A note to my readers.
In case you were thinking of getting a personalized license plate for your car, don't bother getting "ROAD HED". It's already taken. I saw it this morning.
Too bad. So sad.
2004/08/30
2004/08/29
Smell ya later, wireless.
So, I ran cable through the back of one closet, out the back of the adjoining closet, and over to where the computer is set up.
Back at full speed (over 2 megabit from dslreports.com speedtests), and no more disconnections.
Until I have a laptop, wireless just isn't for me.
Diana's out school shopping. I'm not sure if I posted it, but Diana's going to be student teaching at a very local high school. She's been to some introduction days this week, and students start on Monday! She won't start teaching until a few weeks in, but it's all very exciting. I'm sure she'll do a great job.
So, I ran cable through the back of one closet, out the back of the adjoining closet, and over to where the computer is set up.
Back at full speed (over 2 megabit from dslreports.com speedtests), and no more disconnections.
Until I have a laptop, wireless just isn't for me.
Diana's out school shopping. I'm not sure if I posted it, but Diana's going to be student teaching at a very local high school. She's been to some introduction days this week, and students start on Monday! She won't start teaching until a few weeks in, but it's all very exciting. I'm sure she'll do a great job.
2004/08/26
Two little pet peeves for you all...
The "small print" in radio commercials. You know when the commercial ends, and they read off the disclaimers in a really fast voice? Is it me, or are those disclaimers getting WAY too long.
"Born in the USA" played as a patriotic anthem (namely, at the Olympics). For fucks sake, hasn't anyone in charge bothered to read or to the lyrics? It's like playing N.W.A at an LAPD police academy graduation ceremony.
That is all.
The "small print" in radio commercials. You know when the commercial ends, and they read off the disclaimers in a really fast voice? Is it me, or are those disclaimers getting WAY too long.
"Born in the USA" played as a patriotic anthem (namely, at the Olympics). For fucks sake, hasn't anyone in charge bothered to read or to the lyrics? It's like playing N.W.A at an LAPD police academy graduation ceremony.
That is all.
2004/08/25
Norm and Teri and Diana and I went and saw "Garden State" last night.
I really enjoyed it. It was not only a good surface story, with interesting, funny, sad parts, but I felt really emotionally drained afterward. There was a lot of symbols and metaphors at work, and I think my mind was still working through things, I think. I'm not big on philosophy, but I have a feeling that Nietzsche was involved somewhere in there.
One them in the movie was finding joy/truth/beauty through originality. Doing something that no one else had ever done, no matter how small or insignificant. This really jived with my recent memory of the thrill of breaking open crayons to be the first person in history to see the inside of THAT particular crayon.
The main theme, really, is about finding happiness in a generally grey, numb reality. Breaking free from bonds, coming of age, all that sort of stuff, which while I can appreciate, I can never really truly understand.
I don't want to get into a whole "my life is so great" thing here, but I've never gone through any sort of real hardship or profound sadness in my life. Nothing more than some run-of-the-mill heartache and relationship woes in the past. I don’t want to tempt fate or anything, but things have been pretty ok so far. So the whole "life is suffering / journey through the murk to find the light" stuff just doesn't really resonate with me they way I guess it's supposed to.
Anyhoo, it was a good movie. Check it out.
I had a dream last night that I was walking through some sort of obstacle course… planks of wood laid over the surface of water. There was a group of us going over the planks, and the guy in front of me was having a hard time and fell off. I went, and he was pissed that I could do it (or did I laugh at him?), so he pulled me into the water. I got pissed, and he sort of came at me like he wanted to fight. He hit my shoulder a couple times. He then went back to the course, which was made easier so he could complete it.
Dreams are weird.
I really enjoyed it. It was not only a good surface story, with interesting, funny, sad parts, but I felt really emotionally drained afterward. There was a lot of symbols and metaphors at work, and I think my mind was still working through things, I think. I'm not big on philosophy, but I have a feeling that Nietzsche was involved somewhere in there.
One them in the movie was finding joy/truth/beauty through originality. Doing something that no one else had ever done, no matter how small or insignificant. This really jived with my recent memory of the thrill of breaking open crayons to be the first person in history to see the inside of THAT particular crayon.
The main theme, really, is about finding happiness in a generally grey, numb reality. Breaking free from bonds, coming of age, all that sort of stuff, which while I can appreciate, I can never really truly understand.
I don't want to get into a whole "my life is so great" thing here, but I've never gone through any sort of real hardship or profound sadness in my life. Nothing more than some run-of-the-mill heartache and relationship woes in the past. I don’t want to tempt fate or anything, but things have been pretty ok so far. So the whole "life is suffering / journey through the murk to find the light" stuff just doesn't really resonate with me they way I guess it's supposed to.
Anyhoo, it was a good movie. Check it out.
I had a dream last night that I was walking through some sort of obstacle course… planks of wood laid over the surface of water. There was a group of us going over the planks, and the guy in front of me was having a hard time and fell off. I went, and he was pissed that I could do it (or did I laugh at him?), so he pulled me into the water. I got pissed, and he sort of came at me like he wanted to fight. He hit my shoulder a couple times. He then went back to the course, which was made easier so he could complete it.
Dreams are weird.
2004/08/23
There are some chocolates at work that have clever little sayings inside the wrapper. I just had one that say: "The farther out of reach, the stronger the temptation." Does this make sense to anyone? I'd think that the closer something is, the more tempting it is. Dumb.
