Category Archives: General

"Roll Your Own", General, Sports, Uncategorized

(Fast) Slow Week

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Quite a bit of action on the work front this time of year, and not nearly as much at home.  I have been ruminating on a few topics I’m anxious to share with you soon, up to and including a return of the podcast for the 2009-10 season.

One thing I did at home this week was to install the DD-WRT firmware on my router.  It’s got a much more robust feature set than the stock firmware, and I haven’t dug into everything that it can do yet.  Best thing I’ve found so far, though: support for zoneedit.com.  To you, dear reader, that will mean less down time on those occasions when my IP changes and I’m not at home…

Other than that, take a look at the Milwaukee gallery for some shots I took at a baseball game with the Schrubbe boys a couple weeks ago.  We had really good seats!

General, Uncategorized

Winding Down the Summer

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Michelle and I were originally supposed to be out of town this weekend for StoryhillFest-Midwest, but the plan fell through (mainly for financial reasons).  We ended up being at home in Milwaukee instead.

No complaints here: we had dinner together on Friday and just relaxed at home making some plans for the weekend.

Saturday, we each had some chores to take care of around the house before a shopping excursion to a couple of area malls.  After that, we went to Atwater Park for a while just to enjoy the beach and the view.  That night, we made a meal at my house and watched a movie.

On Sunday, we took a ride out to Lake Geneva to go to the beach.  The weather was cool and overcast over there, but the water was still pretty nice.  We ate an early dinner at a place called Popeye’s, near the lake, and then we had some ice cream as we mozied out of town.  We were getting back in the car just as Prince Fielder hit his walk-off homerun to salvage a victory against the Giants.

Sunday evening, Steph S had a house “warming” party (albeit 7 months late), and when that died down, Michelle invited the bulk of the party goers over to her place.  We hung out, had some drinks, ordered some food, and played games until about 3AM.

I’ve got more to do around the house again today, but I’m really hoping we can get out and enjoy the last day of a beautiful Labor Day weekend.  It’s been a very relaxed, easy-going unofficial end to summer…

General, Uncategorized

A Little Shift In Diet

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six days worth of snacking
six days worth of snacking

Ever since I’ve been working back in Oshkosh, I’ve noticed that I get really hungry several times a day.  It’s probably had something to do with my relatively poor diet– a lot of empty-calorie foods that are doing nothing for me but making me fat.  I had talked about it, but finally decided today I would go to the store and try to add some protien and fiber to my diet.  Not only should it help make me a little healthier, it should save time because I won’t be so goddamn hungry all day.

Bulk nuts and mixes are EXPENSIVE.  But the trail mix is nothing compared to unsalted bulk cashews.  I spent a little less than 12 dollars and got a little more than 2.5 lbs of food.  Maybe it’ll turn out OK, though– I was hungry on my way home, so I admit to digging in to each of the three varieties that I later mixed all together.  What remained I split up into 6 ziploc bags.  I figure one bag a day should keep me satisfied.

I really think it will; after I finished mixing up my nuts and raisins and whatnot, I looked in the fridge, shrugged and thought, “y’know, I’m not even hungry anymore.”

General, Uncategorized

Mint and My Paranoia

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If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware that I am something of a nutbar about digital security and the dangers of the Internet.  Maybe it’s just because I read enough scary stories about it, or at least scary comments about it, that keeps the vast majority of my private or even quasi-private info OFF-line.

This is why the incredible convenience of spilling your virtual guts to some strange server you’ll never meet drives me insane.

Case in point (and one that I think of around the first of every month) is Mint.com.  This is not the first time I’ve brought it up, and I’m sure I haven’t heard the last of it, either.  I may have been moved to action over the summer when Gina Trapani brought up her struggles with handing a THIRD PARTY YOUR BANKING PASSWORDS in a blog post.  It really sounded like she had similar security concerns and comparable complaints about the inefficiencies of her previous system.  That, and the tools within the Mint service seem pretty tough to beat.

I still need to talk myself into it, or get someone to offer additional endorsement, but I’m going to strongly consider the Mint option.  After all, I was willing to concede my email server to the Googles after a 4.5-day Internet outage at my house, and I’m contemplating a more tangible presence on Facebook, so maybe I’m warming up to the idea of my personal 1’s and 0’s flying aroudn the tubes.

I have a lot of reading to do with Mint’s privacy policies and data storage methods, but maybe it will save me some time next month and in the future.

General, Uncategorized

A Recipe Your Wife Or Girlfriend Might Not Enjoy

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Michelle came over tonight for a screening of State Fair and a ‘state fair smorgasbord’ of corn on the cob, fresh, lightly salted sliced tomatoes and cucumber, and sloppy joes.  I concocted the sloppies myself, and I have to say I enjoyed them quite a bit (can’t say the same for Michelle; they had a little too much kick for her).  If you have the ingredients handy, maybe you want to give them a try:

  • one pound of lean ground beef
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 TSP chipotle seasoning
  • 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
  • 1/8 – 1/4 cup of Secret Stadium Sauce or your favorite sweet/tangy ketchup alternative

Brown your meat, drain the fat.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add 1/2 cup water and chipotle.  Stir in until mixed evenly.  Add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce.  Stir again, mixing evenly.  Add Stadium Sauce and stir.  Simmer, stirring occasionally until most of the water has evaporated (your meat should start to stick together a bit).  Serve on a bun, or like we did, on a GARLIC BREAD BUN.

