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06/15/2003 Entry: "Some Random Stuff - Nemo, Father's day, Replanting, Shopping for the Beach, and Slackware" Here's some odd tidbits I forgot to mention in my journal in no real order. I saw "Finding Nemo." Hysterical. Just as funny as Monsters's Inc. Ellen Degeneres is GREAT as Dory, the forgetful fish. She makes the film, and was perfect for the part. Lot of adult in-jokes. Lot of surprises. All in all, a very well-done film. I now know how to speak whale (or upset stomach). Today is father's day. Bitter for us in some respects because both Christine and I don't know where our fathers are. But we have a son, so the day, I'd like to think, is for him. I personally have issues with this day, because of the political crap I had to go through as a kid: like celebrating some patriotic holiday of a country you don't even like. After about age 8, my mother got the gift and the card, made me sign it, we'd have to do what HE wanted (which was spend yet another day his damn yacht), and I'd count the hours until Monday rolled along. CR is going to make me a cake, and as I type this, they are out gift shopping, despite my protests otherwise. For the last few days, we have been shopping for the beach trip. We are doing a lot of pre-shopping this year because when we get to the beach house, we're always exhausted from the journey (six hour drive), and we don't want to go to the Food Lion on the island and fight all the other people who went to the Food Lion at the same time (Sat-Sun... a madhouse). Also, while the food is not that much more expensive than the mainland, a lot of other stuff is like beach supplies (suntan lotion, burn cream, beach toys, etc) is usually very pricey. We got books to bring along, too, and some games and toys. We also got Liquor. Lots of liquor, because while I don't drink, everyone else has a party almost much every night. I had to pay attention, because I am mixing drinks this year, as part of my plan to "broaden my horizons." I don't drink alcohol, so I have to go by sensibilities, but I got a bartender's guide, some recipes, and plan to go by what my mother taught me about cooking. I will taste what I mix, but will spit it out like they do at wine-tasting events. Also, I am hoping to do some of this blog work from the beach, because there will be a lot going on. In addition to my family, CR's long-time friend and cool dude Dominick is coming, our usual companion Brad (this time with his dog), long-time friend college student and teacher Sawa, our psychologist-studying-to-be-a-neurosurgeon April, and one of our newer friends, Roberta. I did some "plant work" today. I have been accumulating plants on our deck. I have two rose ... plants (not really bushes), a Strawberry plant (which the squirrels ate all the berries, yet again, but if I really cared that much, I'd build a cover or something), some fake "lucky" bamboo (I think it's actually drysophila or something), and a small fir tree, which until today, had been inside for two and a half years. The fir tree I got during Christmas of 2001, I think, as a sort of "Hey, it's only $10, it's a pine tree, and looks neat." What then unfolded was a nightmare of price checks and counter-checks at the supermarket. I ended up wasting 5 minutes of my day just waiting for people at the store to agree on the price. It was one of those "What should have taken 10 seconds took much too long, and by the end was nearly a saga," points in my life. I kept the tree in the kitchen, and it was a nice, cheerful tree. But it just kept growing, and was now far too big for the pot, so I replanted it outside in a huge pot. I hope it grows well out there. It's supposed to be in bright light, but not direct sun, so I put it under the gutter. If it starts to look ill, I'll take it back in, and try and find a place for it where the cats won't eat it. WARNING: GEEK TECH NOTES I installed Slackware Friday night, and I like it a lot. But then I got sleepy and tired, so I stopped reviewing it. Slackware 9.0 installed on the Dell nicely (which I had used for the Debian install), but the Slackware 8.0 did not install X-windows on my P166. Well, it did, but it crashed pretty badly, saying the same problem I have always gotten on this system: it could not recognize my mouse. I am going to try Slackware 9 on the P166, but expect a lot of the same. See, this system is on a serial mouse with a KVM converter to a PS/2 Mouse, which usually confounds every OS I have tried to install. I mean, I'm using a PS/2 mouse... but through COM1. Feh.