Ron's Apartment

Another productive day

2012-01-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

Actually, fairly productive week, all in all.

Last night I went to the Arthur Murray in Grandville for their public dance. I don't get out there much. The owner used to be an instructor at the Arthur Murray I go to. A bunch of us from Kentwood and Plainfield showed up. Most of the Grandville students are newbies, though. Still it was fun.

2 pans of experimental brownies done. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough brownies, and Peanut Butter Cookie Dough brownies.
You bake a pan of brownies as normal, cool them. Then put "dough" on top. It's reformulated dough to contain no eggs. You don't bake the dough. They turned out OK.
Plus another pan of Slutty Brownies done.

I put up the new art work. Did some aerobics (light since I'm going out dancing again tonight).

The Jupiter 2 project is officially cancelled. I'm just not making the time to work on it. Monsters in Motion made me an offer of one pre-built, all lit up with interior for a reasonable price (about $1000 more than Image-Icons offered way back when for the same thing). So that's the route I'm going to go. When the Jupiter 2 arrives, I'll probably sell off the kit.

Sooo....
I'll run some errands this afternoon, then rest, then head over to Moveir for dancing until I get too tired and it's back to "rest" on Monday.

ASUS Transformer Prime Review

2012-01-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

ASUS Transformer Prime Review

I ordered an ASUS Transformer Prime 16 GB from Amazon and it finally arrived.

The reason I bought it:

My netbook is getting old and I needed replacement. I had purchased an Archos 101 gen8. The screen size was right, but it just wasn’t powerful enough. But it convinced me that a tablet would work for me.
The Transformer Prime fit the bill and would run Android 4 - which would let me use a Bluetooth keyboard when I needed to.

The good:

Great screen.
Fast
Plenty of storage - for both apps and for data
It will certainly replace my netbook

The bad:

No UMS - only Microsoft’s brain-damaged MTP. This prevents me from hooking up the tablet to my Linux box.
Proprietary charger cable. They claim that you have to use their charger, but it seems like a regular AC to USB adaptor.
Bloatware. Too many apps are hard loaded and I can’t get rid of them. Most of these apps are completely useless to me since they rely on a proprietary source or protocol that I do not support to work.

The Plan:

I picked up a 32 GB micro SD card from Amazon. I’ll keep my music, eBooks and such on that. I can use that as the “drive” that I backup.
I can use Ubuntu One and Google Docs as a way to transfer files and documents. There's also a cool program called AirDroid that sets up a web-based interface to the tablet. You can web into the tablet and move files around and more.
I would keep very little actually on the tablet internal storage.
I picked up a secondary charge cable from Amazon too. I can use my many AC/USB adaptors to charge the device.

No rest for the wicked

2012-01-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

When last we left out intrepid explorer... er... geek 8-) he was resting. But that was just the calm before the storm.

Monday, my Asus Transformer Prime arrived. I mainly charged it that evening, but I played with it a bit. Then, on Tuesday, at work, Asus delivered Ice Cream Sandwich to it. Oh, yes! Play mode was turned on to the max.

Very sweet. See next post for a bigger review.

Of course, I had to work, then we had the big snow event out here (and I had to dodge morons who can't drive).

So Saturday, I decided to upgrade my cell phone. It had been 2 years. I would have upgraded earlier, but several things (like the condo, moving, holidays, etc.) got in the way. So finally, I had time and money to get a new phone.

What did I get? Why a Galaxy Nexus, of course. Which came with *sigh* Ice Cream Sandwich.

Yes, I have 2 - count them - 2 - devices with Android 4 on them!

So I've been busy. It took most of yesterday afternoon to get the new phone all set up and configured.
I'm still working on taking care of the low priority stuff on both, but they are now active and working very nice!

Rest Day

2012-01-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've been pushing myself hard for the last couple weeks - not to mention the last couple of days.
Friday was dancing from 6-11pm. Saturday was dancing from 10:45am-1:00pm, then more dancing from 7-11pm.

Needless to say, I'm tired. So today will be a rest day (not a normal "rest" day where I continue to exhaust myself - but a real rest day). I'll finish off some chores and do some projects. I'll probably do about 40 minutes of aerobics - the stretching and toning will help me today - but that will be it for exercise. I may go for a short walk, depending on the weather, but nothing too hard.

But mostly indoor stuff today and relaxation.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

Good thing: Out of the apartment and into a nicer (actually MUCH nicer) condo with a dance floor and all the fun things.
Hope for this year: Host some parties and have some fun.

Not-so-good thing: No progress on the girlfriend task.
I wasted a year on Ginny. Nothing really came out of it and it hurt when she dumped me in Oct/Nov. (It took me a bit to figure it out - still working on this stuff).
Better news: I do have several prospects.
Hope for this year: Progress (I try to keep my expectations realistic).

This year will mark the end of my association with Arthur Murray. I won't be renewing my contract. Already, I'm drifting away. I'll be going to the Wed. lessons at Social instead of the A.M. Plainfield party and group (something I very rarely did). I'm also taking group lessons at Salsalogy. By the end of the year, I'll decide who (and if) I want to take private lessons from - and it may not be one instructor or one studio.

But I will be attending Metal Ball in Feb. and I'm planning on doing 1 last Showcase this fall (we'll see).

I put Android Development on the list of things to do this year. Along with that HTML5 - cuz I think they will go together somewhat.

And I'm going to try to re-start on the Jupiter 2 project this month.

That's as far as I can see ahead. I'm hoping that the end of 2012 ends on an even better note than this year.

Year Wrap Up

2012-01-01T11:50:00.000-05:00

Boring week. Most people at work were gone and not much to do.
But whatever I had last week seems to have worked itself out (well, more accurately "through") my system. I still have some sniffles, but I feel so much better.

The dance Friday night medium attended (not at good as Dec. 23, but a decent-sized crowd).

Saturday was chores, then off to dance the night away. I must have made good food choices because at midnight, I was still ready to go. Not real tired (I DID dance for 3+ hours and we were short on men, so I didn't rest much) and not sleepy. So I kept going until the ladies went home.

Today is a new recipe (I'll post it if it's good) and I made another batch of Thai-spiced Tomato Soup. Messy, but totally worth it.

Christmas report

2011-12-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

OK. Well, dinner with some friends Christmas Eve was nice and interesting. Susan treated for dinner. I contributed the cookies. Audrey had helped Susan get her house straightened out. We were all in the mood for some good food and sitting around talking - which is what we did.

I found out a lot about what goes on at the dance that I don't see, as well as what goes on outside of the dances with the dancers. About 10pm I took Audrey home and came home.

Christmas was pretty uneventful. Low traffic going to Mom and Dad's. My youngest nephew was out sick, so he and his mom stayed home. So things were quieter than normal. Also, as my nieces and nephews get older, they want less presents and more money/gift cards. So there was less to open.

Dinner was nice (other than the fact that I ate too much). We broke it up about 6pm. No problems coming home.

Christmas - quick post

2011-12-25T20:32:00.002-05:00

More when my brain is working. Here's the link to the pictures.

Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-24T17:14:00.000-05:00

Got out of work early yesterday. Then did my grocery shopping. Meijer was mobbed (which made me both happy and frustrated at the same time).

Did my usual 6pm dance lesson, then went to Moveir for their Christmas dance (Social was closed). I wore out about 10:30pm and dragged my tired rear home for sleep.

Today was chores and minor errands. Then I did 40 minutes on the bike plus 20 minutes of stretching and toning. Then I finished up getting ready for Christmas.

Now it's rest time. I got invited to a dinner with a couple friends tonight. But it won't be a late night tonight. (I hope - they might drag me to Billy's.)

Busy weekend

2011-12-18T18:49:00.000-05:00

And I'm ready for a rest tomorrow.

Most chores done Saturday morning. Then Dave and Josh came over to get their cookies and talk. We went to Meijer Gardens and I showed them around the condo.

A quick meal and clean up, then I was off to Moveir to dance the night away.

Today I slept in and finished up the chores.
I bought the old TV stand to Goodwill to get that out of the way. Ran some more errands.
Then I headed over to Bed, Bath and Beyond. They had a nice cabinet that would fit well.
Then home to bike and stretch/tone for an hour.

I put the cabinet together. That was an adventure. The directions leave much to be desired. I started to put it together wrong. But stopped myself, back tracked a bit, then fixed it. Then one of the legs snapped. Not snapped off, but broke in half! It's a block of wood! I'm not real happy. But it's fixable.

Tomorrow is mostly rest. Some cookie baking. Then I get to check out of Bronze 4. By tomorrow, I will be a Silver level ballroom dancer.

That will also mark the end of Arthur Murray for me. I'm going to use the rest of my contract to polish up my Bronze 4 stuff and I won't be taking personal lessons anymore - except here and there with other instructors to correct things.

Another productive day

2011-12-12T16:47:00.000-05:00

I got the breaks on the car done (kinda important).
Then I took care of Mom's Christmas presents and got the Godiva for the stocking stuffers.
I took this week's cookies out of the freezer and put them into the fridge to thaw.

Now, I have room in the freezer. So.... I made 2 batches of Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies. I'll make some more next week.

