I've been back for two weeks but here it is...the trip report from Boston.

Any red-eye flight is never fun and the San Jose-Boston trip was no exception. To add insult to injury, US Airways started to charge for everything. Among them, they added a charge of $2 for water and soda. So there I was in my middle seat, cramped for hours just waiting for the plane to land.

We got in a hour early. I went to Enterprise for my rental car. Good price but they gave me a PT cruiser. Has anyone actually driven these things? Oh my, it's a piece of crap! It seriously took 60 seconds to go from 0-60. It was pathetic. It did however get me to where I was going, which was a road trip through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and back.

First stop was a half hour south of Boston to Mansfield/Foxboro. Foxboro is home to the New England Patriots. Mansfield has the Comcast Center, which was the venue for the Radiohead concert that night. There seemed to be a buzz going through the Pats' part of town (I subsequently found out they had signed John Lynch that day). Next to the stadium, a new mall is opening up called Patriot Place. Inside was a new luxury theatre. We didn't pay the extra $10/ticket for the luxury part but from what I could tell, we could be looking at the future. A grand piano thats plays in the lobby. Sit-down restaurants up front. Luxury seats and at-your-seat food service. We saw Tropic Thunder, which was an excellent movie.

There wasn't much in terms of restaurants in the area, so we ate at two local chains. Both places seem to serve popcorn as an appetizer. Is that a New England thing? The first place also was a little peculiar. The menu offers entrees with a potato and vegetable. My sister asked for rice and broccoli. To which the waiter replied, "usually rice is your vegetable...what kind of potato do you want?"

The Radiohead concert was excellent (especially compared to the imperfect one they gave at Outside Lands). 25 songs, old and new were sung. The last part seemed to contain most of the slow songs Radiohead has performed but that didn't stop the drunk guy next to us from loudly singing along.

The next day, we headed further south. My brother's flight was delayed so we had to stick around the airport. There was a huge freeway sign that read MALL, so naturally we went there. Upon arrival, there was a Wal-Mart and a large building that used to be a mall. Inside it, the most popular place in there was a DMV renewal station.

We got out right away. I picked up my brother and we headed to Mystic, Connecticut, made famous by the Julia Roberts movie Mystic Pizza. Yelp didn't like their pizza so we didn't try it, but I wish we could have spent more time in the city. Instead we headed to Abbott's Lobster. It's a lobster place that's only open during the summer and they steam lobsters from 1 pound to 10 if you can believe it. They crack it for you to enjoy and it was mighty tasty.

Next was Foxwoods, the largest casino in America. It used to be the largest in the world but Macau is starting to build larger ones. Imagine a forest and then a group of trees was replaced by a casino. That's how the scenery is there. It's actually 4 separate casinos under one roof but they still took my money just the same. $100 at the blackjack table gone in less than 20 minutes...5 minutes of that from the dealer shuffling the 6 decks. In a weird reversal, I won $150 at the slots, so it was a net win. Inside were some great restaurants including a Craftsteak from Chef Tom from Top Chef, a David Burke steakhouse, where we got some sliders, and a Junior's Cheesecake, straight from Brooklyn.

Time to head back to Boston. Upon our arrival, we ate at the Top of the Hub. The Prudential Building is the second tallest building in Boston and on top is a restaurant with great views of the city. Our table looked toward Cambridge. Also, it just so happened that a lightning storm was going on, giving us great views of that.

The next day was Chinatown and a tour of the city. The Chinatown here is actually pretty good. Not as touristy as New York, not as small as D.C.'s, it seemed like a smaller version of the great one in San Francisco. Decent dim sum too. Afterwards was the Boston Duck Tour. What they call ducks are WWII vehicles that could go on land and in the sea.

Sunday was a transition day as we moved to a new hotel, the Intercontinental, one of the newest hotels in Boston. The sign on the door says that the room should cost $999/night. The website said $349/night. I got it for $149/night. Thank you Hotwire! Boy was it upscale. The staff were extra friendly. You turned on an electronic sign to signify do not disturb. The shower head was so strong, you could have fallen like Kramer did when he installed his black-market shower head on Seinfeld.

We ventured that night to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market and to the North End. Faneuil Hall is a major historical landmark now turned into a shopping marketplace. It also holds a Cheers bar. If I understood this correctly, the TV show based their bar on the Cheers Beacon Hall location and the Faneuil Hall location based their bar on the TV show. Yeah, confusing. The North End has a large concentration of Italians. We ate at Giacomo's, highly recommended by many including Rachael Ray. A few peculiar things about the place...it only seats 30-40 people. Cash only. And you must stand in line. But boy is the food good. We sat at the bar area facing the kitchen. A little hot to sit there but with lobster, clams, mussels, and pasta for $18, I'm happy. Also had a cannoli from Mike's Pastry. Yummy.

