News: June 2001

After we returned home for lunch (and so Jared could nap), we hung out and played some games (including a game of Taboo featuring the worst play I've ever mustered).

We caught the San Jose Giants game at 5 PM. The Giants are a good single A team and fun to watch (like most all minor league baseball), but the atmosphere at the park might be just as fun. The Giants won 3-0 for what that's worth, but many times the between inning events and promos were just as entertaining. After the game Jared got to run the bases (with Mark's help), and you know a 20-month old circling the base paths is funny as all get out.

Jared has limited vocabularly, but his three favorite words seem to be an unemotional "ow" (when he bumps into someone or something or vice versa), a very matter-of-fact "nope" (a answer to virtually any question since he's not learned "yep" yet), and a slightly annoyed "move" (often accompanied by a wave of the arm and used when people get in his way). To say I find this all terribly cute is an understatement.

June 29, 2001—Los Altos, California
Yesterday we caught Christine at work and got some face time with our nephew Jared at daycare. Then J-man went down for naptime while the three of us headed out for lunch.

Today, we got more extended visit with Jared at a cool park in Redwood City. There were plenty of water toys and things to climb on, and Jared seemed to have a great time (until it came time to leave). Afterward we went to Mark and Christine's and chatted for awhile until Mark had to return to work. After hearing of our various house projects, he gave me a CD-ROM of The Journal of Light Construction, which I think will prove invaluable.

That evening Erin and I did chinese take-out at Lucky's, our favorite chinese restaurant when we were living in Mountain View. Now that we can directly compare, Kuong Chan's in Salem bests it by a wide margin. We thought about renting a movie, but in the end decided to just lay-low for the night. Vacationing can be tiring!

June 28, 2001—Los Altos, California
The clerk had a good chuckle, but we finally used the seven year old William Sonoma gift certificate we got as a wedding gift. We also used a three year gift certificate at Macy's, also to buy neat kitchen stuff. Nothing like going to California and leaving with wonderful parting gifts.

We had dinner with Shan and Heather and got a good long look at the brick patio work they're doing behind their house. Given the level of effort they described, I'm not sure how much I'm gonna wanna undertake something similar for our front walkway. Dirt removal alone sounded like a herculean task, and I'm pretty decidedly not Hercules, especially with a back like mine. Definitely something I'll need to ponder a bit more.

We caught up on things and heard some great school stories from Heather (who teaches elementary) and I passed around the S300 for giggles. We checked out the aforementioned patio work, some interesting sponge painting Heather had done in one of their rooms, and admired the closet curtains Heather and her mom had made.

At dinner, Erin and I even tried a Zima, which is a citrus-like drink with a slight beer aftertaste. (It's 4.8 percent alcohol.) I'm not much of a drinker, but I thought Zima was all right. (Shan said that he first tried it when they tour the Coors plant in Colorado, and one of the drivers there described Zima as a "chick beer." Whether that says more about Zima, Coors, or Coors employees I leave to you.)

June 27, 2001—Los Altos, California
The good news is that I played some kick-butt basketball in an afternoon basketball with some high school kids at Los Altos High. Though my defense was at times questionable, I had my J falling and I left defenders flat-footed on more than one cross over dribble drive. The bad news is the that stiffness kicked up on the back pain-o-meter, and I've been somewhat less than agile ever since. No more sports for a couple days, most likely, but frankly, I was happy enough with my play today that I'm considering it a fair trade. (Yes, I'm a sports idiot.)

We met in the evening with Jennie, her parents Tom and Marge, and Jennie's roughly 20 month old nephew Connor. Tom and Marge are camera gurus, and they were kind enough to put up with my litany of queries about digital photography and a variety of related issues. Tom also showed me a stereo camera from the '50s which created a 3-D effect I thought was pretty cool. As Tom says, it's a little on the gimicky side, but I also liked it a lot. I also left convinced I needed a better backup strategy for all the images I'm starting to acquire (not to mention my computer work in general).

Afterward, Jennie, Erin and I strolled through downtown Mountain View with continues to be the upscale "restaurant ghetto" it's always been. There are worse things it could be. We ended up sitting outside, eating ice cream, and chatting until late, which is what I call livin'.

