I've been bored with my routine lately... work, WoW, sleep, work, sleep, work, WoW, sleep and so on. Every once in a while I make it to the gym instead of playing Warcraft. I started sketching a bit again recently also, and am trying to be more creative in general. Today I received a De Anza College booklet. Is anyone local interested in taking a (short, 1 to 2 day) class with me? The highlights so far are Backyard Astronomy, The Magic of Watercolor and The Art of Sushi Making.
I just got several drug refills at Kaiser (but not all of this months) and spent a total of $140.58. My receipt says "Your Drug Benefit Saved You: $3.30"
Why do we pay so much for health care in this country when Kaiser charges practically full price for prescriptions? I suppose I'm saving on the times I actually see a doctor, but most of my recent experiences with Kaiser have been over-the-phone diagnoses for sinus infections. "Yes, my snot is neon. No, I can't breathe. No, I'm not pregnant." "OK, pick up your antibiotics in an hour at Kaiser." That's easy and cheap right? What the hell am I paying for?
My inhaler wasn't covered at all. Retail: $43.50, Paid: $43.50. And birth control? Retail: $63.30, Paid $60. The other $37 was for a prescription that recently went OTC and actually costs me twice as much to buy now.
I'm not saying I necessarily want public healthcare like Canada... I hear it takes forever to even get a doctor's appointment. But really? I saved $3.30 on $140?
While my employer pays some of my health care fees, I'm pretty sure they deduct some from my paycheck (I guess I should actually look at my paystubs.)
I contribute to FSA, but my employer doesn't match. So it's still my money, just before taxes, and I have to wait weeks for it to be reimbursed, AND at this rate, my fund isn't going to last to the end of the year.
Argh, my sunburn has gotten to the stage where it itches like mad. I keep forgetting it's burnt, and reach down to itch. I've been moisturizing it like mad with vitamin E and oatmeal lotion, but I'm open to suggestions...
I had so many new emails this morning at work that Outlook took 23 minutes just to update its folders. And I even unsubscribed from rt-users and wplug before I left!
Today was intended to be a chill day, but we spent the afternoon scrapbooking the trip into a mini scrapbook in a tin for my mom. My dad finished fixing things up around my apartment for me, and we did a little shopping. I spent $100 in gift cards at Crate & Barrel, half of it on a cast iron grill pan for the stove, since I can't have a fire/propane grill here (based on the new CA fire code). We bought some beef and chicken at Safeway and used up some of my CSA veggies by cooking some tasty tasty kabobs and saffron rice for dinner, and drank a bottle of Merlot. For dessert, we made grilled peaches.
I fell asleep on the beach and sunburnt the backs of my calves. Not a good place to be sunburnt, as every time you sit down or kneel down, you definitely feel it. I *was* wearing sunblock, but I must've sweat it all off while horseback riding. I guess I can't complain, as I *did* go horseback riding on the beach earlier.
My parents are in town, and yesterday we visited Napa Valley and did a wine tasting at V. Sattui. I picked up a bottle of of the pinor noir, and an amazing dessert wine called Madeira. (I'm not usually one for dessert wines.)
Wednesday was the usual touristy things in San Francisco... Grace Cathedral, Cable Car Museum, took a cable car to the ferry building for lunch, then Coit Tower.
Tomorrow is just a chill day, as it's been a busy week. There's a handful of pictures up on Flickr.
Oooo my patio got featured on SF Apartment Therapy.
I need to update the photo, as my strawberries are hanging up and thriving, and I have bistro chairs for the table.
So, the sites been down for a while. It looks like we finally found a solution around the DDOS, and I'm back. I've mostly been posting on LJ, but for family and such, here are some pics of what I've been up to.
My herb garden! Spearmint and peppermint on the left, chives, cilantro, sage, rosemary and basil in the strawberry pot, a dwarf meyer lemon tree (that is just beginning to fruit!) and lavender.
The strawberries on the ground have since been hung but didn't fare well, thanks to FedEx holding the package (despite the big sticker that said LIVE PLANTS). They mostly died en route. Parkseed.com replaced them free of charge, but based on my Fedex tracking, the new package got held again.
My plants: Celosia in the leftmost pot, some more rosemary, a larger pot with coleus, moneywort and electric pink festival grass, and a humungous pot with persicaria and New Zealand flax. The flowerbox has coleus, impatiens, New Guinea impatiens and dichondra.
Also, succulents.
The table now has matching chairs, and I've eaten dinner out in my little garden. In fact, Friday, I cooked
I rearranged my living room and hung my awesome paintings from Audrey Kawasaki.
This weekend we took a motorcycle ride to try and see some of the damage from the Summit fire. We failed, as the nav system thought a lot of private roads were actual connecting roads. Dirt/gravel roads + bike = not great. At one dead end, we did randomly meet up with some folks who lived in the mountains, and talked about bikes for a good while. In the end, we just gave up and drove to Monterey for dinner. We ended up eating at Fisherman's Wharf right on the water.
Also, after something like 3 years of playing my main character on WoW, I hit level 65.
And now you're caught up, and people can quit telling me to update my site :)
I did a bit of shopping this weekend, to spend some gift cards from the holidays. While I had no gift cards for Pier1, it seems to be where I spent the majority of my money. I picked up some beautiful vases and silk flowers to brighten up the place. (I used to be against silk flowers, but I'm finding that high quality ones look pretty decent.)
