I'm in California with friends, vacationing for a week. Here's what I've been up to:

It had to happen eventually, but it took a bottle of mead and a late night and finally signing off of work to realize it.  I am going. I am really going. I have this sleep, the one that's coming for me fast even as I type this entry, and one abbreviated one more, and that is it. A little over twenty-four hours and I am gone.

I am lying on the guest bed next to a surprisingly small pile of items that must go with me. Is this all I need of life for two weeks?  Really?

Via Colter, here's what I'm humming tonight, courtesy of Nashville duo Swan Dive:

I think I'm going to need this album...

CNN reported that Dr. Jerri Nielsen has died. If the name tickles a memory in you, she was the sole doctor in Antarctica when she diagnosed herself with breast cancer during Antarctic winter, requiring her to treat herself for breast cancer until a risky South Pole rescue mission could be undertaken as soon as winter ended..

A quote of hers struck me as particularly memorable; it put into words something I've been trying to say a long time but never formulated properly:

Some of you knew about the full level of the shenanigans behind the giving of the quilt 'red shift.' For those of you who weren't there, feel the need to hear lots of truly gratuitous obscenities, or just want to giggle at 4x4 and Spitty getting their wedding present, I give you the videotaping of the giving of 'red shift,' videotaped by dear spousey Jeff.  Don't even try to pretend this is worksafe. Don't blame me if your ears bleed.

It was worth it.  Video (18M .mov file, alternate link here) after the jump.  Update:  Asai says no sound for her. It's playing fine for me. Anyone else having problems?

Extra notes:  no, you don't have to watch all the way through to the end.  I'm archiving the full thing for me; don't feel obligated to watch it all.

Tickets are booked to Paris; tickets are booked to San Francisco.

We will be six in San Francisco, with tagalong extras depending on the day and the inclination of our local friends.  We have nebulous plans:  look for us in the cheap seats at the Giants-Astros game on July 4.  I'll be the one in the bleachers with the beer; that's all you need to find me in the crowd, right?  We'll do a night tour of Alcatraz and I'll relearn the San Francisco bus system and pictures, pictures, pictures!