Monthly Archives: July 2005

Meetings (Oh, my!) and bike stats (meh)

Posted on 2005.07.22

Today after work I went to a local café and met up with some local bloggers, Dotty Parker and Simon, which was really quite fun. To my surprise I was much more laid back than I usually am when meeting new people (as in, I said more than two words at a go). This makes me think that I may be mellowing out in my old age (or maybe it’s the hair working like a metaphorical mask to give me a false sense of confidence [maybe]). On the other hand, I just may have felt more comfortable because deep down I feel like I know them from reading their blogs [that's probably more likely].

Anyway, we all chatted for a bit, caffeinated a bit, and some of us ate a bit (not me though, I’m preserving my stomach’s empty state ’till Peter gets here [it strikes me just now that by refusing to break bread I may have been rude, I sincerely hope that they didn't take it at any more than face value]). Dotty wanted me to tell you all how much she likes velveeta (or something like that ;) ) and Simon is a fan of open source software (which was a pleasant surprise) who works for O’Reilly and has a bookshelf full of tech manuals that need good homes [I really didn't need any more convincing, but okay :) ].

Neither one seemed convinced when I told them about happicow‘s bottles of über-cheap water with 6g of carbs/bottle and 0 calories/bottle (actually, I don’t find it very likely either), so I have evidence that, at the very least, the label is actually printed that way:

water with carbs?!

The water is Aqua Pure Quality Natural Spring Water, and the other relevant information about it that you can’t read from the picture follows:

Bottled at: Mayer Bros. Inc.
3300 Transit Road
West Seneca, NY 14224
(716) 668-1787
www.mayerbrothers.com
Source: Springbrook Springs
Concord, New York
NYSHD Cert. #197
CT #634•PA DER #319

If anyone feels strongly enough about this to ask the company, feel free (post comments here with your results, if any, though). I personally don’t care that much- I just find the idea of spring water with carbs humorous :) (maybe they’re just trying to drive off Atkins-weenies, or maybe it’s just a typo; probably it’s more fun to wonder than to know).

Oh, and before I forget- here are this week’s bike stats. The long-term improvement trend is now pretty visible, which makes me feel all warm-squishy and stuff.

A bit of levity, or an attempt thereof. Also, an update.

Posted on 2005.07.21

I know I haven’t been blogging recently, but not much has been going on. I’m still beat after last weekend, I dyed my hair bright red again (though now it looks cooler than last time on account of previous dye jobs not bleaching out fully), I’ve been playing NWN so much that I’ve actually been dreaming about it, and I have a bunch of chores to do before Peter and his girlfirend come up this weekend. Also, apparently I’m like a hipster, but only coincidentally (according to my co-workers, this is better than actually being a hipster).

Anyway, I haven’t been blogging, but I have been reading other blogs (and such). Today I saw this, which demonstrates the Post Office’s very subtle sense of humor in action (from geekpress). How to Pack a Hippo.

The wedding

Posted on 2005.07.17

It’s happened.

The ceremony was nice, though the cleric-dude was a bit wonky (to put it nicely). I don’t think he ended up glaring at anyone though, so we must not have been too unruly.

I didn’t take too many pictures (I figured the professional photog had that covered), but I do have a few…

Just Married!

All of the pictures that aren’t of/on a trolly (Toot! Toot!) Are from before the wedding, most of them are from the secret creepy Noah’s arcy bridesmaid’s dungeon/playroom (someone had to document that, and I didn’t think anyone else would ;) ).

After the ceremony I tried to turn the reception into a rave, but that didn’t work too well- I was the only one with glowsticks and the music just didn’t have the right beat to dance to. Then the whole wedding party got yelled at (by a harpy who just may have been a relative of the aforementioned cranky cleric) for attempting to leave the castle to visit the lake. Either they are worried about dragons eating/stealing the bride, they put a curse on the grounds to instantly kill non-golfers (in which case the golfers the next morening may have been rather surprise to see our bleached bones piled up a foot into the golf course), or they didn’t want ctl to receive any presents from any watery tarts. The world may never know…

We cramped the newlywed’s style a bit by making them open some presents (sorry!) and then parted ways, the couple going to their previously undisclosed location and the rest of us going to Eve’s place to watch movies and (mostly) crash.

I guess that’s about it… unless you want to hear about Michael almost missing his bus. In short, he would have missed it if not for the daring rescue and mad geographical skillz of beth‘s dad.

I really enjoy hanging out with the Alfred crew and hope that the fact that beth and ctl are married now doesn’t mean that I never get to hang out in Pittsburgh (zombies!) with everyone again.

The Color of Magic

Posted on 2005.07.16

I found time between eating, shopping, and going to the rehearsal today to finish reading The Color of Magic, which is the second Terry Pratchett book I’ve read, after The Last Continent, and which was recommended to me by Mike.

I really feel like I should like Terry Pratchett’s books (in partiulcar, the Discworld series), but I really don’t that much. Even though parts of his books are really quite funny, I just don’t have much fun reading them – Douglas Adams’ books are funnier, and you can find better fantasy in almost any other decent book in the genre, IMHO. The discworld books (at least the two I have read) seem to me like a bunch of witty gags glued together with old chewing gum (in which you will also find bits of hair and pocket lint, on occasion).

Anyway, I’ve been told repeatedly that Good Omens is really good (that sentence really isn’t as redundant as it sounds), so I think I’ll give Pratchett one more chance (although he’ll be cheating a bit on account of him getting help from Neil Gaiman). If I don’t like that book though, no more Pratchett for me. Also, no more blindly (deafly?) listening to book recommendations from friends!

Donuts! -or- I’m not Vash, really

Posted on 2005.07.12

Last night we all went down to Elmira to celebrate CTL‘s birthday (which was actually on Sunday) at the Olive Garden. We also stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts.

The thing I like least about Ithaca is the lack of quality donuts. The thing I like most about New Jersey is the abundance of quality donuts. Apparently Ithaca used to have a Dunkin’ Donuts, but it was in the Commons (of all places) so went out of business. That was just poor planning- obviously a big corporate entity like Dunkin’ Donuts won’t do well in the granola capital of Ithaca… East Hill plaza, on the other hand… until I win the lottery or something and can afford to open up my own franchise, continuing the current tangent would be useless, so I’ll stop here.

Anyway, we stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Elmira and I got some vanilla chai (which made me want to play Settlers again, for once [and no one else besides happicow wanted to play, of course]) and a dozen donuts.

I think I got too many donuts, (as there is no way the four of us will finish them by Thursday and the box isn’t well suited to being biked into work) but dammit, I only get so many chances a year to get donuts!

Donuts do not good fuel for cycling make, however… *burp* I may have to consider a healthier alternative for breakfast tomorrow.

Fantastic Four

Posted on 2005.07.08

Tonight I saw Fantastic Four with Marty. I really wasn’t expecting much from this movie b(except for atrociously bad), but besides some logical impossiblities (e.g., how did the Thing get across town so quick?) it was really not that bad. I quite liked it, actually.

The best bit, of course was at the very end of the movie… just as the Human Torch was about to “Flame On!” and fly towards the camera, the film got caught and burst into flames. I’m not even kidding. The audience comments were great, and we got free passes to see any other movie, which was also great. Then they fixed the film just in time for us to see the last (literally) 5 seconds or so, and the credits. Really not a bad deal, overall, though it would have really sucked if it had happened 10 minutes earlier. :)