thisischris.com -- This is Chris dot Com -- the website of Christopher Grant Harris

Yesterday (Monday) Carrie had the day off, but for me it was as if she were at work because she was gone a good chunk of the morning, then came home for a little bit before going out again for the rest of the afternoon. The main difference was that Linnea & Lena came by and went with her for one of her outings.

I, meanwhile, stayed home and werked quite a bit.

Around 5:30 we went down to Primo Grill and took advantage of a gift certificate my grandma gave us for Christmas. We also took advantage of Primo Grill's before-six dinner special, where you get a three-course dinner for $15. I had the tomato-basil soup (which was more like a bisque and tasted like really excellent pasta sauce), the beef with caramelized onions and garlic mashed potatoes, and the gelatto. Carrie had the soup, the veggie pizza with parmesan and gorgonzola, and the tirimisu. Carrie, however, got so stuffed so quickly that she ended up being only able to eat one slice of the pizza and less than half of the dessert. We both found this very odd.

From Primo we went to Jo-Ann so carrie could browse and buy stuff with which to make some different styles of necklaces. We came home and she did make a necklace, but I'm not sure that she used anything she bought at Jo-Ann.

In the evening I taught her how to load stuff onto her iPod Nano. She handed-me-down her old iPod Shuffle for my use, so I loaded it up with 14.5 hours of my music stuff.

The Nominees Are...

OSCAR.com - 78th Annual Academy Awards - Nominee List

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Robot Fight

Yesterday (Saturday)... yesterday... hold on. Let me try to remember what happened in the first half of the day.

Hmm... I remember now. Turns out the reason I was having trouble remembering is that nothing terribly memorably happened. But I'm going to write about it anyway before I forget again!

I did dishes. Lots and lots o' dishes. Four entire loads. And it was just scratching the surface, baby!

To help me while I worked I created a mix CD of some fun ~~stowies~~ songs to which I would listen while I washed. I had planned on listening to it in the CD player in the dining room, but that thang is so jumpy that it was skipping all over the place, so I played it in the DVD player in the bedroom and turned up the volume on the TV in there. The CD has music from such notables as Victor Wooten, The Crazy Boy Floyds, Gorillaz, Jonathan Coulton, Tangentbot, Locust Street Taxi, and several and various others.

Carrie spent all of Saturday teaching class at the Bead Factory. Two classes back-to-back (almost). She had a short break between classes, so I picked her up and brought her home to eat before taking her back.

I left for Fools Play at 3:30. But right before I left (and I do mean right before I left—I was putting on my coat to head out the door) I managed to drop one of those leafs you put in a table to make it longer. It landed right on the first two toes of my right foot. It hurt like bejeezus. There was some blood. So I took a handful of Tylenol and limped out the door.

It hurt pretty much up until showtime, when it finally started to calm down. It ain't broken or nothing—I can tell. Just bashed all to hell.

Why did I go to Fools Play so early? So we could get in a practice of a complete episode of our newest format: Robot Repair Shop. It's a really cool format in the style of FPRL, where it's a longform about a group of characters and their job. In this case it's about a group of Characters who run/work in a robot repair shop in the future that repairs robots. There are:

The Chief: Who owns and runs the place, and is constantly smoking a cigar
Bumper: Who never thinks he needs help
Kimball: Who doesn't take himself or the job very seriously
Gus: Who kinda mumbles a lot
Julius: The lead field agent
Newbie: The New Guy
Samir: The guy who runs the front desk, but also goes out on assignments
Brady: Who talks too much and always has to have the most high-tech equipment
Big T: Who runs the repair floor and never goes out on assignment

Between practicing the format and performing it we ran to Goodwill so Geoff could get a cheapie yellow shirt on account of he couldn't find his at home. Then we swung by Brewery City Pizza and picked up two gigantic olive-and-extra-cheese pizzas, which we brought back to Studio 321 and ate one in its entirety backstage before the show.

Robot Repair Shop is a lot of work, but the audience seemed to really enjoy it, especially the "Robot Fight!" parts.

Afterwards I went out with Mike, Sandy, & Mathias to The Ribeye. Hadn't been there in quite a while, and it's much more palatable now that the statewide smoking ban is in effect. I had a milkshake and then drove home.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Happy Birthday PARTY to Sandy, Sophia, & Julian

Yesterday (Friday) something went screwy with Carrie's alarm and she didn't get to work until 9:00, which is an hour later than she likes to get to work (but, ironically, is the time that she is supposed to get to work).

The actual day itself was relatively uneventful. Carrie went to work and worked; I stayed home and worked. I picked her up for lunch and she made tomato gnocci. Then she took the car back to work and worked; I stayed where I worked.

In the late afternoon I talked via teh intarweb with Kris ("Archie"). Her dad was thinking about getting a website to sell his custom knock-off furniture, so Kris was inquiring about my rates and what-not. It was nice to chat with her. She has a new cat:

Carrie came home and we got to relax for a couple of minutes before driving up to Renton (Rent-uhn!) to attend Sophia & Julian's 11th birthday party at the Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center. I ate pizza and cake, played ski-ball with Carrie, and Laser Tag with a whole bunch of little kids (and Mark). It wasn't too bad of a time. Carrie got to hang out with Viki, too.

At 8:00 we left there and drove straight up to Seattle to the fancy restauarant known as Brasa (which is apparently portugese for "live coals"). It was very schmancy, and Carrie felt a little underdressed.

Why were we there? Why, for Sandy's birthday party (in case you couldn't guess by the title of this post). Carrie & I were the first people to show up, but only by a couple of minutes. Sandy & Mathias and Leia & Kedar were right behind us. Geoff & Mike showed up after that, and then Ed rounded out the cast. None of her non-Fools-Play friends ended up being able to come, due to car accidents and flus and fun stuff like that.

