half a cat

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.

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.

This weekend was balls hot. HOT. Yes, those kind of balls. Sparing the innocent, but the metaphor is waaay too fitting. So! The Portana is back “home” for a weekend and I’m left up to my own devices. Muhahahahha!

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?

Just a quick note to introduce the newest member of our family - Coyote Sam the dog. She is quite the shy little thing around Portanaipolis and I, but with Bogart she plays great. They’ve had quite the time running around playing chasey-chasey, a bit of tuggy-tuggy and the daily sniff and scratch. I’m sure more stories about her and more photos in the future, but for now…here ya go!

So…my dog is weird, and not just in the standard ‘it is a different animal and therefore exhibits different traits than humans’ way. Usually, and notably of late, he destroys anything he gets into his mouth. Chewed up, it is. Most times these are acceptable items that I’ve purchased for him — rawhide bones, real bones, dog food, chew toys, rope toys, hunks of firewood, etc. It has been a few things that he should not have touched too: elk sausage (almost died that night, he did), extension cords, decks, cedar fencing, shrubs, Portana’s sunglasses, and the odd bowl. I’m not sure why more things lately — likely some sort of growing phase or frustration with the amount of exercise he gets. I do try to get him out for a daily game of frisbee or a long walk…but sometimes life doesn’t play nice. It is amazing the speed and voracity with which they are chewed up - I found only dime sized chunks of the frames and the lenses from the sunglasses. I would have had no idea what it was if the lenses were not there. And yes, I DO feed him. Little bastard is just a warm fuzzy poo factory. Ok, he is a great buddy too, but that is it!

So…anyways.. the real impetus of this story is a little yellow stuffed chick that has an electronic peeper that squeaks when you poke at it. I got it from Mom during college as an Easter present and it was found during my long awaited cleaning out of boxes and bins from the office. It was cute and fuzzy, but long since served its purpose. I was just going to dump it into another bin for permanent storage, but Portana figured we should let the dog play with it — good idea I honestly figured that he’d just shred it in 10 minutes or so — like the hedgehog ($8.99 at Petsmart, bastages) he ripped up a few weeks ago, but the strangest thing happened: it is still alive after 4 days! Bogart used to have several stuffed toys as a pup, so perhaps he missed those “companions” and is again adopting a stuffed piece of fabric as his buddy. He had a long tube shaped dog, a frog, a safari monkey, and the aforementioned hedgehog. All of them except the last one lasted for several months — they were hillarious with his walking around and constantly squeaking them. Thank Pete for Tivo though, or there would have been some hiding of that toy so I could actually hear the TV.

So…the chick. This thing is now a disgusting shade of yellow-and-dog spit and is never more than 5 feet away from him. He runs around with it, makes it squeak, tosses it up the air, tackles it and starts all over again. Sometimes he will just carry it into my office and lay there triggering the squeaker. Precious. I’m curious to see how long it will last, perhaps I get to spoil him with fuzzy animal toys again.

P.S He is laying here in the middle of the floor rolling around on his back for no apparent reason. Perhaps an itch he cant scratch or some other primal urge to flop around and look cute.

– Update – It was noted to me that he also has destroyed some very expensive wood & fabric lawn chairs, Murphy’s pet carrier, cardboard boxes (the LARGE ones), his own damned bed and some newspaper. I’m sure I’m still missing a few….fuggin’ garbagegut.

A few weeks ago, I added some pictures to the Gallery:

• Bogart is getting big
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• Rest of the muddy truck pics
• Chicago from the plane during the Knoxville to Minneapolis leg.
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Hey look, Nic has managed to not write anything here in a few weeks again. I guess I am not that active writing here when there is so much to do elsewhere… So, what have I been up to? Lots I tell you, lots! So, in usual form, watch out for flying bullets.

