05 November 2008

Dreamers

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being a dreamer and finding another dreamer. The two of us have been talking about where we want to go with the Toaster Project and I think we will eventually find an angle for this thing that will make it work.

04 November 2008

Hope

Today I'm thankful for ...

... democracy. That it is still alive in this country.

03 November 2008

In people I trust

Today I'm thankful for ...

... all of the news going out about Prop 8 and about the weirdness in the McCain campaign. I'm hoping tonight for a revolution: I hope that Obama can pull it off. Only hours to go before the polls open.

25 September 2008

En masse

Today I'm thankful for ...

... ADF scanning! Holy moly is this feature ever useful.

I recently got a Canon MX310 scanner/copier and it is THE machine. I am now such a fan of the automatic document feeder it's crazy. I can put a stack of documents in it, go to Photoshop and say Import, and all get sucked into the machine! Then I can recombine all the files into a PDF to send off. This is SO much faster than what I had to do before it's crazy!

14 September 2008

Phase 1 Done

Today I'm thankful for ...

... successfully completing Phase 1 of our Fillmore Grind renovation project. The 3rd coat of paint went up really quick and we had some professional help this time. It's also amazing to see how many other people are getting involved with the project! We had two very good conversations today with people who are going to help with some significant projects. Another individual is looking to help redo the floors and redo the counter area---we don't have a solid commitment yet but we're working to try to figure that part out.

13 September 2008

So quick!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a super speedy second coat of paint. We were very worried that we wouldn't have enough volunteers to get Coat #2 done, but it went up so quickly it was crazy! Also, we had some fine contributions from friends who were able to hit Costco and get us some things to stock the shelves. I also hit Smart and Final and picked up some additional items for Mike.

12 September 2008

What a crew!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a great number of awesome volunteers. We really couldn't have done today's job without them.

11 September 2008

All wrapped up

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting the final bits of taping done and some of the plastic sheeting up. This is really going to make it easier to paint because we can be sloppy!

10 September 2008

Secret access

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting access to the coffee shop by getting a set of keys from Mike. Now we can get in and out whenever we want!

09 September 2008

Many buttons

Today I'm thankful for ...

... sticking with this electronic music meetup group. We've really got some talented people! I was able to get General Fuzz's latest album. It's really mellow...

08 September 2008

Whew

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B's results coming back normal from his endoscopy. It's weird but it looks like he's in OK condition---no ulcers. This has been a frustrating month and him not knowing what's wrong with him has just led to all sorts of problems.

07 September 2008

An extra hand

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting some help from the roommate of one of the coordinators for our painting project. She was a big help spackling the walls.

06 September 2008

On the road again

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B having the stamina to do all the driving today. It's 45 miles out to the wedding, then back to his home, then out again, then back again. We spent a lot of time in the car today...

05 September 2008

Oy, I need more time

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to go at my own pace for our music lessons. I need more time to do my homework, and it's starting to show.

24 August 2008

It's only a flesh wound

Today I'm thankful for ...

... the gash on my foot not being as bad as it could have been. Although, the scene was pretty gross.

While walking around the kitchen I tripped over a Dirt Devil vacuum on the floor. My toe hurt but I didn't think much of it---I'm pretty good with shaking off pain. And after a few minutes I went to go sit on the couch next to the boyfriend ... and that's when I saw the little puddle of juice near the carpet. Except ... it wasn't juice since I wasn't carrying a cup. Then I looked down and saw the mess I had been making.

Apparently I had ripped a neat little gash in the big toe and it caused quite a bit of a mess since I walked around the kitchen for a while before sitting down. And so I had a bit to clean up. A short bit later I was all cleaned up and I had the liquid bandage applied. The boyfriend helped me clean the kitchen up and remove the ugliness.

23 August 2008

I don't read the script, the script reads me!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... Tropic Thunder actually being funny. It attempted to offend just about everyone and I think it indeed did. But it was done in a way that the farce worked without getting tired. So many great lines will come from this movie because they're so ludicrous. I think this is Ben Stiller's best movie yet.

