JW & I hit up the Herkimer for some vittles and a little pre-gaming of adult beverages. The food was quite good, but an appetizer would have helped to fill us up – portion sizes are not obscene and thankfully normal. Who knew! They’ve also got a great selection of German style in-house brewed beers. I can’t remember ever seeing local Kolsch or Alt Bier on tap anywhere. Very nice. The night starts getting interesting when the dude next to JW just waves hello and starts talking to us – not rude or anything, but the guy was a little off. Thankfully JW was in a mood to chat with the guy, or I’d have just been an arse and ignored him. Sometimes you just want to enjoy your beer without the extra mental anguish of having a conversation. (Women take note….) Hrm – perhaps there is some subtle body language or mental telepathy that allows men to sit around drinking and watching a baseball game to communicate without actually speaking. Perhaps we are somehow gifted after all.

From there we headed to the planned destination(s) for the night – Whiskey Junction & The Cabooze. I’ve always wanted to head down there – it is supposedly one of the better biker bars in the area. It is, but oh so much more! The bars are on opposite ends of the block with nice large harley parking lot and open-outdoor-air-but-tented-roof bar, grill and tons of picnic tables. The outdoor area joins up with a bar called The Joint and The Cabooze. It was really cool just hanging out at a picnic table – drinking, telling lies and the mutual pauses in the conversation to appreciate the sound of Harleys rolling in and out. One nice thing about riding a Harley, I can get to the bar and park directly in front.

The Whiskey was fairly dead – they had a pretty good blues band playing and several pool tables. I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling when it comes to shooting pool, hopefully more trips to bars will cure that. It will be rough, but I think in the end it will pay off.

The Cabooze… well that is where things get interesting. JW & I headed over there once Jason and his buddy arrived – thankfully sparing us from playing another unfortunate game of pool only to find those guys at the pool tables in the Cabooze… I’ve never really seen a trendy kinda hippy bar next to a biker bar. One would think you’d get some broken and battered hippies out of that – but all was well. Maybe it was too cold (50F) for hippy pounding ? Cabooze is a pretty cool place – hugely cavernous inside with a triple tiered bar-slash-table setup so that drinking and watching the bands can be done from the safety of a bar stool. In the back by the pool tables there is a room with a locked door and marked “Private Party”. I’m sure it was private but there was less traffic to the bathrooms. It might have something to do with the pungent aroma of that certain something – good lord it was ridiculous. Perhaps that explained our desire to get cheese burgers, tater-tots (tots !!!) and tubed meat in a bun at 1am.

And really, no night is complete without watching someone boot. They have nice large garbage cans near the bathrooms. These are the industrial strength grey ones with handles – you know, to give you something to really hang onto while barfing up $40 of booze. The bouncers were pretty cool about it – just wanted to make sure the dudes buddies got him home, I think they even called a cab for them, the poor bugger Hippies are nice.

Well, one nice cool-ish ride home and I collapsed into bed, doggies grateful to be inside. I slept like the dead until ~10 am and now my underwear clad self is contemplating leaving the sanctuary of the sofa and my blankie for food and maybe even a shower. One must prepare for a full day of football and Nascar T.V watching properly.

SONOFABITCH!

A quick trot to the bathroom to examine the situation left me screeching and humbled. I not only had one long ear hair — and not the feathery crap you get on the outside. No sir, this was a full out infestation of 2 inch hairs growing out of my ear canal. Correction, both ears. Thankfully I’ve got my 42-in-1 electric hair shortening kit nearby and fully charged, so removal wasn’t a problem.

Now, I’m convinced I’m not old enough to be experiencing this sick twist of nature just yet, so I’m on the hunt for some sort of environmental trigger that is causing this mutant growth. It can’t be beer, no – God isn’t that mean; maybe it is the lack of coffee – I’ve recently tried to move away from it & to the weaker-on-the-speed scale soda; Damnit, I’m stumped. Life is a cruel cruel mistress.

Anyways — just wanted to show off the evidence we actually got married in the Caribbean:

The Mrs has good details here. I’ll be uploading more photos soon too.

Update: Click the photo for the rest. We’ll add more as we get them from Mom & Aud.

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

• 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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Anyhooo…. Most of the weekend has been spent watching World Cup games. I’m not planning on watching all of them – Tivo only has instructions to record the England, U.S, and Spain games. I may have to alter that if any of them go tits-up before the elimination round. I have had two consecutive mornings of coffee, sofa, blanket and el World Cupo. Currently Mexico is trying to convince Iran to bring their “war faces” next time. I’m hoping to see one of my 3 teams make it far enough to get me interested in the final games. I do find myself really wishing I had HD TV at this point – but only with a HD Tivo. Soon, but must pay off other bills and purchase a house.

Speaking of said house…it is looking like time to re-evaluate the finances and determine exactly how much of my income I really want to spend on a house payment. From the initial look at the current rates of exspenditure, I won’t be able to afford a house that I really like. Boogers. I’d really really like to get a nicer house because I don’t fancy myself moving in the next 10 years again unless something really strange happens. Yes, I like my new job that much

Speaking of said job (and here starteth the rantingseth) – I’m starting to get a bit miffed at the old job, where I started to think that I wasn’t bright enough or skilled enough to do actual Lustre hacking — network, kernel, disk layer, super-complex distributed networking programming. Yes, I’m not going to design the next great filesystem, but I really am starting to think that I can make a pretty good swipe at debugging and understanding the code base. Time will tell It just pisses me off that someone or worse yet — myself — convinced me that there were limits to my skills in this area without actually exploring them.

