Vanity Page to the Nth Degree
Apr. 23rd, 2012
09:32 am - Had to Get Out for a Walkabout
I just finished up a really fun weekend. I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to see, or do quite everything there is to do, but that just means I have to go back. If the weekends can be this much fun, it'll be hard to avoid going out for a quick drive-in/drive-out weekend.
On Friday I left work after lunch and drove to Austin. That meant that I got to sit right on the edge of the cold front/thunderstorm the entire way south. A 3 hour drive took just over 4 due to traffic, construction, and an apparent grass fire caused by a lightning strike somewhere in between Waco and Leander.
However, once I got there the weather stayed cool and the rain cleared out. I got to the Flying Saucer in Austin at about 4 and by 4:30 I was joined by AmyS. (I'm not sure what to call her on this yet... she's got so many sides to her personality that giving her a nickname that she didn't pick seems hard.) Anyway, bjockman didn't get done with work until about 5:30, but he joined us when he could, as did one of her coworkers. We just hung out, everyone got to know each other, and generally had a good time hanging out. Also, North Coast Brewing Co. was there giving out free samples of Pranqster and Old Rasputin. (Quick review: Pranqster is awesome, Old Rasputin is drinkable.) and so we got our beer tasting started a full day early.
I was staying with bjockman, so after drinks and dinner I went back to his place and we called it a night. He's been working a ton and I was fine going to sleep by midnight so we could get going earlier Saturday.
Sadly though Saturday morning fell apart. The friends I was meeting for lunch had to cancel because of something going on with their kids. The friends I was meeting for breakfast/brunch never responded with a location for us to meet up and then later apologized for flaking out. bjockman's wife had a migraine and so he didn't feel right about just rushing out as soon as we could, instead spending the morning taking care of her. So I read, sat on the back porch, and played with their dogs. It was actually quite relaxing.
Finally just after noon we got moving and went to a burger place on Lake Travis for lunch then joined back up with AmyS and got to see ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6){kind=small}
desika at the South Austin Brewing Company. They're brand new, having only opened in February, and are currently only making large profile, high alcohol Belgian style beers. These are excellent, but only sold in a few places in Austin. So if you are going to Austin, you should try to find some.
We were there for hours, then I went to Trudy's and met up with jidol for dinner, then to the Elephant Room to see some rather excellent jazz by the Ephraim Owens Quintet. (He was the trumpet player in Blaze, for any who remember them.)
Sunday morning I met up with AmyS AGAIN to go to church with her, then we met her new African tortoises and from there went out to a polo club so I could watch my first polo match. Once that was done, I went back to bjockman's place to grill dinner and then returned in a very uneventful drive back to Dallas.
Next time I need to see Jon & Nicci, Sasha & Ash, and Brian & Ashley. That said, I had a wonderful weekend. I was doing Austin 2-3 times a year for a while. I'm already planning to be there for ACL this year if I can make that work logistically. Hopefully I can get one other weekend to work out.
In the meantime, it's back to work.
relaxedMar. 21st, 2012
11:00 pm - My Newest Nephew
This isn't my story, per se, and I had to get it second hand from my other sister, so it may be wrong in detail, but it's mostly right and sounds as if we had quite a bit of excitement in the Canadian wing of the family today.
It started right around noon when Noelle's water broke, but without contractions. She had been told that if her water broke without contractions that she would probably go into labor in 6-8 hours, so she let Brent know they had time, but things were starting.
My mom is there, so she prepped the bags and was there to take care of the boys, so everything was ready to go. Then at around 3 Noelle calls him again to say that she's having contractions, and they're erratic. So it's time to head in, but she thinks they still had time.
Mom said that she didn't know if they would make it, and handed Brent a bunch of towels as they walked out the door, but everyone else figured that was hyperbole. It ends up it was prescient. About halfway between Whistler and Squamish, where they were going, she tells Brent she is going to have the baby now. She has to push.
Now, they're on Highway 99, going down a stretch of road that has no shoulder and is on the side of a mountain, so this is not the place to have a baby. She says that maybe they should turn around, but he says that they're about halfway and there's no place to turn around anyway, so they'll keep going. But he calls 911 as soon as they find a shoulder and the action begins.
They send ambulances from both Whistler and Squamish, but stay on the line and talk him through the delivery. Brent gets to "catch" his 3rd son himself and then the EMT on the phone with him gets Brent to tie off the umbilical cord with his shoestring.
Once the ambulances get there, they ask Noelle if Brent would like to cut the cord. She says "he didn't want to cut either of the first two, so no." So they got her to cut it instead before they went to the hospital.
