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Clunky interface

My brother-in-law flew in from Des Moines this past Monday to spend Thursday Thanksgiving with my family and then to drive up with us to Okeene, Oklahoma for the annual Boeckman Saturday Thanksgiving. Eric brought his new Samsung a950 wireless phone and wanted me to show him how to load it up with MP3s. Talk about a tedious and clunky process.

We had to put the TransFlash card in its card adapter and then into the two-piece USB adapter and transfer MP3 files from my hard drive to the card adapter. Most of my audio files are MP4s so I then had to convert them to MP3s. Getting 100 songs for Eric took over two hours. This is such a horrible interface both in the software and the hardware. After all that work, I gave Eric an extensive demonstration of my iPod…

Clunky MP3 cell phone

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Spinning dog and twisted metal

I’ve never been a big fan of my 50-mile-one-way commute to work. It’s worse as we are subject to Daylight Saving Time and the skies now begin darkening at 4:30 p.m. The darkness makes my commute home so much fun on the windy and fast four lane HWY 71, which has no divide, is painted with deer blood and fluorescent spray paint lines that mark the mishaps.

Last night:
I was in the far right lane. The truck two vehicles in front of me slammed on its brakes, slowed, and then kept driving. The car in front of me slowed slightly and kept driving. I was safely behind both vehicles and then saw the thing that caused the truck to brake. I swerved into the left lane and as I drove by the point of impact I saw what looked like a German Shepherd, spinning lifelessly on its right side. Spinning and spinning.

This morning:
I was sitting at the light at the 290 & 71 intersection. An early model red Celica stopped behind me. The car had a boom boom stereo. I thought, “Who the hell listens to boom boom this early?” I looked in my mirror and took notice of the driver, a guy who looked like Drew from Office Space. The O-face guy.

The light turned green. I chose the left lane to get me through Oak Hill on 71. The red Celica followed. Traffic was heavy. Both westbound lanes were zooming at 40-50 mph in the 35 mph zone. After a mile or so, the car in front of me signaled left and started to brake as it was going to turn in to a business parking lot. The car rolled to a stop and was waiting for a pause in the oncoming eastbound traffic. I stopped. The red Celica stopped. The old minivan stopped. The new minivan didn’t stop. The new minivan ran into the back of the old minivan, shoved it into the left eastbound lane and sideswiped the red Celica. The car in front of me turned in to the parking lot. The van missed my truck’s left side by inches. It pulled back in to the left westbound lane in front of me just in time as eastbounders were coming again. This all transpired in 4.3 seconds. I witnessed the wreck because I had a gut feeling it would happen. I heard everything. I should have stayed as a witness. I didn’t stay because I was confident that the wreck didn’t warrant severe injuries. I steered right, drove off in the right lane and looked in my mirror to see the doors of the three involved cars open.

Boom boom.

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Long time friends and new neighbors

We just got word that our good friends, Doug and Marcia’s offer was accepted on a house a few blocks away. Doug is one of my closest friends from the good old days when we ran banquets at the country club. Doug left the club to go to law school in 1999. After graduating, he and Marcia lived in North Carolina for a few years. Doug happened upon a great opportunity here in Austin, recently passed the Texas bar exam, accepted the job offer and now they will both be moving back next month.

What’s funny is that the very first house that Elise and I tried to buy is on the same street that Doug and Marcia’s house is on. Another great thing is that Marcia is pregnant and due in February. Elise is due in April. So we’ll have friends within walking distance who will also have a newborn. That means the girls can go walking with strollers and talk about things like “lactating” and “onesies” and Doug and I can stand the driveway, drinks in hand and talk about lawn fertilizer and pressure treated lumber.

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8 years ago

Josh & Elise's first photo
Josh & Elise’s first photo – the college years

Josh: “You used to be so cute”

Elise: “You used to know the right things to say”

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Week in review: iMac

I began using my new iMac at the office this past Monday. My desk is aesthetically pleasing now. My plan was to force myself to completely switch to using my Mac at work. I can’t. I’m verrrrrrrrrrrry slow on my new computer.

My desk is aesthetically pleasing now because I have my iMac, Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and phone. It’s iFeng Shui. I had to add an adjoining desk for my old Windows machine and the server. When I need to do something that is time sensitive or mission critical, I use the Windows computer.

I try to use the iMac as much as possible. I will continue to try but in the meantime I’m like a three legged cat trying to bury turds on a frozen pond.

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Fat finger typing leads to dinner with like-named locals

Joey Janisheck (pronounced just like it reads) was “fat finger typing”, trying to get to his own website and accidentally typed janicek.com. He read up on us and sent me an e-mail just to say hello and to note that he and his family also live in Austin.

I wrote back and said, “Great! Similar tribes must come together and feast.”

Elise couldn’t help but make fun of me for setting up a blind date. I’m the anti-social one.

So we met at Rudy’s on Wednesday night and had a great barbecue dinner with Joey, his wife Melissa and the the little ones: Molly and Boston.

Not only are the names similar, but so are personalities and careers. Joey runs his own web development business and is the CTO of his household and Melissa is a caterer. Boston is Spiderman. I don’t know what our kid is yet. Probably a ninja.

We had a nice evening with the Janishecks and look forward future outings and possibly some parenting advice.

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Once Upon Your Dead Body

I’ve listened to Coheed and Cambria’s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One album over and over for the past three weeks. Nothing else. I love it. I can play some mad air drums to that album in my truck on the way to and from work.

I had to stop listening. Someone recently asked me if I wanted paper or plastic. I instinctively responded, “No. I hope you die right now. Will you drink my chemical?”

I have no idea what that means. Sounds saucy but it’s better than that Kanye West song.

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Rock game hen

I wanted to buy quail. HEB only had frozen “marinated” quail. I don’t swing on pretreated packaged meats. I bought a couple cornish game hens and thought I was going to make a boring dinner.

I threw together a chile rubbed charred cornish rock game hen stuffed with cilantro and ground lamb with an ancho dewberry coulis, Colorado wild rice and pistachio crusted leeks.

Good hen

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Lucille’s Corn Pudding

This is a great corn pudding recipe from the Y Bar & Grill in Oak Hill

2 cans sweet corn
1 can cream corn
1/4 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients in oven-safe baking dish. Bake at 350 until done in middle (1 hour or more).

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Gelatonous Black Balls

I was walking through the mall this morning after picking up the new iMac and became hungry. I walked by Chick-Fil-A and somehow made the decision to opt for something healthier for lunch. I decided I would just go home and find something in the fridge. As I made my way to the entrance of the mall I happened upon a kiosk. Simon’s Sushi. I picked out a plastic box of unagi rolls. The lady in line in front of me was handed a green tea smoothie thing. I said, “Ooooh, can I have one of those too?” The man whipped together the green tea concoction and handed it to me. It looked weird as there were dark spheres at the bottom of my cup. I shrugged it off, paid my bill and walked outside.

I took a sip from the cup through the huge straw and drew two soft black balls into my mouth (uhhh huh huh huh uhhh huh huh huh). I shrugged that off as well as I didn’t want to walk back into the mall. I figured I was getting a taste of Japanese Mall Kiosk Kulture. I later found out that I orded bubble tea and the chewy spheres are tapioca balls.

Bubble tea and unagi rolls
Mmmmm. Tapioca balls.