The dog house

There are many perks to working for a video game company...

(thanks to Kim and Ashley for this awesome montage)

I still remember waiting at reception for my first interview here, self-consciously early and over-dressed.  A little white bundle of Bichon came tumbling down the stairs with his owner in tow and I was in love.  Yes, the games are Epic.  Yes, the people are phenomenal.  Yes, I had left consulting to return to school after confronting the reality that the highest form of life I could keep alive on my 4 days out of town 3 days back routine was a guinea pig... and even that didn't turn out so smoothly after picking up corporate digs in West Village.  The day I got the offer, I asked my would-be supervisor if he could check on whether my would-be coworkers were cool with a would-be mascot.  Then I got Kai (pictured).

But over time, it became clear that the warg streak ran strong with Kai and her eventual sidekick Rho.  They were a pack.  They knew who had a seat in our open office cubes and would chase intruders (particularly those wearing hats or pushing bikes).  We discussed redoubling dog obedience efforts, perhaps enrolling them in extra classes, but the hours on call at work undermined our resolve.

To contain the pint sized predators, MacGyver outdid himself, making these super-stylish "Graymane Saloon" swinging doors.  Such an elegant solution to Klee Kai containment without forcing fellow cubemates to step over unwieldy baby gates or get tangled in tie outs.  But alas, the doors had many admirers (and concerned facilities caretakers).  After a poorly considered nip, the dogs are under Halladay House arrest.  The saloon doors are waiting for their next epic installation, next to plans for at home agility course obstacles.  GG.

What a crock of... part 1

Inspired by brother Epic's crockpot chili routine, I ordered my own pot as a belated birthday present.

The Greek Couscous I attempted last night was not expressly for a slow cooker.  Yet the garbanzo beans I had soaked overnight tasted raw and I had already started to disassemble ye olde stove to investigate the mysterious burning smell.  Returning to my project this morning, the perimeter couscous and beans had gotten crunchy/chewy with a creamy oatmeal-like center.  I salvaged what I could and added the cold garnish I'd laid away in the fridge (sundried tomatoes, olives, feta, and a fresh picked lemon and batch of oregano).  This is lunch.  The container can then be repurposed to pilfer spent coffee grounds from the office industrial sized carafe to feed our hungry worms.

Crockpot is now crocking a tub of water to loosen up the remainder of the caked on couscous adventure.  Perhaps next time I'll try a safer recipe like soup.

Ballot Fatigue

Imagine my surprise to receive a California primary ballot complete with appropriate party preferences and in my native language.  Check "vote" off my bucket list.

The experience felt like a take home final that was fraught with trick questions...

Proposition 28:  Limits on legislator's terms in office. They already have individual limits on the assembly and the Senate, this would allow them to consolidate their tenure to a 12 year stint in one office.  So doesn't that sort of accomplish the opposite?  

Proposition 29:  Imposes an additional tax on Cigarettes for Cancer Research.  ... but only 20% of the revenue goes to smoking cessation programs and 60% to cancer research?  If a mutual fund management fee was 20%, I'd want to look at their cost structure... 

Libertarian Presidential Nominee?  You could choose from the 9 or just pick Gary Johnson who was announced in May (CA Primary is Jun 5). 

Has the incumbent superintendent done anything to warrant being ousted for an eccentric ketchup thief?

The Board of Education Candidates are quibbling over who can designate themselves as teachers on the ballot?  (and the most promising one appears to be home schooling his kids...)

Some bad days

Yesterday sucked to the point of failure. My goal for the night was to split off the romex wire in the middle room run about a foot patch wire and install a new grounded outlet in the kitchen for the big fridge.

Well things started to go wrong. It started off right away with the hole I exposed in the kitchen being right over a stud, apparently the kitchen wall is floating 1/2" off all the studs. Cool, make a slightly larger hole just to the right.

I didnt really have wire cutters or strippers so I was using scissors and a razorblade to cut and strip. Also the existing wire was installed so shitty that there were bare wires due to friction. I didnt have time to rerun the wire so I chopped a little extra off the existing wire and stripped past the bare point. This caused the existing outlet to be very tight when I was putting it back in it's conduit box. Which meant the mounting flanges needed to get dremeled down some.

The backplate of the outlet needed one of its port holes punched out. In doing so I managed to cut my thumb with a screwdriver. When drilling the receiving hole in the wall I once again hit a stud (awesome). No problem I drilled slightly to the side of the stud and the wire was good to go.

Well the 1 hr ended up being 3 and I yelled at Belle because the perishables were sitting on the floor. Somehow despite the power being off in the house and us not having a working fridge at all I got it in my head that this was her fault. Stupid thought which I have spent the rest of the night and this morning apologizing profusely for. At some point I realized that I should have cooked dinner but it was too late to turn back so we went hungry for the night.

To cap the fail off I ended the night by using the fancy new electric flyswatter to obliterate the light fixture above the bed sending shards of glass all over the bed, the floor and Belle.

I suppose on the plus side the outlet works and the fridge is cooling. All of the contents of the mini fridge have been moved. Still just a shitty night after such a productive Monday. Sorry Belle! <3

Hanging Garden of Bathalon: Don't Try This At Home

Has some potential, eh?  Speaking of houseplant "successes"...

Should you be toying with the idea of "back to nature" bathscaping, critique this picture before clinging to your own bathtub toe holds to balance a 10 lb planter in all its green Cthulhu tentacled glory on a make shift ledge.  While I haven't ruled out the vision of a bathroom that resembles the Lincoln Park Conservatory orchid room, let's just say there is no shortage of reasons the current crop is checked into rehab on the balcony.  

What's wrong with this picture?  

1.  No natural sunlight:  Even though these species are hardy jungle dwellers, they need some degree of light.  Our bathroom lights have motion sensors, so we couldn't even set those to stay on as a proxy (not to mention ideally, we'd upgrade to full spectrum fluorescent instead of incandescent).

2.  Pot positioning:  Most obvious-- Kai can (and has) knocked over the orchid and rooted around in the Dracaena.  Granted, reaching through a curtain of vines for your shampoo is rad...  but not if watering said plant washes soil particles into your soap, or if the hassle of taking the plant down to water it means it goes thirsty and you're reaching through a curtain of yellowed unhappy leaves. 

3.  Brown Leaves & Water Choice:  Watering some of the other planters with Koi water in the mornings created thriving beds.  However, I learned Dracaena is prone to tip burn caused by overly alkali conditions (and stress).  Fish excrement tends to be alkali as well.  Having plants in the water off-gassing C02 overnight helps to neutralize the water, but all we have in there is a bit of algae and some horsetail.  If we keep using pond water, perhaps we'll need to soup it up with more hyacinths.