Monthly Archives: July 2005
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Tom sent me the awesomest card:
I may not be one of your users, but you're still my favorite sysadmin! Thanks for establishing a trust relationship with my domain. :)
OK, was that geeky enough for a Sysadmin Day card? Let's try this: I ? you!
07.29.05 4:12pm(0 comments)
Wee lil problem
As you can see, there was a lil issue with Kristyland, and the pictures might not be all in the right place yet. There were some domain issues, but that's all resolved now thanks to MightyMatt. Don't worry gramma, the Chicago mafia hasn't broken into my apartment, tied me up, and taken my computer hostage. I just need to move some files and I'm too sleepy to do it tonight.07.28.05 10:42pm(1 comment)
the sound of hold music compells me…
So I've been on hold with Microsoft regarding this exchange issue, got a hold of my friend Satish, and was able to get the right version of eseutil to do an offline defrag of the exchange database, which is running as we speak. With my db at full capacity, It'll take awhile. If that was too geeky for you, just keep reading and pretend like the previous paragraph never happened. While I wait, I blog..I forgot to tell you about one thing that completely made my weekend:
Tom and I like to have breakfast and drink a cup at The perfect cup, which is only a few blocks away, one day during the weekend. So much so that it's become a little ritual. We read the the chicago reader, a paper copy of the onion, and chat about the different stuff we find in print. This saturday, before heading out to the concert, Tom, Sybil and I headed to the perfect cup. Since doggies aren't allowed inside, I sit on the benches outside and Tom goes inside to get the stuff. While I'm sitting there, playing with Sybil, a car stops across the street, a huge man and his wife get out, and start walking my way. And he's saying something that I can't quite hear. I eventually make it out to be, "I just had to stop! They're my favorite and I wouldn't stop for any other breed!" Okay, so he's talking about Sybil. As I then suspected, the man and his wife came over to pet and play with Sybil. That's cool, diggin on my dog, she loves it and this guy is having a good time. Big Chicago Firefighter guy. Loves to fight fires, and adores teeny tiny wiener dogs, like my Sybil. So he's talking to me and telling me how cute Sybil is in his typical Chicago way ("My wife calls me Sybil, like the movie, whenever I get angry"). After he's done giving her a treat, and we have introductions, he leaves me with an invitation to stop by ladder 83 at the corner of racine and wilson with the dog anytime. They had a dog too, ya know, just died, broke his heart. You know what else breaks his heart, he had a friend with an abused dog that he recently rescued. He went to pet the dog and it shied away from him. It almost brought tears to his eyes... How classic Chicago is that? Big firefighter guy with a heart of gold and a soft spot for rescued dogs. Totally made my weekend :)
What didn't make my weekend? The heat. Holy shit. I forgot to mention tom's quote of the weekend, "My balls have grown new balls from which to sweat by." Now, I've often told Tom to grow a pair, but I never expected he would sprout up at lollapalooza! Who knew!
We're at a whole 8% now. Yeehaw. Defrag away, ye ole email database.
So lets talk a little bit about pound. I first came to this site back in aught three shortly before it became farked or slashdotted due to the high traffic that the Weight watchers recipe cards were getting. Let me tell you a little bit about these cards... My mom and or Gramma had them too! In my desparate attempt to not be a fat 10 year old, I've even made someof this shit. I will still remember to this day that WW's version of salmon mouse looked like vomit packed into a jello mold. Needless to say that I loved this site, the WW cards, and more importantly, Wendy McClure's witty banter. I was so inspired that I thought about fashioning a new site design for kristyland similar to the style of pound, because you have to admit, it does look really cool.
Well, as you can see, Tom and I came up with the postcard, I got forgetful and I didn't visit pound for quite some time. Fast forward to the resent past. Kerrie recommends a book, I'm not the new me by Wendy McClure, author of poundy. So I'm reaquainted with an old blog from the past, read through the archives a bit, and eventually find the book on the 2 for 3 table at Borders (Yes, now I feel sorta guilty that I bought it on sale, in that 'I want to pay full price for the things by people I really support' sort of way).
