Back to business as usual. Brian’s out today, so it’s just me running the show; so far so good. Had a good time this weekend. LA Dave was around until Sunday afternoon, so I was able to spend a lot of time with him. Friday, I was too tired to go to the beer festival downtown, so I went home to take a nap instead. Later, Michelle, Dave and myself went out for sushi at Zen 5 in Pacific Beach. Afterwards, we were planning on going to Montage to hang out with Al, but we were all too tired to go out (especially since we were planning on getting up early to go surfing).

Saturday morning I got up early, ready to surf. Unfortunately, the weather was very gray and overcast. So, instead of hitting the waves, Michelle, Dave and I went over to the indoor rock climbing wall at UCSD. We should’ve checked to make sure it was going to be open first, because they don’t open at all on Saturday. So, Dave and I left Michelle there to swim at the pool and we went to buy some bowling shoes for me. After buying the shoes, we met back up with Michelle at my place and the three of us headed over to another indoor rock climbing gym down by Old Town. We scaled the artificial rock formations there for a couple hours and then headed home.

I had a hockey game, so I parted ways with Dave and Michelle. The game went well. It was a very physical match up, which left me sore for the rest of the night. The final was score was 4-4. After the game, I met up again with Dave and Michelle and the three of us went to get dinner in Hillcrest at Bombay. The food was good, except that the naan left a little something to be desired. Even though it was still early, we pretty much called it a night after dinner.

Sunday, Dave and I got up and went to do some early morning bowling. After bowling, we met Michelle for lunch at Board ‘N Brew. Following lunch, Dave took off for LA, Michelle went home to study and I took care of some things around the house.

Tonight, I have bowling as usual. Hopefully I’ll play a little better than I did yesterday.

I’m ready to get out of here and start the weekend. Tonight there is a beer tasting festival downtown that I’m planning on checking out. Don’t know much about it except that it starts pretty early. After that, I think we’re heading out to Montage to go clubbing. I’m going to have to squeeze a nap in at some point, because I feel totally exhausted today. I barely have the energy to write up this post.

Saturday, there is a chance we’ll be heading down to Baja to hang out with some of Michelle’s friends. If not, I think I have a game Saturday night (I have to double check). Sunday is pretty open, so I’ll probably just be hanging around. Hopefully the weather clears up a bit. It’s pretty dismal looking today.

Think you're smart? Find out by taking this IQ Test.

Is it Friday yet? After work yesterday, I had a consulting appointment. I really need to get out of the consulting business. It was fine when I was in school and didn’t have a full-time job to pay the bills. Now, it just cuts into my personal time. With my time becoming more valuable to me, I think I may have to start charging more. Anyway, after my appointment was finished, I was supposed to meet up with Kevin, Michelle and LA Dave for dinner. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t able to make contact with any of them I ended up going home. They came back shortly after and we all sat around talking for a bit.

Today I’m meeting Al and Dave at the gym during lunch. I’m not sure what we’re doing tonight though. I think Michelle may be studying for the GMAT, so perhaps Kevin, Dave and I will just grab some dinner.

I’m not sure how many of you have heard of RealDoll.com, but they sell true to life sex dolls for a hefty price tag. Well, it seems that this guy is looking for one on the rebound. You know you’re hard up when you’re looking to get sloppy seconds from a sex doll.

Looking to make the perfect paper airplane? According to the Institute of Physics, this is it.

Finally, it seems that Britney Spears is no longer a virgin.

A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words.

On a not-so-humorous note, our office was broken into last night. Fortunately, the theives only had enough time to grab a couple of monitors.

I, for one, certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I have yet another friggin’ sty in my eye. What the hell?! I go nearly 25 years with no sties and now I get 3 in the last 2 months. Oh well, I guess I don’t have much else to be angry about. But, I do have a question, what’s the deal with the baggers at supermarkets asking if you need help carrying your groceries out to the car? I mean, it’s not like I just pushed the damn cart around the store for the last 20 minutes, do they really think that I need help crossing the last 40 feet of the parking lot to get to my car? If they really want to offer a service, let’s have the bagger push the cart around the entire store and do all of my shopping for me.

I got together with Michelle last night for dinner. I grilled up some pizzas on the BBQ while she did some work on her business school applications. After dinner, I was pretty tired, so I just cleaned up, took a shower and went to bed.

Not too much going on today. I have a consulting appointment in the evening and then LA Dave is coming into town and staying through the weekend.

You know those boat propellers people put in the empty trailer hitches of their trucks that were a novel idea until everyone and their whitetrash brethren started accessorizing with them? Well, now you can be the first to get in on the next trend: a pair of brass balls to hang under the back of your truck.

According to a Housekeeping Monthly article from 1955, here’s how to be a good housewife. My how the times have changed.

A sign that should probably be present at most rallies.

Who can think about eating at a time like this?

Not sure what to do with the extensive porn collection you’ve been hiding under your bed?

Here's a somewhat interesting site. It details all of the FDA recalls for consumer products. Such as undeclared food dyes in food products, equipment cleaning fluid in Mountain Dew, undeclared nuts in food products, contaminated blood, etc.

I’m pretty tired today, but not as tired as I thought I’d be. I think I finally fell asleep around 2:00 this morning. Last night’s bowling match didn’t go too well. For whatever reason, no one on the team seemed to be bowling well, save for my boss’ wife Julie who was substituting for Al. Not sure how we did overall, but we’re probably going to lose some ground in the standings.

After the game, I headed home to try to take a quick nap before my hockey game. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep and ended up getting maybe 30 minutes of sleep. I was a wreck on the ice. I felt like I was still half asleep and was just puttering around. All the same, I still had a good game though. 2 goals and a couple of minutes in the Sin Bin. In very rare fashion, we won 3-2.

Today should be pretty low-key. I have no after work activities to speak of, although I will probably try to cook dinner for Michelle so she can do some more work on her applications.

As some of you may have noticed, I’m getting a lot of visitors to my page these days. In fact, as I write this, I’m rapidly closing in on 1000 unique hits since August. Well, it seems that my boss has noticed the increased traffic as well, namely people pulling up the web cam page. When I saw him for our hockey game on Saturday, he said something along the lines of the following:

“[His boss] asked me to run a report last week while you were gone. He wanted a summary of the traffic to our HR web pages. However, when I pulled up the report, I noticed that there was a page called something like, ‘TravisLive’ that had thousands more hits than the rest of our pages.”

