Choice pics from the 4x4 run this weekend, more text later (gotta actually work right now).

Just yesterday we were talking about the phrase 'epic fail' and how it might have started in Warcraft (since they have epic mounts and epic quests and all that crap) and then Dennis goes and uses it. I do know that the t-shirt that says "your girlfriend is my epic mount" is clearly a Warcraft thing.

My corn died in a really strange way. It was at least 6' tall and doing really well and then the other day it was all dead. Every stock was broken 1' off the ground and the corn was over. It didn't pull out of the pot or anything, it was like someone held the base and pushed the tops over. Aliens trying to make a crop circle in 6 pieces of corn? Anyway, it's gone. Very sad. :(

Back from the trip for a few days, caught up at work, got my dentist appointment taken care of today and.... I think I'm getting sick. Feeling like my eyes are sticky and stuff is sorta pooling in my sinuses. That or I'm still jet-lagged. Fun eh. Or maybe it's allergies or something, my nose was pretty good in the alps but so was my digestive health. As soon as I'm back in the US, bam, it's back to feeling queasy after every meal. It's not milk (we don't think) so now we're trying to eliminate cheese. I had tons of cheese in Europe, but it was actual cheese from cows and sheep and whatnot, not the chemical crap that passes for cheese here. The woman thinks maybe I have a food allergy to one of the chemicals they put in the cheese here. We'll see.

Alps pics are on the main page.

Kenny's dual entry twitter things are annoying. Someone take a note.

The furniture fairy came by the office today and gave me a sofa. It's fugly, but I have a sofa in my office now. That's cool.

I complain about the iphone camera and later that day the WWDC keynote displays a new iphone with an improved camera. Ha, I must be psychic (or maybe I'm just late to the party complaining about iphone stuff).

Got the state tax return yesterday. Woot! Hopefully somewhere there is now some crack baby momma who can't pay her cell phone bill or get her manicure because the state had to give me my money back. Probably not.

The Austria trip is rapidly approaching. Very exciting! Better start packing for real, or at least setting things out to pack. Still wish I could know what the weather was like where we're going.

I finally decided to cancel my Rhapsody service. After 5+ years maybe of enjoying it there are now too many other options to consider.

Whoops, I let me pre-paid phone expire. I know I can get the number back as long as I don't leave it expired for more than 90 days, but will I get back all those minutes I had stored up or did it totally get zeroed out and I start all over again? I guess it doesn't really matter, I only need a few minutes to clear out the voice mail on there and set the message back to having my new phone number on it but I hate to think I lost those 140 minutes or whatever. It's a good backup phone.

I survived PHX yet again, and learned an important lesson. The kids have a limited capacity to be annoying, they can only do so many things. The parents have an unlimited number of ways to be annoying. Really it's not even the parents, it's the woman's constantly worrying mom freaking out making everyone else freak out. The kids did not get poisoned, or die from lack of sleep, or even drowned. Yea, in a pool with 14 people in it the kid that jumped off the edge with an inter tube around his waist and ended up flipping over did not 'almost drowned'. Being upside down for about a second does not constitute drowning. The fact that the kid kept laughing when he flipped back over should have been the hint.

Only took one picture really, the front of the woman's' brother's house. I thought the iphone camera was better than this, Vareck's pictures sure look better. Maybe he scales them down or something to keep the grain out. Why they have such a large, poor quality image is a mystery.

One of the advantages to having a horse person in the house is the fine assortment of leather care products available at any time. The shoes I leave at work all the time (gave up carrying them back and forth on the bike) were looking kinda beat but just a few minutes with a random product and a little sponge applicator and they're looking way better than they have in a long time. Using the same stuff I bet I can get my dress shoes looking brand new again.

More pics from the weekend and last week. First Bourdain on stage (taken by Ellen, why she leaves the flash on I have no idea but now we can really see the backs of people's heads):

Next up is us at Allison's graduation thing (why did the woman crop the photo?):

Here we have an update on the corn and garlic. I have no idea what the garlic is doing, it seems to have gotten too tall to support it's own weight. That or they're all dying or something, I've never grown garlic before so I don't know what to expect:

A pic I've wanted to take for a while. It's my new 5x zoom camera next to the woman's 3x zoom. The extra size isn't so bad for the image stabilizer stuff and the larger lens. The extra megapixels don't take up any space I don't imagine.

One last pic for the morning, my new iphone wallpaper. All the star fleet and BSG logos had been done to death, so I had to go back in time a little bit further. It's washed out in the photo but in real life it's a bright red on solid black, looks pretty good. So far no one who's seen it has correctly identified it. I'm special, or just geeky, can't tell yet.

Also should mention that Seth and I went to the archery range after work yesterday. He was impressed I went from barely being able to make a 20 yard shot to hitting stuff well at 50 yards. Having any sort of aiming device really, really makes a difference. He said that my bow may not have enough power at 50 yards to be ethical for hunting. It will kill stuff, but not in a satisfactory amount of time. The difference between his and my bow is very dramatic, he's gotta be 30-40% faster, you can barely see his arrows moving where as mine are on the slow bus out to the target. Ah well, I can always upgrade. :)

Saturday I went up to Vallejo in the morning for the monthly 3.5 D&D game. Since I had to go to a graduation event in the afternoon I only played one slot but it was enough. Fun, which I could have been more effective at the table but at least I provided some stories for them. I also think it's the only time I've actually been hit by a fireball. Man, that sucked, I was down and the only thing that saved me (from death) was the DM being nice, otherwise I was officially charred.

After the game I rode back down to Alameda to go to Allison's graduation party (she's the daughter of the woman's old landlords). That was fun, I spent some of the time with the woman but the rest of the time I was on my own socializing. Rex is always fun to talk to, mostly because I encourage his dreams. They love Alaska and want to move there. Most people give him the 'oh it's cold and remote' story, but having been there a few times I can understand why he wants to go and that winter isn't the whole year.

Sunday we mostly spent goofing off, loading music into the iphone, playing WoW, going for a walk, vacuuming the house, grilling dinner, etc. I was going to go to the archery range but Seth countered saying we should go Monday after work. Driving in sucked but I did it so we could go. I hope it's not too cold, I forgot my jacket.

Speaking of weather it shows rain on Wednesday. :(

Just finished reading about Dennis' Moab trip. Sounds like a lot of exercise.