the daily dub

We got here, and – unfortunately – had to sign the rights to our photos away entirely.  This is (according to Derek) the first gig that he’s ever done in any state where they’ve made us do that to get credentials.  Hopefully, it’s just a formality, but you never know.  I kept a copy of the form.

Also, this:

Uhm, I forgot my poncho?

I’m up at what would be 4:30am California time, and groggy as hell. My eyes hurt, and I’m tired – there’s no denying that.

This morning will be spent debugging the print job, figuring out what’s up with the barcodes (yay font substitution and rasterization).

After that, it’s off to the races where I can finally sit down and get some real-world work done.

BTW: Westin Hotels are lame – when you buy wireless (yes, after you spend $200 a night on a room, they make you buy your fucking wireless), you buy it for one machine, not your whole room. So I had to jury rig my machine to share the wireless over ethernet to Derek’s machine (yea, we’re sharing a room – another awesome thing).

Overall, the experience this time has been less than impressive so far.

The landing here was not so feathery. We’ve spent every minute from 5:15pm to 10:30pm thinking about plan B (and C and D) for if tomorrow morning doesn’t go as we hope.

I took Friday off from work, drove up to San Francisco, and spent the day looking at engagement rings and center diamonds. I thought the experience of buying an engagement ring would suck (both spending a lot of money, and dealing with the hard sale salesmen), but honestly, it was actually quite enjoyable. Valerie, the women who helped me, was very sweet, a bit energetic (but not quite draining), and we had a good time looking at rings.

I made my decision just in time to get the stone set and the ring sized before I left that day. I picked up the ring, signed away a lot of money, and drove back to Cupertino to meet Athena.

Having received her Dad’s blessing that morning (at 6:45 am, no less – they were travelling), and having purchased the ring, I was going to get down on one knee and do the traditional proposal (even though I had already asked her and she said yes). But, she wouldn’t let me.

So I just sat next to her, opened the box, and asked her to marry me.

Again, she said yes.

Here’s what was in the box:

• The Engagement Ring »

My new favorite: fried lemons.