Hello, YNP!
Yessir, we're safe, sound and alive at Yosemite National Park. Sadly, the dial-up cost to use the motel's phone is 50 cents a minute. No wireless coverage for cell phones or Sprint PCS internet. In a last ditch effort, we flipped on the wireless connector, and viola -- someone had the good spirit of leaving an open internet connection at 11 Mbps. Woohoo! Anyhoo, we're off to sleepy eyes, but will be up and adam early tomorrow to explore the nation's first and oldest national park. Hurrah!
    :::   09.10.04 @ 11:40 PM Pacific Time [link]   :::

Hot days, cool soda
It's actually a relatively cool day, at only 95°F (35°C) at the moment. The good news is, the company has just installed a Pepsi machine. And it's priced at only 5¢. The bad news is, the machine is empty (did you catch the part about it's just installed... as in, a few hours ago, and I've been stuck in bored, er, board meetings all day). The topic: What flavors to put in the machine. The vote passed for Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Vanilla Pepsi, Diet Vanilla Pepsi, Cherry Pepsi, and a motion was made, but not seconded, to have a Mystery Soda -- we just put in whatever we get on sale. RC Cola, Sam's Club soda, generic brand from the grocery store, or even the Simpsons soda we found in Canada. From there, there was a fierce debate over the lunch-time pizza toppings followed by a hostile takeover of the parmesan cheese shaker. In our afternoon session, we began arguing about getting a new printer (color HP, of course), and if it should sit in the computer room or on my desk (I lost). We're now taking a bio break before resuming for the last agenda item of the day: laser-bright 24# white paper in the printer, or the generic Costco junk. Which would be tolerable, but I'm sitting here with a tummy full of pepperoni pizza, minus the luxury of sprinkled parmesan cheese.
    :::   09.09.04 @ 02:51 PM Pacific Time [link]   :::

What the heck... *Labor* Day?!?
Perhaps I'm still a foreigner to your practices, but what is this concept of celebrating labor by not doing it? Wouldn't that be sort of like celebrating your wedding anniversary by getting a divorce? Aside from record sales of Budweiser in my neighborhood, and increased foot traffic at the bowling alley, it all seems to be business as usual. Well, that and the increased number of highway patrol and other cops roaming the streets and busting drunk drivers. And how does celebrating labor plug into binge drinking?
    :::   09.05.04 @ 01:58 AM Pacific Time [link]   :::