I've been back in California for a while. Got back on the 15th of Sept. Living in Gilroy sucks and doesn't. The commute blows dead donkey dicks. However, the town itself is reasonable, has stores close to the apartment for Jeannie (an important thing until we get her a car) and has a good pediatrician for Valen.
One saving grace for me is being able to find a good comics shop in Campbell to make up for the complete lack of a shop in Gilroy (serious oversight. . . dozens of antique shops, no comic shops. . . *sigh*)
I've been starting to do a lot of sysadmin stuff here (as opposed to visiting customer sites). It's annoying when customers aren't prepared and don't have their (gear|expertise|software|shit) ready and prepared for us to come in, install our software and test. Having to go back multiple times is a little annoying. Having a call scheduled for a day and having it pushed is more annoying. When I have to start driving in my car (as opposed to taking Caltrain) so I can go to customer sites and this sort of thing starts to happen, I can forsee me becoming filled with hate.
Caltrain is nice. I enjoy being able to work on my laptop while I'm riding in. Gives me an extra two hours or so to work on personal stuff without taking away from company time. I wish the office were closer to Tamien, though. As it is, it's about 5 miles away which is a pretty stiff bike ride (especially for someone so out of shape as myself . . . and yes, I know that riding 10 miles a day would get me back into shape, but it would also make me have to take multiple showers a day and I would have to find a place at work to be able to take a shower which doesn't seem bloody likely given our current building situation). I'm thinking about getting some sort of two-wheeled motorized conveyance and haven't settled on whether it will be a motorcycle, scooter or somewhere in between. I guess I'll make the decision when I've got more funds at my disposal with which to adequately purchase such a vehicle (or at least to bargain down by saying "I've got cash right now for $XXXX").
I'm going to go to a gaming convention this weekend. I'm hoping to hook up with some folks to play 7th Sea with as well as exercise some of my B5CCG decks.