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Dec. 28th, 2004 07:06 amIt sounds like it may be a very quiet day in the support center. I'm hoping I don't jinx that by starting to write. Seems like I always get interrupted by users at the most annoying times...
It's been a while, but things have been busy. The Christmas weekend was wonderful. Andrea and I left Michigan late Thursday night and arrive in Wisconsin well on to midnight local time. There wasn't a lot of snow on the road and the traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I worried it might be. I guess a lot of people took their vacation earlier.
The trip out was pretty uneventful. We didn't even need to stop for food since I'd brought some pizza that I scavenged from work (I intend to write more on that later). Andrea and I just sat and talked, changing drivers once or twice, and occasionally leaning against each other for a quick snuggle as we drove on through the night. It was a beautiful time, made even more so by the knowledge that we would soon be with our family.
So; we collapsed into bed on Thursday night and were up again late Friday morning, woken by the sounds of activity in the house. I have to note that that's one of the things that I really miss. It may seem odd for me to find that I really enjoy the noises of other people going about their business but I think it's more just a sense of closeness and safety. I love my parents and brothers (and Lara too) very much.
We saw a good amount of my brother's friend John while we were there. My dad had said he'd be at the house when we got there. What he didn't tell us was that John is staying at their house for a while because of some family trouble. I'm not sure what exactly that entails and neither are my parents; I'm sure he'll tell them about it if he wishes to and, for my part, it's none of my business. He just called and said he needed somewhere to stay and they said ok. That's the sort of people they are. They are beautiful people and I love them tremendously. I could not have more loving, special parents.
So; Friday. Andrea and I went out for a bit. We got out to Tenuta's, a fantastic independant Italian grocery, where we found glögg (gifts for grandparents, aunts, and uncles) other potent potables (Andrea picked up bottle of some sort of cherry stuff), and a bag of wasabi peanuts for yours truly. John found he had a taste for them when I offered him some and half the bag swiftly dissappeared. But that's ok.
We also made it to Big!Lots (actually, this must be an older store; there was no exclamation point which is really just as well. I keep seeing that and thinking 'Big not lots?' But I digress.) While Andrea explored the Jo-Ann's next door, I picked up a a CD storage rack and a 32MB USB thumb drive 'cause they were on sale cheap and I've wanted one forever.
We made it a short trip though; we both wanted to spend as much time as we could with family. I spent a while playing Halo 2 (I'd never even played Halo before and I have to admit, perhaps sacriligiously, that I don't feel that I was missing much), a bit of Grand Theft Auto III, and just hanging out with Jim, Tim, and Lara. They are great people and I miss them.
Then, at my dad's request, I drove him out to Racine to exchange a gift; he and mom bought, as a gift for the family, the X-Box Live enabled DDR game, but went back to get the set that comes with a dance pad rather than just the game. I am jealous. (See? Told you I have cool parents.) He and I had a nice trip out and got to chat for a while. Very nice.
We stopped at his friend Ron's house on the way home too to pick up a gift he'd bought for my dad (Turned out to be cases for his HeroClix minis. Cool!) and I got to meet him and his dog, a very nice 13 year-old German Shepherd girl. I realized soon after meeting him that I knew him as the guy who played a dwarf in my dad's D&D game way back when I was in elementary school and my parents used to take me with them to the College of Lake County and let me run around the building while they gamed with their friends. I remember that very fondly. Oddly enough, my dad did not remember this character; one of the few times that I remember someone better than my dad. It felt very odd.
I think Andrea had a good time while I was out; I was a little worried that she'd be uncomfortable or bored, but I think she enjoys being with my family too. I know they love being with her...
After getting back I indulged in the obligatory fixing of a computer; my mom's machine was infested with spyware and I managed to get most of it off. There are some persistant pop-ups that I suspect are related, but at least I got rid of SurfSidekick and sundry other malware. Yuck. I also showed her how to use Firefox and ran the cables for her front panel USB ports that weren't attached. Then I took her power supply out, removed the non-functional fan (she's had a deskfan blowing into it for weeks since the fan died), and replaced it with one from my brother's dead power supply, using my handy blue electrical tape that I keep in the truck to splice the wires. It was also dead. (Gee, wonder why the power supply failed...) Oh well. Next time I'm out there I'll buy a new fan for her.
