bjorn_grafeldr

Although the weather is great right now (although a little prematurely warm) hayfever season is in full bloom for me at least.  All week my sleep's been interrupted by mucus and asthma attacks.  When I've been at work, I've been sluggish and spacy because of the array of meds I'm taking to combat allergy symptoms.  Yeah, not a lot of fun.

To top it off, last night I have a nightmare that I'm visiting someplace (I think Vancouver) and I get a call that my dad has died.  Of course this wakes me out of my sleep in the middle of the night and I then have to fight hard to get back to sleep.  I'm so zoned right now that if I had any common sense I'd call out at work today, but instead I'll be heading there shortly. 

Hopefully everything will cease blooming by the time the birds have a chance to rape and pillage my cherry trees in the back yard.  I'm thinking that'll be another 2 weeks or so.  It'll be nice to get some normal sleep again.

I'll try not to make this too long, since I'll have to head to work shortly.

The conclusion to Decisiongate is this: Tina will be applying for a Customer Service position at her same location here.  She did go on a fact-finding trip to Salt Lake City the other week and was less than impressed with the rentals that were around the job site and the area in general.  Right now, SLC will only happen if she is rejected out of the applicant pool -- unlikely since the director there was her former boss, who has a lot of respect for her.  If SLC does end up happening, we'll probably purchase a small second home there rather than rent, then split time between here and there.  Really doubtful it will come to this though.

***

Last week I posted on FA that I'd be attending the first PawFur con in Reno, alongside a poker tournament being held at the same hotel.  I didn't end up making either, since I got bogged down with too much stuff at home.  Sort of a bummer, because I'd like to be in on the ground floor of a new con one day -- especially one that's semi-local.  Maybe one day that'll happen.

***

I'm now a few weeks removed from our trip to Orlando and Disneyworld.  Trip was completely exhausting!  I spent the majority of my past trips to Hawaii hiking up and down canyons and along beaches without problems at all.  Place me inside something like Animal Kingdom for 5 hours and I'm flat beat!  This time around we mixed it up a bit, picking and choosing the more unique attractions inside the parks.  Most of the time was spent at Epcot, where we had a in-tank dolphin encounter tour -- my personal favorite!  We also had a behind-the-scenes visit to the care facilities in Animal Kingdom. 

We also visited the Kennedy Space Center and went on the up-close tour that got us into the Vehicle Assembly Building and also put us alongside the two primary launchpads.  Real interesting and awe-inspiring tour.  Since Cape Canaveral is also a wildlife refuge, we had a great view of a few alligators, tortoise and manatees.  Wished we could have stayed a bit longer, but maybe on a future trip.  Instead we jammed back to Orlando quickly, since I had to be at the pawpet show that evening.  The show was great and I'm glad I got to visit for a second time.  I was completely zoned out by the time of the show because of the exhausting first few days (think 5 hours sleep in 4 days), so I probably looked and sounded like a fat version of this guy, but still had a ton of fun.  Thank again to those guys for allowing the visit!

Overall, a very fun week there.  Weather cooperated for the most part.  Our condo was great (when we weren't being pestered about timeshare sales) and very centrally located.  Ate some great food along the way, including a surprise chef's table dinner arranged by Tina at Kouzzina.  That was truely an amazing experience! 

***

Out of time for now since work calls.  Catch up with y'all later!

Sunday evening, Tina and I went out to see the Hector Del Curto Quartet in Folsom.  Tina got the tickets as my anniversary present, but I really didn't know much about him or Argentinian tango to begin with.  Still sounded interested, so away we went.

Man! I'm so glad I did!

The performance was nothing short of remarkable!  Small venue, but with exceptionally great acoustics.  That performance took me away for 90 minutes into a colorful and romantic world.  I love world music to begin with, but this is one area I have never explored. 

After the show, I went right out and grabbed a cd (signed, of course!).  I've now got it in heavy rotation on my iPod. 

