troutman.org

7-23-08 1:42am
I am sitting in Atlanta airport right now, 1:42am, waiting for my bag. You see, my flight was delayed twice at Dulles, then once on the tarmac, it was delayed for local weather, and again for 20 minutes of loops on the way to Atlanta. We arrived, and our connection was already gone. Now we need our bags so we can dress in the morning for the 9:30am connecting flight. I can't blame AirTran 100%, there was bad weather which they can't control. Their attitude could be a bit better though. I think we are taking it pretty calmly. Especially when our connection may have still been here when we arrived, and our gate agent said it already left. Not sure we could have made boarding but we would have tried. I need some sleep.

7-6-08 9:09am
A single picture of the new car, which is having its hood repainted right now.

7-5-08 11:18pm
Happy 4th everyone! Party and fireworks went off without a hitch. Rain didn't spoil a thing!

6-29-08 9:02am
Vehicle noise is out of control. Stereos and car alarms are bad enough, but Cars and motorcycles with modified exhausts are ruining the peace of Prince William County. We have laws in place to deal with excessive noise, but officers seem to ignore the problem. Why? It seems the police give a wink and a nod, and the State inspection stations ignore sound completely.

The noise problem is exacerbated by Old Dominion Speedway which has continued operations. When we first moved to the County in 2001, we could not hear the track at all. Why would we, it is almost 3 miles away! Since that time, developers have come in and removed dozens of acres of trees between us and ODS. Now with doors and windows closed, we can still hear the races. It may not be fair to penalize a track that has been in operation since the 1950s, but they are the source. Is there nothing that can be done through sound barrier erection? I can only imagine the suffering of neighbors close to the track.

It is quality of life issues such as education, crime and noise that make a place attractive to live. Noise indirectly affects an already depressed housing market and local economy. If you are reading this, do you have a car or motorcycle that makes too much noise? Do your kids? Do you think about your neighbors at all?

6-25-08 9:00am
Our Virginia Governer Tim Kaine seems to think that felons should have the right to vote and he has the power to make it happen in Virginia. A felony is a serious crime that includes both reform and punishment elements to a sentence. One of the punishments is losing the right to participate in voting. Kaine goes on to say that violent felons shouldn't be able to vote. What is the logic you are using here? That a felonious child predator can make a better decision on the latest parks and rec funding approval, but the guy that killed a teller in a bank robbery is unable to handle the critical reasoning required? Why oh why does Virginia like Democrat governors? Didn't we learn after Doug Wilder?

In other news, Baltimore is continuing to live a real world episode of The Wire. Shady backroom developer deals with politicians in Baltimore? Nooooo. You must.be.kidding.

6-23-08 9:20am
We have some very happy news - we are seling the 1997 Honda Accord t Rhonda's brother Chris this week for a very fair price, that will cover the down payment on our new to us 2005 BMW 745Li. Low mileage, great price, fun to drive, loaded options, smiling all the way to work car. Woo!

I also have some sad news today - George Carlin is dead at 71 of heart failure. I guess by now he knows whether is rants on God were a good or bad idea. He was a funny guy who seemed to be straight up honest. He will be missed. And not that I have anything against Tim Russert, but would the press please finally put it to rest? It is a little annoying - when a popular member of the press passes away, the attention goes for days. Sure, he seems like a good guy. I bet the people killed in midwestern flooding last week were good people too.

6-20-08 5:31pm
United has announced a ridiculous new program to require minimum nightly stays for travel. Potentially two or three day minimums for air travel. Are you out of your freaking MIND United? Who is running your business into the ground, with your $15 first bag fees, extreme increase in rates, and now this? Your average business traveler - your BREAD AND BUTTER - tries to make a trip in a single day, saving hotel charges and getting back to their family as quick as they can. You can kiss their business goodbye. Personally, I will start looking into the train or driving to my destination more. I fly a lot, so cross country travel will still have to be by plane, but it is getting to the point where it really is not worth the hassle. Strike two United.

6-15-08 7:59pm
I have been home since Wednesday evening, supervising a series of contractors. We now have new windows, courtesy of Hodges in Arlington. We really can't say enough good things about both the windows and the company. It is a simple luxury to be able to open windows any time and take advantage of the breeze. To top them off, we bought all new window treatments on Saturday, and they turned out very nicely. Other contractors included ADT to replace the window sensors (the installer was very lazy and botched the majority of the job, yay customer service) and JL Tree to give us an estimate on the shaping and trimming of 13 Bradford Pears, and the takedown of a huge Oak and Maple. Unfortunatey they are leaning over the house AND the power lines, so they are not going to be cheap to take down. Saturday I made three trips to the dump with tree limbs. Yay storms! Today was relaxation day, spending it with dad and father-in-law. BEAUTIFUL afternoon today, great convertible weather. Woo!

6-11-08 2:38pm
Yesterday we lost all of one tree that had shed half of its weight in the last storm, and another third of the other tree next to it. Oh, and half of the beautiful specimin Red Bud tree. The tree service is running 7 to 8 days behind, so I may have to clean this one up myself as well. We were without power until 1:30am, but the generator worked perfectly. Plenty of power for the sump, fridge, box fan, TV and satellite. With some adjustments, we had plenty of light and fan in the bedroom. I was beginning to question the generator purchase, but my inner boy scout is appreciative.

