Michael Rawdon's webjournal
Day-to-day life and other ramblings
It’s the middle of November and it’s pushing 80 degrees outside here in the Bay Area. Sunny, a little hazy, just about perfect. I’m wearing shorts and sandals today. Couldn’t ask for much better.
This is something of a change from Wednesday night when we were out playing frisbee and in the space of 20 minutes, the field we were on went from this:
…to this:
Not to mention what the other fields looked like:
Thank goodness those Bad Old Days are behind us.
Until, you know, next week or something.
It’s nearly a year late, but I finally posted an entry on attending our 20-year high school reunion last Thanksgiving. At least I finished it eventually, right?
Debbi and I are back from a three-day trip to Las Vegas. This time around we went to meet up with her parents, who are spending the week there. We flew in Sunday and had an evening to ourselves before they arrived, and had our usual dinner at Bally’s Steakhouse, which was delicious as always. The waiters there are also terrific: Low-key yet entertaining. Ours introduced himself and said, “I’m here to bring you whatever you want.” Whatever we wanted was an appetizer of beef short rib ravioli, two steaks, sides of asparagus and onion rings, and a very rich chocolate hazelnut praline dessert. Oh, and two glasses of wine. We rarely indulge in these sorts of restaurants, but we do like this one.
Monday morning we gambled at the MGM Grand, where Debbi hit a royal flush on a nickel video poker machine:
Since it was a nickel slot it wasn’t the ginormous win it could have been, but still: It may be years before either of us hits another of those.
Deb’s parents, Jerry and Sis, arrived in the early afternoon. They’re not the big walkers that Debbi and I are – we regularly walk all over the Strip and are usually pretty pooped by the end of the day – so we cut back on our perambulations some. We did head up to Treasure Island where we had dinner at Kahunaville, an island-themed restaurant we discovered a few years back. They were a bit short on staff so we had a longer wait than we’d expected, but the food was still good. Jerry got a huge drink in a souvenir glass which we all shared, in addition to our own drinks.
Then we went to Harrah’s to see comedian Rita Rudner, who was very funny. I think I’ve seen a little of her in the past, but not a whole lot; her material focuses on gender differences. If you enjoy stand-up comedy, I recommend her.
We went to a few other hotels to see some of the sights. After brunch on Tuesday at the Bellagio cafe, we visited their conservatory, which right now has an autumn theme, like so:
We also went to the Flamingo where we looked in on their reserve of birds and fish, and their elaborate network of pools. Next time we go during warm weather (highs were in the 80s every day we were there) we might stay at the Flamingo and use their pools.
On the gambling side of things, Debbi picked up Pai Gow Poker, since she’d been getting frustrated with not winning much at the slots or video poker machines. She thinks she’s found her game now, since she was winning or breaking even almost every time she played. I played too and finished up slightly at the game. We played a couple different (though slight) variants of the game, though they’re all basically the same. At one table a fellow sat down and made a big bet on the bonus circle and was dealt a royal flush, which won him five hundred dollars instantly! Yoiks!
For myself, I played regular poker, and had my winningest time ever in Vegas, even factoring in a poor first day there. I mostly crushed the low-limit games, which was satisfying since I ought to be able to crush those games at this point. I also played my first casino session of no-limit poker (at a 1/2 table) and won there, too, mainly on the strength of a 20-minute run of good hands. I saw a few tables where the betting was crazy before the flop, but this table was relatively sane: Some loose calls before the flop, but a fair respect for raises after the flop. I’ve been nervous about playing no-limit in the casino for a while, since I’m sure it can be very different from our fairly disciplined home games that I play in (for much lower stakes – on a really bad night you might lose all of $60, but that’s pretty rare), but this makes me think perhaps I should be playing no limit more often.
As usual, it was a trip of good food and good times. I think Deb’s parents had a good time, too. But certain furry friends were very happy to have us get back home:
Home sick today. Caught a cold yesterday afternoon, and it took me an hour to get up this morning. I would’ve just gone back to bed except I had a vet appointment for Newton scheduled in the morning. I was wiped out enough from just that that I called in sick and stayed home. Ugh.
Anyway, the appointment was to check Newton’s thyroid, since his blood work last month showed that it was extremely elevated (after having been mildly elevated last year). And he’s been gradually losing weight for a few years, from a high of close to 10 pounds to just under 8 pounds. So he’s been on meds for his thyroid for the last 3 weeks.
