Bridesmaids

So we went to see Bridesmaids. We went to the theatre not knowing which movie to go see, and I think we were going to see the new X-Men but Roger Ebert says not to see movies with a "D" after them when you can see something from a traditional projector. Since I do everything Roger Ebert says we saw Bridesmaids.

They're marketing this film like it is a female "The Hangover" but it isn't. I expected to see lots of Las Vegas hyjinks, but that's not what you get. It's much more about the relationships of a couple of key characters than it is about some kind of ridiculous weekend.

It *is* like The Hangover in a couple of ways, mostly by way of the gross out factor. There's a scene fairly early on that pushes back some boundaries with regard to bodily functions and polite society. There's also one bridesmaid that matches up with the unkept groomsman in The Hangover, but really even that is only about half of who she is.

This movie also has a romantic story that runs parallel with the main story. I kind of felt like this was the weaker part of the film, or moreover like this was part of a different film because it really didn't fit with the movie we thought we were going to see. The male part of this romance was drawn a little two dimensionally and maybe unrealistically well meaning.

Overall I guess when the film is doing the gross out plot it's fairly strong and when it's doing other things it's fairly innocuous. I imagine the deleted scenes on the DVD will be even funnier than the film in context.

Also there was Wlson Phillips, and Wilson (wait, now I'm thinking maybe I missed a gag).

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• 22:10 Anyone got an iPad app for publishing to Blogger? The touchscreen navigation makes using the site through Safari less than. #
• 17:28 @CBPittsburgh had a good visit to the store today, but no drinks. :-( #

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Some Thing I Have Learned About Stairs

I spent my day getting sucked into stair world. You know, we're doing this house and in the house there's this staircase, or at least there was a staircase until we took it out. Anyway today I learned a bunch about staircases.

Mostly I learned that sometimes the building code is not your friend.

See, it turns out in the code that a residential staircase with walls has to be 36" between the walls. If you're doing a staircase without walls then it has to be 36" between the handrails. Do you see what happened there? It means that a floating staircase has to be inherently wider than a staircase between walls. Wider by the width of the railings and the finger space behind the railings if there's an obstruction.

So, if you remove a staircase that had walls and try to replace it with a floating staircase and the whole thing has to fit in the space that has always been there... it won't.

And that's what we're doing.

Our stairs have no first floor walls, but pass through a gap in the ceiling that is a fixed size (the size of the old staircase). Also apparently they built the original staircase at precisely the smallest size it could be by code. The result being the new stairs don't really fit and one of the railings will really be place unoptimally.

Partway through this discovery I tried to apply some problem solving skills. We need 3-1/2". It's much like a TD scenery project so I figure I can find that much space. The plans looked like this going across:

1-1/2" space
1-1/2" rail
36" clear tread
1-1/2" rail
1-1/2" space
1-1/2" rail
36" clear tread
1-1/2" rail

So I puzzle over it an suggest:

1-1/4" space
1" rail
36" clear tread
1" rail
1" rail
36" clear tread
1" rail

Ding the math, that saves 3-3/4" and solves the problem, or at lest it would if the 36" wide step was the whole of the code. But it's not. The railing can't be 1" it has to be at least 1-1/2" and the spacing can't be 1-1/4" it has to be 1-1/2" (really, 1/4" matters to somebody) and you have to have the space between the rails EVEN IF THEY ARE AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS.

I swear it's enough to drive a body to vote republican.

So, the new steps, while cool, will not be exactly what we were looking for (or placed where we were looking for). But they will be up to code and pass an inspection. I guess that's better than doing what we want and then having to rebuild them to code.

Plus, there's an epilog. I went back and looked at the photos from the home inspection to see what was there before the demo. That staircase didn't fit under the hole either. Guess I wasn't (guess nobody wasn't) paying close enough attention.

I'll have to remember that for the next house.

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• 22:39 Did they just make up 15 points in like 4 minutes? #
• 22:45 I've got an idea, let's leave a guy wide open for three on the inbound. #curiousdefense #
• 22:47 You can't guard me. #Dirksays #
• 00:13 @sspuh try not to learn too much we'll have to help you unlearn, ok? #traf #
• 09:07 Didja know... If you build a staircase within walls code needs 36" between the walls, but without walls you need 36" between the rails. #
• 09:09 @m! attigray takeout menus #
• 12:45 @keeboch they ought to be thinking Doctor or Lawyer #paythembills #
• 12:46 in the office, not sure why #
• 14:52 I just had a tweet printed in a magazine. What's that called? Retwublished? #
• 15:25 today learning all kinds of unfortunate things in the building code about staircases; libertarian urges rising #
• 16:13 a guy named Chris just called me and he sounded just like a guy named Chris I used to talk to all the time. But it wasn't him. #
• 18:01 I have hom e remodeling fatigue #

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East Coast Travelogue

So far I don't seem to be kicking ass on this post a day June. But we'll keep trying. Weekend before last Mrs. TANBI and I made an East Coast swing. We drove.


