El Blog de Jamie

April 30, 2008

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• I've apparently gone a little Thetis happy. See this new background? Well I am currently using it everywhere that I have some sort of online presence as well as the desktop on both of my computers. I'm doing this for a very simple reason: I love it. It's my happy place. ::siiiiiigh::

• I went to Jazz Fest in New Orleans last weekend and it was really fun. I invited my mom to go and we had a blast despite the fact that it was pouring almost the entire time. It was great to hang with my mom - I was reminded that I come by my night owledness honestly as she was right there with me until the wee hours both nights/mornings. Driving around the French Quarter was fun and not easy. Saturday night after we saw the Benevento Russo Duo at Preservation Hall, at about 2:30 AM we walked across a good part of the French Quarter (from St. Peter to Frenchman, if ya ken). It was eerily quiet but also pretty cool.
  I'm pretty sure that some day this week I will fully recover from the trip. I just haven't yet.

• I'm currently teaching myself Ruby and have been writing lots of little pointless programs in hopes that it will one day lead to me writing lots of big and meaningful programs. I may unleash some of them here some time soon. Get the snacks ready, it'll be an event.

• I'm thinking about switching to WordPress. Mainly because I'm a total follower and a little because this outdated, free version of Movable Type isn't going to be practical for much longer.

• I'm planning to go to Joystix this Friday. I'm trying to be calm because I really don't want to asplode with excitement before I even get to go but it is not easy.

• Also, holy crap, Radiohead will be here in a little over 2 weeks!!!

  
  

  Posted by Jamie at 11:25 PM | Comments (1)

  April 10, 2008

  Limozeen and iCarly

  I completely should have been in the crowd in the video below, but I couldn't be there because it was like in Georgia or something.
  

  Limozeen please come to Houston!!!

  
  
  
  
  

  Also, on an altogether not related note ... I've recently realized that I'm probably entirely too into the show iCarly.
  
  It's a kids show on Nickelodeon and I can't help it, I think it is completely hilarious and wonderful and I secretly wish for iCarly marathons to come on all the time. It's fine. Right? Fortunately the kiddos love it too so we have lots of good cathode ray enhanced family time because of this show.
  

  Posted by Jamie at 09:00 PM | Comments (4)

  April 06, 2008

  Sunday News

  I'm an Aunt! Again!! Yay!!!
  Check out my new nephew Greyson James:
  
  

  
  
  Look at him! He RULES!! And today he is 1 day old.

  
  You know what does NOT rule? Having to do your own somewhat involved plumbing repair. As in, cutting holes in sheetrock, evaluating and repairing water damage and also fixing the leaky shower system parts that started it all. I've enlisted my stepfather to help with the plumbing repair. He has lots of tools and some mad repair skillz so we will be fixing that this week. So many repairs ... maybe I should just give up the whole becoming a programmer dream and become a fix-it lady. In addition to the big entry I did about the dinette, some other repairs I've made around the house lately are: repaired broken cabinetry in the kitchen, replaced a bedroom doorknob (that I had to break off with a hammer because we didn't have the key nor did we have time to wait for a locksmith - that was awesome), and today I am going to try to figure out some light fixture issues I have in a few rooms. Hopefully I won't electrocute myself.

  Also, we found this:
  

  
  Hope we find his owners soon!
  **UPDATE: We found the owners! He belongs to ... uh, our next door neighbors. I know what you're thinking and you're right; we couldn't BE any closer to our neighbors. I have no idea what their names are nor was I aware that they had a puppy. I'm just thrilled that we found the owner. Thrilled! :)
  

  Posted by Jamie at 03:28 PM | Comments (1)

  March 21, 2008

  Giving Credit Where It Isn't Due

  So we've been using this rickety dinette at my house for maybe a year or so. It was cheap and originally purchased to be a quick replacement for a much nicer set I had that had big heavy, bulky chairs that were hard for the kids to move. I thought I'd sell the nice set, get some $$ and eventually reinvest in something nicer and more permanent. Well the selling thing never happened.

  As time went by the rickety set was really starting to get on my nerves. It was severely craptastic. Suddenly it occurred to me that I should just fix the chair problem on the nice dinette, keep it, and 86 the annoying one. Brilliant, I know - too bad it took me a year to figure this out.

  So today I fixed-up the chairs, it was a little more involved than just affixing gliders, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I decided that I would just put the craptastic set out on the corner for large trash pick-up tomorrow. I couldn't in good conscience sell it after all - I paid $99 for the whole set new. The screws keep falling out of the chairs and the cushions on the chairs are so thin that the chair screws poke up through them and stab you in the legs. It's seriously hideous. Pretty, but dangerous.

  So I began taking the craptastic set to the curb. The first car that drove by stopped and asked me if I was getting rid of it. I hadn't even finished getting it all out there yet. I said yes and they said they'd be back in a bit. I kept my eye out for them as I wanted to be sure to tell them all about it so they'd know what to expect. I fully expected them to leave it there after I showed them all of the things that are wrong with it, and that would have been fine. But as it turns out she, a cool neighbor that recently moved in, wanted it anyway. She said she really appreciated me giving it to her and that she is a big believer of paying it forward - which she apparently decided I was doing with the dinette.

  This made me think about the idea of paying something forward. I've always thought of that as kind of a random act of kindness that you do in hopes that the recipient of the act will commit another random act of kindness for someone else. I just really wanted to be rid of that nasty dinette set, I had no intentions of this being something good for anyone else. Actually I'm pretty sure she did me a bigger favor than I did her. Or maybe an equal favor at least, but it feels wrong in this case to be associated with the self-less giving that goes along with the pay it forward concept. Right??

  Okay, enough pondering ... I need to get back to Planning. And reading. And to help with the reading, here is a lovely little reading aide ensuring I will never get any sleep for ... maybe for-ever. :::shudder:::

  Posted by Jamie at 02:47 PM | Comments (7)

  March 18, 2008

  Cleaning

  Cleaning cleaning cleaning cleaning cleaning cleaning cleaning...

  No idea why.

  Gotta go.

  Posted by Jamie at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)