Last year, Arnon and I both had the flu so we didn’t get to ring in the new year in the city with friends. Tonight, however, we're both in good health and good spirits so we're going to party hard enough for two New Year’s Eves.
I hope you all have a fun time tonight!
See you in the new year.
The last time we celebrated Christmas with my family was six years ago, so we thought it was time to give it another go. It was fun to do things we don't normally do, like cook for our family, shop for Christmas presents, and decorate with Christmas paraphernalia.
Christmas Eve:
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Those of us who know Arnon well know that he can be quite impatient with people who are tardy, bad drivers on the road, etc., but his patience is limitless when it comes to Haley and his two other nieces. What a gentle soul.
Christmas Day:
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Debbie is an amazing hostess. Her outdoor wine party a few months back was absolutely charming, and her holiday gathering was no different. The crazy house on the corner may have taken first place in the City of Santa Clara's Christmas lights contest, but Debbie deserves first place for interior holiday decor.
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I asked Debbie if she would help me pick out paint colors for each of the rooms in my house. Lucky for me, she agreed. Farewell, white walls.
Politicians and others of note answer the greatest question of them all.
Credit: Irene
A handful of days before Christmas, we invited some friends over for a holiday dinner. Afterwards, we made our way to the house on the corner with the crazy Christmas decorations.
As usual there were dozens of people admiring the lights. The owners had put out heaters and hot chocolate so people could stay warm while they waited for a ride around the neighborhood in one of the two horse-drawn carriages. Santa was there, too, posing with young ones and the young at heart.
It was a charming night.
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To celebrate the holidays and say farewell to our Canadian intern Jason, my fellow developers and I went to Kingfish in San Mateo. We had a nice, leisurely lunch followed by shots at the bar. It was a fun way to end yet another long work year.
Actually, this happened ten days ago so I'm clearly behind in my posts.
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At 12:01 pm today, my Honda Civic hit 200,000 miles. I feel very proud of my nearly 13-year old car. The record for Honda Civics is 450,000 miles, which I don't think I'll be able to match due to less than stellar handling of my car, but I hope to squeeze out another 100,000 miles.
Last night, Richard, Arnon and I went to see Sarah Brightman perform at the HP Pavilion. As usual, her voice was amazing! However, HP Pavilion is a terrible venue for a concert because of horrible acoustics.
A few years ago, we saw Sarah Brightman at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. That concert was perfect! Last night's concert, although very good, had disappointments.
First of all, Sarah Brightman was supposed to be promoting her new Symphony album and we were eager to hear the songs we've come to love, but because Christmas is just around the corner, she performed several songs from her new Christmas album and only a few from the Symphony album.
The best song on her new album is Pasion, a duet with Fernando Lima. We knew she would perform that song with a guest singer because that's the hit song off the album, but in the end, she didn't. Can you believe it?
Even worse, Fernando Lima actually showed up to the concert and the two sang a duet called Ave Maria from his new Christmas album. We were disappointed that he had come all that way and then failed to sing the one song that everyone was longing to hear.
Arnon said it was like a cock tease.
Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say:
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless, and your system's gonna crash!
You can't say this?
What a shame sir!
We'll find you
Another game sir.
If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'Cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risc,
Then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM.
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!
Credit: Tom
My sister suggested a Hello Kitty themed maternity ward in Taiwan should I ever decide to have a child.
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With money you can buy a house but not a home.
With money you can buy a clock but not time.
With money you can buy a bed but not sleep.
With money you can buy a book but not knowledge.
With money you can see a doctor but not buy good health.
With money you can buy a position but not respect.
With money you can buy blood but not life.
With money you can buy sex but not love.
Credit: Johanna
In honor of Wes turning 30, Jason prepared a lovely dinner of pasta with shrimp and crab in a spicy tomato sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
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Eddie and Toan recently bought a house in San Leandro which they decorated beautifully. I love all of the colors they selected. Makes me rethink the black and white scheme we have in our house.
Here are some photos from their housewarming/wine party.
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I used to say that hockey players were the most flaky, irresponsible, lying, loathesome slugs on the planet. I based this on my interaction with and observation of the punks that work at hockey rinks. Serious tools.
Well, I was wrong. Contractors have trumped hockey punks, and the general contractor who coordinated the work on my house is the king of all sleezeballs.
Arnon and I refer to him as Bowser because other than skin color, he looks like Bowser, king of the Koopas in Super Mario Brothers.
Bowser promised to complete work on our house by the end of April, a week before we were to leave for Greece, but failed to meet that deadline. He also failed to have our house ready by the time we returned from our month-long vacation. Then, some time in late June, he disappeared.
We tried to contact him in the following weeks but failed to get a hold of him. Fatigued and demoralized, we gave up on the house in mid-July. I know it sounds crazy to give up on a house that you have to live in, but we just couldn't take it anymore.
Then in late October, I received a call from the city saying that my permit would expire in a couple days. In order to extend the permit, I had to schedule an inspection. It should come as no surprise that we failed the inspection on seven points.
We were dejected following the inspection, but not for long. Somehow, Bowser heard that his work did not pass inspection, and his ego must have been bruised because he sent his crew to work on our house again. Unfortunately, that only lasted a couple of weeks and now they're gone again.
So we still have no bedroom closets, no mirror in the bathroom, no recessed entertainment center, and a hole in the counter near the kitchen sink, but these aren't things that should prevent us from passing the next inspection. I hope.
This house is located off of Pruneridge in Santa Clara. You can't tell from the photos, but there is a light directed at the house that gives the illusion of snow falling. So beautiful
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When we first met our neighbors last spring, every one of them told us that the corner house puts on an awesome Christmas display each year. Well, they weren't kidding.
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It is seriously the best Christmas house I've ever seen. Later this month, they will offer horse-drawn carriage rides around the neighborhood.
Last night while preparing to go to bed, I dislocated my left shoulder. I'm not sure how I did it but it made a loud sound that Arnon could hear from the other end of the house.
The thing is, I didn't realize I had dislocated my shoulder. I just thought my shoulder was hurting from lounging on the couch in a bad position.
Anyway, every movement felt like I was slicing into my shoulder with a knife, so it was really difficult to get into bed. Once there, I lay awake half the night in pain and worried that Arnon would toss and turn.
In the morning, I lifted my left arm to move it around as if I were steering, just to see if I would be able to drive to work, and then pop!—my shoulder popped back into place. Immediately, the pain disappeared.
I know this is a weird thing to say, but the sense of relief that washed over me was so quick and so complete that I felt high. It's too bad that such a feeling only comes after intense pain.
Like many of you, I will be eating leftovers all week. We didn't have turkey this year, but we had a large hunk of ham and tri-tip, and though we and our guests made a valiant effort to consume all of it, there's still a lot left over. There's no doubt that I will come to loathe ham by week's end. Fortunately, I have a year to recover before the next ham gorge.
Arnon and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It was great to spend time with friends and family and eat and drink with abandon. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.
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Last week, I stopped by Safeway on my way to work and was surprised to see several men pressure washing shopping carts and baskets. Such a trivial thing, I know, but I was thrilled. I was feeling under the weather that day and the sight of such a large cleaning effort was oddly cathartic.
Anyway, as I was uploading the photo for this post, I noticed that the date on the photo was September 11th and not last week. It's unbelievable how I procrastinate and then conveniently confuse dates in my head to make myself think that I haven't procrastinated.
More importantly, it's unbelievable how quickly time is passing. If I had to assess how much I've accomplished this year, it should only be March, or maybe April if I'm generous with myself, but it's December already. I feel so sad knowing that there are only thirty-one days left in 2008.
