LateNightHacking Louis Journal

Auth

I woke up from a weird dream this morning. When I woke up, I remembered a voice over a cell phone going, "Oh, they're pissed, they're pissed, they're pissed!" in a kind of terrified sing-song. That was odd enough I tried had to remember the rest of the dream and I think I got it.

It started out, Scott S. (a friend of mine) needed to move this small housing community. His plan was to put everyone in this apartment-complex-sized group of houses to sleep (knockout gas or something), then have this company that specialized in moving buildings shift the whole thing from where it was to where it was supposed to be. It would be done so carefully and perfectly that none of the people living inside would realize it had happened, and would never find out that Scott had goofed and built the thing in the wrong place.

For vague reasons, Scott, Matt B. (another friend and accomplished troublemaker), and I had spent the night in a nearby home / building. We had spent the night on the floor of a room which in my dream was something like Bill Gate's home office (Bill was gone on vacation, we had permission to be there).

The next day, Scott was busy with his caper, the details of which were vague. However, there was some big problem, and I suggested (in that sense of "there's no way in heck I'd ever do this, but if one was truly desperate one could...") he could borrow the big plate glass windows out of that office we had spent the night in. He decided to do so. Then we found out that the owner was coming home early, and there was a big gaping hole where Scott had borrowed some of the large panes of glass, and the windows were integral to the plan and being used elsewhere, and had paint overspray on them, and so on. I was not involved in Scott's plan directly, but it was one of those capers where just knowing that it was going on and giving advice could get you in trouble, so I was nervous. But miraculously, Scott pulled it off (got the houses moved and the window glass restored in time), and no one was the wiser.

On to the next part of the dream. New scenario. Some important family event, like my sister getting maried, though I don't remember exactly what the event was. Lots of people bustling around in a full house. Something with giving gifts of pearls. I remember one scenelet where I was just coming back from taking a shower so I was very hot. Returning to this room I was sharing with another guy and gal, it quickly steamed up a few minutes after I got there (this happens to me in cars all the time). Kiddingly, I asked them, "I leave you two alone in here, and when I come back, the windows are all steamed up! What have you two been up to?!"

Anyway, not long before the big event, I get the call on my cell phone. It's Matt, from the previous dream. Apparently, the caper was discovered. The office and windows had actually belonged to the President of the United States. Federal investigators were coming down on their heads in a big, scarry way. "We're being investigated by the FCC! Oh, they're pissed, they're pissed, they're pissed!" (In retrospect, it's quite funny that it was the FCC not the FBI or secret service.) He wanted to know if I had any pictures or anything. I didn't want to admit I knew anything about it, since I didn't want to be detained by federal investigators and miss my sister's wedding. However, I thought about it, and I had taken two pictures that were tangentially related, and I really would be in trouble if the investigators found them later. I thought about trying to destroy the pictures which were my only physical link to the escapade, but my camera was in Mineapolis and I was in Houston, and besides the ugly expense of a last minute ticket, there was no way I could do it without missing the wedding. That's were I woke up, trying to remember what I had taken pictures of because I wanted to know more about the house moving caper.

So, yeah, don't steal the windows of the oval office, or the FCC will come and get you!

Thinking about it a bit more, I came up with a short version that caries the same feeling. Let's say some friends broke a window with a baseball. A few days later, you find out that it was the president's house and you'r friends are being investigated (by the FCC) for attempted assassination of the President. And it was your baseball bat! It was that kind of scary, surreal, out-of-proportion feeling. :)

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Michelle and I woke up at the same time this morning. Actually, I got up a little earlier even - my internal allarm seemed to be set for my work schedule, waking me up at 7am, while Michelle was still snoozing. We got up and went to Deitricks for coffee (S'mores blend and Mayan Mocha blend). From there we went to Teas, to check out the roses and get epsom salt and alfafa pellets that Michelle wanted to fertilize her roses. They didn't have what we wanted (and that's the second place we've tried) so we continued on out to Southwest Fertilizer. We told them what we wanted and they said, "Oh, sure, we've got 50lb bags, or we'll weigh out however much you want." Southwest Fertilizer is a very cool store. They've got all sorts of neat tools and supplies. We got our materials and headed home. Since we were passing Whole Earth Provision Co., we stopped to check the price on the backpack I had been eyeing for our Peru trip. It was pretty much the same price as online, so I got it and a Texas hiking book. Boy, I'm all equiped for some hiking adventures. Now I just need to read my books and do some hikes!

Michelle fertilized her roses and I did my exercise. It's funny. I do pretty much the same routine every day, but some days it feels like I'm kicking butt (the movements are smooth and towards the end I can feel the right muscles burn a little) and some days everything feels uncoordinated and when I'm done I don't feel like I've exercised well the muscles I was targeting. Yesterday I kicked butt on my floor exercises, today I didn't. Yet I did the same dang thing. It's also weird that when I'm working hard and thinking I'm walking fast, I'm often not faster than when I'm just walking distractedly. That's annoying. Ahh well, it all counts in the end. :)

We got groceries and lunch at Central Market, then brought them home and ate on our third floor patio. The weather's a little cool but nice. I disassembled and cleaned the sprinkler timer that had been left open in the rain. I think the problem was that the GFCI had been tripped. I'm glad we didn't assume it was ruined and buy a new one. :)

I worked on my work project for a while, the we went to a new place for us in the Village called D'Amico's. We had some pretty darn good Italian pasta, then wandered around the Village and went clothes shopping. Michelle's been wanting to go for quire a while, and I think she had a good time. She got a sweater at Banana Republic, and a pair of slacks for me - 31's, so I really better stay on my best behavior. :)

After Michelle went to bed, I stayed up hoping to get some work done. Instead I ended up web surfing and wasting a lot of time and staying up late. Bleh. I hate it when I do that. I find something vaguely interesting (this time, Marvel Heroclix - lots of strategy to read about) and then waste a lot of time on it for no good reason, like a little kid who doesn't want to do his homework or go to bed. Bleh. Bleh, bleh, bleh.