I had a half-order of ravioli with asiago and currants, which was very, very tasty. Carrie had a Portugese seafood stew type of thing, which was good, but ended up being way too salty. She was a little disappointed, because s she said, "If I'm going to pay $30 for something It'd better be perfect." There were carpaccio appetizers and I got to taste pretty much everybody else's food, such as Tuna, pork, and rabbit. And for dessert Carrie & I got Spanish doughnuts, but there was also marscapone cheesecake and the waitress gave Sandy a cool chocolate mousse-filled cake with a birthday candle on it.

It was a good time. Expensive (especially considering that I just wrote checks for all of our bills), but good. I like Sandy. I'm glad she had a birthday. Too bad her present didn't show up in time.

We ended up staying at Brasa from 8:30 until after 11:30, so it was after midnight by the time we got to bed.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Happy Birthday to Sandy

Yesterday (Thursday) after I took Carrie to work I came home and actually worked out! I blasted my abs! Rrrr!

In the afternoon (during Carrie's split-shift) we went down to Ever After to pick up one of Carrie's checks, then went to the bank to put money in my account on account of we did bills. Bills are lame.

It was also Sandy's birthday. I talked with her on the phone for a while around dinnertime, and we tried to think up names for her new Nintendog.

In the evening I took Carrie to work so she could teach class, then when I came home I started to feel a little... off. Kinda fuzzy. Then a little nauseous. Then my vision got a little weird.

I was having a migraine.

I took four Tylenol and tried not to move very much on account of my head was in really a huge amount of pain. I didn't get any work done that evening, unfortunately.

It was just starting to get better by the time Carrie got home.

Bleah.

Take on the Toughies

...and The Rock cried...

Thursday, January 26, 2006

My Computers Aren't Talking

So remember when I said that on Tuesday night I was fiddling around with the network between my computers? Well, it turned out that I somehow completely screwed it up, and I couldn't even access teh intarwebs until about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday, when I finally fixed that problem. The two computers, however, are not talking to each other right now.

In the evening Geoffs came by and Carrie bought us all (except for herself) dinner from Burger Bar. I got beef teriyaki. Geoff got General Tzo's Chicken. Good. I helped Geoff build a website for all of his music projects: Empty Room Studios. Now all it needs is actual content, and it'll be brand-spankin' awexome.

In the much-later evening I pulled out Carrie's portable DVD player and set it up so she could watch a DVD while taking a bath. That machine is very cute. Oh, and so is Carrie.

Plus, I'm apparently Spider-Man.

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		80%
Superman		60%
The Flash		60%
Green Lantern		60%
Wonder Woman		50%
Supergirl		50%
Robin		45%
Iron Man		40%
Catwoman		35%
Hulk		35%
Batman		20%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Thank's to Lawrence for this quiz.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

How to Knock on My Door

I did not have well sleep last night. Besides having to get up to go to the bathroom twice, I kept having weird, stressful dreams. Including one where I peed on my pants. Also one where I was both in and watching Serenity, except at the end everybody dies and this version of the ship was drawn by someone who didn't really know the show very well (I know).

Anyway, yesterday (Tuesday) was Carrie's lazy day. She didn't go in to work until 5:30 in the evening, and she spent most of the earlier part of the day lounging in bed and/or playing Animal Crossing. It was good; she's been working really quite a lot recently (as is reflected in her larger-than-normal paychecks).

I also, have been working really quite a lot recently. Yesterday I did a lot of small this-and-that for the Bead Factory and some more for Accents by Joni. Leilani dropped of a class handout for me, but if she knocked she didn't knock very loud. Time for an interlude:

<Interlude>
For some reason when people come to our house, about 80% of them knock on the door so lightly that you can only hear it if you're within six feet of the door. If you're in another room (and I'm usually always in my office) then you can just forget about it. I really don't understand that. It's a big metal door. If you don't want to risk hurting your knuckles, then take a key and clang on it that way; that's what I do at the Bead Factory when I bring Carrie her coffee every morning. They have a glass door and I make a loud noise by striking it with the tip of my car key. They can hear that all the way to the other side of the store. So, people, if you wanna come to my house, knock loudly enough so that we can hear you all the way on the other side of the house. We won't mind!
</Interlude>

Anyway, after I took Carrie to her class I went home and reworked the networking between my two computers. There are a damned lot of wires underneath my desk, and they're going willy-nilly every which way.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Sitting on a Baby

Yesterday (Monday) the plan was for Carrie to go in to work in the morning and then just work until the project was done, since she'd worked so late on Sunday. She ended up working until around 2:30, which is only two hours shy of a full day anyway. I, in the meantime, worked a full day on the Accents by Joni website, shaping up what I think the final design should look like.

Viki brought her a sammitch from MSM II Deli, since she worked straight through lunch. She ate half of it at the store and brought the other half home, where she gave me the delicious MSM pickles that came with the sammitch. That's a good place to get sammitches.

Around 5:30 Linnea dropped Lena off at our house so that she could take Jay out for his birthday. We hadn't really seen them for quite a while, so that was nice. So we hung out with Lena for a while. She came in the house crying like crazy but as soon as I walked into the room with Fantastico she started giggling and (except for a brief time when she shut down and became absolutely silent) giggled pretty much the whole time we had her.

I made Carrie & me each a pizza for dinner. Lena came with her own food, so we all ate together at the dining room table. After dinner we walked down to Starbucks to buy hot cocoas for the girls at the store, because there had been some drama with an horrible customer who had to be kicked out. So we brought hot cocoa to make everyone feel better. Lena & I played in the kiddie room briefly, and she didn't really believe that I was the one who had painted the mural in there.

When we came home we taught Lena how to play Animal Crossing, which was very funny. She wanted to watch "Barbie," which turned out in her mind to be Legally Blonde 2. I could totally see how she could think of that movie as being a Barbie movie. Unfortunately her parents came by and picked her up before she could watch it, so we let her take it home with her. We also showed off Roomba to Linnea & Jay, and Jay totally wanted one until he learned how expensive they were.