Ok – the old elbow is starting to kill me here from some retarded furniture re-arranging last night. Just a final note to those Right Coasters – I’ll be in Philly Jun 30th, July 3rd-4th and in D.C July 1st-3rd. Be there or get sprung.

Cheers!

What did I do with such unfettered access to massive quantities of stank and hormonal imbalance? Err, not that much really. Too hot. See previous statement on anatomical weather patterns.

Portana and I ran around Saturday – shopping here and there with a final stop at the Brew Shop for me to drop the semi-annual mint for brewing widgets and thingys. For those that brew – Stainless steel ball valves and a counterflow wort plate chiller are SO the best money. We also got sprung for a Gewurztraminer wine kit. It is dead simple to do with the existing beer equipment and is promising all sorts of tasty goodness. I’m looking forward to many o summer nights spent passed out amidst a few wine bottles on the deck. The sun shall wake me!

Saturday evening did see the lawn mowed – well at least most of it, apparently 90 minutes is just 15 feet shy of done I’d have continued but the dogs were getting pretty pissed from all the close calls during twilight. Not to mention that the mosquitos tend to focus on the fleshy white part of ones buttocks. Note to the public – don’t mow nude. Between the sunburn and the mosquitos — you are gonna be lumpy and red. Dead Sexy.

I did manage to get a nasty headache that took me out for most of Saturday – I think it is from not getting caffeine. Stupid free coffee at work and my lack of will power.

Sunday was the day of days. I woke up earliesh, cranked up the coffee pot (see I do learn) and headed to the garage to get beer-a-brewin’ and stuff arranged and cleaned up. It was hot enough that I put up the canopy out front of the garage for the full RedNeck look. It is the details folks. De-tails. Did I mention that I was walking around shirtless in baggy shorts and messy hair? Truck and Harley in the driveway? Details.

Heh — De-tails makes me think of all sorts of funny things about animals loosing their tails in horrible accidents. Hrm, bed time looming…anywhoo… Once that was all setup and going – I tackled the mess in the corner. Lots of moving things around and it appears to be slightly more accessible and organized. I’m hoping I did a few flourecent bulb replacements (do NOT drop on the floor…) and hung up the tennis ball for Portana’s windshield marker. I’ve heard if your are handy around the house, drives them nuts. Juxtapose that with being handy at the bar and all you get is slapped. Women — just don’t make sense.

Anyways…I’m starting to ramble and it could get messy. Power through this! I finally finished up brewing and got the beer into the fridge a meer 15 minutes after knockout. That’s right folks – 5 gallons of 200F sugar water & hops to 62F in < 10 minutes. These are some heady times in which we live. Man, not ending sentences in prepositions is a real biotch. Sigh. Ok, headed off to Auds for some grilled Elk and veggies on the grill. Homemande smoothies (mit boozen) were quite the treat to finish off a decent weekend, albeit alone

I’d best be off to bed, I’ve got dragons to slay at work tomorrow and another day of trying to keep the giblets out of the blender.

Update Is it wrong that I called the french press the coffee pot ? Did I hurt it’s feelings?

So you ask — what has the last year meant? Well — here are the highlights that come to mind. Nothing too gushy or personal of course – must protect the guilty

• Harley rides, lots of harley rides. First date after the thunderstorm (hey, why do you think guys buy motorcycles?), to Roscoe for her birthday, a few trips to Rock Dodge, lots of little lunch trips in Billings, Bozeman, getting beer from Costco, wow ! We jsut need to ride a lot more here in MN!!

• Cooking – I’m the meal master, Portana kicks my butt with some breakfast thingys and all baking. I make a mean milk shake and rule the grill. She makes me want to eat healthier I keep trying to cook healthier for the both of us!

• Pets – some good times, some rough times. Just a little note — these are likely the only kids we will have and we are both thrilled about that! But the hair…oh! the hair!.

• Dealing with life – my getting laid off, her job interviews, moving, two new jobs, packing two houses up, living as a guest at Auds for a month, unpacking into a single house, getting used to living together – sleep schedules, bathroom sharing, eating schedules, finally getting the hosue unpacked, furniture shopping, the list goes on. I’m amazed how we’ve gotten through all of that without a huge “Nic you are an ass” fight. Damn, I guess we might be adults after all!

I’m sure there are huge events I’m leaving out here, but I think it is suffice to say that this first year has been an amazing adventure both personally and relationship wise. I can’t think of anything I’d have done significantly different – I’ve really enjoyed it and hope it continues for a long, long time. Well — I’d write more, but I’ve got dragons to slay here at work!

Oy yeah — I love you Babe!