So, with a few more natural disasters this year than is usual, should we be concerned about dwindling food reserves in the US pantry? With a LOT of corn flooded out, we could be in for a world of food problems very quickly.

6-6-08 1:53pm
The Bilderberg Group has amassased a group of moronic consipiracy theorist protesters outside of the Chantilly Marriott conference center facility. I don't think they realize that there is also an office building down the wooded drive behind them, and that they are wasting their time snapping photos of the hundreds of people that work there. Perhaps the tin foil was blocking their view.

6-6-08 11:55am
Mr. Moore - your movie Sicko never mentioned things like a seven year wait in the UK for cancer screening. Is that because you are a shoddy filmmaker who likes to only show the few things that back up your cause? Universal healthcare is a great ideal, but you don't get something for nothing. Speaking of something for nothing, my DSL at home is down. Verizon tech support is in the Phillippines, and the useless phone support 'tech' won't do any troubleshooting without me at home. The fact that I checked the wires, rebooted the box and know what I am doing doesn't seem to matter; so I'll probably be without Internet all weekend, which is unacceptable. I guess those Verizon ads where 1000 people are there to support you and the network are a bunch of BS. They should show the redirected VoIP calls to India required before that group is there to help.

6-4-08 8:51pm
Really bad weather came through our little section of Northern Virginia this afternon and took out the power and two medium sized trees in the yard. Spent the evening cutting up what I could, with an eye on Saturday for the 4-5 dump runs and chainsaw workout. Power came back on around 6:30, hoping it stays on all night.

6-3-08 11:18am
The visionary auto maker General Motors has really taken the lead, seeing rising gas prices they are shutting down four SUV and truck plants in North America.. It took over four dollar gas for you to realize that SUVs were a dead market for fuel efficiency reasons? Why not work harder towards engines that cycle fewer cylinders at lower revs, or integrate hybrid options into SUVs? Nah, just close them down and start building small cars. And sell off the Hummer unit rather than retooling, because Hummer drivers really seem to care about the cost of vehicles and fuel. I feel pretty bad for the workers at the three US plants in Oshawa, Moraine and Janesville.

5-30-08 2:42pm
Susan Sarandon says if John McCain gets elected, she will move to Italy or Canada. She adds, "It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people." Well, I will tell you Susan, I hope you don't wait for McCain to win in November to keep up your promise. Please, by all means vacate the US, and take your husband with you. All we need is another democratic 'fix' (tax) to the situation.

Happy to say that the new Apple 10.5.3 patch fixed all of the problems I was having except one. The OS still doesn't remember key default applications (chat, browser, rss reader) after a reboot.

5-24-08 8:42am
Working a few tech issues that are irritating. The PowerBook USB ports don't work except in Fusion. It isn't a fusion problem, I completely removed it, same error. Funny thing is, if I I re-install an OS update like 10.5.2, the USB ports work fine until I reboot. Apple Care gets a call next week. On the WI-Fi side, I bought a Linksys WRT150N router since two of the laptops have 802.11 draft N cards in them. Unfortunately, when I set the router up in N only mode (with a variety of configurations) I only get 60-100Kb/s in iperf LAN testing, with frequent drops. This is with the PowerBook and a Vaio. One is a Broadcom chipset, the other Atheros. It just doesn't work using 802.11n. I changed the router to BG mixed and I am seeing 21Mb/s on the Vaio and 14Mb/s on the Mac (once I disabled frame burst - that was keeping the Mac under 10Mb/s). I am guessing that this has a lot to do with the way all three vendors have implemented the draft N spec - but mainly Linksys. We went to Best Buy (shudder) yesterday and picked up a new Netgear WNR3500 router. What a complete waste of time. The power adapter was DOA, so I had to use the Linksys adapter (same specs and adapter). Every change on the Netgear required a lengthy reboot process. N only performance netted a peak 1Mb/s top performance without hanging like the Linksys, but I'll take 802.11G over 1/20 the speed, thanks. Now I have a couple of older 802.11B/G routers (Netgear WGT624v2 and Linksys WRT54G v6) which I can't put DD-WRT or any other OS project on unfortunately. I'll hang on to them for the day when I can use them for something interesting. I was hoping to bridge, but without OS support, the basic firmware isn't very useful.

5-20-08 9:02am
Looks like Israeli prison guards are using dog translation software to determine a bark's threat level. I really, really don't want to know what my dogs are saying.

5-18-08 9:34am
Hi, I am Richard Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, and my Social Security number is 457-55-5462. What I am not telling you is that my identify has been stolen repeatedly and my personal profile has been mangled. Perhaps it was a bad idea to put my neck on the line.

