I'd like to buy a vowel
Why you shouldn't play scrabble on the iphone in bed next to your opponent late at night:
V: If only I had some Es, I could play "jadey beagle".
A: Is that even a word?
V: No.
A: Do you have ANY Es?
V: No.
A: So what you're saying is, if only you had THREE letters you don't have, you could spell a made-up word it wouldn't take?
V: Exactly.
A: Yeah. That'd be awesome. |
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Seven applicants for every job
I just saw a headline that says there are seven applicants for every job right now. Tomorrow at 5:00, I'm unemployed. I haven't faced that since 1999, at a time when I landed ten job interviews in two weeks.
That said, I just got an offer letter, which I'm inclined to accept. I'll be unemployed for exactly one week. I can live with that. I love the company that I'm going to work for, and I love their product, so I'm stoked.
I will be traveling a ton, which means I will be building up those frequent flyer miles, and getting around the country a fair amount. Maybe I'll make a tour dates module here, just for laughs. |
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Space
After living in a shoebox in New York, we know how to live in a small space. That doesn't necessarily mean we want to. What I've come to realize is it's not really the amount of space, but the number of doors. A large house means you have to heat, cool and clean all of that space, and though it feels luxurious to take a dozen large strides across a room without hitting any furniture, it's just not worth the trouble, in my humble opinion.
The right number of doors for us, at least at this point, is three, and ideally some utility space to store bicycles. In Florida, the number of doors was two, and there wasn't really a utility space, so we were often in each other's hair. The third door is a place for Amy to throw all of my crap, and a space for me to dream about being a creative type when I'm not doing work for the man, and unfortunately, a place for me to do work for the man. That third door also doubles as a guest room, which it did last night, in fact.
Here are some background tracks I've made lately, one in Florida over a month ago, and two immediately after restoring the man cave behind door number three.
June 28th, 2010.mp3
August 21st, 2010.mp3
August 22nd, 2010.mp3 |
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Leap and the net will appear
Greetings from beautiful Austin, Texas. This blog post is overdue, but we just got internet access this morning. With no job offer forthcoming in Florida and the start of the school year looming, we found ourselves free agents, able to move anywhere we liked, but only if we did so quickly. We liked Austin, at least in theory. Neither of us had visited since high school. But it's a big college town that's liberal and bike friendly, with mild winters and good schools and affordable housing and a booming tech sector.
So we packed up the moving truck as soon as we got back to Florida and hit the road last Tuesday. V drove the truck and I followed in the car with our dog. The girls took turns riding in the truck. By Wednesday evening we were here unpacking. We've rented a house in NW Austin in the Round Rock school district. The girls started school here yesterday. Nev's already made a friend and had a play date at our neighborhood pool.
We had our first house guests last night--our good friend Beau and his lovely Aussie girlfriend Shayla. I made our first home-cooked meal--flounder a la meuniere, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. This morning we took Beau and Shayla to Kerbey Lane Cafe for brunch on the patio, Austin-style, and then down Spicewood Springs Road to REI in search of Merrell shoes for Shayla.
So far we like Austin very much. Our neighbors, all thirty-something couples with kids, have come over to introduce themselves. There are bikes and tattoos in abundance, and IKEA is a 15 minute drive away. We can buy New Belgium ales at the grocery store, and the local college radio station, KUT, is better than anything on my iPod. Despite the searing triple-digit daytime highs, we are pinching ourselves and knocking on wood. As Nev offered in toast the other night, "May we be this happy until the day we move!" |
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 Chautauqua Park entrance  |
Summer has arrived here on the northeast coast of Florida. Ocean breezes and shade from ancient live oaks are no match for blazing tropical sun and rainforest humidity. Even our neighborhood pool offers little relief--it's warm as a bathtub. August is the price Floridians pay for gorgeous weather the rest of the year.
So like many of our neighbors here, we're heading for the higher elevations. Mom's booked a cabin at Chautauqua in Boulder for two weeks. Vincent will join us for the first week, and then head off to a conference in San Francisco the following week. The girls have never seen the Rockies. I can't wait to show them snow in summer, and watch their faces when they step into an icy mountain stream.
Mom has a National Parks pass, so we'll drive up to Estes Park to visit Rocky Mountains National Park. Chautauqua borders 50,000+ acres of Boulder County parkland with hundreds of miles of trails. If I can get acclimated to the thin air, I hope to do some trail running. Maybe just downhill?
