Turns out the rifle isn't really a 'Mark II', it's a 93R17VF or some such. It looks like the Mark II but the cambering makes it part of their '17 series' so it gets a weird ass number instead of a name. Don says he'll wait until I'm satisfied that this is the rifle to get before he gets one. There are many choices out there, some quite spendy.

Tonight I've got perl class. It's not a beginning perl thing, it's supposed to be a class about using perl to get every day sysadmin type jobs done. I'm hoping it's interesting as I'm committed to 4 sessions of it. The class is put on by Taos for Taos employees and what's cool is that they provide food for us, and they actually pay us to take the class. You actually get 2 billable hours for each 2 hour class session. Food, learning and getting paid? Damn that's a good gig.

I managed to convince them to give me Friday off to make up for working the whole weekend. I think I've got enough hours to cover it since I'm sitting at 46 for the week and still have tomorrow's 8 to add to that. I think I can give up not getting paid on Friday. Although I always think I would give up money for more time off, it's really hard to do. Turning down that 'easy' OT of just working through the weekends seems like giving up.

The plan for Friday is to load the bike up with my camping gear (might have to get a smaller sleeping bag since my backpacking bag is oddly super huge) and ride up to the land and camp for the night. I'll bring a camp shovel to make a fire pit with and there are more than enough rocks around to make it a good one. Then I can use the hand axe to limb a few of the fallen trees for wood and have a proper camp fire. Hmm... they can keep you from burning without a permit, I wonder if a camp fire counts? That would suck ass if you can't even camp on your own land. Of course, who's going to bother me out there?

17 hours yesterday, but we finished. Some fallout today, mostly due to people (sysadmins) changing configs but not restarting things so when the systems come up clean shit doesn't work. That's sloppy. What really sucks is that I'm still on-call, I get screwed out of the whole holiday, and as such the damn pager keeps going off.

After I woke up this morning we went to Starbucks where the big regional managers were causing trouble for the local crew. The locals screwed up our orders while trying to be 'social' while the big wigs looked on. They also served our food on plates instead of in bags. Interesting.

After that we went to sportsman's supply where I dropped $300 on one of these:

It's a Savage Mark II. I was going to get it in .22, but Don has said that the .17 HMR is a way better rimfire cartridge. The sales guy said the .17 spanks the crap out of the .22 for 100 yard stuff and since I want this as a practice rifle 100 yards is where I'll be shooting at. Normally I wouldn't trust the sales guy but since this rifle was actually cheaper than the .22 and had to be ordered I figured he wasn't BSing me too much, right? Why not sell me the more expensive rifle they had in stock vs. ordering me a cheaper one that was actually not what I came in and asked for. The .17 ammo is 10x the cost of .22, but only 1/5th the cost of .308. It's a good compromise. It comes with the scope base, so I'll pick up a cheap mil-dot scope for it and call it good.

Then we spent the rest of the day chasing around looking for BBQs. We can't seem to find exactly what we want, things are either too big, or have too many useless features driving the price up, or are too crappy. We found the exact grill we wanted but it was discontinued and we couldn't find one to buy. They blew them out a few months back. The guy at BBQs galore said that the new model of the one we want is coming out but because it was so popular before it's going to be all fancy now and cost 2x as much. Doh.

Day 3 of the downtime. We're still waiting for the data copies to finish, this is getting nuts. Our super senior guy (who always shoots down my ideas while offering no alternatives) agreed that my idea to turn on 10 linux boxes and use them to copy data was actually better than his idea of just using 3 crappy macs that he's been using for 2 days now. Doh!

On the positive side, I've sorted out 322 pictures from between 1999 and today and put them into my mac for the 'photo collage' screen saver. Wee, and I got paid for this.

Day 2 of the downtime. Things are going fairly well I think, we're getting stuff done, not too many people are sick, we're only slightly behind schedule. This is a good practice one for me to see how he team works since (in theory) the stress level should be on the low side so any problems will be very obvious.

Comcast switched IPs on me again, to a whole new class B this time. I got no-ip updated easily but it finally motivated me to get something running on the linux box to do it automatically. I was going to have it check whatismyip.com and if the IP changed it could email me and I could just fix it remote (it only happens every 6 months) but I can't email out any longer. Comcast locked down their mail relay, even to internal IPs. You now have to use their mail clients that do auth, or web mail. They of course only provide windows versions so I'm screwed there but no-ip actually has a linux client that watches the IP and auto re-registers you if it changes. They're so smart.

So, sleeping on the floor in the garage isn't so comfortable. Turns out a prone shooting mat makes a poor thermarest substitute. Fighting with the woman over the constant pager has driven me from the house to a place she can't hear it, but it sucks. Last night we tried something different and it seems to work. We tied the pager to my wrist with a headband and put it on vibrate. She slept in the guest room and I got to sleep in our bed. I got woken up only 8 times last night by the pager, that's not bad. Of course none of them were real problems, some of them weren't even on equipment in production, but hey, you can't do anything about it because this group is dumb and happy with the suffering.

