We had originally planned on attending the Atlanta Pride Festival on Saturday afternoon before going to the local housefilk, but our new addiction scuttled those plans. We had, however, RSVPed to march with the Human Rights Campaign folks, so Sunday morning we got up early and drove down to the North Springs Marta station to take the train down to Civic Center, where the parade was to start.
Tag: life Page 8 of 15
Despite the fact that Friday was my birthday, I had not arranged to take the day off, as had been my habit once upon a time. In all honesty, I just had too much to do at work to spare the time. All in all, it’s probably best that I didn’t, as it would have complicated my sweetie’s plans for me.
kitanzi had requested a half-day two months ago, without telling me. She used this time to be ready for me when I got home, where I found a dozen roses in a vase on my desk, along with a card and a rather tasty key lime cake from Harry’s Farmer’s Market. It was one of the nicer surprises I could have imagined.
We left the cake for later, and headed off to have a nice romantic dinner. We chose Casa Nuova, a marvelous family-owned Italian restaurant in Alpharetta Casa Nuovoa falls into the category of “hidden treasures” — to see it from the outside, you’d never guess it was worth visiting. The interior, however, is cozy and the service is impeccable. The food is authentic Italian fare, rather than the more common American-Italian, and the difference is worth seeking out. kitanzi had the seafood casserole, one of the nightly specials, and I had the Scampi Alla Casa Nuova, which was very tasty as well (though I think Kit got the better entree — hers was exceptional, whereas mine was merely very very good). For an appetizer, we had what may be the best Calamari Fritto I have ever had anywhere.
We skipped dessert (since we had the cake waiting) and returned home to snuggle on the couch and watch the DVD of “Eddie Izzard: Dress To Kill”. I had heard this performance before, but never seen the video. The video makes what was already funny even better; Izzard is a very visual performer. About halfway through, we started getting tired, and left the second half of the performance for another night and went to bed.
All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the evening of my birthday. Thanks to everyone for the good birthday wishes here on LJ, and on #filkhaven, and wherever else you sent them to me. (And a special thanks to annonynous and his wife L., for the only physical birthday card I got aside from kitanzi and my mom!)
So, although most of our weekend was spent calling friends and sweeties and relatives to tell them our news, we did manage to accomplish some other things over the weekend as well.
Saturday we went swimming, and then went out to Asia Garden for a lunch of Chinese food. I really like the food there, and they have the added bonus of delivering to our apartment when we want takeout. (And are, amusingly, faster to deliver than the place that’s right across the street). We then did some necessary shopping and came home to watch TV, hang out on #filkhaven, and call everyone we needed to call.
Sunday was more swimming, after which we ordered some pizza and then went down to Medlock Crossing to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
I think we’ve been more out and about the last 48 hours than the rest of the previous two or three weeks combined. 🙂
My birthday is coming up later this month (June 25), but I’ve already gotten my present from kitanzi. For a long time, I’d been wanting to get a really decent digital camera. I love taking photographs, but I’ve never actually owned a good camera. For the last year or two, I’ve been using a Kodak DC210 on loan from eloren, which was a fairly spiffy camera in its day, but its day was 5 years ago.
For a brief while, I flirted with the high end 8mp cameras that are just starting to come out. I had looked at the Sony DSC-F818 at Circuit City while browsing for something else, but the reviews of it were not stellar. The Canon and Olympus models were forthcoming, and I thought I might wait on them. But the more I thought it over, the more I decided that I didn’t need that much camera. More to the point, it violates my long-standing principle of always trying to be “in the curve” on technology products. The question wasn’t whether an 8mp camera was worthwhile.for my needs, but whether it was worth paying the exorbitant price for the latest and greatest product. (Yes, I know there are /seriously/ expensive cameras out there aimed at the professional, but I was limiting my research to consumer and prosumer cameras only, since my budget doesn’t extend to spending that much money on what is at best an idle hobby).
Having realigned my expectations, I asked “What are the requirements I can’t live without?” Since my primary interest in a camera is taking concert and convention photos, the two things I wanted to be sure of were a good shutter speed for taking action photos, and a good optical zoom for getting close to the action without having to be on the lip of the stage. Having defined my needs thusly, I did a fair amount of research, and finally settled on my desired choice: The Minolta DiMAGE Z2. The Z2 is a 4mp camera, features a 10x optical zoom, and was rated very highly on shutter speed and responsiveness for action photos: As an added bonus, it can be set anywhere from fully automatic to fully manual, depending on what kind of shots you’re trying to take. It’s been way too long since I used a manual camera, but it’s kinda need to have the option if I want it.
When I mentioned to kitanzi that I’d finally decided which camera I wanted to buy, she said “Well, it’s your birthday this month, go ahead and order it.” Three days later, a nice UPS man brought it, and I’ve been happily snapping random photos with it ever sense. I’m still getting used to how it responds, but on the whole, I’m really happy with it.