Finally, I worked on the TV. I figured out what the problem with the sound bar was. It was messed up. I needed to unplug (not just turn off) for a while. After that, it worked fine. *whew!*

Productive day... sort of

2011-12-05T20:37:00.000-05:00

So, this morning starts off with me heading over to Mom and Dad's. It was a Credit Card discount day today. That, plus my employee discount, got dad a new 42" TV for $500 for Christmas. I also picked up a new TV for the dance room.

So I got Dad's new TV set up and working fine. Then back home.

I unpack my new TV, then remove the old TV and run the new cables. When I go to hang the new TV I find that the old wall mount won't work (the cables prevent it from working). So back to Meijer to get a new wall mount.

Then I go to remove the old wall mount to find that... I can't. I really bolted one of those screws in good. I ended up cutting off the head and removing it with a pair of vice grips.

So I drilled new pilot holes and mounted the TV to the wall. Everything works. Almost. I can't get the speakers to work right. It keeps using the internal TV speakers - not the good ones I mounted before.

So I still have more work to do.

On the good side, more Christmas stuff done. Only a little more and I'll be complete.

Another boring week

2011-12-02T19:28:00.000-05:00

I'm glad it's Friday. Now I can get out to do stuff!

Normal Saturday. I'm going to miss the dinner/dance in Holland this year (no one to go with). But I'll be at Moveir tomorrow.

I haven't quite figured out what to do on Sunday. Hopefully a date (keeping my fingers crossed) with Karla. If we can't get together then, the next time will be next year because the rest of the month will be busy.

Monday will be Dad's new TV. I'm hoping the roads are nice since we can't delay that task (the discounts are only for that day).

Thanksgiving - the aftermath

2011-11-26T16:58:00.000-05:00

Zumba turned out really fun. The only problem is that it's geared toward women - so you always start with the right foot. That's counter to my dance training which has me starting on the left foot. I'd do it more often, but it seems to only be offered when I'm at work.

Thanksgiving was uneventful.
Mom OKed the plan for the new TV, including using some of her Christmas money to get a better one. So we are on track for that.
Mom and Dad got me the TV wall mount that I wanted for Christmas and it arrived. But they can't lift it, so they had me take it home.

So today, I installed it. The TV is now on the wall. Now I have to get more furniture to fill in the empty space.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:22:00.000-05:00

Boring week. No one is allowed to put changes in at work, so it's been just low priority tasks all week.

Low dance week since there was no party last night and tonight.
So I did 40 minutes on the bike when I got home, then 20 minutes of stretching and toning.
This morning, I'll be stopping in Lake Odessa and doing Zumba with Jean (who teaches my Tues. night West Coast Swing lesson). I've been wanting to try Zumba, but all the classes around here are geared toward housewives (i.e. the lesson time is when I'm at work).

Then to my parent's house for Thanksgiving.

Back to work on Friday and out dancing again.

Finally some time

2011-11-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

Ramping up for Christmas. I organized everything I've got so far. People are getting mostly gift cards/cash this year, which makes shopping very easy on me.

Gingerbread cookies tomorrow, and I'll take Mom's cookies out to make room in the freezer. Next week is Belly Button cookies and the filling of the containers.

We had a good-sized crowd for dance all week. Tuesday was a little sparse, but not too bad. Big party on Wed (which I haven't seen in a LONG time). But Saturday lessons were poorly attended. Laura and I got a "private" group lesson today.

So all the chores are done, pretty much. Just some minor errands tomorrow. Next week is a very light dance week. Nothing Wed. night and, of course, Thanksgiving evening.

Now, off to Moveir and dance the night away.

Too much energy

2011-11-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

I made the mistake of dozing off and now I have too much energy to sleep. So I get to write blog updates.

The dance last Sunday was disappointing. I won't be going back. It's not worth it to drive 2.5 hours and not dance much.

Very light dance crowd this weekend. Friday was a very light crowd. I think it was a combination of Veteran's Day stuff plus the weather, plus colds going around. Saturday was better, but not by much - but we did see a bunch of new faces at DanceGR.

So today was 3 batches of cookies. Plus a batch of Thai-spiced Tomato Soup. That tastes really good with some pulled pork from Herman's Boy. That was all before lunch.

After lunch, I ran some errands, then did some time on the bike. Only 40 minutes because I was feeling run down. Then I did another 20 minutes of stretching and toning.

I fixed the basement doors. Due to settling, 2 of the doors didn't close well. They do now.

Then I relaxed. A little too much, it seems because I dozed off. *sigh* Well, I guess I didn't (or did, depending on your point of view) need to get to sleep a little earlier tonight.

Another update from the Man Cave

2011-11-06T13:15:00.000-05:00

Normal week this week. Nothing too tiring. I baked the Peanut Butter Temptations yesterday.

I picked up the table lamp I needed for the Man Cave today. The sword rack is on order (from Amazon.com - who knew?). That should be here this week and I can get it up this weekend. Then that should be it for the Man Cave.

Mostly cleaning and baking yesterday. I wanted to clear off today. There's a dance in Lansing I want to go to this afternoon.

Live from the Man Cave

2011-10-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

So, Saturday was nice a busy. Chores, errands, etc.
I went to the last Farmer's Market in Rockford, then I walked around town, exploring the shops. A nice walk.
Then I made the bottoms for the Fudge Cream Candy Squares.
Then more chores/errands.
I went to a Halloween party. Nice people. Fairly fun. But I knew only 3 people there. So it got to be too much for me after a while. So I went to Moveir to finish off the night dancing.

Today was 2 batches of Cinnamon Bars. Finished off the 3 pans of Fudge Cream Candy Squares. Ginny suggested some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. So I tried them out. They turned out OK. I can do better. I used the rest of the pumpkin to make some Thai-spiced pumpkin soup. That turned out poor. The flavors just didn't work.

So, the cookies are in the freezer and everything's cleaned up. I did 40 minutes on the bike, then did a 20 minute stretching and weight routine. Now it's rest time. So I'm in the Man Cave (aka The Lounge), relaxing. The rest of the stuff for the Man Cave will be here Wed. Then I can finish it up next weekend.

Busy Sunday

2011-10-24T06:01:00.000-04:00

The dance Saturday night was good. So I stayed until about 10pm.

Sunday morning was mostly baking cookies and doing minor chores.
I brought the bike in and hooked it up to the trainer. That's working nice.

Then off to some west coast swing lessons. After that, I ran a couple of errands and then came home and relaxed.

Ceiling fans are all fixed. I just needed to move the switch a lot to scrape off the crud.

Productive day

2011-10-22T17:11:00.000-04:00

Another productive day. Chores are all done.

The weatherman said that things weren't going to warm up enough in the next week. So biking is done for the year. The bike rack came off the car today. I washed up the bike a bit and I'll put it downstairs and on the trainer tomorrow.

Got a hair cut, groceries. Made the dough for 2 batches of oatmeal chocolate cherry cookies. I'll bake them tomorrow morning along with the pumpkin bars that I found a recipe for.

I had some extra time so I went over to Gild the Lily (consignment shop) to check out their stuff.

Oh, I switched the ceiling fans to blow the air up and found that they haven't been switched in a long, long time. So they don't work. The one in the bedroom won't work at all now and the one in the living room only works blowing the air down. *sigh* Yet another thing to fix. This homeowner thing is not it's all cracked up to be.

Off to the swing dance tonight. We'll see what happens. I may bail and head over to Moveir for their dance.

Adventure Day

2011-10-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

So I baked some cookies. They turned out well, but not good enough to knock out the top 10 that I make now.

As I was cleaning up, the guys from Jazzy Junk arrived with my "new" sofa and curio cabinet. The cabinet had no problems, but there was no way that the sofa could fit into the condo. The doors were simply too small.

Luckily, they took it back. But then I went and spent another $450 with them, so I don't think they feel too bad. Instead of 1 big sofa, I got a love seat (which folds out into a twin-sized bed) and 2 chairs. I'll probably pick up some more chairs in the near future.

I also put up some shelves. So the Lounge is coming along just fine. I need to do some work on the footstool of the love seat, though. It's also a storage bin. But one of the casters came off and the hinge broke. All fixable, when I can find the time.

Then I went to my dance lesson, but I couldn't stay for the group class afterwards, like I usually do. I went to my first Condo Association meeting. I had flashbacks from college club meetings. The overly formal things, that people do not take seriously. Then the one person who simply won't listen to the answers given to him - several times. Then the refreshments afterwards.

I didn't stay long. I need to take care of a few things before I head off to bed tonight.

Productive day

2011-10-15T17:12:00.000-04:00

Wow. What a productive day. I had all my scheduled tasks done by 1pm. So I rehung the curtains (the seller has them hung too low), and watched some media (I still haven't gotten to my DVDs yet).

So I'm clear for the dance party tonight (Halloween theme - I'm going as Tony Stark).

Ahhhh... Friday

2011-10-14T19:15:00.000-04:00

Yes, I was ready for Friday. Lots of interesting things at work this week.

Busy all weekend with dancing, chores and birthdays.

I have Monday off. The delivery guys from the consignment place will be bringing my downstairs sofa and curio cabinet. Then we'll see what else I need in there. I'll probably bake some more cookies too, while I'm home.