In the back of my mind I began to think that TravisLive was going off the air first thing Monday morning. I quietly gulped and waited for him to continue.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘what the hell is that page?’ So I pull it up in your office and next thing I know, I see myself on the web.” Something interrupted us at that point, but I knew we’d touch on it again in the office.

Monday morning I went into Brian’s (my boss) office and asked him if he wanted me to take the page down. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to mind that it was there and just found it to be amusing. But, when we get new computers, I need to move it from the server to my personal machine. He did give me a printout of the report, however. It seems the UCSD HR web page with the most hits was around 8,000; my web cam page had 57,500 hits. You guys need to do something else at work.

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
Monday, Monday, it just turns out that way
Oh Monday, Monday, won't go away
Monday, Monday, it's here to stay

I really wish I wasn’t in the office today, especially with the last few weeks of summer rapidly melting away. It looks like Michelle and I got back from New Orleans just in time, as there was/is a hurricane moving in. Based on the weather, we decided not to do the swamp tour this time around. Instead, on Friday we headed down to the Riverfront to walk around and do some sightseeing. I spent the majority of the time driving Michelle insane by walking into nearly every shop in search of unique beads. We also stopped by Harrah’s long enough to drop a dollar into the slots. Because we didn’t do the swamp tour, Michelle and I decided to be touristier and do a voodoo tour in the evening. After the casino, we went back to the hotel to change for dinner and then headed out to do the voodoo tour.

We got to the meeting place for the tour with plenty of time to spare. However, after realizing that the tour was going to last for two or more hours, and it was already sundown, we decided to just get the night started instead. We had another heavy dinner, this time at Brennan’s and then it was time to party. Our first stop was Pat O’Brien’s for Hurricanes. The Pat O’Brien’s that Nik and I went to in Cancun was a completely different experience from this place. For starters, there weren’t any dancing midgets in Technicolor leisure suits and the atmosphere in general was a little classier. Hurricanes in hand, we hung out in the piano bar portion of the bar for a while. Sadly, the piano players simply did not have the same presence as those that used to play at Sing Sing, so we took off shortly after.

The next bar on the French Quarter crawl was Coyote Ugly. Unfortunately, there wasn’t too much of a scene there, so we didn’t stay long enough for a drink. A frozen daiquiri bar was the next stop. We stayed there for a while and enjoyed our refreshing libations. After the last revitalizing sip, we took to the streets again to take in some of the, ahem, sights. There was plenty of action on Bourbon Street and people seemed to be getting their beads worth. A bachelor-ette party provided some additional entertainment, although after seeing just how free spirited the bride was, I would have to agree with a by-stander who claimed, “there’s no way I’d marry that chick.” After wandering around for a bit, it was back to another round of daiquiris, another trip up and down the street, then back to the hotel room to collapse.

Saturday morning, we slept in as late as possible, then got up and headed to the airport. Our flights were drama free and we even got in a few minutes early. As soon as I got home, I turned around and headed to a hockey game. We won handedly, although I was unable to score to save my life. I was so wiped out that I fell asleep as soon as I got home.

Sunday, I woke up around 9 and met up with Al and another guy on our bowling team at the alley to practice for a bit. After bowling, Al and I met up with Michelle at RIMAC and we all worked out. Then Michelle and I headed up to Del Mar to grab some sandwiches at Board ‘N Brew. The rest of the day was pretty much a write-off as I just hung around the house. In the evening, Michelle and I went to an end of season BBQ hosted by the captain of my floor hockey team. The attendance was light, to say the least, but we still had a good time.

Tonight is going to be another really late night. I have bowling from 6-9 and then hockey at 11:15. Can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

[Friday's Entry]

As I sit here composing today’s entry, rain is pouring down outside. 15 minutes ago, the skies were non-threatening and it looked to be a nice day out. The real downside to all of this is that Michelle and I were planning on taking a swamp tour this afternoon. According to the tour company, they run rain or shine, but I’m not sure how comfortable that would be.

Last night we walked around for a bit, got some beignets at Café Du Monde, and a couple of drinks at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. We came back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then took a cab over to Commander’s Palace. Talk about 5-star dining! The food was fabulous. Michelle couldn’t stop raving about the meal, especially her oyster and caviar appetizer. To say that the wait-staff was attentive would be an understatement. Naturally, it was impossible to take so much as a sip of water without someone coming around to refill the glass. But, to really top things off, half way through dinner, they came around and replaced our water glasses because too much of the ice had melted!

After dinner, we came back to the hotel to change and then made our way down to Bourbon St. Unfortunately, we were just a little too tired to really get into the scene, so after about a half an hour or so we decided to return to the hotel. This morning, Michelle had to take care of some more business related tasks, so I’ve just been lounging around the hotel room.

Tonight, we’re planning on spending our last night on Bourbon St., this time really partying it up. This should make for a long plane ride tomorrow, but you only live once.

Tuesday night I got together with Bill and Dana for dinner at Zen 5. Dana has never been one to eat sushi, so when he suggested it, I jumped at the chance. Even Bill, who normally wouldn’t eat any sushi, tasted a sampling of the sushi we ordered.

Yesterday morning, Michelle and I had a town car pick us up from her place to take us to the airport. I guess the guy was new on the job, because we had to give him directions on the way there. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Everything went smoothly and we took off on time. We had a quick stop off in Phoenix and then we were on our way to New Orleans. On the flight to New Orleans, I was seated next to the window, Michelle in the middle, and an Asian gentleman on the aisle. Evidently, this man felt very comfortable sitting next to us because when I glanced over in his direction, I noticed that he had his belt unbuckled, his pants unbuttoned, and his zipper wide open.

We landed about 15 minutes early, gathered up our luggage and hailed a cab to the hotel. When the cab pulled up to the curb, a little old lady, standing about 4’10” tall, popped out. Rather than pop the trunk, she simply undid the strap that was keeping it shut and instructed me on where to put the luggage in the trunk. So much for full service. She talked our ears off on the way to the hotel, explaining why she was taking the route she was taking, about how the mayor was cleaning up the city, good places to eat, etc.