1. My roommate and I once: Plotted to get a feret stoned and then roll him around in that plastic ball thingy.
2. Never in my life have I: Wanted less.
3. The one person who can drive me nuts, but then can always manage to make me smile is: Mom. She knows all the stupid buttons to push, but is a super awesome person.
4. High school was: painful, but with lots of loose women and drugs.
5. When Im nervous: I talk. A lot.
6. The last time I cried was: a long time ago — I know I have, just don’t remember details or the dates.
7. If I were to get married right now my bridesmaids/groomsmen would be: On a sailboat in the Mediteranean.
8. Would you rather run naked through a crowded place or have someone email your deepest secret too all your friends? It’s Nekkid Time. I’d probably walk for the fun of it.
9. My hair: always great. Good genes.
10. When I was 5: I broke my arm.
11. Last Christmas: Super great — too many reasons to state.
12. When I turn my head left: I see my Aunt snoozin on the sofa.
13. I should be: working out more.
14. When I look down I see: a laptop…duh.
15. The craziest recent event was: Celebrating a new job like a freakin’ rock star. 8 Manhattans do not make for a pleasant morning — for you or your babysitter.
16. If I were a character on Friends Id be: Ross and Chandler cross.
17. By this time next year: I want to own a pinball machine.
18. My favorite Aunt is: Audrey – she’s letting us mooch !
19. I have a hard time understanding: Stupid and Illogical folks. Like wiping before you poop…
20. One time at a family gathering: I was fed a whole bar of exlax and I had to take ownership of the only #2 bathroom in the entire facility. I soooo owe those cousins some payback…
21. You know I like you if: I don’t punch you.
22. If I won an award, the first person(people) Id thank: My Dog. It’s funny.
23. Take my advice: You are going to die.
24. My ideal breakfast is: nekkid time!
25. If you visit my home town: You will wonder how the hell you ended up on the other side of the Twilight Zone. Dooodoodooodooo.
26. Sometime soon I plan to visit: Philly, No Dak
27. If you spend the night at my house: You best not keep me up or wake me up.
28. Id stop my wedding if: I sobered up.
29. The world could do without: Rules, packaging, urban sprawl and stupid people.
30. Id rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: Have sex with a gorilla, close but taking the cockroach.
31. The most recent thing Ive bought myself is: New Cell phone. Freakin’ Raaazor baby.
32. The most recent thing someone else bought for me is: Dinner & booze — tanks babe!
33. My favorite blonde is: The fantatic bombastic incredible Portana!
34. My favorite brunette is: Portana!
35. My car must have a sign on it that reads: Greenpeace approved.
36. The last time I was drunk: working on a good one right now. Mmmm Port.
37. The animals I would like to see flying besides birds: Dogs, I bet that would be funny.
38. I shouldnt have been: so bad with money in college.
39. Have you ever shaved your pubic hair? No, but it was removed in other ways.
40. Last night I: Watched basketball and cooked Elk fajitas.
41. Theres this girl I know who: is scaring me at work. You are old and annoying, leave me alone.
42. I dont know: Where I’d like to live in the Twin Cities permanently.
43. A better name for me would be: nothing, names are irrelevant.
44. If I ever go back to school Ill: get my Masters.
45. How many days until my birthday?: lots, it is in December.
46. One dead celebrity I wish Id met is: Teddy Rosevelt or Abe Lincoln.
47. Ive lived at my current address since: little over 3 weeks.
48. Ive been told I look like: Conan, and you can bite me.
49. If I could have any car, it would be: Aston Martin Vanquish. Duh.
50. If I got a new cat tomorrow, I would name it: Balls. A small reminder that I have none and caved into getting a cat.

The driving was amusing. We rented a GMC Envoy to get us all in there — 4 adults, one 7 year old, and a weekend of luggage. Now, I’m not sure what you remember of the family trips as a kid, but ours were always a hassle at best. My sister and I are both giant PITAs when it comes to car rides. I am “she is touching me/looking at me/thinking about touching me”. She is “I have to pee” every 15 minutes. Thankfully age has mellowed us a bit, but we still have the memories fof these things to help fuel the ridicule and harasssment. Mom unfortunately is now fair game for teasing too — beit that she packed too much stuff, or is getting cranky because we kids are dragging our feet or being difficult on purpose. Suffice to say, there is a lot of good natured bickering and teasing that goes along with getting all of us into one vehicle. The bonus this time was that Flyboy was joining us for the weekend. Fresh target!

It was really fun to see some of the relatives again – aunts and uncles I’ve not seen in a year or 3, cousins that used to help us all get into trouble, and various relatives of my grandparents’ cohort. I feel it necessary to take every chance I can (within reason here folks…) to hang with g-pa and g-ma, you never know what turns life is going to take. I just hope I can be as spry and good humored at 79 as they are. It is very amusing to see those two and how they still flirt with each other — be it over forgetting to put something on the table for breakfast or who was responsible for breaking something — just makes be very happy to see that.

So! The big news for this week is that I waiting for offers from companies — no interviews or calls left, just paper work or not. I’m actually a bit nervous about one offer, if I don’t get it I will end up having to really sit down and re-think my options and what I want to do with them. crosses fingers

Anyhoo.. woke up, shower & shave, coffee, then moved towards clothes – dress shirt & trousers with a wool dress coat. I was given a ride to the airport (coffee in tow), hit security right off as I had checked in online, then off to the gate to get some good coffee-drinking-iPod-jamming-reading-book lovins before boarding. Arrived, hit Budget for my car (this is where the day started to get really good) – I was due a compact car, but somehow scored a Ford SUV thingy with leather interior. Something about wearing a dress coat and driving a leather interior that makes a man feel good.

