We went to see Stanford yesterday and had a nice time. As we were going back to the car I realized my car keys were missing. After my heart started again, we decided the kids (Abigail, Matthew, Jared, and Gramma Susu) would stay with the car in a shady area and Bapu and I would re-trace our steps.

We got the police to help us and started walking and walking and scanning the ground. It wasn’t in the big church (we had to get the police to open up the doors). It wasn’t at Jamba Juice or the Student Union. It wasn’t on the ground. It wasn’t in the bookstore. I called Katie and told her the bad news. She said, we also lost the spare set. She started looking for the spare set.

After nearly giving up, she calls and says she found the spare set and she found her lost wedding ring. I tell her to get over to Stanford (Caltrain to cab) with the spare set. Then we decide to have dinner at the campus while we are waiting. Nice campus by the way.

So Bapu sits down on a stone ledge because he is tired. I am standing near him with my hand on the ledge talking. We chit chat for a while, 5 minutes. Then there is that lull in the conversion. I look down at my hand and 3 inches away are my keys. I instantly snatch them up, thinking this might be a mirage and I need to snatch it out of the dream world into the real world quickly.

I call Katie, who almost got on the Caltrain. We found it! We got back to the car where the kids were playing nicely. A quick drive to CPK and we were back to normal.

Then today was Ethan’s first day of school. Where is the camera?? Oh no. So we look and look and then give up. I am thinking about how many good pix were on that camera. I am about to go to work and then Katie says, “Try the stroller!”. Lo and Behold, the camera was there!

So in a rough weekend of lost and found, we lost and found lots of things.
Bapu, Abigail and Susu are leaving today to go back to the east coast. Ethan is in his first day of kindergarten. I am feeling drained, but very content.

All’s well that ends well.

This weekend, we went to the Sequoia National Park and saw Giant Sequoia trees, which are the worlds largest trees by volume. The largest one we saw was the General Grant Tree, which is the worlds 3rd largest Tree. We didn’t have enough time to visit the General Sherman Tree, world’s largest. We walked through the forest and soaked in the atmosphere. The trees made me think of Dinosaurs. They were so big, so intimidating, I could only think of the large Dinosaur bones. (Strange website selling dinosaur bones.)

We had a good time, but it took a long time to get there and to get back. I am pretty drained. Today, we are going to try and hit Stanford University. I had been on a tour there as a kid. I wonder if we can get a guided tour? The link on their website seems broken or very slow.

The boys have been so happy with Aunt Abigail and Bapu and Susu. They are giddy. Already they are looking forward to Uncle Daniel and Aunt Lindy with cousin Molly next month. Life is good.

I have been a fan of Microsoft software for a long time, and I remain a fan. However, I feel like they dropped the ball with MS Money 2006. The UI is just not intuitive and easy. Katie constantly gets frustrated with it and finally last night, I officially announced my condemnation. MS Money is not longer a piece of software I am forcing my wife to use. We will give Quicken 2006 a try.

If anyone from Microsoft reads this, I would be happy to explain why the interaction design on the product is so difficult. I feel like the UI has actually gone backwards in the last 3 versions. The difference between 2004-2005-2006 seems so insignificant. Are they working on this thing or what?

This looks cool. It takes a jpeg or other photo and turns it into ASCII art.

Ill give it a try.

Of course, this post will be delayed. DSLExtreme, normally pretty good, changed my IP address without telling me. Nice, huh? I have been down all afternoon.

I am becoming disillusioned with Vista (Longhorn). I can deal with stuff being broken, that is not the problem. The issue is that the “new things” just do not seem all that valuable. The UI is much more confusing. It is hard to find things. The fonts seem blurry. There used to be a sidebar thing with a clock on it, I can’t find it anymore.

Overall, I am not happy. I am 32-bit, so it is not superfast. The new OS is not sexy enough. I am impatient. I want 64-bit working longhorn. Diddy Mao!. Chop Chop!

My new Dell showed up and I got to work. First I swapped out the native HD for a better, faster, bigger one. Then I admired the Precision 380 case. Very nice. It opened and closed very easily. The form factor was excellent.

Next, I installed the 64-bit version of Windows XP that came with the box. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is faster. Not just by a little. It is much faster. It literally seemed twice as fast. Unzipping rar files, copying files, booting…Each exercise blew my mind. The problem was the drivers. I literally could not find the right drivers for anything. Dell came with some, but I couldn’t get the sound card to work. Also, half of my software wouldn’t work. I downloaded Avast antivirus with 64-bit support. I really like it so far.

