Don’t you?

I love questions that start with “What are you doing next week?” Apparently, the maintainer for Red Hat’s installer, Anaconda, is moving to Hawaii soon. So Red Hat put on a presentation for the system 390 guys. And I was selected to go as well since my new job will be on the install team. The travel booking was a frustrating process. There were two flights available. The first one was through American Airlines and it had a layover in Dallas. The second was with Jet Blue and it was a direct flight. Of course, I wanted to use the shorter direct flight. But it would sometimes show an exception and sometimes not. And during this whole process, the 2nd closest hotel’s rooms booked up (the closest hotel at a 1/4 of a mile away was already sold out). I was forced to move even further away from Red Hat’s office. I ended up in Tewksbury — 13 miles away.

I arrived Sunday night. Surprisingly enough there is a Cracker Barrel right next to the hotel. I was not in the mood to eat at a place that is right next to my house. The whole point of traveling is to experience different things. There were not many restaurant choices around. So I settled on a Longhorn’s Steakhouse (ugh, they even had authentic Texas Chili on the menu). The rest of the days turned out to be much better.

Some of the things that I noticed about the Boston area include:

• Dunkin’ Donuts is like every where and Starbucks is almost non-existent.
• Instead of concrete curbs, they use granite (usually shaped at an angle like a triangle rather than square). But isn’t New Hampshire the Granite State?
• There are vans that have a sign (with lights) up top that say “school bus”. I don’t remember seeing a real school bus though.

On Monday, I ate at Westford Grille. The seafood was not bad at all. They had a number of beers on tap (unsurprisingly Sam Adams, surprisingly Guinness. But it seems that there are enough Irish folk around here to warrant every pub and restaurant that I went to to have it on tap.). On Tuesday, we went to The Brewery Exchange. We had to eat downstairs because some congresswoman or senator was holding an election rally upstairs. Supposedly there are a number of big screen televisions up there and we could have watched the Red Sox in the playoffs. I had another seafood dish and it was not bad at all. But I should have ordered the lobster bake. On Wednesday, we drove to downtown Boston. We warmed up at the Cheer’s Bar on Beacon Hill. And, afterwards, we walked down to Legal Seafoods. This was by far the best restaurant! The clam chowder was excellent. I tried out a new (to me) fish called Arctic Char. It is related to Salmon with a milder flavor. And I finished it off with a Boston Cream pie. Well, not a slice of a pie per se, but it was definitely worth it. In fact, Legal Seafoods was so good that I ate there again on Saturday by myself. (And wouldn’t you know but they have locations in Town Center, Boca Raton and CityPlace, West Palm Beach). On Thursday, we drove out to Firefly’s B-B-Q. There is not that many BBQ joints in this neck of the woods. So Firefly’s tried to make up for it by offering six different styles of sauces. Their Texas Sauce was made with chipotle and black molasses and it was not that great. On Friday, I went out on a limb and tried the Europa Cafe since it claimed that it was a Portuguese restaurant. I was a little worried when I drove to the place using a small advertisement map. But I found it after walking around a neighborhood. The place looked like a small neighborhood bar. There were some tables off in a corner but the lights were turned off. So I sat at the bar instead. I ordered the Chourico a “Bombeiro” for an appetizer and the Bacalhau a Casa for the main dish. The chourico came on top of a cute porcelain pig. The back of the pig was slatted to simulate a grill. The woman poured some Jose Cuervo inside of it and lit it with a match. Another amusing incident occurred when a guy in a purple pimp costume (complete with a large, fake, gold chain that said “pimp”) walked downstairs. The people in the bar gave him grief.

The ride into Boston on Wednesday night was easy enough that I did it again on Saturday. From my hotel in Tewksbury, I took 495 (exit 35a) -> 3 (exit 25b) -> 95 (25b) -> 2 -> Alewife station. And then took the subway down to Park Street. One important thing to remember is to not get off on the road that says 2A. But wait for the next exit for 2. Stoopid trap! Another oddity is on the exit out of Alewife. There are two roads that merge into one and both have lights that turn green at the same time! I wonder who was responsible for that screw up?

I was a little worried at the start of the week since the weather forecast was predicting rain on Saturday. But it cleared up nicely and turned out to be a sunny day in the 70s. I walked the Freedom Trail out to the U.S.S. Constitution and back. The trail is helpful in that it has a line of red bricks (or paint) running along the trail. Or at least most of it. There is a problem when you get to the Faneuil Hall Marketplace and the line runs into a large, open market. And the line runs through two areas where it is fenced off. I took some pictures here. I also climbed the Bunker hill monument. Which was interesting. The width of the stairwell is enough for one person. Yet you always have to pass people going up or going down. The condensation was amazing. Every stair was wet. And after I made it up to the top, I realized that the iron banister (only on the right, not the left side) that I held on was rusted because of the dampness and my hands were stained orange.

