In Memoriam Memorial Day

This week's adventure report is late because the week started late because the weekend ended late because it was Memorial Day.  Now you know.

The weekend that ended late started on time and at the right place: Telegraph BrewCo.  I was joined there by Stephen and Doug, both co-workers.  It was a bittersweet time for Doug because I took the Foursquare mayorship of the location from him just before he got there.  I've got Telegraph, but he still has RightScale.  I'm working on that too!

Although it's cool to use a smartphone app to be "social" with a guy that's standing 3 feet away from you, that's just one of the benefits of Telegraph.  Other benefits include good beer, a nice space to socialize IRL (that's In Real Life for you normies), a friendly dog, and pretzels.  In no particular order.

The beer is as good as this photo is bad.

As we discussed last week, Diablo 3 is out, so we decided to LAN it up at my place on Friday night.  In support of that goal, the nice monitor that I had been using at work needed to come home.  It was too nice (read: "big") to fit in the frunk (that's a front-trunk for those of you more accustomed to having an engine up there).  Luckily, my car almost has a back seat and the back seat that it almost has is large enough for a "nice" monitor.

 

Roof down = infinite trunk space!

The Pintomobile was happy to help me with my monitor, but unhappy about being filthy.  I figured I'd reward her for her efforts by giving her a nice bath.  All clean and happy she set out to make some new Carrera friends over at east beach.  

I was hoping they'd make babies and leave a Boxster or Cayman for Melch, but no luck.  Maybe next week.

Memorial Day means the Santa Barbara Classic ultimate tournament.  A friend I'd made playing up north had picked up with a team from Sacramento and he and three car mates crashed at our place on Friday and Saturday night.  They were a pretty cool bunch but we didn't see too much of each other as they were busy playing and I was busy adventuring.  Here's a bad photo of them:

I missed playing in the Classic this year, but I was happy to go out and see a few games

On Saturday night we joined Ra and some of her friends for some wine tasting and Dargans.

Heading from the funk zone up State St.  First time on the trolley in the 8 years I've lived in SB

What other adventures do I have to report?  Well, I defeated the Prime Evil!  If that doesn't count, what does?

On Monday I caught up on some programming projects and joined Stephen, his wife Denise and Euge for a BBQ at Stephen's place.  Ribs, potato salad, beer (firestone and some not-too-shabby four-cans-for-a-dollar stuff too), apple cake, and a zombie movie.  I enjoyed the opportunity to watch a zombie movie and then go home to kill zombies in a video game.  It really tied the evening together.

By Tuesday we finally had to go back to work again but Tuesday night is time for our semi-occasionally-regularly scheduled cake decorating session at Ra and Eric's.  Truth be told, it was "coding and D3" night for me and Eric and cake decorating night for Ra and Melch.  I have a picture of their night instead of mine, because there's is cuter and more interesting.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be.  I think it's a Japanese thing. =)

Yesterday was ultimate on the beach with a side show of Crazy Dolphin Time.  Crazy Dolphin Time is named after Crazy Cat Time, which is when your cat gets inexplicably energetic and bounces around the house without provocation.  Crazy Cat Time is usually late in the evening ("Late in the Evening" is also a Paul Simon song, but I don't think there's any relation).  Crazy Dolphin Time comes earlier, usually around sundown.

Disclaimer before we go any further.  I'm not a trained marine biologist, and nothing that I say here should be construed as legitimate marine biological advice.  Now that that's out of the way, a little bit on dolphins.

Most of the time when I see dolphins, they're "commuting."  There'll be a few of them together and I'll see them arc a bit out of the water just to breathe.  After each arc they go back under for a while and then pop up again 20 seconds later a bit further down the beach.  They move parallel to the coast a just past the breakers and after 10 minutes or so they will have traveled beyond your vision.

Crazy Dolphin Time is a whole different matter.  It means a bunch of splashing, jumping out of the water, and goofing off in the waves.  Instead of going parallel to the coast in a relatively straight line, they kind of hang out in an area for a while flipping out (literally).  It's a pretty entertaining thing that hasn't gotten old as long as I've lived here.

I think that's all that I have to say about Crazy Dolphin Time.  If you want to know more, consult your friendly neighborhood marine biologist I guess.

That's all that I have to say about this week also.  If you want to know more, consult me the mayor of your local neighborhood Telegraph brewery.