For just one second I'd like to point out how cool and collected they both were. Brent figured out where the best place is to have a baby on the side of a mountain, where it's snowing and about -3C (somewhere in the 20s Fahrenheit), and when what he has to work with is a Toyota Tacoma for a delivery room. He then talked her through the birth and did whatever one has to do. She kept her cool as well, and said she wasn't at all scared. She just saw there was a crisis and dealt with it.
Anyway, after that they just turned the heat on full blast and waited for an ambulance to drive mom and baby in to make sure everything was alright. Brent followed the rest of the way in, where Noelle finished with whatever had to be done. Apparently there was a small tear they had to patch up, but she is fine. In fact, they said that if they want to, the baby is in good health, and the mother is in good health, so they could go home as soon as tomorrow night if they want.
So I have a new Canadian nephew. Levi Creighton Duncan, born at 4:11pm. 8 lbs, 9 oz. He was ready to come out because, apparently, there was less than an hour's worth of actual labor. His big brother thinks they should call him "Lightning" instead of "Levi", and you know that might be a good name for a kid born on the road who wasn't even willing to wait 30 minutes to get to the hospital.
Quite an adventure. I was getting updates in church choir rehearsal and then got to announce the story at the end. They wanted me to express congratulations northward, and applauded the parents on a job well done and story-worthy.
There's the story as best I know it. Fun times. Now I just have to get my passport back so I can go meet little Lightning sometime soon...
excited09:18 am - My story for yesterday
So my story for yesterday - I missed my train by a few seconds because an asshole DART cop wouldn't let me sprint across when the walk light had changed even though the traffic light was with me and the train didn't wait. So I had to wait 15 minutes for the next blue line. Then I got on it and, just as it went underground on the way to Cityplace Station, it stopped. There was some kind of electrical problem on the train and they couldn't get it to go for an hour, and then we had to have another train pick us up at Cityplace, which means we've got 4 cars worth of people on 2 cars, everyone shoulder to shoulder.
I had a platelet donation scheduled for 7 at the Red Cross, and I can't even call them to see if they can let me come in late or cancel or anything. So finally I get to Mockingbird Station (not where my car is, but back out of the tunnel, so cell phone resumes) and call to update them and say "I can still come, but it may be 7:15."
They say "the main doors get locked at 7, so if you get here later than that we can't do anything." So I say "alright, I'll try. Don't start my kit setup until I get there though, just in case."
I skip getting food and get there at 6:55, thanks to the train delaying me more than an hour, and when I get there I find the front doors locked. So I call them and say "I'm here, and it isn't 7 yet, but I can't get in." So one of the phlebotomists comes over and finds the guard who's locking up for the night and he opens the door to let me in.
I get to give platelets and get done at 10 til 9, and when I'm leaving I go to a Whataburger for food, because I'm hungry. Apparently they just had someone accidentally pull the emergency fire release thing for the grill, so they're closed to clean the grill and then rewarm the grease and all for at least a half hour. So I give up and go to 7-Eleven for a hotdog.
Then I went home, dropped off my stuff, and went to Veritas. I had a Radiohead shirt that I had bought in England that shrunk when I washed it, and I've been wishing I could wear it again for almost 10 years. (And no, I didn't just get fatter... when I showed it to Heather she said "That's yours? It's so little. I don't know if Eddie can even wear it.") Plus I wanted to give Eddie a CD I've been promising him with a few Radiohead bootlegs. Plus I really wanted to get a glass of wine. Because at that point, I really felt like that would make things feel better.
He loved the shirt. I hope he loves the concerts. I think he will. He also told me he was buying my wine last night, so I let him. 2 good glasses of premium red wines that the Veritas crew loves help little minor stresses. Plus, by the end of the night lamerrill came in to say hello when she saw my facebook status, saying I was heading there.
And that's my story. The end.
fineMar. 16th, 2012
03:51 pm - Yamokopita
Yamokopita
I was out a few weeks back at a banquet and there was this marvelous little sweet potato dish. I grew up with sweet potatoes and, with this treasure on the table, I wanted to figure it out as quickly as I could. I found a couple of similar recipes online and worked from memory and yesterday I figured out something that tastes like what I remember. Even if it isn't, it's excellent.
Ingredients
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes (enough to make 2 cups of mashed sweet potato)
5 oz pecan halves or crushed/crumbled pecans
1/2 cup fat free half-and-half
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp honey
8 oz phyllo dough
butter spray
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350F
2. cook and mash sweet potato
3. combine potato with crushed pecans, honey, half-and-half, salt, and vanilla
4. spray baking sheet with nonstick spray
5. lay down 2 layers of phyllo.
