I pull out of the house this morning around 7:00am.  I get to the corner of Ahwahnee and Fair Oaks, the first major intersection I hit as I head into work.  I stop at the red light and watch a guy in a black side-dented Chevy truck make a U-turn to go to south-bound 101, even though no u-turn is allow.  The guy in the black Chevy truck proceeds to go around in circle, burning rubber in the intersection, as people wait to cross.  He does this for about 4 or 5 circles, enough for the smoke and smell of burnt rubber to fill the air.  Then he takes off, satisfied that he has made a spectacle of himself.

It’s nice to start the day with a nice dose of idiocy.  I wonder what is going to happen the rest of the day.

Farrah and I went to San Francisco this morning, going to [Paper Source] to look at paper products (of course). While there we had breakfast at the local [Noah’s Bagels] on Fillmore. I’m not a big bagel person, but I had the Egg Mit with Turkey Sausage.  Not too bad.

After spending time at Paper Source, we headed down the street to Japantown to look at the [Nihonmachi Street Fair]. We arrived just in time to catch the taiko drum performance by the [San Francisco Taiko Dojo Rising Stars]. A quick walk around, then after some malasadas and a chicken rice bowl lunch, we headed back home.

Very nice day.

I haven’t written anything of too much substance this month.  So let’s see what I can pull out of my butt right here.

First off, I added two new albums to the [Flickr] page.  The first is a long over due album from Skylar’s birthday celebration in May.  The photos were taken with the Sony T-1, before I got my Nikon:

I’ll need to go down and take some more photos of the kids, as well as Scott and Stefanie.  The other album added was during a Yahoo! Music on the Green.  The artist who was performing was [Brandi Carlile]  She did a fine job.  I’m not particularly happy with the photos I took of the event, wishing I was more aggressive, but that is something I need to work on.

This weekend not much happened.  Today Farrah and I tried the new [Lori’s Diner] in Cupertino.    We had a late lunch.  The service was a little slow.  Farrah ordered the Chicken Fried Steak (good) and I had the Southern Fried Chicken (good as well).  Our waitress did notice that our orders were taking a bit long, as the dreaded ’large party ahead of you’ was getting all the service.  So she gave us dessert for free!  We enjoyed a nice hot fudge sundae for a nice summer’s day.

I also managed to finish season one of 24, watching it because Bert and Evan couldn’t stop talking about it!?!?!?  Overall, season one was a satisfying season.  The characters and storyline does make me want to continue onto the next series, so season two of 24 is in my Netflix queue.

What else?  Well, a site update when sour when I tried to upgrade the Gallery application used for the site photos page.  I’m still recovering from that because I didn’t have a ’latest backup’ of the web site.  This should teach me to back up every week!  So those photos will be inaccessible for a while.

I guess that is it for now.  I’m going to head to bed.

I was feeling nostalgic yesterday afternoon.  It most likely started because I was listening to R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville, a song we played quite often when I was stationed in Iceland.

The year I spent in Iceland started very rough.  When I arrived in March, the snow had yet to begun to melt.  I remember falling down a couple of times in my dress blues, not getting used to all the ice and snow.  It was difficult to fit in with my roommate on main base as well.  Then my uncle died, without my mom or sisters telling me.

I was always afraid that my father would pass away when I was in the service - in some far off place without being able to spend some time with him.  When my uncle died - my dad’s brother - it hit me very hard.  I had just seen him the week before I left.  He had suffered a massive stroke.  He could not communicate and was being fed through a tube it his stomach.  It was difficult to see this once vital man in this condition.  And then I would picture my father in such a state, without me there to help him or be with him.

What hurt more of course was my mom not telling me he passed away.  She didn’t want me to worry, didn’t want me to come back to California for the funeral as I just left there.  She didn’t think the military would give me leave, but they would have.  I got drunk that night.  I got very drunk.

So there is that memory to deal with when I think of Iceland, but there many fond memories as well.  I won’t get into them, but I wanted to see if there was any information about Rockville, the little radar station I was at, on the Internet.  You know what there is!

I found [Ken Walsh’s] pages on pbase, specifically his page on [Rockville, Iceland].  And I also found [this page on Homestead.com] which shows Rockville as a drug rehab facility now.

Things have changed.

Today’s blog entry was typed in the Yosemite Lodge, room 4109 Aspen building in Yosemite, California. It’s around 10:40 pm right now.

Today is my birthday. It has been a wonderful day. I don’t have access to the Internet here, at least not in the room, so I am typing this blog entry into Microsoft Word and will place it on the site later. And later is now, since you are reading these words at this moment.

We arrived in Yosemite late yesterday. We left Sunnyvale around 11:45 am, but not before Farrah and my mom sang happy birthday to me. Farrah bought me a huge chocolate chip cookie from Mrs. Fields, candles and frosting included! After blowing out the candles, going to Huong Lan and Starbucks, we headed off to Yosemite.

Coming in on the 120 route (West entrance) we were treated to a lot of snow and a view of valleys and waterfalls we haven’t seen before. The trek into Yosemite was through some high altitude and winding roads. Very high, hitting 4000 feet, and very winding—on par with some of the hairy stuff on Highway 1. We were trying to take the Southwest Entrance (which is Highway 140), but mistakenly thought 120 was the route we were thinking about. Oh well, it worked out great. We saw a lot of great snow and even saw two wolves on the way in! They were on the roadway, causing people to stop and stare. Luckily no one was stupid enough to get out of their car, or at least I think they weren’t.

