Rorschach.net

Must get Google Earth now! Goodbye mapquest, this is too much fun. Now I don’t have to ever leave my computer I can just visit places and zoom around the world from here. Make sure you try out the directions and local search functions as well.

You do need a fairly fast connection and a 3d card for it to work…

You may have noticed that I upgraded this blog to include tags. This is a nifty new way to organize stuff. Back in the day there were two competing methods or organizing the Internet. Yahoo had a directory structure with top levels and advancing levels of detail built into this big heirarchical tree. Very nifty to browse, but restrictive when you try to encompass the world into 200 some odd categories. On the other side is Google which threw out the directory and made everything searchable. Arguably a more scalable model, but you lose some of the uniformity and browse-ability of a directory.

Enter the tag. Somewhere between the searchable keyword and the category or directory label lies the tag. Each post from here on out will have a series of tags associate with it. Click on a tag listed at the bottom and it will take you to the Technorati tag page showing all the recent posts across the vast majority of the blogosphere and most of the Internet that are tagged the same. It makes for some interesting rabbit holes to dive down when you’re bored. Also you may notice on the sidebar there is a Taglist: (RSS buddies you’ll have to actually open the full site… I know, I know… it’s a pain). This taglist is the top 30 tags on this site with the size of the tag representing it’s frequency. Click on one of those tags and you’ll get all the posts that have that tag. Cooler than a search IMHO.

This is a test post for tags. Please ignore. Sorry for all the folks on the RSS feed.

Near our house are several elementary schools. There are 3 baseball fields behind them and a park that is part of a 6 mile long canyon hiking trail. Around these baseball fields are houses set high up on the hills. One of the houses it perfectly perched to overlook the baseball diamonds which are CONSTANTLY busy and full of kids playing ball. I think they don’t go to school much – they just play ball. This particular house has a wide concrete stair with a beautiful iron fence running along it that runs from their patio down to the back of the baseball diamond. The first time Paul and I saw this house we immediately thought of Mom. It couldn’t be more perfect. Dad could grill on the patio and they could watch kids play baseball all day long.

What do you think? Photos of the house are posted to the gallery under Life in San Diego.

Since we live in this big city now, Paul and I have decided we need to spend less time on our buts in front of the TV and take in more sites around town. So yesterday we FINALLY went and saw Star Wars after finishing unpacking the kitchen. I liked it. I was a bit disgruntled that the other two movies didn’t live up to their potential. Afterwards, we bought the Start Wars Lego video game. It is very silly and unfortunately reminds me a lot of the first two movies. Your charaters actually have the little lego holes in their feet and kersplode when you are killed.

Today, we had our first earthquake at 5.6. Roe showed no heroic animal warning signs which leaves me a bit concerned. Although I can’t really be upset since I was at the gym at the time and didn’t notice it myself. But Paul assures me we had one and he felt it. There are some wonderful web sites that show nifty maps about epicenters and all that on the USGS web site. There is also a spiffy feature that allows you to get an email when there is an earthquake. I am trying to figure out what good this will do since they last about 8 seconds. Maybe we’ll set up an account for Roe since he doesn’t have doggie detection like he suppossed to.

Anyhow, a few more boses emptied and we were off to the San Diego Book Fair in Hillcrest. As we’ve ventured in to several small communities, we’ve found them each to have their own flavor. Hillcrest has tons of restaraunts, several wine bars, a pet shop selling complete dog outfits and pet strollers and lots of wonderfully wierd people. We will have to take you all there when you visit. It is also the place of used books and used clothing store. I’ve never seen so many vintage clothing stores in so few city blocks. And of course the books. I figure with the two I bought today we’re up to 9,001 pounds since they were only paperbacks. I picked up (and paid for of course) a vampire novel written by a local author who happily autographed it for me while his kids added it to their count for the day and a book on cycling in San Diego outlining 65 different 5 to 25 mile bike trips in the area. Now, if we can only find where the bikes are in the garage….we’ll be set.

The San Diego County Fair starts today and runs through the beginning of July. Amy has to deal with the traffic since the fair grounds are just south of her, but that’s not why I’m posting. I’m posting because after 18 odd years of living in Kansas having a county fair based on Hollywood and the movies is a new twist for me.

Now I’m a city boy, so I can probably count on one hand the number of fairs I’ve attended if I could rememebr them, but this is a little more reinforcement that I now reside in SoCal when all the waffle cone, lemonade, and hot dog stalls have movie marquee facades and the main exhibit touts the number of movies that are made in SD as “Hollywood’s Back Lot.”

This may sound a little Carlinian, but we’ve got a lot of stuff. My wife removed a lot of the stuff before we translated 6 degrees, 23 minutes South and 22 degrees 45 minutes West, but seeing it all here in boxes next to the shelves and cabinets where it belongs… it’s a little daunting. It’s also 9,000 lbs. of stuff. I think the books are a big part of that, it’s too bad we don’t have a legitimate electronic book yet, ’cause I dig storing stacks of CDs into a something that’s the size of a pack of cigarettes, but get a headache reading off of an iPAQ screen.

