We met Kelly's friend in the morning for brunch and shopping. Mostly shopping. It was nice though. The weather was warm and we wandered about the Third Street Promenade. Kelly decided that she needed a skirt because she hadn't really packed for warm weather. She ended up getting a poofy white skirt and a nice dark blue tank top at the last store we visited, which was Banana Republic, of course. We had brunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then Kelly and I walked back to the hotel.

We napped for a while and then got ready for Mom and Dad's visit. They arrived shortly after 2 PM, and met us at the hotel room. It was the first time Kelly met them, although she'd spoken to Dad briefly on the phone a while back. I think it went well. After sitting around chatting for a while, we walked over to the Santa Monica pier, walked it's length, talked browsed, took pictures, and got a little too much sun. I was very thirsty and suggested we head back to the hotel, which has a lounge and bar. Wouldn't you know it--the bar was closed and wasn't scheduled to open until 5:30! I ran over to the local AM/PM to get sodas for everyone--and managed to get the wrong one for Mom. But we sat around some more, chatting, and then finally headed over to Ocean Avenue Seafood for dinner.

We were seated in the patio area and I think we had a very nice dinner. I had the salmon, and Kelly had the Mahi-mahi. For some reason, I couldn't eat very much. I'm not sure why. But dinner was great, Mom and Dad were great, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. They dropped us back off at the hotel sometime around 8 PM, and I think we were both pretty tired, although we did stay up long enough to watch a Harry Potter movie on network television.

It's on days like this, when I reach the frantic apogee of work hours and stress, that I am envious of people who don't have to put up with it all any more. And so it happens that Dad is now one of those people. Yesterday was he last day on the job. He is now officially retired.

Me, I'm just tired.

Congratulations, Dad!

Yes, that's right another trip around the sun. Since I mentioned last year at this time that it was your 100th birthday, I presume that means today is your 101st birthday.

HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

May the traffic to and from work be light today on your behalf.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last night. First, we had everyone over at Mom and Dad's: me, he110_sunshine, stubiebrother, Doug, Rachel, Ruby and Carson. This year was a non-traditional year for dinner. We had excellent crab legs, delicious prime rib, rice, and broccoli. There was plenty of food and it was all delicious. Doug and Rachel made dessert. We sipped drinks after dinner, it was a lot of fun.

I was exhausted soon after dinner, but we stayed up so that Mom, Jen and Jason could watch Gray's Anatomy. Jen, Jason and I slept on air mattresses down in the living room. Lights were out by 10:30 PM and I slept really well.

We were up at around 7:30 this morning. I was hungry as soon as I woke up. Mom made me chocolate chip pancakes. I ate 6 of them and they hit the spot. Doug, Jason and I head off to our Scuba lesson in about half an hour. Meanwhile, Jen and Rachel are going to their spa treatments soon. I think they are going shopping later. Today is black Friday. But if you ask me, you've got to be crazy to go shopping today.

I was up just after 4 AM. I had to take Dad to the airport this morning and he wanted to leave at 4:45 AM, so I had to be up a little before that. The roads were empty and I got him to Dulles airport (37 miles away) in about 40 minutes. In fact, I made it back almost in time to make my normal train into work. I missed it by only 2 minutes so that I actually arrived in the office at 6:38 instead of 6:30.

Busy, productive day today. I got some software installed on a new server this morning. I worked from home in the afternoon, so that I could check on Zeke and also give him some of his pain medicine. He seems to be doing fine, so far. Purring, playful, eating, using his litter box. I'm the anxious one! I spent the afternoon working on project requirements documentation, and I hope to have most of it finished up tomorrow.

After work, I came into my home office to write. And in the space of about 90 minutes, I did about 1,300 words. I have an old story for which I got some good feedback (the original story is from 2003) that I felt could be better, knowing what I know 4 years later. So I began to rewrite it from scratch, trying to keep it to the same length as the original (about 5,500 words), but improving both the story and the writing. So far, I'm very pleased with it.

I'm about 100 pages through Spook Country and nearly finished with my re-read of Getting Things Done. I plan on getting through more of Spook Country shortly. Then at 7 PM, I'll watch the Yankee/O's game until Big Love comes on.

I have a busy weekend coming up. I'm spending the whole weekend on the "collection" and "processing" phases of the GTD process. And I also have an appointment at Saturn to have the hinge in the drivers door of my car replaced. I'm having my brakes checked while I'm there, as they've started to squeak and feel a little low.

