October 29th

At lunchtime I rode the DRZ over to the bank and picked up a new debit card.  It was nice to get out on the bike for a change, and the weather's being pleasant before it rains all weekend (according to the forecast).

October 28th

I got a call from my bank to tell me that my debit card has been used in Idaho.  So they cancelled it.

October 26th

While it wasn't raining, it was bloody windy, so I just caught up with (some) TV.

October 25th

I wasted the day catching up with things and stuff around the house, as I was tired, and it was raining :o)

October 24th

I got up early, and headed to the airport.  Again the United computer refused to let me check in because "D. Smith" isn't "Dug Smith" or "Douglas Smith".  Imma look into that when I have nothing better to do.

I got to watch "Appleseed: Alpha", "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and the incomprehensible new "Transformers" movie.

The flight out of Heathrow was delayed a little, then the immigration process took forever, and having just got off a plane, obviously we had to go through security.  I pounded through the airport to get to my connecting flight, but that was delayed too.  Joy.

The  flight from Dulles didn't have seat back movies, but you can watch some of their TV programmes on your tablet (more if you have an iPad, obviously).  I watched a couple of episodes of "The Walking Dead", and found it dull.

Anyway, I got home eventually, and Tilly was mildly happy to see me.

October 23rd

After sorting out some bank stuff, I went out to dinner with Mum and Dad.

October 22nd

I spent a goodly chunk of the day transferring Mum's email up to the Google, and in the evening went and met Paul, Steve and Poke for beers.

October 21st

Jason picked me up, and we went to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.  In the evening, we met Fiona for dinner.

October 20th

We replaced the power switch for the shower (that I broke, it seems), and did some shopping for chocolate and Lift.  Steve and Poke brought their dog, Siggy, over to say "hi".

October 19th

Sodded about all day, then met Emma and Terry for dinner.

October 18th

Sue picked me up, and we toddled in to Staines to see Jason.  He wasn't about, so we wandered in to the high street, and tripped over Guy.  Upon wandering back, Jason was home.  We ended up looking through old photos until he had a party for important people, so we went and ate at Pizza Hut.

October 17th

Sue has come down from Manchester, and we went to Chiswick to meet Caroline and her boyfriend for dinner.  While the food was terrible, at least the service was bad.

October 16th

Pretty much putzed about all day, then went out to find with Phil and Russ.

October 15th

Dad and I went in to Staines (upon Thames) to try and deal with the mortgage on the flat.  Apparently the mortgage number isn't enough to make a payment, so we gave up on that, went home and did it by phone.  Jeez.

In the evening I went out to dinner with Emma.

October 14th

I got to the UK fairly early, and spent the day trying to stay awake.  I did get to have a steak and kidney pie for dinner.

October 13th

We got up early and headed to the airport, where I flew from Sacramento to San Francisco and on to London.  I had fun at check in, as my credit card (D Smith) and passport (Douglas Smith) don't match my United air miles account name (Dug Smith), and apparently nobody there understands that this could be the same person.  It's weird, as this has never been a problem before.

I got to watch the new "Captain America", "X-Men" and " Godzilla" movies, along with "Edge of Tomorrow".

October 12th

I had intended to go flying, but it was all gusty, so I gave up on that.  I packed for my trip to the UK, and Tilly sulked.

October 11th

I was pretty tired after the last week, so I just got some stuff done around the house - I cut the grass, caught up on TV and wired up a few fluorescent fixtures for LED bulbs.  I've got 2 fluorescents left, but a pile of bulbs, so I'll probably leave them for a while.

My stomach muscles hurt after the zip lining yesterday :o)

October 10th

We had a team building exercise, and I picked the van up and drove to the office to pick up Dave, just to find out that he was stuck working, so wasn't coming.  I then drove up to the middle of nowhere to join everybody else for a ziplining afternoon - it was a little more intense than I'd thought, but I managed to run the 7 zip lines, 2 rope bridges and the rappelling line without passing out, then drove home.  In 4 hours.  Stupid traffic.

October 9th

Another day at the engineering summit.  Afterwards, we went to the DNS product launch party.  After _that_, we ended up wandering around, and I got to watch everybody else eat Indian food (I wasn't that hungry), and when they headed for Karaoke, I made my excuses and went back to my hotel suite.

October 8th

I got up stupidly early and drove to San Francisco for the engineering summit.  On the "good news" side, I did get to see the end of the lunar eclipse as I drove in.  After talking about things and stuff, a couple of us went shooting with Rachel - we left after running out of .45 and .40 ammo.  I checked in to the hotel really late, and ended up with a huge room, with a sitting room, dressing room, wet bar and 2 TVs.

October 5th

We started the day riding over and meeting Shean for breakfast / lunch, then after wasting the day doing nothing, I went over to the airfield and took the plane up for a quick flight (it was getting dark).

October 4th

It was the poker run at the airport, and I went along to help out.  As there weren't that many entries, I managed to get an entry, but had Ken pick up the cards for me (we agreed that it would take around 4 hours for me to fly the loop).  Just before we opened the cards, Jack Parks suggested that the 4 of us "in" the plane share any winnings, so we did that.  Which was funny, as I had the highest hard (three 10s), and Jack White had the lowest (absolute crap).

October 1st

A new month, so here's the solar stats:

Power we've paid for

Power generated

September 30th

We went and tried the buffet at the local casino for dinner.  It wasn't bad at all :o)