6. Spray phyllo with butter spray
7. Spoon sweet potato mixture onto dough and spread.
8. layer another sheet of phyllo, spray with butter, and spread another layer of sweet potato. Repeat until sweet potato mixture is gone
9. Top with 2 more sheets of phyllo and spray with butter spray
10. Bake for 25-30 min
11. Cut into 16 pieces. Center will have more sweet potato than outer layer, so put middle sections under outer layers to show flaky crust. Serve warm.
Mar. 7th, 2012
10:08 am - Hard Day
Yesterday wasn't my favorite day ever.
I was still tired from the show on Monday. When I got to work, I got an email saying that one of my college friends, Charles McCartney, had died suddenly while having a seizure on Monday. Charles and I weren't close anymore, but he was a friend in college. Someone I saw every day, and who really shaped many of my days in the Mustang Band. He actually is the guy who started one or two of the traditions that now the entire student body participate in. He was 35, and to my knowledge had no health problems. So that was jarring.
Then my mom started calling me telling me that her mother, my grandmother, fell again and broke her shoulder. In addition, the doctors noticed that she has degenerated again and is in the 7th and final stage of Alzheimer's. She is losing muscle function, cannot recognize family, and frequently can't even communicate. I've been away for years, and the last time I was around she didn't recognize me as she thought I was still in high school. That said, she did tell me that she thought I would be someone her grandson would like to talk with because we had so much in common, and I was such a nice man.
I also had demands on my time from work, and a barrage of emails concerning things that I had to get done both yesterday and before the end of the week. It was just a rough day all around. I had really wanted to just glory in the concert from the night before. Instead I just felt kind of shocked and got through.
Today is better. I got about 3/4 of what I had to do before the end of the week done yesterday. All of the truly immediate problems got done.
But my grandfather and my friend's family need prayers. Both are going through rough patches and won't be able to recover quite so quickly. For me, I had to process the pain, but it's not a daily recurrence. My sister is about to have a baby. I have things that I like and people that I care about to consume my time. I'm not truly committed to these problems. I'll pay due respect, and I do feel some pain and loss, but not intensely. My grandmother, in all honesty, was lost to me years ago when I realized that she was no longer the woman that I knew and never would be again. I've had time to grieve. My friend is someone who I just lost track of, but we parted on good terms and I don't feel like anything was left unsaid.
I pray for the people who don't have those advantages, as my one day that was a little rough is nothing in comparison to what they are going through.
okayMar. 6th, 2012
08:32 am - Radiohead
I wanted to tell all of you real briefly about how great a show Radiohead put on. It's perhaps not as theatrical as Peter Gabriel or as moving as U2, and they don't have pyrotechnics like Metallica. They don't play the hits like almost any other show you would go see. Don't go and expect them to play "Creep" or much from "OK Computer". That isn't why you go to see Radiohead.
What they do that is so incredible is transform music you thought you already knew, and play new things you've never heard before that leave you wanting more. It doesn't matter that, even if you own all of their albums, you can sing along with barely half of the set list. It's not like most of Thom Yorke's lyrics make a whole lot of sense anyway. I mean seriously:
"Yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon, yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon, there are two colors in my head, there are two colors in my head, what was that you tried to say, what was that you tried to say, everything? Everything in its right place"
Huh?
And I bet half of you who know the song didn't even know all of those lyrics because of the production and delivery.
OK, what makes them a great show is how visceral the performances are. Unlike Coldplay, Radiohead isn't there just trying to get you to relax, or maybe sway a little to the beat. They want to shake you up and move you around some. They had 2 drummers and sometimes had 2 other players on percussion at the same time. The electronics aren't grating, but the samples are disturbing. You hear the sound of an addled mind, and it's an interesting place to visit. Thom may be taking you on a disturbing ride into a deranged and depressed mind, but when you're taking the party bus there with a few thousand of your closest friends, it's pretty thrilling.
I got to take solimar with me. They have been her favorite band since she discovered them around Hail To The Thief but she'd never seen them live. I love getting to go to shows like this with people who really appreciate it.
