Author Archives: Michael C. McGreevy
Protected: And because it wouldn't be a Goth Cruise without some kind of angst…
We're baaack
Reply
And so, having gone on his first vacation out of the home in over 2 years, our intrepid hero drags his overtired ass back to the keyboard to update his friends on the journeys he had.
Frankly, I don’t really have it in me to write much at the moment.
It was, on the whole, a great trip. I got to meet some awesome people. I ate good food. I drank lots of booze. I got to see water so blue it looked unreal. I got to sing karaoke with a live band. I got to dance. I got to experience world class wait service. I got to stand near the front of the boat in the middle of the night as it sped across the ocean, with the wind blowing so hard I had to lean into it in order to move. I got to laugh. I got to smile. I had lots of truly spectacular nookie.
I didn’t talk on the phone for a week. I didn’t worry about bills for a week. I didn’t answer emails for a week, or check live journal. I didn’t deal with MMO Drama.
I took naps. Almost every day.
I got to stay in a Bed and Breakfast in St. Augustine, and relive some of the memories of the night I met netgoth.
I got a new hat, and I replaced my long lost pendant of St. Genesius.
It was an awesome vacation, and I’d happily do it again.
I’ll try to be more verbose tomorrow.
Whoops!
Wow…so I’ve been opertaing under the assumption that our cruise set sail tonight. It leaves tomorrow. Heh. Oh well. An extra night in Jacksonville and a chance to hang out with some of our friends here.
So yeah…off to Port Canaveral TOMORROW morning.
hee
Now I know we're fucked
Remember when Newt Gingrich was the anti-christ?
Ahh, those were the good old days, weren’t they?
It’s really kind of frightening to me when the guy who was once held up as the symbol of what a Conservative Republican was is now coming out against his own party on a fairly regular basis. He had an op-ed on NPR this morning that actually made me wish he was back in some kind of power.
Now that’s scary.
You can listen to it yourself here.
WoW – New Guild Forums
For those of you joining the new guild, please take a moment to sign up at www.childrenofmidian.com
Protected: WoW Filter – Feel free to pass
What kind of skills do you have, Critus?
I made a new icon.
Nothing to see here.
Move along.
Adventures in Home Finances!
So I spent a good deal of time today arranging a refinance of my home. I’m rolling my first and second mortgage into one loan, and also putting the financing that I did for the windows and the air conditioner into it. Unfortunately, I’m not saving a hell of a lot of money. About $150 a month. Why?
Well, my credit seems to have taken a crapper recently. One of the reasons? The second mortgage and the windows were both financed through American General Finance, which I have come to find out is bad for your credit rating.
Yeah, that’s right. Going through a finance company and not a bank hurts your credit.
I’ve also got far too many credit cards open right now. I guess 3 is the magic number you’re supposed to shoot for there?
One of the nice things about the company I’m refinancing through, though, is that they refinance again for free if you go through them. SO, the plan is to spend the majority of this year making sure that all of my payments are made on time, and eliminating some of the credit cards from my wallet. This will allow me to get out of the cruddy “you have bad credit” finance and into a more reasonable interest rate program. Maybe even one of those “interest only” loans that will allow me to pay directly on to my principal in amounts that suit my financial situation from month to month.
Ugh. You know, as easy as this has been (and it’s been VERY easy), doing this kind of thing still gives me a headache.
Adventures in bread making
So for Christmas this year, netgoth got me a Cuisinart Bread Machine. This was definitely a big “squee” gift for me, as I’ve wanted a bread machine for years. After reading the instruction manual thoroughly, I went to the store and got a few ingredients that I didn’t have handy around the house (they make a special flour for bread???), and set out on my new doughy adventure.
Experiment #1 involved a pre-packaged bread mix from Krusteaz – Italian Herb Bread Mix. What tripped me up on this was deciding the proper cooking time. The instructions were for 1 pound or 1 and 1/2 to 2 pound bread machines, so when I set the timer I used the 2 pound option. I think that was my big mistake. It was quite overcooked, almost burnt in places. It also didn’t rise properly. I think this may have been a result of using water that was either too hot or too cold. Even the parts that were not overcooked (the center) had an odd taste to them, though, and didn’t go really well with the olive oil I was dipping it in. Call this one a failure.
Experiment #2 was a Chocolate-Cinnamon Bread recipe that I found on the Fleischmann’s Yeast web site. I must say the results were much better. Got a decent rise out of the bread, and it wasn’t overcooked. I think the recipe itself was a bit lacking, though. The boys seemed to like it, but to me it wasn’t really sweet enough (for a dessert bread). Mind you, I didn’t make the glaze to put over it because I figured that it was going to be “bad” enough on the waist as it was.
So, to date, less than stellar results…but I think that will improve in time. As far as ease of use goes, though, this thing is GREAT. Hooray for kitchen toys!