Anne's Visit: Monday

Monday was all about Safari West. We slept in, had brunch at the Black Bear Diner and got to SW early for our 1pm tour. The ring-tailed lemur island was right near the gift shop so Sallie and I spent awhile watching a young one play around in the tall grass. She was a bit worried it might tip over into the moat.

With the weather still a bit rainy, we only had two other parties along with us on our tour for a total of eleven plus the guide. We all fit on one jeep. First, though we started out on a walking tour of a few exhibits including a walk-in aviary where we got up close to lots of tropical birds and even some blue duikers, teeny little antelope. We saw four cheetahs including two sisters.

Once in the jeep we headed out into the large enclosures where we saw Masai giraffes huddling in their barn, a white rhino pair, an ostrich that got almost right in Anne's face, lots of antelope and impalas, gazelles and oryx, a family of Cape buffalo, wildebeest and gemsboks, springboks and waterbucks, some zebras and a herd of Watusi cattle, the only domesticated species in the preserve. I highly recommend saving up to go check out Safari West.

The fish and chips place I had wanted to eat at for dinner is unfortunately closed on Mondays so after a bit of wandering around Santa Rosa we ended up at the Olive Garden. I've been wanting to go there for awhile. I got the rosemary chicken with broccoli over orecchiette in a garlic cream sauce. It was delish!

Anne stayed with me on Monday after sleeping on Sallie's airbed Friday and Saturday nights. She finally got her laundry in late and we didn't get to bed until after midnight. I don't know what time Anne got up but she was almost ready to head for the airport when I stumbled out at 5:45am. I dropped her off in Oakland then went back to bed and slept until 1pm. It was a great mini-vacation and fun was had by all!

Anne's Visit: Sunday

Our plan for Sunday was to meander our way along the Silverado Trail and Route 29 in the Napa Valley eventually arriving in Santa Rosa for dinner at Guy Fieri's Johnny Garlic's restaurant and then overnight in Rohnert Park. We hoped to get to Calistoga in time to see the geyser before it closed but we weren't in any real hurry.

Luckily I still had a wine country guide in my car so we could identify which wineries we were passing and which ones might be interesting to see. Anne also had a couple recommendations from her friends. None of us are real wine enthusiasts but we enjoyed the sights. It was raining a bit so we ended up eating lunch in the car at one of the wineries. I'm glad we decided to bring food along since cheap places to eat are few and far between.

We made it to the geyser with plenty of time since they've already switched to summer hours. With the water table being so high from recent rains, the geyser was erupting every few minutes but for a short duration. I think I saw it go off five times. We also enjoyed the baby goats and sheep there. The lambs were only about a week old.

Because it was raining we didn't want to take the walk through the Petrified Forest but we browsed the selections in the gift shop. I was tempted by some fossils but I really don't need more things sitting around collecting dust.

Our dinner at Johnny Garlic's was pretty yummy. I had the Cuban Pork Chop with a side of mac & cheese (of course). The pork was good but the mac was below average. I had to add salt, pepper and parm to make it worth eating. We made our way south to our hotel, watched The Amazing Race and turned in.

Anne's Visit: Saturday

Anne needed to log in to her work account but with Sallie having dial-up and me having a Mac we decided to try the library on Saturday morning after some shopping at the farmers market. I tasted the chicken curry again at the new Indian tent. They had a tandoori oven there baking naan. So good!

I recruited Sallie to help me figure out why my new Dyson ball wasn't working so we left Anne with my library card at the computer and went back to my house. I supplied a small screwdriver and Sallie did the rest in getting my vacuum working. She even vacuumed the living room! Thanks, Sallie! I tried to have her change my toilet seat but she discovered the metal screws were rusted and she couldn't move them. Oh, well. I guess that's what the maintenance guy is for. I forgot to have her install my new showerhead. Maybe if I feed her she'll come over again soon.

We picked up Anne (who was unable to log in after all and spent the time picking out paperbacks to buy) and drove up to the Oakland Zoo and ate our picnic leftovers in the car. We got to see most all of the animals; even the warthogs were out and about. I was making stir-fry for dinner so we headed home to my newly cleaned carpets. Sallie napped while Anne and I did some Facebooking. After dinner Sallie read while Anne and I created a tune on Garage Band. It was nice to have a relaxing evening before our road trip north.

Anne's Visit: Friday

Sallie and I selected some picnic foods at the grocery store on Friday morning then met Anne at the San Francisco airport and headed to the coast. I always make Anne drive when we're going over lots of hills so I navigated and she drove. We stopped at Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, north of Half Moon Bay. There were picnic tables and amazing views so we enjoyed a light repast with the gulls and crashing waves.

