Fabulous Grilled Cheese Sandwiches®

I wanted to try something different this time, so after grabbing a wedge of sharp cheddar, I picked up a tiny hunk of blue stilton.

Let me just say that a high quality sharp cheddar makes a fine, fine sandwich. F.I.N.E. I loved it. Ninepointsomething on the Fabulous Grilled Cheese® scale.

Blue stilton, by itself, does NOT.

I opened the small package and was immediately floored by the smell of dairy barn. Not just manure, but the whole package. Manure, hay, pee, feed, farmers. If you've ever been in a dairy barn then you know what I am talking about.

That's all fine, though. I don't care about how something smells. I took a few bites of the pieces I was slicing up. OH. Man. It was good.

So, in addition to the five cheddar sandwiches I made, I also whipped up one with the blue stilton.

Ugh. About halfway through the sandwich I was overpowered by the taste. It was too much. I still have some, so I am going to mix it with a milder cheese. THAT, I think is key. We'll see.

Richmond Downtown

Took a short trip up to the City Hall Observation deck last week. It's a bummer that there isn't a better view of the river, but here's a few of my photos:

New Federal Courthouse


Capitol


The View South
That's the SunTrust building in the center


Old City Hall


The Tallest and Ugliest Building in Richmond


John Marshall House


The rest, if you are so inclined.

Valentines

A card my wife got. Not from me. I would never waste my money on something like that.

Fabulous Movie Review®

3:10 to Yuma
I love a good western. The problem is that they don't make many good westerns anymore. 3:10 to Yuma is a good western.

I wished for more of the Sergio Leone style though. Sweeping panoramas, close ups, and slow build up in tense moments, but, whatever, I get it, people can't pay attention that long anymore.

Christian Bale plays the lead character and he was great, as always (ever seen The Machinist?), but I wish his character had been more of an anti-hero.

Russell Crowe, who I never like, except in A Beautiful Mind (oh, yeah, and Gladiator (although, I don't think his performance made the movie in that one)), plays the antagonist. Not much to say since I don't like him. He did alright.

There were two other actors in this movie who I recognized but couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen them.

This guy (My Name is Earl):









And this guy(Dodgeball):










The other good thing about this movie is that there is no damsel in distress, no love interest. Oh sure, the guy is married, but she isn't in danger. He doesn't have to rescue her. Her part in the movie is minor. He was more worried that his son would consider him a coward. He did make sure she would be financially taken care of though.

This review makes no sense, really. Here, let me sum it up all quick and dirty like: Compared to most westerns made since 1977, not including Unforgiven, this movie rocks. Compared to anything made between 1964 and 1976 starring Clint Eastwood/Henry Fonda/James Coburn or directed by Sergio Leone/Sam Peckinpah then it's a pretty good movie.

Gagknee's grade: B+

This Kinda Sucks

Yeah, I live in a Microsoft dominated world. Windows, .NET, Sql server, but the acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft kinda sucks.

I straddle the fence between Google and Yahoo. Yahoo Mail vs. Gmail. MyYahoo vs. whatever Google has (iGoogle). Flikr vs. PicasaWeb. I like Google search better than Yahoo, but Yahoo Maps has gotten a lot better. Etcetera, etcetera...

For me, its an even split between Yahoo and Google and what services of each I use. I fear Microsoft is going to come in and muck it all up.

A Whole Bunch of Crap Rolled into One Post

I know I won't get any sympathy from my northern friends but just when I thought spring had sprung the temperature here dropped a lot over the past 5 days:





















The silver maples have started to come alive, always a good sign of spring springing:



I've been trying to figure out where to put the shed I plan on building soon. I marked it out with sticks and leaves and it's 12 x 16. Here's the view from the kitchen window:



And from the upstairs bathroom:



I might rotate it 45 degrees counter clockwise. Don't know yet. I'm sure you care. Not.

I completed #19 on my Home Improvement list and even added a new outlet to the upstairs bathroom. Call it a honey-do list and I'll kill you. My wife couldn't care less about changing outlets and building a shed. My legs are killing me from crawling around in and hoisting myself up into the attic. I should make an Andy Improvement list. Item #1: Get into shape. Item #2: Stop huffing.