Dad is in town this weekend. He got here late yesterday afternoon, and then got to spend the evening with me at the animal hospital in Annapolis. We went back there this morning to collect Zeke, who, by the way, is supposed to be drinking more water, and is not only drinking more, but is now playing in it!

Once Zeke was home (and I was relieved), we decided to get out of the house for a while. First, we headed to Silver Spring for lunch at Five Guys. I'd never been there before, but wanted to go, since people have said that Five Guys is a lot like In-n-Out. I have to beg to differ. The burger was good, I'll grant that, but it was no In-n-Out burger. For one thing, the buns were different. For another, there was no thousand island dressing or whatever it is they put in their Double-Doubles. And the meat wasn't seasoned the same way. And forget the fries! Although Five Guys creatively posts the type of potatoes being used that day for their fries, they were no where near as good as In-n-Out. Don't get me wrong, the food was good. It just doesn't compare to In-n-Out in my opinion.

Later in the afternoon, we headed downtown to walk around for a bit. The weather cooled off today so it was only in the upper 80s, which was a pleasant change. We walked to the National Air and Space Museum and browsed around there for half an hour or so, and then continued walking around until we ended up at Austin Grill, where we had some beer and where I had chips and guacamole.

After that we headed home and relaxed for a while. Zeke got into a playful mood and I was overjoyed to see him happy and not uncomfortable. We played for a while and then both Zeke and I dozed off (with his chin on my arm) for a little while.

We went to Franklin's for dinner. I wasn't hungry, but Dad wanted the crab cakes. We also got some of their special microbrews, which were pretty good. I found an outstanding Cheddar Beer Soup on the menu. I think it was new because I don't remember seeing it before. It was delicious! When we got home, we watched about half of Road to Bali and by then I was pretty tired so I decided to head off to bed, read for a while, and then head off to sleep.

I got a very nice thank you note from vickyandnorm in the mail today (thanking me for their wedding gifts). There's a very cute picture of Vicky and Norm and two of their friends on the front of the thank you card--but, alas, it is not the picture that I suggested they use. I suspect they were too self-conscious to use that one.

Posted at about 5:30 PM local time, on July 9

Mom and Dad had their vow-renewal ceremony this afternoon before dinner. We all got dressed up and then met outside the chapel at 5:30 PM. Jen and Jason had just finished up their couple's massage and they had to rush to get dressed, but they were up to the chapel on time, and in fact, we were able to start a few minutes early.

The ceremony was brief, but private, with the ship's captain presiding over it. I video-recorded the whole thing on my camera and the entire ceremony lasted 3-1/2 minutes but it was really very nice. After, we went back to my parents suite to have some champagne.

Posted at about 9:27 PM local time

When we last saw our Fearless Hero, he was about to kill a few hours after making his last post and before going to dinner. And so he did. I grabbed my book, ordered up an Ultimate Mai-Tai from one of the bars, and then headed out onto Deck 7, starboard side. It was quiet and warm outside and I quickly found a comfortably cushioned seat on which to relax. Drinking my Mai-tai, I tried to read my book, but the view of the islands in the harbor and the light blue water was pretty distracting, to say nothing of the approaching planes (of which I took several pictures). Eventually, I dozed off out there and by the time I woke up, it was nearly dinner time.

( Read all about it )

Tomorrow is a big day: Mom and Dad are having their vow-renewal ceremony at 5:45 PM. Just us, them and then Captain of the ship in the ship's chapel. We have reservations for a late dinner at the specialty restaurant, Sabatini's at 9:30 PM tomorrow as well. Jen and Jason have their couples massage; and of course, I have my sports massage first thing tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel...

9:18 PM local time.

We did some roaming around Venice this evening. I met Mom and Dad at 5:30 and we headed out into the streets of Venice. It's really so cool. I've never been in a city quite like this. Lots of people everywhere and a labyrinth of wide and narrow passageways. I had this image in my mind of running through the city on a night when the entire city was deserted.

And speaking of images, I have posted a set of pictures from Munich and Venice for those interested in checking them out. (The pictures are on my Flickr account, so feel free to post comments to the pics.)

