TheFranciscos.Net

Winter is finally here. Today marks the first snowstorm of the season. As I was driving to work today, I realized that snow is really beautiful in its own way. If only it could just be pretty for a while then melt away, everything would be so good. The problem really start to happen when it accumulates – the roads and sidewalks become really slippery, traffic builds up, and driveways start to need shovelling.

This is why Aileen and I are starting to think about moving away from Pittsburgh and move somewhere more temperate. I really wouldn’t mind snow every once in a while, as long as the average temperature is not ice-cold freezing. Our tropical bodies just don’t go too well with the steel city weather.

Some places we’re considering are Florida and Texas, where the climate seems to be perfect for what we’re looking for. A definite plus also is that we have relatives in that part of the States. We’re not closed off to looking at other places though, as long as it’s less chilly than here.

If only there were a place where it only snows on Christmas day, that place would be perfect. If you know of a place like that, please let us know. 🙂

Traditionally, Black Friday is a day in the holy week where Christ died on the cross. In the US though, Black Friday is more commonly known as the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is commonly the craziest shopping day of the year.

Aileen had to go to work that day, so I decided to try to brave this day with Zoe to try to get some nice deals at Best Buy, Lowe’s and Toys R Us. The first store we went to was Best Buy. I went there to get a UPS, a compact flash card for my camera, and a USB portable storage device. Needless to say, I wasted my time. It took forever to find parking, and when you try to look for the things that you came there for in the first place, they were all gone. If you were a lucky one who was able to find any good deals, the lines for the cashier were going to take you at least 45 minutes. After that ordeal, I decided to skip the other stores and just go home.

I’m not sure why I needed to buy this stuff anyway since I’ve already gotten a few nice toys over the past few weeks. The most notable of which is a Polaroid 7″ portable DVD player. Aileen also bought me a Gameboy Advance SP last weekend. These things will surely come in handy to keep me amused while on the long flight home to Manila.

Speaking of the trip, I can’t believe it’s almost here already. Aileen and Zoe are leaving next Monday, and I’m leaving the Sunday after that. We can’t wait to go. This trip will surely be a lot of fun.

Zoe surprised me the other day by just suddenly blurting out the pledge of allegiance (you know “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America….”) in its complete entirety . Turns out that they’ve been teaching that at day care for a while now. It just brings it home for me once again that my daughter is a US citizen.

The past 2-3 weeks, I have been in semi-single-dad mode, which needless to say has been quite tiring. It always gets slike this when Aileen is doing her house rotation. It’s a lot more tiring for her though, with 12-13 hour days being the norm. Thankfully, this is finishing up in a couple of weeks and we’ll be back to our normal mode before going home to Manila in December.

I’ll be in suburban Atlanta for most of next week helping out on the first installation of our new software. I am so not looking forward to that since it will mean having to stay up the whole night in case something breaks while the pharmacy is doing their patient fills. At least it’s supposed to be nice and warm while I’m there.

Speaking of warm, I guess we’re finally back to our normal chilly weather this time of year. We’ve had an unexpected indian summer this past week with the temperatures being around the low to mid-70s. Very, very nice surprise. It was even better than the actual summer we had since this was almost a straight week without any rain at all.

I just did a 16 hour day last Friday to get all the kinks out in our software. Turns out that the Robot, still has a few flaws in its shell program. I spent a few hours yesterday confirming that. It would be all right if it was just a minor problem, but this particular problem can potentially dispense the wrong drug to a patient. Pretty huge, in my opinion.

The problem with our software is that we rely on other people’s software for ours to be completely working. In this case, the Engineering group is the one responsible to do the robot shell code. A few weeks ago, we had a similar problem with the cabinet group. At least at this point, we can draw a line between where the problem is.

I’m still trying to recover from that extra long day last Friday. Aileen does these kinds of hours all the time. I just don’t know how she does it, and then she has to put up with me when she gets home .

By the way, I just wanted to wish a Happy Diwali to all my Indian friends out there.

I got 27 correct on the Minipops quiz!

This was such a great distraction from the Release 6.2 deadline that’s due tomorrow. You know how people say that they need a beer after a bad day at work? I think I need a truckload of beer after the past few months under this deadline. I’m just so glad it’s going to be over tomorrow.

I feel so old.

The other day, I was listening to what has become my afternoon drivetime ritual – All Things Considered on National Public Radio and realized that I was listening to the news – and actually cared about it. I remember back in high school when my dad would pick me up from school and he would always be listening to the news somewhere on the AM band. This always drove me nuts because I’d rather be listening to Depeche Mode or New Order, but my dad had to have his afternoon news fix, so he always won. Now, it’s myself that I find listening to the news in the afternoon. Granted I still listen to my 80s music (and I have the kick-ass mp3 system with dual subwoofers to prove it), but I always find myself listening to the news in the afternoon.

