American Thanksgiving is fast approaching. I'm looking forward to the three day week coming up, also not looking forward to it. It will be two days of work that won't be helping the project get finished. I'd make the developers work the holiday if I thought I could get away with it, but probably not. Two of them are from India so it isn't like they'd be celebrating anyway ...

Finally got back in to biking around the canyon at lunch hour. A director in the company kept booking half hour meetings at 11am that would stretch in to 12:15 or so and chew right through my riding time. Saw one of my favourite signs while in the canyon (see over to the right). That is the North American sign for "Good biking is over here". Plus by not defining what a single track trail is I can always claim innocence.

Kat and I will continue to avoid Black Friday. There would have to be something I *really* wanted and it would have to be very discounted for me to put up with the crowds of shoppers. So far nothing has met that criteria. The one big purchase that Kat and I were going to do has already been done online. We've ordered a pet-specific Roomba (I hope that link works, I think there are shopping cart specific values in there that may cause issues). That is the big gift for the house. For those of you who don't bother following the link, it is a robot that vacuums your floors for you, avoids banging in to furniture and will go back to the base station for recharging when the power starts to run out. Kat and I can indulge in more leisure time as robots make our lives easier. Hmm, I'm sure I've heard that statement before. What could possibly go wrong?

We figure if the robot scares the animals, that's just another plus.

Speaking of purchases, I recently bought an Eyetv adapter to plug in to the Mac Mini with the plan of getting rid of the CRT television and the DVR that we rent from cable company. Plus (my thinking went) we could burn copies of T.V. shows to DVD after we pulled out the advertisements. Oddly enough buying that piece of equipment led to the following discoveries:

1) It didn't work.
2) The cable company encrypts all the channels so, I can't get them on the EyeTV.
3) The clear over-the-air channels have horrible reception where we are in San Diego due to the hills.
4) We only watch a couple shows on cable.
5) Why the hell do we pay so much money for channels we don't watch?
6) Project Runway is shown a week later on Hulu for free.

So we've decided to drop cable entirely. I won't be able to watch Premiere League Soccer any more, but I see that as a couple hours of the weekend I get back. I'll go surfing or read a book.

So an initial investment of $200 is leading to a $20 cost to ship it back, a $200 refund from the company, and $60 less a month in cable costs. That's a win.

Some quick links.
One for the cat lovers out there, here.
One for the end-of-the-world lovers out there who are worried about the Large Hadron Collider causing black holes to swallow the world. The Register have gathered up some of the best comments from the fringe crowd.

Beer week was here last week. Some of the pubs around the areas were offering beers along with custom food. An example of the stuff we *didn't* eat is:

3rd Course; Spiced waffles, house made chocolate bacon ice cream, coco nibs
Beer Pairing; Belgian Stout

I'm not such a beer fan that I could pair a stout with bacon ice cream. I like bacon and I like stout, but throwing ice cream in to that equation makes it all kinds of wrong. We did have some coffee stout with a brownie at the Blind Lady Ale Pub. Yummers.

When Kat and I first arrived in San Diego one of our big complaints was the lack of pubs. There were bars everywhere, but no pubs, or very, very few. Now we have a bunch in the area with all kinds of custom micro-brews on tap. I appreciate the change, and from the crowds we are seeing in the pubs, so do a lot of other San Diego residents. So for all of you Canadians who like to mock American beer because it is weak and tasteless, you are mocking the best selling American beers (Budweiser and Coors) and if you look at the matching Canadian beers (Molson and Blue) they aren't that much better in the 'taste' category. There are *tons* of really, really good microbreweries down here. Stone Brewery even has a lovely upscale restaurant attached to its brewery. I put a link in there to their site, for some reason it asks you whether you are over 21, it is safe for work.

On a final note, got back to the beach again. Strapping the surf board to the top of the car and driving down the highway causes the surfboard to bounce around in a disconcerting way. Plus the straps were humming in the wind and drowning out the Stuart McLean CD I was listening to. Stuart McLean and surfing, there's a combo for you. Oh yes, turns out my upper body strength still sucks.