I accidently referred a co-worker to baditude.net. We were talking about Hero Clix stuff, and I wondered if Eryn still had that page up. We didn’t find it, but I now realize that this page is linked from baditude's "links" section. I wouldn't necessarily mind if co-workers found this page. I've been pretty careful about keeping everything written here all public knowledge. But at the same time, I haven't really been advertising this page, either. So, we'll see.
As the last post indiciates, the wireless network is up and running. The speed this morning seemed good. I'm still a little concerned about a stable connection. For example, I played Doom III for an hour or so last night (single player… not online), and when I quit, I was no longer connected to the network, and couldn't reconnect. Looking at the router, the "wireless" indicator light was off. I power cycled it, and it came back on, but it's a little worrying.
So, we'll see.
I accidently referred a co-worker to baditude.net. We were talking about Hero Clix stuff, and I wondered if Eryn still had that page up. We didn’t find it, but I now realize that this page is linked from baditude's "links" section. I wouldn't necessarily mind if co-workers found this page. I've been pretty careful about keeping everything written here all public knowledge. But at the same time, I haven't really been advertising this page, either. So, we'll see.
As the last post indiciates, the wireless network is up and running. The speed this morning seemed good. I'm still a little concerned about a stable connection. For example, I played Doom III for an hour or so last night (single player… not online), and when I quit, I was no longer connected to the network, and couldn't reconnect. Looking at the router, the "wireless" indicator light was off. I power cycled it, and it came back on, but it's a little worrying.
So, we'll see.
2004/08/22
Hrm.
So, I'm getting my office all set up today. Got the desk up and going (nice desk!), and more importantly, got my new wireless network up and going.
I'm not so impressed.
Performance is all over the road. Best case is what my old wired network was. Worst case is... a lot worse.
My cable connection is about 1.5 megabit downstream, and I used to get that constantly. I just ran a speedtest from www.dslreports, and I got about 300 kilobit downstream.
I tried a big download from www.3dgamers.com, and where I'd normally get about 130 kbps, I was getting 35-40.
The dumb thing is that this wireless set up is supposed to be 11 megabits/sec, so it definitely shouldn't be the slowest link.
Maybe I have something set up incorrectly...? Or is that just an "up to 11 megabits"?
Not so pleased.... yet.
*UPDATE*
I downloaded the latest driver, and things seem to be a LOT better. So, there's hope yet!
So, I'm getting my office all set up today. Got the desk up and going (nice desk!), and more importantly, got my new wireless network up and going.
I'm not so impressed.
Performance is all over the road. Best case is what my old wired network was. Worst case is... a lot worse.
My cable connection is about 1.5 megabit downstream, and I used to get that constantly. I just ran a speedtest from www.dslreports, and I got about 300 kilobit downstream.
I tried a big download from www.3dgamers.com, and where I'd normally get about 130 kbps, I was getting 35-40.
The dumb thing is that this wireless set up is supposed to be 11 megabits/sec, so it definitely shouldn't be the slowest link.
Maybe I have something set up incorrectly...? Or is that just an "up to 11 megabits"?
Not so pleased.... yet.
*UPDATE*
I downloaded the latest driver, and things seem to be a LOT better. So, there's hope yet!
2004/08/20
I remember being in elementary school, and breaking open crayons. I'd look at the newly exposed part inside, and marvel at the fact that I was the ONLY person in the entire world who'd every seen what I was seeing at that moment. For some reason, that gave me sort of a thrill.
I'm happy for the weekend. We're finally done with house stuff, and can put back furniture! And, I'm going to move my office down the hall! I have a new desk (thank you Norman!) which will be big enough for two computers. I think I'm going to get a wireless network setup for 'em both since there's not a good way to run cable in here. Should be the bees knees. My computer is just on the floor in here now, and I ran some cable along the floor to get connectivity. I'm itchin to play some Doom III though!
I'm happy for the weekend. We're finally done with house stuff, and can put back furniture! And, I'm going to move my office down the hall! I have a new desk (thank you Norman!) which will be big enough for two computers. I think I'm going to get a wireless network setup for 'em both since there's not a good way to run cable in here. Should be the bees knees. My computer is just on the floor in here now, and I ran some cable along the floor to get connectivity. I'm itchin to play some Doom III though!
2004/08/16
The day that Iwan and Mike left Montana, I grabbed "Ten Little Indians" from Iwan and started reading it. Within the first 20 pages I was absolutely sucked in. I'd read it before, and seen the movie, but a long time ago.
I got about 1/3 of the way through by the time I had to return it to Iwan (who claimed he was going to read it on the flight home… I can't believe I fell for it, too!)
The next day, on the way out, we stopped by town and I went into an old coffee-house bookstore. They had a whole rack of Agatha Christies, including "Ten Little Indians" for $0.75! Done and done.
I read it on the flight home, and it was pretty much the best ever. Shoots right up to my top five list of books. I highly recommend it. The fact that Iwan said he started it, got about two murders in, and then put it down is really tantamount to a face slap. Really no other way to put it.
