billanderson41

[billanderson41]

Sonoma/Napa trip

Just spent a long weekend with Valorie, Hillery and Ron in Sonoma County, CA. I don't believe I have laughed so much, or felt so relaxed in quite some time. The four of us had a blast experiencing wine country and the beautiful weather in Sonoma County.  I also learned that Valorie and I passed the test and we are approved for further vacation experiences with Ron.

Day 1

Arrived in Sacramento and took a long drive to arrive at our hotel in Rohnert Park (Santa Rosa area).

Went out that evening in Santa Rosa and meandered around downtown.  Checked out the Russian River Brewing company (pizza bites are damn good). We strolled down to the Belly Left Coast Kitchen so that Ron could buy a couple of $30 shots of tequila (not on purpose).  This was enough to send us back to the hotel for the evening, but not withouht a stop by Spaaaarc (you have to hear Ron say it)

 Day 2

Headed out for the Russian River valley for our first wine tasting at Francis Ford Coppola’s vineyards.  What a beautiful place.  We got there early enough to take our own tour of the vineyards and the gardens. Linda was our guide through our first tasting and she was awesome.  A fire alarm went off in the middle of our tasting and everyone had to evacuate to the parking lot.  Luckily, the Lovely Linda was savvy enough to bring the bottle and we all had an extra taste. Ate lunch on the grounds and headed to our second destination.

Next stop, Quivira, where we continued with our guide Leo (the Aquarius).  I think this was the leg of the trip where the “there was a man in the ditch” punch line was born (except the ditch was a valley).  Quivira was a much different feel than Coppola, but still a charming place surrounded by vineyards and the farm. Time was tight, so we didn’t really explore very much here, maybe next time.

On to the final tasting of the day, Mill Creek.  It was here we met Bruce, who Valorie and Hillery first pegged as a Mr. Grumpy Gills. However, it turned out Bruce was a chatty fellow with a lot of information and curiosity about our home back in MS.  He also gave us some great tips about dining and exploring on the coast.  Everyone voted Mill Creek as the best wine tasting of the day.

From Mill Creek, we headed over to Bodega Bay and had a fully carbed out supper at Lucas Wharf. After eating, we drove out to the coast at Bodega Head so Valorie and Hillery could get a look at the Pacific from this northern location. Valorie’s favorite location of the day, and made her sad she didn’t have her SLR for pictures.

 Day 3

Headed to the north end of Napa valley on this morning, destination Calistoga. Our first tasting of the day was at Tank Garage winery.  Quite an interesting place, it is a remodeled old gas station/garage. It’s in the middle of Calistoga, so no vineyards.  But, great freaking wine!  Both couples ended up ordering 3 bottles to ship home.

From Tank, we headed into Calistoga on foot.  It had become a little warm, so this ended up being a march of death just to make it to the famous Indian Springs resort.  We were underwhelmed, possibly because we were so hot. The next stop was lunch, and then off to Frog’s Leap.  

Frog’s Leap was probably a dead tie with the Coppola vineyards for beauty.  It looks like an old ranch. There is a big beautiful red barn, where the grapes are processed, which stands next to a huge American Craftsman style two story home.  It was a huge bonus that the wines were outstanding as well.

After this, we decided to pack it in for the night, sit by the pool, and enjoy one of the Mill Creek wines Ron had purchased.  And Valorie all but demanded we have In-N-Out Burger for supper.

 Day 4

We were supposed to be heading home.  After sitting on the runway for almost 2 hours in Sacramento, we ended up missing our connecting flight in Houston. United put us up in a nice Holiday Inn.  I guess it was a combination of road exhaustion and frustration at not getting home, but we somehow managed, between the 4 of us, to virtually drain the hotel bar in a matter of about 30 minutes.  The night ended with us gorging on 2 pizzas and falling into bed.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip where we all got to see parts of the country we had never seen.  And, as I said before, the laughs were nonstop.  We had great food, great wine, and great company.

[billanderson41]

"Working hard or hardly workin?" Ah, that gets me every time.

[billanderson41]

A Winter Walk

Bright blue sky Clouds race White noise abounds Wind in the face Random thoughts Grabbed one Wrestled it down Clarity won Tears flow down Not sad Cold bites the cheek Thoughts of your Dad Words from songs Past blues A winter's walk Nature as muse

[billanderson41]

Updates are Available

Available Updates:    

    William Anderson    Version 2.0.0.3, 56MB

What's New >

2.0.0.3: This major update addresses the problem of not being able fully complete a task without jumping to a new one.  You will no longer have several half-finished tasks, but, rather, you will always have all tasks completely finished.  In order to accomplish this, we had to install a "yes dear" feature that allows the app to actually store a future task while completing the current task.  And, the app will not lose track of that future task with this new feature and is still able to recall and finish that future task.

