It's been nice to be able to use technology for my own purposes for the last eleven months instead of making it work for everyone else. Of course, the day of reckoning was approaching, and multiple daily outages at dfwmiata.com meant it was high time I fonud more suitable web hosting.

Thanks to the services of cloudflare.com, the switchover resulted in about the same amount of downtime as a vbulletin version upgrade. I was pleased, since that was only because I did install a version upgrade in the process...

My other tech "to-do" is building a NAS box for myself. I'm leaning toward FreeNAS 7. Of course, my procrastination has resulted in staggering hard drive prices, so it looks like this project will be getting pushed into next year.

 Just sitting there one second... and then...

 This is spectacular.

 

Sadly, Hulu won't let you watch this anymore... but please do watch Justified. It's great TV!

It happens most on days with a steady crosswind on the ride.

I'll be riding along by myself, and suddenly realize that I'm not alone.

There'll be a dog running along beside the road, but I'll know I have nothing to worry about... because they'll be going for him.

But most of all, I hear that voice, telling me "We'll have a cross-tailwind coming home, Lauren. You'll like it!" I always envision an evil, cartoon-ish cloud hovering over my shoulder...

I miss, ya, Marko, but you're never far away.

If a picture is worth a thousand words it has nothing on the simplest of smells.

Many a day I've been pedaling along a country road and caught a whiff of some tree or flower or weed and been transported back home. When I visit the piney woods of east Texas I'm no longer in Texas but back pedaling a mountain bike through the forests in Research Triangle Park.

Today, I was struck be the incontrovertible urge to have a bit of pizza for lunch. So I motored on over to Pizza Inn on Josey Lane. Never been there before.

But, when I walked in the door, the unique odors of Pizza Inn transported me back to my childhood and watching the dough rise in the kitchen. As I ate, my brain wandered the kitchen and smelled the cheese, the doughs, the sauces.

Amazing that a restaurant a thousand miles away (and 25 years) can smell the same.

At least I can take comfort they haven't changed anything....

After many weeks of either not being in town or being on the bike on Sunday afternoon, the stars finally aligned to let me go play guitar with the group at Saxby's.

It was an intimidating experience at first... I was certainly surrounded by better musicians, and my turn to lead (of course) followed the best by far.

But, after a long hesitation and finally deciding to lead out with Don't Think Twice (no irony there) I had an absolute blast. I was really disappointed when I realized it was 6:30 and I had to skedaddle!

There was certainly magic the whole afternoon as we were blessed with Tim on Dobro and Barb & Earl on Mandolin - and, of course, Dave with the bass to keep us all in line... It's really a treat when the songs you sing at home for the dogs come alive.

Having grown up a southerner, comfort food means mac & cheese, pot roast, meat loaf, mashed potatoes and all the like.

Yet, now, my comfort food is a big bowl of curry chicken rice noodle soup from Pho Que Huong.

How do these things happen?

"Oh, good grief!" - Charlie Brown

It's mornings like these I'm glad I can't understand what my pets are trying to tell me. I mean, yes, it is clear that they're indicating that it's time for me to leave. They want free and unfettered access to their house. That was made clear when Cayenne started shoving a few books, blankets, pillows and sundry off the shelf above the bed. More clear, when said items started landing on my head.

Wickett has been practicing his snoring. He's always had an impressive bark:weight ratio, but the snore:weight ratio really takes the cake.

And my dear, sweet Fiona... Must you really sleep on me? It's a king size bed, after all... There's a lot of extra room.

I don't suppose I should expect my pets to respect my right to a few extra minutes of beauty sleep after a late night herding electrons. I mean... how are they to know I wasn't just watching Sneakers last night for the 300^th time to amuse myself?

Onward and upward! Let's see what this day has to offer... At least there'll be a few miles between me and these crazy critters...

It felt good to be back at work yesterday. It was surreal. I didn't feel like I was back in Dallas at the office. It was painful as people around me asked uncomfortable questions.

I can hide at work for a while. Stuck in logical puzzles of herding electrons. Doing problem solving. Troubleshooting. Planning. Design. Perhaps that will keep my mind at ease for a while.

I haven't seen much normal lately. In fact, normal has been missing since summer.

Normal, by definition created over 2007 and 2008 means riding my bicycle 10-15 hours a week, amassing 150-250 miles and lots of the bike maintenance that goes with that.

This fall, I made a conscious effort to take two weeks off the bike. I cheated, and it wound up being 11 days. Three days of normal riding later, I was knocked off my motorcycle on the way to work. 17 days off the bike. I managed about a month of light riding on the weekends before Christmas. We managed two very short rides while home for Christmas. After returning to Texas, I managed a semi-normal week with 3 rides and 1 trainer session. And then it got very cold again, so back to 2 weekend rides. Back to North Carolina for a funeral and no riding. And then back to Texas again in time for (you guessed it) more cold, damp weather. Only 1 ride this weekend.

I really miss being able to whine about how badly my legs hurt from all the riding. I discovered today that my back was hurting because I wasn't riding... Oh, the irony...