get out and join the Geek Girls for a good time.  Our hostess cooked us a Mexican feast, and we had a slew of desserts, as well as some wine, and martini’s.  It’s so important to have these relationships, and I’m glad that I’m able to have so many different groups to be able to do so with.  So, who do you like to hang out with, and what fun things do you do?  I’m always looking for new ideas to share with the girls!

dead headphonist

Handy-ish

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 16, 2008
in Housework
. 0 Comments

Current Mood:Alarmed emoticon Alarmed

As you’re probably aware, we’ve been working on the child’s new room. She’s moved in and all, but we’re waiting to take the “final” pictures once the curtains are up (all bought and paid for, just waiting for nice weather to paint the curtain rods).

Tonight, we went to Home Depot to get some more supplies. There’s a door latch issue due to the difference in door knob height between modern doors and door frames from the 1920’s. I got some wood filler to fill in the existing (too low) chiseling. I also picked up a chisel set; something that I didn’t have, but will need for this. But all that is a subject for a later blog post when I fail miserably and have to crawl to the dads for help. :)

What we did pick up tonight was a really excellent light fixture for Clare’s room (pics will come… be patient). It was originally $75, but the guy at the back said he’d knock $10 off for taking the floor model. OK… that’s a bargain considering both Char and Clare liked it and I didn’t hate it. When we got to the front, it rang up for $39 and the teller took the extra $10 off per the guy in the back. So for $29, we got a $75 light fixture! Super bonus.

We got it home and the bolts didn’t exactly line up and were too long. Thankfully, I was able to locate a couple of nuts and “shorten” the bolts up a bit and redo how the existing bracket was mounted in the ceiling. Ceiling electrical boxes from the 20’s are sometimes a trip. At least this one was clean inside (the one in our bedroom was packed full of sawdust when we opened it up).

After getting everything straight and before putting Clare to bed, Char caught me in the hall and said “see… you’re handy.” Uhhh…. hmmm…

I’ll leave it at “Handy-ish”.

dead headphonist

Happy Sunday : Server Uptime

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 16, 2008
in Technology
. 0 Comments

Current Mood:Meh emoticon Meh

Most of you won’t care, but since the server is about to be decommissioned, I figured I’d make a post with a screenshot (the usernames are blurred). This is our network monitoring box at my place of employment. I’m not sure, we should be proud of this, or it’s a statement about the robustness of a minimally loaded, securely configured Linux box, but the box hasn’t been rebooted since Tuesday, July 8, 2003 and just last month showed it’s first vulnerability on a remote scan.

Very cool stuff.

sdnetstat02-uptime-031408-ob.png

dead headphonist

Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Inductions - 2008

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 14, 2008
in Music and TV
. 1 Comment

Current Mood:Confused emoticon Confused

rockhall.jpgIt is absolutely ludicrous. Every year, I see the list, complain about those that should have made it before, complain about those who get it and don’t deserve it and watch the RARHOF induction ceremonies anyway. And every year, I’m proven wrong regarding my loathing of some artist I believe doesn’t deserve it. I still think U2 doesn’t, but that’s another rant.

This year, it was two that I love to hate; Madonna and John Mellencamp. I’m going to start with Madonna, which initially drew a puzzled “WTF?!” from a not-so-isolated corner of my mind. How is it possible for someone who really did nothing other than create a bunch of “stylish for the times” throwaway pop make it into the Hall? My dad put it best; basically to paraphrase, she’s solely responsible for proving that a strong-willed businesswoman could kick ass and take names in the music industry. And that it didn’t even take much raw talent to do so.

Continue reading ‘Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Inductions - 2008′

charmaspice

Wordless Wednesday - Rockin’ Bride

Published
by
charmaspice
on March 12, 2008
in Photos and Wordless-Wednesday
. 10 Comments

Current Mood:Jammin’ emoticon Jammin’

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Clare has taken over some of my wedding garb.  I figure it’s been almost 7 years, and I’m not going to be wearing it anytime again soon - so why not!  That’s my headpiece, and the crinoline skirt that went under my gown (or as my MIL says, my fake booty because I have none).  I cut the seam out accross from the back opening so she has arm holes, and we added a belt to make it look more like a dress.  She also got a new guitar to play along with Brad, so we had a rockin’ mini-photo shoot this weekend!

For more Wordless Wednesday be sure to check out 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday.