Memoirs of a CPUNERD

I, like most people, thoroughly enjoy the variety, diversity, and quality of food in Davis. I, unlike most people, frequent the restaurants in Davis, as in virtually every day. I find myself wanting more now. For example, the only Caribbean place in town is not that great. And yes, I have enjoyed good Caribbean food elsewhere. We have no Moroccon, Ethiopan, or other African food. We have some absolutely great Armenian food from Cafe Mediteranee, but we have no Persian or Turkish food. We have magnificent Thai food, but no Malaysian. We have a severe lack of good Indian food (Indyna Bistro is expensive and you don’t get what you would expect for the price). The only “South American” food we have is actually food native to New Mexico, not Mexico. There isn’t really any place that serves French cuisine, and I mean more than quiche and crepes. One can get good Czech food, but I’ve yet to sample any Northern European or British Isle food in the confines of Davis. And of course, don’t get me started on the lack of a good steakhouse within Davis. Buckhorn is absolutely amazing, but it’s a twenty-five minute drive. Am I the only one who feels this way? Is it because I pretty much live off of the restaurants here? What do you think?

Monday is fun day! Well, kinda. We did another ladder in racquetball, and I’m pretty sure we’ll keep doing this until the end of the quarter. I’m actually quite fine with that as it allows for variety on more than a day-by-day basis.

I was really tired on Tuesday for some reason. I got enough sleep I felt, so perhaps it was something else. We worked on volleys in tennis, and even though one wouldn’t think it, that wore me out even more. I played a racquetball match against the coach and lost 8-15. He’s better than I thought. I had lunch at the MU with Alex and a few others, then watched Hitman again with Shakeh. We went to Woodstock’s for dinner pretty late, it was “Turntable Tuesday” where one of the employees spins some techno for a few hours in the bar room.

If I was tired on Tuesday, then I was practically sleeping on Wednesday. Everything was a struggle, even biking to the gym. I played racquetball with John, and that seemed to get me going. I couldn’t do much in tumbling though, my lower calves were starting to hurt. After tumbling I met up with Shakeh for lunch at the MU. Before my research meeting, I snagged some delectable pastries that were left over from Hari’s defense. For dinner, Shakeh and I went to the Farmer’s Market. Mmmm steak… I went to Sudwerks to meet up with everyone, but no one was there. Instead, a few people were at Delta of Venus so I drove over and hung out for a bit. After that, I headed to Sudwerks but didn’t stay very long. I got home around 2230 and pretty much went straight to bed.

My body was not any better come Thursday. I did well in tennis, got my opponent to 5-5, but then we had to go. I somehow managed to get nine points out of Mike in racquetball, and ten points out of the coach. Frisbee was really slow. No one was into running I guess. That was fine by me, I just didn’t feel like massive self exertion today. For lunch, I went to the MU with Tony, Daniel, and Falcon, then we stopped by 3rd and U with Bbhi, Tony, Falcon, and Shakeh. Afterwards I headed home, worked some more, then took Shakeh to Delta of Venus for dinner. Wouldn’t recommend it for dinner entrees… We had a football match at 2000, which we won, and then Shakeh and I went to see Serenity at 2200.

Early Friday morning I had a meeting with Ken. Afterwards I stumbled over to coffee and bagel day at the GSA office. I worked until lunch time, then went to Zia’s with Shakeh. I then proceeded to Wal Mart to get my oil changed and buy some groceries. After I got back, I got ready and picked up Shakeh, then headed to the Mondavi Center to see the Merce Cunningham dance show. Luckily there was free pizza, otherwise we both would’ve starved. The dance show was alright, though definitely not my thing. I found that often the dancers were forced to perform moves such that they had to forcefully exert their bodies or hold grueling poses, neither of which looked graceful. Not to mention the dancing was not in sync with the music. Yes, I know that was intentional. Even with all that in mind, I still say that I enjoyed it, I just don’t think I’d go to something like that again voluntarily.

