Category Archives: My Diary

My weekend

Yeah, my blog was a little sparse on the nerd front this weekend: Carmen and I were off for a short anniversary getaway in Napa, sampling some of the local food and wine and generally trying to relax. We give a hearty thumbs up to Julia’s restaurant in the Copia center in Napa. We began with salads: I ordered a beet salad which was very delicate, Carmen had an assortment of fresh vegetables including peas and beans. Both were perhaps a bit subtle for us, but delicious. I ordered a pork chop, and was pleased when the waiter said that the pork chop was brined and assured me despite its juice texture, it was fully cooked. Bravo! People fear undercooked pork to the extent of ruining perfectly delicious chops by cooking them to 180 or higher. The best pork chops are cooked until they are slightly pink on the first cut, but turn opaque white after a couple of seconds, more like 165 or so. And brining helps. But I digress. The pork chop was excellent quality, large, delicious, flavorful and tender. It came with a tart made from cream, onions, and bacon and a side of purple potato chips. Delicious. Carmen had the rib eye steak, which I sampled and gave it my seal of approval. Also delicious. Dessert for me was a sampler of three cherry desserts, while Carmen went with a sampler of three chocolate pot de creme with small cinnamon churros. Each chocolate was infused with a different aromatic herb. Delicious again, but perhaps a bit too refined for our more rustic tastes. Still, a great meal for our anniversary.

The next morning we decided to ride the Napa Wine Train from NAPA to Calistoga, and sample their gourmet breakfast/luncheon service. I am a huge fan of Eggs Benedict (which I sample very rarely now that I am trying to lose weight, but it was our anniversary), so I went with their variation which substituted beef tenderloin for ham. Carmen had a stuffed French Toast, filled with creme cheese, craberries and grapes. Both were good, but not likely to be classic recipes. The tartness of the cranberries tended to overwhelm all the other qualities of the French Toast, and I don’t really think that Eggs Benedict is improved by the expensive beef tenderloin. Give me the classic any day.

For dinner that evening, we went to Tuscany in downtown Napa. I had an interesting pasta dish which had chunks of stewed wild boar. It was a very rustic dish, with hand made pasta served al dente. I suspect that it is a dish which originally would have been made with venison, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Carmen had a roasted half chicken, which while competently done, was nothing very exciting. The ambience of the restaurant was nice though, with an open fireplace and lots of roasting chickens. We had fun.

The following morning: a picnic at the Clos du Val winery consisting of a loaf of bread and two kinds of cheese: one, a rustic Irish cheese and a softer mild cheese. Good stuff, and a beautiful setting.

A fun time. Happy fifth anniversary honey, and I’m looking to the next five, even as I rue the scale this morning (back on weight watchers for the rest of the week).

Bay To Breakers

Well, I’m back from the Bay to Breakers. Carmen and I mostly walked the course at a fairly brisk pace, we completed in about 2h 15m. I snapped some pictures, and got a GPS track of the parade route. Expect an update after I’ve rested up a bit.

Weekend Pic

Carmen at TahoeCarmen and I spent a short weekend at Reno/Tahoe, and I snapped this picture of her at the shore of Lake Tahoe. A nice trip, alas, all to short. Love you honey! Every moment with you is a vacation all by itself.

Picture seems overblown because I used my cameraphone, and let’s face it, it’s not the greatest camera.

Consider updates to be irregular for the next couple weeks

I’m freshly back from a whirlwind trip to Reno to scout locations for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday party, and I’m going to be tied up with SIGGRAPH sketch jury duty through next weekend, and the following weekend I’ll be trying to paint my garage door and run (or more realistically, walk) the Bay To Breakers. Busy busy busy, and I haven’t been able to get to recording a podcast in a while already.

I’ll see what I can do short of popping amphetamines, but likely the blog will take back seat for the next two weeks.

I hate cars.

My son’s Chevy was in the shop this week for difficulty starting.

Today, I got it back, after paying $700 and replacing three seemingly unrelated parts.

Tonight, its check engine light is on, and it’s running rough.

Sigh. Back to the shop tomorrow, with a calm but stern discussion.

Sorry for the lack of updates…

I’ve been busy all weekend, caught Sin City, the Courbet exhibit at the Legion of Honor museum, spent some quality time with my wife including a night out eating sushi, listened to a little baseball and in my down moments, blew away my Windows XP installation and reinstalled from scratch. Expect a podcast in the next day or two with these and many other topics.

Poor Scrappy

Our cat Scrappy seems no better. He just lies on our couch, completely zonked out. I got him to eat and drink a little, but his leg is still obviously hurting him. Vet appointment at 10:30. Update later..

Update: Well, Scrappy was running a fever of almost 105, which is indicative of an infection (probably got a bite on his leg from another cat, and it got infected). The vet gave him some fluid and an injected antibiotic, and he’s gonna be on oral antibiotics for a week, but he should make a full recovery.

