I didn’t get that many pictures last week because, well, I don’t take as many pictures as I should. And some of the ones I took are AWFUL. But I have a few pictures of the guys I hung out with at the reunion (mostly the same group of guys).

I also have a few pictures from the Apple conference, but mostly of the BEST HAMBURGER I EVER HAD at Citizen’s Band. Oh and another picture of a different astronaut, Buzz Aldrin. Anyway, those pictures would have been up earlier, but I’ve been busy DESTROYING MY LAPTOP or at least trying to install all sorts of beta Apple stuff that I’m not supposed to talk about even though it’s been announced already.

So there you go. I’m still alive, a slight bit fatter, and sort of rested, sort of tired and my pictures are still stuck somewhere on my laptop.

I left sunny Boston this morning for cloudy SF and the Apple WWDC. I did get to see a bunch of classmates who had changed but were definitely still recognizable after 25 years! I even have photographic proof that I saw Bobby Satcher, who is now Robert Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., Astronaut and has incredibly cute kids. Come to think of it, I think a lot of the kids I met were a lot like their parents in many ways. Ron and Kyla Duncan’s kids were as nice and easy going as Ron and Kyla. Dara Foias’ daughter seemed as clever and inquisitive as you’d expect from parents who are Dara and her husband the biochem prof.

I felt like kind of a loser, like I often do around MIT grads. Every chem major I ran into had his Ph.D. and everyone else seemed to be in Investment Banking. What’s cool is how my friends can explain to me what they’re doing without making me feel too stupid.

I just had dinner with Megan and Nadeem at the best Middle Eastern restaurant I can remember going to, Bursa in West Portal (San Francisco). I better go before I lapse into a food coma.

Whee! I made it to Boston today and I met up with three of my old classmates, Dr. Mike Malaska, Dr. Juan Alvarez, and Ron Duncan. I also saw Kyla Duncan, M.S. and Colin Shepard (NRS) who works in Hillsboro (where I do) but I had to wait 25 years and travel the width of the US to see him again. I kept describing everyone as the big cheeses while I’m kind of a disappointment and waste of an MIT education. I also met the kids of Dr. Robert Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., astronaut and Ron and Kyla’s kids as well.

I did meet an MIT grad who was serving ice cream at Toscanini’s. That’s some good ice cream. I will opine, however, that the food is much better in Portland. There, I said it. I’m a Portland food snob.

I’m taking some time off from the gym (one whole extra day, so far) because I may have overdone it last week. Or I’m being lazy. Or I’m really, really, in need of a vacation.

I did spend most of the day trying to hang some curtains. It meant taking down the old curtains, washing them, taking down the old hardware, and then putting up the new hardware and the outdated but hopefully clean curtains. There was 41 years of dust on the curtains, much of it from when my dad smoked and my mom burned incense for the Buddhist shrine we have. After all the trouble, I was almost finished putting it all together when I noticed I BOUGHT THE WRONG CURTAIN ROD. I wanted one with the pull string that opened and closed the curtains, but I got one that just sat there. And it didn’t take rings or slides to let the curtains open and close at all. The goddamn worthless things are the type that make you tie up the curtains on the sides of the window with some sort of rope. Or maybe you’re supposed to get your butler to do it. I mean, honestly, where the hell am I going to come up with a butler?

So, tomorrow, back to the drawing board. At least I got the replacement parts for my grandmother’s old barber clippers and I got it mostly working again. That’s something, anyway.

Perhaps this is another one of the joys of getting older. Going to the gym makes you feel like you got beat up in a bumfight or something. Or maybe a car wreck. Though the few times I’ve been in a car wreck I didn’t feel so bad.

Really, I have very little to add tonight. I still need to juggle my bank accounts and bleed away the money I have socked away for my never-arriving Toyota Prius I ordered back in February. Or maybe I should just say I suggested to the dealer that I have A BIG PILE OF MONEY set aside for a Prius and they should sell it to me for cheap. I suppose it doesn’t work that way. I should just buy a jpeg of it and use it as a screensaver while I drive my broken Civic back and forth and be happy with my lot in life. But lately I’ve been looking in the mirror and wondering why that old guy looking at me is looking so skinny and haggard. I think I need more sleep and a cheeseburger. Probably in that order.

I suppose it wasn’t smart to do as many burpees as I did this week. Tuesday I did them instead of pushups or squat thrusts and since I missed a couple of birthday burpee chances I did 92 (28 for Megan, 32 for Michelle, 32 for Galen, and my math is probably off). Wednesday there were 25 in the workout and I added a few to make it a around 47 because, well, I figured if I could do 92 on Tuesday I could do 47 on Wednesday. Thursday morning I felt like someone stabbed me between my shoulders. Good thing Friday is my day away from the gym.

Every time I try to record a sporting event, the game goes over the set time and the DVR cuts off the last part of the game. What kind of assclown doesn’t compensate for sporting events?

