covid.house

whoops

2024-04-27T00:00:00Z

well, hell, i just kinda tumbled right off that wagon, eh?

so ends the third chapter of covid.house — not with a bang, nor with a whimper, just with a flurry of unreported activities. i’ve got my office completely re-arranged and (mostly) re-organized, the garage is mostly cleaned out, the basement is partially straightened out.

overall, i did maybe 10% of the stuff that i had in my head to try to accomplish, but so it goes.

monday will be my first day with the bedford lab; i’m looking forward to it!

slow sunday

2024-04-14T00:00:00Z

Slept in a bit, just because I could. Bummed around a bit in the morning, then got some takeout lunch. After lunch, Mr17 and I hit the gym for the first ballbell workout in our couch-to-barbell program. Pretty hype.

After the gym, I showered and shaved my head (always good for an extra long time in the shower), and then headed over to Ratchet for a bit of weekly review catchup and reading.

Dinner was takeout from La Marg, followed by TV, reading, and bed.

mostly solo Saturday

2024-04-13T00:00:00Z

The rest of the fam headed up to Portland around mid-morning to see Beetlejuice while I hung around home. I woke up with a head full of snot, undoubtedly due to the massive amounts of pollen we’re currently “enjoying”. I had planned to do some work in the yard, but instead I took a really long shower to try to steam out my sinuses a bit, and then going out into the yard and getting grubby felt …silly.

So, instead, I headed back over to the neighboring town, to the other pizza place, to get some lunch. While I was going, it started to rain, so I would have ended up abandoning my yard work efforts anyway — I took the W.

After lunch, I got back home just in time for the Timbers match — a rough 2-2 tie, which they probably would have won if their keeper hadn’t gotten red-carded right at the start of the second half. It was good they held on to the tie. After that, I watched most of a mostly disappointing Thorns match, and then switched over to the Sporting KC match to root against Inter Miami.

The fam got home about halfway through that match, and we ended up getting sushi takeout for dinner, followed by the usual TV/reading/bed combo. I ended up sleeping poorly, again due to the massive ammount of snot in my head holes…

quiet friday

2024-04-12T00:00:00Z

TheWife handlded the Ms21 dropoff, so I slept in a bit. There was also some unpredicted rain, so I ended up getting coffee at Archive, and sat there and read a couple Tufte chapters.

Did a tiny bit in the garage and the basement, and then Mr17 and I went over to a neighboring town for some pizza for lunch. It was good to get out and drive a bit and also have a bit of hang-out time with Mr17.

Picked up Ms21, then bounced back out to the taphouse for a beer and some more reading. Home for a lovely dinner of seared tuna, chimichurri rojo, and sautéed spinach, followed by the usual TV/reading/bed progression.

semi-solid thursday

2024-04-11T00:00:00Z

Got up, dropped Ms21 off, and continued on to the usual coffee spot. Did a bit of noodling on the day, then ran some errands (mailing FedGov taxes, getting a few more hooks at Ace Hardware), and then returned home. Spent the rest of the morning working between the basement and the garage.

Met a friend for lunch in the next little town over, had a good catchup chat. Returned home and picked up Ms21, then took a kinda lengthy nap. Spent a little time after that managing the queue for stuff we’re trying to Freecycle (gawd I loathe FB Messenger), then cooked some chicken wangs for dinner (shoutout to TheWife for assisting with the buffalo sauce and the corn…) and we ended up doing the usual TV/reading thing before bed.

todo tracking: 12/15

couple solid days in a row alright alright alright

2024-04-10T00:00:00Z

TheWife handled the Ms21 dropoff today, so I got to sleep in just a little bit. Once I got up and got going, I started working on Kondo-ing the basement, identifying and staging things to move out to the garage.

After an early fast-food lunch, I had a noon-time massage, which was fantastic. My lower back was a little unhappy with me because of all the recent lifting and shifting, and getting bent into pretzel shapes was exactly what I (and it) needed.