Well, my battery finally gave out and I put the second battery in the camera. I love the new high capacity batteries that the Mark III uses. I was able to take 4640 pictures (as well as a lot of chimping) on a single charge!

Overall the trip was really fun. The Red Hat guys sure know how to party. I would get back to my hotel at 1 in the morning each day. Which destroyed my sleeping schedule. I also ate and drank a lot. Oh, and by the way, I did learn Anaconda in depth. The only negative was my upstairs neighbor in the hotel. For some reason, that person would walk back and forth constantly at all hours of the day and night. Which just baffled me. The room is rather small with a bed, a bathroom, a couch, and a small kitchen. I don’t know what required walking back and forth twenty times at a pop.

When I first moved into the house, it had spiders. Which I did not mind as long as they left me alone. After all, a live spider means dead insects. But now I am seeing lizards in the house. Or at least dessicated husks of babies that could not eat enough bugs. While it is sad that these lizards are dying, I guess that I am happy that there are not enough insects in my house to keep them alive.

Taking the picture was rather interesting, and frustrating. I used a EF-25 II on the 70-200mm. I also used the live view feature to focus. It was kind of neat to see the razor thin plane of focus move up and down the lizard. Of course the wind kept blowing the body around and the slightest touch on the lens would jitter the picture. And I had to use an umbrella to see the screen in the bright sunlight.

My poor truck hit the big 40 today. Fortunately, it happened at a stop light and not when I’m driving on my favorite slalom course I call IH-35. While I am mildly itching to get a new car, I do not know what to get. Sure, I’d love to get a Corvette Z-06. But I can’t justify spending 70K for a new ‘vette. I would also like to get a second hand, high miles per gallon car. But I want at least 40+ mpg. And I don’t want to pay the new car smell tax. Maybe a Volkswagen TDI diesel? The Honda Insight is cute. And I see a lot of them around. But I doubt that I would comfortably fit my body in one of those things.

The cafeteria is a rip-off. They charge $2.12 for a bottle of Sobe Life Water. H.E.B. is a little better at $1.29. But Sam’s Club has them all beat at $0.845. Don’t you think that a dollar markup over the grocery store’s already marked up price to be a little high?

The sushi group went to Maru. A new sushi restaurant near Central Market. It was not bad. The decor was lacking. But the food was decent. Sadly, it is a little too far for lunch and Ichiban is still number one for lunch-time sushi.

I notice my camera freaks people out. At least slightly. And I don’t blame them. It is rather large and intimidating…. like Dan Becker’s head…

Hrm. It seems that the local movie theater has new hours on the weekends and is opening up later. WTF is up with that? Don’t they want to make money?

And that was not the only change. They changed the GUI on the ticket ordering kiosk. (Don’t you love how the refresh lines are caught by the camera?). And they changed the layout of the actual ticket. I wonder if this theater was bought out?

I drove down to Bartholomew District Park to take pictures of the course. However, that posed to be a problem. The park was abandoned and overgrown! Which is weird. Construction has been going on there for years now, but why abandon a city park? Especially one that has a swimming pool, basket ball courts, baseball fields, etc.

The buffalo grass was thick overgrown, but it was not a problem. The real problem was the wall of foliage. There were 15 foot high plants (bamboo and others) along the river. I could trace the path of the first nine holes, but could not find the next. I guess I will have to wait until winter comes around to try again. Maybe the plants will die off and I can spot the baskets…

So I drove to Amaya’s Taco Village for some tacos. The place was packed as usual and I had to wait 20 minutes to get a seat. The only problem that I have with this place is that their cheese is rather poor quality. It seems like it is shredded Velveeta.

Normally I hate the advertisements that litter my front door. Whenever I see something sticking in my door, I throw it away. But Fuddrucker’s was holding a one-day only special for a 1/3 pound hamburger, french fries, and drink for $5.00. Which is pretty cheap. So it seems that there does exist an ad that I will not throw away. I wonder if this is the start of a slippery slope?

It is so sad how accustomed I am to the huge American sized platters. Not that I eat everything on my plate — I rarely do. It is just that I expect to be served more food than is proper for a meal. When I picked up the plate, I noticed that the burger and bun was a little larger than my fist in size. It looked tiny compared to the plate and the fries. But it was more than satisfying. And I even did not finish the fries…

With both ends of the toll road blocked by stop and go traffic, what is the point of being able to drive 80 in the middle?