What happens when an expatriot runs out of Marmite? He finds the nearest English grocery store and goes on a buying frenzy, of course. Ambrosia rice pudding, PG Tips pyramid tea bags, and two jars of black gold. The best part? I'm the only person within 1,000 miles that I know who actually likes Marmite. Life is good.
Good news: Edisyn released their new EP. If you open their MySpace page you get to listen to a couple of tracks. The first one All Summer has an excellent load key vibe but gets a bit too hyper at the end. You've got not bones on the other hand is superb. Don't know how they got that sound out of the guitar (well, I do...delay pedal and rock solid right hand strumming) but it's a keeper. Really great stuff.
Bad news: this is their last album and their last show is sometime in the next little while. And I'm not in Seattle to catch it. Bummer. Still the EP is on iTunes and I bought it already. Over two years since I got Everything Else Is OK from Sonic Boom and I'm still listening on a weekly basis.
Why is it that the really good bands always seem to break up? Led Zep (just got back together), Van Halen (just had reunion tour)...so maybe if I wait for 40 years these guys will release another EP :-)
Happy listening.
I haven't seen a Blue Screen Of Death in at least 2 years and then I got 3 in one day last week. Typically it happened right in the middle of some particularly "thinky" work activities and I remember why I hate them so much. Note to self: back up current work more frequently!
As Bryan so wisely commented:
you need to 0x0000000CE your {GF000000000X
I was just reading a blog by a software vendor and they asked some questions that I couldn't resist answering. Here are my honest responses to those of you (both of you!) who are wondering what makes me tick at work.
The Life of a Developer
Well, the saga continues or perhaps I should just call it Act III and hopefully there's not an Act IV. Ended up back in the hospital first thing Monday morning. Had a great weekend up in San Francisco meeting friends, having a nice meal (no alcohol for me just in case you're about to berate me!), followed by an early night at the W hotel. And by early night I mean lying on a sofa in the hotel room sweating and moaning for about 6 hours until I could fall asleep. I just put it down to eating too much too soon after having my drainage tube pulled out last Thursday. That's the think that was letting any goopy stuff still inside me from the burst appendix to drain. Of course I was being too optimistic and after a second night of the same Masha "suggested" that we go back to the hospital. One CT scan, a truly spectacular puking session (the pre-CT scan fluid was bright yellow coming out as well as going in), and the final indignity of having a nasogastric tube shoved up my nose, down my throat, and in to my stomach just about wiped me out. Have you ever done 100 sit ups after eating 5 Big Macs? Me neither but that's how my abdomen felt: full, tender, beaten down, and quivering all at the same time. Not something I wish to repeat.
The culprit? Apparently the surgical removal of the appendix left some pretty serious scar tissue that ultimately blocked my intestine up. It's called a bowel obstruction and can be very serious. In my case it seems it was all caught it time thank goodness. After a couple of days slowly trying some soft food I don't appear to be getting blocked up again so keep your fingers crossed. If it doesn't work this time apparently I have to get opened up again to fix the thing. That'll be about as pleasant as, well, getting cut open with a knife :-)
So I'm back home now taking things very easy. Looking forward to a shower and a shave to erase the horrendous smell that seems to attach itself to hospital patients. But you know what? I think I'm losing some of my spare tire from all of the parties last year (engagement, wedding, Christmas, etc). There is truly a silver lining to every cloud. Jenny Craig eat your heart out.
Mary just pointed out that my blog is probably incorrectly named now. Should it be Dylan Does San Francisco? I'm kind of wondering. Of course the genesis of the name is the famed Debbie Does Dallas movie (which I haven't seen...too tame) and it begs the question: did I really do Seattle? I'm pretty sure that I didn't. I'd remember. I think :-)
Anyway, with the sexual proclivities of the San Francisco crowd most definitely on the liberal side I'm a little bit reluctant to "do" the City in any sense of the word. Not to mention the fact that I'm a very happily married man now. So if you've got any suggestions for a rename then feel free to share your ideas. No doubt Dickerson will come up with something so raunchy that I'll regret even asking but I'm in the mood for an exercise in democracy. Let the renaming begin!