22 August 2008

Milk does a body good

Today I'm thankful for ...

... lactose intolerance mostly licked. I had a pretty good ice cream sandwich from Bi-Rite Creamery and had no problems whatsoever. Yay! This has been a long road back to normalcy. I think that after having spent most of the year eating/drinking less dairy that my body was rapidly losing its ability to process dairy products. But in the past few weeks I've been on a campaign to restore that. First it was yogurt, then lattes, then lots of cheese. More recently I've gone out of my way to get milk-based drinks like malts and shakes. it seems to be working.

21 August 2008

More 4-parters

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to have someone walk me through Bach. There are a lot of tricks that Bach is doing and we went through a couple pieces of his and analyzed them for motives and other interesting things. I'm learning a lot about orchestral weight and how composers like Bach used repeating patterns.

20 August 2008

Chugging along

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting some critical pieces done today. I pushed long and hard on some code and it is finally coming together. In the past two weeks we've rewritten several big pieces of the application UI and we're now pretty much back to feature parity. There are other issues to address but I think we're at a very good place.

19 August 2008

Plan B

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a planned photography session getting cancelled. While the reason for the cancellation was not a happy one---the uncle of a friend passed away---it did give me a chance to drive down and see the boyfriend. Time is going to be tight this week as I rush to get some things together for work.

18 August 2008

Let's do this thing!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having a chance to get together with a couple of people who might be able to help out painting a local coffee shop. The shop has really fallen on hard times and so we're doing what we can to brighten up the place.

17 August 2008

Let's try this

Today I'm thankful for ...

... the boyfriend being open to trying a few new things. Ever since he started feeling icky we've been trying to find him compatible foods for his diet. It's hard because he really seems resistant to explore his food options---he just throws his hands up in the air and says he can't eat anything. That's so not true. It's just the case that he can't go out and grab a hamburger and fries. It seems like he may have an ulcer, but there's still lots of food that tastes great that meets his requirements. Ugh. He'll just have to learn to experiment.

We got some pasta and beef gravy. I cooked up the pasta and some veggies and it came out OK.

16 August 2008

Housewarming!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a really pleasant afternoon down at a friend's new house. She and her husband have been fixing up the place and put in new flooring, new appliances, and a few other things. It's a cozy two-bedroom townhome.

15 August 2008

Drag 'n drop

Today I'm thankful for ...

... lots of good examples in the Apple Developer center for the iPhone. I've been reading up on all sorts of code and I think I'm getting a handle on it. Although I think I ought to read the Aaron Hillegass book on Cocoa. Apparently it applies to Cocoa Touch, the iPhone UI layer.

14 August 2008

Easy building

Today I'm thankful for ...

... the Interface Builder (IB) in the developer toolset from Apple. Talk about a nifty application that lets you build your applications in a very visual way. Its interface could be improved a little to provide easier properties feedback about the objects you're working with, but it's not that bad.

13 August 2008

4-part awesomeness

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a good music teacher. I think I've gotten a lot better at learning to harmonize chords thanks to him!

12 August 2008

Speak up!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... asking one of my doctors to refer me to another doctor. They're both awesome!

11 August 2008

Looking ahead

Today I'm thankful for ...

... talking with my boss. I think we have some great plans for the future and I'll be in the driver's seat for some of them.

10 August 2008

Here and there

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to drive down to the boyfriend's place. I hadn't seen him in several days due to our schedules just not lining up. It's nice to get that hug in person.

09 August 2008

Whazzzaaaaap?

Today I'm thankful for ...

... good ol' friends. Especially ones I haven't seen in ages. This is one of the longest times we've all gone without seeing each other---probably about 7 or 8 months. We had floated the idea around of meeting up at a park or something but that never panned out. Finally I said we should just have it at my place ... and we packed my tiny living room! (I warned them it only fit 8 people.) Lots of great things going on in everyone's lives.

08 August 2008

Long time no see

Today I'm thankful for ...

... seeing a friend make some real progress in her life. She's been through a lot and there are still some rough waters ahead. But I think she's starting to get a good grip on life and push herself forward. I try to help where I can, but she's got to do her own thing.