In other news: In Salt Lake City, we discovered that our flight to San Diego was overbooked, and they were offering $600(!!!) travel vouchers per seat if you were willing to fly out the next day at 9pm. We weren't really willing to do that, but they also said that you could fly a little later into LAX. We decided to take the bait. While in SLC, we rented a car from LA to Palomar Airport over the phone. We then flew to LA and drove home which really wasn't too bad at all.
And now we've got some money to burn on plane tickets. Vegas, anyone?!
I got about 1/3 of the way through by the time I had to return it to Iwan (who claimed he was going to read it on the flight home… I can't believe I fell for it, too!)
The next day, on the way out, we stopped by town and I went into an old coffee-house bookstore. They had a whole rack of Agatha Christies, including "Ten Little Indians" for $0.75! Done and done.
I read it on the flight home, and it was pretty much the best ever. Shoots right up to my top five list of books. I highly recommend it. The fact that Iwan said he started it, got about two murders in, and then put it down is really tantamount to a face slap. Really no other way to put it.
In other news: In Salt Lake City, we discovered that our flight to San Diego was overbooked, and they were offering $600(!!!) travel vouchers per seat if you were willing to fly out the next day at 9pm. We weren't really willing to do that, but they also said that you could fly a little later into LAX. We decided to take the bait. While in SLC, we rented a car from LA to Palomar Airport over the phone. We then flew to LA and drove home which really wasn't too bad at all.
And now we've got some money to burn on plane tickets. Vegas, anyone?!
2004/08/14
So, the Montana trip comes to a close.
We just got back from dropping off Iwan and Mike from the airport, and the house is definitely a good bit quieter with them gone. In fact, I'm not sure if there's been a reference to bear scat or Pete's taint once yet!
Let's recap. When you last read, we were heading out for an evening of dinner, drinking, and poker, and all those missions were accomplished. We had some sushi, and Mike did a pretty good job abiding by the "no sushi snobs" sign up on the wall. After dinner, we headed to a local bar and ordered up some drinks. I was standing watching the poker, and a seat opened up, so I plunked down some money and started to play. I was driving that night, so I wasn't drinking, while Diana had a few, and Iwan and Mike proceeded to get very pleasantly sauced.
The poker was an absolute experience. I eventually ended up $10, while Iwan lost a little bit. There was quite a crew sitting around the table. At first, I was between two older guys, brothers, who were substantially drunk and friendly. A guy across the table (next to Iwan, making him his boy, a'course) with an absolutely fantastic mullet was completely shitfaced, and that was BEFORE the 5 or so jager-bombs he and his boys ordered in about a half-hour timespan. Not sure what happened to him. Later, the brothers left, and a young, mildly attractive girl sat down with a very low cut top, and a new guy to my right decided we were boys and started making very suggestive comments about her, her rack, and so forth. I mostly sat with my mouth shut and just took it all in. Good stuff.
After poker, we played a little ping pong. Mike, in spite of non-trivial intoxication came back from behind to beat me, but it was a pretty close game. Diana and I took care of them in doubles, however. We made it home (after finding a lost wallet near the car!), played a final round of Euchre, and to bed.
The next morning, a few of the group nursed some hangovers, and we spent most of the day hanging around. Diana introduced a new game somewhere along the trip, Alibi, which is basically Clue on steroids. Where in Clue there are only three different variables (person, weapon, room), in Alibi, there are eight (person, time, location, specific location, weapon type, specific weapon, motive category, specific motive). It's all played with cards, and gets rid of the board and moving around nonsense. Pretty fun game, I thought. Hard to develop a good "system", but fun to joke about what system you do have.
Iwan and Diana and I headed out in the afternoon to meet the wallet-loser in town and return that (no reward! What a gyp!) and picked up some more fishing licenses. We came back, picked up Mick, and headed out to the north fork for some evening fishing. I'd been to the spot before, and thought it was pretty good. Iwan sounded a little dissapointed that we didn't see more fish, but I caught a couple, including a nice 10-12 incher and a couple little guys, and had a good number of bites as well. Mike and Diana spent a lot of time on the banks reading and chatting and taking in the sights. I felt a little bad that we were essentially dragging them along to watch us fish, but they seemed satisfied to do so.
Today, we packed a lunch and headed to the beach by the lake for a picnic and some more game playing. It was a nice relaxing afternoon there, and then back for packing and airport dropoff and goodbyes. And now, a quiet house.
The trip, speaking for myself at least, was a really great time. I think that everyone had tons of fun. The idea of a friends trip to Montana really spawned from reading Discostup's blog (a long time ago), and the thought that he sounded like he needed a vacation, and I'm really glad that he was able to go.
It was also really satisfying to watch Diana's interaction with my friends. She and Iwan see each other all the time, and I think have a pretty good relationship, and it was nice to watch her get some bonding time in with Mike. In fact, she probably had the most serious conversation-time with Mike while Iwan and I were fishing and playing poker. I'm glad that they seem to like her, and respect her. She really enjoys not only being with my friends, but watching me be boys with my friends as well.
Diana is a piece of work. She's absolutely wonderful in essentially any social situation (well, I think so anyways). When heading out for an excursion, she quietly ensured that we had enough water and food and stuff that we needed, yet not intrusively so. She certainly wasn't in charge of us by any scope, but at the same time, I think really made the logistics of the entire trip go very smoothly. I'd really be curious to know what my friends thought of her, now that it comes to mind, but probably wouldn't want to hear anything negative, so I'll retract that statement conditionally. :)
The goodbyes were casual, since I'll probably see Iwan within the a week, and Mike is coming back into town for a few days for the fantasy football draft. As I noted before, it was really great to spend more time with him, and I look forward to seeing him again. We hardly ever keep in touch lately, but in spite of that, I thought we fell back into our old friendship pretty nicely.
