Wine Country

This weekend we went to Napa and visited a few vinyards. I had no clue about touring wineries so I was a little surprised at the shear number of vinards and at how there are no requirements for reservations. Just drive up and start tasting. After visiting a bigger winery we found a ma pa shop where we got the run of the patio and the guy gave us an educational session on how wine is made, the types and location of grapes used, and he gave us a tour of the caves the wine is stored in. The wine was so good that I bought a few bottles. If you ever go on a tour of wine country I highly recommend visiting the ma pa shops and not the bigger wineries. You'll get a lot better service and they're not so busy so the guys can give you a run down of the wine your tasting instead of pouring as fast as they can.

Some interesting facts of wine making are:
- The flavor of wine has a lot to do with the type of wood the wine ferments in.
- A barrel of wine makes approximately 300 bottles of wine.
- Grape vines take five years to grow before making harvestable grapes for wine. The vines peak age is 10 years.
- When vines are growing grapes most of them are picked and thrown so the grapes that are left have more flavor.
- Caves are cheaper to build and maintain then a warehouses. The cave we toured costs approximatly 1 million.
- Not all wine tastes better aged. Some wines need to be drank within a month or two of bottling.
- The smaller vinards have a protable bottler come onsite to bottle the wine. (the guy offered us to watch if we wanted to come back in a few days)

In all the tour was awesome. We didn't leave ourselves enough time to visit enough of them. I'd say a full day is in order for wine tasting and a designated driver would be nice too cuz I had to cut back after a few since I'm a light weight.

Congrats Trent and Pam

I'm now a 4 time GGGGGreat Uncle, thanks to Trent and Pam and their new baby boy Preston Dion. (Dion Sanders is Trents favorite athlete)

Stats
born at 3:18am
Weight 7lb 8oz
length 20 inches

Congrats again and enjoy. They grow up fast!!!

Rain in Sunnyvale

It's raining today which is a big change in weather after 3 months of sunny blue skies with temps in the 70's. As long as it's not the start of the rainy season I can handle it. The weather in the valley is the best weather anywhere I've ever been. I can see why there are 10 million+ living here.

Happy B-Day Al

Checking my Google Calendar today I see that it's my brothers B-Day. Being the youngest of 7, and I'm over 30, I venture to guess that Al is close to 35. Who counts after 30 anyway.

Have a great B-Day Al and have a beer on me.

Lost - Season 2 Wrapped Up (DRM sucks)

Jen and I wrapped up season 2 of Lost last night. I'd call it a cliff hanger of an ending but we watched about 3 episodes of season 3 last year so we know what happens. I looked into getting season 3 but that doesn't start shipping until fall and then who knows when I'd get it from blockbuster. I started thinking about downloading it from iTunes and paying $34 for it but I'd have no way of getting to my TV because of the stupid DRM. So chalk it up as a no sale because of DRM. It sure would be nice to download it and move it to my xBox (I'm not paying $300 for an Apple TV either). I'd like to know the number of potential customers that won't buy movies/shows online because of DRM. Maybe it's just the geek community that doesn't like it.

Now I'm wondering if I should try out the video feature of my video iPod and get AV cables for it to output it to the TV. What's another $50 for the iPod, in the long run it'd probably be worth it.

Hayley Climbing

Although She's been climbing for a long time this was kind of funny.

Golfing

So I've got to use my driver for a week or so now and it's awesome. I shanked it the first time I used it but after that I've hit pretty well. I can hit the ball consistently 220-230 yards and one drive was 340 with some road help. Now if I could get the rest of my irons worked out I may be able to break 90. My 3 iron max is about 160. That's pretty bad if I play longer courses. My brother gave me something to work on out here so hopefully after some practice I can gain some distance on my irons. My scores over the week have been in the low 50's to high 40's. I feel like I should be around 45.

Firework Fiasco

What happens when one leaves used fireworks on a dock over night? The dock starts smoldering and leaves a big hole in the morning. What's worse the burning down your sisters dock? Burning down the neighbors dock.

The family chipped in a lot of money this year and we bought the fireworks after 4th so they were 1/2 price off. This year the display was going to be a huge. After almost cancelling the fireworks because the wind was blowing the fireworks back over the cabin, the neighbors said we could use their dock and watch them on their yard. It was one the best firework displays we've ever had and when we were done we started to pick up but some of the boxes were still pretty hot so we asked if we could leave them on the dock to cool down. We should have just kicked them in the water and everything would've been fine.

So we spent a good chunk of Sunday fixing the dock. The entire time we were in MN it was sunny, except for Sunday, while we were on the dock it started thunder storming. It'll be a 4th we won't forget.

Back in CA

For those of you who have missed the blog, I'm back. If you're suffering from withdrawels I'll work on a blog entry a day for a week. There's lots of stuff to cover that I know everyone is interested in, my golf game, NWA losing my clubs, skiing, the very eventful firework show, and the list goes on and on. So check back soon and you'll hear all about it. Unless I get lazy.

The Red Eye

I'm off to MN tonight on the Red Eye with lots of golf planned. I may make a tour of the Central MN area. I've been missing golf since my clubs got stolen. Now that I've got a new set I'm ready to break out the driver again.

Mouse Pointer

Ever wonder what's going on with your mouse pointer. Here's a demo zoomed way in.

http://www.1-click.jp/

Ducks

I thought I'd try the new video feature of this blog site so here goes. This is a video of Hayley and I feeding ducks.

New Driver

I've been looking for a new driver for what seems like forever now. I've been debating on buying a top of the line used one or go with a new one. Last night I saw a deal on Dick's Sports online for a R5 Taylor Made driver for $149 with a free box of balls that retail for $39. It was last years model that sold for $349. Since there is no Dick's Sports in CA I was faced with the dilemma of waiting until I got to MN to buy or order it online. I slept on it and in the morning I thought I'd check Sports Authority to see if they had the same deal. Sure enough they did. I was about to head out to the store to pick it up and I decided I better print it out so the sales person new what deal I was talking about. When I got the store I found the driver and hit it a few times in to the net. It's a great driver so I told the sales guy I'd take it and asked where the free golf balls were. I showed him the printout and he went and found the box of balls. He didn't believe it so he went to the office to check online to see if it was real. After spending about 15 minutes in the office he came back to say that the deal was only online. While he was in the office I noticed a sales sign with the deal on it and showed to him. He was in shock cuz of the price of the balls. Why would they give away a $40 box of balls for a $149 driver but he went with it. While I was checking out I had to deal with the cashier cuz the deal wasn't in the computer so she had to call back to the guy and figure what to do. After another 10 minutes of waiting I finally was on my way out of the store with my new driver.

Now it was on to the driving range. I found a range online that allowed golfers to hit off grass. (Most ranges around here are mats only) I bought the jumbo size bucket and hit mostly irons trying to figure out my swing. After about 110 balls I figured it out so I pulled out the driver and my first hit was a monster. I duffed a few after that but eventually I was hitting it long with a little slice. But I'm a duffer so I was happy with it. We'll see how it goes when I get it on the course.

So if you're in the market for a new driver check out this deal at Sports Authority or Dick's Sports. The deal is for any driver over $149 so if you want an upgrade you'll still get your free box of TaylorMade TP Black Golf Balls.

The Price is Wrong...

If Rosie O-loser is the new host of the Price is Right I'll never watch the show again. Although I probably won't anyway since Bob Barker was the show. But seriously they can't even be considering Rosie. She'd be the worst host ever!!!! The last thing anyone wants to hear one the show is how the government set up 9/11 so we could start a war with Iraq. She's such a friggen explicative. There needs to be an online petition started to make sure she doesn't get the job, let alone another job ever.

