Choking back a caramel cake

April 6, 2005 D. H. McKee

Off

I’ve got a training session today for a vendor who keeps yelling at me. As is expected with these guys, they took our generous offer of free training, and changed it around to suit their ADHD needs. They removed a guy, added a guy, added another, then reduced the training to one day, then expanded what they wanted taught, then asked to be trained on something Idon’t even train on. Now I’ve got no idea what I’m presenting, and have to squeeze in three different products into an afternoon session. I bet someone steals my training room too.
This is all on top of the existing high priority issue of configuring these 4 servers for the other guys. Apparently the IBM x346es don’t like FreeBSD 4.x installed on them, even after a BIOS upgrade. These machines are so weird, I need a CD to change the hardware RAID on them. I can *never* lose this CD, or I’ll never be able to change the HW RAID volumes. I may have to keep a CD in each machine, in case a drive ever fails….
Got a rare treat last night. Got to walk around my backyard and use the barbecue for the first time in a while. It’s still beautiful, even with all the dead post-winter vegetation. Luckily, the snow from the weekend is gone and we’re starting to get into a proper spring. R cleaned out the pond and raked up some detritus. The lazy, parasitic goldfish (plural) who killed 6 neons and devoured most of the aquarium plants over the winter got sent back outside, and are now quietly floating on their sides in what R thinks (hopes) is just a state of suspended animation. I reassured her that they’re quite probably still alive, but promised to fish them out (pun intended) and give them a proper burial if they are dead.
I was up at Home Despot earlier, so I picked up some extra briquettes (figured I’d add a little more thermal mass to the system), and a raised second grill for the BBQ. I also finally got to try out the smoke box that Toxin gave me some years ago. Put some wet hickory in there, and burrowed it under the grill. Man, it was the smokiest veggie burger I ever had. Smelled like I was cooking around a campfire, and made me all nostalgic about camping again. As soon as the weather gets warmer, I want to head out to Algonquin again. Maybe sometime in May.
Note to self: Don’t put the buns into the BBQ when it’s smoking. Made the buns taste funny and kind of bitter.
I know, I know. Even I think that smoking a veggie burger seems kind of a waste of this little cast iron box. This was a dry run. I’ll just have to invite some friends over, and get some steaks, sausages, and portabello mushrooms on there, and put this thing to some real use.
Had a trickle of water invade the furnace room the other night. Looks like I might have to do something about the water softener. Got a plumber coming to look at it, so I put it on bypass until then. Sounds like it might not be anything big — they say if it’s going to crack, it’ll be around the top of the fiberglass tank. I didn’t see anything, but then again, I don’t know how old the machine is. I’m hoping not to have to replace the whole tank. Maybe a tax refund will offset the price a little.
This cake is a lot less sweet than I thought it would be. I got a little hungry, but I’m not going to finish it. Someone remind me next time that the caramel cake isn’t very good. The Americano got a little cold while I was typing, so I’m gulping it down quickly. It’s a little bitter around the sides and back of the tongue. It’s not as good as I remember it, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to choke back a bland caramel cake with it before.

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About This Site

As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.