At least I’ve still got my priorities straight… the wireless network and TiVo were online last night. I’ll worry about trivialities like clothes and dishes some other time.

P.S. Never, ever if you can avoid it, use Covad-Allied of Shawnee to move your stuff. I’ve had more fun dealing with used car salesmen and telemarketers.

Day 3 – Phoenix, AX to San Diego, CA
Days of significance in ones life should be set apart and made noteworthy somehow. It finally hit me today that I am moving. Most folks will think that is awfully silly o f me – having been packing and saying goodbye for months now but then again, I am a little silly. It’s easy to get lost in the “busy” of all things needing to be done and not have time to properly acknowledge the moment for it’s truly life-altering significance. I tried my best to mark the occasion and decided I’d like to do so with song. Try the following to the tune of “Buffalo Gals.”
You and me and Roe and going to the new house today, to the new house today, to the new house today.
You and me and Roe and going to the new house today, to dance by the side of the pool.

Now sing to your husband or significant other repeatedly starting at 5:45 local time and see if you stay married. Happy to say I did, we are and then we were up and on our way. It was a balmy 89 when we left town at 8:30 am. I don’t care if people say it’s a dry heat – it was still way to hot for me.

Having made the drive twice now, I have to say that this section is my favorite part of the trip. It’s a day of going up and down over various mountains. The plants change – and then change again. A few hills consist entirely of boulders. There are orange sand dunes stacked against blue shimmery sky and of course the nice border patrol folks who allowed Roe into the state of California.

When you’re looking at the speedometer because you feel you’re driving to slow and it says 83 miles per hour, you’ve been on the road TO LONG.

When we arrived in San Diego, it was about 70 degrees and we brought Roe into his new house. Even though we’ve been here for almost a day, I think he still feels like it’s another hotel. Hopefully, after a few more days here, he’ll warm up to it. Our stuff won’t be here until Wednesday so that makes it a little strange for all of us. I will spread my shoes around and hope he feels at home.

When we pulled in to town, it was to cold to swim so we stuck our toes in the pool after looking around. While Paul was out to fetch me from Kansas, they installed s sprinkler system in the yard. The sprinklers say to me, we’re serious about getting this stuff green again. I was happy to see it.

I started unpacking and putting everything away and began to panic a little. All these months of purging our stuff, organizing and packing away and now I have to UNPACK!!!! I will probably be done about the time we move again. I’ve seriously considered donating everything but the large items that unwrap easily to charity. It HAS to be less stressful than unpacking. Or we need to own one of those houses with retractable furniture like they show on the minivan commercial.

I’m off to the California DMV this morning – there’s no turning back now!

Day 2 – Tucumcari, NM to Phoenix, AZ
We finished listening to Lewis Black today and started going threw the Kleptones music Paul brought. It’s pretty good traveling tunes for those who like eclectic, assembled music. Roe got a little car sick today. It could be the heat of traveling through the dessert. Along the way, we saw a herd of sheep being worked along by one of Roes’ brother dogs along the highway. It was pretty impressive although I think it made Roe a little sad to see what might have been for him. Hopefully, as I picked and cut stickers out of his fur that night, he realized that life on the range isn’t all about riding herd and chasing rabbits.

When we arrived at our hotel in Phoenix, it was 96 degrees at 6pm. The heat was as startling as the hail and rain had been the day before. Roe learned that peeing on cactus is bad. We found out that restaurants with outdoor seating like the local Starbucks actually have “misters” not for plants – but for people – so they can tolerate sitting outside.

No extra bed for Roe but a King sized one with plenty of room for our tired family and a Jacuzzi tub for Paul and I before we hit the road again.

Day 1 – Wichita to Tucumcari, NM
It’s de ja vu. We’re leaving town with storm clouds on the horizon just like the day we moved Paul out to SD several months ago. There are a few minor differences. This time, there a topper on the car holding all of my belongings which could NOT be trusted to the moving van and Roe’s stretched out in back on a piece of spare carpet from our recently completed remodeling project. Items not trusted to the movers include birth certificates and important papers, all of my jewelry, shoes and my computer. Here’s a fun game for you all. If you have to pick what matters most and fit it in your car – what is it? Fortunately for us, Paul felt Roe and I were on his list.

We avoided the weather most of the morning but drove into a crazy storm near Amarillo, TX. We lost visibility completely and were being hailed on, rained on and fogged out. It was like driving across the board from Florida to Alaska – in a split second. See photos in the gallery and the all white one is the view from our windshield.

Arriving in our hotel in Tucumcari, Roe entered the hotel room and saw to his amazement not one, but TWO queen sized beds in the same room. I could see the look in his eyes – similar to when we bought the station wagon – as he questioned what other things we’d withheld from him. If such things were possible – why was he sleeping on the floor all these years? I know the next time he sees me eating chocolate, he will wonder if I am sincere when I tell him it is bad for him.