Nothing to See Here

11:48 pm - WARNING: Sealy / Stearns & Foster EVIL business practices

I will start this off by making clear in advance that Costco has been utterly wonderful, a joy to deal with, and as usual awesome. Sealy (of which apparently Stearns & Foster is just a brand), however, are the recipients of my utmost disgust.

About nine months ago, we bought a mattress. My wife was pregnant at the time, we were moving into a new house, and a good mattress was rather important for her comfort.

We always had in mind that we would probably buy from Costco, since they have Kirkland[1]-branded mattresses and since you know if you buy from Costco that you can be confident that if there is a problem, they will make it right[2]. We did, however, visit a number of mattress stores to see and try out various kinds of mattresses. We had in mind that a non-innerspring mattress (one with a memory foam or latex core) might be more comfortable, and I was under the impression that they were generally considered to have a very good lifespan.

We had a heck of a time trying to find any Stearns & Foster mattresses without innersprings. Indeed, we failed completely. A mattress store employee told us (though I tend to take things mattress store employees tell me with a liberal pinch of salt) that S&F had pulled all their non-innerspring mattresses, and that they had done so due to problems they were having with them and might be coming out with new ones next season/year. The fact that Costco still had Kirkland-branded S&F mattresses without innersprings, I took to mean that it was possible those ones didn't have problems (perhaps they were the newly formulated ones ahead of S&F's regular offerings), but I knew there was a chance that it could be a problem and was confident that buying it from Costco would ensure I was covered.

For the first 2 or 3 months, our $1800 memory-foam-core mattress was awesome. Luckily, this was the most critical time.

Unfortunately, after that it began to become more and more apparent that something was not right. Instead of conforming to us but returning to shape, it became evident that there was a noticeable dip where each of us slept on it. This started out as being merely a bit annoying, but has progressed to the point where it is causing (thankfully minor so far) back problems for both of us.

I called Costco.com (as we bought it on-line) last Saturday morning, the first time I had the chance and explained the situation. I explained that while I knew I could return it to a store for an immediate refund, I was calling to let them know and also ask if there was any other option (since we would have to rent a U-haul to carry the thing, and since it's damned heavy and would be hard to get out to a truck). They agreed that that was unacceptable and told us that they could process a return and have it collected from our home. No charge whatsoever. Well! Costco, you outdo yourselves again. You are awesome! It would take up to 12-15 business for the carrier to arrange a pick-up, but once they received word that it was picked up, we would receive a credit right back to our card. Perfect.

Fast-forward to Wednesday (much sooner than 12-15 business days, as I rather suspected) and I received 2 calls:

The first, "This is [someone] from Sealy calling about your Costco mattress return." (I will get back to this one!), the second from a carrier to arrange to pick up the mattress (which will be happening on Friday).

Now, that first call is why I am writing this account.

Sealy, you see, are pure and unmitigated evil.

The woman from Sealy asked me a series of questions, confirming that I had called Costco to arrange a return of my mattress, asking what was wrong with it (and, this is important, agreeing that that was totally unacceptable for the mattress to have so deteriorated within mere months of purchase, new) confirming that my address was correct, checking that it came with 2 box springs[3], and then asking one last question:

Sealy: "Are there any stains or pet [somethingorother?] on the mattress?"

Me: "Ur, just out of interest, why?"

Sealy: "Because any stains or pet [whateveritwas] voids the warranty."

Me: "Well, that's ridiculous. You've already agreed with me that the mattress is unacceptably flawed. You're trying to tell me that the presence of absence of any stains would change that?"

Sealy: "Stains void the warranty."

Me: "Well, since I purchased the mattress from Costco, and their return policy guarantees me the right to return an item I am not satisfied with, you don't actually have the right to say that."

Sealy: "You would have to take that up with Costco."

Me: "Apparently so! Well, the fact of the matter is we have a mattress pad on the mattress so there are definitely no stains on the mattress. It is absolutely ridiculous, however, that that would make any difference in a case where your mattress is clearly defective."

Current Mood: crusading

11:57 pm - Today I (along with my wife and baby) ...

... gave my baby a bath.
... picked up to-go Dim Sum.
... drove to Sonoma County (to atend a party).
... attended a party at Loxton Cellars.
... saw Seth Walker perform live (at Loxton).
... had a pigeon fly into my windscreen while traveling at 40-50mph.
... did not get a broken windscreen (just wet; apparently the pigeon was wet?).
... went to Gelateria Naia in Berkeley (yum!).
... picked up Gyros and Falafel at Gaters (strange name for a halal restaurant).
... watched a fraction of an episode of Castle (baby interrupt occurred).
... hooked up a new TV and tested it out (using "Chuck" on Blu-ray in the PS3).

Current Mood: accomplished

10:53 pm - Anyone want a TV? -- now spoken for

EDIT: I received a couple of responses quite quickly, so the TV has found a home.

We have a 34" Toshiba flat screen (NOT flat panel--it is a CRT, so pretty big and heavy) television that we no longer need and would love to send it off to a good home. As standard definition CRT televisions go, it is quite nice and in perfect working order. It is just that we have a newer TV and haven't really got space for it any more.

If you would like it, you would need to arrange to pick it up from Fremont, CA, as our cars are fairly small and not really designed for transport of equipment.

Current Mood: tired

03:31 pm - Adiri bottles: How to avoid leakage

Adiri baby bottles are rather good, although they have a leakage problem.

When you fill them with warm milk and close them up then either (1) remove the cover or (2) turn the bottle upright, there is significant leakage! In case #1, out the teat. In case #2, through the valve in the base. Not good.

I have, however, figured out how to avoid all leakage! Yay!

