What MADE your day today?

[MintJulie]

Well, our plane landed in Detroit at about 11:20 last night to a temperature of 6 degrees.  -5 wind chill.  The girls and I all froze in the short distance from the doors to the shuttle that would take us to our offsite parking.  When we got to the car there was 8 inches of snow on the window and hood.  We asked the shuttle driver if we could stay on the bus until the car warmed up while Mark cleared the snow.  She said yes.  Luckily it was a slow night and we were the only ones on.
The car was still freezing inside 5 minutes later but it was tolerable.   The cutest thing was the girls cuddling in the back seat together.  We finally got home after 12:00.

What made my day.........my own pillow, my own sheets, my own bed.

[Hades]

Well, our plane landed in Detroit at about 11:20 last night to a temperature of 6 degrees.  -5 wind chill.  The girls and I all froze in the short distance from the doors to the shuttle that would take us to our offsite parking.  When we got to the car there was 8 inches of snow on the window and hood.  We asked the shuttle driver if we could stay on the bus until the car warmed up while Mark cleared the snow.  She said yes.  Luckily it was a slow night and we were the only ones on.
The car was still freezing inside 5 minutes later but it was tolerable.   The cutest thing was the girls cuddling in the back seat together.  We finally got home after 12:00.

What made my day.........my own pillow, my own sheets, my own bed.

.... And your own Mark who proposed to ya?
... Aww 

[Hades]

Got a super sweet happy birthday text from my 'cousin'.
Just a blink of the eye ago I 'adopted' him at age 9, dressed in a sponge bob PJ, on holiday with his mom.
Now he's almost 18 :-S
Time flies, yet everything stays the same... kinda.

[MintJulie]

A wonderful New Year's Eve alone at home with Mark, our first night alone since December 19th.  The kid's were all at their overnight destinations by 7:00pm.
Our night started with him opening his final Christmas gift from me.  A pair of silk boxers and a super soft micro fleece robe.  While he put that on, I got comfortable in something I thought he might enjoy seeing me in.
The evening was filled with a few games of backgammon, watching his favorite movie Forrest Gump, wine (for him), some Booker's for me, cheese & crackers, watching the ball drop with Ryan, and some very nice alone time with him.
Getting texts from each of his daughters at midnight wishing us a Happy New Year. 
I text my niece at 10:00.  The home she was staying at had a 10:00 ball drop for the house full of younger kids.   She was asleep by 10:30. 

[RopeFiend]

Flagrant consumerism. 

We got a bonus at work, so I'm using about a third of it for birthday presents to myself.  I've been hunting up and down the Internet the last 2 weeks trying to find recommendations and cheapest prices for rebuilding my electronics shop.  Most of my old stuff is still in storage in Phoenix, and it'll cost $3500 to bring it here to Texas, so it's cheaper to buy new.  Also, most of it is though-hole, and I'm kinda partial to SMD nowadays.  Hell, I've even been looking at my old B&D toaster oven and seriously considering converting it into a DIY reflow oven if the unmodified unit comes even vaguely close to the solder reflow curves.  Yeah, *not* a lot of toast on this modified Paleo diet!   

The first packages have already started to arrive from China: bits and pieces to bring my microcontroller lab into the 2010s.  My old stuff in Phoenix dates back decades.  My H-P mixed-signal scope is still useable, but even the 48-channel logic analyzer is ancient, and bigger than an Osborne computer).  I can do better.  Amazingly, my 38-year-old Fluke meter is still running, although it's been relegated to the back shelf years ago when I bought a much more capable DMM.

Yeah, yeah, I know less than 2% of the  people here understand ANY of that, but hey, it's MY day!    I'm a tech geek, whattaya expect?

[Hades]

Flagrant consumerism. 

We got a bonus at work, so I'm using about a third of it for birthday presents to myself.  I've been hunting up and down the Internet the last 2 weeks trying to find recommendations and cheapest prices for rebuilding my electronics shop.  Most of my old stuff is still in storage in Phoenix, and it'll cost $3500 to bring it here to Texas, so it's cheaper to buy new.  Also, most of it is though-hole, and I'm kinda partial to SMD nowadays.  Hell, I've even been looking at my old B&D toaster oven and seriously considering converting it into a DIY reflow oven if the unmodified unit comes even vaguely close to the solder reflow curves.  Yeah, *not* a lot of toast on this modified Paleo diet!   

The first packages have already started to arrive from China: bits and pieces to bring my microcontroller lab into the 2010s.  My old stuff in Phoenix dates back decades.  My H-P mixed-signal scope is still useable, but even the 48-channel logic analyzer is ancient, and bigger than an Osborne computer).  I can do better.  Amazingly, my 38-year-old Fluke meter is still running, although it's been relegated to the back shelf years ago when I bought a much more capable DMM.

Yeah, yeah, I know less than 2% of the  people here understand ANY of that, but hey, it's MY day!    I'm a tech geek, whattaya expect?

