Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
May 2002
In the interim I saw lots of movies, and then this past weekend it was
visitor mania. Saturday Elaine was in town so we all headed up to
Napa to do the tourist thing. Managed to get a look at Margret & Curtis' new
back yard, pretty nice, now if they only have a bbq party ;)
The weather cooperated pretty well, although
Elena apparently either got food poisoning or heat stroke so she had to
skip a rather good dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni.
Sunday was IKEA sale day, didn't find all that much to buy, but did pick up
some things to store my home theater pieces, now if I could only find the time
to put it all together ;)
Yesterday we managed to catch up with Lori and her new husband Glen, he's pretty
nice. They were up for her neice's vball tournament, but Monday we went to the
city to do the tourist walk. Made it from downtown, to the Metreon, over to Lombard Street,
then to the Coit Tower, but still didn't see the flock of wild parrots that Elena
claims lives in the area. Finally we desserted over in North Beach before wandering through
Chinatown and then back into downtown. Haven't walked so much in a long while.
Oh and my cowl finally came, got it on the bike, but it appears to be spaced
a bit high so I have a call into the dealer to check out the problems. I'd
have pictures up but my digital camera is still out for repair, hopefully I'll
be getting it back soon.
It was a Sonics week in Seattle, didn't start well as they played poorly and
got blown out, but at least I saw them play well and win before I left. Too bad
that they played poorly again in game 5 and were out of the playoffs .. oh well
at least I didn't have to decide between Disneyland and a Lakers series. While I
was up there I got to see most of the gang, even Elaine, but one of the best parts was
dinner with Tira and Matt after which we went up to the UW hospital to visit
Barri and Williams twins. Boy have they grown, hopefully they'll be able to
go home by her original due date (June).
The weekend I got back, I went to pick up my new home thearter sound system
(courtesy of George at Video Only, I bought in Seattle, and picked up in San Mateo)
I got a Yamaha receiver with Athena Technology speakers and a Velodyne subwoofer.
Sounds pretty good, now all I need is a new widescreen plasma tv.
The following weekend was an adventure at Disneyland, I got to meet Elena's mom,
and she got to meet my Uncle's family, as well as Kathy, Charlie and Mason. Mason
is really big, and quite animated. Disneyland was pretty fun, FastPass is the best
nothing like walking right to the front of the line, too bad you can only get one
at a time. California Adventure is a cross between Universal Studios and Magic Mountain
at least the roller-coaster (California Screaming) was fun, and we got to play
a version of Who Want's to be a Millionaire. Unfortunately many of the better
Disneyland rides were closed (Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Critter Country)
but I didn't mind missing It's a Small World in the least. At least I got to
see all of the cool 3-D shows.
Oh and we had quite the adventure trying to ride Space Mountain, Friday
we headed up the ramp only to be faced with a swarm of people leaving, somthing
had broke and they were "walking the track". Saturday we tried to FastPass it, but
when we got back, again the crowds were leaving, but they said that the pass
would be good anytime that day. Finally when we went back it was open, to the front
of the line we went, and just as we were close to boarding...all the lights went on
cuz all of the cars were stuck on the track, after about 10 minutes they cleared
it (with a rather cool track loader) then we finally got to ride, only the
headrests were too hard and Elena got a bit of whiplash in the dark.
Sunday it was the rental van travesty, reserved a cargo van, only to have
it replaced by a 12' truck (apparently there were no vans in So Cal at all)
that was too big, so they found a 10' truck instead about 4 miles away, but after
a taxi ride there, it was closed (even though the national office thought it was
open) so finally I had to take the 12-footer and head on back. Funny how little
space the furniture I was picking up occupied, but the truck drove well, and
we made pretty good time, dispite taking a 2hr break at the Harris Ranch.
PT has been going well, my shoulder feels stronger even though I haven't had time
to do many of the exercises but I've been playing a bit better and more pain free
during my bball stints. Still I managed to buy a foam roller to do more stretching
exercises and some of the therapy work, kinda cool.
On the tech front, I finally bought OS X, still haven't installed it but
can barely wait to get some form of Unix on my laptop. My digital camera appears
to need repair (battery latch doesn't) so I'll be sending that back soon, on the
flip side I was using my camcorder to film Gilbert while I was assembling his
new cage. After I get OS X installed I'll be able to use iMovie 2 to edit it all.
And I still have a backlog of pictures to put up, including those of Matthew and Laura
Barri's twins.
Now that I'm in town for a bit, I'll finally get some time on the bike, that is
if I can finish painting the baseboards so I can move the saw horses out of the
way to get the bike out of the garage ... guess I probably should start cutting and
installing them soon. Even still I have some IKEA furniture to assemble as well
as ordering my new exhausts, its gonna be a fun few weeks toy-wise.
These long update lags may seem to be the norm, but this time I have an excuse,
I finally upgraded my laptop to OS X, and it rocks, runs faster, and now I have
Unix available .. but it took me the better part of a week to get everything
running, and I still have some server changes to take care of so that everything
runs really smoothly.
Long time, no updates, been a world-wind 3 weeks or so, and now the quick recap:
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