half a cat

If you can handle a tapeworm story, venture within. No, not mine.

I shall henceforth not be eating steak tartar ever. EVAR.

I’ve managed to update some long lingering photos:

• The Summer 2006 Huber Wedding

• New Garage & Brewing

• D.C 2006 Trip

Hrm — perhaps a few quickies as well

• Turkey Day was a 3h drive “Up Nort” to one of Moms sisters’ places — very nice spread and a great meal. Marinated wild turkey…mmm! That is a long drive for a meal though…
• Long weekend - so nice. I’m refusing to even turn the work laptop on. This is driving me a bit nutty, but I’m dealing with the withdrawl symptoms nicely.
• In Vino Veritas: Gotta get the Cab/Merlot bottled this weekend — by next Oct with 10 months in the bottle, it should be damn good.
• Lots of good news on the Cray front. This is a huge validating win for us and really should help move Cray back to the front of the pack, if not breaking away from the peloton someday entirely, for real HPC offerings. Wankers with your “clusters” need not apply. By-the-way, anything below a 30TFLOP system now immediately registers as “small” with me — I know, a bit snobbish — deal with it.
• The year of road trips starts in under 30 days. Oy. We are driving back to MT with the dogs for Christmas — I’m praying for a smooth trip both ways. If all goes well with the dogs, we’ll be repeating this trip 4 times next year — 3 weddings and then Christmas. If all does not go well, we’ll be repeating the trip with the addition of drugs for the dogs. Modern pharmacology is not without its benefits.
• Boston - I’ll be there Saturday May 26th through early morning Tuesday June 2 for the Liza’s wedding - I’d love to catch up with a certain Herr Schwan & McDonald provided they can be troubled to drink beer.
• The Violator: Just go watch. This, Ladies & Gentlemen, is my future brother-in-law. I couldn’t be happier.

And how!

So — for those of you dying to know what I desire for the upcoming holiday gift giving season — I’ve decided to take pity on you and offer up some suggestions. Stray from the list and you get into the “it is the thought that counts” territory, to which I will respond “perhaps you should think harder next time”. Happy Holidays!

• Flanel pants or scrubs; size large
• Fleece jacket - columbia or north face style; size large
• Long sleeved button down shirts - 17×35 or size large;
• Caribou Coffee
• Cookbooks!
  • Mario Batalli
  • Rachael Ray - shup, they are quick meals!
  • Greek Food — Cat Cora ?
• The previously mentioned 0,5L german (Rastal is a good glassmaker…) beer glasses
• Magazine subscriptions
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Economist
  • Weekend Wall Street Journal (really a newspaper, but hey)
• slippers — the kind with good soles
• jeans - 34×34, but play nice with my pride and go for straight legs — nobody likes a male camel toe.
• Gift certificates to northern brewer for beer stuff.

Just a few tiddle bits I should share with you unwashed masses:

• As previously mentioned apple pies were made. For the guys out there — if you get to help, a 3/4″ spade bit on a cordless drill makes the best apple corer I’ve ever used. It also helps keep some semblance of testosterone in the process too. Some of the best apple pie ever.

• Phil inspired me to pick up the The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich . I do believe I’m at least a month into reading this book, and have finally reached the 1000 page mark. I think I’m probably plateaued on how much information I can absorb. I have reached the part of the book where the concentration camps and associated details, and I wasn’t prepared for the level of detail that this amazing book offers. I literally think my brain was overwhelmed with the anquish and raw depravity those Nazi bastards (I had to calm it down) inflicted on millions of people. What really caught me off guard was that it wasn’t just the Nazis as I traditionally thought of them — government officials and military people, but the businiess community too.

• Fall is here in MN — bite me Fall. If you are going to be 19F in the morning, at least toss me some frickin snow.

• I should receive the full set of kit I need to start kegging homebrew early next week, I’m a happy man. How can you go wrong with making beer quicker and with less work? That is a huge win, win, burp!

• Christmas is < 2 months away — same for my birthday. You should already be shopping, I’m not that easy to find gifts for. Some suggestions:

  • new cold weather capable motorcycle jacket, gloves, or pants
  • 0,5L Beer glasses or steins. Ebay is a great source. Don’t get the ones with metal lids - I’ll just get drunk and knock out my teeth, not a sexy move.
  • Hrm, stumped myself — see, I’m hard to shop for.

• Work continues to do well. I just might get to be a kernel hacker yet. Ha!