July 3, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Congratulations, “Alice” and “Kelly”!
And welcome to the newest member of the family, little “Ramsey
Elizabeth Harlequin”.
As for all the people who keep asking me if I had a
good time in Idaho last
week, the answer is, “Of course not.
I was working.” That
fact that I was in a resort town on the banks of
Payette Lake in
central Idaho does not alter the fact that it was work.
Sessions ran from 7:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the
afternoon, with networking to follow.
Sure, the weather was gorgeous.
If you’re looking for a place to vacation, you could do worse
than choosing
McCall, Idaho. Sunny,
but still cool most of the day.
Sure, lunch was served on the boardwalk overlooking the lake
every day. And “networking”
took place over hosted cocktails.
And there was a rented jet ski for anyone foolish enough to take
a ride on it. But let’s not
forget that it was still work.
I had a tremendous amount of information to assimilate in three
days. Now if I can just
remember what I learned long enough to write a Trip Report on it.
And talk about getting away from it all.
McCall is a three-hour drive from
Boise along
State Highway 55, which closely follows the picturesque
Payette River,
which flows south from picturesque Payette Lake.
Except for a major construction site where, presumably, the
picturesque Payette River took a considerable chomp out of the highway
last spring.
In other news...
We’re taking advantage of the three-day weekend to
run a utility that will rebuild the keyword table in
Versatile. This is
something that just needs to be done from time to time, sort of like
taking your car in for its 30,000-mile Poke-and-Prod.
What it really means is that I’ll probably work late tonight,
getting Part One started, then come back to the office tomorrow
(Independence Day) to check on the progress and start Part Two.
With any luck, everything will be completed by the time people
come in to work on Monday.
In the meantime, I’ve found a few more housing
developments in Dublin/Pleasanton to take a look at.
Fortunately, I’ll be in the area this weekend.
Movies...
Saw B&R (Batman
and Robin) the weekend before I left on my trip.
It’s about what you would expect.
If Michael Keaton was the best
Batman, and
Val Kilmer was the
best Bruce Wayne, George Clooney is definitely the best at playing a
cardboard figure. Neither
the heroes nor the villains succeed in going over the top (kind of a
prerequisite here), although
Uma Thurman is delightful as
Poison Ivy.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is downright boring when you compare him to
Jack Nicholson’s
Joker (hardly fair, I’ll grant you).
Saw
Con Air
after I got back from my trip.
“Jeannie” refuses to see it as she has taken a dislike to
Nicholas Cage now. Says he’s
“too much like Michael Douglas”, whatever that means.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
Win an Academy Award, earn the undying disdain of the Great
“Jeannie”? Harsh choice.
As for the movie, my expectations had been lowered
to the point that I wasn’t expecting much, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Definitely what
John Malkovich calls “a popcorn film”.
Certainly what I needed to get the beautiful mountains of Idaho
out of my head in time to go back to work on Monday.
Love, as always,
Pete
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