Because, you know, air ducts are designed to hold more than just air.

One of the most insightful quotes I've heard in a long while. From my little green buddy. Let me clarify, my little green buddy is still around here, if you forgot who that was, and Monkeyboy is happily married, somewhere in the east. So yeah, my little green buddy brought that up while we were talking about movies. It's just such a disappointing move. "oh, I'm gonna climb through the air ducts." but really, what kind of person would assume that an air duct would be strong enough to support them above hallways and through sections of buildings otherwise sufficiently guarded to restrict entry. I mean, really, something designed in a capitalist society to support nothing but air is surely built to enclose and support a 200 lb person such as myself, to permit me safe passage past the guards into whatever happily unguarded reciprocal of valuable equipment/records/golds as I might desire to enter.
Oh my science... willing suspension of disbelief is really put to the test on that one, isn't it? There are many ways to fill the plot hole of "how did she sneak past the guards anyways?" Why do they always fall back on the old "she snuck through the air vents to get to wherever it was she needed to go, thanks to her excessive understanding of how air ducts are built, which makes it obvious which turns to take to get to the desired location, and never mind that air ducts weren't built to support the weight of a human... or two or three if she left the vent open, and they caught up to her, and she's kicking them to allow for her safe but suspenseful passage to the established destination."
Comeon, seriously...

CJB

I work HERE

I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I'd share. I am now employed by the Temple Square Hospitality Corporation. I got a paid internship here, in what's definitely the most decorative building I've worked in. Not the biggest, but definitely the most decorated. They provide me with fresh clean uniforms every day, and in the banquet kitchen I'm really enjoying myself. I've heard my next assignment, in about a month, will be a higher stress workplace. I'll probably miss what I'm doing now but I need to reacquaint myself with that as well.
To finish out the summer, I will aslo work in a bakery, which I really look forward to though I have no practical idea of what it's like. 

I quite enjoyed this

A zombie survival dream.
Amusingly enough it began, for us, at timpview. None of you were there, but marc ricks was, as well as ryan merril and others we knew. We had heard the horrible news and held a meeting to decide how to prepare for the coming onslaught. They asked for anyone with military experience to help organize, but i didn't offer, later i tried to but it was too late. It was an overnight party at timpview, we had heard the news there, and somehow the festive mood was rather dampened by the impending zombie bloodbath. People were just talking somberly, i was a bit anti-social as i tried to plan my fight and escape. I thought i had a pretty good chance to stay alive but i was caught off guard when a flaming bus loaded with people (or zombies) came hurtling down the school hallway. I ran outside to escape the crash and possible carnage. Outside there was a squad of soldiers moving through in combat formation. I envied their guns as I returned inside to collect my things: my coat, a bottle of water, a book (Lovecraft I think), a light, some gloves, and my improvised weapon, a stick with a bit of metal at one end. May as well have been a board with a nail in it. As i returned outside it seemed the military had mopped up, but i knew it wouldn't stay that way with the number of recently deceased i left inside. I started running to a quieter neighborhood and ran into marc ricks. He was armed no better than myself. We began checking houses and trying to warn the living, but sadly, as we told the first family we found of the nightmarish reality they were now living in, I awoke.

a story for you, from the wee one.

This picture has nothing to do with it, but I wanted to put this up there, and now, here's a story written by the little one.

The cat and the forest.

There once was a cat, and one day his owners abandoned him from the city in which they lived. The closest place to the city was a forest. The forest was called Vermont of the Dead. The cat had no choice so she made her journey. Just at the opening at the front of the forest she spotted something. Something wet, something slimy, something smelly was approaching out of the darkness. The cat made a run. The thing made a piercing scream and ran after the cat. Finally she found a safe place to hide. The creature was gone, but in the darkness was... a mother cat. She saw the kitten and ran to her, and they lived happily ever after. The end. 

fashion?

I saw this girl in the mall, walking into various clothing and accessories stores, and I have to object. She's just wasting money if she gets anything in any one of those stores. I mean, who would put on a shirt like that and an old, plain, white bra, then look in the mirror and say anything other than "oh, crap, I better change."
You just don't wear that kind of shirt with that kind of bra. The only possible explanation that doesn't label this girl as fashion ignorant is that her mother insisted she wear a bra, and she insisted on wearing this shirt.
Okay, enough about that, it just bugged me. 

