just got back from a 2w vacation. good times.

going through a YaST u/g at the moment post a 2m lag. still fighting some nvidia issues on my home system running suse 9.0 thusly i have to go in and tweak the nv/gl libs by hand post yast. no joy.

in preparing for our roadtrip down to southern cali i needed to buy some new batteries for our 3+ yr old sony 2.1Mp cybershot camera. ran into some trouble given the camera is old and the batteries have to be special orderred so ... i bought the new sony 5.1Mp camera. i really like this model. i should've shopped around but i happen to like the sony brand and i do like buying from bestbuy (vs frys) so i opted for the u/g. the extras package with this camera is really nice as well that includes a slick docking station that recharges the batteries, a usb connection, a nice neoprene case and tv a/v cables as well. the s/w on the system is intuitive/rich/responsive. the battery life was amazing in comparison to my old camera. i picked up a couple of 128M sticks. given i u/g from a 2.1Mp to 5.1Mp camera i was a bit shocked as to how quickly we chewed up the sticks ... good thing the prices are reasonable ... noting that there is a very expensive 1G stick out now. wow! i almost picked up the ultra sexy cyber-shot dsc-t1 ... i have a friend with this camera ... but i opted for the dsc-p100.

i'm working out issue now on how to get the usb hotplug to accept the camera's memory stick. /var/log/messages reports the event but the disk is reported as "not ready" and thusly i can't mount it. bummed as i'd *really* like to not to have to go back to our other household system ... that i'm trying to kill ... long/sad story.

we camped one night at san simeon. it was nice although we didn't get a chance to dig into the local history as much as we usually do on such outings as we had a boat to catch the next day. we got caught in la commute traffic and missed our first boat out to catalina island to which my wife negotiated with the ticketing folks a plan for us to catch the next boat at the long beach pier. long story short, we made it with only 5 minutes to spare, literally. i really don't like pushing things that close ... but we made it.

we camped on catalina about a 1.5 mile hike from the dock through the town of avalon. nice island. way too many golf carts (you'd have to see it to believe it) but i guess they are preferrable to monster cars on a small island. i think i'd go nuts staying on that island for too long. on the way out the next day we ran into a high school buddy and one of my groomsman for our wedding. it is a small world after all.

next up, we strolled into disneyland for a 3 night stay at the grand hotel. in a word ... *posh*. we opted for 2 days in disneyland and 1 day in disney's california adventures which was just right for a family of 3 with a 3.5yr old son. we saw/experienced all we could imagine and were thoroughly exhausted at the end of it all. given we couldn't go on a number of the rides given trey is under the magic 42" demarcator by a hair (or two) i suspect we might need an extra day when he grows more. we'll be back. the temp was scortching compounded with abnormally high humidity. the local weather reported stated it was monsoon weather ... perhaps that was a local joke, not sure. once you get use to standing in line, sweating with strangers it's "all good." we packed in tons of water each day and purchased pleanty more along the way.

trey was absolutely terrified of the 3d movies. i felt bad but he didn't want to take the glasses off or look away, even when we covered his eyes. my wife thinks it was because he wanted to keep his eyes squarely fixed on the snakes/bugs/lions. i imagine she is right. i suspect he had fun once it all sunk in and we talked about it quite a bit. he really enjoyed the kids water amusements. i was envious ... and sweltering. he dodged in and out of the streaming water for the longest time. it was great fun to watch. he always has enjoyed driving the mini cars and the disneyland ride was great fun for him.

he really like winnie the pooh so when we happened upon the life-size character he was astonished. and eeyor and tigger as well. we got great photos. that made the trip all worth it.

he enjoyed alot of the rides ... as long as we were sitting close together. he really liked tarzan's tree house and the jungle boat ride. pirates of the caribbean and the haunted house took some getting used to though. the small world boatride was fun to which we have a family joke ... "what is it about the world" ... to which he replies "it is bigger ... ahhhhh, no ... small world after all" ... he's a wise-guy. love that sense of humor.

i was amazed at how much the parked has remained unchanged from when i visited as a kid modulus the character upgrades, etc. amazing place.

trey enjoyed the train ride around the park. i remember liking it as well when i first visited disneyland.

the tiki hut drove us nuts.

the firework shows were amazing. truly. the parades were nice as well.

the day we checked out we opted to take it easy. we had breakfast at goofy's kitched in the disneyland hotel. this is well worth it for kids. i think we'll stay in that hotel next time. trey really liked pluto and goofy but the "real" characters, princesses and such, he shied away from to which snow white retored on queue ... "i found bashful." perfect. trey put his little white crocheted blanket over his head and posed for pictures. classic. i'll hold this one over his head in the years to come.

we swam in the pool a bit. i need to do much more of this with trey given i was a lifeguard/swim instructor for 15y. great job while going through school, etc.

on the way back home we stopped and had lunch at juliano's raw restaurant. tammy got a picture with juliano himself which made her day. too bad she didn't have her cookbook along to get an autograph. the food was tasty.

we then went to the beach and played a bit in the water. amazing beaches in santa monica. trey was getting a bit bold to the extent that at one point a wave took him to the ground and rolled him around. i anticipated this and wanted to see if we could establish a healthy dose of fear/respect for the ocean in the process. when i scoopped him up he was quite shocked and ran to tammy. then he realized he was soaked/cold/embarassed/etc and got really mad at the world. quite cute honestly. we wrapped him up in a blanket after which he started laughing about the experience. i need to go to the beach with him more and do it all again ... over and over and over.

on the trip back home we were going to wing it ... my style ... but found out that all the campgrounds were booked well in advanced. so where many of the hotels but we found a best western up the road.

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: Death Cab for Cutie/Transatlanticism/Title and Registration