Marc and Morgan’s spot on the web

Nothing too exciting, just a few tidbits to share…on a cold snowy (!) morning here at Maison Tiar.

Had a grown-ups night out on Friday, dinner at Beaujolais Bistro followed by RENT at the Pioneer. Dinner was a bit disappointing: mediocre menu, mediocre service, in a crowded, loud atmosphere. One can do better at several places in town. RENT was fun, a good “rock musical” taste of Broadway here in our little burg.

Potty training is progressing…maybe…a little. A few successes, but little consistency. Popsicles aren’t the most productive reward, stickers are better, but still not a smashing success story. Sigh. Morgan’s taking her to the My Little Pony show on Wednesday, maybe that will generate some interest in being a big girl. Or something.

In new baby news, we’re scheduled for “the” ultrasound that can tell us the sex. The aforementioned rock-paper-scissors tournament has faded, Morgan has seen the light, and unless she reads this and changes her mind just to be ornery, we’ll know what we’re having by this time tomorrow. Stay tuned.

And finally, in the “new stuff” department, we’re totally loving both the new laptop and the new bed. Just one night spent on the new bed, but it’s so cushy, as I put it last night as I snuggled under the covers “I feel like a rich person” when I lie on it. And I’ve gotta say, a refurbished Dell is a good thing for me.

That’s all for now, we’ve got Costco, Babel, and the Academy Awards on the agenda for the rest of the day.

Here’s where we (well, I) stand on a sunny Saturday in February. So sunny, in fact, that it compares to what I usually hear from my parents where they live on the Mediterranean. And this is Reno, in February.

Today’s agenda includes shopping for, perhaps buying, new carpet. HD has 10% off sale through the weekend, so we’re going to go for it now. Dinner at Andrew‘s tonight.

Last night, after drinks with departing boss Kate, we bade adieu to dear Maggie. She left for Portland this morning to start her new job, new life. Although she’ll be back frequently for the next 6 months or so, we already miss her. We sent her out in traditional weekend Tiar family style, with beer, games in the basement, and friends having fun. Drive safe Maggie! (Side note: playing 10,000, I rolled what appears to be an astronomical statistical anomaly. 1-2-3-4-5-6 on six dice tossed simultaneously, THREE TIMES IN A ROW! Odds to be calculated and posted here. I still lost.)

And finally, just wanted to mention that we’re going to the final UNR game of the season on March 3. Should be fun. Jury’s still out whether Lola will attend. Probably not.

Bye everyone!

Just, as typical, an odd lot of stuff to bring to my blog-reading masses…

Went with Paige and DayDay to see NOFX last night at the New Oasis. Wow. Sold out show (~1000 people), never seen that before. Taps ran dry, bartenders couldn’t come close to keeping up, steam poured from open doors into the cold night, the sheer size of the crowd was incredible. They were really good and fun to see. I’ll admit I’ve seen better shows, but they just command such a big energetic crowd, have good songs, and enjoy themselves. Sorta-celeb sighting: a couple of the guys from 7 Seconds in the crowd (steve and troy if you’re curious). Now that’s punk.

Couple of interesting reference questions at work today:
How much does US currency weigh, and how many bills would be in a pound of them? See the seventh fun fact for the answer. Address for ABC? How tall is the Empire State Building? I love my job when I get to answer these kinds of questions.

In Lola news…a bit of sickness going on again. Lots of coughing, a brief sighting of thick green snot this morning. She generally acts well, but symptoms are there. Invest in cold medicine. This on the heels of a minor bout with pink eye which it appears the antibiotic drops have put a quick end to.

One fun link for you, and I’ll end with a plug for the book I’m reading. Really enjoyable book – a collection of columns from the RGJ, historical Reno stuff. It will make you look at our city in a whole new light, and have fond memories if you’ve lived here forever. If you’re interested, let me know, I’ll have a loaner copy available.

So, time to write again.  Lots of junk rattling around my skull to share.  And I just added some new Lola photos, so be sure to peep those too.