Shakeh and I went to the market early on Saturday. I ran into a bunch of people there, a popular place I must say. For lunch, we went to Verena’s, then to headed to the theatres to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The movie was actually really good. The writer has produced a lot of great comedies thus far, I’m glad he’s accepted in Hollywood. For dinner, Shakeh and I ventured to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Once we got home, we watched some South Park, then went to sleep.

We finished South Park thus far on Sunday. We polished off the piave cheese I purchased from V. Sattui for brunch. I, like an idiot, decided to bike to Safeway. Yes, that is normally not a bad idea. However, biking back with thirty pounds of fruit was not part of my original equation. Woops… For dinner, Shakeh and indulged our inner carnivores and went to Burgers & Brew.

Another year, another picnic day in Davis. This time, it so happened that the weather was wonderful. Many of us participated in the parade, and those who didn’t enjoyed it from the side. There was one small hitch, the parade was quite late and took too long. We ended up missing most of the things we wanted to see, but that’s a lesson from which we’ll learn in preparation next year. I will say that even with missing so many events, it was still a blast. Once the evening hit, we started seeing people get thrown into the drunk tank and getting arrested downtown. An interesting site, but not something I’d look to to be involved with in any way.

The big day! On Monday, my paper was finally due, and thus John would actually take a look at it and give me some advice. I woke up and got ready for the gym, but read some comments from John and Shubho before leaving. I felt like crap after racquetball, not sure why. I came home and worked until 2215, and I managed to do laundry while at it. Once my paper was finally submitted, I went over to Shakeh’s. She ate dinner, then we went to Ben & Jerrys for frozen yogurt. After we got done, I dropped her off, went home, and did nothing for the first time in ages.

Racquetball on Tuesday was fine. Tennis, not so much. Don’t even ask about frisbee, it was wiiiiiiiiiiiiindy. I talked with Martyn at the MU for a bit, then went to Cafe Mediterannee for lunch with Shakeh. Come early afternoon, Martyn and I headed to SF after a car wash and fill-up on petrol. A good seventy-five minutes later, we parked near the Fillmore, then proceeded to walk to find a Moroccan place that turned out to be Ethiopian. Luckily for me I’d never had either and was excited to try both. The food turned out to be really, really good. I found it similar to Middle-Eastern food, but the bread, called injera, was different. In my mind, if one took a crepe recipe, added water to increase the sponginess, then made the sheets much thicker, injera would be the result. Oh, did I mention no utensils? After a spectacular dinner, we walked back to the Fillmore. The two opening bands were 12 Stones and Red. Neither of which I’d ever heard before. I didn’t pay any attention to 12 Stones. Red was alright, but they seemed confused about their identity. I equate them to a metal band doing a power ballad. They had the potential, but there were times when they tried to switch genres and it just didn’t work. Of course, the band of the hour was 3 Doors Down. They were spectular in quality live. Their stage show was nothing special, and they didn’t work up the crowd (not that they needed to). I think I heard every song I hoped for, and of course a few extras they threw in there. Martyn and I took an excessive amount of time because we were making out in the car I-80 was closed right before the bridge. It took us half an hour to go half a mile, thanks to traffic. I dropped him off at 0045, then got home after saying a brief goodnight to Shakeh at 0100. A long day ahead of me…

On Wednesday I climbed up the ladder in racquetball, but was feeling really weak come time for the tennis class. I think it was from the cold I had. I sat for the last ten or fifteen minutes because I just couldn’t do anything after that. I started doing forward rolls in tumbling now, my arm seemed to be okay. I found out quickly I still couldn’t do anything else though, not even a cartwheel. I ate at the MU with Shakeh for lunch, then went to a meeting with John to talk about research ideas. Immediately after that I went to the group meeting, then headed back to my place. I scrubbed the yellow pages for some apartment listings, then went to Fuzio for dinner with Shakeh. After dinner, we went to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The movie was very good. It actually felt like a movie from the forties at first, which was a bit weird I must admit. Once the movie was over, I dropped Shakeh off and went right to sleep. Man was I tired.

