It was suggested that I might be sore from the workout yesterday and that was very much the case today. My back was a little sore and my front was a lot sore. Imagine my joy when I found that my hay fever had returned because every sneeze made my abs hurt.

Fortunately, I made a trip out to the countryside to the Dixie Mountain Strawberry Festival which is in the middle of nowhere down some dusty dirt roads. Surprisingly, that didn’t seem to bother my hay fever at all. And the strawberry shortcake didn’t hurt at all.

Now I’m off to feed my addiction to mysteries. Friday I finished The Final Detail and Saturday I read Darkest Fear, two consecutive Myron Bolitar mysteries by Harlen Coben and I’m off to read the next one. Or sleep. Whichever comes first.

First, I must apologize to all the people in class on Saturday morning who had to listen to my kvetching but dear god there’s no way I was going to end up a workout with a frigging burpee/broadjump combination without complaining about it. I suppose rowing could be more vomit-inducing, but really, ending with Beck’s burpees?

Friday was a long day. I got up at 4:30AM to get in line for an iPhone. I figured there wouldn’t be anyone there, but my friends from Apple were giving me this whole song and dance about how nice the new phone would be and how there would be a long line, etc, etc. But I remember last year when there was a huge line at the Apple Store and there were rumors that from 9AM to 10AM there was NO LINE at the AT&T Store. The AT&T Store ran out, of course, and didn’t get restocked for a while, but there was that golden window where you could just walk in on the first day and get an iPhone 3G. Well, I kind of figured the same thing would happen this year, but I also figured that I’d better make sure I wasn’t wrong.

So there I was at 5AM, the only one out on the streets of downtown Portland. And the ONLY ONE IN LINE at the AT&T Store. Let’s see what I posted on twitter:

4:38 AM Jun 19th from Tweetie

I’m going to stand in line to see if I can get an iPhone.

5:04 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

Arrived at the AT&T Store and it’s raining. I’m the only one in line.

5:35 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

People are finally starting to arrive to work. But I’m still the only one in line.

5:42 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

Two young and cute girls out jogging stopped to ask me what I’m doing. Sounds like they’re coming back at a sane time.

5:45 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

The first mentally unstable person stops by to bark at me.

6:04 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

Some store personnel have arrived and now there are five people in line.

6:59 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

The line at 7 (right before they started selling preordered phones). I was right. http://twitpic.com/7ssbr

7:41 AM Jun 19th from TwitterFon

The cheery door greeter is about to get my iPhone inserted in an orifice.

Just so you won’t have to click on the twitpic link, here’s the picture of the line.

There were only about a dozen people in line. By the time they actually started letting us in there were about twenty people there and only a third of the people had preordered their phones. The people with pre-orders were supposed to get in at 7 and the rest of us were supposed to get in at 9AM. Lucky for us, they let us in a little early, and I got my 32G (29G if you ask it) black iPhone 3G S.

So far, I’ve only noticed that my new iPhone loads the game “Peggle” faster than the old one, but I’ve played with Voice Connect (voice dialing) and that works pretty well. Yeah, I feel like a sucker, but I’m happy.

OK, so just for the fun of it, here’s a picture of Megan’s boyfriend Nadeem up at Twin Peaks on the day before the Apple WWDC where they brainwashed me into buying more Apple stuff.

Ah, how much simpler life was before I was brainwashed.

There was something else I was going to say but I can’t remember what it was this early in the morning. It is now 5:13AM and I’m standing out in the rain, in front of the AT&T Store to try to get an iPhone 3G S. I know it’s foolish but the worst part is that I’m the only one here! I got here a whole twelve minutes ago so I may eventually get company. Good thing I brought a book.

It was pointed out to me that I seem to be saying, “I’m tired. I’m up too late.” on every posting and it was suggested that I just get to sleep earlier. That makes much too much sense for me. However, I may make an exception tonight because I’m getting up at 4:30AM to get in line at the AT&T Store tomorrow morning to see if I can get a new iPhone. We’ll see how that works out.

And, yes, I felt very tired at the gym today.

Hello, I’m Todd and I’m an Apple fanboi.

I know I”m a big sucker for liking my Apple stuff. It’s a little more expensive and sometimes just as frustrating as my PeeCee trash, but I’m a computer geek that can deal with most of the grief. I hate having to keep a version of Windows on my Mac laptop so I can do those few things that require Windows, but at least I have that option. I’d much rather sit around and be smug about my Mac than have to curse at a Windows machine all the time. I have to do that at work already and I don’t need to do it for my leisure time too.

