Pro: The little Chinese restaurant on the corner has pretty flavorful vegetarian entrees – and they get substantially better if you chat with the cook and ask him to make it like he likes to eat it.

Con: More traffic noise than expected on my street.

Pro: Cancer cat is still alive, and even ate a bit of lunch!

Con: Cancer cat still has cancer – and the cancer is actually out over her jaw (poking between her lips) now. She’s going to cost us the security deposit on this apartment with all the blood she’s drooled … but I can’t see putting her down while she still asks to get up on my lap and purrs and purrs while I scratch her head. I mean, seriously. I can’t kill someone that loves to hang out with me.

Pro: I have internet at the house!

Con: I could have had internet a week ago if I was not a moron.

Pro: My 100TB file store is alive again! God dammit.

Con: It’s fallen over, hard, three times in three days. I recently discovered the “oopses_ok” argument to “mount,” which is not the default. If you do not specify this argument, then in the event of an “oops,” it crashes the kernel and brings your machine down. Me? I think that crashing the server should NOT be the default.

Pro: My judo is getting better.

Con: I took a pretty solid knee to the face today and I’ve got the beginnings of a solid shiner.

Pro: We’re participating in a fish CSA, which we’re splitting with and . Fresh locally caught fish!

Con: Today’s share was a single 5lb cod. and I each had our little cooler and our expectant, even eager expressions on our faces … and we’re like “ummmm, there’s only one fish there.”

Pro: This means that we have an excuse to get together for fish dinner once a week. Rock!

A notional list, based on more than a decade of observation:

* First we become loud.

* Then we all talk about how drunk we were, that one time.

* Next, we reassure each other that we’re totally not drunk yet. Not at all.

* Sometimes at this point, we do shots. Optionally, the shots can be because we’re not drunk yet … and we’ve been so much drunker than this.

* After bonding through the shots, we proclaim – for no reason in particular: I love you, man!

* Next we plan awesome adventures that will never happen.

— here is the line demarcating “too much” —

* Someone begins – to insist that you’re doing it wrong. Who knows what “it” is, or why they care.

* They will not be silenced, because repetition is the order of the day.

* No no! you’re doing it wrong! is repeated!

* First it becomes acceptable to hook up with strangers.

* Then it becomes acceptable to hook up with your friends.

* And finally, in one of many manners of doing so, you shit the bed.

My older cat (Merlot) has cancer of the jaw.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you’ve got anything really pressing to say to her, you should probably say it immediately. The vet’s prognosis is “days to weeks,” and when even *I* can seen the lump on her jaw growing day by day … that’s not great.

Naturally, I’m on the road this week, leaving to deal with the not eating, the bleeding gums, the blood stains on the feet (from cleaning herself), and the general weirdness. We’ve gotten pain-control patches for the duration, but we need to shave a new patch on her to apply one every three days. She’s looking a little patchy. At “days to weeks,” I don’t give a damn about addiction or long-term side effects. I’m looking for “comfortable” and “narced out of her mind” if at all possible. Little feet kneading the air when we brush her is totally appropriate. Purring and sitting on my lap while we watch the afternoon progress is fine with me.

However, as justkidding_nr said: “You get to say goodbye, don’t discount that.” So yes. We’re going through an abbreviated process of grieving and saying goodbye. She’s been a good kitty – with us through six residences now … and she’s still able to get up on top of the piano (where cats are not allowed) just to show us who’s boss. It could easily have been (like saw on the first visit) “we had to put your dog down.” Let’s hear it for small graces.

So there you go. I’m in a Residence Inn somewhere in Maryland, and is at home with the cat. I’m canceling trips for next week because – well – because it’s what I think I need to do. That’s what they always say, right? Do what you need to do? Well I need to be home next week.

Thanks for listening.

Please take note: If you find yourself ranting in the role of “Howard” here, then you irritate me. Note that “friends” locking a post will not prevent this crap.

You. Yes you. Don’t look away from me: I’m talking to you.

Facebook and livejournal are engineered to maximize teenage drama.

There’s a useless little column-let in the Times today titled “The Joy of Less.” I won’t claim that I read it – but I did read the title – and now off I go on my own thoughts. It seems somehow appropriate.

The past week, I’ve been sitting in a totally empty house for work. I moved a single table and a few chairs over – as well as some basic tools, a bunch of cleaning supplies, and a shelf for them to sit upon. The plan is to do a lot of work on the house before we move in. It’s pretty much good to go now – but so much easier to paint without furniture. So much easier to sit in our cushy apartment and direct the contractors as they remove and replace gutters, grade the lawn, touch up the masonry, and so on.

Yet I sit over there – because it’s my house … and also because there’s something odd that happens to my mind with all that space around me. I find that without my usual excuses for procrastination, I’m quite productive. Even with my half hour breaks for chores (mowing the lawn, sweeping a floor, cleaning a room’s worth of windows) I get a lot done.

I rattle around a little bit – sitting at the only table and upon the only chair on an entire 5 room floor. I’ve been rising early (for me, hush ) and driving over there to start work. I walk up to the coffee shop in the morning, to one of the restaurants at noon, and back up to the coffee shop in the afternoon. One day at around 5, I tried out the local bar, sitting with the other men at the end of their workday – having a beer. I didn’t feel like I fit in, nor did I particularly want to, but I was certainly welcome. I asked if they had food. The answer: “We got chips …”.

