Guardian of the Non Sequitur

Here’s a nice video from the BoingBoing people about some stuff at the Maker Faire I was at a few weeks ago in San Mateo.

I got up Sunday morning and it was sunny with blue skies. Chad and Summer drove me to the train station.

Chad explained Reno’s “big dig” – the fight to take the rail line subterranean in downtown. Inside the old station there is an exhibit describing it as well. Residents voted against it, city council did it anyway. They were right.

I picked up the bus extension tickets from Emeryville into San Francisco and back I had booked.

The ride back over the Sierras was a little bit more annoying with the same exact dialog as the first time. I’m not looking forward to the third time.

We arrived in Emeryville almost an hour early. I got on the bus with very apparently clueless tourists. The bus driver proceeded to drive us all over the place after the stop at the ferry building and the Aquarium rather than proceeding to the third stop which was mine. I got off at the last stop which was the general vicinity of my hotel.

I didn’t really know which direction it was in, but guessed well and after a few blocks I was at the Powell Hotel. Bill Dudney, an old friend and coworker and my roommate for the week hadn’t checked in yet, so I called up Mike and Mike (fellow FlipSide5 developers) and went up to their room.

They were “testing” one of our apps over the new Bluetooth protocols (poor performance). They hadn’t RSVPd to the party I was heading to at Jillian’s, so I left them behind.

I checked in at the Moscone West and went across the street to the party. I met a variety of interesting people. Some guys from U of Michigan among them. Then ended up playing pool with two guys from Dublin who had been awake for 23 hours.

Ends up that Damien had been following me on Twitter. We were about to head over to the Thirsty Bear for another gathering and I looked around for Dudney (who was supposed to be there by now) and easily found him and he was planning to head to the Thirsty Bear as well. He had also transferred my bags to our room.

The gathering there was dwindling as everyone was feeling their original time zones weigh on their eye lids.

I got to the hotel around 10:30p. The following morning was WWDC Keynote at 10:00a and the other guys were planning on heading out aroud 4:00a. I planned on sleeping in.

On Saturday I woke to the continued cold and rainy Reno.  I found out later it was the longest string of days with rain since 1911.

Chad, Summer, and I went to Virginia City, an old mining town not too far out of town.  We went through windy hills to get there.  There is a main street with most of the activity; we walked up and down it, checking out a few stores.  Chad was bewildered by the water shooting off the roofs.

We took a walking tour of a mine that went out of the back of one of the bars along the main street.  It was interesting to see the technology and walk, stooped over, into the mine.

We didn’t linger too long because we had plans for the evening.  We had dinner with Chad’s dad and step-brother and step-sister through his father’s remarriage.  We ate at Lexie’s in the Sierra Casino.  It was quite good.  I had the seafood capellini which had shrimp, clams, and mussels.

From there we went to the Pioneer Center to see a traveling production of Mamma Mia. It was very enjoyable. I thought it was interesting that the three lead actresses had all played Rizo in Grease productions. Chad was distracted by one of the male leads, no knowing where he recognized him from. It ended up being Electricity commercials.

We headed straight home from the show. I had to get up in the morning and head for the train back to San Francisco, and the World Wide Developer’s Conference.

On Friday, the rain from the night before showed it was going to stay. A cold 50 degrees and a full overcast with a steady heavy drissle. Residents of Reno considered it a heavy rain.

Katie and Eric headed out to Napa Valley for the weekend for a wedding. I took the empty house, bad weather day as a chance to vegetate on the couch and watch television.

I headed over to Chad and Summer’s place in the evening, not having received the email from Chad that he planned on swinging by and leading me over there.

I stopped by a Radio Shack to get an SD card reader for my camera, having forgotten the proprietary Kodak cable for the job. I got over to their house around 5:30 to find no one home yet.

I helped myself into the back yard, where I piqued the interest of there two dogs plus Katie’s. It was quite windy in the back yard, but their table was well sheltered so I sat awhile and read.

It was only 15 minutes until Summer got home with a load of groceries. She gave Chad a call to let him know I was there just after he had set off Katie’s alarm looking for me.

We were going to have lamb burgers, so Chad was still in search of the lamb, which they didn’t have at Summer’s stop.

We spent the evening cooking, eating, drinking, and in general conversation.

Summer commented that the rain and cold was quite out of the ordinary, and apologized for the weather at least once.

Apparently, things were a bit greener in Reno than usual because of it.

I stayed at my step-sister Katie’s new place. She moved out to Reno in January and purchased a model home from a builder that was looking for some cash flow. It came fully furnished, so everything is quit pristine.

I slept in, then Katie picked me up for lunch, and we met her brother Chad for lunch at Jake’s Place. I had a “wrap”, which was more of a large soft taco.

After lunch I dropped Katie off at her office and used her car to run some errands, particularly I got a few toiletries that I needed and some Dr Pepper.

Only a few hours later Katie came by in Chad’s car, then we picked him up at work and headed for the Nevada Museum of Art. They were having a “first Thursday” happy hour with a live band.

The place was quite crowded and the band was a little to loud for socializing. We made our way up the stairs to the exhibits, and checked out most of the second floor. Chad, who has lived in Reno most of his life, ran into quite a few people he knew.

After the happy hour ended, we walked a block in the light rain to Blue Moon Gourmet Pizza. We met up with Chad’s groomsman (8 years earlier) Scott and his wife Jane. We had some great pizza and Great Basin Ichthyosaurus, a great IPA.

After finnishing the pizza we decided to try out the place next door. The Biggest Little City Club had apparently recently repurposed another bar. It was small, dark, and had a few people of varying stripes in the bar. The first glass of champagne was free for the women. The were playing Breakfast at Tiffanies on a screen that doubled as a translucent window shade.

I introduced the iPhone game Blocked to the group, and some time was spent passing 2 iPhones and an iPod Touch around the table. I think Chad has become adicted. I also got Katie playing Flooded.

Afterward I headed home with Katie and got to bed a bit earlier than the night before.

Waiting in the Emeryville station for the slightly delayed train, I was regaled by the exortations of a bandaged cane-bearing man.

“Hah!” he exhorted, “how can a train be 15 minutes late if this is the starting point!” I warily glanced his way to determine if he was actually speaking to someone, careful not to make eye contact lest I become the one he was speaking to.

The young lady across from him allowed for a polite time interval and excused herself and her luggage.

A few minutes later, two minutes short of the 9:10 departure: “so much for 15 minutes late!” The train was there a minute later and we were underway very close to the stated 15 minute delay if not exactly on.

While on the California Zephyr I finished off a tale from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and came across: “the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive”. A very odd collection of words, I thought as I read The Advenure of the Engineer’s Thumb in the 21st century.