My favorite are the orange dancing orchids below, but the rest are on my Flickr site.
I made these Honey-Pecan Roasted Pears for dessert tonight. I substituted guava-mango juice for the OJ since I'm allergic, and my dad looked at me funny for it. They turned out soooo yummy, and even the skeptics loved it. I even made the whipped cream from scratch, with honey and vanilla. It serves 6, but 5 of us pretty much devoured it.
I finally hung the sari that Vanessa brought back from India for me... above my bed. Along with the golden paper star lantern I hung, it's like my own little cave/oasis. Pictures below, click to embiggen.
Nik and I checked out the first weekend of this years Dickens Fair. I've never quite gotten that magical Christmas feeling while living in California (no snow!), but the spirit of the Dickens Fair certainly helped. I'll post the pictures tomorrow. My camera takes rubbish photos in low light... they're all blurry.
Yesterday I read in the news about the container ship that hit the Bay Bridge. The coast guard originally said (because of an estimate from the ship's owners) that it only spilled 140 gallons of oil. Today they're saying the spill was 58,000 gallons! Our poor bay...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/08/BAD8T8PLU.DTL
Comcast called me on my cell phone this afternoon with a pre-recorded message offering me their Triple Play package. So I call Comcast to get off the list. Not only were they were calling a number that is linked to my account as a current subscriber, but Comcast Digital Voice (the third product to make up the Triple Play package), isn't even available where I live. Comcast needs some new marketing ideas.
It's just one disaster after another over here... my checking account was compromised over the weekend.
I have to say though, Wells Fargo customer service has been nothing but great. The fraud folks took care of me, and sent me the paperwork for reimbursement of the money. Hopefully they'll find the person responsible for the charges so I can prosecute their ass. I managed to get the subscription info from the porn sites they used my info for, and canceled the accounts.
I went to a branch this morning for a temporary ATM card, and Priti, a wonderful and friendly banker, set me up, and even changed out my savings account for one without fees, and made some other recommendations.
Kudos to Wells Fargo for being awesome when it really matters, and for bankers going above and beyond.
:( Comcast said they'd send a signal and that it would probably fix the issue. However, the "signals were backed up", so I'd have to hang up and call back after it got through. I waited 30min on hold the first time, this time I'm getting a call back. Error code 161-4 makes me sad. The cable card conditional access screens say "Auth: unknown". I'm thinking that's bad. I'm now authorized, but still don't get my channels.
The customer service rep said that this shouldn't have happened unless I've had a power outage or something funky recently, which I haven't. I can't believe both cards would die at the same time.
[Update]: After roughly three hours of back and forth, the final answer from Comcast is that Sunnyvale is being "rebuilt", so channels are intermittent. This will be going on for a number of months, and that I am apparently paying a reduced rate until then. Really? $83 for partially working cable is a reduced rate? Damn. I called back to speak to billing, who said they'll probably credit Sunnyvale customers at a later date. The best I could do today was to save $15 by removing HBO from my lineup.
There was a note on my doorstep tonight indicating that last night was the third arson in my neighborhood in two weeks and to call 911 if we see any suspicious people loitering at night. Seriously? Now I have to worry about earthquakes *and* fire? I'm *so* moving back to the east coast.
Yes, I realize the irony of complaining about fire in California, but the Bay Area isn't on fire...
We had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake here tonight... my first one in CA. Instead of just the rigid shaking I expected, the walls completely shifted and swayed back and forth... that was the freakiest part.
Luckily everything breakable on my shelves is stuck down with earthquake/museum putty, but a few framed LPs on the wall were victims. Oddly, since I hadn't locked my front door after bringing in groceries, it worked its way open also.
[Update]: According to the local news, it was the largest quake to hit the Calaveras fault since the 1984 Morgan Hill earthquake.
I made butter chicken from scratch tonight... SO tasty. I somewhat loosely followed this recipe. Next time, a little lighter on the chili powder. And I'm awaiting the arrival of sweet paprika, as I couldn't find it in a local store anywhere.
Well... i *tried* to watch the Steelers game today. My cable has been spotty for the past few hours. Mostly digital static and no sound, with the bottom of the screen stating "We are currently experiencing audio and visual difficulties at this time. Please stand by". I tried to call Comcast, but after 30 minutes on hold, I got hung up on.
So this isn't just a whiney post... WTAE has posted the 7 Wonder of Pittsburgh.
I've been coughing and wheezing pretty badly for several months now. My doctor diagnosed me with something called Reactive Airway Disease, and then gave me 4 prescriptions - two different inhalers (one steroidal for maintenance, and albuterol for emergencies), guiafenesin with codeine. and a nasal spray. $80 later, I left the pharmacy still coughing.
RAD is apparently asthma-like, but not asthma, and usually triggered by something. I'm truely hoping this is seasonal. The good news is that despite all the fearful scowls I get in line at Starbucks for hacking all over the place... I'm not contagious.
My coworker Vanessa went on holiday to India and she brought me back a gorgeous sari. It's the perfect color to adorn my bedroom! The sari is a burgandy, covered with the golden flowers you see, and trimmed with elephants on the border. Click to embiggen the photos.