I also started #7: Paint the youngest boy's room. Kid was excited. What 3 year old gets excited about having his room painted? Here's the before picture:



Part of the deal is he gets a "big bed" when he is deemed "potty-trained." He's done well at it for the past few weeks, so pretty soon one of my two greatest parental dreams, no more diapers and self-bathing, will come true.

I managed to get one coat of paint on his walls Sunday afternoon, until my wife came home from a walk. A walk in which she got attacked by a dog. A doberweiler or a rottman. Actually, a rottweiler. I'm just making fun of her because she didn't know what it was. Perhaps I shouldn't make fun of her since she had to get 9 stitches and getting attacked is pretty traumatic. Item #3: Be more sensitive.





This was almost a month ago, but I built a cool layout with my son's GeoTrax:



I guess thats it for this bunch of crap. Hmm, it doesn't feel right if I don't complain about work.

Hmm. I hate writing stored procedures. Sorry, thats all I got.

There's a guy at work with the last name Loving. I'm dying to call him McLovin but since that movie came out last summer and I started here last Christmas, I'm sure that ship has sailed. Sad. I like to be on the cutting edge of nicknames. Not some washed up has been.

I Hate Roger Clemens

Yeah, yeah, I know. If you ask my kids, "hate" is a bad word, but this is a blog, and I don't have to be pretend not to hate things.

Here's an article I just discovered, take it with a grain of salt.

My two other favorite anti-Clemens articles ever:

Rocket failure: I love it

Is Clemens the Anti-Christ

I've always considered printing those two articles out and framing them. I think it's time to get off my duff and do it.

Why am I so concerned with Clemens all of a sudden? No reason. It's just a very slow off season.

Fabulous Movie Review®

Shoot 'Em Up
A no holds barred, take no prisoners, unapologetic, completely implausible and thoroughly enjoyable action movie.

Don't even try to believe that the impossible situations Clive Owen finds himself are evenly remotely possible.

Also stars Paul Giamatti, who I always used to get confused with this guy, as the henpecked bad guy.

Gagknee's grade: B

Voltage is like water pressure in a pipe

I'm replacing every outlet and switch in my house for two reasons, one, they are almond and I want white and second, because several of them were in this kind of condition:



This is the outlet that my fridge was plugged into. Its the worst one I've had. Two others looked okay, but disintegrated in my hand as soon as I pulled them out, and then there was the dryer outlet that almost caught on fire.

Here's a tip for all you house flippers out there, free of charge. Spend the extra buck fitty to replace any broken outlets. Heck, spend 20 and replace them ALL.

Snow.

My youngest was very excited to see snow. Too bad it was completely useless for anything you would ever normally use snow for. I didn't have to shovel it, so that's good.

Eerily Creepy or Creepily Eery

Remember this?

Almost a year later, and in a different house, the birds are back.





Here's a video I took and another one. I was indoors so you can't hear the birds squawking, just my kids breaking stuff.

As a sidenote, at least I don't have vultures.

Layoffs at Work

<ramble>

People wonder why employees aren't loyal to their companies anymore, and they especially like to point the finger at IT people, jumping from job to job, going to the highest bidder, but heaven forbid sales number drop during the previous quarter and a handful of "non-essential" people are sent packing. Like we couldn't ride out a few months of slow sales and keep a few people employed.

Yeah. Nothing dulls the new job shine like some timely sackings.

Nobody is loyal anymore and it works both ways. If in a year or two I am bored, loyalty won't even be a second thought in my mind.

I had a job once where the boss had to layoff people in order to stay afloat, he used his own money to cover our paychecks a few times, and come to find out from a third party later on, he wasn't even paying himself for long periods of time. Somehow, I don't think the owner of my current company is sweating anything out.

I'm going to get fired. Better not visit gagknee.com at work and have it get stuck in the internet sniffer.

I still like my job. I just get uber annoyed at the business of being employed. But I don't advocate any other system. Owners of companies are free to do as they please, they just can't complain when their employees leave for greener pastures.

</ramble>

Beards Are Cool

Best. Beard. Ever.

More American Gladiator

How fake is that hair attached to his skull cap?

I Smell Blood, I Smell Fear, and I'm Gonna Eat You

I love American Gladiators.

