Jennifer's 365 Project

I like to build my own computers. It's kind of nice because I know what is in my machine currently and what I can do to upgrade it in the future if I want. Plus I get to work with a clean OS install (no pre-loaded HP/Dell/eMachine etc crap). Not that you cant take a pre-built machine and reload the OS. But I digress...

One thing I've been itching to do for awhile is have an SLI setup (scalable link interface - aka linking two video cards together). I purchased a motherboad that supported SLI intentionally when I built the machine a little over two years ago and finally (FINALLY) I'm slapping another card in there.

So why would you use SLI? Well for me it's gaming. I can run a fair number of games at max settings, but two video cards - the load shared between them? Yeah, this is going to be awesome. Plus NVIDIA even has some pre-loaded SLI gaming configurations - if you're so inclined to use them.

So anyway, what you see in the photo is the primary (top) and secondary (bottom) card linked together with an SLI bridge. The bridge allows the two cards to communicate directly with each other.

I'm also excited because this means I could easily have a four monitor setup (not that there aren't other was around that, like Chris uses). I did grab a 3rd monitor and tried to hook it up, but I noticed that a certain orange monster destroyed part of the cable...

Chris and I headed out to the downtown BW3 to one of his co-worker's farewell party. I always enjoy seeing his co-workers. They're funny, friendly, and treat you like one of their own, so it's always a pleasant experience seeing the group. They remind me a little like the old Sprint group I used to go out with when I worked there (and even for awhile after I didn't).
We didn't stay for very long, however, since we still had more work to be done in the apartment. Not much, but enough to suck up the remaining hours in the evening.

I spent several hours vacuuming the various rooms. I evenly finally put an end to a plague of small white syrofoam balls that had been plaguing us for months and months. Every time we thought we'd cleaned up the last of them, we'd unearth something in the Tardis-like closet and BAM, there'd be a fresh batch ready to static cling to whatever got near them.

But we're done. Done. DONE. This has been the longest move I've ever done in my life - using up the nearly two months between getting the house and our lease being up.

Now begins the slow unpacking an integration of all the various boxes clogging seemingly every available space.

When we do finally separate things into "keep" and "sell" piles, we're going to have one hell of a garage sale.

I came in to find this delicious-looking slab of maple walnut fudge on my desk.

I was instantly hungry and confused - who leaves fudge unwrapped on someone's desk?

I peered closer and realized it was not delicious maple walnut fudge, but a thick chunk of home-made soap, flecks of oatmeal floating in it.

Home-made soap is still awesome.

I now have two co-workers who make the own soap. That's kinda awesome.
Because my brain was primed with the idea of indulging in sugary treats all morning, I decided to indulge and have a delicious pita for lunch. Not sweet, but I would say that the pita is equally indulgent in another way.

Anyway, when I arrived the above sign was posted to the door. It's difficult to see because of the glare (I should have stood in front of the sign) but the gist of it is that they are closing on May 28th. That's MONDAY!

I immediately snapped a photo and sent it to Lori, my pita partner, to let her know they were leaving. Our plan of still having the occasional pita downtown is crushed. We'll have to meet up on the random weekend to eat at one of their other locations.

*sigh*

Ok, I'm super late to this party. On Free Comic Book Day this year we were kind of busy. We tried to hit some comic book stores in Lansing while we were in town to see Avengers with Adam and Comfort, but the ones listed online were closed and the ones a little further out were closed.

Anyway, I found a place in Chicago that had the free comics for "sale" on their website (for free!) and would ship to you. So I ordered The Guild, Serenity, and most importantly, the Archaia book featuring Mouse Guard. It's a hard cover!

So the books arrived today. I'm excited to read them - right after we finish up at the apartment tonight.

