Mini mileage

Can you believe this? 510 miles on one tank of gas! My mini cooper is so cool!

A Sad Day

Today, a part of the sync connector for my PDA broke the plastic support for the connector wires broke out. For the time being, my PDA will sync, but the connection is ginger – I mustn’t touch the PDA or sync cable or it will disconnect from my PC.
My PDA was a hand me down from a friend at work, he wasn’t using it and thought that I would. He was definitely right. For the last year and a half, or so, this PDA has served me well. The device is definitely approaching its three year mark, but it still works great. The processor and memory handle my needs very well (rudimentary spreadsheets, address and calendar management, electronic books), so I don’t want to replace it. Also, I just bought a house, so I don’t exactly have the funds to replace it.
I hopped on Dell and went the Axim forums and found several discussion threads about repairing broken Axim sync connectors. I thought that Dell would be my only option, but I also found a company that would repair it, PocketPC Techs. They offer the repair for a fair price. I might have to check them out.
I wonder if I could get my employer to buy a replacement PDA for me…

My first posting on Craigslist

Drawer pulls / cabinet knobs

So, we've sold a car and bought a car on Craigslist (the big transactions) and I know that my wife has found other stuff on Craigslist. But tonight, I made my first listing. In our new kitchen (and all the bathrooms and built in cabinets), there were these white knobs. We changed all of them out with polished nickel ones and maybe we can make a buck or two on the left over parts!
We also swapped out our oven and as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to start disconnecting our dishwasher. Those will be on Craigslist, too!

I have a MINI Cooper

I am super-excited; yesterday morning I bought a 2002 MINI Cooper S, with the John Cooper Works. My super wife found it on Craigslist. The car is silver with a black top (I guess it pays homage to my Oak-town roots?). And boy does it drive.
Yesterday evening, I was so enjoying driving that I missed my freeway exit and had to quickly tour some of Renton.
There are enough windy roads around here that driving alternate routes will be a blast.
So, after 9 years of driving automatics, I’ve got a manual transmission (with 6 gears, no less) to get back into the swing of. I’ve had my share of embarrassing moments (I stalled during the test drive), but the best was at the metering light. It was just me, a long freeway entrance ramp and the metering light. I thought to myself, “Well, why not. When the light changes, I’ll just hit it.” And the light changed and I let the clutch up and stalled out. That was yesterday. Today, it is all coming back to me.
I’ve also noticed that Washington drivers drive slower than California drivers. Being a California driver, I have to make a conscious effort to drive not at what is natural for me, but with the flow of traffic here. Now having a stick, I have also come to the conclusion that on top of the better fuel efficiency, having to shift into a higher gear reminds me of how fast I am going – thus making me more aware of my speed.

Today's commute

Thirty-five minutes to work and forty-five minutes home. Not to shabby.

Issaquah Park and Ride isn't Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride

So I tried out the Seattle area public transit system today. While a generally satisfactory experience, my work and home aren't quite public transit accessible. Seattle has done some really neat things with buses - like a bus alley and a tunnel under downtown. They also have a version of 511.org called Sound Transit. The interface isn't quite as nice as 511.org, but it works. It turns out that my house is too far away from the bus end points, so it took some work to find alternate end locations (doubly hard because I am so new here).
While waiting for the bus, I read a magazine and failed to prepare my money. Yes, I was that guy, fumbling with money (still in a money clip), dropping money, asking how much the fare was - holding up the flow of progress. The bus system covers so much distance that there are different fares depending upon how many zones you go through. So, when I asked the driver what the fare was, he told me the one zone fare, but I was really going two zones. After I had put my first quarter in, he asked how far I was going. All the way to Pioneer Square was $2 and I didn't have enough quarters to make a dollar, so that bus fare cost me $2.25.
What I didn't realize as I was getting on the bus, but quickly came to understand that I was going to go from Kent to Seattle to Sammamish - a pretty indirect route. But I got to see interesting parts of Seattle. Seattle has built a busway - an alley for buses so that they can make a straight shot through Seattle and not have to worry about traffic. It is pretty cool and makes the bus ride much shorter. As you get to downtown, they actually have built a 1.3 mile tunnel underground that has a few larger stops, "stations" they are called. That is pretty cool. The bus goes downtown, but avoids the downtown traffic.
Once I got to Pioneer Square, I had to walk a few blocks and wait for the 554 bus. Another bus , the 210, came and the sign said Issaquah Park and Ride. I stuck my head in and asked if she went to the Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride and she said "Yes."
Well, it turns out that it had been a long time since she had driven this route and I didn't really know where I was going, so I ended up driving through Renton and ended up at the Issaquah Park and Ride. It is on the wrong side of I-90 and several miles south. But luckily there was a bus I could transfer to that took me to the Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride.
I called my wife and she came to pick me up. My adventure started at 4:20 pm and ended at 7:15 pm. Almost three hours for a commute just doesn't work.