I've been pining for this staple of my high school years to come back to television, and now it has, maybe I can wean myself off of Ninja Warrior. Nah. Why would I want to do that?

I'd Like to Say....

Haha. But that would be crude.

It was all over the news this morning, that they suspected that this girl was still alive, and that she wasn't really missing.

Here's your link.

That "haha" was meant for the news channels, not for the girl, by the way. Because they took some idiots random speculation and ran with it. Not that anyone will call them on it.

I Am Not Always Angry

I like my new job.

After four weeks, with the new guy smell worn off, I have plenty of work to do, my boss appreciates us and isn't a colossal jerk, the work is interesting, coworkers are all nice, there are plenty of places to which to walk and also to eat, I make a lot more money, the commute is cut in half, and I don't have to do anything in VB6.

Life, at this moment in time, is good.

Now, if only I could wear jeans to work...

Because Baseball Writers Know Best

Whatever.

Why is it the BBWAA 'tards are the only people who get to vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame?

Yes. Jim Rice did not make it in again. He was 16 votes shy of the 75% that he needed.

Oh, check out the BBWAA website. You'll love it. Very cutting edge.

Its Always Sunny in Richmond

The weather was so nice on Sunday, we spent a few hours up at Maymont Park. As a sidenote, the weather was even nicer on Monday. Seventy-three degrees, baby! As a sidenote to my sidenote, a guy at work is from Buffalo, and I was looking at the big weather map on weather.com, and at one point on Monday it was actually warmer in Buffalo, 54, than it was in Los Angeles, 53. As a sidenote to my sidenote's sidenote, the company I work for is owned by a company that is owned by the company that owns the Weather channel.

Back to Maymont Park. The dead of winter isn't the best time of year to visit, it's still nice, but the best part of the place is the gardens. I can't wait until spring.

They have a lot of suggested donation boxes, too. That makes me laugh. I remember a Simpsons episode...

Here's some pictures:









Here's a few that my daughter took with her camera.





There's more here.

Fabulous Movie Review®

I forgot one, Black Snake Moan, can't imagine why. Oh, yes, because I hated it. It was in our home for a week tying up the Netflix queue, because I could not get through it. Four tries it took. Four. It's lucky I didn't send it back unwatched.

I couldn't even tell you why I don't like it. Maybe it was Justin Timberlake. Yeah. It's his fault.

Samuel L. Jackson's acting was superb, however.

Gagknee's grade: D

Fabulous Movie Reviews®

We haven't watched too many movies lately. Been tied up with Veronica Mars Season 3 and Lost Season 3. Have you seen Veronica Mars? You should. It's a Hoover dam good show, though it's been cancelled. Stupid CW Network.

This is an amazing movie. Nuff said.

Gagknee's grade: A








This is a library special. That means it was free. Very slow moving, but it picks up at the end. Let me ask you one question. If a gay man was stalking you what would you do?

Gagknee's grade: C-

Wow. Probably the greatest action movie of all time. All time. Combined with the previous two movies, it is cinema heaven. I'm sad the series has ended. When the Blu Ray/HD DVD format saga has ended Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, and Bourne Ultimatum will be the first movies that I buy.

One thing I am grateful for is that in this movie Joan Allen wore a few turtlenecks. I've said before that her neck muscles are distracting and they still are. Lady...gain some WEIGHT! You tip the scales at 94 pounds. In what universe is that attractive?

Gagknee's grade: A+


Michael Cera played my favorite character, George Michael, on the greatest television show ever, Arrested Development. I will watch any movie he is in regardless of the reviews.

This movie is fuh uh uh uh ny. Crude, yes. But there's no nudity so it's safe to watch with your kids! Kidding. You will laugh out loud.

Gagknee's grade: A

Beards are COOL

I love Letterman's beard and I was disappointed to find out that he is planning to shave it on air. Conan has a beard too, but a brief search couldn't find a picture.


















Some other great beards sported by Patriots linemen, Matt Light, Logan Mankins, and Dan Koppen. Every man should grow a beard like one of these at least once in his life.

Never Assume Part 2

A while back, I discovered that the light switch in my son's room was not on the same circuit as the outlets.

