Snow, schmow.

We’re supposed to get some snow tomorrow, and there’s usually a couple typical scenarios. One is that the snow starts in the middle of the day and everyone panics and heads home. The streets are clogged and I walk to lunch if I can. By the time the evening commute starts, everyone is at home and the roads are clear of snow and traffic.

The second scenario is that it starts snowing and keeps snowing, making the trip home exciting and slow.

Most high-tech jobs are out in the western suburbs, over the west hills of Portland. I live close to downtown, on the east side of the West Hills. So if snow does fall tonight, I’ll see it on the way to work.

In other news, the gym is being sold. I may be going to a “Gold’s Gym” soon. I realize I spend too much time going to the gym and flailing about, plus I spend too much time talking about the place. Well, we all need hobbies, right?

I think I’m gaining weight.

Sheesh, what do I expect? I think I’m actually gaining some muscle. Nothing spectacular, but noticeable to myself when I flex in the mirror like a teenage boy.

I have a minor complaint that my buddy Il told me was a lame complaint: at work someone took the plastic insert out of the large Tabasco sauce bottle in the cafeteria, and so when I tried to use it I poured Tabasco sauce all over my lunch. Fortunately, it made the burger much tastier. Unfortunately, I sweat so much that my hair was actually wet. I was still sweating a couple of hours later.

Oh, and a quote from the gym that made Dave the Trainer and me laugh so hard that I couldn’t work out as much: “I had a cold and I smoked a cigarette before it was time and now I have a bad cough.” HAH. Before it was time!

How do you clean an infected Win2K machine?

It’s sort of a rhetorical question. I think the true answer is to reload the computer completely. The idea doesn’t bother me that much, but it is a pain in the tuckus. Megan came over and we ran a virus checker over and over and over on her dad’s computer from about 8:30 until 10 when I told her to take it home and try it a few more times. Yar. He wasn’t running a virus checker beforehand.

So, which of Megan’s suggestions do I take:

  1. Make out with dudes (not likely).
  2. Shave my head (sounds a little cold).
  3. Ask out the woman in the next row (a little close if it doesn’t work out, I’d think).
  4. Become a sperm donor for her (and I don’t think I’d be comfortable siring a little axe-murderer without some sort of direct supervision).

We’ll see what suggestions she gives me when she comes back for Xmas.

Megan’s dad’s computer has a virus.

You can imagine the fun I had towards the end of the night, running a virus scanner over and over and having the same thing (probably a Trojan horse, actually) deteced over and over. I finally gave up. I’ll have to look at it later.

Anyway, got to hang out with Megan and Craig. Eventually I’m sure I’ll fix their dad’s computer, unless they find someone else to do it.

Dinner with Megan.

Had a fun dinner with my friends Megan and Craig, and Craig’s friend Lila. I guess I was dragged along to make the numbers more even. In any case, we went out to Caldera, near my sister’s house, and we took a couple of pictures with my camera in “food mode.” Megan was kind of upset because she wanted the same camera. The food was good (as far as I could tell). I had the pork chop, Megan had a pasta dish, Craig had some sort of eggplant sandwich, and Lila had manicotti. We only have pictures of my pork chop and Megan’s pasta, and here it is. I’m off to sleep off my 2 glasses of wine (and the nice Cosmopolitan that was mostly juice.)

692 693

And now, a picture

So yesterday I forgot to include a picture of my mom, so here it is:

690

Today was fairly non-eventful because I didn’t do much. I went shopping for a memory card because the one that came with my camera holds only FOUR pictures at the maximum resolution. ONLY FOUR. Why do they even bother? I guess a SD card that small is close to disposable. OfficeMax had more employees than shoppers. The rest of the day I sat at home doing something with my computer, but I can’t remember what. Oh, well.

Happy Turkey Day!

I told a vegan friend at the gym, “Happy Tofurky Day,” but she didn’t catch it. My sister got a complete dinner from New Seasons (which, I understand, is a local grocery chain) and it was great! Since my mom came back from Japan today, it was me, ma, pa, Mariko, and her husband Peter.