What a crap day at work. I can't get anyone to agree that fixing problems via automated methods is better than fixing them by hand. Apparently people like responding to a pager and typing in the same commands. Odd. I could bitch about it more but I won't.

I didn't finish up the weekend report I just noticed. No details on Sunday. What did we do other than run errands and clean up around the house? Oh yea, I put the stainless brake line on the KLR after having it sit around for 9 months. Makes a huge difference, the bike actually stops now. The problem with the stock rubber hose is that it expands when you use it, so the brakes apply, then slack off as the hose expands and then you have to hit them harder. With the stainless line you can totally tell what the brakes are doing down there.

Trying to work while listening to Willie Nelson is just not working. Makes me want to drink a beer and drive a truck or something.

Allergies suck. Every time I manage to get my nose cleared out I start sneezing and the cycle starts all over again. I'm seriously thinking of taking allergy meds again.

So the rent showed up, postmarked on the 15th so I don't think I have grounds to do anything. That's both good and bad. I think I'm going to make up some sort of invoice thing to send them every month pointing out the days things are due and the penalties involved. Not to be an ass about it, just to make sure we keep tabs on things. They may like getting a notice saying when their rent was received too since they got all panicked about it last month when I didn't cash the check right away.

On a positive note for the renters, the drier died and they just went and replaced it. Having a washer/dryer wasn't in the contract, we just happened to have my grandmother's 1950s era units lying around and let them use them. Guess they got to put off the drier purchase for a while so perhaps they were happy enough not to say anything about the free use of a unit for 6 months. They also managed to call an exterminator all by themselves when they had ant problems. I don't know if spraying for ants would be my responsibility or not. Seems like it would be, but they're not asking so I'm not saying anything.

Friday's ride happened on schedule, the VP dude with the Triumph and I were the only two from Apple (which meant I had to ride up with him at a really rapid pace) but when we got there we were met by some people from Google, and some professor chick at Stanford and a few other random people he knows. Seems their group has spread out to various companies over the years but still get together quite often to ride. I'm probably not fast enough to keep up with them so it's unlikely I'll go on any long rides but I hope to keep the Friday stuff up if they'll have me.

Saturday Seth and I went to both the archery range and the rifle range. I talked with some crazy serious archer dudes at the range and they showed me some of the basics I had wrong (not surprising with my total lack of training) which really helped me out. They also said that if I stuck with it that I would give up on using one of those new-fangled compound bows and move to traditional archery with just a longbow. Seth's super spiffy bow is cool, but it's just like a rifle; line up the sights and pull the trigger (literally he's got a front and rear site and a mechanical trigger release). They had me try a few types of gloves and other finger based release methods just to see what I liked the best. I can see myself doing traditional stuff, it seems like more of a challenge. Not that Seth's bow isn't challenging, but other than range estimation the rest is pretty automatic.

After archery we went to the rifle range where Seth got yelled at 4 times (at least) for driving over 3 mph. Those guys up at the skyline range are such retards, if they didn't have the only prone shooting stations around I wouldn't go there anymore. It was a pretty bad trip for me, I couldn't get the VTR to group under an inch all day. Next time I'm taking my good rifle up as well and will start with that just to make sure it's not me that's suddenly forgotten how to shoot. I realize the hunting rifle doesn't need to be crazy accurate, but I want it to be anyway.

Saturday night we went over to dad's trailer to watch the race on the speed channel so the woman could do her article for the week. Dad wasn't there but he left us a key and instructions on how to use the TV. While there we used his BBQ as well just to see if it makes a difference vs. the $99 special we have. It does. I BBQed a rack of lamb and it came out perfectly. Seared outside, moist and tasty inside, nothing burnt/charred/destroyed. Now the woman wants to replace the grill again and I'm starting to believe her. Could be some sales this weekend.

Hmm... I didn't get the rent check yesterday which means it's late (it's actually due on the 1st) and it's gone past the 15th which means a $150 penalty. This isn't looking good!

Should be another warm day today. It's already in the mid-70s and I rode in with my airflow jacket and a t-shirt and was completely comfortable. I did discover one bad thing about the warm weather, the Indians really start to stink. Walking up the stairs this morning I followed a trail of BO up 4 flights before I ran into some Indian guy walking really slow talking on the phone. Whew.

There is supposed to be a lunchtime ride up to Alice's today. Even if no one else goes, I'm going. It's too nice out not to spend some time outside.

