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alenxa and I took our annual trip down to Laguna Beach to watch the fireworks display launched off the bluffs. This time we made reservations for dinner at a restaurant we'd walked by a bunch of times, Ocean Avenue Restaurant and Brewery. Would definitely go there again.Around 7:30 we staked out a spot on the beach, which was already crowded. At the time we got there, the daytime beach-goers were just leaving, while the fireworks crowd was just arriving. I kicked off my shoes and waded out into the surf a bit, taking pictures of seagulls and scenery. Then it became clear the tide was coming in, and we moved up the beach to an area that didn't have any seaweed. Sure, it was 10 feet from a volleyball court and next to a group with a couple of umbrellas (
It cooled off pretty quickly, and I went across the street to get us both some coffee at one of the two Starbucks. Yes, two. (One used to be a Diedrich.) The line was about 15 feet out the door when I got there, and it took be about 25 minutes to get through it, by which time I just ordered plain coffee so I could get out of there quickly. It had stretched to at least 40 feet out the door!The sky grew darker, the moon grew brighter, and stars started peeking out, and finally around 10 minutes to 9, a lone firework went off. I'm fairly certain they do a test fire, because there always seems to be one firework that goes off about 10 minutes before the show gets going. Soon we could hear low booming sounds in the distance, and flashes of light started appearing over the bluffs from the next display up the coast (Corona del Mar, maybe?)
Meanwhile, the volleyball game was still going, even without any light except the moon and streetlights.
A little after 9, the fireworks started, launched out over the ocean from somewhere behind the bluffs at the northwest end of the beach. The volleyball game stopped, people rearranged themselves to be able to see, and we ended up standing and drinking coffee. I experimented with the night and fireworks settings on my camera, and tried out the video on my phone, but mostly just watched. I actually got a few decent shots.The wind was good, blowing the smoke parallel to the beach and keeping the view of the fireworks clear. (A few years ago, it lingered, so after a few minutes we got to see smoke lit up in pretty colors.) Every once in a while, I'd look behind to see the moon and the fireworks from the next display along the coast the other way (Dana Point?), barely visible in the distance.
After the big finale, just about everyone started leaving the beach, heading for one of the few places where you can cross PCH. We stopped at a gelato place on our way back to the car, tried some flavors, and shared a two-scoop cup with one scoop of ginger and one of pineapple chocolate chip. They went surprisingly well together.
By the time we made it back to the car (parked up near the Laguna Playhouse), the traffic had died down a bit and we had a smooth drive up the canyon. After a while, we started seeing bright flashes of light over the hills, and realized even after 10:00 there must still be another fireworks show going. As near as either of us could tell it was near the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.
Finally got home, avoiding the two raccoons that ran in front of the car, washed the sand off of our shoes and feet, and I started going through the photos looking to see how many actually turned out well.
(Cross-posted to K2R and Facebook. More photos at Flickr.)
New blog post: Impressed by Smooth Fedora 11 Upgrade bit.ly/1f3eO
This double-tap to unlock feature is probably good for not hitting numbers with your face while talking, but it's a pain for phone menus
Um, yeah, that's what I most want from an OS: "Microsoft also plans to offer [Windows 7] in an easier-to-open box." is.gd/1dCgb
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Spent all day fighting computer changes that SHOULD have worked. The one thing that was 100% painless: Fedora 11 upgrade, easier than ever.
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Just watched Persepolis a few weeks ago. Very good. With the current mess in #iran, @netflix is recommending it bit.ly/Persopolis
Gotta love this story title: Robotic Ferret Used to Fight Smugglers is.gd/1awVB
Drinking...FOR SCIENCE! is.gd/1azHf
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In order:
- Wanted to finish reading a bunch of comics, particularly The Unwriten, The Unknown and Unthinkable.
- Wanted to write a quick review of those comics.
- Someone was wrong on the Internet.
- Wanted to finish that review. (got it)
- As I was about to brush my teeth and go the hell to bed I came up with an idea and had to jot down some notes so I wouldn't forget it later.
- Decided I had to post this. WTF?
(Yes, it's a real LJ post from me. Crazy, huh?)
- Mood:
cranky
New blog post: Do Not Climb on Mickey bit.ly/ceebF
Woo hoo! Flash player coming for Android phones! is.gd/19phT
Grr. SimpleTags has been eating the tags on posts that I've edited since installing it. Wish I could remember which ones I've edited.