The little guy does not like being in the cat carrier, and I literally thought he was gonna hyperventilate on the way to the vet, but the return trip was much less traumatic, and he’s resting comfortably at the top of the stairs. It may just be me, but he seems to be a bit more alert, if a bit tired. I’ll let him sleep.

Scrappy in a Scrap

Our sometimes-feral cat Scrappy has been fiesty lately. The previous two nights I’ve heard him picking a fight with random cats which stray into our yard. Last night he didn’t show up for his regular night time meal, and this morning he was in our garage (through his cat door) and meowing pitifully. He’s favoring his left front paw. I picked him up and checked it. It does seem a bit swollen, but not noticeably hot or anything, and while it’s sensitive, he did let me touch it without very much squawking. He didn’t take any food or water, but still yeowls periodically. I’ve moved him back onto his favorite blanket in the garage, and made sure he’s got food, water, and a litter box.

I don’t think it’s broken, but if he’s still not walking tomorrow, I’ll take him to the vet. Other than what I’ve done, is there anything you can do? Are any kind of drugs like aspririn or tylenol appropriate for cats?

Poor little guy.

Chinese Calligraphy

Chinese CalligraphyYou know, the thing I really like about Chinese calligraphy isn’t that I have an abiding interest in China, or in learning the Chinese language, or even in trying to become more comfortable with a brush and ink.

It really is just that for the couple of hours that our classes tend to last, I literally can’t think of anything else. It really requires an odd combination of both concentration and relaxing that seems hard to achieve with other activities, even ordinary drawing.

Of course, I’m not really any good at it, but that’s beside the point too.

An aside: this character is (supposed to be) YONG (æ°¸), meaning “forever” or “eternal”. It contains eight strokes, and is said to contain all that you need to know to master Chinese calligraphy. Seems really simple, doesn’t it? Try drawing one that looks good, perhaps with some online instruction. It’s trickier than it looks.

Goodbye Speedy

Nerds name their fish after video gamesIt’s kind of a bummer day. Speedy, one of a pair of Betta Splendens that my wife and son bought for me over a year ago has gone to that great fishtank in the sky. I noticed that he wasn’t eating very much in the last few days, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I still get bummed when I see one of these guys on the bottom of his tank.

His tankmate Pokey seems to be doing pretty well though. I’ll probably remove the divider in their tank and give him free reign.

As a tribute to Speedy, here’s a brief MPEG of both of them. Speedy is the one on the left, while Pokey is the angrier looking one on the right.

I named them after observing them in the first few days I had them, Speedy seemed quite fast, and Pokey quite slow. Ironically, once they were adjusted to their new environment, they seemed to reverse roles, and Pokey became the more active one. Their names of course are drawn from the classic arcade game PacMan, although they are also reminiscent of the stories my dad used to write for us when I was very little about Speedy the rabbit and Slowpoke the Turtle.

Word of the Day: Influenza!

Yes, it’s not just for the Pope, yours truly is experiencing the high fever, bodyaches, headache and general crappiness that marks the arrival of the flu. Last night I started getting the aches, which quickly shifted into the sweaty chills. Yuck!

So, I’m stuck at home with my laptop, feeling bored but too sick to really muster enough energy to do something. The rest of the day will probably be spent drinking water, taking advil, snoozing, and the occasional bit of websurfing.

Does everything in the world require debugging?

This morning I’m try to cross off six or seven niggly tasks that require concentration but relatively little time. I didn’t bring my iPod, so I’ve decided to fire up xmms with some of the mp3s that I ripped last year before I discovered podcasting. And it sounds terrible! Argh! Distraction!

What’s the deal? I don’t remember it being this crappy. Are my speakers crappy? Bad player? Is it just bad rips? Doh! I recorded them at 96kbps for some reason, and that is apparently not good enough.

And now, that’s replaced whatever I had on the top of my priority stack. Well, damnit, I’m not going to rip CDs. I’m just going to work in silence.

I’ll rerip ’em tomorrow.

Back!

Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday, I took the wife off to a whirlwind 1-day Reno vacation. Got a spa suite at the Silver Legacy, caught Bill Cosby in a show, ate too much, and then a long drive home that involved passing lightning, rain, and a couple of tornados outside Sacremento.

Had a great time, but probably no more for the rest of the day. I’ve got to wash the smell of cigarette smoke out of my clothes.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I Love Carmen!In an article which was nominally about Robert Scoble, Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid had one of his brilliant cartoons on the back of a business card which captures my sentiment as a married guy at age 40 precisely.

To my darling wife Carmen, Happy Valentine’s Day!. We are coming up on our five year anniversary, and I couldn’t be a happier man. You’re the best sweetie!

Oh, and you want to know where I got the cool candy heart image? Try the ACME Heartmaker, courtesy of Jef Poskanzer.