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December 2002
Happy Birthday, Bev!
Brunch at Radial and then spent most of the day ripping CDs and playing Civ III. Sunday night TV was entertaining, if a little disturbing (King of the Hill is getting weird). After the season premier of Andy Richter Controls The Universe, we headed down to the Local for some darts and some beer. Lauren, Clair and Matt turned up for a while, but I sent them home because Lauren was not well. Jen showed up later and we talked to her for about an hour. By that time the bar was not serving and it was time to go home.
Yay for Monday. Yay for Monday after a long weekend. Yay I tell you.
After work, Amy and I had dinner at Vortex (hmmm...mushroom swiss burger) and a quiet evening at home.
Work is annoying. I don't know that I like the future. I need something positive.
After work I came home, ripped some more CDs, playing some Civ III and then went to the Local to read The Economist and hang out with Ashe and Pete. It has been too long since Ashe and I have hung out (DragonCon...) so this was a whole lot of fun.
Links of the day: Family Tree software, Kode-Fu.
The weather is not great and is looking ever nastier. For this reason, and the fact that I can still connect to work email from home, I decided to work on writing documentation from home today. It's snowing in North Carolina and in Tennessee. The weather pattern is in a hook shape, with Atlanta in the middle with just coldness and potential for ice rain. Yay.
12:30pm update. Temperature is 40F (4C) but feels like 32F (0C) and the northeastern counties of Georgia are being pounded with ice and sleet. I just stepped outside and it feels freezing. Just as the temperature guide indicates. Winter is upon us.
Today, of course, is the fifth anniversary of my arrival in the United States. Funny how time flies. It would be safe to say that I've settled in here quite nicely, and am in fact in the process of looking to buy a house. But to the point at hand, the five year mark. I have lived the entire five years in Atlanta, and I have been at my current residence for just over two years.
Just played a game of Scrabble against Amy and won. While we were playing, the movie Little Buddha was on the television. This had Keanu Reaves as Buddha. It was frightening. In some scenes, Keanu even looked like Michael Jackson. Scary stuff.
Me, Amy, Lauren, Matt and Clair went to a party at Denver and Laura's for Tina's (Laura's sister) birthday. Tina thought it was fancy dress and came as Anna nicole smith. She was not impressed at the deception. But it was fun. I ran into Durran and Andreas, who indicated that I should send them my resume. I also saw Mike who used to live downstairs from me and Leslie.
Denver and Laura's neighbour across the road is selling her house for a price that appears to be in my price range; I will need to follow up with Laura once I know what's going on with my employment.
Happy 31st birthday Kevin. Wherever the hell you are.
Went to the Telephone Factory open studio tour with Lauren and Matt. The incense in most of the rooms was rather, um, irritating. There was some stuff I liked, and some I didn't. This is the usual case for me. Some of the studios were really cool, though.
Party at Pete's house. Very drunk. Lots of people. Others taking photos. Jen dropped me home.
Link of the day: Me at Peep's Party.
Recovery day and football.
Announcements at work. Everyone except Steve and I will be finishing next tuesday. Steve and I will remain through February as employees of Marconi to accomplish the transition of MOL to CCA.
Amy worked this evening at the restaurant and I picked her up after she got off. She brought back a pizza which we (including John) munched on, and then Amy and I went up to the Local to observe the ushering in of my birthday. Woohoo!!
Damon's 31st birthday
I try not to go to work on my birthday, but due to yesterday's announcements I'm going to have to break that tradition. There is just too much to do bewtween now and next Tuesday.
Tonights festivities started with dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. The party included Jesse, Clair, Eric, Liane, Lauren, Matt, and Amy. We arrived and started with martinis before moving on to our table. Morton's has an impressive way of explaining the menu: actually showing you the cuts of meat, and bringing a lobster to the table. The latter caused some distress to one or two of our diners, but they got by. We started with a selection of hot and cold appetizers, including a cold platter with crab meat, oysters on the half shell, shrimp coctail and a hot platter with breaded shrimp, scallops warapped in bacon, crab cakes. Dad will be proud of me: since having oysters in New Orleans at Halloween it appears that I am acquiring a taste for them - after 31 years. So there is a first time for everything ;-).
