Tag: doug

Good mail day

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I left the office half an hour later than usual and had to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. I was trying to figure out what to do tonight (Wednesday evening is the one week night evening where there is nothing good on TV). I arrived home to find that today was a good mail day.

First, my autographed copy of Visions arrived, personally signed by strausmouse right beneath the article he wrote on his recent skydiving experience. Believe it or not, I have a small collection on my bookshelves, of items signed by my friends. I have a Master’s thesis signed by Tawnya. I have a signed copy of Healthy Pet magazine, which Lisa edits. I have a signed copy of an article in the San Luis Obispo Tribune featuring Dan. I have a signed copy from an Oxnard newspaper mentioned Grandpa. I have a signed copy of an article from the UCLA Law Review, “On Regulating the Internet: Usenet, A Case Study” by Paul. I have a guest editorial in the Rockland County Journal written by none other than Doug many years ago. (That one, alas, is not signed. I’ll have to bring it to Seattle with me next time I go.) And now, I can add Eric’s article to my collection. I swear, the day I finally publish something, I’m going to sign 50 copies of it, personalize each one of them (“To Jamie, a really swell guy!”) and stuff my shelves with them!

Second, I received a letter from Trevor and Andrea (aka, thepopeswife). Actually, it was two-and-a-half letters, as Trevor wrote one letter, Andrea wrote another letter, and then she included an addendum to tell me that she agrees with my spelling thoughts! And so our mutual snail-mail, letter-writing pen-palism continues.

I now know what I am going to do tonight. I am going to compose a letter back to Trevor and Andrea. I may even autograph it for them so that they can start a collection on their bookshelf (if Trevor clears away some of the Lord of the Rings DVDs to make some room). Those autographs will be worth something, someday!

Yankees down 2-1

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The Yankees just lost to Detroit and they are not down 2-1. I feel as thought I should care more, but after 2 Jaeger shots and a tequila shot (not to mention a couple of beers), I really don’t care at the moment. We watched most of the game at Molly’s, a bar nearby where Jen and Jason live.

jen_ashlock has had less to drink than both Jason and I (and Doug, who is drinking with us remotely) but she seems to be three sheets to the wind. In fact, she has disappeared, and I assume she has gone to bed.

It’s about time that I did the same.

Yankees take game one

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That was probably one of the most impressive lineups I have ever seen in my life! It was simply relentless. And how about Derek Jeter, stepping it up a notch in the post season, as he always does, and going 5-for-5 (2 singles, 2 doubles, and a home run).

I was on the phone with Doug for part of the game, and he was making fun at me because I kept saying redundant things like: “And how about Jeter! He’s gone 4-for-4 and been on base every time!” (Duh!) The Fox feed in Seattle was also several seconds earlier than my feed. Doug would say something like “Uh-oh!” and three seconds later, I’d see someone on the Tigers get a hit.

Regardless, the Yankees more or less dominated the game and I was very pleased. I’m looking forward to tonight’s game just as much.

Coopertown Roadtrip: Day 3

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Well, Doug and I woke up from our slumber and both felt perfectly fine. No headaches. Doug felt a little finer than I did, I think, but we managed to pack up our things, take them to the car, and then head out to look at the various shops. We stopped into a small place for breakfast, looked at a few more of the shops, and then, finally got on the road and headed for New York City.

For some reason, I thought we were only a couple of hours away, but it ended up taking us about 4 hours to get to Jen and Jason’s. We took the “scenic” route, through the mountains, which was part of it. But it was nice scenery. Also nice was the fact that the weather got steadily warmer and nicer as we got closer to the city.

We reached Jen and Jason’s just about 4 PM, and they had reserved us a spot in front of their place. We watched the video from the night before in the hotel room, and that was when we discovered just how funny it was.

Then we headed into Central Park. It was jam packed because the weather was so nice, and also because there had been a massive parade on 5th Avenue that seemed to conclude just as we arrived. We wound our way through the park, stopping for hot dogs. We walked from 59th street up to about 85th street. From there, we cut over to where Jen and Jason’s new apartment is to get a look of the exterior. Just around the corner from their new place is a small German bar, and we settled in there for a while to have a few beers.