June 26, 2001—Los Altos, California
Along with Bernard, Erin and I got to meet with our friends Mike and Marilyn for a terrific pasta dinner. Their daughter Michelle, a human resources manager, joined us and told us about some of the downsizing her company has had to do in recent months—including some in their France office. It seems that Michelle shares Erin's and my assessment of France's wacky employment policies. (It's always nice to know that my opinions aren't completely off the deep end.)

Marilyn's got a really cool graphite iMac DV SE that I check in on whenever I get the chance. It doesn't really need much TLC from me, though. Marilyn takes plenty good care of it.

Post-dinner I passed around the Canon S300 camera. No fearing new technology while I'm around! (Well, at least so long as it's not from Microsoft.) So Marilyn got to take some shots which I then dutifully downloaded from the camera to Trin and ethernetted to her iMac. We even set one up as the desktop picture.

Overall, a pretty neat technology demo if I do say so myself. I think that, like Steve Jobs said in his last MacWorld keynote address, the Macintosh is the hub of an emerging digital lifestyle. Once people have the opportunity to play with various peripherials (be they digital cameras, MP3 players, digital video cameras, DVD players, CD-RW, etc.) and can see directly and dramatically how much additional value, functionality and fun is added by connecting these things to a Mac, well, it's hard not to be captivated.

I'm sure this "backdoor Mac evangelism" is part of why I keep handing the S300 camera out to people to play with. By the same token, I love that other people get pictures with it that I'd never think of or couldn't get myself. That, plus they really seem to have a lot of fun with it. I suppose those are all good reasons.

June 25, 2001—Los Altos, California
With just one stop at a Denny's in Roseburg, we completed the roughly 12 hour drive to Los Altos. We took turns driving and napping on the way down, so it really wasn't too much of a struggle as these things go. Traffic was good until we hit the Bay Area and even then we were counter commute, so it wasn't a complete disaster. The weather was rather unexpectedly rainy from about Redding on down.

We're looking forward to visiting our California-based family and friends in the week ahead.

June 23, 2001
Moving day for Matt and Ginger, so a gang of us (Erin, Carol, Joe, Dennis, Brace, me) converged on their old place in the morning, packed everything we could find into a U-Haul truck and various cars, hauled it all to the new place, and unloaded it. Thanks to M & G's pre-packing of boxes, the moving end of things was really a walk in the park. (We were rewarded with pizza and drinks anyway.) =)

Since we were finished so early we decided, perhaps in hindsight against better judgment since professional movers had tried this and failed, to move a box spring mattress into the basement. The difficulty is that stairway opening into the basement presents some awkward angles. It looks like the box spring should fit, but it doesn't. Still, we disassembled the stairs and tried to shove it down there anyway. Short of taking out structural supports or cutting the box spring in half, we can safely say that puppy just ain't gonna happen. Still worth the shot in my book, though, and whether we meet with success or failure, I think there's always something noble about facing challenges with friends.

A lot of the late afternoon we hung out, chatted and helped a little bit with unpacking, and ate some more pizza. (My kinda day.) Congratulations again to Matt and Ginger on their new home!

Erin and I are about halfway through one of our summer projects, the cataloging and proper storage of all our old photos. Although I did the initial look through of things, Erin's done most of the placement work (which is to say most of the work in general), and we've made it through about 1994 before running out of picture albums. Not bad considering that most of these shots have been strewn about in drawers or lumped together in the original photo packets. It'll be a good thing to get off the checklist once we're done and an item which we've been meaning to get to for years.

June 22, 2001
We visited our friends Mike, Joy, and Skylar up in Sandy. They have such a beautiful view of Mt. Hood and the surrounding forestry, that we felt especially lucky to be there during the day just so we could enjoy the view. Skylar, who's now five, was eager to play whatever games we cared to try, so we managed to get a fair amount of exercise during our visit too. =)

Many thanks to Mike, Joy, and Skylar for their hospitality!

