San Francisco

We spent last weekend in San Francisco. Jenn was out for a few days to interview at UCSF. I drove up (in the rain of course) on thursday night to meet Jenn at the swanky Castle inn. Actually not a bad place if you're color blind. Shimmering gold curtains accented the astroturf green colored carpet quite nicely.
No trip to San Francisco would be complete with out a trip to the Golden Gate bridge.
A little on the cold side (well, cold for SF), very windy, but it stopped f#$%ing raining long enough for us to get outside. Sadly on our walk we came around a small crowd talking to an SF police officer. Apparently we missed a jumper/faller by a few minutes. Yeah, that sucks, mostly strange how everything still goes on... On to happier stuff.
Jon and Jen (friends from Newport and Boston) made the trip up from Santa Clara hang out with us for the day. Special thanks to the Jen for once again driving our drunk @$$ around yet another great city! Of course, no trip to anywhere in California would be complete without some wine tasting.
Though it was fun, definitely not the best wine tasting I've ever done. But I guess that's a bit my fault. Never open a conversation with a wine taster lady with "Give us a sample of the best boxed white zin you have!" She put down the 1984 Chateau latour and broke out the boones farm. So we paid like $40 for 1 once of strawberry, 1 once razamtazberry, 1 once of something that tasted a bit like water from a rusty pipe, and 1 once of something that was distilled from WWII canned grapes. Who cares, there's still nothing better than drinking with friends. So we bought a 6 pack of some crazy VB Australian beer and headed for the beach.














Next it's off to Tommy's Joynt for a snack and yes, a few more beers. Excellent beer and excellent chili!
Starting from a local watering hole with the buffet line 10 people deep, we headed to a yuppy filled asian fusion style beer house named Betelnut for dinner. It was pretty much exactly like I imagined it. Sort of a redbones on trendy steriods that was filled with soon to be DINKs trying to find life partners with suitable income. From app desert and possibly a good port, it was a great time despite the long wait we bravely fought off with several drinks. We left around midnight to the start of another effing rain storm. My conclusion, drinking with friends stops the rain...

Follow the link below for more picts from San Francisco.
http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.meaney/SanFrancisco

Blogging from San Francisco

Up in San Fran this weekend for Jenn's grad school interview at UCSF. It's yet another crappy rainy day. Not the best day for interviews. Also Jenn has caught some kind of cold from hell and is not feeling well at all. Despite jet lag, bad weather, and a cold, I just got a call and her first interview went very well. Here's a picture of Jenn heading into UCSF for her interview.
I know that I shouldn't complain about the weather out here. The temp is not too bad. But it's rained like every day but 2 since I have been here (3 weeks now). Not really a drizzle or sprinkle, but pretty much constant down pour. Doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

In other news, my apartment is about 99% set up now. Just need to get a few more things for the kitchen. I assembled my desk monday night. Had a work party tuesday, left thursday afternoon for SF. I return to SF sunday night and leave tuesday am for providence and boston for 10days. So not much time to actually relax there. I'll get a whole two weeks back in SLO before heading to DC for a few days. Here's a link to the apt picts.
http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.meaney/Apartment

Last picture in the set shows my new cali license plates. I feared the trip to the DMV. I think it might have been bad in a big city, but SLO is very small and everyone is extremely nice. Paper work and process wasn't too bad. Just expensive. $50 to get my car "smogged" then $150 in reg fees, then I think I have a tax bill coming. I will say for those who think CA has very strict vehicle and registration laws, it's nothing like mass. The guy who "smogged" my car looked at my most recent inspection docs from MA. He was like "wow, we don't do anything like that here!" The next step is to get a CA license. Requires more $$$ and I have to take a written test. We'll see how that goes when I get back from boston.

At some point I'll post the rest of the cross country trip picts.

Very bad at blogging

Panoramic shot on the road to Carlsbad Caverns.




Yeah I know, I am bad at blogging. Mostly spending my time getting my apartment in tonight. Almost done. Today Rewired the dvd/tv/surround sound system. Also moved the cable going to the tv. Didn't come out as good as I would have liked, but good enough for now.

I did take time out to see the Pats beat the Chargers! 18-0! Soon to be 19-0. Especially since they will be playing the Giants :-)

Go Pats!