2.0.0.2: This minor update addressed the issue with recollection and tracking of household items.  The app should no longer be in a constant state of trying to locate common household objects such as keys, pens, wallets or shoes.

2.0.0.0 William Anderson 2.0 is here!  Consider it an early Christmas present.  The app now comes with 40 less pounds and a much better attitude about life in general.  Although there are still a few constant nagging issues from the old version of the app, that shall remain unnamed, you should find this version much more pleasant.  We've added many new features such as the healthy eating guide and the exercise and fitness planning tool.  If you like us, please give us a 5 star rating in the app store.

- Stunning new interface that is much more pleasant to look at.  You will find yourself much less inclined to make fat jokes about the app. - Completely redesigned for the 21st century and actually even able to communicate with teenage girls.  See if you find that in any other 45 year old apps. - All new navigation throughout the app, along with a "no bullshit" feature.  You'll be getting the straight truth with no filters. So, watch what you ask for.

[billanderson41]

ee-eye ee-eye Oh My God

Just because they call it a cube farm, does not mean I need to constantly hear a jackass bray! Ok, so it's been about 10-15 years, at least, since most companies have done away with the office and put all of us in cheaper 6 ft by 6 ft by 6 ft cages. You would think that would have been enough time, and enough interoffice drama, for the etiquette to have assimilated throughout the workforce. If you are bothered by these things, then you will probably be giving me a HELL YEAH!, or alternatively, an AMEN! If you are unfamiliar with these unwritten rules, you're like the ugly girl in the group that doesn't know who the ugly girl in the group is, it's YOU. If you do know the rules and still violate them, you're just an ARSE!! 1- Silence is Golden - Unless you work for YouTube, you don't need to hear what you are working on. That little beep that indicates what you were doing is successful or unsuccessful is not necessary. Work off visual cues. Hit your friggin mute button in other words. It should go without saying that listening to music without earbuds deserves a good ole fashion stoning. I am not a fan of Michael Bolton or Toto, I could care less if you are. And, if you are bright enough to put in the headphones, but still decide to hum the tune, or God forbid, sing along, I will definitely hit you in the back of the head with a coffee mug. 2- Hold the phone - If I wanted to be on your conference call, I would have invited you to the conference room. Pick up your handset and take it off speaker. And, for the 7 people by you that are not amused by your baby talk to your child, or possibly that's your wife, keep it down! We don't need to hear that. And, we don't need to hear you verbally rape someone about how you do not have enough time to finish their project or you are sick of them making changes to their software requirements. 3- "Tear down this wall" - Do not have a conversation with your nearby cubemate over the wall. Get up, walk over, and have that talk face to face. Odds are it might be the only exercise you get today. And, also, there is a real good chance the person you are yelling over the wall at is very uncomfortable with the situation and is only answering you out of the greater uncomfort of either confronting you about yelling over the wall, or being perceived as rude. 4- "While the stinky food's steaming your mind starts to dreaming" - Please, Please, Please do not bring your reheated Shrimp with Garlic Noodles you had at China Palace last night back to your cube and eat! Stay in the breakroom with that plate of possum livers. Or better yet, do a solid for the people in the breakroom (that still have an appetite after enduring your reheating process) go eat that pile of rudeness outside. 5- "I'm watching you Wazowski, always watching" - If you need to speak with me, or if you are just interested in what I'm doing, make your presence known behind me. I have to face the wall like I'm timeout, and I didn't inherit my Mothers posterior eye sockets. Don't be a total creep douchebag, tap on one of my three walls to simulate knocking on my door. I know I don't have a door and it's very inviting to stalk me from behind, but please refrain. 6- "Roseanne's Nuts" - So, you like almonds? Enjoy the crunch of a good peanut or sunflower seed? Big fan of the Corn Nut? Good for you. I could give a $h!t. I really shouldn't be able to identify that 1) you are currently eating and 2) that your snack is most likely of the hard fruit with a seed in the middle variety. Along with that, if your coffee is so friggin hot you have to loudly sip small bits of it at a time, give it a minute chief. Let it cool down, then drink it like a human, not an anteater. I realize most of these have been covered to a great extent on the internet. I just had a couple of these violations that were going on repeatedly around me in the past 30 minutes and it spurred me on to jot this down.

[billanderson41]

Gettin your fitness on!

So, today I learned that in Moscow, in order to promote the Winter Olympics coming to Russia, there is a subway system that allows commuters to earn their ticket by performing 30 squats. Squats for the Subway. Holy crap! Why can we not make something like that happen here? The possibilities are just jumping out at me. Push ups for plane tickets. Burpees for bus passes. Crunches for cab rides. Jumping jacks for jets skis. Ok, I’m running out of ideas. Anyway, you get the picture. This is such a good idea. And you know I’m all about the exercise these days. I could bust off 100 push ups to get a couple hundred taken off my plane tickets. Then maybe I could finally afford those tickets to send Valorie back to Kansas, where she’s just DYING to go!! Oh wait. Hold the phone, now I’m getting some ideas I could try out at home…kickboxing for kisses, lunges for loving, Pilates for ... Well, you get the idea.

