Blog Master G

I just returned to the office from paying the move-in costs and picking up the keys for our new place at Larkspur Shores! I’m so excited I can’t even stop to eat my Michael’s Sourdough sandwich (second this week!). With Karen’s help, we unloaded the first carload of stuff for the place. I can’t wait for Jen to see it. We have great views of trees and green outside every window, plenty of storage, and, at long last, peace and quiet — not to mention a place of our very own for the first time. The other cool thing I discovered in the move-in material is that the company that runs Larkspur Shores, Equity Apartments offers, as the name implies, credit toward building a new house anywhere in the country (through the company). I don’t know that we’ll be able to take advantage of that, but cool nonetheless. The big move day quickly approaches..two days and counting.

Last night Jen and I took a hiatus from the intense packing underway at good ol’ 1147-D to hit our favorite Mexican food joint, Juan’s Place in Berkeley. It rocked, as always. (Shoot! I just realized that i forgot to bring my burrito nub for lunch today.) Before going into eat, we managed to catch the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society before they closed for the evening. In our quest for a second dog, we were pleased to find the building filled with wonderful dogs. There was a noble Siberian husky named Kobe, a good-looking malamute, and, out back, a cute little lab-boxer mix called Rusty. He was sick with kennel cough and sounded terrible, but we really liked him, so we took him out for a spin. He passed two important tests while standing on the sidewalk across from Juan’s: passing biker and toeheaded little person; he barked at neither one. We still need to talk to Mollie to find out if any good ones have recently come into the SF SPCA.

While cleaning out the closet of the office last night, I came across my old Apple StyleWriter 1200. It barely worked back in the day, so I posted it for free this morning on Autodesk’s internal classifieds. We’ll see if anyone bites.

It’s really scary that President Bush continues to make threats against Iraq. Saddam Hussein has now issued a warning that any attacks will be countered. Wonderful. Let’s pick a fight with a country we fear has nuclear and biological weaponry so that they won’t use these bad things. Of course, doing so will only have the effect we would be trying to prevent. Way to go, Bush. Your decision-making skills continue to amaze us all.

How ironic:
Bush Optimistic on Economy
ADSK 10.90 -1.11

At lunch today I hit my favorite sandwich place, Michael’s Sourdough, then ran a few move-related errands: boxes from U-Haul, satellite tripod from Radio Shack. Here’s the good part: Prior to going into Michael’s, I was going to ask where the U-Haul place was (I knew it was right in the same vicinity as the sandwich shop). I didn’t remember to ask until I was outside, seated at a table and eating my sandwich. Before I was able to get up to head back inside, I looked up from my sandwich and saw a parking lot — separated from the Michael’s parking lot by a chain-link fence — chock-full of giant U-Haul trucks. It’s a small world after all.

My horoscope for today quite simply sums up how I’ve been feeling the last couple days:

Aries Horoscope
(by astrocenter.com)
You are in an introspective mood, which is most unusual for you, dear Aries. In addition, you find yourself drawn to classical music and the artwork of the old masters. What’s gotten in to you? Could it be that as you become more enlightened, your tastes change as well. Likely so. Why not begin to keep a journal as part of your evolution? You’ll find that writing is an efficient way to release ideas. On top of that, it’s therapeutic as well.

I haven’t yet found myself drawn to classical music of late, and got my fix of the old masters back in April while in Italy, but the bit about feeling introspective and writing in a journal (so that’s what this is all about!) certainly fits.With each day, I feel more and more compelled to add an entry about my thoughts. I enjoy creating a written history as I live my life. As I said to Jen the other day on the plane while jotting down notes for the forthcoming redesign of my Web site: It’s not so much for anyone else — though it is cool when people stumble across my Web site — but more for me and you (Jen). I like documenting my life as I live it, so that we can look back some day and reminisce. And share with our kids and grandkids. As for the introspective feeling, I think it may be partly caused by the big change on the horizon: Saturday’s move, our first in three years. That, and my increasingly fiercer burning desire to get more into the planning of the business.

Yesterday I picked up Stella from Planet Canine. I was excited to see her and she was ready to come home. She seemed tired and happy, having played with other dogs 6-8 hours per day since last Wednesday morning.

Yesterday was a pretty funny day at the Newark Airport. During our nearly three-hour layover between Albany and Oakland Airports, we set up camp at the Brooklyn Brewery Jazz Bar, a plush blue establishment with cozy chairs, no jazz, an OK lager, and a tasty brown ale. We hung out there for quite some time.

At one point, I took a trip to the nearby magazine store and splurged for a $12.95 Chameleon Books notebook with a photo of the Statue of Liberty on the cover. I was scrawling notes for the redesign of my Web site on scraps of paper and decided I’d rather have a nice notebook for personal use. While in the bookstore, I searched and searched for the New Yorker and Harper’s for Jen, and couldn’t find them on my own. But then a nice customer handed me the New Yorker and the clerk guided me to Harper’s, which was oddly placed in the business section (I don’t think of Harper’s as a business magazine).