The trip posts continue

http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.meaney/TheTripContinues

Here are a few more picts from the trip. They are a bit out of order due to using two cameras. Also it's hard to pict which photos to post. This post is another 141 picts out of the 1400 picts we took. This mostly covers our trip from Atlanta to Roswell NM. We stopped for the night in Longview TX. We were looking for a good steak place but didn't have much luck. We ended up at a Japanese Habachi place. Our chef was young mexican guy. Defn a surpise as I have been to habachi many times and it's usually older japanese guys. Long story short, it was the best habachi we've ever had. Guy was a bit of a pyro, but was very entertaining.

In apartment news, got my second couch today. Didn't like hte first one, it was cool in concept, but was not very comfortable. New recliner couch is excellent. Good napping couch.

Christmas picts and the east coast drive

http://picasaweb.google.com/todd.meaney/ChristmasAndTheStartOfTheCrossCountryTrip

Here in SLO

Short post tonight. Finally got internet up and running. It's been a little over a week since we arrived in SLO. A lot going on. I am suprised at how much it takes to fill an empty apt. So far bought a bed, couch (actaully two, didn't like the first one, so it's going back tomorrow and the new one is coming), TV, DVD/surround, table , and shelf. Pictures to come soon.

Overall the trip across the country was amazing. We stopped and explored many amazing places. Wish we had time to see and do more. Of all we've done and seen, the most common question people ask us is if we fought at all. The answer is not once. 16 days, 4200 miles, and shopping for the apt, every minute was blast! Next trip will be to San Fran in two weeks to meet up with Jenn during her interview at UCSF.

Some picts

Jenn standing outside Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe NM. A bit smaller than I imagined, but a very good exibit. Lunch followed at a very good local mexican restaurant.














Picture from the car as we traveled RT 180 to the grand canyon. A lot more snow in Arizona than I had expected. We passed by a ski area on our way!














Picture from the Grand Canyon. It's worth the trip. There's a lot more we would have liked to do there if we had more time. Next time we'll go for a week to hike down into the canyon. Also the Colorado river tour looks amazing.

Grand Canyon, an impressively big hole!

Happy new year!!!! Writing this on the rt 40 about 75 miles from Kingsman AZ and about 140 miles from the Hoover dam. Hope everyone had a great new years eve! Jenn and I spent ours eating pizza and drinking some beer in a radisson hotel in Flagstaff AZ. It was hard to get a dinner reservation and we needed some down time. So we basically had a few beers and watched 2007 retrospectives. First time we have not been on the east coast for new years. We watched the ball drop at 10pm our time. Also watched the same ball drop again at 12pm our time. I guess there's no big ball ceremony for mountain standard time.

We got up around 7:30 and headed for the Grand Canyon. I have been to the south west many times in the winter. Vegas and El Paso mostly. It's cool, but defn not cold. Might need just a fleece to stay warm. This trip hs not been so warm. Flagstaff was 20 or below the whole time we were there! (also it's windy and at 7000 feet). From flag staff we drove west on 180 to 64 north. RT 180 was a very senic and nice drive. Passed about 8000 feet. Lot's of snow. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 10am. To say the least it was freezing. We were both very happy to still have our winter gear on us. Temp was 10 degree with out wind. The wind was not gusting, it was a steady 30 MPH. Despite the cold, the view was amazing. I won't waste time describing it. You can check out our picts, but even that really doesn't do it justice. It's just too big. If there's one thing everyone should see in their life time, it's the Grand Canyon.

We're now about 1:15 from Hoover dam which is 45min from Vegas where we will be spening two nights. I love vegas and have lost count of how many times I have partied there (what can I say, Pai Gow poker and free Tanq and tonics might have something to do with it). This will be Jenn's first trip. As she drive I am sure that she's thinking we'll get there and settle in for a relaxing night. Not going to happen. Step one, drop off stuff in hotel, step 2 get 2 large 1 yard margaritas, and hit the stip. We'll be staying at the tropicana (rediculously inexpensive and great location). So we'll hit MGM, NY NY and maybe head to Paris for a ride up the Eifle tower!

Not sure we'll get time to post picts until we get to SLO. Mostly b/c who wants to play online when we can be playing in the casinos! Also so far we've taken ~1200 pictures and really need to sort thru them before posting!

Wish us luck in Vegas!!!!

Few picts to come depending on VZW access on the way to Hoover dam.