I’m in DC now. It’s hot and humid. To be fair, a day in May in Singapore is far far worse and I survived that.
So I guess I shouldn’t complain TOO much.
I flew into IAD on Thursday evening around 1800. Got in 15 minutes early. Nice. Then it took me over an hour to get out of the damn airport!
Follow: Once we got off the plane, we got onto these shuttles which looked like rooms on wheels. We then cross two runways (stopping inbetween to let a 747 cross the road) and finally get to Terminal 1.
Then it’s an adventure trying to find the bus terminal that takes me to a Metro stop to continue heading into town.
By the time I was able to find the stand that sold tickets, I had to wait 10 minutes for the next bus.
So it took just about an hour to get out of Dulles. Sheesh.
Have any of these people heard about an express train?
Good Signs
The weather has been weird here in SFO for the past few days.
It’s been humid, extremely foggy during daylight hours and socked in except for 2 hours in the afternoon.
In other words, like many of the places I usually go (Singapore).
Labor Day is next next weekend which means my travel blackout period ends. That means I can go places again!
Actually, I’m cheating on that blackout period. I’m flying to IAD tomorrow AM for a weekend in DC. Haven’t been to DC since early 2001 when I had to wear a tux and it snowed.
Mah numbah-one Trojans are playing in the BCA Kickoff Classic against the Hokies. May there be lots of Hokie butt being kicked on Saturday!
The trip is getting off to a good start. I was able to use 500 mile upgrades outbound! 1st Class, food AND powerports!
yay. Pix and blogging to follow.
urgggg…
OK, I GET it!
LA has crap traffic. Otherwise, why would it take 7 hours to get back to San Francisco instead of the usual 5?
Got on the 405 yesterday at 1600 at the 190th Street entrance. Sat in weekday rush hour grade traffic.
WTF?
Had to get outta there. So took the 105E to the 110N via the carpool lanes. So far, so good. Traffic is flowing like crap through a goose.
Then the carpool lane ends and BAM, back in congestion so awful that only a San Francisco traffic planner with its head full of traffic calming ideas could love.
Creep creep creep through downtown and get to the 5N. It moves for 1/4 of a mile and then BAM, more congestion. Remember, this is “weekday grade” traffic, which means in english, traffic just like the weekday commute. That means bad, folks.
The 5 is not moving. So I decide to try to bypass the entire San Fernando Valley. I take the 2N to the 210W which connects to the 5N right before Magic Mountain. Or somewhere out there in the Santa Clarita valley.
Gettting out of LA yesterday took over 2 hours! Bleagh!
On the other hand, we made it to Pea Soup Andersen’s before they closed. Strangely filling.
Got back to SF after midnight. That was a drive that was much too long…
USS Midway
Visited the USS Midway today.
When it was active, it was the oldest carrier in the fleet. It was launched near the end of WWII, so it’s not as big as the current Nimitz class or even the decommissioned Forrestal Class.
Despite that, it’s still pretty big. A big tourist trap as well with pitches to buy stuff, get your picture taken and eating at the overpriced Fantail Cafe (that doesn’t take credit cards!).
It’s still an interesting piece of history. Even if it was slutted out as a beeg tourist trap.
PetCo Park
I went to PetCoPark this evening.
Like PacBellPark, it’s the lynchpin of a big redevelopment area. It’s adjecent to the Gaslamp District and near the Convention Center where there’s a lot of neat places to eat and what not.
PetCo and PacBell are also compared because the stadiums are very similar. But PetCo seats 1000 more.
They also have a park area for US$5.00, you can picnic and stand in the standing room area to watch the game. That’s pretty cool.
Other quirks:
They have a dancing groundskeeping crew.
Fun.
Their mascots include a Padre (for the team) and a dog and cat (for the park).
Kinda tacky (the park mascots) since the team is supposed to be the star attraction here.
They serve Hebrew National Hot Dogs (cool) and the food is affordable.
Excellent!
I got a free t-shirt.
Always cool. That means they like their fans. Dun take them for granted.
Despite all these things, I like PacBellPark better. The Giants play there. Barry hits home runs into McCovey Cove. And even though you have to take out loans for it, the food is better. Even if food for four is equal to the price of a new motorcycle!
Car service
One of the excuses, I mean reasons why I drove down to Southern California this week was to get my car fixed.
I had some struts installed in my car 8 years ago by a shop down here. The struts have a lifetime warranty. In order to use the warranty, you need to swap them out at the original shop you went to.
So today was the day that I had the work done. It took longer than I thought it would (partially because I got out of the house at 1000). Brought the car in at 1030, got it back at 1500.
Forgot about the wheel alignment though. So I had that done. By that time, it was after 1800 and the day was done. So in short, it took all day.
Bummer. No Mexico today…
Another Road Trip
I said last month that I would never do another road trip.
Oh well.
Except there are good reasons, yes!
First off, it costs over US$200 r/t to fly to SAN from SFO with a six week advance!
That’s a lot of moolah.
Also, I need to get my struts replaced and the shop that did it is down in Costa Mesa.
So I decided to drive down, get my car fixed, go to San Diego for a conference and pick up some frens in LA on the way home on Sunday.
Painful.
Dictionary
If you have friends in Singapore and you ever hang out with them and listen to their spoken english…
and wonder, “WTF did they say???”
And your British and HK and Ozzie and American friends also have the same confused look on their faces…
You may be hearing Singlish! And here’s a dictionary. It’s pretty good, can?
Here’s a site that uses a lot of Singlish so you can read it in action.
Good luck.
Housekeeping
Well, I decided that the previous design of the blog had too many bright colors.
It’s painful to the eyes. Unlike the words hidden in the bright colors.
So I’ve changed the style sheet and added some more links. Eventually, I will figure out how to sort by category and have that linked as well.
And no, I’ve not been anywhere recently. Bummer!
Dictionary
Many of us imbibe from time to time.
More often than not for others. When the conversation (in any bar or watering hole across the english speaking nations in the world) goes like this:
“What’s your nationality?”
“I’m a drunkard.”
“That makes Rick a citizen of the world.”
And as an aspiring world citizen, you’ve got to know the lingo.
So learn before you drink tonight!