What nothing I have seen tells you, including Adiri's web site/FAQ, is that you can avoid leakage if you add a couple of simple steps to the regular filling instructions.

1. Push body of bottle firmly into cover and set on counter upside-down.
   
2. Pour in warm milk.
   
3. Attach base and firmly tighten.
   
4. Wait a minute or two.
   
5. Push down on the valve through one of the flower-pattern holes in the base to relieve pressure.
   
6. Turn over the bottle and from now on stand it upright.

Current Mood: accomplished

11:44 pm - Port-glazed mushrooms...

I posted an update on Facebook:

Stephen Jacob made, for dinner, Leberkäse mit Ei ... Nürnberger Bratwurst ... and port-glazed sauteed mushrooms (thanks again cooksillustrated.com for the mushroom recipe).

I'm probably not meant to exactly share it, as I imagine it's copyrighted or something, however I think I can describe in my own words what I did without hazarding copyright law. :)

The recipe actually called for bacon and pearl onions too, sauteeing those up then using a bit of the bacon grease to start off the mushrooms, however I had neither, so I just did the sauteed mushrooms with port glaze bit.

I put about a tbsp of butter in a pan and heated it up, added 1.5lb of washed and halved/quartered (smaller ones halved) mushrooms, heated them on medium-high until the juices all came out, turned up to high, cooked (stirring occasionally) until all the liquid was gone, then fried them for a couple of minutes until they started to brown. I then threw in another tbsp or so of butter, fried them another few minutes, then poured in 1/2 a cup of port[*], continued cooking and stirring until the port boiled off (oh, and I didn't have fresh parsley so I threw in some dried parsley flakes while there was still port to moisten it) and became a tasty glaze. Done!

Current Mood: accomplished

06:15 am - Best Brussels Sprouts EVER

I made reference elsewhere to us making the best brussels sprouts ever. Again. (Ok, so I may have deliberately mis-spelled EVER for emphasis). I was asked to spill the beans -- sprouts? -- about how, so since this is more of a Post with a capital P, I figured here would do!

Well, first things first, we've been buying these 2lb bags of really nice small brussels sprouts at Costco. They seem to be pretty good.

Then we've been washing, cutting off the discoloured stalk end and removing outer leaves. Then also using a trick of my mother's -- cutting a cross into the stalk end 0.5-1cm deep (so if you look end-on you see an X) -- to make them cook more evenly (otherwise that's the densest part and doesn't cook as well as the head).

Theeeen, I've been *roughly* following Cook's Illustrated's cooking instructions doubled up (because they sounded close to what I remembered of Mum's and they're generally very reliable):

Bring 2lb brussels sprouts, 1 cup water, 1tsp salt to boil (medium-high) in ~4qt saucepan[*], turn down temp (I've been doing -> ~medium), put on lid firmly, let boil/steam/cook for 10 minutes--shake a couple of times to redistribute now and again during cooking (don't remove lid! They're steaming inside there).

My final (not called for by the recipe on C.I.) step is, after draining any remaining water (you could keep it for use in soup if you liked; it'll be very green and sprouty), to add whatever ungodly amount of butter you like (I think I added something on the order of 6/8 tbsp) and, if you like, sprinkle some nutmeg (ideally freshly ground) over them. Keep on (or return to) the heat to melt the butter and mix around well with a spoon to cover all the sprouts evenly with butter (and nutmeg).

The sprouts are braised, which is a remarkably good way to do sprouts.

2lb of sprouts sounds like a lot for 2 people, but there's some loss in the preparation stages (throwing away outer leaves, trimming stalks, etc.) and they're so bloomin' good that we ended up eating about 75% of them in the one sitting. So, we have fewer left-overs than I'd like, actually! =)

[*] Their recipe says 1/2 of each quantity and 2qt pan.

Current Mood: accomplished

01:20 pm - The joys of parenting - collateral damages

Just a short time ago, I experienced the worst proximal collateral damage of any diaper change. There were no distal collateral damages (thank $deity -- there were once), but 2 extra diapers, 1 spit-up cloth, 1 large muslin wrap, 1 small pad, 1 co-sleeper sheet and 1 bassinet liner pad fell that day--ur, that minute--to heterogeneous fluids. Now, I am doing laundry (well, waiting for it to progress) while I mind her royal highness.

Current Mood: exhausted

09:09 pm - Trash day resource conflict

I just got back inside after having to rush outside to ask the person parking in front of our house (there was a different car parked there an hour ago) to park elsewhere since that's where our trash cans have to go out tonight. This seems like a frustrating problem.

Anybody have any good ideas on how to deal with this?

Current Mood: a bit miffed

03:02 pm - Infuriating lack of ability to fix things today.

I decided to fix 3 things today.

(1) We have an exterior light on the side of the house which is operated by a switch inside the garage. The switch was taped down in the off position. When I removed said tape, a while back, it turned out that when switched to the "On" position, it flickered, obviously not a good connection.

Today, I bought a simple 2-way light switch (white) for $0.59, and a face plate (white) for $0.22. I turned off the power at the breaker box, removed the old switch, hooked up and installed the new switch, and voila! It worked. Took a bit of time to figure out (urox noticed the slot to push a screwdriver into to release them) how to release the wires from the old switch, but it didn't take too terribly long.

(2) I decided to replace the broken garbage disposal with a unit I bought from Costco.com.

I tried to begin removing the old In-Sink-Erator 333 (1/2hp) using instructions that I found via google, but after managing to turn the slip-joint nut, I completely failed to turn a screw connecting the drain tube to the disposal. I gave up. I called our Home Warranty people. They are arranging a plumber to come out, but I probably won't even hear from them until Monday, let alone have it fixed. This is a pain in the neck because for the time being now, we get backwash into the sink if we run the dishwasher.