I finally had a good day in tennis again on Thursday. After trying one out, I’m thinking of switching to a non-oversized racquet. Racquetball also went well, as did frisbee. I got called “the buff guy” in frisbee. Shakeh was sick with a fever so I went over and tended to her while working and calling apartments. I picked up Chipotle for dinner. Shakeh was feeling better by that time. Around 1915, I went to our first outdoor football match. I actually scored! Yes, that is more an indication of the other team than me.

I had a dentist appointment early on Friday. Afterwards, I scampied over to Jamba Juice, then headed to the Bay Area with Falcon. We looked around at places for a bit, then headed to Google to have lunch with Chrisco. After lunch, we checked out the rest of the places we had in mind at Mountain View, then began the two and a half hour trek to Davis (stupid freaking traffic). When I got back, I joined Shakeh at the F Street theatres and we went to see The Forbidden Kingdom. I must say, that even in Davis, I had never seen such a high ratio of Asian people to non Asian people. After the movie, we went over to Pluto’s for dinner. I was really surprised at the number of people there. They must have all just exited the movies.

Saturday was Picnic Day! We had to get up at 0615 so Shakeh could make it to SISS on time. Of course, even when we woke up that early, she still got there ten minutes late. Once there though, we helped blow up balloons. After an hour, we headed to the parade grounds and had some fun with flags for quite some time. The parade was delayed almost an hour, so we ended up not getting started until 1100. Once it got started though, it was a lof fun. The walking took about an hour and a half. After we finished at 3rd and A, we met up with everyone and grabbed some food at the quad. Sean and Ciderman stopped by for a few minutes, but then went to sushi with Verena and Lee. After eating, a bunch of went to the Pavilion for the dachsund races, then saw Martin Yan (can cook) at the food sciences building. We were going to stay and get free ice cream, but there was a huge line. Instead, we headed to the Micro-mouse competition. Unfortunately, and this would be a common theme, we got there at 1430 and it closed at 1400. We made our way to the liquid-nitrogen ice cream, but we were again too late. So next we tried to get into the laser maze. However, it was already 1500, there was a long line, and it closed at 1600. We didn’t think we would get in, so we just left. Shakeh and I headed to get funnel cake while everyone else wandered off to go watch the dog-and-frisbee tricks. Once Shakeh and I had our wonderful funnel cake, we met up with everyone and headed to the battle of the bands. We stayed there until 1745 or so, then went home and dropped off the bikes. Right after that we met up with Sean and Ciderman at Sophia’s. The place was totally packed though, so we went to Chipotle instead. Javi and Gina joined us not long after that. Once we finished dinner, we went to get gelato at Ice Krimski Cafe, then Shakeh and I headed home and passed out immediately. I think we fell asleep before 2100.

Sundary morning we got up and headed to Napa Valley right away. Our first stop was the Mondavi winery and their tour. After that, we went to Rubicon. Shakeh really liked the grounds and the museum they had there. The wine was getting to Shakeh, so we went to the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. The food was superb as usual. Once we were done there, we hit up Beringer. We skipped the regular tasting room and went to the reserve-wine tasting room. We actually were able to try a few for free. The sauvignon blanc was really good, but we ended up skipping it. After Beringer, we went to Louis Martini. There was some crazy Japanese guy that was talking to Shakeh and trying to hit on her. The workers there were obviously annoyed, and they all breathed a sigh of relief when he left. Once we were done there, we headed to the V Sattui winery. We actually didn’t try any wine there, we instead just got a bunch of cheese and crackers. It’d been almost a year and a half since I’d had Piave, and I was excited to get to eat it again. Our last stop was at Rutherford Grove. We were going to go to Beaulieu, but we both just wanted to go home. For dinner, we went to Thai Nakorn and then saw Smart People at G street. It was really good! I liked it a lot, especially the character played by Thomas Hayden Church.

Pictures below! 