We got to the hotel in the early evening, which afforded us enough time to get showered up before dinner. For dinner, we went to Emeril’s NOLA restaurant. The food was excellent. We had a roasted duck pizza, gumbo and prischutto-wrapped salmon. After dinner, we walked around the French Quarter for a couple of hours. There wasn’t too much going on last night, but I think that will change tonight and tomorrow night.

Michelle had a product show to go to this morning, so I was on my own for most of the day. I woke up around 11:00, did a really abbreviated workout in the fitness room at the hotel, grabbed a quick shower and hit the streets. I walked down to the French Quarter to grab some lunch. I ended up eating at The Court of the Two Sisters, a restaurant that I tried to eat at when I was driving across the country and stopped in New Orleans. They had an enormous buffet brunch set up with all kinds of southern fare. The food was quite good and I left feeling very full. After lunch, I walked around Bourbon Street, popping my head into various shops. I’m back in the hotel now, waiting for Michelle to return from her show.

Tonight, we’re going to Commander’s Palace for dinner, which I’m extremely excited about. After that, we’re planning on partying all night on Bourbon Street. I will be sure to take my camera so as to document the whole experience.

Because Michelle’s here for business, her company is picking up a lot of the tab (hotel, meals, travel, etc.). Now I know what it feels like to be a woman. It’s such a liberating feeling being wined and dined on someone else’s dollar. No wonder some girls go out with guys just because they have money.

When I left the rink last night, I was absolutely furious. Not because we lost 5-1, but because the laws of time and space were unfairly violated. That would explain how a game that started at 11:40, containing (3) 20-minute periods, plus 2 intermissions, plus a clock that is stopped between plays, ended at 12:37. The other, less scrupulous explanation would be that the timekeeper was running extra time off the clock as we played. I remembered thinking that what seemed like a one-minute shift ended up taking about 3 minutes off the clock. I started watching the clock a little more carefully. Sure enough, minutes were dropping off like seconds. At one point, there was 11:30 left in the game, two seconds later, it was down to 10:30, another couple ticks off the clock and it was 9:30. When I realized what was happening, I became really angry and started yelling at the timekeeper. When confronted by me, he guiltily restored some of the lost minutes, but that wasn’t enough to appease me. If there is anyone on the ice who doesn’t want to be there at midnight, it’s me. But, if I pay the same amount of money as those who get to play early in the evening, I don’t appreciate being gypped out of ice time. This will definitely be brought to the attention of the league manager.

Last night was also the second week of our bowling league. I felt really inconsistent for most of the night. I think I need to get my own ball and shoes soon so that I can take those factors out of the equation. Overall, we did ok. I think we lost the match to the team next to us (one of their guys threw a 264).

On a much more happy note, at this time tomorrow I will be 35,000 feet in the air, making my way to New Orleans with Michelle. I’m really looking forward to this trip. It will be nice to get out of town for a few days.

For those of you on low-carb diets, *ahem* Al, it looks like you won't have to give up drinking beer, thanks to Michelob

The one week when I actually have a fair amount of work to do is the same week that I’m only going to be in the office for two days. If I can’t get everything done by tomorrow, I’ll probably be working next Sunday.

Friday night was Alexis’ last night in town, so I wanted to hit the town with her. She had another friend, Sarah, in town visiting for a few days. I picked the two of them up (they’d already started hitting the sauce) and we headed downtown. After circumnavigating the streets of the Gaslamp for about 20 minutes, we lucked out and found street parking less than a block from our first stop, Sevilla. We had some tapas (Spanish for appetizers) and the girls got some more drinks. After Sevilla, we headed across the street to Dublin Square. There was a live band playing some cover songs and they were actually pretty good. We talked for a while there and had another round of drinks.

Next stop was Henry’s Pub. The crowd at Henry’s was definitely an older group. I would say that the majority of people in the bar were over the age of 30. In fact, we probably doubled the number of twenty-somethings when we walked in the place. Speaking of twenty-somethings, I should probably mention that Sarah was 20 and using a fake ID, that said she was 33(!). To be honest, I thought for sure that she was going to lose it at the first bar and it would be an early night for all of us. Boy, was I wrong. We made it to 3 bars and nobody gave it a second glance. I couldn’t believe it. While we were at Henry’s, there was a group of about 5 guys in suits milling around. They were exchanging occasional glances with the girls, so I sat back and watched the show. A couple of them introduced themselves and the four of them began talking. Minutes later, the monkeys in suits called over a third member of their clan. This guy comes swooping in, takes Sarah’s hand and says, “You look absolutely fabulous tonight!” Note to self and all other guys: this sends up the “this guy’s got to be gay” flag, according to Alexis and Sarah. I continued to watch in amusement as the girls toyed with the guys. Shortly after, we left the bar, the parasites in tow, and headed over to Olé Madrid. I guess there was a special DJ spinning because there was a healthy line outside the club. Seeing that, we decided to call it a night. Shaking the most persistent suitor proved to be somewhat of a challenge, but Alexis dealt with him handedly.

Most of Saturday was spent under the car, readying it for a smog test. Since Tricia is leaving town for New York soon, I wanted to see her before she left. I made plans to meet up with her and a friend that night at Jimmy Love’s. While I was waiting for them to show up, I ran into Chris Ramos, who I hadn’t seen for a long time. We talked for a bit and got caught up. Not much later, the girls showed up and we all went in the club. Unfortunately, the stress of moving and a car accident the day before caught up to Tricia while we were in the bar and she started to feel really sick. We went outside to get some fresh air, but it didn’t seem to help, so we called it a night.

Sunday, I took care of some things around the house and then Al came over to hang out. A little later in the day, Bill came over and we rotated his tires. After playing mechanic, Al and I drove down to Pacific Beach to hit up some thrift stores in search of bowling shirts. There were no shirts to be found, but I did end up buying a caller ID box for $3.

After shopping, we went back to my place and met Michelle, who was on her way home from Santa Barbara. I hung out with her until I had to leave for my hockey game. It was a close game and we ended up tying 3-3.

