Happy Memorial Day from rainy Sterling. I'm going in to work for a few hours this morning, and then taking the afternoon off.

On Friday afternoon, I saw the resident mother goose teaching the baby geese how to cross the street at the crosswalk.

It's been quite some time since I mentioned the welfare of the kittens. Everyone can be assured that neither one has met an untimely demise from hyenas or other natural predators. Since it's the end of the month, I'll take a news post to enthrall you with status reports on the major players:

Booty is still Booty. She likes to chase Amber all over the house or wrestle Kitty to the ground for world domination. She thinks Sydney is annoying and smacks her around when she won't shut up, but will use Sydney as the fall-cat for stealing food out of cabinets or the sink. Booty is slowly becoming a lap-cat and knows two tricks, "Fetch the String" and "Run to fridge when Kitty is doing tricks".

Kitty is losing weight and spends most of her time staring out the window at chickenhawks or crying at the door to go into the hypoallergenic non-cat part of the house. She likes short walks on the beach, and can Sit, Shake, Speak, and Roll Over. She's learning Come but it currently only works when you're standing by the fridge.

Here's a video clip of Kitty playing with Sydney, titled "Veiled Threat": (3.5MB WMV)

Sydney is the most obnoxious yet cute kitten ever. She has a 40-year-old smoker voice and whines for food all the time. Through perseverance, she's learned how to open food tins, closed trash cans, and cabinets in her quest for food. We considered changing her name to Alley since she acts and looks like an alley cat. Sydney follows Kitty around and Kitty licks her.

Here's a video clip of Sydney entering a room: (403KB WMV)

Amber is very shy and not too bright. We considered renaming her Eldie. She will sometimes stand on both legs to reach something and then fall over sideways. She plays pretend by herself a lot, and has the tendency to get toys stuck to her claws. Amber is the lappiest of lap cats, but skitters away from anything that moves.

Here's a video clip of Amber playing with herself: (1.5MB WMV)

List Day: Ten Things About the Custom Home I Will Build When I'm a Millionaire

1. It will be built at the edge of a nature preserve in a suburban area, so the streets are still plowed when it snows but I have no neighbours except for deer and cougars. There will be a Costco, a Best Buy, and a grocery store chain within a twenty minute radius.


2. It will have a secret passage opened with a wall sconce or a false bookshelf, and the passage will lead to a secret room whose windows you can see from the outside. This will be the study.


3. It will have two floors and a finished basement, and will have two staircases at opposite ends of the house, so kids can play Cops and Robbers style games without any dead ends. Those are the coolest types of houses to play in.


4. It will not have any of those retarded yuppy ceilings -- it will have normal ceilings like the houses from the 1970s which I can touch if I jump really hard and have a broom in my hand.


5. In the basement, there will be a one-lane bowling alley with pinsetter, a pool table, and an air hockey table. Foozball is for wimps. I will also pay off the National Park Service to put an 18-hole mini golf course in the backyard. Every hole will have at least one animated obstacle like a windmill.


6. There will be a fireplace in the den, and I will have grizzly bears on the nature preserve trained to collect firewood so I don't have to.


7. The master bathroom will be as big as a bedroom and have both a shower and a jacuzzi tub. The toilet will be Internet-ready, and there will be a fully-wired sound system around the tub.


8. It will have an attached garage to protect my Honda from the elements, and the garage will have a freezer full of steaks.


9. It will have at least one upstairs room that opens up into a downstairs room via a balcony. This balcony may or may not have a fireman's pole to jump down quickly.


10. It will have a small guest suite in the basement which I can rent out for low low prices to my indigent and transient music major friends.

Happy Birthday Maureen Fish!

End of the Month Media Day

My sister and brother-in-law at his graduation from Vet School (Virginia Tech)	I'll see your baby and raise you a kitten.
Amber practices cute-sleeping.	High Stakes Poker Game
BU wins first place, for the first time ever.	Ella gets an ethnic nanny.

