Vegas

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:00:00 GMT
# I'm writing this paragraph Sunday morning on the airplane to Vegas. Attending a company conference, as a presenter. Took two hours figuring out how to configure my machine so that Slackware in a virtual machine had network connectivity with the Windows XP host operating system. Had to install the "Microsoft Loopback Adapter" in XP, and give it a static IP address, then use "ifconfig" in Linux to give the VM a static IP address.

Sekurity at the Albany airport was a breeze, mainly, I think, because I ridded myself of all metal so the detector didn't go off. My knife and impact kerambit made it through in my checked bag. I've heard that I may have more of a problem with the Taking Scissors Away folks on the way out of Vegas.

My Vegas hotel room has a snack and refreshment bar under the TV. It has a number of insanely-overpriced snack and drink items (peanuts: $7.00, Cashews: $11.00, soda or juice: $3.00), plus a $10 "Intimacy kit" from In-Room Plus, containing "2 prophylactics, 1 package lubricating jelly, 2 obstetrical towelettes".

# Moved furniture on Saturday. My wife found a family newly-moved from Arizona into a furnished house in Lenox. They didn't want the furniture though, so they were selling it for cheap. We got a couch and comfy chair and a bed frame with matching beside table and two chests of drawers. We moved the old hide-a-bed couch and a bunch of garbage into a rented truck and took it to the dump, then went to Lenox to get the new couch, two chests of drawers, and bed frame. We picked up the beside table and comfy chair on an earlier trip.

Getting the old couch out was... interesting, to put it lightly, but we made it. By the time I got to the house in Lenox, I was already sore. Getting the new couch in was even more interesting. I measured it, and noted that it wouldn't fit through the front door unless rolled onto its back. That got through the first front door, but it hit the edge of the door on the second one (we have an airlock-style mudroom). So I took the second door off of its hinges. The second door accesses a platform with basement door to the left, six steps up in front and three steps down to the right. The couch had to go up the stairs far enough to stand on its end, then the bottom had to slide down the stairs to the right while the top went through the basement door. It toook a while to figure this out, including a few jammed conditions attempting to tip the top first or rotate it. But we made it. My hands hurt afterwards, and biceps, a little back pain.

Now, Monday morning, I still hurt, though not as much. Could only stand at yesterday's cocktail party for about an hour before I had to sit down to preserve my back.

# I reported on Thursday on a letter that I wrote to the Handgun Club of America about their membership requirement that you promise to "Observe all firearm laws." I received a response from Josh Manheimer the same day that they agreed with me and would remove that from their pledge. Today I noticed it was gone, so I joined (for $18/year, not $15 as I mistakenly multiplied on Thursday).

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