That night, the lot of us went out to King Buffet for our annual Christmas Eve Chinese buffet trip. Evil Bob and his sons came along and I was so happy to see them. He's another person I dearly miss. We talked about geek stuff as I consumed crab rangoons and eggrolls. Mmmm. It was a beautiful night of companionship. Not too long after arriving home, Andrea and I retreated to our bedroom, anticipating the Christmas morning to come.
We were woken for a huge breakfast Christmas morning; my dad produced his usual array of biscuits, bacon, eggs, and sausage. They reminisced about a past Christmas morning when my dad made breakfast while my mom fixed the toilet. This sort of thing is partly representative of why I'm not a typical guy, and I am grateful. But anyway, we had lots of good food and then opened presents. My brothers loved the game we got for them (La Pucelle Tactics for Jim and a hard-found Dungeon Keeper 2 for Tim) and Lara seemed to like her gifts. My dad was excited by the Doc Savage and Dave Barry books I found for him and my mom really liked the necklace that Andrea picked out for her. I don't really think of my mother as a jewlery person but she did say she wanted pretty things to wear to cons and Andrea and I both thought it was a piece she'd like; kind of southwesterny. There were several other things, but those stick in my memory. We had a couple more things, one for my dad and one for my mom, that, due to doggy incompetence, did not make it to Wisconsin with us; I guess they'll be for later. I feel appropriately silly.
Andrea seemed to like the things I gave her (I'll let her write about them if she wishes), though I still feel a little like I should have found more/better things. She gave me wonderful little things like a set of cards with knot instructions (something I'd wanted for years!) and several books. She got me a two book collaborative set by Andre Norton and Merceded Lackey which I am tickled about. They are two of my favorites! There aren't many pairings that would get me more excited; maybe Mercedes Lackey and Barbara Hambly... She also gave me a collection of Lovecraft selected and edited by Joyce Oates. I've always wanted to read Lovecraft but I never have; I am remedying that situation. One of the best things she found for me was a magic 8 ball. But not just any magic 8 ball; this is the tech-support ball! The phrases inside say things like 'Ping 127.0.0.1' or 'not supported'. It's awesome! I'd have it in my cube here except that it appears to have frozen in the car and the fluid expansion caused a slight leak. This is depressing 'cause I really like the thing. We're going to try to fix it with aquarium sealer or somthing of the like.
That done, we packed ourselves into three vehicles and drove off to my aunt and uncle's house where three generations worth of family talked and played long into the night. My uncle collects arcade games and Andrea and I (and the rest of our family) spent a while on Tempest, Donkey Kong, a couple of pinball machines, and several other games. I got in four or five games of ping-pong (I love that game) with my uncle, my mother, my brother, and cousins. We had dinner and that was good. I drank too much soda and had a great time seeing family again. I talked with my grandfather about his metal working things; he said that even though he and grandma are moving in to an addition to my aunt and uncle's house, he will be keeping enough of his equipment that I'll still be able to use his forge if we have room. That's another thing I've greatly missed and I look forward to resuming it. I've only done it a few times, but I love heating and shaping and hammering metal; it feels very right.
From there it was back home and soon to bed, though I spent a while helping Tim to get Dungeon Keeper to work under XP. Actually, all I had to do was Google for some pointers and he took it from there. He figured out how to crack the safedisc protection (that keeps it from running under XP) and manage the whole process of configuring the run-time environment to make it work. I'm so proud!
We got up early the next day and said good-byes (Jim, typically, was too exhausted to get out of bed) and headed south to Chicago. We stopped on the way at an outlet mall where we found a media store going out of business. We bought CD storage racks at 75% off and a few games, one of which, I leaned upon arrive home, currently unplayable since I forgot to pack up my X Box upon leaving, but that's ok. I'm sure Jim will put it to good use until my return. I had such a great time playing with my brothers. I am so looking forward to having more time with them when we live closer. It depresses me a little to be so far away from them.
We had lunch with Andrea's brother in Chicago at a neat little café called the Flying Saucer. We stopped again on the Michigan side of the Indiana border to visit the Lion's Den (we found some good stuff there; perhaps I'll write about it for those on that filter), and one last time for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Soon enough though, the time having passed swiftly with good conversation and, for a time, me watching my raccoon sleep next to me and feeling very contented, we arrived home.
I was out and about on Monday since I had the day off, but that's for a seperate entry if it gets in here. This one's long enough, I'm sure. I just want to note that, despite being stuck at work doing next to nothing and being far away from a good number of my family again, I feel very content. It was a warm fuzzy weekend all around.