Ahh yes — so the real reason for the trip was an interview. It went quite well, blah blah blah. Pretty standard fare for a tech interview, lunch, etc. Back in the SUV (btw – I HATE these fugging things. They are SO the new mini-van;popular with soccer moms and neutered men. They just have bigger tires and bumpers…) Got a nice surprise while there when the sales dude from my old company walks in. Sometimes the planets align just so – it was good to see him and catch up a bit. Hit the aeropuerto for the flight back, enjoying the ability to just drop the car off and run – I love direct billing. More Ipod & book, interrupted by some people watching. Women in SLC are tall. Huh. Came home, was picked up at the ‘port by the lovely gf. What is it about sexy women driving your truck to pick you up that just well… you know. Back to the shack and chilled on the sofa with dog, girl and beer. Mmm good!

Fire, kerosene laterns, Indian food (homemade of course!) for dinner, more hound-scratching and some tivo lovins. Backrub for the gf, quick email check, now off to my leather chair and the fireplace to read some more.

Some days just rock.

Update Sampling my latest beer concoction – porter with coffee & chocolate. OMFG. Yeah, that good. It is still really young yet, but I envision me trying to dance with the dog if I drink too many more of these.

Soo…. yeah. I’ve actually started putting things into boxes here at Casa Del Neek* (sorry P, stealing the * for side-stories). After a trip to Target to get the pasticy storage bins and bubble wrap, I managed to get all of the good dishes wrapped up and ready to move. This includes a very nice set of dishes my Grandma gave me for my b-day-slash-thanksgiving (complete with manly pink roses and gold trim), several serving platters from the Moms, and some candlesticks & other sundry items. I did manage to get it all into one bin, so I’m pretty happy about that — it should move pretty well too do to my recent experience of moving in May 2002, Aug 2002, July 2004 and December 2004. God damnit I’d love to stay in a house for more than a year or two! I’m hoping to get the books packed up next — I’ve got a bookcase loaded with them, and a smaller one in the office that is collecting a few as well. I’m guessing 4 or 5 good sized boxes just with books…which reminds me to get smaller boxen – no sense herniating this early in the process. I will save that pleasent medical event for when I try to extract my current landlords’ fingers from my prostate….

At any rate — this whole moving thing is starting to sink in. It is very very weird to think that in a short 4 weeks, it is very likely that I will be unpacking my stuff already somewhere new and starting a new job (fingers crossed). I’ve got so much stuff, the thought of it all being packed up seems downright outrageous. If I can manage to do a little at a time, I’m sure the pounds will just melt away and soon enough all my wordly possesions (some would call them “boxes of shit”) will be ready for transport to far away and exciting lands. Imagine “Minnesota” where everyone talks with an accent ala Fargo, the mosquitos carry away small children, it snows like hell hath frozen over (and yet, no Vikings in the playoffs), and strange actor people carry about their business. Fascinating — to even think such a mythical place even exists is beyond me. One would be remiss if he didn’t recant all of the scary religious fables about Salt Lake City – land of 1432 wives (why piss off more than one woman?), liquor laws that would make Jerry Falwell pucker, moral and cultural restrictions even the Bush administration can’t fathom, and skiing out of your front door. With those two options, it is tough to make up my mind. I don’t know how, but I will manage in some fashion.

• So as for Neek…it all started in college when I picked up a Russian ice skating instructor at a country bar in Philly (yes, it was as odd as that sounds). She was H.O.T, well she was until I saw her eat mashed potatoes without her lips touching…shudder…anyways — she had and amusing way of pronoucing my first name. This resurfaced in the last jobs when I went on a rampage about something and one of my co-workers referred to me as Dr. Neek. I guess it kinda stuck then as my alter-ego — I would change my “nick” to Neek anytime I was about to exercise my wrath on something.

In the meantime,I’ve uploaded a few more photots for your visual enjoyment:

• little man (Portana’s wearing his Seahawk jersey during the first playoff game. He’s a hillarious little kid — it was really interesting to see how he and the Bogart interacted. Talk about mutual fear for a while, but after the initial scare, some chasy-chasy and petting was had.

• Dr. Jacks’ No. 7 Go-Kart. What more fun can you experience than metal fabrication while drinking?

• Name: Nic
• Birthdate: 12-21-1979
• Birthplace: Waterloo, Iowa
• Current Location: Billings, Mt.
• Eye Color: greeny-brown
• Hair Color: brown, tinge of red
• Righty or Lefty: Right
• Sun Sign: Sagicorn (last day of Sag)
• Innie or Outtie: Innie, no freak here

Layer Two

• Your heritage: German, Russian, Dutch
• The shoes you wore today: 23F outside and flp-flops
• Your hair: Still have it; farm teams are increasing their output year by year
• Your eyes: bad, glasses suck
• Your weakness: women, spending money, toys
• Your fears: snakes, seeing people eating raw dough (fuggin yuck, ok?)
• Your perfect pizza: one brought to me with a beer by female following hot monkey love
• One thing you’d like to achieve: extra million in retirement.

