So Long Summer

Well, we had a nice 3,323 minutes of summer here in Seattle, but sadly it has come to an end and the rain has once again descended upon us.  Even though I arrived at the end of January last year I didn't really take full advantage of the winter sports options here, so that's one of my goals for this winter.  Skiing is pretty popular around here and there are plenty of decent places within a few hours drive.  I haven't been skiing in over a decade and I don't even own a proper winter jacket, so let's hope I don't hurt myself too bad.

At least I got one final taste of warm weather (and the sunburn to prove it) with a quick little trip to Cali last week courtesy of Dendreon.  I flew into the Long Beach airport and it was far and away the tiniest little airport I've seen in my entire life.  It makes Richmond look like Heathrow.  The whole airport is just one double wide trailer and you have to walk almost a quarter mile to actually get to the planes.  The baggage claim isn't even inside the airport; it's on the outside of the trailer with an awning covering it.  Then, there was a separate trailer across the street that had all the rental car companies.  The place just seemed pretty ridiculous and not very secure, but at least it was quick and easy to navigate through.

This was my first visit to our Southern California manufacturing facility (which is in Seal Beach, CA) and I was there to provide training to a couple of employees.  Unfortunately, after all the layoffs earlier in the month people don't really have a lot of free time to receive training so I was allotted 10pm to 3am on Wednesday night to do what I needed to do.  That's it.  I think it all went well despite my exhaustion, but I won't know for sure until next week when I see some data from those folks.  Cross your fingers...

As long as Dendreon was paying to fly me down there, I figured I might as well extend my stay a bit to visit my Dad and brothers.  So, once I got off work at 3:00am I drove about 40 minutes to their house where, thankfully, there was an open door and a bed waiting for me.  It actually worked out quite well, because at any other time of day that same drive probably would've taken an hour and a half, but at that time of night it was smooth sailing.  It was a lovely and low key visit with the family; a lot of quality time with my big brother, a nice long walk at the beach, and a few yummy meals before it was time to head back home.  Lets hope I can plan a few more free trips to LA throughout the winter!

And now, everyone's favorite, dating horror stories!  So, I'm trying to make conversation with my date, get to know him, and have a nice time, but he is just boring as dirt and doesn't seem to have anything to say.  I'm trying to think what I can ask to get him talking?  Well, he had mentioned that he was gluten intolerant and I was getting desperate, so I asked him what the deal was with that?  Big mistake!  He started talking alright, but I really didn't want to hear it.  Apparently back when he was still eating wheat he had all sorts of unpleasant symptoms, like eczema over 80% of his body including his eyeballs and he shared this little tidbit;

Date: So, you know how your eye boogers in the morning are supposed to be crusty?
Me: Uhhhh....? (with a confused, disgusted look on my face to which he was oblivious)
Date: Well, mine weren't crusty.  They were just kind of runny and wet.
Me: That's a symptom of a gluten allergy??
Date: Yeah, apparently, because now it's all better.
Me (to the waitress): Check please!