Friday Morning Musings from a Befuddled Brain

Similar to what I posted on Tuesday, this is a collection of various musings on things, none quite worth a full post in and of themselves.

  • CD Gremlins. Went to go pack CDs this morning, and now two of my CDs are missing: The Boy From Oz and the new version of Thoroughly Modern Millie. They are probably in a stack somewhere, but “Come out, come out, whereever you are!”.
  • Training. Betcha’ thought I was going to talk about the ferroequine type. Nope. For years, I’ve been saying I need to get a personal trainer so I can work out at home. I’m now exploring acting on this. Does anyone know how to go about finding a good one? I’m looking for one that is not too expensive, and is willing to come out to the northern San Fernando Valley. I’ve never used Craigslist; would this be a good time to try it?
  • My arm. Yes, it is still bothering me. What’s interesting is that typing doesn’t really bother it (it is not the hand I use for the mouse), but writing does (it is my left hand, and I’m left handed). Grrrrr. Unfortunately, I’m having to review a lot of documents right now. Yes, I know I could use Word’s “comment” feature, but that means using Word. Bleh. Of course, it doesn’t help that I did my usual “I know best”, and went to the YMCA and did a six upper-body strength machines on Wednesday. I’m sure the sore upper body muscles aren’t helping the nerve; I thought the workout would help the muscles relax. See the 2nd bullet above.
  • The Conference. We’re down to the wire. ACSAC starts on Monday, so tomorrow we start on our trek to Tucson. I’m going to gather my final stuff today; make the CD with the files that I need. Hopefully, it will go well. I’m looking forward to my last conference as general chair! I’ll still do tutorials next year, however, but I’m planning on changing it a bit to try to get more application-oriented tutorials (i.e., how to apply a particular technology to enhance a computer security posture).
  • My head. Yup, it’s been bothering me as well. I’m sure it is related to the cold weather, and thus the onslaught of heated, dry air. I’m using a saline spray and my usual Excedrin-equivalent to control things.
  • Sewing Machines. Two days ago, I got a call from my wife. “I’m at the fabric store,” she says (always dangerous opening words), ” and they have the sewing machine I’ve been looking at for almost half-off, only around $800 with (some long term) 0% deal. Can I get it?”. After the usual “Are you going to use it?” stuff, I give my OK (this will replace her 20 year old Viking, bought used [similar to this one]). She has indicated she will ebay three of her other old sewing machines that work (another basic Viking we found at a thrift shop, a Kenmore, and some small travel machine) , and will really work on cleaning out her sewing room (she’ll keep the big Viking as backup). I think the one she got is the Bernina 135 Patchwork Edition. I really don’t mind, if she uses it. Such, however, is the life of someone married to a quilter/fabric artist! However, she knows she just bought her birthday present for next year.
  • Newsies. I’m listening to Newsies right now. Boy, it’s wierd to hear Vinnie from Doogie Houser singing! But if Doogie can do it (Rent!), I guess Vinnie can.
  • A piece of history goes. The Daily News reported yesterday that Boing! is closing the former North American Aviation “Rocketdyne” Canoga Park facility. There is where most of the rocket engines for the space program were made. They are moving the operation to Chatsworth [Nordhoff and DeSoto] (at least they are keeping it in the state). Why, you ask? It was also reported that Westborg is doing a $300M expansion of Westborg Topanga next door (bringing in a Needless-Markup), and will also be building something to connect Westborg Prominade with Westborg Topanga. The land has commercial value: the article indicates that even without the Westborg deal, the land is valued at $1.5M/acre, and there are 47 acres in the parcel. Interesting.

Well, that’s about it from this befuddled brain.

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The Quiet of ‘Morn

 
As I sit here in the quiet of morn, a few observations. Last night was noisy—evidently Small and Feisty didn’t get enough sleep during the first two days of “the run”, and decided to take it out on us last night. I was exhausted from cleaning up the glass from the broken shower door, and my wife was exhausted from driving. So a “coyote girl” was the last thing we needed. The screaming started when my wife wanted to watch While You Were Out, and I wanted to watch (get this) Abbott and Constello Meet the Mummy. S&F wanted to watch Full House. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take Abbott and Costello over the Olsen twins any day. Well, she didn’t get her way and… 1… 2… 3… meltdown! But she went to bed (melatonin is a wonderful thing).

I mentioned “the run” before. No, this isn’t grunion, but quilters. You see, quilters have this strange obsession with visiting quilt stores. Often, they do it individually, but occasionally, they “run”. The Quilters Run, in this case, is a four-day attempt to visit 20 quilt stores spread over Southern California, from Palm Springs to the East, Newbury Park to the West, El Cajon to the South, and Santa Clarita to the North. Over Thursday and Friday, my wife and daughter hit many of the stores to the East and South (San Gabriel, Montclair, La Habra, Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Orange, Mission Viejo, Oceanside, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Poway, Temecula, Palm Springs, and Calimesa). This weekend (around other things), my wife and her crew (which is being augmented by ixixlix, ellipticcurve, and the Karate Kid) will be hitting the remaining stores. I still don’t understand this, as my wife has only made one quilt (yet, she says), and the sewing room is overflowing.

In the middle of the run, we’re all getting together to go see West Side Story at the Cabrillo Music Theatre in Thousand Oaks. This I understand. Cabrillo, for a community group, does excellent and affordable productions. I get balcony tickets for my family, which run $99 for 3 shows for 3 people: you can’t beat that. This year, the season was The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ragtime, and West Side Story. Next year, it is Annie, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Wizard of Oz. I think it is so important to expose children to live theatre… and West Side Story in an excellent show.

So, I’ll have this morning and tomorrow morning to myself. Part of the time will be spent packing, as we go on vacation Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to the vacation. We’re going to St. Louis, where I haven’t been since 1987. We’ll be visiting with some long time family friends, and S&F will get to meet the only relative left (other than me) that I know of in my mother’s family. There’s loads to see and do there—they have a great Museum of Transportation, the Arch, everything in Forest Park [zoo, planetarium, “jewel box”, botanical gardens, the 1904 exposition centennial, the Muny Opera (we’re seeing Guys and Dolls, etc.], St. Charles, St. Louis Union Station, Grants Farm, the A-B Brewery Tour, and loads more. So I’ve got to start getting everything together.

Well, the alarm for the rest of the family should be going off shortly, so I’ll finish this off.

[Explanation of “What I’m Listening To”: We live under the radio towers for what used to be KGIL 1260AM. They are now 1260 KSUR and play easy listening standards, and they come through my computer speakers when something doesn’t overpower them. So it has been Frank Sinatra this morning. Not a bad thing.]

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