Definitely no biking this weekend. It's COLD! I'll make the decision to take the bike rack off the last week of Oct. No dancing that Wed. because of schedules. So I'll have time to take it off then.

Tired

2011-10-09T18:35:00.000-04:00

So the dance last night was well-attended. I was worried because the weather was so nice. A bunch of ladies from Lansing showed up and people danced until about 10pm, when the dance started to break up.

Then 2 ladies talked me in to going to the BOB afterwards. I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to go. Talk about busy! The place was packed. So, after walking around, we finally all met up. It was a usual, dance floor the size of a postage stamp, packed with the vertical seizure people, who are mostly drunk. We did get a couple of dances in, though. I finally made it home about 1am.

Today was some fix it things. I rearranged the media player downstairs to move it behind the wall. The hard part was wiring up the new outlet. First attempt: sparks. Second attempt: no power. Third, forth, fifth attempt: the same. I finally discovered where the loose wire was and fixed it.

The rest went fine. I just need to spackle a bit today and paint tomorrow.

Did 26 miles on the bike and then baked some mini pumpkin pies.

So now I'm on the patio with Chika. Resting and enjoying the coolness as the sun goes down.

This weekend

2011-10-07T19:18:00.000-04:00

I took last night off from dancing to take a bike trip. It was a bit cool in some low-lying areas as the sun went down, but overall nice. I took some fall pictures, but the color is muted this year. Some trees are still green, others have no leaves, only some had color.

Then I baked 2 batches of chocolate cookies and tried out the pie in a jar recipe I found (turned out very good).

So tonight is normal: dancing until late.
Tomorrow will be a chore day, while I get my list cleaned off. Then dancing.
Sunday will be Art Prize (maybe) and then another bike trip. I'm trying to get some biking in while the weather is nice. These days aren't going to last.

I went through some stuff yesterday and I discovered more stuff that I didn't remember that I had. So I have to schedule a garbage collection day to go through everything and pack it up correctly.

Ding, dong, the witch is dead

2011-10-06T05:37:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm talking about The Lord Steve Jobs. I don't often celebrate the death of someone, but Steve is an exceptional person.

We all know about his work to make electronics (including computers) easier to use. But in the last decade The Lord Steve Jobs has done little but be a threat to freedom. He single handedly made Apple the #1 threat to freedom on the internet.

I am not sorry he's gone. As far as I am concerned, good riddance to bad rubbish. My hope now is now that The Lord Steve Jobs is gone, the Cult of Jobs will whither and die, and so will Apple's threat to freedom.

Yes, I'm still alive

2011-10-03T15:10:00.000-04:00

Barely.

Busy week at work. So the week went fast. The Bolero seminar on Wed. also helped.

So, Friday was normal, but a little fast. Saturday was chaperoning 4 ladies around Art Prize - which was sort of like herding cats, but a little less frustrating and more rewarding. Then I went to Moveir for their dance.

Sunday was mostly spent correcting the empty chest freezer. I made 6.5 batches of cookies. 2 of the oatmeal/chocolate chip/cherry ones. 2 batches of chocolate scotcharoos. 2 batches of Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies. A small batch of an experimental gluten-free peanut butter cup brownies.

The brownies are in the fridge. They will go to work tomorrow. 1 batch of chocolate cookies went to Claudia's dance Sunday in Lansing. Which means, after cleaning up I drove out to Lansing for a dance.

Unfortunately, Ginny wasn't able to come to the dance. She was too busy. But I was able to go see her after the dance for about 30 minutes.

So today.... I have today off. To rest.
And what does "rest" mean? Yes, more work.

First was to Meijer, to pick up the makings for 4 more batches of treats (2 pans of S'more bars, and 2 of regular peanut butter cup brownies). Then home to bake those.
Then I tried out single serving pie in a jar. My jars were high, though, instead of wide. They are in the freezer now, so we'll see how that works out.

Cleaned up and went out for errands. To Gild the Lily (a consignment shop) to check out their stuff. I picked up an organizer for the computer desk.
Then to Village Bike Shop to get a trainer for the bike. This lets me bike in the winter downstairs.
Then to drop off some cookies and recipes at Saffron's. This is the place where I get my gluten-free cooking ingredients.
Then to Kohl's for some winter shirts.
Finally to the Rockford Footwear Outlet (i.e. the old Hush Puppy outlet).

Then home, to finish the cookies, clean the apartment, catch up on my media watching.

And what was awaiting me when I got home? My Coffee Julies. I'll try them out soon.

*sigh* Almost done for the day. Then off to my dance lesson and back to "rest" tomorrow.

Housewarming Dance Party

2011-09-25T21:59:00.000-04:00

The party went off well. Lots of people showed up. They all seemed to have a good time. We broke in the dance floor (and didn't break anything else in the process).

Now I'm tired. Everything's cleaned up (well, clean enough to leave until tomorrow, at least).

I looked through the housewarming gifts that some people left. Now, I have to get the thank you notes out. But that can wait until tomorrow too. My eyes are threatening to shut down for the evening.

It was a long, tiring (but fun) day.

The weekend is here

2011-09-23T19:25:00.000-04:00

Busy week again at work. I like those kinds of weeks because the week days go fast. But home was hectic getting everything done.

Yesterday, I did a bit of Art Prize. I went to an artist reception and saw a bit of art. Then took care of my bus passes. The amount of art seems lower this year. We'll see tomorrow when we do a longer walk around the art.

Heading off to Social tonight for the dance. Then tomorrow is chores, Art Prize, maybe Moveir (we'll see how sore my feet are). Sunday is some baking, then the housewarming party. We'll see how that goes. Right now, according to Facebook, it will be me and 20 women 8-).

Freezer

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

So Sunday, I went to Lowe's and bought a chest freezer. It was pretty light, so there were no problems getting it into the basement. But I did have to run an extension cord to put the freezer where I needed to put it.

So the directions said to let it sit for 24 hours to let the refrigerant settle before starting it. So I waited until I got home yesterday before firing it up. This morning I checked it and put some stuff in it. It's working nice.

Finally! I have a place to store cookies, making it worthwhile to bake ahead.

Normal week

2011-09-17T17:42:00.000-04:00

Well, sort of. Busy at work, which was nice. It made the week go fast.

Normal dance week this week.

So today I zipped down to the Art Prize Hub grand opening (they renovated an old building for the Art Prize admin building). The first 500 people got a free shirt. I was 3rd in line.

I got to meet Grand Rapids' Mayor Hartwell and Rick DeVos (the rich guy who started Art Prize), plus a few people I knew from dancing (they were part of the Art Prize management).

I registered for Art Prize, so I can vote for the good art. I picked up a guidebook and bus passes (so I don't have to deal with the traffic). Unfortunately, there was a mix up with the bus passes that I'm working out. We'll see what happens.

At the very least, I will have to deal with the traffic anyway when I head down to an artist's reception on Thursday evening (hey, free food!).

So more dancing tonight and some dancing tomorrow (someone's birthday). No biking this weekend. Too cold.

Next week will be preparing for the Housewarming Dance at my place. Plenty of people have promised to come. We'll see how things work out.

Sunday

2011-09-11T18:04:00.000-04:00

So I didn't make it to Moveir last night. No surprise.

But I slept in this morning. Relaxed. Did 24 miles on the bike. Went to the store.

And then tried to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. So I relaxed with the eBook reader on the deck, letting the umbrella deflect the acorns from the trees.

A different kind of week

2011-09-10T19:15:00.000-04:00

So we start with dancing. No Wed. and Thurs. night parties this week. So I got out an biked Wed. night (a bit chilly, but still nice). Thurs. was not nice for biking, so I used the new dance/exercise room and did some aerobics.

The reason for the lack of parties was that Friday was Spotlight Spectacular at the Kentwood Arthur Murray. So I went there. But that was a pretty light dance. 7:30-10pm. But 2 of those hours were watching other people dance. There was only 30 minutes or so of open dancing. A far cry from my normal Friday night of 3.5 hours of dancing.

So, this morning I got up and did chores. Then I went to get my coffee beans at Herman's Boy. Then I stopped at the apartment to check in my mail. The box was empty, so I hope that means that the post office is actually forwarding my mail now.

A hair cut and groceries, and I was back home. I bought an acorn squash at the farmer's market, so I made that for lunch. I baked up the rest of the cookies for next Saturday's DanceGR. Then I cleaned up and went for a nice bike ride. About 27 miles. It was a very nice day for that.

So I get home, press the button for the garage door. It opens a couple of inches and stops. I try a few times and then go in and look. The torsion spring is broke. *sigh* But I think the association fixes that. I'll find out Monday.

So I had dinner and I'm sitting on the deck with the Chromebook, relaxing in the coolness of the sunset. I'm debating on whether to go to Moveir tonight or not.

Rest Day

2011-09-05T10:08:00.002-04:00

10am and it's only 57F. Buuurrrr... So today is definitely an indoor day.

The dance room is all taped up. As soon as the cookies are baked and put away, I'll paint.

Then I'll finish up some minor chores.

Full day

2011-09-04T19:19:00.000-04:00

Another full day today.

