Blythe spirit or something like it

As planned, we’re spending tonight at the Hampton Inn in Blythe, California. The drive from Harris Ranch was uneventful; Diane took the morning shift, driving through a fog-shrouded (but not fog-obscured) valley, until the sun broke through just as we got near the top of the Grapevine. From there on, it was a much brighter trip; we decided to ignore the directions from our car’s GPS and from AAA and got off I-5 at 210, rather than continuing to I-10 (the car) or CA 134 (AAA). The road was lightly travelled, so I think we made a good decision.

We took a break right at noon and had lunch at Dominick’s in La Crescenta, chosen rather randomly. It was a good choice — Diane and I split a pizza, and Jeff had spaghetti. We all cleaned our plates, too! The ice tea could have been better (it was Lipton from a dispenser), but that’s my only complaint.

After that, it was my turn to drive; we went back to letting the car tell us where to go, so it was 210 to 57 to 10 to Blythe, almost non-stop. I turned on the radio soon after taking the wheel, and we listened to the 60’s on 6 tribute to WLCY until we neared Palm Springs. Then I thought it would be appropriate to switch to Frank’s Place, and we stayed with that for about an hour; it was more enjoyable than I’d expected. We finished the trip to Blythe listening to the Beethoven’s Birthday Special on XM Classics, arriving a little before 5pm.

We asked the desk clerk where to eat, and the best bet seemed to be the Townes Square Cafe, a five-minute walk from the hotel. The food was OK, and the waitress was very friendly and efficient; I’d go back.

This hotel has one advantage over our house — a wide variety of TV channels. The friends who are staying at our house e-mailed us and said that the TiVos are complaining that they can’t get a satellite signal, so I guess I’ll have to call DirecTV and find out what can be done about it (preferably before we get home!). I suspect the dish or the multiswitch is acting up. *sigh*

Shabbat Shalom

The adventure begins

Diane’s aunt is celebrating her 90th birthday this weekend, and we’re on our way to join the party.

The timing was almost perfect; both Diane and I have to use up our vacation this year, and this afternoon marked the point at which we were going to run out of year if we didn’t start taking it. But Jeff still has a day of school left; fortunately, it’s a day when he only has three classes, so missing it won’t be a disaster (and he’s going to phone in for one of the classes to participate in some sort of role-play). It was a shame to ruin his perfect attendance record at Kehillah, though — it’s been nice to be at a school which closes for all the Jewish holidays!

We left our house right at 5pm; traffic on 85 was moderately heavy for the first few miles, but then it opened up, and we were able to drive as fast as we wanted until we reached Gilroy and Pacheco Pass Road. I had thought about driving down 101 a bit further and taking 25 through Hollister to avoid Pacheco Pass, but XM traffic said there’d been an accident and traffic was slow. Traffic on Pacheco Pass was slow until we got past the shopping centers (I remember when there was nothing there!), and then it moved at about 45 through the nasty part of the road. And there was no backup at 152 and 156 (that probably won’t be the case tomorrow afternoon!), so we reached Casa de Fruta in just about an hour from the time we left the house.

We made our usual quick stop there, then got back on the road for what I expected would be the easier part of tonight’s journey. There were a couple of patches of fog — nothing really bad, but startling nonetheless. But that was the only thing which slowed us down, and we reached Harris Ranch at 7:30, having enjoyed XM Classics as we zipped down I-5.

Dinner was excellent, as always; now we’re ensconced in our suite (well, that’s what they call it) for the evening. My laptop sees WiFi, but I wasn’t able to get an IP address, so I guess it’s not for guests — I had to fall back to the slow Verizon wide-area service. Good thing I’m not trying to upload any pictures tonight.

Tomorrow is going to have to be an early day, because we have a long drive ahead of us. Including a trip through the LA area on a getaway day. Oy!

A couple of nice red wines

This afternoon was the annual Almaden Holiday Party (this year featuring the song stylings of The Gumbas and Gumbet). As always, there were good things to munch, and this year, there were also good things to drink. I had a little bit of the 2000 Valley of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon; unfortunately, I didn’t win a bottle (or anything else!) in the raffle.

At home, we’ve been drinking the 2003 7 Deadly Zins, and have quite enjoyed it. I discovered this wine at Almaden, too, when it was served at the 2005 Almaden Institute.

I remember the old days, when alcohol was strictly forbidden at IBM. It’s still fairly unusual to have it served during the day (and you’re not supposed to go back and do work after quaffing), but it’s nice to be less rigid. And, of course, the cafeteria at the IBM HQ location in Paris serves wine every day — but that is a different culture.

A 60’s flashback

When Jeff and I got into the car this morning and turned the radio to 60’s on 6, they were near the end of the Richard Harris version of “MacArthur Park“. The first lyrics we heard were the dramatic conclusion, as Harris sang:

MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again

And all I could think was, “why couldn’t he Google the recipe?”

As Bob Dylan put it, the times, they are a-changing.

How to lose a sale

I joined several of my colleagues for lunch at Chili’s this afternoon. Afterwards, I stopped in Cost Plus along with a fellow Prius owner who was going to ride back with me to admire my Prius XM installation.

We were going to buy a couple of things and got into line. The cashier finished with the person at the front of the line, or so we thought. The next person wasn’t actually there to buy anything — she had left her wallet at the store earlier and hoped it had been found (at least that’s what I think had happened; she wasn’t very clear). But then it was our turn — except that the cashier said that he had to help the first person pick up her merchandise and he vanished.

There were two other cashiers open, but while we were waiting patiently for the first guy, they’d built up long lines. So we put our merchandise down on a nearby counter and left empty-handed.

Later in the afternoon, I called the Sheraton in Tucson, where I already had a reservation for a forthcoming weekend. I wanted to extend our stay a couple of days, and I was hoping to get the same rate ($79/night). The reservation agent first quoted me $300/night, then offered to check for special rates and found a mere $200/night (or $119 for a smaller room). In the meantime, I’d checked the hotel’s website and found a $99/night offer for the two nights I wanted; the agent claimed that that was a non-refundable rate and kept pressuring me to take the rate she was offering. I decided against taking her kind offer; instead, I checked the Embassy Suites and found a $69 rate offered to IBMers. Guess which one I took?

I thought about moving the entire stay to the Embassy Suites, but there will be a party at the Sheraton, and I’d rather not have to drive afterwards. But I came close….