Naloomi’s Dungeon's & Blog

On my way to lunch break on Tuesday, 6-3-08, I decided to go to Rio Wraps for lunch. A friend of mine had bought me a gift certificate there for my birthday last year, and I fell in love with the place when I finally tried it out. Well, on my way there the car 'stops running'. Not know what was wrong I tried to restart it. FAIL!

The car tries to turn over, but nothing. After stressing out, I walk up to Rio's, call a cab, and get back to work 45 minutes late. (mind you, I'm on a last chance agreement at work, meaning I can't even be tardy else they have 'cause' to terminate me without union intervention.) So, we get it towed to the car place that just worked on it (having just spent nearly $700 fixing it). They look at the car this morning, and guess what? The timing belt broke, and took with it several gears by bending them. $1500 to fix it. Minimum. Now, IF we fix the car we will have officialy spent more on repairs than we have on the car itself...

Now, the car is worth about $1200 trade-in, or $2000 if I sell it directly, IF it is running. But my wife loves her car. But, at best, we can hope to get $2000 for it, after spending $2200 in repairs...

You do the math...

We lost Bob Asprin yesterday.  Another guy younger than me, but not by  much. Born June 28, 1946, Bob and his then wife Lynn Abby, created  the Thieves' World series, a series I had the pleasure of first  discovering  thirty years ago, and which led me to meet Bob and Lynn.   I was working with Steve Abrams at Midkemia Press when we got a call  from Bob and Lynn asking us to adapt some stuff in our system to a  Thieves' World game.  My association with them was social until I  wrote a story for Lynn's newly reformed Thieves' World anthology.

Bob was one of those guys.  He always had something going and was  always laughing and smiling and telling stories.  His divorce with  Lynn was painful and messy, and part of the reason he more or less  dropped out of sight for a while in the early 1990's, the other being  troubles with the IRS.  Divorce and taxes are both subjects with which  I can strongly relate.  He wrote funny stuff, most notably the Myth  Adventures series and Phule's Legion series.  He is responsible for  what I consider to be the single funniest line uttered by a villain in  a fantasy, "I haven't had this much fun since I made love to my week  dead sister."  No other single line in fantasy reveals a villain  that sick, depraved, and devoid and any redeeming quality that effectively, as well as make the reader laugh and feel guilty about  laughing at the same time.

Here's what I remember most about Bob.  He had this wonderful deep  booming voice and laughed at his own stories, most of which were  funny.  At once convention, a BayCon in San Jose I believe,  he held an  impromptu workshop (in the bar, of course) on how to "make it" in SF/ F.  With gusto and humor he started talking about a dozen little  things authors could be doing and none of which I was.  As my first  bestseller had hit the previous year I was at a loss and then as we  went on, I realized something: Bob wasn't telling anyone how to make  millions in writing--if he'd known that little tidbit he would have been a millionaire.  Rather he was teaching tricks of the trade  designed to give a book a chance to find an audience, and give the  writer a way to survive, because to Bob surviving as a writer was  successful, more than making more money doing something not so much  fun.  And it was obvious he thought writing was fun.  Like a little  kid, he seemed to be saying, "Hey! I'm having fun and getting paid to  to it!"

Written by Raymond E. Feist

Well, Kate and I were discussing things over my 'baby vacation', specifically the job situation. We were trying to decide whether I should look for a new job (which I had been doing since day 1), wait and see what happens with the current job, or become a house-husband. For the most part we had decided on the latter. I would stay at home with the kids while Kate supported us. We looked at the numbers and we could do it without to many issues. However, Kat would not be able to be in daycare, and we would have to make a couple minor lifestyle changes.

Well, on 5-14-08 I received a phone call from the Union, saying that I could take a 'last chance offer' and come back to work either Friday, or the following Monday. After a long discussion with Kate, I decided to go back, which would allow us to put Kat back in daycare, with all of her 'friends' that she misses. We are hoping that by going back that certain things will now correct themselves (mostly the retro back to pull-ups from being fully potty trained). The last chance offer is basically a 'last chance'. Any mistakes which include, but are not limited too, arriving late to work or from break, unexcused absences, work not meeting expectations, etc.

Naloomi

Well, after 2 days of work on the bathroom I have alot done. Please note: My bathroom is really small. So small that 6 sheets of 4' x 8' drywall 'should' cover it. As of noon today, I have two walls completely torn down and replaced with greenboard, one wall 3/4 down and that same amount covered in greenboard, and the bathroom fan put on it's own switch finally. All the main walls are up for the bathtub surround, but we are considering buying another surround to help protect the wood behind the windows.

On the job note, I still have not heard anything. I sit in limbo still Ah well.

Well, it is now nearly 24 hours past when I should have heard about the job situation. As some of you may know I was suspended from work pending termination due to my Dr's Offices not filling out the paperwork ahead of time. I attended a review board on Friday, 5-2-08, and was supposed to hear back within 2 business days. It is now Wednesday, 5-7-08, and I still have not heard back about it.

Next, well, a few days ago my wife was taking a shower, and some (4) of the tiles in the shower fell down, some breaking. So Monday I went to fix them, temporarily, until the job situation improves. That did not work out so well and I will explain why. While remodelling the new babies room (which shares a wall with the bathroom) I noticed that the drywall behind the bathrub surround was 'gone', destroyed by a leak. Well, this has lead to the surround flexing due to no support behind it, which has caused the grout holding the tiles on the wall to weaken and break. So, when I tried to put the new tiles in place, it flexed the surround some more, which caused even MORE tiles to fall off. The leak was caused by my 'valve' that was old and not working well, and by the surround which had broken when the home owner who tiled the tub surround did it incorrectly. Needless to say I need to replace the surround.

Now, on top of the leak we've had tiles coming up off of the floor in the bathroom for over a year now. It looks like we may be doing a quick/inexpensive remodel of the bathroom REAL soon. One plan is to remove all the tiles from the bathroom, re-drywall it with greenboard, a new floor, and a new tub surround. Our bathroom is so small that 6 sheets of 4'x8' greenboard will cover the entire bathroom.

Now, yesterday we bought a new showerhead and valve, due to the leakage of the old one. I installed it, but doing so turned off the water heater. No I can not get the pilot lite to come back on, and I don't have much pressure coming out of the valve. At least, not nearly the water pressure that I had. We have a service plan on our appliances through the gas company, so they will come out for free to relite the water heater and to fix the tumbler on the drier, which is off-balance, but they can not be here until tomorrow. And the plumber, to fix the valve with no pressure, will also be coming out tomorrow, as that is the soonest we can get a plumber out.

So Easy Fish Fillets
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Rinse 4 fish fillets (any white fleshed fish),
and dry off with paper towels.
Lay fillets on a rack in shallow pan,
slather each fillet with mayonaise, and then
sprinkle with a little lemon pepper.
Crumble approx. 20 saltine crackers in bowl, 
and spread cracker crumbs to cover mayonaise.
(Looks better if crumbs are not completely crushed)
Bake 20 mins. at 400 degrees or until fish flakes easily.
Cracker top will brown, but you might want to check
while cooking to make sure crackers don't burn.