So that's about it. Diana and I are going to get the house straightened up a little, and we're getting picked up for the airport tomorrow at 2pm. It's going to be both good and bad to get home and get back into the swing of things. It's been a nice trip, but as I usually feel at the end of these vacations, I'm looking forward to getting home. I even look forward to heading back to work, if you can believe it, and I look even MORE forward to grabbing a copy of Doom III and giving it some singular attention.
That's about it for now.
We just got back from dropping off Iwan and Mike from the airport, and the house is definitely a good bit quieter with them gone. In fact, I'm not sure if there's been a reference to bear scat or Pete's taint once yet!
Let's recap. When you last read, we were heading out for an evening of dinner, drinking, and poker, and all those missions were accomplished. We had some sushi, and Mike did a pretty good job abiding by the "no sushi snobs" sign up on the wall. After dinner, we headed to a local bar and ordered up some drinks. I was standing watching the poker, and a seat opened up, so I plunked down some money and started to play. I was driving that night, so I wasn't drinking, while Diana had a few, and Iwan and Mike proceeded to get very pleasantly sauced.
The poker was an absolute experience. I eventually ended up $10, while Iwan lost a little bit. There was quite a crew sitting around the table. At first, I was between two older guys, brothers, who were substantially drunk and friendly. A guy across the table (next to Iwan, making him his boy, a'course) with an absolutely fantastic mullet was completely shitfaced, and that was BEFORE the 5 or so jager-bombs he and his boys ordered in about a half-hour timespan. Not sure what happened to him. Later, the brothers left, and a young, mildly attractive girl sat down with a very low cut top, and a new guy to my right decided we were boys and started making very suggestive comments about her, her rack, and so forth. I mostly sat with my mouth shut and just took it all in. Good stuff.
After poker, we played a little ping pong. Mike, in spite of non-trivial intoxication came back from behind to beat me, but it was a pretty close game. Diana and I took care of them in doubles, however. We made it home (after finding a lost wallet near the car!), played a final round of Euchre, and to bed.
The next morning, a few of the group nursed some hangovers, and we spent most of the day hanging around. Diana introduced a new game somewhere along the trip, Alibi, which is basically Clue on steroids. Where in Clue there are only three different variables (person, weapon, room), in Alibi, there are eight (person, time, location, specific location, weapon type, specific weapon, motive category, specific motive). It's all played with cards, and gets rid of the board and moving around nonsense. Pretty fun game, I thought. Hard to develop a good "system", but fun to joke about what system you do have.
Iwan and Diana and I headed out in the afternoon to meet the wallet-loser in town and return that (no reward! What a gyp!) and picked up some more fishing licenses. We came back, picked up Mick, and headed out to the north fork for some evening fishing. I'd been to the spot before, and thought it was pretty good. Iwan sounded a little dissapointed that we didn't see more fish, but I caught a couple, including a nice 10-12 incher and a couple little guys, and had a good number of bites as well. Mike and Diana spent a lot of time on the banks reading and chatting and taking in the sights. I felt a little bad that we were essentially dragging them along to watch us fish, but they seemed satisfied to do so.
Today, we packed a lunch and headed to the beach by the lake for a picnic and some more game playing. It was a nice relaxing afternoon there, and then back for packing and airport dropoff and goodbyes. And now, a quiet house.
The trip, speaking for myself at least, was a really great time. I think that everyone had tons of fun. The idea of a friends trip to Montana really spawned from reading Discostup's blog (a long time ago), and the thought that he sounded like he needed a vacation, and I'm really glad that he was able to go.
It was also really satisfying to watch Diana's interaction with my friends. She and Iwan see each other all the time, and I think have a pretty good relationship, and it was nice to watch her get some bonding time in with Mike. In fact, she probably had the most serious conversation-time with Mike while Iwan and I were fishing and playing poker. I'm glad that they seem to like her, and respect her. She really enjoys not only being with my friends, but watching me be boys with my friends as well.
Diana is a piece of work. She's absolutely wonderful in essentially any social situation (well, I think so anyways). When heading out for an excursion, she quietly ensured that we had enough water and food and stuff that we needed, yet not intrusively so. She certainly wasn't in charge of us by any scope, but at the same time, I think really made the logistics of the entire trip go very smoothly. I'd really be curious to know what my friends thought of her, now that it comes to mind, but probably wouldn't want to hear anything negative, so I'll retract that statement conditionally. :)
The goodbyes were casual, since I'll probably see Iwan within the a week, and Mike is coming back into town for a few days for the fantasy football draft. As I noted before, it was really great to spend more time with him, and I look forward to seeing him again. We hardly ever keep in touch lately, but in spite of that, I thought we fell back into our old friendship pretty nicely.
So that's about it. Diana and I are going to get the house straightened up a little, and we're getting picked up for the airport tomorrow at 2pm. It's going to be both good and bad to get home and get back into the swing of things. It's been a nice trip, but as I usually feel at the end of these vacations, I'm looking forward to getting home. I even look forward to heading back to work, if you can believe it, and I look even MORE forward to grabbing a copy of Doom III and giving it some singular attention.
