• 12/31/99 3am
  What a long day, thought I'd better get this update in before all of the hoopla starts. My current plan is that the first update in Y2K will be the premire of my newly designed page at my new website. Hopefully this will occur after the 1st weekend in Jan. Until then, "No Comment" except for:

  Today was a whirlwind, managed to catch ChristiN for breakfast before she left town, then got my hair cut to greet the new year. The rest of the time (till now) was spent doing domestic things with Felly, followed by Mah Jong lessons from Curtis and I, she decided that I was going to help her cook for the party later on tonight -- don't know why I agreed, I think it had to do with the conk on the head she gave me when she threw a nickel across the room and hit me in the head out of frustration in being my partner in a game of Taboo against Curtis and his son. She's *soooo* competitive, and it was only the 1st round !!

  Cooking was fun, haven't had time, or the reason to chop, cut or other wise mangle anything with knives in a long time. Luckily Curtis was gone most of the time (the party will be at his house) since having a actual chef/cook/resturanteer watch my incredibly chicken knife work would be embarrassing (He happens to own Cool Hand Luke's)

  Couldn't end this year without a last (probably) update about SWITCTBN. Last year at this time, I ignored my little voice, and (thinking I still could squeeze everyone in) blew off dinner with some very close friends, in favor of a new friend. Even though my old friends eventually forgave me, I guess my karma was just on hold for a year.

  You'd think, that after extracting a promise from SWITCTBN to go out on New Year's Eve, it'd be a grand time to be had, fly to Seattle and spend some quality time with someone that I hope would be important in my life. The only reason I extracted a promise, was that there have been previous instances where "something always came up" usually to the detriment of our time together. Well I guess that's a pattern that deep down I was expecting, and I wasn't much surprised. It's not so much that she cancelled (she didn't) but that she actually thought she was doing me a favor by telling me that there was a 20% chance that she might score some VIP tickets and be going to a party with her girlfriend instead. Nice favor, while I'm sitting at the airport waiting to catch my plane to Seattle wednesday evening, she thought it was better than surprising me on friday if she got the tickets.

  I'm fairly tolerant, and usually pretty patient, and I'm still pretty sure she'd be worth waiting for, *BUT* I tend to draw the line when I start being treated like a second class citizen, I mean it's not as if I'm in town and get a chance to see her all that often. Sometimes it seemed like she was avoiding making any decision, or maybe she's just trying to force one out of me, either way it worked. I've been convinced to make other plans with friends who actually like seeing me and having me around, I hope SWITCTBN has a good time too.

  You read it here first, and so will she, I don't have time for rest of those games. It's been a great year, it started with some major life changes and decisions, and if there's anything I know about myself is that I choose well when I have to make those types of hard decisions no reason that this coming year should be any different. (then again, a Y2K bug could wipe this page out in a matter of hours ;)

• 12/26/99
  Finally got my linux box up and running as a firewall and am actually doing this update from it instead of my mac. I hassled with it most of the week, good thing it was a holiday, early in the week I was kinda ill so was sleeping early (9pm !!) and for long stretches of time. Didn't get to send anything out, and definitely didn't do any xmas cards. Was hoping to get my website up by xmas, but that didn't happen as I was more concerned about trying to get my VPN running to work (but couldn't) as well as updating for the latest security patches.

  I got lots of nifty toys for christmas -- a pocket tv from my brother and his wife, lots of dilbert stuff that will appear at work, and a kewl electronic basketball game from my sister. Went to xmas eve dinner with my brother (Alan) & his wife (Pam), Xmas day was "rebuild linux yet again" day followed by dinner with Kent & Cheryl. Later we went to see "Galaxy Quest" highly recommended for SF fans.

  Today I actually left my linux box alone and went shopping at Costco, kitty's needed some supplies, and I need to make sure I have all the Y2K things lined up ;).

  Next up on the tech front is to install my 3D accelerator board on my Mac so I can play those shoot-um-up games. Then I'm going to configure my web server and soon after new years I should have it it live enough to serve up my original pages. Jan is scheduled as the redesign month, so watch this space for a new page.

• 12/21/99
  Forgot to mention, it's been in the upper 60's & low 70's the past few days, doesn't even feel like fall even though it's really winter, the trees are just now starting to drop their leaves.

  Also Linux is smarter than I thought, it actually did recognize my extra ethernet card, it just left it unconfigured, so I'm another step closer to having a full server up.

  It also sounds like I might have a New Year's date. *whee*

• 12/20/99
  Wow, long weekend too, started building my linux box (RedHat 6.1) and had nothing but trouble, was up every night till 2 or 3 trying to get it to install, multitudes of hardware problems, finally tracked them all down. (bad drive, bad!) So today Linux finally booted on my Sparc. Unfortunately it didn't recognize my extra network card, so that'll be another piece of research to be done.