We've moved in

Finally, after a long day of unloading the moving truck, we are moved in. Our house is full of boxes, but we have gotten all of our stuff back, new appliances delivered, cable TV and our home network is up. Did you notice that I didn't mention phone? I have figured out that there is phone in our house but it isn't the phone number we were supposed to get. Hopefully it is the old phone number - the phone guy was supposed to come today but didn't show up. I hope that isn't representative of Qwest's service.
The kids spent half of the afternoon watching just the video on the TV, because the audio in our old house ran through the stereo and the TV was set to use the auxillary sound. It took a long time before I could figure out how to change it with out the remote control.
Our neighbors are really friendly and I think we've met all of our immediate neighbors. The street is full of kids and each one of our kids has a corresponding grade/age kid so close by. This place will be all right.
We have no food in our house right now (though we do have beer that I bought when I was in the hotel - and it is in the new fridge and cold!), so we need to go find dinner.

Driving to Seattle

I did it. I drove to Seattle in one day. And I even stopped to walk the dogs (twice) and for dinner in Portland with a friend. The drive wasn’t bad – it was hot outside, but the air conditioner worked very well.

I took State Route 160 over the Antioch Bridge and into Sacramento. From there I took Interstate 5 the rest of the way. I delayed buying gas in Sacramento and started to get worried. Luckily, I found gas in Zamora, north of Sacramento, but paid through the nose for it. That set the tone for the gas costs the rest of the way.

I blazed through California. When I was planning (or not planning this trip), I was expecting that to take much longer. By one o’clock I was in Oregon. Oregon sped by, even faster. I think that it was due to the friendly drivers on the road. Once I left Oregon, the road seemed to drag. Mileage signs in Oregon were infrequent, but Washington has signs posted every ten miles or so. It seemed like the last 175 miles took forever.

I rolled into Seattle at about 9:30 pm with out a place to stay. I got a lot of help from my wife, checking online and calling places to see if they would take dogs. After quite a bit of calling, she found an extended stay hotel (read weekly rate, not hourly) in Kent. Unfortunately, by the time she found it, I had driven past it, but I was looking for a place to stay, so I turned around.

The dogs have been hanging out in the hotel room and I checked out Sammamish. Our new house and new neighborhood will be all right!

My last Bay Area posting

I am writing my final post in the Bay Area. We are moving to Seattle. Today (and yesterday) have been an interesting mish-mash of feelings. I am excited about our nice, new, larger home and I am sad about leaving my friends.
I'm glad I got to see so many of my friends from work and I'm sorry that I missed some, too.
Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I had forgotten to pack my keyboard. So, I strapped it to the back of my messenger bag and hopped on BART.
Our house is full of boxes (I've got a picture to post later) and my car is full of stuff. At the end of today, I'll be driving away from here, but also loaded with lots of great memories.
I'm rambling, so bear with me.
I've really enjoyed my time with everybody here and I am looking forward to seeing you all again when I come back. Those trips are already scheduled!
I'm going to miss the Bay Area and the people in it.

I love my daughter and she likes Fugazi

Last night, as I was driving home, the DJ on the radio was introducing the next song as a one of those bands that influenced all emo and hardcore music. He went on and on about it and then played Fugazi's Waiting Room.

I went home, got on iTunes and bought 13 Songs.

Tonight, I was cleaning up after dinner and decided to listen to Fugazi. As I turned it on and the sougnds of Fugazi filled the house, she grabbed my hands and started to dance. How can I go wrong. My 5 year old and I danced away.

I am a renter!!