Tonight is week 2 of league bowling. I have another late night hockey game following our bowling match (11:15 PM). It’s going to be hard to make it through tomorrow.

With Jenny moving to Washington to pursue her forensics career, I thought I would come up with an appropriate personalized license plate for her...

On any other Friday, I’d be looking forward to another weekend, but not today. Tomorrow, I will be spending the entire day under the car fixing a couple of things so that I can pass the smog test for my [now overdue] registration.

Last night I got together with Jenny for dinner and to see her off. I didn’t really do anything for the rest of the night, I guess I was too tired. I ended up going to bed pretty early, but it was still a challenge for me to get out of bed this morning. Tonight is Alexis’ last night in town, so I’m planning on going out with her later.

Not too much other stuff going on at the moment. I did just make reservations at a couple of restaurants for next week when Michelle and I are in New Orleans. On Wednesday night, we’ll be going to one of Emeril’s restaurants, NOLA, to “kick it up a notch.” And on Thursday night, we’ll be dining at the Commander’s Palace (at one point voted the best restaurant in America). I’m still trying to figure out what we’ll be doing during the day, but we may try to do a swamp tour or check out the VooDoo museum. I’m really looking forward to the trip, it will be nice to get out of town for a couple of days.

Levi’s has some new pants coming out for men that will shield their boys from harmful radiation.

Two days and two totally worthless meetings. Yesterday, I attended the campus Systems Administrators meeting where the primary topic was how the campus should deal with SPAM. I think the most exciting part of that meeting was when some guy’s chair collapsed. Today, I spent my entire morning at the Human Resources all staff meeting. This annual meeting is notorious for being unbearable. In fact, the meetings have been planned out for the next 3 years so that people are unable to plan their vacations during the meeting, as they so often have in the past. Why is it so insufferable? Probably, because it involves listening to statistics garnered from returned customer surveys for 3 hours.

Imagine the most monotonic voice droning on about, “…the average score awarded to the compensation department in the area of reachability by telephone was 3.2. This is up from 3.1 last year and 2.9 in 1994.”

I would estimate there were about 30 slides in the presentation, each one with about 40 statistics. To really add insult to injury, the presenter insisted on reading every, single, #*&$ing statistic so that those in the back could be in total agony as well.

Yesterday, I had lunch with Jenny. The two of us went to Board and Brew in Del Mar for sandwiches. The place was far more deserted than usual, but the food was still good. I spent the majority of the afternoon contemplating the slitting of my wrists in the previously mentioned Sys-Admin meeting. After work, I had a floor hockey game. As things turned out, it was our last game of the season. We ended up losing 4-3 in overtime. I had two goals in the losing effort, as well as putting my elbow into an opposing player’s eye (which I felt really bad about), and having my shin split open. Fun stuff.

Later in the evening, I was supposed to meet up with Jenny at Longboards since it was her last night in San Diego (she’s moving up to Seattle to pursue her forensics career). Unfortunately, by the time her party reached the bar, it was too late for me to go. Luckily though, it looks like she’ll be staying until this evening, so we’re planning on having dinner tonight.

I’ve found myself doing a lot of self-reflection over the last couple of days. One of the revelations that had was in regard to why everyone perceives me as quiet. There are two types of people, those that think while they are talking, and those that think before they talk. I fall into the second category. I like to think things through completely before stating my thoughts. Regrettably, often by the time I have formulated my thoughts and I’m ready to express them, the conversation has turned to another topic and I’m forced to play catch-up. So, it’s not that I’m quiet or have nothing to say, I’m just trying to formulate my thoughts. This is why I’m enjoying this on-line journal so much, as I’m able to think about exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it. It allows me time to be complete in my thoughts, a luxury that I’m not often afforded when talking to people who are able to think while they are talking (which seems to be the majority of people that I associate with).

A question of protocol for the guys (women are welcome to respond with any insight as well): If you are entering a one-room public restroom that contains a single urinal and toilet (but no stall around the toilet), and your intention is to only use the urinal, do you or do you not lock the door?

In recognition of September 11th:

"Every day, a bell rings, A city awakes, a workday begins, a market opens and the world gets down to business, all because every day a bell rings. Let freedom ring."
--former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

http://www.September112001.com
http://www.tearsforfreedom.com/tribute/tribute.htm

Now that the craziness from last weekend has been appropriately documented, I can continue with the boring daily updates.

Saturday was, for the most part, a write-off. I spent the majority of the day trying to catch up on missed sleep from the night before. Saturday night, I played in the first ice hockey game of the season over at Mira Mesa. We ended up doing a number on the other team, winning 4-0 (not counting two goals that were disqualified).

Sunday, I went out to breakfast with Michelle, M2 and Jeff. The four of us went to Broken Yolk in PB. After breakfast, Jeff and M2 took off for home. Michelle and I both breathed a sigh of relief after their departure. That afternoon, the two of us met Al at the gym for a quick workout. Afterwards, Michelle and I went to the airport to pick up Kevin and Julia from their trip to Seattle.

Later in the evening, Al came over bearing a large abundance of food garnished from Whole Foods. We grilled up some steaks and feasted on salad, beef and buffalo (which was quite good, I might add). By the end of the night, I was pretty tired so I just went to bed.

Monday marked the fist day of my new bowling league. There was an informational meeting being held before our first match. Al and I walked into the room where the meeting was being held and felt like we were walking in on the official town meeting of the geriatric society. When we got there, they were going over some of the league rules and making changes. There were a lot of “aye’s” and “nay’s” and “I move to…” and “I second…” I had no idea that bowling was so democratic. I just thought you threw the ball down the lane and tried to knock down all the pins.

After the meeting, we got our lane assignments. They put us smack dab in the middle of the alley, sharing a lane with another group of younger guys. They too, looked pretty solid as a team and bowled quite proficiently. Fortunately, they were throwing back more beer than strikes, and by the third game, the alcohol had definitely helped us to pull ahead.

Yesterday, the Staff Education division of HR hosted an instructor appreciation luncheon for its instructors. Our division was invited as well, so I was treated to an excellent free lunch. As an added bonus, it kept me out of the office for a couple of hours.

