I decided to put some more RAM in my Mac mini and now it’s having some odd display issues. The startup screen is dark and off to the left and I can catch some glimpses of life during the startup, but no more. The computer itself comes up – I can access it remotely – but the display is sending signals that are out of sync for my monitor. It does the same thing even if I put the old RAM in, so that’s not the culprit from what I can tell. Hopefully I can nurse it back to health soon.

With some wheeling, dealing, finagling and luck, I managed to make my way onto JetBlue flight 172 headed to New York’s JFK airport on Thursday night (this would be 10 May – I saved a partial update and forgot to finish it). I arrived at JFK some time after 8am on Friday and made my way into Grand Central Station (armed with directions provided by superstar flight attendant Anika). When I arrived there, I sent a text message to my mother, asking if she and my father had eaten breakfast yet. When I received no response, I made my way to their hotel. I had reception put me through to their room, but there was no answer. Finally, I called my mother’s mobile and asked where they were. They were wandering around the Financial District, but when I told her that I was at their hotel, she told me that they would be back in half an hour.

While I was waiting, and since they had already eaten breakfast, I decided to pop into the Wheeltapper and sample the hotel’s attempt at a Full Irish. I must say, they did a pretty good job. The meats were tasty and there was a good amount of food. I had coffee with it, because I still don’t really trust tea in a restaurant this side of the pond – mostly because of the milk vs. cream/creamer issue.

We spent the day (or what I could spare of it) taking a look at “Ground Zero” and looking around the Century 21 department store. I was humbled by the former and underwhelmed by the latter.

I made my way back to JFK, tired but happy. I checked in with no problems, got my seat assignment and headed for the gates, where I napped a little whenever I could. Anika was there again to take care of me on the way home. I arrived into Sacramento at around 11pm and made my way back over to the lab to collect my keys and my car in order to drive home and get a couple of hours’ sleep only to return to the airport for my 4am shift.

I’m sure I’m leaving something out since this post has sat for a week without anything happening while I recovered from some sort of cold or flu, worked and had some days off. If I remember any more, I might update it, but I doubt that I will.