Give this a listen and see if it grabs you like it did with me. :)

So I was playing Zynga Poker the other day, minding my own business, wincing at all the bad baby and muscle pics folks use as their icons on the game, then this player showed up:



Does anyone here recognize the character or at least maybe which artist might have drawn it?  I don't think it's an image cap from a cartoon or a comic, it looks more like a character icon.

I would have asked the player more, but he disappeared from the table before I could do so.  Most folks access this game through their Facebook account (although I go in through Yahoo), so this may be his Facebook icon as well.

Temporary journal is temporary and is only here to gather information.  If the artist or owner contacts me, I'll naturally delete.

Oh yeah, and welcome to my 6th LiveJournal entry this month!  :)

My fifth LJ entry in 1 month!  Say it ain't so Joe!

Just a few things I'm up to at the moment:

Tonight, I'm submitting my list of nominees for the fursuittourney.  I scrapped the first draft of this journal because in my effort to make it drama-proof, I was coming off as too pretentious.  Basically I nominated two folks who both built their suits, have probably already been nominated anyway, and they're both positive-minded folks that I'd like to see get some exposure and credit.  Hopefully they both participate and have fun with it.  The end.

On the topic of Decisiongate (see previous two journals) -- still no firm choice one way or another.  She's leaning towards going back to customer care.  Personally, I'd rather see her take the package than have to risk her physical and mental health in that meat grinder environment.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to talk her out of it though if that ends up being her final decision.  So far, most of her close co-worker friends are leaning towards the move to Utah, with a few going to Georgia.  She's pretty broken up about losing her close friends, several of whom we met up over the weekend with for dinner and drinks.  All this just adds to the overall tension and mood around here.  :/

Alright, enough for now.  Who knows?  You might even get a sixth entry out of me this month!

Just a follow-up from my previous journal.  We still haven't come to a conclusion as to what route Tina will take with the impending move of her department.  What we have done is charted out all the +'s and -'s of each course of action.  I just thought I'd outline some of the definate "Do Not Wants" from that chart:

1) Neither of us wants to establish permanent residency in Salt Lake City, UT.
2) We do not want to sell our house.
3) We do not want to incur additional living expenses by separating the household unless there is an occupational upside that doesn't involve mandatory time spent living apart.
4) She does not want to move back to a customer support position.
5) She does not want to be unemployed.

So this gives us sort of a head start as to what direction we'll be going in.  We actually did a pretty good job not thinking about it the last few days, although we hit the chart up pretty heavy last night.  None of the options have really been crossed off, even though #5 seems to indicate taking the package would be out of the question.  It may benefit her to take it and re-apply at her company after the package is exhausted -- if we can trust her company to give her a fair shake in returning.

Stay tuned!  More to come later!

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I'm not at FWA this weekend, but I'm going to put it as a priority con for myself next year.  Since it's very doubtful I'll be able to attend AC in 2013 or 2014, I'll need something to take its place.  Airfare to Atlanta is much cheaper and I can get one of several direct flights -- a rarity flying from Sacramento to any spot in the east.  A significant number of west coast furs seem to make the trek annually as well, so I figure I might as well join in the fun.  Certainly beats wrangling insurance policies, even though the office might smell a bit better than any of the public spots at the con!

******************

This past Tuesday I attended my first bounty poker tourney at the local casino.  I didn't do too bad at my debut, finishing 3rd in chip position and collecting two $30 bounties as we decided on a 5-way pot chop, so I now have some milk money for the week.  It's sort of a fun tourney, despite the presence of the hard-bitten grinders that typically play it.  I think I might make it a regular thing on the Tuesdays that I work early.  I can get in and out within 4 hours and not have to lose sleep during the work week.  Not bad!

****************

So....How's everything going with you all?

After a lot of hand-wringing, our vacation for April is finally booked.  We'll be flying out on a red-eye to Orlando shortly after midnight April 20 and getting in sometime around 11 am (and probably promptly falling asleep!). 