After work, I met up with Alexis and her friend Sarah for dinner. We went to California Pizza Kitchen. Alexis and I had the Jamaican Jerk Chicken pizza. I’d never tried it before, but it was quite good. After dinner, I went back to my place to meet Michelle so that she could do more work on her business school applications. Unlike the last time, she didn’t seem able to apply herself, so not too much was accomplished.

Today, I’m meeting up with Jenny for lunch. She’s taking off for Seattle tomorrow, so it will be the last time I get to see her for a while. Tonight, I have a floor hockey game at UCSD. It’s an early one, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Statue Molesters As I looked over some of these pictures, I couldn't help but laugh because I can think of a few that I have...Bronze showgirls at the Riviera, a Mickey Mouse statue at the Disneyland hotel, a statue in San Fransisco, etc. Hmm, maybe I'll have to scan them in and post them.

Cookin' with Cockroaches

Friday night, continued:

Before getting into the remainder of the story, it bears mentioning that Jeff probably has a good 6 inches and at least 60 pounds on me, and clearly has no problem with physical confrontation. That said…

Being that it was 2:00 in the morning, I was too tired to go home; instead, I just opted to stay at Michelle’s place. I helped her set up an air mattress for Jeff and M2, and then I went to lie down on her bed. I had a hard time falling asleep, but finally I was able to doze off. Not long after, I began to hear footsteps in the hallway outside of Michelle’s room. I didn’t think much of it, until the noise stopped and suddenly the door began to open. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I just lay there as though I was sleeping. Next thing I know, Jeff entered the room, stumbled over to the side of the bed that Michelle is on and began to touch her.

Suddenly, my brain was doing a mile a minute. What the hell was going on here?! I started to roll over in hopes that he would see me and it would deter him from whatever he was trying to do. Luck was on my side and my movement seemed to be enough to get him to leave the room. It was such a surreal occurrence that I found myself questioning whether or not it had actually happened. I tried to shake it off and return to sleep.

I was in a very light sleep when I heard the door open again. Jeff reentered the room and made his way to the foot of the bed. Before I could react, he began to climb on top of Michelle! Adrenaline surged through my veins. I could only guess what was going to happen next. Would he try to force himself upon her? Would he view me as a threat and try to attack me? If it was necessary for me to intervene, did I have a chance in hell of taking this guy?

I weighed out my options. I tried to think of the most non-confrontational way of dealing with the situation. With heightened senses, I started to roll over towards the two of them. Jeff picked up on this and reacted by slowly slinking to the floor. He was on the floor for less than a minute when he stood up again. I lay there aghast as I watched him pull the covers off Michelle and get into bed next to her.

This had gone way too far. Whatever was going on here had to stop immediately. I reasoned that the best course of action at this point would be to wake Michelle. I turned on the light next to the bed.

“Michelle, wake up!” I said as sternly as possible.

No reaction. “Michelle, wake up and turn over.”

She started to come to. “What’s going on?” she asked groggily.

Again, I instructed her to turn over. It was then that she realized there was a third party in the bed with us. Expecting any sort of reaction, I was both surprised and disappointed when she merely asked Jeff what he was doing there. He mumbled incoherencies. With her voice completely devoid of emotion, Michelle asked Jeff to go back out to the living room to go to sleep. That seemed to get through to him and he picked himself up off the bed and carried himself back to the living room.

After he left the room, I lay there with my heart beating high in my throat. I looked to Michelle for answers, my mind in a state of total disbelief.

“What do you want me to say?” She asked, nonchalantly.

“How about telling me what’s going on,” I countered.

“It was nothing, he just climbed into bed thinking I was Michelle.”

‘Oh, of course, well then, I have nothing to worry about,’ I thought to myself sarcastically. I continued to scan her face for answers.

“What?!” She seemed more annoyed with my reaction than the situation at hand. “It’s no big deal, it’s just Jeff.”

Right, just Jeff. Just Jeff, the guy I’d known for less than 12 hours and had already identified him as an aggressive, testosterone driven alcoholic. Just Jeff, the same guy who’s face was oozing blood from multiple wounds because he spent the night fighting with people in the mosh pit. Just Jeff, the same guy who’s currently completely out of touch with reality and has no idea what’s going on or who’s bed he’s trying to sleep in. Clearly, it was no big deal.

I tried to explain to Michelle exactly why I felt the situation was a little unnerving. That he could have forced himself upon her, that he could have tried to attack me, etc. When I was done, she said, “oh, I didn’t think of that.”

As anyone could imagine, there wasn’t much chance of me falling asleep any time soon. Michelle still wasn’t as distraught as I was, but she stayed up with me to keep me company. I was finally able to fall asleep about an hour later. Needless to say, I was totally wiped out for much of the next day.

When asked about his escapades the night before, Jeff had no idea that anything had happened. I wish I could say the same thing.

Unfortunately, I was away from my desk for the majority of today, so I didn't have time to finish the writeup on Friday night. I should have it done either later tonight or early in the morning.

Friday night, continued…

Due to the unpleasantries experienced last year, I vowed that I wouldn’t have a drop to drink all night. In fact, I didn’t drink any fluids after 2:00 in the afternoon. As I mentioned earlier, I arrived at Michelle’s place in the early evening and everyone was having a pre-party drink (in my head, I knew they’d be sorry) while getting ready and waiting for the last couple of people to arrive. Once everything was in place and we became a properly assembled mass, we were on our way. We drove down to Old Town to park the cars and take the trolley downtown (I couldn’t imagine trying to park anywhere closer to the event). Our immediate group was made up of Michelle, Michelle’s friend Michelle (M2), her boyfriend Jeff, Michelle’s friend from work Angelo, and myself. We missed the first trolley because we hadn’t purchased our tickets yet, and nearly missed a second one because Jeff was in the bathroom. When we arrived downtown, the streets were fairly empty and we were able to enter the event without any problems. Once inside, everyone wanted to get a drink and use a bathroom in a bar. So, we went to the Blarney Stone. After a couple of rounds, it was time to see the first concert of the night. We headed out to one of the main stages to see Violent Femmes. Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie (the two original members of the band) were looking a little rougher than the last time I saw them. None-the-less, they still put on a great show, closing with one of my favorite songs of all time, American Music.