My main course was a huge, 24 ounce porterhouse steak. It was awesome, and the vegetable side dishes were outstanding. Amy ordered a vegetable plate and was just overwhelmed with the quantities of food she received. She ended up taking most of it home. With our dinner we polished off three bottles of a very nice Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir and we concluded with coffee (for those who like it) and scotch. Someone (Lianne, at the behest of Eric) tipped off the waiter that it was my birthday and I received a birthday cake. Very rich chocolate cake, very hot, and with vanilla ice cream on the side. It was very nice, and everyone had some of it.
Afterwards we went to the Local - Jesse, Eric, Amy, me. We met up with John and many of the locals. There we had lots more to drink, including several birthday shots. We played darts, but I don't know what the score was. There was a fire up the road by Jesse's home; he went up to check it out and fortunately it was the building next door. We got home very late.
At the restaurant, Eric gave me a bottle of 18 year old Glenfiddich (oh yeah!), and Jesse gave me a boxed set of The Onion's books and the Civ III expansion, Play the World. In addition, Amy gave me a copy of the Spice World DVD. My friends rock.
Would have taken the day off work but the latest work announcements require my presence. Feeling very rough though and so I went home early.
We play trivia but don't score particularly well. Holly joined John, Amy and myself. Also ran into amber and Mary; Amber is now dating Tommy, who used to be Snow's boyfriend. Not sure how that happenned.
Home straight after trivia, watched South Park and The Daily Show and went to bed.
After work and dinner (Raging Buritto), I went to Lauren's to dye my head Blue Velvet. Aww yeah. In washing out the hair product my face turned blue, so we had an interesting time removing that colour. The hair colour remained and worked out well.
While waiting for bleach and then dye to work their respective magic, watched various programmes on TV - Harlem Globetrotter story, Riots: Mobs out of Control. Crazy TV.
Went to the Norcross tavern at lunch time for "the almost final supper." Big group, took some photos. Good fun.
Got home to find a card from my dad for my birthday. The cash enclosed therein was used to make the remainder of the night memorable.
After work got changed in preparation for Santa Crawl 2002. Loads of fun; The Local, Duggans, The Righteous Room, Manual's Tavern, Atkin's Park, The Dark Horse, back to the Local. Got food and water from Togos on the way home.
Addendum: Jenny tells me (Dec 23) that we also made it the Clermont Lounge, That seems really hazy but could indeed have occurred. She was less drunk than I, so I'll take her word for it :-).
Up feeling rough but got onto the task of preparing for the party. Met Dan to pick up keg of newcastle he had graciously donated to the cause. Didn't have the right tap/pump, so at the last minute rented one from Green's.
Crazy party. Jenny and George brought food. we also had food. great cake, complete with pPG figures. Woohoo. Lots of people getting into trouble (no names, just some photos).
One thing I do remember is liquor - people gave me several bottles of it: Chopin (from Lauren), Crown Royal (from Scott), Glen Livet (from Sarah and Alice - including two whisky tunmblers). There was probably more, so please don't be offended if your gift was not mentioned.
Feeling very rough. picked up bagels for breakfast. Watched football. Tidied up. Ashe came over. Watched TV
Watched Unbreakable on HBO. This was a lot better and lot more interesting than I had expected.
Not sleeping well, still feel rough. work is annoying, trying to close off stuff and get transitionary stuff moving along.
It was confirmed that the intention is for Steve and I to finish on Feb 28. We have a lot to do between now and then.
Picked up a laptop from work for $250 for John. He seems pretty happy with the concept.
Stayed in after work
Slept even more poorly, exhaustion causing headache and nausea. People at work asking if I had late night out last night - in truth haven't touch a drop of alcohol since Sunday.
Learned that I had won my bids on most of the furniture I had bid on. Took home two computer desk chairs; still have to take home a larger chair for Amy's place and a side desk for using my laptop in the computer room.
For lunch the group went to the Norcross Tavern. All very entertaining. I will be hiring a truck to pick up a sofa from Chris' place on Saturday, along with the stuff I bought from work.
Up at 5am to get ready and head to the airport for an 8am flight to Seattle, via Phoenix. Ugh. That's all I have to say about that.