Is it because I’m more mature? I doubt it since I still listen to Howard Stern in the mornings, and there are tons of people will argue that that is the most immature radio show on earth. Is it because I find myself caring more about things going on in the country, and the world in general? Yes, I think so, but more for selfish personal reasons. I think it has something to do with wanting to know what kind of world my daughter is going to grow up in. It may sound corny, but with the news I listen to, I find myself asking if and how that affects Zoe, Aileen, and myself.

I feel that I’m at a crossroads right now between becoming a mature adult and an adult trying to hold on to his last juvenile tendencies. Don’t get me wrong – I think I’m always going to have childish tendencies, but at the same time, I need to be somehow more responsible for people in my life.

I guess this is just what it feels like when you’re about to turn 30.

Setlists from shows we’ve seen in the past few months:

From setlist.com:

Red Hot Chili Peppers

09/22/03 (Mon) Mellon Arena – Pittsburgh, PA

Set 1: By The Way, Scar Tissue, Around The World, Maybe (John solo), Universally Speaking, Parallel Universe, The Zephyr Song, Throw Away Your Television, Havana Affair, Otherside, Purple Stain, Don’t Forget Me, Right On Time, I Could Have Lied, Can’t Stop, Californication, What Is Soul?, Give It Away, E: Under The Bridge, Sir Psycho Sexy, They’re Red Hot

KISS

From a KISS fan site:

08/21/03 (Thurs) Post-Gazette Pavillion – Burgettstown, PA

Set 1: Detroit Rock City, Deuce Shout It Out Loud, Do You Love Me?, Let Me Go Rock N Roll, I Love It Loud, Firehouse, God Of Thunder, 100,000 Years, I Want You, Black Diamond, E: Beth, Love Gun, Rock And Roll All Nite

Aerosmith

From an Aerosmith Fan Site:

08/21/03 (Thurs) Post-Gazette Pavillion – Burgettstown, PA

Set 1: Mama Kin, Toys In The Attic, Love In An Elevator, Pink, Jaded, What It Takes, I Never Loved A Girl Like I Love You, Stop Messin’ Around, Baby Please Don’t Go, Dream On, Nobody’s Fault, Same Old Song And Dance, Cryin’, Walk This Way, Sweet Emotion, Train Kept A Rollin’

Dave Matthews Band

From AntsMarching:

06/26/03 (Thurs) Post-Gazette Pavillion – Burgettstown, PA

Set 1: Crush, When the World Ends, Satellite, You Never Know, Too Much, Dancing Nancies, Warehouse, Pay For What You Get, Bartender, Where Are You Going, The Last Stop, Jimi Thing,

Digging a Ditch, So Much To Say, Anyone Seen the Bridge?, Pantala Naga Pampa, Rapunzel, E:

Typical Situation, Stay

I still can’t find a setlist for the James Taylor and Skid Row/Poison concert I went to, but those were great shows as well. I’m probably done with seeing big concerts this year though.

I think I’ve seen a lot of bands that I used to wish I could see live – among them U2 and Depeche Mode, but I still wish I was anywhere near where Duran Duran played this year.

With everything that’s been going on, this blog has been pretty much neglected for the past few months. However, we’re still alive and kicking – doing better than ever. We’ve just been pretty busy living our lives that we just haven’t had enough time to update this.

On my end, I’ve been very busy with work for the past three months. We have a deadline to complete the newest version of our software by October 3rd. We’ve finally got it on-track to meet that date, but many nights and weekends have been sacrificed to get to where we are right now.

Aileen’s been pretty busy doing her work as the chief resident. Although she’s hit a few bumps here and there, she’s handling everything with flying colors.

Zoe’s her still cute self. A little bit earlier, she asked me if I got my blue (denim) jacket at the blue store. She told me that she wanted to go to the pink store so she could get a pink jacket. I thought that was pretty funny.

We’ve seen a couple of great concerts over the past few months, among them James Taylor, the awesome Aerosmith/KISS show (as briefly referred to by Aileen below), and recently the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Among them, I thought that the Peppers put on the best show, with their set list virtually a “greatest hits” of their last 4 albums. Of course, they also sang crowd faves “Under The Bridge” and “Give It Away”. I would have liked to hear some older stuff though – like “Soul To Squeeze” and “Higher Ground”. All in all though, it was an awesome show. For that matter, a great season for concerts.

Never thought I’d be able to watch an Aerosmith concert! (*sigh* groupie style) With Kiss thrown in too!