Tonight my sister and I went to the Harris’s house for dinner because their eldest daughter Alice, her husband Clint, and their kids Meredith and Owen were in town. Clint is an Assistant Professor of Russian Liberal Arts at the University of Montana and we started talking about Russian literature. I told him I wanted to read more Dostoyevsky but was unsure of the best translation and he told me to look for Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I mainly mention this because if I don’t write it down I’ll never remember it. In any case, he suggested several books, and I’m hoping that they’re not as long as I remember Russian novels being, but I’m sure they are. Now I have a list of Russian novels to add to my lengthening list of books I need to read, and he reminded me that I need to read more Cormac McCarthy as well.

I thought I’d get to sleep early, but I didn’t get home until late and now I”m searching Amazon for Russian literature. I can’t say mine is an especially interesting life, but sometimes I wish it was a bit more boring. At least so I can get some more sleep.

It’s kind of anti-climactic, really, that my new computer is set up. It’s prettier, the external monitor is bigger, and I have a new wireless keyboard, but other than that it’s all about the same. I suppose it’s a little faster as well, but when you think about it, the things that have changed are fairly minor. That being said, I’m still glad I got a new computer and the little differences should make themselves apparent as I use it. It’s just sitting here, typing, I can’t see a big difference. But really, I could be typing at almost any Mac keyboard and it would all be the same.

I’m taking a day off from the gym tomorrow because my sister’s friend Alice, who we’ve known much longer than most of the people in the gym have been alive, is coming to town from Montana. It’s probably a good thing that I’m taking a day off; I’m so tired this week that I can’t even remember how many times we’re supposed to be doing a particular exercise. Today I thought we were doing several rounds, and I wasn’t paying attention to the time. SImple addition would have told me that one round was taking 27 minutes, so multiple rounds were out of the question. I suppose simple addition eludes me on a normal day. For some reason, college calculus displaced all the arithmetic that I learned in grade school. Fortunately, I’ve forgotten the calculus and I’m relearning the simple math. It’s much more useful except when I’m golfing. Then I need really big numbers.

So I got my new laptop today and I’ve already tried to kill it. I can’t be content with letting the Mac do it’s thing, I have to have two boot partitions (the latest released OS and the beta OS) and a data partition. I have a lot of data to copy from the old laptop and there have been a couple of instances already where I thought I broke my brand new toy. But, for now, it seems to be working and copying data back and forth.

I go to the gym and I get a good workout, and that’s all that should matter, but sometimes I like to see if I can finish faster than the others. Today, however, I did something that made me happier than finishing faster than other people. The thing that made me happy was our group — a triple of Jorgen the new kid, Sprint-to-the-death-Sean, and me — finished in 21:12. I think you have to be a rocker from the late 70’s to get that reference and it also just reinforces how much older I am that most everyone else in the gym. I’m afraid this either means I’m a big geek with questionable musical preferences (which I am) or that I’m suffering from a lack of oxygen to my brain because my feeble musculature is taking it all.

The worst part is that I have part of a song from 2112 stuck in my head, “We are the priests of the Temple of Syrinx.” Oh yeah, Geddy Lee, Take off to the Great White North.

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.