We checked in late afternoon, getting a very nice room on the second floor. The room has two full beds, a bathroom, balcony, and surprisingly a television. Granted, the television only receives 5–6 channels, but we weren’t expecting one at all. We have been watching mostly the National Geographic Channel, which is on a religious kick this weekend, it being Easter weekend and all. The show we’ve been watching is called Quest for Truth. We watched episodes Quest for Noah’s Flood, King Solomon’s Tablet, and the ever-popular Quest for Hogzilla.

Getting to today’s events…

The morning started off slow for me. Farrah woke me up saying happy birthday and trying to get me up. She pried my eyes open by mentioning presents. Presents I got to open on my birthday were:

• Mike and Ikes
• Hershey’s Miniatures (nuts and regular)
• Superman/Batman Hardcover – covering the Supergirl saga
• I’m Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown
• The Batman Handbook

When I post the photos you will be able to see that I still looked a little groggy. Farrah let me sleep a couple more hours.

We had breakfast at the local Yosemite Lodge cafeteria, where the food is so-so and the price is a little high. Convenience has its cost. We then took a trip to the Yosemite Village, where we scored some very good parking in the lot. At Yosemite Village we went to the Ansel Adams Museum, which we never visited. After looking around the Village more, we decided to head back up Highway 120. We noticed several places to stop off and take photos, but didn’t take the opportunity on our drive in.

We stopped by a riverbank and took some photos (see the feet photo), and then made our way up further for a valley-type shot. We were amazed at the number of people here this weekend, as it wasn’t this crowded the last three years we came. At least from what we remember, the park is usually sparse this time of year. Oh well, just have to deal, right?

After our Highway 120 trip, we headed back to Yosemite Village to get lunch at Degnan’s Deli. A couple of weird things happened:

1. A dog we ran into twice at Yosemite Village earlier, we ran into on Highway 120 as he was heading out of Yosemite!
2. After circling the parking lot once at Yosemite Village, we ended up with the exact same parking spot we had only two hours ago!

Degnan’s Deli was a good choice as the food was good. It was also a bad choice as the line and wait were very long. It took about an hour to get our sandwiches. Having a late lunch pushed our dinner plans back considerably, as we were going to have dinner in the Mountain Room Restaurant.

Dinner at the Mountain Room

The Mountain Room Restaurant is here at Yosemite Lodge, walking distance from our room. The restaurant is somewhat pricey because:

1. Their food is good
2. The view is good—well, during the daytime

We had a great late birthday dinner. Farrah had the Pork Roast—ever so tender—and I had the Lamb Shank—ever so tender as well. Each bite almost didn’t require thought to chew or even the ability to chew itself. The food just melted in your mouth.

We had to save room for dessert as well: bread pudding for Farrah, and two scoops of chocolate ice cream for me. Man, how many times have I used the word “chocolate” in this entry?

It is almost 11:15 pm right now, as I’m finishing up these last thoughts. Farrah is sleeping soundly. The room is nice and toasty, and the view from the window into the dark night is wonderfully lit by the full moon.

Tomorrow we plan to see a waterfall or two, hopefully around sunrise. As for today—and actually this month, as my birthday was celebrated with Rex’s on March 12th—it has been a great birthday this year.

I love you all and thank you for making my birthday this year memorable.

I haven’t posted anything personal lately.  I’ve been a bit busy with little things here and there.  Plus most of the things I want to vent about deals with work.  If you’ve read some of my past posts you’ll know about reasons for my hesitation to vent about work.

Farrah and I have been planning our concerts to see this year.  So far on the agenda there is U2, Tori Amos and Jack Johnson.  The Tori ticket buy was just as hectic as the U2 buy, as described earlier.  Jack Johnson went without a hitch because it is a general admission event.

Last week, March 12th, we went to Santa Cruz to celebrate Rex’s and my birthday.  We had some great ribs, and crab for those who didn’t want ribs.  I packed away my share of ribs, stopping at 9 - though I could have continued.  There are some digital pictures of the dinner, but I want to wait and get the film photos developed as well.

Gordon’s birthday was also this month, the 9th I believe.  Sorry for the check mix up Gordon.  Guess I was thinking of those [Girl Scout Cookies] that Tessie still needs to send!

congratulations to scott and stefanie on their new baby boy!  seth emilio salvotti was born on august 18, 2004 @ 12:33.  we’ll need to meet seth and skylar soon.

today is a day of graduations: yen is graduating from sjsu and john for sfsu. and here i am stuck working at home, not able to attend either ceremony. hopefully i’ll be able to attend the after parties.

congratulations yen!

congratulations john!

last night i went to a rosary for my cousin who passed way last thursday, may 6, 2004. i didn’t know anthony that well. he was always big quiet person, even as a kid. i remember him being very quiet at family parties when i was younger. even when we got older he always seemed quiet, but a happy person when you talked to him. i can say i’ve never seen him sad or even in a bad mood.

about three or four years ago he started having difficulties with his heart. i don’t know all the details. suffice it to say he had difficult times, but from all accounts dealt with them without complaint and smiled to those who had concern for his well being. i guess the last several weeks something came about again. this time he couldn’t overcome the difficulties plaguing his heart.

the rosary and reading last night was a nice tribute to anthony. i found it very hard to hold back the tears especially when my uncle spoke about his son. he spoke about God putting his family through these ’trials’ and how they would endure. it’s tough when someone passes away, especially someone so young.

i wonder if i should write about such things here on janella.com, but then right now it is my only writing outlet. please excuse any of these writings if they seem to be out of place. i’m just trying to make sense of times like these.

doug called to tell me saori and him are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. her name is mitsuki-chan. we have yet to meet her, but i’m sure we will soon, as i’m sure doug will have pictures posted on either his website [http://www.worldwhereyoulive.com/] or his photo pages on [pbase].