That's about it for now.
2004/08/12
More Montana Madness...
Yesterday, we went on a hike. We headed up to Glacier National Park, and had plans to walk the Highline Trail.
We headed off, and immediately were greeted with an aboslutely phenomenal hike. Basically, most of the hike, you are on a precipice about 6-10 feet wide. On the uphill side is either a sheer cliff, or very steep hill, and on the downhill side is a substantial dropoff, leading down to the valley some hundreds or thousands of feet below. Beautiful mountains and lush valleys as far as the eye could see. Simply awesome.
On the way out, we rounded the corner and came face to face with a big ram staring us in the face. It looked pretty damn big, and had those huge curling horns. We backed up pretty quick, and when it started coming our way, started scrambling up the mountainside. It taught us a thing or two about scrambing when it headed up the mountain as well, easily jumping it's way up the sheer face. Pretty awesome. We were all a little freaked by the whole thing, but laughed about it, and wondered what could have happened. You certainly wouldn't have wanted to get butted by one of those puppies.
We stopped for lunch, and I wolfed down some food and then felt like I was going to throw up. It didn't happen, but it didn't help my general feeling of altitude sickness (headache, mostly).
At 3.8 miles (out of 7'ish), I decided I was about at my 50% point and put in a vote to turn around. I wasn't feeling that great, and figured the return on investment on going further wasn't really worth it. Diana, though able to go forward, came back with me, while Iwan and Mike were going to head out a little further.
During the hike back, Diana and I took our sweet time, since we were going to have to wait for Iwan and Mike anyways. We found a nice spot in the shade a little ways up a dried out waterfall off the trail, and hung out there for probably 45 minutes or so, enjoying the view, and Diana even catching a quick nap.
On the way back, we ran into another ram (probably the same one), up ahead on the trail. It was going our direction, and didn't seem to mind us being there, so we follwed it. It would stop and eat, and when we got close, continue moseying along. When some people came from the other direction, it headed uphill, and we passed pretty close by it. While we were sort of freaked after our first incident, in retrospect, I don't think it really cared if we were around or not.
We made it back to the lot, and hung out for a good while for Iwan and Mick to return. It turns out they headed out the whole 7 miles, plus headed up a little further on a side trail, and then walked the whole way back, rounding out a little over 18 mile hike. They were pretty beat, and happy to be back. Color me impressed by their fortitude.
We stopped and picked up pizza and beer on the way home, and ate and got cleaned up and stuff. We were all pretty bushed, but laid outside for a while to watch meteors in the absolutely clear, beautiful night sky. We saw some good ones, but not as good as I remember in the past. When it was clear that we were all falling asleep (after being out there for perhaps 15 minutes), we all headed in for bed.
Today has been designated "lazy day". We got up late and I made some omlettes. Iwan and Mike went through the ritual of setting up the fantasy football league, while Diana and I observed in awe and astonishment at the back and forth between Iwan and Mike as co-commishes.
We had some thoughts of golfing today, but lunch turned into a sit around the table and chat which has lasted for some hours. I think we're going to play some games, and head into town for dinner and drinks (and poker?) later, but for now, it's been really nice to just hang out and relax.
Yesterday, we went on a hike. We headed up to Glacier National Park, and had plans to walk the Highline Trail.
We headed off, and immediately were greeted with an aboslutely phenomenal hike. Basically, most of the hike, you are on a precipice about 6-10 feet wide. On the uphill side is either a sheer cliff, or very steep hill, and on the downhill side is a substantial dropoff, leading down to the valley some hundreds or thousands of feet below. Beautiful mountains and lush valleys as far as the eye could see. Simply awesome.
On the way out, we rounded the corner and came face to face with a big ram staring us in the face. It looked pretty damn big, and had those huge curling horns. We backed up pretty quick, and when it started coming our way, started scrambling up the mountainside. It taught us a thing or two about scrambing when it headed up the mountain as well, easily jumping it's way up the sheer face. Pretty awesome. We were all a little freaked by the whole thing, but laughed about it, and wondered what could have happened. You certainly wouldn't have wanted to get butted by one of those puppies.
We stopped for lunch, and I wolfed down some food and then felt like I was going to throw up. It didn't happen, but it didn't help my general feeling of altitude sickness (headache, mostly).
At 3.8 miles (out of 7'ish), I decided I was about at my 50% point and put in a vote to turn around. I wasn't feeling that great, and figured the return on investment on going further wasn't really worth it. Diana, though able to go forward, came back with me, while Iwan and Mike were going to head out a little further.
During the hike back, Diana and I took our sweet time, since we were going to have to wait for Iwan and Mike anyways. We found a nice spot in the shade a little ways up a dried out waterfall off the trail, and hung out there for probably 45 minutes or so, enjoying the view, and Diana even catching a quick nap.
On the way back, we ran into another ram (probably the same one), up ahead on the trail. It was going our direction, and didn't seem to mind us being there, so we follwed it. It would stop and eat, and when we got close, continue moseying along. When some people came from the other direction, it headed uphill, and we passed pretty close by it. While we were sort of freaked after our first incident, in retrospect, I don't think it really cared if we were around or not.
