9.12.99

Work is crazy busy since my last update in February, but we found time in May to adopt Alice, a 9 y.o. lemon drop beagle. A walk is not a mere walk, it's a scavenger hunt for her belly. Isn't she cute!

Went to Vegas again with Brigitte and Jason over the 4th of July weekend. Stayed at Harrah's, which was very nice. Met Dan there, ate tremendously well...the steakhouse at Harrah's has terrific prime rib, Rio's famous buffet was awful, until I was informed that their seafood buffet was the famous one, and ate once again at Samba's, the house of meat. Cirque du Soleil's O was interesting. As a former stage crew member, I was more intrigued by the stage than the action. All underwater, the stage can split apart into sections and move around. It can go from being completely wet to completely dry in a matter of minutes. Good show overall, I was just more drawn in by Mystere.

In August, my driving beast of a girlfriend drove Alice and me 8 hours to Eugene, Oregon to hang out with Bec, who had just returned from spending a year and a half in Europe. I was looking forward to fishing...got a pole and everything! There was a fast-flowing creek behind Bec's mom's house where we went everyday. I caught several large trees and a bunch of large rocks. It was mostly frustrating, but I had a ton of fun...except for worming my hook. Blech! Bec was nice enough to do it for me the first few times. It took days for me to get over my squirminess and worm my own hook. The first night, we were just going to practice but I caught a baby rainbow trout. Since we weren't prepared to catch anything, I had to run back to get the bucket, a flashlight and the most important tool - pliers. In my haste, I completely forget the camera. We couldn't unhook him and ended up killing it. Disheartened, we called it a night and plan to try again the next day. Bec catches one but we killed that one too trying to return it to the water. Bec catches another one on another day but this time, we were successful in returning the fish to nature. Of course, it totally helped that it jumped off the line for us. I'm not cut out to fish without gloves.

2.20.99

Vegas, baby, VEGAS!!! Guess where we went? 9 of us from work went to Vegas for the weekend where we were money, so money. We stayed at Excalibur, the medieval type hotel next to the Luxor. It was extremely cheesy and expensive for the time we went and what it was, but it evened out with the cheap airfare. They had a cute little show in the moat with a dragon and Merlin. The roller coaster at New York New York was scary! You can't help but wonder if those little support legs holding the entire rollercoaster up were strong enough. It was fun but expect a huge headache. The M&M factory was also fun, their 3D movie was neat. We were all kind of disappointed that they didn't give out free samples. Then we went to the Coca Cola museum, adjacent to the M&M factory, where we sampled Coca Cola products from around the world. Try the Beverly! Mystere at Treasure Island was AWESOME! We're going back over Fourth of July to see O at Bellagio.

10.27.98

We just returned from a whirlwind weekend with Gail and her 3 wiseass boys, Kirk, Scott and Ben, the coolest kids I've ever met. DisneyLand, Six Flags and Universal Studios in 4 days! Six Flags was great, the Riddler and the Batman ride was awesome! SuperMan was really cool too...0 to 100 mph in 6 seconds was exhilarating. Universal was a small disappointment because it was very expensive for such few rides. It was an exercise in extreme commercialism, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The Back Lot tram tour is excellent, lots of special effects and very interesting trivia. Jurassic Park the Ride was totally cool, but I recommend the 50 cent ponchos.

Disneyland was cool as usual until we encountered the FlumeNazi on Splash Mountain. We were going to separate into 2 groups of 3 but changed at the last second into a group of 2 and 4. The woman barked for our third person and Liz told her that we sub-divided. In an exasperated voice, the woman hollered, "Don't sub-divide!". We kept waiting for the "just kidding" part but it never came. Sheesh!