In the evening I finished up the design and emailed it to Joni, then I played some more Sam & Max Hit the Road before going to bed and playing Animal Crossing.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Everybody's Working for the Weekend!

I forgot to write in this yesterday (Sunday). Weird! I haven't skipped a day in quite a while. But I just plumb forgot. So now I have to remember what happened on Saturday.

Carrie went out with Nyki to help her find an apartment. They actually almost decided on Brandy's old studio, which would have been hilariously awesome. Instead, though, they settled on one in the next building over.

She came home, and then the Lareau kids came over. They were supposed to come over at 5:00, but they were almost an entire half-hour late. So by the time they came over and Carrie went and got them (and me) food, I was very late in heading out to Fools Play. That coupled with the fact that I had to stop for gas on the way made me rather late indeed.

The show was really fun, though. It was Fools Play 20 Questions. At the end we did Short Songs, and there were some really good ones. Maybe they'll be added to the Theater on Fools Play Island sometime soon? Maybe.

I didn't go out to eat with peoples after the show, though, 'cause I wanted to go home and hang out with my wife.

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Grandma K's place because they were doing a huge brunch thing. It was rather tasty, especially the nearly-raw roast beef with the really thick au jus sauce. After eating we went back up to Grandma K's room and played the card game Fascination. Well, most of it. We had to leave so I could get home and create a handout for Nicole's 2:00 class. I did create it, but it was ten minutes late (not that Nicole minded, but I kinda did).

Mike & Geoff came over around 3:00 and we practiced "Robot Repair Shop," our newest format, until 5:00. Then we went to Circuit City. Well, I went to Circuit City while Carrie went to Cost Plus World Market. At Circuit City I bought for Carrie a portable DVD player so she can amuse herself on plane rides and when she goes to shows and the like. She didn't buy nothing.

We stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home, even though technically it isn't on the way home at all.

In the evening Carrie went back to the store to help Mark with Metalsmithing stuff. I'm not sure exactly what, but she ended up staying there until after 11:00 and said she still wasn't finished yet. She's at the store right now finishing up.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Meeting the Wastelanders in the Middle

Yesterday (Friday) I made some realls good food. Carrie a while back had bought some sun-dried tomato & habanero tortillas. Well, for lunch I made a quesadilla with those tortillas filled with some sharp cheddar cheese. On top I spread a thin layer of sour cream and then sprinkled that with parmesan cheese. Man-o-man thems was some tasty vittles. I had one for lunch and then another one for din-dins.

After dinner Carrie went with Niki to look at an apartment. Geoff came by and picked me up, and I played him some Jonathan Coulton, and also showed him that I had found the CD for that old Sam & Max Hit the Road video game. I had to acquire a DOS emulator to play it on my XP box, which I think is freakin' hilarious.

Anyway, we drove in Geoff's mom's car up to Edmonds to pick up Jason, one of Mike & Geoff's co-workers. He and I got along instantly. He's like Mike T-easy to get along with. So that was coo'.

We took him down to the U-district in Seattle to the dive known as The Blue Moon. It is really a dive. It was much more of a dive even than that place in Auburn where we saw The Boinkers play a while back. I even got accosted by a drunk guy because I didn't know how to play pool! When he said I needed to know in case I was out with some chicks and I informed him I was married, he wailed, "So what? That don't stop the cock!"

Why were we there? Why, to hear The Wastelanders bring the roof down around us. And also, incidentally, to hang out with most of the people I was friends in during college. That's right, not only were Geoff, Jason, and I there. But Brooks, Rachel, Sarah, and Travis were there. But not only them, but Val and Karen were there as well, and a couple of people I don't know. And not only that, but Ed showed up just when the show was starting around 11:00. It was a good time, and it was 'specially good to see Sarah, who is now studying to become a cat doctor.

The Wastelanders are so much fun live. I really wish they would put out another album, though. One funny thing, Ed during one song wrote down the lyrics as he heard them. Somehow I don't think they sang a song about liking puppets.

After the show Geoff & I took Jason back up to Edmonds and then Geoff drove me home. I got there around 1:45.

Oh, and remember to check out both _tangentbot's and Jonathan Coulton's new songs this week. They're both ve'y goot.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Wi-Failure

Yesterday (Thursday) there were two failures involving Animal Crossing: Wild World. The first one occurred in the afternoon when Carrie was playing and accidentally pushed the power button. She had to talk to Resetti.

Then when she was teaching class last night I decided to go over to The Mandolin Cafe. I brought my DS. I played some WFC Mario Kart (I came in 2nd—BOO), then I popped in Animal Crossing and went to my gate and got my Friend Code. I called up Leia to see if I could come over to her town (I got her Friend Code off of her MySpace account). She said she'd open her town's gate. So I went back to my town's gate and said I wanted out. Suddenly I couldn't connect to the WiFi service at Mandolin, even though I had just been on it like two minutes before that.

Eventually the WiFi came back, but when I went to the gate to be let out, it could never find Leia's town. It would search and search. And periodically the WiFi connection would drop out. So I never did get to go to her town.

On the way home I stopped by Target and bought Julian's birthday present. Their party is this Saturday while I'm at Fools Play, so I don't git to go.

Animal Crossing: Wild World
Friend Code: 3093-0137-5047
Name: f-Body
Town: Big Baby

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. But he is so badass, he has never cried. Ever.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris, you may be only seconds away from death.

Chuck Norris has counted to infinity. Twice.

Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers
the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.

Chuck Norris doesnt wash his clothes, he disembowels them.

Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Indian.

In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.

There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist.

Additional Chuck Norris Facts
Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked someone so hard that his foot broke the speed of light, went back in time, and killed Amelia Earhart while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Crop circles are Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the fuck down.