5-13-08 11:39am
Heavy rains over the past few days have completely saturated the ground here. Sink holes are opening up and swallowing local roads. Creeks and rivers are overflowing their banks and drowning local homes. Last night I was unable to take Rt. 28 from Centreville to Manassas, as this major thoroughfaire had been closed to traffic. Even the side roads around it and across Bull Run had been closed. We were very fortunate not to have any water damage, except for a very wet screened in porch and furniture. Our pond traps the water and guides it to the overflow creek very effectively. The back yard is soaked, especially at the bottom of the hill, so it will probably be a week before I can mow the foot high grass. Since we have more rain in store this weekend, it may be longer. I'll probably have to rent a bushog to take care of it by the time Spring is done with me!

5-8-08 1:07pm
This week continues to move forward, regardless of my trying to slow it down. Ever feel like you are caught in a situation where even if you do the right thing, it is thought to be wrong? I am having a problem of that sort at work this week. It is a frustrating way to do business.

Today, I am skipping lunch again to meet with someone that is suspiciously not available. As I have another meeting in 15 minutes, I will have to be content with an apple and some pretzles. Mmmm, nutricious. Not half as good as my Cuban sandwich and Guiness I enjoyed in Georgetown last night. My friend Joseph and I went downtown to meet with a former Wheat co-worker, and talk about what we have been up to for the last 9 years. Always fun and interesting.

We found a new landscaper to do the mulch and edging around the 20th. Good timing, as the hardscape company is coming back out to repair drainage issues on the back patio, and this crew can clean up after them. In three weeks we will have all of our windows replaced, and the majority of the exterior transformation will be complete. The last step being new concrete siding, but that will have to wait for a couple of years.

5-4-08 12:29am
Just finished watching Into the Wild, based on a short book about a college graduate from Virginia that gets rid of all of his posessions and travels the country, headed for Alaska, and the people he meets along the way. Interesting movie, great soundtrack. Check it out.

Looks like the rain has missed us in Manassas so far, but it can't be far off. Paintball for Sunday was postponed for a few weeks (have to avoid playing on Mother's Day!) so we are headed downto Quantico to do some shopping on base. I am in need of some new shorts. All of my old ones apparently have paint or grass stains on the bottoms. It is good to have a wife that notices these types of things for you.

Things have been busy and productive at work recently, lots of business development efforts. We won an SBIR with the Air Force on Friday, and I am looking forward to organizing spin-up on that. Several good sized proposals in the works, waiting to hear on a few. Working a lot of hours, but still fun, and worth it!

4-20-08 3:17pm
It is almost 4:20 on 4/20. Do you know where your pot head is? Neither does s/he. I am stuck at work wrapping up a project. It has gone very smoothly, hope to be out in 15 mintes or so. Just waiting for a process to finish up. It is raining outside, so I didn't miss too much today. I have a truckload of clippings and tree limbs to take to the dump, but a lot left to load before tha can take place. We kind of forgot about a play yesterday afternoon and had to rush to make it to Studio Theater. The play was Machinesx7, and I can't descrbe it. The writing is of 'the new absurd'. That fits. I dodn't care for it, but I suppose it was entertaining. 2 of the 3 actors were also in All Wear Bowlers, which I raved about. It was a great day to drive into the city with the top down anyway. On the way out we were crushed by outbound traffic in every direction. It took us forever to get home. Today is relaxing by comparison actually!

4-18-08 8:43am
Busy week, missed posting a few crucial items. Its been a year since the Virginia Tech attacks, and students still can't carry concealed guns on most campuses or restaurants that serve alcohol in Virginia. I know a lot of people think that would make the problem worse, while others wring their hands over concerns of what has come of this country, but a few of us just want to be prepared. We aren't paranoid, it happens with increasing frequency. Some nut walks into a [school/restaurant/mall/whatever] and opens fire. The anti-gun crowd is welcome to wrestle this person to the ground with soothing words, but I prefer the .40 caliber. It will be very interesting to see what happens to crime in DC once the Supreme Court overturns their unconstitutional city gun ban - an unfortunate case study in urban violence.

Next on the agenda - wonderful riding weather has hit Virginia, and I am loving it. I haven't had time to weekend ride (and based on current events I won't have time to take a long ride for some time) but the commuting has been awesome, mixed in with a few lunchtime rides. I love the Spring. Especially this year, taking Zyrtec for allergies, it seems to have made a real difference. I completely hate their packaging though - giant plastic tabs you have to rip in half to get to a tiny white pill. Incredibly wasteful and hard to get into. And these are the pills without pseudoephedrine, so you aren't slowing down any meth manufacturers trying to make a living.

What else? The wicker furniture showed up this week, and the porch looks complete now. Very comfortable and finally warm enough to use! Our Canadian art came in last night (finally) and is ready to hang. When we have time. Saturday we are going to a window showroom to look into replacing our bay window and possibly all of our other windows. The price seems about right, but the timing is earlier than we planned. Looks like the bay window is dry rotted and hanging on by a thread, so timetable be damned. Updates as they arrive!

