What isn’t Apple, audiobooks, or alcohol is probably cats.
News and activities related to my wife.
As usual, Rochelle’s invitation to a recent party is funny and worth preserving. In addition to Rochelle’s birthday, this was the “coming out” party for our new kitchen (even though it wasn’t quite finished). We do regret that we didn’t get to the grilled cheese sandwiches on the griddle, but at least we _did_ make quesadillas.
As usual, Rochelle’s invitation to a recent party is funny and worth preserving. In addition to Rochelle’s birthday, this was the “coming out” party for our new kitchen (even though it wasn’t quite finished). We do regret that we didn’t get to the grilled cheese sandwiches on the griddle, but at least we did make quesadillas.
Worst of all, we forgot to take any photos during the event, especially of people in the kitchen. We’ll just have to try harder (or drink less) next time.
_Regarding the budget overruns of the kitchen remodel:_
“Yeah. We spent into the grocery money.”
“Worse. We spent into the booze money.”
Regarding the budget overruns of the kitchen remodel:
“Yeah. We spent into the grocery money.”
“Worse. We spent into the booze money.”
In the time since the prior photos were taken, the kitchen sink and cabinet was installed (and the dishwasher dragged into place), the ceiling, walls, and trim have been painted, the electricians returned to install all the outlets, switches, and lights, and our contractor left to go get married on the East Coast. Thank god we’re almost finished…
In the time since the prior photos were taken, the (old) kitchen sink and (new, temporary) cabinet were installed (and the dishwasher dragged into place), the ceiling, walls, and trim have been painted, the electricians returned to install all the outlets, switches, and lights — and our contractor left to go get married on the East Coast.
With luck, and a signature from the city, Cafe du Soleil will open tomorrow. I could not be more excited!
Rochelle noticed activity (pastry boxes and such) at Cafe du Soleil yesterday, when walking past on her way to Muni. So today I went by around 11am, to see if they might be opening. I saw fresh baguettes in bags, but no people, and the doors were not open.
But after lunch, our contractor went by to have a look, and voila!, the doors are open, and there is bustling activity. I went in, and had a nice chat with one of the owners, and got a beautiful pecan bun.
I updated to WordPress 1.5.1 on Friday, after drinking a cocktail with Rochelle. Maybe not the best strategy for preparing for a software upgrade, but everything seems to be working fine. Let me know if you see something funky…
I updated to WordPress 1.5.1 on Friday, after drinking a cocktail with Rochelle. Maybe not the best strategy for preparing for a software upgrade, but everything seems to be working fine. Let me know if you see something funky…
Rochelle and I have fallen in love with listening to books on our iPods. We’ve signed up for two books a month through Audible.com, and for me, that pace is actually pretty good. Rochelle goes through them faster, though, and recently started going to the SF Public Library to get more books to listen to. Importing them onto an iPod is not terribly intuitive. This post describes what I think is a fairly optimal process, using only iTunes to do the importing.
Note: These instructions have been superseded by a new version available in the Aldo on Audiobooks section of this site. Please use that version instead of this page.
Rochelle and I have fallen in love with listening to books on our iPods. We’ve signed up for two books a month through Audible.com, and for me, that pace is actually pretty good. But Rochelle has more time to listen while commuting and at work; she blows through our two books a month.
She recently started going to the library to get audio books there, on CD. The San Francisco Public Library has quite a lot of them, and you can reserve them online. The only downside with the CDs is they cannot be played (directly) on an iPod. Enter the second half of Apple’s one-two combination, iTunes, which makes importing CDs relatively easy, and keeping them organized, syncing them with an iPod, and making custom playlists extremely easy.
The only problem is, it’s optimized for music CDs. It’s taken quite a bit of trial and error — mostly error — to come up with a recipe that works well, and produces audiobook files that are reasonable in size and quality, and as easy to use on our iPods as the books from Audible.com. I’m going to save you some time, and share the recipe.