07 August 2008

I love you

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a wonderful 6 months. I can't believe it!

06 August 2008

A deeper understanding

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a really good music session tonight. We ran over by a bit but it was good nonetheless. We went through a lot of examples and his feedback on my homework was very helpful. I like the way we kind of wander around topics and just follow the conversation wherever it goes.

05 August 2008

All rowing in the same direction

Today I'm thankful for ...

... lots of good chats recently. I was able to report good progress to one of my managers regarding the synergy of the team. It's nice having a couple of extra very capable hands on deck to push the projects along.

04 August 2008

Surprise!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... meeting a cool guy. We celebrated his birthday by all showing up as a surprise squad. The restaurant was a bit crowded, but hey, it's San Francisco!

03 August 2008

Vrooooooooooooooooom

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having some time to clean. I really needed to do it. I didn't get as far as I'd have liked, but I did whip bits of the apartment into shape. Dishes being a major component!

02 August 2008

Happy gathering

Today I'm thankful for ...

... awesome weather in the South Bay. I went down for a party at a friend's house and we had a great time just hanging out and bringing our food down. Of course it was even better that it was her birthday!

01 August 2008

Even exchange

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not going to New York. As much as I wanted to go with a friend on her extended vacation to New York, I think it was better that I just stayed at home. I had a lot of things to do and quite frankly I'm pooped. She's got bundles of energy and so it's best to let her go off and run at her own pace. Besides, she'll be surrounded by friends ... and pizza!

31 July 2008

Theatrics

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting a chance to do something fun like going to the theater to help celebrate a friend's birthday. We also got to build cupcake monuments and set things on fire!

26 July 2008

Thawed

Today I'm thankful for ...

... Apple's Time Machine. Oh heck yes.

Yesterday my Parallels installation of Vista bit it hard. And I mean hard. Its virtual hard drive was so corrupt that chkdsk was trying to recover system files. I blame me dropping my laptop last week, but who knows. Anyways, so I've been using Time Machine quite regularly and so I had a backup of the Vista installation. I opened up the archive, scrolled back to July 20, and there it was: the old versions of the virtual machine. So I just copied them back and Vista is back working again. YAY!

17 July 2008

Halt!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... my Mac sleeping nearly instantaneously. I was at a club last night for an event where I needed my Mac. In a dark corner and on a very short table ledge I perched the Mac. After I was done with a quick bit of work I closed the lid and started to turn away from it. At that instant the Mac tipped off the ledge and made a sickening smack on the floor. I turned back just in time to see it land on its bottom side.

Holy crap.

I picked it up and looked for initial damage. The right side received a dent because I had a laptop security cable plugged in it and it must have landed on that first. But then it must have tipped flat and the whole bottom side clattered to the floor about the same time. Other than that there is no visible damage.

I powered it up to find that it was in fine working condition, no screen cracks, no case cracks, no broken keys or trackpad controls. Then the moment of truth: would the Mac's operating system report errors? After logging back into the computer ... it was fine! Yes! It appears that as soon as I shut the lid the drive stopped spinning and so the heads were already parked when the laptop smacked the concrete. I know the Mac has an accelerometer to suspend the disk in a fall, but I think the Mac was already asleep before it hit the ground.

Back at home I ran a disk check and things looked a-OK. Whew. I'm so glad I set the Mac to hibernatemode 0.

16 July 2008

Bigger! Bigger!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... FedEx Kinko's having online printing. I was able to collaborate with my boss on a series of fliers and posters, and we were able to send the job electronically to a 24-hour Kinko's. Better yet, we got the PDFs blown up to 36"x46" size and a series of double-sided fliers were generated too.

15 July 2008

You so smrt

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B knowing how to write Cocoa apps. With his help I was able to put together my very first app for the iPhone. He gave me a quick tour of Xcode, Interface Builder, and showed me how Objective C sends messages. At the end of about an hour we had an interface that was able to hide and reveal a text label, count the number of times that switch was toggled, increment a page counter, toggle a button bar, and increase a progress meter. It may be ugly as heck, but it really helped me understand how this all fits together.

