Category: Family

I’ve decided to date these entries to make it easier on the stats end to see which posts are being read. Particularly after last week’s sudden spike from places afar, I’m kind of curious which of my writings are being absorbed into whatever LLM the CCP is building.

Testing The Rig Happenings – You know it’s been a slow week when my lead item is that I pulled out my new and improved travel workstation setup to test it and make sure everything interfaces okay. For the short time I ran things, it all seemed to work. I had to do some unplug/plug cables, but fear my fully armed and operational travel workstation.

Writing Happenings – I finished draft 1 of my isekai experiment. I’m going to set it down for a bit and let it percolate while I go work on the fourth installment of the Irregulars. The isekai is challenging because I have an aversion to info-dumping, and it feels like I need to do info-dump to get enough of the protagonist’s backstory to make everything understandable. So, how much do I explain versus how much do I let the reader discover? My original plan was something in the 20K word range, which allows for some world building and exposition. I’m toying with expanding to 50K and really fleshing it out. This is why I need to let things percolate for a bit.

Weight Happenings – The good news is that I didn’t gain this week. The loss was less than half a pound, but I’ll take it. Progress is progress. Especially now that I can change my carry rig to IWB. Next week? Well, let’s just say The Wife and I went a little wild on Veterans Day. Current: 271.4; Tollgate: 250

Halloween Happenings – We were planning on doing our normal Halloween with a table in the driveway and handing out party favor type toys. Unfortunately, I was feeling kind of crappy Friday, and then topped it off with a more stressful than usual commute home. So, we begged off and handed over what we were going to hand out to the next door neighbors.

On an interesting note, I saw a right-hand drive Nissan Skyline on the commute home. First time I’ve seen one of those in the wild.

Internet Traffic Happenings – This is usually a quiet little corner of the blogosphere. The most traffic I’ve gotten has been when Tam or Borepatch has linked one of my posts. I don’t know what was going on last weekend, but I went from ten to twenty views a day to well over a hundred. I don’t pay for stats, but the free version of Jetpack tells me that three-quarters of the views are coming from China. I would like to think I’m becoming a viral sensation in the dark corners of the Chinese VPN world, but it’s more likely that the Derek Ward blog will now be part of whatever LLM China is developing.

Weight Happenings – Down a bit this week, which is encouraging. Last Weigh-In: 271.8; Tollgate: 250

Family Birthday Happenings – Last weekend, we traveled down south to celebrate my great-uncle’s 90th birthday party. Mom’s vehicle recently had an unfortunate encounter with a strip of tire from a semi and it did a number on her cruise control and some other systems. So, we took the Wardmobile down to the party. Which was the first time Mom and The Brother got to ride in the Wardmobile. It was good catching up with relatives we don’t see much. It was a bit of a long day.

Crafting Happenings – The Wife is working on a crochet project that requires the use of wooden dowels to provide structure. The point of this entry is because she had a dowel that was too long and needed to be cut. The proper tool would have been using my Ryobi version of a dremel, but I don’t have any saw blades for it. Could use the hacksaw or the reciprocating saw, but that could be difficult with the dowel stuck into the current project. So, we ended up using my branch cutter. The Wife finished up with a bit of sanding, and all is well. I should get some better heads for my rotary tool.

Monitor Happenings – Due to issues with my office’s network and the fact that I have to facilitate a large multi-day meeting, I got to work from home for the better part of this week. This entailed me doing some rearranging of my desk to accommodate my work laptop. Now, before I went back to the office, I had a work desk with a work setup and a personal desk with a personal setup. For work, it was all the monitors I could cram on the desk. For personal, I just used a Dell widescreen. Since returning to the office, I moved over the wide screen and let my personal desk become kind of a landing spot for junk while I used my former work desk for personal. So, why am I bringing all of this up? Because The Wife got to see me use my big wide monitor for using – Excel. This has made her contemplate changing up her work station. I have a feeling I might be shifting some monitors around in the near future.

Weight Happenings – I ticked up a little bit in my last weigh-in. Current: 276.0 Tollgate: 250

Skull One Flashlight Happenings – As promised, I have a pic of the Olight baton with a neat addition provided by The Wife.

