We got up at a moderate time and headed towards the touristy party of town known as Fisherman's Wharf. We ate at an Italianesque seafood restaurant called Ciopinno's. I had a prawn cocktail and snapper. It was very good, although the snapper wasn't quite as flavourful as I had hoped. It was still good though. Acompanying the meal I had a hefeweiser. All very yummy. Afterwards we dropped our camera from yesterday into a 30 minute development place and wandered around the area. Lots of souvenir type places and a string of seafood eateries. ONe thing I noticed which had me a little disturbed (based on my memories from home), was that they all had "Fish And Chips," but none of the places advertised what the "Fish" was, nor had options of alternative fish. They weren't battered properly either.

Anyways, we saw a submarine, and a merchant navy ship, both from the Second World War. I bought some postcards. We went to check on the film and it wasn't quite ready, so we stopped back over at Ciopinno's for a couple of beers. Once done, we picked up the now ready photos and headed to the GOlden Gate Bridge.

Once again, the weather and temperature at the Bridge were much different to that down in the Bay. It was cold and windy and cloudy. We took a few photos and decided to head up to the Bridge. Scott went to get his jacket from the car (for it would be needed) and found that his key had broken in half. We were stuck outside the car. So he called the rental agency and they said that someone would be out with a replacement key in about half an hour. So we hung around and took some more photos. I used up a roll and put in a spare that I had in my pocket, and it would out after only shot. Ugh! So I bought another film at the souvenir place and that would on extensively also. I popped it out and rewound the film, but I think about a quarter of the film was exposed. We shall see how many pictures come out of that roll. More than the previous one anyway.

The guy from the rental agency turned up, gave us some spare keys, and we got into the car. Then we made a trek up to the bridge, taking photos of the city. Amazing. I got a couple of the bridge itself, too. We made our way halfway across before deciding to head back. The wind and cold was getting a little much (yes, I'm a wuss).

We jumped in the car, crossed the Bridge and headed to US 1. We twisted and turned through some gnarley roads and turned down another road to get to Muir's Beach. Here I could say hello to my water, point in a south-westerly direction and state, "I'm from that way!" Heheh, much fun. We wandered around for a bit, picking up stones and taking photos. It was getting on a bit, so we decided to head home and have a nap before heading out to the clubs. We stopped in at an Italian place for dinner, I having a vegetarian calzone (yum). The waitressy type girl was also rather tasty looking ;-)

Back at the hotel I had a nap and then got ready. I headed over to Scott and Dan's room for a brief drink. Dan decided he wanted to stay in, so Scott and I went down to the lobby to get money and order a cab. Next thing we knew, we were and Bondage-A-Go-Go.

Details to be filled in soon...

2 August

Dan had already left by the time I had woken and called Scott. We had to check out so we agreed to meet at the lobby area. We held on to the car so we would have somewhere to put our luggage until our 9pm flight. We had Dim Sum for breakfast/lunch at a little Chinese restaurant in the nearby South San Francisco downtown area. It was very tasty, but water was even tastier. Once fed, we headed to the Bay Bridge and across to the Eastern San Francisco Bay area, past Oakland and many other coolish places. The climate this side was much like San Diego - more desert-like. Scott had grown up in this area, so we checked out his old neighbourhood and his old house. Then we headed to yet another bridge to cross back to US101. We passed farms for Sun Microsystems on both sides of the bridge, which was pretty wild (I'm an easily impressed geek, okay). The western side of the bridge put us in East Palo Alto, a place that has great historical meaning for technophiles like myself. Then it was north and west, to US1 - The Pacific Highway.

I would really love to drive the Pacific Highway from San Diego right the way up to Seattle. That would be one of the coolest things in the world to do. The short stretch we drove was awesome, and could only have been better if the sun had been out.

We came back into town and down towards our hotel, where we had to drop the car back to. We stopped for dinner in a little township between San Francisco and South San Francisco called Brisbane. Nothing too special.