14 July 2008

I love it when a plan comes together

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a wonderful weekend trip. I got home safe and sound pretty much right when I predicted I would. After stepping through my door I plunked down on my couch and reflected on a great visit up north.

13 July 2008

Plan B

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not waiting for Cousin B to get off the ferry and skipping dinner with some other relatives. It turns out B was delayed by traffic and a detour the boat needed to make, so she and I were never able to meet up. But Cousin P and husband decided to go out to dinner at a local place instead. It was a nice gathering of 6 of us.

12 July 2008

Long time, no see

Today I'm thankful for ...

... mom and dad keeping in touch with their families. It was because of them I was able to get the details on an uncle's 80th birthday. The evening was nothing more than visiting and eating, but it was nice to see us all there to wish D a very wonderful birthday.

11 July 2008

No thanks, I'm OK

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not having upgraded to the iPhone 2.0 software today. According to what I've read the AT&T servers have been down part of the day. And, since I'm traveling in Canada right now I really don't want to be stranded up here w/out any phone! Besides I'll be back in the US soon and hopefully all the kinks in the activation process will have been ironed out by then.

10 July 2008

Go go spaghetti power

Today I'm thankful for ...

... only being partially hungry for dinner tonight. It turns out that I had plenty of leftovers. Since I was up late I ended up finishing all of them. It kept me going until about 3am, when my body finally quit out on me.

09 July 2008

Networking

Today I'm thankful for ...

... professionals who know other professionals. My doctor referred me to another person who is pretty awesome.

08 July 2008

Quick on the draw

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having upgraded to Photoshop CS3. It really is pretty awesome and my boss and I were able to rapidly fix a number of things on an image for marketing within minutes.

07 July 2008

Today I'm thankful for ...

... trying to reinstall iTunes. After doing the Leopard upgrade I noticed the iPhone was not syncing at all. The System Profiler did show the device as being connected, but then looking in the Console log I was seeing:

Jul 7 00:03:48 Xxxxxx [0x0-0x1e01e].com.apple.iTunes[195]: USBMuxListenerCreate: No such file or directory

I searched around for "USBMuxListenerCreate" problems and almost nowhere did I see an appropriate solution. I was just about to give up right now when I decided to try to download iTunes again. And, what do you know? It worked! No problems syncing anymore.

06 July 2008

SuperDuper saves the day ... again

Today I'm thankful for ...

... SuperDuper. This Mac OS X Tiger to Leopard upgrade sucked beyond belief. The problem: my Macbook Pro had an Apple Partition Table on it when Leopard requires a GUID Partition Table.

(I don't know if it was because this is the new 250 GB hard drive I put in recently and it may have been defaulted to the Apple Partition Table.)

So after backing up my drive to an external HDD in a USB enclosure, I went about trying to upgrade the computer. That's when it put up the error message that my computer's HDD did not have a GUID Partition Table. Well, the problem here is that to change the partitioning to the GUID way requires blanking the hard drive. Which means you have to move all the data off, then back again---to my knowledge. What complicated this is that even though SuperDuper made a bootable copy of Tiger on the external HDD, it's a USB 2.0 enclosure! And booting off of the Leopard install disk didn't let me access the USB device.

So I was in trouble yesterday after having switched my Macbook's HDD to the GUID, but my data lived off on the unreachable external drive. I ended up at Best Buy and found a Western Digital MyBook drive. When I finally got home late I was able to use the Leopard install disk to make the MyBook drive the bootable startup disk. Then running that I was able to reinstall SuperDuper and copy everything off the USB external drive back to the Macbook, and then I was able to rerun the Leopard install on the Macbook as an upgrade, not a fresh install.

Whew.

All told the time expenditure went something like this:
  • Back up the Macbook to the external USB HDD via Super Duper: 5.25 hours
  • Install Leopard on the MyBook drive: 35 minutes
  • Copy all data back from the external USB HDD to the Macbook HDD: 3.5 hours
  • Upgrade the Macbook Tiger to Leopard: 1 hour


Of course, that doesn't include the extra time required to do all the system updates.