Today is an exciting day. After waiting all day, I have found out that the sale of our house has been recorded. For the next two weeks, my debt ratio has gone down significantly, my cash reserves will increase and I start paying rent again (this last one isn't cause for much excitement, though).

It also means that we are this much closer to moving to a new house in Seattle.

Exciting, yes. But sad, too as this chapter in the Bay Area draws to a close.

The ups and downs of buying a house

There is a house that my wife really likes, in fact, so much that it was called the perfect house. She saw the house online and really liked it. We planned a special trip to check it out.
On Wednesday, before we went, our agent told us that the house had an offer on it, but the seller was waiting for us to see it.
On Saturday, we saw it. We liked it. That evening we wrote an offer. We were excited.
On Sunday morning, we got the call from our agent that not only was there an offer, but the seller had counter offered and before our offer got in, the seller accepted their offer. Quite the downer.
We continued our house hunting trip, but never found the right house. We weren't ready to settle, so we found an apartment and made a backup offer on the house. A long shot, but we weren't going to be making any offers on any houses since we wouldn't be there, but it made us feel a little better. On the off chance that their deal fell through.
Yesterday, I got a call from our agent that their deal had fallen through. She had to switch calls and so I called my wife and told her the good news. She was quite excited.
Then, our agent called back. The deal had fallen through, but then the buyers wanted back in. It was probably ours, but there was some legal wrangling to be done. Downer.
I got called today at work, at about 4:30 with a "no-change" update. Lawyers were being consulted and they should know an answer soon, but no specifics.
By the time I got home at 7:50 (working late and stopping by Taco Bell for my dinner), my wife had gotten the call. The lawyers had reviewed it and the house was ours. Excitement again.

I recently read an article that outlined the stages that people go through when buying a house. They were right. It is an emotional roller coaster.

With the prices of houses in the Bay Area, buying and selling houses are huge transactions. A small house sale and step up purchase can easily become a million plus dollar project. When you really think about it, that is a large project and not every Tom, Dick and Harry are ready to take on that kind of a project. Dealing with deadlines, being professional, sound decision making and understanding timelines and inter-related tasks aren't quite as common skills as I would like believe they should be. Gosh!

I had a MINI

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, the company which employs me, has launched a new product, Dibs. As part of the marketing support for the "Next little thing in ice cream," they decked out a MINI Cooper as a cool marketing propaganda too. I am proud to say that I drove it and spread the good word to the commuters in the Bay Area.

I had children chase me on the street. People I knew didn't recognize me because they were too busy staring at the car.

The next day, I took the long way to work and drove on some of the rural back roads. I took Marsh Creek from Antioch into Clayton and then Walnut Creek. It was a driving dream.

So this MINI is a 5 speed manual, so driving was actually fun! The way the car handles on the curvy roads and accelerates from a stop just made me happy. I so want a MINI.

Keeping the keys in my pocket was so natural, it was just like they belonged there.

I had a MINI, even if only for the day.

Thanks Cady for letting me take your Dibs car.

Mr Fix It (or I hate dry rot)

I have previously mentioned that I had a bathroom floor with some dry rot.
Well, not any more. I got up at 3:30 this morning and finished it up. Today was the day of our re-inspection (we are selling our house) and it all had to be done.
On Monday, the contractor who was doing some other work for us, told me what I had to do to fix it all up. His information was a great help and he pointed me towards Fix It All. With out his help, I wouldn't have known what to do. Monday night, I used the Fix It All and then Tuesday night was the finish it all stretch.
But, because I had so much floor to replace, I had to use some floor levelling stuff. But it needed 10 hours to cure. So, while it was curing, I was sleeping. Then the work began at 3;30. I had to replace the stylish black and white tile and then a toilet. I don't like replacing toilets. I have had bad luck with them in the past and they leak and have a lot of water. They suck.
But this time, the construction project gods were with me and it went in with out a hitch. No leaks and a shiny new floor.

We passed our inspection and are one step closer to selling our house!

Fix It All

Fix It All is the neatest stuff.

I have a section of bathroom floor (it was the kid's bathroom) that had some dry rot. After getting some guidance from a contractor, I've just about got it all fixed up. Chiseling out the dry rot was easy, no need for a mallet, just a firm hand on the chisel and the rotten would would come out! It would fall apart like a crumbly oatmeal cookie.

