Last weekend a bunch of friends and I had a ski weekend at Kirkwood Ski Resort just south of Lake Tahoe. I’ve been there many times over the past few years and have decided it’s my favorite in the area so far, though I haven’t been to many on the north side of the lake yet. We stayed at the Caples Lake Resort, just over a mile from the entrance to the resort. This proved to be very convenient, especially in getting to the slopes just as they were opening and avoiding the late morning crowds coming from South Lake Tahoe.My friend Mike took pictures of this trip, as well as during our group trip in December. He’s made them available on the World Is Round travel site that he heads. Matt also took some pictures and has made them available on Snapfish. Continue reading →

Jennifer and I just got back from a weekend in Truckee visiting our friends Rick and Kelly. Rick was a co-worker of mine back at Xetex. We have been trying to get together for several months now, especially since they bought a new house there in Truckee. As it turned out they were also celebrating their daughter Alexandra’s first birthday this weekend.We also did a little cross-country skiing while we were there, hitting the trails at the Tahoe Donner resort on Saturday afternoon and the Donner Memorial State Park on Sunday morning. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 50’s. Unfortunately, this led to icy conditions and fog Sunday morning around the lake.

Well, she did it. She had been threatening to get a hair cut for many many months now and finally scheduled an appointment last weekend. Today, at 3:15pm, the long locks were left behind. Inspired in part by Paige Davis from TLC’s Trading Spaces show, Jennifer found a hairstyle she liked by uploading a picture of herself to the The Hairstyler website and produced a mock-up for the hairstylist to work from. I’ve posted before and after pictures for all to enjoy.

Here’s a little op-ed piece I read in the paper this morning that I got a kick out of. Used without permission of course. The author’s name is at the bottom of the article. Continue reading →

After a yummy meal at the Chieftain Monday night, Jennifer and I went to the Toad the Wet Sprocket and Counting Crows concert at the Warfield. We arrived just as Toad was finishing their first song. Apparently the doors opened at 7pm, not 8. It was so good to see them back together again playing up on stage. Though I didn’t get a chance to hear the first song, they then played: Woodburning, Crowing, Brother, some track off of Coil (not my favorite album), Walk On The Ocean, All I Want, Know Me (complete with Unsatisfied ending), and Fall Down. It was great to hear them pull out Know Me… the last time I hear them perform it was around ’92 or ’94. They sounded really tight and looked like they were having a good time up on stage. Dean looked so different without his glasses. Continue reading →

This past weekend was supposed to rock. A number of friends and I took off early from work on Friday to brave the trip from the South Bay to Tahoe with a Winter Storm Watch in effect for the northern Sierras. Eight feet of snow was predicted by Tuesday. It was raining pretty heavily in the Bay Area on Friday, a sure sign of new snow headed for the mountains. Unfortunately, we didn’t count on the wind. Continue reading →

Mmmfff… too… much… food… in… tummy.Robert and Mike came over today to share in some Thanksgiving goodness. I think Jennifer and I overdid it as far as our first Thanksgiving meal. We made: golden cheddar soup, green beans, Waldorf salad, stuffed pork roast, stuffed cornish hens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and pumpkin cheesecake. Mike contributed some garlic bread with homemade garlic spread and some homemade vanilla ice cream. Never having prepared such a large meal before, we had some timing problems getting everything ready at the same time. Having one only one oven with so many things requiring an oven was a pain. Also, not having any experience preparing cornish hens or port roast led to a bit of guessing. The pork roast turned out to be way too dry and overcooked. The cornish hen turned out well, though. Oh, and the extra stuffing was too dry, too. And much of the other stuff was cold by the time we got to it. Ugh. We’ll get it right eventually.As a side note, I had Kruder & Dorfmeister‘s The K&D Sessionsô in the hi-fi while cleaning up after dinner. The second track of the second disk has a remix of a Sofa Surfers song called Sofa Rockers. When it came on, I realized it’s the same music that plays when you first install a copy of Mac OS X on your computer and are asked to register with Apple. I’m not sure if the track that is played during registration is the original or the remix since it only playes for about 20 seconds or so and then fades out. I guess I’ll have to track down the original to find out.

Last night I went to the Amon Tobin concert at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco with Ian, Orla, and Robert. We grabbed dinner before the show at an Indian & Irish Pub across the street. I didn’t catch the name, but it was certainly an eclectic place. The lamb vindaloo was something tasty. Continue reading →

I received the warning found below in my Inbox today. It should be an interesting event, considering the brief article posted in Salon a short while ago. Not sure I want to be there, but I do agree with their sentiment. Justin Herman Plaza might be a little safer October 21st; Sammy Hagar and the WaboRitas will be performing from 5-7pm. 🙂 Continue reading →

After 27 years I finally got a hole in one. No, this has nothing to do golf. I wasn’t swinging on the greens when I was 6 months old. No, today I went to the dentist. That’s right. A cavity in my lower right wisdom tooth. I’ve been told that those teeth are hard to take care of and I guess I didn’t do a very good job with that one. It’s pretty sad, but I suppose I should be happy that I made it this far in life without needing any major dental work. I’ve got an appointment to get it filled in next week. I’ll have the joy of not being able to feel a portion of my mouth for a few hours. That should provide a bit of entertainment for my coworkers.