After work I had several phone calls, including a long conversation with Arvis Gilbert, my former manager and friend who I hadn't caught up with in over a year.
Work in Seattle, the details of which I can't talk about due to commercial sensitivities.
I finished the work by 3pm and headed back to the hotel. I got online and discovered that Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was showing at a theatre about six blocks from my hotel, some thirty minutes from the current time, so I scooted on over there and got in to see it.
Wow. That was an impressive film, awesomely executed. I don't know what else to say really. I liked it and I can't wait until the next one comes out next year.
I awoke, watched some TV (the last half of a movie; name escapes me right now), had a shower and checked my email. All that done, I used the express check-out option and headed off in search of food. The definition of success: Denny's. There is some irony in that statement, but you have to be in the know to understand it.
After eating I went for a drive around the Seattle area and then headed for the airport. Seattle has a Crown Room so I knew I could relax while I waited for my flight.
Just for the record, I hate flying America West. The nickname "America Worst" is not undeserved. My problems with the return flight: we were late leaving and when we got to Phoenix for the layover, the monitors said that the flight to Atlanta had already departed. This turned out to be misinformation (fortunately) and after running across the airport I was able to board. Only to find that my seat was no longer available because the flight staff has told the people that my seat (and that of several other people whose incoming flight was late) was open and that they could sit wherever they liked. For christ's sake, what were they thinking? They knew that flights were coming in late and that people had booked seats. That is just totally unacceptable.
Fortunately, I was still able to get an exit row seat and hence the extra leg room from stretching. The woman sitting next to me was quite a talker, but she had an interesting story, which made it bearable. She was recently let go from HP and has accepted a job with an NGO doing support for telecommunications infrastructure installations in Kabul, Afghanistan. That was pretty cool.
When we got to Atlanta, our bags took half an hour to come out, even after the fifteen minute journey from the plane to the baggage collection area. I hate America West. Did I mention that they don't serve food on any flights and that as a result of my having to run across the Phoenix airport I did not get a chance to eat anything since breakfast. Unless you could half a dozen little packets of peanuts. As a result, I was rather hungry at 1:15am when I finally recovered my bags.
Lauren had wanted me to go to the Convent (a club) tonight for Heather's birthday. I really would have liked to have gone, but I was just exhausted from the day's travels, not to mention hungry and feeling just grody. So I declined the club, stopped at McDonalds to grab a couple of hamburgers and went home. At home I watched a documentary movie on HBO about sex workers in San Francisco who unionised. It was very interesting. I had actually heard about this on NPR earlier this year, in March or so, so it was interesting to see some more about it. My viewing was cut short when Amy came home from the Deep Dish gig at Eleven50 that she had been to with Clair and Eric.
First task of the day was to take Amy to the airport. Via Einstein's Bagels, because we were both rather hungry. I accidentally spilled some of the egg from by bagel in my car as I was driving to the airport. I will need to get the car cleaned this week.
After dropping Amy at the airport I spent most of the afternoon rearranging files and directories on my file server. I should probably look at defragging the data drive sometime soon. When I was satisfied I got stuck into my first real game of Civ III Play The World. I played an earth map with a random tribe and random opponents, on Regent level.
Around 10:30ish, Jen IMed me and after a quick chat I went off to get some food and invited her over to watch a movie and have a few beers. We caught the end of Dangerous Liaisons and then watched Blow. After the movies we spent a couple of hours talking. Jen went home about 5am and I crawled into bed.
I opened a package from home today. It was Christmas gifts from my dad - a Split Enz CD and a calendar. Cool. Thanks.
The big task for today was to go over to Chris' place and pick up a sofa. He offerred it to me a couple of weeks ago at the Old Peculiar and for one reason or another I have been unable to get out there until today. And "out there" is the correct turn of phrase. Chris lives in Loganville, which is a good 20 miles (32km) from Atlanta. Or, as Chris puts it, "45 minutes from everywhere."
Because of the unexpectedly long travel time, I was unable to get back in time to use Pete as manual labour to help get the sofa up the stairs and into the living room. So I had to wait until after he got out of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers before I could move it in. In the meantime I rearranged the living room and the computer room and did some general organising. This included updating my CD database with my latest arrivals and updating the last couple of weeks in this journal. Sorry about the lateness there.
