The Weatherman

Yes, I’m in the middle of updating the web site…so images are not displaying on the blog at the moment.

You can see all images at images.paulandsteph.com.

I’ll have it fixed tonight.

Katherine Harris is an idiot. Check out these latest comments by her on cnn.com.

To summarize, she said “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin” and she claims that the separation of church and state is “a lie”.

Fortunately, even fellow Republicans are distancing themselves from her and she isn’t expected to win her senate bid. Thank God! And that’s no lie.

So why am I writing about her? Who cares what some ultra right wing conservative wanna-be loser politician says? Simple, she, along with our Supreme Court, stole the 2000 election. It’s clear that her thinking is so far right, that she is on the lunatic fringe – this is not the kind of thinking we want in our elected officials. Given the wide variety of ethnicities, religions, races, and orientations in the US, we need moderate people in government who govern for the people – not their religion. Our constition and government has succeeded for so long because we’ve kept religion (for the most part) out of government.

You might ask – How can you be so judgemental? Maybe she’s fair but just passionate about her beliefs? Uh, no. According to the article she’s entangled in a mess with illegal campaign contributions. She’s corrupt and she corrupted the 2000 election.

We are finally moved in. Sorry I haven’t updated this in a while but we’ve been busy. Let me provide a very quick synopsis (since I’m at work I shouldn’t spend too much time on this).

Steph spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last week taking the bar exam in Bellevue. On Friday the moving truck showed up with our stuff from storage – I believe our stuff expanded while in storage – cuz there was a lot more than what I remember.

We were able to unpack some while the movers were here. This was good since they took our boxes and packing paper. Then we spent all day Saturday and Sunday unpacking boxes in the house and dropping the boxes/paper off at the recycling center. As for the house, we are pretty well settled…we have 0 boxes sitting around our home. However, our garage is a totally different story. It’s packed with stuff. Part of the problem is that our old fridge, washer, and dryer are sitting in the garage (fridge is too big for the kitchen and the dryer is gas – our home dryer needs to be electric). So we are using the appliances left by the previous owners.

We went to a mini block party on our street last night and met a bunch of neighbors. It definitely seems like a very friendly street with lots of kids – very exciting.

Here is our only picture from the move…Zach is bushed.

We had two open houses this weekend (Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4pm).  On Saturday our realtor tallied 40 people and on Sunday she counted 60.  Some of the Saturday people showed up on Sunday and some of the Sunday people returned twice…that is encouraging.

What a pain to setup for these things.  I feel we did a very good job at setting up our house.  We had a consultant help us ‘stage’ our furniture, we replaced the sod in the backyard, we cleaned heavily, and we patched up some problem areas.

There is a broker’s tour on Tuesday and we’ll hopefully start seeing some offers after Wednesday.

As for the rest of plans, our stuff will be packed up on the 22nd and 23rd.  We fly up on the 24th and then the house hunting begins.  Before then I’ll have a week to run errands and such, like taking the pets to the vet and getting their airplane certificates.

Our house is on the market…here is the mls listing

Yep, that’s right, we are moving to Seattle. That’s part of my silence recently. I’ve been interviewing, working out details, thinking about it, talking to Steph, and planning things out. I also didn’t want anything posted until work knew about our plans. How did it start?

I got an email on March 17th asking if I would be interested in a phone interview. I have two phone interviews, one on March 23rd and one on March 29th. Those both went very well and an on site interview was scheduled for April 13th. So we (yes, Steph and Zach went also) flew up to Seattle on Wednesday evening, April 12th. Amazon put us up in the Grand Hyatt (nice place). I had my interview on Thursday from 10:30am to 4pm (2 managers, 2 engineers, 2 ops people). Steph and Zach was shopping around downtown Seattle.

After the interview we had dinner at Gordon Biersch with Brian (he was up there for work). The next day we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and then met with Kim for a tour of neighborhoods on the north side. Her and John (who works at Amazon) live in Queen Anne. We had lunch at Ray’s Boathouse and we had at Wild Ginger. Both were very enjoyable. The next day, Steph, Zach and I did a little road trip east through Issaquah, Snoqualmie, up to Woodinville where we had lunch at Red Hook Brewery (my favorite stop). Then we drove south into Maple Valley and Kent. We flew home on Saturday evening.

The offer came in on April 21st.  We discussed it over the weekend and got details on the relocation and accepted.  I start on May 30th.  My last day at Yahoo is May 12th.  Steph’s last day is May 19th.  We fly up to Seattle on May 24th.  Our house goes on the market on Monday, May 1st.  So, things are moving fast and furious and I’m a nervous wreck.

Hmmm, I haven’t updated the blog in a while.  What’s going on?  The usual stuff and nothing overly exciting to write about.  Nor do I have any cool, recent photos to display 

Jan and Mike visited last week for a night – they were happy to see their nephew.  I went for a bike ride in the rain on Sunday and a hike at Wunderlich County Park on Saturday.  No pictures from the park since I was jogging.  Now I’m oncall so I probably won’t post much until next week.

BTW, we have been getting quite a bit of rain here in California.  We had rain on 25 of the 31 days in March and so far we’ve seen rain everday in April (I think).  Plus there is no end in site for the current setup over the West Coast.  Anyway, I love it!

So the governer of South Dakota just signed into law a bill that basically prevents all abortions.

The new law bans abortion in virtually all cases, punishing doctors who perform one with five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The measure bans abortion even in cases where a woman is pregnant as a result of rape or incest, or if giving birth would damage the health of the mother. It creates a narrow exemption in cases in which a physician’s effort to save a pregnant woman’s life results in the accidental death or injury of her fetus.

The conservative movement has a lot of momentum and given enough time (in this case, not much) they’ll have Roe v. Wade overturned.  This is very scary.  This country is about giving rights to the people not taking them away.

Guess it’s time to beef up those contributions to NARAL.

That’s my morning so far. I was greated by a myriad of pages for work this morning…actually that is exactly what happens every morning we’re on call. But the icing on the cake was a nostril diver…yes, a world class nosepicker in the car behind me. He may have gotten his fist in his nose…not sure, but it was close.

I can’t honestly say he ate it…but why pass up a meal like that. I mean, after all that digging, he probably got the equivalent of a jelly donut (and the consistency). Anyway, I’m not thrilled with how this day is starting. Oh, and on top of that, a Bear Stearn’s analyst gave Yahoo a positive rating and a price target of $42…and our stock is still down.

You make the call!

I must remember to hide the beer.

I received this via email today…pretty funny.

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a “gripe sheet,”
which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics
correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots
review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that
ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance
complaints submitted by Qantas’ pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions
recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an
accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what they’re for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last..
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding
on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

Do you know the origins of the Christmas Tree?

Wikipedia Christmas Tree

Propositions                      Yes Votes   Pct.   No Votes   Pct.

  73 N    Minor's Pregnancy          3,130,062  47.4   3,465,629  52.6  Map

  74 N    Teacher Tenure             2,987,010  44.9   3,662,932  55.1  Map

  75 N    Public Union Dues          3,092,495  46.5   3,551,011  53.5  Map

  76 N    Spending/Funding           2,522,327  37.9   4,115,388  62.1  Map

  77 N    Redistricting              2,673,530  40.5   3,920,487  59.5  Map

  78 N    Rx Drug Discounts          2,719,999  41.5   3,821,957  58.5  Map

  79 N    Rx Drug Rebates            2,523,803  38.9   3,950,763  61.1  Map

  80 N    Electric Regulation        2,189,126  34.3   4,182,374  65.7  Map

Not much to say…thanks Arnie for wasting millions of our dollars on this special election.

Our house was built in 1948 and the heating unit installed was a gravity heater. Basically a gas floor heater that uses some simple chemistry (cold air sinks, hot air rises) to propel heat into the room. Yes, room…it could heat our living room and that’s about it. This old furnace doesn’t have a fan. Basically, it wasn’t very good.

In mid October we had central heating installed by R & R Marcucci in San Mateo. Ralph came out in September to provide a free estimate and he was very thorough with evaluating our home, providing advice, and asking appropriate questions. I had 5 previous quotes but Ralph seemed like he knew everything just a little bit better. They scheduled the install for October 17th…and sure enough they began on October 17th. They quoted me 3 days for the installation…and guess what, it took 3 days. Getting this type of service is rare unfortunately, but it sure makes a customer feel good.

They did an excellent job with the installation – they completed each piece exactly as explained. If they had a question, they called. They left the house very clean after each days’ work.

I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for heating/AC work in the San Mateo area.

Never thought I would say that. Ever since Mac OS X hit the streets, the Mac is cool again. It has a strong UI backed by a solid OS. It beats Windblows easily. Even the press thinks so. Talk about a company hitting on all cylinders. Their stock was trading around $10/share at the beginning of 2004, now it’s around $60. They’e even had a share split.

I must admit that I never thought I would be a Mac fan. Over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve slowly become more sour about Windblows. I just figured that I would have Linux running on everything. There’s nothing wrong with that (typing this from my Gentoo desktop now), but Mac provides all of the benefits of Linux and excellent hardware support. So you end up with a great combination. Funny how things change…4 years ago Dell was at the top; trash talking Apple…now the tables are reversed. Well, that’s what you get for sticking with a crappy operating system.

My next computer will definitely be a Mac – either the IMac or G5, although I’ll wait for the Intel based Macs.

Obviously every large country has vulnerabilities. The US has shown many very recently – inability to provide timely aid after Hurricane Katrina, CIA leak, Iraq war – to name some of the recent ones. But we’ve also had our share of civil strife…the LA Riots after the Rodney King verdict. These are definitely not our finest hours to say the least. And many people will quickly point out our problems. But what about problems elsewhere…and I don’t mean the typical issues found in less developed countries. I mean things like the French Riots.

Riots in France? I thought Paris was the city of romance. Beautiful architecture. The world’s best art. Riots like these shouldn’t happen in France. So why is this happening.

I have naively just believed that European countries are far more liberal than the US. They are more accepting of all types of people, no matter what religion, race, ethnic background, or sexual orientation. While I think this is true of some areas…like Spain and the UK, it apparently isn’t par for the course everywhere.

I saw the following two items in separate Wall Street Journal articles that make me think otherwise, at least with regards to France.

In reality, minority groups suffer much greater rates of joblessness than the white majority, and France has no national political leaders of Arab or African origin. A few businesses and schools have only just begun experimenting, cautiously, with small affirmative-action programs.

(article)

However, the new law took some steps to address crime in France’s ghettos. It forbade gatherings of more than three people in the hallways of buildings in low-income neighborhoods and stipulated that youths who disobeyed could be sanctioned with big fines or jail time. Some say the approach backfired.

(article)

Unbelievable. They are just experimenting with affirmative action! No national political leaders of Arab or African origin? A law that prohibits gatherings in low income neighborhoods? This is not what one would expect from a progressive country…maybe from a depressive one. Even among the complaints about the US, at least we’ve worked hard to work out these basic equality issues.

No country should have to deal with rioting citizens…it proves nothing and only hurts those that have been hurt. But, France needs to come to grips with a clear difference in how they treat the minority vs the majority.