Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Patrick and I learned late yesterday that his mom and his brother Kerry ended up in Beaumont, Texas rather than Houston as planned, but she's safe from Hurricane Katrina and the resulting damage. We had taped the 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM news this morning and watched one while taping the other, fast-forwarding to get to news about Katrina. The news is simply awful and devastating. I went to work today but couldn't stop thinking about the city of New Orleans which I've never gotten to visit. Spent about an hour on the phone with Dell regarding Chris's laptop. Got things straightened away for the most part—the mobo will get replaced tomorrow along with the LCD screen which had been backordered. Today was Lucia's first day—it's great to have her helping us out. Chatted with Mark B about the Entourage setup web page. Cindy took the office out for a field trip to Gordon Biersch for lunch. Appetizers: calamari, bruschetta, artichoke hearts, crab and artichoke dip. Joel played dad and sat at the head of the table. Going clockwise, here's what everyone ate: Joel (asian chicken salad with cilantro and no red bell peppers), Ena and Frank (both of us got the guacamole and bacon burger special), James (cajun pasta), Cindy (caesar salad), Stacey (fire roasted chicken and fettuccine), Lucia (chicken caesar salad). We were all too stuffed to have dessert. Afterwards we visited UCSF Mission Bay because many of us had never been yet. Mission Bay is the university's newest campus which is built on what is one of the last remaining undeveloped parcels in the city of San Francisco. Consequently, everything is brand new: the buildings, the parking garage, the recreation center, the residence halls, the landscaping, the walkways. Researchers have already moved in to brand new labs last year, and some of our entering students this fall will be living in student dorms here. The day was sunny and hot, and we did a fair amount of walking, especially from GB to the campus. We took the shuttle back to Parnassus. I did some minor web page updates and tracked news about New Orleans. This afternoon I had learned that levees protecting New Orleans had broken and that the city was likely to be further flooded within the next 12 to 15 hours. Patrick persuaded his mom to fly to San Francisco to stay with us, and her plane is to arrive tomorrow at noon. He has been in contact with many of his other family members, but not all of them are known to be safe. We had also been worried about Sam's mom whom we thought was staying at the Doubletree (Hilton) Lakeside Hotel, but we learned late today that she had driven to Houston the night before the hurricane hit. Dinner: frozen pizza. Did work for Corinna. Patrick and I read the wikipedia entry for Hurricane Katrina and related blogs and websites. We are saddened not only by the total destruction left by nature, but also the looting and murdering and stealing of some of the humans who survived it. The stories I read make me want to cry. I set our ATI TV card to tape tomorrow morning's news again. Chatted with Sam who called late. Bedtime. It's been a sad and awful day.