After posting the photo of scope creep, we kind of had a pause in progress, while we back-tracked on a few things. So we’re finally making progress again today. Here’s the before and after of the pantry doorway.
After posting the photo of scope creep, we kind of had a pause in progress, while we back-tracked on a few things. So we’re finally making progress again today, getting to the point where we can finish all the taping and mudding, and the subfloor can be laid in. That’s when we’ll get to move some furniture back into (semi-)permanent positions, and get to start having a life in our kitchen again.
Here’s the before and after of the pantry doorway:
The difference is pretty subtle in the small photos, a little more apparent in the larger ones (click photos to view). Basically, the door now starts 16″ from the wall, instead of 4″, and it’s much wider.
The difference isn’t subtle when you’re standing in the kitchen. We are incredibly pleased with how much it changes the room, by having the pantry be more a part of the room, rather than a hole hidden in the back of it. And if it looks this good before trim and paint (and all the rest of moving back into the kitchen), it’s going to be fabulous when we’re all done.
It’s not often you can snap a picture of scope creep, but I caught it this evening…
It’s not often you can snap a picture of scope creep, but I caught it this evening, after Rochelle came back from meeting with a kitchen cabinet consultant.
Like all decisions we’ve made, this one seems reasonable. And in the end, it’ll be the right thing. All we’ll really lose by moving the pantry door is some time (which is expensive) and some sheetrock (which is cheap).
What I’m struggling most with — aside from how to pay for it, of course — is where to move the Cat5 and speaker jacks, now that the cabinet in which the Sonos ZonePlayer audio unit was to be housed is no longer on that wall. Fortunately, with the extra expense of moving the door, it’ll be a while before I can buy it, so I’ve got some time to figure things out…
A quick update on the kitchen remodel. (Look, I wrote it without a qualifier! I must be coming to acceptance…)
A quick update on the kitchen remodel. (Look, I wrote it without a qualifier! I must be coming to acceptance…) The photos in the previous post about the remodel were from the end of March. Two weeks after the second one, our kitchen looked more like this:
Rochelle and I are, shall we say, fond of cocktails. We’ve been known to drink a few, and even make a few for friends and guests. And, we’re always on the lookout for new ones, especially things that are easy to make and serve. This year’s find: Trader Joe’s Organic Strawberry Lemonade.
Rochelle and I are, shall we say, fond of cocktails. We’ve been known to drink a few, and even make a few for friends and guests. And, we’re always on the lookout for new ones, especially things that are easy to make and serve.
The mixer for 2005 is definitely Trader Joe’s Organic Strawberry Lemonade, $3.99, located in the refrigerated juice section in Trader Joe’s. It’s great by itself, but it begs to be mixed with your distilled spirit of choice.
For many years, Rochelle used Netscape Communicator for her email. A little over a year ago, I switched her to Mozilla Thunderbird, which is the code and user-interface successor to Communicator. For the most part it works very well, but it has one astonishing omission: its anti-virus capabilities are terrible.
For many years, Rochelle used Netscape Communicator for her email. About a year and a half ago, I switched her to Mozilla Thunderbird, which is the code and user-interface successor to Communicator. For the most part it works very well, but it has one astonishing omission: its anti-virus capabilities are terrible.
This is all the more remarkable given their tagline (“Reclaim Your Inbox”), and the second sentence of their Why Use Thunderbird blurb: “We designed Thunderbird to prevent viruses and to stop junk mail so you can get back to reading your mail.” Thunderbird is positioned as the more user-centric, safer alternative to Microsoft Outlook.
There is no doubt that I should have seen this coming. Should have been ready, mentally, financially, for this to get really complicated, really fast. But it really did seem simple to me, back when we first started.
I am writing, of course, of our apparent decision to rip the kitchen out to the studs.
There is no doubt that I should have seen this coming. Should have been ready, mentally and financially, for this to get really complicated, really fast. But it truly did seem simple to me, back when we first started.
I am writing, of course, of our apparent decision to rip the kitchen out to the studs.
Continue reading “The Tragic Consequences of Reasonable Decisions”