June 19, 2001
Erin's pretty well mended since yesterday's bug-chasing, back-straining fiasco. (Bug 1, Erin 0.) For sheer embarrassment, though, I don't think she'll ever top the time I threw out my back by picking up a couple pieces of paper. (See March 7, 1997 News entry.)

We're trying, though currently with limited success, to get organized so that we have a solid Plan of Action™ for the summer. So far we've made some lists, but I don't think either of us is all that happy with the progress. We'll keep trying.

Watched Run Lola Run, a German film with English subtitles. Using a deceptively simple story, the picture bends time and the "rules" of traditional cinema to present a pretty deep action flick with a techno music soundtrack. It's sort of like MTV meets Groundhog Day. Nevermind that we're the strength of love between a tatooed Gen-X hippy chick and her wanna-be mobster boyfriend. Love is love, right?

Recommended viewing, and the soundtrack might be worth checking out as well.

June 18, 2001
Erin strained her back early today, but an afternoon of rest returned her to cautious mobility. Enough anyway so that we were able to go out to dinner with Matt and Ginger to celebrate their new house and the end of the school year. After the meal, we swung by their new place and walked around a bit to check everything out. The improvement from house to home is already underway.

June 17, 2001—Fathers' Day
The Davison clan assembled and headed to Mission State Park to celebrate Fathers' Day. After a very yummy picnic lunch, we played some Bocci ball and then walked along the river. A wonderful, sunny, happy Fathers' Day to all you dads out there!

After the wonderful day at the park, Erin and I sat down to watch the exceedingly strange and highly original Being John Malkovich. To say this is a trippy movie is an understatement. There are a lot of interesting themes (sense of self, consciousness, fate v. freewill, etc.), but none of the characters were self-actualized leading one to conclude that we're all little better than apes. Given that I think human beings are capable of much more than instinctive response to base motivations, this wasn't exactly my cup of tea. That said, there are tons of points earned for originality and the film exhibits a nice comedic touch. It's an ultimately depressing look at humanity (and one which, as I've said, I disagree with), but it's probably a trip worth taking once even if, by the time things wind up, the movie has failed to actually do much with its inspired premise.

June 16, 2001
Erin and I drove up to Hillsboro to have a BBQ with Dennis and watch the USA v. Jamaica World Cup qualifier on TV. Dennis and I also had a chance to test the Baldur's Gate multiplayer which, after we get used to how it works, should prove a perfect vehicle for cooperative multiplayer fun both on a LAN or via the Internet.

Later in the evening we all took the relatively new westside MAX lightrail to the newly opened PGE Park (formerly Civic Stadium) to watch, with Joe and Carol who met us there, the Portland Beavers lose an extra innings thriller to the Calgary Cannons.

On the way up to see Dennis, I had the bizarre experience of taking evasive action on Interstate 5 when a mother duck and her little group of ducklings decided cross in front of on coming traffic. I checked the rear view mirror to make sure it was safe (otherwise, God forgive me, I would've plowed the lot of them) then braked sharply and turned on to the shoulder to pass them (as they'd already waddled into the right lane).

Fearing the worst, I looked back to see how they were and was reminded of the scene in Return of the Jedi when Lando tells the rebels that the shield generator is still active and all the rebel ships have to corkscrew into evasive maneauvers. At least three other cars had followed me onto the shoulder and traffic was braking wildly. I'm amazed not only that there were no accidents but also that the ducks, last I saw, had made it to the median.

June 15, 2001
Ed from Overhead Door came out this morning and installed an automatic garage door opener for us. So at long last we've gifted ourselves with the present from Christmas 1999. Hehe. The opener is a Legacy 696. It's got a 5 year warranty on parts, a lifetime warranty on motor. It's fast, it's quiet, and it's safe. The remote uses Code Dodger technology, which means there are 11 billion rotating combinations for the signal between the remote and the opener. That makes it unlikely that a thief will be able to steal the signal and open the garage door. I'm not sure of the remote's range, but I know that it works at least as far as the top of the hill, and that's as much as is needed. It was $330 installed, and I highly recommend that, unless you're ready to spend a full day doing it, you have a professional do the installation.

