Entries tagged with dani

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triskaidekaphilia

Via

tangerinpenguin: List thirteen things that are going well for you this Friday the 13th:

1. The customer who sounded like he wanted Big Complicated Things (In A Hurry) thought my first draft was about 80% while I was assuming 25%.

2. Two significant projects (and some lesser ones) at work want me and my manager will support whatever I want to do. Cool!

3. I read a letter on the eye chart this week that I don't usually get.

4. Some more e-books that I want to read are available as free downloads.

5. Good conversation with my rabbi last night.

6. Bought gas for $3.09/gallon (loyalty card) and it should hold me for a month.

7. Cirque du Soleil is coming to Pittsburgh and this time their web site allowed us to buy tickets. (Totem -- not interested in the Michael Jackson thingy.)

8. Waking up to a cat on my feet every morning still, even though the weather has gotten warm.

9. Baldur is eating better.

10. Mesura et Arte del Danzare -- lovely recording!

11. Neighbors taking care of things along the property line that they might have been able to get away with not doing.

12. The rain seems to have ended before I have to leave for Shabbat.

13. Dani makes me happy. (Why yes, that is redacted. :-) )

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interviewed by metahacker

I've owed these answers for, um, a while. Sorry about that!

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interviewed by alaricmacconnal

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We were in Toronto for a few days, so Shabbat morning I went to services at the Village Shul, which is run by Aish HaTorah. We don't have Aish in Pittsburgh, so I was curious. I understand them to be in methodology kind of similar to Chabad -- friendly outreach to people at various levels of observance -- without the chassidism and the strange moshiach stuff. So I figured I'd go there and see what it was like, and if it was horrible I had a backup a few blocks away.

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random bits

Recently (to investigate something), I added a third-party tracker to some of my posts in order to see where the hits are coming from. This was meant to be temporary, but I've found it interesting to see just how big the internet community is, so I've continued to use it at times. So, I don't know who any of y'all are (and publishing on the internet means I might never know, and that's cool), but I'd like to say hello to my regular readers in Italy, Moldova, Switzerland, and Cambodia (!).

We are having weird modem luck. I thought all DSL modems were basically the same, but apparently not. Our old (bought in 1999) modem has started dropping signal -- it's eratic, but when it happens it lasts for a few hours. My DSL provider mailed me a new one (a level of service I did not expect) and it's reliable but universally slow. So our current mode of operation is to use the old one until it drops and then switch to the new one for a few hours. Weird. So I think we need to buy a new modem that is both reliable and fast, but since I thought they were all the same I now don't know what to look for. (We have basic DSL. Someday I hope they well run FIOS to our neighborhood and we'll switch.)

Recent conversation:
Dani: We're out of (book)shelf space in the library again.
Me: Maybe we should assemble that last bookcase we bought.
Dani: We're out of shelf space in the library again.
Me: You built it and filled it already? So we need to buy more?
Dani: We're out of wall space to put bookcases...

(I assert that he is incorrect on that last point, but it hinges on a dispute between practicality and purity. Or something like that.)

We bought some CFLs (in two different color-tones) to try again, and installed some in the ceiling fixture in the living room (the packaging contained no dire warnings about that, unlike the last one). Freaky white and bright, so some tuning is called for, but there might be a bigger problem: flicker. The switch is a dimmer, but we know CFLs don't dim so the switch is at max. (Truth to tell, we don't dim regular bulbs in that fixture, either.) Does the mere presence of a dimmer switch doom CFLs? That would be annoying.

A couple links:

A few nights ago I made these lamb chops, which I've made before and which are amazingly good.

The ten plagues, done in peeps (from someone on my subscription list, but I've lost track of who). Twisted! Funny!

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last few days

Last week Dani got email from someone he knew in Toronto lo these many years ago. She and her family were driving to DC; did he want to visit with them on their way down? We said sure, and invited them for dinner Sunday. She and her husband are friendly people; their teenage sons were shy but pleasant, and they appreciated access to graphic novels and an internet connection while the rest of us were talking. :-) (One of them was excited to find Diablo installed on one of Dani's computers...)

The adults had obviously done some research. During dinner they said "please tell us about the SCA" and "so what about the house on the flatbed?". I googled both of us later and the page for the little house on the flatbed does not come up in the first half-dozen pages of results, so I'm not sure how they got there. (Of course, my home page does, from there you can get to my page of SCA links, and from there...) I, lacking information beyond her first name, had done no such research; I hope I was not socially deficient in these modern times.

