After work we took the customers out for dinner and drinks at the Foundry on Elm in Somerville. On the way we drove through Cambridge and I got a good look at Harvard and MIT. Harvard looks exactly like Harvard looks in every movie you’ve ever seen about it. MIT has some really funky architecture. I wish we’d had more time to stop and walk around.
After much less revelry than a typical UDS night it was back to the hotel for more Daily Show and more sleep.
Up early; caught a shuttle to the office. Sprint with customer.
Accomplished quite a bit and also got my hands on the super seekret hardware for this project. This thing is going to be super sweet when it hits the market.
After work I went with some of the guys on my team for a steak dinner at the Capital Grille, which was both highly recommended and highly expensive. My steak was downright delicious and all of us ate in silence as we focused on savoring every bite.
After dinner it was back to the hotel to watch The Daily Show and go to sleep.
Flew to Boston for a developer sprint in the Canonical office. Flew to Boston in a tiny plane, then rode to the hotel in a swanky limo.
The sprint starts tomorrow, so I had some time to kill. I walked all over the neighborhood around my hotel looking for a decent restaurant or a book store. I found neither, and came back covered in sweat for my trouble. On the bright side, I felt justified in ordering a pizza from the brochure in my room. Turned out to be a good decision. Tasty pizza.
Moved more files and stuff up to the new office. I feel like I’m building a fort of file cabinets in there.
We walked to Tutti Frutti where we had to get 8 dollars’ worth of frozen yogurt to satisfy the demands of Emily’s Groupon. I believe I sweated out the whole of my yogurt on the walk back.
Watched Gran Torino from Netflix. Really great film. Who knew Clint Eastwood could do such a good grizzled old man? The “get off my lawn” line was delivered perfectly.
Took our first “real” shopping trip to Costco to prepare for our party. We got a great deal on snack foods and Mexican Coke, but I don’t see it being very useful for our everyday grocery shopping needs.
Party time! Lots of great conversation with friends. It seems a good time was had by all, especially Mike, whom I’ve never heard laugh louder.
I debuted my homebrew and got some useful notes and criticism, but overall it was well-received. I have a good idea of where I can improve things next time.
Internet connection was dead most of the morning. It’s really hard to telecommute when the tele- part goes belly-up. Luckily it came back before lunchtime.
Took a bus downtown for the gallery crawl. First time I’ve paid bus fare since… forever I think. I miss my Pitt ID.
Met up with Emily and some friends and toured some exhibits. There was some art being created live at SPACE by artists and by onlookers. Pretty neat. Wood St. Galleries had an Icelandic exhibit which was… weird. There was one room where they lock you in the dark for five minutes. Another where they had a candle being magnified against the four walls of the room by magnifying lenses, but one of them was out of focus. I must admit I didn’t “get” most of it (like the guitar player guy with the buzz saw lowering into his head and retracting) but then I don’t really get Bjork either.
A couple of our companions had a Groupon for Olive or Twist, so we stopped by there for drinks and a bite to eat. The main bar area was full so we headed up to the very swanky upstairs lounge. I was pleasantly surprised to see East End Fat Gary on tap. Emily got some godawful drink with olives and vodka (yes even Boyd & Blair can be ruined by adding olives).
Headed out to Dormont for the screening of the 48 Hour Film Project. My buddy Ted was in one of the films, and he killed as a fence (the criminal type) on the streets of the South Side. Some of the other films were great, others not so much, but that’s a pretty good result for a slew of films made within 48 hours.
Emily and I hit up Tom’s Diner for dinner. They make a pretty decent burger and Emily seemed to enjoy her club sandwich. I’d like to catch them for breakfast some time but that’ll more likely happen at the South Side location.
After work we were both pretty tired so we ordered in some Chinese food and relaxed around the house for a while.
Killed some more weeds in the back yard. We’re actually gaining ground now. It’s a bloodchlorophyllbath back there. Not pretty, but it must be done.
My homebrew is finally finished. It’s supposed to be a “robust porter” but I’m not so sure about the “robust”ness. It might help if I actually drank it cold.
Finished re-reading American Gods. Every bit as good as I remember. Still one of my favorite books of all time.
For lunch I poured the leftover turkey/spaghetti sauce from last night over some also-leftover rice form last week. Surprisingly tasty. I should start a bizarre-leftover-combination food blog.
Emily made chicken with pierogi and peas for dinner. Yum.
Went for another walk after dinner. This time with Emily. Walked in the other direction just to mix things up.
Played around a bit with Google+. I like the user interface. It’s really well thought-out. it doesn’t get in the way as much as I remember Facebook doing. The interface actually reminds me quite a bit of Diaspora*, which makes me sad in a way because now it’s even less likely to take off. Still, the ideal outcome for me is for Google+ to become king of the hill, then start supporting OStatus, so I can leave it and communicate with everyone from my StatusNet account.
Made spaghetti with ground turkey and Newman’s Own Sockarooni sauce for dinner. Delicious, if I do say so myself.
Worked a little on a hobby project. One of the things I like least about application programming is how you don’t have much to show off before you write the UI. And I don’t like writing UIs.
Finished off the evening with some Mass Effect. Only a couple of missions left. Then I don’t know what I’ll do with myself.