6.8.98

Woohoo! We just came back from a 4 day vacation to Vancouver. What a beautiful city! The Vancouver Aquarium was amazing! Certainly blows the Monterey one away. They had 5 beluga whales, one killer whale, a dolphin, 2 otters and lots of cichlids, my favorite and not frequently seen at aquariums fish, as well as all the other fish out there. They also had an Amazon display complete with a 3 toed sloth and gators! We went the Science Museum, which was just like the Children's Museum in SJ, the 2nd largest Chinatown in N. America, the OmniMax and Imax theaters, shopped the popular Robson Street and rode the clean and efficient, SkyTrain. The thing that stuck out most in my mind was how clean everything was and how friendly the people were. We got lost in the "bad" area when we tried to find our way to Chinatown but even there, we had no hassles. But we took the first cab after our realization. =)

And of course, the reason we went in the first place...THE SUMO BASHO! Akebono, the first Hawaiian yokozuna, was the first day champion but got ousted the 2nd day by Musashimaru, another Hawaiian born ozeki who is expected to be promoted to yokozuna soon, and then by Takanohana, the sport's newest yokozuna and 2nd day overall champ. To promote the basho, they brought on a bunch of young kids to take on 3 rikishis (wrestlers). It was fun to see the little kids bounce off the large men. Each day was 6-7 hours long but it was very exciting and tons of fun. If you get an opportunity to see a sumo basho, go! Check out just how muscular these men are...they are not just all fat! Their legs and thighs are incredibly muscled and they are extremely strong. One of them can crush an apple with his hand! Not a very useful skill unless you like applesauce! It was a great experience, one that I'll not forget anytime soon!

4.15.98 - It's been a crazy week! First, Mardi and Rose, aka The Velvet Janes, arrived for a two week stay. This translated into one concert at Sisterspirit, two house gigs and, of course, lots of eating, talking and shopping! I first heard them 2 years ago and was blown away by their huge vocals and energy, but that's nothing compared to where they are now! Look for them because they are about to skyrocket!

Then, Wen, Kieren, Liz and I roadtrip to Reno for a mini gambling vacation. I only lost $28 on the slots thanks to the lucky charms of Wen and Kieren. Everytime they hovered to see what was happening, I hit something big! I was literally standing in line to cash in my 5 $1 coins when I ask Ki which machine should I spend my last dollar. She points, I drop a buck and win $40! We wandered around downtown and went casino hopping. Fitzgerald's advertises as the loosest slots in town. I won my $40 in El Dorado, who also has an excellent buffet for $7.99. Circus Circus had an actual circus/carnival atmosphere complete with performers, games and skee ball! We had tons of fun there and plan to return soon!

3.16.98 - Wen, Kieren, Melinda, Liz and I went to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival on Sunday to taste award winning mustards and check out the action in Napa Valley. Mustard is one of my favorite condiments so I was really looking forward to going. I went a little nuts and picked up a jar of Koskiusko, a gold medalist in the deli style spicy brown division, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Mustard, Kathy's Island mustard and another Honey mustard. A word to the wise: read the signs before you taste anything! I failed to comprehend a warning sign and ate a big glop of mustard made out of habanero chilies. I would've started crying if it wasn't for a nearby water cooler booth.

2.9.98 - Dan, Liz's old friend, won tickets from a radio station to the Sisters of Mercy show and was here for a day so we met him and Caroline, the DJ, up in the city for what turned out to be a day of wonderful food. I've been dying to eat at Ton Kiang ever since I saw them profiled on tv. This restaurant, located at 5821 Geary in SF, is out of the way but worth the trek if you're jonesing for dim sum and can't wait until the weekend...they serve dim sum from 10am to 10pm every day! The food was on the salty side but it was otherwise very good. We all stuffed ourselves silly and spent the rest of the day digesting. We had hoped that Dan could stay an extra day but there was no chance in changing the ticket. Fortunately, when it rains in SF, runways get flooded and flights are cancelled so we got our wish. For a night's stay at Chez Goober, they agreed to take us out for dinner.

We wanted to have an excellent dinner to complement the terrific lunch and discover that our guests are sushi lovers so we head over to Miyake's to see the new restaurant but they've got a line out the door. Rather than wait, we end up going to my favorite sushi bar, Sono's on Castro Street in Mtn. View. There, we're treated to the best sushi, IMO, in the South Bay. What an incredible day of feasting! Thanks, Dan and Caroline, for the time of my tummy!