Both Dani's and my desktop computers have been gradually getting sluggish over time. Dani went shopping and found that we could each triple our memory for $50. Ah, much better! Dani was kind enough to install mine for me. (We have a clean division of labor when it comes to household IT: he does hardware and I do system administration. Things go more smoothly when we do not try to switch.)

Dani did another hardware installation this weekend: late last week the water flow to the shower head was, suddenly, extremely diminished. Advice found on the internet suggested banging on the head and/or pipes to shake loose any gunk that might be in there; we decided not to do that without replacement hardware on hand, 'cause some water is better than none at all. (I should mention, in passing, that it took me a couple tries to find any useful information here. Who knew that some people try to deliberately reduce flow to their shower heads? Err, isn't that what the tub knobs are for? But I digress.) In the end, Dani bought a $5 head and simply replaced it; the new one is actually better than the old one. (Another in the "who knew?" department: you can spend $100 on a showerhead. It had better be gold-plated, water-softening, temperature-regulating, and massaging, for that price!)

A week ago Monday I took all the cats in for checkups, and two got blood drawn for tests. Tuesday night I got a message: um, err, we lost some of it. I had the last appointments of the night, and apparently one vial got left in the centrefuge... so I had to take Erik (I'm glad it was Erik! He's easy!) back to be stuck again on Wednesday. They were apologetic, but sigh. (Everyone's basically normal, locally scoped.)

Shabbat morning was a little more rabbi-heavy than usual. Both of our rabbis were there (until it was time to leave for the later service, anyway). We also had our incipient third rabbi (yes, now it can be told... we were looking for an educator and got one who's also a rabbi; mabfan, you know him). And our associate rabbi's aunt, who is also a rabbi, was visiting. I'm glad that day's lay torah reader isn't one to get spooked easily. :-) (Though he might not have known about the last; I was introduced to her Friday night, but I don't think she mentioned her background Saturday morning.)

The third rabbi will be focusing mostly on education (including adults). He's an excellent teacher, and I'm looking forward to having more chances to learn with him. I presume that our adult-ed program is going to get a boost; yay!

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interviewed by Zahava

Questions from Zahava over on Blogger.

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random bits

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cats: erik,
dani

thwarted

( cat update )

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action-packed weekend

Shabbat was pleasant and fairly normal for me. Dani, on the other hand, worked all day and well into the night, as the start-up he's working for reinterpreted its Friday deadline as a Monday deadline. (They also reinterpreted their party Saturday night as a January party, rather than encouraging employees to bring laptops, including for their spouses, to the party. :-) ) So he worked in the morning, had Shabbat lunch with me, headed into the office... and returned sometime after 2AM.

Meanwhile, I headed out to ralphmelton and lorimelton's traditional holiday party last night, where much fun was had. I had thought they were going to go light on the baking, what with job stress and stuff, but they went into overdrive again. Anyone who went home from that party hungry did it to himself; there was a great variety of very tasty food. I spent time chatting with a bunch of past coworkers from Claritech, met some of Lori's coworkers, and saw some other folks I know. A few of the usual suspects weren't there this year, but there were other people who were new to me so it all worked out.

However, that was clearly too much fun and could not be permitted without a balancing force. ( Read more... )

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Saturday

Yesterday we went to the bar mitzvah of the son of friends. Dani went with me, which was very nice of him (he doesn't really do religion). I noticed that he was comparing the English and Hebrew in the siddur; Gates of Prayer is pretty bad about that, and this seemed to provide him with some amusement.

During the Torah reading, when we got to the part about Chava telling the snake that not only was she not permitted to eat the fruit but she wasn't even permitted to touch it, I leaned over to him and said "this may be the oldest g'zeirah" (fence around the Torah), and he had to stifle a laugh. Oops. :-) (A fence around the Torah is when the rabbis rule that you can't take some otherwise-permitted action because it might lead you to a forbidden one. For example, on Shabbat you are not to handle matches; the actual forbidden act is kindling fire. That sort of thing. In this case, God told them not to eat but didn't say anything -- at least that got recorded -- about touching.)

Dani asked me where the tradition that the fruit is an apple comes from. I don't know; I do know that there are Jewish sources that argue for other fruits. (I've heard pomogranate and I think date.) Dani argues for chestnuts on the theory that Mark Twain can't be wrong.

The luncheon was very nice, and several people made a point of thanking Dani for coming (including my rabbi). I was able to steer us toward people he would enjoy talking with, and we lucked into a couple more at the table we sat down at, so I think it went well.