683 684

You’ll notice that there are some gifts my mom brought back from Japan. You may notice the shochu and the sweets on the table. She also brought me a new camera! I think they’re cheaper here but she got a color that isn’t available in the US, and the instructions and the menus are all in Japanese.

You can also see the toys my pa got:

686

and his “Drip On” instant coffee, displayed by my sister.

687

I figure while we’re at it, here’s a picture of my sister and her husband, and one of their dog Dede.

688 689

No pictures of me, my dad (who was being cranky when I tried to take his picture) or my mom (whose picture I forgot to take!)

Well, that’s about enough for now. Since I didn’t go to the gym last night, I went this morning. Not only that, but I’m sore from standing on a wobbly board and having Dave the Trainer throw a medicine ball at me.

Too lazy for the gym.

Well, it’s a long weekend and they expected me to do work today! I suppose they expect me to do work over the weekend as well. There’s a deadline coming up and megacorp just doesn’t understand software and software schedules. “Don’t release it when it’s finished, release it on the deadline!” Ah, well. I’m getting paid to work, after all.

After all that I got home late and was too lazy to go to the gym. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow and see what the early Turkey Day crowd is like. I think I remember that they’re open until 1PM tomorrow.
Anyway, my mom comes back tomorrow. Hooray!

I better get some sleep.

I was cranky to my father after he insisted that my mom called and she said she’s coming back tomorrow. Well, she is coming back tomorrow, but it’s tomorrow JAPAN TIME. Thursday Portland time. I’m not sure if she really called or if he’s imagining things, but I’m kind of mad at her if she did. That’s the second time she’s called while I was at the gym and she should know better. He gets all sorts of details wrong and then insists on the wrong details. “Your mother is in Morocco. I wonder how she’s enjoying Morocco?” OK, so he said Osaka, not Morocco, but you get the idea.

Usually I’m not this cranky after going to the gym. Maybe it was the 200 pushups Dave the Trainer made me do. Plus, my sister is getting snarky comments again. Oh, well.

Wait, was I supposed to write something?

I’ve been kind of busy, I suppose. I was planning on doing work and watching the game, but I ended up going to dinner with my dad and my sister. Then I came back and did some work, took out the trash and recycling and washed the dishes. Along with all the boring bits, I’m sure I had something interesting to mention. I’m not sure what it is, though.

I did get a $1.50 hot dog and drink at Costco. Is that interesting? Most likely not.

OK, thanks for the encouragement.

But I really think I should give up. Find women who share my interests, huh? You should see the women who are into computers and ham radio (and I apologize to those of you who meet those criteria, but you have a lot more guys available than you know what to do with so don’t read the next bit): they’re hideous. OK, so I’m exaggerating, but if they’re ever so slightly non-hideous, they have hundreds of geeks talking to them every single day. At MIT, for example, the women who you’d vote most likely to end up living in a house with 40 cats are treated like queens with all the adoration and gifts and paying tributes and whatever else queens get. (And I’m not talking about the queens who listen to the music in my iPod, either.) It’s all about the numbers.

I suppose I could take up other hobbies but nobody suggest swing or salsa dancing. I find them both to be rather obnoxious. I guess I could learn to waltz or something. I’d probably meet nice little old ladies waltzing.

So I can’t keep doing what I like to do and expect to do much other than live in a crumbling house full of crap with small paths from the sleeping area to the computer area to the filthy kitchen to the filthy bathroom. Oh, and maybe a path to the TV room stacked with empty pizza boxes and take-out cartons.

Now that I think of it, a lot of the women I’m starting to notice at the gym seem to share my interests. And by, “share my interests,” I mean, “they want to go out with women, too.” The number of available women gets even smaller.

Oh, well, I had a fine day of laundry and filling my dad’s pill minder. Oh, and minor yard work. I also went out to a Japanese restaurant with my dad and it reminded me why I put up with smoky bars when I get hungry: bars don’t allow children and so you don’t have to watch two-year-olds having temper tantrums all around you. I’m reminded of my friend Shawn and how she told me that her niece and nephew were the best birth control ever.