New Jersey doesn't have a particularly prominent sign to photograph while driving. Probably good stewardship of their scarce state funds. Every time we make this drive we go through Easton PA. Easton is the name of one of my nephews and I keep meaning to stop to see if there's some t-shirt or something to get for him. I guess maybe next time.

The chief reason for the trip was the CMU SOD DP New York Cocktail Party. Each year after they graduate we take our seniors to NYC for a little coming out party. Actually "we take" is a little strong. We provide a room and send out invitations, they're on their own to get there (really that's not an accurate picture either, but close enough). I hadn't been to the cocktail in like 10 years. For some reason TDs haven't been going and it hasn't seemed fair to spend the school's money when I didn't have students at the event. This year I had a couple people make the trip so I did too. It was a good event I think and it was great to see some faces I hadn't seen in a while.

There were other reasons to make the trip too. First up, we hadn't seen Trulane yet.


This is my younger nephew. He was born a few months ago and this was the first real opportunity to get to the city and see him. He does all the baby things and was actually remarkably cooperative during our visit. Easton was a little crankier, he was getting over some kind of bug.

The night after the cocktail we went to see some of the fine New York theatre.


I mean, as a TD was there something else I was likely to go see? Actually, left totally to my own devices I might have gone to see "Lucky Guy" Off-Broadway because I worked on a production of it a thousand years ago in summer stock. But as it turned out, Thursday morning I got an email from the Syfy people offering discount Spidey tickets; so we could get the discount without waiting in a line anywhere. So we went.

I guess the substance of the show ought to be a whole post of its own, but suffice it to say when we saw it - they weren't there yet. What I think I saw most were the hands of many different people. The show was just really uneven, and at intermission I expressed the opinion that they could really stand to cut the first 20 minutes of the show. So, not life altering theatre.

Friday we finished up another loose end.


My sister and I, Matt and Marisa, and my nephews went to the cemetery and buried my Dad's ashes, some of my Dad's ashes. It's been nearly a year since he passed and during all that time he's just been hanging out in our utility room in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure why I'd been dragging my feet to get this done, but I hadn't been in any kind of a hurry. It was quiet and breezy and there was no to do, which was fine. After we were finished we went by my cousins for dinner. Good to see family.

Why is my Dad buried in New York? My Aunt has put a lot of resources into a family plot there. So he's with my Mother and her Mother and Father, plus my Uncle and his Mother, and my other Aunt. SO there's a lot of company.

We've got more to do with my Father's final resting place. His will provided that we divide the ashes, some to be buried in New York and some to be scattered at various sites around the world. The list of destinations changed over the years. The last I have is the Brooklyn Bridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Quebec City, and Washington DC. I'll have to do some research and some planning (and maybe a budget).

But wait, there's more.

On the way home from NYC we detoured to Lancaster PA for a wedding.


One of my earlier students and a former classmate of Marisa's was getting married. They had an outdoor ceremony and it wasn't 100 degrees and the rain held off. It was a beautiful wedding and again I got to see a bunch of faces I hadn't in a while.

And even that isn't the end. On the last day before we drove home I got a tour of TAIT Towers in Liditz. This is a scene shop that does pretty much exclusively touring rock shows. Can I tell you I wish I had known about this shops existence when I graduated from CMU all those years ago. Their place is huge, the technology is first rate, and the clientele... none other like it. Alas, all my professors pointed me toward was the regionals. I'll have to live this vicariously through students (there are now 6 of my former students there). Looks like they're having fun.

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• 20:38 @keeboch aol, gmail, Plaxo, linkedin, facebook, AIM. All over the place. #
• 12:09 Mitt, you're running for President, put on a tie. #
• 13:19 @48v or the people they got were better on paper than in person #
• 15:12 Finally making precollege hires. #wonderwhosaround #
• 15:18 @bpeoples doesn't seem to be available anytime soon #
• 15:32 Seen "Quarantine"? Didn't end like I thought. #
• 17:10 At the CMU alum meetup at Mad Mex Shadyside. Come one come all. #

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• 21:06 It is a little warm in the apartment #
• 21:50 And... I bricked my phone. #
• 23:17 I think I managed to get the phone OS upgraded - finally. It's possible the problem was my firewall, or the cable, or "other USB devices" #
• 11:01 @bpeoples @birdbrainlabs "driver of the Winibago?" #
• 11:06 @bpeoples all three news shows talking about the weather #priorities #
• 13:05 @Mboev! ers didja goof? #
• 17:46 Anyone available to curate my contacts across 5 devices and a half dozen sources? Now accepting bids. #

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Ellipses...