4-11-08 11:54am
Both vehicles are now back at the house and running smoothly. Battlefield threw in a car wash and cleaning on the house to make up for all of the trouble we have had with the Tbird. Turns out the F150 diesel sound was due to a loose hose. It is fortunate that we are only 10 minutes away from the dealership. It makes me question whether we should move forward on a new BMW or Audi, when the dealership is not close to home. I hate to make a decision based on that, but problems do happen and what a comlete PITA it would be to drive from Manassas to Tysons for Audi service. I don't know why BMW and Audi are avoiding Prince William County. Third fastest growing in the region, and thus - the country.

4-8-08 9:56pm
Picked up the F150 tonight, halfway home when I could get it over 25MPH, it sounded like a diesel. They replaced the coil on one of the cylinders and who knows what they screwed up in the process. So we had to turn around and drop the truck off AGAIN for service. I made an angry call to the service manager for delivering a problem back to me again. I have just about had it with Fords, and Battlefield Ford.

4-7-08 8:27pm
Tonight, the problem Ford couldn't identify reared its ugly head on my commute. Halfway home, the truck began to shudder as I applied gas. The problem grew worse, then the service engine light came on. I was able to limp to the dealership by throwing it into neutral to cruise and at lights. Now Ford has both of our vehicles. Thankfully we have the Accord and my motorcycle, so we can still get around. I wasn't planning on riding in to work tomorrow - there is scheduled rain and I have meetings all day at various facilities. That means I have to don all of my gear to ride 5 minutes away, soaking my gear several times throughout the day. I don't mind riding home in the rain, but in the morning I have no place to stick the wet gear. Oh well, any day riding (even wet) is still better than driving.

4-6-08 9:18am
Charlton Heston died last night at age 84. No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country. - AP. In his own words, "I have lived such a wonderful life! I've lived enough for two people." and of course "It's been quite a ride.". Heston was a great actor (Ben Hur my favorite), and a respectable social activist. He gave the NRA a face at a time when it desperately needed it. Good luck Chuck. We'll miss ya.

4-5-08 8:36pm
Just got back from seeing All Wear Bowlers at Studio Theater in DC. Very creative and funny. If you have a chance to catch it, do it! A mix of slapstick and clever mixed media. You have to enjoy audience interaction and you may get wet. Hah.

Continuing frustration with Battlefield Ford. The Thunderbird went in for new tires and a bad sound in the steering. Came back with new tires and no fix to the steering, just a change in fluid. And today it stalled on 66 as I gave it gas while merging. Same problem as before. It repeated again this evening as I merged on to 28. This time the check engine light is on full time, where as before we would just get a wrench icon (which forces us to pull over, put it in park, shut the car off and back on to recover). My F150 we picked up this morning also needed new tires and was bucking at 65 with light throttle applied. I could replicate every time I drive it, but Battlefield couldn't replicate that either. These may be difficult problems to identify, but they can be replicated and should have a solution!

4-2-08 9:20am
I flipped 50,000 miles on the newly repaired VFR this morning. Ahhh, what a great 50k it has been. By all means it should be up to 100k by now, but a few things have gotten in the way over the years unfortunately. Maybe I can begin to catch up on the mileage this year. If I can carve out some time for myself to just ride.

I caught this news item this morning - a plot by 8 and 9 year olds to hurt their teacher. Apparently most of the class was in on it, with assorted jobs. Collected before the attack? Broken steak knife, duct tape, handcuffs and more. 8 and 9 year olds!?!

3-31-08 7:37pm
A busy day back at work. Vancouver was great - the big highlights included the Victoria Royal BC Museum and the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Both were filled with Pacific NW Inuit art, and consequently, I broke in my new camera to the tune of over 200 pics. CanSec was a decent conference, but not the best. There were a few excellent speakers, a couple of very interesting presentations, but for the most part it was stuff I could have stayed in Virginia for. More on trip highlights to follow.

3-25-08 10:08pm
Vancouver is cold and rainy, but Victoria was sunny and windy. We spent the day in the BC Museum, captured a bunch of great pictures. More as they come in!

3-23-08 6:47pm
Happy Easter! Picked up the bike on Friday, the new left side plastics look all shiny and new. I'll have to buff up the other side to compensate. Today we are prepping for Vancouver, flight tomorrow. Looks like it will be cold and rainy, but thats ok. We have a full schedule planned, mostly indoors. Speaking of Easter, does anyone else associate zombies with this time of year? Maybe it is the whole idea of rebirth, but we are thinking that a zombie party next year at Easter might be apropriate. Or inapropriate.

