About my Weekend

On Saturday, Sandy and I saw the movie Garden State and tried a new place in El Cajon called Ali Baba's Family Restaurant. The movie was just ok. I thought it was well made (everyone was believable as who they were playing, etc.), but it was a downer movie and overall just ho-hum. Didn't really do it for me. Our lunch was great as the food at this Mediterranean eatery was yummy. I highly recommend it.

On Sunday I got together with Josh and Kirt. We three played Magic and then went to see the movie Hero. Kirt had bought some of his own cards and used them for the first time. It was also his first time playing a game with three people. The movie was great. I thought the martial arts were beautifully done and the store quite entertaining. The movie was reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, though a bit more artsy.

Yesterday I got a haircut and then hung out with my Mom. We went browsing at City Lights and then had lunch at Olive Garden.

Today's Site Update: Check out the new Bob & Sandy Photo Gallery.

Sandy Update, PC Issues

Sandy's still having problems with the allergic reaction, but otherwise she's doing much better after her surgery (see Post 08/11). I'm sure she'd love to hear from you, drop her an e-mail.

Several days ago, I found out what was causing all of the problems on my home computer (see Post 08/05). Turns out one of my DIMMs was bad. I just don't have any luck with Memory, do I? Anywho, the other DIMM was fine and I reset up my system with only 512MB of RAM. I had to reinstall WinXP, which was a pain, but timely as SP2 has just come out so I was able to install that. I like the new version too. To those of you on WinXP, I highly recommend you update.

PC Issues, Kirt's Birthday

Yesterday I was working on my PC at home, trying to get WinXP to reinstall. The damn CD is bad. I kept getting copy errors. I've tried three different drives to no avail. Great, now I'm going to have to get another WinXP disc.

Last night, Sandy & I took Kirt out to Oggi's for his Birthday (with Karen & Trevor, of course). Then we all came back to our house to hang out and eat a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Good times, good times.

Sandy's Gall Bladder - Update

Sandy had an allergic reaction to something, presumably the antibiotics she received while in the hospital, so she's got a wonderful rash over most of her body. As if she wasn't uncomfortable enough! Doc gave her a Benadryl shot and a 'script for some other antihistamine. I hope she feels better soon.

Sandy's Gall Bladder

For those who don't know Sandy went into the Emergency Room at Sharp Grossmont Hospital Sunday night. She was having sharp pain through her mid-abdomen. Turns out she had a gall stone impacted in her gall bladder that was causing a severe infection. She was admitted to the hospital and transferred to Sharp Memorial in Kearny Mesa. By Monday late afternoon she'd had a laparoscopic surgery to remove her gall bladder. The doctor later said her stone was about the size of a grape and she was acutely inflammed. She was kept overnight and after removing a "JP" drain tube from her side she checked out last night. I got her home at about 7:30p and she's there now.

As of this morning, she's uncomfortable, as to be expected, but happy to be home. Doc says it'll probably be about a week before she's better and may experience some effects for up to a month.

Bruce and Vote for Change

Sandy e-mailed this Bruce Springsteen article to me. It was published in the New York Times yesterday. I agree with her that it is eloquent and well written. It puts things into an easily understood perspective. I checked out Bruce's site which includes details on Vote for Change, and a reprint of an Al Gore speech.

According to his site, the Vote for Change tour will be presented by MoveOn PAC, with all concert proceeds benefiting the work of America Coming Together (ACT).

PC Issues

Friday I installed the latest MS patch and since then my home PC has been failing. WinXP sometimes won't finish booting (when the log on screen appears it just reboots). Or if it does, it immediately "encounters an error in Windows Explorer". Nice, eh? Grrr... Anyway, I tried deinstalling that update last night and now it seems even worse. C'est la vie. Looks like I'm going to have to reinstall XP (and everything else).

>sigh< :(

Parents to Germany, Disneyland Loner

I took Mom & Dad to LAX early this morning. They're on their way to Germany to see Jeff, Steffi, and Julian. We got on the road at about 3:20a, arriving at the airport (after a breakfast stop) at around 6a. Their flight was scheduled for takeoff at 9:15a. It's a good thing we were there so early. The International Flights desk had just opened and we got in about third in line. By the time we got up to the desk the line stretched back over a hundred people!!! Whew! After getting their boarding pass and checking their luggage I left them at the security checkpoint on their way to the gate.

On the way home I went to the Disneyland Resort. Yup, to D-land all alone. I've never done that before and it was great! I got there as the park opened at 8a. I took the early morning time to look at some of the Main Street Shops while they were still empty. It was nice to have the stores to myself. Usually, they're so crowded! I learned about Mickey's All American Pin Festival. To play I had to answered seven Olympics-related questions on a card. I then took that card to various locations within the park, where they would check my answer (and if I didn't know, give hints until I got it right) and give me a stamp. At the final stop I got a free pin. :) Way cool!

I also experienced the joy of the Single Rider Line. Basically, as a single person you can go into the exit lane of most rides and skip the big line. You get put into any available seat on the ride. With Stand-by Line wait times between 30-60 mins I was able to ride California Screamin', the Maliboomer, and Mulholland Madness (each five times in a row) in about 90 mins. That was great fun! I also by-passed a 90 min wait for Splash Mountain and got on that in about 5 mins.

I stayed at the park for about 9 hours, and leaving at around 5p, got home at about 7:15p. A wonderfully long day indeed!