I haven’t done much geek-worthy lately. I did see that Ubuntu released version 7.04 (feisty fawn). I may give that a try on my laptop. I hope my wireless card and PDA synchronization are better supported.

In other Linux news, I see both Dell and Intel will be raising their Linux availability:

Dell Expanding Linux Option (in response to user requests on Dell’s Idea Storm)
Intel Uses Linux on New Mobile Internet Devices (in addition to Windows based UMPCs)

Mary and I went to the Gospel Festival again last night (the Saturday show). Jeff joined us and we went to dinner at Mediterranean Wraps in Palo Alto (dishAdish reviews here). Mark and his sister, Sara, met us at the show. I was worried that this show would be mostly jazz, but that was not the case.

The first act was Jamie Davis, which was pretty much jazz. He was accompanied by a 4 piece band. I’ve seen him quite a few times before, sometimes with a much larger band. . He does a nice rendition of “What a Wonderful World.” They did 4 or 5 songs then took a break. During the break, another singer, Yolanda Rhodes, sang a few songs. She was accompanied by a pianist. She has an interesting singing style, sort of opera meets old time spirituals. She did a lovely version of “Ave Maria” (one of my mom’s favorites). Then Jamie Davis came back out to do a few more numbers.

Next up was Avery Stafford and a band of local musicians (including Mary’s two time CEO, Bob). Avery has more of a Christian Pop style. At one point he was joined by a long time friend of his visiting from Portland. The friend did this a capella version of a gospel song. It was sort of like Bobby McFerrin with the chest tapping and everything. It was pretty interesting.

The final group was Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. These guys were good. It was a pretty large group and they were well directed. They sang a few gospel songs backed by a band and a few old spirituals a capella. This was my favorite performance of the evening.

today Mary and I did some more yard work. We still have a ways to go before the yard is nice and clean. We’ve been watching the peregrines for a while and catching up with email and such. I also joined LinkedIn to help me fine old friends and colleagues. Maybe this will help me with any possible job searching I may do. My LinkedIn profile is here.

The Sharks jumped out to a good start in their second round playoff series with the Detroit Redwings. They won the first game on Thursday, 2-0. I didn’t get a chance to watch the game. Today Mary and I met up with Ashish and watched game 2 at Stuft Pizza. The Sharks started of well with a 2-0 lead in the first, but couldn’t hold on. The Redwings came back to a 3-2 win. Jeff showed up during the 3rd period when the game was stil up for grabs, so we may blame him for the loss. Now the series is tied up 1-1 as they move to San Jose.

Last night Mary and I went to the All Faiths Gospel Music Festival at the Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto. The event is put on by the Interfaith Network for Community Help (INCH) as a benefit concert for East Palo Alto student scholarships. The concert is over two days and usually features local gospel choirs and occasionally some jazz. The concert last night was pretty good, but had some disappointments with a cancellation by the Stanford Choir and a last minute crisis keeping the New Free Home Choir from attending (although their pastor did attend and sang a couple of wonderful, moving songs). We are going again tonight. The highlight should be the Gospel Academy Award-winning Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (pictured left).

See my Green Valhalla blog for an update on the falcons at San Jose City Hall.

I had a guy come over yesterday to see about the squirrels. The idea is to seal up all the holes into and out of the attic, then install a one way door on the main opening. Then once the squirrels go out they can’t get back in. Unfortunately the guy couldn’t find an obvious opening that they have been using. Apparently with a Spanish tile roof the opening can be just about anywhere under the tiles. He basically told me it would cost a lot of money and may not even work. He said I would be better of trapping them and removing them. I don’t think I have the heart to kill them and technically it’s illegal to relocate wildlife, so I’m not sure what I’ll do. I ended up paying $105 for the inspection and didn’t get any results.

Last night I went to Stanley’s Sports Bar at the Logitech Ice in San Jose. I met up with some people to watch the Vancouver and Anaheim NHL playoff game. A bunch of the guys were from Vancouver, but this first game went to Anaheim. After the game most of us went to San Jose Bar and Grill for a few more drinks. I had a few too many. It’s been a while since I drank that much. Fortunately Ashish drove. I feel pretty good today but I don’t need a repeat performance any time soon.

The San Jose Sharks start their round 2 playoff series with the Detroit Redwings tonight. Detroit is the top ranked team in the Western Conference, so it will be a tough series. Go Sharks!

I had a pretty good weekend. Mary came home early on Friday so we could go to see a presentation about falcons at the San Jose Library. Our friend Winston went with us. I already blogged about the presentation on my Green Valhalla blog. After the presentation we went to a new pearl tea place in downtown San Jose called Hydration. I rated my drink on dishAdish under Hydration. In the evening we listened to the San Jose Shark’s playoff game on the radio (which they won to win their first round playoff series). We also managed to watch the last couple minutes of the game streaming on the web using SopCast.

We got a late start on Saturday but managed to hike Mission Peak. We went up the Ohlone Trail which we haven’t done for a while. We saw a lot of red-tailed hawks, kestrels, a Northern harrier and a golden eagle. That was cool. After the hike we picked up a soup and sandwich and had a picnic lunch at Don Edward’s S. F. Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In the evening we went to Ashish’s to watch the end of the Vancouver-Dallas playoff game. Mary, Ashish, Jeff, Matthieu and Maggie played a board game as well. After the game Mary, Ashish, Jeff and I went to dinner at Persian Afghan Kabob in Sunnyvale with Ashish and Jeff. I rated it here.

Sunday was Earth Day. We walked to Quizno’s for lunch, then Ashish met us at Bar Code for a pearl tea (rated here). After we walked home we did some yard work then made something sort of like jambalaya. We loosely followed a recipe for jambalaya but skipped the ingredients we didn’t have, most notably tomatoes. We called it white jambalaya. It was pretty good. We brought it over to Ashish’s place for dinner with Ashish, Jeff, Matthieu and Maggie. We also had a chicken and pepper salad, chips and salsa, and an apple-rhubarb crumble. We watch the movie The Prestige.

I didn’t get much accomplished today (Monday). I spent part of the morning looking up and calling pest control places. We have something living in our attic which I’m pretty sure are squirrels. We can hear them scurrying around and occasionally gnawing at various times of the day. We’re hoping to eliminate them from the house without killing them. I’ll probably make an appointment with one of the services tomorrow.

I didn’t make it over to work with Ron on dishAdish today. We did talk on the phone for a bit. We will get together later this week to decide if there are any last improvements we want to make on the site before we decide to start trying to market it. So if you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to me or submit then using the “Contact Us” link on the site.