I read the book in one of those cover to cover, can't put it down to save your life sorts of ways and find it to be a work of genius but am really creeped out. It felt like I was stalking this woman. I've been to or know of all the places she's been to. She lives near my neighborhood, and I even take her advice to look to the Cheetah gym instead of Women's workout world for my future gym membership. Not only that, but it's a book so personal, or exposing feelings similar to those that I hold deeply close and personal, that it's hard not to identify with her, but to question if I could ever be brave enough or allow myself to appear vulnerable in the same way that she had in her book. I've been overweight my entire life and have been through a lot of shit befcause of it. I really don't know if I could share my deep dark secret feelings that no one else is allowed to see, just like Wendy does. Reading this book sparked a whole cavalcade of thoughts that have been floating around in my huge heeeeaad for awhile.
Holy shit it's late and I'm stepping into uncomfortable topic territory. I think I'm going to head home, play with my puppy and continue the defrag over VPN. *phwew* that was a close one
07.28.05 6:36pm(0 comments)
blah-de-blah-de-blah
Let's see now, where was I... Oh yes.Cadre does the Cottage was an excellent time! It's always see Tom and his college buddies get together; they're a great group of guys. It was hot as fuck, but thankfully, Bryan's cottage was two blocks from the beach, where we managed to get some swimming time in between bouts of smashbrothers and smack talking :) There were about 9 people total, so Tom and I bought a 10x10 coleman tent (for only $60!) and roughed it on the lawn. Much to my surprise, Tom rediscovered his love for camping and hopefully we'll be able to use that tent more than once this year. There was much sitting around the campfire, cooking camp pies, hot dogs, and smores and reminiscing about the good ole days. Thanks Bryan and other cadre members for such a good time.
Last week was fairly uneventful other than our email server hitting full capacity. Apparently, there were NO mailbox size limits, which I found astonishing. I had to use the little "give yourself an extra gig" registry key trick to get the information store to mount again and then send out desperate emails to the staff to clean out inboxes with limits going into effect the following monday. They were cool with it, understood, and did what they were told. Equally as astonishing... I only caught some nastiness from a few people who had really large emailboxes and were also out of the office when it all happened. They came back to an inbox with limits and not knowing why they couldn't send email. Once they figured out what was going on, they were also cool. It's incredible the difference in office culture at my new place. It's like Night and Day compared to ABLE and now I'm on the sunny side of the street (instead of the dark side.. kkhhhhh chhhhhh... kkkhhhhh chhhhh). I just need to stop assuming that best practices had been followed with the tech stuff, and I won't get so many surprises.
This last weekend, Tom came into Chicago so we could go to Lollapalooza. Little did we know that it would be the hottest weekend in 10 years. But, you know, we're still young and we thought we could handle it. Geared up with sunscreen, water bottles (and then later battery powered fan mister things), and a blanket, we headed into the heat. Unfortunately, our timing was a bit off both days and we didn't quite get to see the acts we wanted to see. However, we did catch some M83, cake, Billy Idol, Louis XIV, and Sarah and Tegan. Sunday by far was the worst day with it being 105F, with a heat index of 120. They brought in CTA busses so people could go in and sit in the aircondition and were giving out free water (yes, *free* water at a concert... not $3 water). Saturday, we actually stayed for a few hours, went home to feed Sybil and then went back for more. Sunday was a different story. We headed to an all you can drink bloody mary bar w/ brunch before hand in hopes that we could drink so much we wouldn't be uncomfortable, but no luck. After finding a spot in some hedges under some trees near a stage for a few hours, Tom and I wanted to go out onto the field. After a few minutes, however, we decided against a blistery fate and headed home. We gave it the good ole college try... and then resolved never to do outdoor concerts during the middle of the summer without covered seating. We're DINK's, we don't have to brave the weather anymore. I'm not quite sure where the mutants came from that flooded the fields of lollapalooza, but I'm sure they had all kinds of fun in the hell heat while Tom and I went back to the apartment, cooled off, played with Sybil, took showers, headed towards target to pick up some stuff, and had the most excellent Italian meal on god's green earth.