We made it back to the lot, and hung out for a good while for Iwan and Mick to return. It turns out they headed out the whole 7 miles, plus headed up a little further on a side trail, and then walked the whole way back, rounding out a little over 18 mile hike. They were pretty beat, and happy to be back. Color me impressed by their fortitude.
We stopped and picked up pizza and beer on the way home, and ate and got cleaned up and stuff. We were all pretty bushed, but laid outside for a while to watch meteors in the absolutely clear, beautiful night sky. We saw some good ones, but not as good as I remember in the past. When it was clear that we were all falling asleep (after being out there for perhaps 15 minutes), we all headed in for bed.
Today has been designated "lazy day". We got up late and I made some omlettes. Iwan and Mike went through the ritual of setting up the fantasy football league, while Diana and I observed in awe and astonishment at the back and forth between Iwan and Mike as co-commishes.
We had some thoughts of golfing today, but lunch turned into a sit around the table and chat which has lasted for some hours. I think we're going to play some games, and head into town for dinner and drinks (and poker?) later, but for now, it's been really nice to just hang out and relax.
2004/08/10
Bloggin' from Montana!
Man, what a trip. I'm up here with Diana and Iwan and Mick, and it's pretty much the best ever. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Diana and I flew up last Wednesday (hard to believe it's almost been a week!). My parents were up here from before then until Saturday, when they left and Iwan arrived. Thursday, we mostly did work around the house (cutting up firewood, etc). Friday, we packed up a lunch and went fishing. We explored some creeks we found on a map, but discovered that the first two were pretty steep and secluded, and not so good for fly fishing. The third, however, emptied out into the lake at a really nice spot, and we spent the afternoon pulling (little) fish out of the creek. Lots of fun. I asked Diana to help remember the spot, to which she replied "We can mark it on the GPS!" And so we did.
Saturday, my parents had an afternoon flight out. They invited some folks up for breakfast, which was nice. The rest of the day was mostly spent sort of sitting around waiting for the flight time to arrive (it was a pretty cloudy, rainy day, so no one really felt like doing much).
That evening, we went out to dinner, and dropped of the 'rents at the airport, and headed back at midnight to pick up Iwan. Good to see the kid as usual. He was happy to be here, and all pumped for the weeks activities. On the way back, at around 1am, we passed the dirt road that leads up to the house, and spent a good bit of time with the overshooting and backtracking to find the right turnoff. It's basically an unmarked, unlit dirt road... really easy to miss, but a little embarassing nonetheless.
The next morning, we headed back to pick up Discostup. We had some thoughts beforehand of going straight away to do something, but opted to just come back to the house. We just hung around for the rest of the day and talked about potential plans for the rest of the week, as well as just doing a lot of catching up. Stup taught us all the card game Euchre, and we gave that a good shot and had some fun with that. Fun game.
Discostup is simply a lot of fun. He'd probably say that he's lost a step or two and isn't his old wacky self these days, but if that's the case, I haven't noticed. He provides basically non-stop singing and entertainment and humor, and is a lot of fun to be around. He's on a serious mission to see some bears, but it hasn't happened yet. And the constellation Scorpio, in spite of the fact... oh, nevermind.
Monday, we got up and packed a lunch and headed out to buy fishing licenses, and headed out to the same spot that we'd gone to with my parents a few days back. The weather by this point was clearing up, and promises to be great for the rest of the week. I'm stoked.
The fishing was pretty good. All four of us caught fish, including Diana's first fish with a flyrod. Iwan said "Hey Diana... put your fly right there!" and pointed at a spot in the water, and so she did, and moments later she had a pretty good sized little trout! Good stuff.
We fished for the bulk of the afternoon, and came back for dinner and an Adam/Diana v. Iwan/Mick game of Taboo. Adam and Diana won, but it was pretty close. Another round of Euchre, and we were all tuckered out.
We've been staying out late, since it stays light so late here, and having dinner at like 8:30pm or 9pm, and then playing games after that.
This morning, we got up early and headed out for our reservations of a raft rental! We drove up to West Glacier, and after some intricate maneuvers with dropping off cars at the "pull out" and getting back to the "put in", we were all set. Four of us in an oar-driven (as opposed to paddle driven) inflateable raft. The choice of oar was a good one (if Mike is the entertainment, Iwan provides a lot of good insight and wisdom with regards to planning and activities and whatnot, while Diana makes sure we're organized and prepared for our day. I'm not sure what my role is...). With the oars, one person could drive, while one fished from the back, one from the front, and one relaxed. Driving with the oars was pretty tough, though, but in spite of hitting some big rocks sideways, we didn't have any serious problems. My dad was thinking of getting a raft of some sort, and after today, I'll go ahead and give my big thumbs up to the idea.
The fishing was great. Sort of. We didn't actually catch a single fish, but we put our fly in lots of good spots. We actually had some bites and escaped fish, but were unable to get any in the boat. I had one take my fly, but I'd tied by knot incorrectly, and the fly came off, I'm pretty sure still in the fishes mouth. Poor guy. In spite of not getting any fish, the views were incredible, and being out on the water alone in such a pristine environment was really a great feeling. We stopped at a little beach at one point, and two mama deer with two baby deer came out of the brush right near us. They got spooked and headed off, but it was neat to see.
We just got back from that trip, and everyone is pretty tuckered out. I am, at least. The others all got naps on the ride back. I was fine driving, but now that I'm done, I'm ready for a nap. Diana's chatting with her parents. Iwan and Mick are on the porch, assuming their roles and co-commish's of the WCD fantasy football league.