It's been a while, but things have been busy. The Christmas weekend was wonderful. Andrea and I left Michigan late Thursday night and arrive in Wisconsin well on to midnight local time. There wasn't a lot of snow on the road and the traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I worried it might be. I guess a lot of people took their vacation earlier.
The trip out was pretty uneventful. We didn't even need to stop for food since I'd brought some pizza that I scavenged from work (I intend to write more on that later). Andrea and I just sat and talked, changing drivers once or twice, and occasionally leaning against each other for a quick snuggle as we drove on through the night. It was a beautiful time, made even more so by the knowledge that we would soon be with our family.
So; we collapsed into bed on Thursday night and were up again late Friday morning, woken by the sounds of activity in the house. I have to note that that's one of the things that I really miss. It may seem odd for me to find that I really enjoy the noises of other people going about their business but I think it's more just a sense of closeness and safety. I love my parents and brothers (and Lara too) very much.
We saw a good amount of my brother's friend John while we were there. My dad had said he'd be at the house when we got there. What he didn't tell us was that John is staying at their house for a while because of some family trouble. I'm not sure what exactly that entails and neither are my parents; I'm sure he'll tell them about it if he wishes to and, for my part, it's none of my business. He just called and said he needed somewhere to stay and they said ok. That's the sort of people they are. They are beautiful people and I love them tremendously. I could not have more loving, special parents.
So; Friday. Andrea and I went out for a bit. We got out to Tenuta's, a fantastic independant Italian grocery, where we found glögg (gifts for grandparents, aunts, and uncles) other potent potables (Andrea picked up bottle of some sort of cherry stuff), and a bag of wasabi peanuts for yours truly. John found he had a taste for them when I offered him some and half the bag swiftly dissappeared. But that's ok.
We also made it to Big!Lots (actually, this must be an older store; there was no exclamation point which is really just as well. I keep seeing that and thinking 'Big not lots?' But I digress.) While Andrea explored the Jo-Ann's next door, I picked up a a CD storage rack and a 32MB USB thumb drive 'cause they were on sale cheap and I've wanted one forever.
We made it a short trip though; we both wanted to spend as much time as we could with family. I spent a while playing Halo 2 (I'd never even played Halo before and I have to admit, perhaps sacriligiously, that I don't feel that I was missing much), a bit of Grand Theft Auto III, and just hanging out with Jim, Tim, and Lara. They are great people and I miss them.
Then, at my dad's request, I drove him out to Racine to exchange a gift; he and mom bought, as a gift for the family, the X-Box Live enabled DDR game, but went back to get the set that comes with a dance pad rather than just the game. I am jealous. (See? Told you I have cool parents.) He and I had a nice trip out and got to chat for a while. Very nice.
We stopped at his friend Ron's house on the way home too to pick up a gift he'd bought for my dad (Turned out to be cases for his HeroClix minis. Cool!) and I got to meet him and his dog, a very nice 13 year-old German Shepherd girl. I realized soon after meeting him that I knew him as the guy who played a dwarf in my dad's D&D game way back when I was in elementary school and my parents used to take me with them to the College of Lake County and let me run around the building while they gamed with their friends. I remember that very fondly. Oddly enough, my dad did not remember this character; one of the few times that I remember someone better than my dad. It felt very odd.
I think Andrea had a good time while I was out; I was a little worried that she'd be uncomfortable or bored, but I think she enjoys being with my family too. I know they love being with her...
After getting back I indulged in the obligatory fixing of a computer; my mom's machine was infested with spyware and I managed to get most of it off. There are some persistant pop-ups that I suspect are related, but at least I got rid of SurfSidekick and sundry other malware. Yuck. I also showed her how to use Firefox and ran the cables for her front panel USB ports that weren't attached. Then I took her power supply out, removed the non-functional fan (she's had a deskfan blowing into it for weeks since the fan died), and replaced it with one from my brother's dead power supply, using my handy blue electrical tape that I keep in the truck to splice the wires. It was also dead. (Gee, wonder why the power supply failed...) Oh well. Next time I'm out there I'll buy a new fan for her.