We then headed north up Highway 1 through Devil's Slide and Pacifica stopping at Fort Funston. The air currents were perfect for hang gliding and we saw up to six in the air at one time. Funston is a happening place for canines and their people. We walked the old roads of the fort towards the north and looked down the stretch of Ocean Beach. Once back in the car, we braved rush hour traffic on our way to Alameda, with a quick stop on Treasure Island to catch the best view of the City by the Bay.

Anne got a tour of Borders (and burned a CD) and I did some shopping at Trader Joe's for Saturday's supper. Sallie had solicited some recommendations for dinner near her store and we ended up having Thai at Toomie's. It was delish! I'll definitely be going back there again.

I'm taking the week off

čtvrtek

I'm a bit confused about what's happening on Idol. People were eliminated. Now they're back. Are the extra three (if that's how many it is) getting chosen tonight or are they just singing? Are we going to be voting for them or is it Judges' Pick? I guess I'll have to watch tonight and find out. I think I'd choose Anoop, Jesse and Megan (she's so odd).

After watching Idol last night it was all about the models. First I watched Make Me a Supermodel on Bravo. I like how they changed it up this season so Tyson can be on the side of the models and not a judge. I think my fave so far is Gabriel.

Then came America's Next Top Model with Tyra and the Jays. It's always so fun watching what they put those poor girls through. Who else thought crazy Sandra should've been gone? Yeah, me too. I love how she tried to justify all the things she did poorly. "I just don't screw up." Uh-huh. Sure. I'm going to wait a week or two to choose a fave. There are too many to choose from.

I have tomorrow off as a furlough day so I'll be doing laundry and cleaning the house in anticipation of Anne's visit next Friday!!

středa

I tried a new noodle dish at Siam today: Pad Woon Sen. I just love the tiny clear bean thread noodles (aka cellophane noodles) so thought I'd try this dish out. It came with both chicken and shrimp along with egg and various veggies like carrots, spring onions and cabbage. I liked the taste a lot until the noodles started burning my mouth. I should've asked for it mild. I'll order it again, I'm sure, when I'm feeling like Pad Thai but just had it two days before. Maybe I'll try it with tofu instead of both chicken and shrimp. The egg rolls and Thai iced tea were delish as usual.

Today I downloaded the Picasa app that's now in beta for Macs. It searches your whole hard drive for image files and then you can easily upload them to your Picasa albums. I uploaded all the pics my mom sent me last week. Here's some more samples:

Our family portrait from 1978 minus our oldest who was in college. I'm the 11-year-old in the striped shirt in the lower left. I remember those great glasses. They may have been my first pair.



John and I at Craters of the Moon National Monument on our trip to Idaho in the red Toyota Tercel with Mom and Dad for Mike's wedding in June 1984.




February 1985 with my cat Pushka on our deck in Michigan. I was so ahead of my time with those long sleeves under my T.

úterý

It sure has been raining hard today. When I left home it was really pouring and we got some heavy rain here in the City today too. It was very windy yesterday; the windows were rattling in their casements. I heard one report of hail in Berkeley today. The Weather Channel last night was describing our weather as "relentless." I hear that. I don't normally use an umbrella as I'm just scurrying a bit here and there outdoors but I decided to use it yesterday morning and it wouldn't open! It's a bit of a piece of crap anyway. I wish I hadn't lost my lovely Rick Steves umbrella that I bought especially for our trip to the UK. Now that was a fine umbrelly!

We got a handful of our magazines fresh off the bindery machines yesterday special for the international meeting we've been hosting the last few days. We got some very nice comments on this issue. I have to say I wasn't all that excited about this particular one. I've liked other pages in other issues better, though overall this may be our best issue yet as far as look.

pondělí

Days of the Week language this week: Czech

I've left little time to write today as I need to hurry over to the library to pick up three books: two Honor Harrington books (In Enemy Hands and Honor Among Enemies) and Jim Butcher's new Codex Alera volume, Princeps' Fury. I think I'll need to read a summary of the previous Alera book to get me on track. There are so many characters and political alliances that I always feel a bit lost when I start reading them. I'm nearing the end of Kitty Raises Hell so I'll need something to read come tomorrow.