  Saturday day was spent hanging out watching Candice & the Lush One play the women's A qualifier, they finished mid pack, not bad considering their top middle didn't play, and they had an LA ringer to boot.

  Sunday was a mini party at Joy & Alan's, havn't seen them in quite a long time, as always the food was great, Alec was a kick and we got to hang lights on the house. Alan especially enjoyed testing out the M, although Joy made me ride with him because she thought he would get in trouble...

  For those of you on the SWITCTBN watch, things are going apace, and I'm trying to convince her to spend New Year's with me, either here, or there.

• 12/17/99
  Long week again, played ball at the Y with Candice on wed, but I think I might have started to catch the bug that's going around at work again -- was very tired and sore thursday and still had to play my league game -- been sleeping through my alarm lately too. This weekend Candice and the Lush One are playing in another tourny, so I may swing by to watch, sunday is the xmas gathering at Joy & Alan's should be fun, haven't seen little Alec in almost a year. Tonight I'll probably rest, catch up on my tapes and start my Linux installation -- maybe by monday my new web site will be active.

• 12/14/99
  I totally forgot to mention one of the most interesting things about this past weekend. Normally I don't remember any of my dreams but this past weekend I was hit by not 1, but 2 different dreams. They could be nightmares, premonitions or just dreams, but they mildly disturbing all the same. The first one on friday night was about SWITCTBN breaking up with me, even though (in real life, and in the dream) we weren't even dating yet. Nothing like long dream arguments for a restful night. The other one was stranger, it was the next night, and Kory was trying to get me away from some clothing store where I insisted on waiting for SWITCTBN to come out of the dressing room, you know, I never saw her but I knew that was who I was waiting for. Kory kept insisting I leave, finally, he said "You've gotta go, it's bad luck to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding". Odd though, it didn't feel like I was getting married, but then I woke up before I could figure it all out. If I had my new site up, I'd set up a poll for everyone to vote on the psychological aspects of it all.

  Yesterday I also manage to string my lizard lights and the M&M lights at work, and I even found a small potted, decorated, xmas tree at Trader Joe's for about $5, now I just need to add some pine scenting to my cube.

• 12/13/99
  In the lingo of the younger set it's been a 'hella' week, last wed (12/9/99) it was volleyball at the Y and then off to see Candice & the Lush One in their league playoffs, Brown was subbing for them so it would've been a good match, unfortunately one guy didn't show, and I ended up subbing too, without my shoes or braces, and after snarfing a full Burger King meal. It wasn't pretty, and I played pretty poorly.

  Later that night I tried to fix the Lush One's computer, only to totally trash it by mistake (d*mn Windows boxes ;) by the time I got it put back together it was 2:30am and I still had to get home, didn't get to sleep till 3:30 or so, bet she won't be letting me touch her computer anytime soon ;).

  Thursday was league day, Brown subbed for us, but the Lush One didn't show, apparently she wasn't feeling well, something about a 44 year old date... Joe managed to show up to watch 1/2 of the last game so we played all night with 4, and didn't play very well at all.

  Also found out why Patty didn't answer my call, turns out her father had died on wed, it's very strange, I always seem to call her around some medical emergancy, I'm going to visit while I'm in town, that and Felly's finally back home from her (major) surgery. Not quite the Holiday feel to the season yet.

  Friday was the flight into Seattle, the plane was 1 hour late so I didn't get in till around midnight, that meant I had to skip/miss Jen's "home made ornament" party and the rest of the volleyball gang. Managed to snag some to go food from Sea Garden, and look it's the Sonics TV replay ... can't believe that I stayed up to watch it, and they lost to boot -- another 3:30am bedtime...

  Saturday was supposed to be an easy day, was going to squeeze in a visit with Felly, then some QT with SWITCTBN at Angel's party. It's so dark and cold in Seattle I didn't wake up till 11:30 and even then I thought it was around 8am. Did manage to get some party prep done, Felly was actually up and out shopping, and SWITCTBN called to go shopping in the afternoon instead cuz she was going to blow off Angel's party off in favor of a co-workers bachelorette party (gee, what a surprise, *not*). It was a nice afternoon shopping around, also managed to eat at one of my old Boeing haunts (Saya's *yum*) didn't spend much though.

  On the way to Angel's gig, I stopped by to visit with Patty and see how she was doing, the family seemed to be handling it pretty well, however she really needs to get out to out of the house and unwind she (and her mom) have been playing host to all of the visitors for 3-4 days now.

