half a cat

That was the best t-shirt seen in the recent trip to Philadelphia.

So - wedding updates for the abnormally nosy or just plain voyeuristic:

• Location: Leaning towards the old Depot at Oscar’s in Billings — sight unseen yet, but it sounds neat.
• 2nd Best Man (As I’m the one doing the marrying, I should be the Best man) : Kris
• Groomsman ..mmm, gonna have to come up with a different title there, that sounds like they should be making a horse pretty. Not that I mind that comparison. Marcus,
• Master of Ceremonies: Lou Becht. Seriously — is there anyone better for the job ?
• Date : Oct 6 2007. Wow. I have a wedding date.

So — what else has been going on ? Work. Then some work, and a bit more work, I took a poop, showered, slept a bit, then a ton more work. I might have done some more work in there somewhere. Oh yeah — then there was that one day that I worked a lot. Then I mowed the lawn — cause lawn’s don’t talk

I’ve been working on a “Lustre issue” at Sandia - nights, days, and weekends for ~3 weeks now. This is right after the 2 weeks of Army fun and 3 weeks of ORNL fun. Results: ORNL upgraded to the largest open science in the U.S., narrow-cased the Army with one of the other engineers on the File System team here at Cray, and Sandia’s issue #1 fixed and issue #2 being worked way below Lustre. There are a lot of folks who I should thank for either showing me more about Lustre or helping me work out other interactions and issues with the XT3. I’ve already done so personally, so I will protect the innocent here.

BTW - I saw an IOR perform writes at 34 GB/s on Lustre. Holy @#$@#! For the supercomputer illiterate - that is like throwing 8 DVDs across the room every second. Yeah, we got some mother@#$ing performance on a mother@#$ing supercomputer.

Oh yeah, and one very exhausted and burnt out Nic. I’ve gotten some very nice emails from mid to senior level managers about my work, and the freedom to take the time I need to “work from home” and regroup. Have I mentioned how much I love working for Cray ? I have been really working hard to make sure I am making the most of this opportunity. I really am starting to feel like I can move more and more into being a real “developer” on Lustre and I think I can move into a technically senior position in a few short years.

Well — I’m going to have another beer and pass out. I think tomorrow is clean the office, sleep and make beer day. Maybe I’ll mow the backyard too. Anything could happen!

I took off from work a bit early yesterday - was going to sit on the sofa and finish up the day working from home. As it turns out, you really do have to have your SecureID to get the VPN all setup. Whoops - back to work we go. It was a nice day so I decided to load up the dogs into the pickup box and give them a little treat ride to work and back. Now — I should note that this was Sammy’s first truck ride. She was a bit skittish about getting into the truck, but once I got Bogart in there, she knew what was going on and let me plop her right up.

So… we start cruising up to work with me watching the box in the mirror just to make sure she isn’t freaking out, etc. 10 minutes go past and she’s wandering around checking things out (Bogart is standing on the wheel well with his jowls flapping in the wind as usual…good dog!) - O.K Sams, no worries — good to go. Riiiight. Just when I thought things were settling down — nothing to be alarmed about, Sammy takes a two hop leap and jumps out of the truck at 55 mph.

“Shiiiit” was the first thing I said. Pretty sure about that. I’m stomping on the brakes (much to Bogarts skid…thump chagrin) and seeing Sammy tumble down the highway shoulder and into the ditch. I stop the truck, run around — thinking that for sure Sammy is either toast or really badly screwed up. I see some furry thing in the distance hop around and I gave her a call - she makes a beeline straight towards me. We get back up to the truck, and she flies into the front seat — me noticing she landed in some ripe assed poo somehow. Great, so now I’ve got a truck cab smelling like 30lbs of crap and a freaked out dog ejecting hair everywhere.

The return home was uneventful, and Portana took the lead on getting Sammy washed up. Bogart got happy fun bath time as well - two clean dogs! Total damage to Sam - a half dollar size road rash on her bum and some scraped up knees. She’s pretty stiff and sore this morning - moving around O.K but not setting any land speed records.

Goofy Dog.

I’m making salsa. I’ve finally gotten enough produce out of the garden to move forward on this. I’ve got regular tomatoes, roma tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos. I’m going for a fake Pace picante type thick salsa — chunky and scoopable. I hate watery salsa. Haaate.

