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Holly and I have been selected to participate in the “Arbitron“ radio ratings survey. Like the old Neilsen guides, we just have to keep a journal of what radio stations we listen to for a week or so. In return, we each get a shiny new dollar bill (ooooh!)
Bow before me, Clear Channel – no Arbitron for you!
I put another notch in my man-of-the-house home improvement toolbelt this weekend.
Our ~4-year-old dryer conked out a week or so ago. We had the Sears guy out to take a look at it, and he said it was the motor, and it would cost around $250 to fix it. Holly said “No Thanks,” bought the part from a local appliance parts place, and tapped me to do the repair myself.
Now, I can rebuild a computer with my eyes closed, but a dryer is something else entirely. I took the back off, but then got stuck with what to do next. So today I called my neighbor Mark over, since he’s done this sort of thing before.
Between the two of us, though, we managed to take the dryer almost completely apart, replace the motor, and put everything back together again. A load of clothes is almost done, and nothing’s blown up yet, so it looks like it worked.
Ladies love the handyman. Well, my lady at least. And she’s the only one who counts.
I probably spent over two hours watching thunderstorms tonight.
We had a good storm roll through Fuquay around 8pm or so. The part that passed over us didn’t last too long, but had a lot of thunder and lightning. But we got a treat as it moved east overhead.
The front of our house faces west, which is where most of our storms come from. On the back side of the house, though, which faces east, is our bay window. And it’s a perfect storm-watching location. A nice big window, an open field outside, and as the storms move away, we get to watch them.
Holly and I have spent many a summer night watching the storms go by. It’s really cool that I married a woman who likes watching thunderstorms as much as I do.
I’ve just spent far too much time figuring out why Internet Explorer had the content of the blog pages as being too wide for the browser window. It should be fixed now, but the core answer is “IE Sucks”. I did learn a little bit more about the CSS box model in the process, though.
Thanks to Ross for pointing out the problem, and MikeL on the CSS-D for providing the fix.
I’m glad I got the crappy improv out of my system on Friday, ‘cause I had a great trip to Comedy Alley in Richmond.
Even before I got married and had a baby, I didn’t travel a whole lot, so after a little over four years of doing improv, the only places I’ve played other than Raleigh are Washington DC (where I took my first workshops), and Richmond.
I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for all things Virginia. So it’s an extra thrill when I can go hang with people up there. Comedy Alley has a really nice performance space, and John and Christine Walters run a good ship up there. In addition to the ComedySportz-style show, they also do some really innovative musical things up there. I went up for their “Star Wars: The Musical” production last year, which was really good, and they’ve recently done a musical comedy version of The Matrix, which was incredible, according to the CWX folks who went up there to see it.
The reason for my trip was that they’re going to be using my Mr. Voice program. I built them out a computer, put the Raleigh database on it, and took it up with me. As a reward, they let me voice their early show, and play in the late show.
The shows were good and fun – voicing was a treat, as it’s good to get exposed to different ways of doing things than what I’m used to. I think I helped the show when I voiced, which is my goal every time I go out. Playing was pretty good, too – I don’t play on stage much any more, so I’m pretty rusty when I do play, but I think I held my own.
And, as a bonus, I got to hang out with Mesha, Ginger, Abby, Tim, the Walters, and the rest of the Richmond crowd, who are all exceptionally cool.
Now that Mom lives in Petersburg, I hope that I can play a couple more shows in Richmond when I’m up in the area.
I voiced the show at ComedyWorx tonight, and I was horrible. I mean awful. My voicing was not afraid to suck the meat missle and come back for seconds. It was probably the worst show I’ve done this year, if not within a year. It’s been about an hour or so, and I’m still trying to shake off the bad vibes.
What went wrong? I just never got into my rhythm. I was like the goalie who gives up a couple of soft goals, then goes on to lose the game 8-0. I take pride in being able to add positively to a show, and recover well from my mistakes, but this was just one of those nights I went into a tailspin. Bad decisions, mistimings, you name it, I did it. Holly often says I’m my own worst critic, and she’s probably right, but this one was objectively bad. I even went and apologized to the players afterward.
The other players had a solid if unspectactular show, and the audience was large if a little dead, but I was the weakest link.
I hope I can get my act together before tomorrow, when I’ll be voicing and playing up in Richmond – I think if I’d had tonight’s show up there, they’d revoke my Virginia citizenship.
Harvard has revoked its admission of Blair Hornstine, the prospective member of the Class of 2007 who made national headlines when she sued her school system to ensure she would be her high school’s sole valedictorian.Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard admissions office has rescinded her offer to attend Harvard in the fall, according to a source involved with the decision.
The absurd rain in North Carolina this year has been good for one thing – the blackberry vine I planted two years ago has grown like gangbusters, and I’m currently reaping the rewards – cupfuls of outstanding blackberries.
Even though I don’t have as much time as I’d like to work with them, my garden and vines are really nice side benefits of owning a home.