After reading this... I kinda expect you are indeed a serious tech geek

Have fun with the geek toys Rope.  Make yourself a nice arduino controlled aquarium with robo fish or whatever the next project is

[Hades]

Third alcohol-free day after about 3 months of rock 'n roll.  I'm doing ok-ish.  Even got a few hundred words of writing done   

[Katiebee]

Full day at sea. Catttle car is what I think of in these big cruise ships. But the food is good and i’m having a blast!

[_priapism]

Yeah, yeah, I know less than 2% of the  people here understand ANY of that, but hey, it's MY day!    I'm a tech geek, whattaya expect?

I bought a new wireless router.  I have 8 to 10 users on the home network now... cellphones, iPads, laptops, game consoles... even the fucking Amazon firestick, all logged in and sucking my limited bandwidth.

So this is a new D-Link DIR-882, with a QoS app.  Able to set Dad up as priority, and put all the kids gaming to the back of the line.  Should probably upgrade to fiber optic, but the neighbors said they couldn’t tell much difference, and it costs twice as much.  Much improvement.  Strong signal in the bedroom upstairs.

[vinney]

Full day at sea. Catttle car is what I think of in these big cruise ships. But the food is good and i’m having a blast!

Glad to hear it Katie...

[_priapism]

Full day at sea. Catttle car is what I think of in these big cruise ships. But the food is good and i’m having a blast!

Glad to hear it Katie...

[JBRG]

Yeah, yeah, I know less than 2% of the  people here understand ANY of that, but hey, it's MY day!    I'm a tech geek, whattaya expect?

I bought a new wireless router.  I have 8 to 10 users on the home network now... cellphones, iPads, laptops, game consoles... even the fucking Amazon firestick, all logged in and sucking my limited bandwidth.

So this is a new D-Link DIR-882, with a QoS app.  Able to set Dad up as priority, and put all the kids gaming to the back of the line.  Should probably upgrade to fiber optic, but the neighbors said they couldn’t tell much difference, and it costs twice as much.  Much improvement.  Strong signal in the bedroom upstairs.

When Mrs JBRG is home, we have 9 devices on our network but not all of them are consuming any great amounts of bandwidth. We have a Netgear R6300 which I purchased 3-4 years ago AND a range extender which was purchased before hand. This router is an AC1300 device (1/2 the throughput of yours). My internet feed into the house is 150Mbps. Our router's throughput is 87% higher than the input speed. Fibre in and of itself is not a great panacea unless the bandwidth with the service is substantial. You are, cost wise, probably better off with what you have.

[vinney]

Just been discharged from the physio dept at hospital... great!!!

[MintJulie]

About 8 years ago I felt my first earthquake in Detroit.   

About 30 minutes ago I was looking out the back window and the sky lit up and there was a huge boom.  Mark's daughters are saying twitter is blowing up that it was a meteor.   So, I think I saw a meteor, worried about what the big boom was though.  Sonic boom?

[Katiebee]

Some meteors disintegrate before striking the earth. If that happens at the right altitude you hear an explosion. This is a simplified explanation.

Other meteors burn up before striking the earth. The ones that do hit earth make a boom and a hole somewhere. Usually a hole in water.

[_priapism]

I grew up near a SAC base at the height of the Cold War, and sonic booms were a frequent occurrence.  I didn’t hear one for years, until February 1, 2003, when the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry over Texas.  I immediately knew something was out of order, and turned on the TV to learn what happened.

This Giant Fireball Over Michigan Was Visible From Six States and Canada

[MintJulie]

I was just glad I saw the sky light up.  I was looking north so I didn't get to see the streak of light or the explosion.  It was shortly afterwards that I heard the boom and felt the rumble.  At first, I thought the rumble was ice and snow sliding off the roof.  

The news station this morning said the boom registered a 2.0 on the Richter scale.  They also reported that if anything made it to ground it was expected to be in Mt. Clemens, Michigan which is 14 miles due east from where I am.


Thank you Katie and Merv for the info.      

[Jed_]

I was just glad I saw the sky light up.  I was looking north so I didn't get to see the streak of light or the explosion.  It was shortly afterwards that I heard the boom and felt the rumble.  At first, I thought the rumble was ice and snow sliding off the roof.  

The news station this morning said the boom registered a 2.0 on the Richter scale.  They also reported that if anything made it to ground it was expected to be in Mt. Clemens, Michigan which is 14 miles due east from where I am.


Thank you Katie and Merv for the info.      

One evening about 10-15 years ago I saw what I immediately knew was a huge bright meteor that seemed to slowly descend a few miles away.  I live in Maryland, and the next day I did read of a meteor hitting some place in Upstate New York 300+ miles away.  It looked so close.

[MintJulie]

I got so much work done today.   
Mark called said he was leaving work early and promised to have dinner ready when I get home.  I told him I really wanted Chinese take out.
Sitting and just relaxing this evening with a movie.
Looking forward to walking out of here in an hour.  In my pajamas for the evening in two hours.

[IdleBoast]

My place of work was shut down five hours early due to 80mph winds making the building actually rock.

Now sitting at home, browsing my favourite site...