An idea I can get behind

I've said that I'm willing to fly back to DC for Felix Navidad 4.0 if my friends will arrange it, even if it means taking a redeye on Friday night and leaving Sunday morning. I enjoy a good party.

Easily the best party idea I've heard in the last year involves the Ducks. You know, the Duck tours that are seemingly popular in DC and Seattle and Boston and any other city that has land and water. (show a picture of a duck). This has to happen.

I was out for drinks with a couple people from work the other day and our SVP was talking about a trip he takes with buddies from college every year. This year they are deciding between golfing in Ireland, or a combo Jazz Fest / RTJ Golf Trail / Kentucky Derby week. The JazzFest-to-Derby trip would involve an RV that they would charter (this guy has that kind of money). We all agreed that Ireland can always happen, but anything linking JazzFest and the Derby would be more fun.

(BTW, I definitely want to do the JazzFest - golf - Derby trip at some point. Just say when.)

Back to the Ducks: as part of this conversation it came out that my boss once attended a bachelorette party on a Duck. They rented out a Duck and rode it from bar to bar all night. They had beer on the Duck. They drove to some bars and floated to others. I'm still struck by the brilliance of this plan... I've seen party buses before, but they seem somewhat generic. Plus, you can't drive a bus into a body of water. How fun would it be to say "Screw the Key Bridge, we're fording the Potomac!"? Even better is that it brings into play the risk of your drunk friend falling into a body of water.

I mean, look at these things:



Anyways, if anyone wants to do this just say the word. I'm in.

Breathe Wrong

Generally I'm a believer in generic products. Everything is made in pretty much the same place, especially for commodities like spices and salad dressings and drugs and such. So when my friends bought me generic brand breathe-right strips for our hiking trip a couple of weeks ago I didn't think much of it.

It turns out that the Breathe-Right people really might have some defensible IP.

The generic brand pretty much fails on every count. It is really difficult to get the generics out of their packaging. The adhesive they use pretty much won't stick to anything but freshly cleaned skin. The shape is ambiguous, and I probably wear it backwards just as frequently as I wear it forwards. It just isn't a particularly friendly product.

Which makes it even stranger that it works just as well. Yup, despite all if its shortcomings the generic brand ends up doing exactly the same thing. Which renders much of this story pointless. Sorry.

RIP: My fan (2003-2007)

When your mother tells you to dust your fan, do not listen to her.

I did. I love my mom, but she killed my fan. It was bound to happen sooner or later, because the only time that my fan turns off is when I unplug it in order to move across the country. But I turned it off today because the inch or three of dust that had gathered since January was a little unsightly. So I dusted. It looked nice. But it didn't turn back on. Despite my best efforts I can't figure out how to revive the little fan that could (I'd say for $20 it probably ran for 7000 hours or so). It passed away about 3:15 pm PDT on August 19, 2007. The fan is survived by two other fans in my apartment (neither of which will be turned off any time soon).

Hiking photos

More blog coming re: camping trip, but here are the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/72188899@N00/s81Z64

Please come and visit

I have a lot of fun when people come and visit, so I hope more of you choose to do so. Bobby was here three weekends ago and we had a blast... drinking, kayaking, hanging out in his joke of a presidential suite hotel room. Good times. I had a similarly good time with my parents in town (albeit more sober... but they paid for better meals). And when Pat was in town back in April I went out and had a good time.

So, the lesson is that I have fun when my friends are around. Now that Huan is gone, there is even a guest room. Think about it.

My family is Ironman tough

I've never really had an awful travel experience. I've been delayed, I've had cancellations, but I've never had to cancel a vacation or even spend a night in a place I wasn't prepared to be. So my heart goes out to my parents and what they dealt with coming to visit me this past weekend.

Here's how strong the parental instinct can be:

1. They spent ~6 hours on the tarmac in DC waiting to fly to Atlanta on Thursday. Given it was over two stretches, but that's 6 horrific hours on a plane. But not going anywhere.
2. They finally arrived in Atlanta about an hour after their flight to Seattle left. Which left them in the ATL airport at midnight. It wasn't exactly jumping.
   
3. None of the nearby hotels had room. I found them a place 15 miles south of the airport.
4. The airline did manage to get them a ticket. Arriving in Seattle on Saturday. Night. Remember, they were supposed to arrive on Thursday evening. My mom is devestated.
5. My sister arrives in Seattle (she made the connecting flight) at 1:00am.
6. My folks decide to buy one-way tickets on two other airlines to get to Seattle on Friday night (1:00am Saturday, actually). They nearly miss their connection in Vegas, but eventually arrive.
   
7. We spend a weekend in Seattle. It is pleasant. The weather is great. I have to work Saturday and Sunday.
8. Folks fly back east on Tuesday morning.
   
9. They make it to Spokane before being forced to land because of a sick passenger. This is literally 45 minutes into the flight.
10. They miss their connecting flights in Atlanta and are forced to spend ANOTHER night in Atlanta. I hear my dad getting a rental car and think he may be considering driving back from ATL to DC (10 hours) rather than waiting for a flight on Wednesday morning. But the airline gives them hotel vouchers and they stay.
11. I assume they will make it back home tomorrow, but at this point, who knows.

So, mad props to my parents (and sister) for putting up with the hassle of cross-continental travel. It was great to see them. Since I know they aren't coming back for a long, long time.

Lost near Lost Creek

Some video of my hiking trip a couple weekends ago. Regular posts (including pics from the trip) should resume this weekend once work removes its boot from my rear.