As the Femmes were finishing up, we began to make our way to the next stage to see Save Ferris. It’s been too long since I’ve listened to much ska, let alone Save Ferris, so I didn’t recognize a lot of the songs. No one in the group was really captivated by their performance, so we ended up leaving after a couple more songs. Jeff had some friends that he wanted to meet at the Blarney Stone, so we made our way back over there. The plan was to have a quick drink and then see Live play. A couple rounds later we were still in the bar. I really wanted to see them play, and I knew Michelle did as well, so I tried to get her to leave with me with the intention of meeting up with the group later. She felt a little too responsible for her friends, so she wasn’t willing to leave the bar. Instead, I ended up sitting there, mildly annoyed, while everyone else drank like fish.

Finally, the group began to assemble itself in an effort to make its way over to another stage to see Bad Religion. Truthfully though, it must have taken about 20 minutes for the lushes to pick themselves up and exit the bar. Walking the 3 or so blocks to the stage where Bad Religion was playing turned into quite an ordeal. Suddenly, everyone became an expert on directions and had us going in 8 different directions, all wrong. Being the only person who actually knew where the stage was and how to get there, I found myself becoming quite frustrated trying to keep the group moving and focused. Add to this that every time we’d pass by a booth selling any sort of alcoholic beverage, we had to stop for more to drink.

45 minutes later, we arrived at the show as Bad Religion was playing their last few numbers. Jeff and his friends headed straight for the mosh pit, whiled I stayed back with the Michelles. M2 had to go to the bathroom, so Michelle and I went with her to try to find somewhere to go. Evidently M2 was experiencing emotions similar to mine last year, because she was looking anywhere and everywhere for a place to squat. Finally, we ended up along one of the main fences where there was a media entrance that was guarded by some Staff Pros. The next 10 minutes were spent watching M2 argue with one of the guys to let her through to go to the bathroom. Finally, he let her go and I was left on the other side of the fence to fend for myself. At that point, I happened to see one of my hockey buddies, so I grabbed him and talked to him for a while until the girls returned.

They got back just as the band was finishing their set. We walked over to the back of the crowd to where we were supposed to meet back up with everyone. Jeff and his friends showed up shortly thereafter. Jeff looked as though he’d been in a pretty good fight. His eye was swollen and he had a bunch of bruises on his face. The story was that he was in the mosh pit and because he was drunk, fell down and got kicked in the face a few times. Naturally, this pissed M2 off and the two of them started arguing (mind you, they’d been arguing on and off all night about completely pointless stuff).

At this point, the group split up into two factions, those that wanted to see Stone Temple Pilots, and those that wanted to see Social Distortion. I opted for Social Distortion. The band wasn’t going to be on for another 30 minutes or so, so Angelo, the Michelles and I hung around some of the local radio station booths until then.

I don’t know what happened to Social Distortion, but they seem to have gotten a little softer in their old age. Mike Ness offered up a couple political-esque speeches on responsible parenting and losing loved ones between songs. Their set, overall, was good though.

After the final song, we were left standing at the back of the crowd waiting for everyone else to show up again. I figure at least 30 minutes had passed before Jeff’s friends showed up. Not long after they showed up, Jeff stumbled over. He looked like hell. His face had been beaten to a bloody, swollen mess. His clothes were covered with blood and his arms were all scraped up. Naturally, M2 lost it and wouldn’t talk to him for the rest of the night except for the occasional bickering. Once we had everyone in one place again, I was hoping that we could go home and end the night. The cards were not in my favor. Everyone else wanted to avoid waiting in the trolley lines and to get something to eat instead. We spent another 45 minutes going to a pizza-by-the-slice place and trying to get the group to move down the block to the trolley stop. By the time we finally got to the stop, there was no waiting and we just jumped on the train. More tension on the train as Jeff and M2 sat in completely different seats.

We finally got back to Michelle’s around 2:00 in the morning. But, I wasn’t going to be getting too much sleep, as the worst part of my night was yet to come…

…To be continued.

Hopefully today will be relatively quiet so I can fully record the events of the weekend, namely Friday night.

I left work a few minutes early to meet up with Michelle and a couple of her friends from back home so we could all head down to Street Scene together. When I got to her place, everyone was having a couple of drinks. I wasn’t going to drink because of my experience last year. Allow me to retell that tale…

Street Scene 2001 turned out to be such an unbelievable nightmare that I vowed never to return again. The all-mighty dollar was clearly the driving force behind the event last year, since they must have oversold tickets by 150%. Trying to get around the venue was completely ludicrous. People were so densely packed in that it literally took 30 minutes to walk one city block. If the crowd were to become unruly at any time, somebody definitely would’ve been hurt and possibly killed. It felt like San Diego’s answer to foreign soccer matches.

Against my better judgment, I really wanted something to drink, so I decided to leave the group to go get a beer. I got in line just as Cake took to one of the stages. I was still in line an hour later when they left the stage. When I finally got to the front of the line, I ordered two beers (the max per person), paid the woman and raised the beers over my head so that I might have a chance of returning to my friends with some of the beer still in the cups. As I tried to make my way back to the group, I kept getting jostled and pushed around, to the point where the beer was going everywhere. When I finally found them, I was able to enjoy what little was left from the fruits of my labor. I have to say though, cheap, white trash beer has never tasted so good. I’d finished with one of the two glasses when the group decided it was time to move to the next stage. For whatever reason, I decided to hang on to the empty glass and placed the second one inside the first.

As we were trying to make our way through the crowd, the drinks that we’d consumed earlier in the evening began to make themselves known and mandated a bathroom break. If I thought the lines for beer were atrocious, I was completely horrified by the Porta-Potty lines. The need for relief coupled with the slight loss of judgment from the alcohol led to alternative, less acceptable means of evacuation, as I joined about 100 other guys standing along a fence. Having met one of my most basic needs, it was time to make our way to the last concert of the night, Social Distortion. By the time we reached the stage, I was starting to feel the need to relive myself again. No matter, I thought to myself, I’ll just hold it until the show’s over and deal with it then. About 30 minutes into the show, my bladder reached critical mass. It was then that I realized the seriousness of the situation. People surrounded me on all sides as far as I could see. There was no way I’d be able to leave. Dammit, why did I drink all that beer?! I started sweating as the horror stories of permanently damaged truck driver bladders filled my head. I took my [now crossed] eyes off the band momentarily and glanced down. It was then that I realized I was still holding the two empty beer glasses in my hand. A glimmer of hope swept across my face. Could I pull it off? The ever-increasing pressure and resulting pain in my abdomen subtly reminded me that I had no choice. I glanced around me. Everyone was engrossed in the concert, including all of friends. I would have to go it alone.

