This weekend Adam, Rory, Matt, and I headed out to Rochester for the CSH Welcome Back party (a sort of yearly mini-reunion to welcome the members back and introduce the freshman to everyone… Typically many alumni try and make it up for this party). We showed up late friday night (after stopping at Nick’s for a garbage plate) and I didn’t get to bed until 5ish. Saturday I gave two seminars, one on drink (with Bill Kuker), and one on XUL (which adam led), and both seemed to be well received.

The party was alot of fun, it was great being back at CSH, and seeing my friends again… The trip home last night wasn’t that bad… I drove the most on the way out, so I didn’t drive at all on the way home. My mp3 player was a champ throughout the trip, it is so much easier than futzing with cd’s or tapes.

I have today off, since we thought we would come back from Rochester today, but Rory had class and classwork due today, so we had to comeback yesterday… I guess I could have gone into work today, but I figured I would use this to my advantage. :) I have been playing with Robocode this morning, making some robots and whatnot… Looks to be a cool project, and I will enjoy seeing exactly how complicated I can make these tanks… I have some seriously cool ideas, hopefully nothing will get in my way (I don’t know what restrictions are in place for bots, if any).

Everyone take a beat of silence in memory of Hank..

This morning I opened a savings account at the enema bank, got a haircut, and still managed to get to work by 10am!

I am now going to walk down to Staples to retrieve a new mouse to replace the one that is flaking out here at work.

Well, I was reading this interview with Bob Gale, who wrote and produced the “Back to the Future” movies (among others). In the interview he mentions the reasons why BTTF hasn’t yet been released on DVD, but to me, more interesting is the fact that Eric Stoltz was originally cast and filmed scenes as Marty McFly…. What amazed me even more were These Production Stills of Stoltz as McFly… Apparently the part was recast because Stoltz wasn’t able to act like a teenager as well as Michael J. Fox.

that funky monkey.

Now, for a recap of the past few days: When we last left our intrepid traveller, he had woken up after a wild night of driving around New Jersey looking for a good slice of cheesecake at an obscure hour…..

Sunday I was scheduled to hang out much of the day with Amy, but I had some stuff to take care of in the morning. I met up with Chuck to snag a free Back-UPS 600 from his boss, but when I got it home it turned out to have a dead battery (and wasn’t really worth replacing with the Conext action available dead cheap these days). I met up with Amy at her house and she told me that she had an invite to attend Wigstock 2001 for free and also attend the after party… Never to be a downer, I told her to go ahead and ditch me… We hung out for awhile, I helped her pick out her outfit, and we went to the mall before I dropped her off at the train station… I had an invite to the affair as well, but I didn’t want ditch my parents all weekend…

So I headed back to the house (the long way, taking advantage of my dad’s car) and met up with the folks for dinner…. I informed my mother that she didn’t need to cook as much food since Amy wasn’t going to be there, and we had burgers and dogs for dinner… Later that night Chuck came over and we watched 15 Minutes which was a good rental… :) We talked until the wee hours of night and he decided to pay me a visit up here in Boston in October, which I will of course be looking forward to…

Monday my parents and I visited my Grandparents before heading to the airport. It was good to see them, since it has been awhile.. The airport wasn’t that bad (surprisingly) and my flight left more or less on time. We actually arrived almost 30 minutes early, and I was halfway home on the train when the flight was supposed to end. So I can’t complain about this trip in the travel section of things.

All-in-all it was a fun trip, even if it left me a bit sleep deprived… :) It was good seeing the family and friends again, but as always, I wish I had more time (or that my friend group from NJ would transplant itself to my immediate area. :P).

Returning to work today wasn’t that bad, and the XUL stuff at work is fun (if not always easy)… I have next monday off as well so I don’t have to rush home from Welcome Back at CSH…. I am probably going to be giving a Drink seminar on Saturday if any of the people around want to hear me drone on… :)

I went out to dinner with the whole family last night, which was nice (since the past few years it has been uncommon that we are in the same place). We went to Friday’s, and the food wasn’t bad and we didn’t have to wait for some reason (even though it seemed pretty busy).

When we got back to the house, James had knocked on the door, and was just turning around to leave when we pulled in the driveway. He said that he needed to pick up a friend from the Hospital, and he wanted to know if I wanted to go with him. So I jumped in his van and we headed to Morristown…. It turns out that James has received a call many hours earlier that went to his machine, and his friend had already found a way home… So it was a silly trip, but I guess he didn’t want to potentially leave a friend stranded (I would have called the hospital first, however. :P).

On our way back from the hospital I gave Amy a call, and we all agreed to head out to Montclair to go to a coffee shop out there. It is a little far away, but I can tolerate it, which I can’t do for most coffee shops. :) Everyone likes it there, so we all headed out after meeting up with Amy (who was coming from New Brunswick).

We drive all the way out there to find that the place was closed Labor Day weekend… We agree to go to another place in Mendham, and we get there just after it was closing… We drive back to the diner in which we first met, and that had closed as well (which means it isn’t a real diner).

We finally found a place to sit down for dessert and drinks (Victoria’s Diner), but it was like 2am already… It was cool driving around with those two, though (esp. since I didn’t have to drive).

this is a bit extreme. :)

I love new jersey. :)

I got back in state around 10am yesterday… My sister, Larissa, was there to pick me up at the airport, and I drove us back to our home in her car (mostly cuz I hadn’t driven in so long). We stopped to a place in town to get a Taylor Ham & Cheese on a Hard Roll for breakfast/lunch….

I took a quick nap and then Chuck came over, and eventually one of my friends named John came over. We all hung out until my ‘rents got back, Chuck ate dinner over, and we picked up Amy and went out to see The Others. Afterwards we headed out to a Diner and met up with James for a little while. I dropped everyone off around 2, but I talked to Amy for a few hours in her driveway… So I didn’t get in till 4am, hence my 1pm awakening today…

I am not sure what the plan is today, but it will involve a family dinner somewhere… My sister Aimee is coming back from school to see me, and I guess we are all going out somewhere..

It’s the end of the week for me, it’s time for a long weekend back in Jersey. Hopefully I will get to catch up with everyone, but I am only home for a few days, so it might not work out as planned.

Finally getting my hands dirty with XUL here at work, and I am going to start working with Adam today to implement backend code to support the GUI he has layed out (it is all non-functional).

phyber is old. very old.

congrats, lady.