For some reason, my left index finger was numb this morning and my stomach felt like I’d eaten cement for breakfast. I’m just falling apart. I was also incredibly tired after work and considered going to sleep after I got home at 6PM, but I still went to the gym. There were times when I’d stare at a weight, for example, trying to get it to move on its own, but I still didn’t quite wuss out on anything. Even though I felt like I might see my lunch, or what those rocks in my stomach from earlier in the day looked like.

I told myself I’d get to sleep early, but here it is late. And I’m staring at my VISA bill, wondering what I’ve done to myself. That’ll help my sleep for sure.

I’ve had a headache all weekend, but I think that’s really more to do with sinus problems. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I’ve heard from others (including my sister’s running group) that I’m not the only one with sinus issues right now. I’ve been using a Neti pot and my head still hurts. I might just blame it on hay fever season.

Friday night my buddy Il and I went to the new remodeled Ringside for my birthday dinner. We were almost 40 days late, but that’s just sort of how we roll. I’ve had a food hangover ever since. I feel bloated. I suppose when two guys spend $400 on dinner, a food hangover is expected. Ringside hasn’t changed that much from what a diner can see. There’s another room in the back and four more seats in the bar. But it’s brighter, making it seem more open, and there were extensive improvements in the wine cellar, meat locker, and kitchen. The food is still excellent and so was the service.

Today I spent much of the day at a baby shower. My friend (a super Linux geek) is starting a new job. He and his wife went to Australia before moving to Canada. They’re having a baby soon, plus she got her US citizenship. Way to pile on the accomplishments to make guys like me feel inadequate! But congratulations to them for all they’re doing.

I have nothing to say lately except my job is busy busy busy. I try not to say too much because it’s not like I hide who I am or where I work. It’s probably pretty easy to figure who I’m talking about if I were to say anything. And other than that, I go to the gym, and I watch Jay the Contractor work. That’s about it.

This year my birthday made me feel especially old and I figure that’s probably about it for most of the things I should have done in my 30’s. I’m way past the late cutoff for things like having a family or getting married. I just have to be that old cranky guy who lives on the block. A reminder, today, was when I did birthday burpees for someone who is the same age. I’m pretty tired anyway from what we did at the gym yesterday, had meetings all through lunch which meant I only ate a “Builder Bar” out of the vending machine because the cafeteria was closed, and was pretty beat from today’s workout as well. So why did I do 47 extra burpees? Especially since after 15 I took a break and realized I still had THIRTY-TWO to go. Honestly, I kind of feel like I got hit by a truck.

My 25th college reunion is coming up and a few of us are going, organized via Facebook. it’s TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS A NIGHT to stay in Cambridge, but I think I’m finally over being mad about going to MIT. I mean, there’s almost nowhere else a nerd like me could have gone, but that place was brutal. I still wish I could have gone to Stanford. Guys who transferred there said it was a cakewalk compared to MIT. I’m sure it’s still hard, but come on, there are real people who go there, not just supernerds. They even have a football team that WINS GAMES. And I hear Cambridge is no longer a poster child for urban blight and has turned into a gentrified yuppie town. I saw evidence for that when I was there five years ago. We’ll see in a couple of weeks!

My mom came back from Japan today and the kitchen is still torn apart so I figured it was a good time to skip going to the gym and take her out to dinner. It’s nice living in a neighborhood with lots of choices, even a barbecue restaurant like Slabtown Ribs and BBQ. It’s probably not the best place to go every other week, but it is tasty.

I just sent 12 work emails from 9:30PM on and they weren’t all short messages. Work is still pretty busy. How did I get myself into this? Stupid need for health insurance.

Turns out my mom isn’t coming back until Tuesday. The kitchen still won’t be finished by then so I’m not sure what difference it really makes.

We had this awful shelving unit with aluminum rails and supports and pressboard shelves that I’ve decided isn’t going back into the kitchen. That also means that we need a table for the telephone. I’m not a big furniture shopper and it’s been a bit of a headache. I started last night on Google and went to three antique stores, Portland Furnishings, Hip, Dania, and finally the Joinery. All I wanted was a narrow table and I finally found what I need is called a “console” or “entry table”. I found NOTHING on Google, Ikea’s web site, Dania’s web site, or Crate and Barrel’s web site. I found nothing at the antique stores. The last three places had something that would be almost OK.

The one at Hip was a perfect size, but had a glass top. GLASS TOP. I’m going to put something through a glass top, I’m sure. Plus, it’s too modern for me.

There was an interesting leaning desk at Dania, but it didn’t mount to the wall at all. I’m sure it would come tumbling down at some point.

So finally I went to the Joinery. I haven’t been there for ten years, I think, because everything there is BEAUTIFUL, hand made, and EXPENSIVE. The first three tables they showed me were almost perfect, but cost $1800 – $2200. The one I finally bought was a Shaker table made of cherry and is going to make the rest of the kitchen look like absolute crap.

They had a nice bed frame I wanted for $3000, and a nice dresser I wanted for $5000. I think the custom kitchen table will be about $3000 and the chairs are about $700 each. Now I see why I either need to a raise and a promotion or to change my tastes back to Ikea’s pressboard furniture.