Layer Three

• Your most overused phrase: Groovy
• Your first waking thoughts: To shag or not to shag ?
• The first feature you notice in the opposite sex: the boobies.
• Your best physical feature: eyes – i got the michevious thing going
• Your bedtime: 10 or 11
• Your greatest fear: having my fears come true
• Your greatest accomplishment: college – from MT to Ivy
• Your most missed memory: how the fuck do you know what the most missed memory is? you are missing it for pete’s sake.

Layer Four

• Pepsi or Coke: Depends – pepsi for drinking, coke for mixing drinks
• Single or group dates: single – hard to work the Magick with a crowd
• Adidas or Nike: Neither – NB for working out, flip flops, cowboy boots, Murrel (the urban models…)
• Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Not usually a tea guy – if I do it is the green Arizona in the big assed can
• Chocolate or vanilla: choco
• Cappuccino or coffee: coffee, and it better be damned strong

Layer Five

• Smoke: used to, LOVE me a good cigar. partial to Ashtons
• Cuss: Fuck no.
• Sing: Badly. very badly.
• Take a shower everyday: required maintanence for this model
• Have a crush(es): not currently, last one was in college
• Do you think you’ve been in love: Doi.
• Want to go to college: Yessir, graduated too!
• Like high school: Kinda – it was too akward to be tons of fun.
• Want to get married: someday, with the right person
• Believe in yourself: Yes, sometimes to a fault.
• Type with your fingers on the right keys: mostly, it is more efficient and I’m a lazy git.
• Think you’re attractive: I don’t scare people, but I’m not going to win any awards either.
• Think you’re a health freak: good god no. I eat somewhat healthy and workout, but not a freak about it. I have no qualms eating Wendy’s twice a day sometimes. I’ve been known to start drinking instead of heading to the gym too.
• Get along with your parents: Mom is the coolest.
• Play an instrument: Usedtacould – sax and piano.

Layer Six

In the past month, did you…

• Drink alcohol: Yes.
• Smoke: No
• Do a drug: nothing elicit
• Make Out: Yes
• Go on a date: yes
• Eat an entire box of Oreos: Sadly no, but not a bad idea for next week.
• Eat sushi: Nope, I don’t do sushi in landlocked states – bad joss.
• Been on stage: Thank god no.
• Been dumped: Thankfully no
• Gone skating: Nope
• Made homemade cookies: Nope, but my kitchen was the site of a nice production
• Been in love: yup
• Gone skinny dipping: Can we say shrinkage ? Not impressive and no.
• Dyed your hair: No, and not going to. Ever.
• Stolen anything: I can’t recall.

Layer Seven

Have you ever…

• Played a game that required removal of clothing: yes
• If so, was it mixed company: lets hope so – strip poker with a bunch of dudes is just wrong.
• Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: Honestly..what kinds of stupid question is that ? But of course..this last friday night in fact.
• Been caught “doing something”: Good god yes – famously so. Spotlight with a crowd, cheers & jeers – the whole nine yard.
• Been called a tease: Heck no, I’m way too easy.
• Gotten beaten up: Nope, but given out a few thumpings.
• Shoplifted: Yes
• If so, did you get caught: Yup – mom busted me and made me return & appologize
• Changed who you were to fit in: Not on purpose, but one does adapt to enjoy life

Layer Eight

• Age you hope to be married: No hard limits – 30 is a nice number for now.
• Numbers and Names of Children: Bogart (dog)
• Describe your Dream Wedding: one involving a sailboat and an amazing woman. Supporting cast optional
• How do you want to die: In my sleep – like grandpa, not screaming like the other people in the car.
• What do you want to be when you grow up: Loaded and oversexed
• What countr(ies) would you most like to visit: Spain (again), UK, Canada (again), Brazil, Chile, Australia, Russia, Germany…

Layer Nine

• Number of girls I have kissed: Enough, no really.
• Number of girlfriends you’ve had: 20 something ?
• Number of drugs taken illegally: several…nothing too bad.
• Number of people I could trust with my life: < 10
• Number of CDs that I own: lots, TONs more from the magic iTunes
• Number of piercings: zero
• Number of tattoos: 3
• Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: bunch- from sports to scouts as a kid, science fair, geog bee, conference papers.
• Number of scars on my body: tons, all worn with pride.
• Number of things in my past that I regret: only missed opportunities.

• One Star Hangover: No pain. No real feeling of illness. You’re able to function relatively well; however, you are still parched. You can drink 5 sodas and still feel this way. For some reason, you are craving a steak & fries.

• Two Star Hangover: No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay, but you have the mental capacity of a staple gun. The coffee you are chugging is only increasing your rumbling gut, which is still tossing around the fruity pancake from the 3:00 AM Waffle House excursion. There is some definite havoc being wreaked upon your bowels.