Oh yeah, I should probably tell you about Uno Di Martino, despite my better judgement. I want it to be busy enough to stay in business, but not too busy so that we'll never be able to get a table. Regardless, we went there because we knew that there was nothing on the menu that wouldn't be fabulous. Just be forewarned that anyone that comes to visit Tom and I in Chicago will probably be taken here. They make the kind of food that Jay would chew his arm off to make. We had grilled calamari on field greens for an appetizer. Tom had the fusilli with tomato sauce, sausage and marscapone cheese. I had the portobello chicken (chicken with portobello, zucchini, spinach, sage, in a demi glace and parmesean cream sauce). For dessert, we had profiteroles with white chocolate ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. That and a bottle of really good pinot that we brought (byob) just turned me into more of a pile of goo than I already am and Tom and I ended up falling asleep not too long after we got home after the meal. Oh bliss...
I'm glad we hit the sack early though, because Tom had an interview on Monday with Adexs. He was looking so slick in his business suit, trendy hair cut and glasses, but he was so nervous. We commuted downtown together which was a lot of fun, and then Tom aced the interview. He heard back from the recruiter that afternoon with news that Adexs loves Tom, and they want to move forward Tuesday morning all of his references were called, so now he just waits until they offer him a job. Needless to say, he's excited, I'm excited and we're both a lot relieved that he'll have a job when he moves out here. It would've been nice to have a stay at home Tom, but it's even nicer to split the rent :)
OH! Another thing I forgot to mention! Farm Aid will be in Chicago this year! Hooray! So, for my birthday, I've asked my Mom to buy me tickets again, and she did. The trick to getting awesome farm aid tickets is to join "the farmyard" before they go on sale and then you can buy them before they go on sale to the public. My seats are in what they call "the corn belt," which are the first sections closes to the stage. I'm very excited! Other than the usual acts (Neil Young, Willie, John "not cougar anymore" mellencamp, and Dave Mathews) some really cool people are joining like Wilco, Susan Tedeschi, Trick Pony, and they'll be adding acts up to a few weeks before the concert. This will be my third farm aid, and hopefully, this year, I'll be able to find someone to go with who will actually have a good time (although Chris, the guy who worked at the NSA whom I went with the first year, and I had a blast and even managed to score backstage passes from some folks in the vendor area). Tom has been in the past too indie rock to be in the presence of those who listen to music that other people have also listened to and refused to go to farm aid with me last time I went. I managed to take my friend Billy, a friend from high school, who was less than thrilled to be there. Tom says he's willing to go to farm aid this year, but I'm still skeptical. I might see if my friend Ann wants to go, she's into country and a lot of fun to be with. Farm Aid is in September, after my birthday, so it won't be nearly as hot, and we'll have seats under the pavilion. Really good seats in fact. Happy birthday to me! Thanks Mom!
Speaking of which, I've been already getting questions about birthday presents (mostly from my mom), but I've come up with a new idea that's non materialistic that would work out really well. If you want to get me a bday present, buy me the gift of knowledge and get me a gift certificate to any one of these schools - cooking classes at The chopping block, drawing, jewelry making, knitting and pottery classes at Lillstreet Art center or music, dance, and yoga classes at The old town school of folk music. I could also use a massage since my neck is fucking killing me from how my desk is arranged at work. It's an old desk and not made for someone who has a computer, ya know, like the MIS Director. So I've got my keyboard on the return and my monitor on the desk because I can't really fit it any other way. I end up in some contorted, twisted state all day, which makes my neck cramp and my hands fall asleep. They say a new desk is on it's way soon, but in the meantime, Im seriously hurtin'. Hooray.