Last night we went to a gaming session. While this wasn't planned, the theme turned out to be robots. When we arrived there was a game of Ricochet Robot in progress, so we joined in. (It's adaptable that way.) I'm not fast enough with that kind of visual reasoning, it appears. Then we played a long game of Robo Rally. I started off doing poorly with navigation -- combination of bad cards and not wrapping my brain around some of the hazards on the board (conveyer belts, gears, pools of slime, that sort of thing). But I recovered and at one point was in the lead, though another player who had been close behind me managed to slip past and win. The last flag was in a really hard spot to reach, and he had a gadget that allowed him to tag it from nearby rather than having to land on it. It was a fun game, though not one I'd play often.

We had exactly seven people, so before we settled on Robo Rally someone proposed Diplomacy. I felt bad about vetoing it under near-optimal conditions (you want exactly seven people), but I really hate that style of game. Sorry, guys. I hope they'll find a seventh and play some other time, because Dani enjoys it and hasn't played in a long time.

(My objection to Diplomacy is all about the politics and not at all about the world conquest, by the way.)

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dani

not quite EverCrack, but...

A couple weeks ago Dani picked up a copy of Diablo (whatever the current version is). He'd never played before.

He's hooked. I don't think even Civ III produced this level of, err, attention from him. It's kind of cute, in that "I sure hope this doesn't become pathological" way. :-)

Hey, it's good to have hobbies, right?

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short takes

Attention Pittsburgh drivers: It's snow. You saw it last year. You dealt with it last year. Remember?

It took almost three times as long as usual for me to get home yesterday, and that was before the snow started sticking to the roads. I also passed three minor accidents. Whee.

I don't object to cautious drivers. I do object to the ones who do stupid things like block intersections (making it worse for everyone) or occupy two lanes or -- I am not making this up -- try to back up the length of a block on a one-way street instead of going around.

Friday on the way home from work Dani's car was grazed by a bus. It took out the driver-side mirror but did no other apparent damage. Saturn wouldn't talk to Dani until Monday, so he's been driving around with the thing taped together so he won't lose any pieces (some of which are connected by wires).

On Monday he called and they asked him if the plastic casing is black or the same color as his car (which is, technically, blackberry -- it looks black except in sunlight, when it shows as dark purple). It's painted, so he has to wait for them to order the part. Black he could have had right away. Now usually guys complain that it's a "girl thing" to insist that such things match, but you know, I would have taken the black. We don't get that many sunny days in Pittsburgh anyway; who'd notice? :-)

Apparently bus drivers get into enough accidents that this is down to a routine. Dani said the driver got out, took out a shrink-wrapped camera, broke the seal, took two pictures (one of the mirror and one of Dani's license plate), handed over a sheet of paper with the driver's basic information, and left. This was a tour bus, not PAT, by the way, so there's no way Dani is ever going to collect anything from these guys.

We got a weird series of wrong-number calls last night. ( Read more... )

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Pennsic report

I had fun at Pennsic. It was relaxing -- I spent a lot of time just visiting with folks instead of doing stuff -- but I needed that.

The weather was fairly cooperative -- a couple storms, but nothing that forced us to pull down the dining flies. It was mostly sunny and dry. I got all the way to Thursday of the second week before I had to start taking my once-a-day allergy pills every 16 hours instead; last year I was having serious problems by Tuesday of the second week, and I even went home for one night just to get away from the allergens for a while. (Today I still apparently have to take the allergy pills more frequently -- residual effects, I guess. With luck, things will be back to normal tomorrow.)

We ended up breaking down the camp yesterday. I'm going to make a separate entry about that, because it had Shabbat implications that make me uncomfortable.

( some stuff I did )

( score! )

( architecture )

( mechanical woes )

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War Practice (SCA)

This weekend was the War Practice event, held at the same site where the Pennsic War will be held in August. War Practice is a weekend event, but Dani and I day-trip because it's not that far and we really hate camping. And this year it was freaking cold (and raining), so lots of people who had planned to camp bailed on that at the last minute.

We wanted to be there early enough to catch morning court, because a friend (Kathy, aka Elsbeth) was going to be sent on vigil for a Laurel (the highest arts award one can receive). Things were running a little late, so we did in fact make it in time for this.

There was an artisans' display in the morning, and I saw some neat stuff. I got a lesson in tablet-weaving 3/1 twill from one person (this looks complicated; I think I won't try that just yet). I also got to talk with someone about bookbinding for a while. I've tried bookbinding (once), so it was useful to see how he handled some of the tricky bits. Raven and Leifr were displaying the glass beads they've been making; these are really cool. (There's a new glass center in Pittsburgh, and they've been taking lessons, both beads and blown glass.)

