Doug's Sounding Board

My main goal this past weekend was to finally re-claim the tv room. That didn’t quite happen, but I got a lot of stuff put away so the majority of floor space is available again and I’ll be able to vacuum it tonight to start on the last of the cleaning.

I was also able to repair almost all the damage to the irrigation system so most of the plants should be getting water again. There is still more work beyond the repairs, mainly in setting up drip rings for the trees and drip lines for the bamboo so they start getting enough water. After that I can evaluate whether I need to split the system for different watering needs.

I also chose the two “deadly” chocolate recipes I’m going to make for Mortal Chocolate. The Chantico Death Cake and Carol’s Chocolate Death Cookies.

All caught up on everyone’s pages. Not everyone in the world, just the ones I normally read.

Tami was visiting and she likes horror movies and thrillers and movies about serial killers and such. So we ended up seeing those types of movies while she was here. I like just about anything so that was fine with me.

The Number 23 I wanted to see because 23 is my favorite number, but not for any connection to the movie. The efforts the main character goes through to come up with the number 23 get more rediculous as the movie goes on and I wasn’t caring about any of the characters by the time the end came around. I liked the visual separation of the story within the story, and I liked Virginia Madsen, but overall it was disappointing.

Black Snake Moan we saw even though it isn’t a horror movie because Tami likes Samuel L Jackson. The music was good and the scene with title song that the movie was built around was a joy to watch. The Aside from that the movie kind of meanders but stays entertaining all the way though.

Zodiac was easily the best movie we saw all week. We say a 9:30 showing and even though it is 2 hours 40 minutes is was engaging until the end. Definitely see this one.

Dead Silence was the only real horror movie we saw but I didn’t find it scary or tense. It’s a pretty decent ghost story and the effects were good. I really enjoyed the travelling scene changes and Donnie Wahlberg as the detective. The ending was well done too I thought. The scares for me at least weren’t there. The jump scares were in predictable places.

Nicole and I wanted to see Wild Hogs because the trailer was funny. The movie was funny too except for the sappy buddy buddy part towards the end, but I saw it coming so it wasn’t so bad. John Travolta lots some weight and is looking pretty good again too.

Tami arrived back home yesterday, and I returned to work today. That makes for a more structured, but less entertaining day. In more exciting news, I had a hard drive failure on my desktop machine at home and with a little time here and there during Tami’s visit, and a little consultation with Eli, Anne, and Ben, I was able to get a new drive and get all but a few e-mail messages salvaged.

I was most concerned about Opera’s data since that’s also my e-mail reader and note keeper. I didn’t realize how much I had in there. Quicken was the easiest to restore and Trillian was a little tricky, but not too bad.

Next up is installing the sound card drivers, the extra IDE drivers, and catching up on everyone’s pages so I know what’s going on in everyone’s lives.

I wish I had graphics skills or a chocolate themed version of the Mortal Kombat theme, but oh well…

Date: Sunday, April 1, the day before Passover starts
Time: 6:30PM

Making something is not a requirement for attending, but if you feel inclined, I would like for people to make a recipe found here and bring it for all to judge its deadliness. Previous winners have the round they won next to them and items italicized are not deadly enough. If you see a recipe you would like to make, please let me know so I can put your name next to it to help avoid duplicates.

This time I’d like all recipes there by 7PM to start the tasting. Last time late entries didn’t get tasted as much since people were chocolated out.

It looks like the Diebold voting machine division is taking a step towards going away.

It’s still a novelty for me and it shows that the allergy shots are working. Today I had to walk home and back to get my spare scooter charger. I managed to walk the 6-mile round trip at 4 miles per hour and I was able to breathe through my nostrils the entire time and still get enough air! That’s something that’s never happened before.

In preparation for Nicole’s brother and his wife visit two weekends ago, we put a new faucet in the other bathroom, put in a new towel rack, and fixed the bathroom vanity door (that I broke when it broke my fall). Unfortunately they didn’t end up coming but those are in place for others, like when Tami comes to visit next week. Also, sometime this week a service will be coming out to pull all the weeds (mostly grasses) since they exploded after the rain.

At Nicole’s mom’s house we went to Sacramento to paint more this past weekend. We got two coats of paint on two of the bedrooms, got the bathroom cleaned up, got two coats of paint on the living room, finished painting the dining room, and we got a single coat on the kitchen. Preping the kitchen was pretty time consuming with all the lines and the mess to clean up under the microwave and refrigerator, and the countertop needing to be re-caulked. Dean & Marcia cleaned up the kitchen and the garage and got one of the bedroom lights working and are workign on fixing the garage door opener.

Next Sunday we go up for finishing touches and another coat of paint on the kitchen.

I just finished this book last night. Troy Denning knows how to tell an engaging story and is good at getting into the emotional state of Star Wars characters. Which really makes the endings land well. This one is no exception and now I’m really looking forward to what happens next. I don’t think the tensions between characters are any higher than after the last book but they are better directed and more personal.

The grand opening appears to be today, but I’m thinking with the wind and rain that will get rescheduled. Anyway, I like that they made it look like a beach. Most of it is a mottled sandy color with a big cylinder painted like a curling wave. I should remember to take a digital camera with be for pictures.