Airport nightmare.

3 August

I got home at 8:30 and went straight to bed. Sleep was kinda rough, and I got up around 1pm. I had a shower and went on in to work to catch up on email and clear my voicemail. It was a good thing I went in today - I would probably have had an aneurysm if I'd waited until Monday to deal with some of the issues. After work I went for a few beers at Jock's and Jill's at Cobb Galleria with Brad and Peter. This was a very relaxing and pleasant way to finish the day.

I went home, shaved and got changed. The it was a quick race up to Green's to pick up a bottle of Absolut Mandarin and half a tray of Red Bull. Next stop, Lauren's, where we caught up on the events and adventures of the past week. And got a couple of RBVs into ourselves. We tried to convince Heather to come with us up to DJ Caz's new night up at Windy Hill, but she bailed. So we made the trek out there without her.

We found the place with little difficulty (it's across the road from where I work) but found ourselves very quickly in an amusing situation. The crowd was definitely not the sort of crowd we were expecting. Our 80's fare doesn't usually consist of the likes of Michael Jackson, Salt'n'Pepa, Janet Jackson, etc. That was soon rectified though, as we asked Caz to play some New Order. True Faith came on and the dance floor cleared, and Lauren and I had it all to ourselves. I must admit that by the end of the song I was rather exhausted - it can be very exercising to take advantage of an empty dance floor. A little while later Michele turned up with a couple of friends. I had been in contact with her earlier in the evening and I had told her that this was where we were going.

Two o'clockish rolled round, and since the place was going pretty slow, they closed and we all headed home. Lauren was a little worse for wear, so I dropped her home and headed to my place. I watched some TV for a while, waiting to see if Michele was going to come over. She called to say she was going to Backstreet. I stayed up to watch a documentary on Blur and then played around in Newsgroups for another hour or two. It was very late by the time I got into bed.

4 August

I woke up late morning and then spent the midday hours catching up on my list email, doing laundry and kind of tidying my room. Around threeish I called Lauren and we went to Waffle House for breakfast, and to discuss the coming evening's plans: a party on the 24th floor of an apartment complex downtown, followed (should the party not be cool enough) by Secret Room at Masquerade.

More email. Nap. Shower. Lauren's. Scott, Lauren and I go to party. Then Secret Room. Then Lauren's.

5 August

Come home. Sleep. Get up. Putz around. Watch Fear and Loathing. Work on journal.

Sunday TV. Chicken with peanut sauce a la Sarah.

6 August

Work. HexensNacht.

7 August

Work. John's work. Local.

8 August

Work. 9am - 8pm. Ugh. Publix sandwich. Dropped off San Fran films. Picked up network cable. Ran cable from bedroom to living room.

Things I need to buy:

New suit
Shoes
Printer
New bookshelves
New camera
New spectacles
Sunglasses
Webcam
New photo album
Chair for my computer desk

9 August

Yesterday bad? Today worse. I arrived at work just before 8am, and left at 745pm. Too hard, man, too hard. It meant that I missed going to Planet of the Apes with Brad and Lauren. I'll try to catch it later. I have an early start tomorrow, as I'm driving up to Charlotte, NC. Oh good fun.

But the good news of the day is that I have collected my photos and a picture CD from my San Francisco trip. So, if you look back, you will see that pictures have been added for this, and for other earlier events (like July 4th). Not all will make it online today. But many.

10 August

My alarm went off at 5:45am. I hit snooze and dozed for ten minutes. Then I got up, had a shower and took off for work. I arrived a little before 7am, pulled off the email I required, and then Peter and I took off in the direction of Charlotte, NC.

Got home around midnight, got changed in a rush, zoomed over to Lauren's, grabbed a drink, and then she drove us over to the final Cyberia at 9Lives. There weren't too many people about, but we had fun, nonetheless.

11 August

Secret Room was the order of the evening. London After Midnight were playing at the Glitterdome in Heaven, which drew out a lot of gothsters than wouldn't ordinarily have come out. I saw Christin for the first time in ages and got her new number. I must call her and go out for a drink with her some time.