Chuck Norris is ten feet tall, weighs two-tons, breathes fire, and could eat a hammer and take a shotgun blast standing.

The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed misserably.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds 'til." After you ask, "Two seconds 'til what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

Chuck Norris drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse-kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.

Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.

Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.

Chuck Norris doesn't churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter comes straight out.

When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes ever.

The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris' fist.

A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.

Chuck Norris will attain statehood in 2009. His state flower will be the Magnolia.

Nagasaki never had a bomb dropped on it. Chuck Norris jumped out of a plane and punched the ground.

Chuck Norris originally appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodgeball Chuck Norris played in second grade.

Chuck Norris once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"

Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On July 19th, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.

Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill.

Someone once tried to tell Chuck Norris that roundhouse kicks aren't the best way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake anyone has ever made.

Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on a true story: Chuck Norris once swallowed a turtle whole, and when he crapped it out, the turtle was six feet tall and had learned karate.

Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris is the only human being to display the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- you can never know both exactly where and how quickly he will roundhouse-kick you in the face.

Chuck Norris can drink an entire gallon of milk in forty-seven seconds.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mothers womb.

If you say Chuck Norris' name in Mongolia, the people there will roundhouse kick you in his honor. Their kick will be followed by the REAL roundhouse delivered by none other than Norris himself.

Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris discovered a new theory of relativity involving multiple universes in which Chuck Norris is even more badass than in this one. When it was discovered by Albert Einstein and made public, Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicked him in the face. We know Albert Einstein today as Stephen Hawking.

The Chuck Norris military unit was not used in the game Civilization 4, because a single Chuck Norris could defeat the entire combined nations of the world in one turn.

In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Typical

Yesterday (Wednesday)? Hmm... Melissa gave me a tonne of Bead Factory work, so I seriously spent most of the day doing that. I remember eating cereal and cheese and a banana (separately, not mixed together) for breakfast. I remember showering around noon. I remember picking up Carrie for lunch and making gorgonzola gnocci al broccoli with her. Umm... the day seems pretty uneventful.

In the evening Carrie stopped by for din-dins (pizza) and then went with Heather to Southcenter to buy stuff for Sophie's birthday. While she was gone I watched Serenity and played Animal Crossing: Wild World.

I did see something realy funny on Amazon, though. Check out this screen capture I took of their promotion for the Bela Lugosi Boxed Set:

That just strikes me as being typical of the Lugosi/Karloff relationship, doesn't it?

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Passing Emissions

Yesterday (Tuesday) I made a big pile (okay, five strips) of pepper bacon for breakfast. The whole house smelled like bacon. Everything smells better as bacon. I spent most of the day working on some prototype websites for my new client. Not terribly inspired about it yet.

I picked Carrie up for her split-shift and we at some of the leftover pasta. Then a while later I drove up to Fife to have my car's emissions checked. Unlike last time, there were no crazy people telling me to do things that I'm not supposed to do. The guy who ran the test, though, was very new—I think it was his first day. But he did fine, and he had his supervisor walking him through everything. It took seriously about 45 seconds to run the test when it got around to it.

Carrie & I both took a nap in the afternoon. It was freakin' cold in the house. Then something strange happened. I took Carrie back to the store so she could teach her class, then I came home and never ate dinner. I never got hungry.

When I picked Carrie up after her class (and also Laura), she said, "I'm really hungry. Are you hungry?"

"No," I said.

And it was true. I think between 2:00 and midnight I ate a grand total of one banana and two tiny pieces of bread with parmesan cheese on them. Ve'y strange, no?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Good Time Din-Dins

Yesterday (Monday) I got up, took Carrie to work, got her coffee, came home, took a shower, ate breakfast (sushi), all that sort of thing. The usual.

I was contacted via the e-mail by a company that is pretty sure it wants me to become their web guy. They said that for tax reasons it would actually be better for them to get a third-party person (like me) to be their web guy rather than having someone do it in-house. I'd actually been contacted by these guys a couple of months ago, and they said they shopped around and it looked like I was the cheapest guy in my talent range. So this could end up being something really cool, or just a small trickle of cash. We'll see.

Carrie took the car after lunch and when she got outta work she went straight to the store to buy the rest of the supplies for din-dins. Neighbor Gary and Mary came by around 6:30 and stayed until just after 11:00. We had much good foods:

Bacon-wrapped shrimp
Bruscetta
Parmesan bread
Mixed vegetable salad (I only ate the croutons out of that)
Pasta with a chicken, mushroom, onion, garlic, and gorgonzola cream sauce
A handful of beers
And I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert

We had the fireplace lit and we sat around and watched rasslin' after dinner. It was a good time.

Monday, January 16, 2006

~~Practice~~ Hangout Time

Yesterday (Sunday) I slept in until just after 10:00. Carrie actually got up, went to Trader Joe's, came back and I was still asleep. She woke me up, though, don't worry.

We did much cleaning of the house and set Roomba loose on the floors. Around 1:00 Geoff showed up, ostensibly for Fools Play practice. But since we were the only two people who could make it this week, we just hung out and watched Mythbusters and bad movies. It was nice.

Carrie went to help Heather try on wedding dresses during this time. She came home about four minutes after Geoff left. She said that Viki had invited us to go out to din-dins with the family at Red Robin. So after doing more dishes while Carrie did more laundry, we went and met them at Red Robin near Tacoma Mall.

Carrie went with Viki & Sophie back to the store to decorate for Valentine's day. I came home and dinked around on teh intarweb and did such fun stuff as cleaning the tub and washing more dishes. We always have a lot of dishes to wash.

Carrie came home around 10:00. We put on Buffy season 3 disc 2 to sleep to.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Sam & Max are Back

Holy crap! The creator of Sam & Max has started another Sam & Max comic (after spending a lot of time as a story man at Pixar). And it's a FREE WEBCOMIC! Not only that, but the webcomic has a technique that is totally innovative. check it out here!!!