(3) I decided to replace the shower "neck" in the master bathroom.

The story behind this is that the people who did the carpet cleaning (but didn't properly wash the soap/whatever /out/) and supposed "deep cleaning" of the house (which was cursory at /best/; non-existent mostly) ... well, let's just say we were rather horrified to find that the shower head, still attached to the "neck" which normally stays firmly rooted into the wall, was sitting in the soap tray when we next visited the house after they were there.

I was angry about this (as well as the truly pathetic job they did -- what a ridiculous waste of our money), but they said that "[they] didn't put it back in because it was corroded, they couldn't clean it better, and maybe we would want to buy a new one". Ok, so that sounded vaguely reasonable. I bought a new neck, for all of $5 or $6 at Home Depot. I have had it for a week or so now.

I went to install it just now. I went to remove any pipe tape from the threads of the pipe in the wall and dry it before applying pipe tape to the new neck and screwing it in to the pipe in the wall. "How odd, no threads? I don't get this." Looked at the new neck, and it's definitely threaded on the end, definitely needs to go into a threaded end of the pipe. Try to see if it will somehow fit. No. Fetch the old neck (with old shower head still attached). THEY BROKE THE &(*^@^&)!#% THING OFF IN THE PIPE IN THE WALL! ARGH! They didn't own up to this. I have to discover this a couple of weeks later? Scumbags!

I wonder how the hell you get a broken off bit of externally-threaded pipe out of an internally-threaded pipe that is part of the plumbing in the wall.

Perhaps something like the reverse of pliers, such that you put it in, expand it, and turn?

Current Mood: infuriated

08:25 pm - In which we went to lunch and questioned Mr. Bee...

So, loosestrife wrote about our trip to lunch yesterday ... so I don't have to!

Current Mood: amused

10:11 pm - (silly) Self-portrait meme

Instructions: * Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture. * Post that picture with NO editing. * Post these instructions with the picture.

Current Mood: dorky

11:24 am - The verbing of "Green"

It frustrates me greatly that people have started to use green as a verb, as in:

"Green your organisation!"
"The greening of CompanyName"
etc.

Current Mood: aggravated

02:04 pm - Bamboo floors: probably not (further discussion)

The story with that is that we have a family room, living room, kitchen, dining area, entrance way and hallway which we wanted to put down wood or wood-like floors in. At present, the living room, family room and hallway all have carpet (in perfectly decent condition) and the kitchen, dining area and entrance way all have tile (cream coloured, contiguous, in good condition, but which separates all three aforementioned carpeted area from each other). We thought it would be nice to have them be one contiguous wood(-like) floor, as it would make the place look bigger and more appealing.

Our realtor's dad is a retired contractor and carpenter who could apparently do a great job of it and wouldn't charge a lot (though it turned out somewhat more than we had been guessing).

We looked around, and Costco has significantly cheaper wood flooring materials than anywhere else, it seems. They had a variety of laminate floors, of which we liked the maple (light coloured) best, and also "hardwood" bamboo flooring. The laminate is standard sort of stuff, with locking click-together sort-of-tongue-and-groove thingies, and with a little padding on the back. You generally also would put an additional layer of padding beneath, to make it feel better, sit better, and not be as noisy. The bamboo is darker than we had originally intended, but is beautiful. It's a toasted bamboo, so sort of a mid-brown. It is simple tongue and groove like most hardwood, so you have to nail or glue it down, unlike the laminate which is generally a floating floor.

Here began the uncertainties. It sounded like our realtor's dad (and unfortunately all our communications has been indirectly, through talking to our realtor) either thinks you could install it "the same as the laminate" or just glued down to the concrete (we don't have a crawl-space; the house is built directly on a concrete slab foundation).

According to the information we've been able to find on-line, if you install a hardwood floor at ground level on concrete you should not just glue or nail it to the concrete. You need moisture barriers -- either by applying a layer of polyurethane sheeting, a layer of 3/4" plywood, another layer of polyurethane, nailing that down with some masonry nails to the concrete and then nailing down the hardwood to that, or by putting a coating on the concrete, gluing down 2x4 "sleepers" and nailing or gluing down the hardwood floor to them.

Only one place suggested that it might possibly be ok to maybe glue down the bamboo directly to the concrete, and this seems like a pretty iffy suggestion to me.

So, we were already going to have to be assertive on which process we wanted, and were going to have to find out whether this would affect his estimate in any way, plus we know he can definitely do laminate floors (he did our realtor's, and they look great), but we don't really have proof either way re hardwood floors.

Yesterday, our realtor told us that his Dad is working on a project for the next two weeks and so...

• wouldn't be able to start until two weeks from now (and my mind was filling in "if everything goes entirely according to schedule")
  
  
• had apparently told our realtor that we would either need new doors (urr... they're really good interior doors, replaced by the last-but-one owner) or would need to cut some off the existing ones (ugh)

Current Mood: a bit miffed

01:06 pm - New house!

So, we bought a house. All done, finalised, ours. Yay!

Even more yay since we just got home from Seattle to find a letter and note through our door from our apartment complex informing us that rent is going up another $70 per month.

On the down-side, it seems that we're running into hitches that may push the hardwood flooring idea over into the "too much difficulty" bucket such that we may not do it after all.

Still very happy about getting all the interior walls painted. :-) ... but if we're not getting the hardwood floors, we have to think again (again) about colours for two of the rooms.

[Edit] I have posted additionally on further discussion of the flooring conundrum.

