quick blog check-in from healdsburg

Danielle and I are in Healdsburg enjoying our "babymoon". We'd never been here before so it's a completely new experience for us. The town is small, very small...but that's cool cause we have plenty of time to check everything out at a leisurely pace without feeling rushed.

We're staying at Hotel Healdsburg, which normally would be way out of our price range -- but we got a good deal. It's right on the main town square. I'm glad Danielle and I both agree that shelling out some extra bucks to stay at a nice place is worth it. The hotel can make or break a vacation, especially if you plan to spend a lot of time there (such as in a quieter, slower paced town.) Looking back to the "crappy" vacations I remember, they all included a "crappy" hotel. But all the nice places I've stayed have always been great trips. Aside from a cool design, another nice thing about this hotel is that everything is included with the price of your room. Breakfast? Included. Snacks in your room? Included. Everything in your mini-bar fridge? Included.



So what'd we do so far? Mainly eat and drink. I've been wine tasting both in town (yesterday) and out at wineries (today) while my pregnant wife plays sober driver. During our winery tour today we also stopped by Lake Sonoma and saw the fish hatchery.



Last night though Danielle said the funniest thing while we were at dinner. Just before we left our room, they had turned down the bed and put out two chocolates for us. Danielle wanted to eat hers before dinner but I convinced her to wait until we got back. While at dinner (I was eating a massive burrito) she turns to me and says, "Maybe if you're too full, I get to eat both chocolates." I don't know why but it was hilarious at the time...and she did eat both when we got back.

the beginning of our stay-cation

Danielle and are both off work through all of next week. It's sort of a "babymoon" -- like a honeymoon but a little vacation that you take before your baby arrives. (Since it's probably the last time you'll be able to relax!)

Day one of the staycation we slept in then went to H&R Block to do our taxes. Fun huh?! Actually, it sort of was and it definitely felt like a vacation. (Well once we were done with the taxes.) We had lunch outdoors in Palo Alto at a little French cafe (I had croque madame!) and that evening we went up to San Francisco to try to get last minute tickets for Wicked. We didn't get them, but we decided to grab dinner in the city anyway (nothing fancy but it was one of my favorites - Chevy's!)

Day two (today) we went to Sausalito. We had a nice lunch in the old Fort Baker at a place called Murray's Circle. Then we just sort of walked around Sausalito, ate some ice cream, and watched the boats. The weather was unbelievable and I think I even got a bit sun-burnt. All-in-all it's been pretty relaxing.

And it sort of made me sad that I had to take vacation days to enjoy stuff that's right in my own backyard. I mean, what's preventing us from doing this stuff on a regular weekend or even weeknight? We could easily leave work early one day to go see Wicked, but it just seems so much more stressful to try to do it on a work night. Why? I think part of it is that if we would have trekked up to SF on a worknight and not gotten the tickets we'd have been really bummed. But on staycation, we don't have a plan or agenda so it's easier to just roll with it.

It was nice to go to Sausilito on a weekday though. There was no traffic, no crowds, no stress.

(Oh, I also got to try out my new 70-300mm zoom lens but although it was beautiful in Sausilito, it was a bit hazy looking across the bay at San Francisco.)

the facebook fallacy

The other day I posted a video titled, "25 Things I hate about Facebook" Apparently, the video resonated with a lot of folks. So let me tell you about something that really bothers me about Facebook. (Disclaimer: Yes, I am on Facebook and I use it frequently but I wouldn't say I'm a power user.)

As most of you know, Facebook has this feature where you update your status. People typically use this to decribe what they're doing and the feature is actually prefilled with your name and the word "is" (e.g. "Vince is [blank]") Sure, some folks use it to describe how they are feeling but a lot describe what they're doing.

The problem is that if you describe what you're doing, it's a lie. Let me illustrate:

Dave is surfing.
No, Dave is updating Facebook.

Paco is working out at the gym.
No, Paco is updating Facebook.

John is on a date with a hot model.
No, John is updating Facebook. (And ignoring a hot model!)

I'll grant some leeway to anyone who updates their status with a mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, whatever.) You can tell who those people are because it has a little picture of a cell phone next to their status message.

Although I think this is the most popular feature of Facebook, it's odd that people spend so much time telling others what they're doing rather than actually doing whatever they're doing.

a glimpse of a geeky future

This is an impressive look at what Microsoft thinks technology will be like in the future. Pay close attention to see what's really going on...like digital newspapers, coffee mugs with LCDs that tell the temperature, virtual termostates on the walls, and a lot more. (Video is 5 minutes but there is a highlight reel here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090228/microsoft-office-labs-vision-2019-video/

some good lessons from a facebook veteran

keeping in touch with friends

Wow, it's been over two weeks since I last blogged. Part of the reason is probably because I was sick and the other part is that I've actually been having a bit of a life lately.

Last weekend was jam-packed. I hung out with some ex-Ducati friends on Friday, went to SF for dinner Saturday, and then went back to SF for lunch on Sunday. All three events were opportunities to catch up with friends, which is important because I consciously set a goal to try to be better about keeping touch with people this year. But what I came to realize is that keeping in touch doesn't always have to mean hanging out in person. With everyone's busy lives it's often hard to find time to get together...just ask our friends Nate and Tracy who we've had to postpone plans over a month with!

I have one friend, who lives in Portland, that calls me every two or three weeks. He doesn't want anything, doesn't need help with anything, and he's too far away for us to get together for dinner. But you know what? I appreciate that he goes out of his way to keep in touch. All this time, I don't know if I've ever called him. But he's totally kept our relationship alive because he calls me just to chat. We usually talk for 15 or 30 minutes about topics ranging from work, vacations, or nerdy techie stuff. It's nice.

I've come to appreciate this because I know how horrible I am about keeping in touch with people. Sure I'll send an email, or comment on someone's Facebook status but is that the same thing? And if you're not in the habit of talking to someone by phone regularly, is it weird to start calling them out of the blue? I guess I'll just have to find out. Hopefully, I can be more like my friend in Portland and do my part to keep in touch with people.

(Note: this topic also has me wondering about the definition of "friend." The term seems to be used pretty loosely now. I have 407 "friends" on Facebook. My Gmail address book has 584 contacts. Do I plan to call all these people every two weeks? Probably not, sorry.)