Last week I was replacing 2 light switches in the kitchen. They were in the same box, and again I assumed that they were on the same circuit. Nope. No harm was done this time either.

But, the weirdest thing is that there are two outlets in the kitchen that I was going to replace at the same time. One of those outlets was on the same circuit as one of those light switches. The other outlet wasn't on either circuit. I flipped a few other breakers, including the breaker for the dishwasher, and I couldn't find the right one. I gave up because it was time for dinner, but I'll get back to that one.

So, my kitchen has 5 circuits feeding it. One, for the stove. One for the dishwasher. One for the majority of the outlets and two overhead lights. That same circuit also feeds the upstairs bathroom and the master bedroom (Yes, we trip that breaker on occasion, when the microwave is running). One, for one outlet and one switch. And one, that controls, from what I can tell, one outlet.

My breaker panel doesn't have a main shut off either. Its a main lug panel. I assume the shut off is in the locked box on my electric meter. That's a pain.

Work

I find it hard to post lately. My life has been pretty angst free the past few weeks. The new job is going well, although its been pretty boring. I've completed a few trivial maintenance items that I could do blindfolded. Yesterday, I had a little enhancement where I had to insert links into a datagrid at runtime. It was the most complicated thing I've had to do since I started working there, but sadly it only took me a half an hour, which meant I had 7 1/2 other hours to kill.

I'm not complaining at all. Knowing full well that things will pick up once everyone is back from vacation and I get discovered, I will enjoy this anonymous work existence. Also, once I get more confident and familiar with the software, I'll just start working on stuff on my own that I think needs improvement.

Fabulous Grilled Cheese Sandwiches®

Fontina. Similar in flavor to Edam, but it was softer and melted a little better. The thing I am discovering trying all of these different cheeses, is that they all kind of taste similar. I need to rock the boat a bit. Goat cheese or some variety of blue cheese. Anyway, fontina is good, not great. Flavor is a 7 and meltability is 9.

You're Some Kind of Wond....

Errrr, ugly

New Favorite Band

The Black Keys. Great blues band. Kind of freakish blues, a phrase coined by Jimi Hendrix, but they sound a little like Cream and a tiny bit Allmanny too. Of course, the comparison to the White Stripes is there, but they aren't that freakish.

I forgot how I found them. Luck I guess. I asked for and got their album Rubber Factory for Christmas. I'm hooked. Now I won't stop until I have all their albums and then I will complain for 6 months that I don't have any new music to listen to.

Yes, in case you are wondering, I still buy CDs. I like having something I can hold in my hand. And lose. Or scratch.

Home Improvement

Don't mind me just jotting down some of the home improvements I would like to do.

1. Ceiling fans in upstairs bedrooms. Currently, no ceiling lights at all


2. Exhaust fan in upstairs bathroom


3. A back door. Preferably french doors


4. Small deck and patio


5. Heat pump/AC


6. Chair rail in daughters room


7. Paint youngest boys room


8. Build a shed


9. Paint kitchen ceiling


10. Tiled backsplash in kitchen


11. Paint living room. Add crown molding. Rope light behind crown molding


12. Add overhead light to living room


13. Wire living room for speakers


14. Plant row of fast growing hedges on edge of property abutting the junk collector


15. Landscape the front of the house


16. Sandbox


17. Insulate crawl space and replace crawl space door


18. New storm doors on front and side doors


19. Weatherstrip front and side doors


20. Replace outlets and switches in living room, kitchen and family room


21. Exhaust microwave to the outside


22. Replace all interior doors (and doorknobs)


23. Install rail fence along property line abutting the junk collector


24. Plant more bushes along fence

Tired of Snow? Need a Job?

My company is looking for a DBA and a .NET Developer. People less smart than me only need apply (kidding). But, seriously, if you are smarter than me, than you have to at least like me, so I don't have to watch my back.

Richmond Restaurants

Just trying to keep track of the restaurants I have been to.

Europa Mediterranean Cafe - Good panini and soup.

Southern Railway Deli - Great sammiches. Make sure they leave you some room to add milk to your coffee.

Jo Jo's Pizza - Really, really, really good pizza.

End of First Week

Phew. One week down. The "stupid new guy" feeling is going away. It's weird not being completely flat out busy all day. Weird but good.