While working in the computer room I'm listening to a random mix of Travis, The Stereophonics, and Coldplay. Very cool.
Pete came over after the movie and, with some effort, we managed to get the sofa up the stairs and into the living room.
After I dropped the truck back at U-Haul, I stopped in at the Highlander, since Michele has mentioned on LJ that she would be there. The last time I had seen Michele was at MJQ and I was very drunk at the time. So I stopped in for a couple of Shiner Bock's, a Pete's Burger, and a couple of rounds of trivia. As it turned out, I was able to help answer a few questions and the team went on to win. Very well done. I also caught up briefly with Heather, Butch, Whitney, Patty (who I didn't recognise at first).
On my way home from the Highlander, I took Charles Allen rather than 8th, to check out the decorations at an apartment that Jen had mentioned last night. She was right, this place was out there: the tree was attached to the ceiling. The blue and silver were really cool, but it was the upside down tree that really did it.
I traded emails with my mum, organising the Christmas Day phone call. This year, they are going to ring me. Of course, they will ring on what is Christmas Eve for me, but that's not a problem.
Work kept me busy, and lunch was tasty, at Willy's, with George and Melissa. I was planning on bringing a chair for Amy home today, but I couldn't get it to fit in the car so instead I brought home the work table and filing cabinet that I had purchased.
On my way home I stopped at Green's to drop back the pump from the party, and I stopped at a couple of other locatiosn to attempt some Christmas shopping. This was only partially successful, so tomorrow will be a busy day.When I got home I brought my new office furniture in and set about sorting out my files into the filing cabinet. The first pass finished, I ducked out to Market One to pick up some food. I decided on three pork chops and a selection of vegetables. That should last me a couple of days at least (hopefully three...). I watched That 70s Show as I ate and then called Lauren to see what she was up to, since I hadn't seen her since the party last weekend.
This rest of the evening was spent doing further organisation and cleaning. The plan is to have a well organised and tidy house by the time John gets back. I'm sure it's not going to happen, buy I am going to try, goddamnit. It's just a slow process. I'm going to be busy tomorrow.
Up, shit, shower, shave and then shopping! I will have to wait until later in the afternoon to finish my shopping, but I think I've got the key people covered. I'm only buying for a small number of key people, since, well, I'm pretty broke, and I'm cheap. Normally I buy myself a big ticket item for birthday/christmas but this year I'm not. Things are just too tight right now.
When I got home from the first round of shopping, I continued on with the cleaning and organising. I'm actually reasonably impressed with how things are sorting themselves out.
Phone call from NZ.
Lauren and Matt came over; They gave me flannel sheets. Rock. Ashe came over; she gave me power puff stuff. Watched several episodes of Black Adder. Drank a fair bit of vodka. Popped downstairs to Andy's.
Sleepy in day.
Went to Christmas dinner at Lauren's parents. They gave me a picture frame and a little gift baggy including Eau de toilette, raspberry chocolate, and a suction cup clip thingy. Thanks!
The food was overwhelming. I ate a lot of it and was overwhelmed.
Got a call from Bria who was stuck at the airport because all flights into New York had been cancelled due to inclement weather. So I went and picked her up and took her to the Local. A very drunken evening ensued.
Got up and took Bria to buy some clothes since Delta wouldn't give her back her checked bags. Then we went to the airport to pick up Amy.
Laid back sort of day. Went to the Local for dinner and so Bria could catch up with Lauren and co.
John, Amy and I did our Christmas gifting today. I gave John a dart board and Amy a yoga set. John gave me the DVD of the PPG movie and the board game, My Little Princess. Long story. Amy gave me a book of interviews and so forth with Edward Goery and The Simpsons and the Philosophers. I think everyone was happy with their booty.
A lazy day spent sorting my files and throwing out a lot of old paperwork and playing CivIII Play the World. There are a lot of changes in the PtW expansion that make it a lot trickier. I'm having readjust my strategies yet again.
Holly brought over some tasty food for dinner and afterwards Matt and Lauren came over with the four disc Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with the additional scenes. This is so much better than the theatrical release, but it is also half and hour or so longer. Much better.