3-18-08 8:08pm
United Airlines has royally pissed me off on this trip. Nothing petty, like complaining about the cost of tickets or weather delays. Just specific customer service issues. On our way out we had to pay an extra $50 for an overweight bag. Pretty lame considering we pay full fair refundable for our travel, so a $700 non refundable runs like $1500 for us. But ok, we pay. Then the stupid airline leaves the bag in Chicago because it is too heavy for the little plane. Keep in mind that the plane is half empty. So we paid to have them ditch it, then they requested we come back to the airport to get the bag ourselves 4 hours later. The agent helping us in OKC was arrogant and rude, typical for United. For the flight back, a different rude agent told us the same bag is now $150 to fly home. No explanation except that we 'got lucky' with only $50 on the way out. Really? We got lucky paying full fare to pay your extra fees? Well fine, here is my credit card. Next, my ticket prints out and it is white instead of yellow. Any experienced United flyer knows this means you aren't 'premier' status. When I board, I see that my seat is in the last row, doesn't recline and is situated next to the toilet. Now I am sure something bad has happened to my premier status. I called them this evening and they told me that last year, contrary to my belief, I only earned 24,492 Elite Qualifying Miles, and just under 30k miles with elite bonus. Add another 30k in earned miles via credit card, rental car, etc. The threshold for premier is 25k miles. They won't bend on 400 miles. I have over 90k miles in the last few years with United, and they won't bump me over 400 miles. What incredible customer service!

3-17-08 6:33pm
I have some pictures posted of Oklahoma City where I am still trapped. Today we made use of our time to visit te National Cowboy Museum and the Federal building memorial. The pictures don't do the two sites justice. We head out tomorrow, back by dinner time.

3-15-08 5:12pm
Greetings from the midwest. Not much to report, just keeping busy at the moment. Very, very busy.

3-11-08 12:08pm
Congrats to George Mason University for making the NCAA tournament again after winning the CAA last night. Woo! Go Patriots!

The guy that hit me on my bike has spewed forth his guilt to his insurance provider, and they have agreed to cover the damages. Hopefully they drop by MFI today and take care of it so I can get it back before too long. All of the garage queens have started riding again, which means the weather is warm enough that I should be riding too. Ha.

3-9-08 9:49pm
The guy that hit me last week has decided to go with his insurance, State Farm, rather than paying out of pocket. Great - no problem. Except now he is no longer claiming fault. Fortunately the police officer that arrived remembers he claimed fault, so he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Why doesn't anyone stand up and take the blame for what they do any more? What a bastard. No class. I find it very irritating that he didn't get a failure to yield ticket at the accident scene - because Manassas Police have decided that tickets for accidents won't be handed out for damage under $1000. The officer in this case decided the damage looked less that $1000, but it was well over. Nothing they can do now to ticket the other driver. I don't get the rationale here, except to save paperwork. WTF?!?

In other news, here is yet another reason to boycott the Olympics in China. The widespread culling of dogs and cats continues. Let nothing stand in the way of the Chinese government and their appearance of a green and humane Beijing.

2-27-09 8:45pm
I guess it had to happen eventually. Well no, it didn't have to happen at all actually. Some guy turned left in front of my motorcycle tonight. I gave it full brakes front and rear, slid on the sand and rammed the front left corner of the VFR into his bumper, pinning my leg between the two. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast, so I just have a little bruise on my shin. Bike is in ridable condition, but the faring and front plastics are all cracked. Glad I was wearing all of my heavy Winter gear, it padded the impact. Nothing else seems to be bothering me, but I took some Motrin to mitigate the inevitable day after soreness. I played the accident over a few times, and I really couldn't swerve left into traffic or right into the path of his turning car. Brakes were my only option, he was blocking the entire lane, and cold rubber on cold pavement and sand just doesn't stick very well. Sigh. Be careful out there people.

2-24-08 7:49pm
Busy weekend, lots of productive spending. Friday night we went to Glory Days and had a leisurely late dinner and Guinness, with a Chik-fil-a vanilla shake chaser. Woo! Late night entertainlent was Night of the Living Dead 3D! I can't say it was a disappointment, as I didn't really expect much. Saturday I was able to sleep in and lounge around while Rhonda had her hair styled. Upon her return, we headed to the Chantilly Home and Garden Show which was PACKED. I mean, if I had to go in there, I would have gone insane. People were flinging themselves in front of my car in the parking lot like lemmings off a cliff. I just knew that inside there would be 100 SUV sized double strollers sans children waiting to kneecap me as mommies plowed through the crowds. For our sanity, we headed to my office to hang some prints and dust, but my HID card failed me for some reason. I took several deep breaths, and we drove into Herndon to look for furniture. We heard later that were some demonstrations at a local hotel against some sort of anti-immigration hate group, but even though we were only a block away, we saw no sign of either side. The first furniture place we stopped in was a rental/used shop, and the second closed a few minutes before we arrived. Some more deep breaths and we headed back to the home show at 5:30, hoping that the parking lot full of minivans would clear out for naps and dinner. Success! Front row parking, exhausted booth tenders and minimal crowds meant a very pleasant experience. We took the names of several contractors for some remodeling work next year, identified an excellent glass bath tile, met three wicker furniture vendors, bought a beautiful mirror with 158 piece wood inlay forming koi and lilly pads, and bought a nice Ostrich skin wallet for myself. We almost came home with a 4 foot metal rooster, but decided to wait and visit the artist's show in Christiansburg later this summer.

