August 30th 2004
DOS almost killed the Mars rover. Your tax dollars not at work. Microsoft can’t make email reliable on Earth, why is NASA trusting their products on spacecraft?!
Archive for August, 2004
August 25th 2004
We watched Love Actually last night. Stupid Actually. This movie was so bad in so many ways it’s pointless to even talk about it. And both
August 24th 2004
Car Talk
What I learned today listening to NPR: The average family would save $1,000 per year by owning a Prius hybrid car. Ford is developing a hybrid SUV. Seattle is the worst city for driving and getting lost — despite living here for more than seven years, my husband proves this fact. Wait, does that make it the “best” city for driving and getting lost?
August 22nd 2004
Jazz on the Vine
Last night, we went to the charity auction that we helped out initially on. It was held at Misty Isle Farms, the home of Tom Stewart, a local Vashon celebrity. That alone was a treat for us, never having been there. He lives on beautiful grounds, immaculately landscaped complete with a waterfall and a rose garden.
It was raining like crazy (Seattle has had an unusually wet summer) and it was outside, but it was covered by a huge tent. The food was prepared by the same people who did our wedding Rehearsal Dinner a few weeks ago, so that was good. The event was a wine festival so there was plenty of wine and cheese to taste, and that we did.
Most of the auction items were expensive bottles of wine and we were outbid on a few bottles of wine by people at our own table, apparently wine connoisseurs. But we did end up with a bottle of 1984 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon. I think we overpaid, but hey, it’s for charity. 
Gay also bought three of the table centerpieces, large glass vases.
After the auction, we went to our friends’ house for some (more) wine, to play with their new puppy and we watched Fargo. Great movie.
August 22nd 2004
Check out the survival time graph for Windows XP. It’s getting shorer. In other words, if you install Windows XP, connect to the internet with its default setup, your computer will be infected in 20 minutes. Don’t run Windows with Administrator privileges on your Windows account!
August 22nd 2004
Munch’s “The Scream” Stolen Again
The painting, known more for its kitchy greeting card and blow-up doll representations in the US, “The Scream” is simply taken off the wall of the museum midday in Norway. I can’t believe Norway would have such horrible security after this painting has already been stolen once.
August 21st 2004
There’s a movie
Normally I’d call that a film
But it moved me
And that didn’t rhyme with film.
– Badly Drawn Boy “Don’t Ask Me, I’m Only The President”
You can download the full MP3 of “”The Year of the Rat”:http://www.badlydrawnboy.co.uk/lyrics/07.html”.
August 21st 2004
Vuelta a Espana
The lineup for the Vuelta is set. All but 8 teams have a Spanish leader. It’s a far cry from the Tour de France, where very few Frenchmen participate much less lead the teams. And surprising to me, Floyd Landis is not leading the US Postal team.
August 21st 2004
Lark
We went to dinner with friends last night at Lark. It’s a tapas restaurant that doesn’t call itself a tapas restaurant. From my bad memory, we had duck breast proscuitto with huckleberries, scallops with ham hocks, leg of lamb, hanger steak, lobster mushrooms, and a few other dishes. All were very good. The servings are much larger than a typical tapas place, so we ended up with too much food. And, of course, all four of us got desserts which were even bigger, so we couldn’t finish them. I had the delicious almond cake, which was my favorite of all the desserts we ordered.
It used to be an Ethiopian place that I went to years ago once, but the decor is far better than the sparse Ethiopian restaurant’s decor. It’s small and they fit a lot of people in so its noisy and hard to talk. The booths might be quieter, but we weren’t in a booth.
Near the end of dinner, one person of a group of three at a booth next to us recognized Gay & I from our days at Microsoft — we worked in Outlook together. Those Microsoft days were so long ago to me now, it’s so surprising to see and recognize people from that period of my life. But then again, Seattle’s a small world and Microsoft’s a huge company so it’s hard to throw a coffee cup without hitting a Microsoft employee in Seattle (not that I’ve tried).