That night, the lot of us went out to King Buffet for our annual Christmas Eve Chinese buffet trip. Evil Bob and his sons came along and I was so happy to see them. He's another person I dearly miss. We talked about geek stuff as I consumed crab rangoons and eggrolls. Mmmm. It was a beautiful night of companionship. Not too long after arriving home, Andrea and I retreated to our bedroom, anticipating the Christmas morning to come.
We were woken for a huge breakfast Christmas morning; my dad produced his usual array of biscuits, bacon, eggs, and sausage. They reminisced about a past Christmas morning when my dad made breakfast while my mom fixed the toilet. This sort of thing is partly representative of why I'm not a typical guy, and I am grateful. But anyway, we had lots of good food and then opened presents. My brothers loved the game we got for them (La Pucelle Tactics for Jim and a hard-found Dungeon Keeper 2 for Tim) and Lara seemed to like her gifts. My dad was excited by the Doc Savage and Dave Barry books I found for him and my mom really liked the necklace that Andrea picked out for her. I don't really think of my mother as a jewlery person but she did say she wanted pretty things to wear to cons and Andrea and I both thought it was a piece she'd like; kind of southwesterny. There were several other things, but those stick in my memory. We had a couple more things, one for my dad and one for my mom, that, due to doggy incompetence, did not make it to Wisconsin with us; I guess they'll be for later. I feel appropriately silly.
Andrea seemed to like the things I gave her (I'll let her write about them if she wishes), though I still feel a little like I should have found more/better things. She gave me wonderful little things like a set of cards with knot instructions (something I'd wanted for years!) and several books. She got me a two book collaborative set by Andre Norton and Merceded Lackey which I am tickled about. They are two of my favorites! There aren't many pairings that would get me more excited; maybe Mercedes Lackey and Barbara Hambly... She also gave me a collection of Lovecraft selected and edited by Joyce Oates. I've always wanted to read Lovecraft but I never have; I am remedying that situation. One of the best things she found for me was a magic 8 ball. But not just any magic 8 ball; this is the tech-support ball! The phrases inside say things like 'Ping 127.0.0.1' or 'not supported'. It's awesome! I'd have it in my cube here except that it appears to have frozen in the car and the fluid expansion caused a slight leak. This is depressing 'cause I really like the thing. We're going to try to fix it with aquarium sealer or somthing of the like.
That done, we packed ourselves into three vehicles and drove off to my aunt and uncle's house where three generations worth of family talked and played long into the night. My uncle collects arcade games and Andrea and I (and the rest of our family) spent a while on Tempest, Donkey Kong, a couple of pinball machines, and several other games. I got in four or five games of ping-pong (I love that game) with my uncle, my mother, my brother, and cousins. We had dinner and that was good. I drank too much soda and had a great time seeing family again. I talked with my grandfather about his metal working things; he said that even though he and grandma are moving in to an addition to my aunt and uncle's house, he will be keeping enough of his equipment that I'll still be able to use his forge if we have room. That's another thing I've greatly missed and I look forward to resuming it. I've only done it a few times, but I love heating and shaping and hammering metal; it feels very right.
From there it was back home and soon to bed, though I spent a while helping Tim to get Dungeon Keeper to work under XP. Actually, all I had to do was Google for some pointers and he took it from there. He figured out how to crack the safedisc protection (that keeps it from running under XP) and manage the whole process of configuring the run-time environment to make it work. I'm so proud!
We got up early the next day and said good-byes (Jim, typically, was too exhausted to get out of bed) and headed south to Chicago. We stopped on the way at an outlet mall where we found a media store going out of business. We bought CD storage racks at 75% off and a few games, one of which, I leaned upon arrive home, currently unplayable since I forgot to pack up my X Box upon leaving, but that's ok. I'm sure Jim will put it to good use until my return. I had such a great time playing with my brothers. I am so looking forward to having more time with them when we live closer. It depresses me a little to be so far away from them.
We had lunch with Andrea's brother in Chicago at a neat little café called the Flying Saucer. We stopped again on the Michigan side of the Indiana border to visit the Lion's Den (we found some good stuff there; perhaps I'll write about it for those on that filter), and one last time for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Soon enough though, the time having passed swiftly with good conversation and, for a time, me watching my raccoon sleep next to me and feeling very contented, we arrived home.
I was out and about on Monday since I had the day off, but that's for a seperate entry if it gets in here. This one's long enough, I'm sure. I just want to note that, despite being stuck at work doing next to nothing and being far away from a good number of my family again, I feel very content. It was a warm fuzzy weekend all around.