I figure conservatively that having an automatic garage door opener will save about a minute a day. That's 6 hours a year of saved time. Given my life expectancy, I've added two weeks to my life. That plus not having to get out of the car in the rain makes $330 seem like a bargain.

Our heartiest and most heartfelt congratulations to Matt and Ginger who have just closed on their first home purchase. The closing process can be time-consuming enough. Matt and Ginger, both high school teachers, had to deal with it while wrapping up the school year. Success is sweet!

June 14, 2001
It took me most of the late afteroon (about 4 hours altogether), but I finally removed the stump of the dead tree I felled last year. I couldn't have done it without a chainsaw, and I'm sorry to say that the Black & Decker I used seems to already have a problem. In short, the safety guard which is supposed to instantly stop the motor if you get kickback, well, it no longer works. So I'll be taking the chainsaw in for service next week. Until then, the rest of the stumps, one dead tree, and one pine tree out front have a temporary reprieve.

We watched Remember the Titans, Disney's take on early 1970s race relations (meaning the strongest derogatory terms were "coon" and "honky," though I'm not sure how much to dis Disney on that account). A football picture about a high school team that is forced to racially integrate and comes to -sob- recognize the humanity in everyone regardless of race, the film is at least well-intentioned. It's also pretty well acted, given that always good Denzel Washington stars with a pretty much no-name cast.

But this movie is, pun intended, only skin deep. There is some embarrassingly bad dialogue (though the actors are earnest in their efforts), and the football end of things is really poorly done. And I kid you not when I say that this two hour movie is roughly 70 percent cheering and preaching. That gets old no matter how good the message.

The football end of things is also badly mishandled. Action sequences are a series of quick cuts. I don't believe we ever see a complete play or a complete view of players are the field even once. The training sequences—particularly the jog through the forest—are absurb. Football linemen don't run distance track, and it's utterly unrealistic to think otherwise.

So on the whole, Remember the Titans never really achieves greatness because worldview presented here is too simplistic. The film could be a good starting off point for discussion of race relations for kids, but it's not a whole lot more than that, which is kind of a shame. The "all men are brothers" mantra it preaches (ad nauseum) is a heartfelt, but it's too bad we couldn't see a little more breadth and depth in the proceedings.

At the same time, Titans gets extra points for being based on a true story, and at the end of the day I think it's worth the rental.

June 13, 2001
Tonight's Neighborhood Association meeting was my first full one as a member of the Executive Board. What came out of it is significant in that there absolutely will be an increased police presence around our neighborhood park. Apparently there continue to be some drug deals going on (though I've not observed any activity personally for some months), and multiple requests have been made for the Salem PD to bump this place up on their priority list. Personally, I've been advocating a foot patrol every 2 or 3 days right around dusk. I think that would solve all problems in very short order.

I've been playing more basketball in the park which helps me get in shape, but also lets me keep an eye on things. I've already told some people not to drink alcohol there (alcohol in the park is against city ordinance), but I've not seen more than that. Most times and most days, it's a very pleasant place with plenty of kids playing, people walking their dogs, guys shooting hoops, and so on.

This evenings film was the Patrick Stewart-led X-Men, science fiction movie based on the Marvel Comic of the same name. While well-made and true in tone to the comic, there were some unfortunate edits which removed much of the depth of character from the superheroes. The director and/or the studio clearly wanted a summer action picture, and they proved themselves quite unwilling to bring to the screen any scene which allowed for character development while not directly moving the plot forward, ever forward.

The result is a movie about 90 minutes long, that pushes action and special effects to the forefront. Thankfully both are excellent, but many of the most interesting scenes in terms of the characters are in the Special Features part of the DVD and don't exist in the main film proper. In the end, I think X-Men is a good film that could have been great with a little more work. For the science fiction fan it's definitely worth seeing, and not just because Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine, is one heckuva a hunk.

June 9, 2001
I caught up on finances and Erin did some gardening, and we followed it up with by watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the quirky Coen Brothers film Fargo. Generally speaking, I am not a fan of dark comedies and if Fargo shot straight on that account, I'd probably reject it outright. Plus there's a lot of gratuitous violence.