When we eventually made it on the plane, the flight was long and the bathrooms ran out of water. Jen and I have decided that Continental really sucks. We will try to avoid that airline in future travel plans. The in-flight movie was Life or Something Like It with Angelina Jolie. It wasn’t the greatest movie ever, but kind of cute (as any movie with Angelina inevitably is).

Back in California, it’s nice to be home. Moving madness goes into full effect tonight.

Greetings from beautiful upstate New York. Here in Kinderhook, the landscape is lush green, the air is fresh, the temperature not cruelly hot, and the smell of cow dung lingers in the air.

Today Jen, her mom, and I headed to Poughkeepsie to meet with the caterer for the wedding (Chris of Christos), to check out the gorgeous Vassar campus in the summertime (we managed to get into the chapel and scope it out), and decide on location for rehearsal dinner (and snap a lot of photos that we’ll be able to use in our soon-to-be-created wedding Web site). After having lunch at Coppola’s, we decided that the Alumnae House was the obvious choice. This is what I felt all along in my heart was the right choice. It’s just such a great building with so much character. It will be far more memorable than the back room of a somewhat cheesy Italian restaurant.

Tonight it’s off to Sue and Josh’s rehearsal dinner at the Carolina House here in Kinderhook, then to their wedding tomorrow.

Jen and I are still a bit exhausted from flying all night Wednesday. We took cat naps the whole way back from Poughkeepsie.

A homeless man in Rome was arrested yesterday for having made a living out of stealing thousands of euros every few days from Trevi Fountain. When the cops hung out at the fountain at dawn to wait for him, he looked right at them and proceeded to sweep up his change from the fountain. I think that’s hilarious. It’s not funny, though, that he’s been taking the money away from charities who would have otherwise received it. Why did it take Roman authorities so long to catch him? And why is Roberto Cercelletta the only man smart enough to have been doing this for nearly 40 years (since 1968)? Regardless, had I known there were several thousand dollars’ worth of change in the Trevi when Jen and I were there in April, I might have dove in myself.

Yesterday I sent a letter to the editor of NextDraft, Dave Pell, following his obnoxious commentary and childish pokes at Anna Nicole Smith in his column on Tuesday (see original column following my letter). Of course, I’ve yet to hear back from him (and doubt that I will). I’ve subscribed to Dave’s newsletters (first Davenetics and now NextDraft) for years and this is the first time I’ve been truly disgusted by him. And apparently Dave fails to recognize the importance of acknowledging his readers, without whom he wouldn’t really have a reason for publishing his email newsletter. When I was editing Capitol Action Weekly for four years, I always responded to readers who took the time to write to me — even if it was simply to thank them. Good or bad, feedback from readers is one of the most rewarding parts of editing a newsletter. Apparently Dave does not agree. Or he still has a lot to learn — especially if he wants to make it in the world of journalism.

My friend and coworker Karen sent me this beautiful aerial view photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. Her friend was fortunate enough to climb to the top of the bridge yesterday. And what a day! He sure lucked out. But as Jen’s dad would say, this photo is “like being there.”

Today feels like Friday since Jen and I are off to New York tonight via red-eye flight. We’ll be in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday to get reacquainted with the Vassar Chapel, where our wedding next year will be held.

Happy Jamaican Independence Day. I need to keep thinking of the enviably chill state of Jamaicans on this day of the country’s 40th anniversary of freedom from British rule.

Urine on the living room floor. Dog fight in the hallway. Big ornithophobic Russian man in the kitchen. Shriveled carcass of fish creature on the perimeter path.

Yesterday was certainly a day for the record books. It all started with an innocent enough idea: A coworker was trying to find a new home for the adorable Rocki, so I cancelled my haircut appointment, loaded him in my car, and headed home for a compatibility test run. Jen and I introduced Stella and Rocki on neutral territory, the Field of Dog Dreams (FODD). After establishing her dominance, Stella seemed OK hanging out with the new guy. The two brown beasts frolicked around the FODD for a while, then we returned home.

Of course, when Rocki came into Stella’s house, it was time for Stella to make it clear all over again who the alpha dog was. So she did. Then they played. At least for a bit. In a strange sort of way. Stella tried so hard, but Rocki just didn’t seem interested. He’s probably older than her and doesn’t understand her crazy, energetic ways.

Then the pitter-patting began. Jen and I realized that there was some kind of creature stuck in the hood above our stove. So we called the Treasure Island after-hours maintenance line and stopped preheating the oven for the Chik Nuggets we were getting ready to eat. Then the noises stopped. So we told maintenance not to come. We resumed preheating the oven and threw the Chik Nuggets inside. Tap-tap-tap. Pitter-pat. We put it together: Having the oven on was cooking more than one Chik Nugget. So I called maintenance again.