So comes Monday, and my paper is not due thanks to a deadline extension. Grrr…. I landed two front flips in tumbling! I’m trying to get a decent backhand in tennis, though it’s not quite working yet. I met up with shakeh at the MU and we went up top to eat. I headed home and finished up some stuff with the paper, then went to get my haircut whilest Cygwin was updating. I went to Woodstock’s for Martyn’s party. It was supposed to be a dual celebration, but it wasn’t as my stupid deadline was extended. It was awesome to go though, tons of people were there. We stayed and watched the Kansas-Memphis championship game. It was great! Chalmer’s last second shot to send it to overtime was classic! The entire bar and restaurant were glued to the game. After finishing up there, we all headed to Yogurt Shack. Kathy and her roommate Sue showed up and gave Martyn a dead hooker from there trunk (joking of course). A bunch of us headed to Froggy’s. Only Vanessa, Kathy, Sue, Martyn, and I went in though, age limits and all. Everyone else had drinks, then I took off and headed home due to the time.

Tuesday: t-minus six days. I had leftovers for lunch and continued working on paper. Shakeh and I went to Kathmandu Kitchen for dinner. It was awful. I mean really, really, really bad. The soup was cold, the portions were smaller than usual, the service was the worst I’ve had in Davis, and all in all it was just a horrible experience. After the failure of dinner, we got Baskin Robbins then went to see Horton Hears a Who. That helped cheer us both up again. The movie was really funny! I know that in some people’s minds, Dr. Seuss movies are corny and meant for kids, but some of that stuff is actually really funny.

Wednesday: t-minus five days. Racquetball was pretty boring and tennis was dreadful. I just couldn’t hit right for some reason. I practiced flipping more in tumbling. finished up some work, then went to the MU for lunch. I went to STA and checked on some prices before my meeting, just inquiring about Europe. I grabbed some Burgers & Brew takeout, then came home and watched Run Fat Boy Run.

Thursday: t-minus four days. I worked out in the morning but had to skip classes to go home and pack. I went to Posh Bagel and *$ with Shakeh, then got back right in time for Javi to pick me up. He dropped me off at the airport, and I realized I was stupid. I never checked my flight, and as luck would have it, it was delayed for an hour and a half. I arrived in Seattle and got in to the hotel around 1700. I went to dinner at Qdoba with andrew and his friend Alec, then headed back to hotel, stopping at Cold Stone for some dessert.

Friday: t-minus three days. I woke up, got breakfast, then headed to MS. I waited in the lobby and was greeted by Ben. He gave me the low-down, then took a personalized ride over to building 113. I talked there with someone named Jeff. After that, a Russian named Evgene (pronounced Yev-ghen-ee) took me to lunch courtesy of MS at a place called Todai. After getting back, I talked with a guy named Ted, and then a manager named Marek. I met back up with Ben as I was right about to play Rock Band. After the end of the day, I headed back to the hotel to work for a bit. Later, I drove to the airport to pick up Javi. We met up with Andrew at the Space Needle and had a really nice dinner, then got lost going back to Redmond.

Saturday: t-minus two days. Javi and I got breakfast at the hotel, then went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It was a very nice place, and completely disconnected from Bellevue I’m sure. Once done there, we picked up Andrew up from the MS football fields and went to his place. He got ready, then we headed to Pike’s Place Market. I had a piroshok, plural being piroshki, from a little hole in the wall called Piroshki! Piroshki! We saw the first Starbucks, which kept it’s original sign. I got see the famous fish huck, huge produce, and in general a ton of people with no clue as to what to do. Us included of course. Once done at the market, the three of us ventured to the Seattle library. We spent about an hour there, then went back to the car and headed off to UW. We ate at a local cafe, which turned out to be an ordeal. Our order got lost and it took over thirty minutes to realize it. Once done with lunch, we walked around the campus, it was gorgeous. Their quad area was not only nice, but it was filled with people too. Something, for the weekends, I’m not used to. After walking around the campus, we wandered over to a liquor store then a grocery market. Once Andrew supplied up for the night, we dropped him off at his place and headed back to the hotel to do some work. Later that night, we drove back to Seattle and picked up Yuan from her new abode. We went to dinner at a place called Harvest Vine. It was a little hole in the wall that served great Spanish food. Javi was incredibly excited for Jamon Serrano. After a great dinner, the three of us headed to Andrew’s for his house-warming party. We stayed for awhile, talked with some new people, but left around midnight.

