Mass Transit

So living in CA this bridge collapse is a big deal on the news around here. Close to 200-250k cars are going to have to find a different route or take mass transit. The governator declared all mass transit free for today. Which got me thinking.. what if mass transit in urban areas were free everyday during rush hour. Would it alleviate traffic? Would it be worth it instead of building 8 and 10 lane highways all over the place? Who knows but it may be worth a try.

Happy Anniverisary

Happy Anniversary to Jen and I (it was actually on the 26th but I'm slow to blog). It's been four years now. Crazy stuff. Our anniversary's have become so common place that Jen stayed in MN instead of hanging out with me. Anyway, time is flying and we only have like 8 months left in CA and it's back to MN.

Entertaining Weekend

Not so much entertaining but rather we were entertaining Jens brother Matt and our neighbor from MN Jen. Jen took them on the standard Windcheater Mystery Manson, 17 mile drive and Monerary Bay Aquarium Thursday and Friday. Saturday it started out raining which sucked but we made the trek to San Fran just for something to do and maybe scout for Sunday. But it cleared up and they got some good views from the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz. We had to scamper back to Sunnyvale to make our dinner reservation. After dinner we went to a comedy club called RoosterTFeathers. The comedians there were friggen hilarious. I was really impressed with the talent for such a small establishment. I wish I had a memory so I could steal some of the jokes cuz some of them were awesome. So we found another something to do here when times are slow.

Sunday we did the usual visiting Muir Woods and San Fran. I'm getting really itchy to get out mountain biking again.

Find the Squirrel

 

LCS Terminated

I got out of a meeting today and read an email stating that the government terminated the LCS contract with Lockheed. Read I worked on LCS a few years ago so it's sad to see LM lose it. The first ship was just christened last september. The mood went from the feeling of a major success to flop in a very short time when news got out that the ship was 2X over budget. I've heard bits and pieces as to why the program got so out of control but I'll leave it out of this blog because I don't know what's accurate. I was really surprised to hear how much the programs cost had over run. I wonder why safe guards weren't in place to notify managers much sooner as to how much the program was projected to over run so something could have been done earlier. Who knows.

I'll be keeping an eye on how well General Dynamics performs on their LCS contract. Lockheed built the first LCS ship and General Dynamics started a year after. Even if they do perform on it I think they'll be able to look at the mistakes LM made and correct them so they'll look better.

Bye Bye Exploder

 

Well the time has finally come to say good bye to the Exploder. Our relationship started while an Ex and I were shopping for a truck. I was driving from Willmar to Montivideo and winter was fast approaching. I didn't think my winter beater would make it through what ended up being one of the worst winters ever. The sales person said "you should take a look at this" and he show'd me a 2 year old Explorer with low mileage. I was pretty skeptical to trade my '94 Talon for it, after all I'd be losing my chick magnet. (It's almost as bad as Ben trading his Mustang for a Suberu) I even had a car full of girls honk trying to pull me over when I had my girl friend in the car. My ex pushed hard to get me to trade it for the exploder. So a few days later I broke down and traded it. Almost immediatly I regretted it. And to make matters worse the girl packed up and moved out me two weeks later. I was pretty bitter, so bitter in fact I didn't care if the stupid Exploder really did explode. I had little patients to wash it or keep it clean. But I guess it's the end of an era of sorts. It got me through college, a couple stolen stereo's, and it plowed through a few snow banks. So in all it wasn't too bad.

Headache Rant

Since I got to Sunnyvale I've had a headache about what seems 50% of the time. I've been taking 5-10 Advil a day. I think my body is getting immune to it. The doctor says it's just the stress of having a new baby and the move out here and what not. And people wonder why the Voodoo doctors are so popular. At least an attempt at a diagnosis would be nice. Maybe it's a tumor or maybe it's the smog here, but when I got back to MN my headaches get worse. I've backed off so much soda and switched to water with no avail. It's driving me crazy. Currently I've had a headache since I got back from MN. It's mostly just a dull pain in the back of my head and it intensifies from time to time rendering my day useless. And beings I'm blogging about it now, it's starting to intensify rendering me an unproductive slob for the day.

Weekend Recap - Stinson Beach & Easter Sunday Church

I think my head is still spinning from driving about 20 miles worth of twisting turning rising and falling hills. We went to Stinson beach on Saturday, which started out as a terrible day. In Sunnyvale it was 65 and sunny, as we got closer to Stinson beach it got super foggy and cold. Driving on mountain sides with the fog was pretty slow. I was wondering if we'd ever get there. When we got there it was so bad that we decided to eat lunch and figure out what to do. Thank God the fog cleared and it warmed a bit. The view there is absolutely gorgeous with cliffs along the coast. I'm not sure how high it was but when we were leaving we could see ships way out in the ocean. It was pretty awesome. Definitely on the list of "Must Sees" if you visit Cali. The scenery is awesome.

Sunday we got talked into going to church with Janel and Jon. Jen babysits their son, Mason. We got to church at 9 and found out the service was changed to 10 for Easter Sunday. Thankfully they had a playground for the kids. The service ended up being 1.5 hours long. Hayley was getting major antsy towards the end. I think church should have a rule, all services have to be under an hour. But it was a Lutheran church and after attending it there's no way I'd switch to Catholic. I'm rooted in the Lutheran faith I guess. When I get back to Minny maybe I'll think about getting confirmed.

I Need More BLOG BELL

So I've been dropping the ball blogging. I don't know that anyone can keep up to Ben, the Tech King, over at Studio711. I have so many ideas for blogging and putting stuff on the web but I just don't have the time to put it together. I'm contemplating starting a mountain biking video podcast of the different trails around here but my video editing skills are not quite up for the task. Unless one has a log of experience with video editing one can spend many of hours for a few minutes of video and with my slooowww pc rendering would be horrendous. Maybe it's time for an upgrade. But I'm getting way off track.

Last weekend the fam and I flew back to MN for my brothers 40th surprise B-Day party. We didn't tell anyone we were coming so I think we added to the surprise a bit. It was a blast to hang out with everyone and to talk to some of my brothers old buddy's too. The only problem with a weekend trip is the short amount of time to hang out with everyone. I also got a headache from the flying that lasted two days. I seriously can't stand these headaches.

Anyway, I would've blogged sooner but I keep waiting for the pics from the party so I can use them on my blog. But I seemed to misplaced my camera. If anyone finds it please return it.