My perl code is shrinking. Something I did in 5 lines last time now takes 1. Cool. I'm learning!

So far work hasn't been so bad. People are mostly just asking about the trip or the wedding, and otherwise are leaving me alone to read through the email backlog and get caught up. I do notice a huge difference in the monitor at home and the one at work now. The work one sorta sucks, it's blurry compared to my NEC. Maybe it's just the laptop video vs. whatever cheapie card is in the PC at home that's causing the problem. One of the laptop USB ports doesn't work anymore either. Did the few weeks of sitting on the table at home doing nothing cause it to get lazy too?

Aw man, we gotta go back to work tomorrow. That sucks! I'm getting used to not working. Not used to not going to the gym though, I'm pretty damn weak from just my workouts in the hotel room with my "power band" thingy I got to bring along. I guess that's why they have "get back into shape" workouts in men's health all the time.

I did some hanging chores today. One was the candle holder thingy we got as a gift, and the other was my halberd which has been hiding behind the door for 4+ years now. I actually broke out the paint too and touched up where we dinged the wall lining the candle holder up and painted the heads of the drywall anchors white. They stick out about 1.5mm on each side of the holder mounts and although I found ones with brass screws, the anchor heads are all universally bright silver, or some tacky red/yellow plastic.

I think the candle thing looks cool, but in 30 years it's going to look tacky as hell. I always wondered how that funky stuff in my grandma's house ever looked good. Apparently it did, in 1957.

I met one of the new neighbors today. Dude looks like he's 12 years old; I think we're just getting old now that there are "kids" buying houses. Must be their first place as he said they were in a really noisy apartment before here and he's a native of the area so they didn't just move here. We didn't meet his wife yet, but I wonder if she comes from money. Her parents were visiting them today, from Half Moon Bay. If they have a real house out there, it's $$$$.

I've been to OSH twice this weekend, but forgot to get a replacement bulb for the light dad blew up. I'm done running around, so that will have to wait.

My replacement seat came for the KLR and I got some bolts at OSH to replace the one that fell off at some point. I couldn't find M6x16mm bolts with big enough heads, so I got some M8 washers and super glued them to the bolts (they fit without it just fine, I just didn't want to have to deal with the washers flying all over the place when I take the seat off). They're also all stainless and strong, vs the craptastic bolts that were on there.

Whoa, it's dark early. We'll never see the sun now, I'll be going to/from work in the dark. Ugh. Gotta get out my beanie to jog in the AMs now.

Just waiting around for the shuttle at this point. We're close to being on our way.

One of Kristen's aunts missed her flight so her and her husband have been hanging out here since around 1pm. They're flying out at midnight, so they'll be leaving soon. I've been entertaining them with pictures, stories, etc. They're from Ohio, and haven't been anywhere outside the US ever so they love the India, HK, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Germany, Scotland and Norway pictures. They even liked the collection of leftover money I've got. A captive audience who really wants to look at pictures!

Dad came over for dinner, and we just went to In and Out burger since the Ohio people have never been to one. When we got back dad turned on the lamp in the living room only 1 click so the fluorescent bulbs went crazy and one started smoking and filled the house with nasty black smoke. That sucks. I wish the lamp didn't have a high/low switch as the bulbs can't take it. They must be making high/low compact fluorescents by now.

Eric from next door came home tonight for the last time, he was just putting the trash out. The new neighbors are moving in tomorrow, or over the week. He said they're nice seeming people; the guy is a cop and the wife is a social worker. As long as they don't bring their work home with them, we'll be just fine.

Wedding is done, now the unpacking of the loot begins. The woman says that we got "magic pots" that will suddenly enable her to cook. I'll believe that when I see (or taste) it. The only drama at the whole thing was Don being late (and he was a reader) and the DJ not following the play list very well.

Someone got us a Home Depot gift card which I'll claim and go get some metric wrenches. :)

Tomorrow AM we have to take the van back, and then start packing for the trip.

Lina, one of the annoying DBA people, got me a wedding gift. How very odd.

While running to the store to get some misc crapola, we drove by some of the last fields in Milpitas. They had just dumped another load of stuff out in the fields to rot (I'm guessing it's good fertilizer) and the woman had to stop. There were truckloads of mini-pumpkins everywhere and she wanted to "rescue" a few. I got a few for my mom as well. We didn't just stop at the field though, we went over to the new trail head for the "coyote springs regional wildlife preserve" (which pretty much looks like a paved path behind the water treatment substation) and walked from there to the field. On the path I spotted a "wild" growing gourd plant. Very strange what you find.

Ah yes, petty theft right after breakfast.

Don stayed over Friday night so we could get a head start on Saturday morning driving to The Mustang Range which is about 10 miles south of Reno. We first went by my parents place to drop off 90% of my gun collection to be put into storage. I used mom's vacuum packer and sealed things away to keep from having to worry about rust. With that done, we got in the truck and dad drove the rest of the way.

Pictures and movies are here. I think you can get the general idea of the day from the pics. Don mostly did SMGs and only after I bugged him about it a while did he try the flamethrower. I did just the MP5, and then went for the flamethrower and the M79 grenade launcher (which did end up bruising my shoulder although I didn't notice at the time). Full auto versions of semi-auto guns we already have is interesting, but stuff like the M79 we would normally never have a chance to try out. It was a pretty expensive day, but I did manage to save a little cash... there was a 12-14 year old girl working at the check-in desk and she must have thought I was cute because she gave me a free VIP pass which got us free admission. Her mom yelled at her about it, but it was too late. Hey, I'll take the attention, and the discounts. :)

Even Dennis will like this. They had a GE electric mini-gun, as seen in Predator. Not exactly as portable as they showed it in the movie. It fired amazingly fast, it didn't even sound like a gun. Check out the pic and then watch the movie. I got lucky and caught the mini-gun firing noise in the background while Don was getting ready with the flamethrower.

While we were doing that and enjoying our dinner at Jack In The Box, the woman was at her bachlorette party up in the city. She was eating stuff like duck quesadillas at some fancy place and then went to Asia SF which is the home of the "gender illusionists". Dancing trannies. Um, OK. She got home around 11:30, Don and I got home around 1am. Ugh, we spent a LOT of time in the car yesterday.

I got the shifter oil seal swapped in the bike and went for a short ride before it started raining. This could be bad news for the wedding if it keeps up (not the KLR leaking oil, but the rain).