Living In The Future Happenings – The nice thing about living in the future is when your wife is having a bad day, you can grab a few same day items off of Amazon and send her a care package to make her feel better. Unfortunately, then there are days that we get a major outage and all those tech tools and games are suddenly not working. Monday was a very frustrating morning. Put me out of sorts for a good deal of the day.

Craft Show Happenings – Last weekend, The Wife, MIL, and me moseyed on down to the local convention center to attend a craft show. Parking was difficult – in part due to the fact that the county has been doing some major additions and renovations to the convention center. Anyways, they were pleased with the number of vendors and had fun looking through the various stalls. I was hoping there would be a leatherworker there, but no luck. I did see some a stall for a distillery who was selling his own vodka and whiskey. Plus cigars. I miss cigars. MIL was looking over a coin purse that she really liked, but couldn’t justify using it as a coin purse. I helped by informing her I could turn it into a “recharge kit” for her phone since she doesn’t routinely carry a battery or cables.

Portable Office Happenings – The Wife and I keep peripherals for when we travel such as keyboards, mice, portable monitors, etc. The idea is we can set up complete workstations when we’re working away from home. Recently, we decided to upgrade some parts based on some trips we have upcoming. One of those was a dual portable monitor because, dammit, we want all the screens. I was eyeing an ASUS for the longest time, but by the time we were ready to buy, I couldn’t find it anywhere. So, I tried the one Amazon was pushing. Yeah. Small problem. It required its own drivers to work. Guess what I can’t install on the work computer? So, I started the return process. While I was still on Amazon, I saw the ASUS was back in stock. Happy accident? On another note, I found it helpful that Amazon is putting their return QR codes on an Apple Wallet card.

Weight Happenings – The spike from last week looks like an erroneous reading or something. I’m now down to where I expected to be if I hadn’t overindulged after my flu shot. The Wife’s program is going very well. Last weigh in, she informed me she is now below her weight when we got married six and a half years ago. I’m so proud of her. Current Weight: 275.6, Tollgate: 250.

Successful Marketing Happenings – I’ve been semi-interested in Olight’s Baton as a concept. At around a hundred bucks, I really wasn’t willing to drop cash on a semi-interesting concept. Then Amazon’s sale knocked them down around $30. Then they offered up their “fighter pilot” design scheme.

Yeah, I was willing to pay the discounted price for that. Particularly when I have a wife who loves her Cricut machines. The plan is to modify their “fighter pilot” to “Skull One”. I want to put the skull and bones on one side and the Macross roundel on the other. I will post the finalized pics when we get it done.

I will say it was a bit bigger than I anticipated. It’s definitely not something I would throw in my pocket. It feels more like a desk thing. If I trusted leaving expensive things in my office, I would leave it there. Anywhoo, at least it’s an aesthetically pleasing little gadget.

Yarn Happenings (but mainly comments on power stations) – The Wife and MIL got a yarn winder. When they told me, I was thinking of something manual, but this thing’s electrical. Like a lot of things, it doesn’t have a traditional plug, and instead receives power through USB. Anywhoo, they clamped it down on the kitchen bar to test. Which meant getting power to the little device. I have two small power stations – a Jackery we picked up before Hurricane Ian a few years back and an Ecoflow River. For as highly rated as Jackery’s are, mine hates running power through traditional plugs. However, it seems to do fine with delivering power through USB. Which is why we used it for the test. It’s also why I’m not buying another Jackery. I’ll stick with Ecoflow. They seem to handle delivering power through USB or traditional just fine. I might be tempted by Anker’s Solix line. I still want to get a few more of these to complement my big batteries. Currently, if it’s storming outside and the power goes out, I’m not going out to hook up the big batteries. I can hook up a few necessities to the smaller power stations to get us through. The small ones are also easier to throw in the back of the car if we’re doing a long road trip. I have also found out that the end product of the winder is called a “cake”.

Camera Happenings – Shortly after moving in, we added cameras to the front and back of Ward Manor. Later we covered one side. Finally, after an incident where a blue bowl suddenly appeared below our window bird feeders, we picked up another camera to cover the last side. Back in July. Between work and other stuff, I procrastinated on getting it up. Then the Ring doorbell we installed many moons ago started having problems keeping connection to the network. And the video doorbell that came installed with the house never really worked all that great. So, about a month ago, we picked up another doorbell. Since we had Columbus Day off, and both The Wife and MIL were going to be out for lunch, I decided that I didn’t have a good enough excuse to put if off any longer. So, now Ward Manor has all sides covered. Now, if Ring would start putting out batteries that take USB-C instead of Micro-USB to charge.