12 August

13 August

14 August

I came home from work to do laundry and pack for my trip to Connecticut. Part way through this porcess I suddenly was hit by a wave of depression. I don't know what brought it on, but it was suddnely there. I decided that I needed a change. Now. So I decided to rearrange my bedroom. And I did. I've now got more space available to play in.

15 August

Spen the morning at work and then off to the airport for my trip to Connecticut via New York. At the outside check-in, the guy wanted a tip. Just for checking my luggage. Sure there was no queue, but I could have gotten this done in air-conditioning inside. No thanks. Then it was off to the Crown Room for a drink

The flight arrived more or less on time. My bag popped out pretty quickly and I was off to find a car.

Found the car, pulled out my directions and got on my way. Unfortunately I ended up facing the wrong direction on Grand Central Parkway, so I had to do a bit of a turn around. But once that was sorted, I was on my way. I found Whitestone Bridge, and Hutchinson River Parkway and I was set.

On the way north I passed New Rochelle, which got me to thinking about my old friend Rochelle in New Zealand. I wonder what she's up to these days. She was always good fun. Not necessarily the most academic, but she set her mind to being a kindergarten teacher speciallising in deaf children, and she got all the necessary quals. So good on her. I haven't seen her in years.

The drive was dark and night-time so I didn't get to see any of the countryside. But I found the hotel with no difficulty. The girls on the front desk were VERY cute. They got me set in my room and then indicated where I could get some food (Duchess, from which I got a very tasty cheese burger and fries).

I worked until about midnight on some proofreading for some new documentation we are about to release. Sleep was made difficult by the fact my room was right next to the elevator. Oh well.

16 August

In the morning I got up, showered, had breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausages, potatoes, orange juice) and headed to New Milford where my top secret project was taking place. I left there for lunch, eating in Danbury at a little Italian place (Greek salad and garlic bread and a coke). We were waiting on resolution of some issues before I went back so I continued to work on the proofreading.

We determined that I wasn't going to be needed until the morning, so I had a pseudo-nap, watched some TV, ate some dinner (mushroom soup, a crap garden salad, a decidely average chicken alfredo). Afterwards I watched Friends (a rerun of one of the few episodes this past season that I had actually seen) and three episodes of Will and Grace. At 10pm I shut off the light and failed to get some sleep.

17 August

Friday morning I headed back up to New Milford and was finished the job in about 90 minutes. It was ten and my flight wasn't until four, so I decided to go for a drive around Connecticut, with the ultimate desire of reaching Rhode Island. I quickly determined that RI was probably a little ambitious, but I did have a good drive around. Some very nice old structures were around the place (churches, mainly).

Back to the airport, dinner at Chili's, drinks in the Crown Room, and back to Atlanta. I got home, got changed and headed over to the Local for a bite to eat before running across to Lauren's. We had a catchup drink, waited for Clair, and then we went over to Cyberia's new location. This was a whole lot of fun. The venue is nice, with lots of rooms and places to be, there were lots of cool people (I got to chat with Gabby for a bit, about music, anime, New Orleans). I also spent quality time with Clair, with Rosalie, and with miscellaneous other people. All in all, very splendid, and I was home around 5am.

18 August

I awoke very early (8am) in spite of my late night, as my roommates and their girlfriends were getting ready to go camping and mountain-bike riding. I snoozed in bed for a few hours, but no more real sleep was achieved. I did finally get up and sort out what I needed for my own liitle adventure away - to Scott's lakehouse. At around twoish I picked up Lauren and then scooted back to Michele's to collect her. From there we went to Clair's to meet with him. Clair was having to resolve some work issues before he could leave, so we went and collected some more supplies and when we got back he was ready to go.

