IBM and the Desert

The IBM Conference was pretty good. It seemed more geared towards systems programmers than application programmers. But still got some useful stuff out of it. I know a bit more about SOA than I did before and I can talk about Virtualization now if I have to. I found out that COBOL 4 has some built in XML tools which are potentially useful. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Jon and we found my new favorite bar. An Irish place called O'Flaherty's. It's a really friendly place with a cool racecar driving Irish bartender named Antoine. They also had the dishiest waitresses.

I started back for Omaha on Friday morning at 7. Driving through California wasn't a lot of fun. I got a bit lost at first and ended up going through San Francisco instead of around it. But I only lost maybe an hour.

I really enjoyed the drive through the desert of Nevada. I just like deserts. It would have been nice to have had Anke with me so I could have slowed down to look at some the interesting places. But I was really in a hurry to get home.

Tunnel

This photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of a full moon rising above the mountains of Salt Lake City. Cut me some slack though. It's taken through the windshield at 80 mph after 13 hours of driving.

Big sky country of Wyoming.

The C36 in front of what I believe is Elk Mountain in Wyoming. I don't have any photos of Nebraska as it really isn't extremely interesting. I did make it back to my own bed at 10:30 Nebraska time. That's around 1700 miles in 37 hours total travel time.

One day in San Jose

I left Omaha at around 6:30 this morning. Anke and Corwin took me to the airport. We had been prepping Corwin for my departure for over a week now. When I went back to C'town with Maurice a couple of weeks ago he really freaked out a bit. He really thought I was never coming home. So I told him I was flying to California and driving a new car home. And I would bring him and Conrad presents. I think that helped a bit.

I picked up my car this morning. But once again I don't know where it's at. My hotel only has valet parking so some young kid took my car away again today. Here is the AMG at the valet parking viewed from my room. The internet said that my hotel had a parking garage and wifi access in all rooms. The wifi access is only in the lobby. Luckily my laptop can barely pick up that network with only one bar.

Last night I went to an Share.org reception. It was nice with free food and drinks. And I have never seen so many CICS tee shirts in my life. Let alone in one place. I also met my dopleganger from Wisconsin. He too is a youngish COBOL programmer. Whose dad also is a truck driver. A lot of the conference seems to be directed more towards systems programmers vs. application programming, which is what I do. So it was nice to meet someone with a background similar to mine.

Muskrat update

Corwin now thinks that the muskrat that tried to attack me is Scabbers from Harry Potter. Corwin also wants to be Voldemort for Halloween. I wonder if it's time to be worried that I may be raising a dark wizard.

Nature photos from a Sunday Morning

This morning we got up early- not buy my choice- and decided to go down to the marsh before the day became unbearable. The lotus should be in full bloom by now.

Near the overlook, things aren't in full bloom yet. But there are single flowers here and there.

Across the lake is another story.

All of the photos, excluding one, are taken by Anke. This isn't the one.

I'm generally too busy chasing the hyperactive three year old to stop and watch bees and flowers.



I very much like this picture. Well done, Anke.

I like frogs.

As Corwin and I are walking along the path I notice that there's a beaver looking thing not two feet away from him. Making the rodent about 7ish feet from me. I've glimpsed muskrats down by Hidden Lake before, but generally they take to the water in a jiffy when they notice humans. But this one is just sitting there eating a stick, cool as James Dean. Then he notices there is a tiny human- but still much larger than him- quite near by. And a larger human coming up. So he takes off in the general direction of the water. But more precisely, strait at me! All I can think is that, I just saw his sharp little pointy teeth eating a stick. What will those teeth do to my toes? So as he's coming right for me, I jump and he zooms right underneath me making for the lake. I was inches away from having bloody stumps for toes. I was barely saved by my under appreciated ninja-cat agility. Corwin thought the entire affair entirely too amusing. I'm not sure he comprehends the peril I was in.

Later when Corwin and I were playing else where, the vampire-muscrat came back and Anke was able to shoot a picture of him on the boardwalk.

Corwin hunts for a "giant mouse" with a stick.

The gold finch is the lone photo by your narrator.

A few words after a few beers

I just finished watching The Thirteenth Warrior and noticed for the first time that it's basically a retelling of Grendel and Beowulf. How did I never catch this before? I was inspired to watch The Thirteenth Warrior again by a viking saga that I finished reading about a month ago called The Whale Road. I'm a big fan of viking sagas and have read several. I need to do a post in the future strictly about them.

My (and Anke's) Mercedes is paid for. Now all I've got to do is pick it up. It makes me a little bit nervous paying for a car then having to wait 1 1/2 weeks before picking it up. I've still got a week before I get it. I should land in San Jose around 9:30 am CA time. I'm hoping that my hotel will let me check in early. I'll then take the bus from San Jose to Fremont CA. It's like going from Omaha to Bellevue or Des Moines to Altoona. Basically the same city. I'll pick up the car, pay CA sales tax on it. I've then got an appointment with the San Jose Mercedes dealership on Tuesday to have all of the fluids changed. Oil, transmission fluid, new fluid in the differential. It'll probally be an expensive service, but it'll be much cheeper than a new transmission down the road. The Mercedes automatic 5 speed transmission in these cars tend to grenade if they aren't properly maintaned. And I'm afraid that putting a new transmission in this car may be a bit trickier than swapping a new one into the Cutlass.

Anke was telling me this evening how she never thought that she'd own a Mercedes-Benz. She always pictured them as cars driven by important buisness men. She thought that she could maybe see us in a BMW at some point, but not a Mercedes. The problem with BMW is that they hold thier value too well. The M3 is a highly sought after car. Even old ones. So a comperable M3 to my C36 would be at least half again as much more than what I paid for mine. This despite the fact that when both were new in 1997, the C36 was about $15,000 more than an M3. It's really the same way I ended up with a Cutlass. I started out looking for a Chevelle and realized that they are really expensive. A Cutlass in equivalent shape was about half the price. And I've come around to the opinion that I think Cutlasses look better than Chevelles now.

I'm sure the boys will be up early, so I should get to bed soon.