Monday we ventured back to the Back Bay for the Fenway Park Tour. For $12, you get to see the park for much cheaper than going to a game. The only disappointing part of the tour was not getting to go on the field. Apparently, people were stealing the dirt and grass (LAME!). My sister then discovered Newbury Street (Chanel! Betsey Johnson! Burberry!). You get the idea. I fled to Borders.

Dinner that night was at the Omni Parker House, the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie. Extra good and pretty cheap as it was one of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week.

Our last day was a visit to Harvard and MIT. The Samuel Adams tour was supposed to cap the trip but they were sold out when we got there.

One last story...I was sitting in the middle seat because of my sister. She slept a lot on this trip and on the trip to Vegas for a layover before Boston, she rested her head on another passenger's shoulder, which scared her half to death. So I said, you get the window from now on. On the return trip, she's sleeping but her head's moving around everywhere. Finally, her head dropped and hit square on the window and she woke up. I couldn't help but laugh really loudly.

And that was my journey.

Great quote from Overheard in the Office. I know a couple of co-workers who could be on this site.

Heated caller: So let me understand this: if I die, I get $100,000?

CSS rep: No. If you pass, your beneficiary will receive $100,000.

Heated caller: But it is my money. I am paying the premium for it. I should be able to get my money. Why can't I have my money?!

CSS rep: Because you will be dead, ma'am.

Heated caller: That's ridiculous. I want to speak with a manager.

Everything you have heard about The Dark Knight is true. Come watch the great performance by Heath Ledger but stay for Christopher Nolan's great story and direction. It keeps you riveted for a lengthy 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Next Wednesday, July 30, The Cheesecake Factory is offering its cheesecake slices for $1.50 per slice.

Oh, what a day.

So here was the plan. I'd fly to LA to see the new Simpsons ride at Universal Studios on Sunday. On Monday, Vegas. Tuesday...back home.

But Sunday...man, just bad luck all day long.

It started very early. 2 am to be exact. My sister's been a car accident. Idiot. Ran into a stone wall and totalled the car. She wasn't hurt (in fact, it seems like she forgot that it even happened). But by the time I picked her up and brought her back, it was time for me to get on a flight to LA.

9 am. We're making our final approach into LAX. The pilot comes on: "those of you on the left-hand side of the plane will see smoke coming from a building. That's Universal Studios."

Hmmm, that's where I wanted to go today. Steves picks me up and we go to his workplace (Code Monkeys on G4) to check the news. The park opens at noon. Ok, let's go. We get there. The park is still closed. In the end, it wouldn't open at all that day.

So we head down to UCSD to see Alex and have dinner. There are some great garlic fries to be eaten down there. Steves drops me back at my hotel so that I can rest up for the early morning flight to Vegas. I'm waiting at the elevator with a guy who had just checked in. We get in the elevator and I ask what floor. He replies 6. That's where I am. We walk out and we both head for the same room! They double-booked the room! My stuff is already in there so this room was mine, but man, what if I got there a minute too late?

The rest of the trip was better. Some quick hits:

It was weird to see two Amish couples flying in an airplane.

Lawry's the Prime Rib place is the original prime rib place, as our waitress insisted, not the rumored "Prime Rib House" (sic) in San Francisco.

I won $120 at the tables.

I'll be back in LA in a couple of weeks.

Indy Jones 4. Ok, I could ignore the LED countdown clock in the year 1957. I can look past surviving a nuclear blast in a "Punky Brewster" lead-lined refrigerator. And sure, Indy could be the know-it-all that Nic Cage was in "National Treasure". As we move along through the film, it's actually pretty good...lots of action, good characters...but that ending??? Oh my. That pretty much ruined the film right there.

Just watch the whole thing...

It took a very long time into Sunday night, but finally the San Jose Sharks succumbed to the 3-0 hole they dug themselves in and lost to the Dallas Stars 2-1 in quadruple overtime and ultimately lost the series 4-2.

Many questions can be asked as to why this happened. Were they overconfident after getting points in 20 of their last 22 games? Is San Jose's relaxed nature not ideal for a playoff atmosphere? Is Ron Wilson the right coach to lead them into the playoffs?

