Not 17 - 19 Nineteen - NINETEEN

It isn't a record for me, but it was the largest crowd I've had in a decade.  And it was awesome.  I felt loved.  And the food was great. 

I've lately (read: last two years or so) felt that my cooking mojo was all but lost, but it reappeared in time for Thanksgiving.  With Paula in my head, things went without a hitch. 

And then I stopped blogging.  How could that be?!?!?  The madness of the season, I suppose.

Now I have a big review tomorrow, so here I am blogging :-) 

Our lab moved.  It wasn't pretty.  It isn't pretty.  The new lab sucks.  Designed by people who don't actually work in a hardware lab.  Like, you can't get behind the benches to work on the back of a machine because they installed some fancy-ass covering so that things would look cool.  And the benches aren't "two tier."  They are a simple bench with shelves above.  The stuff above should be sturdy enough for a 4U, fully loaded system, but alas, I better not stack more than a few paperclips or it'll all come down on my head.

Do more with less.  Test hardware without hardware.  Virtualize...  HA! Visualize...  Imagine hardware working together.

Another One Down

Thanksgiving has come and gone - but not before I did a practice run the Saturday before which fed 12 and the real thing, which fed 19.

19!!  Nineteen!  And none of them were babies.  They were all bona fide people who needed to be fed Turkey dinner.  Haven't had a crowd like that since I was in my 20's and had way more energy than I do now :-)

We had a great time.  The food was fabulous.  Paula seems to have left the building, which was a relief. 

I'll do it again next year. 

Of Course They Are From Canada

Nickelback.

OMG! 

I am sampling their new album.  OMG!

Yes, there's a part of me that just loves that hard driving, pretty much metal, rock-n-roll. 

And they are so CUTE!  Have you seen the cover?!?!  How cute are those boys from Alberta?!?!? 

Just when I thought I couldn't love Canada more, I do.  I want to go there and be there forever among those amazing people.  In those beautiful places.  My love of Canada should be enough for a one way pass to that Heaven on Earth. 

And yeah, Nickelback's new album is 12 solid gold hits. 

Check Out Nickelback

Thank you.  Oh, and - Happy Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving Madness

I've been fully engulfed in the Thanksgiving madness.  This year there will be 17.  I feared there would be no food if I waited any longer, but I just couldn't shop last night. 

I've embraced my inner morning-person.  Lately I am up no later that 4:30AM to get stupid stuff done so that when I come home at night I can just chill with the fam. 


So by last night I was just too tired to shop.  So my fear sent me to the store at 4:30AM this morning.  Thank goodness for 24hour Safeways :-)  

Turns out they had several extra tons of food, and I bought it all.  If I don't have what I need, I'll just have to improvise.  I sure hope Paula - oh, there she is right on queue talking in my head - will be there during crunch time.  I hope she can help me keep on my feet, lately I get tired.

My biggest anxiety is making sure that all the food is hot.  But by the time you do the last minute stuff and encourage 17 people through a buffet line, its just what it is is...  a cold plate of really yummy food.  Paula tells me that if the food is super-yummy it won't matter that its not burning-your-tongue-hot.

BAM!  Hey, that was a moment of Emeril.  I love him.  As Tony Bourdain said, that fuzzy little guy can really cook!  :-)  Kitchen Confidential rocked - I recommend it.  You gotta love anyone who scourers Scotland for the ultimate haggis.  He's beyond hard core.

Anyway, I got stuff to clean, stuff to prep, and stuff stuff stuff to do to be ready for Thursday.  I love Thanksgiving.  I do it every year.  Its my tradition.  Over the years the crowd has changed, but there's still a core group of us that have been together now for 20 years.  I think its safe to say that we will always have each other.  And we have great memories.  Many of these people remember that last Thanksgiving we all shared when my grandmother was with us, just two months before she unexpectedly passed away.  I'll blog about that some time.  Rocked my world and changed everything. 

My Cooking Mojo has a Voice

Apparently I channel Paula Dean for my recently returned cooking mojo.

She's in my head. 

I was out on foodnetwork.com looking for mashed potato advice and saw that Paula had a recipe.  I decided to read it.  No sooner did I start to paruse the ingredients than I realized that she was reading them to me in my head.  I could hear her voice.

AAAAA!


She's still there.  As I type this, its her voice.


I don't watch Paula Dean.  I've never made one of her recipes before.  Yes, I've seen her a few times while flipping channels back in the days when I watched TV.  And yes, she's all over the grocery store, but...


Come on!  Paula Dean is in my head.  OMG.


I have done a fair amount of cooking lately, and while I have felt for the last year or so that I'd lost my cooking mojo, its felt lately like I may have it back. 


Cooking mojo is something that defines me.  And, come to think of it, I've felt more defined lately. 


But, seriously.  Paula Dean. 


She's a good woman.  And a good cook.  But I sure hope she is just a stand in for the inner voice of my cooking mojo... 


Or maybe I should just accept her sweet southern drawl and throw myself in with both Mid-Atlantic feet :-)


AGGGHHHH!!!

The Arrogance

Its been a while...  A while since I last posted and a while since I last ranted about the new neighbors...  the new corporate neighbors.

They aren't neighbors, they are the new landlords.  The Billionaire Stalker and his happy band of kid-programmers, re-shaping how the universe interacts and gets *way* too much information - but then again, that's because most people are too to keep anything private any more.  But already I digress...

The point is, the folks that bought my campus have totally ripped it apart.  It was beautiful.  And tasteful. It was serene and corporate.  It was a nice place to be.

I won't have to watch this insanity after Dec. 13.  My lab and all my machines are moving.  300K worth per trip, down the great highway to our new digs...

Digression again...

The last week or so they have been trenching out in the courtyard as if there were about to be a war.  Seems they are finishing up, though...  Lots of large pipes sticking out - I think The Stalker is building himself a water park for a giant Slip-and-Slide or some such other corporate tomfoolery.  It would be just like him...

This campus is located in a region of the English speaking world where it doesn't rain for about 6 to 8 months out of the year.  And heaven help you when it rains, its known as El Nino (image a twiddle over that second n, please.).

Its arrogance to install a corporate Slip-n-Slide, but I guess that is what you do when you are barely 30  years old and have a billion $$$.

Thank you.

Peony Pink and Plum

I ordered an OttorBox Defender for my new phone.  The only pink one they had was pink/gray.  I called today to check on the order and discovered that they have a new color, peony pink/plum.  Its awesome.  Gorgeous I tell you.  I was able to change the order...

I may wait a few extra days, but I'll survive.  After all its Peony Pink and Plum!

Thank you.