Friday night was my first chance to really give the camera a shakedown. kitanzi had gotten a work reward entitling her to leave work a half-hour early, so we took advantage of this to go and see the Middle Eastern Music and Dance night at the Red Light Cafe, featuring some dancers from the same troupe we saw at the Renassaince Festival. Kit actually got out of work an hour early rather than a half-hour, due to the unexpected slowness of the day, and so we arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and got a good table right in front of the dance area. Unfortunately, although we had been led to believe the show actually started at 8pm, it was 9pm before the first part of the entertainment began. The lead act was a Greek band named Tesserae. While this isn’t the sort of music I listen to on a regular basis, it made for a nice bit of variation and they were very good at what they were doing. My only real complaint was wishing I understood the language so I could get more of what the songs were about.
Once the dancing began, I really got to put the camera through its paces. On the whole, I’m very pleased with it. I did go through afterwards and throw away a number of shots which were either blurry or captured the subject just AFTER what I wanted a picture of, but that’s a risk you run in dance, especially dance with as much kinetic activity as this! I still ended up with 77 pictures that I thought were worthwhile for one reason or another, out of about 110 frames. Of those 77, maybe 5-10 are truly outstanding. I’m especially happy with this photo, which really captures the exuberance and joy the dancer was getting out of her performance.
There’s a fair amount of redeye, which is always a problem with flash photographs (and the Z2 has quite a powerful flash), so i spent some time looking at software aimed at combating that (since I can’t afford a bounce flash just at the moment). I found a rather remarkable piece of software called Red Eye Pilot, which has a demo that is fully functional other than allowing you to save your manipulated photos. After using it on several of the photos from Friday, I’m convinced that it will be well worth the $30 investment, but I haven’t actually purchased it yet. Once I do, I’ll probably retouch several of the photos from last night. I probably need to find a primer on post-processing photos if I’m going to get really serious about that. Right now, though, I’m just having fun.
Saturday morning, we got up, and decided to go see a movie. For whatever reason, Kit and I don’t go to the movies that often, but there’s actually several films out we wanted to see. We decided to head over to the Medlock Crossing 18 for the first showing of Shrek 2.
Shrek 2 was absolutely marvelous. I adored the first film, and was a bit wary of a sequel, fearing that they’d not be able to capture lightning in a bottle again. I need not have worried. Shrek 2 is at least as good as its predecessor, and in many ways is more satisfying. There’s a certain amount of emotional depth here that the first film lacked, and it satisfies a desire I think most of us have had to wonder what happens AFTER the fairy tale. (Paging telynor. telynor, please pick up the white courtesy phone…)
The Giant Tub O’ Popcorn was plenty of food for both of us, so we came home and decided to work up an appetite in the pool. We spent an hour or so splashing around, bouncing the Big Blue Ball around, much to the delight of several of the neighborhood children. Once tired and hungry, we left the ball in their care and set off to Cheeburger Cheeburger to enjoy a decedent lunch. I ate the portion of my lunch that wasn’t Too Much Food, and unfortunately set in on a good portion of my lunch that was too much food, but it was all so good, even if afterwards I felt bloated. Obviously, a nap was in order, so we came home and slept for a bit. I spent the rest of the evening catching up on LJ while Kit watched Iron Chef, and then we both watched the latest episode of Coupling Season 4, which I had downloaded on Thursday.
Tomorrow, we’re planning to go see The Prisoner of Azkaban. We’ll see what other mischief we can manage after the movie is over.
What a fun weekend. A little dabbling in technology, a little trip to the past…
Terence flew off to the UK on Friday afternoon while kitanzi and I were at work, so we didn’t really get to see him off properly, but his flight did manage to leave on time, and he’s arrived safely on the other end, so I feel we haven’t done too badly as hosts there. 🙂
telynor had a rough day and sounded really down when I spoke with her that day, so I suggested she and G. come over to our house to chill, eat dinner, and watch the new Coupling episode. Unfortunately, a little bit after she set out, she called me from a payphone, as her car had conked out. I drove out to where she was to retrieve her and bring her home for dinner, and Kit offered her the use of her car for the weekend.
Saturday, I woke up in a funk. Nothing identifiable, just a bad “i don’t wanna go anywhere or do anything” mood. I probably would have sat around feeling all sorry for myself too, except that telynor told us that Three Weird Sisters were playing at this years version of the Atlanta Celtic Festival. Seems that the ACF wasn’t happening this year, so it’s organizers put on a mini-version of it at a pub in Alpharetta. So I muttered and grumbled and allowed myself to be dragged outdoors.
I’m glad I did. Once I actually got some fresh air and sunshine, the day didn’t seem so bad. We declared it an off-diet day, had some good pub food and drinks, listened to the music and browsed the vendors. I found a nice inexpensive sword at the weapons dealer which I brought home, and we ogled jewelry and admired the eye-candy that was wandering around. This was much more fun than the Indian pow-wow we attended the weekend before.
Once done with the festival, we went to a late lunch/early dinner at Garrison’s, and then dropped by Micro Centre so I could return something I’d bought the week before and browse about a bit. G. asked me If I thought the computer I built for him would be able to play Unreal Tournament 2004. After looking at the box, I said “Probably not”, but suggested the original UT likely would. So we hunted down a copy, and since it was only $10, I bought it for him.
