How I spent my winter vacation
It's been a busy 2 weeks. Starting the Friday after my car wouldn't start, I drove up to Santa Rosa to meet some people. That's why I had a car reservation before my car stopped working. I think it stopped because it was jealous. That Sunday was long enough for the portable battery jumper to be charged and ready for testing. Before I tried I gave it another try and it started with a little bit of a hesitation. I didn't feel like driving it around, so I turned it off. I should point out that one of the belts has been squealing for a year. Belt dressing used to help, but it's beyond those powers. The squeal is worse when it rains. It does rain in California. I took pictures. See below. There also seems to be water getting into something because twice I've found the passenger side foot well with an inch of water. Turning on the vent also produces a slight gurgling sound. Old car == bad.
So, home Sunday, work on Monday, then fly to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I didn't say before why I was going because I still wasn't sure it was going to happen. Kevin Smith is filming another movie in Pittsburgh and I went to be an extra. I'm not going to post much about that until after the movie comes out. I'll write about it offline now and then annotate and post it after I see the movie. The short version is I was a shopper at Monroeville mall. I wasn't even the person who traveled the furthest. Someone flew in from Ireland to be an extra.
I was going to stop by the WPLUG meeting that Saturday since it was the first time I've been in town on the first Saturday of the month in a while. I was planning this on Thursday, by Saturday I forgot.
Saturday I flew home. This was the night before the Superbowl and I was flying out of Phoenix, the host city. That's why there were so few people on my flight that night. I didn't know that's where it was to be played until my flight from PGH -> PHX was landing and the flight attendant said something.
Monday I stopped by work long enough to do laundry, eat lunch, and pick up a package from my desk. I had a flight to LAX at 3:30. A few thousand of my closest coworkers and I were going to Disneyland. (heh, the firefox spell checker knows Disneyland, but not Monroeville.)
Tuesday was Disney day. I woke up with a dry throat that got worse during the day. Luckily, the California Disney is smaller than the Florida one. The park closed at 8pm, and we had the whole park to ourselves until 1am.
Wednesday was my flight back to SJC. I had a late flight without much to do, so I took a cab over to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. It's a small store inside of a video rental/sale store. Pictures below.
Thursday and Friday, I took off work sick.
Saturday I bought a new car. It's a 2008 Prius. It's magnetic gray with the navigation package, which is everything except leather seats. That's also means it has some features I wouldn't have picked myself, but were included, like fog lights. Seriously, who uses those? The bluetooth hands free feature is neat. There is a meeting on Tuesday that I'm usually running late for so I dial in. It's neat to have the car's sound system used for speaker phone. The rear view backup camera is weird. I forgot it was there the first time I tried reverse.
I signed up for a costco membership and then used their auto finding service to put me in touch with a dealership. They're supposed to have pre-negotiated prices that are a fixed amount over invoice. So I went to the dealer knowing they had the car I wanted and how much it would cost. (I compromised on color because I didn't want to wait 2-3 weeks for black.) I think I was there for about an hour and half.
Sunday I went to the Palo Alto board game meetup. I got to play Carcassonne, Power Grid, and Munchkin Cthulhu
Indisputable proof that weather does exist. (paraphrasing a bad quote from Primeval) Also, my old car. The date on that photo is wrong too. I didn't even own the camera or live in this apartment on that date.
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Me next to Elias' uniform from Clerks II. I was tired, sick and sore all over by this point.
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I had the whole theater to myself to watch the first 50 years of Disney.
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So, home Sunday, work on Monday, then fly to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I didn't say before why I was going because I still wasn't sure it was going to happen. Kevin Smith is filming another movie in Pittsburgh and I went to be an extra. I'm not going to post much about that until after the movie comes out. I'll write about it offline now and then annotate and post it after I see the movie. The short version is I was a shopper at Monroeville mall. I wasn't even the person who traveled the furthest. Someone flew in from Ireland to be an extra.
I was going to stop by the WPLUG meeting that Saturday since it was the first time I've been in town on the first Saturday of the month in a while. I was planning this on Thursday, by Saturday I forgot.
Saturday I flew home. This was the night before the Superbowl and I was flying out of Phoenix, the host city. That's why there were so few people on my flight that night. I didn't know that's where it was to be played until my flight from PGH -> PHX was landing and the flight attendant said something.
Monday I stopped by work long enough to do laundry, eat lunch, and pick up a package from my desk. I had a flight to LAX at 3:30. A few thousand of my closest coworkers and I were going to Disneyland. (heh, the firefox spell checker knows Disneyland, but not Monroeville.)
Tuesday was Disney day. I woke up with a dry throat that got worse during the day. Luckily, the California Disney is smaller than the Florida one. The park closed at 8pm, and we had the whole park to ourselves until 1am.
Wednesday was my flight back to SJC. I had a late flight without much to do, so I took a cab over to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. It's a small store inside of a video rental/sale store. Pictures below.
Thursday and Friday, I took off work sick.
Saturday I bought a new car. It's a 2008 Prius. It's magnetic gray with the navigation package, which is everything except leather seats. That's also means it has some features I wouldn't have picked myself, but were included, like fog lights. Seriously, who uses those? The bluetooth hands free feature is neat. There is a meeting on Tuesday that I'm usually running late for so I dial in. It's neat to have the car's sound system used for speaker phone. The rear view backup camera is weird. I forgot it was there the first time I tried reverse.
I signed up for a costco membership and then used their auto finding service to put me in touch with a dealership. They're supposed to have pre-negotiated prices that are a fixed amount over invoice. So I went to the dealer knowing they had the car I wanted and how much it would cost. (I compromised on color because I didn't want to wait 2-3 weeks for black.) I think I was there for about an hour and half.
Sunday I went to the Palo Alto board game meetup. I got to play Carcassonne, Power Grid, and Munchkin Cthulhu
Indisputable proof that weather does exist. (paraphrasing a bad quote from Primeval) Also, my old car. The date on that photo is wrong too. I didn't even own the camera or live in this apartment on that date.
More...
Me next to Elias' uniform from Clerks II. I was tired, sick and sore all over by this point.
More...
I had the whole theater to myself to watch the first 50 years of Disney.
More...