Duane's little web log

My jury wasn't called up. Awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to serve on a Jury... if I wasn't on a huge multinational project that is. I think my customer would have kittens if I had to tell them that I needed to take a couple of weeks off to serve my community.

It doesn't really matter anyway. I know they would ask me if I know anyone who works in the legal field. Of course I do. Besides my dad being a lawyer, I know one of the deputy DA's in my county. I can hear it now. "The defense thanks and excuses Mr. Pinkerton." sigh. I'll never get to sit on a Jury.

The Big Freeze is on tonight. I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure it won't be the blow out it was least year, but I'm looking forward to "Hey #5! your mom called. SHE SAYS YOU SUCK!. It's all your fault - YOU SUCK. It's all your fault - YOU SUCK. It's all your fault - YOU SUCK."

Hockey - the loving, fuzzy warm and happy sport.

Duaneo

Miss Humboldt Opinion says that we ought contemplate something beautiful each day. In her entry she suggested that Bay Area residents grow to ignore the beauty of the bay area (careful that last one is BIG) I say Heck No!

In an unrelated event, I was headed west this afternoon and had an opportuinity to enjoy a sunset from Grizzly Peak over Berkeley. And though that isn't my picture, the sunset was similar. When I was going to school at Berkeley and working in Walnut Creek. Whenever I came home, I'd take the Tunnel Road exit instead of the 13 exit, expressly so I could come over the hilltop and see the bay area at night. I never got tired of it. So again I say Heck NO! Love it, wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Can you tell I'm glad to be home?

Here we go... Another 10 hours on the plane :)

Death Cab for Cutie : Plans : 7

Just a bit of introspection on this day of thanks.

Things that I'm thankful for:
That I'm healthy and can get out of bed and do things.
That I have a bed to sleep in and a roof over my head in the first place.
That I can still hold my dad's hand and talk to him, and even though I haven't been a good son and visited my mom recently that I can still do that.
That I have so many opportunities for success.
That I have so many wonderful people in my life.
That no matter where I go, I can find people to enjoy time with.

Now for the shallow things :^)
The Bears have had a winning season - even though I missed most of it.
A fast car to drive.
Good beer to enjoy (not whilst driving the car of course.)
Good Mates.
Attractive women.

As much as I whine about the long travel, when I step back an look, things are good and I give thanks for that.

Pubs for sure, but not more than I miss sleeping in my own bed now. :)

Not that it bothers me in the least. :^)

Watching bay area TV from London. Middle of the night, hoping for an upset. GOBEARS!

If talk about poo offends you, you may want to move on.

I was in the loo thinking about euphemisms for defecation. The one I prefer is "going to see a man about a horse", second only to "going to think about something." I was then musing that "#1" and "#2" is rather unimagninitave when it comes to potty training your kids. In my mind I could see being at a BBQ and having junior come running up saying "Daddy, I need to talk to a man about a hooooorse." To which I'd reply " You know where the stall is, do you need any help with the papers?" To which junior would reply "No thank you" and run off.

ahhh. the little world in my mind.

In looking for other fun euphamisms, I found this site. It's rather entertaining.

One of my daily blogs is the Dilbert Blog. Today' post is especially cool. After you read his blog, read through the comments. There are some really good things in there.

Here are the ones I'd add to the list.
* Sitting on my front porch on a sunny afternoon watching the world go by
* A freshly trimmed and weeded yard where everything looks right and in it's place
* Pulling on to an onramp at full throttle in the Mini (GRIN)
* Passionate kisses & holding hands
* Walking through a warm rain and getting my face (and head) wet with it
* Sitting on a park bench and to watch the world go by (and watch the people too)
* Walking through a freshly cleaned house (this is a long way away for my house)
* The exhilaration of arriving where you were riding to on your bike
* Making eye contact with someone attractive, even if just for a moment.

Left the charger for the shaver at home. ... well ok, not disaster, just a pain in the rear. At least I didn't leave anything important at home.

oh yeah, and everyone needs a set of these: Fridgits

One of the people I work with here is headed to the London premiere of the new (blessed version of) Casino Royale. She said ".. and all of the James Bonds are going to be there. Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan..." to which I reply "George Lazenby?" She says: "Who's that?" Of course later I'm reminded of Timothy Dalton, and most importantly David Niven. There is no level of trivia too small for James Bond movies.

Cheers,
Duane

What was I doing this morning between 2 and 6? That's right, I was watching DVDs! Stupid jet lag. I shall be staying up late (at least 9:00 - what a wild adult life I live) so I'm not watching DVDs instead of sleeping tomorrow morning.

I'm in trouble. It's only 6:45PM and I'm exhausted. I can't stay awake another minute. I guess I'll be up at 2:00AM and I'll be bored until it's time to go to the gym in the morning. :) siigh. sleeppppppy.... jrt3k2
f fk] 3006imw,]wc (head falls on keyboard)

Here's a different train for you. Rather a different experience, really.