Just hanging out

Not that I didn't go out today, but I spent most of the day doing not very much. the little one and I took our time getting up, and eventually got around to our breakfast. I chatted a lot with the chapmaster, and eventually we determined that we would get together and walk around Liberty Park a bit. All in all, it was a rather motivating discussion for me, and left me feeling resolved to do more with my time, which translated into getting the apartment cleaned. I also looked online at prices for available houses in the area. Actually, it seems I would be able to own a home in Magna (not a very great place to be, but near Sandra's family) and I wouldn't be paying much more per month, actually it'd be less if you don't figure in homeowner's insurance, but I figured I'd be required to have that to have a loan. I don't think my lovely wife is very enthused about the house I considered reasonable, but it is a two bedroom with twice the square footage we've got now. Also it would have washer and dryer hookups, which I would appreciate a lot.
Don't get me wrong, it's really not much of a house, but it's a house

More later

CJB 

Alfredo sauce

Having little to write about in my life, I thought I'd share my opinions about Alfredo and what it's become here in the US. The classic Alfredo, in Italy, is a sauce commonly garnished with cheese, but it doesn't necessarily have any cheese in it, and occasionally doesn't even come in contact with cheese at all through its entire existence.
American alfredo sauce, on the other hand, is a white macaroni-and-cheese sauce. That's all it really is. It's a cheese sauce, which is a good thing, but not alfredo. The american version is actually quite a bit harder to make, since you have to carefully cook cream (which can boil over quickly and catastrophically) long enough and hot enough to make a hard cheese like romano or parmesan melt into it.
The Italian version on the other hand couldn't be any simpler. First you'll need to seperate an egg. Do whatever you want with the whites, it's the yolk you'll want to have ready for this sauce. just get the yolk out and have it in a dish nearby. Take one portion of cooked noodles (as much as you'd figure on eating as a main course) and toss them with some olive oil in a skillet, saute pan, or frying pan, whatever's convenient and relatively non-stick. Once it's nice and hot, add about 1/4 cup of cream. (They sell it here as whipping cream, you certainly wouldn't want to use whipped cream, but if you find it marketed as just cream, I'm sure that'll work too. ) and once that starts to get hot, maybe starts to bubble just a bit, toss in the egg yolk and start stirring it into the cream. Once the mixture is all mixed and hot (steamy is as hot as it needs to get) you've got yourself a pan of fettucini alfredo. Take it to the table and sprinkle some parmesan on it, or maybe just some salt and pepper, I like it that way, or your favorite cheese.
You see how easy that is? oil, noodles, cream, egg yolk. It takes about 5 minutes or less once your noodles are ready. Why do we make it so complicated?

CJB

And this was after brushing

Thankfully this isn't any sort of disease. When we first noticed it this tongue was pitch black, but brushing started a return to its normal color. The cause is actually nothing but pink bisthmus, a.k.a. pepto bismol. She had one last night as she was trying to get to sleep because her tummy hurt, and this is what we found this morning. It was a little scary for a moment, especially for her, but it's really nothing to worry about.
She's been having tummy aches a lot lately, and after researching on WebMd we think it's mainly caused by missing her mom. She was only there with her mom for about 2 weeks for christmas, so that would be just enough time to start getting used to being there, and not nearly enough time to be ready to leave. She woke up during the night calling out or her mom more than once, but we're hoping that after another week or so she'll readjust to living here.
It makes me sad to see her so upset about being here, but at the same time, she was excited to come back. I just wish we could all be in the same city, so when she missed her mom, or missed me, she could just go over for a visit, or maybe spend the weekend, without getting on a plane. Really, that might happen someday. Seattle's not such a bad place.

CJB 

And so she's back

Sunday morning she had her third unsupervised plane trip. She has returned, and though she's been sad from missing her mom, she's also been happy to be here. She was sent home from christmas vacation with even moree stuff than she had before, including a huge suitcase. I think maybe her mom overestimates the size of our humble apartment. On the upside her huge suitcase will be a good place to store the things she doesn't need in her day-to-day life, like off-season clothes and excess toys. It's good to have her back, and I'm glad she's not back in school until tuesday, so we get to hang out today.

CJB