Fathers Day

Fathers day was great. I spent the morning walking around with Hayley, feeding ducks, and playing at the park. After her nap the family went to Great America to check out the kid rides. After riding a few rides we thought there weren't any more kid rides until we hit the jack pot somewhere in the middle of the park. I'm not sure why the had two scattered kid rides in the middle of no where but we were happy to see there were a lot more. Hayley seems to love these rides. We got a yearly pass during the company day there for $20. It's about 3 miles from us so we'll be back there a few more times before this year is over.

The weekend wasn't all family though as I bought a set of irons and hit Target yesterday to reload on golf equipment. When I think $$$ for golf I think clubs. Man after buying balls, towel, bag, and a travel bag there's a lot of other areas that $$$ is spent. It was a pretty hefty price tag after we checked out. Man getting my clubs stolen is getting more and more expensive.

New Computer

I've been semi eyeing a new PC for some time now. It's been five years since I bought my last computer. It starting to feel slow. I've contemplated upgrading the RAM but then I see new computers from Dell for only $500 that would smoke my current computer. If I spent a little more I can get a pretty fast one. Spent a little more then that and I can get a Mac. I don't know why I find a Mac intriguing but every time I see a Mac store I'm compelled to go play on the Macs. Jen loves the iMac cuz there's not cords and there's not a big box in the way. I've almost pulled the trigger a few times but I just can't do it because I can't play my favorite games... game Command and Conquer. With a new C&C coming out soon I definitely need a faster PC and one capable of running C&C. So that pretty much put the ca bosh on the Mac until it was announced that EA is going to release C&C on the Mac. Now I really have no excuse not to get a Mac. So maybe after Leopard comes out I'll get one, and if the prices come down about $400. For now I'll have to go back to eyeing the 5-6 hundo Dells and upgrade the graphics card.

Podcasts

Here's a list of podcasts I listen/watch. Pretty geeky crap but it keeps me entertained while coding at work.

Minnesota Radio
- 93X Sports – Updated about 3-4 times a week
- 93X Stupid News – Updated about 3-4 times a week
- KQRS Morning Show – Updated Daily ** I love the podcast, it’s a day late but there’s not comercials

Tech News
- Diggnation – Updated weekly, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discuss some of the top stories of the week from Digg.com while drinking beers, available in video and audio (semi funny)
- This Week In Tech – Updated weekly, Leo Laporte and Friends discuss tech news.
- Buzz Out Loud – Updated Daily, Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, and Veronica Belmont (Supposed Diva of the Tech news biz) discuss daily tech news and take phone calls
- MacBreak Weekly - Updated weekly, Leo Laporte and Friends discuss tech news related to Apple.
- Windows Weekly – Updated weekly, Leo Laporte and Paul Thorrote discuss tech news related to Microsoft.
- Apple Phone Show – Updated weekly, Scott Bourne and guests discuss iPhone stuff.

Sports News
- ESPN: PTI Updated Daily
- ESPN Radio: Daily podcast
- ESPN Radio: The Big Show
- WCCO Sports

Comedy
- Tiki Bar TV (Video Podcast)
- Comedy Central: Stand-up (Video Podcast) -

Random Podcasts
- ABC News Medical Minute – updated daily
- ABC News Money Minute – updated daily
- Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing – updated weekly,
- Money Girls’ Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life – updated weekly

Kids and TV

Jen and I have been watching the series Lost after Hayley goes to bed. Last night we started it after I got Hayley ready for bed. I figured letting her stay up for a few minutes while we started the show wouldn't be a big deal. After all at 20 months kids don't know what's going on while watching TV.

The show started out with a guy yelling at his wife to let him in the house. The woman consoled her son and told him to get under the bed and to stay there no matter what happens. The mom closes the door and the camera shows the kid watching the door while the background noise has the dad breaking the door down to the entrance of the house (not the kids room) and yelling at the mom. All of a sudden Hayley burst out crying reaching for Jen or I. I scrambled to turn the show off and Jen grabbed Hayley. Hayley started yelling naughty, naughty at the TV. After a minute we got her calmed down and let her stay up for about 15 minutes to make sure she was OK before putting her to bed.

Both Jen and I were in shock afterward. We could not believe that Hayley understood what was going on. I'm actually still in shock this morning. I feel terrible for putting Hayley through that. From now on we'll be a lot more observant to our surroundings and we'll make sure we read to her instead of watching TV with us before bed.

Tech Reporting

Listening to all these tech podcasts has got me thinking that being a tech reporter would be a fun job. These guys get to try out all these new products all the time for free. Imagine getting an iPhone for free just to write a review on it. I wonder if I could it part time just to get free stuff. Fatty Ryle would make a good reporter name. I'm on it. As soon as I get an iPhone I'll write a review and show off my mad skills so someone will hire me.

Weekend Recap - A's vs Twins

Watching the game in Oakland was great. I worked until about noon and then we hit Wal Mart for a portable grill and food. After the fiasco in Milwaukee last year we put the grill together right away instead of waiting until we got to the ball park. Every piece was put on and taken off two or three times because of crappy directions.

The tickets for the game were only $12 which I was pretty happy about. I figured the gang I was with would want better seats but right field was fine with them. After sitting out there for a few innings we started freezing our butts off. I thought I had learned my lesson from the San Fran Zoo but I guess not. Next time I do anything outdoors in Oakland or San Fran I'm wearing my frigeen winter coat. Spring atire doesn't cut it. We eventually moved along the first base line about 30 rows up. We were out of the wind so the game was a little more enjoyable. The game went into extra innings and all I was hoping was to get the thing over with soon. I didn't want to sit there for 14-15 innings. After the Twins scored 2 in the top of the 10th Joe Nathen made it a nail bitter by letting in a run and leaving two on before finally ending the game on a strike out.

The game was fun but I decided I had enough of Oakland so I didn't go to the game on Sunday. The stadium is worse then the dome as far as seating goes, but it's outdoors and they have plenty of room to tailgate. Throwing the football around and grilling is just about as fun as the game itself. I'm still bummed about the new Twins stadium not having a tail gating parking lot.

Google Maps Street View

Call it creepy or whatever but Google has released a "Street View" as part of it's Google Maps package. You can basically drive your route and see actual images of the streets. Some are calling it an invasion of privacy since you may be caught in these images or pictures of open apartments and what not may be shown. I think it's pretty cool, especially in large cities where directions can get harry when you don't know which turn to take on a five road intersection. Using street view you can see all the intersections ahead of time and see what the buildings look like around your destination so you know if you're getting close or not. Check it out.

Twins vs Oakland

The rematch is on this weekend. The very team that swept the Twins plays just up the road and we're going Friday and possibly Monday. I really want to see Santana but we'll see what happens. Slowely pitches Friday, I believe he's making his debut as a starter. It should be a fun weekend. We're going to tailgate Friday in the parking lot next to the stadium. Hear that!! Tailgating before baseball... something that won't be done in MN even after they build the new stadium. I wish MN would've taken after Milwaukee and built the stadium with plenty of parking so fans could tailgate. We'll have to live with visiting the visitors stadiums for tailgating purposes.

Eagan Town Center

The location of work here in Sunnyvale is not great for eating lunch out. We have two selections within a mile, Subway and Togos, both sub shops. Any drive over a mile away requires at least 10 stop light interceptions, requiring an hour or more for lunch. Kind of makes us Eaganites miss Town Center in Eagan, or just having so many food joints within a short drive.