• Work.
  • Wow, what a month. I am continuing to enjoy working for ORNL. As I am attempting to work right now, I’m going to try and not blather on for eternity. If I talk about it, I’ll be forced to not do anything today…again.
• Working out
  • It turns out that Svelte Nic is being a bit more reluctant than I anticipated. Getting old sucks. I’ve since switched gyms to Evolution. I’ve switched mainly because I sometimes need folks to drag me to the gym and the availability of work-out buddies changes during the summer.
  • Evolution kicks ass. Period. Also, drinking protien shakes is lots less painful than it used to be. They even taste good, not like the shredded cardboard of yesteryear.
• Softball
  • Since the move back to Montana, I’ve gotten to do 10K things I’ve been missing for the last 6 years. We are playing city league co-ed ‘D’ league. So far we are doing pretty well. I’m having a ton of fun!
• Girls
  • Ahh, the dilema. How much do I tell, given that some of them might just stumble across this site? I think it more fun to keep y’all guessing…
  • The Lions made an early run and attempted to suck the life out of me with a nubile young decoy, but I managed to fend of the attack through the use of my you-must-be-able-to-at-least-appear-interesting-for-the-first-date defense. The Christians seem to be coming back, with an exquisitely crafted import with a seemingly Siren ability to lure me into beaching my raft. It is quite surprising to see this new level of tatics being used in Billings, it was refreshing to meet similarily equipped warrior as myself. I might just have to revise my reporting to a more positive light, war leaves something to be desired for reporting, but hey, I’m having fun with it, so just go along for now.
  • Alive after 5 proved to be a target rich enviroment. It was fun to see people I’ve not heard from in years, as well as those people I got introduced to.

I think that covers most of the interesting bits, well ok, I’m sure I am forgetting lots of stuff, but I’m lazy and need to work.

I am gonna file this in the ‘funny like Beavis and Butthead’ category, but honestly — getting busted for ‘punching’ or ‘choking’ the monkey? Is PETA going to follow in the steps of the RIAA and file suit against 13 year old boys now ?

Oh yeah — Hi from Tennessee! More on that later…

So… you might have noticed that I’ve failed to update this in a while. Here are the recent events:

• Travis and Charla’s wedding. Wow.
  • Usually a single bloke like me has fun flirting at weddings like these, as there are lots of cute single girls. Not so much with this one — most of the girls there were either “with man” or were bitchy girls I went to High School with. Bummer!
• A nasty cold. Two weeks, one near death and not working. Sucky.
• Trip to Seattle for work, working at Cray.
  • I had forgotten what it was like to work normal office hours. Talk about a treat!

Here are a few pictures that I’ve managed to snap too.

• Bekkah and Bogart. I had Rebekkah here for a morning while Melanie was taking tests for school. That kid is just amazing! Melanie, you are a lucky mom!
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• Mountains somewhere close to Seattle.
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So, I’m starting to learn a few things by having a real pet now.

• I have no patience. I used to, I swear. Sloowly it is coming back.
• I am a sucker for whining. Wuss.
• A dog will make you do the following things that you never thought you would
  • Wake up before 8am.
  • Wake up before 7am to go outside.
  • Wake up at 6am and encourage something to “go potty” or “go poo”
  • Eat meals at regular intervals. I no longer have the luxury of working so hard I forget to eat. The natives get mightly restless.
  • Pick up. Anything. I have had to make the round picking up yard trash, rubber bands, etc. Man, dogs will eat anything!
  • Use newspaper as the greatest floor covering since, I dunno, floors?
  • Walk quietly around the house (that you live in alone I might add) because someone is sleeping.
• It is not all bad, far from it. The great things I’ve noticed:
  • Puppies are soft and fuzzy. Amazing everyone wants to pet them.
  • They are very smart. After a week of positive praise, Bogart is whining and barking to have me take him outside.
  • I am getting fresh air multiple times a day. Whod-a-thunk-it? It is great — I even take extra time at lunch to play with him so that he is good and exercised, not to mention sleeps most of the afternoon.
  • Instant Love, just add Puppy.
  • I enjoy having something/someone around the house. Again.
  • My dog will surely be smarter and kick the snot out of your dog soon.
  • I’ve heard it said that dogs take after their owners =D
  • There is SO much time before noon if you get up before 9am. You can, like, get stuff done.
  • Girls love dogs. Can I take Bogart to the bar ?
  • You can trick puppies into sleeping all afternoon with a rousing game of lunchtime fetch. Too bad I am the one fetching most of the time, but at least he chases it down.