I've had to work Wednesday and Thursday this week, but I'm taking Friday off. The really lame thing is I have to work Monday, December 31. The only thing I miss about working at Northrop was the year-end holiday we got. When I moved to Si Valley the Lockheed I worked for didn't give us a year-end break, but the Missiles and Space guys in Sunnyvale got one. We never figured that one out. When I came back to LA and worked for [Hughes Space and Comm]/[Boeing Space Systems] I did get that week off. having that week makes working for an aerospace company ALMOST worth it. But I guess I'll take working in tech and doing this than working in aerospace and getting the week (and the security clearance BS and the massive bureaucracy and the government customer lameness).

So, it's the day before the day before Christmas. I have my shopping done, I hope. I need to go to the grocery store in a few minutes to get stuff for dinner tomorrow night.



I have been painting the living room this afternoon. I wanted to complete the texture effect finish on the bay window wall and so I did. I am not overwhelmed but I am not hating it, either.



I can now feel the holiday depression that I seem to usually get setting in. I will feel lousy tonight and tomorrow but when everyone comes to the house tomorrow afternoon I'll probably snap out of it. I have been trying to decide to go to a movie or to stay in; maybe I will go out tonight. I don't know yet.



Merry Christmas, everyone!

Neighborhood Christmas



Most of you know either because you've visited or because I've told you that I live in SoCal suburbia. I also live on a cul-de-sac and the neighbors are a fairly close-knit group of people for the most part.



Earlier this week I was informed by two of the neighborhood ladies on separate occasions that the folks next door to me to the left (downhill from me) were throwing a block party on Friday (yesterday) at 6:30. I needed to bring something to eat and they gave me suggestions. So, OK, sure, I'll go to a block party. Halloween was pretty fun; this should be fun, too.



So, I came home from work, stopped off at the grocery store and bought a prepared deli platter of cheeses, nice, fresh bread and another platter of chicken-type food products. I also bought some flowers for the hostess. Heh heh heh. At the appointed time plus about 30 minutes I went over there with my stuff. Everyone was happy to see me (of course!) and we started the fun.



Avi, the host, is a partier. He immediately demanded to know what I wanted to drink, so I had a beer (my normal thing). He then insisted that I drink some of his "moonshine" that was in a plastic Smirnoff bottle. I swear to you guys I could see the plastic melting in front of me while he brandished the bottle and yelled, "You gotta try this! It's GREAT!" I went to get something to eat and when I came back he had poured me a shot glass of this stuff. I could see fumes billowing of the top of the colorless liquid. I took a sip and my throat caught fire. Avi looked at me and said, "The sipping thing won't work, man, you just gotta open up and take it all at once." He was right. So I did that and now not only my throat but my entire gastro-intestinal system was on fire. Avi says, "Oh yeah, one more thing. I really recommend a chaser."



So after a while I was feeling pretty well-lubricated and having eaten a little bit I was ready to go into the living room and see what was transpiring there. Not a moment too soon, because we all began harassing Floyd (the retired sheriff now US Marshall who lives in the cul-de-sac bulge) because he'd not put up any Christmas lights on his house. Ron was the Harassment Coordinator for this topic and I jumped right in after him. My argument was, of course, that if I put up lights then there's no excuse for anyone else. He reply was classic. Classic and easily the funniest moment all night.



He said, "I'm anti-Christ. I don't believe in that stuff." Ron of course jumps on him and tells him it has nothing to do with that and to put some god-damned lights on his house already. I had to go back into the kitchen to prevent myself from almost literally rolling on the floor from laughter (Does anybody remember laughter?). I had another shot of moonshine. It was funny because he said this in front of two other neighbors who are devout Christians and no doubt have a lot of damage control to do whenever they bring their teen-aged daughters to these parties (me with my rock and roll and in the case of this party a LOT of booze, badly behaving adults and an almost continuous stream of sexual innuendo and double entendre.



So then the music started and we all danced around, kids and adults. That was fun.



About 9 PM Ron announced he has fireworks left over from July 4 so he went home to get them (and a butane torch for a lighter.). I strenuously objected due to the illegal nature of fireworks in Oceanside and wanted everyone at the party to clearly understand my stance and to demonstrate my law-and-order mindset. Or maybe I was being overly encouraging. I can't remember; I had been drinking. Did I mention the tequila shot? The kids were all running around with sparklers and it looked like fun so I ran around, too, without one. At some point I seem remember running THROUGH a "safe and sane" (what utter BS) fountain cone thingy as it was blasting out orange and green sparkily things. The adults were unimpressed. But it looked really cool from my vantage point.