Oh by the way, to those who are wondering, I am doing much better now. Still can't wear undies because the waistband is too tight on the tube sticking out of my side, but going commando has been a liberating experience. Something about the California air, perhaps? :-) But even the tube comes out tomorrow (plenty of drugs to be chewed before that little adventure) so I plan on being in tip top condition for our first venture up to the City on Saturday for a welcome party. I'll let you know if I make it.
Act I
It's been in the works for a while but we finally made the move down to the San Francisco Bay area. The condo in Seattle is still fully furnished and we brought two suitcases each with us to the corporate apartment. The movers will be packing everything else up in mid-February so hopefully we'll have a sale around about then and can focus on finding a permanent place to say in S.F. Right now we're staying in Redwood City which is about 20 miles south of the City and 10 miles north of Menlo Park where Masha's new job is. As you may know, suburbia is my idea of hell on earth so I'm not exactly thrilled with the location, but I do have to say that the location right on the bay is fantastic. It's super quiet, has a large lagoon with water birds, and beautiful sunrises. Oh, and it's a stone's throw from the Oracle corporate headquarters :-)
On our first day (well, the day after flying in late) we got up early and went for a run along the lagoon path. Part of my new resolution to get back in to shape that is most definitely going to be helped by generally better weather for outdoor activities. Then we took a drive out to Half Moon Bay to dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean. If you didn't know, it's actually quite a hike from Seattle to the Pacific as opposed to Puget Sound so it was really fun to drive less than 20 miles to the surf. And wow! What surf. I can't find the cable to download the video from the digital camera (part of moving, don't you know) but the waves were HUGE. At least 15 feet, and we're told they were 30 feet at the point. Crazy stuff, and beautiful to look at under a blue sky and surf haze. I think I'm going to like many things about this area. We stopped for a shrimp sandwich...more on that later...and then headed back home to chill out, snooze, etc.
Act II
And then I got a little pain in my abdomen. I thought that it was related to some cloudy water we drank the night before, and then we decided to blame the shrimp sandwich from the dogdy looking food stand. And then it got worse...and worse. I tried to lay down and wait it out because I've had some pretty major stomach aches in the past and that has always worked before. But this little bugger just wasn't going anywhere so I told Masha that we needed to head to San Mateo Medical Center which is thankfully just 4 miles away (usually in subpoopia it would be at least 100 miles, right? right!). By the time we got there I was in pretty bad shape and that's the first time I've thrown up purely as a response to pain. Not a pretty sight (or smell). One physical, one CT scan, and one f#*king painful prod in the guts later, the prognosis was acute appendicitis with a high probability of rupture.
Finally they gave me some drugs and was able to sleep through the night in preparation for surgery the next day. I've never been under full anesthetic for surgery before so that was kind of interesting. Masha was told it was a simple one hour surgery so when hour two rolled around and the doctor informed her that it had indeed burst, I guess she started to rethink this whole marriage thing. After all, I'm not rich, good looking, or (apparently) healthy, so what's in it for her? I'll leave you to figure the answer to that one out, but when I woke up she was there and what a wonderful sight: her, not me!
So that's been my California experience thus far. One great morning at the beach followed by 4 days of the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. Last time I was in San Diego I broke my right thumb in two...I'm almost scared to leave the state again at this rate. Seems to be getting a bit worse each time I come back. So what am I trying to tell you all? I'm saying COME VISIT! We're here, we're healthy now, and we are excited to start the next chapter. And don't wait too long because knowing my luck we're living right on top of the epicenter of the next big earthquake, or so close to the ocean that global warming will take care of the entire city.
Gross photos of my abdomen to follow - they actually pulled the appendix out through my belly button. Yeuch!