Meet the New Boss

I've been trying to figure out who my new boss reminds me of, it suddenly just came to me.

Todd Packer.















It's gonna be an interesting ride. Hang on.

First Day

So, what's the worst way to start your new job? If you answered waking up nauseous and then upchucking last night's cheetos and this morning's coffee into the bathroom sink whilst brushing your teeth, then you are correct.

Last Day

To me, last days kind of suck. You expend so much energy looking for a job, interviewing for a job, preparing for leaving, and being ecstatic about moving on that you forget until the very end around 4:30 pm when people start wishing you good luck and saying good bye that you are essentially leaving a bunch of semi-good to very good friends behind. Some you might talk to occasionally in the future, most you'll probably never see or hear from again. It seems to be a little worse this time around because I don't know anybody in this area besides the people I've worked with. Now, I have to essentially start over.

It usually takes me at least 6 months to feel comfortable with a bunch of people, and that is the part that I am not looking forward to in my new job. Am I nervous, scared, anxious? No. Well, not about the job, only about making a jackass of myself. That's why, unlike some people, I tend be really reserved for a long time.

Part of my Autumn Resolution this year, and I've stuck to it pretty well, was to get better at maintaining contact with past friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. So I made sure to give at least a half a dozen people my personal email address and resolved to email each of them at least every month. Even if they don't reply. Like one of my old bosses that I contacted a month ago. If you are reading this...you know who you are.

I worked hard for these people and surprisingly I think they appreciated it. I got five cards, one tin of the most amazing cookies that you have ever eaten in your life, craisin white chocolate oatmeal cookies, a 12 pack of Pilsner Urquell, a cake, a $50 gift certificate to Walmart, a coffee mug, 2 free personal days that I will get paid for, and last but not least a big hug from my boss who used to scare the daylights out of me, all 99 lbs 60 inches of her, not but 2 months ago, until I realized she was getting screwed by the merger just as bad as everyone else and cared about her employees more than any boss I have ever had before.

One thing I will miss: Being important. Being The Guy for about a hundred people does kind of feed the ego. But I won't miss being The Guy because I could never ever concentrate on one task and complete it to the level that I desired because somebody was always pulling me in another direction.

A short list of things I won't miss: Visual Basic 6, Belligerent A-hole, screen scraping terminal screens, getting abused by IT.

Anyway, I am really glad to be moving on, I just hope a couple of the friends I made "stick".

Andy Art

Its about that time of year when I start getting geared up for the annual trip to the mountains of West Virginia. Last year around this time I started making a picture of our group from the 2006 trip. I was going to have a t-shirt made, but I decided against that. I might have it printed and framed though.

This is that picture:



















I'm gonna start working on something using our group shot from last years trip:

Missin' You

I miss being able to take pictures. Stupid camera. I don't think I'll buy any more Sony stuff. Everything of theirs that I buy breaks. And those stupid memory cards they use. Ugh.

Jump to Conclusions

There's a new contractor at work that they hired to replace me. Yesterday, he spent the day with the other contractor. Unfortunately, the other contractor was out sick today (not really a good day to take off, what, with me leaving tomorrow), so the new contractor had to spend the day with me.

I got nothing done.

He looks and sounds like the guy in Office Space who invented the Jump to Conclusions mat. Hence, the picture.

His breath smells bad and his BO got progressively worse during the course of the day, but thats not the worst of it. It was his aggressive invasion of my personal space and the way he "suggested" a better way to do just about everything that I was doing.

He sat right behind me with his elbows on my desk, bumping into me, sweating, and breathing hot air on my ear.

I gave up programming after about a half hour. I couldn't think with him jabbering in my ear. Use DateDiff...That won't work there...I built a control that does this...blah blah blah. I decided to fill out forms to get him his access, and fill out a 10 page questionnaire for IT about our ancillary apps.

Things got so bad at one point I actually went over to my old department for a couple hours on two separate occasions and helped them with some stuff that I have been putting off for months. They were happy. I was just happy to get away.

The first time I left I didn't tell him because he was on the phone, and when I came back he was all indignant and said that he "shoulda just gone home because they aren't paying him to surf the net all day." My response was simply, take advantage of it while you can.