If we learned anything from this series, the Sharks need somebody who can be aggressive, score, and lead. The team has plenty of people who can do one, maybe two of these things, but not all three. They only need to look across the ice for the ideal person in this series, Brendan Morrow.

Where do we go from here? We're probably not going to re-sign Brian Campbell unless he comes back at a discount. These playoffs prove he's not worth the $5-6 million he's probably going to command in free agency this offseason. He was very shaky in the defensive zone and his offensive prowess wasn't enough to offset it.

Keep Brian Boucher. He was more than competent and would give Nabokov more rest during the season.

Finally, keep Ron Wilson. He knows what he's doing and probably no one else is available who is as good as him.

Dallas...congratulations. If history is correct however, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup. No team who has defeated the Sharks in the playoffs has ever gone on to win the Stanley Cup.

Crap, where have I been?

March Madness is pretty much done, which means my basketball site is done for another year. It sure took up a lot of time this year, but that's what happens when it attracts 350,000 hits in 5 months. Two newspapers wrote about it including South Carolina's largest newspaper The State (that's how the guy introduced himself) and the Palm Beach Post plus it was mentioned in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, CBS Sports and others.

Dith Pran was a survivor of the genocide in Cambodia and his story was dramatized in "The Killing Fields". When we watched it high school, classmates said I looked just like the actor who portrayed him. One even drew it in my yearbook. Now Pran has passed on. RIP

Finally, this should bring back some memories.

The 2008 Academy Awards - Predictions

It's that time of year again to predict the Oscar winners. Here we go...

Best Picture - No Country for Old Men

Personally, I enjoyed Juno more, was more fascinated with Michael Clayton, in awe of the performance by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and liked the storytelling of Atonement. No Country for Old Men however works on so many levels, it pretty much is a complete movie.

Best Director - Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress - Julie Christie, Away from Her

Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Original Screenplay - Juno by Diablo Cody

Best Adapted Screenplay - No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen

Best Animated Feature - Ratatouille

Best Documentary Feature - No End in Sight

Best Documentary Short Subject - Salim Baba

Best Foreign Language Film - 12

Best Cinematography - There Will Be Blood

Best Editing - No Country for Old Men

Best Art Direction - Atonement

Best Costume Design - La Vie en Rose

Best Makeup - La Vie en Rose

Best Original Score - Dario Marianelli, Atonement

Best Original Song - Falling Slowly, Once

Best Sound Mixing - No Country for Old Men

Best Sound Editing - Transformers

Best Visual Effects - Transformers

Best Animated Short Film - Madame Tutli-Putli

Best Live Action Short Film - At Night

Please remember to go vote February 5. As a Republican, I can only vote for Republican candidates in this election and for this primary, the field could have been better. But of the men left, John McCain is probably the best choice to uphold conservative values and have a chance to win in November.

My heart says vote for Mitt Romney. He's a businessman. He co-founded Bain Capital and was CEO of Bain and Company, one of the best consulting firms around. He saved the Winter Olympics in Utah. However, he seems to be one of those guys who tells you what you want to hear rather than what he believes in. He's the Republican Party's own John Kerry and we'll be killed in November if he's nominated.

Rudy Giuliani is best known for keeping New York City in order after 9/11. If that man was running for President, he would have an excellent shot at winning. However, we got Giuliani, pre-9/11, whom New Yorkers never truly embraced with his divisive policies on race, the homeless, and education. Watching him on the campaign trail, it doesn't seem like he's taking it too seriously...always reaching for the next joke or one-liner. When he does take it seriously, he relies upon 9/11. His strategy in the primaries have certainly not helped. By ignoring Iowa, New Hampshire, and other states, he needed to be the front-runner in the national polls to ensure victory in the later, bigger states such as Florida, California, and New York. Now, he is trailing and has no momentum.

The beneficiary of Giuliani's decline? McCain. He's got national security down pat. He's said the right things about the economy, though it is not his strong suit. He is portrayed as a truthful man which can be good and bad at the same time. There are questions surrounding his health. After all, if inaugurated, he would be 71, the oldest ever. There are also questions about his loyalty. Whenever he doesn't get his way, he runs to the Democratic side, siding with Joe Lieberman on climate change, Russ Feingold on campaign reform, and others. However, in this time of war, McCain is the one Reublican candidate who can ensure we can stay on top of national security while bringing about enough change to reunite a country so badly divided after a less-than-stellar Bush presidency.

Briefly, on the Democratic side, I wouldn't mind an Obama presidency but I couldn't stand a Clinton presdiency. The prospect of a Billary White House would seem to be a wrong move in a country desperate for a fresh start.

Hope everybody had a great start to the new year. Christmas was good. I got a Slingbox, which allows me to waste even more time at work. Oh yeah! Work. I'm full time on my $36 million contract after transferring all my previous workload to the two newbies. The temp I interviewed became a permanent employee, but the more I get to know her, the less I'm impressed with her in terms of...what do you call it?...intelligence.

The Oscar nominations are out which means Oscar predictions will start up soon. Of the best picture noms, I've watched Juno and No Country for Old Men. Michael Clayton is coming out on DVD in a couple of weeks. That just leaves Atonement and There Will Be Blood.

Merry Christmas to all. Also, a special thanks to all those who came to my birthday meals. I ate at Elephant Bar, Benihana, and Maggiano's in two days and I'm still standing. I think I need a drink.

Happy Thanksgiving folks. Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday, the food, and the football. I got back from Hawaii last weekend and it was just great. Perfect weather. Great food. What more could you ask for?

This trip has been in the making for months. The kids bought the parents tickets to Hawaii about six months ago. Since then, they made a trip to Seattle all by themselves and while they enjoyed themselves, they expressed their dismay about how they would have been happier if we joined them. So the decision was made to surprise them in Hawaii. So everybody except Chris went and we surprised them outside their hotel. The look was priceless but the camera angles were bad so we never got a good picture.

The first day was the traditional luau. I got pulled onstage to dance with hula girls. Sure, it was a surprise but was I complaining? Nope. In subsequent days, there was Pearl Harbor, North Shore, shave ice at Matsumoto's, shrimp at Giovanni's, and tons of shopping for Nancy. She couldn't decide between a Dior necklace or Dior wallet, so what does she do? Get them both, obviously.

In fact, the only unpleasantness was the trip home where the flight back was delayed for almost 4 hours, which meant we couldn't get to Oakland until 2:15 am. And if you know my parents, you know their opinion of Oakland even if it is just at the airport.

All in all, these few days away from work were welcome. As some of you know, I'm in month 2 of my 4-month hellish period at work where two veterans are on medical leave and replaced by two newbies while at the same time I'm trying to take over a new, more complicated contract. Luckily, I'm thankful the newbies are performing extremely well (obviously because of my great teaching skills :) The roadblocks seem to be IT in its fumbling of the reports we use to do our jobs and a reorganization at work that has given us mixed messages to start out the new year but seems to be getting better.

Don't worry...I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. It's just been busy. Really busy. Really really busy.

There have been some nice weekend trips. One to Lake Tahoe, one to Reno, and one this past weekend to Vegas. Tahoe was an end-of-summer trip before school started again. This was with Hai, Claire, Alex, Ngan, and Paul. Kayaking was involved and of course, when we're faced with a large body of water, somebody's bound to fall in and that was Alex and Paul this time around. In Reno, it was my third time getting to the rib cookoff and this year was probably the best one of the three. Nice and cool and we saw Superbad. It was a good comedy but I think they could've gone over the top and it would've been so much better.

The last trip was to Vegas where we were celebrating my sister's 21st birthday. And she made the most of it, hitting 3 clubs in 2 nights: Tao, Pure and Jet. I of course go for the gambling and food. Food was good, the gambling was not. I've never won in Vegas. The last trip I took in July was the only time that I did. All the winnings I got from the previous Tahoe and Reno trips? All wiped away on this Vegas trip. At one point, the dealer didn't pay me after he busted and when I called him out on it, he said, "well, I was getting used to not giving you any money." As for the buffets, $15 for the brunch buffet at Paris is a pretty good value, but while the Wynn has an excellent buffet, is it worth the $38? Nope.

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood hotel, still pretty much a construction zone with the Miracle Mile shops still being upgraded and condos going up next door. But if you remember a couple of years ago when I was there last, you'll recall that a gorilla mask from Congo was the centerpiece of the hotel room. This time? A spider from Arachnophobia. Oh, and it was cold there, first time I've complained about that. 68 degrees to be exact.


In the middle of all this? Work. I've been reassigned to do actual work as I'm in charge of a $35 million project. If only I could swing a small percentage of that towards me. The problem about this reassignment? I still have my old job to do, I'm gonna take over for my co-worker who's going on maternity leave and I've gotta spend time training my replacements. Yes, replacements. Apparently, it takes two people to do my job. Hard to believe.