BA sleeper seats. Super cool. now if only longshore had thrown a touchdown instead of an interception. I'm so depressed. :(

There are some drivers that lack a certain - how shall we say it - touch when they operate the pedals of their vehicle. They're either pressing the gas or they're pressing the brake. There isn't any subtlety to it. It's GO or STOP. I knew a guy in college that drove like that, and the bayporter driver that is currently driving me to the airport definitely drives like that.

What a concept! I know this picture is a little lame, but it's a little vignette of life in the bay area. Taking bart into the city on a friday night because you know the bridge is a parking lot and the city is a full one. :) bring on the 30th birthday at bucca di beppo.

Go bears... Uh... I mean go warriors. Watching the game being played, i kind of miss it.

New surreality:

I'm at the gas station, my car's filling up and I'm selecting some Chinese food. A guy walks in and says: Can I get another $1.55 on pump 2 please? I'm thinking to myself "$1.55 is not a much gas. He must have been digging the change out of the seat to get $1.55" Then I go outside and see what he's driving. It's a HUGE white pickup truck. $1.55 of gas would last about 5 minutes in this thing. As I'm getting in my car, I see he's putting his $1.55 of gas in a 1 gallon container on the ground. NOW I get it.

On the drive in to work, there's this HUGE red pickup truck in the mirror behind me. I can tell from 1/2 a mile away that it's highly polished and someone's pride and joy. The license plate: "I HUNG 2" Riiiiight. Sure you are buddy.

Shortly after I'm on the San Mateo bridge and I'm passed by a dark gray Mini Cooper S with black stripes. I waved as he blew by me. How fast was I going? Let's just say he had to be going 90 - 95. It made me smile to see that other people drive faster than I do in their Minis.

I wouldn't normally find a screw worth writing about, (mind out of the gutter please) but this is unique. I took apart the door panel on the truck about 6 months ago and in the process lost the screw that holds the window crank on. I haven't gotten around to replacing it because it's rather oddly shaped. Yesterday after Mr Hoang cleared the weeds out of the driveway, I found the screw. I was thrilled. Ok, I feel better now that I've shared. I'm sure you all understand the strange little world I live in that much better now.

Mr Hoang say "I work for you. You happy." I can say that he did (half of it least) and I am. :)

So that grass in the front yard? It's about 8" high. The gardener didn't even bother getting the mower out of the back of the truck, he just went at it with the weed wacker. Incredible. I feel a little guilty, but that feeling is FAR overtaken by the giddyness of not having an embarassing front yard. I can't imagine how I'll feel after he cleans up the back jungle that hasn't had any attention since say... March?

See this monster plant? There are three other very nice bushes behind it, but this grandstanding monster wants to own my whole front yard. Well since i'm the executive of this house, I made the executive decision. That baby's gotta go. I had a gardener here this morning and he worked for a couple of hours weeding and I'm absolutely THRILLED. The place looks 100% better already. The stupid plant hogging half of my driveway is gone and the 25 weed/trees that sprouted up are gone too. I'll happily pay to keep the place looking this good. I can't imagine what this place will look like with a fresh coat of paint!

WOW. It's days like these that I am thrilled to live in California. Here it is early November. The sun is shining, there's not a cloud in the sky, the birds are chirping, I'm perfectly comfortable being outside in shorts and a tee shirt, and I know that if I spent any time in the sun, I'd get a burn. I had to open the windows on the south side of the house because it was getting too warm with them closed. Can you tell I'm not exactly excited about heading back to London?

Duane

Who are you calling scruffy looking?

haaaaay. not fair. I sent a post from my phone on Sunday! I don't want to break my record, so I'm blaming the software.

So on Sunday I saw a guy that looked a lot like Samuel L Jackson in the taco bell in Emeryville. I back this unsubstantiated theory up with this link. I think he's working on a project for Pixar. So there.

More later for Monday.

Ok, so this is the coolest thing ever! No really. Ok, maybe not the coolest thing EVER, but still really cool. Blogger allows you to blog from your cell phone, with pictures! The entry below was an image I snapped while walking through the park in Kensington a few weeks ago. I did it as a test. Expect more posts from me in this format as I see strange or interesting things out there in the world. All I need to do is snap the pic with the phone, type some (optional) text and text it to go@blogger.com. VERY cool.

Cheers,
Duane

(I find it rather funny that the blogger.com spell checker doesn't include by default the words blogger or blog)

Random: 25' truck with a car alarm. Don't think I've ever seen one of those before. It seems more likely that I'll see them idling at the curb with the door open, just begging to get stolen.

So Maggie says I need to post daily so I'm doing my part! You might think that I have failed already, but I have an excuse. The blogger site was down yesterday. It's not my fault! Really!

It's great to be home, even though it's a short time home. Of course there are hundreds of things that need my attention, but at least I can give them my attention, so that's cool.

Anyway, gotta run. Work to be done. More tomorrow!