Freezen' San Fran

Thinking it's a great day out in Sunnyvale, we'd head up to San Fran and hit the zoo with Hayley. The zoo their has been highly recommended by friends who've been there. It's been great weather around here and it's almost June so the weather in San Fran would be decent too. Jen dresses Hayley in a warm jump suit outfit, I'm thinking "that's way to hot, doesn't she have shorts or something in her bag?" But I just move on. Jen as also grabbed my coat and she's dressed very winterish. I'm in shorts and a tee-shirt expecting a sunny summer day. In about a 20 mile stretch it went from 75 and sunny to 50 and cloudy misty crap. We got to the zoo and I was very thankful we had winter clothes and I was very thankful Jen grabbed my coat. Parking there was brutal as usual for San Fran. We parked about a mile away and walked in a gail force wind to get to the entrance. Inside the zoo we were sheltered by trees and what not so it wasn't so windy, but it was fricken freezen. After about 3 hours of it I'd had enough and we headed home. But we were what seemed a mile into the zoo, about where we parked, but there was no exits on that end of the zoo so we had to walk all the way across the place and then walk a mile back to the car. Not that I mind the walking but the friggen gail force winds sucked. As we started the trek back to Sunnyvale the clouds started to clear and we watched the temperature rise about 1 degree per mile. When we got back to Sunnyvale it was 70 degrees and sunny. From now on we'll be spending our days South of San Fran. If I wanted to be cold I'd live in MN.

This is like the 10th time we've went to San Fran and it's been the same thing. Why are people so fascinated with this place. I think it's the most overrated city ever. The weather sucks there.

Timberwolves Lottery Luck.... Conspiracy ???

Although my interest in the Timberwolves these days is just about zero, I had a glimmer of a hope that they'd get a top 3 pick this year. We've been in the stupid draft lottery for years and never got anything higher then 3. This year it's the same. Read We're not moving up. I think it's funny how the public never sees the lottery selection rather just the announcement of the results. I'm pulling the conspiracy theory out on this one. I think there's a pretty good chance this thing is rigged and Mr Stern hand selects the draft order based on market size. Even if he felt it was Minnesota's turn to get a good pick he wouldn't do it because of the Joe Smith deal a few years back. It's pretty clear he doesn't like Taylor and he'd rather have Taylor sell the team. I will never watch the NBA again if the Timberwolves move up the next two years when we have to forfeit our draft picks.

Simply Google

Google is great. When I was shopping for an MP3 player I mentioned that Ben loves the Zune... the response I got was "If Google had an MP3 player you'd love it, even if it sucked." I use many Google features and I could probably be considered a Google fanboy. I dream of working for Google as well. Most software engineers dream of workign for Google. But I digress.

Most people don't have a clue just how many features and tools that Google actually has. The kind of hide stuff away on the site since most of it is Beta. I was listening to the Podcast Buz Out Loud and they mentioned this website. It rolls up all Google tools and features into one site. It's some third party dude that put this together so I'm not sure how long it'll be there but check it out.

Simply Google

Another Traffic Rant

I went to pick Jens brother Nick and his girlfriend up from the airport last Saturday at midnight. Thinking that there would be no problems with traffic I gave myself about 35 minutes to get there. Low and behold about 15 minutes into the drive the traffic was dead stopped. It's friggen midnight for crying out loud. As I'm driving in this stopped traffic, that was not caused by an accident just dumb driving, I'm witnessing the normal driving behavior where people don't let people merge and when drivers need to exit they stay in the left most lane until the last minute and then stop in their lane until someone in the lane next to them stops to let them in, and when you're crossing 4 lanes to exit the snowball effect is a traffic jam 5 miles long. It's just wonderful driving in this crap. Other drivers need a mile worth of open space to merge so even if they start merging 5 miles before their exit it never happens so they stop next to their exit, again waiting for drivers in the adjacent lanes to stop for them. And I won't even bring up the drivers that need to switch lanes over and over to try and move up 3 car lengths before their exit.

My solution to the problem is to hurry the production of flying cars. Although flying cars cause a bigger problem since people will now be flying stupid instead of just driving stupid each car would need to be outfitted with a autopilot and the car would then fly itself based on a flight planned entered before taking off. This got me thinking as to why with all the technology we have today why don't we force stupid drivers to use autopilots in their cars. When they need to exit the car will force them to start merging over many miles before the actual exit so they don't slow traffic. Merging would not force drivers to stop to let other dumb drivers in.

Happy Mother's Day from Dad and Hayley

Headache Fixed??

The last time I saw the chiropractor about a month ago he said based on my activity of running 3-5 days a week was probably causing my headaches. He said when most people run they tend to look down at where they're running which causes tension in the neck. He told me to concentrate on running with my neck straight and to do more cross training activities besides running. He also asked what else I do when I work out. I told him I pretty much just run. He said running mainly works out the muscles on the back side of the body and this could also be causing strain on the back and neck. So he also recommended working my abdominal muscles. After this discussion he worked out the knots in my back for about 40 minutes and then adjusted my neck. He said just adjusting the spine without working on the muscles would cuz the spine to go out of alignment. This was by far the best adjustment I've ever had.

Since this appointment I've started going to 15 minute abs we have here at work Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings that ends with 15 minutes worth of stretching. I used to think that I know what exercises it takes to work out but I'm finding out that I know very little. I had no clue the number of exercises one can do to work out abs and back. We have a different instructor for every class so that keeps it interesting too. The stretching is great. I've also started cross training so I'm running maybe 2 times a week mixing in biking, roller blading, and the elliptic machine.

Since I've changed my routine my head has been feeling a lot better. I don't know if it's one thing I've changed or the combination of everything I'm doing but I'm much happier without the headaches.

Toys

So we bought Hayley a portable doodle toy the other day. She had no interest in it at the store but I bought it for her anyway since she's been getting into coloring. To date it has been the only toy that she's used for more then a few minutes. She actually sat with it for a couple hours the first day and she's used it quite a bit since.

When Mason got together with Hayley they fought over the toy so we decided to buy another one. When we got to toy section at Target we showed Hayley the full size version shown in the picture of this post. I've never seen a more excited face on her. She loudly inhaled and wanted the toy right now. Seeing her get so excited was awesome. Jen took the toy from Haley to carry to the checkout counter and Hayley had a major fit so we didn't give it to her that night. The next day I showed her the toy again and she got more excited then the day before. I broke it out for her and she loved it. I totally understand why kids can get spoiled so easy. Seeing their face light up like that is a major rush for the parents as much as it is for the kids. Well at least in our case...errr... my case, Jen is probably tough enough to resist toy binging

Alcatraz

 

Last weekend we finally made it to Alcatraz. I was a little bit surprised as to how small the cell house is. I've always pictured it being much larger. It certainly is not short on cells though with three levels of cells. It's amazing how small the cells are. There is barely enough room to fit the bed in the cells. After seeing the layout of the place it would be interesting to watch the old Alcatraz movies to see how accurate they were.

iPod Jottings

So I've owned the 30 gig iPod for about 4 months. I'm very happy with it. Like I said before, I use it mainly to listen to podcasts during the day and to work out. One feature that I never evaluated when I was deciding which mp3 player to purchase was the ability to play games on it. One day I was looking at the iTunes store and I just thought I'd peak at the available games. The original Ms Pac-Man was on there, I was hesitant at first but I decided to download it and give it a shot. It is exactly like the video game. To play it you need to just touch the scroll wheel, no actual pushing buttons. Music still plays in the back ground so you can still push buttons to navigate between songs. After playing Pac-Man for a while I figured I'd try Holdem as well. These games entertained me on during my flights to and from MN. The latest game I downloaded is Zuma. Zuma is a super addictive game, so much so my last flight to CA was like a time warp time went by so fast. So if you own a video iPod I highly recommend trying out some of the games that are available for it.

The Aftermath

So after figuring out everything we lost yesterday the most expensive items were probably the keys to our car in MN. We also lost our truck keys as well but those only cost about $50. The car keys are well over $100. Pretty crappy.

They dudes got like 3 charges in on our bank card that we'll have to protest but that wasn't so bad I guess. They started charging stuff around 9ish last night so they must have stolen the stuff right after we carried our groceries in. Although in my head I want to catch the guy and pummel his arse, the reality is, he's probably 6'5" 300lbs dude that could crush me like a grape. So I'll leave it alone.