Back in the house now and at some point I made the annoucement to Avi that I had his wife in my bedroom earlier in the week. It was perfectly harmless; she and Rhonda had come over to take a look at some of the decorating things I've done (painting the living room and some other stuff. I told her about the bedroom and so she went up to take a look.). Everyone roared with laughter and Rhonda decided she had to get Wes (her husband) in to hear so she fetched him. He heard it and started laughing but then I said, "Yeah, well, guess what. Your's was in there too. And it didn't take much, either. They both just ran right up there!"



Whaa!!!!!! Hilarity ensued.



After a few minutes of more dancing and drinking and eating and yelling Avi decided he wanted to play craps with real money. Fine by me, I'll be happy to take anyone's money no matter how much they might need it. Heh heh heh. So we played for a while and Ron and I were doing pretty well until he and I decided it was mano-a-mano time. He cleaned my clock, the lucky bastard. I eventually managed to win most of it back, but it was fun because we busted Avi's bank and his balls at the same time. It was during this part of the evening that Rhonda decided to sit on my lap and Maggie (Avi's wife) was telling us about how she went to a strip club with Avi. In retrospect I realize I should have paid closer attention to this story.



After about 4 hours of non-stop bad (at best) and out-and-out boorish (at times) behavior by everyone involved (especially by yours truly) the party broke up and I walked the 100 feet back to my house with a bag full of food (thanks, Maggie!) and that buzz one has when one has had a good time with good people (even if they are fireworks scofflaws).



[addendum] Apparently Ron and Patty are hosting the New Year's Eve party. Should I be happy or scared? I guess you'll find out sometime after January 1.

I have been getting the house "Christmasy" this weekend. I bought a tree last weekend and decorated it yesterday. It looks great; it's an 8 foot Scotch pine that I put in the "great hall". The great hall is my entry foyer; it's a two-plus story tall open space at the front of the house. The tree looks great there; it's against my spiral staircase. I bought a bunch of ornaments at Target two weeks ago (nice ones, glass!) and some lights and pulled it all together. I am very pleased with myself! :-) Hopefully the cats won't attack the tree too much (although I've already lost two ornaments thanks to Figaro); they have pretty much left it alone since it came inside last weekend.



The outside lights are all up and working nicely. The first owner of my house was a contractor who was also very into Christmas and decorations. He put 3 power boxes under the eaves of the house on the first floor; I don't have to run extension cords anywhere; the lights just plug in under the roof. Very convenient. I figured out where in the garage the wiring is and hooked up a pair of programmable timers to control the on/off times. Geek Christmas.



I hung the wreath I bought (same place as the tree) in front of the door. it looks pretty nice. I decorated it with some glass ornaments, a red bod and a big jingle bell. Maybe next year I'll add some small lights.



I saw the ocean again from my balcony this morning. I really enjoy looking out and seeing it, even if it's just a sliver of steel gray just past the final ridge between my house and the water. I've been seeing it a lot this month; the cold, clear air really brings it out. I only saw it once or twice all summer; too much haze. Since the back of the house faces south and east, it's probably 10 miles away. Still, it's better than I *ever* had in Silicon Valley or anywhere else I've lived, except for maybe my cool surf crash pad I had a six years ago in downtown Huntington Beach.

God am I sick! I woke up Sunday morning really sick. I brought my Christmas tree home Saturday nght. Coincidence? God, I hope not.

OK, I'll play along.



KPMG

It's funny, really. This Roman guy, I mean. I put him on the airport shuttle on Saturday morning early (see below). That was the last of it, or so I thought. Yesterday (Sunday) at about 4 PM the telephone rings. I answer it. It's his girlfriend, Marianna. She is a very nice girl, very cute (if I can believe the picture Roan showed me) and has a brain, too. You have to have one to speak two languages fluently. We chit chatted for about 15 seconds and then I said, "So, is there something you want to talk about?"



"No... Is Roman there?"



Man, did I feel bad for her instantly.



"Marianna... [sigh] Roman is in Venezuela now, I think."



"What! I don't believe this..."



"I put him in a taxi yesterday morning very early."



She recovered quickly (more credit to her) and we hung up. This girl is quite a catch; I can't imagine why he'd treat her that way...



