california, here we come....!

well last night, after some awesome driving from willie, i took over along 50w just before we reached fallon, an actual town in nevada with a wal-mart, taco bell, and mcdonalds. it was still one street though. anyway, i've come to realize that highway systems, though pretty basic, are still kinda stupid and confusing, and in the midst of the dark dark dark unlit night, i accidentally took "50-alt-west" instead of "50-west"..... which led us to the grand city of reno. instead of carson city. needless to say, motel rooms in reno are much harder to find at midnight -- and more expensive -- and i don't see how there's much appeal to the city: it's a ghetto-er version of las vegas. nevertheless, since the plan was to go from carson city to reno the next morning anyway, reno was okay. eh, me and stupid "50-alt-west". oh wells.

this morning, after some comfy sleep, we woke up to watch the argentina-germany world cup quarterfinal match. 1-1 all the way till penalty kicks! and germany, the host country, came away with the win. gooooooooaaallllll! twas good :) but i did feel bad for argentina, who have a good teams and long-haired players. they were all sniffly and teary and crying after germany's awesome goalie blocked the shot from the last dude, who's even sadder and prematurely balding. aww. and afterwards, some of the players and coaches and refs and admin people from both teams got into some tiff on the field. that was interesting.

now we're on the final stretch -- off towards napa valley for an afternoon of wine-tasting. but the traffic is horrendous, so i don't know if we'll make it to the wineries in time to actually enjoy the afternoon. we'll see -- we might just end up going directly down to monterey, also known as willie's home. we'll need a bit of time to empty the car, relax, etc before i head up to san jose on saturday afternoon/evening in time for work orientation and whatnot. training for sunday through thursday till 5:30pm every evening, and then a few days off. then, the actual forum/conference from the following sunday till the monday after that. should be fun, i hope!

lake tahoe was in the distance. it's stupendous-looking. and palm trees are welcoming me to california!! :) i'm here. crazy. crazy nuts holy moly. state #11. we're still alive :)

and remember that nasterific ginormous mass layer of crunchy brown thugs lying on the road last night? remember bug guts? YEAH. MY CAR IS COVERED. IT'S DISGUSTING. time for a full car wash!