House of Blues, Casino Night and Updating to Windows 7
On Thursday, October 22, 2009, most people know that Windows 7 officially launched. Yes, a large number of people have been using the beta or release candidates for the last few months ( or close to a year now ), but for the bulk of the population, this was their first shot at the new operating system.
I was quick enough to be able to get a discount on the upgrade version back in June when the sale went public. I ordered 2 copies of Windows 7, as I had 2 computers at the time. Between then and when Windows 7 was released, one computer was put out of it’s misery, and so I’m down to 1. I’m contemplating upgrading Brooke’s laptop with one copy or my brothers computer with the other. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do just yet.
I downloaded the ISO while I was at the office on Thursday and started the install on my brand new 750GB drive when I got home. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying close enough attention and the ISO failed to download properly even though Firefox claimed it had downloaded in it’s entirety. I was able to download the ISO again at home, but not having any media to burn it to, posed a problem. I was able to format a thumb drive to be able to boot and installed it that way. By Friday morning Windows 7 was up and running on my machine that was previously running Windows XP. The “upgrade” process was quite painless. As I was able to do a clean install and then “upgrade” there, I didn’t have to worry about messing up my old XP drive. I had removed all other drives before doing the install, installed, and then replaced my other 3 drives. I now have 4 drives, and Windows 7 is running pretty smoothly. I’m having a few issues here and there with Facebook, but I was having that back on XP as well, and think it’s more related to the account problem Facebook had a week or so ago, and they just haven’t repaired things as much as they think they have.
Friday night after work we headed out to a function for Brooke’s new employeer. While she still technically works with Farmer’s Insurance, she is working with a new agent based on the border of Westlake Village and Agoura Hills. She has a bit of a drive every morning now, but she seems to be a LOT happier with her work, and even looks forward to work instead of dreading every moment at the office. The Farmer’s District out here was hosting a “Casino Night” for many of the qualifying agents. Brooke was invited to go, and asked that I go along with her. We got there around 8pm and met up with her boss. We were introduced to a number of people, Brooke saw a few people she had met from her previous agent, and then Brooke gambled. It was an open bar, but since I drove I didn’t have anything to drink. There was too much cigar smoke floating through the open warehouse as well for me to really be comfortable. It almost felt like Las Vegas ( and by that I mean the amount of second hand smoke floating around compared to what Californians are used to ). We stayed until 11:30 or so and then headed home. There were about 4 or 5 blackjack tables ( where most the dealers weren’t playing all that “proper” and were just looking for ways to give money away ), while there was also a roulette and a craps table. Brooke loves blackjack so that’s where we spent most the night. She was probably up about $75 or so before she hit roulette and then watched it dwindle down to being up about $30. Oh well. She didn’t spend any of her cash, so it was a win and she had a fun night. Brooke’s drunk appetite hit on the way home and we picked up a bean and cheese burrito from Taco Bell. Why does a place like that have to be so delicious when you’re drunk?
Saturday evening, Brooke and I were to go to The House of Blues in West Hollywood. It was for this event called Project Ethos to support Michelle Walker (Brooke’s sister-in-law), Meaghan Walker and Jeffney Hughes in their new business called Private Arts. We had woken up at 8:30am to start our day, getting things ready for our night out. Brooke had to get her hair re-colored by her mom, and she wanted to run some errands at the mall, to look for something else to go with her dress. I looked around for a shirt that I’d like better than what I had on, but nothing really popped out at me. After Brooke was done with her hair ( her mom does great work ), we headed back to the condo to just take it easy until we wanted to get ready and head down to Hollywood. Living out in Thousand Oaks, the drive to Hollywood can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on traffic and the time of day. We had to be there at 6pm, so we planned to leave at 4:30, and at this point it was only about 12:45pm, so we had PLENTY of time.
We got back to the condo, and I started to install more programs on my fresh Windows 7 install. I had to get the necessity, like Photoshop, Office and iTunes installed and configured so I could do my day to day fiddlings. Suddenly, it’s approaching 3pm. WTF? How did time go by so quickly. Brooke had gotten out of the shower and was telling me I should probably get ready. I start to gather my clothes and notice that I can’t find my dressy shoes. I was positive I had packed them. I tore the condo apart, which didn’t take long since it’s not that big. Nothing. Down to the garage I went. I went through every box, yet still nothing. I called my brother to ask him to look in my old room and look in my parents guest bedroom where I had stored a few things. He said he couldn’t find them. In a panic I flew down the freeway to my parents house figuring I would find what my brother had simply overlooked. That just wasn’t the case. The shoes were nowhere to be seen. Brooke had continued to look while I was gone, but she still found nothing. How the hell do shoes just up and fucking disappear? ( hint: they don’t, you just misplace them and THAT causes them to walk off *grumbles*) I pull up “Around Me” on my iPhone and find a nearby shoe store that I know will sell the kind of shoes I want. I am able to be in and out of the store in a matter of 10 minutes ( I think it took the old guy longer to measure my foot and go find the pair of shoes in the back room than it took me to decide on what I wanted ). I came home and got ready in a flash. Brooke and I were on the road and got down to House of Blues right at 6pm. We had stop and go traffic all the way down to Hollywood and then hit a little just by the Hollywood Bowl as Barry Manilow was playing that evening.
What was supposed to be a “OMG GET THERE AT 6PM IT’S GOING TO BE SO CROWDED” ended up being an event where the doors opened about 75 mintues late, the first act was late, the entire evening was and evening about being late. 
Brooke and I sat on the bench out by the entrance to the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd for about 30 minutes before friends and family showed up. We took a few pictures here and there, and while I HATE pictures of myself, Brooke LOVES to take pictures and I’m told I have to deal with them, so here’s one of the pictures from that night just for Brooke.
There were 2 opening bands that evening. The first group was Liz Paige and then The Electcolightz. Liz Paige reminded me of a Nelly Furtado, with with a dj mixing in the back. She was ok, but her vocals seemed a bit unbalanced that evening. Electrolightz, was a very energetic group, with 2 singers, a DJ and a guy on electric drums. I actually enjoyed their cover of Promises. It’s a different version on their myspace, but still not all that bad. Give it a listen. Brooke got a bunch of great pictures of the girls in their lingerie that evening, and if you are a friend of hers on Facebook, go through them to get an idea of what Private Arts will have available. Some of the stuff is quite sexy.
Well, I think that’s about it. Sunday we slept in, lounged around and suddenly it was time to get ready for work on Monday morning. It’s that time of year for me again, so I’m going to be working weekends starting November, so I have to enjoy my weekends while I can. 1 more weekend of freedom 🙁