But I bought this nice shiny new big monitor — not huge like my sister’s, but big enough — and I came to the realization that the connectors work with the new laptop I just ordered, but don’t work with my old laptop. I was hoping that I could use the little goofy things like the new wireless keyboard and the monitor while I was waiting for the new laptop, but I guess I’m SOL. Also, I think the correct thing to say about this is, “D’oh!” The monitor, while expensive, was made to hook up to the new laptop and has a camera, speakers, and a magsafe power adapter. I’m good to go when it arrives.

I was getting relationship advice at the gym again, and I was reminded that I’m no spring chicken and not getting any younger and that if I didn’t step things up that I’d be dead before anything happened. To follow the tortured animal metaphors further (or is it farther?) a leopard can’t change its spots. And speaking of Leopard, I think I’ll be off to play with my Mac some more. Instead of sleeping, like I should, I’ll probably be playing Peggle. Oh, the life of a single geek.

Woo, am I tired. And as stupid as I am, I’m up past 11PM when I know I have to get up at 6AM and I still have to brush my teeth and take a shower. Idioto. At least I’m not in the middle of a book, so I don’t have to stay up reading. I finished Killing Rain by Barry Eisler last night, and I have the next Myron Bolitar book on order (stupid thing isn’t in the Kindle store) and I even have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in hardback on my stack, but I’m going to try avoiding them all for the extra bit of sleep I might get.

I’ve been tired all week at the gym. I guess a week off really makes a difference in a negative way, especially if that week is filled with eating odd food, not sleeping, and more drinking than I usually do. I can’t say I drank a lot (a couple of drinks on most nights, just like they tell you to drink) but that’s a heck of a lot more than I usually drink A couple of drinks a week is what I drink in a usual week.

In any case, I’m dragging my ass around the gym and I’d be doing a lot better if I got enough sleep, but I’m stupid that way. OK, time to get on with my nightly ablutions. Andiamo.

Saturday I was pretty darn tired. I went to the gym and then dragged around all day, but when it came time to go to bed, I just wasn’t able to go to sleep. I was up until 2AM reading Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass. I felt a little tired on Sunday but I went to the gym to practice some kettlebell sport techniques. I really sucked at that and I even hurt my ribs somehow. I couldn’t sleep on my side and was uncomfortable all night. And today, at the gym, I somehow picked up more weight than I should have and now I’m dragging around yet again. Perhaps I’ll get some sleep this time.

Of course going back to work today after my cranky lack of sleep should have been a disaster. I even found out that I’m in the middle of a mini-reorganization. It didn’t turn out so bad, really, and the day went pretty quickly. That probably just means I’m forgetting something that will catch up to me soon enough. Oh, well. I can sit around fantasizing about the computer I bought. It should be arriving in a couple of weeks!

It’s nice to get home after a conference and take it easy, but I was still in semi-conference mode as I dragged around the house and ordered a new laptop. I guess I’m going to have to sell my “old” laptop (the one I’m typing on right now) when I get the new one. But other than that, it’s been laundry and somehow moving my bills from stack to stack. I didn’t actually pay a bill until after dinner, but I was doing SOMETHING in Quicken. I just can’t remember what it was.

I could tell that I’m overly tired when I got to the gym and the warmup made me feel like throwing up. Then the “skill” made my head hurt. The dude I was paired with was also running a little slow on some of his exercises but he’s a new fireman and he’s just started working the full 24H schedules lately. In fact, I think he just got off work a few hours before he came to the gym. I’m not sure what he did afterwards, but I certainly went and took a nap.

In any case, I have even more nonsense to perform this week. I think I’m going to be doing my expense report tomorrow, so I can actually do some work when I go in on Monday. Imagine that.

Another day at the Apple WWDC. I dragged myself up this morning and I could have sworn I was late. I didn’t get up when the alarm went off and I started surfing instead of going straight out. But when I got there, I had to line up outside the building. I leisurely ate my breakfast and read some blogs like the Web 2.0 hipster that I’m not. A guy from University of Ulster came rushing in as I was getting up and told me he was late. I reminded him that he was going to take five minutes to eat his scone, he didn’t have to stand in any pre-breakfast lines, and he’d get into the lectures at the same time I did.