But then, I needed to fill all the wood I removed.

Fix It All is the answer. It is a powder that you mix into a paste and then put into the gaps like plaster. It is sandable, drillable, sawable and acts pretty much like wood.

In order to do this, I even had to get a new tool - a trowel! I always say, "New project equals new tool!"

I'll try to add some pictures later.

No BART Strike!

So the BART unions didn't strike! Hooray. I hope that BART didn't have to make concessions that will cause fares to rise. It will only push away more riders.

It sucked waking up just after midnight to check on the status of the negotiations.

I was doubly fortunate as I had to go to work, because of our project work today, I didn't have the option of telecommuting.

Public transit is really vital to the Bay Area - there are so many people and so many cities and so many cars. I don't want to see a union drag down BART, which would only drag down the whole Bay Area.

BART Strike???

The Bay Area Rapid Transit is undergoing negotiations with a few of its unions. After long negotiations, there is the potential of a strike, starting at midnight. I think it is baloney.

It seems that the disagreement is about pay raises and incentives, like medical benefits. The BART operators are already very well paid. While I think that everyone should have medical insurance, but people should pay their share. Medical costs are rising in the US these days and workers everywhere are being asked to bear a little more of the costs for their own health care. To pay an increasing portion of health care would make them just like everybody else in America.

It would really suck if companys decided not to offer health care as a benefit. I think that this kind of union thinking will really drive the price of business up in the United States and companies will go elsewhere in this global economy to do the same things and we'll eventually not be able to afford anything. Our empire will crumble.

Back on the strike, if BART strikes, traffic will drag the Bay Area to a halt.

Right now, BART does save me time on my commute, but it costs a bunch. I think I pay 7 bucks a day and it BART wouldn't have to raise te prices too much for the balance to tip back to driving. If only I had a car that I liked. But that is a subject of another posting.

Digital Music

Editor's (or Idiot's) Note: I found this posting in the drafts list. This was originally written in July of 2005 and my second post. I thought I had published this and thought I got comments on it. With the release of the Zune, it is an interesting view point on my first month with an iPod and the evolution of digital music.

Idiot's Note, part two. Obviously, I had published this already. There is one comment. I've got no idea what happened.

For Father's Day, I got a 60GB iPod Photo. It is pretty cool. It was quite a step up from my RCA 128 MB MP3 player. I am really impressed by the user interface on the iPod. I guess you have to have a good interface when you have that many songs.

In the evolution of digital music, I started in the "who would want to listen to music on their computer" camp. That was when my computer and stereo were in the same room (college days). Then, my computer was at my work and I needed to listen to music, so I'd rip a CD or two.

Then I became a commuter.

Having music on my hour and forty-five minute drive was important. I'd drive out of range of the stations that I'd start on and through areas with no broadcast radio at all.

So more and more of my music ended up on my computer.

I got the flash memory based MP3 player and it was pretty cool. I could take what ever music I wanted with me. But I had to keep changing it, because after a day or two of my commute (it had gotten shorter), I'd be repeating the music.

Now, I have a digital music player that tells me I have 7.2 days of music!

But I have also gone through many software MP3 players. I started out as a real fan (no pun intended) of RealPlayer, but my work blocked access to their CD lookup database. I then moved to the Windows Media player because the CD lookup wasn't blocked. Other than that, the two were pretty similar.

But since I got my iPod, I've since moved to iTunes. I don't get it, the iPod has a great UI but I just can't get the UI in iTunes. It isn't as intuitive to look for individual songs. The UI just isn't as great. How can they make such a great piece of hardware but a not so great software to go with it? It isn't bad, just not as great as the iPod.

I love my iPod - there is so much thought and innovation in it. Even in the packaging. I was really impressed by the box. The box!

I am king dork when a box impresses me.

I have been a non-fan of Apple computers. The iPod might be the device that turns me. I don't know.

My first posting...

I have been thinking about writing a blog for a while. A few things have kept me on the side lines, primarily, wondering if I have anything to say. As I have thought about it, I do have opinions, wild thoughts and neat experiences to share.

So, here goes. I can’t promise that I’ll be regular, cognizant or write anything of importance.

Well, I am pretty regular.

I guess that sets the tone. Inside I am ten.