Current Mood: mixed

08:56 pm - Dinner tonight! (what we made)

Ingredients:

1. Tomato Basil Bread from Panera
2. Smoked Duck Salami from Village Imports (I miss their Open Warehouse days...)
3. Etivaz cheese that I brought back personally from Paris! (last December)

Steps:

1. Toast tasty bread lightly on each side.
2. Apply layer of yummy sliced salami.
3. Apply layer of delectable cheese.
4. Bake (convection) for 5 minutes in the magic toaster oven.

Result:

AGLAGLAGLAGLAGLAGL
NOM NOM NOM
YUM!!!

Current Mood: accomplished

08:01 pm - Now with ankle-spraining video!

I predicted that there might be video of this on YouTube. I couldn't find it back then, but apparently the multi-talented J.C. Hutchins found video and posted about the event (not so much about my injury though) on MINE!

So, for your viewing amusement, I hereby present Jonathan Coulton, the zombie attack, and my injury -- LIVE ON THE INTERNET!


There! Was that fun?

Current Mood: amused

09:05 pm - I sprained my ankle on stage with Jonathan Coulton...

So, I, ur, fell and badly sprained my ankle while, ur, on a stage with Jonathan Coulton and three other people.

In Vegas.

( Oh, you want more explanation than that? )

Current Mood: sore

09:45 pm - Statistical Mythology - TRUE!

We're watching the movie "21". It seems like it has the potential to be an interesting story.

But then ... the story starts out with the main character's induction into a group of blackjack card counters at his university, MIT, because he wows his professor by first spouting history about Newton-Rhapson method (which apparently people in the US refer to only as Newton's Method! Huh!), which is fine, but then by spouting a STUPID logical fallacy, which the professor agrees with him on.

( Mistaken statements about logical fallacies! D'oh! )

So, yeah, I was wrong. Argh.

I take it back. Nobody has ever succeeded in explaining this to my satisfaction. It's always sounded like hand-waving (hm, how zen). The statistical explanations have always sounded like voodoo.

I just worked it out on paper, and it actually ... does work that way. WEIRD. But true. I shall explain. Perhaps my reasoning (since it's the only reasoning which has persuaded me) will help persuade others

I've heard people talk of the fact that the host is an intelligent agent, and therefore not subject to statistical analysis and so on and so forth, but none of this has ever pointed out the real reason why switching is best:

In 2 out of 3 cases, you have forced the intelligent agent to take one, with no option. He only has a choice 1 out of 3 times!

When you have forced the agent's hand, the remaining card is it. When he had a choice of which card, the one you picked first was it.

Weird? Yes, but true. I came to this realisation after I jotted down the possibilities.

I = your initial pick
E = choice eliminated by host
S = the switch option

Current Mood: embarrassed

10:57 am - A brief slice of work conversation :)

... on entirely non-work topics: Whedon, The Cabin in the Woods, and rambling into steampunk!

(Beginning review: Wed Jul 9 10:37:57 2008 PDT)
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water, geektalk, Movies:
# - According to Yahoo! News, MGM has given the go-ahead for production on
# - "The Cabin in the Woods", co-written Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Goddard
# - will direct and Whedon will produce.
#
# -> (10:38) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Coming next, "The Cottage By The Lake", followed by "The Split-Level Ranch
# - In The Subdivision".
#
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water, geektalk, Movies:
# - (which is the first I'd even heard of it, showing how out of the loop I am)
#
# -> (10:38) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - With the special short film "The Outhouse On The Prairie".
#
# <- (10:38) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - ashton - geez, don't ruin the trilogy!
#
# -> (10:39) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - In the end, it turns out that they're ALL THE SAME HOUSE.
#
# > (10:39, to cooler) ashton ruins it for sj
#
# <- (10:39) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - WUH!
#
# -> (10:39) From mjr, to water:
# - What a twist!
#
# <- (10:39) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - That sounds more M. Knight Shyamalan than Joss Whedon or Drew Goddard. :)
#
# > (10:39, to cooler) ashton . o O (Starring Mark Wahlberg as the cedar
# > siding)
#
# -> (10:39) From mjr, to water:
# - It was supposed to.
#
# < (10:40, to cooler) sj says, "He was BORN for that role."
#
# -> (10:40) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - For Joss Whedon, just add "IN SPACE"
#
# -> (10:40) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Or "STEAMPUNK"
#
# -> (10:40) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - does a bisexual vampire fall in love with the ghost of a 1930's noir
# - hard-nosed detective whose spirit is trapped in the same house, and they
# - communicate by leaving words spelled out on a scrabble board?
#
# -> (10:40) From mjr, to water:
# - Little House in the Asteroid Belt
#
# <- (10:40) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - The very idea of a Joss Whedon steampunk series is mind-blowingly awesome
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Asteroid Of Sand And Fog
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - been done. He called it, "Firefly".
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - if you're willing to overlook fusion and things like that.
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - yes, but, see, this new one is about the Cabin in the Woods /with
# - fireflies/.
#
# <- (10:41) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - hah! not exactly steampunk
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - it's steampunk with fusion reactors. Same thing.
#
# -> (10:41) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Nukepunk
#
# -> (10:41) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - steampunk isn't even sure what it is.
#
# -> (10:42) From mjr, to water:
# - It involves lots of brass fittings, generally.
#
# -> (10:42) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - and petticoats.
#
# -> (10:42) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - Leave your personal life out of this.
#
# -> (10:42) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - and english accents.
#
# <- (10:43) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - I suppose there /were/ goggles in Serenity
#
# <- (10:44) From sj [awake (why?!)][WFH], to water:
# - I was about to say "it's not steampunk without goggles"
#
# -> (10:44) From ashton [@2000, la humidee], to water:
# - It's not steampunk without cleavage
#
# -> (10:44) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - covered in goggles, brass fittings, petticoats, and bacon.
#
# -> (10:44) From mcl [@2000, exhausted], to water:
# - with a random monocle for good measure.
(End of review)

Current Mood: amused

07:41 pm - Shouldn't cops directing traffic ... work?