The results were – fortunately – nothing but good news: His thyroid is well down into safe levels, and he’s put on half a pound in the last month! He’s also been very snuggly lately, not really lethargic, just very greedy for attention. It’s cute, actually. Anyway, the vet says as long as he’s not behaving strangely then we’ll re-test him in 3 months, and check his kidney functions, too.
Fortunately, Newton loves taking his pills in pill pockets, whenever I take out the pockets he trots right over. So that’s a good sign for the future.
If you didn’t already knew, Newton and Jefferson are over 14 years old, so these things happen. But they’re otherwise healthy, so I’m hoping they’ll be around for years to come.
We’re finishing up a full weekend around here.
Friday night we got together with our friends Chad and Camille for dinner at Cascal, the popular tapas restaurant downtown which we finally discovered a few months ago. C&C used to live in Mountain View, but moved further into the valley around the time I moved here, so we also walked around downtown so they could see what had changed since they were last here.
Saturday I got a much-needed haircut, and then we met up with Subrata and Susan for lunch, Magic and dominoes. Subrata and I played some more Shadowmoor-Eventide sealed deck, and our games took quite a while since we each kept drawing most of our removal and other tricky spells, so we had lots of maneuvering to do. I eventually prevailed 2 games to 1 with my white-blue deck over his black-red deck. Ironically, I put together my own black-red deck which had most of my rares in it – my blue-white deck had none – but didn’t get to play it. I’m not sure it would have been very consistent anyway.
Today we had a relatively lazy day, watching football and the James Bond film License to Kill (1989), the Dalton film I hadn’t seen before. It’s not as bad as I’d feared, but it’s lackluster at best. The acting is often atrocious, with Dalton a shining star next to anyone – indeed, everyone – else.
The painting around here is just about done, so I put the furniture back on the upstairs porch. I’ll move the plants back there over the next week or so. I’m so glad it’s nearly over. It’s been quite a haul to get it all done. (I’m sure the painter feels the same way times ten. I think it’s been a bigger job than he expected. It looks like he did a really good job, though!)
One good anecdote before I finish up: This past week I was sitting for my friend Josh’s cats. (He and his fiancée went to Hawaii, the lucky ducks.) Thursday night I went up to find his one cat who usually hangs out under the bed. Sure enough, there he was, and I went around to the other side to pet him and coax him out. While I rubbed his chin I looked to the side, and…
…well, I went downstairs and said to Debbi, “Either Josh has the most realistic cat toy ever, or there’s a dead sparrow under his bed.”
Sure enough, it was a dead sparrow – still warm, even – and I threw it outside. I suspect it came into one of the enclosed porches somehow – one with a cat door leading out to it – and one of the cats dispatched it and brought it inside to, uh, enjoy. Fortunately, it was still basically intact, rather than being a mess. I sent Josh a text message and he replied that he was sorry I had to deal with that, but that he thinks it’s happened once before.
The things we put up with for our furry friends!
A few months ago Debbi and I were thinking of going to Hawaii this month. We never got around to planning the trip, but when we finally decided we weren’t going, I looked at my calendar and though, “Actually, September looks like a pretty good time to take a vacation anyway, even to just stay around home”, and I had the vacation time to do it.
Well, after last week, I was oh-so-glad I’d taken this week off, because I really needed the break.
I’ve kept plenty busy this week, though. For instance, I went up to have lunch with Debbi at her workplace twice this week (they have a very nice cafeteria and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten there). I also cooked dinner twice, making an Indian dish on Wednesday, and sautéed marinated chicken with rice pilaf on Thursday.
Monday I went into the city afterwards and did some shopping, notably stopping at Borderlands Books (although I didn’t get to see their new kitten). I struck out going around to the comic book stores up there, though. In the evening I played Magic over at my friend Chris’ place, and was able to play later than usual since it wasn’t a “school night” for me.