The second time I left he was in my office so I said that I had to head over to Corporate Actions. He volunteered to come, but I stopped him by saying that its probably better if they don't know who he is. "Maintain your anonymity."

He finally left at 5:10. I got more done in the next 20 minutes than I had all day. Well, I got stuff done that I wanted to get done.

Get this, he actually interviewed at the company where my new job is. He probably annoyed the crap out of the hiring manager. One of the things they told me when they interviewed me was that they wanted to hire someone who would fit in with the group.

Yeah.

Friends are friends and pals are pals

So Clemens and Pettitte stuck it in each others bums. Steroid needles that is.

Can we let it go now? Moving forward, test and punish the guilty, but going back in time seems like, well, a waste of time.

Turn on the AC

Its amazing how hot 78 degrees feels when it was just 38 degrees a few days ago. I mean, in August when its 98 for 12 days straight, and then it drops to 78 you're digging out the fleece. But today, shorts and a t-shirt are de rigueur. For me anyway.

Pretty Lame. Prreeettyy Laaaame.

Pretty lame error page, Google. I'm digging the late 90s logo. Retro is king.

Honda in the Living Room

I've been dreaming about getting a new stereo receiver and surround speakers. My old receiver died a while back and would only produce sound out of one channel. It lived a good life, but I am dying to get a new one. Unfortunately, certain economic realities prevent me from getting a new receiver right now, but it doesn't hurt to browse. Something just dawned on me while perusing the Best Buy website, how come Honda doesn't make receivers and speakers like Yamaha does? That would be sweet if they did.

HTA Application

Ever heard of it? Me neither until I started my current job.

The "application" part is redundant actually as the "A" in "HTA" stands for "application".

Anyway, I have one I need to fix at work preferably before my last day this Friday.

It's an unholy mix of VBScript and JavaScript in a gelatinous* mass of client and server side code with a healthy dash of classic ASP and PHP (and now I am adding some ASP.NET into the mix). Throw in a lot of XML and you have a recipe for disaster. I guess this type of application predates ASP or AJAX.

It could be kind of cool, but whoever wrote it was lacking in several key areas. Namely a basic grasp of logic. And skill.

I would never have touched it but I kind of have to and I thought it would be fun.

It, along with all of this departments web apps, were moved to a production IT environment and the old web server (a 5 year old Dell sitting in an empty cube) is supposed to be removed from the network. I haven't taken the old one offline yet, for no particular reason other than I like to annoy the IT guys.

Now, for the past month I've been going through all of the department apps and updating them to all use a global config wherein the connection string to the database is stored because IT is kicking us off our current SQL Server and moving us to a production IT environment.

This story is taking way too long.

In the course of updating the programs I discovered that this HTA application has tons of hard coded references to the old web server. Include files, regular links, style sheets, ASP pages that receive database queries and spit back out recordsets in XML. Good stuff. This app is used by everyone. Their bread and butter.

I can only imagine the hell that would have broken loose if the old web server was remediated before this was discovered.

I fixed the hard coded links by using variables to which I assigned certain property values retrieved from JavaScript objects.

The ASP pages that returned XML were funny. They literally built the XML by doing a whole lotta this response.write <record>.

This post is boring. I quit. I had a conclusion but I lost it.


*I edited this post to change the word I used from glutinous to gelatinous because glutinous actually means glue-like or sticky and this thing is anything but.

Fabulous Grilled Cheese Sandwiches®

Edam. As in, "I like to eat'em."

Mmm. It's good cheese. A little bit sharp like cheddar, but it's a bit like Swiss too in texture and aftertaste. Meltability is not as high as Jarlsberg, but still high at 8 on the meltability scale. Flavor is a 7.

I was a little disappointed because I had to buy pre-sliced bread, but it turned out okay, and I got more slices from it than when I slice up a loaf into inch thick slabs. And as an added bonus, each slice has a consistent thickness throughout, instead of being an inch at the top and transparent at the bottom.

This Just In...

I got the job! Yesterday at 4 and it truly was one of the happiest days of my life. Unfortunately, I couldn't give my notice because all of my managers had the day off.

Anyway, here's where I'll be starting December 17. Stop by and visit if you are in the area.


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