Woke up feeling like I was coming down with a cold or something. Definitely not on my to do list. I eventually got up and showered and I must say that I did feel better after that. I continued with my week's tidying and also got on and did some laundry.
After my first load of laundry had finished in the washing machine, I went over to Amy's to set up her new DVD player. That done, it was off to Publix to pick up some food (lunch and possibly dinner).
Once home I made sandwiches for lunch (salami and provolone on rye) and watched the first disc of documentaries on the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring four CD set. These are really fricking cool. When John came home with Earl and William I got back into my tidying frenzy, doing more work to my bedroom.
What's this? It's Sunday and Damon is up at 10am? What strangeness is afoot? Football, that's what. Liverpool vs Arsenal. And since the game is being shown at the Brewhouse at 11am, I am off to meet Tim (a filthy Gunners fan) for some healthy rivalry over an English breakfast and (when the law allows it at 12:30pm) a pint or two. After the Liverpool game is Newcastle vs Spurs, so we'll probably watch that as well. And today there is also a very important game in the NFL: at 1pm, Atlanta plays Cleveland, with the winner taking a place in the playoffs. A big day of sports today!
Wheeeee.......
Okay, it's now 20:25 (8:25pm) and I am home again. Actually I've been home for about half an hour watching Psycho Beach Party. I really love that film. It's great.
Anyway, the Liverpool vs Arsenal game was a draw at 1-1. It was a great game. The first half was very much an Arsenal game but the second half was defintaly a Liverpool domination. I must say though that for the most part, Liverpool was not convincing, playing more of a back half game than a forward game. I was somewhat disappointed, but at least they didn't lose.
The Falcon's game was entirely won by the referees. It was disgusting. Calls were going entirely against the Falcons; gratuitously at times. Once again, American sports comes down to the marketing, rather than the actual sports. Very disappointing. Sure, Atlanta made some bad plays, but when holds are called only against Atlanta and not against Cleveland, and when a touch down is called back at the one yard line, you have to wonder about what the fuck is going on.
For the record, Spurs lost to Newcastle, 3-1.
Amusingly, the Brewhouse became the Local "home away from home." Tim and I were there early on. Ben arrived around 12:30. We called Patrick over around 1pm. Kasha, Milani (I have no idea how to spell your name), and one of their friends also turned up. After the football was all finished we headed on over to the Local (ps, thumbs up to our waitress, she was slow but she made sure that me and Tim had drinks). I called John and he joined us. Darts and drinks (and more food) ensued. All very good and then I came home.
I got home and, like I said, Psycho Beach Party was on HBO. Me so happy. Now I'm going to fry up a pork chop and just relax in front of the TV until Amy calls me to pick her up from work.
Links of the day: Forensics.org, Science.gov.
The last day of one of my least liked years in a very long time. Next year is promising a busy start followed by new opportunities. The end of the first quarter and start of the second quarter of the year is going to be particularly interesting as I go seeking a new job. With a little luck (not that I really should need it) I will be employed soon after the termination of my current job.
I spent several hours at work, starting with locating and palletizing bits and pieces for shipping back to NZ. I also spent some time sorting through various people's work areas, boxing up documentation and throwing away garbage, and generating lots of questions about what to do with various things. Ugh.
After work I had a light dinner and did some cooking. The festivities at Pete's tonight call for a bottle and a plate, and I had an urge to make devilled eggs. And so I did. I had never made them before, so I was a little concerned, but in the end such concern was unwarranted - they were great and everyone liked them. Anyways, after making my big mess we (me, Amy, John, Holly) first went over to CG Jen's for a bit of a party. She has a really nice place and knows some interesting and fun people. We left there a little before 11pm and headed back to our apartment to pick up the supplies and then headed over to Pete's.
Lauren and Matt were already feeling fabulous when we got there, and we also were met by Pete & Cindy, Lea & Greg, and Clair. I kept my drinking to a minimum (a beer and a cider over the next two and a half hours) but remained merry. Jen arrived a bit before midnight.
Around 1:30 Amy wanted to go home. I was less enthused about leaving, so I took her home and then came back to the party. At that point Lauren insisted on making me drinks, and who am I to argue with Lauren about such matters?