I got to see my father, stepmother, and eight year-old brother this weekend for the first time in a couple of years. They were in town for this year's NAMM Show, which is an enormous music industry trade show....
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I finished my Disneyland blitz with beatnikside and stonesheep last night; alternacub also made it out for a while on Monday, so we were treated to some excellent stories. We had a blast; not even walking around in wet...
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I spent the weekend at Disneyland with beatnikside and stonesheep. We had a great time despite the fact that it was unseasonably hot. It probably helped that we knew just when to plant ourselves at a bar and drink...
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I didn't take a whole lot of pictures over the weekend. I was more in hang out mode than look around mode, and the company was excellent. Below, however, are a few photos from my outing to the National Mall...
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Part of a habitat for the Bald Eagle. Passing through Lassen National Park. There were gopher holes everywhere in this meadow. Bill Murray would have gone mad. From our hike near Fallen Leaf Lake. And another from the hike....
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Napa looks down the trail as Ivy contemplates plunging to her death because, you know, it's hard to resist a good chipmunk. At a brewery in Ashland. Jeff = toasty. Me = toasty. Mom = toasty. Dad = not. Before...
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In the last week and a half, I: - drove over 2000 miles - visited my parents - saw three plays - bought some hiking boots that didn't cause a single blister - visited Jeff's parents - camped at Lake...
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Maybe one of these days, I will get more than three hours of sleep the night before I go on vacation. Maybe I'll finish packing more than a half hour before our scheduled departure time. Not that I'm finished now....
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Do you need artythings? I bet you do, and I bet you will love the wares my friend Lorien has for sale over at tra la la. She regularly posts about items as she makes them, so keep your eyes...
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"Callipygian" means "having beautiful buttocks." I learned that today. And I think that in some strange way, the word was responsible for a very wrong answer I supplied while playing Cranium with Jeff, his mom, and his Aunt Tricia. Tricia...
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In Napa, I saw a human-sized wine opener, and I saw lots of grapevines, and I saw several people who are related to me. When I was done seeing them, I felt a worrisome wobble as we drove, and then,...
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We're exhausted but home. Because the time change is so drastic, we left at about 10 am on Saturday morning in Singapore and ended up arriving in Los Angeles at 11 am on Saturday. Total flight time back was about...
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On Monday, I stayed relatively close to our hotel, as I was tired of gimping about painfully, and I thought a bit of rest might help. I headed over to Raffles, a hotel that is a big colonial landmark. I...
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I was going to take a cooking class at the Raffles Culinary Academy on Wednesday morning, but I decided against it—the class was going to focus on "spa cuisine," which sounded good, but wasn't exactly what I was hoping for....
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Yesterday, we got up reasonably early and took a cab over to Orchard Road, which is a large shopping area. We didn't do a whole lot of shopping; we mostly just wandered aimlessly and took pictures. To cross one of...
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We had sushi last night (they call it a "sushi counter" here), and ended up sitting in between a guy from Texas who works for Dell on one side, and a surgeon and his girlfriend on the other. We all...
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"I need to search your bag," said the security man at LAX. And so he did. He opened it up, poked through my makeup bag, made sure I didn't have any nailclippers, inspected my shampoo bottle, looked at my medications....
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I met this guy in Eugene, Oregon on my way up to Seattle nearly six months ago. His name was Aaron. I had ended up hanging out with two women at a bar, and the three of us went...
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At Mike's Roadhouse Cafe. It's in a small town in central California, but I've forgotten which one. I went there because I was feeling vaguely Swayze-esque. There, I had nothing to do but overhear a conversation that included lines like,...
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Just came from an evening with bohunk and ntropy. This trip has been just what I needed to start feeling grounded again. There's much I still have to write about, but since I'm borrowing my brother's ancient Mac with a...
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I had a beer at a Denny's in Woodland. I stopped at Shasta Lake and took some pictures. I met some random people in Eugene, and one of them wrote me a poem. I-5 was closed for a while, and...
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I have so many things to do before I leave for my road trip tomorrow that I'm doing none of them. Here they are, because if I write them down, they will seem more real: - Make sure car isn't...
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So, I was planning to fly up to Seattle, but now I'm thinking that I'll drive instead. It will give me some time by myself. I'll find cheap hotels, drive, think, chainsmoke, drive, think, drink Big Gulps, and drive some...
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We found ourselves quite tired when we woke up on Saturday. We were incapable of moving quickly. Moreover, we later discovered that the maids had a nefarious plan to "clean up" the desk on which we had placed the piece...
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On Friday, it was back to the Art Institute with us. We spent a good amount of time at the Ansel Adams special exhibition, but I do believe I liked the street photography collection better. We also peered at...
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On Thursday, I walked over to the Palmer House with my conference paper in hand. There, I met up with the other Claremont folks with whom I had put together the panel. I also got to meet kricker for the...
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Wednesday, we slept in for a while and then walked over to the Art Institute. It quickly became obvious that we were going to have to come back if we wanted to see even close to everything we wanted...
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On Tuesday, we flew into O'Hare, checked into our hotel, and were delighted to discover that: 1) it was really quite nice; 2) they had robes for us; 3) there was free cheesecake every night in the hotel lobby;...
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We walked around this beautiful place for about three hours today with our from S., our two dogs, and her two dogs. The dogs are under the mistake impression that they can climb any surface, no matter how steep. After...
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Big Bear Lake is one of those towns that is built around country kitsch. The first thing you notice is that there are wooden bears everywhere. There are bears with Robinhood hats outside of hotels. There are bears with fishing...
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I'm taking a break from packing to head out to the cabin in Big Bear tomorrow. It's entirely possible that I'm dramatically overpacking, but we'll be there for a few days, and I'll be damned if I'm going to drink...
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Lor and I slept in a bit on Tuesday. By the time we were ready to get on the road, we were itching to make good time, so breakfast at McDonald's it was. Since the truck wouldn't fit under the...
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Trip Highlights So Far On the way out from LAX: Like a fucking idiot, I wore steel-toed shoes to the airport. "Beep," said the X-Ray machine. "Take your shoes off and put them through the machine, miss," said the security...
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Saturday, we threw some clothes into a bag, gathered some snacks, and headed towards Vegas. Have you ever noticed on longer trips that certain types of vehicles seem to have it out for you that day? Some days, Honda drivers...
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"Let's go to Vegas," Kelly said. "There's a rollercoaster on top of the Stratosphere." And I said, "Viva!" We're heading out tomorrow and returning on Sunday. I'll finally get to see the Double Down with beatnikside! Note to self: martinis...
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I'm back from my fabulous trip to Vegas, where I got to meet beatnikside, bohunk, and doctorgogol, three of my very favorite LiveJournalers. I wasn't surprised to learn that I like them in person every bit as much as I...
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