Richard’s Personal Blog

I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley. Love that line.

Moved the Secret Santa blog over to its new home, leaving mainly the photoblog and wiki to transition over, plus the task of coming up with a sustainable method of adding and maintaining the 200+ email forwards on a new host. That is going to be a nightmare, but well worth it when done. That will finish the lecour.net domain, paving the way for me to complete the remaining six or seven domains still served up by Spry Networks. Sheesh, a lot of work switching ISPs just to save $70 per month.

Bought the EEB ticket yesterday. Finally. Yay!

Stupid me, I’ve been hemming and hawing so much about whether I’m going to go to the Erotic Exotic Ball two weekends from now, I’ve waited too long and they’ve now updated the price of a VIP ticket from an after-fee total of $159 to $191. Couldn’t really afford it at the old price, and now I really can’t afford it. Granted, I do have $200 sitting in my fun-stuff savings account as of today, but I didn’t really want to use up the whole thing on something so fleeting and frivolous. On the other hand, if I’m heading to Colorado next year, this opportunity will no longer be available. Still leaning heavily towards going; question is whether the accompanying grief makes it worth it.

Decisions, deci$ions.

There are many reasons I love Firefox. This is only one of them.

Ended the Seattle trip as I always do: no rain. I am still surprised that — having visited the Seattle area almost two dozen times over the last dozen years — I have yet to see it rain. Sure, gotten a barely moist drizzle near the waterfront a few times, but nothing that collected on the ground. Personally, I think it’s just a marketing ploy to keep out Californians. No, really, it rains all the time here. Stay away. You’ll hate it.

Sat across the aisle on the flight home from an attractive six-month-pregnant woman due to have twins. Barely looked three or four months gravid, let alone twin bearing. She was excited to have endured the flight without incident. I mentioned that on my Thursday flight up to Seattle, a woman two rows behind me had had some form of panic attack and medical personnel were brought on board to assist her before the rest of the passengers could disembark. I wasn’t bothered by the delay, and I’m glad my story reflected that. Turns out she was the one who’d been evacuated. We laughed.

Yesterday was a nice surprise, a fun “gift” from Sean. We flew a Cessna 172 from Paine Field to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago, Sean as pilot and I as co-pilot (or co-pitot, according to the misspelled sticker at the site of the headphone jacks.) Missed the approach on the way in and aborted the landing, narrowly pulling out in time to avoid the small hill (a bump, really) and treetops ahead. Bounced hard on the second attempt, but otherwise went quite well — landed heading into the wind this time.

Had lunch at Vern’s Bayside on Main Street, Eastsound. Having looked online for the restaurant this morning, I was surprised to see so many people trashing it with one-star reviews on several websites. Sure, service was a little slow and unresponsive, but the waitress was reasonably friendly and interactive. Food (steamed mussels and garlic bread) was good, middle-of-the-road fare. Bonus points for serving Henry Weinhard’s root beer. Not on tap, though.

Nabbed three geocaches on the little island and took off back home. No mishaps on the takeoff, as long as you weren’t a big black bird that decided to race the little plane. Bird lost. Messily. I took the controls on the way out during the ascent, flying most of the way back until we descended to 2000 feet on the approach to Paine Field. Ended the last full day here with some more Pocket Tanks. Great day!