  Angel's party was a blast, lots of good food, managed to meet Miyo's new Beau (Yes, Miyo, that *is* a date.) Not only that but there was plenty of entertainment, between Bill's excellent singing and Angel' hamming it up for the round robin chorus -- she needed to make it to the kitchen so Paula & Miyo could sing too. There was so much food, everyone tried to sneak out to avoid taking home leftovers (not really, but it *could have* happened ;).

  Later that night I finally caught up with Felly, she was doing pretty good despite not being able to turn her head, so we decided to try and catch a late movie. The only one we could make was the 11pm show of "The Green Mile" since it was a 3+ hour movie, we were initially hesitant, however it was a good choice, as the movie was excellently paced, and had just the right amount of humor to balance the seriousness of it all. That made it another 3:30am night.

  Sunday was the Hawks game, I was really dragging by the end of it, I was pretty well beat, as were the Hawks, however Roger did mention that I could come to the playoff game if I wanted in Jan, we're going to wait and see when it is. I had 'soft' plans on catching up with SWITCTBN after the game, however after a round of phone tag and a few "I'll call you back's" it didn't appear to be working out, so I wandered off on a mini shopping spree, Northgate but no Tira, Southcenter Old Navy for some cd's & Performance Fleece, and Target for wrapping materials.

  After that I finally finished packing, and wrapping the family gifts, was pretty ragged by then, and was going to crash out, only to have my dad call with some strange computer problem, I was probably harsher than necessary (sorry dad) but I really just needed to get it fixed (over the phone!!) and off to bed, even still with a 6:30am flight I was still irritable at work -- good thing I had a massage previously scheduled for today. I feel much better now. Had another round of NQT phone tag with SWITCTBN today too, at this rate I'll probably annoy her to death before we actually see each other again.

  On the techie front, I got my copy of linux last week, I should be putting together my new server this week, hopefully I'll have it (and my new domain) up and running in time to do an online christmas letter. I'll plan for the site move/redesign between Christmas and New Year's when I have a bit more time.

• 12/7/99
  I think I caught something yesterday, was really tired, and didn't feel too well, actually went to sleep around 8:30pm, woke up at midnight but after that slept throught till morning. Feel a bit better today but still not 100%, will be playing bball tonight though so maybe it will burn off.

  Did finally take my car in for it's oil change today, they're going to rotate my tires so I can wear out the older ones faster and, hopefully, they'll find that rattle in the back.

  Yesterday I was reminded by Daryl that I have neglected to write about the latest gay incident. Turns out that a couple of Candice's friends at the Y couldn't believe: 1. that I'm not gay and 2. that I'm 40. Now both Daryl & Candice got some good laughs at this, however, both of Candice's friends are straight, and I wouldn't expect their gaydar be 100% correct. I think it'd only bug me if the truely gay folks were hitting on me, much like they hit on Daryl at all the tournements.

• 12/5/99
  It was a lazy day, spent most of it watching Candice and the Lush One play in the USAV Woman's A pre-qualifier, they did pretty well taking 3rd out of 11, and they have a nifty team name to boot ("What the Pho"). Spent the rest of the evening hanging out being a kitty heater and catching up on my tapes.

• 12/4/99
  Last night was pretty fun, the Lush One wasn't too grouchy and she managed to put up with all the techies and my continual snacking. The food was good, but the desserts were excellent, and everyone was dressed up. The Tech is quite the place, lots of little nerdy toys, and a remote controlled Sojourner to boot.

  Daryl's in town again, so today we went to Dim Sum in the city with Ian & Candice. Later it was off to the international car show, I think I might want the new PT Cruiser instead of the Turbonium Beetle. We were going to play at the Y that afternoon, but Candice ended up bailing on us, so we went to hang out at the Metreon, and saw Sleepy Hollow (kinda bloody, very Burton).

• 12/3/99
  Last night I finally got to play in my volleyball league with the Lush One it was fun, although my passing was spotty again we won 2 of 3, playing 5 on 8. I think we're just going to have to figure out how to warm up faster -- It doesn't appear that we take these teams all that seriously and end up playing down to their level and goofing off, but at least the skill level is around 2x of the coed league I was in before.

  Tonight is our company christmas party, they've rented out the Tech Museum in San Jose (kinda like an adult Pacific Science Center) and I'm going with the Lush One hope she isn't too grouchy about our play yesterday ;)

  Also got a note from the apartment manager, seems their computer thinks that my lease is up in Dec, although my paper copy says end of Feb, got that straightened out finally, but they said that I could sign another lease effective March 1, which I'll probably do. The downside is that I lose my $100 monthly discount, *and* the rent is going up $100 so now I'll have 3 months to figure out my new cash flow -- it's a good thing my stock is doing so well ;)

   

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