Sunday: t-minus one day. We got up early after only sleeping six hours, then tried to go to the aquarium in Seattle. As it turns out, there is no parking anywhere near the place, even on Sundays. So… we ended up going to the flight museum near the Boeing Air Field. After that, we just headed to the airport a little early. We went to a Chili’s for lunch, then wandered to our gates and awaited the flights. Once back in Sacramento, Shakeh picked me up and we headed to Davis. The temperature was nice and warm, so much so that we actually had to use the A/C again. We went to Sophia’s for dinner and were ambushed by Tony! Afterwards, we went to Safeway for some supplies, then I headed back and commenced work on the final stages of the paper.

Coding is fun, writing is not. That is all, goodbye.

Yet another quarter began on Monday. I’m taking beginning racquetball with Coach Nosek, intermediate tennis with Coach Maze, and intermediate tumbling with John. As is custom, there was nothing to do on the first day of P.E. classes (which I find backwards). For lunch, I just had leftover pizza. I got right to work afterwards. Shakeh and I made a brief jaunt to Chipotle for dinner, then again, back to work for me.

Tuesday saw my other three classes happening. I’m taking ultimate frisbee with Maryclaire, advanced racquetball with Coach Biggs, and beginning tennis with Coach Lee. I have a feeling I might have to swap something though. After playing pick-up frisbee the first day, I couldn’t run in racquetball. Something’s gotta give. After classes, I wandered over to the MU for lunch, then took care of some travel. I bet you can’t guess what I did inbetween lunch and dinner?! Shakeh and I went to Sophia’s for dinner, always a wonderful choice.

On Wednesday came the realization that my beginning racquetball class might be a bit too beginning for me now. There are a few people in the class who seem to know what they’re doing, but I have to play 2v1 or cut throat to get competition = \ Hopefully the coach will play and that won’t be an issue. Tennis went fine, Tam is in the class so we’ve been playing a lot. I started working on front flips in tumbling. With any luck, they won’t be a problem. The lunch special at Hunan was calling, so Shakeh and I stopped by there. I bi8ked to the bank for rent money, then after some confusion, signed next year’s lease. Next up was my uneventful research meeting, followed by… You guessed it! I actually watched some racquetball on TV at night while working, it was pretty cool.

I had to swap my frisbee and tennis classes, so on Thursday, I did just that. Amazingly enough, thirty-six people are in frisbee! After class, went to the MU for lunch, then worked a lot. Shakeh and I went to dinner at Chipotle right before going to the theatres to see Dark City. It was a very cool movie, and I’m glad the first time I saw it was in a theatre, not on a TV screen.

I worked pretty much all day Friday, with two brief interludes to Cafe Mediterannee with Javi and Pastaq for dinner with Shakeh. Yes, that really is all.

Saturday, and you know it, work again. Can’t this damn paper just write itself? I had to go to the lab to switch out some graphics cards. Let’s see, besides that, when else did I get out of the house… Well, Shakeh and I went to 3rd an U for lunch. I did manage to catch the UCLA-Memphis game. I also watched Kansas rock UNC, then almost implode, then rock ‘em again. It’s funny, I hate that both of these teams will just blow out opponents as I feel that shows a lack of class. However, it was really nice to see it happen to one of them. If only it had happened to both of them earlier, then I would have been really happy. For dinner, Shakeh and I grabbed Woodstocks and watched SNL for the first time in years.

I’m not even going to bother writing about Sunday. Seriously, this is beyond depressing.