June | 2004 | mashby

June 28, 2004

q u i e t

A beautiful sky An interesting thing happened to me on Saturday. I was cleaning the pool for the second time this season. It got away from me as I was trying to switch from chlorine to Baquacil and it was the only option I had. Usually I have help when I drain, scrub, rinse and refill the pool, but I decided to tackle it on my own instead. I guess it was penance for having to clean it for a second time, I don’t know, but having to do it by myself meant that I had a little bit different routine. This new routine led me to a very interesting discovery about myself.
Normally when cleaning the pool, I keep busy when I take a break. I’ll bail water with a bucket for awhile and then when I stop to rest my back, arms and legs, I’ll do other things instead of just stopping. I’ll push the muck around with the pool brush, or prep some tools, or cleaning products. It’s not busy work per se, but it only incrementally helps at best. Having to do all the work by myself was completely different. Since I was the only one bailing, I would do 100 bails and then have to take a break. I estimated that every 100 bails was the equivalent of approximately 50 gallons of water and after moving that much volume I definitely needed to rest. So instead of busying myself with other activities, I rested my muscles and caught my breath.

It was a really nice afternoon, the sun was out and the temperature was in the 70’s. With water still up to my ankles, sitting down really wasn’t an option, so I stood at the edge of the pool, leaning against the top like I would a high fence. I just stood there. My mind wasn’t occupied with any tasks, or even thoughts for that matter. I just looked at the trees, the flowers, the grass and thought about absolutely nothing in particular. It was awesome. 🙂

June 25, 2004

The Jambodians

The Jambodians CD Cover One of the first friends that we made when Holly and I moved to Nashville was David Dorris. He worked with Holly at her first job here – Danco. David really helped introduce us to Nashville as well as other people. Through David we met Bill Lloyd, Swan Dive, and he even introduced me to one of my best friends, Dan Westman. After he and Holly left Danco, we didn’t see each other as much as we’d like, but we have kept in touch.
One of the things that David invites us to every year is a thing called “Jambodian Fest.” What started as a yearly jam session among friends who happened to be in town for the holidays has grown to an annual concert. Granted, these “friends” are some of the best musicians to come out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, with many Grammys under their belt, so it’s easy to see how things could get out of hand in a hurry. We’ve never been able to make it in past years, but this past December things worked out just right and we took Dave up on his invitation to make the hour drive up to Bowling Green for Jambodian Fest III.

June 24, 2004

The Lure Of Outlook And The Hope For A Better Future

I’m not a big fan of Microsoft’s Outlook. I find it to be a bit bloated and slow for the most part and a bit of a kludge since it relies on Outlook Express to handle mail. This has never made sense to me and just leaves a lot of security holes open to be exploited by a malicious e-mail. The fact that by simply opening an e-mail can bring down your entire system is ludicrous. The fact that Microsoft’s position, should this ever happen to you, is that it was your fault for not staying current with security patches and bug fixes just adds insult to injury. It’s like rubbing salt in the wound. So if you want to run Outlook, it’s YOUR job to visit the Microsoft web site regularly to fix all the bugs and gaping security holes in THEIR program. Should you become infected with a virus, or cripple your system because you missed an update, well it’s your fault. And let’s be honest, you should be securing a program like Outlook as if your computer was Fort Knox because after all, this is E-MAIL. ???
I’m sorry to go off on a tear like that, but checking e-mail should be simple and easy and not plagued with all the security issues that Outlook brings to the table. If you’re not an Outlook, or Outlook Express user, then you don’t have these issues (for the most part). You can still get infected if you open an attachment, which you should never do if you don’t know who it’s from, but you’re OK if all you do is open the e-mail. I’ve been using Thunderbird for well over a year now and it’s a really good e-mail client. Prior to that I used The Bat and before that, Eudora. All of these e-mail clients are far superior to Outlook in my book, yet they all lack one element – a Personal Information Manager (PIM). At it’s that little bit of bait that makes me consider switching to Outlook. :O

June 22, 2004

Roan Mountain – Part One

Last Friday, my family took a little weekend vacation up to Roan Mountain State Park. My mother recently changed jobs and is now working for Tennessee Parks and has learned a lot about the park system since the switch. Did you know that Tennessee has the largest number of State parks in the US? Well, neither did my wife and I, so we decided to go explore the North East section of Tennessee and visit Roan Mountain.
We left Friday evening with the intention of driving as far as we could before getting too tired. I secretly wanted to get in the neighborhood, but figured that we’d stop just outside of Knoxville. The ride itself went really smoothly once we navigated around all the traffic within Nashville. Construction is going hard and heavy around where Interstate 24 and 40 meet and there’s monster traffic all around it. I led us through as many back roads as I knew and brought us out onto 40, just near the airport and at the end of all the congestion.

June 18, 2004

Riviera Maya Travelogue Started

The prologue and Day One have been posted from my trip to the Riviera Maya. This marks the start of a new travelogue, one that I hope to finish this time. 🙂

June 17, 2004

Grits & Grillades

Grits And Grillades I’ve been on the South Beach Diet for approximately 6 months now and this morning I decided to stray a little bit. I’ve been wanting to fix a Louisiana speciality called “Grits & Grillades” (pronounced “gree-yahds” ) for some time now, but due to the restrictions of the diet, I kept putting it off. Since I reviewed the cookbook “Tales From A Pantry“, I’ve been seeing the recipe staring at me every morning as I ate my breakfast. It’s been taunting me for far too long! Yesterday, when buying groceries for the dinner I’m cooking tonight for my Mother’s birthday, I threw in the ingredients for grillades too. 🙂

I set the alarm an hour earlier than usual simply because I’ve never made grillades before and I didn’t know how long it would take, etc. Not only that, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve never even HAD grillades before. “But you said that grillades were a Louisiana speciality?”, you might be asking. Well, that’s true, but I’ve never been anywhere where they were served. My Mom is from Kansas, so all of her Louisiana recipes are from friends and no one we knew, knew how to make them. The only restaurant that I know of that serves them is the Court Of Two Sisters and for one reason or another, I’ve never tried them.

