This evening was pretty nice. I was able to leave work a little early, though I had to get on a call shortly upon arriving home. I logged in remotely and did a little work from the Skychair on the back porch.We had some tomatoes and a little onion that needed to be eaten so I made up some homemade pasta sauce: sauted the onions, added the tomatoes, added a little white wine and then let it simmer for a few minutes on low. Oh, cut up a clove or two of garlic and tossed that in with a little oregano, too. In the meantime, I browned some beef and tossed bowtie pasta into boiling water. Voila! Pasta yum yum.Accompanied by Tosca’s Delhi 9, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and the French Kiss soundtrack with the lights down low, it was a great way to unwind from the day.

I’ve just posted some photos from our trip to Big Basin State Park about a month ago. I’ve modified the template a little from the temporary test album I posted a few days ago. I still don’t think the navigational tools are obvious enough yet (hint: you don’t have to user your browser’s back button). I need to find that fine line between obvious and non-distracting… someway to put “training wheels” in place initially that can be removed once the navigation conventions are learned. I have a feeling the answer may lie in browser cookies. Fun fun fun…

These past few weeks have been really busy for me at work, so much so that I’ve been doing a bit of work during my commute on the train. I usually write most of my entries while on the train so I haven’t had much time to work on updates. However, before too much time passes I figure I may as well post on what I have been up to recently: working on some site updates, travelling back to Michigan to see the family, and preparing for fatherhood. Continue reading →

I’ve just had terrible luck with transportation recently. This past weekend it was the missed airline connection in Atlanta. This morning it was my morning commute. The train in front of us broke down. Rather than go into the details, lets just say that I’m pretty mad at how the Caltrain conductors handled the situation. Few announcements were made over the intercom to inform the us of what was going on. In the end I was an hour and a half late for work. I had left the house at 7am and didn’t get into work until 10am when I’m usually in by 8:30am.I told Jennifer about the fiasco. “Planes, trains, and automobiles… I hope nothing is going to go wrong with either of our cars.” To which Jennifer responded, “Actually, I started driving to work today and the temperature indicator lit up on the Cabrio before I even left the parking lot. So I turned around and took the Subaru instead.”*sigh*

This weekend proved to be filled with ups and downs… a lost train ticket, flying with rock stars, a wedding, meeting up with college friends, riding a high wire unicycle, bad weather, tornados, delayed flights, missed connections… what a ride! Continue reading →

I did quite a bit this weekend. It feels like it flew by, but I’m definitely paying for it now. Muscles… so… weak… so… tired… Continue reading →

I had a panic attack last night. I was in the midst of upgrading the firewall from OpenBSD 3.1 to 3.3 when I noticed that there were two messages on the console showing that someone had logged in as root (for the non-techie audience: the super-duper administrative account on Unix-based operating systems) from an IP address I was unfamilar with about 45 minutes earlier. “A cracker!” I thought. “I’ve been hacked!”. Continue reading →

If you haven’t heard yet, Jennifer and I are expecting an avian delivery around November 30. That’s right, a stork should be showing up at our doorstep soon after we’ve carved up his turkey cousin. So begins another chapter in our lives. Be sure to tune in in the coming months as I’m sure I’ll have many stories to tell.

I received the following notifications today about road closures in San Francisco this week due to war protests.—Law enforcement officials have advised that numerous protests are expected in San Francisco, specifically in the financial district. Resources indicate protestors may block various street intersections and/or businesses throughout the downtown area, beginning tonight – Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at 5PM and continuing on and off through Thursday and possibly throughout the weekend. The primary stated purpose of these protests is to “stop business and traffic” within the financial district.—Although it is impossible to predict what events might occur and impact, not only the daily commute, but passage around the City, it is possible to plan ahead for possible disruptions to either public transportation or roadways. As you are probably aware, street closures due to protests have recently occurred in downtown San Francisco. Several organizations have identified various streets and intersections to be closed down upon confirmation that the United States has entered into a war. The aforementioned protests are scheduled to begin at 7am the morning after the confirmation of war. Although these may change, areas of potential activity, which include protests and/or blocking of streets, are as follows:1) Lombard & Van Ness2) Polk & Broadway3) Polk & Bush4) Market & Franklin5) Division & Van Ness6) 6th & Brannan7) 5th & Mission (SF Chronicle)8) 3rd & Folsom9) Harrison & 2nd10) Harrison & Fremont11) Embarcadero & Market12) Broadway @ Columbus13.a & 13.b) Stockton Tunnel14) Powell & Bush15) Market & 6th16) 16th & Valencia/Mission17) Howard & Fremont18) Embarcadero & Washington19) Embarcadero & Broadway20) Parking Lots:a. Civic Center (McAllister betw. Polk/Larkin)b. Sutter/Stockton (entries on Bush and Stockton)c. 5th/Mission (entries on Mission and on Minna)As morning hours are a time of heavy commute, please be advised that should your normal commute have the potential to be affected by the protests you should have an alternate route planned. There are numerous information resources available and I encourage you to review them, prior to any disruption that may occur. The following are some of the resources available to you:1) Dial 511 from any Bay Area phone and you will be connected to up-to-the-minute road conditions, public transportation announcements, and ridesharing options. 511 is a comprehensive system that includes Caltrans, California HIghway Patrol information and street and road closures for each county.2) Radio channels, KGO,KCBS, KPIX AND KTVU all carry travel information via their stations and the web. They also have maps and text descriptions of traffic and road conditions, and carry announcements from public transportation providers.

Jennifer and I hosted a potluck for our weekly dinner club. Every Thursday we try a new restaurant in the South Bay, though occasionally we’ll get together at someone’s house and pick a theme for the meal. This week it was “India and the East”. Most everyone brought a curry of some sort, though we did have a few Chinese dishes as well. Everything was delicious. I’ve posted a few post-meal photos. Not pictured are Eric and Loi (not sure how that happened! It wasn’t intentional, I swear!).