Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in rolanddem's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Monday, November 30th, 2009
5:39 pm	Off to the land of Moo In Ok City for most of the week. Kyna would have loved to have been on my flight. She could have been a flight medic.... Never really got the full story, but about 20min out a guy woke screaming. Unclear if he had some form of seizure or what. Appears they declared a medical emergency, as we came in fast and I've never had the thrust reversers on that hard. EMS came on, checked him out and extracted him from the plane. Not a particularly stellar start to the week..... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
6:42 pm	Internetz waz broken.... Today's irritation was being in an offsite all-day meeting being able to receive, but due to some combination of VPN, corporate and WLAN configuration not being able to send email.... This was made particularly irritating that one of my mailing lists is making me feel like channeling me some Corby. And the fun of folks finally apparently listening to what I've been saying for about a year...not that they can bother to invite me to discuss it. Not like I'm the subject matter expert. Oh, wait. I am.... sigh (Comment on this)
Friday, September 11th, 2009
10:32 am	Remembrance I remember being in a meeting in SW DC when someone stuck their head in and said we had to leave. Traffic crawled out of the garage and down 4th St as more planes hit. We made space for emergency response vehicles with little spare room. One fire vehicle had to be jumped about 100 yards from the station, as I suspect it hadn't been turned over in years. Got stuck by the National Gallery of Art for an eternity. Not particularly fun with all of the paranoia about one possibly heading for the capital. All forms of federal officers and agents scrambling about..driving on sidewalks...giving up on vehicles and running across gridlocked intersections with assault weapons. Diving off onto 6th St to get as far away from the Mall as possible. 7th St had the side roads taped off to expedite the exodus. An odd juxtaposition of the chaos of the Mall area and the eerie serenity of the outreaches of DC. Many folks had it far worse than me.... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
2:53 pm	I'm beginning to get tired of breaking myself before the end of practice....It would be nice to finish an armored practice and still be able to fight. Note to self, the Triplette Bedford knock-off hilt doesn't cover as much of my hand as my custom hilts do. Jamming a shot with my palm instead of the hilt is not recommended procedure. I was at least happy to see my feet engaging during the 2sword fight. Good to see Raven out at practice and hopefully more 2sword will get my feet working again. Will have to see how functional the thumb is for fencing practice this evening. May be limited to single or buckler... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
10:44 pm	Stripping rust.... Boy do I suck, but it was good to cross swords with my old knight tonight.... I may or may not get my replacement baskethilt done tomorrow, but I needed to hit people tonight more than I needed to make sure I had a second hilt for war. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 17th, 2009
2:27 pm	The world is a little grayer.... Rest in peace, my friend. Words fail me.... (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 29th, 2008
9:35 pm	IG Joe Prison Break I turn to look to see if one of the cats is actually using the scratching post for a rare change to actually see the orange ball of energy franticly trying to free something from what we lovingly refer to as the IG Joe prison camp. The area under the desk in the family room where he eventually loses his toys out of his reach. Well, one of the teflon feet to one of the kitchen chairs went missing, so naturally I suspect the troublemaker, so I decide it is time to find just what all he has buried under there.... You'd think I'd found a back door into the dryer's sock dimension. Total tally: 5 mice, 5 balls, a pen, a twist tie, 3 corks, and what is left of his beloved Mick. Oh, and the paper roll of ribbon he'd actually managed to free himself before I came over. Now we have the sounds of 2 frolicing kittens in the background. And I still don't know where that foot pad is. The search continues..... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 17th, 2008
9:18 am	This weekend involved shuffling between a quarter and half ton of steel as well as miscellaneous wood boards to clear out space for the shop expansion. Sliding the 4x8 sheet of 16ga behind the stack inside my existing shop was entertaining solo.... Next time I should stop being lazy and move all the other stuff out of the way first. Also managed to demo the outside drywall of the existing wall I'm removing. wee fun. Didn't get to removing the insulation the previous owner put in for sound dampening, but that is just stapled in, so not so much work there. On other project-y news, I'm going to have to find out if any of my more serious woodworker friends have the ability to turn a 2" thick board into 2 1" boards...of the 12"-ish wide variety.... Off to the land of cold and snow for the week shortly, Eh? Back on Friday (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 20th, 2008
