Categories
Technology Travel Work

Tahoe, and server surgery

Last week I was sent to South Lake Tahoe for a work ‘summit’, where several peeps from SuperSweetCo were sent to plan the next release (and beyond) of the app. It was quite the adventure, and an exhausting few days that taxed both my ability to focus on 12+ hour work sessions, and to deal with the elevation (I suffered from symptoms similar to altitude sickness, the headaches were pretty nasty). Despite the cold nighttime temperatures, it was beautiful up there.

I arrived back in Portland Thursday afternoon, and spent Friday working until ~3am trying get caught up and fix bugs in my queue that had built up over the week.

Over the weekend, after doing some yard work, I had to perform some emergency Linux server surgery (for circusgeek.com). The server had been acting up over the past few months, but nothing specific had gone wrong. Over the weekend I rebooted a few times and every few cycles it wouldn’t boot up. After taking the case apart, I heard a ‘hissing’ whiny sound. After some part replacement (including the power supply) I discovered it was the motherboard that must have had a faulty capacitor. Fortunately I had a ‘spare parts’ machine in the garage I wasn’t using so I was able to replace the innards and boot it back up with everything intact. Linux has come a long way; I remember when I couldn’t swap out much hardware w/o a kernel rebuild. Long story short, the server was back up in a couple hours (with a slightly faster processor) and all is well. Crisis averted. And, it means I can continue to serve up this little-read blog. Hooray!

Also this weekend Kelly cooked up a delicious dinner out at my folks place for Mother’s Day. I also got to help my dad cut up some wood for an upcoming hunting trip of his, and play with my nephews (even the wee one, who’s just old enough now to play with in between pooping and crying sessions).

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 4 (fin)

Before leaving San Francisco, Kelly and I had some time to kill so we wandered around a bit, visited Union Square one last time, and had lunch at the little cafe that’s at one end of the square. Going from downtown to the airport to the gate went smoothly, but then as we sat down, we were told that our flight was delayed while SFO’s air traffic control figured out how to get our plane on the ground. We were delayed about 40 minutes. I realize that SFO is a big international airport, but it seems that they’re too big for their own good.

We got back to PDX in decent time, and holy moly is it raining out! Ran to the store for some provisions and soon it’ll be time for dinner, then laundry, then relaxing before work tomorrow.

To recap the trip: It was a really fun mini-vacation that felt longer than it was (which is a good thing). We ate good food, walked a lot, and saw a lot in only a couple days. One thing was obvious, San Francisco is a big international tourist destination (we heard a lot of foreign languages wherever we went, including a lot of French), not sure why but it surprised me a little.

Anyway, all photos are on the gallery, in case you’re bored.

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 3

Today Kelly and I had a delicious breakfast at a 50’s-inspired diner called Lori’s, drove to San Jose for a Cinco de Mayo festival (the work event Kelly came down here for), then back to San Francisco, walked around Chinatown, had a delicious dinner, and finished the night off at the Irish Bank (the Irish pub we’ve visited each night while here).

Tomorrow we fly home. We’re supposed to get back to Portland at 5pm, however, that will depend on whether SFO has their shit together enough to get us off the ground on time. Anyway, that’s all, more photos being uploaded to the gallery as I write this. G’night!

Categories
Beer Travel

San Francisco, day 2

Kelly and I walked today. A lot. About 6 miles in total, including the Embarcadero from Pier 1 through 45 (including the touristy Pier 39 and Hyde Pier) and then up the very steep Hyde St back towards our hotel). Wandered inside both an old ferry boat, and an old cargo ship, shared a delicious hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square, had a few beers at a pub not far from our hotel, and some delicious pizza at a place called Uncle Vito’s. Good day. Long day. Tired. More photos added to the gallery.

Categories
Travel

San Francisco, day 1

Made it to San Francisco. Finally. The flight was supposed to leave at 1pm, but was delayed 2 hours because San Francisco was boggled by weather or something and couldn’t get their shit straightened out. So, Kelly and I sat at PDX for 2 hours. Once boarded. We sat some more. When we were flying over San Francisco, we had to make circles for a while. What should have been a home to hotel trip of 4 hours took 7. Oh well, we’re here.

Sadly, weather changed from the forecast I read yesterday, and it was drizzly grey most of the night. However, at least it’s not freezing cold. Kelly and I walked for hours and hours, up steep hills, down steep hills, etc. Had dinner at an Italian place, I had a couple pints at a couple Irish pubs, and at one point we walked past a string of high-end shops that had their windows punctured or shattered by May Day protesters. All in all, a pretty eventful day.

Photos are on the gallery, where I’ll continue adding ’em over the next couple days. Now, it’s sleepy time.