Unlocked Car = Stolen Clubs = Early Season Exit

I got in my car this morning and noticed the glove box was open but didn't think anything of it until Jen emailed me a few hours later asking me to bring her purse and jacket in when I got home. Then it dawned on me that it was opened. So I went out to take a look and sure enough Jen's purse and coat were gone. I popped the trunk and found my clubs gone too. I realize it's my fault for leaving the car unlocked but it still sucks. We went grocery shopping yesterday and in the bustle of getting all the groceries in I must of missed locking the door.

So after kicking off the golf season last weekend it may have just come to an abrupt end. Which kind of sucks. I don't think I want to deal with buying another set down here cuz I don't golf enough and I don't want a crappy cheap set.

Cross Training

This weekends activities has me motivated to change my workout routine. For the last 8 months or so I've been running on a treadmill 3-5 times a week for an hour at a time. Running is starting to get boring a bit so I've been pondering how I can mix it up and my knees get sore after 3 days of running. It was so nice out this weekend that I decided that I'd run outside. After a 9 mile run I was feeling pretty good. Saturday we did some mountain biking. After going head over handlebars and putting a big gash in my helmet (thankfully I was wearing a helmet), we decided to go back to the usual trail. I had no trouble climbing all hills and I wasn't really tired from running the day before. On Sunday I was trying to work my way up for a workout but I didn't really want to run again so I decided to break out the Rollerblades. Today my legs are still feeling the burn from rollerblading. Which got me thinking that I should start a hard core Cross Training routine. So my new workout will consist of rotating Running, Biking, Rollerblading and maybe some swimming if the pool warms up. I think mixing up these activities will make it easier to workout everyday without getting sore knees. We'll see how it goes.

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.

Bombing the Hills

Now that we're getting passed the beginners level and into the intermediate level of mountain biking we're spending most of our biking up hill. The first time we were on the trials we rode the breaks hard not knowing what was coming. Now we're almost full speed bombing down the mountain. I'll try and throw a jump in here and there but I still have visions of face planting when I was a kid so I chicken out most of the time. Jumping can get hairy cuz the trails are only 4 feet across and any mistake means a big fall down the side of the hill. The aggressive factor goes way down after having kids but it's still a blast. Except for the 30 minute climb at the end of the ride to get back to the top. Even in the lowest gear this climb is brutal. Our goal was to climb this hill without stopping or having our feet touch the ground by the end of the year. We both did last weekend so that was our big accomplishment.

Early Bird

The last few weeks I've been working many hours and working late which cuts into Family time. So I'm going to try and change my schedule and start working at 4am - 3pm-ish. We'll see how it goes. Getting up is pretty hard these last couple days. Getting home and seeing Hayley for an hour before she goes to bed sucks. But it's almost as bad being home and super tired also so it's a fine balance between sleep and Hayley time. I've also slacked a bit on working out the last week but I did fit in a 9 mile run on Saturday. So far that's been my longest run in one shot. I'm going to attempt a helf marathon this spring and again in the fall to see if I improve on my time. Annnd I'm way off topic so this getting into work early is already showing it's effects.

Happy B-Day Mom, Ginger, Mike ...

So yesterday it would've been my moms birthday. One thing she didn't do was forget peoples birthdays. Me on the other hand, it's my specialty. I make a News Years resolution every year to remember peoples birthdays and to send them cards. So when Jen said it was moms birthday yesterday it hit me that I missed my sisters birthday earlier this month. CRAP!!

I have a plan from this point on not to forget. I'm going to enter all events on my Google Calendar and have it email me a week before. We'll see how it goes the rest of the year.

It's Wednesday!!

What happened to Monday and Tuesday. The week is flying by. The weather here is the best it's been since we got here. Daylight savings time is awesome. The extra hour of sunlight means I can do a lot more with Hayley outdoors when I get home. Hayley runs for the door as soon as I get home. I don't think she likes our apartment that much. She'd much rather hang out outside. If her shoes aren't on she'll run around the apartment trying to find them and she doesn't give up. After she finds her shoes and gets them on she'll bring my shoes to me if I don't already have them on. I've even got her trained as to which shoes to grab. I'll even switch it up on her to see if she understands. I'm amazed at how smart she is at this age. Although when I start thinking she's standing out we'll hit the park and see other kids her age doing the same things. So she's not standing out so much but she's a lot of fun to be around.

Shoes

Running five miles a day is killing my legs so I bought what I thought was a good pair of Nike running shoes. After a couple weeks running in them my feet were killing worse then before. I tried to tough it out thinking they just needed to be broken in but my feet got worse. They even hurt when I walked in them. So I went back to my rag tag shoes I was using before. The rag tags were getting to the point that they were falling apart so I decided to try again and buy a new pair. I went Sports Basement across the street. At first I figured they'd be way over priced but I gave them a try. I start checking out the shoes and a kid asked if I needed help. I told him I needed running shoes and I told him the Nike's I was wearing were killing my feet. He kind of laughed at the Nike's, apparently Nike's are bad shoes unless you get into the big money shoes.

He first had me take off my shoes and walk down this track. Then he had me try and a couple different kinds of shoes and run down the track with them. He made the comment that he couldn't see me running for more then a half mile with my stride. I guess I didn't realize there's a technique to running. So on top of selling me shoes he gave me a lesson in running. Apparently he was a big Cross Country runner and now he runs marathons. I bought the shoes for $80 and my feet felt a hundred times better after wearing them for a few hours.

So if you're ever in the market I highly recommend the Sports Basement. I'll be using them for all my sporting needs. It's a great store. Read some reviews for yourself.

Trails

Just some photos from last weekend.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chadwick1p/MtnBike

Delayed Weekend Update

Last weekend Jens mom was here so we spent the time doing touristy things. We had a short period of time to go mountain biking on Saturday and about 10 minutes into the ride I got a flat tire, and of course I have no clue where my pump went. This really put a damper on the day, so I had to walk back to where Jen and her mom were walking the trails. I changed my tire and proceeded to wait for Chad to come with his pump from his car. The flat tire cost us a good 30 minutes of riding. The trails were dryer then last time and it was warmer out. I'm getting braver going down the steep hills and I'm starting to throw in a jump or two. I keep envisioning landing on my face as happened when I was growing up. (which explains a lot)

After mountain biking we went to San Fran to see the Golden Gate bridge. After getting lost in San Fran all I could think about was "Why don't we have a GPS, they're so worth it" but eventually we found it by driving in one direction until we found some signs.

Sunday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was pretty cool. There's a bunch of buildings that used to be a canning companies that have been turned into a big tourists area. The area is called The Canning District. It was pretty interesting to see and it would be fun to see it back in the day.

Let is snow

Heee Haw. I'm not in MN dealing with all the snow they're getting. Al and Kathy are in FL and they're huge snowmobilers. Talk about ironic. But I can't brag that much cuz it's a rain fest here. Rain rain rain all day and night. It's driving me crazy. I want 70-80 degrees with lots of sun. Someday I'll move back to FL so I can experience it.

Hitting the trails

We got a late start mountain biking but when we eventually got there it was awesome. The view is phenomenal. I took these pictures with my phone, one of these days I'll have to bring my camera. Most of my pics ended up blurry. The trails were a little slick and wet from the rain and snow we got yesterday. (haha it snowed in the mountains and we saw some snow on the trails) Here's a pic of me wearing what else, my Oakley's. Oakley's on the trail is actually bad idea. It gets so hot that they steam up the entire time.

Here's the best pic of the trail I got. Like I said the rest were to blurry. The trail narrows quite a bit in some spots also. It makes one think twice before gaining to much speed downhill. Tumbling down the side wouldn't be much fun.


