Carole's in Tuscon with Michael, checking out a house. She's due back tonight.
She's leaving tomorrow for an 18-day trip to New England. Her mom and dad, and aunt and uncle had planned a trip to see the leaves turn, and (rightly) drafted Carole to handle the driving and planning. I'm up for driving her to Long Beach for a Jet Blue flight to JFK.
I went to see The Rundown on Sunday afternoon with Jason and Jeremy. Carole and Justin didn't want to go.
I needed some cleaner for the motorcycle, so we went to the AMC in Covina. The movie was fun - it won't win any awards, but it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. (Except for the little kid down the row sitting with his family. Why don't parents teach their kids to be quiet in theaters?)
My four-year-old nephew Logan came down from Big Bear with my in-laws, who went to my soon-to-be sister-in-law Yvette's bridal shower on Saturday. He was supposed to go back with them on Sunday, but easily persuaded Carole to let him stay until this morning.
I always make him breakfast - that's my deal. Sunday he wanted pop-tarts; Monday I made him scrambled eggs and toast (Carole and Justin got in on the deal too). Yesterday I made pancakes (Justin joined us). This morning, he wanted pop-tarts.
Justin's been refining Logan's trash-talking repertoire. There's been a lot of "punk", "fool", "pain-in-the-butt'", "that's right", and "I though so"s being thrown around, from both sides. Logan gives as good as he gets.
I'm still adjusting to being back home.
I left early Sunday to head up the coast on the motorcycle. Short trips are good, but longer trips really work for me.
I'm getting ready to leave for a three-day motorcycle trip up the coast. I've been planning it for a while, and some not-go-gentle nudging from Carole sealed the deal. Thanks, C.
I ride up to Morro Bay today. Monday is PCH from Morro Bay to Carmel (past Cambria, Hearst Castle, and Big Sur), then down Carmel Valley Rd. and the Interlaken Rd. to Paso Robles. Tuesday starts with breakfast at the Apple Farm Inn (great potato pancakes), Tepesquet Rd., Foxen Canyon and SR-154, then back home.
It will be fun.
Carole sold the Quest. Yay!
Some ramblings:
COMMENTARY
By Fred von Lohmann, Fred von Lohmann is senior intellectual property attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.
No one can hold a candle to the music industry when it comes to squandering an opportunity. Having gotten everyone's attention by threatening to sue 60 million American file-sharers, flooding Internet service providers with more than 1,500 subpoenas and on Monday suing hundreds of individual file-sharers (or their parents) in federal court, the Recording Industry Assn. of America has blown it again.
By JOHN WALCOTT
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Even some officials in the president's administration worry that in his address to the nation Sunday night he glossed over his shifting rationales for war in Iraq, oversimplified the sources of anti-American rage there and overstated the benefits of victory, both to the war on terrorism and to American policy in the Middle East.
I'm a little teapot, short and stout
Here is my handle, here is my spout
When my water boils I start to shout
Just tip me over and pour me out.
Monday, September 8, 2003
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Warren Zevon, who wrote and sang the rock hit "Werewolves of London" and was among the wittiest and most original of a broad circle of singer-songwriters to emerge from Los Angeles in the 1970s, died Sunday. He was 56.
The new soccer season started today, and I decided to have some fun refereeing. I signed up for a Boys Under-19 game - probably a little too intense of a match for shaking out the off-season cobwebs, but you only live once.
The game want okay. Three yellow, no reds, a 6-2 win for the home team, but no raging controversies, and the commissioner of the losing region told me I did a good job on the field.
I felt good during the game, but as usual my lower back was a little sore later in the day. It takes a few games to get used to the pounding.
I made an early start on the Canyons this morning at about 7:00am. Very nice on Big Tujunga Canyon - climbing into the hills made the air cool with some pleasant pine scents wafting through. I felt good on the bike - my confidence in the turns was up, making the ride fast and fun.
I had a nice little breakfast at Tom's in Palmdale, and read The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, a Sherlock Holmes short.
It was getting pretty warm by the time I left Tom's, but I made a quick run to Bouquet Canyon, and it cooled down all the way to the turn at Vasquez Canyon.
I scraped the left peg on a tight, fast corner, but the bike responded confidently.