Earlier today, it took me 20 minutes to travel 300 feet... to pass through a junction with the lights out.

This was in spite of 4 cops directing the traffic.

I don't understand why it was backed up. Cops directing traffic should be more effective/efficient than traffic lights, not horribly less efficient.

In Dublin (Ireland), it has been my experience that when they put cops out directing traffic at junctions, traffic moves way better than on an average day with the lights working.

I don't understand what is different here. This is not the first time I've found cops directing traffic to be horribly inefficient in the SF Bay Area. Is it because they're not trained well? Because they don't care? Because the drivers are so clueless that they can't deal with directions from a police officer?

Current Mood: confused

10:40 am - "Police officer going to jail for stealing golf clubs while on duty"

One reads the most bizarre things in local papers.

I was in line at Starbucks this morning in Menlo Park, and spied the above headline in a local paper called the "Daily Post". My curiosity was piqued, so I read the story, which I quote herein:

Daily Post, Thursday June 5, 2008

"Police officer going to jail for stealing golf clubs while on duty"
by Richard Cole, Daily Post Staff Writer

A former Palo Alto and Atherton police officer who sold stolen golf clubs--and may have taken them himself while on duty--pleaded no contest yesterday to a felony count that will send him to jail.

Clark Yee, 29, was forced to quit the Atherton police force immediately when the crime was discovered, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaff.

"Chief Robert Brennan and the entire Atherton Police Department were very cooperative in the case," the prosecutor said.

The 14 golf clubs were stolen last November from an unlocked vehicle in an Atherton driveway--and Yee himself took the report.

"Some weeks later, the victim goes up to the South San Francisco Golf Mart, and decides to look at the used clubs," Wagstaff said. "Then he recognized that some of the clubs were his."

So the victim called Atherton police to alert them--and once again, Yee took the report. This time, however, a detective took over the case.

The detective went to Golf Mart and asked to see the security videos. On the video for Nov. 19, the detective spotted a familiar face.

"The person who brought in the clubs and sold them? Officer Yee," said Wagstaff.

Yee was immediately forced to quit, and Atherton police handed the case over to the District Attorney's office.

When confronted by investigators, Yee told a dubious story about how he got the clubs.

"His story was, 'Yeah, I did sell those clubs. You mean those were the stolen ones? I bought them on Ebay from a guy named Omar'," said Wagstaff.

He claimed the transaction was done on his home computer, which investigators immediately seized. They found no record of an Ebay sale or communication with someone named Omar.

"Obviously we have our suspicions about how he obtained the clubs, but we couldn't prove it," said Wagstaff, "It's very easy for someone in uniform to go onto someone's property.

Current Mood: flabberghasted

04:15 pm - A good food weekend!

Friday, lunch: Curry, Beef don, Yakitori (Shin-Sen-Gumi, Gardena)
Friday, dinner: Yakitori (Shin-Sen-Gumi, Gardena)
Saturday, lunch: Okonomiyaki (Gaja Moc, Lomita)
Saturday, dessert: Confections (Patisserie Chantilly, Lomita)
Saturday, dinner: Yakitori (Shin-Sen-Gumi, Gardena)
Sunday, lunch: Sukiyaki (Shin-Sen-Gumi, Gardena)
Sunday, to go: Spam Musubi (Shin-Sen-Gumi 2 GO, Gardena)
Sunday, dinner: Ramen (Shin-Sen-Gumi, Gardena)

Yum.

Current Mood: satisfied

09:44 am - Cake or death?

So, we were driving up 405N the other day, in LA, and we both noticed simultaneously a sign someone had attached to a (pedestrian?) overpass. It read:

Current Mood: amused

02:21 pm - FREE stuff!

We have a few things that we're hoping to give away to someone who might need them. Please let me know if you want any of them via e-mail or comment on the post or phone or whatever.

1. Toaster Oven - We have a new one, and are hoping to find a home for the old one. The old one is currently in need of cleaning, but is operational (it's been in regular use to this day) and not so nasty that we haven't been continuing to use it. I am pretty sure it would clean up fairly well. We haven't had time to contemplate cleaning it (well, no more than contemplate it at least) yet, so if you're willing to take it and clean it, that's ideal.

2. Fax Machine - It's not a laser one, but we have the machine and, I believe, some extra transfer roll thingy wotsits. It's indubitably not the fanciest/best fax machine EVAR, but it works (or did last time we used it).

3. Humidifier - Needs cleaning/disinfecting. It has a tendency for its filter to mold really quickly, but perhaps that's our place, and perhaps with some disinfecting you could make it work for you? We have the machine and 2 totally new-in-box filters.

Current Mood: busy

07:35 pm - Dude, where's my pixels?!

So, Moore's law doesn't always apply.

Here's a little graph I made a while back to show the number of pixels in my current laptop's display over time. Seriously, wtf? I haven't had this few pixels since last millennium!



I miss my pixels.

The fact that my current laptop only has 990 vertical pixels (the fewest I've had since I last used 1024x768 -- progress! ahem, not) actually has implications for my productivity and ability to use my computer. One rather strange implication, for example, is that when I open Google Calendar in a Firefox tab, I don't see anything past 5:30pm. That makes it easy to not notice evening plans. It's weird the impacts technology has on one's life. Who'd have thought that having fewer pixels would make me more likely to be unprepared for stuff.

