The desrt and the Snow

Or the perfect end to an awesome week....

I left Boston on Friday afternoon not long after a lovely breakfast with Michael Hutchinson and a brief visit to Novell's Boston office, complete with a trawl through my inbox in their massage chair. Miguel was out and about at demoing some cool new Moonlight stuff, so sadly didn't get a chance to say hello to him. Spent my flight next to a fellow Drupalcon attendee, a gentleman working on putting together a start up focused on creating community oriented work/exploration spaces. I'm once again impressed to see so many civic minded business ideas coming to the fore.

An hour cab ride through Friday evening traffic later, I found myself at casa de Trow, and not long after eating an incredible burrito. To those who claim you cannot get decent Mexican food in the Midwest, I say "fie on thee." This place was kind enough to be open 24 hours a day and appeared to serve all manner of yummy breakfast items, though I wasn't able to indulge in any of those. They also brought us two kinds of salsa and some pretty sweet pico de gallo. The number of types of salsa presented to you, assuming of course the salsa is edible, is a great way for demarcating the so-so hole in the wall burrito joint from the truly awe inspiring purveyor of delicious carne asada. If the salsa is inedible, just leave immediately. Really. Your innards will thank you greatly, as will everyone you know, or at least everyone who likes you well enough to feel squeamish when you mention your recent bout of food poisoning.

Friday evening, it snowed. A bit. Not much. I nonetheless found it fascinating. Mind you, I've been in a snow storm, California style, which pretty much meant ten minutes of snow at Lake Tahoe, all of which melted immediately. Sure, California gets real snow, I just haven't experienced it. Which tells you that, comparatively speaking, we don't get enough snow to make it part of the every day life of the average Californian, and certainly not the average Silicon Valley denizen. This whole snow falls, sticks to ground, stays thing - utterly unrecognizable by me. The snowing subsided quickly, though, but left a beautifully clear, crisp evening in its wake.

Saturday morning, I worked out all the inevitable knots that come from couch surfing, then headed for breakfast at lula. We're spoiled for choice in the Bay Area for restaurants offering free range meat, organic and locally grown produce and all those other tasty treats that make food taste, um, good, but lula is truly a cut above. Hand made, organic and nitrate free sausage patties? Meyer lemon marmalade? Marvelous. Truly. Particularly since I'd been musing with a fellow attendee of MJ's birthday bash about making Meyer lemon marmalade, though since I'd never done it I thought it would be a more difficult experiment. Now I've got a good idea to work back from.

Headed into Google Chicago, as I had a few things to get done, and suddenly got a ping from desrt. In yet another example of why flying a certain airline whose name really ought to be "Disintegration," he'd missed his connection and was forced to stay overnight in Chicago on his own dime. Not good. He still had a few hours to kill before finally getting on his way to the GTK+ Berlin Hackfest, so he cruised downtown and we met up for a coffee. We realized we hadn't seen each other since UDS Mountain View, which is clearly far too long and provided clear rationale for a random, two hour round trip journey to the big-G.

Right about the time Ryan pulled up, it began to snow again. Really snow. Once again, I was enthralled. We spent the next two hours hanging out in the 8th floor mini-kitchen, raiding the snack bins for future travel needs and catching up on all things GNOME. While talking to Ryan is always a pleasure, I can't help but think it was made even more delightful by doing it next to the window, hot java in hand, snow falling outside, looking out over the city skyline at Marina City. Bliss.

I left Ryan on the Blue Line heading for ORD. Headed out for dinner with Ben and his wife Frances, who were kind enough to share their home with me that evening. In addition to relaxing and enjoying a lovely dinner, staying at their home gave me the opportunity to do more research on this whole 'parenting' thing. Everyone marvels at the energy of babies, but I suspect it has a great deal to do with the fact that a 'meal' for them consists of wandering back to their plate food over a two hour stretch, in between bouts of constructing train tracks from oversized pillows and playing fireman. Or whatever else it is that toddlers get themselves up to these days. Efficient fuel distribution mechanisms these little creatures have got. It continued to snow.

By the end of the evening, I was nearly done with Good Omens and was all read out, so I settled in to watch a few episodes of Torchwood, a.k.a. "totally without a doubt the best show ever." Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, was all right, though I am not sure how much I buy the ever mounting tension between Gwen and Captain Jack. Awesome Bond reference nonetheless. Why anyone thought Tom Jones' pathetically written and suboptimally sung Thunderball an acceptable substitute for Dionne Warwick's gorgeous croon escapes me. Sleeper was much, much better, reminiscent of the incredibly powerful Cyberwoman. I was about to nod off so I left off satiating my Torchwood cravings there.

I spent today in the pursuit of baby observation, purchasing knitting supplies, watching the new Doctor Who and crunching along the frozen ice on Chicago's streets, careful not to slip but fascinated by the feel of it beneath my feet. It continued to snow a bit, but by afternoon the sun shone brightly and a squirrel here and there bounded from fence post to tree, which Frances assured me is a sure sign of the approach of spring.

I even finished Good Omens. I know you'll be proud of me, Lynne, and yes I will now get more Terry Pratchett and, gasp, will even read it. More quickly than two months after you put it in my hands, no less.

I'm settled into my hotel now, looking forward to the coolness that will be the Open Source Team's All Hands meeting this week. Now, though, it's time to tuck myself into the sweet embrace of Goldfinger and get some sleep. Boston awaits until I have the head space to write about it meaningfully.