I bounced back home, got back into street clothes, and then picked up Ms21 pretty soon after that. More work in the basement and the garage triggered a quick run to the hardware store for various hooks and pegboard accouterments, which led to some satisfying installations and hanging stuff up. The garage is looking way better!

Around 5pm, I washed up, rode the grocery getter over to pick up some supplies, and then I grilled steaks and potatoes. It was quite satisfying.

The usual TV and reading rounded out the day.

todo tracking: 6/11

solid

2024-04-09T00:00:00Z

Got up and rollin’ and dropped off Ms21. Continued on to Archive for a coffee and some reflection about yesterday’s meh day before working out a todo list for Tuesday.

Next stop was Harbor Freight, where the main purchase was a workbench for the garage — but I also grabbed a new driver bit set (because the current one is pissing me off) and some tarps (because as anybody from New Hampshire will tell you, you can never have too many blue tarps).

Got back home and employed the time-honored tradition of “unpack that thing out of the back of the car because there’s no way one person is lifting it out” and then proceeded to build it. No mishaps other than some scrapes and a moderate amount of cursing.

I took the massive pile of styrofoam packing material over to the special recycling place, grabbed a fast food burger, and then picked up Ms21, all in one fell swoop.

Got back home, took a little nap, did some more work in the garage, then took the grocery getter over to the grocery store for some beer. I’d intended to make chicken wangs, but I didn’t get them brining at the right spot in the day (and they were still a little frozen), so instead we had the grilled sausages that had been scheduled for Thursday. It was grilling out weather anyway, so it all worked out.

After, TV and bed.

todo tracking: 11/23

ennui monday

2024-04-08T00:00:00Z

Not the most productive day; couldn’t seem to get any sort of traction on …pretty much anything.

Tomorrow will be better(?)

todo tracking: 9/18

no, we didn't win it.

2024-04-07T00:00:00Z

First order of business was watching the Timbers take on Sporting KC on their home turf. Very frustrating match but the good guys managed to claw back from a 3-nil first half to end up with a 3-3 tie. Feels like it’s gonna be a long season.

After that we had some leftovers for lunch, then I took a little nap. Later in the afternoon I sat by the patio fire at b² and did some reading while enjoying a couple beverages.

Takeaway from La Marg for dinner, capped with junk TV and bed.

slow saturday

2024-04-06T00:00:00Z

I slept in a tiny, tiny bit — as much as the dog would allow, anyway — and then got up for a relatively lazy morning. After I while, I did more work on tidying up and cleaning out the garage, as much as possible with weather. I think the next steps will involve taking a bunch of stuff out into the driveway to be able to get stuff well cleaned out.

We had some takeout for lunch, and then I spent the afternoon reading — first a couple Tufte chapters, then some trashy scifi romance novels. Hit Ratchet for a bit in the afternoon, where the reading continued.

Sushi takeout for dinner, followed by TV, then bed.

friyay field trip

2024-04-05T00:00:00Z

Got up, got going, got Ms21 dropped off. Stopped at Archive and had a bit of avo toast and some more coffee. Got some gas and got on the road — first stop was around Woodburn, to drop some old laptops and other electronics off at the dump, then I headed up to Portland. I visited a fren at her house, met her new kitty, then we headed over to a food cart pod to lunch with some additional frens. It was good to get out and to see folks.

Drove back down to Salem, picked up Ms21 after work, headed home, and then rapidly bounced back out, to shuttle TheWife into her workplace so she could pick up a laptop. After I got her back home, I headed to the taphouse for a quick Friday afternoon beer, then returned home and went out to a walleye fish fry with the whole fam.

We finished the day out with some braincandy TV and wine. Solid Friyay, really.

titles never get easier

2024-04-04T00:00:00Z

I got up and managed to confirm that my theory about the Emacs config problem I’d been having was correct, so a bunch of my morning got frittered away with that. Then I dropped Ms21 off at work, and went to get some more coffee.