After that, we took a walk down 2nd Avenue to another place (the name of which I can’t remember) which Jason claimed had the Best Burgers In the City. It was crowded, but we got a table in under 40 minutes and I ordered a burger, and it was was very good. But I haven’t had too many burgers in the City, so I don’t know if it was the best.

After dinner, we headed back to Astoria, and planned on planting ourselves at Doyle’s. We were there for a little while, but I was absolutely exhausted and I think everyone else took pity on me. We headed back to Jen and Jason’s and I collapsed on the couch. I think the weekend was beginning to catch up with me.

The Cooperstown Roadtrip: Day 2

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NOTE: I’m posting this on Tuesday, June 13, but the events described herein took place on Saturday, June 10, 2006

Saturday began as gloomy and cold outside as Friday night ended. The ambient temperature when we finally woke up (around 9:30) was 39 degrees! It was also misting slightly. Doug and I headed over to the local Rite Aid and got some Advil, which we both needed. We then headed over to TJ’s for breakfast. Doug had a big breakfast, but I could only manage some toast and orange juice. Once the Advil kicked in, however, I felt much better.

Right around noon, we headed over to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which was literally right around the corner from our hotel (of course, in Cooperstown, anything is right around the corner).

Read all about the Hall of Fame Experience [pics included]

The Cooperstown Roadtrip: Day 1

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Doug and I agreed to be up at 7:30 this morning so that we could go and pick up the rental car around 8 AM. As it turned out, we got a little bit later of a start. Doug’s alarm didn’t go off as expected but it only delayed us a few minutes. I called a taxi to take us to the metro station, and from there we took the train to Silver Spring and walked a short distance to Hertz to get our car. We ended up with a Ford Taurus. We stopped for breakfast at IHOP and finally got onto the road at 10 AM. We arrived in Cooperstown nearly 11 hours later, just before 9 PM.

The first leg of the drive took just over four hours. We arrived in Suffern at just after 2 PM and stopped at Friendly’s off Airmont Road to get something to eat. We both got some kind of “melt” sandwiches, but Doug got the Philly Cheesesteak melt, which was made with somekind of cheese sauce dispensed from an aerosol canister. We were only there a short time before we got back on the road.

Doug drove the second leg of our trip, up to Albany to stop at Eric’s house, and we arrived there just before 5 PM. I struggled with the handheld GPS. I altered some setting on it that was making it not follow the roads correctly, but even so, we managed to find Eric’s place. Eric hopped in the car and took us to a beer place–and this place had something like 700 types of beer. I tried an English beer (the name of which I can’t recall right now, and the list of beers is in the car so I can’t look it up). Doug had a couple of different kinds of beer. Eric showed us his list of over 50 beers that he has tried.

When we got back on the road for the last leg of the trip, it was close to 7 PM. I got us a little lost initially, but we quickly recovered and got on track. We decided to take Route 20, which is the scenic route. On the way, it started to rain, and pretty much continued to rain for the rest of the night. The scenic route was scenic and the little towns we passed through were empty. Doug kept pointing out how much land there was and how big some of the properties were.

We arrived at the hotel just before 9 PM, and indeed, it is just around the corner from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We checked in to our room, which is very nice. We then parked the car, and headed downstairs to the restaurant for dinner. We ate at the bar because the restaurant was closing. We both had chicken marsala, and about 3 beers each. Our waiter/bartender was very cool and so I tipped him well.

After dinner, we headed to a bar up the street and saw our waiter/bartneder there. We got some seats and ordered a pitcher of beer, and watched the Yankees make a great comeback from a 6-1 deficit, only to lose 6-5. Our waiter/bartender bought us each of shot of something with Southern Comfort in it. It was the first time I’d tried that, and it wasn’t too bad. We went through two pitchers of beer and by the time we left the bar, when it closed at 2 AM, I was stratospheric, and I think even Doug was feeling pretty good.