The day came to an upbrupt end when Chad broke his peddle when we were just about to hit the down hill slope on the way back to the car. He ended up running up the hills and riding the bike down. Funny stuff cuz he was running up the hills faster then I was biking. I'm a little out of shape when it comes to biking.

Weight Struggles

So a while back I made a bet with Green-O as to who can lose the most weight. I started out of the gate fast losing 50lbs. Since I've moved to Sunnyvale I haven't been able to lose another pound. I've been working out pretty steady but I think my food intake has probably increased a bit. When I started this weight loss drive I didn't diet that much other then cutting out ice cream and not eating after 6pm. My body has caught on to me here. I run for a hour 4-5 times a week. I could use the excuse that I've just put on muscle and I'm still losing fat but the waist line doesn't lie. So I'm going to start trying to diet a little and cut my portions down. We'll see if that helps.

My current stats 195lbs with about 4-6 inches off the waist line.

An eye on the weather

Accuweather has been a popular site as of late. This weekend Jen heads back to MN so I'm looking forward to a full weekend of mountain biking. We've had so much rain of late the trails are probably a muddy mess but that's alright I'm totally up for getting dirty. So far this weekend is looking dry but it's supposed to rain on Thursday. I'll be disappointed if it carries over into the weekend.

I've also been watching Orlando, FL since my Brother and Sister with their families are heading there for vacation. So far it's looking pretty good for them. I'm a little jealous I'm not vacationing there this year.

Recoverying again

Before last year I couldn't remember the last time I had a non self induced stomach flu. After last week I've caught the stomach flu three times in a year. I think Hayley is a walking incubator. I'm not quite sure where she caught it, but she's been ill for about a week. I got it on Thursday. I felt it come on in the morning but I tried to tough it out and make it into work to no avail. Being sick is brutal for me cuz I have major caffeine addiction and not being able to keep anything down brings on the biggest headache ever. So I spent the entire day with a huge headache on top of the hourly ritual of praying to the porcelain god.

Friday I toughed it out and went to work with what felt like a brutal hangover. My head was spinning all day but a big dose if Advil and soda kept the headache away. My stomach was kept under control with a tablet or two of Rolaids.

But my misery can't top Hayley's. I feel so bad for her. She just can't kick these things. Hopefully it's just a childhood thing and she's able to fend it off better when she's older. So far she's inherited my immune system cuz Jen never gets these stupid flu's, colds, and any other virus Hayley brings home.

Trouble Sleeping

After feeling like I caught up on my sleep yesterday I ended up not being able to sleep last night. After tossing and turning from 12am - 2am I decided it was time to try and be somewhat productive and work. So I'm at work and I can't get anything done cuz the simulator is down and there's no admins here to fix. It's just great. I should've stayed home.

This weekend was a washout. It finally stopped raining about 2 pm on Sunday so we got in some biking on paved trails. Nothing like last weekend. Although it was tempting to slosh through the mud but uphill would've been tough. Hayley got to come with in the trailer. She gets excited to go now so it's kind of fun.

That about sums up the weekend. Sunnyvale in the winter isn't that exciting. The rainy season here is nothing like Florida's rainy season. When it rains here it's for 1 or 2 weeks straight. At least in FL it was for an hour or two a day and the rest of the day was fine.

What was that temp?

This week in MN alone makes it worth moving to CA. While it's high 60's here it's a little fridged in MN. I don't remember the last time I've had to deal with sub zero weather. I don't remember having any cold temps last year. Enjoy that weather Minny's.

Weekend Highlights

The highlight of this weekend was mountain biking through the mountains. Chad and I went to the El Corte de Madera Creek trails shown in the picture above. There were many places where the trails were about 3 feet wide with cliffs on both sides. Chad made the comment about 5 minutes into the ride that he wanted to start on something a little easier. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there twisting and turning and finally finding it. We rode for about 45 minutes and decided we'd hit it hard next time now that we got a good idea of what we're doing. Uphill was killer on the legs and it was hard to keep the front tire on the ground so needless to say we spent a lot of the uphill ride walking our bikes up. But next time it should be easier.

It was great to see the Colts win the Super Bowl. I wanted to see Manning and Dungy to finally win one. They've had some great teams but couldn't seal the deal. Next year I predict there's a .009% chance the Vikes will be there.

In need of some Voodoo

Since I got sick over Christmas I've had a lingering headache. I think I threw out my neck a bit and I didn't get a chance to see the Voodoo doctor before I got back to Sunnyvale. Sitting at my desk for 11-13 hours a day isn't helping either. Our chairs here are not that great compared with Eagan's. I might break down and see the Voodoo doctor here but my insurance won't cover it. I have a hard time paying the equivalent of a weeks worth of food for a neck adjustment. Maybe another Advil a day will fix it.

The Voodoo reference comes from my brother when I mentioned I needed to see a chiropractor. He said once you start going you'll need them for the rest of your life. There's truth to it but an adjustment does take my headache away for a couple weeks.

On Demand

According to Bill Gates life as we know it is going to change drastically. Well at least the way we view TV is going to change. Although I don't generally put a lot of weight on the words of Bill Gates, in this case I'm on the bandwagon. I'm certainly not claiming to be on the cusp of cutting edge technology but since I bought my iPod the way I view TV is totally different.

Actually, maybe it wasn't my iPod that did it but rather my wanting to listen to the KQ92 and 93x morning shows. Although I'm listening to them a day late I can pause, rewind, fast forward anytime I'd like. Listening to these Poscasts has me somewhat addicted to Podcasts now. I've tried to fill my iPod with enough Podcasts to get me through the work day. More and more video podcasts are being released and some of these video Podcasts are TV shows like "The Family Guy". Apple has it setup perfect for podcasts to charge money. I'd be more then happy to cancel cable if I can just subscribe to my favorite shows and I'd be more then willing to buy the AppleTV box to view these shows as well. I guess I'd be missing out on sports in real time but the Internet is going to take care of that sooner then we think.

I'd list my Podcasts that I currently listen to but it's been an experiment and after I have the list somewhat settled I'll post them. For the time beings check out the Podcasts the Ben listens too. I have subscribed to most of them to see what they're about.

SR-71 Blackbird >= Mach 3

All those days I spent bored wondering what to do and I never thought to go see my favorite jet that was on display less then three miles from my house at the Air National Guard museum. The SR-71 Blackbird was recently moved from the museum to the CIA head quarters for their 60th anniversary. I'm not sure if it will ever be back but I certainly missed a golden opportunity to see it. I read about it in the book Skunk Works and ever since I've been in awe over it. Now I'll have to travel somewhere to see it. Hopefully I can catch it at an air show or something while I'm in Cali. Check out a video of it on youtube.

Bath Time

One of Hayleys favorite activities is bath time. She'll run into the bathroom and stand next to the tub and repeat over and over "Bath".."Bath" while shaking her head yes. It's pretty funny. So why is this worth blogging... Last night during her bath she was playing around. Then her face got red and she "Pinched a loaf" in the tub. I knew kids did this but I never thought about it. Thank God I caught her in the act and I was able to stop her from playing with her turds. I cleaned and sanitized the tub and gave her another bath without incident this time. Hopefully we have no repeats of this event.

Go Colts!!!

The Colts vs Pats game last night was one of the best ever. After swallowing the Bears winning it was great to see the Colts win. Now if they can crush the Bears all will be well. I hate the Bears. They're the worst team to ever make it to the Super Bowl. Except for maybe the '85 Patriots.

Work and not much else

So I've pretty much been working and sleeping. It's been a super busy month and I'm trying hard to meet some deadlines this week. Today I left work frustrated cuz our simulator wasn't working so I finished what I could and headed out. I plan on being back super early tomorrow. Hopefully the simulator is back up and running.

When I get a brief second I've been subscribing to podcasts to listen to at work. I'm very happy with my iPod and glad I swapped the Zune for it. It's a a lot more user friendly and the iTune integration is really nice. I also like the option of watching some video before bed to unwind. Although Jen didn't like me using her arm as a prop to hold it up.

Hayley has been doing good since we got back. She hasn't got sick yet so after a 4 month fiasco of fighting through ear infections and colds this is a nice break. Keeping her away from daycare is paying off big time. She really wants to get out side more often. I wish the temp was about 15 degrees warmer here so we could spend more time outside.

Hayley did the cutest thing the other day. When Jen tried scolding her for pushing her nicknack's off a shelf Jen told her Naughty, Naughty while pointing her finger at Hayley. Well Hayley spent the rest of the day repeating what Jen did. It was the funniest thing. Kids are so fun.

Media Center Weekend

So after the excitement died down with the new iPhone I decided to get an the 30 gig iPod with video capabilities. I figured I wanted something with more memory and I didn't want to use AT&T (Cingular) as my provider. I had a bad experience with them in the past so I'm not switching just because they got a cool product. I'm sure down the road other providers will get it and then I'll re-evaluate my options. Hopefully the price will have gone down by then also. So now that I have an iPod I've been spending a good chunk of the weekend converting my cd's to mp3's.

The other product announced at Macworld was an Apple TV. The Apple TV would be kind of cool. I figured it'd almost be worth it to cancel Blockbuster and use that money towards buying movies and TV shows. If there were enough TV shows offered online I would even consider cancelling cable TV and just downloading the shows I want to watch. I thought about it for a while and then decided to try out my XBox as a media player. I've never really thought about using it as a media center. However, since I've had Hayley it's pretty much just collected dust. Guys at work use the XBox all the time and stream media to their computers so I figure why not give it a shot. After spending 4 frustrating hours trying to figure it out and almost giving up I decided to check the cable connections. It was agonizing to find this was the problem. The cord connected to the XBox was loose. Soon after reconnecting cord to my wireless router I got wireless streaming media going to my XBox. Cool stuff. So now the XBox is a media center instead of a gaming machine.

It's Arrived!!!!!!

A while back I posted about wanting an iPod but with more features. Well the device I've been craving has arrived. CHECK IT OUT!!!! I'm really happy I didn't keep the Zune.

Macworld

In a few hours I should know what my next gadget is. Is it going to be a video iPod, an Apple phone, or some other gadget being announced by Apple. Steve Jobs gives his annual key not this morning at Macworld. This is one of the most interesting conventions I've kept track of. (Actually it's the only one) I've been tracking it because there's so much speculation about what Jobs is going to announce. So many insiders have predicted on thing or another. We'll shall see...

Weekend Recap - A Golden Gate Experience

So we got together with some fellow Eaganites who wondered out to CA to work on some Satellites. Michelle, Mike, and Aubrey are braving the traffic and decided to move to San Fran. Chad, Jen and I headed over there to check out their apartment and visit the Golden Gate Bridge. Their apartment is three blocks from AT&T stadium, where the Giants play. It's a great location. (And the monster trucks are there next weekend. We're pulling the mullets out) So we took the public transportation to the Golden Gate Bridge. It's about 7 miles from the apartment and it took about 1.5 hours to get there. OK maybe it wasn't that long but it felt like it. The bridge was pretty cool but it was just a bridge. Here's some pics from the site seeing trip. There's some great pics of the bridge, Alcatraz, and a look back and San Fran, as well as some other landscape around the bridge. After the site seeing adventure we went to Michelle and Aubrey's apartment to grill out. They have an outstanding community area on the roof with a hot tub. We'll probably grilling there a lot this year.

Sunday was Jens B-Day. "Happy B-Day again Jen". We didn't do much other then buy a trailer for the bike and we went for a bike ride. Nothing to exciting I guess. Now it's back to work.

Signs from the Golden Gate Bridge

Apparently missles are common place around San Fran.

Crisis counseling on the bridge?

Explains the first sign above.

Don't turn around on the bridge.

Zune Review

Well I finally decided I wanted the Zune instead of an iPod. My wife called santa and had it delivered it a couple days early. The deciding factors in choosing the Zune over the iPod were

1) FM radio - I gotta have my morning show fix so why not buy a device with FM built in
2) The bigger screen - Although it's the same resolution as the iPod, I figure on using the video feature a lot when traveling so the bigger screen would be nice.
3) Video output - I thought it'd be nice to output video to the tv. I could load Hayleys movies on it and not have to worry about bringing dvds everywhere we go.
4) Ben said so

I was pretty excited until I started using it. I really can't add much more then Ben already said in his Zune review. But here's a few items that stick out to me.

- It really bugs me that there's a lack of support for podcasts. If I have to fire up iTunes to download my podcasts then I might as well buy an iPod in the first place.
- I don't like the hookiness of having to let the Zune software scan my computer for songs. I'm not saying it's bad for all users but I'd rather save the time and just drag the music/vids/images onto the device. The software took forever to scan my computer and everytime I sync it scans for changes again.
- I can't remove songs from the Zune. I have to manage everything through the computer. Hello, I don't want to depend on the friggen computer to manage my device.
- I have .avi files I want to transfer to the Zune. Microsoft developed the avi format, they could at least support it on the Zune. The Zune media player should be able to do everything x-box media player does. Either that or the software should convert the videos as it does images. I don't mind converting videos but I don't want to pay another $40 bucks for the software. There's a ton of Freeware that does this for the iPod.
- My thumb is ready to fall off from pushing so many buttons trying to create play lists. Apple got it right with the click wheel. Again I'm in Little Falls away from my computer which is why I was using the Zune to create play lists and not using the computer.

I think Microsoft should put Ben on the Zune team. I feel like the current Zune team hasn't used a portable mp3 player before.

So you may be asking yourself "why not return the Zune if you're so unhappy with it?" Well I was planning on it but Jens brother loves it, so I sold it to him at a discount as part of his x-mas gift. He didn't really like the Command & Conquer box set I got him.

Now I'm back in the market for a media player. I'm going to wait until after Macworld next week to get one. Maybe Apple has something new up their sleeve.

Back to Normal

My stomach finally feels normal again. I was beginning to wonder if I should see a doc or something. Stomach bugs suck. That's the second time in a year I've caught a stomach bug and hopefully the last. I can't remember the last time I caught a non self induced stomach bug.

We made it back to Sunnyvale with little trouble. I was really surprised at how well Hayley handles flying. I figured she'd be all over the place kicking and screaming to move around. But for the most part she just sat on our laps and played with the window shade. It's amazing how little things like a window shade can keep a toddler entertained.

I got a HHR again for my rental car. I'm kind of disappointed, I was hoping for a Chevy Impala but I guess it's considered full size. I'll probably change it up this Saturday when Avis gets their inventory full again. Being back home made me realize how much I love my Mazda. It's a great car, I wish I would've got the six cylender though. Four is just not quit enough power for my liking.

Flu Ridden Christmas

After flying home last Friday everything was going great. Jen, Hayley and I were hanging out at home and taking care of some house hold chores. I got my annual checkup and the doctor proclaimed me healthy. The next day we planned a long day of shopping. When we were about to head out Jen started feeling under the weather so she slept most of the day away. Although we ended up getting most of our shopping done that night.

Christmas Eve we drove to Willmar and Jen was feeling better. We arrived at my brothers for the annual x-mas party and about a half hour into it I started feeling sick. So I tried taking a short nap. It didn't help much at all. Later on I threw up and it all went down hill from there. I spent most of the night on the crapper. It was pretty miserable. And to make matters worse at least half of my family got the bug later in the week. My gut hasn't felt the same since. Sorry to all that I got sick. Hopefully you have a better recovery then I did.

Merry Christmas Everyone

I just started and finished shopping today. I waited so long because I was bitter over CA having a higher sales tax then MN so why buy stuff there. Plus it's way over priced.

And I should mention that I have the coolest wife ever.

Tremers

While I'm out here in Cali I wouldn't mind experiencing an earthquake, albeit not a big one. It was semi disconcerning to get earthquake emergency kits at work. The kits have first aid stuff and a self charging flashlight (which is kind of cool) and other odds and end things to get one by if the building tumbles. I'm sure our cubes will keep us safe. At least I feel pretty secure since I'm next to a support railing, which supposedly is the safest spot in an earthquake.

Anyway, I was posing the question as to the frequency of quakes out here and someone showed me this site. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/ It has a record of all earthquakes that happen in our region. Digging deeper I found that we had an earthquake last Sunday about 10 miles from our apartment and I didn't have a clue. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc51176897.php I'm wonder what does one have to register to feel it. 2.2 didn't quite cut it.

mp3 players

I keep thinking of what kind of mp3 player I want. I keep going back and forth between the Zune and the Video iPod. Although the Zune has more of the features I like, it doesn't quite cover everything. I'm thinking I'd really like something that I can just download stuff to the device bypassing the computer. It would be nice if I could just download the latest PodCasts when they become available. I'm missing the daily morning shows in MN. I wonder if the "rumored" iPhone from Apple with have some kind of feature built into download podcasts. Hopefully it will be released soon. I may have something waiting for me under the tree. Maybe I could exchange it.

Hayley and Jen Heading Home

I just dropped Jen and Hayley off at the airport. We had originally planned on them staying in MN until after Christmas. I'm glad they came out. Our stuff would probably still be in boxes if it weren't for Jen. Now we have a nice clean apartment to live in. We both commented on how we wished this apartment was the floor plan of our house. It's pretty nice. Now if the weather would warm up a bit.

Flight Mixup

When I booked Jens ticket here I thought I had her flying back on Monday night. It didn't dawn on me that I really booked her flight for early Monday morning at 12:30 am. Good thing she brought it up today cuz I would've drove her to the airport on Monday night and she would've missed her flight.

Cool Work

Since I moved to Sunnyvale I'm learning about brand new technologies. It's totally different then anything I've ever worked on in Eagan. I'm amazed at the technology here. Space Systems and Satillites are so interesting. Today I went to a presentation on the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) which is going ot replace the shuttle. The sub systems that go into that are amazing. I'm amazed at the things people think up to make it functional and safe. I certainly would not mind working on that project after I'm done with my current rotation.

Move in activities

I would've never expected the process of moving to be this expensive. When I moved to FL we rented a furnished apartment and drove down there in our truck. This allowed us to bring virtually everything we needed. I don't recall spending that much money up front there. Since we got to Sunnyvale we've spent close to a thousand dollars on getting this apartment settled. Everyday it seems like we're running to Target, Costco, or IKEA for something. A table here a bed in a bag there throw in some cleaning supplies a new vaccum and all our TDY money is going down the drain. Hopefully the bleeding stops this week. We finally got our funiture yesterday. Which was an event in itself. The guy calls in the morning to inform us his help didn't show so wants to wait until Monday. I'm like "yeah, no!!" I'm sick of living on the floor and if I have to help move so be it. The guy showed up 10 minutes later and it took about 3 hours to unload everything. At the end of the day Jen had everything situated except for the kitchen. I was pretty much relageted to keeping Hayley out of everything along with discarding of boxes and assembling the new kitchen table. The apartment looks nice now though. I wish our house was as big as our apartment.

Counting Down

Jen and Hayley will be here in 2 days. Man am I happy they're coming now instead of waiting until after New Years. The $250 plane ticket was well worth it. I'd be going crazy if they weren't going to be here this week.

Weekend Highlights

This weekend I set out to purchase a bike. After doing some shopping on Friday I settled for a bike from Sports Authority. It was only a two our extravaganza. Working with minimum wage workers can be brutal sometimes. I went through two cancellations of my bill because the lady couldn't figure out how to ring up a bike. So that kind of put a damper on riding most of the afternoon. But I managed to ride to work and it took about 25 minutes. Although carrying a laptop may take longer.

Sunday morning I hung out with some Packer fans and we found a sports bar to watch both the Vikings and Packers. The bar was pretty run down and the pop tasted like water with a touch of brown food coloring. We did manage some free food though. BBQ ribs and potato salad so it wasn't all bad. (The Vikings were terrible though).

After the game Chad and I went mountain biking around the bay area. We found some trails and I was floored to see a dude hunting. The dude drove his truck to the entrance of the trails and rode a bike to his spot. It was incredible. Hunting here would be awesome. Just a light jacket and you're ready to go. The swamps were full of ducks too. The guy had three and shot one while we were standing there talking to him. I'm thinking I should've brought my gun out here to hunt some. You can't ask for better weather to hunt in. There's no getting cold here.

The weather here has been amazing. It hasn't been cloudy at all since I got here. It's a little chilly at night but it's fine with a sweatshirt. Some people are still using the pool during the afternoons.

Slow Start

It's been pretty slow these first couple days at work. Our lead is waiting for two more people to join the team before he really gets into training us. So I'm stuck reading ConOps and what not. It's not all bad I guess. It would be nice to have my own apartment ready to roll though. I've been living with a couple guys that came out here and we're basically in an empty apartment waiting for furniture to get here. I bought a blow up mattress for the time being.

The weather has been pretty nice. Highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's. I'm slowly learning the roads and what not and finding many places to go. This weekend I'm planning on finding some hiking trails in the mountains. Hopefully I don't need boots. I didn't bring my camera so I'll probably buy another one since Jen and I were thinking of getting one anyway. So hopefully in the coming blog entries I'll have some pics to show of the area.

Travel Mix Up

So I was supposed to leave today for Sunnyvale. My Administrative assistance booked a flight with a layover so I called the travel agency myself to see if I could get a direct flight. After some time looking for flights the lady said she had something that flew out a few hours later so I took it. I waited a few hours and then I went online to check in. When I tried checking in the site said I couldn't check in until 24 hours before my flight. I thought something was messed up so I looked at my new itinerary. It said my flight was for tomorrow at 5 not today at five. So I called back and all flights were sold out. Pretty crappy since I was supposed to start tomorrow. So I told them to rebook my hotel and car for Monday instead of today. Hopefully my new boss understands the mix up. I don't really mind that much since it's another day I get to spend with Hayley.

Sunnyvale...First Impressions

Busy Busy Busy. Did I mention it's busy out here? The view is nice because there are mountains on both sides of the city but it seems like every inch of real state is used and there's not a lot of parks and open area until you get to the Mountains. Live close to work that's my suggestion, unless you want to spend a lot of time in traffic. The roads around here have got to be the worst signed roads of anywhere I've ever been. Although the roads aren't as bad as New Jersey, the home of the jug handles, they come in a close second. Painted lines marking the lanes of traffic suddenly end and when you go around a curve you have no clue if you're in the same lane. If you can get around that part of it things will most likely be fine. So far I like Clearwater a lot better then this area. I think mainly cuz I liked being so close to the Gulf and roller blading on the causeways. Although I can't complain about the weather here, it's been in the 70's both days and seeing the sun is nice.

I spent most of Tuesday looking at apartments and I looked at one today. I think I'm going to take the one I saw today. It's a 720 unit complex which is huge, but it comes with a lot of conveniences like an onsite store that will deliver to your door, dry cleaning service, a fitness facility that would rival any major fitness center like Bally's and a spa with a massage parlor. It comes at a pretty stiff price tag though, $1840 a month. I budgeted $1800 so it's not too bad. It's also only 3 miles from work so not having to drive will help with the extra cost. I just may break out the roller blades again and roller blade to work everyday or buy a bike. Most of the roads around here have bike lanes.