• Three Star Hangover: Slight headache. Stomach feels crappy. You are definitely not productive. Anytime a girl walks by you gag because her perfume reminds you of the flavoured schnapps shots your alcoholic friends dared you to drink. Life would be better right now if you were home in your bed watching Lucy reruns. You’ve had 4 cups of coffee, a gallon of water, 3 iced teas and a diet Coke — yet you haven’t peed once.

• Four Star Hangover: Life sucks. Your head is throbbing. You can’t speak too quickly or else you might puke. Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze. You wore nice clothes, but that can’t hide the fact that you only shaved one side of your face. (For the ladies, it looks like you put your make-up on while riding the bumper cars.) Your eyes look like one big red vein, and even your hair hurts. Your sphincter is in perpetual spasm, and the first of about five shits you take during the day brings water to the eyes of everyone who enters the bathroom.

• Five Star Hangover: You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee who sits in the next cube. Vodka vapour is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy. In fact, you are probably still drunk. You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth in an attempt to get the remnants of the poop fairy out. Your body has lost the ability to generate saliva so your tongue is suffocating you. You don’t have the foggiest idea who the hell the stranger was passed out in your bed this morning. Any attempt to defecate results in a fire hose like discharge of alcohol-scented fluid with a rare “floater” thrown in. The sole purpose of this “floater” seems to be to splash the toilet water all over your ass. Death sounds pretty good about right now!

So! What does this all mean? New job time – of course, and a very likely relocation. Salaries in Billings are no where near what I was making and it would be a huge hit to my career as a whole. I would love to find another job that would allow me to work from home (no matter where I call home, like the Pub with free wirless during WorldCup games… just warning you…), but they are very rare. I do have two very promising opportunities and a few others that I am looking towards for future imployment. One of which is a “lifeboat” from CFS that I am really really really hoping works out. I would be working in the same field on the same software with some of the same customers — a trifecta for me if you ask. Here is the teaser for those regular readers: I’m crossing my fingers for a move to the Twin Cities area or Seattle. The former being slightly more desireable for traffic reasons (riding the Sledeghammer or HD in Seattle does not sound fun). I’ve also got a bit of family there that would make the transition so much easier. I will keep you folks posted if any paperwork gets involved. Right now I have nothing in writing that makes me think I won’t be working at UPS come March.

The next job is going to have to be better than the last — getting laid off is not going to change my opinions on what I value in a job. I am almost looking to have an office to go into — working from home is great, but I truly do think that it is less than optimal in anything but a very small company where the level of communication is low. I also want benefits. Call me crazy (crazy!), but medical, dental, etc are not an option anymore. I also want a bit more mature company that the last one, perhaps with better management. I really enjoy the self-driven work environment, but I feel that coupled with working from home it devolves into a situation where I was getting burnt out too easily and disenchanted with the work. Personal problems? Oh sure – but I do think that either closer management — or at least involving the employees into some sort of structured environement — would help alleviate these issues. If nothing else, they would be noticed and dealt with a bit earlier. I have some strong opinions on the former company that I will not voice here, it would be massively inappropriate and probably harmful to all of those involved. If people from that company wish to hear what I have to say, email me offline and I can flesh out my thoughts there.

So …you ask…what have I been up to? A lot of nothing on some days — boy is that a luxury! I’ve also been quite glad at my recent re-budgeting, I think that will allow me to track and spend in a much more sane manner now that I’ve got a limited income. I took a whole day yesterday to go help work on the ‘shop’ go-kart – I did a ton of welding and got the new front-end all ready to rock. That was SO much fun, save for laying on my back and welding overhead — slag burns fugging hurt. I’ve got a good swat at the laundry and the regular house cleaning too — for once I’ve not got a huge backlog of those types of things to do. I’m also starting to cleanup and start packing — might as well get ready for the inevitable. If nothing else, I’m looking at moving to a less expensive place come June. Oh yeah, and going to the gym. It burns us!

Well – that does it for now, more TV to watch.

After the gorging was done, sat down in “my chair” by the fire with a nice hot cup of java, watching the TV, reading the WSJ. Doggie was the usual cute morning self – lounging around and sleeping. Football was on soon and I spent the better part of the day making sure my butt had ample time to caress the leather.

It was one of those days where you sit there watching TV in the middle of the morning completely content (and quite warm, thank you Mr. Fire) with the mornings progress on household chores and just enjoying the relaxation. I even did a bit of work, well work in the sense that it was work related, but I was really just fiddling around with debugging some arcane problem I hit, just to see if I could get it figured out. I did, at least to the point where I emailed the original author of the code asking “WTF is this supposed to do here?”

