sinnabor's computer. And I'm very, very happy to be here.Walked over to the bus stop near my office [actually, on the other side of 520] at around 4 PM. Eventually figured out which bus would get me to Bellevue... and waited for it. It was plenty late, and took a circuitous route to the Bellevue Transit Center, but it turned out to be fine, as the bus to Sea-Tac was waiting there when we arrived. Left BTC at about 4:45; got to Sea-Tac at around 5:30. Total cost: $2.25.
Went through security, decided to see a terminal I'd never seen before, and promptly got stuck in the wrong terminal when the TSA closed everything down for about ten minutes [I have no idea why]. Returned to the correct terminal and promptly ran into
britbear and Jeff; Steve was getting one of those wee massages, and Jeff was patiently waiting. Anyhow, I noticed that my flight was running almost two hours late, so I put myself on standby for an earlier flight. We all got pretzel sandwiches [hmmm] and chatted for a bit; soon, my name was called and I got on a plane to San Jose.We took off around 7:15, landed around 9. Everything was pretty much as I'd remembered it, although the airport was partially unrecognizable [new terminal, lots of tunnels, weird traffic flow]. Got on the VTA bus at around 9:20 and made it to the Santa Clara Caltrain station. Saw the train, jumped on board, and promptly found out that you can no longer buy tickets on board. Oops. Talked my way out of the $250 fine, and actually did buy a $1.75 ticket when I got to Diridon station. Walked out front to an empty taxi queue, but one showed up pretty quickly. A family of tourists somehow was stuck there, waiting for a ride from the Hyatt Ste. Claire, but they graciously offered me the cab figuring the hotel would eventually send something there way.
I successfully managed to tell the driver how to get to Brian's house - or at least to the Croatian Catholic church down the block, figuring that would be cheapest. Sure enough, it was: $6.75 fare + $1 tip. Total cost, door to door, Microsoft Redmond to Casa de Spanky: $11.75. Not bad - that's one day's parking at Seattle airport. Of course, that doesn't include the airfare... still, I am feeling good that I was so thrifty.
As luck would have it, Jason was over taping the Tour de France and looking after the kitties, so we chatted for a bit. Found some pizza in the fridge and a cold beer, and now I'm thinking of raiding Brian's house for pr0n and then going to sleep.
All in all, a good day.
Tomorrow's schedule:
9 am - the Wine Club in Santa Clara opens
10 am - I meet Michael Shulman for coffee at Microsoft Mountain View, yay
11.30 am - I eat me some ramen at Sapporo-Ya in Japantown
1 pm - I find The Jug Shop in San Francisco
1.30 pm - I cross the Golden Gate in Brian's rad Mini
3.30 pm - I find Dan, Chris, Erik, Brent, Steve, Jeff, Chaz, et al somewhere in Guerneville