We giggled and laughed quite a bit back at the hotel as we were getting ready for bed, with the room spinning around us. It was a really, really fun day and I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

POSTSCRIPT: I wrote this entry at about 9:30 AM Saturday morning, and I am feeling fine, although I have a terrible headache. Doug is still sleeping.

100 hours of fun

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My brother gets into town this evening and that marks the beginning of about 100 hours (from this evening until Monday evening) of fun. We’re driving up to Cooperstown, New York tomorrow, with a short stop in Albany along the way to say hello to Eric.

Well be in Cooperstown Friday evening, all day Saturday, and then we leave Sunday morning for New York CIty. We’re spending Sunday night in NYC and driving back home on Monday. That gives us some time to hang out with jen_ashlock and Jason.

I’m really looking forward to it.

In other news, my lawn mower arrived and I cut the grass with it and what a pleasure it was compared to the old thing I’d been using these last four years. First of all, its brand new and is nice and shiny. Second, it’s quite, even though it’s twice the horsepower of my old mower. Third, it took one easy pull of the starter cord to get the thing going–unlike the 11-15 pulls it took to get the old mower going. There were times when, once I got that old mower started, I was too tired to mow! But not anymore! Finally, it’s a got a rear bag attachment so if I wanted to, I could finally bag my grass!

The Cooperstown Trip

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It is official! Doug and I will be making a roadtrip to Cooperstown. Doug is going to fly into town on Friday, June 8. I’ve rented us a nice car from Hertz and we’re going to drive up to Cooperstown on Friday, June 9. It’s about a 6-1/2 hour drive from where I live, but we’ll probably take longer. For one thing, I’ve promised Eric that I’d stop by his place in Albany on the way up.

We’ll be staying at the Tunnicliff Inn, which is a mere 500 feet from the Baseball Hall of Fame. We’ll have all day Saturday to explore.

Sunday we’ll head back home, stopping for a few hours in New York City to see jen_ashlock and Jason.

Doug then heads home on Monday, June 12.

Should be fun and I can’t wait!

One of those non-stop days…

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I realized that it was one of those non-stop days today when it glanced at the time and it was 2 PM and I hadn’t even thought about eating lunch yet. I spent the morning hip-deep in code, trying to make something work with SQL triggers that has no business working, and yet I managed to convince it otherwise. Then I sat through a great 10 minute meeting. Problem is the meeting went on for another twenty minutes.

By the time I got back to my office, I had heard back form a vendor I am working with to schedule some training, and so I then spent several hours trying to obtain conference rooms for 4 days of training at the end of the month. Meetings are out of control. I had to beg and borrow in order to convince people to shift meetings around so that I could get conference rooms for four consecutive days. And not even the same rooms! Do all companies have these problems when it comes to conference rooms? Do we really need all these meetings? I’m reminded of something I once heard on KNX radio in L.A.:

A meeting is a place where minutes are taken and hours are lost.

It just seems as thought there is something wrong with the world when the time it takes to schedule a meeting exceeds the time of the meeting itself.

Somehow, I was then bombarded by email and it seemed like every message demanded an immediate response. I counted (come on, let’s face it, you know me by now) and in a two and a half hour span, I sent or replied to something like forty email messages. Productive work slipped away. I wrote one line of code, answered two email messages, wrote another line of code, answered three more email messages.

But I finally made it out the door. Switching trains on Mount Vernon Square, the Green Line that game by had an “isolated” car (that means that the car was closed, you had to use other). What this really means is that it was a crowded train by Washington Metro standards. In the 3-1/2 years I’ve been taking the metro, I’ve ridden on trains with isolated cars three times; two of those time have been in the last month.

I was finally able to relax when I got home. I finished up Foundation’s Fear and will start on Foundation and Choas tomorrow. Spoke to Mom, Dad and Doug on the phone this evening.

No need to pack a lunch tomorrow; I’m having lunch with A.J.

Best of all: tomorrow is my “Friday”. I’m heading up to Albany this weekend (a 4-day weekend for me) to see Eric and Ryane and so I took Friday off.

Now, going to watch a Sopranos episode and then off to bed.