Reorganization is taking place in my department and it looks like I'm getting the short end of the stick. One of the divisions in our company wanted to have its own business analyst all for themselves, which is great until we found out our current boss was taking the job.

At our company, business analysts come in two flavors: products and projects. A product business analyst handles financials for jobs that are selling pre-made units (that's me!). A project business analyst handles financials for development jobs. Products used to be the backbone of the company in the '90s but nowadays, it is development that is making the money. As a result, we've gotten to the point where all the business analysts are going to be under one manager, which is a nice idea except that there are now 11 of us with 3 more about to be hired spread across 3 different sites throughout the country. Not an easy job.

My new manager is nice enough, but when I saw her in the hallway, her first question to me was "You're not going to quit, are you?"

Who knows? All I know is with the products BA manager gone and my fellow co-worker going on maternity leave, I'm left holding the ball for everything. Everything. Who's my backup? A part-time business analyst going back to full-time and a temp that my new manager, former manager and I get to hire. No worries, I'll put him, her, or it through the ringer. (We joked it could be one of those Japanese robots that gets hired...after all, I've told you what I do everyday, right?)

I'm back from DC! Ok, that was a week and a half ago. I'm still recovering from the heat. 100 degree humid weather just sucks, especially when you're roaming through the city by foot. In two and a half days in DC and 1 in Baltimore, we managed to visit Union Station, the National Zoo, the National Cathedral, Georgetown, the Washington Monument, the Natural History Museum, the National Air & Space Museum, the Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, Chinatown, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the White House, Camden Yards, and Lexington Market.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency near the Capitol which on the inside looks pretty nice but when you walk outside, it's like a whole different world out there. A homeless shelter is nearby. The fire station is across the street. Not the first place I had in mind to stay at but when it's at a 75% discount from regular prices, you made do with what you have. Of course, this wasn't as bad as the streets of Baltimore, which looked a lot less inviting unless you are near the ballpark.

The tour of the Capitol was much better than the White House. It's guided first of all plus if you go through your representative in Congress, you get a little bit of a local tour as well. Much more history and you get to see where things get done. The White House is just a walking tour filled with a lot of pictures and, in our case, rooms closed due to renovation.

Sure the budget was limited, but we still made it to some great restaurants. It was Restaurant Week in DC, but we were only here on the first day of it, so we didn't take full advantage of the prix fixe menus. Straight from the airport and hotel, we headed to the Cap City Brewing Co, which had some pretty good beer. The next day featured Clyde's of Georgetown, visited by Rachael Ray in a $40 a day episode, and Old Ebbitt Grill, apparently a Washington institution. Then there was Fogo de Chao, the Brazilian steakhouse where they bring around 10-15 different meats continuously until you say stop. Even for lunch, this was really good. Chicken, lamb, beef, pork, and it really didn't stop until you turned your card over. Finally, there was Chinatown, which was smaller than I thought it would be. In Baltimore, I had a crabcake at Faidley's, which was much better than anything I've had on the West Coast.

All in all, a very nice trip with first class air travel to and from.

I'm writing to you live from Washington D.C. as I'm on vacation for the next few days. After flying to Chicago in coach a month ago and flying to D.C. in first class, I don't have to tell you which was the better flying experience.

This weekend, The Bourne Ultimatum and Hot Rod were released and the two have decidedly different critical opinions. Bourne is a great, great film. If you hadn't seen the last two films in the series for a while, like me, you might get a little lost when catching up with the story. But when you see Jason beat up 6 guys buy himself, you'll get right back into the game as we figure out his origins.

Andy Samberg and his writing crew just might be the greatest 5-minute writing team there is today. But that doesn't mean Hot Rod, at a lengthy 80 minutes, is a great film. It's not. Not by a longshot. It reminds me a lot of Napoleon Dynamite, a pointless exercise that has nevertheless received a cult following. I mean, come on, who does Andy think he is in this film after going through all those stunts unscathed? Homer Simpson?

The Smashing Pumpkins were great for 2 hours with half of the original band and three newbies rockin' the Fillmore with songs old and new. Billy took time out to sing a song he wrote that day. And the crowd generally had a good time. That was until the show stretched to 2.5 hours. With a half hour jam session that dragged on and on and one song in the encore, it wasn't the ending I would've envisioned, but going up to see them was still well worth it.

Also worth it was the Simpsons movie. My only quibble with it was that most, if not all, of the funny jokes were already seen in the trailers and the promo clips, defusing the buzz that surrounded the movie. Great seeing them on the big screen though.