Weight Happenings – As expected, my semi-bacchanalia came home to roost. I haven’t completely erased my gains, but I’m at a serious setback. I know the program works. I just need to work the program. But this holiday season is going to be rough. Last weigh-in: 280.2; Next tollgate: 250.

Flu Shot Happenings – Day job requires flu shots. Over the last five years I have gone from having no issues with flu shots to having twelve to twenty-four hours of feeling crappy. Since I was close to my first toll-gate, weight wise, I decided to call it good and indulge in comfort food to compensate. Yeah, not exactly the smartest way to cope with discomfort. But damn I enjoyed all those things I’ve been abstaining from. Now, if they could just make a decent zero-calorie KitKat.

Metal Tuesday Happenings – I decided to redo how I do the Metal Tuesday page. Mostly, this is because it makes it easier on me with how I record and keep track of what songs I have used. It’s always interesting to me when I have to combine Excel functions and Markdown syntax.

Co-Pilot Crochet Happenings – We use CoPilot for a lot of things in the house. The Wife and MIL also crochet a lot. MIL went through some yarn just making granny squares and then putting them together for “quick” afghans. I think they were just using up some “old” yarn. Anywhoo, she ended up with 64 squares of various colors. The Wife tried getting copilot to spit out a pattern. Okay, it randomized the colors, but just wouldn’t do an 8 x 8. She was on her phone, so I tried it on my laptop. Same issue. It would do the randomization really well, but for some damn reason, CoPilot just couldn’t figure out how to do eight squares across and eight squares down.

Finally, we decided to just lay them out in rainbow format on the table. Which required Derek getting up on the bench to get an overview pic to help with the final construction.

Trash Happenings – Mostly because I’m amused at the sturm und drang in the various neighborhood pages, but this week the county goes to a once-a-week pickup. That was a big enough change, but now, all the trash has to be in a large 96-gallon can provided by the county. I know many are scratching their heads. It’s kind of normal. You see, our county was spoiled by a very generous contract that let us pretty much set out anything and get it picked up with our normal trash. The Wife and I had put out old cat trees out, construction debris, old mattresses. Eh, Ward Manor will deal. I’m just kinda having fun watching the drama llamas bray. And it requires a change to our workout days.

Weight Happenings – The last scale reading wasn’t what I hoped, but I know I just need to keep working the program. Last scale reading – 277.4; Tollgate – 250

I fear next week when all of my indiscretions come home to roost. Ah well, work the program.

Car Happenings – As I posted last week, the Ward Wagon still needed to have a couple of tires replaced, plus the Wardmobile needed its first service. So, The Wife and I left at oh-dark-early to make the trek up to Port Richey. We prefer going over the Skyway and hitting the new connector to take us over to US19.

When we hit 19, it started raining. Not normally something to comment upon. Except with rain, we get accidents. In this case, we came across a Jaguar smashed nose-in to one of those temporary concrete road barriers they use for construction. A semi was already pulling over to render aid, so I pulled over as well just in case. As did another driver. Fortunately, my car’s first aid kit was not needed. However, Derek learned that when going up to the dealership, he needs to wear regular shoes and not his sandals. Of course, I assumed I was just going to sit in the waiting room and my sandals are much more comfortable. Possibly dealing with a car crash in the rain? Not so much.

Beyond that bit of drama, everything else went pretty smoothly. Expensive, but smooth.

Lunch Happenings – The Wife insists on making my lunch peanut butter roll-ups every week, for which I am grateful. The Wife discovered that Biscoff spread has a similar calorie count to the Jif Peanut Butter we use at Ward Manor. So, she offered to switch to the cookie spread. My counteroffer was to do half with peanut butter and half with Biscoff. Then I would just grab a random one from the container. Lunch would be a surprise.

Excel Happenings – The Brother mentioned that Microsoft Excel turned 40 this week. I didn’t think Excel was that old. But its a big part of the Ward household. We have spreadsheets for everything. Including this blog.