Anne will be here in a week and a half! Which means we need to start making some firmer plans, like where she's going to sleep and who's picking her up at the airport. This will be the first time Sallie and I have hosted a guest since she moved out here a year ago. I'm really looking forward to it.

vendredo

Today I got some photos my mom sent me. What a treasure trove! So many good memories. Thanks so much for holding them for me, Mom. I've scanned in everything and have about half edited for posting online.

Here's my favorite birthday photo, from my first birthday in Michigan, number 6. Mom made the cat cake and Anne made the cat toy that I'm holding.



Another really great one that I had forgotten about is from when I was just a couple months old We were tent-camping and Mom had an ingenious way to give me a bath.




Some of the items she sent were not photos. There's a cutting from the local newspaper announcing my class' valedictorian (me) and salutatorian; a couple graduation announcements; the program from the prom; my first resume; and, best of all, my original, typed copy of my valedictory. I remember being so nervous about writing it that I didn't let my brother or parents read it ahead of time. I had some good material to work from since our class song was "We are the World".

ĵaŭdo

There's been a dog in the office off and on for the last few weeks. It's pretty quiet and stays with its owner for the most part. I occasionally hear a little bark or yip. I haven't asked if it's going to be a permanent situation. I hope not. I think it might be just while it's a puppy.

Sallie and I are wondering if Anne will want to go see Race to Witch Mountain with us. It comes out the weekend she's here. If not, we'll go later. Sallie really likes Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and we both liked the original movie.

I'm gonna take off a bit early today. I got a lot done today and am pretty tired. I can tell cuz I'm having trouble thinking of things to say!

The A's started playing Spring Training games this week and I've forgotten to listen to them. I feel like a bad fan. I'll try to do better.

merkredo

I finally remembered to call Zoe this afternoon. She left me a voice mail at work on Monday but I've had a couple really busy days and she's three hours ahead of me and goes to bed early on school nights so I had to remember early enough to call. She wanted to discuss our Spring Break plans. We'll be staying for a week with my parents at their new house in Indiana helping to unpack and organize. We'll have time to do some exploring of the town and college as well. I found a few possibilities in Fort Wayne for museums and the like if we want to do a day in the city.

I made a mistake this morning doing payroll quickly before a meeting. I was able to fix it but it made me realize I hadn't taken any notes when I was being trained in the new system so I had nothing to refer to. Of course I thought I'd remember everything but when you do something only once a month it's easy to forget.

mardo

This afternoon I went over to the print shop to check a couple sheets off the press for color and alignment, etc. It was nice to see and talk with the people I normally just communicate with by phone or email. I wish we had more money to spend on their professional prepress photo editing. We are often stuck using poor quality photos which could definitely use some professional help to make them look their best.

We spent a lot more time there than I was expecting so I didn't get to Sallie's until almost 7. I was really hungry and tired so we decided to have a relaxing dinner at the Hometown Buffet. Sallie had a coupon for half off of an adult dinner with the purchase of a full-priced dinner. We hadn't been to this buffet before and discovered they have Italian night on Tuesdays. I wasn't much interested in the chicken parm, however, when I saw they had steak and mac & cheese. I also tried a taco which was delicious. For dessert I nabbed a few crispy treat squares which went immediately (and illegally) into my bag for later. Yum! Happy Fat Tuesday!

lundo

Days of the Weeks language this week: Esperanto

Speaking of the moon... I read another great book by David Weber this weekend. Sallie reminded me she had loaned it to me at Christmas so once I finished the Honor Harrington books I had from the library I dug into Empire from the Ashes, an omnibus of a trilogy he published in the early 1990s. It was so good I couldn't put it down, not even for Facebook! There is much in the third book that foreshadows his Safehold series which made me ache for the next one that's coming out later this year. Anyway.... about the moon, in Empire one of the first things we discover is that our moon is no longer a moon but a spaceship (a really big one!). Another interesting discovery is that humans on Earth were a result of a mutiny aboard said spaceship about fifty thousand years ago. And the moon spaceship's computer has been hanging around all that time and gradually became nearly sentient. So cool.

I got the proof of the magazine from the printers today. There were a couple things to fix: a typo and a graphic wasn't printing properly. I'll be headed over there to do a press check with the editor tomorrow afternoon. Then I'm stopping at Sallie's to pick up the newest Kitty book which she got at her store. After that I need to drop off my library books and do some grocery shopping. I may have to blog from home tomorrow. We'll see.

perşembe

The magazine is uploading to our printers' website as I write this. I hate this part -- when I give it away and just know there are mistakes and things I would change if I had just seen them. I'm pretty happy with this issue. We had a few last minute photo searches again but at least we had the cover shot decided upon early on.