Small Audience, Big Hearts

Yesteray (Saturday) Carrie & I woke up without incident bright and early. Heather & Melissa came over around 8:30 or so and the three of them went out for breaksthefast and then took Heather to the Bridal Show at the Tacoma Dome.

I dropped Nicole's handout off at the store and then came home. Taisha stopped by a while later and returned all the stuff she was borrowing from me, as well as dropping of presents for both me and Carrie.

Carrie came home even more while after that, and we two walked to Starbucks to get her coffee and a newspaper. They had coffee, but not newspapers. So we walked to the Neighborhood Market, but they were outta newspapers as well. So we walked back home without one.

Carrie pretty quickly fell asleep and slept the whole entire afternoon. Leia called and said that she and Kedar were watching the final-ever episode of Buffy and the disc conked out as soon as Willow starts casting her big spell. They dind't know what happened during the last ten minutes of the show! So I said she could borrow my disc of that.

I showered, packed up, ate a leftover salmon patty with cheese, and left for Fools Play. Geoff & I were the only two who could make the show last night because Taisha was moving and Mike was helping her, and Ed has time-off stuff goin' on. So it was just a two-man show.

Actually, it almost wasn't a show at all. We performed for the smallest audience I think I've ever performed for. We were this close to just cancelling it, but instead we had a par-tay. And it was a lot of fun, what with Nanamo and Satchmo both showing up.

See, what happend was that last week everybody came to be in the audience. And I do mean everybody. Now, a Fools Play audience consists mainly of regulars and irregulars, with every once in a while some new people. Regulars you can count on to see probably about %75 of the shows. Irregulars come probably once a month or less. But there are a lot of irregulars, so usually you can count on there being a handful at each show, because they don't all show up at the same show.

Except that last week was FPRL. So all of the irregulars and all of the regulars were there, pretty much. It was a jam-packed audience. So this week none of the irregulars showed up and only a very small handful of the regulars showed up.

But, as I said, it was a lot of fun to do a show with just Geoff. We gave our tiny audience a full two-hours, baby!

Afterwards I followed Geoff (who was driving Brandy's car) to Brandy's mom's house so he could leave her car there while Brandy is back in NY. Then I drove Geoff back to his place and we listened to Victor Wooten all the way.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Goodbye Brandy Part Two!

..and now on to part two...

We could not afford to sleep in because Cat was coming in to work at 8:00 in the morning and she didn't have a key, which meant that Carrie had to be there at 8:00 in the morning as well to let her in. Carrie actually came into Starbucks with me to buy her coffee, which usually I have to do all alone.

I finally finished off my Rock Pizza for breakfast. I got four meals outta that thing (dinner, breakfast, lunch, breakfast), so that's a pretty good value considering we used a gift certificate to buy it.

I swung by Brandy & Geoff's place while they were packing to give her a present I made. They were watching the last couple of minutes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 6th season, so I quietly watched with them; it's kind of emotional, and I didn't want to interrupt the flow of it. Then afterwards I gave her this drawing I made of her favorite cartoon pinup girl, Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood:

I picked Carrie up for lunch and we had Gnocci al Gorgonzola with broccoli. It was pretty durned tasty. Carrie drove herself back to work so that she could go straight to the mall afterwards and buy cloth stuff for herself.

Around 4:00 I got a call from Nicole at the store asking if I remembered that she mentioned she had a handout she wanted me to make for her. Well, it turns out that her class is today (Saturday), so would it be at all possible for me to make the handout before then? I told her that if she had it ready by 4:30 there was a good possibility that I could have it done on time.

I layered up in a hooded sweatshirt under my trenchcoat, and put on my nice warm gloves that Carrie got me for Christmas, and walked to the store to pick up the handout (Carrie had the car, remember). I walked back home and successfully completed the handout, during which time Carrie came back home.

For din-dins I made salmon patty sammitches. I make the bestest salmon patty sammitches in the world. The key is to make a sauce out of sour cream, garlic powder, and lemon to go on them, and using sharp cheddar cheese. They're really freakin' good.

After 7:30 people started arriving at our house: Geoff, Brandy, Heather, Katie, Melissa, and Mirriam. We broke up into two cars and drove to the Auburn valley to listen to The Boinkers play at The Royal Bear, as Part Two of Brandy's Going-Away Celebrations.

True to its name, it had a stuffed bear in one corner that was wearing a crown. It was also wearing a fingerless glove on one hand and had a cigarette dangling out of its mouth. The place was just a little dive-y and white-trashy, but because of that I didn't feel at all awkward dancing with the lovely ladies, because all of the other guys there were at least as bad at it as I was.

Christine, Lawrence, Cat, Chris, and Viki all showed up to join us shortly after we got there, and there was much dancing and drinking (not by me—I was driving) and good times had by all. Christine & Lawrence were the first to trickle out, and then other people started following.

I gave Brandy a Big Hug and Kiss™ when she left. I'm rather sad that I won't get to see one of my best friends for many months, but the last two evenings were a fun way of sending her off. When she left in the fall she didn't really have a send-off like that. She had a Bead Factory party, but several other people were leaving at the same time she was, so it wasn't specifically for her.

After she left, though, the remaining party members discovered her camera on the table! Oopus! Carrie & I drove Mirriam home, and on the way we dropped off the camera with Geoff, who ran outside to pick it up. There are some good photos on that camera; I should ask Brandy to send me some. Or maybe she'll post them for everyone to see?

BON VOYAGE BRANDY (AGAIN)!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Goodbye Brandy Part One!

