Fondue for You, Too?

Supper: 08 Jan 2006
Supper: 08 Jan 2006, originally uploaded by m!les.

It’s been very quiet in Madison. It’s been work and editing, pretty much everyday. Well, this all changed yesterday.

The first excitement came at work. The good news is, I finally had something to do that wasn’t Hyperion (which is getting old). The bad news is, it was PeopleSoft. Oh, well. It was a nice 20 minute change of pace. Then it was back to Hyperion.

The second excitement came at lunch. My kitchen light bulb had burned out the previous day, but I didn’t want to try to replace it at night, so I left it. The problem is, I am not a tall person. I attempted to use my black stool, but it isn’t a very sturdy design. So, I decided to use my kitchen table instead. Well, the kitchen table is also not very stable. I managed to stand on it, but then it started to seperate. So, the final solution was to stand on the counters.

I got up on the counter, but soon realized that if I wanted to unscrew the dome, I would need both hands, and I couldn’t possibly reach out that far with both arms free from support. What was I to do? Roll in the kitchen table, and laden it with pillows in case I lose my hold on that thing. Luckily, it worked out that I didn’t drop it, but the replacement bulb is about as strong as a keychain flashlight, so I’ll have to do the whole thing over again tonight.

The other excitement was that Holli came up to visit. She has an interview at Daktronics today, so she asked if she could spend the night on my new air mattress. I said, “Heck, yes”. So we made supper. Or, rather, she brough supper, and we reheated it, which didn’t quite go as planned, but still turned out really well. A requisite picture was taken for my Meals set.

Then we exchanged presents. I lucked out when I bought my new cologne in that they gave me a flippin’ nice free gift which she seemed to really like. Then I got a mug, some bowls, and a new shirt from her Florida trip. Then she showed me her and Heather’s pictures from the trip, of which there are about 270+. Then I set to trying to render the whole interview, which was then too big for one DVD, so I called Bob, and tried another rendering method while we watched a couple Seinfeld episodes.

Well, my computer does this thing where, if it has been in screensaver or power-save mode, and I move the mouse to bring it back, it thinks I hit Alt+F4, and closes whatever is open. This will sometimes even result in a Windows Shutdown dialog box. Well, this case it resulted in a “stop rendering and close the program altogether”. So, frustrated, and finding it difficult to burn that file in the first place, I instead just burned the original 9 minutes that I rendered for my own viewing purposes. This didn’t have the goodies of my bleeping, but that’s what made it a teaser.

We went over to Holly and Bob’s for more fondue with Matt Walker (who I’ve worked with before) and Chris Deaver (who’s work I’ve seen, but who I had never met until that moment). We stood around and talked for a while, then we watched the CANNED teaser, then we did photos. Matt was coming out with a compilation DVD similar to The Works, and he wanted some photos for the DVD cover. Because the title of the DVD has the word “Christmas” in it, there was a distinct and disturbing Christmas theme to the pictures, too. At first, when Matt said, “I’m going to take some pictures of you in costume later,” I immediately said, “Sure. Sounds good.” because I’ve learned that caving to peer pressure makes you cooler, but I was unsure what the results would be. It turns out I liked my costume: a smoking jacket, santa hat, knife, and glass of chocolate milk. The chocolate milk was my addition, because I was drinking chocolate milk, and I wasn’t finished. How did the pictures go? Don’t Ask.

Don't Ask
Don’t Ask, originally uploaded by m!les.

After pictures it was fondue time. It went pretty well. You can’t really taste burned carmel like you can burned chocolate, so I didn’t even notice that it had burned. It did take a very long time to get it lit, again, but that’s all in a day’s work of fondue. Fondue is a confusing word because it really refers to the process or behavior, not a type of food. The problem comes in how close “fondue” is to “tofu”, which IS a food (sorta). It turns out, for those who are confused, that “fondue” means heat up some chocolate or carmel or something and dip fruit or whatever into it. And that is from the Wikipedia article.

I just now noticed that I have never spelled “fondue” correctly, so I edited both posts and all my Flickr pictures in Fondue, the First and Fondue, the Second.

At about midnight, we decided that we’d had enough fun. They decided to play Cranium, and I decided that I needed sleep. As it was, it was about 1:00 before I got to sleep, and I think that’s partly why my head hurts so bloody much today. Seriously, this headache could kill a small child. And I am very mad (!) at Premiere, After Effects, Nero, and my screensaver, but I can’t complain too much today. I had a great night.

And Holly Smith and Bob Davidson better keep that $5.00 or I will sink our friendships.

2 Replies to “Fondue for You, Too?”

  1. Don’t sink your friendships! I’M the one who ultimately, and futilely put it in your coat pocket. I thought you’d notice that less than your pants pocket. It seems that I may have been wrong.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: