Wednesday

Took the family out to dinner at Bugattis last night. They were pretty well behaved. Johnny had a little trouble maintaining, but all in all it went pretty well. $120 all told. Brought a lot of food home. I ordered Pescatore, spaghetti with shrimp in marinara sauce. It was too hot (spicy). Matter of fact that was the only flavor. I only ate a small portion of it. Did not matter, other than I had to pay for it. There was plenty of other food. Anne, Daughter and I ordered one slice of chocolate cake to split between us for dessert. I think I ended up eating most of it. Ross ordered one for himself, and I think he only ate the ice cream.

The laptop computer was a big hit. We tried watching Miami Vice on it for a bit, but the sound was a bit weak for the whole crowd. Anne and I took Miami Vice downstairs and finished watching the pilot.

Had an amazing drive to work this morning. Last stop before I got to work was the light on the corner of Jackson School Road and Evergreen Parkway. Had to gas it to make the light at the next corner, and slid through the ramp meter (there was no other traffic). Had to slow down for the corner at 217. Moved over a half lane when getting off the freeway to avoid running into a taxi. Barely made the light at the top of the off ramp. Might have been red by the time I got to the stop line. All the other lights were green. Next stop was the parking lot.

Monday

Woke up around 6:30am. Tried to sleep till 7, but ended up getting up about 15 minutes till. Had a bowl of cereal with blueberries, small glass of orange juice and a cup of decaffeinated tea for breakfast. Had a couple of chores to do: move the presents from the car, set out cash for Mohan (Johnny's guitar teacher), payed the credit card bills. Hope I am not too late. Left the house about 8:15.

Jack and I went to Buster's for lunch today. I had a brisket poorboy, a dish of potato salad and a glass of water. Penny is still a happy puppy, though Jack did get a notice in the mail from Multnomah county. One of his neighbors was complaining about Penny barking, so now she has to stay in the house when he is gone. So he put his wind chimes back up.

Roger stopped by this afternoon to troubleshoot the broken GHT's. Turns out there was a via that was not plated all the way through. I am not sure if this is fault of the board house (the company that made the bare circuit boards) or the assembly house (CB Ram, the company that placed and soldered all the components). It is surely Christopher's fault that we had to call Roger, but do we really care? No, not really. But it would have been simple enough to check to see if we were getting power to the power amp, and he didn't do that. I checked it on one of those that was sort of working, and I didn't see any trouble. I put test leads on the I and Q lines coming out of the filters, and with the voltage scale turned way down on the scope, I was able to get a small constellation. But then while I was looking for another micro clip, Roger showed up and took over. He brought a co-worker with him, a hydrologist by the name of Rod. Evidently they work together. Roger is the hands on kind of guy, I get the impression Rod is more theoretical. I introduced him to Keith, they seem to be two of a kind.

Picked Anne up at the transit center, drove to Sue's and picked up her gang and took them all to the Blue Hour bar downtown so they could celebrate Anne's 50th birthday, which is tomorrow. Stopped to gas up on the way to Sue's. Round trip took one hour and ten minutes.

Sunday

Very lazy day. Originally planned to car shopping again with Anne, but canceled that. I don't think she was very pleased, she was grumpy most of the day, but I think it was a good decision. She was able to get a some work done. I was pretty useless. Read Patrick O'Brian for most of the day (10 till 2) while diligent daughter was baby sitting. Took a 2 hour nap. Daughter came home while I was sleeping and took a nap herself.

Daughter and I went out for a drive so she could practice. We did a couple of chores along the way. We went looking for Hyundai dealer to look at their medium size SUV's, but we couldn't find it. I think we drove right by it before we started looking. Then we went to Office Depot at Tanasbourne and bought a laptop computer and a wireless mouse for Anne's birthday, which is tomorrow(Tuesday). Long delay getting my credit card approved. Then to Fred Meyer's at Cornelius Pass to pick up the second season of Miami Vice. They were offering both seasons for $45, one season for $40. Already had season one, so I saved the five dollars.

Anne and I watched Inspector Morse on Mystery on PBS from 9 to 11. The show is tolerable, not one of my favorites, but there are no ads. Should have been doing my bookwork, but I didn't.

Saturday

Went car shopping with Anne. Went to the Honda dealer in Beaverton. They have a very small lot right in the old downtown. They have a storage lot on Murray, I think, that has the bulk of their stock. Don't know if we can get in there or not. Looked at the Pilot and the CRV. I think Anne prefers the Pilot over the CRV, but unless she drives them I don't know. We will have to go back. Also went to the Mitsubishi dealer. They had a two wheel drive model that looked like a good deal. But I don't know it Anne will really be happy with it. She would probably be fine with it, but I am trying to avoid pushing my preferences on her. On the other hand, she doesn't want to spend any time on it, she just wants to buy one.

Stopped on the way home and looked at laptops at Office Depot. They had two with 17 inch screens for just under $1000. Either one would be fine, I think.

Went home, had lunch and took a two hour nap. Went driving with diligent daughter. Drove South over Cooper mountain to Newburg, West to Yamhill, North to Forest Grove and then home.

Hey, good looking

Smart is very fine, but it cannot be compared to beauty or athletic ability. Well, okay, you could compare them, but it would not be a good comparison. The scales used to measure them are unrelated. If you are beautiful, you do not need to be smart. Smartness gives you a way to divert your mind from whatever problems you may have. I have a job that requires a certain amount of smarts and it keeps me occupied, at least some of the time. But given my druthers, I would rather be lying on the beach in Mexico drinking beer. That would get old after a while, but I am sure I could find some way to keep myself amused. So these jokes about dumb blonds are just smart/ugly people being jealous.