Wednesday was even more uneventful than Tuesday, so I didn't bother writing about it even. Carrie & I used one of our handful of restaurant gift certificates to go to The Rock for dinner. She had a spicy pasta; I got a gigantic pizza with meatballs and olives and sausage. Not bads!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a bit more eventful. After I took Carrie to work a couple of guys from Top Brush (a chimney sweeping and repair company) came by to clean the chimney and also see if they could re-attach the damper chain. After looking at the chain they said that in a chimney like ours the damper is really unneccessary. So they just jammed it open and told me just to use the front fireplace doors. They also repaired some cracks in the back of the fireplace so as not to cause fires. They told me to leave the fireplace doors open for a couple of hours so the crack glue could dry.

A while after they left I went to the bank to get cash out of Carrie's account and put it in mine. The girl there who knows me (Jaime) and I went through my account to make sure that the Cingular fraud had been refunded (it had). Then I picked up some Li'l Smokies and crescent rolls for later.

When I came home to my surprise I found black paw prints leading out of the fireplace and across the stone and onto the rug. I found Fantastico and discovered that her paws and belly were all coated with black soot. For some unknown reason, she thought it would be a good idea to explore the fireplace! It turned out she was wrong, because (after I called Carrie at work to vent to her) I put on my gardening gloves, got a wet washcloth, and tried to clean her up, much to her dismay. That didn't work so well, so I put her in the sink, which went over even less well. Then I wrapped her in some blankets as she softly growled and whined.

Luckily we had some Resolve carpet cleaner leftover, so I cleaned most of the black paw prints off of the rug. But our rug is so messed up and stained that it's really hard to tell. We really should get it cleaned.

I picked Carrie up from her split-shift and we had lunch (more leftover pizza for me). A while later I went to Fred Meyer (again) to pick up some staples (cheese, milk, cat food, laundry detergent) and stopped at the gas station on the way home. I did some work while Carrie relaxed. Then around 4:30 I broke out the crescent rolls and the Li'l Smokies and wrapped the Li'l Smokies in the crescent rolls to make Pigs-in-a-Blankets.

Why?

So we could bring them to Brandy's going-away party! As you can see here, we were fashionably late, but we were still the first ones there! The four of us played Scategories for a bit before I had to take Carrie to work to teach a class. I helped her with more iTunes stuff and then went straight back to the party.

We watched the documentary called The Cruise, which I described to my brother as "crazy man talks crazy." It's pretty fascinating, but ultimately doesn't really add up to anything—much like the subject person of the documentary.

Other people began trickling in and soon there was a nice-sized party going on. Carrie even came back for a while after she was done with class!

So you'd think that Brandy having a going-away party would be the end of it, but as you can see by the title of this post, this was only Part One...

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Comparatively Uneventful

Compayed to Monday, yesterday (Tuesday) was absolutely uneventful.

I took Carrie to work, I went to Starbucks and met with a new web design client, I picked Carrie up for lunch. I ate leftover Indian food. We took a brief nap, then I went to the bonk.

Ah, something did happen with the bank. I went to the one at Fred Meyer, as is my custom. The woman behind the counter (Jaime) knows me by name now, I've been so often. Anyway, I deposited Carrie's paycheck, but when I went to the ATM to get some money out of her account so I could deposit it in mine, the ATM was aought of commission.

(Carrie & I have yet to get a joint bank account, despite being married for 1.25 years and living together for several years before that even. So if I'm to transfer money from her account to mine, she has to give me her debit card. I take the money out as cash at an ATM and then deposit it into my account. They won't let me do it any other way, since I'm not on Carrie's account.)

So I had to drive all the way out to the 6th & Mildred bank to pull money out of her account and deposit it into mine.

But that's really all that happened. I took Carrie back to work to teach her class, I washed a load of dishes and dinked around on teh intarweb. I drew a drawing of The Purple Man.

I also finally signed up for Cartoon Retro, the excellent website from Shane Glines, an illustrator/cartoonist who I admire quite a bit.

After Carrie got home we watched some Mythbusters and then went to bed to Freaks & Geeks.

So compared to Monday, it was completely uneventful.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Not-So-Mean Girls, but Very Mean Phones

Yesterday (Monday) ended up being a rockin' good time. I had pizza for breakfast. But believe it or not, the day got even more rockin'.

Carrie called me to inform me that she'd learned from Melissa that the price of stamps had gone up two cents, effective immediately. So I went to the Neighborhood Market and wrote a 60-cent cheque for 30 2-cent stamps. I had no cash on me, and they don't accept cards at the post office in the store there. Weirdos!

Brandy & I planned to have lunch together around 1:45. Carrie was planning on having lunch around 1:00-ish, so that would give me plenty of time to pick her up, have her come home and eat, and then when I dropped her off it would be just about 1:45. Poifect!

1:15 started rolling around and I hadn't heard from her, so I called the store, and Melissa informed me that she and Carrie had been trying to call me, but that my phone wasn't even ringing. And that Carrie just went to lunch with Leilani.

My phone not ringing? That was odd. So I tried calling Carrie's phone. Not a diddly-danged thing. No connection whatsoever. No ringing. After 30 seconds my call just automatically ended without ever getting any sort of a response. So I tried calling my own phone (AKA my voicemail) and got exactly the same non-response.

Well, that was no good. So I called the Sprint PCS service lines. And got exactly the same non-response. Whoops! It seemed that we could call other people using our phones, but could not receive any calls.

So at 1:45 I just showed up at the store to pick up Brandy for lunch. She'd been trying to call me, but of course couldn't because Sprint is a good-for-crap company. But it all worked out because the two of us went to The Rosweood and shared bruscetta and macaroni. It was a very nice time.

Some time later in the afternoon our phones came back as well. But that was not the end of phone drama for the day. Read on...

After work Carrie went to Target with Linnea and I did some dishes, then she did some more dishes when she got home. Around 6:30 people started showing up: Heather, Gretchen, & Nicole. Heather made guacamole, and the rest of us all made tacos and we had a taco party and watched Mean Girls, which is really an excellent film (you can read my review of it here). Nicole & Gretchen hadn't seen it before, so it was nice introducing them to it.