Any suggestions on the best way to hang it on my wall, without damaging either the wall or the sari? I'm thinking of putting up light dowel rods with some sort of clips on them, and hanging it along the top of my wall above the bed.
Kimberly and Matt have been crashing on my futon... and her parents came in to town (They used to live not far from my parents, and Kimberly used to live with me.). Kimberly hosted a dinner party last night at my apartment, which turned out quite well. Some lovely ladies made sushi, which was quite tasty. Then we had brunch this morning... at Alice's Restaurant!
Nik and I went to The Church On The Hill in San Jose last night for fireworks. It was pretty worth it, because from that high, we saw about 8 other firework shows in the valley, including the ones downtown.
Unfortunately, he'd come down from San Francisco, and for an unknown reason, 87 N was closed. By the time I figured out how to get us to 280 using surface streets, he'd missed the last northbound train. I'd like to thank CalTrans for not even posting a detour. I'd also like to thank CalTrain for making the last northbound train at 1044 when fireworks didn't start until 930.
Two 75+ men discussing Paris Hilton:
"Well, she's not unattractive - but she's not a knock out - and i think I've seen her breasts more often than I've seen my wife's"
"What she needs is a boyfriend... to keep her out of trouble"
"I think she already has one... that Lionel Richie guy"
Meet Nai Chompoo aka Mr Pink. He's a Siamese Fighting Fish, so I looked up his name in his native tongue :) Seeing as how my plants are all still alive, a fish seemed the natural next step.
Sadly, all you get is a phoneCam picture until I can locate my digital camera.
I just slept 20 hours in a 24 hour period. I was conscious for about 4 hours this afternoon. Attempting to work was not the best of ideas. My fever's down a bit, but that's a ridiculous amount of sleep.
1. Pan's Labyrinth was even better than I anticipated.
2. The batteries in the WiiMote barely lasted long enough to beat Super Paper Mario. Invest in rechargeables.
No really... apparently marijuana skin cream can help with skin allergies. My ridiculous food allergies (tomatoes, corn and oranges) manifest themselves in horrible patches of hives. If the skin cream gave me the munchies, could I then eat things I'm allergic to? I miss Cheetos. And corn bread.
Anthony's 30th birthday party was last week... he posted a picture of me getting my Guitar Hero on.
I went to the nursery and bought some flowers to plant outside my window today. I planted Japanese ferns on the ends, orange red and yellow celosia across the back, red hot sally salvia in the middle, and two lemon calibrachoa in the front. I also picked up a hanging plant - begonia angel wings.
Wth is with gas prices? People keep saying they're going down all over the country. I know California is "special" but... the same gas station that had 91 for $3.03 last week was $3.09 over the weekend. This morning it was $3.20. And the place 100yds down the road was $3.30. (This put 87 at $2.99) On Californiagasprices.com, someone reported seeing 87 at $3.85. If it hits $4/gal I'm going to have to figure out how to take Caltrain to work :P
Nik and I, and some other Yahoo folks went to see Dave Attell at the San Jose Improv last night. I'd only ever seen him on Insomniac, he's just as funny live. Well, he may have been more sober than on Insomniac, but it was a good show.
It was in the mid 70s today, so I took a drive with the top down. I ended up at Skyline Dr around sunset.
The box starjewel lives on ran out of disk space today. As a result, I lost all of my email. Since I was busy actually doing work all day, if you sent me anything between Monday night and tonight, please send it to this domain name at gmail.com.
No really... my karma is trying to tell me something. It's fairly cold here in the South Bay today. I walked out of my apartment and went *whoomp* to the ground. We're still running the sprinklers at my apartment complex, and the sidewalks had frozen over. After I slowly managed to get up off my butt and survey the damage, I went to talk to the manager's wife/gf/woman who answered his door. I then walked around the apartment sidewalks and to the street to get to the parking lot. What do you know... the street sidewalks are covered in ice too. I was even being careful! This time I hurt my knee good. I gimped myself to the car, and got to work something like an hour after I tried to leave.
I told the woman we should put salt on the sidewalks and got a funny look. I guess you can tell I'm from the East Coast, eh?
[Edit]: Saturday, the sprinklers are still running, despite the freezing temperatures. The poor plants are covered in ice. The management put up orange cones on the sidewalk to indicate the hazardous conditions, I suppose that's a start.
I was introduced to the SouthSide Slopes Headwich (Sammich as big as my head) last night at FatHeads. I think I died and went to heaven. Seriously... there's a big ol pierogie on the sammich with kielbasa. My grandma made pierogies for Christmas Day as well, so now I can die a happy girl.
Ugh. My flight was supposed to take off half an hour ago, but it just landed at SFO. I scheduled the Super Shuttle to pick me up at 5:50am this morning, but it too, was way late. I got to SFO around 730, and I was so worried about getting to my gate on time. I walked right through security; the airport was dead. Unfortunately, they're just *now* announcing that the flight is overbooked (just like the PHX flight at the next gate) and that connections out of LAS are totally full. Everyone's been sitting around for well over an hour and they wouldn't even announce the delay or estimated time of takeoff. $700 for a ticket and I still might not make it home today.