After alot of fussing, I installed the 32-bit version of Vista (Longhorn). This is going well, but I am still having trouble with the sound. Vista is interesting, but the UI is giving me a headache. I really am having trouble finding things. I may upgrade to the 64-bit version of Longhorn. Not sure yet. Maybe I will wait for the 64-bit version of Office.

I am excited for the 64-bit future, but I need more software. Overall, kickass machine. Now, I just need a chair and a natural keyboard.

I recently saw a special on TV about the Beach Boys. It spurred me to give Pet Sounds a listen. I have listened to it about 10 times in the past 2 days.

This album is really special. I think it may be my favorite album. Others in my list would be (no particular order)

• Van Halen - 1984
• Prince - Purple Rain
• Nirvana - Nevermind
• Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

Other great albums I like are compilations, like The Beatles - 1 or Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits.

Pet Sounds is so good. It is mesmerizing. Sloop John B is terribly moving. God Only Knows makes me happy and sad at the same time. The whole album makes me introspective. Thanks Brian Wilson.

Yesterday was the first flight, I really believed I could die. The plane was approaching Vegas en route to Dallas. All of the sudden the air stopped blowing from above and we started bouncing around like crazy. If I had eaten anything it would’ve come up. The shaking was not just shaking, we were being tossed around. I thought I was going to die.

After clearing up we changed plans and moved on to Dallas. Dallas closed the airport because of thunderstorms. So we circled. And circled and circled. And then they said, “We are running our of gas”. So we flew over to Oklahoma City to refuel with 20 other jets in the same situation. We stayed on the tarmac for a couple of hours and then got back in the air. We were supposed to land at 7pm. We didn’t get to the hotel until 2am. Then I had to get up at 6am.

Other than that, it has been fine. No cowboys with guns or ropes. I am safe! The hotel is nice. This morning a huge group of Bank of America employees were wearing KISS t-shirts. Strange huh?

Also, check out the demo of this product. Bindows.net. Terrible name, but great product.

This blog will be the most politically incorrect thing I have written. I will understand if you do not wish to read any further.

Have you seen the recent news articles about hot teachers being arrested for having sex with their 13-16 year old students?

Pamela Rogers Turner (Beauty pageant winner) - Nine months in prison for doing it with a 13 year old student. More photos.

Kristen Margrif faces up to 15 years for knockin books with her 16 year student.

Debra Lafave pleads INSANITY during her escapades with her 14-year old student. More Photos.

Sandra "Beth" Geisel, aged 42, arrested for having affairs with multiple 16-year old students. More Photos.

Janice Niemi was convicted (2.5 years in prison) of having an affair with her 14-year old student. He is 19 now and has resumed relations with her.

May Kay Letourneau, aged 34, had sex 300-400 times with 13 year old. AND HAD HIS CHILDREN! The happy couple.

My god! Look at this list!

I want to be perfectly clear: These boys are the luckiest kids on the face of the earth.

Also, make no mistake, if they were girls and the adult was a man, I would be saying: This guy is sick and the girls are victims of terrible abuse.

I can’t help it. It was a dream all through school of doing it with the hot teacher. There was a song by Van Halen called Hot for Teacher. Read the lyrics! It is the American Dream! God bless these women! We shouldn’t throw them in prison, we should give them a parade!

Of course if it were the other way around, men having sex with girl students, I would say, BAD BAD BAD, throw them in prison, pedophiles! But come on, these women are HOT! They aren’t even old or ugly! Shouldn’t that count for something???

Ok, now the disclaimer: I have no idea who wrote this blog Katie. I will have to plead insanity. I love you and would never ever condone anything you think is bad. Your haircut looks great. I love you.

I need to take a trip to Texas next week, so I told the boys this morning. The very first thing they both said was, “Daddy! There are COWBOYS in Texas! They might think you are a bad guy! They have guns!”

Initially, I thought it was cute, now I think it was bizarre. Why this weird fear of Cowboys? Cowboys are usually good guys. And why would they think I could be mistaken for a bad guy? Ethan clarified after I asked. “They might think you are a bad guy in disguise as a good guy.” Oooohhh, now it is clear. So I told them, there are no more cowboys in Texas. Jared chimed in, “Daddy. There is one cowboy in Texas.”

Who is this one Cowboy from Texas. I can’t imagine they mean President Bush. He is from Connecticut! Preppie Ivy Leaguer from Yale! So who could this Cowboy from Texas be? Should I be afraid? How can I assure him that I am not a bad guy in disguise? And more importantly, will Katie implode having the kids for a week straight alone?

One thing is for certain: Don’t mess with Texas.