I'm exhausted.

05 July 2008

We want to dance like crazy

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being introduced to the Red Elvises band. While almost every song has to do with drinking, they are very fun to listen to and put on a great show. Go see them!

04 July 2008

Give it more gas

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B not destroying my car's transmission. He learned how to drive my stickshift MINI today. We did a full hour's worth of lessons in the morning where I taught him about my "coasting" technique. He picked up the shifting thing really quickly and even got to do some extended highway/city driving. He only stalled out a few times, too.

Before he got in my car he had told me that he would never really consider driving a manual. I'm hoping this will change his mind!

03 July 2008

Dance all night

Today I'm thankful for ...

... another really good after-work jam session with the boss. He and I laid down an hour-long set of good music and it was recorded. I've already listened to a little bit of it and it's actually really good.

02 July 2008

Don't give up

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not giving up on going to tonight's photography meetup. I was really late getting there because of the baseball game, and there was no parking nearby. But I found a spot a few MUNI stops away and rode the train over. It turned to be an awesome meeting where I got some pointers on how to better photograph the products I'm shooting right now. There's a few pieces of equipment I need to get and that should totally improve the quality of the shots.

01 July 2008

WALL-E!!!!!!!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... everyone that was able to go to the showing of WALL-E. There must have been at least 9 of us.

30 June 2008

Better progress

Today I'm thankful for ...

... making more progress on a very annoying project. A simple system has turned into an ugly hairy mess of programming. :( But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel---and I'm sure it's not a muzzle flash.

29 June 2008

Air

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to breathe easily. I was feeling really sick last Thursday with all the smoke particles in the air. The neighborhood I live in typically gets a lot of fog and the air is fairly heavy especially in the morning. Last Thursday the air was so thick and disgusting I was lightheaded just walking to my car.

Today was the first day in recent memory I felt I could breathe.

28 June 2008

Flexibility

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B being flexible. We swapped plans around so we could stay at my place last night. That way we'd be able to take the train down to the SF Pride parade route. That was cool of him.

27 June 2008

Progress

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a good bit of progress in the past few days on a project at work. Besides firefighting certain issues I am making really good progress with a games system! It's fun!

26 June 2008

Just swingin' by...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... N having written me e-mail the night before. She was in town for a mini trade show so we got dinner afterwards!

25 June 2008

Um, er, what was that...

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not falling asleep during a talk I went to. I thought it was going to be something more enlightened but it turned out to be more of a list of reasons why school is a good thing for you.

09 June 2008

That's good hash

Today I'm thankful for ...

... md5 being installed on Macs. I couldn't remember how to get the MD5 checksum/hash of a file so I just typed "md5" on the command line and voilà it worked!

> md5 Adium_1.2.5.dmg
MD5 (Adium_1.2.5.dmg) = 308b1fc45bb441b44fde48c8a0485e79
>

Easy breezy...

05 June 2008

Foodies

Today I'm thankful for ...

... friends that like to try new places. A friend from out-of-town decided we should try out Farina. He's a major foodie---and that's an understatement---and I think tonight's meal met his expectations. He even spoke with the chef for a while. Me, I just go along for the ride.

04 June 2008

Smooth sailing

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being in good health. I had my annual check-in with the doctor and we went over my numbers. He noticed high blood pressure, which doesn't surprise me in the least. I've been under a tremendous amount of pressure recently and I've been eating salty foods. But other than that everything else seems to check out neat and square.

03 June 2008

Play that funky music, Pt. 2

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting access to a preview of Doc Pop's latest album: Me Geek Pretty One Day. Check it out!

http://www.drownradio.com/mgpod

02 June 2008

Play that funky music

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being around people who are super-creative and just awesome artists. One gave me some links to a music competition he organized and it's really interesting with the results: $12 and 12 hours to produce a full CD of at least 6 songs of at least 3 mins each. Whoa!

01 June 2008

Mental hug

Today I'm thankful for ...

... him. His wonderful dorky, quirky self.

31 May 2008

Sleep is golden

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not promising anyone we'd be anywhere at any particular time today. It was lazy lazy lazy.