I was eager to see Piazza San Marcos since vickyandnorm had built it up so much in my mind. I was not disappointed. It was exactly as they described it, full of people and pigeons and music from the sidewalk cafes. I wanted to go up in the Campanile, which is the tall tower in the piazza which gives a birds-eye view of the city, but I decided to wait until tomorrow to do that. Instead, we wandered about the maze of canals and passageways, taking photos, window-shopping (Mom, anyway), and delighted in the fact that I was in a city as old and famous as Venice. (Shakespeare wrote about Venice; he never wrote about New York^*.)

After wandering around the city for a while, we came back to the hotel and then decided to go find a place to have dinner. We wandered a short distance from the hotel and finally settled on a quiet, canal-side restaurant called Restaurante da Raffaele. We sat outside and had a great meal. Spaghetti and meat sauce, bread sticks, and an Italian beer called Sans Souci. I had ice cream for dessert and I managed to clean my plates.

We came back to the hotel and I was pretty wiped out at this point. I came up to the room, posted pictures and now, I'm about to read myself to sleep. I'm beat and I need a good night's sleep so that I can be ready for a full day tomorrow. We board the cruise ship at 1 PM-ish but the ship stays docked in Venice for 24 hours after that so we still have time to explore the city. And he11o_sunshine and jkashlock arrive tomorrow as well.

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^*</sup> Steve Martin might say Shakespeare wrote about Los Angeles, but I'm not sure I believe it.

Yesterday was a long day and today felt even longer. You already know that yesterday (Sunday) started at about 6 AM for me, when I headed to the gym for a light workout (arms and shoulders). Well, eventually, Jen and Jason got up and we all scrambled off to First Breakfast. I had a massive waffle with a hunk of whipped cream the size of a softball on it. After breakfast, we went back to the room, but with Doug still sound asleep, we figured we needed to be elsewhere.

( Las Vegas, Day 2 )

We packed a lot into a very short weekend trip, but Mom was surprised and it was a lot of fun. We'll all be back together (plus three) in a month to spend 7 times as much time together on the cruise through Italy and the Greek Islands.

[Written on May 27 and backdated to May 26]

Saturday was a long day! I was up at 5 AM because I couldn't sleep any longer. I packed up the remainder of my stuff and headed off to LAX to catch my plane to Las Vegas. There were no lines. I checked in at the Premier check-in counter, went through the premium security "line" (there was no one in line) and was at my gate 10 minutes after arriving at the airport.

I had some time to kill so I watched the season finale of Heroes which I hadn't seen yet, and which I thought was terrific! I made sure I was the first person on the plane because I didn't want to run into Mom and Dad, who were taking a flight about 2 hours after mine. Mom was still in the dark about the big surprise in Vegas. She thought I was flying home today.

The flight was short and uneventful. So short, in fact, that I couldn't complete the crossword puzzle in the magazine. When I got to the gate, I found that he11o_sunshine and jkashlock's flight was getting in early, so I walked over to their gate to meet them. We then headed to baggage claim so I could get my bag. We were also able to check into the hotel. All that was left was to wait for Doug.

His flight got in early but we couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone. Finally, at close to 11 AM, Jen spotted him wandering around upstairs. We found out that his phone was broken and he had been wandering around looking for us. We caught a taxi to the hotel, checked in, and then headed to another hotel for lunch so that we didn't run into Mom and Dad prematurely.

Finally, around 2 PM or so, Dad called and told us to meet him at the Bally's sports book. We walked over there (in the near 100 degree sun) and met him. He led us to where mom was sitting at video poker. He told her he had a surprise for her, while we all hung back. She closed her eyes as instructed and we all stood around her. Then she opened her eyes. From her reaction, I think she was pretty surprised!

Lots of activities the rest of the day. We had drinks at a bar in the Bellagio. Then we decided to go to the pool, which we did. I would be remiss to mention the fact that at one point, I was spirited away by a bunch of bachelorettes, as a part of a bachelorette party, which Doug and Jason would have no part in. I didn't mind. After, I went back to the hotel room to rest for a little while. At 6:30, we headed to Emeril's for dinner. More drinks. And excellent food. Doug and I shared some tuna steak tartare for an appetizer and I had--you guessed it--the copper river salmon for the main course.

After dinner people wanted to go gamble but I was beat. I headed back up to the room and went to sleep. I don't even remember Jen and Jason getting back. But I did hear Doug come in just before 3 AM. He had lots of beads and he said he'd lost $100 all told. It was a fun day.

