zen.org Communal Weblog

About a week age we got a good foot of snow, since then the temperature has been well below freezing. Yesterday morning we got another inch, just enough to cover up the the dirty snow. A heat wave has just started hitting the area, and temperatures are getting just above freezing. Perfect for a walk.

My Mother, Zoë and I left on a walk along the Delaware Canal leaving 余艾蕾 home painting the powder room green. Zoë was nestled all snug in her jogging perambulator. Along the canal the snow was firmly packed and all was well. The few bridges we had to use where a little perilous, but we had few problems. Until the last bridge.

We had to go up a steep ice and snow covered mound to reach the bridge. On a bike in the summer I usually get off and walk up it. Today I went first pulling Zoë in her perambulator behind followed by my Mom. Most of the way up the mount I slipped forward, Zoë’s perambulator sliped forward fell on it’s back. Worried I quickly slid down to check Zoë’s status. She was laughing having the time of her life, I could almost hear her saying “again, again!” I didn’t do it again, and we are all lived to tell about it.

I cared nothing about the Simpson trial, and I care less about the Jackson trial. Please, somebody make the coverage go away!

I’ve been in California now for almost a day, back in the old stomping ground after we left nearly 5 years aso. The Silicon Valley town where we lived, married, and finally decided to leave for Ireland because we didn’t think it was our final stopping point. It’s all quite the same, but only to the extent that familiar sights try to cling onto strangely-faded memories. Streets look similar, but the smaller veins running through Ireland make these roads now seem monsterous. Freeways are unimaginable, yet flying along 101 in the evening sure does feel like more fun than the crowded stumbling of the M50.

We went out to dinner in last night (out being away from the hotel), still awake after getting up in Ireland on the same day 19 hours earlier. The group of seven who came to CA for a week’s serving of meetings all sat down at a restaurant in Mountain View for dinner. Sushi Tei is a very fond memory of living here, and the source of the best sushi we’ve had anywhere. Run by a Japanese fellow named Isaka and the woman who worked with him for years at another sushi restaurant, Sushi Tei was their effort to put into reality their own idea of the perfect sushi experience.

Tonight back at the hotel, I discovered that Wi-Fi works in the bar letting me write this on my Zaurus. Hee hee. Tomorrow morning is early breakfast, then lots of meetings being introduced to hordes of names I’m not expecting to retain just yet. (Name memory in that situation: double-plus un-good.)

Went to Fry’s today (more later about that) and got a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 which I found is (again) supported under Linux. The big project is to make it happily communicate with E’s iSight and see/talk to both of them at home for less than a long-distance phone call. 🙂

Off to sleep, just as everyone in Ireland is waking up. How weird.

I just got my Irish passport in the post! Whoo hoo! It has these neat security features in it…no, not drop of blood for DNA testing. My pic and signature have been digitally engraved into a hard plastic page. And then, the clear plastic coating on top of it has my pic digitally engraved into that (just seen from an angle-type), and the other side has it too. It’s really neat.

Now fingers crossed that P’s passport arrives before we leave….

Things are just…being. We did, however, get the results of P’s allergy blood tests back. Apparently, we’re doing everything right. His IgE levels for milk and egg have gone down. Not huge amounts of down, like outgrowing it, but enough to give us hope. Our avoid list is still the same. But…since we were the ones who mentioned the tomatoes thing to the doc, he didn’t test tomatoes. So we’re testing them at home today. First step: cut tomato in half (okay, first step was running up to friend’s house up the road to see if we could borrow a tomato.) Second step: rub a little of the cut side on P’s arm. Third step: give it a few minutes. If any reaction, stop there, and keep avoiding toms. If no reaction, tomorrow rub a little on his bottom lip, and see if there’s a reaction. Again, if reaction, stop. If no reaction, move on to the next day, and let him lick the tomato. (You get the drift.)

Do it slow and easy, and see where were are. I would literally KILL to get tomatoes back.

There might be reactions with wheat and potato and beef, but not enough for the doc to make us restrict those. So, with all that, we’re still in a holding pattern. But there’s a good chance that he’ll outgrow it all. Phew. Nice to know that we did the right thing.

Food allergies suck.

Although it was in April 2004, if you haven’t yet read the story “I fought the scammer… and I won.” it’s worth your time. A sysadmin at a Dublin Internet cafe snags a spammer with their laptop still hooked up.

For all you conspiracy theorists out there:
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Black Americans suspect HIV plot

…with an alarming twist towards the end.

Just discovered pocket-lint.co.uk in the UK, similar in idea to what you get at ThinkGeek in the US. Tons of stuff. Try not to think about the current exchange rate for the US $ or the Euro €.

Okay, so day 3, using patches, gotta start somewhere. Moral support accepted. Two days, 17 hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds. 32 cigarettes not smoked, saving €10.27. Life saved: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

My father, 余艾蕾 and I have finished remodelling Rerun’s (aka zen.org‘s) room. First my father came in and put in a Pergo® floor. Second, 余艾蕾 and I repainted and put the molding back in. Then 余艾蕾 reorered the furniture a little.

The entire time Rerun was sitting in the middle of the room, all alone. I funally put my desktop back together. I would put up a picture, but the batteries to my digital camera are dead and some time in all the moving the recharger went missing. Sigh.