KINSTAPATION: (noun) The disruption of the normal flow of things brought on by the presence of one's family.

So I survived the week-long visit from my family. It was a lot of fun, but I was am awfully gald to be dropping back into the old routine.

Still no roommate. We've got one prospect coming back for a second visit tonight so we'll see how that goes.

Last night was the first night our team didn't reach its weekly goal. We knocked off at 3:00am still fifty bugs off the mark. I suppose I should feel guilty for going dancing from nine to midnight in the middle of the effort, but I don't :-). Slept in till 11:00am and then went consignment shopping on a random whim before going to work.

I love not having to explain myself to anyone.

"Don'choo do me
 No damn favors
 Ah-I don't know ka-rate
 But I know ca-RA-zy!!!"
    James Brown, The Big Payback

Right. So I'm sitting a meeting* today that started with a really cool demo of one of the features I'm working on, proceeded to a Question and Answer session, and then ultimatly spiraled into a screaming match between several people. And a good time was had by none.

High school kids are dying mysteriously in central PA. My family just rolled into town so I ask my dad (who works for the PA state health department) what was going on. He didn't have any insider information. I should have known. Dentists are always the last to know.

Its 1:43am and we just met our goal. Time to get my sleep on. G'night.

*meeting: noun, from the Latin root meaning "Several people wasting time together"

ASCII Poem (4.00 / 1) (#102)
by Euan Fernsler on Tue May 14th, 2002 at 04:53:42 PM EST
(euan@fernsler.com) http://www.fernsler.com/euanandkaren/

Simply saying 'Hi, I'm happy' isn't enough:

<> ! * ' ' #
^ " ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * <> ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , system halted

<Translation>
(Say it out loud)
waka waka bang splat tick tick hash
caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash
bang splat equal at dollar under-score
percent splat waka waka tilda number four
ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash
vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma crash
</Translation>

"So I've been thinking about my future wife lately and how slack she's been about getting in touch with me."
    ????

Bug night. We're about fifty bugs away from our goal so its going to be a fairly long night. It certainly is bringing us together as a team more, which is very cool. Office Data Core devs unite!

I almost got hit by errant golf balls on two consecutive holes on Sunday, and if that wasn't weird enough I actually got hit in the gut by a ball (off the bounce thankfully) on the very next hole. It was really surreal because people actually do yell "FORE!". Unfortunately they wait until the ball is whizzing by your head or plunging into you abdomen.

"When you wake up early in the morning
 Feeling sad like so many others do
 Hum a littls soul.. make life feel gold
 And surely something's gotta come to you
 And you gotta say its alright"
    Huey Lewis and The News, Its Alright

So much to say, so much to say.Roommate search looking up: top prospect (in my mind) is a fellow named Ever(sp?) from China. A lot of the people who have come calling are people in their forties who are currently going through a divorce. I'm not saying I'm not a supporting person, but I think Carl and I were hoping for another young and somewhat fun-loving person without a psychotic Ex.

Speaking of Carl... the guy is like an onion: countless levels. He's got a subscription to this theater series at some upscale theaters in downton Seattle. He couldn't round up a date for a show on Saturday so he took me (second row seats). It was Moring Becomes Electra featuring Jane Alexander (I think). I was really impressed. The play itself was like a bad soap opera, but the cast! I've never seen anything but amature theater before this so I was pretty amazed by the whole thing.

We finally had some nice weather out here. It was in the low eighties today so it was all golf and lawn mowing for me (sunburned? you betcha). Went dancing and saw the girl I keep almost but not quite asking out. She said we should get together next weekend (!), but... I'm out of town. Then my folks are in town the next weekend. Ah well... I suppose I could just get myself arrested down in her county if i was really desparate, but I think that would be a pretty lame (albiet memorable) first date.

Have a fabulous week.

"Don't let the past
 Remind us of what we are
 Not now."
    CSNY, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

The roommate search is bleak. The first few we spoke to consisted of a guy who had paid his debt to society, a guy who seemed to think he was Don Johnson from Miami Vice, and a guy who thought Carl and I were gay. Two of them told us how long they had been sober. The search goes on...

My ex rommate Susan is now happily married. The ceremony was beautiful, but the reception was kind of dead. Oh well... it was her party anyway.

Carl and I missed the ferry to Bremerton on the way to the wedding so we had to drive around the sound. We got to go accross the Tacoma Narrows bridge (the one that previously shook itself apart). I remember my first engineering class where we had to read about all these classic engineering blunders. The general message was: when you screw up it reflects badly on your college so don't #$%^ing make us look bad you little snots!

Microsoft's stock is now worth less than $50 per share (which is better than Nortel: they're under $3) so I'm trying to help the economy. I bought two mirrors, a really cool queen sized futon, and three CDs. I was tord about buying the CDs, but six years of guilt over pirating music finally caught up with me. Fortunatly most people's taste in music sucks so I got some good stuff cheap: Louis Prima, The Clash, and Boston.

Office is renting a movie theater for its employees next Thursday for a 12:01am showing of Star Wars Episode 2. We're planning on going straight from work. Damn it feels good to be a geek.

"I've been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding
 The cretins cloning and feeding
 And I don't even own a tv"
    Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta

There's a saying here in the Emerald City that summers in Seattle are the reward you get for living here the rest of the year. We had a couple of days earlier this week that prooved that statement to be oh so true.

And now its raining again. *SIGH*

Went to see Barrage last weekend with Dan and Carl. It was a good show and has spawned a rather happy accident. I originally bought the third ticket for someone who wound up going out of town. Feeling bold I decided to invite Lisa, the girl I'm too scared to ask out. All I had was her email address so I sent her an invite and never heard back. Saw her out dancing Sunday and she didn't mention it so I figured she was politely saying "Um, thanks but no thanks." Cool I can respoect that. Then on Monday, I get an email from her saying she was out of town, that she would have loved to have gone, and that in the future I should just call her. So in a very roundabout way I finally got her number.

Cool :-)

PS - tried that Special K: Red Berries cereal. Seems like Lucky Charms for people who like to pretend they're eating healthy. Fortunatly for me I don't really give a rip how (un)healthy I'm eating. The men in my family don't get fat until their forties. :-)