I ran around going to classes and was disappointed there wasn’t a 5PM class I was interested in. I ended up finding my buddy who told me about a gathering at twitter (yeah, their offices). Lots of people went, including the guy who wrote Twitteriffic (and boy does he like to hear himself talk). It was interesting seeing the people behind the tech.

But the high point of the night was going out to dinner with Megan and Nadeem at Incanto in Noe Valley. We had pig’s feet and calves brain for appetizers and squash blossom. I had the smoked escarole and sausage with spicy greens (wasabi shoots?) in a horseradish sauce for my main course and it was excellent. Megan had the veal, and Nadeem had the calamari and those were equally great. We also had a bottle of Chianti, and dessert; I had raspberry sorbet with a Chianti dessert wine and Megan had panna cotta with espresso. I can’t believe I got out of there for $250! (Well technically I didn’t, it was $252.) In any case, I can’t recommend Incanto enough.

The only reason I’m up is because I remotely updated some software on my server. I don’t think it would have gone any better if I’d tried it while I as at home, but it still took more time than I expected (as usual). I should be asleep dreaming of my dinner.

I dragged myself over to the conference again and I thought I was going to have another day-long headache. Fortunately, I was wrong, and I actually stayed awake through most of the lectures. There was one by the most… exciting… speaker… on… the… planet… and that one was a little rough. Other than that, it was pretty good.

I was on my own this evening, and I went down to the basement to a tiny exercise room to try 10-to-1 burpees and thrusters and I thought I was going to pass out. I guess the lack of sleep gets to a guy. I was going to stumble to a restaurant afterwards, but I ended up just eating at the (expensive) hotel restaurant. It was tasty, but I’m not sure it was $51 tasty. I figure it’s about twice the price of what I’d pay in Portland, but the hotels probably have a premium at home as well.

So I’m back in my room early and I almost passed out already. I thought I’d get up and read some more and FLOSS MY TEETH like the exciting guy I am, but the book may just have to take a back burner tonight. Sleep may come sooner than I think.

Today was the first day of the Apple Worldwide Developers conference and the keynote is usually packed. The conference itself has 5500 attendees and the keynote also has a whole lot of media and “VIPs” taking up seats, so people line up hours early. I got there “late” again, around 7:30 for the 10AM keynote. The line wrapped all the way around the block, all the way back to the entrance, and the block that the Moscone Center is on is HUGE. I made it in, though.

The big announcements were new laptops and a new iPhone coming out next week on 6/19. I’ll probably have to pay “full price” for a new iPhone again, but I might do it anyway. The new iPhone is faster, has a better camera, better battery life, and a compass. It also has different guts in general. Both the old iPhone and the new iPhone get new software on 6/17 including video and the possibility of MMS (though AT&T won’t turn it on until later in the year) but I still want the new one. I may even buy a new laptop and sell the one I have now. Who knows?

I hung out with Megan and Nadeem and Marcy was up from LA with her newest baby Maxine! Cute! I didn’t take any pictures, though, ’cause I’m a doofus.

I’m in San Francisco now and I should have more to say about that (including some pictures) but I’m too tired at the moment. It’s 11:23PM and I just got back in my room from tomcatting around – which in my case means I left the hotel a few minutes ago to go out to Walgreen’s. You might wonder what Mr. Excitement needed at Walgreen’s on such short notice in San Francisco after 11PM at night and I’m going to tell you: dental floss. I know I packed it but I haven’t been able to find it. It’s probably in my running shoes or something.

I have to get up early to stand in line for the Apple WWDC keynote address tomorrow morning. So I’m going to give you some really crummy photographs. Here’s where I’m going to be for the next week:

Here’s the reason I think my hotel is more San Francisco than a company-approved hotel should be (including the question asking if I wanted more info on LBGT-friendly events), XL leopard print camisoles for sale in my closet:

I met up with Megan and Nadeem and we went walking around the Presidio today, mainly because we’d gone to Joe’s Cable Car to eat chopped steak sandwiches. Unfortunately, the chopped steak turned out to be more like coarsely ground hamburger this time. Not a disappointing burger, but certainly not chopped steak. I also went by San Francisco Crossfit to see what their last workout looked like and I think I’m going to avoid it this week. I’ll try to hit the basement exercise room when I can, but I’m on business travel which usually means that I’m going to be busy until I get home. At least that’s my current story. (If you can see the board, it says “Warmup: Annie”.)

So I’m off. I have to get up quite early to line up for the keynote. Excuse me while I have my way with my dental floss.