[billanderson41]

If the shoe fits

Funny that if you try to live healthy or eat healthy, you’re open game to be mocked or ridiculed. People will openly joke about you and make fun of what you’re eating or how you eat. I mean how many jokes about rabbit food or bird food can you hear and not just say ” HA HA HAA that’s funny, cuz it looks like something a rabbit would eat, I get, I get it” Valorie and I discuss this all the time. But, you’d be considered a flaming asshole if you flipped that shit and started pointing and laughing at the crap you see people stuffing in their faces. I mean who cares, eat what you want. But why is it ok to gaff on someone for eating healthy? I think it should be ok to throw it right back at someone.

[billanderson41]

They keep pulling me back in....

So my wife could stand it no longer, she had to create a Facebook account for me. It was an obvious pain in the ass to not be able to tag me whenever she checked in. She said she was tired of having to always type “and Bill Anderson”. Anyway, I guess I am out there again on the interwebs. Although , I wouldn’t expect many smashing posts to my wall. I have grown to like Twitter. I think I like the fact that you can throw any random crap out and you never know, or care, if anyone sees it. Meanwhile, back on Facebook, you can’t sneeze without someone commenting. It just feels weird to a pseudo xenophobic like myself. Anyway, I guess it’s cool. I will be getting checked in left and right. In case I ever forget where I am at. I have that now. Although, I guess I now have a "social" responsibility to check my wall and respond to people.

[billanderson41]

Glory days

I was watching Jorden's baseball game last night, listening to the little guys talk to each other, listening to the coaches talk to them, and it brought me back to my Little League days.  I am so glad that I was able to play baseball.  Grant you, I was never an all star, but I wasn't a scrub either, "middle of the pack" Bill they used to call me.  Just kidding, they never really called me that, but I was was mediocre.  Anyway, at the same time, there were a lot of kids I grew up with that didn't play ball, and I think they missed out on a lot.  A lot of heartbreaks from striking out, a lot of jeering from the better players, a lot of self loathing for missing a ball here and there.  Seriously, I did enjoy playing baseball.  I actually enjoyed it more than playing football, even though I was probably better at football (or so my coaches told me).  I had much more fun on my baseball team than I did on my football team.  Football was all about posturing and trying to front like you were a badass.  Baseball was all about teamwork, getting each other's back, and trying really hard to make each other laugh.  I am not even gonna attempt to rip off George Carlin's whole baseball vs. football thing, even though he characterized baseball as a p#ssy sport.  Baseball seems to be littered with smartasses (and God knows I am a smartass) so I fit right in. 

I wish I had taken the time, or had someone to take the time with me, to make me a better player.  I think I would have stuck with baseball much longer than I did football if I had felt I had a better chance at being something at the game.  I had a chance to be something at football, but I tired of the game before that could happen. 

So, to all those little guys out there struggling, hang in there.  Even if you are not an all star, it will be worth your while to have those baseball memories one day.  I'm just saying.

[billanderson41]

Winner --  Best Homemade Sign

(also runner up in Scariest Sign Ever)

[billanderson41]

Just in case you were wondering....

I know everyone was waiting to hear whether or not we had become instant millionaires, but, sadly, I have to say that another lottery jackpot has passed us by.  It really hurts, and I appreciate any sympathy that anyone may have for us.

I can remember the day, last Sunday to be exact, when I went into that store to get those tickets.  I had a special feeling.  I just knew that, for some reason, this was the store and this was the day.  I could see myself going back to that same location this Thursday to pose for a picture with the store owner.  I smiled, walking in the store, thinking of myself holding one of those big stupid checks that no bank in their right mind would ever accept. 

When I walked out of the store, I had a skip in my step (yeah, I'm gay like that sometimes) and a twinkle in my eye.  I scanned the numbers, asking each line of digits "Are you my winning combination?".  I should have been suspicious when none of the numbers jumped out at me saying "Yes!! I'm a winner".  In retrospect, they were all super ugly combinations of numbers.  And that is not just sour grapes.  I mean seriously, who wants 5 odd numbers mixed with one even?

So, this morning, when I woke up, I hurriedly signed on to floridalottery.com, crossed my fingers and clicked on the link.  I grabbed my lucky pencil (actually the first one I could find) and started circling numbers.  When I was done, not only did I not have a winning combination, but I could connect the dots and have something that resembled a spinning top.  Woo hoo!  Nice bonus lottery numbers.