Just for clarification, I had 1280x1024 back in 2000 (Dell Inspiron 3800, Dell Inspiron 4000), 1600x1200 up to 2005 (Dell Inspiron 8200), then I dropped to 1400x1050 until this year (Dell Inspiron 600m), and now I've gained a few pixels in width (1400->1440), but lost more vital height (1050->990) in moving to a Lenovo T61.

Current Mood: apathetic

10:29 pm - "Red Lantern", Redwood City, CA

We went to "Red Lantern" the other day. Some of it was excellent. Some was "eh".

OpenTable asked me for feedback, and gave me only 750 characters, so to avoid just sending it, impermanent as a shooting star, into the aether and losing it forever, I hereby preserve my review for posterity:

Food: Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Service: Good
Overall: Good

Noise: Quiet

Categories: Fit for Foodies, Neighborhood Gem, Romantic (with some reservations)

The foie gras (Lapis Kraton) was excellent but the price too high for such a *tiny* portion. I have never been served such a tiny portion of foie gras before other than as an amuse bouche.

The Martabak was tasty and enjoyable, though I wasn't bowled over by the mango chutney -- it seemed less like chutney and more like mango puree.

The jasmine rice was dry and the roti prata was uninspiring.

The noodle dish we had (Phuket Noodle) and the seabass (rangoon clay pot) were very good. The only thing I might change about the seabass would be to consider adding some jus/sauce.

The desserts (especially the "chocolate lover") were excellent, though I might even suggest turning up the heat (spiciness) of the "chocolate lover" just a little bit.

Current Mood: sick (not from the food!)

10:53 pm - Me, quoted in the Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/DD5Q101D24.DTL

(They quoted part of my comment on this story in a follow-up article).

Current Mood: amused

10:01 am - Horrifyingly, disturbingly cute/awful/brilliant

It really defies words. Thanks to @RobinInSeoul for the URL!

Current Mood: amused/horrified

01:09 pm - SEO rap! (especially for brianrubin)

Hilarious ... and good advice too!

Current Mood: amused

10:28 am - "INFECTED" book launch today!

Another of my compadres, one Scott Sigler (soon to be the next Stephen King), has just today launched his first major hardcover novel, "INFECTED". Ooh. It looks so shiny. Plus, check out this promo video! Wow!


I have never seen a video trailer for a book that rivals movie trailers. Holy carp!

Anyhow, my (first) copy is winging its way to me from Amazon. I think I shall go to a book store today to see it on the shelves. Maybe snap a shot or two. Maybe even pick up an extra copy.

Current Mood: impressed

01:15 pm - "JACK WAKES UP" in print! Tomorrow, Palm(s) Sunday 2008.03.16!

Tomorrow's the big day when my friend Seth Harwood's outstanding crime noir novel "Jack Wakes Up" comes out in print, and tomorrow's the day he's hoping to make a crater on Amazon's charts. I will be with Seth and a bunch of others in a coffee shop in Berzerkeley tomorrow morning for brunch and book buying (via the free wireless) and watching Jack Wakes Up make some waves on Amazon.

Why should you care? Well, find out for yourself. Seth is giving his book away both in Podcast audiobook form and in PDF form!

• "JACK WAKES UP" full novel PDF.
  
• The first episode of "JACK WAKES UP" (audio).
  
• More information about "JACK WAKES UP".

08:13 pm - Fun, but not really quite baked yet: bitstrips

Current Mood: exhausted

09:34 am - For surpheon, I'm told...

The Greatest Show on Earth!?

11:40 am - Do not adjust your set.

He did, he did, the acid kid; he did amid the squid, he did. He bid, he slid, and hid upon the grid, and rid his id of squid, he did.

Just my 2 quid.

05:28 pm - Bizarre Firefox/web site behaviour!

So, I went to look at information about the Star Trek tour thingy at the Queen Mary, and was presented by Firefox, to my astonishment, with this:


(Click on the image of the web page to see the text detail...)

The text ... it is ... uh ... well, bizarre!

For example:

SSAR SREK SHE SOUR will be at the Pueen Mary Come from Friday January 18, 2008 to Sunday February 17, 2008. Sicjets are now on sale at Sicjetmaster.com, Sicjetmaster outlets and the Pueen Mary Come Boy Office.

STAR TREJ THE TOUR - www.startrejthetotr.com
...

STAR TREK THE TOUR will be at the Queen Mary Dome from Friday January 18, 2008 to Sunday February 17, 2008. Tickets are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster outlets and the Queen Mary Dome Box Office.

STAR TREK THE TOUR - www.startrekthetour.com
...

Current Mood: amused

04:55 pm - TSA adds more incredibly burdensome rubbish that doesn't improve security!

http://laughingsquid.com/tsa-now-requiring-all-electronic-items-placed-in-bins-at-sfo/

"Wow, flying out of SFO just became much worse. While traveling this morning I surprised to find out that TSA is now requiring that you remove all electronic devices from your carry-on bags, including cables etc. and place them in a separate bin to be scanned at the security checkpoints."

04:01 pm - You know you live in the San Francisco Bay Area when...

You know you live in the San Francisco Bay Area when...