Wow, that was a long paragraph. Stop me next time, will ya? So, after the show we had a quiet Italian dinner and headed home. Sunday we went to several overpriced outdoor furniture stores (the first one had wicker sets from $16,000 to $24,000 - the second had two of the same sets for $3000 to $5000) and settled on the Herndon shop that was closed Saturday. Four to six weeks from now, we should be enjoying a love seat, glider, chair ottoman, table and side table on the screened in porch. Woo! It came in a little less than the Greenfront sale that fell through last week, but we purchased more, and from the same manufacturer. We finished the day with a trip to RadioShack for some much needed in-law required video camera supplies, and chased it at Giant for the obligatory weekend grocery shopping. Now we have eaten the groceries, finished North by Northwest, and I am typing away as I listen to the hum of a vacuum over my head on the second level. Time to mentally ready myself for the week ahead. And have another Guinness.

2-18-08 3:20pm
Virginia Senators - do not expect re-election by defeating this bill again. I expect the right to use deadly force on an intruder in my home that threatens me. To face prosecution for using a firearm on such an individual in my home is ridiculous. While we are at it, lets disallow colleges and universities from blocking my legal right to carry a firearm on a university campus. Who are the universities protecting with this rule except themselves? CCP holders are generally a safe group of individuals, and have been trusted by the state to carry a firearm just about anywhere. What makes the University a special place where this should be disallowed? Why can't students protect themselves on long walks to their cars, late at night? School shootings have apparently moved from High School to University, a well trained and armed student might have ended each of the recent tragedies quickly. It also might not have helped at all, but with the rule in place, we will never know. All we will know is that the University can claim that the shooter wasn't supposed to have a gun on campus to begin with. The old common sense saying stays true - making guns illegal only ensures that only criminals will carry guns.

On another note, McCain for president in 2008! This country does not need another Clinton in the White House, and I believe that most of the country has forgotten what a true liberal Democrat looks like (Carter) but may soon find out with Obama. Phrases such as Social Welfare will pop back up in the lexicon. And Huge Entitlements. And Socialized Medicine. Some of you watched Sicko and think you understand the whole situation now, but you don't. What works in Canada (and not nearly as well as Michael Moore would have you believe) won't work here without a major tax increase and total attitude adjustment; including reigning in the Pharmas and the insurance industry which drives many aspects of our economy you don't even see.

2-18-08 3:08pm
The painters have now finished, so clean up time has begun. Their sanding left a fine layer on everything in the house. I have the windows open for a nice cross breeze. Strangely enough it reached 72F outside today. Weirdest Winter ever. The painting turned out great. Made much better by my writing a check instead of doing the actual work myself. They did a much better job than I do anyway.

So we were working on ordering outdoor wicker furniture - couch, chair, tables, etc. As it turns out the price Greenfront Furniture was working from was a little bit old. Somehow the 'new' pricing took a $750 couch to almost $1600. No thanks. I liked the Eddie Bauer line of outdoor wicker they carried, but I didn't like it to the tune of $3500 for a set. So, its back to the drawing board.

2-10-08 10:01am
Happy Birthday Rhonda! I hope you enjoyed your singing gorilla telegram Friday. I can't wait to see the pictures :). Last night the dinner at Carmellos was excellent, and the concert was so-so. The woman's perfume behind us was overpowering. I don't know why, but some women seem to hit a certain age and think they need to bathe in the cheapest perfume they can find. Olfactory assault weapons.

When we came home last night, my laptop had finished encrypting the entire drive. A great new feature of TrueCrypt 5 is the ability to enrypt your enitre system, unlocking at boot time with a modified boot sector. I don't perceive any performance decline for my every day tasks, although you have to take some sort of a hit. I have been using TC for years, and this is a very nice improvement. They also released an OSX version (4 actually) and a new Linux version. If you currently pay for a commercial encryption solution to create containers or encrypted partitions, you should really check out TC. There is no longer any excuse for losing a laptop full of data in cleartext.

2-9-08 9:26am
If Chelsea wasn't being pimped out before, she sure is now. Hillary is using this comment, blown way out of proportion (its slang you unbelievably useless candidate) to draw more attention to herself. The ultimate in pimping of Chelsea, I would say. No, she isn't turning tricks on the corner. No one thinks she is. Duh. I'd vote for Chelsea before Hillary. Or even McCain for that matter! Hah!

We have a busy birthday weekend planned. It all starts with a survey of paint chips at Duron in advance of a multi-room painting spree starting next week. Kitchen, library, hallways, doors. We move on to the care and feeding of wild animals (dogs and birds) by buying feed at Southern States. The furniture store is awaiting our arrival for the purchase of new outdoor patio furniture. We still are not sure if there is enough room for the set we like. I have a scale model of the dimenions, and it might be a squeeze. Then tonight we have a nice birthday dinner at Carmellos and then the Mexican Symphony at George Mason University at 8:00. Somewhere in the middle of the day we have to stop by my parents and visit, and I have to find a card for Rhonda!

Sunday is a gun show for me and Rhonda's dad while she goes shopping with her mom. After that she has classwork and I have to finish my final budgets for work. I worked straight through midnight Friday so I could knock out two other writing projects, leaving me with just the budget to focus on. I have a mental clear desk requirement, can't have too many big projects at play or my attention is scattered.

