WhimsyLand

I got rid of 600-700 spam comments this morning, and another 3,000+ that Movable Type had already identified as junk.  It's a little like ridding the Weasley's back yard of garden gnomes.  The comment spam engines must be working overtime, because I had 11 more when I was finished ridding my blog garden of the first batch.

I said I was finished with my Christmas shopping, but I actually have not yet gotten around to ordering Mémoires de M. Le Duc de Saint-Simon for Richard, who recently asked for same in a blog comment.  All of the gifts are now safely in the possession of their intended recipients, except those Balinese drums which have of course a much longer way to travel.  Novica (the National Geographic store) has been emailing me almost daily with their progress:  the drums are being packed up, the drums have left Indonesia, the drums have cleared customs, the drums are in the FedEx facility.  It's really quite amazing.  I know more about those drums' location than I do my own sons.

Speaking of whom:  Kyle is getting another raise and promotion (or something like that, he's famously blasé about it), which is either his second or third in his first year as a software engineer (counting the one he got immediately upon being hired).  Der actually played in two of the bands that competed in The Columbia Urban Music Associations's "Rock the Mic" competition:  Down and Dirty Blues Band and Color Radio.  Color Radio placed third and DDBB placed first (!) performing a song that Der wrote.  That's my Dylanesque son to the left.  I'd post a picture of my son Kyle, but I think he believes that taking his photo steals his soul or something.

When my sister Lin and her husband Roy dropped by for a few days last month, Roy mentioned that he had rented his yellow Chevy for $50, which covered two days and all mileage.  Wow, that's quite a deal, particularly mid-week, I thought.  It turns out that Roy had just googled something like "denver car rental" instead of moseying on over to Travelocity, which is what I usually do.  As I'll be driving to California in a couple of weeks, I thought I'd try the same trick and googled "cheap rental cars", finding a number of sites, including carrentals.com, which connected me up with a full-sized Taurus-or-equivalent for 7 days at a cost of $183.  The renting agency was a Budget Rental down the road in Boulder, and the price was 40% less than what was quoted on Travelocity, so this seems like a pretty good deal.  Budget confirmed my rez and even enrolled me in their FastBreak program so I didn't have to wait in line.

Der and I will be driving to Lin and Roy's house for a post-Christmas family bash.  The little brown babies are sure to show up, accompanied by my nieces and nephews.  Also my siblings, Mom and Dad, and probably a couple of neighbors if past bashes are any example.  Also Max, Der's apartment-mate in Chicago, who we will pick up in Las Vegas. 

More about the trip later today.  My new theory is that if I start a blog entry in the morning, I will be compelled to finish it in the evening, thus avoiding blog-gone-dark embarrassment.

~~~

So, The Trip.  It's been a year since Der strolled around Casa Rawlings (high in the mountains overlooking the wine country southeast of San Luis Obispo) improvising on his guitar while Lin and I made dinner for the masses.  What with the number of family showing up, it seemed like a good idea to make the drive.  We could fly, but Max needs to be in San Francisco later in the week for a rock-climbing gig and this way I can see Las Vegas again for a few hours.  I used to visit LV a lot, attending COMDEX every year or just driving up from LA for a day or two to gamble.  My first dissertation was on the statistics of Blackjack, so I also spent considerable time there researching (the dissertation proposal was rejected, BTW).  Las Vegas was outrageous 10 years ago, which I think is the last time I was there.  I can only imagine what it's like now after 10 billion dollars in more casino building and a population that has tripled since then (actually, having recently seen Ocean's 13, I can imagine).   But, I digress.  Lin and Roy's ranchette has guest houses and an apartment at both ends of the stables, so sleeping accommodations isn't a problem.  Last Thanksgiving I made paella, so I will have to think of something new this year. With the availability and variety of seafood, I should probably dream up something aquatic.  Maybe a bigass bouillabaisse with some nice firm fish (monkfish?) and mussels and red snapper and fennel bulb and garlic and orange zest and leeks and of course saffron. They say it can't be made outside Marseille, but I'm gonna try.  In the Provençal version, there's also eel and local fish that won't be available, but I may figure out some interesting substitutes.

I swapped out two more huge monitors for LCDs today.  That makes 7 or 8 altogether and I have a back room filled with 17 and 19-inch CRTs that are perfectly terrific except for all the room they take up on a desk.  Dima and I generally have 5 or 6 projects going on at any one time and another 2 or 3 that are on hold, and each of them ends up dedicated to a workstation with a monitor.  LCDs take up so much less room, and they've gotten so cheap that replacing the old behemoths is affordable, particularly the conventional-format LCDs, as we're not exactly watching DVDs on them anyway (I bought a 19" conventional format LCD today for $149, for example).  

You know, maybe I'll just get Richard a nice shrubbery.

More tomorrow, mayhaps.