Cat Videos

Amber is a Muppet (2MB WMV)
Amber is Summoned to Fight Crime (1MB WMV)
Amber is Retarded (1MB WMV)

More New Pictures

Home Renovation
May Festivities
May Cats

End-of-the-Month Media Day

New pictures have been added to the Life, 2011 album. You can also see pictures from Rebecca's Peru trip .

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

The Hunger Games (PG-13):
We watched this movie in the theatre last Sunday, bringing the total number of theatre visits for 2012 to 2, and bringing the total number of theatre visits since 2008 to 2. This is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book by the same name (which is also the best of the book trilogy). Well-cast, well-paced, and filled with actors like Stanley Tucci, who is obviously having a great time with his role.

The only problem with this movie is that the ultimate winner of the Hunger Games is "shaky cam". All but a handful of scenes in this movie are filmed in a handheld manner. While this is an effective way to slip the large amounts of non-gratuitous violence into a PG-13 wrapper, it really doesn't add anything to the rest of the movie. I have not seen so much "shaky cam" in play since I saw the second Bourne Identity movie in theatres (and even today, I'm not completely sure that Matt Damon was in that movie because the camera was so shaky).

Final Grade: B+

Pushing Daisies, Season One:
This nine episode season is available for free on Amazon Prime, but is even worth a purchase. The story is a modern-day fairy tale about a pie maker who can bring people back to life, but only for one minute. Episodes are reasonably standalone, as he uses his power to solve a different murder each week. What's unique about this show is its visual and musical style -- bright patterns and colors, a full orchestral score, and a whimsical dialogue patter that suggest a Tim Burton TV show, if Tim Burton were less emo. The show occasionally falls into the trap of recapping too much information from previous episodes (most noticeably when you watch them in a row), but I still greatly enjoyed its cleverness.

Final Grade: A-

Cougar Town, Season Two:
This show's second season about as funny as the first. A few episodes seem a bit more mean-spirited than necessary, as if it were channeling Everybody Loves Raymond rather than Scrubs, but overall it's worth a watch for some easy laughs.

Final Grade: B

End-of-the-Month Media Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2013 album. Congratulations on surviving 41% of the year!

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

A few new photos have been added to the Life, 2016 album.

• Events
  • Endured endless days of rain throughout the month.
  
  
  • Restarted our tomato odyssey on S 5/8.
  
  
  • Had lunch in Fredericksburg on S 5/14.
  
  
  • Spent the night in Anna's new house on S 5/14.
  
  
  • Took my mom out to the second slowest Clyde's ever for a brunch on S 5/15.
  
  
  • Hiked to Raven Rocks on S 5/29.
  
  
  • Had a salmon cook-off with friends, judging baked vs. grilled glazed varieties on S 5/29.
  
  
  • Went to see Nice Guys at the Alamo on M 5/30.


• Projects
  • Wrote 20 pages for a proposal in less than 2 weeks.


• Consumerism
  • Enjoyed the show, Humans, and finally finished House of Cards, Season Four after much dithering.
  
  
  • Listened to new albums from Just Jack and the Hoosiers.
  
  
  • Played DOOM and plenty of Overwatch.
  
  
  • Purchased plane tickets and lodging for a Colorado summer vacation.

May's Final Grade: B-, Rainy with proposal work and no major highlights.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2017 album. Google Photos sucks.

• Events
  • Went to Rebecca's surprise work baby shower on F 5/5.
  
  
  • Went on a Claude Moore nature walk then tried out the newish Cafesano for dinner on S 5/6 (good enough food with cheap craft beers).
  
  
  • Went to a family baby shower in Taylorstown on S 5/7.
  
  
  • Had dinner at Car's to plan out the 3rd and final baby shower on W 5/10.
  
  
  • Made gnocchi with a garlic cream sauce for Friend Dinner on F 5/12.
  
  
  • Drove down to Fredericksburg to visit the Hickses on S 5/13.
  