The big Russian man arrived. He went into the kitchen, pulled open the hood, and a small bird darted past us and into the window. I managed to open the window and shove it outside, but not without screams from the muscular man: “Get it out! I scared of the bird! Get it out!” When things calmed down a bit and the bird was gone, the man repulsively said, “You cooked the bird! It smells like cooked bird! You must clean this grate! Put it in dishwasher.” I never told him what was in the oven.

Meanwhile, Stella continued in her attempts to get Rocki to play with her. When he finally got fed up with her, he jaunted into the living room, lifted a leg, and watered our carpet. Rocki failed that part of the interview.

Several tiffs later, Jen and I took the two beasts for a walk on the path, where Rocki came across a fish creature carcass like those often dropped by seagulls this time of year (feeding time for the newly born). Of course, Stella quickly took it away from him and strutted her stuff proudly down the path before we were able to make her drop it.

Back at work, Rocki has been returned to his foster dad, my move to a new cube is complete, and I’m still trying to relax.

New York City’s plans for the one-year memorial of September 11 were released today. I’ve been wondering for awhile how the day would be commemorated. I’ve wondered if it would become a national holiday. But then I realized that December 7 is not a national holiday. September 11 is, quite simply, another day that will live in infamy.

This morning moments after waking up Jen for work, I complimented her on her beautiful engagement ring (as I often do) and she said that she had dreamt that it got broken. I then told her that I had dreamt that during an attempted synchronization between my Yahoo! Calendar and a Palm Pilot with a dying battery (which, I’m sure, was present in my subconscious dream state since I let my mom borrow my old-school first-generation Pilot that needed new batteries), I had lost all the data in my Yahoo! Calendar. This was quite a bummer in my dream, since I could no longer view a list of all the movies, among other events, that I’ve seen and had logged in my online calendar. Funny the different things that men and women dream about.

Friday night Jen and I went out to a great dinner with both my parents at Farallon, mine and Jen’s favorite fine-dining establishment in the city ranked by Gourmet Magazine as having the best food in the country. Farallon is usually ranked among the top two or three restaurants in the city. Jen and I had only been there once before, and again, the food was to die for. We both had Alaskan halibut, cooked and flavored to perfection.

Saturday it was off to pick up our new leather chair and ottoman from Steve in Twin Peaks, with the help of a man named Dave who drove a pickup truck (I had found him that morning on craigslist). Dave was only asking for $25 to help us transport the chair, but we gave him an extra 10 since he did it on such short notice, showed up right on time, and was really nice. He seemed taken aback that I was giving him quite a bit more than he had requested, and it looked like he was about to hand the 10 back to me.

Saturday night we headed to Glen Park with Ben and Jess for a fun-filled going-away party at Rhys’ beautiful four-story home. The party was catered by Deeelicious Dishes, owned and operated by Rhys’ friend Karen.

Sunday was a mostly relaxing day at home, with packing for the move now fully underway.

At last it’s Friday. A bit overcast outside, but the greatest day of the week nonetheless. This afternoon my mom should be arriving in Emeryville by train. I’ll be picking her up, then Jen and I will be going out to dinner with her. No decision yet, though, on where we’ll be going.

As much as I love Unix and learning all about it, the thing that’s scary about it is how easy it is to inadvertently delete or overwrite files. This morning I was experimenting with creating subdirectories in my mbox archive (which I managed to do successfully in one case) when I did it wrong the second time (without realizing until it was too late). After creating the subdirectory (“jenner”), I first moved one set of archives into this subdirectory, followed by another. When I went to examine what I thought was a subdirectory, turns out it was just another flat mbox file, so the second set of archives had overwritten the first.

Thank goodness DreamHost runs automatic backups every 6 hours! (One of the many reasons I left Pair Networks.) I’ve certainly been a big pain in the ass to DreamHost’s friendly and helpful support team, but I’m glad they’re so accessible. I’m currently waiting for the restore to happen (and keeping my fingers crossed!).

Last night Jen and I went to look at the amazing stuffed leather chair and matching ottoman that we’re going to purchase tomorrow. The guy bought them from Macy’s not too long ago, where the original price was more than $1,300! He bought them on sale for about $700 and is selling to us for $350. The chair is sooo comfortable it should be illegal. Jen and I will most certainly be fighting for daily sitting rights in the chair. Maybe we’ll even have to create a seating chart. Rather than dealing with the hassle of renting a Budget van like we did last time (when we bought the leather couch), we’re hiring a Bay Area guy (“Person with a Truck“) who makes a business out of helping people pick up goods bought on craigslist. He’s not a moving company, though, since the PUC has weird regulations about moving companies, as I learned on Monday when meeting with our movers.