The recipe:

• 1 15 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes or Tomato Sause (jury still out on which is better)
• 15 oz of water
• 2 medium tomatoes, cored & diced
• 3 medium jalapenos, seeds removed & small diced ( this is mild, more for hotter )
• 1 onion, small chop
• 1/3 cup vinegar (100% needed for canning)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 bunch cilantro, leaves finely chopped
• 1/2 lime juiced - fresh only!
• salt to taste (1 tbsp or so)

Optional:

• 1 15oz can sweet corn (drained)
• 1 15oz can frijoles negros (drained)

Mix everything but the cilantro and lime into a 4 qt sauce pan or larger (it’s going to boil). Add at least 1.5 tsp salt now. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 35-45 minutes or until thick. After 30 min, taste and add salt if necessary. While still hot, add chopped cilantro and lime juice. Stir together.

Canning - yes we are going to actually can this. It can then safely sit in the pantry or be given to folks as gifts.

Equipement needed:

• Large kettle with lid. 20qts or so — the best would be the blue enamel ones.
• Jar carrier or perforated vegetable steamer
• 2-4 wide mouthed pint jars - depending on optional ingredients used.
• Lids & rings for jars.

Heat water to ~180F and soak lids and rings - be careful to make sure they stay separated.

Fill kettle ~1/2 - enough that when jars are submerged, water is pretty close to covering the tops, if not over them. Bring kettle to boil - this will take at least 20 min.

While the salsa is simmering, wash wide mouth pint jars, dry.

When salsa is done (let it cool for a bit to make sure it tastes o.k) - funnel into jars, leaving 1/2″ space at the top. Wipe jars with damp paper towel to make sure the lip is clean. Seat lids and tighten rings until finger tight.

When water is just starting to boil, submerge jars - making sure to top off with more boiling water until the jars are submerged. Add the water at the sides of the kettle, do NOT pour directly on the jars. Boil for 20min, take jars out with jar clamp or heat proof rubber tongs and set on towel to dry. You should hear the jars “pop” as they cool — that means a good seal.

There you go — nothing special, but should be somewhat close to Pace (yes, New York City). I’m no great salsa officianado, I just wanted fresh homemade stuff that is healthy. Something easy to do, yet rewarding — a gift for family members.

This will be short and sweet. Albuquerque sucks. The food was pretty good - but the town is just dingy, dirty, and unkempt. So far my best description is a “West Philly of the Southwest”. BTW - the people I did meet and interact with were very nice and quite humorous. Thankfully they have the internet there and I can just work remotely next time.

Someone already mentioned the event — but I’ve risen from the ashes to confirm it: I’m gettin’ hitched. Yup. Me. Yessir - married. No, you go ahead and take a few minutes to let that sink in. Oh the ring — sure right over here.

Now then - hi I’ll spare the details of the proposal, ring, etc - Portana has done a much better job of that stuff. Besides — my job is just to puff out my chest and smile. I do want to reafirm just how lucky I am — I found a girl that can put up with me and who I have fun with everyday. We actually get along riduculously well - some have referred to us as “book ends” - the irony that we are both a bit dorky right there on the surface. It is quite blissful to think I have found that person who will tolerate me for eternity whilst plotting my slow and eventual death behind my back with my family - every guy should be so fortunate!

The phrases “I’m engaged”, “I’m getting married”, and “my fiance” are becoming more comfortable - but they don’t warn you that after you ask the Big Question that you change how you talk. Little things… It is kinda amusing talking to my two groups of friends - the Montana folks that are almost all married already, some with kids; and the folks from Penn - just starting or finishing the Ph.D, only one of which I know is engaged. You can imagine that some are “great, about time!” and others are “holy @#$@, whaaaa?” This should be a good bachelor party. Blantant hinting: I remember some drunken Lumberjack games (no not the “I’m a lumberjack and that’s O.K” song type…), and some glowstick frisbee for one; I’m thinking along the same lines. Note to those not from MT - you can use a shotgun to “chop” down a tree, but make sure to attack a tree of appropriate size - otherwise you end up with 2 boxes of shells, a sore shoulder, and a tree that is oozing and dripping sap on your tent because you forgot to move very far away before trying this.

Oh, you want to know when ? So far — and this data is a bit TBD — we are thinking early October 2007. Super simple, yet elegant. Lou will be officiating a Quakerish ceremony in a barn type structure, food along the lines of a pig roast and free booze. I think we are going more for a relaxing country wedding type event — without the dirt & hot wind Then again — this is all subject to change.

If 2007 sounds like a familiar year for weddings, put down your electronical information organization device. The ones I know of are: Sister #1 (ranked in age, not favoritism - I swear!) is early June 2007, Sister #2 (ok, yeah I like the other one more - j/k) is August 2007, Liza is the same weekend as Sister #1, A cousin here in the TC is late June 2007. It is official — I’m starting to get to that age where all you do every summer for 5 years is attend weddings.

I’m sure more will be said on this as we get the event actually finalized and planned, but for now I’m going to go bask in the glory of being engaged!