It started off early with me heading over to Meijer to take advantage of the 15% off credit card day. I picked up a few things, but the main reason was the speakers for the dance room.

So I got those installed. Plus a shelf. Then I got all the stuff hooked up for entertainment in the room.

I did a few more installs/chores/clean up and then headed off to the Outlet to see if they had anything. Then Penzey's Spices (running low on sweet curry and cinnamon for the oatmeal). I stopped at the apartment to check my mail (still coming in there *sigh*).

The day turned out less rainy than expected. So I did a 27 mile bike ride. It was a bit cool with the wind, plus the sun going behind thick clouds. But it was still pleasant.

I also started painting the molding around the dance floor. It looks nice.

Tomorrow is mostly rest. I need to make cookies and I want to finish painting the molding. It will be too cold to bike tomorrow, so no biking.

I might to some aerobics on the dance floor, though.

Blueberry Upside Down Cake

2011-09-04T05:29:00.002-04:00

Success! Very tasty. Too tasty. I'll have to do something with it before I eat it all.

But it only makes a 9x9" pan. So there's not too much bad stuff.

Tired

2011-09-03T20:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, still tired.
Friday night I turned in early. We had a good crowd for Social Dance Studio's dance. So I danced a lot.

Today was the first real laundry in the condo. I did some clean up and some tasks around the condo.
Then I got talked into "furniture sitting" for a dance friend. Basically, she's moving. Salvation Army was coming by to pick up her furniture (did I mention that she's moving to Hawaii?) but she had to go to the post office to mail off her belongings. So I got asked to be there if Salvation Army came by when she was gone.

So I get there and wait. Sure enough, Salvation Army shows up when she's gone. But wait! They won't take furniture from the basement - which is where all her stuff is. *sigh* So I haul up what I can. She comes back and we move the rest of her stuff to the garage. She will call Salvation Army to come next week to get the rest of the stuff.

Then I went to Lowe's to get the paint for the molding in the dance room.

It was supposed to be a rainy day today, but it was hot and sunny (but very humid). So I did a bike trip. Then home for dinner while I cooked some stuff in my new oven for the first time (Blueberry upside down cake - I'll let you know how it turns out).

Now it's just rest time.

Tomorrow will be a Meijer day as I take advantage of a sale this weekend to pick up some more stuff (like the speakers for the dance room).

If it's rainy, I'll paint and install the sound system in the dance room.
If it's sunny, another bike trip and, maybe, some condo work.

Post Move

2011-08-31T13:04:00.000-04:00

I got most of the condo squared away. The low priority room is left, but that will take a while to take care of. And it's low priority as I get other things taken care of.

So, Tuesday morning I take a shower, but the water never did warm up. I got some cold pricklys - and not from the warm water - about the water heater. But a quick check showed that it was just in vacation mode. Once I set it to Hot, everything worked.

Then I blew a breaker this morning making breakfast. I'll have to move the water boiler to a different circuit.

Finally, the dance floor is getting installed as I type this. They are mostly done. Unfortunately, a couple boxes were damaged somewhere along the lines. So I had to make a run back to Lumber Liquidators to pick up another box.

The art is up. The books are (mostly) sorted. Everything seems to be working correctly. I'm calling this a successful move. No more big things left on the list.

The Move

2011-08-29T20:43:00.000-04:00

The move went well. No casualties.

We started at 8:30am and they had everything in the apartment by 10:30am. Then I spent the rest of the day getting everything sorted enough to actually live here. By 5pm most of the stuff is set up.

I want to rearrange the living room, though. I don't like the way I have it set up now.
I also need to figure out what to do with the dining room table.
And then there's the Play Room (which is currently filled with stuff I don't want to deal with yet).

And all the other move-related things (like change of address).
But that's for tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

Condo

2011-08-26T15:46:00.000-04:00

I took a few things to the condo today and cleaned up some other stuff.

It's mostly been packing in the apartment and things are looking pretty bare now.

Tonight is dancing, though. Then birthdays at Mom and Dad's tomorrow.

Sunday is the final move prep day with the big computers going up to the condo, along with the perishable food. So no grocery shopping until Sunday. I also have a couple of cleaning tasks in the condo I want to take care of. Maybe I'll get a bike ride in - it depends.

Monday the movers come early. I figure only 1 trip up to the condo. Then that's it. It's unpack time and get things in order to live there.

Then the change over to the new address starts (I hate this part of a move). It's probably going to be a year before I change my address everywhere.

Heck, I don't know where Charter got it, but they have my old land-line phone number on my account. The one that hasn't been active for a couple of years now. *sigh* It's amazing how long bad data stays around.

Condo

2011-08-21T18:54:00.000-04:00

Blinds installed. I messed up the first one and had to drill another 1/2 set of holes (about 1 inch higher up). But I did figure out what the valence is for: hiding my pencil marks, wall scuffs and extra holes.

I installed the wall mount for the lower level TV. I'm pissed at the company who sold it because the instructions were simply WRONG. 1/8" drill for the pilot hole - only if the Incredible Hulk was sitting around to screw in the bolts. A little less than 1/4" was what it really should have been. "Use a Phillips #3 screwdriver. A #2 will strip the screw head." Then they should have made the screws so that they would FIT a #3 Phillips. A #2 fit perfectly. But it's up and working.

No return on my call to get the dance floor installed. I'll try again tomorrow.

Then I went to get a new chair mat (the old one is all cracked) and a few other odds and ends.

It was still really nice, so I did a bike trip. Another 25 miles. I'm beat now. I'm glad for a few days rest at "work". I left the bike in the condo because I won't be using it until Labor Day weekend at the earliest (it depends on what Ginny wants to do that weekend).

Oh, and I need to fix the garage door sensor. Ahhh... The life of a homeowner. Never a dull moment.

T-8 days until move. I'm off starting Wed afternoon and I don't go back to "work" until Sept. 1. I should be dead tired by then.

Condo

2011-08-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

Score! Meijer still had the glider rocker that I was looking at. On clearance. Today is a 15% off credit card day. Plus my employee discount.

The blinds arrived yesterday. So I'll be hauling them up to the condo soon and getting them installed.

Tired

2011-08-18T19:26:00.000-04:00

Went up to the condo for 8am. I moved some more stuff, but not even a full car load.

I rearranged some stuff and put other stuff away while I waited for the flooring guy to get there. Unfortunately, he got caught in traffic and didn't get there until later than expected.

In the mean time, I went home and picked up some cooking things and made my first meal on the new oven in the new condo. Then read the local free paper and read some eBooks.

The flooring guy finally arrived and got the flooring delivered. Now to let it acclimate.

I decided to move the coat rack in the stairwell. That worked out well, but I needed to take care of the holes it left. So off to Meijer to get some spackle. That went well.

My needs done, I took advantage of this beautiful day and went biking for 25 miles.

Rest time

2011-08-14T18:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I did most of my chores early. Then took one big load up to the condo. Then finished up most of the chores and headed off to West Coast Squared - 9 hours of dancing. I was foot sore and tired when I left.

Today, I overrode my protesting muscles and moved 3 more loads to the condo. I also did some minor repairs that needed to be done. The storage bin is empty.

Oh, and I scored a couple of nice leather chairs from the Meijer Outlet today. $30 each. So one more thing off the condo list.

So I'm a big achy right now. But the good news is that almost all the stuff that I intended to move is moved. All the fragile stuff. All that's left for me to move are my clothes, food, and computers. That will go on move day (or the Sunday before).

Now it's rest time.

This week is a bit up in the air. No Wed. or Thurs. night dance. Maybe a bike ride or Grand Haven again. We'll see what happens.

Thursday is the cable/internet install.

Catch up

2011-08-12T19:09:00.000-04:00

Busy week.

So I finished up Tuesday by actually purchasing my dance floor. I got the ball rolling on getting it installed on Wed. I have to wait a bit for rest of the flooring to come in so the install may not happen until after I move in. No big deal if that's the case.

I also took another load to the Condo Tuesday.

Wednesday Ginny and I went to Grand Haven. I like to go at least once per year. We danced until 9pm and then the ladies wanted ice cream. So over to the ice cream place we went.

By the time we were done talking the musical fountains were going. It was the first time I've seen them. Interesting, but not interesting enough to spend more time watching them. I didn't get home until late.

Thursday, I staged another load to the condo. It looks like I'll have plenty of my stuff moved before my move in date. That will make the movers cheaper.

Tonight is Social Dance and tomorrow is West Coast Squared (all afternoon and evening). So no condo stuff until Sunday.

Cable install happens on Thursday. Hopefully everything will go OK and I'll have Internet in both locations.

Condo

2011-08-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

Whoo hoo! I told the apartment complex I was moving. They did a check and found I had an extra $110 in my account. So my last month is free, and Sept is $110 less!

Got the estimate on the flooring and lower level bedroom blinds up.

I stopped at Meijer and picked up the patio chairs that they had on sale. What's an extra $150? I should have picked them up Saturday when I could have gotten an extra 15% off.

Anyway, another load to the condo. Then over to Lumber Liquidators to get the dance floor.

Busy day, again

2011-08-07T19:59:00.000-04:00

Slept in this morning (not intended), but that was good.