In other news, I had a nice time with a new friend last night. We'll see each other again later this week. A very interesting and attractive woman.

Ed flew down to visit me and his brother last night. Today he came over to jam with the other guys in the band.



Roman left at 3:45 this morning. He had a 7 AM flight out of San Diego Airport. I woke up at 3:15, printed his itinerary and then woke him up. He didn't get out of bed immediately. A few minutes later the airport shuttle guy showed up. He loaded Roman's luggage and I had to go back into his room and wake him. He got dressed in about 5 minutes and then he jumped in the van. I paid for the ride and off he went.



I went back to sleep.



VH-1 played a few different programs with George Harrison as featured performer today. I saw one of those. We played "Here Comes The Sun" at one point as our little tribute.



Lame, I know. :-)

Here is an excerpt of a letter I wrote my idiot foreign exchange student roommate last night and gave him this morning.



Referring to my house (and earlier telling him that we have saying that "A man's home is his castle" and I am the king of my castle):



"To you, it is place where you can sit on the sofa and watch TV, make a mess in the kitchen, hang your wet suit in my bathroom (my bathroom, Roman, not yours. You are using it but it is still my bathroom) and sleep at night. You do not really care that much about this house because soon you will be back in your country and so it does not matter.



"But, to me, this house means many things. It means I am not poor. It means I am happy that I live in Oceanside. It means I have worked hard. It means that in a few years I will have more money because the house will sell for a better price. It means that the girls like me more. This house means many things to me.



"That is why I am 'El Rey.'



"And since I am 'El Rey' I do not want to hear you argue with me about my house and my things in my house. I watch very little TV. You remember that before September 11 I had no TV signal. Then I bought for us a small antenna to watch the news of the terrorists. I bought the cable TV because you asked me. But you watch TV all the time, so you have no influence with me when you want to watch this show and I want to watch a different show.



"Roman, I will not allow you or anyone else to argue with me in my house. You do not pay rent to me; the ULP pays me $500 every month, not you. You are a guest in my house. I allow you to live here because I know that living in a strange country and learning English is very hard to do. But I also know that when I visit Italy or Germany or other European countries and see my European friends I do not argue with them. I do not demand that they give me something, or that they take me to a special store for a special thing. I know I am a guest and I ask them to do very little for me."



I went on to tell him he had to leave my house the day after his school was finished, which is December 1. I had originally agreed to let him stay here another 10 days so he could sight see with his brother, who was coming to visit him.



This morning he told me had decided already to go home on December 1 (before my demand). So, apparently his own brother won't come to the US from Venezuela to see him. First his girlfriend said "No" and now his brother.



Hmmm. Maybe I'm not the only one who thinks he is a putz.

Thanksgiving was actually pretty good. We all brought good food and Mom just roasted a turkey.



I had an argument with my foreign exchange student roommate a little while ago. He watches a LOT of TV - he begged me to get cable after he moved in (I had nothing when I first bought the place and then on Sept 11 I bought a set of "rabbitt ears" to watch some coverage.). I wanted to watch the U2 concert tonight on VH-1 that started at 9 PM. At 8:30, while I was watching the ST:TNG marathon he came in to "remind" me that he was watching "Amor Amor Amor" (a stupid Spanish soap opera) at 9 PM.



"No. I am watching the U2 concert."



This precipitated an argument wherein he insisted he had to watch this show and I was simply telling him, "No. It's my house, my TV, my cable TV. He then tried to claim that because he pays me $500 a month he can watch my TV.



I got very angry and told him to forget it. He walked away grumbling so I told him to fuck off.



His class is finished next week and he has asked if he can stay until December 10 with a lot of sight-seeing with his brother before he goes home. I think I will reneg on my agreement and tell him he has to get out December 1.



My friend Ed is coming down this Friday for the weekend. He is staying in a hotel since he is allergic to my cats but if Roman leaves on December 1 then it's one less thing I have to worry about.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Updated the template to include my old links and stuff in the blogger template.

John Lennon wrote a song once called "Instant Kharma", wherein he sang in part; "Instant kharma's gonna get you."



Well, it's been getting some guy whose phone number is close to my cell phone number since yesterday afternoon.



Saturday afternoon I decided to forward my home phone to my cell phone; to do this I pick up the home phone and dial 72# 583 8986. I wait for my cell phone to ring, answer it and then hang up. Now the calls to 439 4864 go to 583 8986. To stop the call forwarding I pick up the home phone and dial 73#.