Tangent .. so the birds. Yes I have birds. Deal with it — I have. Since moving back, and honestly getting the dog, I’ve been less than thrilled with them. The make a damned big mess. I had resolved to take less than full care of them (I’m sooo not cleaning the cage every week, etc). It turns out I was just being a bad person. I’ve started to enjoy them again, even cleaned up their cage and bought them some new shredding toys and nesting house. They are pretty cute and seem to be enjoying themselves a bit more now. Even the dog will sit in the office and just watch the birds — not sure if he is just curious or watching them like we do the lobster tank in a seafood restaurant. “Mmm, that looks good, gonna have to order that one day”. End Tangent

So — the gf is out of town this week. This likely means working late every night — a secret and disturbingly fun event for me on occasion and eating poorly. Not that I eat healthy just when she is here — I ususally cook good food anyways — but more the ‘heh, gf out, boys play’ kind of mentality that I’m going use as an excuse to make steak or deep fried mumblmumble some night. I’m likely going to be bored with myself too — Mom & Sis watch out, I’m probably coming up for dinner one night to stave of the alone-ness (different from lonliness). I’m not sure what I amd doing next weekend other than watching more football (playoffs are getting good). I should find something good to do — probably going to launder the Harley cover and give it a good bath if the weather holds above freezing. It needs it and I don’t want to ride out a dirty bike the next time it is warm enough. I just got the new J&P cycle catalog and I am having a tough time finding something that I want for the bike. There are a few minor things, but I’m sadly lacking in the gratuitous spenditure area. Saaad.

Anyways.. there is a lyric in there that is “give me back my money, you bitch” or something like that. So, I’ve always had a wee bit of a problem managing money. I can spend like you wouldn’t believe. Yes, I do have some very nice furniture, guns, computers, Harley (that wasn’t a impulse buy…), kitchen stuffs, etc from my shopping trips — but most of the issue is the amount of cash I can blow through. You’d think I have a serious drug problem, where in fact I have only a small one. Err, had. I do make a pretty good chunk from my job but I never seem to be able to save much, and always seem to be scraping by that last week of every month. As one of my housemates put it “You can program the Linux kernel, run clusters, and get through school but can’t balance a checkbook???”. I always imagine him saying that with the Genie from Aladdin – ” Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space.” Yeah. Good times. BTW — Thanks mdog for the fun times, too bad you couldn’t make it to Spain for the conference — as much your work as mine!

SO! I’ve taken the initiative (once again..) to use a computer program to manage my moola. I’ve made past attempts with M$ Money and GnuCash to keep track of expenses, loans, retirement accounts, etc. I started with the best intentions each time, but only to fade out of sync after a few months. I think this was due to how badly lacking each of those programs was in ease-of-use. To tackle this problem again, I have installed Quicken Deluxe 2006 and…well to make a very long story a little shorter – it rocks. I am able to download my credit card, retirement and checking information with one click — right over the web (This Internet thing is SO going to be cool once it takes off). There are fantastic tools for visualizing your balances over time, including a completely amazing (for me!) transaction scheduler. The TS allows you to put in all of your deposits and bills, giving you a graph of the daily balance. The retirement account (Investment Center) interface is fantastic. It collates all of the monthly purchase for each security and shows the loss/gain and %return for each one — so you can see where your return is coming from. There are also built in interfaces to hit Yahoo! for charts and research — not to mention comparing performance against the big market indexes.

The big new feature for me is the budget planner. I have NEVER made a budget before, and let me tell you — it is a painful process. One of my fatal flaws is the complete hatred at being restrained — personally, physically or mentally. Want to get me mad? Just prevent me from doing something with out talking to me about it. Very unpleasent, as I can be quite mean. So, restraining myself in the forms of spending when there is still 100s of dollars in the account is just hard, we are talking a completely foreign idea here folks! I started with what I usually spend per month on things and then with some fantastic help I started to prune down the discretionary items. It turns out that a few things are obvious — I have a metric ass-barn load of “mandatory” bills – Harley, student loans, utilities, rent, insurances, gym membership, pet food, etc – that I had no idea took up that much of my salary. I honestly had more bills than I realized. At the end of the day — I’ve pruned out spending totaling 25% (!!) of my net salary. Holy Shit. If I can (and I really realll really want to) stick to this budget, I will be able to pay off all of my credit cards by July and start to save for things that I want — like a surround sound stereo and leather coffee table. I might even pay off some other bills a bit early too!

So — cheers to Quicken, I guess that is my personal N.Y resolution, besides shagging more.

What’s your favorite thing to do when no one else is around? Work late on computers, watch tv, read, scratch,take a long bath with a bottle of wine.

Name a guilty pleasure. Ordering delivery pizza when I don’t feel like cooking; staying up til 3 or 4am reading.

What’s your greatest fear? Being alone forever.

What’s your favorite part of your body? My brain, though after a year of working out my arse is making tracks.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Better money management.

What’s your idea of perfect happiness? To do what I want to at a whim — eternal vacation.

What’s something you’re good at that’s totally useless?Making a mess — one of the best!

What’s your favorite album for a night of steamy monkey love? It depends on the mood — could be Coltrane, Dave Matthews, Korn, White Zombie, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Pink Floyd, Doors, &c. Country — not so much, the beat is too varied for a whole album.

What was your most memorable celebrity encounter? Edward Herman was at the Union League one night — quite interesting and tall. I think that is the only person I’ve rubbed elbows with — his wife was pretty fascinating as well. I’ve been in the same room with Tom Ridge (former head of homeland security — secret service agents are amusing), several big whigs from the powerbroker part of Philadelphia – polictics and such.

Who would you like to trade places with for a day?Brad Pitt. I would be a shameless slut that day — and make a lot of unsuspecting ladies happy too!

