Parting with Old Computers (It’s Dead, Jim)

Last weekend, I threw away a computer. I threw away a computer that I’ve been hanging on to for at least a decade. And the funny thing is, I couldn’t even tell you why I kept it all this time. From the outside, a Dell Dimension looks like a “modern” computer — and by modern I mean that if you passed by one sitting on a shelf, your first response probably wouldn’t be that it belonged in a museum. Instead, I’d expect you to say that you used to have a computer that looked just like it at work (or… (read more)

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Rumtopf (Part 2)

Rumtopf

In case you missed my original post last month, Rumtopf is a traditional German drink which is made by mixing sugar and fruit with rum and letting things marinate until ready to serve. After tasting some at a holiday party last year, I decided to make a batch of my own. The Rumtopf has been stewing quietly in a dark corner of our pantry since mid-January. It began with two pounds of pears. Since then, we’ve added two pounds of pineapples, and over the weekend, we added two pounds of strawberries. Currently, the jar contains six pounds of fruit, three… (read more)

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A Visit to Oklahoma City’s Container Store

The Container Store Oklahoma City OKC

Saturday morning, Susan surprised me with an outing to The Container Store, which recently opened a location in Oklahoma City. I was surprised to learn that there was an entire store dedicated to containers. I was also surprised to learn that there were containers inside the container store that I was actually interested in purchasing. I guess you could say The Container Store contains many surprises. And also, many containers. The Container Store is divided into sections that correspond to rooms in a home. The first half dozen aisles contain organizational items for bedrooms, followed by closets, then bathrooms. There’s… (read more)

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The Great Oven Explosion of 1996

Susan loves the oven in our new house. It’s a convection oven — two ovens, actually (or dual ovens; whatever), with digital controls and more bells and whistles than I’ve ever seen on an oven. According to Susan, it’s the best oven we’ve ever owned. Also according to Susan, the worst oven we ever owned was the one that exploded and blew off her eyebrows. This story took place in the spring of 1996. I know it was spring because I was watching the NBA finals, and I know it was 1996 because that was the only spring we lived… (read more)

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The New House is Wired

If there’s a silver lining to a furlough, it’s that the combination of time off and no income makes it convenient to work on small home improvement projects. It’s a bad time to start an expensive project, but good for checking off all those little honey-do projects that take more time than money to complete — things like hanging pictures and setting up bookshelves. One of the projects I’ve been wanting to tackle since purchasing our new home was running ethernet (network) cables down through the walls to all (or most) of the rooms. The people who originally planned to… (read more)

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At the End of the Furlough, I Don’t Feel Really, Really Special

As suddenly as it began, after 35 days, the furlough ended on January 25 and the government reopened. I have received guidance to report to work on January 28, 2019. The last time I was in the office was on December 21, 2018. While delivering the news to the American people, President Trump referred to federal employees as “fantastic people” and “incredible patriots.” “You are very, very special… people,” he added. I don’t feel very, very special right now. In fact, right now I feel like little more than a pawn in a big game of chess that’s being played… (read more)

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Furlough Fingernails

I didn’t cut my fingernails often enough as a kid. I don’t know why. It was just one of those things that fell through the cracks. Normally it wasn’t a big deal. Nobody went around looking at my fingers on a daily basis or anything. Occasionally I would scratch someone on accident and get embarrassed, but most of the time I guess it just didn’t come up. Then there was the time in karate class where one of my instructors noticed my overgrown fingernails and made a big deal out of it in front of the whole class. “Man,” he… (read more)

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Rumtopf (Part 1)

Last month at a Christmas party, Susan handed me a small glass containing a mysterious alcoholic beverage and told me to try it. I did. The drink was fruity, super sweet, and super, super strong. These Irish lips have tasted their fair share of booze, and I’ve never tasted anything like that! Later in the evening we tracked down the gentleman who had brought the homemade-looking jar of alcohol to the party. The man was Swedish, and the concoction he had brought was called “Rumtopf.” According to Wikipedia, Rumtopf (which translates to “rum pot”) is a “German and Danish dessert,… (read more)

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Meow Wolf: Origin Story (Review)

Meow Wolf

My family and I discovered Meow Wolf’s interactive art installation “The House of Eternal Return” purely by accident. In the summer of 2016, the four of us decided to rent an RV and drive west on I-40, eventually stopping in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was there, while looking for things to do, that Susan ran across a review of Meow Wolf, describing it as “part art installation, part interactive fun house.” On a whim, we decided to go check it out. The four of us spent roughly four hours wandering through The House of Eternal Return, taking pictures and… (read more)

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Hot Coffee Leads to New Furniture

The thing about all those home improvement shows is that if you watch enough of them, you start to believe you can do it, too. My favorite show of the bunch is Flea Market Flip, a program where teams compete by buying borderline junk at a flea market, spend two days and a hundred bucks converting the junk into new pieces of furniture, and ultimately resell the items at the same flea market where they bought the junk in the first place for hundreds of dollars in profit. Week after week, contestants purchase busted up milk crates and rusty wagon… (read more)

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