Away: Day 2 - San Jose, Santa Clara and Mountain View

We had a hard time sleeping due to all of the traffic noise from staying in the cheap motel. Granted, it was clean, it has a good wireless internet connection, and a free meatless continental breakfast that at least my son seemed interested in, but after stepping out into the morning air and being pummeled with the stench garlic in the air you just couldn't seem to get away from, it was time to go.

Driving to San Jose 40 miles north of Gilroy in rush hour traffic was not my idea of fun, but I did it anyway. 101 N to 82 takes you straight into downtown San Jose. Check-in is at 3PM and the museum my son wants to go to doesn't open until noon, so we definitely have some time to kill. What to do? Well, I'm hungry and thirsty since I haven't ate breakfast yet, so we find a bagel shop in Mountain View.

They end up having a couple of local rags and my son finds out that Intel has their own museum in the area and it opens at 10AM. O.K., plans are now forming up nicely. I finish my bagels, banana and apple juice and we head on over to Intel thanks to the GPS. From where we parked, I didn't see the front of the museum entrance, so I just followed to where everyone else was walking. Turns out that was an employee entrance where a guard it.

The Intel Museum, located in Santa Clara in the same general area, turns out to be located in the back of the Intel company store and is an homage to the founders of the company for starters. The rest of the museum is about their advertising, their processes and their technological advances to the computer industry. Yeah, Intel! I had enough corporate controlled shenanigans for the day. Get me out of here.

We then drove back to Mountain View where the Computer History Museum is located. We got there just about the same time they opened. We went through the visual storage room which took almost 2 hours. It's a graveyard of all things computer. All things. Think of every major computer name and brand you can - now. Yup, they have it. Amazing place. My dad would of loved to see the Difference Engine No. 2. An engineering wonder. It was the first mechanical adding machine ever made. It's about as big as maybe three refrigerators pushed together.

After going though yet another display, I was tired, my son was hungry, so we decided to drive back to San Jose to have lunch. I drove around trying to orient myself to the hotel location, but I was having a hard time doing that. I finally decided to park and get out and walk. Everything is so close, so why not? I ended up parking under the federal courts building two blocks away.

From the local rag he picked up earlier, he saw a restaurant he wanted to try, but after we read their lunch menu posted on the outside of the building, we decided it didn't sound too good. I peeked my head around the corner of the building to find a noodle house. It ended up being a thai place which was fine. They has good basic food which I was very happy to discover so I didn't get sick on it. My son had beef with egg noodles and yellow curry which was supposed to be medium heat, but he was sweating practically all the way through the meal and drank two Mexican Cokes and an ice water before he gave up.

Later, we checked into the hotel and found it to be very nice. It was Thursday night and my son decided to get lost for awhile and do something he wanted to do as I went to the city park near the hotel to listen to some live Beatles music with about 3000 of newest friends from San Jose.

We were still full from lunch, so we skipped dinner. I was running on empty energy-wise at this point from all the go-go-going since Tuesday night, so after the concert was over, I enjoyed the comfortable feather bed in the hotel room and kicked back for awhile. I sent Stephen out for a soda after he got back from the card shop. I had no idea where the nearest convenience store was but for some strange reason, he did and it came in handy. He got me a Pepsi.

Away: Day 1 - Gilroy, CA

I drove to Gilroy, California, today. It took six and a half hours between the four pit stops and all the driving. You're probably saying to yourself, "Why Gilroy?" Well, why not? As we quickly realized though, Gilroy is a lot like Lake Elsinore in many ways. The city has only one seasonal attraction (The Garlic Festival which happens in July so we missed it), an outlet mall (Gilroy Premium Out Mall which is akin to the one in Cabazon), a revitalized downtown area and not much else going on. Actually, after comuting to and from Simi Valley for the past year and a half, I didn't know how long I could stand being on the road, so I comitted myself to Gilroy and a cheap hotel room with free wireless internet access for the night and I was proud of myself for making it. Driving long distances without the stress of rush hour traffic I can do.

At 1PM as we neared out hotel, across the street is a quaint themed family restaurant called The Black Bear Diner. Bears and bear paw prints surround you as you dine on their good food. After that we cruised downtown and then made our way over to the outlet mall before checking in.

6:30AM departure
top off gas tank at Arco
5 N
breakfast at Noah's Bagels at Stevenson Ranch
pit stop at Travel America past Gorman
pit stop and gas a Harris Ranch. Cleaned the windshield.
152 W
101 N
Leavesley exit.

Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Mountain View and San Jose.

That was fun

I went to a Community Manager Yelp.com Event tonight at a gay bar in Huntington Beach. I like guys and no, I'm not gay in the least but places like these don't scare me. Live and let live. The one drink the host bought for me, a well cosmo, was so strong, I nursed it for the two and a half hours I was there. Nice mellow crowd and I'm not one normally to toot my own horn, but thanks to Steph W., WE WON THE JOHN HUGHES TRIVIA CONTEST! WOOHOO!! The prize was a "Pretty in Pink" DVD and a yelp t-shirt for me (My first one) and a DVDPLanet.com gift card and a yelp t-shirt for Steph. YEAH! As of tomorrow morning, I'm going to San Jose for a few days. You can read about what I'm up to while in the Silicon Valley on annazzz.yelp.com.