I left for Ginny's place at 8:30 am and we got to Kimball Pines County Park about 10:20pm for Silverleaf Renaissance Faire. We were astounded at the destruction. The Memorial Day storms took out many of the old trees. Blown over, broken trees were piled up everywhere.

Overall the Faire was OK. Not the best I've been to, but still good. Despite what the weatherperson said, it rained a bit. Not real bad for not very long, but it still made everything wet. We left about 3pm.

So I took Ginny home. We made a stop at J.C. Penney and I looked at vertical blinds for the sliding doors. They made me a good deal, so I ordered them. They should be here in a week or so.

So I had some extra time. I ran another car load of stuff to the Condo. At this rate, all the low priority stuff will be moved before the big move day.

Next up: Tuesday. Estimate for dance floor and new oven.

Ugh!

2011-08-06T16:26:00.000-04:00

Door locks changed. Meijer didn't have what I wanted exactly, so I had to go to Lowe's. Unfortunately, today is a credit card day (i.e. big discount when I use my credit card).

But Meijer did have the new smoke alarms. They are installed. I had to wire them in because the plugs wouldn't fit, but that was no big deal. But it was "flip a breaker, run up stairs to see if the smoke alarm was still on, run back down and try another breaker". Guess which one controlled the smoke alarms - yes, the last one.

Counter cleaned. Lots of food stains were still on it.
I dropped off 3 tubs of low-priority stuff.

Why do these "little tasks" take so much more time than expected?

Pics of the new condo are here.

Now the work starts

2011-08-06T11:19:00.000-04:00

The closing went off without a problem yesterday. The seller was a nice guy. By 3pm, I was in "my" condo (well, the bank owns it until I pay it off, and the state owns it forever).

So now I get to start on my list of things to do.

I was going to take some time today to do a short bike trip - the last one for this month, probably. But it seems that Mother Nature has other plans. It's raining. Oh, well.

I guess that today's a Condo day after all.

T-7 hours until Condo

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

I'm scheduled to close on the condo at 1pm today.

The move is scheduled for the 29th.
The flooring estimate is scheduled for the 9th.
I'm going to try to schedule the oven installation for the 9th.

That just leaves the cable and flooring installation date.

This weekend will be a condo weekend with the locks, fire alarms, and clean up.

Weekend Wrapup

2011-08-01T20:34:00.000-04:00

I took today off to relax. So what did I do? Baked cookies, biked and danced.

I tried 2 adjustments to the oatmeal/chocolate/cherry cookies. They both turned out well.

25 miles on the bike.

Then lunch with Ginny for a couple hours.

Then I made up the kit I bought at Maker Faire: PumLantern. It's working right now. Pretty cool.

Then I went to my dance lesson and did the group class afterwards.

Ran an errand to Radio Shack (I'm running out of solder - and I needed a special battery).

The day is over. Back to "rest" tomorrow. But if the weather is OK in the evening, I might be at Rosa Parks Circle swinging the night away.

Maker Faire

2011-07-31T21:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I think I now know what "heat exhaustion" means. I'm ready for bed.

2 hours of driving. 1 hour of traveling. 6 hours of Maker Faire. Then 1 hour of traveling back, followed by 2 hours of driving home. Add to that the backups that I encountered (by idiots who thought that Sunday evening - when everyone is heading home - was a good time to do road repairs).

But I did get the pictures up.

Busy week

2011-07-30T11:56:00.000-04:00

It started Wed. Ginny and I sent to Salsalogy's dance/BBQ. It was an interesting night with all the thunderstorms that came through and (at times very) heavy rain on the way home. But we still had a fun time.

Thursday was the calm before the storm. I did a few errands and then went out dancing.

Friday I went to Mom and Dad's house to help move them to their new condo. I was there by 9am. The movers showed up by 10am. They didn't get done moving stuff until 5pm. I didn't get out until after 7pm. Too late to get home and go dancing. The ladies were disappointed. 8-)

Mom and dad still aren't completely unpacked, but the condo was in a usable state by the evening. My other brothers and family are helping them finish (mostly) unpack today.

Chores today. I'm about to head out and shop for the new oven and set up the appointment for the floor (they are smart enough to not trust me and want to come look for themselves). Now that I have a firm close date, I can schedule these things.

Dancing tonight. Hopefully with Ginny (she's busy too).

Day of disappointments

2011-07-25T20:13:00.002-04:00

1. Close date for the condo moved. The seller can only be here on Fridays and we are both busy this Friday. So no close until Aug. 6 (another week to go).

2. The extra Squeezebox that I got on eBay came but it was a wired-only version (I'm trying to get an old Squeezebox). So I have to send that one back. But the seller is pretty responsive, so things seem to be going OK.

Sunday

2011-07-25T06:14:00.000-04:00

25 miles on the bike. Then baked cookies. I took a bunch of old clothes I had forgotten about to Goodwill (less to move).

That will probably be my last free weekend for a while now. I close on the condo Thurs. Then the whole weekend this week is very busy. Then I start work on the condo and get everything updated and the move date set.

The plan is to be moved into the Condo in Aug. We'll see how that goes.

Update inbetween

2011-07-23T14:50:00.002-04:00

Busy weekend.

Did Picnic pops last night. I was worried because it was very rainy during the day, but it cleared up in plenty of time for the concert. Danced plenty of times. Very humid, though.

Did 25 miles on the bike this morning. Again, the weather tried to get in my way, but I still went. It only dripped a little bit. I stopped at the Farmer's Market in Rockford to pick up some more blueberries (they ate all mine last night at Picnic Pops).

About to head out to the BBQ at Stan and Linda's house. More partying.

No plans yet for tomorrow. I'm prepped to bake cookies. So we'll see what happens.

Condo

2011-07-21T18:19:00.000-04:00

Things are moving. Took care of some more paperwork this week. They are estimating a close date of 7/28/2011.

That will make next weekend officially the busiest weekend I've had in years. Between closing, helping mom and dad move, dancing, Maker Faire, I won't get much time to do anything else - and that's with my days off that I'm taking.

Bored

2011-07-16T17:19:00.000-04:00

Ya, bored. Low task day today.

Chores are done. I actually watched all the videos I had queued up on the Mvix (well, I haven't gotten to the Android development ones quite yet).

Now marking time until DanceGR tonight. Hopefully we will get a good crowd. They are forecasting a hot and humid night. So that might make people want to come to a nice air conditioned place to dance. It was a fairly light crowd last night and I took off early.

More paperwork for the condo today, but still no close date. It should be set soon.

Ahhhh... Friday

2011-07-15T18:55:00.000-04:00

Yes, sweet Friday. A busy week at work and otherwise.

So dancing tonight, chores and dancing tomorrow, biking and unknown Sunday.

The calm before the storm. I should be getting a close date on the condo soon. Then I have to help Mom and Dad move. Then I get to work on my new place.

The end of July into August is shaping up to be very, very busy for me.

Rest Day

2011-07-10T18:16:00.000-04:00

Not really.

Another 25 miles on the bike this morning. Very nice for biking. It was actually cool in certain areas. I got home before the heat really picked up.

I made 2 batches of cookies for a cookout coming up. Then I fixed a couple of minor things and finished up watching some DVDs.

All in all, a nice, productive Sunday.

I'll read a bit, then do some yoga before heading off to sleep tonight.

Last Night

2011-07-09T08:18:00.000-04:00

Well, dancing at GRAM on the Green was sort of a bust. It was nice out, but not really fun. We had the option of going to Social or trying out Salsology. Ginny wanted Salsology, so we went there for a couple more hours.

About to head out for a bike ride this morning. I'll probably stop by the farmer's market in Rockford. Then some chores and the cookout this afternoon.

Busy night tonight

2011-07-08T06:10:00.000-04:00

Busy night tonight. So, I have to do my update now.

Normal dance last night. Which was strange seeing how much was disrupted by the murderer driving the wrong way down the highway. Eventful night for some people.

Today is GRAM on the Green. Ballroom dancing at Rosa Parks Circle. Ginny and I are going with a fallback to Social Dance if it fizzles.

Tomorrow is biking, chores, and cookout. Maybe dancing, if time/energy permits.

Sunday is Silverleaf Renaissance Faire, weather permitting (it's iffy). Baking cookies if the weather is bad.

Busy weekend

2011-07-04T16:37:00.000-04:00

Dancing Friday.

Biking Saturday. Then Sandy's party. I didn't get home until 11pm. Very good time. I actually get to talk with the people I see at the dances.

24 miles on the bike Sunday followed by Josh's birthday. Another nice day.

Today, I actually got to sleep in (i.e. 5am). Then I went biking with Ginny for about an hour. I took care of some errands and minor things today. I'll be heading back over to Ginny's for dinner and we'll head over to East Grand Rapids tonight for fireworks.

Relaxing

2011-07-01T19:08:00.000-04:00

Sitting in a crippled Biggby now. They had a power hit just before I came home. They got their power back, but no WiFi. So I get to use some of my Verizon 3G that I got for free with my Chromebook here.

It's the start of a long weekend. Dance tonight. We'll see how many show up, holiday weekend and all. But I expect to dance until 11pm tonight.