[Edit] I barely made my connection, but I'm back in Pgh :)
Help! I ran to the mall earlier, and I found three dresses with potential for the company holiday parties I'm attending (TiVo and Salesforce.com). I'm not a big fan of dress shopping, and now I'm torn. I bought all 3, and I *have* to return 2 or my credit card balance will be sad.
#1 is a long red halter dress by Calvin Klein. This might be too formal, but damn I love it. And I have black 3" stilettos that would match fine. (They didn't have a picture of the red, so use your imagination.)
#2 is caramel/bronze dress. I can wear the brown/bronze stilettos I already have. (They only had a picture of the cream color, use your imagination.)
#3 is a dark purple/eggplant dress, which I'm leaning heavily towards. I'm thinking I can wear my pearls and buy some silver shoes and I'm set. (Actually a darker purple than in the picture.)
I used to think 28 was some sort of magic age, but I don't feel any different today... Hrm.
It 's 97 degrees out and my a/c cannot keep up with the tempature. Weather.com says it feels like 102. Ugh. PG&E is going to bend me over this month.
Date: Friday, June 30
Flight: CO 140
Departs: San Jose, CA (SJC) at 6:20AM
Arrives: Houston-George Bush Intercontinental, TX (IAH) at 12:12PM
Class of Service: (Y) Seat: 10-A
Flight Duration: 3 hours 52 minutes Miles: 1,612
Meal Service: Breakfast Aircraft: 738
Date: Friday, June 30
Flight: CO 50
Departs: Houston-George Bush Intercontinental, TX (IAH) at 1:30PM
Arrives: Newark Int'l, NJ (EWR) at 6:27PM
Flight Duration: 3 hours 57 minutes Miles: 1,415
Meal Service: Snack Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Date: Friday, June 30
Flight: CO 126
Departs: Newark Int'l, NJ (EWR) at 10:10PM
Arrives: Dublin, Ireland (DUB) at 9:45AM on Saturday, July 1
Flight Duration: 6 hours 35 minutes Miles: 3,176
Meal Service: Dinner Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Date: Sunday, July 9
Flight: CO 126
Departs: Dublin, Ireland (DUB) at 10:55AM
Arrives: Shannon, Ireland (SNN) at 11:45AM
Flight Duration: 50 minutes Miles: 122
Meal Service: None Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Date: Sunday, July 9
Flight: CO 126
Departs: Shannon, Ireland (SNN) at 1:15PM
Arrives: Newark Int'l, NJ (EWR) at 3:20PM
Flight Duration: 7 hours 5 minutes Miles: 3,079
Meal Service: Lunch Aircraft: Boeing 757-200
Date: Sunday, July 9
Flight: CO 462
Departs: Newark Int'l, NJ (EWR) at 5:40PM
Arrives: San Jose, CA (SJC) at 9:00PM
Flight Duration: 6 hours 20 minutes Miles: 2,554
Meal Service: Dinner Aircraft: 738
Parents are in town... which means a busy vacation week. Yesterday we walked around the Hakone Gardens, which is absolutely gorgeous. They used parts of it in Memoirs of a Geisha. This morning we toured Fort Point and helped load a cannon in a demonstration. We also explored a number of batteries in the Marin Headlands, as well as the old Nike Missile Site. After all of that, we headed over to the Metreon for the new Titanic Artifacts Exhibit. It was incredibly well done, brought the history to life with personal artifacts, and even displayed a real chunk of the Titanic's hull. We were going to head to Yosemite tomorrow, but it's postponed to Monday due to lack of energy. I shall post pictures later.
is fabulous. I have mastered both the L and the Metra. I refuse to deal with parking or driving in an unfamiliar city, and cabs are often unnecessary. Monday I watched the sun set from the Sears tower. Tuesday I tried to see the Art Institute, but apparently they recently changed their late hours from Tues to Thurs. And the Symphony was sold out too, so I walked around Millennium Park instead, and to Navy Pier (sort of).
Tonight, I headed downtown with the intention of seeing a performance at a Jazz Club. I was coming from our Chicago office, and my cabbie got lost. I thought I missed the show, but it turned out they were just on break. During a fabulous jazz ensemble performance, I ended up chatting with the gentleman next to me at the bar. We both decided eating alone on business trips sucked, so we went to get some tasty Chicago deepdish pizza, chatted a good while longer, then parted ways. I'd say I made a new friend, but after his fabulolus company, we didn't exchange information, which kind of made it more fun. Probably sounds like nothing to most people, but I had an adventure :P
Flight/Equip.: Continental Airlines 5198 Operated by: Northwest Airlines Airbus A320
Depart: San Jose (SJC)/Sunday June 11 12:10 pm
Arrive: Minneapolis (MSP)/Sunday June 11 5:50 pm
Flight/Equip.: Continental Airlines 5140 Operated by: Northwest Airlines Airbus A320
Depart: Minneapolis (MSP)/Sunday June 11 7:02 pm
Arrive: Chicago (ORD)/Sunday June 11 8:19 pm
Flight/Equip.: Delta Airlines 858 Boeing 737-800
Depart: Chicago (ORD)/Thursday June 15 1:10 pm
Arrive: Atlanta (ATL)/Thursday June 15 4:21 pm
Flight/Equip.: Delta Airlines 1253 Boeing 757-200
Depart: Atlanta (ATL)/Thursday June 15 5:36 pm
Arrive: San Jose (SJC)/Thursday June 15 7:35 pm
Yosemite is absolutely gorgeous... even more breathtaking at sunset. None of my pictures even remotely do it justice.