2-8-08 1:10pm
Welcome back to NoVA Jay! Keeping busy with work, and Rhonda's big 3X birthday this weekend. Happy Birthday Rhonda!

1-30-08 11:27am
I used to tether my Sprint phone with Vision service with no additional plan required. Connect, dial #777 and I am on my way to the Internet at 256Kb/s. Enough for simple email and web anywhere. So now I am trying to do it with my year old Razr and Bluetooth. Everything appears to work, but I get a registration error. I call Sprint, go through tech support and accept the offer to upgrade to Power Vision for $15/month (instead of $10) for faster EVDO service. The tech resets my service, tells me I should be able to tether in a couple of hours. Still no luck. Yesterday I called Sprint to work through it again and THIS tech tells me I have to pay for phone as modem service for $40/month now. So what I have been using for free for 2 years now costs an additional $50 per month. Sprint is such a ghetto cell phone service, it boggles my mind. Fortunately my contract is up and I am looking for a replacement and/or a hack to the vision service to allow the tether. One of their support monkeys were wrong and either way it may cost Sprint another customer (which they can't afford right now). (update - apparently Sprint implemented this new fee in 2-2006).

1-28-08 5:02pm
Lots going on at work since I came back, keeping very busy with a number of projects, as usual. Think I need another vacation. Had lunch with an old friend today, but that wasn't enough as it was business related. In March we are headed to Vancouver for CanSecWest 2008, getting there a few days early and staying a couple of days extra again so we can enjoy Vancouver. Just in time for the trip, we picked up a new Sony Vaio TZ this weekend. Rhonda needed a laptop for her class, and wanted something small, light, with decent battery. This surely fits the bill. If you haven't used one before, they are TINY and go for 7 hours on battery. The only downside to it so far is the Vista OS, and her requirement in class for Office 2007 ($15 faculty edition!). I dislike Vista- bloated OS. I considered downgrading to XP (Linux wasn't an option for her requirements) but left Vista on in the end. There is no way to explain how much I dislike Office 2007. Why change everything around? I'm not averse to change, but it is impossible to find anything. Earlier versions (and this goes for XP too) were intuitive. My parents can figure out how to use the OS, make changes, save and print. But this one has been a steep learning curve for me, so how can I expect them to figure it out on their own? Don't fix what isn't broken Microsoft. So, I have spent the last two nights removing extra pre-installed software and bloatware from the box, and it is giving me headaches with the tiny screen. No problem for Rhonda (guess her eyes are better than mine) so she is good to go.

What else has been going on? The screened in porch is officially done and paid for, looking good. The sidewalk and patios are basically done as of this afternoon. The workmen are adding stone surrounds to the pergola posts. Final payment is due tomorrow. It looks great! I regret not having any pictures to share, it is dark by the time I get home, so I don't have any shots to post. Hopefully this weekend will bring me time to upload :-)

1-27-08 10:08am
Back from a glorious trip to California, filled with rain, snow and travel delays. WTF is wrong with United in Chicago O'Hare? Every time we go through there, we have mechanical or weather delays - and the gate employees seem like they have no idea what to do. We were swapped between 2 gates twice, reticketed twice, boarded and unboarded. The police were called due to the angry crowd. Whatever. On the flight in to Chicago from LA, I noticed a guy in the row behind me looked familiar. I had an idea who it was, but could not be sure due to his glasses and the low probability. Sure enough, I called out his name and he responded. Derek Palmer, my high school friend and former roommate, now world traveler for tickets.com was in the row behind me. It is a small world.

Yesterday we celebrated my grandmother's 91st birthday. Go MaMaw! I owe her a requested motorcycle ride, but I don't think she wants it in 20 degree weather. I'll hold out for Spring, then give her a ride.

Today is the last day of the DC Auto Show, which opened at 10am and closes at 6pm. I hope to be out the door by 11am, camera in hand. We haven't been in a few years, and I actually have some cars I want to take a closer look at today. I am still interested in the BMW 5 series, the Audi A6, and a couple of others. This year we replace the Accord. Oh yes, the Accord! We were hit in the parking lot of the local Giant Food the day before I left for California, no note was left on the car. Fortunately, a security camera was pointed right at our car and they are looking up the video to see if they can get a license plate. Misdemeanor hit and run. Damage was about $100, I don't know what the fine will be for them. Kind of a PITA but not the end of the world, just a broken running light assembly. Poor car gets no respect. Never any problems with it, still runs great. I'm sure it will sell easily.

1-20-08 9:46am
It is freezing outside. Not cold by Green Bay and North Dakota standards, but cold by DC standards. 20F right now, 13F tomorrow. Wooh! Last night we went in to DC for the Emerson String Quartet at the Natural History Museum. We tried going in early to wander around the museum for a while, but the orange line was single tracking and we didn't get in until 5:30 for a 6:00 performance. Damn you metro maintenance! Hah. We came come afterwards for a late dinner at Red Rock in Centreville. The pork loin I had was great, but Rhonda's chicken pot pie wasn't very good. Usually their food is great. We may have been suffering from late Saturday night kitchenitis. Even the Guinness tasted a little funky. Unpossible!

