~GRY

Birthday shout-out

2012-01-20T18:05:16Z

Happy birthday giraffeaholic!

Birthdays

2011-12-09T19:20:01Z

Happy birthday to badmagic, and for tomorrow to lonebear and frost_knight.

Gilad Shalit freed

2011-10-18T14:21:45Z

Gilad Shalit of the Israeli military has been set free from his Hamas kidnappers. CNN story: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/18/world/meast/israel-prisoner-swap/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Praised be He who frees the captives.

Birthday shout-out

2011-09-02T18:16:47Z

Happy birthday petrona!

Birthday shout-out

2011-05-13T16:01:08Z

Happy birthday Ginger of the North!

STS Discovery to Chantilly, STS Enterprise to NYC

2011-04-12T19:50:44Z

I'm on the mailing list for the National Air & Space Museum's newsletter.

Today's e-newsletter says that STS Discovery will be transferred from NASA to the NASM, for exhibition at the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airpot.

STS Enterprise will be moved from the Udvar-Hazy Center to the USS Intrepid museum in New York City.

I'm sad to see American manned space flight being shut down again. It's good, though, that we'll get one of the spaceworthy orbiters at IAD/U-H.

Birthday shout-out

2011-04-12T15:02:34Z

Happy birthday to WeirdDave and VValkyrie!

C-c-c-cold

2011-01-24T15:54:00Z

The thermometer in my car read 5 degrees this morning.

An hour later, Weather.com reported the temperature near my office was a comparatively torrid 11 degrees.

Oh. My. Og. Klingon Christmas Carol

2010-12-10T14:20:31Z

I'm waiting for some software to install, so I was reading the ICHC network.

On ROFLrazzi was: Klingon Christmas Carol. (http://celebs.icanhascheezburger.com/2010/12/09/funny-celebrity-pictures-a-klingon-christmas-carol/)

I kid you not. The Charles Dickens classic adapted for klin morals, and performed in KLI Klingon (with Teran'gon {English} supertitles).

To quote the first comment: TREKKIEGASM!

Birthday shout-outs

2010-12-10T14:12:40Z

Happy birthday to Lonebear and Frost Knight!

Dopers at the rally

2010-10-29T20:20:40Z

My lady and I will be joining the SDMB contingent at tomorrow's rally. The only one I know who will be there whom I've previously met is FairyChatMom.

Special guest is Boyo Jim, a past overall winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

In the evening, it's Ren Faire MeetUp at Piratz Tavern for their Halloween festivities. I'll be going as a has-been martial arts competitor, complete with the medal that cost me part of my ACL.

Ren Faire

2010-10-25T13:20:19Z

To misquote Pyrates Royale:

Going to Ren Faire is all fun and games until somebody loses their mind.

Writer's Block: Fly me to the moon

2010-10-14T19:44:30Z

Either we explore space and colonize other worlds -- or we give up the adventurous spirit and the Human race's long term survival.

Plus space flight is way cool.

Today didn't happen

2010-08-12T23:57:28Z

I've had a touch of a cold since late Monday. Today seems to have been the worst of it. I woke up, called in to the office with a "Not happening today", and slept till 5 PM.

I feel much MUCH better now. I think the cold broke.

And just in time, too. I need to be clear of mind for Rock Hall Pirates weekend!

Birthday shout-out

2010-08-09T01:44:54Z

Happy birthday to antaresjb!

Writer's Block: Twilight is nearing

2010-07-01T17:01:20Z

I agree with the assessment in USA Today: The film will appeal to fans, and will be thoroughly boring for non-fans.

A small moment of irony

2010-06-25T14:21:41Z

My office has been running a physical activity challenge. One way to take part is to enter the number of steps I take every day.

So I found on the net a free pedometer to count steps. I sent away for it, and it arrived this week.

Ironically, LAST week was the end of the challenge. And I may have been underestimating my daily step count by a factor of 10 or more.

Oh well. At least now I have a free step-counter.

Birthday shout-out

2010-06-11T01:43:07Z

Happy birthday to:
* alyxyn!
* punzel!

NOVA Ren Faire, or, heat intolerance

2010-06-07T15:57:36Z

Yesterday I and at least one other person in the Ren Faire Meetup group went to North Virginia Renaissance Faire.

Acts I saw:
* Pyrates Royale
* Letter of Marque
* maugorn

I greatly enjoyed all three of these performances. I wish I could have stayed for more. But:

At 2 PM I was feeling the heat, and sat down in the medical tent for a while, with lots of water, a cool cloth, and the fan right on me. After some time, I decided that "don't be a hero" applied, and left the Faire for the air conditioning in my car.

The 1h 30m trip home took 3 hours, counting a nap at a rest stop, as a storm front came through. Then when I got home, I was asleep for 12 hours.

Need answer fast: How do I rebuild my heat tolerance?

My water skin holds about 1.5 L of water, and I had drunk it dry by the end of Maugorn's show. So I know I was drinking as much water as I had with me.

I'm engaged!

2010-05-24T12:51:49Z

For those who follow me only on LJ and didn't get the news otherwise: Talya and I got engaged last Wednesday night!

And by Saturday afternoon, even as the OMG!Reality! was starting to set in, we were even more in love than before.

Top questions and answers:

1: How did I propose to her?

We got back to my place from a Shavuot party, and talked the situation over briefly. We acknowledged that we meshed so well together, we enjoyed Jewish observance together more than we thought was possible, and everybody thought we were already engaged anyway. So we went ahead and made it official.

2: Is there a ring?

There is no ring as yet. I would like to give Talya a ring that belonged to my grandmother z''l; a bit of negotiation is involved. Then there will be a ceremonial proposal for the cameras.

3: When's the date?

We don't have a date yet. There's much to discuss and many logistics to address.

This time, the geekette is Jewish! :D

2010-05-17T13:52:46Z

Time to update LJ, as (1) it's easier to find LJ posts than go through the flood of FB status updates, and (2) FB has a low character limit.

My rabbi and his wife, also a rabbi, have been trying for months to throw me at a friend of theirs. They finally succeeded. And life is good.

Talya and I first met last fall, and we were on a first-name basis by February. (I showed up to Purim in my pirate garb, sans weapons. She almost went as a Jedi.) We sat together on second day Pesach (March 31), and talked together after services. Then again that Shabbat, and wound up at the same lunch, where we really hit it off.

Then a few weeks later I got prodded with a clue by four, and we met up at Adas Traditional Minyan's community Shabbat third meal and discussion. Afterwards, Talya and I went out on our first date to watch How To Train Your Dragon. And loved it.

And our second date was the next Thursday, at the end of which we agreed we were an item.

And our third date was Shabbat lunch -- which ran all the way through to the end of Shabbat, so the date ran about 8 hours. During THAT time, we realized we meshed so thoroughly, we were in love! And we wanted to work on making a life together! (Which at that time we considered ourselves working towards becoming engaged.)

It turned out that the rabbis expected we'd be at that point within two weeks after our first date. So they were close enough.

And now after going out for three weeks, we consider ourselves semi-engaged, just waiting on schedule to cooperate.

Talya is geeky, attractive, intelligent, and VERY committed to Judaism. She's met my parents (twice last week), and we're planning a road trip to meet her parents in Ohio.

We're at the point where life together would be SO wonderful, and life apart would be missing so much that we never knew about.

An official announcement will come out when we have one.

We're taking turns being bouncy bouncy bouncy!

Birthday shout-out

2010-05-13T02:53:38Z

Happy birthday (a bit early) to gingy!

Birthday shout-outs

2010-04-13T15:04:41Z

Happy birthday to:
* My father (last Saturday)
* vvalkyri (yesterday)
* weirddave (yesterday)
* anitavacation (tomorrow)

Delayed birthday shout-out

2010-03-19T16:15:12Z

Happy birthday (yesterday) to wilperegrine!

Tempted by the food of another

2010-01-29T14:40:30Z

The end of last April, I made a commitment to no longer eat nonkosher meat at lunch.

Yesterday, I was at an Indian buffet near my office. This was the first time I had lunch at an Indian restaurant since I made that commitment.

I was strongly tempted by:
butter chicken
lamb kebab
tandoori chicken
more lamb
more chicken

Yet, I remained steadfast to my commitment. But man, it smelled SO DELICIOUS. Even the fact that the lamb kebab was tagged "halal" wasn't enough -- kosher meets halal's specs, but not vice versa.