Sunday, June 29, 2003

Back from the Netherlands!

So tired. Must pack. Leaving for Seattle tomorrow!

Happy one-day-early birthday, Leah!

I'll write more about the Netherlands when I get a chance. When will that be? I don't know! I'm not bringing my computer to Seattle, so I have no idea when I'll be able to update next.

So, until next time!..

Saturday, June 21, 2003

Today I found a pair of pants that had been sitting on the floor of my room for at least 6 months. I had forgotten that they existed. Most people find old change in their pants pockets. I find entire pants.

I found out yesterday that there is a ramen place in Canton, which is a city close to here that seems to have a lot of good restaurants (there are really good Thai and Indian restaurants there too). Looking back I see that in November I blogged about the lack of ramen places. Well, now I know. Unfortunately I probably won't have time to check it out until I get back in September.

Thursday, June 19, 2003

It just occurred to me earlier today that Allan's birthday passed a few days ago. Happy birthday, yo.

Then:

Now:

The difference in those pics is 4 years almost to the day. Having lived with this guy for 3 out of those 4 years, I gotta say.. it's been coo.

Monday, June 16, 2003

Large update time. Using a suggestion given to me by my friend Suzanna many many years ago, I will break it up into chunks to make it easier on the eyes. The chunks, however, do not necessarily correspond to breaks in subject matter. Now then.

Just got back today from my SoCal trip which was quite fun. First there was San Diego where it was unusually overcast all week. Had good Mexican food, saw Old Town (multiple times) and the Gaslamp Quarter, and of course attended my first conference. Not bad.

We also went east to see if we could find anything interesting in the desert areas of California. Answer: nope. It's really windy out there though. Me standing in front of the hulk of some old car somewhere in the middle of the desert:

I did win $20 at a casino in the middle of nowhere, though.

We had In-N-Out something like three times that week.

Then I showed Mike the most famous Los Angeles attraction: heavy, heavy traffic. Cuban food wasn't bad either. No OJ's house, though.

Saturday was graduation, which was cool because I got to see a lot of people I don't usually get to see. Everyone's moving or about to move. It's the end of an era! I'd make a profound statement, but I don't seem to have any on hand at the moment.

Brian showed me Friendster. It's interesting how friends-of-friends are connected to you in ways you wouldn't have thought.

Sunday I went to visit my Dad (and ride my motorcycle while doing so), and also ate at Alejo's which is one of my favorite Italian places in LA.

Today I got up before the ass-crack of dawn to catch my 7am flight back here. When we finally got to Detroit the jetway at our gate wasn't working so they had to tow our plane to another gate before we could get off. Yay, Detroit.

This week, and actually the next three weeks or more, are going to be pretty busy as I prepare for the conference in the Netherlands, actually go to that conference, and then pack up, move, and get settled in Seattle. Busy yet interesting.

Following up on my cat Oreo that I mentioned last time, he who was lost is now found! Yep, he returned home after three weeks of being who knows where. His black fur has a reddish brownish tinge now. Eenteresting.

**

Making various faces at the graduation:

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Time for an update. The reason for the recent lack of updates is that we're trying to breathe life into a paper submission whose deadline is tomorrow night. Hope it works.

Meanwhile, in other news, I got the internship at Microsoft! So I'll be in the Seattle area later this summer. Cool. Furthermore, since I probably won't be starting until after I return from the Netherlands, I can go to the PLDI conference in San Diego next week, and spend a weekend in LA after that. Which means I will be in LA in time for graduation. So, see some of you guys one week from Saturday! Good luck on finals in the mean time.

I think things worked out pretty well, planning-wise.

Congrats to Brian for getting into NYU. Congrats to Kristin for her new kitty. The Coldplay concert that some of you went to sounds like a blast.

Finally, in sad news, I learned today that Oreo, my cat of 9 years, ran away three weeks ago.. meaning he's unlikely to come back. Hope he's enjoying running around out there, and that he's not roadkill. He was a pretty cool cat.

Sunday, June 1, 2003

Today I went to the Tigers-Yankees game at Comerica Park in the hopes of seeing Roger Clemens' 300th career win:

Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Clemens got a bunch of run support (8 runs before he left the game, including 3 RBIs by Robin Ventura who is on my fantasy team, woo) but.. he allowed 6 runs (4 earned) and the Tigers eventually came back, giving Clemens a no-decision. Yankees won anyway, in the 17th inning (!!!).. though we left after the 14th so we didn't actually see the ending. It got a whole lot less interesting as soon as Detroit tied it in the 7th and Clemens lost the decision. Oh well. So much for baseball history.

We did make baseball history another way. Our crowd was the largest ever at Comerica Park. Kind of sad, isn't it, that it takes the presence of a guy from an opposing team to break the attendance record.

Some fat shirtless hairy-backed dude kept running around our section of the stands and screaming. He seemed not entirely mentally healthy. It was quite hilarious. At one point he was making donkey sounds.

I don't think he was Michael Jackson.

In other news, I got a haircut yesterday:

In retrospect, it might make more sense to have the "confused" look in the "before" picture, and the "happy" look in the "after" picture. Oh well.

How lazy is this: in order to put off doing the laundry for a few more days, while I was at the haircut place (which is at the mall), I bought some more pairs of underwear.

Oh yeah I saw Bruce Almighty the other day too. It had its moments but it wasn't so great overall.