We're off tomorrow for a furlough day. I may do some laundry. I also need to finish up a couple books that are due at the library. Mostly I'm going to try to relax after a long couple weeks of magazine production. Maybe I'll watch the episode of 24 that's been sitting on my DVR since Monday. Oh, I'll also catch the next stage of the Tour of California. Looks like it'll be the individual time trial in Solvang. Go Lance!

çarşamba

¡Ay, carumba!

Why, when there are only two women left in the office this time of night, is the restroom occupied just when I rush down the hall to use it?

The specials at the Indian place weren't to my liking today so I expensively ordered from the menu: Butter Chicken. It was so delicioso! Paul usually asks them to substitute chicken tikka masala for the special but he took a different tack today and just asked for some tikka masala sauce on the side. They charged him $4 and the tandoori chicken he got with his special was disappointing. The service was very slow as well. I'd go back but I think it will take a bit of persuading to get Paul to accompany me.

I sent an inquiry the other day to Safari West to see about any openings for a tour the Monday Anne is going to be here. Their online form requires a credit card so I wasn't completely surprised when I saw they had charged my card but I was at least hoping for a confirmation email before they went ahead with it. I guess the only only way to find out if they've got spots is to call. Geez. I hope Anne and Sallie still want to go!

salı

I'm not sure how today's Tuesday in Turkish is pronounced but it looks like "Sallie" so here's a bit more about her. She's had some turnover in her store which was looking good with the arrival of an especially competent co-worker and then ended up not-so-good when said employee was reassigned soon after she arrived to a nearby store instead. Salllie's store is sans general manager and more of her best co-workers are being reassigned as well. Her hours have been cut too. I hope she can hang in there and that things will get better.

When I stopped by Sallie's on Friday I asked if she'd had the opportunity to test out her new vac. She had and reported it went well. I didn't lay down on the carpet but it looked nice and clean to me.

We ID'd our final missing photo today for the magazine and are in the proofing stages. I actually worked on a few things other than the mag today. I got the final January financial reports off to the budget managers, printed a few business cards, learned our commuter check maximum doubled (thanks, President Obama and Congress!), conferred with the author of the other DTP project I took on, and facilitated our monthly Admin meeting (and took and wrote up the notes).

Hey, look! It's before 9 and I'm going home! Woo hoo!

pazartesi

Days of the Week this week: Turkish

I stopped by Sallie's on Friday after work to return some books. I really should say "exchange" because I left with more than I brought. I was really hungry but she had already eaten so I stole a banana and stopped at Taco Bell on my way home.

I think the mouse is in my office so I'm going home. Maybe I'll write more there but don't count on it.

digwener

I decided to come into work after all. I slept in and puttered about at home a bit so didn't arrive until after noon. My goal was to finish a draft of the January financials. I had most everything entered except for payroll. I had to figure out how to change the system I've used for years to mesh with the info from my new payroll vendor. We also started HSAs in January so I had to create a new system for tracking employer and employee contributions and book payables for those who haven't set up their accounts yet. Luckily my system for booking 403b deductions was a good base to begin from.

I was almost done when my boss sent me a new budget to import into the reports. I found a few errors in the budget workbook so we had to correct those. I fixed the numbers manually in Peachtree instead of re-importing and ended up having to export the reports three times to integrate them into my big financial reports spreadsheet. I was just ready to head out when I got another request for some detail on specific accounts so while I was in Peachtree I exported a little report and sent that off. I think my bookkeeping plate will be mostly empty on Monday so I can concentrate on the magazine again.

Did anyone watch Survivor last night? I was worried that they wouldn't be near any water when Jeff said they were going to be in a desert with those high temps. It makes me thirsty! Luckily both camps have nearby water sources so I can move the Brita back to the kitchen.

diriaou

Should I come into work or not tomorrow? The office is closed for a furlough day but I really want to get my January books done. I just couldn't get to it today with all the magazine stuff and Monday looks to be no better. Plus I have to finalize the remittance envelope that goes with the mag. It'd be great to get that to the print shop tomorrow.

I almost missed my BART stop this morning. I was so caught up in the book I'm reading (Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs) I didn't notice I was even close. At least if I had my missed my stop and had to get off at the next one to catch a train going the opposite direction I'd have had something to read while I was waiting!

I just sent an inquiry to Safari West to see about a tour in their park for when Anne's here. Since we're going to Santa Rosa anyway I thought I'd check to see if they had any spots. We might combine it with a visit to the Petrified Forest. Mom and Dad and I really enjoyed our visit there.