Incident: 1495  Type:	Pedestrian on the Roadway  Location: NB I880 AT WASHINGTON AV
Zoom Map: 691 5C  info as of:	1/28/2008 4:00:13 PM

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
3:34PM	RE: L-11, MORE BELLY DANCERS, STOPPING TRAFFIC/RUNNING IN THE CD
3:31PM	ALMOST WAS HIT ON WB LNS
3:29PM	PER ANOTHER RP, NB 880 TO SB 238 CON - CD
3:11PM	PER ANOTHER CALLER XRAY RAN INTO THE #3, #4 AND #5 LNS IFO VEHS // BACK ON RHS
3:09PM	XRAY IS POLE DANCING ON ONE OF SIGNS
3:08PM	LADY DANCING NR THE ROADWAY PER 2ND RP
3:08PM	PER ANOTHER CALLER//PED IS ALSO DOING A POLE DANCE USING THE LIGHT POLE
3:07PM	WF, IN BELLY DANCING GARB, ON THE RHS, BELLY DANCING

RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS
3:20PM	CHP Unit On Scene
3:23PM	CHP Unit Enroute
3:30PM	CHP Unit On Scene
3:36PM	CHP Unit On Scene

mcl

06:52 pm - Food, food, food and drink!

Firefox is straining from the weight of all the tabs I have chronically open, and a lot of them are food-related, so here's my round-up of all the interesting food-related stuff I've been collecting of late.

Restaurants I (really) want to visit:

• A post on the BITS AND BITES blog on 7x7.com starts off with a short paragraph totally irrelevant to the rest of the post (no, I'm not including this link because of FUD about eating cloned animals). The rest of the post is about Epic Roasthouse, which sounds like it'll be the fourth Pat Kuleto endeavour in the San Francisco city limits. It sounds quite tasty indeed.
  
  
• "My 10 most memorable meals of 2007," an article on the San Jose Mercury News site, lists some places that could be interesting to try, including Plumed Horse in Saratoga (under new ownership) and Nami Nami, but probably almost all of them.
  
  
• I'm really not a coffee person. I should probably explain that. I love things which are flavoured with coffee (cake, ice cream, drinks full of milk and syrup/sugar! This is why I like Starbucks :) ... but coffee itself is just bitter and nasty. So, people always talk about, "Oh, that just means you haven't had good coffee." I don't think this is true, but perhaps I can test the theory against the ultimate brewed coffee, the $20,000 cup of coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee in SoMa. It seems like a visit to this joint in SF might be worthwhile trying.
  
  
• If I ever make it back to Catalonia, it sounds like a visit to Ferran Adria's El Bulli restaurant in Rosas (I thought it was Roses... pronounced Rojhejh, kind of -- if I recall correctly, this is the town which is home to Salvador Dali's museum, which I visited as a child) is pretty much a moral imperative for a foodie. Hmmmmmmm.
  

• This post on Chowhound talks about a new French Patisserie in Redwood City, CA, called Pamplemousse Patisserie et Cafe. Their macaroons are indeed almost transcendentally good, and they have a lot more variety than the post on Chowhound suggests. They had at least 30 different flavours when I visited yesterday. Yum!
  

• Starting with a post on Chowhound, but better referred to (it's more up-to-date) on the author's web site, an anonymous sushi afficionado maintains Sushi Monster Devours Peninsula - THE BIG LIST, a ranked list of many, many sushi restaurants on the penninsula of the SF Bay Area.
  
  
• Not so much useful as plain silly: The Wheel of Lunch!
  
  
• In case you ever lay awake at night wondering, "What is the most expensive Starbucks drink?", well, here's one theory. I'm not sure I believe it's the most expensive one possible, but it's not a bad attempt.
  

07:21 pm - A Tale of Circuit Cities

It's not so much what Circuit City did, but what they didn't do: They didn't send a circular out in this past week's dead tree spam.

While this would not normally register at all on my metaphorical radar, I was checking the dead tree spam for circulars from Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal*Mart, et alia, as that is the most likely source (perhaps outside the newspaper, which I really ought to have thought of acquiring and perusing, but 20-20 hindsight is only useful in as much as it can help to modify behaviour in the future) of information about shipments of Nintendo Wii consoles.

So, given zero data about which stores might have them and armed only with somewhat vague information that there was finally due to be some sort of perhaps sizeable delivery of said consoles to various stores on Sunday, January 20th, I braved the overly morningish hours to be the early bird and get the annelid of the Nintendoid variety, only to be told by the purveyors of electronics at the local Best Buy that they received no Wiis. O cruel fates!

So I began calling around the other purveyors, and discovered that all the Circuit City stores had had deliveries and were already sold out (they had opened an hour before Best Buy, and while the kind people of Best Buy let me know they had received none in advance of their opening time, Circuit City had then been open for over 20 minutes. 5 minutes is enough to ensure that no store has any stock left.

So, I can't really blame Circuit City, but it was kind of an annoying wasted morning waiting for Best Buy (a super-new store in an only partially open new ... mall (more a gargantuan parking lot surrounded by gargantuan stores) which I thought might be less traveled and thus I might be more likely to be first or close to first in line at) to open and then making fruitless calls to various Circuit City, Gamestop (which it turns out do not receive shipments on weekends, therefore need not be bothered with on a weekend if searching for a Wii as no Wii survives 24 hours on the shelf), Wal*Mart and Target stores.

Current Mood: frustrated

11:36 pm - Conspiracy! =) Is Boeing's Randy Real?!

While looking for images of various Boeing 747 series planes, I stumbled upon this page, a blog on boeing.com called "Randy's Journal". It has a picture of a smiling somewhat elderly gentleman. If you follow the About Randy, it says:

"Randy Baseler is the lucky guy who gets to travel the world talking about Boeing’s perspective on commercial aviation. As vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle, Randy is always meeting with experts, analysts, and airline customers, and talking with aviation and business media."

"This is the home page of Randy's Journal, a blog of thoughts and observations hosted by Randy Tinseth, vice president, marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle."