Weather permitting, I will be out biking tomorrow morning early. Then chores, and then the lake party at Sandy's house. A fun day. Hopefully it won't get rained out.

2011-06-28T12:07:00.000-04:00

From my girlfriend. Her son went to school with Pratik.

Many things touch our hearts for different reasons. This one has touched my heart because I am also a mother, this is a fellow friend in need, I get up and walk every day, and God calls us to help and pray for those in need. I may have aches and pains, but I can get up and go.

I wanted to share this with my friends, and ask you to pray for the family. They have greatly appreciated all the prayers so far.

Please donate a cup of coffee!

My son has a very close friend who was in a tragic bus accident here in the US, has survived the incident along with his mother, but both are recovering from serious injuries, Pratrik’s mother from a spinal cord injuries, Pratrik from fractured vertebrae. His mother may be paralyzed.

Pratik is a very gifted, bright, and successful student of high character. He was raised in Nepal, although in poverty, with no hopes of attending college, as only the wealthy can attain this degree of education in Napal. However, Pratik scored in the top 10 in his country. He has come to the US, continued to perform outstanding academically in premed, has devoted his time to numerous causes in the medical field and would like to go to medical school. He has paid for his education through work and through applying and receiving numerous academic scholarships.

His family has saved all the money they could during this time to have his mother fly to the US and watch Pratik graduate. She was able to do so, but on the return trip to the airport, the driver of the bus they were on fell asleep at the wheel, the bus overturned, 5 people were killed and several seriously injured. You may see the story -
Pratik’s mother does not have insurance, and Pratik’s insurance is due to expire as he has graduated.

I have given a donation, but I would like to help more. I thought I would ask 100 of my friends to donate $5.00, or a cup of coffee, or just over a gallon of gas. If you would so graciously consider this small gift, there are so many who would be very grateful for your generosity. I thought I would even continue to give another $5.00 each time a friend donates. If I can get 100 of you, $1,000 would be added to help these great people out. So, I thank you ahead for your considerations.

Donations can be made via Paypal through the above link. Pratik’s fellow students have set up this account for their friend and 100% of your donation goes to their medical care. If you are not able to donate, your prayers are greatly needed and appreciated. Thank you, Ginny

Please visit this website for further reading.

And please recycle. If you know of someone to pass this on to please do so. Your help will do so much!

Inspection

2011-06-28T10:05:00.000-04:00

The inspection is complete.

No real surprises. The smoke alarms don't work and we'll need to replace them.
Radon is not a problem.
We saw some evidence of water issues, but nothing recent. It might have been something that happened long ago and long corrected. But there are a couple of things that I'm doing to have the association take care of.
The water heater is very old. While it still works fine and shows little signs of age, it's something I'll have to keep an eye on and plan on replacing it in the next couple of years.
Two of the basement interior doors wouldn't close all the way.

But everything else seems fine. Now things are slow until closing.

Paying for the weekend

2011-06-27T05:46:00.000-04:00

So, I only got 5 hours of sleep on Friday night and only 5 hours on Saturday night. I still can't sleep in. You'd think it would get easier as I get older.

Yesterday, I did 25 miles on the bike. Then I rested a bit. Then I went walking with Ginny and ended up talking with her until 9pm before I dragged my exhausted rear home.

I got a good night sleep last night, but I'm still tired and sore.

The start of a busy week

2011-06-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

Friday was usual: out until late dancing.

Today was too nice. So I finished up my chores and went for a short bike ride. Then went to a graduation party for a co-worker's son. Now resting a big before heading out for a dance lesson and dance.

Tomorrow is a bike ride then some walking with Ginny.

I get a rest Monday because my instructor wants to reschedule my lesson to a different day.

Tuesday is the condo inspection, then biking with Ginny.

Wednesday is the normal party. Thursday it's the concert/dance in Lowell with Ginny. Friday is Dancing on the Green, then Social Dance Studio. Saturday is Sandy's party - so that should be a rest for me. Sunday Josh's birthday. Monday is biking and whatever with Ginny.

Then things wind down until I close on the condo. Then I get to start work on the condo.

Catch up

2011-06-24T19:16:00.000-04:00

I haven't been feeling well. I think it's a combination of too much bad food, plus weather (i.e. cold and sinus stuff). It's passing, but slowly.

The condo is moving forward. We inspect on Tuesday. I'm taking the day off and doing some other things on Tuesday.

I need to check with the banker and verify my interest rate and how much insurance I need to get. Then I think things are on hold until closing. Unless we find a stopper in the inspection (which I doubt).

Escape velocity reached

2011-06-21T17:28:00.000-04:00

I have reached escape velocity from my comfort zone. They seller accepted my offer on the condo.

The offer was for $5000 less, plus they pay the summer taxes, and all appliances stay.

I think I got a really good deal. It's a nice place. So things are moving forward more quickly than I anticipated. I pay the earnest money to the realtor tomorrow and sign some more papers.

Then the inspection and financing start moving forward. Estimated time of closing: end of July.

Then I can spend the next couple of months moving my stuff in and getting the condo ready.

Catching up again

2011-06-19T07:13:00.000-04:00

Busy week.

Friday was a normal dance night. But everyone seemed sleepier. Must be the humidity.

Saturday was very busy. Some chores. Then I went over to the realtor to sign all the paperwork for the offer on the condo.

Then over to East Grand Rapids to meet with Ginny and see the art fair going on. I even had a little time for a quick bite to eat. We walked around for about 2 hours before heading home hot and a bit tired. I saw some great art, but until I have a place to put it, I'm not buying.

Finally, over to Social Dance Studio for a lesson and dance from 7pm to 11pm. The dance was supposed to stop at 10:30pm, but the music kept playing, so we kept dancing. I finally dragged my tired butt back home and passed out in bed.

I'm due for a rest day. So I get a forced 4 hours of inactivity driving today. We'll see what Mom and Dad want to do.

Their house sale hit a snag when the inspector found mold. The tests showed that it wasn't the bad kind - so it just needs to be cleaned up. But the buyer has the option of bailing now, and hasn't made a decision.

Condo

2011-06-16T18:29:00.001-04:00

Moving forward on the condo.

I re-visited my #1 choice today. This time I looked harder at everything.

Does it meet my needs?
What's wrong with it?
I really tried to talk myself out of it. But I couldn't do it.

It's a nice size. It's in a nice area. It's laid out nice. It even has room for a dance floor 8-) I can see myself living there for 20 years.

So we've started the process. Now, to read the condo bylaws and see what the inspector finds.

The rest of the weekend

2011-06-12T20:18:00.000-04:00

Evergreen Commons was very nice. Good music. Nice people. The dance floor was sticky, though. We had a really good time, talking all the way there and back.

Today was the rest of the chores and dance cookie making.

I finished that up by 11am, so I went to the Fulton Street Artisans Market. Sort of like a farmer's market, but art instead of food. I had a cookie for lunch and picked up a beautiful bird's eye maple cutting board. I also found a Mei Chow painting. Mei Chow was in Art Prize last year and I picked up a few of her smaller works. This is a larger one in color - waterfall with Peonys. Very nice.

Then everything was done. The plan was to go biking, but it never warmed up enough. So I called Ginny to see if she had time for a walk. She did so we did. Then we sat around talking and fixing her PC (it's a Mac, so I couldn't do a lot for her - but I did help her out somewhat).

Then home, eat and surf the web here on the Chromebook. I need to make a name for this computer.

Catch up

2011-06-11T16:42:00.000-04:00

I played with the Chromebook for a while. The 3G works nicely, but was a bit of a pain to get set up. That probably has to do with the fact that the Chromebook automatically syncs with Google to pull down my PC's Chromium settings - the plug ins as well. One of the plugins is a script blocker. But we worked around that with no problems.

I used it in Biggby's Friday quite successfully. It's a bit slower than my netbook, but it's also lighter and has a much longer battery life. A goos trade off.

I'm pre-approved for my condo loan. So I went out looking at the condos today. The realtor I and saw 5. I dropped 2 out of my list right away. One was simply too big. The other just wasn't what I wanted. 2 really good ones. 1 OK. 1 we didn't get to see because the people there were busy today. So things are moving faster now. I'm getting more comfortable with buying a place to live.

Having dinner now. I'll be heading off for a night of dancing with Ginny at Evergreen Commons in Holland tonight. I've never been there, so this should be interesting.

New Toy!

2011-06-06T21:19:00.001-04:00

I got me a Google Chrome Laptop! Cool toy. Sort of like a cross between the netbook and the tablet for surfing the web.

Still a bit rough on the edges, but usable.

Tired

2011-06-05T18:30:00.000-04:00

What a day.

First, 32 miles at 14.5 MPH. Very nice morning for a bike ride. Cool, but not too cool. Low humidity.

I get home and put the bike away and wash up. Then I head down to Calder Plaza for the Beltline Big Band show. The Swing dancers danced while they played.

I met up with Cindy and Renee. Paulette and her son stopped by. Susan and Bruce stayed with us too for a bit. Nancy and Audrey also showed up. After the Big Band was done, Cindy, Renee, Audrey and I went in search of more entertainment (which was easy at Festival of the Arts).

Along the way we met up with other dance people, talked and watched performances. We even got to dance for a bit at one of the performances.