30 May 2008

Me time

Today I'm thankful for ...

... things working out so I had a little time to myself to unwind. Everyone left from work about 6:30p today so I plugged in the guitar and rocked out for a while with the drum machine. It's weird playing my own guitar...the feel of it is so different than my other colleague's. I think I need to lower the action a little so I can move a little faster up the scales---or I need to have callouses on my left hand so the strings don't sink in as much.

29 May 2008

A Thousand Thanks

Today I'm thankful for ...

... the very very nice parking lot guy who reopened the garage exit to let us retrieve our car 8 minutes past closing time. Whew! We tried to tip him too but he wouldn't have any of it...

28 May 2008

Nerds here, nerds there, nerds everywhere

Today I'm thankful for ...

... gatherings like Google I/O. It's nice to know what big companies like Google are doing to try to stay in the developer community. It's fairly clear to me that Google has finally hit that tipping point where they themselves need to solidify their own APIs so they can use them. They have a lot of little projects that have turned into products but each on their own little islands. The first step is to create some congruence in their AJAX APIs and it seems like it's happening. Their RESTful URLs are much more similar than not.

27 May 2008

A little break

Today I'm thankful for ...

... midweek gaming sessions. D had a little game nite at her house---we had talked about going to see a movie but the one we were going to see got horrible reviews. Oh well, at least we got to play Race For The Galaxy. W and I tied for first place at 37 points, but I won because I had more cards.

26 May 2008

Lazy drive

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a long, lazy drive back up the coast. I fell asleep again while B took the reins. We finally ended up at his place in the late afternoon so he could watch the game and I could get a little work done. It was a nice way to put our minds back into gear for the week ahead.

25 May 2008

El sol

Today I'm thankful for ...

... sunlight. The weather forecast had predicted patches of rain this weekend but it was only overcast down in Carmel. That meant waking up to little beams of sunlight filtering through our hotel window. We didn't have a particular goal today so it was just whatever and whenever. We didn't try to watch the sunset again, but we did get to walk on the sand and spend time just sitting in the light breeze.

24 May 2008

It's Saturday

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B doing the driving. I conked out in the passenger seat in the warm sun as we drove down the coast. When we finally arrived in Carmel it was about dinner time. Perfect. We got to eat outdoors and ended up at a cafe eating filet mignon. Mmm. A bit too much meat for me but it was really tasty.

23 May 2008

Local bars

Today I'm thankful for ...

... local little bars. A few of us hit up Jade on Gough to try more of their very tasty Jade Cocktail. Girly or not, I think most people can agree it's tasty.

22 May 2008

Kick my butt, please

Today I'm thankful for ...

... friends who keep pressuring me to produce things. I instructed someone to keep verbally kicking my butt until I produce the website the two of us are meant to put out. It's really a question of me following through.

21 May 2008

Solitude

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being in my own little apartment. Sometimes I like having people around, but on late nights like these I like being able to wander freely and do whatever I want. No waiting for the TV or for the bathroom. I can stumble into the kitchen for a late night snack w/out worrying about waking other people up. I don't have to worry about anyone drinking all my alcohol either. (Sorry, everyone needs their creature comforts.)

20 May 2008

Best. Death. Ever.

Today I'm thankful for ...

... actually sitting through a screening of the English-dubbed version of Deathnote, the live action movie. I wouldn't say it was a horrible movie nor was the voice acting bad. No, it's just one of those things that I don't think translated that well in a dubbed format on the big screen. I can totally see how this would make a compelling comic or anime series---I haven't seen either of the two but I've heard they're good. It's just that when live actors try to do something like this it just feels a bit corny.

19 May 2008

I haven't given up

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not giving up. Not giving in. Not letting my dreams wither and die along the side of the highway of life. We move so fast, sometimes caught up in the rush of doing everything else for our bosses, our families, our communities, that we forget to make time for ourselves and our dreams. This is not to say that we ignore our responsibilities, but that we make room in our lives for them and make our happiness a priority. I'm making my happiness and time a priority and I think I'm beginning to make headway with it.