Current Mood: amused

08:12 pm - Mur Lafferty again takes the podcasting world by storm!

Mur's new podcast audio book, "Playing for Keeps" is really great, especially as read by Mur herself! It is also available right now for purchase in print in softcover and hardcover editions.

Press Release: http://www.prlog.org/10045735-superheroes-lend-voices-to-audio-novel.html

Current Mood: impressed

02:45 pm - HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE

I HATE telemarketers.

I HATE, far, far more[1], automated calls from companies/organisations which fail completely not to be out-and-out abuse/harassment. These are recordings or computer-only calls which make me want to go thermonuclear.

The calls of this nature that we receive (on our home line) all fall into one of two categories, both horribly wrong.

1. The message says that "by listening to the following message, you agree that you are <person-who-doesn't-exist>" ... and you have NO way to identify the scum calling you -- not even a phone number -- without you listening further, and thus by their bullshit claim verifying that you are the non-existent person! ARGH!
   
   
2. The computer provides a way to "press 1 if you are <non-existent-person>" or "press 2 if this is the correct household but <non-existent-person> is not at home" but ... REQUIRE YOU TO CALL THEM (and they only give a number and DON'T identify what company is harassing you) to *%@^ing tell them that the person does not live here.
   

Current Mood: angry

04:37 pm - What are QMx smoking?

QMx are apparently coming out with a Cylon Raider model ...... which looks NOTHING like the actual ship it's meant to be a model of. What are they smoking?

10:55 am - Of winged men and giant elks and underground voices ...

So, the other day someone posted this to a mailing list I am on. video of people jumping off mountains and gliding mere feet from cliff-sides. Yikes! Scary and impressive and truly insane.

mcl mentioned one of the strangest stories I've seen in a long time at work. 'World's largest elk' to be built in Sweden. Make sure you watch the video for the full bizarre impact.

Also courtesy of mcl, The Voice of the Underground is silenced. Oy.

Current Mood: exhausted

07:04 pm - Court's ability to get things right does not inspire confidence...

I received a Juror Summons in the mail today.

Before I opened it, it amused me, because -- well -- since I'm not a US citizen, it would be illegal for me to serve on a jury, and it seems like it could be amusing to inform them of that fact. The fact that they got my name wrong (they swapped my last name and my second middle name) was really dumb too, but I didn't care too much because, well, I don't have to serve so whatever!

... but then I opened it and read it, and I have to send them frickin' proof (photocopy of passport or alien resident card) that I'm not a US citizen. I have to waste my time and money to correct their imbecilic mistake? *sigh*

Current Mood: annoyed

06:32 am - Amusing/interesting tabs from my web browser...

So, my laptop failed to hibernate this morning due to the fact that there was insufficient swap space. Apparently the long-running Firefox instance (probably due to flash and the like) had eaten vast quantities of RAM. So, I drove to work with my laptop running (not suspended in any way). Shortly after I arrived, Firefox crashed (silly Firefox). Restoring my session (thank the twelve lords of kobol(TM) for restore) took ... a while ... due to all the tabs in all the Firefox windows it had to restore, so I figured, rather than having 10 million tabs open because I wanted to tell people about them but hadn't got around to it, I should actually, y'know, tell people about them and/or post them and/or just close them. So, without further ado, let me give you ...

( ... a circus of linkitude and pictoral fun! )

12:25 pm - Showing my colours...

( Thanks to lexigeek! )

Current Mood: supportive

12:12 pm - Why we should support the WGA strike

I wrote the following on a mailing list I'm on, but decided that it bore repeating here:

Consider this. What you and I get paid (for most values of you) depends on what we do this year, this week, etc.

What writers get paid is largely residuals from work they did in previous years.

Flip forward, say, 5 years. Convergence of TV and Internet (ok, I'm not convinced it'll quite happen exactly like that, but there'll be a lot more on-line content, so let's just pretend they have converged and there is no more traditional TV). If you're a writer, you're obviously not going to work absolutely for nothing ... so they negotiate new contracts (5 years from now) which give them a piece of the on-line distribution pie. Ok. Sounds good? No, not really, because they're being screwed on all their /past/ work which they should be earning residuals on.

Because of the fact that you earn on the past ... you have to look into the future to know what contract you need for the present. Capiche?

That is to say, if they think on-line distribution, streaming and so on, are going to be big 5, 10 years from now, they'd BETTER get it into the contracts for the stuff they're writing /now/ or they'll starve 5, 10 years from now. Sure, not everybody will starve, but the writers who write something today which turns out to be big but then never write anything big again could find themselves the target of daylight robbery by the studios.

This is what's happening now with older shows produced before the current contracts were negotiated. Writers getting 0% on VHS and DVD (I believe an example of this was "I Love Lucy", which has been in syndication for decades and made STUPIDLY large amounts of money), because VHS and DVD had not been envisioned when the show was produced, and had not been taken into account in the contracts.

Current Mood: determined

05:41 pm - Restaurant Review: Ad Hoc

Yesterday, urox and I drove to Yountville, CA, for dinner at Thomas Keller's new (well, not very new, but new-ish, and new to us) restaurant, "Ad Hoc".

 

( Click here for the full review. )

05:10 pm - I've got a theory...

... that lauratd is pretty talented at writing Whedon filk!

At the Cerrito Whedon night this past Thursday, lauratd and elite performed a filk variation on/parody of the song "I've Got a Theory" from "Once More with Feeling"! It was about Fox and SAG and the recent cancellations of TV episode showings in theatres (including for Cerrito and Parkway Whedon [Buffy/Firefly] nights).

The lyrics can be found in her LiveJournal. :)

Current Mood: impressed