1.20.98 - what an exciting week! Guess what we saw at the SJ Arena? The clue phrase is: ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE??? Yes! We went the the WWF! I was bummed when we went to get tickets because the ticket doofus said it was sold out. What he neglected to tell us that the seats we asked for were sold out but not the higher priced ones. We got excellent floor seats that were right by the entrance ramp. Here're a couple pictures and links to tide you over.

THEN, on Tuesday, we watched the US Women's Olympic Ice Hockey team beat Canada in overtime! Down by 1 goal with 7 seconds left, the US team scored with an amazing slapshot to tie the game. Then, in sudden death overtime, SHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES!!! What a landmark year for women sports! Needless to say, it was an exciting game. One thing I learned...the only difference between mens' and womens' hockey is body checking, not that I could tell. The women were hitting just as hard!

12/29/97...Xmas in Ohio, while incredibly stressful, was excellent! This was a landmark year topped off with Liz meeting her birthmother. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her husband, Paul, the next day...what cool people! Go read about Liz's reunion...she's an excellent writer and it's a good story. She has pictures, too! Finally, the stress of the first meeting is behind us.

Another stressful thing was this wedding shower we went to. Due to some people's silly issues, we didn't know what expect. Luckily, everything was pleasant and uneventful. Like last year, I'm waiting for the aftershocks.

12/1/97...Successfully returned from the Thanksgiving holiday in New Jersey. My mother and I DID NOT fight...AT ALL!!! Time for a celebration!

Beware of Tower Airlines, driving around NYC without a map and crazy cab drivers!

We drove down to Philly to pick Reg up and visit Nikki. While there, we stopped by the Drexel campus, saw my old apartment on Spring Garden, drove past some old haunts and marvelled at the new astroturfed soccer/lacrosse field where a parking lot once was, the sand volleyball courts between the Myers and Calhoun halls, and the tennis courts behind Kelly. The dorms are all now networked, which me and Reg decided was good that it didn't happen during our stay there because we would've never left our rooms and hence, would've never met.

Reg seems to be proud at the long way I've come from not knowing what to do with my Mac at freshman year to hooking up a Zip drive and installing stuff on a friend's computer. Well, I couldn't have done it without him being my Mac guru throughout the years, so thanks, Reg! And to celebrate his sappiness, I finally bought a digital camera...the Olympus D320-L. Much, much thanks to Carl who walked me through features and the pros and cons of leading models and for getting me hooked! Stay tuned for pictures from the east coast!

10/11/97

On a whim, we went to Reno for the weekend and had a blast! The place to stay (IMO) is the Reno Hilton. Huge casino, a movie theater, an arcade, a mini shopping mall (that wasn't very good), health club, pool, one buffet, one 24 hr restaurant, a cafe...plenty of food. Just to compare, we left the hotel and went downtown. The only good thing was the cabbies were very, very nice. Food was cheap downtown but the casinos were mediocre. We even went to several different ones just to make sure...the Silver Legacy, Flamingo, and 2 others. They were all cramped, dark and very loud...the complete opposite of the Hilton. Plenty of space and had everything you'd ever want. And the HUGE room for only $59!

10/10/97

I GOT NINTENDO64!!! I am set! Life is good and my goober is very patient with me as I stay up to 3am getting "just one more star!" =)

9/17/97

I've quit Greet Street and am now working at Silicon Graphics. Reach me at tanner@sgi.com. Stay tuned for more news as soon as I get some time to do an update!

8/17/97

WOO HOO!!! Guess where we're going in June of '98? To the SUMO BASHO IN VANCOUVER!!! I am *so* excited! My favorite research paper was on the traditions and lives of sumo wrestlers. I've longed to see them and was randomly surfing when I did a Yahoo! search. I found the result from a 95 basho and was looking for newer info in hopes of finding out if and when a future basho would be when I found this page! To say I'm excited is an understatement! I've finally created a page for my favorite Japanese things like sushi, Sanrio, taiko and sumo wrestling.