Well, I dialed something else close to 583 8986 Saturday and when some guy picked up I said, "I'm sorry, I have the wrong number." very politely and apologetically. His reply was a snide, "Yeah, you sure as hell do!". Yes, he's right; I am obviously a completely useless dumbshit moron because I made a dialing mistake with my telephone.



So, I hung up and forgot about it and just ran my errands without forwarding my calls.



But, I forgot that the phone was still programmed to dial into whatever that number was. So the phone rang three times last night and all three times it rang once and then stopped. I just figured there was someone dialing and then changing their mind. It happens, you know.



Just now, though, I decided to do the same thing - forward the phone to my cell. I called my home phone from my cell phone to check on something else and lo and behold, the phone on the counter rang ONCE and then stopped. After another few rings in my cell phone earpiece I heard this same guy pick up the phone. "Hello?" I hung up and said, "Oh shit!" and started laughing. Immediately my cell phone started ringing. The caller ID was blocked and there was no way I was picking that thing up. So, before it rolled into voice mail he hung up. Too bad, I wanted to hear what he had to say.



So, I then knew I had to clear the call forwarding, which I did.



And the lesson here, is BE NICE to people when they call your number by mistake, even if they aren't. Because if you aren't they might forget to correct their call forwarding and you'll have to put up with their phone calls until they clear it. Hee hee.

So, we had a very demoralizing layoff yesterday. It was rough seeing some people I work with on a daily basis be "excused." Three people from our own little program got axed. Later, I'll be wondering how we will get our program completed, assuming it's still alive, but for now I just feel bad. I went home last night, bought a replacement VCR (my old one broke) went on line for while and then ended up playing my guitar for about 30 minutes before going to sleep.



It rained last night; the cats had to learn what that stuff was. They were on the balcony when it began. They looked quite irked at having to come in.

Background; I live at the edge of the cul-de-sac "bulge." The houses on the cul-de-sac proper are downhill from me, the houses up the short street are uphill from me.



So, I got home early last night. When I arrived, the Moms had put candelarias (small candles in paper bags) all along the sidewalk from the "T" intersection down around the cul-de-sac. Someone else had put a big lit-up sign "Come Down Here" in the middle of the bulge. A bunch of people had props on their lawns.



Bob (across the street and one house up) had strobe lights and grave markers on his lawn and a smoke machine that he'd fire up when kids came up to the door. He'd leap out at them through the smoke. Kids were screaming all night. Ron, who lives across the street and uphill two or three houses from me had a severed head on a pike, a skeleton in a coffin with a speaker he'd rigged up to talk to the kids as they came up to the door. He had some other stuff, too.



I walked over there at one point and we started planning for next year.

We're gonna string a cable from his roof to mine and shoot goblins across the street from house to house. Maybe we'll do a Santa and His Sleigh for Christmas.



At one point no one was coming to my house because Ron had told me to turn off my lights so people thought I wasn't participating. So, I fired up my PA system that I use for the band's vocals (800 watts, two big speakers), cranked up the volume and started begging for trick-or-treaters.



"Trick-or-treaters! Please come to my house! I have candy! I want to give you candy! If you come to my house I promise I'll never play rock and roll in it again! Pleeeeeease come to my house! I left work early for this! It's the house that looks like it's pink but it's really pastel orange! Follow my voice!" I had turned on the echo and the reverb to give my voice some texture.



Everyone was cracking up. Finally some teen girls came over and said, "Rhonda (my across the street neighbor) says to turn your lights on." So, I said, "OK," gave them candy and then got back on the mike.



"Rhonda! Ron said I was supposed to turn my lights OFF! Please coordinate with Ron on the house porch light policy!" More laughing.



So we decided next year we'll put the PA in the street and crank it up with Halloween music along with everything else.



Apparently some folks want us to be a Christmas Lights neighborhood. Ron's wife Patty told me that the original owners used to do lights with everyone and he'd sit out there as "Santa Bob" and give away candy canes. So, I said, "Yeah, OK, I'll be Santa Al and sit out there with a beer or a hot buttered rum and give away candy canes. Merry Christmas! uuurrrp! Here, kid! Have a uuurpp candy cane!"

OK, reset the path and will now try again...

Started a web log via the Blogger web site. We'll see how this goes...