Tasty!

General, Uncategorized

Vote for Wordy

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Here’s a copy of an email I just got from Wordell:

Hi Everyone,

I’m entered in the National Geographic Traveler World In Focus Photography Contest, and I need your votes for the People’s Choice favorites.  I’d be honored if you could take a few moments to vote for this shot:
http://www.worldinfocuscontest.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1006813778

You can only vote once per email address, but if you’d like to browse and/or vote for any of my other shots, search by photographer name on this page:
http://www.worldinfocuscontest.com/bin/Rate

Thank you so much, and don’t be shy about sharing these with your friends and co-workers!

Ryan

Looks like the deadline is today, so go ahead and git ‘er done ASAP.

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Recap of the Weekend

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I accomplished nearly everything on my list from Saturday.  Got some equipment for my shelf-hanging extravaganza, but didn’t finish it because the screws I had for mounting are too big.  Michelle has some smaller ones at her house that should work well.

Our Sunday-funday on the boat was time well-spent.  We dressed ourselves and the boat up in pirate regalia and tooled around Pewaukee Lake.  We actually might have spent more time anchored in the middle and swimming around in the water, but it never hurts to get a little exercise with your booze-crusin’.

Some buddies of one of our friends just happened to find us by luck out on the lake.  Michelle rode in with them on a tube when the day was done.  She looked pretty proficient out there (I admit I was a little concerned, what with the imbibing that happened throughout the day).

We finished up the evening hanging out at Lisskingard Palace on Dousman and ate some pizza from Toppers.  We caught a little bit of the ‘Miss Universe’ pageant, and I was floored by how young some of the contestants were.  Overall, it was a good day.

One byproduct of the weeeknd: I have an unusually large quantity of Corona in bottles in my fridge now, if anyone cares to stop by and enjoy them.  In addition, if you are Amish, would like to pretend to be Amish, or simply find the Amish intriguing (or good bakers), Michelle would love to share some very friendly bread with you.

That is all.

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A Rare Saturday At Home

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I can’t remember the last time I was at my house on a Saturday.  I have a bunch of things I’d like to accomplish.  We’ll see how far I get down this list:

  • put away all the dishes
  • put away all the clothes
  • take stuff to the basement that needs to be in storage
  • get rid of old computer junk
  • hang new shelves in the kitchen
  • Get laptop audio working to a point where I could actually do a podcast again before I die
  • 1 load of laundry

Tomorrow, Michelle and I will on a pontoon on Pewaukee lake.  Should be fun!  What are you up to for the weekend?

General, Uncategorized

On the Road Again

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I have meticulously logged every tank of gas and mile that I’ve driven on my car since I started working in Oshkosh again.  160 miles a day is a lot, and I wanted to be able to anticipate fuel consumption, cost, etc., at the beginning of the month when I get my hard-earned monies.


 DATE GALLONS ODO READING MPG PRICE PER GAL TOTAL $$ PER MILE LOCATION
06/01/09 10.85900 369.20000 33.99945 2.69900 29.31 0.0794 BP, WI & OH
06/03/09 11.33700 369.50000 32.59240 2.74900 31.17 0.0843 BP, 20th & SP
06/05/09 9.50000 341.10000 35.90526 2.77900 26.40 0.0774 FLEET FARM
06/09/09 11.84700 381.30000 32.18536 2.78900 33.04 0.0867 RENEW
06/11/09 9.56000 348.80000 36.48536 2.77900 26.57 0.0762 BOB’S
06/15/09 11.59800 398.10000 34.32488 2.73900 31.77 0.0798 BP, 20th & SP
06/17/09 11.88500 420.30000 35.36390 2.79900 33.27 0.0791 MOBIL, CAP & DWNR
06/21/09 10.62200 348.10000 32.77161 2.71900 28.88 0.0830 RIVERSIDE BP, CAPTL
06/24/09 12.79500 433.40000 33.87261 2.67900 34.28 0.0791 RENEW
06/26/09 11.39600 371.00000 32.55528 2.64900 30.19 0.0814 RENEW
06/29/09 9.48100 303.60000 32.02194 2.60900 24.74 0.0815 RENEW
TOTALS 120.88000 4084.40000 33.78888 2.72666 329.60 0.0807

This is sort of what those charts look like.  I’m breaking it down by month, and then I’ll probably average those figures out quarterly, or over the course of the year, what have you.

I had a really light July with all the traveling we did and days off that I took.  Still, up to this point, I’ve put 10,197 miles on the vehicle since 6/1.  I was thinking it over this afternoon, and I’m not going to crack 100,000 miles on the car before January 1.  But it’ll be close.

I feel OK about the mileage as long as I’m taking care of the car (and I am).  I was actually imagining how interesting it would be to still be driving this car when it flips 200, 250, or 300.  I figure cars these days will last a while, especially if they’re not that old as you pile the miles on.  In my limited observation, the cars that have historically had trouble are the ones that actually used less, because maintenance slips your mind, or they sit around in the elements to rust out and fluids to dry up, that sort of thing.

If I end up doing this commuting for a long while, though, I will be glad to pick up one of these badboys when they come down in price.