10:19 am	Mousehole was great, but I hate getting old. I was REALLY out of practice doing the Corporal of Shotte thing, but the fighting was a blast. Unfortunately, all the fighting and the driving has strained my knee. Currently working on the sofa with it elevated and heat on it. And missing the last step unloading the truck and twisting my ankle didn't help either. Cut & Thrust with Alan, Jimmy, Edwin and Caleb was a major hoot. I'm hoping Caleb gets to stick around and doesn't have to ship out soon. I have to admit feeling a little under-dressed in the melees being one of the few folks without body armor. Going to have to rectify that at some point. Although it helped my point control being forced to target arm pits and the waistline. And watching Bob cleave Chris in the back with the boffer ax was hilarous. That and the rabid squirrel with the billhook. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, June 27th, 2008
10:09 am	5 Things sheep-age Let's see 5 things others haven't done..... 1. Been run over by a car (tire marks and all) 2. Climbed around inside a 747 being assembled 3. Acted as a member of a US Diplomatic mission to ICAO 4. Given a radio demonstration at 20000' (to the FAA administrator) 5. Walked around Bouillon castle at its 1000th anniversary (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
7:55 pm	Boo! (I'll skip the obligatory commentary on how frequent I post) Random Theo quote: "Honey, I got coconut on your drill bit" At least it wasn't drill bit in the coconut...... It's sad when you are happy to go into the office on a Sunday so you can actually see your office. So tired of going downtown and, if I'm lucky, getting 15min for lunch. And since I'm apparently picking up totally random tendencies from hanging out with my wife too long and putting in way too long a days this week, random vigil memory: Kane and Timothy harrassing poor Aethelgar while he was trying to guard Johann's vigil. Those two giggling like school kids and chanting "Doooooom" since A's houppeland had some similarities to the priest robes from Conan.... Current Mood: drained (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 21st, 2008
11:42 am	Cats of a paw..... In the realm of pet and owners resembling each other, the black ninja cat appears to have developed an upper respiratory infection with a touch of pneumonia..... The poor cat has been the vet so much lately with her skin problem. At least the biopse incisions are healing well. She didn't even fight me putting her in the carrier. Of course, I'm also getting more wiley in prepping the carrier in the basement and snatching her up before she dives for cover. Wendy did wonder the day she got home and found a cheap combat bow sticking out from under the bed that I'd used to nudge her out.... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
10:08 am	After 3 weeks of pneumonia and off in Chicago last week for yummy goodness, I succeeded in dragging my out-of-shape self to practice last night. Fought like crap as expected, but good to get the blood pumping. The long sickness and travel has had my sleep schedule totally f'd up of late. At least practice got me to sleep at around midnight. The lying in bed until 2am was getting old fast when I get up as early as I do. Tonights fun since no practice due to spring break will be seeing if my assumption is correct about the 3way remotes that aren't working on the light switch bank I had to rewire on Sun to fix a blown dimmer switch. Sunday was an exercise in frustration and finger mangling with the multitude of wires involved and the head scratching over the non-functioning remotes. (We won't go into the frustration time where I thought I had the input power line in a bundle of wires only to realize later I'd grabbed the output wire to another light....Gee, go figure it not working) Due to a lack of third wire on the remotes, I suspect they are custom designed to the dimmers we previously used. Since I still have 2 good dimmers that were replaced to try to keep things looking consistent, that should allow me to experiment with my theory. If it works out, it means I'll have to order in a new switch to keep things looking consistent, but at least it will get rid of the annoying not quite covering switch plate from the two adjacent boxes instead of the 4-box I've now got in place. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 29th, 2008
6:05 pm	Last night was our rescheduled night to see Argonautika. Always good to see a nice play. We also managed to finally make it by Jackie's down in Silver Spring. Gen will love the place and its Lowe's meets Ikea pinkness. Menu selection wasn't huge, but everything was yummy, even if I was feeling like crap. Yes, after 11 days, I'm still sick. I was starting to feel better on Wed, but my illness has apparently decided otherwise. Since I was so energetic and happy to be around last night, my loving wife made me another appointment to see the doc where I have now been diagnosed with pneumonia. yeah me.... Looks like it is going to be a while longer before I can hit anybody. So my entire morning was taken up with waiting around. First the doctor's office, then getting yet even more drugs and then the eternally long wait to get my chest x-ray. Kind of amusing as the X-ray tech is explaining how it will be 2 days before my doctor has the information during which she glanced at my orders and finally noticed the 'stat' designation and corrected herself to indicate it would be to my doc in an hour. Got to love the time variance there..... Current Mood: sick (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 15th, 2008