Who’s your favorite fictional character? Jack Ryan ala Tom Clancy, Jason Bourne from Ludlum,

What Hollywood star would play you in a documentary based on your life? Wow — a documentary on my life…that would be a snoozer. If I had to choose — someone in the rugged (as in can do farm work yet does know how to shower) good looks category.

What song(s) best represents the soundtrack of your life? Most songs coming to mind seem to short or only address a certain part of my life — maybe that beer comercial “back in the high life again..”

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? Ooooh — one of my favorite naughty jokes! A whale – 14 foot tongue and the ability to breath out the back of my head. grin

When you were a kid growing up, who did you imitate when you stood in front of the mirror? Nobody that I can remember — probably someone tough with lots of muscles.

Name a book you’ve read recently and liked. I’ve been reading a ton lately — right now I am most of the way thought MuCullough’s (sp?) John Adams — before that was the B. Franklin “The First American” — both are FANTASTIC biographies of amazing characters from our American Revolution…and you thought party politics were nasty today! The lily white pussies in D.C have nothing on the founding fathers — espeically when they had to vacate the capital (Philly in those days — D.C was still a swamp) due to Yellow Fever. Modern day pansies… I’ve also got a few new Indian cookbooks that are teaching me well.

Name a film you’ve seen recently and liked. A week of vacation is awesome — Serenity today (great flick), Pirates of the Carribean.

Name an album you’ve heard recently and liked. Portana is right — Nickelback & the John Mayer Trio new ones are great — got a Weekend at the Rocks with Dave Matthews that wasn’t too bad, Brad Paisleys newish one is pretty good too.

Finish this line: “If we can send a man to the moon, then why… ?” isn’t our culture (American) less focused on material possesions and more on character merit?

What will you remember most about the ’90′s?High school and puberty. Fun stuff Wade.

• Food. There are a few decent restaurants here in Billings, but to get good quality food you have to pay for it, sometimes dearly. What I miss about Philadelphia is that there were tons of local places that had a dish or 3 that were really spectacular — the Lamb Curry at Tangiers (an otherwise completly shabby and tiny bar, entirely fantastic) , which was a total of .5 blocks from my apartment. Pine St. Pizza, and your tasty, tasty cheesesteaks, my hangovers miss you and your greasy goodness. The places are too many to mention — I just miss the sheer numbers and variety.

• Cultural events. Call me a snob (oh quiet you..) but donning a tuxedo ala Bond, spending $200+/ticket and heading out for a really good fun time in the upper crust of societal events was a thrill. I think part of it was the “Young Professional” scene — a self-fufilling dream where just being in a crowd with 25-40 something folks who all were at least psuedo interested in seeing the theater/opera/ballet/symphony and not just nailing the open bar for the ticket price equivalent in booze. Just being there made you feel that you were on the top of the ‘game of life’ and had truly made it — mainly because that is what everyone there thought. Perhaps it is the conversation with folks that had drive and passion for work or life or achieving something that at least appeared good and honorable with their lives. I don’t take anything away from people here — life is just different and I truly think the character of people here is far above and beyond that of the East Coast — but I miss the discussions about politics or art. I do get a large amount of this thanks to a few friends here, but perhaps what I really miss are the events dedicated to it. It is true to a certain degree that you had to be at least partially successfull to attend such events — you had to have the extra Benjies to blow, but the real trick was getting invited on someone elses bill — a feat that was accomplished more than once. BTW, yes I look like a younger-but-manlier Bond in a tux.

• Shopping. (In a manly sense. Like some folks I am not a woman deep down inside — at least not completely.) I’ve been accused of being part old woman (I have plants, birds, can cook, knit, crochet, cross-stitch, like to garden and generally hold an intelligent conversation while looking a large breasted woman in the face), but that is not really true. I was just raised to be open minded– yeah that’s it! Anyways… how freaking hard is it to have shopping for things that just approximate current styles? Am I now required to purchase casual shoes with a minimum sole thickness of 2″? Why OH F@#$#ING WHY is there not a good place to get a hot shave ? (Ok, that one appears slight dandy, but if you have never experienced one — shut up. You know not of what you ridicule. Besides at somepoint we men get married and need equal ability to spend $50 on “spa treatments” — I prefer mine to be functional as well.)

• Housing. Ok — here is the big one bugging me of late. Perhaps I was just spoiled in my apartment, but is it really that hard to build a house today that does not look like either a complete cookie-cutter subdivision nightmare or that the “architect” (and I only use that word because they insist on calling themselves that..) went to the Helen Keller Corel Draw School of House Design by Number? Good god — let us take 10 parts fucked up layout, knee walls, vaulted ceilings and pre-fabbed furnishings, mix with 42 parts assbarn derived roof lines (seriously — 40% of your front eleveation is shingles — Hellllooooo!), toss in a sprinkling of insanity with siding choices — honestly, neutral brick and greyish-beige steel siding. HAVE SOME DAMN imagination. The real horrors come on the inside of these places — carpets, gas fireplaces, odd shaped rooms, sanitized wall coverings, and just BAD decorating. I’m just about to put the pool of architects designing these monstrosities into the same pool as laywers — Flabby Hunks Of Whale Shit, Inc. Also — would it be impossible to design a large house that doesn’t take the GNP of a small country to heat and cool ? For fuck sake.