May 1, 1990
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie” and I spent the weekend, well, eating.
It started Sunday night at the Hungry Hunter in Lafayette.
“Jeannie” had received a coupon for 2 dinners for $19.95, Sunday
through Thursday, through May 24, 1990, not including Mother’s Day.
We decided to go Sunday because Monday was a Vacation Day for me
and I wouldn’t have to get up at 4:00 to get ready to go to work.
This meant that I could stay out late Sunday night.
Although actually, we were home by about 8:00 – not exactly party
animals here. We had
terrific prime rib dinners with all the trimmings and saved a grand
total of $8.95.
Then on Monday, we drove to Sausilito to have lunch
and do some shopping.
Mainly, we went to Sausilito to cash in a gift certificate for Laurel
Burch that “Marshall” had sent me for my birthday (thank you,
“Marshall”). There is also a
Laurel Burch gallery in Castro Valley, which is technically closer to
Concord than Marin; but if you had a choice between having lunch in
Sausilito and having lunch in Castro Valley, which would you choose?
We had a lovely lunch and spent surprisingly little
money. This may be because
Sausilito now has (virtually) only two kinds of stores:
expensive art galleries and tacky T-shirt shops.
“Jeannie” remarked that the town seemed more “touristy” than the
last time we visited it (this as a tour bus filled with people wearing
Coca Cola, Something Division sweatshirts pulled up).
I agreed with her while pointing out that tourists can afford a
lot more T-shirts than they can $100 thermometer-“art”.
Eventually, we made our way to the Laurel Burch
gallery where I picked out a pair of earrings and a matching pin and one
of her big coffee mugs to replace my Diet Coke glass which finally got
“dinged” to the point that I can’t use it anymore.
I could always avoid the chipped areas while drinking, but it was
getting to the point that I would lacerate my hand while washing it each
night. So now, I’ll use the
Burch mug until I can find a suitable replacement, probably at a Star
Trek convention.
Having Monday off naturally meant that I would go
into the office on Saturday.
I figured I might as well as my car was going into the shop for its
45,000 “poke and prod”.
Rather than trying to find someone who could shuttle me to and from the
Honda place, I just drove down there Saturday morning, dropped off the
car (making special note that the rear window wiper needed a new blade)
and walked to the BART station.
I had a plan for getting my Destruction approval
tracking into WordPerfect, but I knew that I would need “several” hours
and complete peace and quiet in which to set it up.
This is because WordPerfect is, after all, a computer software
package and computers, as we all know, have an unfortunate habit of
doing exactly what you tell
them to do.
It took me about 6 hours to work out the exact
format, print size, paper size, tab settings, etc. until I had what I
wanted. Then about 2 hours
to input all the data from last year’s destruction review that had
carried over into 1990. Then
I inadvertently put in a carriage return that screwed the whole thing
up, but I managed to find it and get it out of there.
Then I backed the whole thing up (twice) and password-protected it.
This means that no one but I can get into the file
to make any changes. Unless
someone else can figure out the password.
Which they might if they happen to know of a particular World War
I army nurse who has a memorial flag pole named after her at a hospital
in Antioch. And even then,
they’d probably spell it wrong.
I think I’m safe.
This means that I have already accomplished 2 of my
4 “stretch goals” for the year:
Enhancing computer knowledge and improving the Destruction
tracking system. This leaves
“enhancing knowledge of “BUSiness” software and language” (I’m already
scheduled to take a week-long class in June – “BUSiness” is the software
used by “IDHS”); and a Star Quality suggestion which I made last year
and which “Alma” immediately buried, but which “Chris” has shown an
interest in so now it’s suddenly in my lap.
In other news…
Of course, everyone has heard of the “Bay to
Breakers”, sometimes known as the world’s largest organized race, and
other times known as the world’s biggest block party.
It’s a race sponsored by the
San Francisco Examiner and
others and the money goes to charity.
This year, the 79th running will take place on May 20th
and Company has decided to dive in with the
Company Crazy Costume Crusade &
Contest.
There are four categories:
Singlepede (an
individual runner, not attached to anyone else, probably has no
friends); Couplepede (2 people running together, linked in some way);
Multipede (3-5 people running
together); and Bunchapede (6
or more people running together).
Costumes must have a Company related theme and be pre-approved
(they’re not totally crazy).
There will be prizes for the best “costumeagories” (honestly, I’m
not making this up) and all “pede” costumes will be reimbursed for cost
up to $30.00 per person.
Please don’t think that this means that I’m going
to be “running” in the Bay to Breakers.
I don’t volunteer for anything that requires me to be dressed and
in San Francisco before 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday.
I won’t even volunteer to get up and watch it on TV.
However, I might consider taping it for later viewing, if something more
important isn’t going on late Saturday night.
We are, after all, in the middle of a “sweeps” month.
Love, as always,
Pete
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