That's about the size of it. Tomorrow I think we're going to go hiking in Glacier, and probably head into town for dinner and beers and perhaps a little poker? Not sure what the rest of the trip holds, but there's at least a 75% chance of fun... I like those odds!
Man, what a trip. I'm up here with Diana and Iwan and Mick, and it's pretty much the best ever. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
Diana and I flew up last Wednesday (hard to believe it's almost been a week!). My parents were up here from before then until Saturday, when they left and Iwan arrived. Thursday, we mostly did work around the house (cutting up firewood, etc). Friday, we packed up a lunch and went fishing. We explored some creeks we found on a map, but discovered that the first two were pretty steep and secluded, and not so good for fly fishing. The third, however, emptied out into the lake at a really nice spot, and we spent the afternoon pulling (little) fish out of the creek. Lots of fun. I asked Diana to help remember the spot, to which she replied "We can mark it on the GPS!" And so we did.
Saturday, my parents had an afternoon flight out. They invited some folks up for breakfast, which was nice. The rest of the day was mostly spent sort of sitting around waiting for the flight time to arrive (it was a pretty cloudy, rainy day, so no one really felt like doing much).
That evening, we went out to dinner, and dropped of the 'rents at the airport, and headed back at midnight to pick up Iwan. Good to see the kid as usual. He was happy to be here, and all pumped for the weeks activities. On the way back, at around 1am, we passed the dirt road that leads up to the house, and spent a good bit of time with the overshooting and backtracking to find the right turnoff. It's basically an unmarked, unlit dirt road... really easy to miss, but a little embarassing nonetheless.
The next morning, we headed back to pick up Discostup. We had some thoughts beforehand of going straight away to do something, but opted to just come back to the house. We just hung around for the rest of the day and talked about potential plans for the rest of the week, as well as just doing a lot of catching up. Stup taught us all the card game Euchre, and we gave that a good shot and had some fun with that. Fun game.
Discostup is simply a lot of fun. He'd probably say that he's lost a step or two and isn't his old wacky self these days, but if that's the case, I haven't noticed. He provides basically non-stop singing and entertainment and humor, and is a lot of fun to be around. He's on a serious mission to see some bears, but it hasn't happened yet. And the constellation Scorpio, in spite of the fact... oh, nevermind.
Monday, we got up and packed a lunch and headed out to buy fishing licenses, and headed out to the same spot that we'd gone to with my parents a few days back. The weather by this point was clearing up, and promises to be great for the rest of the week. I'm stoked.
The fishing was pretty good. All four of us caught fish, including Diana's first fish with a flyrod. Iwan said "Hey Diana... put your fly right there!" and pointed at a spot in the water, and so she did, and moments later she had a pretty good sized little trout! Good stuff.
We fished for the bulk of the afternoon, and came back for dinner and an Adam/Diana v. Iwan/Mick game of Taboo. Adam and Diana won, but it was pretty close. Another round of Euchre, and we were all tuckered out.
We've been staying out late, since it stays light so late here, and having dinner at like 8:30pm or 9pm, and then playing games after that.
This morning, we got up early and headed out for our reservations of a raft rental! We drove up to West Glacier, and after some intricate maneuvers with dropping off cars at the "pull out" and getting back to the "put in", we were all set. Four of us in an oar-driven (as opposed to paddle driven) inflateable raft. The choice of oar was a good one (if Mike is the entertainment, Iwan provides a lot of good insight and wisdom with regards to planning and activities and whatnot, while Diana makes sure we're organized and prepared for our day. I'm not sure what my role is...). With the oars, one person could drive, while one fished from the back, one from the front, and one relaxed. Driving with the oars was pretty tough, though, but in spite of hitting some big rocks sideways, we didn't have any serious problems. My dad was thinking of getting a raft of some sort, and after today, I'll go ahead and give my big thumbs up to the idea.
The fishing was great. Sort of. We didn't actually catch a single fish, but we put our fly in lots of good spots. We actually had some bites and escaped fish, but were unable to get any in the boat. I had one take my fly, but I'd tied by knot incorrectly, and the fly came off, I'm pretty sure still in the fishes mouth. Poor guy. In spite of not getting any fish, the views were incredible, and being out on the water alone in such a pristine environment was really a great feeling. We stopped at a little beach at one point, and two mama deer with two baby deer came out of the brush right near us. They got spooked and headed off, but it was neat to see.
We just got back from that trip, and everyone is pretty tuckered out. I am, at least. The others all got naps on the ride back. I was fine driving, but now that I'm done, I'm ready for a nap. Diana's chatting with her parents. Iwan and Mick are on the porch, assuming their roles and co-commish's of the WCD fantasy football league.
That's about the size of it. Tomorrow I think we're going to go hiking in Glacier, and probably head into town for dinner and beers and perhaps a little poker? Not sure what the rest of the trip holds, but there's at least a 75% chance of fun... I like those odds!
2004/08/03
So.
Had another softball game last night. As noted before, I'm really working hard on my hitting, not going for power, but for placement. My first at bat, there was a runner on second and third, with 1 out, and I hit a double right down the right field line. The second time I was up, I fouled it down the right field line. At this point, one of the extra outfielders shifted from left-center to right center, so I hit it to left center, just where he used to be. When I came up to bat the third time, the extra outfielder shifted to center field, and I hit it down the line to right.