I just did something I haven't been able to in a long time. I stood out on the (covered) deck and watched a thunderstorm roll in towards the valley, and the lightning striking over the hills.
We get plenty of rain, but never thunderstorms where I live. And even if we did, I don't have anywhere to watch them.
I: Contemplations :(was New Hire) however, I've decided this is a subset of the original name Contemplation: Since even after you first join a company you could be lured away by another company... you are always in Contemplation mode, however, you can move away from happy and exicted newhire stage of contemplation mode to wow I hate my job and I'm going to start looking for a new one mode of the contemplation stage
II: Resignation - Either you have found a new job, or you just can't stand your
existing one anymore and you've decided that your family can survive without your paycheck until you find a new job... either way... you give notice (Note: This is normally a very short stage, sometimes you have to deal with people that you have no respect for try to talk you out of it)
III: Transition - This is the majority of your notification period. This is where you
tell the poor schmuck that the powers that be have decided are going to be taking on your responsibilities what you did for a living (Note: You will never completely transfer all of your knowledge to someone else, it's impossible... make an honest effort at it, but don't put to much work into it... you are leaving afterall, so what the fuck do you care)
IV: Immediate Project Completion - This is where all of the things that either a.) you wanted to get done or b.) the company thought you should get done before you leave fall... work on your priorites first... afterall if the company has goals set that you don't feel like doing... don't do them... what do you care, you are afterall leaving
V: Stageus non-motivationus (a.k.a. Fuck This) - You've given the knowledge that you've deemed important to some poor schumck, you've finished off your priorities, and made an honest effort at the companies priorites... yet your notification period is not yet complete. This is the stage where coming to work before 0900 just really isn't all it's cracked up to be, that along with 2 hour lunches and leaving before 4 are common.
VI: Post Termination Extraction (a.k.a. Consulting) - Remember all that stuff that was stuck in your head that you deemed not important enough to tell the poor schmuck... turns out that they are important... the company will want that information... you should charge them for it
VII: Triumphant Return - So, your new job didn't work out... Your old company realizes what an asset you were and they've met your demands to solve the issues that caused you to leave in the first place. You go back (at a higher salary of course) and proceed to stage VIII
VIII: Repeat
San Jose International to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport
Friday, April 7
Flight: Northwest Airlines 198
Depart: San Jose International, April 7 12:10 PM PDT
Arrive: Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, April 7 5:46 PM CDT
Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to Pittsburgh - Greater Pittsburgh International
Friday, April 7
Flight: Northwest Airlines 404
Depart: Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, April 7 7:01 PM CDT
Arrive: Pittsburgh - Greater Pittsburgh International, April 7 10:04 PM EDT
Pittsburgh - Greater Pittsburgh International to Atlanta International - William B. Hartsfield Airport
Sunday, April 16
Flight: Northwest Airlines 8915 (Operated by: DELTA AIRLINES -- DL 865)
Depart: Pittsburgh - Greater Pittsburgh International, April 16 3:23 PM EDT
Arrive: Atlanta International - William B. Hartsfield Airport, April 16 5:10 PM EDT
Atlanta International - William B. Hartsfield Airport to San Jose International
Sunday, April 16
Flight: Northwest Airlines 9267 (Operated by: DELTA AIRLINES -- DL 1253)
Depart: Atlanta International - William B. Hartsfield Airport, April 16 5:57 PM EDT
Arrive: San Jose International, April 16 8:25 PM PDT
It snowed in San Jose today. I swear, I didn't wish for it this time. Isn't it supposed to be almost spring?
I feel so... domestic :P Tami and I went to the nursery earlier, and she helped me plant poppies and primrose in the flower box outside my kitchen. Can't wait for the poppies to open up. I also bought a hanging chenille plant for the kitchen to brighten things up.
Posting from EWR, the most ridiculous airport I've ever been in. Connecting flights had to go through TSA security *again* and the line was ridiculous. I had time, but people were missing flights. It took a full hour to get to my gate. More of an annoyance than a problem for me. I'm just cranky because I got home from partying and heavy drinking at 4:30am and my alarm went off at 10am so I could get to the airport. The bonus? Continental upgraded me to first class for the EWR->SJC leg. (PIT->EWR was a puddlejumper without classful seating.)
Thanks again to Shawn and Adam for hosting fabulous parties, especially Shawn :) Here are some pictures from last night's festivities. Yes, I took lots of self portraits... I don't know why.
http://photos.starjewel.org/newyears2005
Adam's pics
Shawn's pics
I'm home in Pittsburgh until the 30th. Give me a ring if you want to get together.
Odd. I'm perusing my Amazon account, trying to figure out where my friends list is, and I notice it thinks I've written 7 reviews. Wow, I don't remember writing 7. One especially for the Revenge of the Nerds soundtrack in 2001? Who's been using my Amazon account?
I'm on my third Linksys WRT54G wireless router since November. Regardless of whether you're on wireless or plugged in (with a variety of ethernet cables, I checked in case they were bad), you can ping 192.168.1.1 and eventually it starts dropping all packets.