There are plenty of recipes that I’ve done that I’ve never tasted before, but I usually have some indication of what it will taste like. I know what steak is supposed to taste like, so when cooking a steak dinner with some new exotic sauce, I at least have some indication of how everything should come out in the end. With grillades, I had no real frame of reference. I know what veal tastes like, but it’s covered in sauce in this dish and that was where the taste came from. My only recourse was to follow the directions and let Holly’s past experiences tell me if I was on the mark, or off.

June 16, 2004

My Dog Is A Bobble Head

It’s been awhile since Gracie was last groomed and since she’s been playing with Tumini and Vegas (the neighbor’s dog) a lot, her hair became a bit matted in a few places. After dropping her off yesterday, the groomer called to let me know that they would have to cut her very short in order to get out the matted areas. Since it’s now summer, I had planned on getting her cut short, but not quite as short as the groomer had to take it.

June 14, 2004

Who Kicked My Butt? Oh Yeah, Yoga Did!

Downward Facing Dog Asana Last Thursday I was sitting at a keyboard typing away and when I went to adjust in my chair, I noticed my back was a little stiff and sore. Still focusing my my typing, I dismissed my pain as a side effect of all the yard work I did the Saturday before. As I continued typing, it dawned on me that I hadn’t been sore the day before, so why was I sore now? Last weekend I built two raised flower beds set into a hill and as you might imagine, there was a LOT of digging. On Monday I was a little stiff, but that was it. By Tuesday morning my stiffness had subsided and I was my old self. So I stopped typing and began to think long and hard about what I had done to cause my back to feel so sore. I knew I hadn’t been sore the day before, so I retraced my steps through the day and lo and behold, I found the cause of my pain and discomfort – yoga.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of yoga, I think of stretching, relaxing and soothing music. Although yoga does have those elements, there is also another element that most people don’t think about. That element is called pain. I’ve been doing yoga now for well over a year and if I step away from it for a few weeks, my memory of past workouts fade and all I can remember is the calm and relaxed feeling I have at the end. If I’m “in the groove”, I’ll work out three times in one week not including frequent bicycle rides. It’s not the weight machines, the treadmill, or my bicycle that will work me the hardest. The hardest workout of the week will be yoga. Book it.

June 10, 2004

About A Boy

Director(s): Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Writer(s): Nick Hornby (novel), Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz (screenplay)
Category: Drama / Comedy
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some thematic elements.
Runtime: 101 min
Country: UK
Language: English
Year: 2002
Plot: Based on Nick Hornby’s popular British novel, About A Boy is a comedy-drama starring Hugh Grant as Will, a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in search of available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single parent meetings. As a result of one of his liaisons, he meets Marcus, an odd 12-year-old boy with problems at school. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, and as Will teaches Marcus how to be a cool kid, Marcus helps Will to finally grow up.

Review:
I first saw this movie while on a business trip to Chattanooga. I needed to finish up some work on a presentation I was making the next day and there was nothing on TV, so I decided to splurge and rent an On-Demand movie. Most of the movies I had either seen, or had no interest in seeing and just as I was about to turn it off, I came across About A Boy. I hadn’t heard much buzz about the movie and I’m not a fan of Hugh Grant, but for reasons unknown to me, I rented it.

June 8, 2004

Waah!

A baby about to cry. Man the last month or so has really put me off balance. There’s been too many changes in my life that have happened too fast. It’s one thing when you are the initiator of change, but it’s something completely different when change is forced upon you by others. This morning I’ve reached the end of my “comfort zone”, so there’s nothing left to do now but whine and pitch a fit. 😛
TV Woes
It all started with TV. Holly and I have been a big fan of “Friends” for a long time. It wasn’t the highest quality television ever produced, but we really enjoyed watching that show. We saw all the NBC specials they aired, prior to the final episode and read any magazine that claimed to have anything to do with the show. When the final episode aired, everything stopped in our household to soak up every minute of final time with Rachel, Ross, Monica, Phobee and Chandler. It really felt like friends of ours were moving away. We weren’t as big of fans of “Fraiser“, but I was sorry to see that show go off the air too. It was a funny show and somehow reassuring that there was some remnant of Cheers still on the air. Unfortunately, NBC put it in a Tuesday time slot and that competed with other shows that made it something I would only see in reruns. Then, I learned that “Lenny” has left “Law & Order”! He’s been a staple of that show for 12 years. I just can’t imagine Law and Order without him.

As if that’s not enough, Comcast recently purchased TechTV and they have all but killed it. Although I thought the quality of programming had slipped since Sumi Das left, I still enjoyed most of the programming. Comcast has fired everyone in the San Francisco office and some are moving and being hired in Los Angeles, but the last time I watched the channel, I just couldn’t relate. Call For Help is dead and even their web site is no more, which is a shame because there were some really good resources there.

Month / June 2004