Tuesday I drove down to Campbell and had brunch at Stacks, which was only blemished by the fact that I was sitting at the one table right across from the toasting machine, so it was a little too warm. But I spent the morning walking around downtown Campbell and shopping at Recycle Bookstore West and at Heroes. Heroes is the one comics shop (other than my regular store, Comics Conspiracy) that I make a point of visiting every few months: They’ve resisted the move to becoming a trade paperback store, and still have a large back issue selection which turns over regularly, as well as many other goodies. They’ve been reorganizing over the last couple of years and they now have little nooks which have little surprises waiting for just the right customer to come in and find them. (For example, they had a copy of The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.)
I’ve spent most of the rest of the week hanging around at home, reading comic books and a novel, revising my Magic decks, and doing a bunch of housework, such as trimming the tree in front of the house and cleaning up the front room a bit. I thought about going to play poker, but could never quite motivate myself to go.
It’s been a warm, sunny week. The painter’s been working on the trim and other details around the complex. I haven’t really missed going bike riding this week due to the heat and keeping myself so busy. I did utterly fail at my plan of trying to do a journal entry a day and get caught up on the partially-written stuff in my drafts folder. Oh well. But I did talk to Mom today; she gave me a call since she just got high-speed internet service and is able to put her new computer to work with it.
But overall it’s been both relaxing and productive, and I’ve managed to get past all the turmoil of last week. Newton’s even been taking his thyroid pills without complaint! (Turns out he loves pill pockets.)
Ahh, if only I had next week off, too.
Okay, that might be an exaggeration. I mean, it’s not like I got into a car accident or had a death in the family or anything that bad. But this week has been just one thing after another.
Hopefully I can get them pilled without much trouble with the help of pill pockets. Otherwise it’s going to be a real pain in the ass, and/or expensive if I have to switch to a different method of drug delivery.
Sadly the repair shop is booked up for the next week and a half. Makes me wonder if I should locate a shop that can give me faster turn-around times.
Me: Hello?
Them: Hello.
Me: Is this <name of store>?
Them: Yes.
Me: I’d like to make an appointment to bring my bike in.
Them: Okay.
Me: <weirded-out silence>
Them: <starts babbling into the phone wordlessly>
I just shook my head and hung up the phone. I decided to go to coffee and try again when I got back. This time I got a real person and made an appointment. I didn’t ask about the earlier call, though. I checked the number at the time and was sure it was the right number, but maybe it was a wrong number. I dunno.
Speaking of one more week, on the bright side I have next week off for vacation. Which after this week I really, really need. As always I have plenty of stuff to do, even if my plans to go for some bike rides have been deep-sixed by the popped spoke.
It can’t be much worse than this week. And if it is, then I’ll really be unhappy.
A very productive weekend. I:
Plus various little chores around the house.
The downside is that I payed bills tonight and noticed a couple of charges on one of my credit cards which were not mine. It sounds like someone got hold of and used the previous number attached to my account (and which is auto-forwarded to the new number). So I asked them to close the account and open a new one. And dispute the bogus charges, of course. Hopefully it will all go smoothly and I’ll be up-and-running again in a couple of days with a new card. But I always get all stressed out whenever something like this happens – I wish I didn’t, but I don’t know how not to. Debbi told me to take deep breaths, since there’s nothing I can do until the new card arrives – I’ve done all I can do. But I’ll be on edge until it does arrive.
At least this time it didn’t happen right before I went away on vacation.
Yesterday Debbi and I headed out to the wedding of my friend Cliff, who was marrying a Debby of his own!
I must be getting less high-strung in my old age, since putting on the monkey suit (i.e., my suit) didn’t bother me, despite having to remember how to tie a tie and doing so at the tail end of the area’s latest heat wave. And Debbi looked great in the dress she bought last month for the event. I did learn that it’s time to buy a new suit, though, as this one is showing the initial signs of being a little too old and worn (I think I bought it in 1994 to interview for jobs following grad school, so I can’t really complain).
Cliff is Jewish, so this was a traditional Jewish wedding (well, or so he told us!), which was a new experience for me. About as new as Subrata‘s Hindu wedding a few years back; heathen that I am, all of these religious wedding ceremonies are equally fresh to me, I guess. We showed up at the temple and the guests were divided into two rooms, one for the bride and one for the groom. Cliff was about as happy as I can imagine ever seeing him; he’d been looking for the right someone for a while, and has been positively brimming over with excitement over his wedding day.