Just got a $2 bill in change. Haven't seen one "in the wild" in years.
Spam subject: "2009 is here. are you?" Um, yes, last I checked...
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New blog post: Glass Bow bit.ly/18sRjE
Watched The Illusionist. 1st hour, couldn't get past lead characters being colossally stupid. Ending totally made up for it.
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You know you need coffee when: you put a filter in the coffee maker, then go back to get...a filter for the coffee maker.
It gets better: after that I went to put the bag of coffee back in the fridge. Where I've never kept coffee. Ever. Batting 1000 today.
Mall is a lot more crowded than Wed. Sire
Darn virtual keyboard. Meant to say, sure, it's Friday, but also I think schools let out yesterday. Waiting in line this time at Jamba
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So is dmoz.org dead or what? Applied to edit a category, got the "reply to this to confirm" message, replied...and got user unknown.
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New blog post: Reach for the Sky bit.ly/9xvzU
Some are disturbing, but I like the staple-free stapler: RT @ThisIsTrue: Top 10 Odd Environmental Ideas ow.ly/edkQ
Aha! The 17 links that have stuck in the linkcheck queue since yesterday are all to posts on the old Spread Firefox site. Archive's locked.
Spam: "Para legal information" from...Perry Mason. Wait, shouldn't that be "Perry legal information?"
Odd: @opera's #reinvent the web event is launching at midnight Pacific time?
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Pushing Daisies had a satisfying don't-call-it-an-ending. Looking forward to the comics.
Realized I'm doing the cliche coffee+laptop+wifi thing...except I'm at home with coffee I brewed myself and using my own network.
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New blog post: Strange Sights of San Diego bit.ly/1I5BEr
Blaming Twitter for the #twitpocalypse is like blaming the Gregorian calendar for Y2K.
The #Twitpocalypse Explained, in layman's terms is.gd/10fG8
Twidroid seems to have survived the #twitpocalypse - explained here: digg.com/d1tgV8
Wondering what the #twitpocalypse was (or wasn't)? digg.com/d1tgV8
Schadenfreude: amused that #twitpocalypse hit iPhone's @twitterrific but not Android's @twidroid is.gd/10fG8
Oh good, updates are done! I can go home now! And put on some music to get Avenue Q out of my head.
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Confused: why didn't WHO declare A(H1N1) flu to be a phase 6 pandemic several weeks ago when it first met the published criteria?
Elf Storage: is.gd/ZdAF
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Spam from "Gendo Ikari" selling lava lamps. The mind boggles.
Interesting suggestion: T-Mobile should go after angry iPhone Users is.gd/Xuhi
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One day, someone will take a collection of popular songs from the 1990s and turn it into a nostalgia musical.
D'oh! Plugged my phone into a loose USB data cable last night instead of the charger! I'll just have to use company electrons, I guess.
Ah, that's probably why the new whizbang features in Safari 4 don't exist on my work PC: video card requirements tr.im/nVmx
Fixed blog link: Why I Want a Netbook (and why I'm not letting myself get one) is.gd/Vg81
Need to read up on this: appcelerator.com framework lets you build apps for both iPhone and Android
Software updates are traveling in packs. Today I hit Windows, OSX, Office, Safari, Adobe Reader, Chrome & Java. Plus new Fedora & WordPress!
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New blog post: San Diego and Butterfly Boucher bit.ly/12mjQc
Sign taped to light pole: "BOB →"
$170 Netbook on Woot! Must...resist...
This doesn't look good: major data breach claimed at T-Mobile. is.gd/TqaG
Testing WordPress 2.8 RC1 on hyperborea.org/journal - so far, so good.
Mission accomplished. I hate shoe shopping, but walking around San Diego in my old shoes convinced me it was time.
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All the things I'd planned or wanted to do tonight, and what do I end up staying up past midnight on? Cleaning out dead links.
New blog post: Casablanca...IN SPACE! bit.ly/8d2fT
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Walking to lunch should be a nice stress release. I hope.
Walking across an empty lot, listening to "Gold Dust," just saw a coyote sauntering across the lot twitgoo.com/o6l3
Pair of spam subjects: "Say goodbye to ED" and "A person is missing!" Well, yeah, after Ed left...
Just noticed the android virtual keyboard has a key for :-) when typing text messages
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Ironic or apropos? Links breaking in old post on linkrot is.gd/NPyk
Yesterday it was working. Today it is not. Servers are like that when some daemon was running in tests but wasn't set to start on boot.
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