But Fargo's strengths may outweigh its weaknesses and not just because the acting is above average. Fargo is a keenly observational about life in the upper Midwest. Yes, things are played very tongue-in-cheek, but it never goes over the top. There's a slow, methodical pacing here (not to mention the accent!) that helps capture the Midwest flavor. The reactions and responses of people are funny to us more sophisticated city-dwellers.

In the end, I'm ambivalent about Fargo. It's out of the ordinary and interesting, but I doubt I'd see it again. Recommended? I guess so, but, like Frequency, it's not the heartiest of hurrays. (BTW, despite what the prologue says, Fargo is not based on a true story. It's strange enough to seem true, though.)

June 8, 2001
I got the power. The electrician installed a GFCI in the bathroom, rewired part of the garage, installed the necessary outlet for an automatic garage door opener, and put an outside outlet on the NE corner of the garage. Rockin'. I couldn't be more thrilled.

While we were poking around the attic (so he could drop an electrical line down into the bathroom), I noticed that our attic insulation is actually R-25, not the R-19 I had previously thought. Of course I also noticed, while the electrician was putting in the bathroom GFCI, that there is absolutely zero insulation in the walls. I'm going to see what it costs to get insulation blown in between the walls. I was thinking our cold house winters were from lack of attic insulation. I'm pretty sure now that I was wrong.

After the conclusion of the electrical upgrade, I whipped out the electric chain saw and, using one of the new outlets, at long last, went after the dead tree in the back yard that I felled last fall. Having never used a chain saw before, I was perhaps overly cautious, but I'm happy to report that with much advice from my neighbor Fred I was able to saw everything into 16" logs with losing any limbs or digits.

Erin and I watched Frequency, a thriller/whodunit with some interesting if wholly implausible science. It wasn't a bad movie, but I got the sense that it was trying to be too many things (thriller, whodunit, science fiction, feel good film, etc.) to really succeed. It's okay as a rental, I guess, but I wish I had a little more enthusiasm for it.

One thing I do have some enthusiasm for is the Netflix.com service of which the Frequency DVD rental was the first example. So far, so good, and if anyone's considering joining, let me know and I can give you a $10 off coupon (valid until 7/30/01).

June 7, 2001
It took more than half a day without power, but we've got a new electrical panel box installed and the now-replaced Zinsco-brand piece o' junk is headed for the scrap heap. We also now have GFCIs in the kitchen, the 3-way switch to the kitchen light works correctly, and the backyard electrical situation is how it's supposed to be.

We'll have more work done tomorrow, but I'm really pleased to be finally making these steps forward. It's a good start on our summer house fix-it "to do" list.

June 6, 2001
Another day, another game of hoops. This time it was a 1 on 1 deal with a 6'2" teen. He had some nice dribble moves, but no left hand so I was able to post repeated victories. Of course, I'm also exhausted now whereas he could probably keep playing, but there you go. Ah, to be young again. Hehe.

Earlier in the day I attended the Police Liaison meeting down at City Hall. I'm the representative from our Neighborhood Association, so along with my position on the Executive Board I'm kinda doing double duty. Still, three hours a month isn't much of an inconvenience, and it lets me pretend that my voice is being heard (which it may or may not be). Surely I think it's a lot better than being uninvolved.

We've got the electrical company out here tomorrow and Friday to upgrade everything, so we'll be more or less without power for the next couple of days. That means phone and Internet access will probably be down. Hope to catch up with everyone on Saturday.

June 5, 2001
I was finally able to play some basketball without being bothered by the knee strain (from soccer last fall) or the calf pull (from the treadmill this winter) that have so long afflicted me. I was joined in the park yesterday by five high schoolers of varying talents, and we played 3 v 3 for a little over an hour. I was easily the best player of the lot, which says a lot about how terrible they were since I'm no great shakes. It was fun anyway, especially the part about my knee and calf feel good. I'm looking forward to kicking up my exercise regiment again.

After the game in the park, I did a whole blood donation for the Red Cross where I had them use my right arm for a change since my left, as I've noted before, is building up scar tissue which makes it difficult to place the needle. That's pointless personal trivia, but at least you can't accuse me of not sharing enough.

