Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
November 2001
Thanksgiving was pretty good, since my flight was so early in the morning
I just rested on the couch most of the day, then we all went to my sister's (relatively) new
condo and had lots food (corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, etc) and dessert
(pumpkin pie) Her new place is pretty nice, and actually may be cleaner than
mine.
Friday was shopping mania, the mall parking lots were filled but not overly
crowded so we managed to get almost everything we were looking for (dvd's, cd's
and a raincheck for the george forman grill).
That night it was the Sonics with Patty (a winner ;) then dinner at Von's (good prime rib)
and an encore viewing of Harry Potter at the Cinerama -- Meryl even managed to stay awake
long enough to join us.
Saturday was a Fujii day, checked out their new bigscreen HDTV, caught lunch,
a few motorcycle shops, and shopping at Belle Square then headed off to
watch the Husky game. Since it was a blow out we all (including Allison
who had joined us) went to eat at Izumi's instead and then watched
Shrek on the big screen.
Sunday was volleyball with the gang played pretty well, but still got
a bit sore, afterwards it was immediately off to the Sonics game (another win !!)
with Kenny, Ian (in from Colorado) and Kristy (who finally made it to a game)
Then it was off to McMennimens for dinner and dessert.
Monday I finally got to work from the Bellevue office, pretty cool, lots
of space and I managed to have lunch with Linda. That night I caught up with
Christi who I hadn't seen in months, she had been ill and then on a diet and
is looking great (20lbs lighter she claims) interesting diet though, Atkins, mostly
protein but no complex carbs -- I'll have to keep it in mind if I get serious about
losing weight beyond just increasing my exercise rate. We managed dinner and a movie
(Domestic Disturbance) that was decent but not exceptional.
Tuesday was more work, and then lunch with Barri, Tira and Matt, it was great to
see them again, and they were way surprised with my latest dating escapades
(more on that later, maybe ;)
Wednesday was an exhausting day, up really early for the plane, lots to do at work,
lunched with Kiz, and dinnered with Elena before I headed home to play with Fila.
Today was a better day since I got a full nights sleep, but I still have plenty
of stuff to unpack but its going to have to wait since I'm off again to gather
even more stuff (another suitcase check-in ;) from Seattle.
Monday was my annual holiday, and I got plenty done, new license (with the address
change) and then registered to vote down here so I can "protect my interests" odd
though, they make you declare a party down here to register, so I figured I'd
go Demo to vote in the primaries. Later that day I went shopping at the Gilroy
outlets (7 hrs !!) and scored big time. Sunglasses and dri-fit shirt at Nike, lots
of new bowls and plates from Corning/Revereware, a rather nice henley fleece from BigDog
and some assorted shorts and sweatshirts from Adidas. The Famous Brands Housewares
(Lechters) was going out of business so everything was really on sale, picked up
some containers as well as a stainless steel salad spinner. The only thing that
eluded me was shoes, neither sports or dress were worth buying. That night I went
to see Monsters Inc, there was so much going on I think I may have to see it again
just to catch all of the little side jokes.
Tuesday was busy at work, then off to dinner and a movie with Elena,
she picked again, and again a dud, Novocaine, with Steve Martin was
very oddly paced, and somewhat painful to sit through.
Wednesday was a movie with Kiz, Spy Game, pretty well done, more
of a in house intrigue thriller than action flick. Was going to
eat out but we couldn't find any place close that was open. So instead
I headed up to Stanford Medical Center to visit Cheryl, turns out that
she may have had a burst appendix so she and Kent will not be waking me
up at 4:30am to follow me to the airport. She'll be in the hospital
for a few days taking antibiotics and draining the fluid out before
they let her go home.
Friday was lunch with the region sales folk, they have a nice office in
Bellevue so I'm gonna try and work remote from there. I even managed to
tag along on a call before heading out to dinner and the Sonics game with Kenny
(they won). Later I got a call from Kat (who had been out partying a bit ;) so
we headed out to the late show (11:30pm) of Harry Potter.
Saturday it was up early and off to the Buddhist Holiday fair where I picked up
a few goodies (maybe even a few xmas gifts ;) and then it was a late
lunch with the family. Later Kat and I went to see the Sonics play
very poorly and lose. Afterwards it was dinner at the Icon Grill, the
place was pretty cool, and the food was good, but the dessert was
easily the highlight, even if we couldn't finish the sundae.