The holidays are fast approaching and I find myself getting excited. Yes, this may seem out of character, but within my sometimes-crusty mien, there resides a bouncy child that goes "whee!" when plans for christmas begin to wind up.

As some of you are fully aware, plans have flip-flopped a bit already, but we've always been fairly relaxed about that sort of thing. Adaptable one might even say. We've also been called 'spontaneous' because friends can often count on us to go "okay!" when they call last minute and ask us to join them for hijinks. So, this year is no exception; plans to have guests for Christmas day became speculation about traveling north or east to visit some snow and friendly faces, and finally morphed into an obligatory stay-at-home event. When I say obligatory, I do not mean to say it is a bad thing. Yes, Phillip may have to work right up to Christmas day due to a timely technical release; however, we are happy to cozy up at home with the pets in front of our gas fire and pretend it's cold outside while we sip coffee, have a long breakfast and open presents to each other. See? "Wheee!"

Of course we can't talk about holidays without mentioning Thanksgiving, which is coming up very quickly. This year, rather than attend the HUGE event hosted by our friends, known fondly far and wide as The Maryland House (even though they now live on a different street), we are hosting a small gathering with two other couples. The fun of this is that we are at home, so no traveling is required; secondly, one of the Kevins (we have so many friends named Kevin) is bringing the bird itself, with stuffing, so I'm responsible for side dishes.  I'll be making maple-glazed sweet potatoes, rosemary-orange cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts au gratin, brandied carrots and parsnips and my delicious garlic-mashed potatoes. Jenny is bringing gluten-free pumpkin pie and a banana-squash cream pie for dessert. How nice is all of that? Thank you very much!

In other news, Phillip is still beloved by his bosses and doing well at work and I am enjoying massage therapy classes immensely. I've learned so much in a short time about health, history and the quirky machine we call the human body. In the first week, I found myself saying "fascinating!" a lot, and that's just in the nine month Massage Therapy, Western Techniques program. There is a full year-program for a Holistic Health Practitioner license that is even more in-depth. Returning to school seems to be paying dividends already; I realize that this is what I've needed to feel like I can put down roots here and have no doubt that by the time I am ready to graduate, I will have made many valuable contacts that will see me happily employed with a number of ready clients. Future plans entail spa-work for a few years and maybe eventually owning my own small business.  It's exciting and motivating and I feel like I've made the right choice for a new career.

That said, theatre will never by far from my heart. While I don't think I can make a living at it here, I do think I will continue to perform and write for a long time. At the moment, I am cast in a show called "True West" by the amazing Sam Shepard. It is a story about sibling rivalry (between brothers), but the director is making a bold choice in casting 'Austin' as a sister (yours truly). The risk will be that when violence erupts, it will be seen as "against a woman" rather than the intended sibling hostility, so we will have an interesting challenge on our hands. I'm excited because this is a wonderful opportunity for me to take on a juicy role opposite a very talented friend of mine who is an amazing actor.  Rehearsals start in January.

So, that's my little update, out of the blue. I hope all of you are healthy, safe and happy and wish you all glad tidings for the end of the year.

I'm at the coffee shop while Kat is off doing a read-through for some Day of the Dead
thing going on tomorrow. I couldn't help but feel like I had to put that guy to the right out of his misery. Who bakes unhappy ginger bread men? Perhaps he was the only one enlightened enough to realize his lot in life is to be dismembered and ingested. I had to eat him before he spread the news to the rest of the pile of ginger men and a yummy sugary riot ensued. Wow. I need to cut back on the caffeine.

We're back from the cruise, it was fun. It didn't give me a "Wow, we must do this again!" moment, but it was enjoyable. Kat pointed out that the rest of my discussion (below) doesn't sound like we enjoyed it. We did, but we aren't cruising converts.
I have to say if you have kids, cruises would be great. There were (so we were told) 700 staff on board for 2,100 people. I think that is a better ratio than at day care. We saw a lot of kids running rampant around the ship unsupervised and why not, where are they going to go? I guess they could have jumped off the ship, five stories down to the ocean. Of course if your child is the type to do that, they aren't safe anywhere.