One potentially germane bit for all you other blood donors out there is that the Red Cross is considering tightening restrictions (again) on those who can donate. Potentially barred this time around is anyone who's spent 6 month cumulative time in the UK or Western Europe since 1980. I'm not exactly sure how this restriction makes the blood supply safer, but it would knock Erin out as a donation candidate (since she lived in France) and would eventually knock me out as well since I'm hardly going to stop traveling to Europe.

This rule is not in effect yet and maybe it'll never come to pass, but as I understand it, it's under discussion. Given that the Red Cross is routinely on Yellow Alert and occasionally on Red Alert for my blood type, I can only hope that if they decide to implement this new restriction they have a very good reason. (And if they do, what does that say about Western Europe?)

I've signed up for NetFlix, an online mail-order-style DVD rental outfit that gives you unlimited rentals (3 at a time) for $19.95 a month. The even pay postage, which is darn nice of them. I figure this will be our big entertainment for the summer, and I'll just cancel the service come fall.

I think it was Dennis who told me that you have to do at least 6 movies a month for the Netflix deal to top what was readily available at Blockbuster or Hollywood, so expect lots of mini-movie reviews coming your way starting soon. I'm nothing if not value conscious. Hehe.

June 3, 2001
The PMI dollars that went missing and which were due to be refunded to us (see the May 10, 2001 News entry) were caused by a data entry error. Our PMI money went into one account, and the account waiting for the money was numbered one digit higher. We should see a PMI refund check of about $580 in the next week, which is a happy bonus to the already stellar refinance deal that we got. With current 15-year rates at about 6.7 percent, our new 6.125 percent rate is looking very appealing. (I might be a decent money manager, but as I've always said, it's better to be lucky than good, and this is surely a case of that.)

As for the refund, it's interestingly about the price of a new clothes dryer.

Erin's decided to give full-time teaching a "go" for next year, with the idea that she can step back to part-time the following year if this proves to be unpalatable. We're hopeful that the stress level will remain low, which we both think it probably will given Erin's teaching experience and the three prep plan that's currently being floated. If we're wrong, well, we've already survived much worse, and Erin will just drop back down.

In my view, the part-time nature of this year was just what was needed, and the opportunity it provided Erin to really get settled in well to the groove of the school can't be overstated. With only two weeks remaining it's already clear that this has been a fantastic year for her, and that, given the upcoming summer without major travel, summer school, work, etc., she'll be extraordinarily well-positioned to have an even better year next year. Plus as an end of school year bonus for 2002, she gets to lead a bunch of really neat students on a trip to France. Good deal.

June 2, 2001
Spent the day at Ma and Pa's treating their G3 to a second helping of RAM, this in the form a 256 MB upgrade. That gives them 384 MB of RAM for the moment with two more RAM slots free. It should spell happiness for the MacOS, that's for sure.

Speaking of which, I took their machine up from 8.6 through 9.04 to 9.1. On the whole, 9.1 has proved pretty stable for me and I'm not hearing anything new in the way of bug reports, so I'd say it's pretty safe to go there now. Of course, 9.2 is on the horizon (probably will be released in the next week or two), but I'm not crazy enough to advocate a jump to anything untested. Heck, I'm not even willing to make the move to X yet, and I think that's gonna be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

When I wasn't in the garage, I was—strangely enough—at the piano. That's right, yet another song ("Heaven") written and ready to roll. It'll sound pretentious to say it, but I'm really moving toward a whole new phase of writing. Musically the songs are much more complex and lyrically I've continued branching in different directions.

In fact, I'm not sure how closely the album that I end up putting out will resemble what's up in the Music section. I mean, I'd probably have to do a double CD set to put out everything that I think is okay for distribution (meaning not that it's great but that I think it doesn't stink; in other words, I like listening to it). How ya'll feel about spending a $20 bill on a 2-CD set? Yeah, well, it sounds pretty iffy to me.

Nonetheless, recording equipment coming this summer, at long last, and should I reach the conclusion that my ego can take the abuse, I may even find a way to put up an MP3 or two.

Latest update on June 30, 2001
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