Dad and I headed to Camden Yards at about 11 AM, getting to the ball park just after 11:30 AM. It was sunny but cool and very windy, and Dad was not dressed for the occasion. Our seats, which are usually perfect because they are in the shade, were much cooler and very windy; so much so that Dad really couldn't sit still and had to spend a good portion of the game wandering around the stadium, looking for splashes of sunshine in which he could stand.

The highlight of the game for me came at 3:15 PM, when I received a text message from Doug that read: "The Yankees just announced they signed Clemen's." At first, I thought Doug might be having some fun with me. They was nothing about it on any of the boards at the stadium. But then I thought that he wouldn't text me about it if he was joking (he would have called). And sure enough, when I got home, we discovered it was true.

It was a fun game. In the 7th inning, Bill, the usher for our section told us we could move down behind home plate and we sat in the sun for the rest of the game, which was nice. I kept score throughout the game. And although the Oriole's lost, we had a good time.

I picked up Dad from the metro station last night at around 7:30 and we made straight for the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was surprisingly empty for that time on a Friday. We were seated almost at once and had a very nice meal.

When we came home, we watched TV for a while (we were watching the Orioles game) but when 10 PM rolled around, I was beat and had to head off to bed.

I was up at 7 AM this morning, read for a while, and caught up with some blog reading, and Dad was finally up at 8 AM. We headed to IHOP for breakfast. Afterward, I did some quick laundry and then headed to the gym for an arms/shoulders workout. After that, we decided to head downtown and walk around them Mall.

We headed to L'Enfant plaza, and then made our way up and around the Capitol building, past the Library of Congress, and Supreme Court, and finally to Union Station. It was windy and had cooled off considerably and there was a light drizzle as well. We ate lunch at Union Station and then headed back home. Dad wants to watch the big De La Hoya fight tonight, so I ordered it for him on Pay Per View (I won't be watching. I will be working on more novel outlining and see if I can figure out a way to make "If By Reason of Strength..." work for me.)

The last time someone was at my house was on September 12, when rubysnina was here to visit. Believe it or not, since then, while I have been visiting all over the place, no one else has been in my house in all that time!

That comes to an end this weekend when he11o_sunshine comes to visit. jkashlock will already be in the DC area for a birthday celebration. It will be nice to have guests for a change.

And these guests are followed next weekend by Dad, when he comes into town for his first Orioles game of the season.

I guess I need to think about getting the house in order.

I'm getting ready to get into bed and read for a while. I was fairly productive today. I got my passport. I wrote some thank you notes (although I still have more to write). I got some work done on the book collection database, including a cataloging of all of my SCIENCE FICTION AGE magazines. I went to the gym to workout. I did some laundry. Now I've showered.

The house is a bit of a mess, but I'll get it cleaned up in the next couple of days. My desk here in the office is brimming over with stuff. I need to get that cleaned up too.

I gassed up the car tonight, 10.5 gallons, so I shouldn't need to fill it up again for another couple of weeks.

jkashlock and Dad called me for a video iChat this afternoon. They were at the Apple store in Simi Valley and had hijacked one of the display computers in order to video chat with me. Dad showed me his Mets shirt and I showed them my new passport. Somehow, I think I will go farther with my passport than the Mets will go this coming season. This was my second video iChat this weekend. Jim and I spent about 30 minutes video chatting yesterday evening.

I've been listening to Aerosmith for much of the day today. I haven't listened to them in a while and it was fun to hear them again.

That's a wrap!

Last night at 8:30, I sat down for a video chat with Mom and Dad. We had arranged the video chat because they wanted to watch me open the gift they sent me. I was eager to do so as the package had been sitting in my living room for two days and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what it might be.

So there, on a live video chat, I opened it up with Mom and Dad looking over my shoulder.

( You're not going to believe what they got me )

So thank you, Mom and Dad. It was definitely worth the suspenseful wait.

Today is Dad's birthday. Growing up, whenever I asked Dad how old he was, his answer was always the same. "I'm a hundred years old," he would say. I grew up thinking my Dad was a century old, telling the kids at school he was a century old, and in general, believing he was a century old. To this day, while he doesn't look to be 100 years old, who am I to argue with my "old" man.

So, Dad, here's to a very happy 100th Birthday! I hope that Mom can fit all those candles on the cake for you!