I managed to nerdsnipe myself into doing yet more Emacs configuration tweaks, which stretched into about one cup of coffee too much, and frens, the rest of the day was sort of a jittery unproductive mess. I did do a little work starting to stage my office re-arrangement, I did some reading …but mostly I couldn’t focus on anything

Picked Ms21 up from work, took a bit of a fitful nap, ran to the store to get stuff to make nachos out of some leftover carnitas, and then finished off the day with braincandy TV with TheWife.

Less coffee tomorrow, I reckon.

wednesday i guess?

2024-04-03T00:00:00Z

Regular morning: got going, got Ms21 to work, got coffee at Archive.

Came back home and ended up playing Starfield for a good chunk of the morning; also did some planning towards office re-arrangement. After a fast-food takeout lunch, I took a little nap, then got Ms21 from work.

A new release of Forgejo reminded me that I hadn’t automated installing a new release yes, so I finishing munging my existing get-new-gitea script into get-new-forgejo, which was satisfying.

We ended up getting some pizza delivered for dinner — I have pretty much abdicated any sort of menu planning or cooking this week, I guess — and then TheWife and I watched some braincandy TV for a bit. I also fell into an Emacs configuration update hole, so after she went to bed, I stayed up for another hour or so, trying to get things just right. When the clock hit midnight, I wasn’t quite done, but I went to bed anyway. Right as I was dropping off to sleep, I came up with what’s probably the solution to the last problem I was having, but I did not hop back out of bed to test it. Go me.

Today was the first day when I had to pause and really think about what the day of the week was, so I guess funemployment is good?

chipping away at the garage

2024-04-02T00:00:00Z

Got up and got going, dropping off Ms21 and returning home to clean up more of the garage — made a decent-sized dint in some old junk disposal, and getting bike rack/hook/wall-hanger things installed.

Took a break and a shower, and then headed out to the styrofoam recycling place and the dump — which I discovered is closed for much of the month of April, which is pretty annoying.

I returned home with my trunk of undisposed-of electronic stuff and stashed it in the garage for the moment; there’s probably a run up to Woodburn in my future. After that I got some tacos downtown and hung out for a bit enjoying the weather, until it was time to pick up Ms21.

Home after that for a bit of a nap, then some leftovers for an early dinner, and then I headed out to Santiam for a makerspace social meeting. Home and bed followed.

easing back to the normal

2024-04-01T00:00:00Z

TheWife let me sleep in a bit, which I really appreciated. She and TheSIL took Ms21 to work while I slowly got moving. A little later, I drove TheSIL back up to PDX for her flight home, and then I took a leisurely back-way drive back home.

I went back out a little bit later and had a salad at my regular haunt downtown, and then killed a little bit of time at City Hall until Ms21 was done with work.

Got back home, had a little nap, and then started Kondo-ing in the garage: tossed some old political campaign signs, stashed the lumber pile up into the rafters (not sure I’m gonna be able to get some of the bigger pieces down again…), and generally tidied up maybe 10% of the stuff that needed it.

Dinner was takeout burgers, fetched by Mr17; following that TheWife and I had some braincandy TV to wind down, and then hit the sack.

there's no place like home

2024-03-31T00:00:00Z

We rolled out of bed around 0530, finalized our packing, and then grabbed a taxi over to JFK. We got into the airport, through security, then chilled in the lounge until it was time to board our flight to Seattle. Once we got in to Seattle, we again hung out in the lounge until it was time for our shuttle flight down to Portland.