So, I unzipped. Nervousness swept over my body as I tried to focus on the task at hand. Or, rather, the task in my hands. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. At that instant, the crowd suddenly surged forward and I was forced to retreat momentarily. Shortly thereafter, things stabilized again and I was able to give it another go. I began to fill that cup like there was no tomorrow. Then, the crowd surged again. I had to pinch off. Additional pain overcame my nether region as I tried to remain calm. Deep breaths, I told myself, it will all be over soon. Another lull in motion of the crowd and I was in business again. This time however, the enemy wasn’t the crowd, but rather the limited capacity of the cup. I had to stop again. Argh, this was not making my equipment happy.

Now I was faced with an additional challenge, the disposal of the, now full, cup. I temporarily put the mouse back in the house, and as luck would have it, the crowd spread out slightly and I was able to quickly bend down and place the cup on the ground. I rapidly backed away, as though it were a live grenade, for I knew that it would only be a matter of seconds before someone came along and kicked it. I was able to get out of range before an enthusiastic concertgoer made contact with the cup and spilled its warm, foul contents into the street. Round 2. Now that I had a system, I quickly filled up the second cup without too much drama, again, limited only by its unfavorable lack of capacity. After disposing of the second cup, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and turn my attention back to the concert. When the concert finished, there was a mad dash back to the trolley station. Fortunately, the stage that Social Distortion was playing on was near the station and we were able to catch one of the first trains back to Old Town (where our car was parked).

After all that, I swore I would never attend Street Scene again. But, somehow I found myself heading down to Old Town Friday night to repeat the experience in 2002.

…To be continued.

I wish every week only had 4 workdays because this week positively flew by! Last night I met up with the guys on my team for the bowling league to practice a bit before our first match. One of the guys is super solid (he bowled on a team in high school) and rolled a 200. The other guy and myself were well below that, but, as a team, I think we’re looking pretty good.

I’m going to try to get out of here a little early today so I can get to Michelle’s in time to head downtown for Street Scene. Of the bands playing tonight, I hope to catch Social Distortion, Violent Femmes, Common Sense, Live, Save Ferris and one or two others. Right now, it’s looking like it might rain tonight. In a way, I’m kind of hoping that it does in hopes that it keeps some of the crowds at home.

As for the rest of the weekend, I don’t have too much planned. I do have a hockey game tomorrow night which I’m really looking forward to, as I feel like I haven’t played in weeks. Sunday, I’m supposed to help a woman from work move and then I need to pick Kevin up from the airport.

Does anybody know if Bob Hope is still alive?

Think you have a magnetic personality? Check out this guy. (be sure to check out the pictures section)

Just got back from lunch a little while ago. We went to Brigatine, just north of Del Mar. I’ve always wanted to eat there, having ridden my bike or driven by the restaurant a countless number of times. We were seated in an open-air portion of the restaurant, which overlooked the Del Mar Racetrack. The view and ambiance were great. The food was quite good as well, but the portions were on the smaller side.

I stepped outside for a second. The weather’s not looking so hot for this weekend, as it was just starting to rain. Oh well, maybe that will help keep the crowds at bay for Street Scene.

Have some extra, unsightly fat? Throw a nipple on it!

Bored? Here are a few more links to keep you busy:
http://www.dolphinsex.org
http://ofb.net/8ball/procedure.html
http://www.trygve.com/visible_barbie.html
http://www.perp.com/whale/video.html
http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/%7Epmichaud/toast/

What’s a really annoying way to start the day? How about when I go to get my first cup of ice-cold water and one of the secretaries is filling up the coffee maker with the entire reserve of cold water so I’m left with the tepid leftovers? Would it kill her to step out of the way for a few seconds while I take the cold water? I guess it makes more sense to put all of that water into the coffee maker where it’s going to get heated up anyway.

Looks like they changed the reviews from yesterday on Amazon’s site and a few less believable reviews are on there now. Fortunately, I happen to have a backup of yesterday’s version.

I finally got to play with my rice cooker last night. I made some curry rice with chicken for Michelle and myself. Having never touched the machine, I didn’t really know what to expect, but everything turned out ok. I’m going to have to try making rice pudding one of these days.

All night, I felt like a parent. Making dinner, cleaning up, making Michelle do her “homework,” etc. She was able to get one of her essays done, though, so the night was a success.

We’re taking one of the programmers out for lunch today, and the rumor is that we won’t be going to El Torito for a change. Tonight, I think I’m going to have to try to fit a nap in after work, and then I’m going to be going to an art museum downtown with Al. Following that, I’m supposed to meet up with the rest of my bowling team to do a little practicing before our first league game on Monday.

Tomorrow should be another good day. I’m probably going to get out of here a little early and then head downtown with Michelle and some of her friends from back home to check out Street Scene. I went last year and swore that I would never go again. I remember it taking 30 minutes to walk one block because there were so many people. I also remember standing in line for beer for an hour, which then led to standing in line for another hour to go to the bathroom. But, supposedly they’ve expanded the size of the event, so it should be less crowded. I’ll believe it when I live it.

Looks like Amazon is selling "My First Vibrator" disguised as a children's toy.
(read the reviews)

It's people like this that give others who work in the computer industry a bad name. Looking at those guys brings back shell-shocked memories of my freshman year. Whenever someone asks what I do for a living, I just say that I work in the Human Resources department at UCSD. I make no mention of anything related to IT for fear that I will be catagorized with these types of people.
Linux will become a mainstream OS before any of these guys get laid. (and yes, I realize the irony of me making that joke, thank you)

With football season starting, it may interest you to know that it takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.