Not really my first choice for a getaway trip.  I really think the time would be better spent with a smaller, more regional vacation with the extra time being used to put in new flooring in the house.  Tina really needs the time away from her job though and I could probably use the time off as well.  Too expensive to do Hawaii and we couldn't make Europe happen right now, so best to use some Disney points and get some freebees in where we can.  We found a pretty cool looking condo set-up near the park for a fraction of what we'd be spending at the resort so we latched onto that.  I'm sure we'll have a great time, even though the Florida climate and my body aren't really on speaking terms.  

****

Since Tina was away a few weeks ago, I managed to slink away on my free time for a few days to play some cards.  After one $60 down day, I managed to turn that around with a +$400 session from a juicy 4-8 full kill hold em game.  I followed that up the next day with a +$200 day.  It started to get me thinking that I might be in the wrong line of work, until I remembered I really despise hard-core card room grinders.  That and that incredibly annoying variance thing is enough to get me to keep my day job.

Meanwhile Tina was busy sitting at her sister's ranch and, as tradition when she sits, a new livestock baby was born.  This time it was a llama girl.  I'll try to get some photos of her up on my Annies Place FA sometime this week.  Prepare from some serious cute!

Finally, attended my semi-local sushi place's anniversary party a few weeks ago.  Truely the highlight of my annual social calendar!  Much fresh fish and rice was consumed.  Great performances by a local blues band, taiko drummers, polynesian dancers and a wee bit of drunken karaoke by yours truely.  Yeah, there's video of it.  No you can't see it! 

Job front -- same ol same ol.  I'm tired of complaining about it and I'm sure you're all tired of hearing it.  I'll probably take some classes this summer that hold some sort of interest for me and see if maybe I can pick up a new skill.  In the meantime, I'll keep my eye open for things in my current field.  Something's got to give eventually, right?

 My mother, Bruce Lee, Ray Bradbury and John F. Kennedy.

That ought to be an interesting gathering!

Rush Limbaugh and/or Orson Wells

I will sell no wine before its time!

Alright, I decided to trash the old journal I was going to post here about some of the less-than-stellar aspects of the con, because in the end I decided it was my less-than-completely-realistic expectations about the con that brought it down a bit for me.  Overall, I really had a great time, especially towards the end.  I just spent too much of my time trying to catch up with a lot of different folks -- so much so that I blew people off that really wanted to hang out with me.  For that, I'm very sorry and yes, I've learned my lesson.

There were some things I'd like to see improved upon next year though:

1) The problems with the Hilton need to be fixed.  I was in the Marriott and didn't suffer the cockroach, staff attitude, alcohol-waiver and elevator problems, but several of my good friends were there and that spoiled their initial impressions of the new venue.

2) The larger area needs to be better utilized. The dealers room looks about as cramped as it was at the Doubletree, while the ballroom might be a bit bigger than it needs to be.  Also trekking all over creation to get to the undersized fursuit lounge was not fun.  I did like the outside terrace to the lounge though, although it is a bit "magic ruining".

3) There's no freaking central meeting area!  There's no place in the convention center corridor to sit with friends or even a good central location to meet up.  I really miss the lobby bar at the Fairmont for this.

4) Elevator Control!!  I'm amazed the Marriott elevators didn't pack it in over the weekend due to the overtaxing.  We really need some monitoring during peak times for this.

Assuming these things can be modified a bit next year, the new venue shows some promise and it should alow for further growth of the con if needed.  I'm still looking forward to the day it becomes an event looked forward to by residents and businesses in the area, like Pittsburgh is with Anthrocon.  The Frolic outing at the nearby club was a good idea that just needs a bit more planning.  I also liked the ideas of public art galleries that were organized by one of the local artists.  I just hope he wasn't discouraged by the effort and attempts to do this again next year.

Next convention I go to, I plan to go in with a different outlook and not panic so much about missing things or seeing folks.  Spending most of my time worrying about this proved to be counterproductive to me.  It won't happen again.