Sunday it was up early again for volleyball before heading home to
pack. Oddly, I was at the airport 2 1/2 hours early and there was no
lines at all, had to kill the rest of the time at the gate.
The current bug seems to be really bad, monday we had flu shots at work but they
take 2 weeks to be effective so I'm gonna have to make sure I get plenty of sleep
in the meantime. My shoulder's been sore for the past couple of days because of the
shot, but at least I don't have a fever.
I've finally started getting my replacement gas cards this week, good thing
too, will probably be needing them when I get to seattle. It was so stupid,
I can't believe that last week I lost my cards in a 15 minute span at a gas
station during my fill-up. I think the holder fell out of my pocket at the station
but since I didn't leave before noticing it was missing I suspect that the
kids in the car behind me picked it up when I wasn't looking. Luckily I managed
to cancel all of the cards later that day, turns out that a couple of them were
expired anyway since I hadn't had any charges on them in a while.
Sunday it was off to IKEA to show Elena what it looks like on this coast. Bought
a few trinkets, and a shoe rack and bench, but since there was a "tax free" day
on sat, they were out of a lot of things, like the folding tables and storage
boxes that I wanted.
Since its sonics season, the travel has already started cutting into my
exercise schedule -- went to yoga tonight and it kicked my butt again since
I haven't done anything for a couple of weeks, at least the cute instructor
was subbing again.
Friday was lunch with Linda, and a haircut, then dinner with Kat and Jacquie
before heading off to see The Others in a late night show.
Saturday it was drizzly rainy again (no shorts) but I managed to catch Elaine
at home and drag her out to dinner and another Sonics game, unfortunately they didn't
play as well as on Thursday. Afterwards we swung by the center house to spy
on Jaquie, Ken and Rudy dancing the night away (ballroom style). Finally we headed
out to meet Kenny and his new beau Dana (Dah-nah) and go see K-Pax, which was
decently entertaining.
Sunday was volleyball, and boy was I sore, good thing we quit early and headed
out for dim-sum with Miyo, Wang, Ken and Dana. That afternoon it was dinner with
Patty (sans Meryl for some odd reason) then off to see Thirteen Ghosts, which was
ok, but not especially great.
Monday was travel day from hell, it took 20 minutes just to get through the line
to get my e-ticket boarding pass then it was an hour and a half to get through the
security checkpoint -- even though I got there 2 hours early (at 6am no less) I only
boarded the plane with minutes to spare, then, because the security lines were so long
the held the plane for 20 minutes while waiting for all the stragglers to show up.
I was so tired that I even skipped yoga that night.
Tuesday was lunch with Kit (belated bday) and then just unwinding at home. Wednesday
was dinner (and unpacking) with Elena. Gilbert (her bird) is amazingly entertaining, and
enormously occupied by my socks.
Tonight was the CyberRays exhibition match at Stanford with Kiz, Kara and Savanna --
pretty fun, those pros can play, and Savanna (just 7) was quite animated after a bit
of sugar.
On the financial side it looks like all my taxes this year are in relatively good shape
and with the house re-fi going well I may have debt free xmas coming.
Long week, but at least the sonics won all three games that I attended !!.
May be my last update till next week since I'm on travel for a bit, but since
I can work remote from the Bellevue office ....
Pretty good weekend, but exhausting. In late Thursday and had my
normal Sea Garden fix, but then had to crawl around in the attic for
a bit to see about a leak, since it had been storming hard for a few days.
Apparently where my 2 peaks join in a V hopefully it'll just take some
roofing tar.
Been a busy week, managed a massage and then dinner with Elena before
trying to catch up with my tapes. Tonight was dinner and movie (The Heist) with
her too since I'll be gone most of the next 3 weeks. Was supposed to get together
with Kiz and Cheryl too, but they both caught some kind of flu and cancelled their
outings with me.
It was an Elena weekend, first it was dinner (Food City, more chopsticks practice)
and a movie (The One) then Saturday was shopping (bird feeders, and toys),
food (Flames w/dessert !!) and more fun with Gilbert (he loves my socks).
Saturday night I went to see the latest Warren Miller film
(Cold Fusion) it was vintage stuff, but unfortunately he no longer narrates most of the
film, but there was a pretty crazy section on base jumping.
Well, its Sonics season, new team, new jerseys and new logos *whee* love that big S.
Last Thursday I had an uneventful flight to Seattle and made it to the home opener
which we won, some of the new young guys look pretty good, hopefully they'll be consistant.
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