Anyway, back on a good topic again. I'm really falling in love with my neighborhood. Originally, I was kind of sad that my commute was so long and that I wasn't "right up in it" with all the hussle and bustle. Now, I'm really fond of my lil community with less hussle and bustle. My apartment is quiet, I have on street parking, I love the pet store and restaurants, and little mexican convenience stores. The train, busses, and the metra are steps away. Lincoln Square and Andersonville are a walk / bike ride / bus or train stop away and there's all this really awesome stuff available and right at my doorstep. I know the area is getting a little gentrified with the opening of the CVS, antique mart, and a bunch of condos (nothin' says 'whitey is taking over' like 50 condos), so I hope it gets gentrified in the good, more local coffee shops, bookstores and cute boutiques way instead of the 'simply oblivious to everything and everyone - self absorbed, gum chomping with mouth gaping, stroller with monster truck wheels, screamin' kids way.' Man I can't stand yuppies, and I'm trying very hard to not become one. I still think I'm sufficiently socially conscious and aware that I'll be able to avoid the worst of yuppiedom, but that doesn't keep me from shopping at Ikea :)
07.27.05 7:14am(6 comments)
Yay for fark photoshop contests!
Cartoons from the 70's and 80's react to today's current events07.26.05 7:23am(0 comments)
Link-o-rama!
It just happened that today I found a bunch of stories that just need to be commented on:Court rules Mississippi local governments not liable to pay for indigent defense
Okay, this one is just assinine. Perhaps they forgot a little something from this. See #6.
I played my part to perpetuate 9 out of 10 of these web fads, but I have to say that I'm seriously dissapointed that the dancing baby made it high on the list, but no Daler Mehndi* or andrew K, Real ultimate power, or ninja burger, not to mention many of the other ones that I'm now forgetting. Fuck you dancing baby and your Ally Mcbeal ticking clock bullshit!
*You have got to go to the Daler Mehndi site and see the popup about how he thanks god that MJ was aquitted! Holy shit that's funny!
137 Dachshunds seized from home
This is really sad... I can only imagine all those lil weiner dogs runnin' around not getting enough attention, being all cute n stuff. I'm going to email the DRNA folks to see if they need any fosters. If you're looking to adopt a dachshund, now's the time!
Holy crap this is teh Funnayz! If you've ever gamed online, you'll enjoy it.
"Patrick Tribett was nabbed in July 2005 by Ohio cops and charged with abusing harmful intoxicants as he attempted to make a purchase at a local general store."
I wonder if he's guilty... hrmm...
07.22.05 7:24am(5 comments)
Someone set us up the lunch!
I left my lunchbox on the train! In my efforts to save money and eat healthier, I packed a scrumptious little lunch of leftovers from last night (herb balsamic chicken, brown rice, and broccoli) with my 2 delicious, nutritious snacks, goat cheese with fresh herbs and wheat pita bites, and a snack cup of yogurt and cottage cheese (gotta get that calcium!). Not to mention that I toiled for quite some time to find the perfect lunchbox, which I purchased off of ebay. Thankfully, it is back to school time, so I'll be able to more easily get a lunchbox now than in the spring. Still, I'm pretty pissed about it. I just hope someone who has been unjustly hungry finds my lunch and it makes their day.Tom just pointed out that he hadn't heard that the brown line was closed for a bomb scare, so everything should be OK. I didn't really think of my cute little tasty lunch as an explosive, but it makes sense...
Narrator: In A.D. 2005, war was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the lunch!
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
Kristy: How are you gentlemen !!
Kristy: All your base are belong to us.
Kristy: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Kristy: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Kristy: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
Operator: Captain !!*
Captain: Take off every 'Zig'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'Zig'.
Captain: For great justice.
07.20.05 11:30am(1 comment)
I heart midget porn
Well, I don't really... But this guy does, and his affection has been captured for all eternity in a mug shot for a dui.07.15.05 10:05am(0 comments)