10:49 am	Happiness is getting home from practice to find out that my wife, in fact, didn't need to work 3rd shift last night. On the fighting front, one wouldn't think 1/8" extra diameter would make that big a difference, but my new swords appear to be causing strain issues to my wrist and now my shoulder last night. fun fun fun.... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 11th, 2008
10:54 am	Frost Giant-y goodness Ymir was a good weekend. I went into the tourney expecting a mediocre performance as I've been having lots of issues at practice of late. I certainly can't complain about besting Val. Matthew of Battle gave me a good fight. I need to work on my conditioning as I just didn't have enough juice left for Rags. I could see the slots, but couldn't get my sword there. I also managed to get in a few fencing pick ups and didn't impale anyone in my exhausted state. The only downside of the event was some marshal fu, but in the grand scheme of things not that big a deal. It was certainly great to hang with friends and always fun to torture Kynny. (GRIN) Only regrets are didn't have enough time with everyone (like Pod-Red) This week is kind enough to give me a few days to recover with my usual practices cancelled. May hit Ponte Alto so I get SOME stick time in. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 7th, 2008
8:48 am	Random acts of silliness My non-sequitor of the evening was looking up from filing on metal bits to see my wife making the poor gumby kitten dance. He so did NOT look amused.... But, he's a gumby cat, so he tolerated it. Of course, I keep threatening Kymber to bring him over so that Dubis can meet his tabby younger self.... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
11:07 am	Sniping Snowflakes, Batman! Holy F'ing Cow!!! Have people just lost their little mind? It took me 3 bloody hours to get in the office this morning. From a dusting of snow. OMG I rarely broke 5mph on the 20mile trek to my office. Is it so hard for people not to brake or attempt to maneuver on a bridge? I was particularly impressed by the Expedition that appeared to have flipped end over end on a flat road that wasn't particularly slick. I contemplated telecommuting to avoid the insanity, but couldn't bring myself to do it from such a pathetic dusting of snow. Guess I was WRONG. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 1st, 2007
8:44 am	Kitten discoveries Yeah, it's been like forever since I posted. Nothing inspiring or particularly witty to say. Cope. OK, so this morning the kitten was in play mode...starting at around 5am........... He is attacking one of his stuffed mice. He is pouncing on my limbs while I attempt to do my morning exercises. He is pouncing on some of my laundry I forgot to put away last night. General kitten-like frolicing. At one point while Wendy is in the shower, I look up from my situps to see a cat on top of the toilet seat with ears down in the unhappy fashion. I go to investigate to see him scamper off with big bushy tail. Am slightly amused as he seems disturbed by the sound of running water today. He got over the bathroom fan a couple of days ago. Then in classic fearless, kitten-like fashion, he comes dashing into the bathroom and hops IN the shower. OMG. Fall down funny..... Wendy eeps at surprise movement in curtain. Kitten gets rude introduction to the concept of a shower. Kitten flees. Both parents howl in laughter.... Fortunately, he is a kitten, so the trauma lasted about 2 seconds. Condolences to Eli on her bike crash. From personal experience, I can at least testify that it is better to go over than under the vehicle.... Let us know if you need a hand with anything. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
10:53 am	Sunniva's Meme Figured I'd respond to Sunniva's meme as it seemed interesting: 1. What/when was your first event? King's Hunt/Queen's feast during Dafydd and Elisabeth's reign. 2. What was your first war? Pennsic XVIII (1989) 3. What is your favorite part of an event/war? Getting into the fighting groove, although that doesn't always happen for me. The greatest joy I have in fighting is long, intense passes with an evenly matched opponent. 4. What A&S skill/talent do you have or wish you had? Metalworking, casting, a little woodworking, a little leatherworking. People tell me I have a decent singing voice, but can't remember lyrics to save my life. 5. Why did you choose the elements of your Coat of Arms/device? Household had a thing about complex field divisions, so I rotated my knight's, which also played into starting in Black Diamond and its mountains. I like purple and I like tigers. 6. Favorite SCA song? Born on the List Field 7. Favorite garb? Leafy pourpoint, 'cause my wife IS just that awesome. 8. Best advice received/given? Honor is what you do when no one is looking. 9. What is one thing you would like to change about the SCA? Less drama, more fun 10. Why do you do this hobby? There are many facets. A lot of it is the people and friends. It also provides an outlet for my medieval interests. The fighting challenges me physically as well as mentally. Then there is also the ideals of courtesy that are so lacking at times in the modern world. It also provides some escapism at times. I was in a class for work most of last week. I went into it expecting a refresher class. The instructor was great and provided me a LOT of insight into the field operations of a radio network. Also learned a fair amount about antenna engineering and impacts of siting. This weekend involves time with friends. Always a plus. (Comment on this)