1-17-08 10:10pm
2" of snow and slush today brought out the snowblower for its first use of the season (ever, actually). It made fast work of the slushy mess. SInce it is electric, it really doesn't have any maintenance requirement, but I am afraid I am going to shock the Hell out of myself. No problems yet. We'll see about the big storm coming Saturday.

We have a painter coming for an estimate Saturday morning, then a concert downtown Saturday night, at the Natural History museum I believe. We are thinking about making a day of it, hitting a couple of museums we haven't been to in a while such as the portrait museum. Weather may play a part in the decision though, we will be dressed for the concert and walking around the city sidewalks in slush doesn't sound like something we want to do a lot of!

The sidewalks, patios and screened in porch are all basically done now. It will be a while before I can post pictures though, they still have to sweep the sand and fix a couple of minor items on the walk. Plus, we have a lot of white stuff covering up the pretty blocks ;-) Pics will soon follow of the final tattoo work as well. I need to schedule the last touch-up appointment. I considered doing it tonight, but doubt my artist would be at the shop in the weather. Plus I had a lot of work to do at home....It will follow soon though!

1-12-08 9:15pm
Lots to report over the last many days. First, we worked night and day on two new SBIR proposals for Crucial which went in last week a few hours under the wire. I believe both proposals were technically perfect, and I think we can win both. Major task out of the way! Since then I have been focused on resume collection and formatting for another proposal due next week. Lots of resumes. I also have two major documents due for one client, a milestone for another next week, and travel 22-25 for a client. I'll be happy when January is over.

So, to let off some steam we went to an orchestra performance Friday night at the Center for the Arts. Saturday morning we played paintball at Hogback Mountain in Loudoun County, VA. We expected 18 to show for the private group, but ended up with 7. It was interesting playing with such small teams, and a great deal of fun. The weather was perfect - low 50s, breezy. One of our team locked his keys in his car and ended up smashing a window to get home when we failed to pick the locks. The whole thing was captured on cellphone video, but I won't share it here to spare his feelings. :-) I came back from that around 4 and crashed until 7, catching up on 2 weeks of lost sleep. We tried to watch Deer Hunter, but couldn't get into it, and watched Next instead, which was ok, but not great. Juliana Moore is not a great actress, neither is Nicholas Cage. At least not in the roles they have taken recently. I have to reach back to Boogie Nights and Matchstick Men to find good roles for them. Anyway....today we went into DC for the Capitals - Flyers hockey game. High scoring, Caps lost. We had great seats, Row E 118 behind the net. We came back about 5 and I have been working resumes all evening again.

Two other big news items. My uncle Phil came through his brain surgery this week with flying colors, and should be home today. They went in to remove a small tumor that was found in time. We all are wishing him a speedy recovery. My college roommate Jay is moving back to the DC area from Denver, and will be moving in with us for a couple of months while he gets settled. I'm not sure he will like the commute to DC from Manassas, but hopefully the facilities make up for the traffic.

That is al the news that is fit to print for now. I have my opinions to share on the presidential race, but I will save that for another time. Let's just say that I hope Fred Thompson improves his standings, and that Obama and Clinton both drop out of the race for the Nation's sake.

1-6-08 5:57pm
Busy with Craigslist lately. Sold Rhonda's old jewelry box for a STEAL at $75. Had dozens of offers. Tonight the old Maisto motorcycle models sailed out the garage door and into the arms of a little boy. All I have left is the Tungsten C at $105, another great deal. But for some reason everyone wants to haggle a good price down to basically free. $60 for a device still retailing at $350? Sure! Why not bend over and take it? Ugh.

Beautiful weather out today. Light rain this morning, but crept up into the 50s. Tomorrow I am hearing mod-60s, so ALL the bikes will be out. Woo!

1-6-08 12:48am
Good weekend so far. Friday night was happy hour, first I have been to in a long while. Today we went in to DC to Studio Theater the see Brothers Size. The acting was very good, but the play was not. Not what I expected really either. Parking is such a pain in the ass near DuPont Circle. We ended up about 5 blocks away with an incredibly cheap Colonial Parking lot, $5. Marked it in the GPS for our next play in a couple of weeks. Stopped by Trader Joes on the way home and picked up fixins for beef stew. Turned out great, but we were both already a bit full from snacking while the stew cooked. We just finished watching Heat, which has everyone under the sun, but was not particularly good. We did like the plot line, but the dialogue was difficult to understand and several parts were overacted. No sense in reviewing a 13 year old movie.

1-1-08 8:59am
Happy New Year! Last night we had a late dinner at the Hermitage in Clifton, VA. We enjoyed sea scalops, filet mignon, apple tart, cheesecake and a bottle of pinot noir. Home by 10:30, playing with the dogs and watching Alien until the ball dropped. Bed a little early - have to get back on schedule for tomorrow. Now I am about to fry up a whole lot of ham for breakfast. Mmmmm. Then watch the rose parade, walk the dogs and crack open the champagne. Happy New Year indeed!

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