So that's it.  I am over the whole lottery thing.  I'm done with you.  I am never buying another ticket.  Especially since they went up on the price of the powerball.  So go shit in your hat lottery!!!

No wait, I'm sorry lottery, I didn't really mean what I said.  Can we still be friends?

[billanderson41]

[billanderson41]

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans...

I've been thinking off and on lately how I would like to get back to New Orleans for a day or two.  I miss being in that city from when I used to work there.  Although, I certainly don't miss that brutal drive back and forth every day.  I miss the people, and God, there are some characters there.  I miss the food.  I miss the way people talked about their sports teams.  I miss the stinky streets that are unique to that little bowl of a city nestled up next to the river.

I always liked how I felt like I was "in the big city", yet I was still down south.  I think that is one reason I like living here on the coast.  We have enough transplants and influence from New Orleans that we have captured a little of that flavor.  And, I can definitely say it is different living on the West Gulf Coast of Mississippi than it was living on the East.  Growing up in Pascagoula, I didn't get the same influences as you do over here in Biloxi, Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis.

And being there for 3 years really helped me blossom in my love for the Saints.  I had always liked them growing up, but being there day in and day out and feeling like I was part of the "real" fan base was definitely different.  I have no idea what is going to come out of all this mess that has turned up lately with them, but I certainly hope we can weather yet another storm.

For now, it would suit me fine to take a walk down St. Charles or Magazine through the Garden district.  Or maybe a nice stroll down the riverfront off from the noise of the Quarter.  I can smell the day old beer and urine being washed down the gutters already.

[billanderson41]

This is what Google looked like in 1998

[billanderson41]

I'll give you $25.00 if you let me lay here and take a picture with you and extra $10 if I can touch your leg.

[billanderson41]

Time to put up or shut up

I realize I have been slacking on this blog.  You know, it's kinda weird.  I think of things that I want to say and then I talk myself down off the building, thinking "who really wants to hear that?"  Then, again, I think, is anyone really reading it anyway?  I should just write whatever I want.  So, that is my new aim, to just get my thoughts out there.  So, I decided that I am going to re-dedicate myself to making a regular posting.  No matter what the subject may be, I will make it a point to put down my thoughts.

So to start, I just want to let the world (no matter how small the world that sees this may be) know how happy I am to have found my soulmate.  We just recently celebrated our second year of marriage.  It was funny, I wrote this long note to her for our anniversary, telling her how happy she made me, etc., etc.  And, what does she do?  Go and post it on her Facebook.  I guess it didn't matter, if she wanted to share my words, then whatever.  But, nevertheless, she does make me happy and makes it nice to wake up each day.  And, as much as she would love it, I am not going to bore the rest of my world by going on and on about her.(just kidding babe)

 So that's what going on with me for now.  Just living a happy life with my loved one.  We also did just spent a nice, long, weekend at the beach too.  Many thanks to Amanda for putting up with us for the weekend.

So, I'll be back (sooner than later)

[billanderson41]

The Geek Squad dix

Okay, so our iMac was suffering from a failing hard drive. It took many hours of my beautiful wife using some choice language about her computer and pulling her hair out for us to realize it was not OS X Lion that was killing her computer. And, it wasn't because she had installed Photoshop. No, the resident techie overlooked the obvious, maybe there was a hardware problem. So, after a call to Apple (and a subsequent refusal to pay them $50 to just try and help us), we decided that the hard drive was the issue. Thank God Valorie had been wise enough to have already backed up the entire hard drive on an external drive.

So, off we go to Best Buy to get the Geek Squad to replace the drive (because Valorie couldn't stand the thought of me getting my ham hands inside her precious iMac). After driving about 20 miles to the store, we hand the Mac over to our saviours in the black shirts. After about 5 minutes, the geek comes back down from the mountain (i.e. the little plastice doors leading to the back room) to tell us it is not possible to fix the machine at the store and it would have to be sent away. Meanwhile, Valorie realized how long she'd be without her computer and is eyeballing a brand new iMac. While she is calculating whether she can stand shelling out the money for it, I quickly grabbed her and the old machine and ran out the door.

So, our next option was to buy a new hard drive and take it to the Apple certified store over in Mobile. With our busy schedule, this meant she was going to be without her machine for almost a week. She and I both didn't like the sound of it. After getting home with the new hard drive, I was able to convince her that I was up to the task.

I found the instructions I needed online and went to work. And, amazingly, the guy was right on with his instructions. With the exception of me having to run out to WalMart to get a $6 set of tools, the whole process took about an hour. Then, after a new installation and restore of the files from the external drive, the machine was humming.

The whole process cost us less than $200 considering gas, new hard drive and new tools. But, with the smile on my wife's face, I can say it was worth it. And for the $2000 that was looming over my head for a new machine, I was smiling at the 10% of that amount I had to spend. Not to mention, my wife now has little doubt about my Mac saavy.