The girls have discovered chapter books, Uno and jigsaw puzzles just in time for the trip. The cabins at Chautauqua have no televisions. They also have no air conditioning. I'm looking forward to sipping coffee on the screened porch in the chilly morning air, and sipping wine in the evening cool as the sun sinks behind the Flatirons.
The one thing I'm NOT looking forward to is riding in a car on twisty mountain roads. I'll be popping dramamine like tic-tacs... |
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District FCAT scores soar
Our school district, St. Johns County, is the highest achieving district in the state of Florida, at least by one measure. I'd like to think that Tori's surprisingly good performance on the FCAT contributed in some small way. I am so proud of her, and so glad we moved here! |
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 Tori's bunny |
In case you haven't noticed, we like the bunneh drawing. If you like it, go get it on a shirt! |
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 My travel companion |
Vincent's driving from New York to Florida. On Memorial Day weekend. In a 15 ft moving truck.
We've terminated our lease in New York and are buying a house here in Ponte Vedra Beach. He's bringing the sofa, the rugs, and other housewares from the apartment. He'd reserved a 10 ft (the smallest truck they'll rent you for a one-way trip), but they didn't have one, so they "upgraded" him. Heh. At least our sofa won't feel cramped back there.
As long as he has the truck, he decided to stop at IKEA on the way out of the city and pick up some furniture we've been meaning to buy, but couldn't fit in our car. Now our sofa has a sideboard, a bed, a tv stand, a shelving unit, and a bench to keep it company.
He spent the night in the DC area with our good friends Kelly and Patrick. Depending on the traffic on I-95, he'll either drive straight through today or stop somewhere in SC or GA tonight. Our neighborhood's security gate frowns on letting moving trucks in after dark.
We're scheduled to close on the house July 5th. The appraisal came in higher than the agreed sales price. Now we're just waiting for verbal approval from the seller's bank (it's a short sale). When we get it, we'll move forward with the home inspection, etc.
In other news, we got Tori's FCAT (Florida's standardized test) scores. 2 is the minimum score needed to move on to the next grade. Out of a possible 5, she got a 3 on the reading and a 4 on the math. WOO-HOO!!! Fourth grade, here we come!
Speaking of school, I have an advising appointment at UNF this Tuesday, June 1st. I'll register for classes at transfer student orientation on June 14th. I expect to take 12-15 credit hours this fall, including drawing, painting, printmaking, 3d design, and survey. According to UNF's online course catalog, most sections of most classes are already full, with waiting lists. This should be interesting... |
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Life and death
There's a scene in Short Circuit, the goofy 80s movie, where the robot that has just come to life, lands on a grasshopper. He tells the human to reassemble the grasshopper, and then flips out when she says she can't -- that the grasshopper is dead.
We may have had one of those moments today with Tori. When Amy dropped the girls at grandma's (which involves walking down the street), she noticed two pieces of a yard long snake in the road. The girls didn't notice it at that point, but later in the evening when we stopped at a neighbor's house to walk their dog, we found Tori in the road with a roll of tape. She had tried to reassemble the snake with scotch tape.
This was cute as can be, but we were of course horrified by her touching a dead animal. I went to find a shovel, and when I came back, Tori had returned from washing her hands with a sign written on a note card. I'm not exactly sure what it said, but I'll find out. |
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 Amy, Tori and Nev |
We took the girls to Mickler Beach this morning. I'd planned to run while the girls played in the surf, but it was already 85 degrees with very little breeze when we got there at 10 am. So I decided to just swim with them instead. The water's warm here, and the waves were high today. Lots of surfers out. Nev's getting braver in the ocean, and Tori's basically fearless. We dove into the breakers and let the swells lift us off our feet and set us back down again.
Nev got swamped repeatedly, and Tori kept losing her bathing suit bottoms, but neither could get enough of the ocean. Nev was giddy with delight and Tori was just mesmerized by the waves. Swimming with them today was like being 8 years old at Fourth Cliff again. A peak experience I'll carry with me, made all the more bittersweet by the crude oil now in the loop current and headed for our beautiful apricot sand beach. I never gave the safety of offshore drilling a second thought, and now I'm so deeply sorry. |
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