Weight Happenings – Last weigh in: 276.8; first tollgate: 275

Ward Wagon Happenings – While I was helping The Brother move, The Wife called to inform me the Ward Wagon’s tire pressure light was on. While we haven’t had a cold snap, there are plenty of environmental factors that could cause it. Except it wasn’t. The culprit was a nail. AAA was called and the donut was put on. Here’s the thing – we dislike the closest Subaru dealerships and really like the service department at the dealership where we purchased the Subies. The only downside is our preferred location is seventy miles away.

Since we were on the donut, neither of us wanted to take the highways. So, we took a leisurely drive. It was interesting because the route went through parts of Tampa and Hillsborough county I haven’t been through in quite a while. Even after eight years, it’s still shocking to see “my home” change.

When we got to the dealership, we settled in to wait. We ended up talking with a nice lady for most of the time. The service rep came out to inform us that the tire couldn’t be patched, but it was covered under road hazard. As was the other tire they found a bolt in. Those were already in the process of being swapped out. Since the Ward Wagon is AWD, the rep recommended we replace the remaining two tires. That matched with everything I knew about AWD cars, so we agreed. Chatted for a while with the nice lady. Service rep comes back. Um, yeah, we don’t have two more of those tires, and he didn’t recommend swapping out with a different brand. So, we get to go back up, but this time we’re also bringing the Wardmobile, as it’s time for it’s service as well.

Weight Happenings – Last weigh-in: 278.6; First toll-gate: 275

Cat Happenings – EBC has been throwing up a lot lately. One of his particular spots to vomit is our bed. My side of the bed. I think we changed the sheets more in the last month and a half than we have in the past year or so. He’s always been our bulimic cat, but it’s kicked up significantly. We make the vet appointment and run him in. On the car ride over, EBC decided to take a dump in his carrier. Fortunately, it was not diarrhea and it was contained to the blanket. But damn, does it stink up a car.

Anywhoo, the vet thinks it’s a GI infection or some sort. Possibly lymphoma, but we’re starting treatment as if it’s an infection. Which requires all sorts of new food for EBC. And new kibble for the cats. Expensive food. That line item on the budget just exploded.

I’d complain more, but EBC hasn’t thrown up in the week since. We’ll deal with the expense if it means we don’t have to clean up cat vomit every other day.

Laptop Happenings – The work laptop decided to lock up and not reboot. Called the help desk. As soon as I got off the phone with them, of course it booted right up. Damn thing’s been finicky for a while. Also out of warranty, so it was not surprising when the IT tech IM’d me and asked when I can come in and swap out for a new laptop. We made an appointment for the next morning.

The next morning, I went to the main campus to the office where I always got my laptops. My office is off-site about five miles from the main campus. Not too bad of a drive, but annoying. Actually run into an old boss of mine on my way to the IT office. Get to the office and find out that no, they moved the laptop techs to their off-site office. Across the street from my office.

I was worried that setting up the new laptop would be arduous, but fortunately, that went smoothly. The new one has a second USB-C port. Which means I can hook up my portable monitor. I finally have four monitors again. Although getting them arranged has taken some doing.

Moving Happenings – Last weekend we moved a lot of The Brother’s big things from his place to Mom’s. He’s moving in there for a bit. The Brother rented a U-Haul and hired a couple of folks from Task Rabbit to help out. A lot of heavy labor putting the heavy stuff in. It didn’t help The Brother injured his knee while getting into the U-Haul. It resulted in me having to drive the U-Haul over to Mom’s. I dislike driving big vehicles, which makes me cautious. I think it was the first time I’ve driven the speed limit all the way from The Brother’s place to Mom’s.

Toy Show Happenings – Last weekend, The Wife and I went to a toy and collectible show they were holding at the new hotel next to the convention center. It was a bit crowded – kind of gun show density. I saw a couple of things that spiked my interest. One booth had an unboxed G1 Jetfire and a G1 Powermaster Prime with the second bit of armor. Another booth had an old Matchbox SDF-1. Unfortunately, I couldn’t justify the prices they were asking. Still, it wasn’t a complete bust. The Wife found a Cabbage Patch doll she really liked. She has fond memories of the one she had as a kid. Plus, I can’t wait to see the outfits they will crochet. Just outside the Toyfest, the hotel was hosting its first little market. Kind of like all craft markets, but on astroturf.

Weight Happenings – Last weigh in: 279.8; first tollgate: 275. Getting so close.