Ultranormal

  • 2003.12.07 Dublin: Day One

    We made it! It took two planes, a dozen super-long lines at Heathrow, some confusion, the world’s funniest cab driver, and some luck, but here we are. Dublin is great. Everyone we’ve met so far has been friendly and helpful, and the city has a great vibe to it.

    The pictures are online from our first day.

    Ok, what can I tell you before I have to go jump in the shower… Well, here are a couple tips. First, TV in the Alexander Hotel pretty much sucks. But, MTV Europe rules. They play videos and everything! And they’re not the bubblegum crap we have in the States. I’ve seen Snow Patrol, The Darkness, and the School of Rock video since turning it on, along with a bunch of other interesting stuff (like a song by a former Spice Girl that doesn’t suck!). Second, and more importantly, if you have to change terminals in Heathrow Airport, don’t fool around thinking that you have enough time to do anything else. Get there. You’ll have to go through no less than three confusing lines, and follow a dozen unintelligible signs. Good luck.

    I didn’t sleep at all on the plane. There was no way to get comfortable, so I watched Seabiscuit (good), and 2 Fast 2 Furious (horrible) and tried to read. International business class is awesome. I highly recommend it if you can get your company to spring for it.

    If you go to Dublin, talk to your cab driver. Our cab driver was short, red, hairy and hilarious. He was a driving confirmation of every stereotype I came into the country with. Thankfully, everyone else I’ve met since arriving has nullified a lot of those, but man, he was the best introduction to Ireland I could think of.

    Ok, I’m gonna shower, get dressed, and consider going downstairs to get a traditional Irish breakfast. Toodles.

  • The Single Greatest Post Ever

    Jon has a peculiar writing style. I assure you, it shows up in his speech too, which is why I love him, and want to have his alien wrestler love babies. His post about the stuff he got from Japan is the single greatest post on any blog, ever.

    And I’m all packed except for socks and toiletries. You’d think I’d have done socks first, considering I have so many of them. I have plane tickets, a passport, clean underpants, shirts, pants, and a sinus infection. Oh, and there’s four inches of snow on the ground and more expected. Let’s travel!

    On that note, I never thought I’d say, “I’m flying to Dublin to escape the weather,” but I did.

  • I Do Stuff

    I’m at work today, and loving every minute of it – really. Sudafed and Exedrin are keeping me awake, and I’ve finally got my plane tickets for Saturday. I do feel a lot better than I did yesterday, but I’m still far from “normal” (OK, “normal” for me…). I’m probably running at about 60, and hoping that the percentage increases to at least 85 by Saturday afternoon.

    I didn’t accomplish much in my two days at home. I am kind of proud that I finished all the special features on Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean, and most of them on X2. I also gained four or five levels in Kingdom Hearts. Yeah, I’m a doer…

    I think I’m going to go home now. I’m exhausted. Toodles.

  • Why????

    What a perfect time to get a sinus infection!! I’m supposed to get on a plane in about 72 hours to fly across the Atlantic… Perfect time to have clogged sinuses.

    I’ve been home for work for two days, missed a deadline, and still feel unwell. But, I’ll still be at work tomorrow in meetings and completing that thing that was due yesterday. Wheeee!!

  • A Dublining I Will Go

    My passport was finished and mailed out on 11/25, which means it should be here any day (any day before my trip would be perfect). I’m so excited that I can almost live with the cold I’ve had for three days, a deadline fast approaching amid numerous distractions (like sinus pain, documents and meetings), a sick kid (who sounds like a mini Joe Cocker at the moment), and a growing list of things to pack.

    In doing some research for the trip, I realized that Dublin has almost the same weather this time of year as D.C., so no new wardrobe will be needed. I just have to remember to take walking shoes and an umbrella. I just realized that I can leave my keys behind, which is weird. I’m so used to having the weight of them in my front pocket that I’m sure I’ll walk funny for a couple days until I get my “keyless legs”.

    I’ve got three guide books (the DK Ireland book, Lonely Planet’s Ireland bood, and a pocket map book). I’ve read the Dublin sections of the first two multiple times, and looked at the map book over a dozen times now. I’m tired of reading about stuff – I just want to get there. I’ve got my reading material for the plane (appropriately, The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke and Right as Rain by George Pellecanos – I hear it rains a lot in Dublin), the power adapter for the laptop (thanks, Robin!), a schedule, a flight (plane tickets coming Wednesday I think), a hotel room (in the very chichi sounding Alexander), plans and a couple hundred hours to kill before I get on the plane…

  • The World’s Greatest Pot Roast

    Because someone asked how I made my perfect roast, I figured I’d share my recipe. This recipe is for a 5 quart crockpot. If you have a smaller one, use enough to fill up your crockpot and that’s it. If you don’t have a crockpot… why not? Go get one, now! So, here goes:

    Ingredients:

    • 1 \~5 pound beef roast

    • 5 – 6 medium sized potatos

    • 12-18 mini carrots

    • 5 large stalks of celery from the outside of a celery bunch (don’t buy the celery hearts, get the real stuff. The stalks on the outside have a stronger flavor.

    • 1 smallish red onion

    • 1 smallish yellow onion

    • 2 beef boullion cubes

    • 1 vegetable boullion cubes

    First, dissolve one cube of beef boullion and the vegetable cube in two cups of boiling water. In a glass baking dish or large bowl, put the roast in, and pour in the two cups of broth. The roast shouldn’t be completely covered by the broth. Now, cover the top in a healthy dose of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cover the dish and put in the fridge for at least two hours (mine was in overnight).