First, let’s talk computers.  Our laptop that we use most of the time is starting to show its age, with weird LCD display issues that can’t be fixed with a driver update or new software.  Likewise, the desktop in the basement that we rarely use is Slow (note capital S) and it’s cold down there and antisocial to use for very long, although it’s where photos and printing get done.  Turi brought up possibly migrating to a Mac.  The conversation turned to maybe trying Linux.  The learning curve would be equally steep, but it would be cheaper, fun, and interesting.  Go open-source.  So that’s been on my mind.  Logistically, I need to figure out how to have a computer to tinker with and one that’s still up and running.  This might require replacing the laptop sooner than planned.

The other thing firing my neurons today is the house.  Improving it.  Making it bigger.  With Morgan’s income, I’m not as worried about monthly bills and how low the balance is by the next payday.  A home equity loan payment is not a wild-eyed dream.  As baby #2 comes closer to reality, room in bedrooms and closets is more of a stressor.  So besides this year’s planned bathroom remodel and backyard improvement, next year may see an extra 300 or so square feet on the east side.  And if any of you thought I had stress now….I welcome any thoughts on how best, easiest, most professionally, and with the least amount of anxiety, one goes about adding on significantly to ones home.

And as long as I’m soliciting advice…we’ve got a few pieces of old jewelry to rid ourselves of.  Some still nice and wearable, and one piece of junk (but the gold probably worth a bit).  Better to take to a pawn shop or to a jeweler as scrap?  What if we wanted to save the stones from one thing and make it into something new (but not using the other pieces)?  If you’ve done this kind of thing, let us know what you learned.

Couple other notes that occur to me: Nathan and Sarah’s new boy has a name.  Demar Augustus (Gus) Tobey, and he weighed in at an impressive 9 lbs, 11 oz.  A couple photos on Turi’s page that day.   And for those who just read this for the news, can I remark how lame our winter has been thus far?  No significant snow, just little storms that make the roads completely awful, and cold enough…brass monkey.

And finally, just to round things out, I haven’t been reading any books lately, the last fabulous movie we saw was Little Miss Sunshine,  and I still haven’t done anything about our will(s).

Until next time.

So, yes, I’ve got a new set of wheels. A 2006 Kia Spectra5. Black.

As concisely as possible, here’s my saga: Sold the Mini Cooper in February, planned to drive the truck for a year or two to save some dough, bought the Vespa in the summer for an alternate mode and to save gas, the truck’s been doing some odd things lately, insurance renewal is coming up, so, thinking now would be a good time to at least look, we went looking. I’ve sort of had my eye on a Mazda3 wagon; considering cost (I thought), gas mileage, cargo, size, reliability, safety, all that, I thought it would be a great car. Then Brian alerted me to the new 2007 Suzuki SX4, a small wagon, the cheapest AWD on the market. We test drove that, but at a glance I knew it was too compact, I was already a bit hesitant that the mileage was a bit lower than most other small wagons, and the salespeople were, uh, jerks. On to Reno Mazda Kia. Turns out the Mazda3 is only affordable at the low end. A nicely equipped used 2006 model with 8000+ miles was $23K, somewhat more than I was wanting to spend. I had looked into the Kia online anyway, so looked at them. They’re very similar to the Mazda, and a brand new one only cost about $17K. And they come with a 10-year, 100,000 mile warranty for the original owner. That’s pretty unbeatable. So that, my friends, is what led me to own this:

I can live without AWD.

So, moving right along…took a nice walk out in the hills leading to the Steamboat ditch trail above Patagonia on the west side of town today. Photos from that in the newly added album for now. Also a video from the walk.

One neat thing…I figured out how to burn a VCD from downloaded video clips, watchable on most DVD players. Sort of a poor man’s DVD burn. If you wanna hear about it, get in touch.