Sunday was hang around the house day. telynor and G. came over to watch movies and a couple of more episodes of Firefly. G. spent a large part of the time borrowing kitanzi‘s computer to play his new game. 🙂
All in all, a fun weekend, despite my bad mood on Saturday morning.
First of all, happy birthday to one of my dear faraway sweethearts, maedbh7! *hugs and kisses*
Thanks to everyone for the hugs and well wishes on Tuesday. The day really did get better after lunch, and by the time I got home I was feeling pretty human.
Spent the evening installing the new PSU I bought to replace the suspected bad one which had rendered my computer dead. I was gratified that after swapping them out and connecting everything up, that it sprang back to life as if noting happened. Yay!
Wednesday did turn out to be a better day, despite having to get up very very early to move a couple of servers from our office to the NOC. See, now that we’re pretty much entirely hosting our services over there, there’s no need to spend thousands of dollars on a 45mb/s DS3 pipe to this building, but we did still have two machines over here that needed to be over there. Due to coordination required on the second of these, we moved the first one at 7am, and the second one at 10:30am. Fortunately, neither causes any sort of customer outage, so we didn’t have to rush about madly trying to minimize the downtime (if they had, it’d likely have been a 3am sort of thing).
After work, which ended a little early thanks to the early start, I drove over to Athens to collect khaosworks, who is staying with us for a couple of days until he flies to England en route to Singapore for the summer. We got back to Alpharetta about 6:30, waited for kitanzi to get home, and then went to dinner at Roadhouse Grill.
When we got home, we settled down to watch the first episode of Season 4 of Coupling, which Terence had downloaded from USENET. (May I pause here to say, simply, I *love* the Internet?). There’s a new character to fill the absence left by the departure of Richard Coyle, which is unfortunate, but we’ll see how he turns out. This wasn’t the best episode of Coupling ever ever, but it was very funny and we enjoyed it quite a lot.
Today is being a slightly quiet and I consider this a good thing.
Thanks to everyone for the hugs and words of encouragement. After lunch things did calm down a bit and my headache finally went away (lending credence to the theory that it was a blood sugar problem).
Also in good news, I picked up a new 500w power supply at Micro Centre while I was out at lunch, and installed it when I got home. It definitely turned out to be the problem, as my system sprang to life immediately after this swap was made.
Tomorrow will be a long day, but I dare hope it will be a better one. 🙂
You have days. Some days are good. Today, not so much.
We went out last night and spent some time with bedlamhouse and ladyat celebrating their daughter’s graduation from Emory University. That was a lot of fun. I even watched a basketball game, something I don’t think I’ve done with any real amount of interest since NC State won the NCAA championship in 1983. Ok, I exaggerate. But not by much. 🙂
This morning, however…
I woke up with a splitting headache. Given that I had exactly one beer last night, I don’t think I can claim it was drinking, though given the huge piece of cake I ate and other sugar-laden things, it’s possible it was blood sugar related. As I type this at nearly 1pm, it’s still not really gone away, though painkillers are helping manage it.
So I got up, grabbed some advil, and then went out to check my e-mail.
And my computer was dead. The button on the front doesn’t respond at all. The fan isn’t turning, though there is a linklight on the NIC, so I’m pretty sure the power supply conked out. Not a huge fix, but annoying. See, for all that I tend to be up early in the morning, I’m not *really* a morning person. I fake it well, as long as I can follow my routines and rituals in the morning, and having those disrupted makes me cranky. I jumped onto Kitanzi‘s computer to quickly check my e-mail and discovered that buy.com, from whom I had yesterday ordered an SD card from because they sent me an e-mail quoting a fantastic price (256mb for $40.99 after rebate), had sent me an e-mail cancelling my order because the manufacturer had apparently discontinued the product without their knowledge. This did not add to my happiness level.
So I took a shower and headed into work. While halfway through my morning meeting, I got a call from one of my guys that the Win2000 webserver had died halfway through a reboot and could not be reached remotely. Which meant having to drive over to the data centre to reboot it. So I went and did, and came back, picking up lunch on the way. I’ll probably have to go over there again this afternoon too.
Through all of this, I’ve been scatterbrained and unfocused and feeling just a bit ill.
Not a good day, so far. Hopefully, the afternoon and evening will be better.
After all the fun of having maebdh7 all to ourselves for a week (more about which later), we’ve had a pretty quiet weekend to rest and relax.
Saturday was about as lazy a day as you can have while actually getting out of bed. kitanzi did grocery shopping, while I did much of nothing around the house. Later, we went for a walk, and watched some TV. (An episode of Blackadder 3 and the special “pilot” episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.) The QEftSG episode was especially fun, as you got to look back at the prototype and see the familiar shtick in its embryonic form.
Today, I got up early, then collapsed again for a 4 hour nap. I guess I was more tired than I thought. We did manage to get out of the house long enough for me to shop for a new pair of shoes (aside to maedbh7: no, really, actual shoes) and browse the bargain books at Barnes & Noble.