    While your roast is marinating, let’s do potatos. Wash them, and then chop them up into 2-by-2 inch chunks (cubes are for the French… rest assured, they’ll be yummy no matter what the shape). Then, take the long celery stalks, wash them, and then cut to fit in the bottom of the crockpot (I just had to break them in half). Skin your onions and chop off the ends.

    Dissolve the last beef boullion cube in one cup boiling water, set aside for now.

    In a large skillet pour about two tablespoons of olive oil and turn on to high heat. When the oil just starts to smoke, take the roast out of the marinade and drop it in the skillet (then step back). Turn heat down to medium high, and brown on one side for five minutes, then flip and brown it for five more minutes. Turn off the heat and let the roast rest for a minute.

    Here’s the fun part. line the bottom of the crockpot with the celery stalks, then enough carrots to cover the bottom. Now, take the roast out of the skillet and plop it into the crockpot on top of the carrots and celery. Cram your two onions between the roast and the side of the pot, and then dump in your potatos. Your potatos shouldn’t be so high they’re overflowing (your top should fit snugly). Right before you turn your crockpot on and put the lid on, pour the beef broth over the whole thing.

    Turn your crockpot on high, and leave alone for no less than 5 hours (I think mine was in for 7 or 8). When it’s done cookin’, plop the whole mess, minus the celery on a big platter and serve. You’ll freakin’ love it.

  • Hi, Nice to Meet You

    I’m off being social and planning for my trip (waiting patiently for my passport, buying touristy books about Dublin, trying to figure out what the weather is like in Eastern Ireland in early December, putting together a shopping list, and trying to find things to do with the 18 hours of touristy time we’ll have there). I’m really excited about the trip, can you tell?

    Now the social bit… I realized something rather important about myself while driving around the beltway with half a ton of grain in the back of my truck. I was talking to a guy from church who was in the Army for a looong time about growing up moving around all the time. He said, “Well, I guess then you view all your relationships as temporary then, don’t you?” Ummmm, huh? I what? I… well, yeah… I do, don’t I? It’s caused a tidal wave of emotion as I look back over my life at all the friends I’m unceremoniously forgotten about as soon as I left a place. It was a shock to my system, to say the least.

    So, what am I doing about it? I’m trying to actually build relationships outside of my family. We had a family over for dinner after church on Sunday (I made a roast to end all roasts, no one needs to even bother anymore. I made the best roast EVER), we hosted a dinner party a few weeks ago, and we’ve been invited over for dinner this week to someone else’s house. I realized that I’ve been more introverted than I want to be. I’m working on changing that… So, as I spend more time in meatspace, and on nonDependant, I may spend less time here. I know you’re all disappointed.

  • Creepy Animals I’m Glad Don’t Exist

    If you’re into crazy animals that don’t exist, but are extremely well imagined, you should hightail it over to Uncommon Creatures. It’s fantasmagorical!!

    Whatever the inverse of insomnia is, I have it. I can get to sleep just fine, but I’m waking up too early. It’s been happening for about a week, and is really starting to bug me. My brain says I’m still tired and want to go back to sleep, but the body says to forget that and get up. I don’t get it. Since it’s Friday, I may go crazy and try some NyQuil. I need to get more sleep… more sleep… more sleep….

  • The Crack of Dawn

    I’ve been waking up extremely early the past few days. Instead of spending extra time in the shower or eating breakfast at home, I just come into work as I normally do. Only, when I get here, I’m all alone. No one shows up in my buddy list, and I have very little e-mail to get through. I start working earlier, and feel like I’m pretty much done with everything by noon. Not that I am… maybe I mean I’m “finished” for the day.

    Work has gotten more complex this week. I have a very large (but very cool) project that has to go to QA soon, a trip out of the country to prepare for (new credit card for business expenses, signing up for frequent flier program, international power supply for the Powerbook, customs to learn, self-preparation for the amount of smoke I’m going to inhale, etc), documents to write and a world to take over (my boss has given me permission to conquer the world… which is at once cool and daunting). Oh, and there’s nonDependant to look after and make sure it doesn’t die before it even really gets started. Let’s not forget Church… Or my family. Ok, when I said I could do “more”, I’m not sure this is what I had in mind.

    I also installed Panther this week. I’ll spare you the full review, but I like it. It’s peachy-keen and if you have a Mac, you should install it too.

  • Can I Do Anything For You?

    To the best of my recollection this is the exact transcript of a conversation I had with my wife last night:

    • Jen: Can I do anything for you?

    • Kevin: Nope, I’m good.

    • Jen: But I love you so much, I want to show how much I love you by doing something for you.

    • Kevin: I love you too, but really, you do enough already. You’re carrying our baby, you take care of Max and make sure I know you love me. That’s enough.

    • Jen: Come on, there has to be something.

    • Kevin: Ok, can you pick up my prescriptions tomorrow?

    • Jen: Maybe

    • There is a short pause as Kevin looks at Jen, expressionless, waiting…

    • Jen: HEEEEEEE-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (rinse, repeat for at least five minutes)

    • Kevin: HAW-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (ditto)

    Honestly, who could ask for anything more than that?