It's comfortably warm outside. Not "warm if you're in the sun" or "warm except for that wind" or "warm if you're wearing a jacket", but actually warm. You can sit in the shade and eat lunch and enjoy the breeze and let your bones warm up. Or at least that's what I did today. Griffith came by for lunch, we caught up on old times and hashed out some NFS issues that I thought I solved at NVDA (which I did) but are showing up here. He went over the details of his divorce, which turns out to be his second, and sounds pretty OK with it at this point. We'll have him over to the house for a BBQ at some point, he probably needs a break from the sounds of the pace of work.

Last night we walked to the dim sum place by the Korean place and picked up some to-do stuff and ate in the park. It wasn't all that good, the pork buns were fine but the leaf wrapped rice whatever-it-is was kinda icky. At least getting outside and walking was good. When we got back I reassembled the rifle and figured out a way to get it into the smaller case and get that case attached to the bike. So, if Seth bails out on me about going to the range this weekend I can ride up there on the bike and enjoy two, two, two hobbies at once.

This morning Taos came in and provided breakfast and did a tutorial on tech writing. It wasn't very good.... well, the food was OK but the presentation was weak. It still was time on the clock so by coming in an hour early and staying until my normal time it gives me an extra hour on Friday for lunch when I go ride with the cool kids.

These allergies are starting to get to me. I'm not having any trouble breathing but my nose is constantly running and I'm sneezing and my eyes are watering and itchy. I guess at least I didn't have to grow up being miserable like this. Who knew there were 'late onset' allergies?

Apparently today I've got more street cred than I did last week. Josh reports that he was having a hell of a time keeping up to even me on the ride on Saturday when I was leading the group up. So, the KLR is suddenly fast! :)

I am clearly doing less stuff these days than in the old days. I'm always telling stories of stuff I used to be doing, but haven't done much of anything cool in the last year. I guess I'm slowing down in my old age or something, or the woman just acts like a buffer to keep me from running around doing random stuff.

Yesterday morning we did an Alice's run with some of the people from work. Josh (from my group) was there as well as two older guys who were very cool and awesome riders. It was all I could do to keep up with them. They're also track day people (in cars) as well as bike campers and tourers. They invited me along for their Friday lunchtime rides which means I must at least be good enough to be the slow guy in their group. I'm hoping I can get in on one of their camping trips, I want to try motorcycle camping and doing it with a group seems like a good way to start.

Today I went to the barn to take some pictures of the woman and her new horse (or her horse for the next few months until the lease is up or the horse gets sold). After I did some chores and now we're getting ready for my parents to show up for mothers day dinner. We're doing some sort of bacon wrapped pork tenderloin thing, it's once again experimental.

A picture of the horse, Lancelot. No idea what his actual show name is. The other is just an arty shot I took while waiting for her to do something. I think it's kinda cool looking.

Bad wind today on the way to work, lots of low level turbulence that was bouncing me all over the road. Usually it's not so bad in the morning.

The woman got a flier from the Flamingo offering us two free nights stay. Since we're actually going to be staying a Wednesday and Thursday night they let us change our reservation. Sweet, now we're only paying for 1 night's lodging on our trip. More money for goofing off.

The game yesterday was good, although my diet wasn't so much. We had chips and dip and Mexican coke (made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, very tasty) and root beer and pizza. Glad I manged to contain myself and skip dinner last night.

Went to the range today and my first group was again one hole, and it went downhill from there. Oy. One interesting thing is that the trigger has malfunctioned. It went from it's 2.25# up to 6-9 lbs and very inconsistent. I called the manufacturer and they called me back (on a Saturday afternoon) and said it sounds weird and should not be that way and he wanted me to send it back so they can see what happened. Guess I won't be going to the range next weekend, doubtful he'll turn it around that fast.

I also got the bike work done today. Oil change, valve check (still in spec, don't think I'll get as lucky next time and I'll have to adjust both intake valves), filter clean out, battery top off, etc. Should be good to go for another 6k before I have to do anything other than swap oil. Poor old bike wasn't made to take this sort of mileage.

Forgot to mention I worked a few hours this morning, should have made enough extra to pay for some ammo.

Looks like David finally got his bike today. He doesn't have registration or insurance on it yet, but he's got physical possession. Figure in another week or so he might actually get to ride it.

Yesterday we ended up going to Don Don (the really bad/cheap place I used to go while at NVDA) and everyone agreed that it's pretty much crap. I told them up front, I don't see what the problem is.

Ken, one of Kristen's old college friends who's wedding we went to a while back, was in town with his woman visiting from NYC. They came by and we walked over to sushi and had a fairly pleasant evening. Tonight though I'm looking forward to eating at home and relaxing and not doing much of anything.

Silver was down today (which I figured would happen, when I buy it goes down, when I sell it goes up, it's just how it works) so I went over by myself and bought another 100oz bar. One more and I can make a small stack. 4 more and I can make a real stack. Somehow the woman thinks it's a good investment too and that sorta scares me. Anyway, here are the two bars chillin' in the safe. Too bad they're not more consistent looking but I guess that's what you get with the ugly sand cast investor grade bars: