(An awfully techie post; apologies…)
Last night I stayed late at work to swap out our DSL modem (I haven’t been able to convince management to go to T1…yet) for a newer, faster DSL modem. The ISP promised me in a phone call last night that, yes, we would have internet service (newer, faster, and apparently swankier internet service) when I arrived in the office first thing this morning.
So, of course, we didn’t.
“Well, hopefully you can find a nicer place to live someday.”
My Dad said that to me today. Again.
Posted in Family, Life, Life In LA, Random Thoughts
(Written Saturday, posted Sunday…)
Today dawned sunny and warm, with a mild Santa Ana wind settling in. With the Parentage having booked out of town at five am, I took the opportunity to sleep in a bit.
Stepping outside into weather that was clearly headed towards the seventies (which, yes, is unseasonably warm for LA), I knew that I didn’t want to do a lot of driving anywhere. Most days it’s not uncommon for me to drive up to seventy miles or so to get to a trailhead but today, given the nature of the lazy weekend in general, was not that day.
Posted in Life In LA, Random Thoughts, Secret Spot, Stuff I Like
The Parentals have just left, having played our last round of Rummikub.
The day has been filled with good food (turkey on the BBQ, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc.), and finished off with a small slice of pumpkin pie with a really, truly, obscenely absurd amount of whipped cream on top.
The day was spent talking, cooking, playing games, and watching TV.
And Dad and I sang (very off-key) Happy Birthday to my Mother.
Posted in Family, Random Thoughts
Wow, this year is just rolling by…
In a few short hours The Parentage will arrive in town for a brief, two day stay to celebrate Thanksgiving.
As such, I’ve spent the last couple of days cleaning my place. Not so much because I’m a slob, but because having one’s parents over is a spectacular excuse to give the ‘ol homestead a thorough top-to-bottom cleaning.
Posted in Family, Random Thoughts, Television
Usually at the gym I warm up on the treadmill. Jump on, run for a mile or two, then head over to hit the weights.
Tonight I’m on the treadmill, jogging along, when my knee starts hurting. Then I started getting a bit winded.
I glanced down at the display. I’d only been running for 5 minutes. Less than half a mile.
I sure hope this is a one day fluke, or I’m getting older at a much faster pace than I was expecting…
Posted in Exercise
Learning how to scuba dive isn’t the absolute highest thing on my life-list, but it’s certainly there. But after seeing this advertisement headline in the latest print version of The Onion:
Confuse a fish!
Learn to Dive!
Well, the idea of dozens of fish, swimming around with “What. The. Hell.” looks on their faces is awfully appealing. I think that alone bumps it up the life-list a couple of notches…
Posted in Random Thoughts
A few hikes in my repertoire are regulars: one’s that I do every year, without fail. The interesting thing about these hikes is that, while the location and time-of-year are the same, the hikes are always different.
This hike, some distance out from LA, is something I’ve always called my “Annual Fall Colors Hike” and I’ve been doing it for about eight years. I’ve hiked it solo, with The Ex Girlfriend, and with groups of friends. I’ve gone in warm weather and during winter storms. It’s a bit of a drive to get there, but it’s spectacular, and you get the added bonus of one of the prettiest sections of the PCT in Southern California.
Fellow hiking blogger Homer-Dog did a post about the FreeRice website about a week ago, and I’m freely riffing on it because it’s a damn good idea.
Simply put: you go the website and take a multiple-choice vocabulary test. For every right answer you get, 10 grains of rice are donated to the U.N. World Food program, paid for by the sponsors who put ads on the site.
Posted in Stuff I Like
Today in LA was warm and sunny, with a brilliantly blue sky overhead and clear, so clear that the mountains and ocean could be seen from everywhere. All of this courtesy of a mild Santa Ana wind that, hopefully, won’t lead to any more fires.
I knew driving into work today that I would head out at lunch and buy some kind of cool iced coffee drink and sit outside to enjoy the day. So, of course, one of the lines to the fax server decided to die.
Posted in Life In LA, Random Thoughts
The GeekHiker 