I was very pleased with all this. We ended up killing the other team (they weren't so good at fielding). Good times.
A friend just forwarded me a link to a web-game that's basically copying the old Sierra quest games. If you ever played one of those, you should probably check this out.
I boo-boo'd at work yesterday. I updated a system that I wasn't supposed to without supreme authority from on high. The thing was, this was something I've done a million times in the past without any issue, but we're sort of in a new phase of our testing now, and they're really locking things down, so it didn't even occur to me to ask permission. Anyways, I sent out a notice that I made the change, and it got a little blown out of proportion. No big deal, but I had to write an email explaining why I did what I did and what the story was (not as punishment, but just to backfill information, basically). As I said, not a biggie, but I don't like being in the hotseat.
We leave for Montana tomorrow. 1.5 weeks of fishing, hiking, floating, tubing(?!), and generally hanging out. Diana and I head up tomorrow, and Iwan and Mike will join us next weekend. I'm really looking forward to being up there with them. I see Iwan all the time, and he's a lot of fun to be around, and I don't see or talk to Mike nearly as much as I used to or would like to, so I look forward to reconnecting a bit with him, as well.
That's about it for now. Check you out on the flipside.
Had another softball game last night. As noted before, I'm really working hard on my hitting, not going for power, but for placement. My first at bat, there was a runner on second and third, with 1 out, and I hit a double right down the right field line. The second time I was up, I fouled it down the right field line. At this point, one of the extra outfielders shifted from left-center to right center, so I hit it to left center, just where he used to be. When I came up to bat the third time, the extra outfielder shifted to center field, and I hit it down the line to right.
I was very pleased with all this. We ended up killing the other team (they weren't so good at fielding). Good times.
A friend just forwarded me a link to a web-game that's basically copying the old Sierra quest games. If you ever played one of those, you should probably check this out.
I boo-boo'd at work yesterday. I updated a system that I wasn't supposed to without supreme authority from on high. The thing was, this was something I've done a million times in the past without any issue, but we're sort of in a new phase of our testing now, and they're really locking things down, so it didn't even occur to me to ask permission. Anyways, I sent out a notice that I made the change, and it got a little blown out of proportion. No big deal, but I had to write an email explaining why I did what I did and what the story was (not as punishment, but just to backfill information, basically). As I said, not a biggie, but I don't like being in the hotseat.
We leave for Montana tomorrow. 1.5 weeks of fishing, hiking, floating, tubing(?!), and generally hanging out. Diana and I head up tomorrow, and Iwan and Mike will join us next weekend. I'm really looking forward to being up there with them. I see Iwan all the time, and he's a lot of fun to be around, and I don't see or talk to Mike nearly as much as I used to or would like to, so I look forward to reconnecting a bit with him, as well.
That's about it for now. Check you out on the flipside.
2004/08/01
So.
We played Monopoly last night. Let me tell you what game I don't really like: Monopoly. I just don't really get it. I've never understood what makes good strategy, and I've never been any good at it. It was fun to play, but really more for the hanging out aspect than the actual game.
Eryn and Iwan made some sort of "lifetime immunity" deal, which upon further reflection, I'm pretty sure flies in the face of the rules. It specifically says you can't loan other players money, and this seems to fall under that rule to a certain degree.
Eryn won, admirably bearing the brunt of goodnatured racial slurs while taking all our money. At least I think he won. I was playing NHL '94 on the SNES by this point. :)
Today I've been very handy. The garage door slams really hard when it closes, so I installed a door-closer thing. I installed the second light fixture in our front hallway. And we installed blinds in the guest-bedroom-soon-to-be-my-office. Good stuff. Now, curtains in the front room.
You know those people who stand on corners flipping around signs that advertise stores and new house openings and whatnot? Normally it's punk'ish looking kids standing there. Diana and I drove by a corner recently that had what must have been a 65 year old lady standing there, dancing slighly in the blazing sun, holding a sign for a new housing development. Diana and I both had the same reaction of cringing with sadness when we saw her. Poor old lady.
We played Monopoly last night. Let me tell you what game I don't really like: Monopoly. I just don't really get it. I've never understood what makes good strategy, and I've never been any good at it. It was fun to play, but really more for the hanging out aspect than the actual game.
Eryn and Iwan made some sort of "lifetime immunity" deal, which upon further reflection, I'm pretty sure flies in the face of the rules. It specifically says you can't loan other players money, and this seems to fall under that rule to a certain degree.
Eryn won, admirably bearing the brunt of goodnatured racial slurs while taking all our money. At least I think he won. I was playing NHL '94 on the SNES by this point. :)
Today I've been very handy. The garage door slams really hard when it closes, so I installed a door-closer thing. I installed the second light fixture in our front hallway. And we installed blinds in the guest-bedroom-soon-to-be-my-office. Good stuff. Now, curtains in the front room.
You know those people who stand on corners flipping around signs that advertise stores and new house openings and whatnot? Normally it's punk'ish looking kids standing there. Diana and I drove by a corner recently that had what must have been a 65 year old lady standing there, dancing slighly in the blazing sun, holding a sign for a new housing development. Diana and I both had the same reaction of cringing with sadness when we saw her. Poor old lady.
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