It started a new game this week where it forgets its IP address daily. I can get to the router web interface, and status reads 0.0.0.0; I need to DHCP renew to pick up an IP. Isn't the router supposed to do this for me?
I'm also getting shit bandwidth from Comcast. My upstream (384k) was higher than my downstream. It's a little better (1.7megs or so) but the Comcast tech said even on a bad day I should get at least 2 megs. I may have to have a tech come out for that. But what good is bandwidth if I don't have a working router to distribute it?
I've been vacationing on the big island of Hawaii since last Wednesday with Lance and family. I'm currently at the Sheraton in Kona, though we've been staying at Trena's sister's in Hilo all week. I've dumped a bunch of photos into Gallery, though they are largely unedited, uncaptioned and unorganized. There are some from the beach, some from the Botanical Gardens, and some from Volanoes National Park. I'll be back Wednesday night.
My gram passed away last night. I thought I'd finally post the pictures from her 100th birthday party to gallery.
My mom sent me an email about the leaves changing and how they cast a golden glow into the kitchen. I definitely miss east coast fall. Before we know it, it will be raining every day all winter here. Picture below of the view from my parents' kitchen window.
So... I'm moved into the new place. I hired two movers and it took 5 hours on Saturday. I had cleaners come to the old place this morning and I turned in my keys tonight. It's not so bad, but it doesn't feel like just home yet. Maybe after I unpack some more, and maybe acquire some throw rugs for the hardwood floors. The rooms sound far too hollow and echoey at the moment.
I came home tonight to see 4 cop cars outside. Turns out my neighbor died, and they found him today. It seems he was only in his early 30s, so I don't know what happened, but that's just a little freaky. Happy Halloween...
you ask the pharmacist if there's any more NyQuil (they keep it behind the counter now) and she tells you it's been backordered for over a week.
It's been noted that I don't post enough :P so I figured I'd recap the week.
My parents landed at SJC on Saturday afternoon and I kept them busy. Sunday morning was horseback riding, and then a wine tasting in Saratoga. We then abandoned my dad with Steve so they could watch NASCAR, and my mom and I went scrapbooking with Tami, then dinner. Monday, we drove to San Francisco, walked around a bit, and took a ferry to Alcatraz. Later, we hopped on a Bay Cruise for fun, then grabbed a late dinner back in the South Bay. Tuesday we ran some errands, got the new Nav System and iPod hookup installed in my car, went to the Winchester Mystery House, and had dinner with Lance and family. Wednesday we went for a scenic drive down Highway 1 with the top down, bought the best strawberries ever, and stopped at some beaches in Santa Cruz. Then we headed back up to Saratoga for more horseback riding. Sadly, all too soon, my parents flew out Thursday morning.
A neighbor that I grew up next to committed suicide last week. I had been scouring the obituaries since then, but apparently there wasn't one, or a funeral. My mom had recently seen him and he was friendly and seemed fine. I just found out what happened. He had been on antidepressants, like millions of Americans, and the doctor changed his medication two days earlier. But since doctors dispense antidepressants like candy, they seem to rarely followup or warn about the real potential for side effects without counselling. (i.e. the doctor who tried to convince me to quit Paxil cold turkey even tho I was already experiencing physical side effects like the "zaps"). Last week, the FDA issued a second warning about this very situation.
You might think "of course they're suicidal, they're depressed", but this is a very example to prove that wrong. And this situation will just become another statistic. Sadly, it really hits close to home.
I emailed my credit card company because I've been receiving a browser security alert saying their security certificate has expired. They emailed me back with the following reply:
"Please be advised that you are receiving this message because your current browser version has expired. Once you upgrade your browser to the next version, you should not receive this message."
"Dear Credit Card Company:
Please be advised that I am using the latest version of Firefox, and that browsers do not expire."
I got my feep foofbag yesterday, and I love it. Foofbags are laptop sleeves, and I had been looking for one for the commute to work and back. I have a very nice bulky laptop bag which is great for lugging cables and gadgets while travelling, but unnecessary for house to car, 10 minute drive, and car to office. The feep is essentially fake angora sheep and it's soooo soft to pet ...if I was a certain developer and liked to fondle hardware, that is. ;) While they're made only for Apple products, the 14" powerbook bag fits the Latitude D600 pretty nicely.
Sure, I could have made my own for less, but let's face it... why make more work for yourself when you could buy something even cooler *and* be lazy? I didn't like any of the laptop sleeves I saw at Fry's... so black and boring. The feep is superior.
I had nitemares all last night that there was an earthquake. Isn't San Francisco due for one? This doesn't bode well :P
Yesterday morning I was rudely awaken at 530am by our London data center. They were following up on a ticket and didn't pay attention to the fact that I am *not* in London. I explained my location and time zone, he apologized, and I went back to sleep. I left work early yesterday and took a nap since I'd had a headache since 530am. I was awaken *again* this morning at 530am by the same tech support guy. It seems he understands I'm in the US, but thought I was in NYC now. He was dialing my office phone, which forwards to my mobile. He was very apologetic, but clearly they don't grasp our location.