Tomorrow I’m going to drive over in the morning and leave my car there – taking the T to the airport for a business trip. It seems a little odd, but also soothing in some fundamental way. Sure – it’s just a parking space now, but it’s my parking space.

As we decorate, I hope to keep some of that empty space. With a house on this scale there’s absolutely no need to cram it full of crap.

Been busy lately. Gonna be busy today and for the foreseeable future.

However, not too busy to geek out. A took a typing test that claims that I run around 72 words per minute at more than 95% accuracy. That was the 3 minute “tiger” test. Of course, my grandmother was faster than that on a manual typewriter, with perfect long manicured fingernails … so I can’t get too up on myself.

and I cut the moldy carpet out of the basement in the new house today. Box cutters, grubby clothes, and face masks. Underneath, of course, the concrete was damp. Ah, home ownership. Also, there was some kind of benefit at the local library where we got to meet some of our neighbors. I bought a copy of the Koran. Figured that since my King (Obama) quoted from it at length, I should probably read it.

Tomorrow, I’m working a judo tournament. Seems that I’ve showed competence, so I’m going to be setting up the entire competition floor. I’m a little sore today after the workout on Friday, where a Russian woman hit me with the floor, again and again.

Oh yeah, and my cat (Merlot) probably has jaw cancer. She’s in rough shape, but is still able to sit on my lap, purr, and knead my thigh – so things are stable.

And now – more socializing!

Many things are going on.

We bought a house. Our house rules. It has an awesome twisty curvy staircase and hardwood floors and a basement an an attic. It’s approximately three times the house we need and almost more house than we want. Today I mowed the lawn, like a good little domestic homeowner.

Tomorrow, our older cat Merlot goes in to have jaw surgery / a tooth removed. She’s got a nasty abscess that got “gore” all over redmed when she gave the cat her medicine this morning. I’m pretty worried about her (the cat). She’s lost weight and been listless and sleeping in odd places. Also, she’s usually pretty fastidious about keeping her fur neat – and she’s got some rattiness on her. To the vet with you.

Work is busy as all hell. We’re down a person, and we were ready to hire before he left – so now we’re slammed. I’m interviewing an average of one person per day – and the problem is that they’re all good. The question is not “who is qualified,” but “who do we want on the team first?” Life is tough, I know.

I think that bankruptcy is the best choice for failed businesses, and that if you have a better choice for the supreme court then you should name them. If your only objection is that “socialism sucks” or “I hate minorities,” you are welcome to shut up.

On the “shut up” theme, I have decided that Facebook’s “What ______ are you” quizzes are my mortal enemy. Die die die. At least, I want to be able to block them like I block every other application. They are not unique apps, they are instantiations of a common app. Die die die. Perhaps somebody cares what color pony princess you are, but not me. Dear facebook, I will happily pay $5 to not see this crap for a year. Hell, I will pay $10. Who can I pay to make this happen?

(I’m aware that begging to be allowed to pay websites to not suck has a simpler solution.)

Also, happy 9th anniversary redmed. It’s been an awesome 3^^2 years. Let’s shoot for another two powers of 3.

So, I went back to randori night at judo today. Went about 9 rounds and played everyone in the room. I even made a shoulder throw work against the biggest guy in the room.

Once.

The injury came from banging my elbow really hard on the toilet paper dispenser earlier in the day. It was something of a low point.

Before it totally fades from memory, here are some more high points from Honduras:

We hired a van to get from from the Lodge at Pico Bonito to the Maya Vista hotel in the town of Tela. The hotel was on top of the highest hill in town, and had stunning views overlooking the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the part of the Atlantic that we were overlooking was where the town vented its sewage processing ponds into the ocean … so we had to head a ways up the beach before being able to swim without major ick-factor.

I guess this is a good place to mention that Honduras feels poor but safe. There is poverty, but I didn’t see the desperation and starvation that I’ve seen in other places. Groups of hungry children don’t gather on the sidewalk while you eat in a restaurant.

Every bank has a three man team working the door. Outside, there are two: the guy with the pistol grip pump shotgun, and the guy with the walkie-talkie and the metal detector wand. You talk to walkie-talkie man, and if you pass inspection then he radios in to the other armed dude inside the door – who lets you in.

Near Tela is the Lancetilla botanical gardens. We hired a guide for an hour, and wound up taking a five hour walk through incredible groves of fruit trees, poison plants, giant bamboo, and birds. Our guide picked fruit for us to taste, and finally hiked us an hour in to the jungle to show us a 400 year old Seba tree. It was pretty amazing. We also saw many Oropendula, birds that weave hanging basket nests.

In Tela, we met up with medyani, which was awesome.

From there, medyani drove us back to Zamorano University where she’s working these days. Zamorano is an agricultural university with training in organic farming, topsoil preservation, environmental conservation, and a variety of other critical skills. First year students are given a garden plot and expected to succeed in growing veggies. I racked my brain for ways that we could help out – and I’m still pondering.

We toured around, and went shopping in the Valle de Angeles, and then eventually came back to the airport and home from there.

Pictures online soon, I hope!

We had a member of the Russian national women’s judo team working out with my judo club this week. She was about my size – so I was a good person for her to throw a few (dozen) times.

I think it’s great that the women in the gym (and the men too) got to see that you don’t have to be a 2nd class judo player just because you’re a woman. She was tough, skillful, and very strong.

Also: Ow. I’m going to bed now.