Just got back from a 2 wk trip to Northern California. We've been planning this since October, so it was quite fun to actually have it arrive. Although I usually like my trips a little spontaneous as far as where to go on each day....this trip was competely planned. We just had too many places to go, too many people to see, and it was around Memorial Day weekend so we needed to make sure we had hotel reservations. In all we saw Napa, Pinole/Stinson Beach, Santa Cruz Beach/Boardwalk, Monterey, Yosemite, San Francisco, and Muir Woods. We also saw all my family in Gilroy, Andrea in Pinole, Heidi in Stockton (on the way to Yosemite), and Kim in San Rafael (on the way back from Muir Woods). So, yeah, I had a spreadsheet to detail out where we'd be each day and what hotel we were staying at. We drove over 1600 miles in 2 different rental cars. Started with a Jetta, but it got a piece of metal in a back tire, and a nail in the other. So we turned it in and got upgraded to a Mazda 6. Two things to say about the Jetta - I DO NOT like the Jetta. I am TOO SHORT for that fricken car. My legs are too short and the head rest cut me at a really bad angle so much so that I had to stick my jacket behind my neck. The second thing- damn that thing had some get up and go! I drove it from the San Jose airport to Gilroy and it had so much power (compared to my Corolla). You hit the gas and that thing WENT. But, the Mazda was a lot more comfortable, but it didn't have as much power, so it wasn't as much fun to drive...eh, trade offs. Both got good gas mileage thought. It was about $2.80/gal for gas in CA which isn't too bad.
I have LOTS of pictures, but they're all on Michael's computer. Every night we'd take the photos off his camera and mine, put them on his laptop, and backup to an external hardrive. I'm not sure how many we ended up with, but we got some REALLY good ones. A new one of Michael's camera is like $800 and the lens we were using is $1300. I frikin LOVE that lens. We did some wedding photos for friends of his back in September and Michael rented a really professional camera and lens, lent me his camera, and rented that lens for me to use. It took such great photos he went and bought it. My pictures come out so great with it. He's going to upload the best to his smugmug account and I'll post the link then. There's a few we'll be printing fairly large and hanging.
One thing that is working really well in this relationship is that Michael really trusts my eye for composition. In Napa we were doing a tour of a cave for wine barrels, and as the guy was talking, I gestured and quietly told Michael to get on one knee and get a picture of a group of barrels that was really pretty. He didn't even say anything - just did it - and that's one of the pictures we're going to get framed. It's so beautiful. I don't understand the mechanics of cameras - iso and f-stop, aperture, depth of field, etc. So, when I want to take some pictures Michael just sets the numbers and then gives me the camera. We're going to work on having me learn that though, so I can set my own numbers. It's just confusing. Too much like geometry! But, I was still using my little Olympus and got some really good pictures with that too.
The big reason for this trip was to figure out how our relationship was going and if Michael was going to move in. His lease is up at the end of October. All in all, things went really well. We had a couple of tiffs, but nothing major considering the amount of driving and places we went to. So, we had a talk today about the things that annoyed us on the trip, we both agreed to work on them, and agreed that things went generally well. Michael said he likes me even more now after being around me so much....aw so sweet! So, we'll be working on that for the next few months. He's selling quite a number of items - washer/dryer, coffee table and side table, kitchen table and chairs, tv, computer desk, bed frame rails, and futon. He's moving most of his stuff into my extra guest room and will use that for this computer and gaming systems. We figure with the money he'll get from selling all that stuff he can buy a nice tv for that room. Luckily my other guest room already has a queen bed, so he'll move his mattress (that he bought recently) into there and he'll use that closet for his clothes and stuff. He can also use that bed when he's on night shift - which is for a whole week and it happens once a month. He gets paged all night to work on stuff, so he can just sleep in there and not bother me. I think it will work out well. I already told him he can't use my bathroom - so he can use the guest bath right next to that bedroom. This'll be my first time living with someone like that, so it'll take me awhile to get completely comfortable. He's going to pay rent and 1/2 utilities. I'm going to save the rent in a different account and use it to redo the master bath for when we are getting ready to sell this house. One cool thing - we both have Farmer's insurance, so when he moves in, even though we aren't married, we'll get 'multi car' discount since it's the same address! I think it's a 10% discount. Yay!
There's a whole lot to say about the trip, but I'm not in the mood to type it all out.
Oh, some movie review for those of you that have missed me:
Wolverine - fucking awesome! I don't care what the review say about it. I was thoroughly entertained.
Hamlet 2 - really thought this was going to suck, but both Michael and I thought it was hilarious and awesome. Rock me, rock me sexy Jesus!
Twilight - I do not base what I see and I what I won't see on how popular something is. Just cause people are going ape shit over these books don't make them good, but don't make them bad either. I wanted to see it and make my own opinion. Movie - not bad, made me want to read the books. 1st Book 'Twilight'- wow, that's really like the movie! Like, scene for scene. Huh. 2nd book (New Moon) - absolute crap, I am done with this series.
Bolt - so cute! really well done. The hamster steals the show.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Someone needs to tell Simon Pegg to get back to doing
Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz movies. Hopefully he's good in
Star Trek, cause this movie was horrible. But, on the bright side, it did have Gillian Anderson and she still looks great.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - at first I was livid that some no-talent director hack was trying to use the venerable
Thin Man series to sell some teenage crap. But, I heard it was good so I gave it a shot. It was really, really, really, really good. It wasn't a 'teen' movie. I really recommend this one.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno - ok, with a title like that, this movie should have sucked (ha! get it?) cough....but, we saw it at Mike and Annette's and we all thought it was great. It was hilarious, had great casting, and a nice plot. It wasn't too raunchy or over the top. It helps if you know some people in the porn industry (like Traci Lords and Katie Morgan)
My Name is Bruce - Like Bruce Campbell? See this. If you don't know who that is, DON'T see this movie.
Leonard Part 6 -voted one of the worst movies of all time. I saw this as a kid so I have a soft spot for it. Michael and I got through 25 minutes of it before he was begging me to turn it off. But, it's got Bill Cosby!! And no, there is no Parts 1 -5