It's Sunday, day two of our attempt to get everything out of the apartment this weekend. The weather never really cooled off from yesterday, so while I was reading on the deck at 7am it was nearly 70.
We did a few van loads and car loads, including moving the last of the heavy furniture that we were keeping. And by furniture I mean more book cases.
By 1pm it was too hot and too much for me. Wearing the wrist splints doesn't really help either, since it's like wearing fingerless gloves half way up your forearm. So we stopped around 1pm when it was about 85 degrees and decided to get some shopping in.

We picked up a ladder and a few other things for the house. Now we can climb things!

Unfortunately we didn't get everything out of the apartment, but almost everything. Now we just have a few car loads and a ton of cleaning to do.

The first thing I did today? Picked up doughnuts. Why? Because we are going to need fuel.

While we did a ton of moving on Monday, there are still some things left in the apartment. Mostly there are boxes that have been stored in the depths of a closet I've never seen the interior of. You know what was in there?

A dot matrix printer.

Paper for said dot matrix printer.

A a few other relics from the 80s and 90s.

It was actually kind of awesome seeing the printer. It made me think of the crazy greeting cards and other things we kids used to print out on my parent's Apple II/Apple IIe. I think we used The Print Shop.
Anyway, we moved a bunch of stuff, tossed some stuff, and sweat a lot in the 80 degree heat.

In the evening I grilled some tasty burgers and sausages, which made the whole day worth it.

Now to start in on unboxing and resting for more moving tomorrow! We're so close to being done I can almost taste it.

Chris was kind enough to pick me up for lunch and we went to Brick Road Pizza. So today, instead of a pita partner, I had a pizza partner.

Not a very good photo, but there was a guy wandering around Rosa Parks Circle in a popcorn kernel suit. I assume he was promoting a theater chain.

Blue skies and clear weather. Couple that with nearby parks and paths and today was awesome.

Slowly the days are growing longer, brighter, and greener.

We both enjoy reading, albeit slightly different material. That means each of us has a collection of books. While we've switched to ebooks in the last few years, that certainly doesn't address the existing collection.

So since we both had the day off today we decided it was time to move them. The house is clean and organized, so what better time to toss some extra stuff into the mix and mess it up again.
We rented a van and started moving a little before 8am. I just carried out odds and ends that were light and loaded up the car while Chris did all the heavy lifting with my 8 boxes of books and his 18! And that is not including any longboxes or shortboxes (roughly 1/2 the size of a longbox) of comics.
I ran two carloads while Chris did two vanloads (packed). So the majority of the things are now out of the apartment, and that's a fantastic thing.
Today is also a Guild Wars 2 beta stress test. Since it's only for part of the day, I spent a chunk of the afternoon playing in the stress test while Chris loaded up the van for the second trip.

The game is beautiful, no doubt about it. And kudos to the weather effects, complete with lightning strikes. I mean, look at that screenshot.

I created a new character and I have to say, the Human elementalist outfit is rather skimpy. I'm used to female characters bouncing around in barely anything but standing in the middle of the rainstorm like that just struck me as very odd. The Charr ranger and Norn Engineer I created during the last beta event were much more reasonably dressed.
The game has already crashed several times and lags considerably if I have the graphic rendering up too high, but that is to be expected from a beta. I'm enjoying bouncing around, checking out the game, and providing feedback on quests and bugs.

And honestly, the outfit in this setting doesn't bother me nearly as much. But would I rather the character be outfitted like those on Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor? Yes. Absolutely.

It's Mother's Day and it's the first time we're having my parents over and showing off the house we bought in March. so that means (especially due to my laziness yesterday) lots of preparation before the show up.

Chris assembled the grill yesterday so I got to skewering marinated meats and veggies to cook for today's get together.
Chris gave everyone a tour and then we hung out on the deck while I played with the new grill. I really missed having a grill. I'm going to enjoy cooking this summer.

Let it be known that the Yummy Honey Chicken Kebab recipe was indeed a tasty success. I should have made more of them so I could enjoy tons of delicious leftovers. 
We wandered through Oriole Park and Palmer Park then headed back for some fruit salsa and brownies.

It was a lovely day and you couldn't have asked for better weather.