Forgive me for not posting this 28 hours ago: I didn't have time before running out my brother's door in Baton Rouge.
Forgive me for not posting this 14 hours ago: I had a splitting headache (which hasn't quite gone away yet).
The PE exam was quite similar to the FE exam.
The ones I got, I feel supremely confident about. The ones that required books that I don't own, or the one I left in Metairie (The AASHTO Design of Pavement Structures (AASHTO Green Book)), I confess that I took blind s
*looks up from his Civil Engineering Reference Manual to make a comment*
Memo to Red Sox nation:
Your sense of entitlement no longer amuses us, nor does your Game 7 mystique have us in awe. Complain about the breaks you got and brace for being viewed in the same light as the New York Yankees faithful.
You lost.
It's time for parity anyway.
-the rest of the baseball world.
-KIE
Go Rays.
Ladies & gentlemen, my fiancée, Amanda Weems.
Plan C evolved and came to fruition over the course of about 54 hours, from mid-day Thursday through Saturday evening. A too-clearly drawn line to December removed plan A (where we first met), and Ike washed away plan B (Dickens on the Strand, in Galveston, TX).
Suffice it to say, the giant cheque in the back of the car was all I needed to distract from the jewelry box in my pants pocket. After one presentation, I deftly (for as much as A
Some recent highlights:
-I saw a summer sausage at Walmart tonight, and was reminded (back me up on this, magpi) that the most random things happen at 1:30 in the morning at LEGO conventions.
-My key chain is marginally heavier and infinitely cooler thanks to Black Six.
-I don't know what the physical therapists are thinking: shoulder impingement or weak rotator cuff muscles can't be related to tendinitis of the deltoid, can they? They do realize the pain is in the shoulder area and not in
Three points from my first Monday Night Football experience:
1. Ed Hochuli needs to forfeit his white cap. Come on. If that face mask were any more blatant, the helmet would be facing the shoulder. And the "fumble that I'm calling not-a-fumble," please stop rewriting the rule book, oh ye of many words and massive bicep. And none of this patronizing "make up call" business, either. If you're going to jam a team, jam them both halves of the game. Be consistent.
2. Reggie Bush is all that, a
Yay, happy birthday to me. 29 & holding.
Despite the goings on in Corvalis earlier tonight, my fiancée got me the best gift: an excuse to go to August, a John Besh restaurant. A lovely little corner (though good luck parking) and THE BEST MEAL I HAVE EVER HAD. Seriously. If you get to go, get the gnocchi, save room for dessert, and GET THE CRÉME FRAÎCHE.
I'm so glad I'd never gotten to eat there before: I wouldn't have appreciated how beautiful the meal is.
If you'll pardon me, I'll
I get to play Santa Claus tomorrow.
The company I work for has decided to give $30,000 to its employees this autumn, specifically, $1,000 to each full-time employee. There's a catch, however: the money is not for us.
We've been tasked to give this money away to a person, organization, or cause we deem worthy of it.
When I first got this memo back in mid-July, the first opportunity that came to mind is Marcie, my girlfriend's sister: she was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and that's
Poor choice of days to post, I'm sure, but I had recent run-ins with the TSA that, well, served as ill reminders that flying isn't as simple a matter as it was 8 years ago.
Since there was no power at my apartment complex that Thursday night (a week ago, I believe), I had little choice but to head back to Monroe, where my girlfriend had already started making plans to get our flights to Cincinnati diverted. Why Cincinnati?
I first met Amanda 7, nearly 8 years ago. We were missionaries to t
[adult swim] is dead to me.
I may flip it on for the occasional Family Guy or Home Movies, and perhaps Robot Chicken.
The rest of the tripe interests me none. Thus, with the demise of anime on Saturday nights (even half-Saturday nights), I have no reason to turn on Cartoon Network beyond 11 PM Central time.
Where, oh where did Bleach go?
-KIE
Gulf Coast residents are a hardy bunch.
We put up with all manner of heat, humidity, and hurricane, just to bring the rest of you through the heart of the country a port, oil, Mardi Gras, and the best cuisine in the states, in my opinion.
And we do tolerate hurricanes.
Granted, Katrina was scary. An eye-opener at the very least. Several people got spooked, much within their right, and took off for parts north, west, and northeast. Then, you have rest of us, too poor, too old, too settled,
And oh what a voyage it was.
Clearly, I was not able to fly home Monday evening as was scheduled. MSY was closed due to Gustav blowing ashore.
To top that, I had lost my credit card over the course of the weekend: it'd flipped out of my wallet when pulling a keycard, and I never saw it again. Fortunately, no one used it, so my credit standing is okay.