18 May 2008

Shoot steady

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a little miracle. B's team pulled off a couple of wins today and this puts them in good standing in their tournament. Yay!

17 May 2008

Thank you for ... you

Today I'm thankful for ...

... B being totally awesome. For making reservations at a wonderful restaurant. For getting us great tickets to a fun Latin jazz show. And for being the gentleman he is. I'm so grateful.

16 May 2008

Honesty is the best policy

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to playtest the latest round of the card game with another group of friends who aren't normally card game players. They came up with a lot of good suggestions!

15 May 2008

Tick tock

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being able to rush-print another deck of cards for the game tomorrow. Ugh, so much time is needed to make these things work just right! But at least now the cards are bridge card size, the fonts are much cleaner, and the instructions are more succinct.

14 May 2008

Caffeine

Today I'm thankful for ...

... vast quantities of caffeine in warm tea keeping me powered up as I spend all night the office getting work done!

13 May 2008

Easy in, easy out

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a quick exam at the doc's. This was my follow up appointment for my back issues. Plus I got my blood drawn for an upcoming physical. Yay. I like staying healthy.

12 May 2008

Hard stop

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting on the early train. I got to dinner early, though E beat me to the restaurant. We had a really laid-back dinner early because I needed to be sure I stopped eating by 9 PM so I could fast for tomorrow's doc's appointment. The Mediterranean food was delish!

11 May 2008

Awwwww

Today I'm thankful for ...

... Mom being in good health and spirits. I'm so glad she's doing alright. When your parents get older you start worrying about them...

10 May 2008

Fwends

Today I'm thankful for ...

... awesome friends. We all went a clubhouse today to just have a good time. It was a great gathering of friends, some old and some I would meet for the first time. The food was great, but I think I had way too much sugar!

09 May 2008

Sabotaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggge!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... Rock Band! Of coruse, B got to try his hand at Sabotage. But he is still recovering from the flu, so he wasn't giving it his all tonight.

08 May 2008

Pearly whites

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a great dentist. I love them. They keep my teeth clean and white. :)

07 May 2008

Long time no see

Today I'm thankful for ...

... keeping in touch with old friends. We hit up a dive bar in the FiDi and chatted for a while. I had a really salty martini. Ick. Of course what did I have for dinner when I went home? Mexican. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

06 May 2008

Mmm mmm ... ick

Today I'm thankful for ...

... not gagging at the amount of batter I ate. There was a special fish and chips place we went to tonight that serves them battered with cornmeal. It was crispy tasty but let me tell you that it was FILLING and GREASY. OMG, so much fat and grease! I'm glad I don't eat this stuff every day.

05 May 2008

Zzzz!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... getting good sleep. I thought I had a bit of a relapse today but it turns out not to be a big deal. Things are fine.

04 May 2008

Well done

Today I'm thankful for ...

... a good playtesting session today. D and I played our little card game we've been developing and it was warmly received. We split up into two games and so we had two game boards going at the same time! We ended up staying really late at the party, pretty much to the end. I learned a couple new games and I hope to play them again soon!

03 May 2008

Laser harps and drivable muffins

Today I'm thankful for ...

... being in the Bay Area, where being a nerd is celebrated. I went to Maker Faire with B and a couple of other friends. It was a blast. I still haven't had a chance to download my pictures yet but it was a trip to see what people do with their spare time. The Eepy Bird professors showed up, the Diet Coke + Mentos people. They're even selling nozzle kits. :)

02 May 2008

Aaaa!!! Okaeri nasai ne!!!!!

Today I'm thankful for ...

... still being in contact with friends in Japan. One was visiting and came by the South Bay. I haven't seen her in like 15 years. I barely recognized her because she grew her hair out. But, man, she's like completely crazy. She's probably a smidge older than me and parties like she's still in her teens. She goes drinking almost every night and still looks waifish thin! How does she do it?! Anyways, we caught up on all sorts of things like the fact she's married and in Tokyo. Cool. I hope to visit her one day!

01 May 2008

Hi there

Today I'm thankful for ...

... having B in my life right now. He's awesome. :)