After about 4.5 hours, we all decided that we were too hot and tired, so we all broke for home. Audrey left a little earlier because she forgot where her car was, so she needed to search a big for it.

So I'm home, cooled down and tired (both physically and mentally). I'll sleep well tonight.

Weekend dance

2011-06-05T06:21:00.000-04:00

I found out that they did get a nice (but smaller) crowd at Social Friday night. Oh, well.

A good-sized crowd for DanceGR last night. About 40 people. As usual, shortly after 10pm most people tired out and went home. But I still danced pretty much all night.

Now, resting up before I head out to go biking this morning. It should be warm enough by 8am. That gives me lots of time for Festival of the Arts this afternoon before coming home for a rest.

No dancing tonight

2011-06-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

I was part way to Social and realized, because of the EXTREMELY light traffic that between the great weather and Festival of the Arts, we'd very probably have a very light dance. So I bailed.

I did a quick turnaround and came home. Then went out on a 1 hour bike trip (had to be back before the park closed). It cooled down nicely as the sun went down, so I'm glad I kept it to 1 hour.

Ahhhh... Friday

2011-06-03T19:21:00.000-04:00

It's beautiful out. Festival of the Arts this weekend. We'll see who shows up for the dance tonight. I have a feeling it will be a light dance night tonight. Almost forgot about the big dance thing in Romulus that some people are going to as well. It seems like the time of year for these events.

Hopefully, we'll get a nice-sized crowd for tomorrow's dance. Saturday will be mostly a chore day, though. Lots of errands to run. No biking because I plan on dancing. We'll see. If it looks like a light dance night, I might go on a short bike ride.

Sunday looks good for a bike ride, though. Then down to Festival of the Arts for lunch and entertainment.

What a weekend!

2011-05-30T20:34:00.000-04:00

I took Friday off. I went to Boyne Highland in Harbor Springs, MI, with Ginny for the Michigan Society of Swing and Hustle Dancers Harbor Springs Happenings event.

Friday was dinner, a workshop (West Coast Swing), then dancing until 11pm.
Saturday was 2 workshops (Fox Trot, East Coast Swing), then sightseeing. Ginny and I went to Petoskey where she knew the area because she used to go skiing up there. We walked and saw the sights, then went back to the resort for a rest. That evening was dinner and formal (i.e. tux) dance.
Sunday was 2 more workshops (Rumba and Salsa). Ginny and I were chosen to demonstrate (I guess because I knew - sort of - what I was doing).

We took US-31 back, stopping in Charlevoix. We stopped by the lake shore on the way. I had never been in that area before. We walked around Charlevoix for a while, taking in the sights. We stopped for lunch in Traverse City, but didn't see much - the weather was getting rainy.

Then we came home. Unfortunately, I developed some indigestion and didn't feel very good the last part of the trip. After I took Ginny home, I came home and sacked out. Luckily it didn't last long. Went to sleep early.

Today was chores, cookie baking and getting the bike racks on the car. 1pm and everything was done that had to be done in the morning. So I went biking. 32 miles 14.5 MPH.

Then I went out to eat. Sushi at Meijer. I wanted a nice coffee, but Biggby was closed. I ended up going to Starbucks. But I goofed and got a caffeinated iced coffee (oops) so that went to waste.

One of the things I picked up in Petoskey was some fruit butters from American Spoon. Mango butter and pumpkin butter. Since I went biking today, I could afford to splurge a bit. So I got some angel food cakes (small ones for shortcake) and tried the butters out. Oooo gooood!

Well, AC is on for tonight. Very humid today. Relaxing now before heading off to sleep.

Tired

2011-05-22T21:19:00.000-04:00

Feet tired. Lets tired. 4.3 miles. 3 hours. In 88F weather (that's what it was while we were walking).

I missed a couple spots with the sunscreen. Mainly itchy.

Then we went out to dinner at Chipotle Mexican Grill. I had never been there before. Very nice place.

The weather broke us up (wind was REALLY picking up and BIG dark clouds heading our way).

But, all in all, a very nice day.

Now, to go pass out in the bed.

Sunday is "sun" day

2011-05-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

It's bright and sunny (for now) outside.

So, last night was nice. We had an abnormally small crowd for DanceGR - I actually had leftover cookies! Someone else was nice enough to take the temptation home (instead of me taking them home). And we had more women than men, so I was kept busy, but I was able to dance from 6pm (when the lessons started) until 11pm with only minor rests.

Needless to say, I'm still kinda tired.

So today was finish up the cookies for the MSSHD event in Boyne Highland this coming weekend. Only 1 batch of cookies. So no biggie. I made the dough yesterday and baked the cookies today. Lunch prepped. Other chores are done.

So I'm going out walking with Ginny this afternoon and we'll see what happens. The plan is just walk around, see things, and then head over to San Chez for dinner.

Oooo... 77F now. Shorts weather. Need sunscreen too (the vampirism gets worse each year, it seems).

Oh, lots of stuff

2011-05-21T14:29:00.000-04:00

Social Dance Studio's party last night was packed! Lots of fun until my feet gave out a little before 11pm.

Lots of stuff done today. Usual chores. I have cookie dough chilling to bake tomorrow morning.

Getting ready for DanceGR tonight (assuming that the world doesn't end). I'm really glad that I got my nieces and nephews Zombie Survival Packs. They will really come in handy for the upcoming apocalypse.

Winding down

2011-05-15T11:22:00.000-04:00

The Friday night dance was pretty sparse when it started. Then most people took off early. Sort of disappointing, but still fun.

Saturday's dance was very well attended, going after the 10:30pm end time that was posted.

No dance today. The weather is cold and rainy. So no Fire Station exhibit like I was planning on.

I did do my Condo check today. Hudsonville and Allendale are now on the list of places that I would live. But my preference is still in the area where I am now. But if a really good condo comes up at a really good price in those two areas, I can change.

Well, the plan is to run a couple of errands. Have lunch. Then do some Android development videos - finish up week 1 of the tutorials. Do some aerobics. They do something random for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

The Ballmer Days Are Over

2011-05-14T06:54:00.000-04:00

This post is sort of a response to this web page. The article implies that the problems that Microsoft has now are related to Balmer's... stupidity.

First off, I'm not going to argue that Balmer isn't a moron. He is. But the problems that Microsoft has were going to happen regardless of who was at the helm.

So far, Microsoft has missed EVERY major technology shift in the PC world. When the Internet was taking off, Microsoft was last. When PDAs came out, Microsoft was last (actually, I'll argue that they never did have an offering that worked OK).

That trend continued after Mr. Bill left. The Zune (what a joke). No phone offerings (that work well).

Balmer is doing what Mr. Bill taught him: buy/acquire his way into the market. The only problem is that it's already too late.

They paid, what, $18 billion for Nokia. By the time they bring a product to market, the sub $70 Android phones will already have been on the market for months. Few people are going to buy a Windows Mobile phone when Android is cheaper, has no barriers to entry and thousands of apps.

I agree with the article that $5.8 billion for Skype was stupid. That was like 3COM buying Palm. Why? The businesses do NOT mesh.

Personally, I think we are seeing the decline of Microsoft. They are losing (have lost?) their market dominance. Now, the only question is whether Microsoft will slowly reinvent itself into a solid, but smaller, company (think of what happened with IBM between the 70's and the late 90's) - or implode completely into irrelevance.

But that decline was starting well before Balmer took the reins. Mr. Bill knew it and, so, left on a high note, turning control over to someone who would go down with the ship and get all the heat for the decline.

Really, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I don't want to see them go. Competition in the marketplace is good for everyone. But I am skeptical that Microsoft, on a level playing field, can do anything. Windows on the desktop is inferior (and becoming irrelevant). MS Office is no different from OpenOfice/LibreOffice. All their other products lose money (according to their SEC filings).

With the rise of Android, they are blocked from the handheld market. They can try, but anything they do now is too little, too late. Google laptops will be out shortly, making Windows for most business people irrelevant.

Many companies will look into the $28/month Google laptop to replace many of their desktops. And there is the crack in the armor. Once businesses start having to develop for multiple platforms, the desire to be an "all Windows shop" disappears.

And with it, Microsoft's monopoly - which is the only thing that has kept it on top for this long.

Another week in the can

2011-05-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

Busy week at work. I like that. It makes the time go faster.

Dance tonight. Dance tomorrow. No dance Sunday, though. I'm going to try to take in the historic fire station display downtown, since I have nothing better to do.

I'll probably have lunch downtown and walk around. We'll see. Much will depend on the weather and how big the crowds are for the big lip sync video shoot.

Hopefully, I can get further in my Android development tutorials. Android is really heating up. I want to be in on it.

Stuff done!

2011-05-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu 11.04 on Yui to give it a test drive. On the whole, I like the Unity interface, but it isn't ready yet. So I won't be moving to it anytime soon. Maybe on the next LTS release.

Azuza's hard drive was acting up, so I got her a new one. Everything's copying over now. I'm using the USB-to-IDE kit from ThinkGeek. It's working out well.

Car is now all cleaned and detailed. Hair cut.

Now it rest time until my dance lesson.

