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Last night I had dinner with Ed at Mamacitas. The chicken fajita nachos were not quite as good as Armadillo Palace, but close. I’ve been searching for a nacho outlet on the north side of town for some time now. After dinner, Ed took me to the Saint James for a couple of drinks. If I could find it in me to care at all, I’d probably be annoyed at the little flies buzzing around looking for greenbacks. I just drank my Tanq and tonic and kept my mouth shut. The cops rolled in and caused a commotion… that was kinda cool. Other than that, it was just another bar with really strong drinks. After a few, Ed dropped me off at the house and I hit the hay. I’ve been really tired recently… must be getting old.

I went for fondue last night at the little joint up the street in Shenandoah. It isn’t really like traditional Swiss dining where the cheese course can be the main, but more compartmentalized into dining salvos. Grùyere and Emmenthaler, white wine, garlic, nutmeg, lemon and Kirschwasser made up the cheese dish… which is always my favorite. You can’t have enough cheese. There was salad in there somewhere before the critters. We picked the combo of lobster tail, filet mignon medallions, balsamic-marinated sirloin, garlic and herb chicken, citrus pork tenderloin, white shrimp, wild mushroom ravioli, and roasted red pepper rigatoni. The balsamic-marinated sirloin and red pepper rigatoni were my favorite, but it was all pretty tasty except for the herb chicken. It just didn’t jive with anything else on the plate… too lemony? Anyway, when all that was done, there was chocolate. I’m not a big sweets guy, so we ordered the least sweet chocolate they had… hazelnut dark chocolate with rasberry puree. They bring fresh fruit and little pastry chunks to dip in it as well as some cheesecake. Out waitress was this adorable miniature Drew Barrymore from back when she was hanging with ET in the closet. Gemmah? She took the time to bring Spy vs. Spy printouts, explain the “Jazz Dot”, and even snap a photo and frame it. We even were told what “B.A.” meant to the kids now days and how we were “B.A.M.F.’s”. I felt so old, but it was fun. Her 21st birthday is coming up in a week and the reality that I’m old enough to actually be her father is just freaky to me. That has to be a parental milestone to watch your kid order her first legal drink. The fondue joint was pretty good overall, but that restaurant can never compare to Mona Lisa’s. Of course, I’m bias. After dinner we went to The Boulevard in The Woodlands… the sign outside just says BLVD. I couldn’t find a web site for it. It was a lot larger inside that I realized. There is an upstairs lounge area as well as a rooftop outside part. I really don’t like the boomchicka places that much, but it was ok for the area I suppose. It is more downtown than most of the clubs in the piney north. By the time my head hit the pillow, I was so ready for some sleep. I suppose I slept fairly well and am looking forward to a lazy day. Other than fundamentally compromising my principals for the sake of a friend, this weekend has all the potential to be fantastic. I think Ed and I are supposed to go out tonight now that I’ve recovered from whatever that Ebola-esque thing was last week. It’s the first time we’ve really planned anything since the trip where I got sick. Georgia thinks it might have been Giardia lamblia from the spring fed tank we were cleaning the moss in that Saturday. I was the only one of the three of us that submerged completely… I suppose it could happen. My dad is in and out of those tanks all the time though and never gets sick, so I don’t think it’s likely. A lot of the symptoms were more flu-like anyway. I still was kicking around how to get here this year. Not so much for the Fan Faire, but more for the trip to Iceland. EVE is a very cool MMO, but I don’t know how I would do with all the super-geeks attending. Time is short to make a decision. Iceland Air has some great packages, but they are all double occupancy. Oh well.

Having a background in electricity, first as an apprentice in Texas for my high school sweetheart’s dad, then as a nuclear electrician in the USN, and now working with computer internetworking on a regular basis… I can relate to cabling challenges. This however, is ridiculous. Cheers!

Due to the seemingly neverending torrential downpours all too commonplace this summer, my yard is completely saturated. You can’t step into my front lawn without sinking slightly as if you’d found the onset of quicksand. The thick black, rich soil below the plush Saint Augustine surges moisture like water from a engorged sponge. Treading off the cement driveway or the pebbled front walk is a mess waiting to happen. My lawn guys came this morning with their oversized mowers and the industrial gear that allows them to finish more lawns per day, improving efficiency and thereby increasing their profit margin for an honest day’s labor. Common sense would dictate waiting for terra firma to actually become firma, but for whatever reason, today was common sense’s day at the spa. This merry band of fellows, who I normally rave about and adore, proceeded to prison rape my lawn in the most horrific way. It looks like a midget in a souped up, motorized Tonka truck went mudding through my lawn with a vengeance. This comes a couple of weeks subsequent to them snapping a sprinkler head off at the base on the other side of the yard. Awesome. If it would stop raining for more than a few hours at a time, I could get out there and do some maintenance.