Throughout the Comcast Saga, I did managed to get some work done on "If By Reason of Strength..." I did about 500 words and I've now completed the first 3 sections of the story. More tomorrow.

The Comcast Saga screwed up my workout plan for today. Not only did I not end up getting a chance to workout tonight, but I didn't get a chance to go out and grab my dinner! I can't make up the dinner, but I'm going to try and add an extra cardio session to my lower body workout tomorrow morning.

Dad just called--he got the birthday gift I sent to him and he was calling to say thank you. It sounds like he really liked it.

Now I'm off to pack my lunch, gather my things together for the morning, and head off to bed. G'night!

I did a little bit of work on "If By Reason of Strength..." this evening, about 350 words or so. The pace of the story is moving a bit slowly, but at this point, I'm just trying to get the story out. I can tighten it up once I've got the first draft written. I got about halfway through part 3, of the 6 parts I've got outlined so far. I've still got more outlining to do, but I wanted to get in some writing tonight, especially since I didn't manage to get any done last night.

---

I did pretty good today. 5 meals (so far--I'm still due for my evening snack!) and it was just as tough eating about every three hours today as it was yesterday. But I did it. I've had 1.5 liters of water so far, but I'm still due to have a little more before bed (9:30 tonight). I did my workout and I stuck to my plan. Two days in a row now. I'm feeling pretty good, but 2 days out of 209 is barely noticeable. I've got a long way to go.

---

I am going up to New York the weekend before Christmas to hang out with jen_ashlock and jkashlock. They are heading to L.A. on Christmas Eve and I will head back down here that same evening. I'm going up there early on the 22nd. I imagine the Acela will be pretty crowded that day, but it gives me the opportunity to put my Amtrak Guest Rewards Select membership to the test. I can use one of my passes to Club Acela and sit in the lounge before getting on the train. It also means I can board the train early and avoid the rush. I'm heading back up to New York two weeks later for vickyandnorm's boys and girls wedding shower.

---

I had a good day at work today. I spent most of the day writing perl scripts to process and transform data from Excel spreadsheets into a fairly sophisticated SQL database. I turned a corner on it today and things are looking good. I'm giving a briefing on this project to some senior directors on Thursday, and then another briefing next Tuesday at an "all hands" staff meeting. I like days like this when it really feels like I am making progress.

---

Dad's birthday is coming up on Sunday. I got him a present that I think he'll really enjoy. I just checked and it should be delivered to their house tomorrow. It's a few days early, but that just means he can get a head start. (And when he reads this tonight, at least he'll only have to be curious for 24 hours or so.)

---

I'm working from home tomorrow afternoon because Comcast is delivering my Digital DVR receiver which they couldn't deliver and setup last Saturday. They will be here between 2 and 5 PM and so I'm leaving the office at noon. It means I don't have to pack my lunch tomorrow, just a morning snack. It also means that I'll have to go to the gym in Greenbelt tomorrow evening to do my cardio workout. I'm up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, which means I'm supposed to be in bed by 9:30 tonight, but its creeping up on 8 PM and I'm already tired so I might not make it to 9:30.

And my body is pretty sore. That's pretty typical after not working out for a few weeks and then starting up again. I expect tomorrow will be the worst of it.

Doug had to work most of the day yesterday and he finally got home around 5 PM. Shortly after he got home, he, Mom, Dad and I headed out to the Keg to have some drinks and sit around chatting, while Rachel, Ruby and Carson got a break from our hijinks. We then headed over to the restaurant around 7:30 PM. We had to take two cars and we dropped Carson off at Theresa's house on the way. Doug was playing Richard Cheese in the car and Dad was in the back seat and Doug managed to leave the car at the worst parts of "Baby Got Back" and "Badd", leaving me to fend for myself.

Daniel's in Bellevue is on the 21st floor of a hotel and when we were seated, we had a pretty nice view of downtown Seattle in the distance. The food was really good. I had a 13 ounce fillet mignon with a peppercorn brandy sauce, and a baked potato. I had some clam chowder, too. Ruby was with us and was very well-behaved. She had a hamburger and fries, and some root beer, all of which are among her favorites.

It was a very nice dinner and a very nice evening, and we were all wiped out by the time we got home last night. Now it's 8:30 AM (PST) and I' already hungry again! My flight leaves Seattle at 5 PM this afternoon.