I had that sitting over my head all weekend, though: I couldn't give them a place to send the new credit card Monday because Monday was a h
Hi.
Wow it has been a long two weeks.
Well, nearly two weeks: I just got my computer back online last night.
In any case, I hope to catalogue the past two weeks in multiple entries, starting with BrickFair.
Thursday saw me flying off to Washington, DC, ahead of the inbound Hurricane Gustav. Setup went fairly well, given the help I had. (Thank you, Roa & DV, for being my stand-in helpers, as well as bringing the great MOCs.) As anyone who attended the open fair Saturday or Sunday
I am hereby officially distracted for BrickFair.
<removed, it was the track for Hurricane Gustav>
I'm hoping and praying that storm doesn't hit New Orleans. It will be big, wherever it hits. And if it hits NOLA, it will hit when my flight back from BrickFair would land.
In other words, if I can get back, I won't have long at all to get my stuff packed to evacuate.
Good God Almighty here we go again.
-KIE
Somewhere out there in the vast nothingness of space
somewhere far away in space and time
Staring upward at the gleaming stars in the obsidian sky,
we're marooned on a small island
in an endless sea
confined to a tiny spit of sand
unable to escape.
But tonight
on this small planet
on Earth
We are going to rock civilization
I am a bad person.
Today I received a letter from the Louisiana Department of Revenue. Apparently, the server connection reset when I e-filed my state taxes last year meant I did not file for the 2006 year.
This makes me a very bad person. Nigh a felon, for a slam-dunk case of tax evasion.
A dentist in Slidell recently was convicted for tax evasion. Refused to file taxes for about 9 years, was fined something like $400,000 (in addition to the taxes he never paid) and sentenced to 10 yea
In case any of you were wondering what happened to me & my blog...
In the tiny sliver of free time between work, gym, time with Amanda, sleep, and prepping for BrickFair, I've been eating a sandvich.
-KIE (nom nom nom)
You should see the stars tonight
How they shimmered, shined so bright
Against the black they look so white
Coming down from such a height
To reach me now
Reach me now
You should see the moon in flight
Cuttin' cross the misty night
Softly dancing in sunshine
Reflections of its light
Reach me now
You reach me now
And how could such a thing
Shine its light on me
And make everything
Beautiful again
And you should feel the sun in spring
Comin' out after a rain
Suddenly all
Observation:
It's an odd place to be, on the precipice of doing a comparatively great deed, and know that in the grand scope, it is merely a bandage over a gaping wound.
Makes one wonder what good doing the deed at all will accomplish.
I take solace in that the commission of the great-yet-insufficient deed is not mine to dictate: I am merely the instrument. Or, will be the instrument.
</necessarily cryptic>
Back to the grind. Perhaps a new recipe, er, a borrowed recipe, la
I'm a son of a good man
I'm the child of an angel
I'm the brother of a wild one
And I'm looking for direction
I'm the lover of a beauty (not quite yet)
I'm the father of blessings (not just yet)
I'm a singer of a love song
But is that all I'm good for
This is who I am
Oh, this is who I am
So take me and make me something so much more
This is who I am
Oh, this is who I am
So change me and make me someone better than before
I'm a saint and a sinner
I'm a lover and a fight
I guess now (headache-insomnia) is as good a time as any for an update.
I can't help but shake this sense of dread, or of something bad about to happen. I'm not a pessimist per se. It's like I know that something dreadful is waiting around the corner, like when I knew the NL was going to lose the All Star game last night because Dan Uggla is an AL spy Brad Lidge can't help but go Brad Lidge I was rooting for the NL.
Anyway, on with the update: the state board is reviewing my application
For those of you that didn't know, there's a minor league baseball team in the New Orleans area: the New Orleans Zephyrs (though they actually play in Metairie).
Amanda & I like to go out for dates sometimes. Every Friday night, they've got fireworks, and we can also make a slight killing in pulling discarded (er, left unattended) MyCokeRewards bottle caps.
This past Saturday, we watched them play the Albuquerque Isotopes, on a pair of complimentary tickets Amanda won back in April whe
Sittin' in the rain
Water on your brain
Got a hole in your boat
Trying to stay afloat
Has got you down
I've got a wind in my sail
Rubber boots and a pail
I'll throw you a line
Rest assured that I
Won't ever let you drown
'Cause when you're up against the wall
You know I'll be here for you, for you
When you rise and when you fall
I'll always be here for you, for you
When the plans you make
Fall through and take you
For a loop
Or some bird has flown the coop
And left you str