Are you qualified?

I found this and I had to laugh. I'm glad I'm not a waitress.

Aches and Pains

Why does my mouth hurt? My job is so boring, I find myself resting my hand underneath my chin for long stretches of time because there is nothing to do and then later, my gums and jaw aches. Yet another thing I won't miss when this contract ends tomorrow. Nor the back spasms, the paper cuts, the dust or the dry skin I've acquired because of all the hand washing either.

I've been taking my personal things home over the week and today will be the last of it. On Friday, I'll walk out a little after 3PM with my two computer bags and then will turn in all of my computer equipment at the DTLA office.

I've got two leads for jobs already and I'm not even out the door yet. I hope its a good sign that the economy is warming up.

And since I haven't had any significant time off for 17 months, I'm planning on a mini vacation to Northern California with my son before he starts back to college.

It's almost over

The contract job I'm on is almost over. I am being released on Friday, the 21st.

I won't miss:
-getting up at 4:45 AM every weekday
-driving to and from Simi Valley every day
-the time wasted sitting in rush hour traffic
-traveling through the Orange Crush and the East LA interchange twice a day with, I feel, some of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the state
-the parade at 10AM and 3PM of the people walking to and from the big vault
-the food in the cafe which made me sick most of the time
-the food in Simi Valley which was very 'hit or miss'
-not having a social life

I will miss:
-that 'hot mess' of a co-manager, LOL
-my manager because having one in Dallas instead of breathing down your neck is so much cooler
-obviously, the pay check

I'm not sad about it. It was a learning experience. I could write a book about race relations, but more on that, maybe, later.

Elsinore

I went to Elsinore on Sunday and visited my son's grandmother for a bit on the way to my mom's house. She just bought an REO home for $149K cash. It's 10 years old, a 4 bedroom, three bath, 2 car garage with a pool and fire pit in the backyard and RV parking on the side on a cultisac. All of the corners are bull nosed. All of the moulding is double stacked. It's got vaulted ceilings in most of the main rooms. All she had to do was paint and lay new carpet to move in.

It's nice, except for the kitchen which needs help. There is no large pantry you'd think a large house like that would have. It's only got a two door one like I have in my tiny condo built in the early 60's. She agrees, the lack of kitchen storage is frustrating. And she's a cook - she should know. It needs an additional pantry or island or something else in the way of storage.

It was empty for two years, so most of the landscaping is gone. My son was helping with that. She is planning on zero-scaping the front so there will be minimal maintenance needed. It's the same thing I'd like to do on my back patio.

I guess I should be happy it didn't say "Jewish"

I'm bored today. It's slow at work and so I'm I'm cruising the internet until it gets busier and I come across something on the New York Post about Justin Timberlake buying a property in Greenwich. And I start to look further on the site and find a gallery collection of photographs and one is entitled "Hebrew Hunks". I guess I should be happy it didn't say "Jewish".

Link: Hebrew Hunks Gallery on The New York Post

10 Days

It's been 10 days since I've last blogged. I can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday when I asked Jay to go to the movies with me, but he declined due to him having plans to go to his mom's for her birthday. I'm fine with that. Maybe I'll go right after work instead on Friday. It should make my drive home a lot easier then. My Monday started out with me having a dream about a snake in my house. It startled me awake so I've felt a little unsettled and odd so far this week. Since Twitter has been wonky, I've been occupying my time over on yelp.com. I wrote a lot of reviews and posted on their talk section this past weekend. Yesterday, I received an email from a guy I dated last year. I'm sure it was an error. I asked for my email address to be deleted. He replied it was an intern's fault. No, it was yours because you don't care to proofread what the unpaid staff does because you're a pompous jerk. Shew. This morning, as my SUV crested the Santa Susana pass, there was a thick wall of fog which hung in the atmosphere over the valley signaling to me that summer is almost over. It's a wonder I even made it to work today as a gasoline truck almost cut me off while traveling through the East LA interchange. I saw his signal before he saw me in his side view mirror. Yes, I threw him the bird. Pissed me off. It took me a little over an hour to get to work today because of the raging hormones. Thanks stupid truck driver. I have to make pillows and go to my mom's this weekend. More time on the road and I'm not happy about it.

Cherries!

It's August 1st, Saturday morning and I'm online reading the restaurant reviews on Yelp.com and they are making me hungry again. Sure, I already ate a bowl of strawberry mini wheats with vanilla Westsoy plus soy milk for breakfast as well as the fact that I have other stuff in my frig I could make, but what I really want is cherries. It amazes me that they are available at the beginning of August because I always thought of cherries as being a fall season fruit.

Bristol Farms: $3.99/lb
Von's or Albertson's: $2.99/lb
Sprouts: $1.99/lb
Stater Brothers: $ .99/lb