Relaxing evening

I'm sitting on the living room recliner with my netbook on my lap, listening to the wind in the trees in the park behind our house. We had a little bit of rain this evening, not enough to thoroughly water the yard, but enough to add a bit of moisture to the air. My spouse has nodded off on the couch, as has the cat. I have half a glass of wine to my right and a science fiction novel to my left. It's almost enough to make me forget that I still have to go to work in the morning.

What's new with me?

My new nephew was born today! Guess I better finally sew the seams of the sweater I knit for him.

I bought a refurbished Asus Eee PC from Woot recently and am currently using it to type this entry. I've had the netbook for about a week and the novelty has yet to wear off. The keyboard is a bit small, but I'm not exactly planning on using it to type a novel or anything. I am, however, planning on upgrading the memory and installing some version of Ubuntu in place of the Xandros that came with it.

Work has been really busy lately. I've been playing whack-a-mole with the bug list while we try to get this release finished. I'll be glad when its done, but am a bit nervous about it, because I'm going to be the lead on the next release. Bugs may be tricky, but I'm more familiar with them than with schedule and budget documentation. I know that I should be able to handle it, but change sure is scary.

I want more

There is something about a three-day weekend that makes me wish it were four.

All packed and ready to go

I'm flying to visit family today and am declaring myself packed now. I would pack more yarn and books, but the bag wouldn't close when I tried it. I'll just have to content myself with enough laceweight to make a shawl, random scraps of worsted that could make a hat or two, a pair of socks in progress, and maybe another ball or two of sock yarn. (I'll probably shove one more ball in my carryon just before I leave.

Anyway, here I am, done packing (more or less), with about an hour to spare until the taxi is scheduled to arrive. If I'm not careful, I may start cleaning or something.

The cat knows something is up. He's pretty cranky and annoyed that I'm not letting him outside, but it is getting close enough to go time that I don't want to have to track him down in the neighbor's yard while the taxi is waiting. If past trips are any indication, he'll be completely stir crazy by the time we get back after Christmas. I tried bribing him with a half can of gooshy food, but even that didn't appease him.

Sam just headbutted my shin as I sit here typing. Forget picking up the packing chaos, I'm going to cuddle my kitty until it is time to go.

Kitten eating broccoli

Mmm.... turkey tamales

This year for Thanksgiving it was only the two of us, so we just cooked a couple little Cornish hens along with stuffing, potatoes, etc. However, the day after Thanksgiving, we noticed turkeys were still on sale, and we did recently purchase a chest freezer...

We bought three.

Two turkeys immediately went in the chest freezer. The third was cooked yesterday. This evening we have been making turkey tamales. This is only the second time we have made tamales, and is the first time we've made them without someone around who actually knows how to do it. Between the recipe on the back of the package of masa, a couple recipes in our cookbooks, and what we remember from the previous tamale-making experience, I think we've come up with something pretty tasty. By the time we are done, it looks like we'll have about six dozen tamales.

Let's hear it for the chest freezer.

Kitten with remote-controlled mouse.

(Found via Out of Ambit)

What happened to Dapper Dan?

My niece is going to be three in about a month, so I've been trying to decide what to give her for her birthday. In a flash of inspiration, I remembered the Dapper Dan doll I had as a child. Practice buttoning, zipping, tying on a doll, perfect! Sadly, it appears Dapper Dan has been redesigned in the past few decades. Maybe it's the hat, but there is something about the modern Dan that just seems wrong and even a bit creepy. I should see if my parents still have the old doll stored somewhere. I'm sure my niece would like it. Of course, that still doesn't help me with my gift. *sigh*

I would be much more interested in political conventions if this sort of thing really happened.

If you don't get the song reference, more information is available here.

I'm still here.

It's been quite a while since I made a blog post. Perhaps I should at least write something to let you all know I'm still alive.