Yeah, right..

On black friday I saw that Apple was having a small sale on their ipods. $31 off the 80gb video ipod I've been eyeing for awhile. So I caved and decided I'd get myself an early xmas present. Unfortunately the online store was down, so I decided I'd just run down to the store down on Stockton st. I knew it was black friday and I knew it would be crazy down there, and I'd probably endure hell, but saving $31 for the cost of a $1.50 bus fare is a good deal. So I hopped the #5, jumped off on Market st and merged into the sea of people covering every square inch of the sidewalk. Popped into the Apple store, glanced around, didn't see anything interesting, snagged a girl on the floor who checked me out with her little handheld device, and tossed the ipod box in my bag. It was so quick that I was able to use my bus transfer for the ride home instead of dropping another $1.50. Roundtrip time, under an hour. Not nearly as hellish as I anticipated. Public transportation++ Mobile checkouts++ 80gigs of music/video++

Sinai says I'm officially an SF hipster now with my bus-riding and ipod owning.

Thanksgiving took us over to Piratey Monkey's house for a Thanksgiving dinner. A delicious turkey, plenty of great side dishes, and even tofurkey. After stuffing our faces it was time for some guitar hero.

I went out last night with some friends down to 12 Galaxies, in the Mission to see Ask Dr. Hal. These two blurry pics were the result. It was entertaining. Basically Chicken John reads questions taken from the audience, Dr Hal answers them, KROB provides an audio backdrop, mixing music through the show, and David Capuro throws up relevant and sometimes quite funny pictures from the internet on the big screen. Also in attendance was a different "chu" than the one we all know. Frank Chu, who has a very interesting story, was there with his protest sign. Of course the bar was named after him, so not a big surprise.

I propose that they are no longer called convenience stores, but rather Expensive Stores. Ten seconds from my front door is convenient. A $20 bag of groceries is expensive.

With a half day today, there was no point to commute for about the same amount of time I would be in the office. So I'm enjoying the company of my cats as coworkers and a nice sunny office at home while I work.

My Boost Mobile Motorola i415 phone that I used for where/youat finally decided to cooperate and tether to my laptop so I can have (slow) internet access. The speeds aren't anything exciting, but it's better than nothing. A few tricks that may or may not be required for anyone trying to do the same: Install the Motorola iDEN USB Modem drivers Leave the username/password blank Phone number is S=2#777 In the modem configuration turn off all hardware features. Under the Networking tab of the connection settings, hit settings and disable LCP extensions and enable software compression. Make sure you can send an MMS message from the phone. Make sure you have a good signal. :)

We spent Thursday night at a brand new La Quinta in Paso Robles, and then did the last bit of drive into San Francisco Friday morning. We got to my place around 2:30ish after hitting some traffic on 101. Rubin walked down the street to come help us unload. So appreciative to have an extra hand. The uhaul and car that took us 5-6 hours to pack was unloaded in about an hour and then we headed out to grab a futon so I would have a place to sleep. We dropped off the futon and parked the car+uhaul in the lot next to my building that was owned by the friendly church across the street. Again, more kindness that was such a huge help. I don't know where in SF we would have found parking for a car and a uhaul. Then it was off to Amina's Pizzeria for a late dinner with Rubin and Reed.

It was so nice to wake up in my own place in SF this morning. The cats are still adjusting but they absolutely love the sunlight streaming in from the bay windows. I'm already feeling the "busy weekends" syndrome as there are multiple things going on and not enough time to do them all. It's going to be great out here!

Wow, cell signal has been very spotty all day. That explains the odd times/order/etc for my previous posts.

We finally crossed the border into California and there was much rejoicing. We had to get the UHaul quickly inspected (no immigrants, fruits, or vegetables were found) and then we drove into the sunset on I-40, continuing the last legs of this cross-country trek.

We just got through the Mojave Desert and the Tehachapi Mountains. The little car is still chugging along through the hills and the wind. I am amazed that this 4-cynlinder 9year old car is still going after 2300 hard miles.

Our original plan was to stay in Bakersfield, and drive up to San Francisco, but it looks like we've got the stamina to keep driving and make it to Paso Robles tonight.

Oh, and for anyone coming this way, expect to get nailed for gas at almost $4/gal because there's nothing else around. Fill up often and when it's cheap or be prepared to pay at the oasis.

Day 4 and we're still trucking on I40. Took a slight detour up to the Grand Canyon National Park since I've never seen it before. Just a quick trip this time, but I'll be back to raft it some day. These pictures don't do it justice, but it is quite the sight. Somewhat difficult to wrap your head around the sheer size of it. Awesome in the true sense of the word.