09/20/99

Phew, finally back home. After a full day and night last night last
night we were wasted. I’ll recap for you though (but read all about
it in today’s
column). We (Iambe, Martyn (rouge from cobalt) headed out
Saturday morning to surprise Squiz (arranged by Sillz) on his
birthday. The trip down was kinda sucky in the morning, as it was
cold and foggy and pretty gross. We were however riding in a brand
new red Firebird
Convertable… which, while a cool ass car, was not the most comfy
to ride in the back in. After a quick stop in Bellingham for some
food the sun got out and we had awsome weather for the rest of the
ride. My head and face got a bit sunburnt, and nose especially, as I
was wearing my awsome new sunglasses
(thanks for ’em Cat5).

Anyway, when we got to where we were going I was delighted to see the
absolute surprise on Squiz’s face. Iambe put it best in her saying
that he “dumped core”. I’m glad we were able to do that for him,
travel from so far (well, less than 2 hours drive in actuality) to
surprise the shit out of him. Something I’ll have to do more often.

We did a trip to the microsoft campus (I was bad I know) and checked
it out, making jokes about them the entire time. Didn’t get inside
the buildings though 🙁 After amusing ourselves most of the day we
went for surprise number 2, going out to a little random
pub…. with a bunch of Squiz’s friends from work
there! Again, another core dump. Some hanging out there, a trip to a
24 hour italian food place, back to the pub for a Guiness and then the
5 of us, weary as hell, headed back to the squizpad to (you guessed
it) do a final surf, pop of mail, and then finally sleep. Martyn
flaked out immediately on the futon, and Iambe and I discussed TCP/IP
programming and the OSI’s 7 layers (who told me that the user was the
last layer? It’s application dammit!) till we both ended up passing
out from lack of sleep. I woke up with the sun (I think) and almost
read a bit, but put the book back down and found myself waking up at
11 or so with everyone else. Squiz entering the bright living room
where the visitors were was quite funny… “too bloody light” was what
he said I think.

Today (well, yesturday technically) was done doing Seattle. The space
needle, some science center place (climbing wall! yay!) and a hill
with a good view on it. A long drive, sushi, another long drive, and
I’m home.

That was my weekend.

I did come back to 3 things, a good, a neutral, and a bad. The good
was a contact from someone I thought had dropped off the ends of the
earth, good to hear from again. The neutral was interesting. Roomie*
had been thinking of getting a house (they are going in on tuesday to
see about loans and such) as you may or may not have known. I am
kinda looking forward to this as I can have the whole place to myself,
turn the big bedroom (theirs) into a computer room/hobby room/fun room
where I can take people without having to worry about my overflowing
laundry basket. More room to have multiple computers out and around
as well. The living room would be sparse but mine, a couple chairs,
stereo, my 9″ tv and me, hanging out and listening to tunes and
reading and stuff. And my room would be for sleeping and would have
space in it again. Maybe I’d get to see the other side of my closet
again? Anyway, so they were thinking of getting a house and moving,
and as I’m feeding my cats upon arrival roomiewife hits me with “how
would you like to own a condo?” Now, this is just something that
roomiemom had mentioned, they don’t know costs or whatever, but with
the leaky window (which is going to cost $8,900) and the baby and
everything they are just tired of it or something and are (maybe)
offering it to me. Nothing is known about what it would cost (there
is still $75,000+ owing at $280/2weeks) or anything, or if I actually
want it (the comment I made when I found out about the leaky windows
was “man I’m glad I don’t own this place”). I mean, for all I know in
2 years I’ll be living in Utah or California or something. Not that
I’m that dynamic a person, but it could happen, anything is possible.
I don’t know if I’m ready for that big a commitment yet either, I
mean, me, owning a house? I just can’t see it. Now on the
other hand, I’d much rather my $xxx/month were going into equity of
some sort instead of just disapearing into the void. So we’ll see.
The final bad thing was a full litterbox. Eeek. That was rectified
quite quickly.

BTW, when you read the iambe column, remember who actually typed it,
and remember how hard it is to take dictation and type in the crammed
backseat of a convertable firebird in the middle of the night 🙂