Once our second flight landed, we collected our luggage, got back into our car, and headed home for a quiet dinner and a night in our own beds.

manhappiness

2024-03-30T00:00:00Z

We again slept in a bit, then got up and returned to Zucker’s — but a different location, one in Tribeca. We sat in a little neighborhood park and ate; it was a lovely spring day. Afterwards, we walked back over to the train and rode the 5 up to Grand Central, then switched to the 6 and went up to the 77^th station. We hit the upper east side Apple store for a power brick for Mr17, then wandered around the southeast corner of Central Park, exiting onto 7^th Ave. We then walked to 34^th St — which those of you familiar with New York City will realize means that, yes, we walked all the way through Times Square, because Mr17 was interested in experiencing it. I think that, now that he has, he won’t feel the need to do so ever again — so I feel like I won at parenting.

We stopped at a random slice place for a little bit of lunch, and then continued to stroll west on 34^th to Hudson Yards, where we got on the High Line, and walked all the way down to the southern end of it. Once we got back down to street level, we walked though Chelsea Market — which was a mistake, it was a mad house. Following that, we took a quick subway ride back down to Battery Park, to grab a quick view at the Statue of Liberty. At that point, we were basically at the hotel, so we went back to the room for a bit of a rest and a bathroom break.

We were both in the mood for a bit of a snack by then, so we walked up to the Sixpoint taproom by WTC and had a little bite. After that, we walked back to the room, chilled for a bit, then went out to a nearby Mexican restaurant. We finished off the night with another Insomnia cookie then hit the sack.

Tomorrow: home!

Pace day

2024-03-29T00:00:00Z

We slept in a little bit, then got up and wandered over to a nearby Zucker’s for some breakfast bagels. Following that, we wandered around the Financial District and the Village for a while — including Washington Square Park — hitting a Muji and a couple other stores, and then we got lunch at a Xi’an Famous Foods near the NYSE.

In the afternoon, we toured Pace — kinda didn’t make the saving roll against vibes — and then had dinner at the pretty-much-a-tourist-trap Fraunces Tavern, which had the singular advantage of being about a block from our hotel. Following dinner, Mr17 grabbed a cookie at a nearby Insomnia Cookies and we retired to the hotel.

Tomorrow — a free day in Manhattan!

‘cuse day

2024-03-28T00:00:00Z

After a little bit of a slow start, eventually we got on the road, and drove up the “scenic” (aka “backroads af”) route from Ithaca to Syracuse. Took a little bit longer, but also let us see some of the more rural areas of upstate New York.

We unfortunately were not able to book one of the organized group tours of Syracuse, and so we had to settle for the “self-tour” option …which was pretty unsatisfying. Particularly given that the online instructions for it sent us to the former location of the Admissions office as the jump-off point for the tour, and then once we walked most of the way across campus back to the current location, the only real documentation they had was a QR code, which, when scanned, wanted us to walk back to the previous location to start the tour. Also not super great, the online tour was basically a front-on photo of the building, without a ton of description about what happens inside it. …so we bailed kinda early and got back on the road, headed back down to NYC.

We had a couple of pit stops, for lunch and a snack, and eventually made it back to the JFK Hertz around 7pm — not helped at all by the completely fucked up wiper on the driver’s side of the rental car. (The Hertz drop-off person got a bit of an earful…) Once we dropped off the car, we took the JFK AirTrain to the LIRR, the LIRR to the subway, and the subway to the hotel, deep in the Financial District. After we got checked in, we grabbed a quick slice at a nearby pizza joint. Bed soon after.

Tomorrow: Pace!

better late than never

2024-03-27T00:00:00Z

Today was our Ithaca College visit. We got up, grabbed a bagel from a place across the street from the hotel, hung out in the room a little, walked around town a bit.

I didn’t want to pay to get the car out of the garage, so we decided to walk up to the college from downtown — keyword, “up”. It was about 1.5 miles, with ~500 feet of elevation gain, or just over a 6% grade. Mr17 was not terribly happy with me, especially not after we ended up on the wrong side of campus and had to hustle all the way across to get in time for the info session — but we made it. We had a good, enjoyable stroll back down to downtown, relaxed a little in the room, had an early dinner at a local burger joint/alehouse, and then read to close out the evening.

Tomorrow: a visit to Syracuse, and then we storm NYC!