To top off the evening, they even played a song for us that they had never (as Radiohead) performed anywhere. Thom has played it solo a few times, but not at any large venues. So, pretty much a brand new song. It's called "Skirting On The Surface" and you can hear it here:
Really, I had a great time. I didn't sleep much, but it was worth it.
goodFeb. 23rd, 2012
11:06 am - Lent
Yesterday was the first day of Lent. I decided this year to give up soft drinks. I drink 2-3 a day normally, so it's something I will be remembering as I go, but it won't be as difficult as when I gave up caffeine (which also ended up with the side effect of me drinking a lot more alcohol because that was often the only other choice besides water) or when I gave up cheese one year or meat another. This is a lot more contained, so logistically it's not hard. It's a constant, so it's a good reminder.
I also decided to read the Bible more for the next 6.5 weeks. I pick mine up at least weekly, but not daily. That will change for the next bit.
This is written, thus it is true. :)
Feb. 22nd, 2012
10:20 am - My heart broke a little this morning
I think anyone who reads this knows that I am hardly a romantic, but even with that there are times that my cynical, jaded heart can still be shocked and jolted by someone around me. This morning was one of those times.
I was sitting next to a random guy on the train. He didn't look like someone you would think was about to make your heart break. You know the type: shaved head, goatee, tattoos, wearing all black... his cell phone had an AC/DC skin. He was glowering, palpably exuding a "do not talk to me" vibe. And said cell phone rings.
He looked at it for a second then answers. "Why the f*%k did you call me? So you can tell me you're going to have an abortion again? ... I know you don't care. You never f*$king care. All you want to do is fight. ... Look, if you wouldn't have started yelling last night - all I wanted to do was do one thing to make things a little better. You just want to make things worse to hurt me as much as you can.... I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Do what you want. DO WHATEVER YOU F**KING WANT! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!"
He hangs up, looks at me for a half second. I can see tears on his hardened face, and he gets up and storms off to the other end of the train.
The phone rang again and he silenced it then moved to where nobody in our car could see him anymore.
blankFeb. 21st, 2012
10:53 am - Writing Again
I haven't been writing much. No apologies, but I'll start again now because I feel moved to. :)
So Saturday I learned that I am still a mechanic, if a mediocre one. On Friday night, with all of the rain and junk, I managed to drive off the wrong part of a parking lot. It looked like an exit in the rain and half-light, but it was a curb. And when I did that I did a real number on my radiator.
Now, modern radiators can't really be repaired but they can be replaced cheaply. It cost me $150 for the part plus about $30 for the extra parts, tools, and antifreeze. That's all the good. The bad is that, with it still being cold and rainy on Saturday, when I discovered the problem, I had a devil of a time finding anyone to help me much. My brother in law, Georgedondo, helped me get the parts and drove me around a bit, but he had other things he needed to do. So I got everything and started taking my engine apart. Then I discovered after about 2 hours that I didn't have all the tools I needed.
Luckily I found BryanD wasn't excited about his evening plans and was willing to hang out and learn how to replace a radiator. So he came over and we spent the next 4 hours finishing the job. It took 2 trips to Autozone for special star sockets but it all worked.
I'm really grateful for the help. I am really also bizarrely grateful for the years driving old clunker cars in my misspent youth. When I saw the problem I decided I had to fix it rather than pay someone to fix it. My hands are still cut up today and there is still grease under my fingernails, and I still hate working on cars. Basically when I get done with a project, I want there to be an improvement over what is standard, so the only way I would have enjoyed this would have been to get done and find that I had a car that was better on Sunday than it was on Friday. It isn't, but it's just about as good as it was on Friday, so I'll call it a "win" and move along.
The last of the "bad" is that on Sunday I was congested and by the late afternoon running a low grade fever, I think due to spending hours laying in puddles of radiator fluid that had leaked out in 40 degree weather. But after a nap, I felt better.
Moral of the story: don't drive a Mustang over a curb, even in the rain. If you do, be wealthy so you can pay someone to do your car work for you. :)
Jan. 24th, 2012
10:44 am - Still trying
I'm still trying to remember to write a lot again. I haven't been. I haven't been reading here much either. Work has me doing self training exercises and it's hard to stay focused while I learn Java/Stripes, so anything that I do that isn't Java/Stripes I try and stop doing quickly.
Even so, I wanted to drop in real fast. I'm working my tail off, kind of literally, at the gym. Last week I lost 5 lbs. I'm trying to decide if I want to run a marathon this year right now. I'm also trying to learn to "Move Like Jagger" a bit so I can perform that with Don't Tell Mama as a duet with Cassie. The question is if I actually do Jagger dance moves or if I just move like me.
I'll write more if for no other reason than to use this as a workout blog for a bit. But that's all I'm writing for now.
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