Around 9:00 the girls (except Heather, who had left earlier) went to the BF to do some PMC stuff. I went to Steph's place to join in the little party that was going on for Christine's birthday (which is actually today, Tuesday). Attending was:

Heather
Brandy
Melissa
Christine (duh)
Steph
Katie
Travis
Lawrence
Me (best attendee)

Heather, Melissa, and Travis were the first to leave. Geoff showed up a little later on in the evening.

It was a really, really fun evening. I had a glass of a really good sweet white wine and a glass of bubbly. I got to hang out with a bunch of gorgeous women. Plus, Lawrence had never seen Steph and Christine dance together, which is always something to see. Yeah, that was probably the highlight of the party for everybody.

Everything finally wound down around 11:30-ish. You know, I really want to stop putting "-ish" at the end of my times. I think I won't do that anymore. Anyway, as I was driving back towards home Carrie called to have me pick her up from the store. As the phone call ended I went to put the phone down in the little slot in between the seats that is the perfect size for phones. Unfortunately my hand was off by an inch and my phone slid down the hole where the parking brake is!

Being 11:30 at night, it was too dark to really see it, so Carrie & I went to bed with my phone still down there. But don't worry; I got it out this morning with a combination of kitchen tongs, chop sticks, and a fork.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Visiting Natto & Tasty

Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie & I slept in a little, and then cleaned the house a little. Fools Play practice didn't really happen in the strictest sense of the word; only my brother came over, and we just talked instead of actually "practicing."

After he left Carrie went and bought wrapping paper and I wrapped Christine's birthday presents. While I was doing this I got a surprise call from Sandy seeing if we could join her and Mathias at Gateway to India for din-dins. Carrie had to leave for a store meeting in a bit, so she didn't have time. I did, however, and so I went and joined them there.

After dinner the twain of them came back to my house and we all visited each other's Animal Crossing towns. We also watched Destination Moon and Our Friend the Atom. Carrie came home just after 9:00, and the Purtlebaughs left shortly thereafter.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Rassle Dazzle 2006

Yesterday (Saturday) Carrie left the house before 9:00 to go to Trader Joe's for food and to the bonk to deposit moneys to pay for said food. She stopped at home and I unloaded the car of foodstuffs. At 10:00 Nikki showed up and the two of them went and picked up Linnea & Lena to go shopping for Christine's birthday present up at Southcenter.

I can't remember exactly what I did. I ate my leftover Akasaka for breakfast and snacked on some cheeses and crackerers around lunchtime. I took a shower around 12:30 and afterwards put on The Empire Strikes Back and got ready to go to Fools Play.

Carrie came home around 3:00 and showed me what she had gotten. I packed up a whole bunch of stuff (this format is one of the more prop-intensive ones for me) and drove down to Oly by 4:00. Mike, Taisha, and Ed had gotten there even earlier and were practicing practicing.

We broke for din-dins around 5:30 and went to a greek place called Safura's and had gyros, except Ed had souvlaki.

By the time we got back to the theater there were many peoples already there, including Geoff, Brandy, Cassie, and many others.

Then we performed Fools Play Rasslin' League presents: Rassle Dazzle! You can read the show results here, but needless to say it was a great amount of fun, and was the debut of Taisha's rassler, "The Hibernator." The audience was really packed in there—there were close to 50 people.

After the show we all went out to Red Robin. And by "all" I mean about 20 people. It was car-razy! I sat between Hannah and Devlen, and across from Mathias, Brandy, and Sandy.

Then after that I drove home and ate some sushi on the way before crawling in bed with my wife.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Japanese Again? TOTALLY

Yesterday (Friday) was Class Sign-Up day. Carrie had to be at the store at 7:30, and I came home and uploaded all the new class stuff at 8:00 AM on the dottish. Much of the rest of the day was spent updating classes and fixing bugs on the classes. Oh, and I also drew this picture of Red X, my favorite original character from the Teen Titans cartoon:

Anyway, I got Carrie around 4:00-ish, and we promptly fell asleep until almost 6:00, when we drove up to Federal Way to celebrate my dad's 74th birthday with dinner at Akasaka.

Unlike when we went to Maneki on Thursday, last night we got to sit in one of those rooms where you're supposed to take off your shoes and then kneel around the table. But since this is america they have a pit beneath the table instead.

By the way, how is it that Japanese people don't all have f--ked up legs from kneeling like that all the time? Or does kneeling like that make their legs stronger somehow?

Anyway, I had ginger pork, and Carrie had black cod cooked in a miso sauce that she said was as good as the salmon I had at Maneki. She totally wants to learn how to make miso sauces and cook fish in them now, which is something I can totally get behind. TOTALLY.

We went back to my folks' house and my dad opened his gift (we got him a train book). Then during dessert we watched the Harold Lloyd film Billy Blazes, Esquire, which is a really, really funny short film (about 13 minutes). I mean legitimately funny. Not just "funny for the times it was made." And I can totally see how Jackie Chan was influenced by him. TOTALLY.

We came home and watched some Buffy and played some Animal Crossing in bed.

Things-a-Week

Just posting to plug two musicians who are doing a really cool idea. Both Jonathan Coulton and Tangentbot are each posting a full, downloadable song on their websites at the rate of one new one every week. Jonathan Coultan has been going for quite a while now (16 weeks or something), and Tangentbot just started. You should totally download EVERYTHING by these two artists. TOTALLY!

Friday, January 06, 2006

Gray Skies, Green Lights

It's been raining for days. Actually, it's been raining pretty much solidly for about a month. It's crazy! I'm from the Pacific Northwest, and I never remember there being this many days of just solid rain. It's not raining right now as I type this, but it's a safe bet that it'll rain again sometime today.