Maybe he meant social networking is only 10 years old. But that would have been wrong too... The phone bricked and then unbricked. I'm sure there are still problems, but we'll see... Decided to stay with the hand drafting, the early CAD assignments just don't look like anything at an interview... The last several days have been hot, but Chicago hot, not Vegas hot... Missed game one of the NBA Finals. It's possible they haven't got me to the "watch whoever is playing" stage yet... Subfloors for the last two days, not much to photograph... Sent my sister a job listing for Pittsburgh. I don't think she'll jump at it... I can't tell you how little I care that Weiner may have sent a picture of his package to some random woman - mostly because I believe him when he says it wasn't him... I'm thinking of trying to do a post per day in June. It's not a creative project per day, but it's something... I shouldn't care, but I am bummed for the Cornelia Marie, the owners, the crew, and the captains. Amazing how one person can so much be the glue... The Arts Festival starts this weekend... Why, why, why is CNN so bad? Didn't they used to be pretty good? Depressing... Do you think Sarah Palin is touring American historical sites to educate herself? It's like she's taking my 3rd grade family vacation... I think my flick is gone. I hope it's like riding a bike... For someone on vacation I spend a lot of time at work. At least we have air conditioning here... They're gonna add commercials to PBS. I hope maybe they think twice before adding them to children's' programming... The OS upgrade I tried for so long to make happen definitely made my phone run slower, plus now all my apps are alphabetical and I didn't so much want them that way. Bummer... So now cell phones cause cancer and we're supposed to always keep them more than a half inch away? Super...

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• 20:29 Resetting my phone. Pretty sure its a mistake. #
• 21:35 thermostat says 80, haven't turned on the AC yet. wondering if we should. #
• 21:37 resetting the iPhone seeming to have no impact on its complete and total inability to back up (backing up required to upgrade the OS). meh #
• 23:50 Listening to Paul Sr. rip on his son to his employees makes me pray it's all for TV #
• 12:01 CNN just put up an "expert" who said "the Internet is only about 10 years old." Right. Fwiw I had email in 1980 and I wasn't first. #
• 12:02 @keeboch suck it up cupcake. #
• 13:46 Email says FCE's are in. I'm not anxious. #
• 14:32 @keeboch sometimes the humor is really subtle #
• 15:11 @rachelyra pants interface :-P oh how far you've come. #

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Home Repair and Improvement

A little bit it seems stupid to even talk about the little things we've been doing for our house ourselves while we have a crew banging away on the thing 40 hours/week. But seeing as how they're off this weekend I guess I can show you something.

Here was my project for the day:


The old side door had a mail slot. So Friday when that door went away so did our capability to receive mail. Part of me wonders what would have happened had we not had place for mail. Would we just lose our mail privileges? If so, it might not be a bad strategy.

This process made me feel like a real dope. We originally were going to relocate the thing to closer to the street. That meant fastening to concrete and so I'd bought some tapcons. Unbeknownst to me though the mailbox has a setback on the back of about 5/8 of an inch. So when I got the tapcons in, they were too short. This was, by the way after having to run home to get a Phillips bit for my screwgun, as for some reason the only bits I had with me were square head. Then Mrs. TANBI suggests we put the thing up by the door again anyway, so now I am on the siding and not on the concrete so I need normal screws, which are at the apartment again; and so I go back to the apartment the second time for 2 screws. Really, after thinking about it I came to the conclusion that it felt more like I used to in summer stock when it seemed like every five minutes I'd have to run back to the shop for something.

So what do we learn for life from this? Wherever your screw gun is you should have a Phillips bit and a handful of screws.

This was Mrs. TANBI's project...


She'd decided that she would like the railing above to be black. So yesterday in 90 degree heat she stripped of the old paint using a variety of methods, none clean or quiet. Today (again in 90 degree heat) she went back and finished off the prep and then did the painting. The painting like any true DIY project required a second trip to the home center (took more paint than we thought). Looks pretty good though:


Yes, yes, we know. We'll have someone look at that retaining wall.

SO far all the pics have been looking inward. Today was a nice day and I spent a little time just sitting in our front yard. This is what you see if you do that:


Tomorrow the pros return.