We hit 85, to 285, to 400 and zoom zoom zoom up to Lake Lanier. A few miles shy of the lakehouse we stopped to pick up meat and water and breads and fun stuff at Kroger. Scott and Meg and Brad joined us and once we were all supplied up we made the final leg to the Lakehouse, where we got down very quickly to the business of having fun. Woohoo!! I think I finally got to bed around 5am.

19 August

Wake up. Laze. Recover. Cook out. Drive Home. Watch Six Feet Under. Watch South Park. Sleep

20 August

From work I cruised over to BellSouth.net to pick up Lauren and then we sat in traffic for an excessive amount of time across 285 to 87N on our way to Athens to see Bria before she leaves for New Jersey.

Once in Athens, we located Jenna's house and then the four of us plus Bria's other Lauren went to The Grit, a vegetarian restaurant, for dinner. I had past primavera and a scottish ale. After dinner we dropped Bria and company back at Bria's and then Lauren and I went for a milkshake at The Grille and headed home.

Needless to say, I was very tired when I got home, and went straight to bed. John was already out at the Lcoal.

21 August

Sarah's 26th Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Updated my journal a bit. Did some more tidying of the rearranged room - still more to tidy though. I should go to the pub to see Sarah for her birthday, but I'm just way too tired. I need to sleep.

I also booked accomodation in New Orleans for Halloween. Woohoo! Now I just have to send a deposit check.

22 August

Work. Trivia. Came second - woohoo. Lauren and Glenn came with me to Nomenclature to say bye to Gabby, who is returning to school in New Orleans. I was home by 12:30.

23 August

Unwell. Sore throat. Very raspy voice. Reading new books on requirements engineering. Very interesting, very useful

Charlotte brought over some photos today, including one of me and John at the Local. Cool.

24 August

I went to work, but only to collect my laptop and various notes, and then I came home again. I worked on a specification today. This is going to be a big document, and could take a while to write. But I will get there.

Damn. There are two bands I want to see tonight, playing at the same time(-ish) and I'm not really well enough to go out. For the record, the bands I want to see are Sins Of Lust and His Name Is Alive. Bother bother bother bother. I am going to skip the club tonight, and I may skip it tomorrow night as well. Lewis Black is doing stand up at one of the comedy clubs tomorrow night, so I'm keen to go check that out, even if I'm not 100%.

I took some TV time, to watch The Thirteenth Floor and Next Friday on HBO. I'd seen both before, but, well in the first case, Gretchen Mol is a cutie, and in the second, Ice Cube can be rather amusing. That's about when John and Charlotte arrived home. We watched a little bit of Politically Incorrect and then it was bed time.

25 August

I did more work on the specification I'm writing for our key application at work. This is going to be a big project, but I'm going to do it to ensure that I've done everything to make sure the resultant product is correct. I'm taking our existing product and writing its functionality up to be the baseline, and then I wil be adding the requirements that have come from my research. In some ways it's a little tedious, in other ways it's really fun. There shall be no question over what the product is supposed to do! Heheh.

At 8pm I watched the rerun of this morning's Tri-Nations game between New Zealand and South Africa. And what a huge game it was. An awesome display of rugby skills, and the All Blacks won. Fantastic. The rest of the evening was spent lazing around, not talking. Which was eacy, because there wasn't anyone home for most of the night.

26 August

I woke up a couple of times, and eventually got up and had a shower. My voice and throat don't seem t be as bad as the last couple of days, but I do want to take it easy. I did leave the house, for the first time since Friday morning, to go to Publix to get some groceries.

Kevin and Lisa stopped in around 3ish and ended up spending the afternoon and most of the evening with us. Steve turned up around 4pm with a very nice bottle for Whiskey Tasting Sunday. John opened the bottle of Old Grandad that Jenny had given him for his birthday; that had some bite to it. While liking bourbon, I certainly feel that I prefer scotch, especially when consumed without a mixer. Since I had not been out of the house since Friday morning, my contribution was the Talisker that had hardly been touched. It was tasty, but not in the league of Steve's bottle.

