Month: November 2008

Peanut Butter Muffins

Sarah said on her FaceBook status this morning that she was “eating peanut butter puffins” – her friend Melissa misread it as “peanut butter muffins” and expressed envy.

So Sarah looked up a recipe, and we made peanut butter MUFFINS a reality tonight.

They turned out really dry though, and not as peanut-buttery as hoped.

Spreading peanut butter on them helps, but sort of misses the point.

Uncomfortably Numb

After my surgery, I noticed part of my abdomen is numb, no doubt from nerves being severed when they were slicing through my belly.

It’s an annoying feeling, especially coupled with the sensitivity of the healing incision.

Using a pin, I figured out the boundaries of the numb spot, and that’s what’s marked in blue here.

The surgeon said I may regain feeling there, but it may take months. And also it won’t be until after new year’s that the muscle is healed enough for me to do anything but walk around (no lifting over 10 pounds).

Sigh. Hopefully someday I’ll be less broken.

SmartAce Designs

I’ve been meaning to do some tshirt and bumper sticker designs for a while.

I had some ideas sketched out a while back, and a couple weeks ago, sketched out some more with Sarah and Colleen.

This morning I finally got around to doing it, got a CafePress store set up, came up with the name and logo really quickly (the name is decent, the logo needs work) and did the first bumper sticker and tshirt.

I figure if I can do one or two designs a day, I can get most of the sketches turned into products pretty quickly.

Here’s the initial store, with only 2 items in it:
http://www.cafepress.com/smartace

More to come.

Times, they are a-changin’

Snooj told me yesterday, he just sold Points South to GWI.

It’s not unexpected, he told me a while back that it wasn’t a job he enjoyed anymore, and that he was looking to sell. But even so, it still caught me off guard.

I haven’t had much connection to Points South in a while, other than hosting things there and stopping in once or twice a year, but it was one of my first jobs – and a home of sorts, too, I was actually living in the back room when I was working there. It didn’t work out, the business was new and struggling, and the few web sites I built weren’t enough to pay my position.

I moved on to other jobs, while still doing projects for Points South as a freelancer. After a while, my main job paid well enough that I didn’t need the freelance work anymore.

Points South kept on going though – doing well, picking up smaller ISPs, expanding to cover most of Maine. Jeremy moved on, and then Austin, and a new generation of Points South crew came on.

The thing with a small business, a good small business, is that the employees form a family. That’s probably why Snooj kept it going as long as he did, even after the point where it stopped being enjoyable, was to keep a place for these people for as long as possible.

In the end, though, the demands of running the place wore on him and you really shouldn’t keep doing a job that makes you miserable. It was time to move on.

Points South was an amazing achievement, a tiny business that grew to service most of Maine, with award-winning customer support. I look back at my time there fondly.

So, raise a glass to Points South, the little ISP that could!

Vote!

Went out and voted this morning. The polling place was a mile from my house, so I walked over, it was nice out and a refreshing walk.

Voting was busy, but quick. The slowest part was the old ladies checking people in and out, trying to find names on the register.

I was surprised to see so many choices on the ballot, with the two-party system, you kinds forget there are still other people running. It threw me at first, I didn’t recognize the first couple choices and thought they might be leading with a local office. But I found Obama at the bottom of the list. There were a lot of local offices where people were running unopposed. Wonder what would happen if there was someone running unopposed, but no one voted on that office – would they win by default?

Anyway, get out there and vote today! I don’t want to wake up tomorrow to the nightmarish words “vice-president Palin”!

Go, Obama!

I’ll probaby curl up on the couch tonight and watch the results roll in. The suspense!

I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Fall back…

Of course, this weekend, all that daylight savings change does is get me an extra hour of being sick.

After my surgery, I was out of sick days at work, so this year thought I’d get the flu shot, something I haven’t done before.

Big mistake! I felt ok immediately following the shot, except some soreness at the injection site, normal for hypodermics. The next day, however, I had a sore throat, then the day after that started to sniffle… this weekend I spent mostly laying on the couch, coughing, sneezing, going through a couple rolls of toilet paper blowing my nose, and popping Halls like they were M&Ms.

I expected some minor symptoms for a day or two, but not a week or more of being sick. Next time, no shot, and if I get sick, I get sick. In retrospect, the shot was a dumb idea, since I am taking a *possible* event (getting sick through day-to-day life) and turning it into a *probable* event (getting sick from a direct injection).

I thought, since they use an inactive version of the flu, there would be little or no reaction – wrongo. The analogy I came up with is this:
There is a criminal firing his gun at cops. Regardless of if he is using live rounds or blanks, the cops are going to fire back.

So even if it is an inactive flu, my body’s immune system is still kicked into high gear, putting me into full-on sick mode to combat a perceived threat.

My advice: unless you are elderly or enjoy being sick, avoid the flu shot.

Hairless Ape

After my surgery, I didn’t have a razor at the hospital, so I let my beard grow.

Once I got home I continued to let to grow, for two reasons:
1) I thought a beard could be shaved into something interesting for Halloween, and
2) I was lazy

But Halloween came and went, and I never got together a costume, or shaved in any interesting way.
This is for two main reasons:
1) I was feeling crappy from the stupid flu shot (hint: don’t get it, it’s a trap!)
2) I was lazy

So last night I decided to shave, and took some photos along the way…

Check out all my facial hair variances!