Monthly Archives: July 2004

TELEGRAPH MESSAGE FOLLOWS

HELLO FROM SCENIC DOWNTOWN SILICON VALLEY STOP

M AND I HAVE SECURED A CONTRACT TO PURCHASE A NEW HOME NEAR THE SAME AREA STOP

WE WILL BE MOVING THE HOMESTEAD TO A NEW LOCATION SOON AFTER AUGUST 15 STOP

HOPE EVERYTHING IS FINE WITH YOU AND YOURS STOP

GREG M CONNOR SANTA CLARA CALIFORNIA

MESSAGE ENDS

Yahooooo

Those Yahoos finally sent me my check. I don’t know why it wasn’t sent at the same time as the others. Perhaps I was just left off the list for some reason and they needed a reminder to put me back on.

Anyway, down payment here we come!

Sign this petition

I signed this petition. Will you sign it also?

Congress is about to vote on amending the U.S. Constitution to deny marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Never before has our Constitution been amended to take away anyone’s rights. Yet our Senators will vote on this amendment in the next 48 hours.

It’s urgent that we speak up now. This hateful divisiveness has no place in America. Please join me in saying so, at:

http://www.moveon.org/unitednotdivided/

Equality in marriage is the civil rights issue of our generation. We can’t let anyone, or any group, be singled out for discrimination based on who they are or who they love.

Thank you.

House hunt

In other news, we put an offer on the townhouse in Almost-Milpitas (off of 680 Berryessa). There was no counter for a couple days so it doesn’t look like we will get it. Oh well, I’m not too worried, we have just started and there are others to see and make offers on (including one 3 doors down from the first :)

Taking our time is good, perhaps it will give me some time to finish the linoleum in the bathroom, and chase down the check from Yahoo that will make up the rest of the down payment.

My dad came down to visit and we had a nice dinner, just the two of us. I will see him again at Thanksgiving, but maybe sooner if I can arrange it.

M and I are both sick with a cold and cough, though it seems to have hit her harder (which is normal).

New job is cool, a lot like the old one. We’re working on a documentation site for the team, and slowly replacing old IRIX servers with Linux, making software installs more reliable, improving monitoring and graphing, improving redundancy… does this sound familiar to anyone? :)

steaks

Last night I made steaks. Normally I put them in the broiler on a broiler pan for 6 min each side. This time I decided to get them seared in a skillet, 30 sec each side, then thrown the skillet with steaks under the broiler.

Safety note: the handle of the skillet will still be rocket-hot 1 min later. DO NOT attempt to just grab the thing when you go to deglaze the skillet. You will end up with a nice burn on your palm at the base of your thumb. Keep the hot pad draped over the handle to remind yourself not to grab it directly.

Anyway, I didn’t have any wine or cognac to deglaze with so I used a little water, a little soy-sugar type oriental sauce, and a little pickle juice from my Good Eats refrigerator pickles. Ended up with a good au-jus kind of thing, if a little vinegary.

Probably next time I will do like the sauce show suggests and deglaze with a little low-sodium broth and a little milk. Also, I seared and broiled with no oil in the pan – next time maybe an oil of some kind will help give the glaze some body so it has more juices and less black carbon flakes ;)

Yahoo

For those of you who term’d from Yahoo on 4/15, did you get your check? and when? was it direct deposited, live check, us mail, fed ex or…?

I just recently realized that they were supposed to give it to me in 20 days and it’s been 60. I sent them a query and they’re working on tracking it down.

Good thing I have another job I guess :)