The Lockheed campus here is huge. Lockheed in Eagan has just under a 1000 employees, there are well over 7000 here. I'd say the campus has more buildings and is definitely bigger then the St Cloud State campus. It's a city within itself. I saw my cube and I'll be over looking a huge atrium on the forth floor. It's by far the best cube I've had at Lockheed. So I'm looking forward to that. It's kind of weird cuz there are umbrellas on the ledges of the atrium over the place and nobody seems to know why. It adds the feel of being on the beach. I found out that the task I've been assigned to way behind. Nothing like finding out you're behind schedule before you even start. So my team is going to be challenged to get back on schedule.

The Yahoo campus is across the street from Lockheed, I counted 4 buildings that I think are part of Yahoo. We made a trek up to Google as well. Not that it’s anything special but it’s kind of cool to see the major tech company’s head quarters. There’s also a ton of empty office space left over from the dot com bust.

Well that's enough babble for one day.

Teaching

I now know how it feels to suck at teaching. I feel really bad for my students cuz I had no clue what I as doing today. (or last time out for that matter) I felt like I had a good idea what needed to cover before the class started. When the class started I decided it would be best to forget everything. It was brutal. I felt like I was in one of those "wanna get away" commercials.

Before I started I thought teaching would be a lot like being a sales person. A sales person basically teaches a customer about the product they're selling. I was pretty decent at selling so I thought I'd be good at teaching. My over confidence killed me. If students didn't know OOAD before I started they definitely don't know it now. I'm thinking it's pay back for all the teachers I ripped on in college. Although this is self inflicted cuz I should've spent a lot more time preparing for this class. We'll see if I can redeem myself next Monday. But I'm not that confident about it.

Bowling Blues

Our team is on a roll. We've dominated the competition for the last month or so. We went from 16th to 1st in that span. I've raised my average to 189 in that span also. Until the last game of last week I was on a 12 game win streak, which is pretty tough to do in bowling. Generally someone has a big game against you. But things have been going pretty good for me. Until last night. I got crushed by a low handi-cap, 50mph throwing bowler. This guy was getting strikes no matter where he hit the head pin. I swear he hit 10 right in the middle and he'd get a strike. It was unbelievable. I guess the speed of the ball was creating an unbelievable amount of pin action. It didn't help me that I didn't find my grove until the 3 frame of the third game. By that time it was way to late. I lost even though I had a 220. I shot in the 170's the first two games so my average is going to go down. Which sucks cuz I was hoping to end this year with an average about 190. With my rotation in Sunnyvale I only have a couple weeks left to get it above 190. I'm going to need a rocken series next time out.

Miller Bowl III

Every years since Bob bought a house a couple blocks from mine he throws a party. The party starts out with a big football game at the park a couple blocks away. Then it gets rowdy at Bob's afterward. Every year has it's unique events that we keep remembering from year to year. Like the first year it was the Setrum Streak which was basically throwing a hail mary to the receiver that was being covered by the slowest player on the other team. Last year I missed the event so I'm not sure what was the memorable moment. This years memorable moment came from a group of guys playing tippy cup and getting lit up before 7:30 and then breaking Bob's ping pong table. Not to mention one individual going down for the count around the same time. No puking and rallying here.

So it's been 4 days since Miller bowl and I'm still feeling sore. I need to get into shape. These once a year sporting events are killing me. I couldn't hardly walk I'm so sore. But in all it was a blast. Kudos to Bob and Jamie. They always throw a good party.

Next Stop... Sunnyvale, CA

A couple months I submitted my name for a possible rotation on a new program that Eagan was going to get. There were two efforts, one in Eagan and one in Sunnyvale. I didn't really want the Sunnyvale position but I mentioned if they really needed people there that I'd go. Well last week I got an email with an interview schedule for the effort in Sunnyvale and apparently I must have said the right things during the interview because I was offered the job there. I still wasn't that hip on going there until I saw the compensation package. Then I started thinking it over real hard. I inquired family and friends asking for advice. After getting the call that they wanted me in Sunnyvale I told them I'd get back to them the next morning. Well that night I didn't sleep at all. I don't know that I've ever tossed an turned that much over a decision. I still didn't know what to do the next day. I remember being so relieved to be back in MN after my rotation in FL. It was great to have family a couple hours away, I love being able to drive there for a day and being close enough to head back home to sleep in my own bed. We had a Q/A session that day and the manager in the meeting said this was one of the best career opportunities for a young engineer he's ever seen. The program I'll be working on is a highly visible program and the CEO is taking a huge interest in it. So that pushed me over the edge and I decided to take the rotation in Sunnyvale. They wanted me to start ASAP but I pushed the start date out to the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I'm relieved today to have the decision out of the way. I'm going to miss family and friends a lot but Jen and/or I will be coming home quite a bit unlike FL when I didn't have paid trips back. With the compensation package I'll get out there, Hayley won't have to be in day care. That actually was one of my biggest decision makers. Jen will be able to spend everyday with Hayley now.

So it's off to Sunnyvale.

Daycare Bugs

Hayley has been in daycare for just over a month now and she's been sick twice from it. She really never got sick until she was in daycare. Hopefully it's a good thing that she gets sick now and not so much later on in life. Although all the colds I caught when I was younger doesn't seem to help me fend these stupid bugs off as Hayley has spread it to me as well. Although my cold is not nearly as bad as Jens. She can hardly talk today.

Professor setty??

Well I signed my contract with St Thomas officially making me an adjunct professor. If you've known me for any amount of time while I was going to school you would've no doubt heard me bashing the teaching habits of the professors. Well we'll see how I do in this role. I have it easier then most professors though since I only have to teach for 1/3 of the semester. However, the topic I'm covering really takes a full semester to teach so it's going to be challenging.

The Biggest Loser

Yep I'm a fatty. Even though I haven't always been a fatty somehow these fat cells seem to absorb more and more fat making crap. I'm constantly playing the yo yo game... weight up .. weight down and every time it seems the weight gets a little higher. (Dam ice cream) Basically the cycle has been 2 months of dieting and 4 months of being a slob and eating. Now that grad school is done there's no more excuses.

Hanging out at guys weekend the last weekend Green-O and I decided to put a bet on who could lose the most weight (percentage wise) by guys weekend next summer. We'll see how it goes. If I lose 100lbs and still lose I'll still be happy I guess. It's only $50. Our starting weight is Green-O 213lbs Kyle 249lbs. (that's close to 100lbs heavier then I weighed at high school graduation)

Finally Walking

It's been 6 months since she crawled. We figured she'd be walking by 8-9 months. A couple times in the last month she's taken a few steps between me and Jen but with grandma here the last couple days she's off and walking a lot on her own. It's kind of cool to see. She still falls a lot and she's working on getting up on her own now. But she can get across the room pretty easy now. Now if we could get her to stop eating everything.

The Season

Tonight was pretty much our season in softball. We started out 2-4 so our chances at winning the division were not that good. We've turned the season around with a 6 game winning streak so our record is 8-4. This league has no playoffs so there is no chance at winning the league since the first place team was undefeated. The last two weeks we've been waiting on this game. If we can't win the division at least we can beat the undefeated team. It was close tonight, after 6 innings we were down one and up to bat in the top of the seventh. We eecked out three runs so all we needed to do was hold them in the bottom of the seventh. I walked the first batter (my first walk all game). The next batter hit a lazy fly that was caught. The next guy hit a shot back to me and I basically looked at my glove in disbelief that I caught it. Then got my wits and threw the guy out at first for a double play. Exciting stuff even though it's slow pitch softball. I think after this game we should have second wrapped up with two games to play.