I fired up the grill last night and burned up some marinated, boneless pork ribs. I grilled cubed sweet potatoes with crushed red pepper and fresh rosemary tossed in E.V.O.O. (except my mom and I were chatting during the prep and we both forgot the rosemary). The recipe is Beth’s and I love it. I have a thriving rosemary bush in my backyard specifically for that recipe… but I love fresh rosemary anyway, so it works out for other schtuff. We enjoyed some nice red wine with dinner and watched DVR’d Californication. Well cast and accurately dysfunctional California. <3 u Sean… hang in there dude. My mom's PC was a lightning strike victim this week, so I had to autopsy the wreckage. At the end of the day, we were able to salvage the HD and transfer the data to an external using another system I have at the house, but she needed to buy a new system for the long term. If you are shopping in the greater than $1000 price range, it is fairly easy to get more bang for the buck building a pieced together hand-built rig. However, when you are pricing sub-$600 systems, one just can't compete with parts bought wholesale by the thousands and put together in third world country sweatshops by 12 year old Malaysian kids out of work from the Nike scandal. So we ordered online. That shit happens sometimes. Seriously.

And the priestess spoke again and said: “Speak to us of Reason and Passion.”

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows - then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, - then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”

And since you are a breath In God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion. - KG

I need to get away from here… move to another city with no forwarding address. I often wonder how difficult it would be to erase myself… remove every trace of Internetness that isn’t cached, get rid of emails, phone numbers, addresses. Disappear. They say the road to hell is paved with good intention. My new motto is “all apathy, all the time”. You could tell me it’s not a good decision, but ironically, I don’t care. 

This rain is insane! I was testing some more IR settings and found that certain dies and fabrics reflect infrared all funky like green grass and leafy trees. The Fender jacket I have on is dark navy blue… almost black. Neat, eh? If I could just get around the difficulty of eyes and veins close to the skin, infrared would be so much more useful for people photography. I lost power at the house in between booms. It’s difficult to work with no Internet connectivity when you are in the networking business. 

I lost my glasses this weekend. Fortunately, I have an old pair from 3 or 4 years ago that are helping me get by until I decide to get a new prescription, frames, and contacts -or- get the Lasik procedure done. Given the age of the ‘scrip in these frames, I need to do something quickly. I’m really kinda bummed out about my black frames being gone. Maybe it was a sign? Anyhoo, I couldn’t sleep, so I was tinkering with the IR body and strobes. I need to order a longer cord for my remote shutter release so I can do some more creative shots. I’m going to give sleep another shot. Wish me luck.

This weekend has gone by sooooo quickly. An old friend of mine flew in from Indiana this weekend. We actually met in boot camp back in 1991 and I’d not seen him in over 4 years (since the wedding). I felt a bit of a killjoy compared to usual since I still wasn’t at 100% from a week of being near hospitalization. Despite my being weak and more tired than usual, I think he had a good time while here. As always, the visit was filled with good food and drink. Last night was especially fun with the exception of a small moment of psychosis, but in the end we all had a fantastic time. I have a dear friend with relationship issues and the lack of will or facility to work through them and it kills me to witness. His girlfriend, who otherwise is a very nice girl that I like, is so completely self centered and controlling that she doesn’t even realize she has a problem. The worst part of it all is that all of the people in her life see and acknowledge the problem, but are too scared to deal with her tantrums when she doesn’t get her way or when she hears something she doesn’t like to actually do the right thing, as good friends should, and talk to her about it. So they just turn the other cheek because it’s easier to ignore it than deal with it. I guess I’m going to be the prick until either I’m banned from their social circle or someone besides me points out to her that she has a legitimate personality issue that needs some professional unbias assistance. Therapy or similar psychological counseling would be ideal, but a good start would just be having her close and trusted friends stop being pussies and unveil her for the controlling princess that she is. She would eventually be happier and everyone in her life would be happier as a result. Instead, she will unintentionally continue to make those around her miserable and her marriage (assuming all continues on track) will most unfortunately and inevitably fail. That is a pretty serious thing to say, but I know you can’t build a lasting relationship on one sided control/dominance and fighting more often than not. Something has to change and the first step is admiting there is a problem to work on… I am learning the hard way that I’m not the guy that should raise his hand and say, “hey, there is a fucking problem here and you need to work on it”. I’ll say a prayer for ‘em… specifically her. Not much else to do but watch the misery and denial.

Dad, Ed, and me (photo by Sandy)

My dad has a couple of tanks on his property. This particular one is spring fed, so the water is rich in minerals and oxygen. We spent one of the mornings out there harvesting moss from the rock bottom on the pond and hauling it into this skiff to remove it from the pond. The water, although you can’t tell here, is crystal clear… what a great swimmin’ hole!

I bought myself a Slingbox today. OMG I love it. I can watch my television from anywhere in the world (via the Internet) and even control my DVR and playback movies, etc. The coolest feature so far, is the ability to watch streaming media from my house to my cell phone anywhere. I can even change channels on my cell phone to drive my cable box at home to the program I want to watch. Too cool for school. I know it’s not new tech, but I never bought one so it’s new to me. I can’t tell you how much I dig it!