Kat and I spent a lot of time lying in the shade and reading. Snoozing. Snoozing was really big. Staying in your cabin to relax wasn't really much of an option since it was a very small cabin. Some of the bigger boats we saw had cabins with balconies facing out, how cool would that be? They did make towel animals for you during the 'turn down service' they were adorable. I'll link in some pictures later.

They do try and keep you very busy, if you allow them:

• Didn't take part in the 'hairiest chest' competition.
• Did play some miniature golf. On a ship, top deck, how cool is that?
  
• Didn't do any of the bingo (although they were giving away a lot of money).
• Did go in the warm-tub (wasn't hot enough to be called a hot tub).
• Didn't go to any of the 'how-to shop' seminars.
• Did go ashore in Catalina and Ensenda (Mexico).
• Didn't do any of the package tours they organize.
• Didn't go to the meet-and-greet with the captain and the officers.
  
• Did go to the first 'show' they had. I don't go to those types of shows so I don't have much of a baseline, but when the guy starts singing J. Geil's band 'Centerfold' song and they've changed the words to be about women on a yearly calendar, ouch. When Ms. November came out dancing with a rubber turkey on a platter (Thanksgiving month here in the U.S.A.), I wasn't sure if that was the part I enjoyed the most, or cringed the most.
• Did go see, briefly, part of the hypnotist show. Just enough to realize it wasn't worth it.
  
• Didn't go to the second show they had. It was promised as 'completely different' to the first show and just walking by the auditorium, you knew it wasn't different at all.

In terms of food ... acceptable and ever-present.  One of the areas was open all the time. You could eat from 7:30 AM straight through to midnight if you really wanted to. On the second night we started to meet Kristina and Kevin at 'our' dining room (there were two). The chef was Indian, which meant the vegetarian dishes at supper were great, the others were good. Free food did mean we saw some of those unsupervised urchins running around at breakfast with a fizzy drink in one hand and an ice cream in another. Yeah, that's what we thought too. Explains why they had a 'serenity' section at the back of the boat where children weren't allowed. We spent a lot of time there.

One thing that did strike me was that I should have been reading a dystopian novel while I was on board, it would have *so* fit.
- You're issued a card when you board the ship. Everything you want to do, you use the card. It's ID, it's collateral for borrowing towels or putters, it's money for the slot machines, it's money for your drinks. England, you paying attention?
- Your picture is taken as you get on the ship, off the ship, and constantly during the trip. Oh yes, those pictures of you belong to them and they can use them as they see fit.
- They attempt to keep you busy all the time, join in with your comrades! Have fun!
- Attempting to leave the boat or getting back on means you line up, get your ID checked and everything else goes through the x-ray machine and metal detectors.
- No matter where you go there are 'staff' watching you.
- You want to go where? That part of the boat? I'm afraid not comrade, but remember the dancers are on at 6pm in the Mikado lounge!

Overall the cruise is very much like going to Vegas, if you suspend your disbelief and enjoy it (and ignore the cost of drinks) it can be a lot of fun.

I had a rather embarrassing revelation on my motorcycle last week. I have a sixth gear! The Yamaha only had five and I was constantly looking for another gear, the BMW has six ... but the five I was using for the last six months were doing fine. I had an inspiration on the way home from work to try and see if there was another gear and surprise, there was. I'll see if the discovery of the sixth gear will increase my MPG.

I finally bought a surf board: 8.2 feet. Picked it up last week last week and took it out last Wednesday morning. Embarrassingly (again) the surf was stronger than I was used to and I couldn't even get the board past the surf break. I'd paddle out 15 feet and get nailed by a wave that would push me back 12 feet. Three waves later I'd gone nine feet and realized that I'm seriously short of upper body strength. I caught some tiny waves as they reformed before hitting the beach. There is next to no surf this weekend so I'm planning my not-so-mad skills out to the beach again.