A chunk of Saturday afternoon was taken up by a laurel meeting. For certain awards in the SCA, the royalty have to poll the current holders of the award, and in this kingdom the orders are pretty much self-powered. That is, the royalty of course make the decisions, but we pretty much organize ourselves, maintain our own candidate list, and so on. So every now and then we have to meet to exchange information about what we've learned about the candidates and their arts. Our list has grown a little long, so this took a while. I have some ideas about how we might organize this differently in the future; I'll have to bounce them off of the person in charge.

At evening court lots of local people got much-deserved awards. Ts'vee'a (Gail) received a court barony; this is the one with the Hebrew scroll text. (The scroll also has the English.) They did a cute bit of schtick: they called her up, said something vague about rewarding her efforts, and then had me read the text "in her native tongue". I couldn't watch her as much as I would have liked because I was reading, but I did catch some of her reaction and I noticed the point where she figured out what the award was. Glad to know that I was reading well enough to be coherent. :-) (There was a point about halfway through where it was obvious to everyone, Hebrew-literate or not, and she figured it out before that point.) Yes, they then read the English for everyone else.

I was surprised to discover, as I got ready to read, that I was suffering some stage fright. Except when reading (or saying) my own words, I pretty much don't get stage fright any more. But this time I did. I had practiced the text and read it flawlessly earlier in the day, but in court I made some fumbles because of the nervousness. Weird.

fiannaharpar received a much-deserved service award, as did my friends Leifr and Christof. Don is finally going to be knighted, which is very cool. And Dani received a writ to appear at an event at the end of June to receive his Laurel. He was completely floored. He knew something was up because at the beginning of court I asked him to take off the mundane sweater he was wearing over his garb (did I mention that it was cold yesterday?), but he didn't know what was happening. I've known about this for about a month, but the royalty like to surprise people with the writs so I'm glad he didn't figure it out. Now we've got a month and change to organize the actual ceremony (and vigil).

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misc

We had an On the Mark practice this afternoon. I think we're in good shape for the con in two weeks. Now as soon as they tell us whether we're doing one long concert or two shorter ones, I can finalize the set list.

Soon we have to actually have a discussion with our prospective new members, and I have to photocopy music and stuff for them.

Dani is a sweetie. He had already agreed (a while back) to pick me up at the airport Sunday afternoon/evening when my plane gets in from the con. Tonight I asked him if he would take me to the airport Friday morning before he goes to work, and he agreed. That saves me either $45 or a lot of time mucking with public transit. (My plane leaves at 10:30, which means I'm supposed to be there at 8:30.)

Passover is in a few weeks, which means we'll be in Toronto for several days. I wonder if Dani's relatives have figured out who's doing the seders yet. I need to remember to contact my cat-sitter.

I really enjoyed Ralph's D&D game on Wednesday. It started off light and kind of silly but ended with Plot Development that involves my character's home town. I've commented on this game in Ralph's journal because he wrote about it, but I hadn't gotten around to mentioning it here yet. I still have to produce the Larissa's-eye view of recent events for the game log.

The observation (from Ralph) that characters can cooperate in creating magic items has opened up all sorts of possibilities. I wasn't going to take item-creation feats; as a sorceress I don't get that many spells, so these feats seem limited. But if someone else can supply the spell... so I took Craft Wondrous Item and am now trying to figure out what things are useful, available, and affordable with my current level and resources. Aside from my familiar's mage-armor gadget, which was my top priority.

Next weekend Seth and Karen come to visit. Yay! I am looking forward to this.

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dani,
shiva

(no subject)

Yesterday morning the mother of a friend from Temple Sinai died. We didn't get to the funeral because we had tickets for Les Mis (and they're non-exchangeable, and it's the last day anyway), but we'll go to the shiva tonight. (I'll go the rest of the week.) Last night I baked them a cheese and onion pie, which I know they like, that they can eat for lunch tomorrow or something. But the few times I've been to shiva homes there's always been a table full of food for the visitors, so I'll make some brownies to contribute to that just as soon as the oven heats up.

I really appreciate that Dani is willing to go with me to the shiva. Because he knows the couple too (we've had them over a few times), it would have been awkward for me if he bailed. On the other hand, our agreement was that he wouldn't have to "do Jewish stuff" so long as he didn't prevent *me* from doing so. So he didn't have to, but I'm glad he's going to.

triskaidekaphilia

interviewed by metahacker

interviewed by alaricmacconnal

interviewed by alienor

visit to Village Shul

random bits

last few days

interviewed by Zahava

random bits

thwarted

action-packed weekend

Saturday

not quite EverCrack, but...

short takes

Pennsic report

War Practice (SCA)

misc

(no subject)