Try as I might, I couldn’t handle having monocular vision for the entire day yesterday, so I gave in around 3:00 and put my 2nd contact in. My eye isn’t quite as swollen today, but it’s still bothering me a little.

After work yesterday, I went over to Lianna’s old place to help her parents load up a moving truck. Everything went really smoothly and we were done in about an hour and a half. Because it was so hot and humid yesterday, I looked like I’d just finished a marathon by the time we were done. Having finished there, I went home to clean up and wait for Michelle and Al to come over so we could go to the birthday dinner. Michelle came over on time, but Al never made it to my place. Since it was a surprise party, the two of us decided that we had to leave in order to get to the restaurant before Becky (the birthday girl) showed up. When we got to the restaurant, however, everyone was already there (surprise!).

On the way home from dinner, we were driving on the 5 South just before the Genese exit. On this particular stretch of road, there is a large, sweeping right hand turn with an enormous bump in the middle. I’m amazed that there aren’t more accidents there. But, it brings me to my next point: Why the hell are we still unable to make roads that are flat and/or don’t contain enormous car destroying holes?! I mean, it’s not as though mass transportation is a new concept. Wheeled vehicles have been around for thousands of years and asphalt, as we know it, has been around since the 1960’s. Why is it that they can put a man on the moon, cause bald men to grow hair, have 80-year-old men walking around with erections, but in 40 years time they can’t figure out a way to create a flat piece of road that stays hole-free for more than a couple weeks at a time?

All of this pales in comparison when viewed against the other modern marvel of stupidity: the steel plates covering holes that are placed in the middle of the street during road construction. Not only is all of the asphalt surrounding the plate torn up to all hell, but what better way to further destroy a car’s suspension than by placing a piece of steel that protrudes two inches above the rest of roadway? What idiot thought this would be the perfect solution for recovering a hole?

Enough digression. Not much going on today or tonight, but I am planning on cooking Michelle dinner and then helping her with her business school essays. Kevin’s out of town on vacation for the next few days, so it will probably be pretty quiet around our place. Speaking of vacations, I just made flight reservations to go to New Orleans later in the month. Michelle is going out there to do a product show, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to come along (after all, with the hotel room paid for, the trip becomes quite a bargain). Hopefully the weather won’t be too muggy then.

I’ve decided to join a bowling league with some of my hockey friends. Since it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I’m looking forward to it. Now I just have to pick up some shoes, a ball, and a cheesy bowling shirt from years past.

It may be Tuesday, but I definitely have a case of the Mondays. I can’t stop yawning to save my life. I think the what’s bothering me the most is that I have another stupid sty in my eye. Since I don’t own glasses, I’m sitting here with a contact in one eye and shooting pain in the other.

Sty’s aside, the three-day weekend was great! Friday night, I went out with a bunch of old friends to celebrate Michael Ma’s birthday. We all went out to Buca di Beppo in Mira Mesa for dinner. Had a great time there (I saw quite a few people I hadn’t seen in a long time). After dinner, about half the group headed over to Rock Bottom in La Jolla. We were going to shoot some pool, but all of the tables were taken, so we shot the breeze for a while instead.

Saturday morning I had every intention of going to the gym, but I got to bed too late on Friday night. So, I slept in as long as I could and then left for Mira Mesa to meet up with my parents, grandmother, sister and uncle and his family for lunch. We went to Pat and Oscars (in the same shopping center as Buca di Beppo). Lunch was pretty good, save for the half-inch chunk of bone that I found in my chicken pizza. After lunch, I made my way over to the airport to pick up Michelle. Since I was only going to get to see her for a couple of hours, I was happy to see that her flight got in early. Because she was coming back from a product show, part of her luggage was an enormous backdrop for displaying product information. Needless to say, the odds of it fitting completely in any part of my car were slim to none. Fortunately, I’d thought ahead, and following my father’s example, brought an ample supple of bungee cords. The majority of the backdrop fit in the trunk and the remainder was thoroughly secured with the previously mentioned bungee cords (a job that would’ve brought tears to my father’s eyes). We made it home from the airport without incident and I hung around Michelle’s place until I had to leave for Redlands.

I left Michelle’s place and headed home to pack for the rest of the weekend. I left my place and just as I was getting on the freeway, my phone rang. It was Michelle, saying that she’d changed her mind and wanted to come with me. I was overwhelmed with shear happiness as I turned around to pick her up.

The two of us drove up to Redlands to see Christopher and celebrate his birthday. The plans for the evening were completely up in the air, but when we got there, Christopher had decided to start bar-b-queing, so we decided to make it a quiet evening at home. Being a huge home theater fanatic, Christopher treated us to the full movie going experience, complete with wide screen this, surround that, digital something or other, and fresh popcorn. We watched X-Men first, and then started the Royal Tenenbaums. Michelle and I were too tired to make it through much of the movie, so we both went to bed.

The next morning, we got up and started off for Hemet. Rolled into town about 11:30 or so, hot and very hungry. Fortunately, Mom had some food waiting to go, so we were saved. After the appetizers, we all sat down to a really nice lunch. After lunch, I had to perform the usual homecoming duties, solving computer problems, installing appliances, etc. After all was said and done, Michelle and I left to return to San Diego.

On the drive home, we ran into a dust storm that completely blocked out the sun. Then, not more than 20 miles later, it began raining. As quickly as that started, it cleared and it was sunny again. Crazy weather.

Sunday night, I joined Michelle and a bunch of her friends and we went to see Digital Underground play at a local bar. They didn’t come on until after midnight, so I was pretty exhausted by the time they did. We stuck around long enough to see the Humpty Dance and then called it a night.

I spent the first half of Monday just relaxing and enjoying the day off. In the afternoon, I went shopping and then had a bunch of people over for an impromptu Labor Day BBQ. The BBQ was a lot of fun; had a great group of people over, cooked up a bunch of food and we all sat around talking well into the night.

Today, I’m going over to Lianna’s old place after work to help her parents load heavy things onto the moving truck. Afterwards, I’m going out with Michelle to celebrate one of her good friend’s birthday.

Fact of the Day: Pop-metal veteran Jon Bon Jovi made his recording debut with an unaccredited vocal on 1980's "Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album?" (Source: AllMusic.com)