Dirk, Nicole, Scott and I just got back from our most recent ski jaunt to Park City, UT. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we all had a great time hanging out and hitting the slopes.
During this trip I switched from my normal skis to Ski Blades. They're basically a short, half-length ski, which are super agile. This new found agility made it possible for me to try some harder faire on the mountain, namely McConkey's Run, a double black diamond. As you might imagine, it was rather daunting. The top of the run starts as a near-cliff-edge from a blue run that traces the spine of the mountain. Since I'm not suicidal I decided to try an approach that was a bit less steep. We were able to start at the extreme edge of the run and ski diagonally into the main field of moguls. From there we slowly worked our way downwards through the main body of the run. Suprisingly, this was not the hardest skiing we did on the trip. It was perhaps the most unforgiving though, as Nicole and a small boy who nearly rocketed past us on his belly can attest to.
As a part of our obsession with recording our ski-ventures, I made a few movies myself skiing. I thought about recording myself of the double diamond but thought better of it. Instead I recorded myself going down a single diamond run with some moguls and some smooth parts. Here's Naildriver Pt.1
I've recently been contemplating a switch over to purely VoIP services for my home phone. While I have several requirements, there are two really important ones:
Asterisk Support (IAX) - This allows me to run my own PBX in my house. The benefits of doing so can be found here.
e911 Support - Obviously, 911 support. e911 maps your mailing address as the address where emergency personnel should show up when you dial 911.
Out of all the providers listed on VoIP-Info.org's Residential Service Providers list, most do not offer e911, not to mention IAX support. For the ones that do, I decided to do a side by side comparison of them. Here is the fruit of that labor, Cost Savings of VoIP. This is not enough, however, to make a final determination. I'm going to start using the currently listed "cheapest" option, but I have doubts about quality. I'll update this spreadsheet as I get on with this evaluation.
The last month has been, retro-spectively a pretty crapy month. First, my dive trip got cancelled due to high waves in the Gulf, but we didn't find out until we had driven to Houston. Second I got re-ended on the highway and the person who is responsible appears to have a "fly-by night" insurance company, so I'll have to foot my insurance company's deductable. Third, I got an ear infection a week ago that continues to twinge even today (which I also had to eat a deductible, but that one is understandible). And finally I just found out today that I have a whole slew of fraudulent charges on one of my credit/debit cards. Like $2000 worth. I've already started the process to recover that and it looks like that it'll be ok. It's odd that I didn't even think about all this stuff, as a crappy month until a co-worker mentioned that it "hasn't been your month". I guess that even though this kind of stuff sucks it's just not enough to register on my radar. Most people would say that someone who doesn't notice this stuff is either blissfully ignorant or stupidly optimistic. Personally I'd like to think I'm blissfully optimistic.
All the gang started Weight Watchers over the weekend. The intent being, that since we all tend to break the rules together, we can help stick to the rules together as well. The endless mocking and overwhelming sense of disappointment being the only thing really motiviating us, not a real longing to improve our personal health. :)
Weight Watcher's estimate for my target weight is about 33lbs off from my own calculations based on my percent body fat. I calculated that from a Danita scale I own which tells you your weight and body fat percentage. Men are supposed to be at 10% body fat or there-abouts. So given that, my weight divided by 1 plus my fat percentage would give me my total 0% fat muscle, bone and sinue weight, which is already 13 lbs more than the projected weight for my height. I'm guessing that the Weight Watcher table is based off a leaner person with less muscle mass.
So far the requirement to write everything down and record your points plays very well into my type-A tendencies. I'm under budget so far this week, but I can see that if I don't watch my habits I'll fall behind. We'll see how well this goes over after a week passes.
It's been a week or two since I got back from my dive trip to Key Largo, and I've been really bad, and have not posted anything, since my camera is pretty much dead, but I can refer to all my friend's pictures. I had a great time!
With the pictures hung, the cats out and about, and the ethernet networking wired, the place is really starting to feel like home now. Now I rarely feel like I'm in a foreign place, which is much different than the first couple weeks when everything was still a bit chaotic. I still have a long list of stuff to do around the house, of course, such as installing a 1-wire network for a temperature sensor grid, so I can pin point where in the house I need to put the most insulation for energy savings. Home ownership is working out well.
The cats have been rellocated. Figaro and Dorabella are doing well, as much as I could expect anyhow.
During the pick up Dorabella was meowing up a storm, some of that low pitiful stuff, and some really weird calls that almost had a human speech element to them, if you didn't know better you'd think a baby was in cat carrier.
Once I got them home, I opened the creates and let them come out on their own. When they did come out and come over to me, I picked them up and walked them over to the food bowls and then to the litter box and then let them go again. They seemed to have remembered where those things are so far. After they were set free, Figaro roamed the house and settled in under my bed, and Dorabella made a b-line for the computer room (right next to the utility room, where the litter box is). She wedged herself into a corner behind the server and stayed there for a few hours. Eventualy I coaxed her out and gave her some brushing, after which she left that room and went back into hiding in the utility room. I had to make 3 passes through the house before I found her (she's a good hider). Figaro came out later and roamed the whole house again. Later that night, I sat down to watch some TV and noticed some bulges in the curtains. They seems to like the view of back yard at night. I pulled Dorabella out of her hiding place and sat down on the couch and started to calm her down then pet her. She emits these high pitched, whiny meows when I think she feels vulnerable (to predation by...something). Figaro came out on his own and jumped up on the couch making it rather hard to pay attention to the TV, but I'd rather have some quality time with the cats anyway. Even later, when I was brushing my teeth, Figaro come out of the shower and when I went to check to make sure he didn't leave a present in there, Dorabella was there, looking up at me. I guess they were just cooling down on the tub surface.
This morning Dorabella woke me up with a hairball at 5:30am. Once I found her in the bathroom, she started the meow-track for about 10 mintues. She has a keen ability to detect when you're just about asleep and meows again. Once I woke up for real today, I found my closet door open and dorabella on a moderately high shelf, cramped into a corner. Figaro was sunning himself on my window ledge.
It looks like I'll be getting some cats. I'm planning on adopting a pair from a friend of a friend who needs to free up the house in order to make room for a family (they also had 2 dogs). Their names are Figaro and Dorabella. Without getting all cutsy, lets just say that they are quite friendly and I think we'll get along just fine. I'll post pictures on Saturday or Sunday, after they've acclimated to the new settings.