  
  • Attended Rosie's First Communion then hung out with legacy Spellerberg friends on S 5/14.
  
  
  • Took a weekend away to Ocean City on S 5/20. Listened to loud cars, had a crab omelette, and ate at Seacrets.
  
  
  • Made a baked salmon meal for Rebecca and Sara on M 5/22 to commemorate Rebecca's final yoga class at Sportrock.
  
  
  • Went to the 3rd and final baby shower, thrown by Car and Sara, on S 5/27 and licked chocolate out of a diaper.
  
  
  • Tried out Cava for dinner on S 5/28 (it's like a Mediterranean Chipotle).
  
  
  • Planted a fig tree in the front yard on Memorial Day, M 5/29.


• Projects
  • Reaching a fever-pitch of baby planning now that we have survived 36 weeks of pregnancy.
  
  
  • Published an update to Sparkour, keeping my open-source credentials barely alive.


• Consumerism
  • Got to level 705 in Overwatch, with 725 hours played and a 51.8% winrate.
  
  
  • Enjoyed newly discovered music by Electric Guest, Smallpools, and Watsky.

May's Final Grade: A-

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2019 album. Google Photos sucks.

• Events
  • Rebecca and Maia went to visit the Gillis family in Oklahoma City, H 5/2 - T 5/7. I had a staycation, with dinners at Miller's, The V, and Burton's.
  
  
  • Visited my parents with Maia on H 5/9.
  
  
  • Family walk around the Pidgeon Hill pond on F 5/10.
  
  
  • Planted tomatoes and had Kathy over for dinner on S 5/11.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Mellow Mushroom on S 5/12.
  
  
  • Rebecca dropped her phone in the pool on H 5/16. Verizon briefly turned off mine somehow while trying to transfer her phone number to an old phone.
  
  
  • Impromptu Ahlbin visit on F 5/17.
  
  
  • First barbeque of the season on S 5/18 with Larry, Janice, Tammy, Zoe, Aaron, Vanessa, and assorted kids.
  
  
  • Took a trip to Miller's and the pet store with Maia on M 5/20.
  
  
  • Family dinner at the new ramen restaurant at Cascades Overlook on F 5/24.
  
  
  • Had Tammy over for a dinner of swordfish, salmon, and steaks on S 5/25.
  
  
  • Went to Elijah's 5th birthday party on S 5/26.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Beer-Bourbon-Burgers in One Loudoun followed by the splash pad for Maia on W 5/29.


• Projects
  • Started studying for my next AWS certification.
  
  
  • Pushed out a new release of Sparkour on H 5/30.


• Consumerism
  • Set up my new grill to replace the 8-year-old one on W 5/1. It only took 2 hours.
  
  
  • Got new kitchen chairs on T 5/14.
  
  
  • Enjoyed watching the first season of 12 Monkeys and playing Grim Dawn this month.
  
  
  • No new music this month.

May's Final Grade: B+, the staycation was amazing, but why is it already hot?

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2021 album.

• Events
  • Ian met the Smiths on S 5/1.
  
  
  • Ian met the Whitmers on S 5/8.
  
  
  • Maia and Rebecca resumed their Sunday Farmer's Market outings on S 5/9.
  
  
  • The Smiths visited on S 5/15.
  
  
  • Maia went to Morgan's birthday party on S 5/16.
  
  
  • Went to my company's Advent of Code wrap party on T 5/25. Ian met Ghazaley.
  
  
  • Maia spent a weekend with the Uri grandparents S 5/29 - M 5/31.
  
  
  • Poker Night on S 5/29 (1st: Rebecca, then Chris, Taje, me, Larry, Kathy, and Mike in last place).
  
  
  • I went back to work on M 5/31.


• Projects
  • This baby.


• Consumerism
  • Playing Grim Dawn on my own, and Minecraft with Maia.
  
  
  • No amazing shows or music this month, but currently rewatching The Shield.

May's Final Grade: B+, life is busy but we're figuring it out