I figured since I was awake, I'd just get up, grab Starbucks and get to work nice and early. That worked out until I got to the office and an idiot contractor drove into my non-moving vehicle in the parking lot. He was in front of me and stopped, as though he didn't know where he was going. So I stopped maybe a car length behind him. Before I realized what was happening, he had thrown it in reverse and backed right into my front end. Now, it's only a scratch, and I'm sure it can be buffed out quite easily, but it's not what I wanted to deal with this morning. I feel bad for the guy. I was cranky already and got out and yelled at him. Meme (our receptionist/woman this company probably couldn't function without) saw the whole thing and told me she thought the guy looked pretty scared. *laugh* Serves him right for not bothering to look in his rear view mirror. Anyway, he was borrowing his mom's car after having totalled his truck, and begged me not to report it to insurance, because she would find out. (His first exact words were "Don't tell my mom!" and I'm envisioning him thinking I'm just going to call her up to tattle.) I see no need to screw him, and I'll just go to the same body shop that fixed the bumper on my Camry for an estimate. I've got all his info, and he should be working at our site for at least the next few days. He's called me three times today to tell me he gets paid next week and will most definitely pay for any damages.
My day has certainly gotten better, as I hoped it would. Breakfast and lunch with friends definitely helped. :)
Wow, it's hard to believe I've been in California more than a year already.
Happy St Patrick's Day!
Date: March 19 Flight: NW 198
Departs: San Jose, CA (SJC) at 12:10PM
Arrives: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 5:50PM
Date: March 19 Flight: NW 1056
Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 7:00PM
Arrives: Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) at 9:59PM
Date: March 27 Flight: NW 3491
Departs: Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) at 2:15PM
Arrives: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 3:42PM
Date: March 27 Flight: NW 583
Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 5:50PM
Arrives: San Jose, CA (SJC) at 7:56PM
I'm home safe and sound, but after going out to dinner with Jon and Kim, am very much the walking zombie. I'm still sort of on UK time, which is like 0440, but was trying to stay up until a reasonable hour, to make adjusting easier. It's time to crash.
After a company party last night, Lance, Trena, Bill and I went in search of fun in the form of dancing and drinking. (Dancing in 3.5 inch heels... ow.) This morning, when we were all nursing hangovers, I crawled into bed with Trena where it was quieter, and their three year old came in. This is the conversation that occurred:
"Why are you and mommy still sleeping?"
"Because we're tired"
"Why are you so tired?"
"Because we were out late having fun"
"Were you having a tea party?"
so. cute.
My email is temporarily down due to lack of my primary ns and my mx timing out. To reach me use elf AT nauticom DOT net.
And I think they were wrong about the 24th; It's today. When the colo facility for the office calls you at 1:30am, you know it's not a good start to the day.
Grr... so Livejournal's colo facility lost power and backup power. They're back up with the exception of one cluster, which happens to be the one I'm on. I can't even view my friends list, nor can i log in. *jonesing*
It was a white Christmas afterall. I'm still in Pittsburgh... just don't ask. It was a bad holiday season for travel. Better stuck at my parents' than at MSP, though. Oh and my trip into PIT put me over the edge for Elite, so I get Silver bonus plus first class bonus apparently for the trip home. Jon and Steve will make me a miles whore yet.
Date: December 27 Flight: NW 1411
Departs: Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) at 6:57AM
Arrives: Detroit-Wayne County Int'l, MI (DTW) at 8:18AM
Class of Service: First Class (F) Seat: 01-B
Flight Duration: 1 hour 21 minutes Miles: 198
Date: December 27 Flight: NW 343
Departs: Detroit-Wayne County Int'l, MI (DTW) at 9:07AM
Arrives: San Francisco-Int'l, CA (SFO) at 11:23AM
Class of Service: First Class (F) Seat: 06-A
Flight Duration: 5 hours 16 minutes Miles: 2083
So... apparently my parents were going to get me an iPod but were afraid they'd buy the wrong thing, so instead decided to arm me with cash to buy my own iPod. Then they found out I'd already received one. So, I'm going to splurge on a nice iPod case instead. I'm digging the Vaja cases, but I'm looking for recommendations from anyone else. So far I'm pondering the flip top case in blue, or the regular case in blue and green. Opinions?
Jon and Lance got me an iPod for Christmas and gave it to me early so I could listen to it on the plane. They both rock so much :) Merry Christmas everyone!
Date: December 24 Flight: NW 368
Departs: San Francisco-Int'l, CA (SFO) at 6:25AM
Arrives: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 12:01PM
Date: December 24 Flight: NW 3450
Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 1:15PM
Arrives: Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) at 4:16PM
Date: December 26 Flight: NW 5677
Departs: Pittsburgh, PA (PIT) at 11:50AM
Arrives: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 1:20PM
Date: December 26 Flight: NW 369
Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP) at 2:29PM
Arrives: San Francisco-Int'l, CA (SFO) at 4:28PM
I came home last night to a random Amazon package. Dave sent me a book and an Oakenfold cd, which I grooved to this morning on the drive to work :) Thank you Dave!
My friend John's dad died today... I never met the man, but I thought I should say something. His sister is quoted as saying "He was a cool cat. Please smile when you think of him." And so we shall.
The new My Yahoo will now display anything with an RSS feed apparently. I use My Yahoo extensively, this just makes it all the more useful.
Happy Turkey Day!