This pre-ceremony event apparently traditionally involved the groom expounding on some element of the Torah – and apparently with some heckling from the gathered guests, although I’m not sure how traditional that is. Though I noticed that it was common throughout the events leading up to the ceremony that people would be laughing and joking about everything, and Cliff was certainly among those. After this, Cliff was danced (literally) over to Debby’s pre-ceremony reception (the violinist played what I presume is a traditional tune along the way, but before then he was playing “Mahna Mahna” and the theme from the Muppet Show, to much amusement of all), and we all went over for the ceremony.
Well, not quite: Before the ceremony is the signing of the marriage contract, which is apparently the majority of the legal event (under both California and Jewish law). This was somewhat less interesting for us because there wasn’t a lot going on to see or hear, and because the room was a little too small to see what events there were. But afterwards we went into the temple for the ceremony proper. And this was joyous but in a more serious sense, as ceremony typically is. One thing that struck me was that Debby circled Cliff 7 times when she walked in, and if I recall correctly (not having journalled about it at the time) Subrata circled Susan 7 times in their ceremony (or maybe it was the other way around?). I may have the particulars wrong, but the circling in both ceremonies struck me as interesting. Anyway, Debby seemed to be just was happy and enthusiastic about it all as Cliff was, and it all went quite smoothly.
The wedding reception was a couple of towns over, and we were seated with some of Cliff’s gaming friends. There were actually only two guests I knew beforehand, although there was one woman whom I recognized from the campus at work but whom I don’t know. (I don’t think she worked in Cliff’s group, so I may ask him how he knows her.) Dinner was quite yummy, and we had a good time watching the dancing (no, I didn’t dance), and we congratulated the happy couple of course.
And now they’re off on their honeymoon. I wish them the best – certainly it seems like they got off on the right foot!
I haven’t been very good about updating this week – sorry about that. And with plenty on my plate for the weekend, I might not be so good about it for the next few days, either. So to be a responsible journaller, here’s a roundup of what I’ve been busy with:
The long weekend was nice. We mostly took it easy, although I did put a few comic book collections up for sale on eBay. Sunday we got together with Subrata and Susan for some dinner and gaming. Subrata and I have been playing the occasional Magic sealed deck duels, with 4 Shadowmoor packs and 2 Eventide packs. We tend to find that we can get 2 or 3 (or even 4) decent decks out of this mix, so there’s plenty to keep us busy; the hybrid mana costs allow for a lot of flexibility – almost too much, it sometimes seems. I think I’ve decided that I prefer pure Shadowmoor for sealed deck, though; you get to make better use of the hybrid auras and generally have more synergy among your cards. I bet pure Eventide would be fun, too. I’m kind of sorry they decided not to make Eventide a “big” expansion like Shadowmoor was, especially since the enemy hybrid colors can be a lot of fun. (I ought to write a whole article on what I think of the Shadowmoor and Eventide sets, actually.)
Speaking of games, last night I played poker with some other friends. It was a mostly-nondescript evening, as far as the game went, and I was mostly entertained by the livelier-and-snarkier-than-usual conversation. But around 10:45 when I announced I was going to leave soon, I went on a big winning streak and didn’t leave for another half an hour. I managed to stack one of my friends, and win some other decent pots besides, and ended up with probably my most successful session yet. Good deal!
Have I mentioned we’re getting our complex’s exterior painted at home? We are. It’s taking a while, since they’re repairing and replacing some of the siding, and although that’s a pain, I’m glad they’re doing a good, diligent job with it. It’s not something you want to scrimp on. The place will look nice once it’s done. Still, I will be glad when it’s done and I can move my plants from the patio back up to the porch where they belong.
I had a weird glitch with the ol’ journal last night: My site was unable to contact Akismet and so my spam trap stopped working. I get hundreds of spam per day, so this was really annoying. It was fixed by this morning. My hosting service has no idea what happened; I suspect some bad data got propagated around the DNS and it got stuck in their servers overnight. Probably not their fault, and hopefully it was a one-time thing.
Lastly, we’re having another heat wave this week – not as bad as last week’s scorcher, but still pretty hot. I’m hoping today was the peak and that it will cool off over the weekend. Fortunately, it always cools down at night so it has to be a really bad heat wave to really interfere with my sleep.
I think that about cover it. Now to get a good night’s sleep so I can bike in to work tomorrow!