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T06:59:00.000-04:00

Allergies still acting up. I'm trying just a decongestant instead of the allergy medicine today to see if that works better.

Mother's Day was pretty normal. Helped Mom and Dad clean junk out of the house - but it was like bailing out Lake Michigan with a coffee cup.

Recovery, allergies and such

2011-05-07T07:46:00.000-04:00

I had issues with my eBook. It seemed like the battery was going. But then I realized that I haven't recharged it since Penguicon. Duh! The only issue was that the battery indicator isn't calibrated correctly.

We tried out 25 Kitchen last night. They offered dining, a live band and dancing.
Dining: very good. Tasty food. Good price. Good service.
Live band: good. But low variety in dance music.
Dance: Too little floor space.

So after an hour, we left and went to Moveir for a bigger dance floor and more variety. Turnout was low due to Social Dance Studio's party and the Pachanga. But that just meant that I got to dance with Ginny more often.

Allergies are hitting again, making my nose run and sapping my energy (it doesn't help that the allergies make me want to eat bad food). We ended up leaving at 10pm instead of 11pm because we ran out of energy. It was hard driving home because I was finding it hard to stay awake.

So chores today. Dance tonight. Mom and dad's tomorrow. I get to help them clean up more junk so they can get the house ready. Off on Monday. No plans yet.

Penguicon 2011 recap

2011-05-02T10:58:00.000-04:00

Overall: better than last year. Not the best Penguicon, but still very good.

Hotel: good. The main issues were the same as last year since it was the same hotel. I missed many of the food and eco track items because because they were upstairs and I couldn't get from the previous or to the next panel in enough time due to the elevators being overloaded.

Hotel staff was very good. Facilities were very good.

The ugly: the skinny dippers in the pool on Sat. morning. Penguicon is not marketed as family or kid friendly and we take over the hotel, so I don't have an issue with nudity in the pool area. But some people simply shouldn't go nude.

The good: very good speakers overall. Some are better than others, but I can't recall ever having a bad speaker this year.

Bringing my own food was a big success. I had 2 good meals, on my terms, that were healthy, all weekend. The restaurant in the hotel was nice, the food was tasty, but $22 for a breakfast - it simply wasn't worth it. I should have gone to Panera down the street for breakfast.

I missed the LN2 ice cream demonstrations. Partly because I couldn't work them into my schedule. Partly because they didn't publish a schedule. Partly because they didn't do it at the times that they posted.

Next year, we get a bigger hotel. So some of these issues may be solved.

Penguicon Day 3

2011-05-02T10:15:00.000-04:00

The day started with "What is LEED?". Very interesting. I never really understood what LEED meant. Very informative. There were some minor tech glitches (normal for Sunday morning), but no big delay.

Next was "Killer Android" about writing Android apps. Android is at the top of my list of things to get good at now. So this was a very good panel. The lady who gave it (Ann Marie Manzitti) was a good speaker and obviously knew what she was talking about.

"Learn to Write Awful Code (...So You Won't)" was mainly a humor panel where we all got to swap "war stories" about bad code. Too bad I couldn't have recorded this for work.

"O. P. C. is for Cookie" was the only food track panel that I attended but it was worthwhile. They are starting an "open source" cookbook. More information when the project starts for real.

"Circuit Bending Demo and Workshop" was about modifying games and such. Interesting insight into how hackable products are today.

"Maker Faire" was about this year's Maker Faire at the Henry Ford. The lady who gave the panel was the Henry Ford rep for Maker Faire. This was mainly a Q&A panel (both for her and for us) to make Maker Faire better this year.

The only thing left after this was the Closing Ceremonies, which I didn't care about. So I took off. Had lunch in the car on the way to Lansing.

Then danced from about 5-8pm. Mostly swing, some hustle and cha-cha, and nightclub 2 step. The people were nice. The building was nice. I don't know if it's worth driving an hour to Lansing, though. It worked out since I had to go through there anyway on the way home.

Penguicon Day 3 - not net

2011-05-01T22:11:00.001-04:00

Home. Everything's put away. Tired. No update until tomorrow.

Penguicon Day 3 - pre

2011-05-01T07:55:00.002-04:00

30 minutes on the stationary bike. 20 minutes of aerobics. Took the stairs up and down.

Now I am just catching up, packing up, loading up. Getting ready for the final day at Penguicon.

I should get out of here by 3pm today, which should put me in Lansing about 4:30pm, just in time for the dance I promised to go to.

Then home for a much-needed rest.

Penguicon Day 2 - wrap up

2011-05-01T07:53:00.000-04:00

Busy, busy day at Penguicon.

"The Importance of Social Learning/Why Everyone Needs a Hackerspace" was very entertaining and informative.

"Eric Raymond AMA (Ask Me Anything)" was, as usual, extremely entertaining and informative. Eric has his fingers into alot of stuff.

"Android: Where's It Going? What Does It Mean?" was more from Eric, but this time focusing on Android. Android is now #1 on the list of technologies I am going to learn.

I had the "Law Panel" with Cathy Raymond (Eric's wife), but I get very frustrated when I go. So I bailed this year and went to "Linux Troubleshooting" which ended up being far more basic than I thought. So I took the time to have lunch.

I stopped in for "Learn to Swing Dance!" and it was as basic as I thought. So I went to the "Molecular Gastronomy" panel - which was very good.

"Psychology of Creativity" by Dr. Cynthia Sifonis was very interesting and informative.

I tried to go to the "Science and Society Panel" but. through some miscommunications, no one was prepared. So I took off.

"Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal: What you Need to Know" was informative. Jorge Castro - from Canonical - gave the talk. We could have spent another hour on this.

More from "Dr. Cynthia Sifonis Talks About Psychology" which was very informative again.

The "Hacker Space Panel" fizzled, so I went to "Has Geekdom Sold Out?" which was about 20 geeks just talking for a while. Fun, but fluff.

"Intro to Perl 6" was interesting. But trivial today. It's not baked enough for me to spend time on it.

"Cyberstalking" had technical difficulties (missing laptop) and there was a concert next door, so I bailed and went to have dinner.

"The Maker Culture" with Jimmy P. Rodgers was informative. This is where we will see the innovations come from - if big business doesn't smash these people with patent/copyright lawsuits.

I didn't see anything in the charity auction that I wanted, so I tried to see a LN2 ice cream show. But they cancelled it. So I went to the room to rest for a bit.

The Lightning Talks fizzled again, so I went to "A Brief History of Giant Robots", which was interesting.

By now, it's 11pm and I'm sleepy from lack of sleep the night before, so I went to sleep.

Penguicon Day 2

2011-04-30T19:26:00.000-04:00

Technical glitch at one of the panels, so I bailed to come back to the room to have a snack before heading back down.

Things are winding up for tonight. It seems that most of the rest of the events are party events - that I'm not interested in. But I will at least check out the dance. Every other year it's been poor, but I'll keep trying.

Penguicon Day 2 - pre

2011-04-30T06:56:00.000-04:00

Up early (as normal). Did 30 minutes on the stationary bike and 30 minutes of aerobics. I watched Pioneer One on the Archos 101 while biking.

I kept getting distracted by the skinny dippers in the pool. Women who are not fit should not skinny dip. Eeewwww.

So getting ready for day 2 of Penguicon. First panel at 9am.

Getting hungry, need to eat breakfast.

Penguicon Day 1 wrapup

2011-04-30T06:52:00.000-04:00

My first panel fizzled. The speaker didn't show. No surprise. The first panels are sort of hit-or-miss. So I went to my second choice: Drupal.

It was a more basic talk than I had hoped, but interesting. The guy was at least a good speaker and well-prepared.

Next was "Penguicon TV: How The Soup Is Made" which was about the audio and video equipment that they use to feed Penguicon information to the TVs in every room. Very interesting, but short.

"Ask a Nurse: Freeform Health Education Q&A-Style" was sort of interesting. It was less of a panel and more of a Q&A session. Interesting, but no real good info for me (since I didn't have any questions).

Then was the opening ceremonies. It was shorter than I expected, but that gave me time to go to the Consuite and have something to eat. And Howard Taylor sang, which was interesting in itself.

"Dissecting Personal Conflict" was OK, but the noise from the other rooms intruded too much.

"Green Myths" was interesting. Lots of somewhat useful trivia to counter the "green nuts" who can't see the full circle when it comes to energy. No real surprises, but still very interesting.

I tried "E-Pub vs. Print" but the level of ignorance was so high that I had to leave. The authors simply didn't have a clue about eBooks and what readers are doing today. And they didn't want to hear that what they believed wasn't true anymore.

No speakers showed for the "Lightning Talks", so I went to the "Why Zombies? Why Now?" talk. That was interesting - and kept me awake until midnight.

I was going to go to the "Yoga for the Insomniac" but I couldn't keep my eyes open. So I went to bed.

Overall, good first day.

Penguicon day 1

2011-04-29T15:55:00.001-04:00

Wow! They did get wifi coverage at the hotel. We'll see how long it stays up.

Penguicon Day 1

2011-04-29T15:35:00.002-04:00

Well, I made it. The traffic was normal.

They seem to have things together this year, so the hotel check in and the registration went very fast.

Getting settled now and scoping out the hotel. First panel at 4pm.