I’ve just returned from a spring break road trip with my family. I spent a lot more money than I intended to and managed to get my first speeding ticket in more than a decade. Here are ten things we did which we enjoyed the most. Toured the Theo Chocolate factory in Seattle and learned [...]
Four days off for Thanksgiving! That seems like an excellent opportunity to get out of dodge. I decided to drive down to Southern California, pick up my friend, and take a short road trip to Phoenix and Flagstaff. Might as well see some new country, right? On Thursday, I took off bright an early in [...]
After haggling with some local dealers about the 2009 Pontiac Vibe, the ultimate finalist for “Apollo’s Next Car”, I found that it was nearly impossible to find one with the Preferred Package (Power Windows, Power Door Locks, Cruise Control) and the AC in a car with a manual transmission. After I located one in the [...]
This afternoon, around 1:30 in the afternoon, CNET switched off Consumating for the last time. It was announced about six weeks ago, but we all still hoped that there’d be a last minute reprieve. This evening, we were redirected at Help.com, where the foul-mouthed hipsters of Consumating crashed head-on with the heavily-moderated juvenile-friendly help.com. I’ll [...]
Tonight was Consumating‘s formal party, largish, formal consumeeting in san fran (formerly known as promsumating). The first time I went, in July 2006, I manned a kissing booth, breakdanced in my tuxedo, and ended up in the flickr photos of a bunch of people. This time around, I wasn’t sure that I was going to [...]
Today, Ozreiuosn and I decided to go check out Jack London State Historical Park in Sonoma County. We got to the park headquarters a little later than we’d have liked, because of a little oops in the directions (and my realization that Google Maps on my mobile phone doesn’t like searches like: “38.25334,-122.39014″ (which would [...]
Today, Oz and I went for another hike. At first, we were going to head over to Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, but all the trails there are paved and full of mountain bikes. So, after cruising around Stevens Creek Reservoir, we ended up at Sanborn-Skyline County Park. First of all, this park has an [...]
It’s gotten to be quite a tradition, lately. Ozreiuosn and I go hiking quite a bit lately. Well, it’s a lot of fun and we get some exercise. Today, Oz picked out a couple of trails at Purisima Creek Redwoods. After a short lunch in Half Moon Bay, we headed up the hill. Harkins Ridge [...]
Today, Ozreiousn, her friend Adam, and I wandered into the Santa Cruz Mountains to hike an epic set of trails in a loop more than ten miles long. We started out fairly early, coffeed up, and headed up into the mountains. Our destination: Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the oldest state park in California, full [...]
This morning, I headed up to Castle Rock State Park with Ozreiousn. She’d never been up there before, but I have. So, off we headed, once I laced up my boots. It was a little cloudy at the Saratoga Gap and, in fact, it drizzled on us a little near the end of our hike. [...]
Today, my new friend, Alex, invited me to go climbing at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale. I’d gone to a climbing gym once before in Madison, Wisconsin, when I was visiting my friend, Amber. I figured that, if I could handle a climbing gym in a state whose highest point is only 901 feet higher than [...]
Today, I went kayaking with Ozreiuosn. It was pretty windy and the wind came from quite an unusual direction. No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep my kayak tracking straight though the water. The more I paddled on the right side (which is supposed to turn the craft left), the more it [...]
After a friend introduced me to the basics of paddling a kayak a couple of months ago, I unexpectedly enjoyed the hell out of the activity and wanted to do it more. So, I looked into a class at various shops in the area. Most of them don’t offer many courses this time of year. [...]
Today, I wanted to get an earlier start and head up to Muir Woods National Monument. So, I called up Kai this time to see if he’d be interested in a Saturday romp in the hills above the Golden Gate Bridge. I grabbed my GPS, jumped in his little car, and we headed north. Muir [...]
Today, Ernie and his buddy decided to check out Castle Rock State Park again, so I tagged along with my GPS. Ernie’s buddy, whose name I can’t remember is really loud. This time, we hiked past Castle Rock Falls and along the ridgeline around 2650 feet above sea level. There are a number of large [...]
In my fourth wander this week, I called up Ernie to see what he was up to. I initially planned on exploring a reservoir in the East Bay, but Ernie talked me into checking out some trails near Crystal Springs Reservoir and up at Skyline. So, we met up in San Mateo, and off we [...]
I just returned a little while ago from my third sojourn this week—this time to Castle Rock State Park at Saratoga Gap. I’ve not really spent a lot of time in the great outdoors since I moved to California in June of 1999. I’m a creature of routine, of habit, of comfort. But, today, I [...]
Patrick and Gigi have Halloween parties every year in their little apartment in the Castro. So, unlike last year when I was broken, I went up this year to check it out. Fortunately, the N-Judah MUNI parked at the Caltrain Station left as soon as I got on (unlike the fourth of July, when it [...]
So, today, I decided to get out of my house and take a road trip. The original itinerary was as follows: Half Moon Bay, Pigeon Point, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, San Juan Bautista, Hollister, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and home to Sunnyvale. After a short IM conversation with Eric Rice, I decided to reverse [...]
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