Everyone likes to talk about the weather, so I’ll just put this out here…it’s dang cold here! For those readers across the pond and throughout the land, it was 16 degrees at maison Tiar this morning (or -8 for you aforementioned “across the pond”). High temp forecast for the next 5 days: about 50. Sheesh, winter doesn’t start for 3 weeks still…

In other news rattling around my consciousness, I’ve developed a newfound fondness for soy. Specifically, soymilk. Randomly picked up a box of vanilla, and man, that’s good over Life cereal in the morning. Now I’m hooked. Edamame too.

Coupla links to throw out here for you all: This news item is too good to go unposted, and please give a hearty welcome to Turi’s blog!

Finally, I should thank my lovely wife this week for being married to me for three whole years, as of yesterday. Thanks Morgan!  Dinner tonight at 4th St. to celebrate. (Coincidentally, that review written by the wife of a colleague here at the lib. Small world.)

More neato than really useful (I don’t see this replacing Google for my typical needs), check out this new search engine, Pagebull, that gives small screenshots of results.

Other stuff to check out:

A local blogger’s final visit and description at Deux Gros Nez.

Some pretty crummy reports out of Iraq.

I forgot!  As rare as outings to the movie theatre are, I feel I shouldn’t pass up an opportunity for a brief review of what we saw.

As Morgan mentioned, Lola’s first movie theatre experience was “Flushed Away”.  Pretty good animated flick, as expected from Aardman.  Nothing to complain about that I can think of.

On Sunday, Morgan and I got to see the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale.  Typically excellent Bond action.  The cars, the action, the women…all top-notch.  I like the new Bond too, he seems cut out for this.  Maybe not as much as Remington Steele Pierce Brosnan, but he’s pretty likeable.  Bond trivia note: This is actually the third version of “Casino Royale”.  The very first Bond “movie” of all was Casino Royale, an episode of a TV series called “Climax” with Barry Nelson as Bond, then there was a David Niven spoof of Bond movies with that title in the late 60s.
And just so this isn’t all about movies, for the benefit of all the non-Reno readers…we’ve got snow!  Just a dusting here in the valley, but a bit more in the mountains.   Pretty dang cold out there though.

That’s all folks, take care!

Not a lot actually. Feels like it’s been ages since I posted, so I should put something up here I suppose.

A grey-skied Sunday here, Lola napping and we’re between tasks. The house has been cleaned for company later this afternoon, Julie, former resident of this very house, and her boyfriend. Her mom couldn’t make it, but Julie’s bringing some old photos anyway.

Yesterday, after a bit of leafhogging in the morning, we decided to drive up a mountain. Peavine Peak to be exact. It’s probably been 25 years since I’ve been up there, I think I’ve only been once before, with my parents in the early years of living here. Nice drive and a good view from the top. We also took the opportunity to drive by the former Tiar residences on Moth Circle and Pine Grove Dr. Lots of childhood memories out there.

Sickness update: Still hacking a bit, especially at night, but progress is being made.  I think the fog I’ve been in for like 2 weeks now justifies my sparse updates on this here website.  I finally saw the light and got some real decongestant.  Did you know the Patriot Act now regulates pseudoephedrine too?  What does fighting meth have to do with terrorism?

Briefest movie reviews ever: Mission Impossible III – Mediocre, typically action-packed, not awful.  The Break-Up – Dumb and painful to watch.

And so we come to the end of another excruciatingly unsubstantial blog entry from Marc.  Thanks for sticking around, please keep coming back, I’m sure more interesting reading is in store someday…

Probably mostly because I find some elements of spam so fascinating (where do they get the made-up names for the “From:” field? How about those subject headers???), I found spamusement.com pretty darn funny.  If you get much spam, you probably will too.

Sickness update: a little bit better each day.  Still fighting some symptoms, but they’re decreasing.

Lola’s off feeding horses and goats this morning with our neighbor Amy, as she did yesterday as well.  Good fun for her, good free time for me.  Morgan comes home tonight, thank goodness.  I don’t know how single parents do it, particularly when they (the parents, that is) get sick.

One last item, this RGJ story today is really good.  Nice snapshot of life in downtown Reno’s residential hotels in the wake of the Mizpah fire.  That lady Caral was a frequent library patron some years ago.

Have a nice day everyone.