…there is internet at the Griffey-Sandlin household. Expect more posts (hopefully complete with pictures!) soon.
In other news, I think the laptop is dead. I re-applied thermal compound to the heatsink, and checked all the “overheating” issues, and that’s definitely NOT it. It’s not software (I booted from a CD, still happened). My guess now is that something on the ‘board got screwed up somehow. Time to make a call to the insurance company and see if this is covered….
I throw myself at the tech help knowledge of the readership of the blog. Here’s the situation:
Unpack laptop, plug laptop in, laptop works fine.
Listen to music on laptop all night, since it’s the only entertainment we have.
Thunderstorms all night.
Next day, laptop won’t stay booted: it boots, and lets you do somethings, then after 3-10 minutes of running, freezes, the screen goes wonky (typically a bunch of horizontal flickering lines) and it dies. Just powers down…no warning, nothin’.
My rough diagnosis: it acts like it’s overheating. I’m not sure why that would be the case suddenly (is there any chance of elevation effecting it??). I removed the fans and heatsink, and there’s practically no heatsink paste left. My brother in law is bringing a tube for me to use over the weekend, so I’ll clean and reapply that. The really strange thing is that when it works, it’s perfect…nothing seems wrong. Then BOOM, dead.
Ideas? It’s a Sager laptop, Pentium 4 1.5GhZ. ANY ideas/help would be appreciated.
So we’re here…we rolled in at 10:30 or so, made up the air mattress, and went to bed. The kitties are freaked, but Hootie seems to be handling it ok. Cola, on the other hand, is losing her freaking mind. She’s spent most of the day hiding under the sink in the bathroom.
We can’t officially check in to the house, because the person we need to speak with is on vacation. So we were officially told by the housing office to “Move in and enjoy it.” The only problem is that we don’t have keys, and we haven’t paid for anything. đŸ™‚ Guess that makes us squatters in the house, right? That, plus our stuff can’t be locked up…anytime we leave, the house stays unlocked. This didn’t seem unusual to anyone but us, though, so I’m guessing we’re ok.
Hope everyone is doing well!!
Dear Chapel Hill,
At first, I was unsure about our relationship. You spurned me twice (once for the Masters and once for PhD program in philosophy), each time the disappointment weighing heavily on me. But finally you embraced me, and all was forgiven. You’ve gotten me addicted to so many things…Cosmic Burritos, Inside Scoop ice cream, and the wonder of pulled pork barbeque (Allen and Son’s, you’ll be missed). But overall, it’s the people, the place, the school and the weather. It truly is the Southern Part of Heaven.
In the end, leaving is bittersweet. We go on to amazing things, but the time here has been unbelievably good.
So…’til later, Chapel Hill. Maybe we’ll be back one day.
Jason
Completely and utterly tired of it. We’ve got more cardboard in the house than any other material right now…boxes on boxes on boxes.
But Tuesday is the day.
Then the unpacking starts. Ugh.
Just a note that I just upgraded to WordPress 1.2 (which is still a beta version, but very stable). So if anyone notices any wierdness or broken links or anything…Let me know.
So in our seemingly never-ending quest to eat the remainder of the food in our possession before we move, I present to you Jason’s Back of the Fridge Stir Fry:
Ingredients
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast or Tenders
Frozen Broccoli
Mixed Frozen Veggies
Dash of Oil
Peanut Butter
Chef Morimoto Sesame Soy Sauce
Chef Morimoto Chili Miso Sauce
White Rice
One Egg
Dried Shitake Mushrooms
Cornstarch or Arrowroot
Procedure
Boil or Steam Rice, and allow to cool for several minutes. Beat egg, and fold into rice. Heat oil in a pan, and fry the rice while folding in 3-4 tablespoons of Morimoto Sesame Soy Sauce. Season with Salt or more Soy Sauce. Set aside.
Clean pan (we’re so packed, that we’ve only the one pan). Soak the dried mushrooms in about 1/2 cup of hot water. Stir fry the chicken, mushrooms and veggies with just a touch of the Sesame Soy. Reserve the water from the mushrooms.
When the chicken is done, remove the stir fry from the pan and deglaze with the water from the mushrooms (minus a tablespoon), 2 tablespoons soy,
3 tablespoons of the Chili Miso. Add 1/4 cup of peanut butter or so, and stir ’til dissolved. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and the left over water, and stir in slowly to thicken the sauce.
Make a base of the fried rice, add the stir fry, and spoon liberally with sauce. Enjoy.
For the 4th of July, there were many happenings. Here’s the story in pictures:
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| There was watermelon, and a great time in the Carrboro Town Commons… | …where there was also a quite excellent bluegrass band, the Lonesome River Band. |
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| Later in the weekend, there was hanging out and eating way too much guacamole with Jean at her pool. | And of course, there were fireworks. Click the pic for a short movie of some from the Durham Bulls Stadium. |
So I return from Origins, a refreshed but slightly disheveled man, and am hit in the face with the fact that we’ve TWO WEEKS ’til the move. To be fair, I think we’ve done a pretty amazing job getting the packing done (there’s ALWAYS stuff to do, but we’re getting there). The goal right now is to try and get everything packed this week, so that we can just enjoy next week hanging out with friends.
In other news, still no job offers (I’ve applied to a half dozen or more in the area).
Back from Origins. Pictures to follow…blogging might be light over the next couple of weeks, due to packing and moving. I’ll do my best!