I decided not to stop at In-N-Out, and just keep riding fast.
Little Tujunga Canyon was good, but I prefer the faster corners on BTC.
Got back home a little before noon after a quick stop at work to turn off my e-mail.
After 2 1/2 years of development, ending with 6 weeks of panic mode to meet the unrealistic, arbitrary release date, my company released a new version of its flagship product last Friday. I work generally on licensing, which covers almost all of the products we sell, but I started at the company working on this product, and I still do a lot of work specifically for it.
The PHB's decided to hold a release party. Nothing wrong with that, right? We got bussed down to the main office in Santa Ana, and had a sandwhich buffet in a nearby hotel's restaurant. Not so bad -- but no so good either. They had coffee, ice tea, and noxious tab water. No soda, no juice, no decent water. I didn't want coffee in the middle of a 100° day, and I'm not a big ice tea fan, so I held my nose and drank the water.
The highlight was the gifts they gave out -- red, blue, and yellow propeller hats. Nothing better than sitting thru the CEO giving a lame speech while he's wearing a propeller hat.
It was nice to talk to Joe G. He's oldest daughter is engaged -- the proposal story was cute. I had a nice talk with Annette. I spent 3 hours on a bus for a 2 hour 'celebration'.
Whoopee.
A few years ago, when I was commissioner of the local youth soccer group, I wrote a nice Perl/MySQL system to do game scheduling. The schedules are put into a database, and a CGI displays the relevant info - standings, results, and schedules by individual team, division, field, etc. A separate CGI is used to post the scores of the games.
Over time it grew into a fairly sophisticated system; I'm particularly proud of the Perl code that handles tie-breaking in the standings. This year, I was volunteered to do the schedules for the older divisions - U-16 and U-19. These schedules are particularly challenging, because of home-field rotations and field sizes that prevent certain divisions from playing on certain fields.
Anyway, after a flurry of e-mails yesterday, I finalized the field and team data, and created a schedule. I did a few QA passes, and found and corrected a couple of important errors, but the final version looked okay. Games start this coming Sunday, so even though it was tough to get firm field committments from some of the regions, and they added a team just yesterday morning, it had to get done. A little more QA by someone else would have been a very good idea, but there just wasn't time.
I sent out an e-mail announcing the release to about 80 addresses, and bravely but foolishly put my e-mail address at the bottom of the message. No doubt I'll have a bazillion complaints in my inbox this morning.
If you're bored, you can look at the masterpiece here.
The official name is Peanut Butter Blossoms, but they've always been boobie cookies at my house.
1 (14-ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
Granulated sugar
5 dozen unwrapped Hershey's Kisses
Preheat oven to 375°. Unwrap the Kisses, and place in referigerator to cool. In a large bowl, beat sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth. Add Bisquick and mix well. Form into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Roll each ball in the sugar to coat well. Put balls about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes; do not over bake. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven, and immediately press a cold Kiss into each cookie. Allow at least 5 minutes for the cookies to cool before eating. Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.
Makes about 5 dozen.
I had to get out of the house. You know the feeling. I missed my planned ride on Sunday to help Jeremy with his car, but it couldn't wait any more.
I left about 8:00 this morning, and headed for the Canyons. I stopped for gas in Sunland (as usual), and hit Big Tujunga Canyon. The light traffic made the ride quite enjoyable.
I stopped for breakfast at Tom's #25 in west Palmdale. Ham and eggs, over medium, with hash browns and rye toast. For the life of me I couldn't get the waitress to bring me more coffee, so I got up twice and did it myself.
Bouquet Canyon was nice and fast. I always get passed by the sports bikes, but I was doing okay myself. I headed south on Vasquez Canyon, then south on Sand Canyon, and took a break at the In-N-Out at the freeway. I read a Sherlock Holmes story while I drank a strawberry shake.
Sand Canyon turns into Little Tujunga Canyon, with nice views and tight turns - good practice for me. LTC hits the 210 at Osborne, and I made my way home - flow of traffic was 85+ all the way to Pasadena.
There's few better ways to clear your head then a few hours of twisty roads. I either need to get a lighter jacket, or start leaving earlier, or wait until it cools down.
