Tag: Anti complaint

OMG I have DC tags!

Finally.  My car is registered in DC, complete with tags, until 2009.  I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about that any more.

My experience at the Georgetown DMV was pretty good.  I was there at 8:07, and they open at 8:15.  The line was longer than 95 M St.  All the employees I dealt with were exceptionally friendly and helpful.  The woman giving out numbers actually joked with me.  A woman waiting also loaned me a pen, which I had forgotten to bring.  One bit of advice – the Georgetown DMV has a bunch of clipboards to write on, but about three pens, so bring your own.  They also don’t validate parking, which was no problem for me, since I rode the bus.  But it might be a problem for other people who relish the idea of driving into Georgetown at 8AM.

I got my number at 8:33AM, and walked out the door with my tags at precisely 9:00.  Well done, Georgetown DMV.

I have to say, my experience with the DC DMV has been entirely pleasant.  Dealing with Capital One to get my title was a hassle, and there is still the matter of the $100 failure to register ticket that I have to contest, but the DMV has been very good.

And, just to top off a fabulous day of working from home, a little later I’m going to fish a stool sample out of the litter box and take it to the vet so we can try and determine if the cat’s recent behavior issues are medical or (As we suspect) psychological.

Perhaps the biggest food surprise Ive had in a while

Salsa Walnut Meat recipe at Gone Raw

When served on a (non-raw, non-vegan) organic whole wheat tortilla, this “taco meat” is fantastic.  I figured it would be edible, but this was way beyond edible.  This was good enough to request again.

I’d like to find a substitute for the walnuts so my mom can try it.  No matter how good it is, her walnut allergies would probably prevent her from enjoying it.

I just realized why I like this site

Sabermetric Research: The large supply of tall people

But there’s a short supply of humans who are in the right tail of any and every normal distribution. Again, why should height be different? I see three ways height is different, and both of them work against Berri’s argument.

I’ve been reading the above blog ever since I came across it on the Numbers Guy blog at the WSJ.  This morning, I realized why I like it so much.  This guy takes two things I love, justice and files . . . I mean, statistics and complaining, and sticks them together.  He reads something, like a person blaming the competitive imbalance in basketball on the small supply of tall people, and he not only says, “Hey, you’re wrong” (Which I love to do), but then he goes on to give statistical analysis on WHY (Which I would do if I were a little more educated and motivated).

His analysis is pretty accessible, and it’s usually (Almost always, I guess) sports-related.

Anyway, I recommend the blog.  If you’ve ever listened to an argument and thought, “Hey, you’re wrong, but I can’t show you why”, you’ll enjoy reading.

Dinner with the wife out of town

Steak, fries, beer The wife is in Vegas for work, so I’m left on my own until Thursday. Last night, I cooked a frozen pizza for dinner, but tonight, I thought I’d do something a little nicer. When I was in college and lived near my paternal grandmother, she used to cook me dinner sometimes. It was nearly always the same thing. Steak, steak fries, and peas. She always had Coke to drink, and always had something for dessert. Here I’ve substituted a Red Hook Long Hammer IPA for the Coke, and I was too lazy to cook the peas, but the rest of the dinner is all there.

I made a pretty big greasy mess of the stove, and I overcooked the steak, but it was immensely satisfying nonetheless. The wife, apparently, is going to a sushi buffet with some coworkers tonight, and ordinarily I would be jealous. But not tonight.

I do miss the wife, but she’ll be back soon, and I also appreciate the time alone. The cat and I are hanging out (she was helping me cook. And by “helping me cook” I mean “poking around in the trash and sniffing the bit of leftover gristle in there”), watching some tv, and enjoying our freedom.

You can see the rest of the pictures of dinner here.

My motto for life

xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – By Randall Munroe

The world is so complicated – the more I learn, the less clear anything gets.

I love xkcd.  Three times a week, this guy makes me laugh.  You know when someone makes a comment about something, and you hear it, and you think, “OMFG, that is EXACTLY the way I feel, but I’ve never been able to put it into words!”?

Well, I get that feeling reading xkcd at least once a week.  If you are not reading this webcomic regularly, you are not truly an internet geek.  You probably are also not prepared in the event of a velociraptor attack.  Remember, they do not know fear.

On Blogging

I feel like I’ve been neglecting this blog lately.  That’s probably because I’ve been getting more traffic to From Harvard Street, and that makes blogging more interesting.  It’s always nice to have people reading your stuff, and maybe doing some commenting.  Harvard Street is tied to a location, and right next door to the 2nd “bloggiest” neighborhood in the country according to outside.in, and so there are tons of people looking for local DC blogs.  All this blog has going for it is me bitching about things.

As a brief aside, I cooked a delicious dinner tonight.  Tilapia sauteed with some olive oil and garlic, a little pepper and oregano, served on top of homemade black bean salsa, with steamed cauliflower on the side (The wife LOVES cauliflower).  We had a really nice bottle of wine that she bought me for Christmas, and we’ve been enjoying the nice weather with all the windows open.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about consolidating the two blogs.  Mostly I’ve been using this one for general thoughts, and the Harvard Street blog for things related to DC.  I’m not sure if it really makes sense to keep them separate.  On the other hand, it’s probably a huge pain to take a wordpress blog and a typo blog and combine them.  I’m sure there’s a tutorial somewhere, but I’m also sure I don’t feel like doing it.

So, as usual, I’m rambling.  To summarize, the additional traffic I’ve been getting at the other blog has made me focus more on it than this one, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Thanks for reading, though.

Tshirts are awesome.

All my friends are dead. :-( Birthday present from my mom. If you can’t read it, it says, “All my friends are dead”. It’s funny because it’s a dinosaur. I found it on TCritic. Even more awesome is the kitten explosion t-shirt. I’m not sure it gets any awesomer than a mushroom cloud of kittens. I’m not sure which site I saw kitten explosion on, but if it wasn’t TCritic, it was Hide Your Arms. It could have been Preshrunk, except he stopped posting again. Kitten Explosion!In any event, the shirts are cool. I wish I could still wear t-shirts to work, but they frown on that at the new job.

Teaser for Script Frenzy

The teaser site for the new project from the people who brought you National Novel Writing Month is up.  I think I’m going to try this new one.  The goal, instead of a 50,000 word novel in November, is a 20,000 word script in June.

I’ve never written a script before.  And I never got around to reading the script for Die Hard, which I’m told by someone who should know that it’s the de facto guide to writing a good script.  Or maybe a good action movie script.  Whatever.

I think it will be fun.  If you have suggestions for a movie, let me know.  If the suggestion in some way involves a duck, so much the better.

Did you send us a gift card?

So, the wife and I received a package today, USPS Priority Mail.  Inside was a catalog and gift card from Home Decorators Collection.  Noticeably absent from the package was any indication of who might have sent it.  The pleasant woman who answered the phone when I called them couldn’t look it up without an order number, which wasn’t included.

It looks like they have a bunch of nice stuff, so I’m looking forward to ordering something.  But I’d also like to thank the person or persons who sent us the card.  So, if it was you, let me know.