Simply because 658731354 people have asked me... I will not be home for Thanksgiving. I am driving to Portland with Jon and Kim. I will however, be home for about 30 hours at Christmas :) And the flight home at Christmas will push my frequent flier miles into Silver Elite. Yay :)
Also... I posted the pictures from London. We didn't actually see the city during any daylight, so the night photos were blurry. The Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral photos came out decent though.
I learned last night at 10 minutes to 11, that pubs here close at 11pm and don't reopen until Monday. (It's 6am here)
Heading down to Stonehenge and the Salisbury Cathedral today :)
So that I don't have to steal Jon's Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones again, I ordered a pair of Etymotic 6i Earphones. They isolate the music and are supposed to be much better for your eardrums than the forced white noise.
Sadly, etymotic.com had a nonfunctional shopping cart that threw Microsoft SQL errors yesterday, so I ordered them from Earsonic. They shipped today overnight, so I should have them in plenty of time for the flight.
My parents sent me a package from Amazon with "Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco" and two cds, and today I got flowers at work :) I'm heading to Lance's for dinner and I heard rumors of Kimi baking something, so I'm off. It's a good birthday :)
There are Invader Zim action figures!!!! i MUST acquire...
Getting my passport expedited was rather painless... Jon drove me up to the State Department in San Francisco this morning for my appointment. I took a number, waited, then handed the man my birth certificate, brand spanking new CA drivers license, application, and letter from employer stating imminent travel. I just have to pick it up tomorrow after 11am. Can't wait for London :)
After the State Department, we kidnapped GP for lunch... we had some Thai in the Financial District and my stomach is not pleased :( No more Thai for me.
Voting seems so futile. CA will give their electoral votes to the Democrats anyway. I seriously pondered staying registered in PA and voting absentee in an attempt to give another Dem vote to a swing state. They're making it difficult to vote with paper in Santa Clara, but I felt the need to do it anyway. Problems like this make me nervous. Nonetheless, I got up nice and early, threw on sweats and dragged myself over the the local polling place to take care of my civic duty. There is a polling place literally across the street from my building, yet *my* polling place is a few miles away. I must live on the wrong side of the magic line. Oh, and why with the seperate stickers? Gimpy.
w00t. I finally got my California voter registration confirmation. I still haven't gotten my absentee ballot, but I suppose it's too late for that. Luckily my last-minute passport appointment is the same day as election day, so I can vote while I'm out or something. Did I mention I'm going to London in November? It's a short trip, but nonetheless, London. I finally got the title to my car in the mail today too.
Dammit... I can't win with laundry. Since I turned everything pink last time, I now have a seperate load for reds/purples. Sadly, that load earlier included a very expensive silk sweater that is dry clean only. I'm just going to lie it flat to dry. Grr.
On the upside, Netflix lowered its prices... well, considering they raised them a while back.
was fabulous.
It was "Work in Progress" so it was all experimental material, but quite funny nonetheless. Also, sadly, he was not dressed up. Well, in women's clothes anyway.
I put up some pictures from the SF Zoo in the gallery. Lance and his daughter adopted animals, so we got to check out some behind the scenes type stuff like the feeding of the polar bears, the tigers, and the lions. My battery ran out just before we hit the Africa section, so I may put up some pictures from Jon's camera later.
It rained last night, which made me happy. But now there is some sort of critter in the attic that was trying to escape the rain. I heard it skittering around in my ceiling all night long and it creeped me out. I thought maybe it was gone this morning but I was in the closet and it was clawing at the door to the attic! *shudder*
Tomorrow I'm going to the San Francisco Zoo with Jon, Kim, Lance, Trena, and Lance and Trena's daughters for Zoo Parent Day. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to add to the gallery.
Gir, something is broken and it's not your fault?
I know, I'm scared too...
I convinced Lance's 3 year old that Invader Zim is good cartoonage and we can watch the DVDs all day long instead of Noggin. I told her there was a puppy dog. She was even singing Doom doom doom doom doom...
It's been starting to get chilly here, and I went to the mall yesterday and bought a ton of fall/winter clothes. And now the weather forecast says it's going to be in the mid-80s all week. But then, it also says it's supposed to rain next week.
Yeah, too bad, here it is anyway. I thought I'd be nice and get Starbucks for people this morning, so I acquired drinks and was on my way to work. Coming up to a green light, some jackass ran out across the road in *right* front of me, so I hit the brakes and swerved into the other lane. A Pumpkin Space Latte went all over my passenger seat, and I pulled over to attempt to prevent a total upholstry nightmare.
I calm down and get on my way and I'm just around the corner from the office. I'm in the far right lane, so I can turn into the parking lot and a semi decides he wants to be in my lane. Unfortunately for me, my car was in the way at the time. He's hauling ass, so I hit the brakes so I was not in his way, since my horn didn't prevent him from continuing to change lanes. I panicked and curbed my tire a bit though, because I was still a spaz from nearly killing the asshole in the street.
I parked my car and saw my tired was completely flat. There had apparently been a slow leak from a screw and curbing it finished the job. Guess what? My spare was flat too. You know why? When I had my car shipped, the destroyed my tire and replaced it. What they didn't tell me was that they used MY SPARE to do it, and threw the destroyed tire in the back of my car where the spare was. And of course, I didn't notice until now, when I needed it.
Apparently everyone is having just as