Yesterday (Thursday) after I picked Carrie up from work we drove up to Seattle to the apartment of Sandy & Mathias to hang out with them and eat dinner at Maneki.

Maneki is just phenomenal. It's my favorite Japanese restaurant of all time. It's way too easy to order way too much stuff just because you want it all. I had (let's see)...

Steamed salmon in foil pouch with onions, mushroom, and a miso sauce (my favorite item on the menu)
Fresh salmon nigiri
Squid nigiri
Tuna roll

I also ate from various appetizers (like octopus balls and taro balls) and some vegetable tempura.

Sandy & Mathias go there so often that at the end of the meal the waitress gave them New Year's gifts that she had bought them—Sandy got a Hello Kitty engagement calendar!

The only problem with the place is that it's so popular that you often have to wait a long time to get seated, as was the case last night. Sandy had actually called ahead and everything, but when we got there we still sat in the bar for quite a while before getting seated.

From there we went to a place that has bubble tea and juice and all that sort of things. I had a lemon slush with tapioca pearls in it. Rather tasty!

By the time we went back to their apartment and then drove home, it was 11:00 at night! Yikes!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Stars Hollow Style

Yesterday (Wednesday) Carrie & I woke up a little later than usual, and so she didn't get to work until 9:00 instead of her usual 8:00.

Taisha came by around 2:00 and I took her to The Rosewood, where she had the Greek Salad. Afterwards she said that the place reminded her of a restaurant that would be in Stars Hollow (from Gilmore Girls).

We came back to my place and watched the special features on the Sin City dvds, then the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory & Lorelei get scolded for not being involved enough in Rory's school (it ends with a fashion show).

For some reason neither one of us can figure out, Fantastico was completely in love with Taisha's shoes. She was rubbing them like they were made out of solid coffee (Fantastico loves coffee even more than catnip). By the end of the day one of her shoes was almost white from all the cat hair that had been rubbed on it.

Carrie called and said she was going to be taken out to dinner by her bosses, so after Taisha left I did some BF work and then ate some leftover cheese and bonky stick for dinner. There was nothing on TV yesterday whatsoever. I even found myself watching some of Van Helsing before Carrie got home with some goot French fries for me. She made baked macaroni, of which we both ate some.

Brandy has started posting at Station Wow, so that's very exciting.

Dark Tower at Hot Flash Games

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Ungodly Hour

We had to get up at like 6:00 in the morning yesterday (Tuesday) because it was Carrie's turn to clean the store. I probably only got about five hours of sleep, which isn't really enough for me. I likes me my eight hours!

So after I dropped her off and got her coffee, I came home and fell asleep in the office with the little space-heater going.

The day was shockingly uneventful. Carrie went to Victoria's Secret after work but they didn't have her bra in stock. Jerks. She also made dinner, a tuna casserole, which was very nice.

In the evening I watched the extended Sin City stuff. It's kinda nice to be able to watch each segment on its own. And some of the special features were cool, like when Robert Rodriguez teaches you how to make breakfast tacos.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Free Cheese

During our New Year's Eve Bash, Travis pointed out that our Corolla had a flat tire. Whoopsy-doopsy! So before going to King Kong on Sunday I filled it up with air, and it stayed filled. Nevertheless, I knew there must be a slow leak of some kind.

So yesterday (Monday) I dropped Carrie off at work and then came home. Brandy came over and we hung out and fixed up Station Wow some more so now she's even more happy with it.

I then drove to the Firestone behind the Tacoma Mall to have them put that goop inside the tire that seals it up. They said it would take about a half-hour before they could get it done, so I walked the entire length of the mall and back. When I was almost done they called me and said they'd fixed the tire, but when they afterwards were inspecting the rest of the car they noticed a nail head sticking out of the other rear tire. So that took another 15 minutes and another 30 bucks to fix.

On my way back from Firestone I stopped at Fred Meyer to put money in my account, when the following events happened:

I park the car and start walking to the store when I notice on the ground a block of white cheddar cheese. Still in its packaging and everything. I suppose it must have fallen out of a grocery bag or something. I have no way of knowing to whom the cheese belongs, so I pick it up and toss it in my car. Free cheese!

Unbeknownst to me the bank is closed. For some reason today is the New Year's holiday, even though it was actually yesterday. 'Tupid! But I stop by the electronics section and notice that they have a tiny DVD player (exactly what I was looking for) on sale for $35. I go outside to call carrie and tell her about the car and the DVD player, and while I'm on the phone who should walk by but Mike Dunlap. So we chatted for a bit. He has a seven-year-old kid! Yeesh!

Anyway, I call Carrie back and she says to go ahead and get the DVD player. The guy at the counter said that we could return it if something goes wrong in the first 30 days, but that his folks had his for "a couple of years" before anything went wrong.

So that was effectively my entire day. I picked Carrie up for lunch shortly thereafter, then when I came back I was so sleepy that I took a nap until it was time to pick Carrie up after work. Then I put on the "Him" episode of Buffy and took another nap until 5:00, when Carrie & I went to her folks' house to help them eat the leftovers from their New Year's Day Bash.

Carrie brought over The Apprentice: Season 1, so I brought over Animal Crossing so as not to be too bored. I got to take home a really good pork loaf type of thing, which I am going to have for breakfast after I finish typing this.

When we came home Carrie put on bad TV, so I went on teh intarweb and caught up on my reading and cleaned out my gmail some. Then we went to bed and watched the pilot of Freaks & Geeks. James Franco is in that show, and both of us were wracking our brains trying to figure out where we knew him from. It was only this morning that Carrie realized he plays Harry Osbourne in the Spider-Man films.

I had to go to the bathroom around 12:30 AM. When I came back I put Conan on, and it was a rerun of "In the Year 2000: Mr. T Edition" where Mr. T gets a serious case of the giggles in the middle of it. It was very funny.

This is Chris dot com

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

fastr - a flickr game

It Was As If She Were at Work