Charlotte (who had been at the baseball with Jenny) arrived around 5ish, and Glenn turned up not much later than that with a bottle of bourbon. Sarah, Alice and Lauren turned up to watch the live Madonna concert, and they were followed by Jenny and Lauren (individually). Or maybe Jenny was earlier. I can't remember. She was there, anyway. We watched Sunday night TV and then switched to HBO to watch Madonna's Detroit, MI, concert, being televised live. It was very entertaining; mostly her recent material, with nods to the past in the form of La Isla Bonita and Holiday. Much fun.

After the show, everyone sort of dispersed very rapidly, but those that did remain watched South Park and then it was home/bed time. By the way, Charlotte cooked the entire crew a wonderful meal (thank you Charlotte), and I finished off with vanilla ice cream.

27 August

Back at work. Lots to do. Fun fun.

Went to the Highlander to catch up with Clair, who was just back in town from an install over the weekend. I took John and Charlotte, too. Ran into Scott and his Crush. Rosalie and Nikki also turned up later on. And we were also paid a visit from Stacie. Just so much action going on at the Highlander.

28 August

Work. But first I went to the Post Office to pick up some mail - my documents for the renewal of my H1B visa, which will allow me to remain in the US until May of 2004.

I got out of work around 7pm and headed home. John and I were going to go up to a local bar for a floofy drink and then watch either Mallrats or Chasing Amy in preparation for seeing Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. But it's now 7:50 and I can't find John.

Speaking of Amys, guess who's coming to visit in October? That's right, Amy! Yay. As it happens, I think I'm going to be in Chicago the week following her visit, for work. That might allow me to catch up with Lexi and Shawn, too.

I'm having problems with my DSL link. The modem is indicating that all is well at the physical level, but my router is unable to make the PPPoE connection to Mindspring. This means I can't go surf, get my emai, or even upload these updates. This is just WRONG! Oh well, I'm a patient person; it'll work later. And no, I can't use dial up, because since I rearranged my room, the phone cord won't reach to my computer.

John just called; aforementioned plan is in effect; Tiki Tuesdays at The Imperial Pint in T minus 20 minutes.

Off to the Imperial we go, and we skip the floofy drinks, settling on a pint of beer (Boddington's) and fish and chips. The Fish wasn't too bad; not the usual crap they serve here in Georgia. We also got a free shot and birthday cake from a man in a strw skirt and a coconut bikini. Yes, I live a surreal life.

After dinner we zoomed down to Blockbuster and picked up Mallrats for our evening viewing. (Chasing Amy was out, damnit).

29 August

After work was Trivia at the Local. We didn't do so well. Afterwards I went to Nomenclature with the hope of catching Jill so I could get a ticket for the Snog show on Friday. I got tired and left before she arrived, but I ran into Clair as I left and he sorted the ticket situation out for me. Yay Clair, you rock.

30 August

What did I do on Thursday? I was hoping to see Michele, but she went MIA. Slightly concerning. I ended up going with Lauren to pick up a pass to DragonCon. It turned out that I was unable to get a Saturday onwards pass on Thursday. Suckie. Lauren got her pass, and then we went for dinner at Apres Diem. I came home and still now word from Michele.

31 August

Local. Snog. Cyberia. Chamber. Can we just say, "DRUNK."

The evening started at the Local. I was still trying to get hold of Michele, but with no luck, so I went on down to the Local with Clair for some food and a drink. Lauren met us there with her new friend, George, who she had met while flyering at DragonCon for the Snog show. Clair took us on up to Snog, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I walked away from The Riviera with a $100+tip sized tab, mostly of Red Bull. I was not in a grand state.

Cyberia was full of fun people, and I got to meet a couple of the members of Snog, who are from Australia. Can't really remember much more of Cyberia. Russ gave me a ride to The Chamber (see, I must have been really drunk to go there), so I could check out the English DJ who was in town. Oh, and to find Scott and Clair :-). Which I did.