If you're not in school, then Spring Break really doesn't mean much, unless you make an annual event out of watching teenaged girls in bikinis thrust their pelvises skyward at the MTV Beach House for six solid weeks. Well, nobody around here is in a bikini at the moment but Amy is in law school (UC Hastings, to be exact) so a week away from the educational grind has measurable value.

We had four destinations for this trip. First, Albuquerque, so we could hang out with some old friends and visit my parents. Then up to Santa Fe for a night, Taos for another night, then back through Albuquerque and on to Las Vegas for a day and a half before heading home.

Albuquerque was fun but visiting only reminded me of how hard it is to find decent New Mexican food in the Bay Area. Yeah, we finally have a Krispy Kreme and a Jollibee, right next to each other no less, but I'd trade 'em both for Sadie's in half a second. I've been eating there since it was in the bowling alley and I don't give a rat's what anyone says, it's still the best place in town.

From looking at the things we drag along on a trip you'd never suspect you were dealing with a law student and a professional geek, would you?

Amy's Stuff

• Walkman
• Contracts Tapes
• Discman
• Wallet
• Watch
• Nivea Creme
• Sunglasses
• Diary
• Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours

Ernie's Stuff

• O'Reilly's PHP Pocket Reference and XML Pocket Reference. (Geeeeeek!)
• Hunter S. Thompson, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. The movie tie-in edition. (God help me, I actually liked the movie. It was like watching Shakespeare; it just took a while to get used to the atmosphere. Plus I'm a freak for Johnny Depp.) Second or third read for this. I think I probably enjoy some of the finer shadings of the prose now that I'm reading it at 33 instead of 16.
• Nick Hornby, High Fidelity. The movie tie-in again. I've been meaning to pick it up for about a year now and didn't even know there was going to be a movie until I saw this edition of the book. Woo hoo, John Cusack! Great flick too.
• Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath. My second pass through this one too. Every pop band should have a hired scribe follow them around.
• Credit card application.
• Watch (thank you Amy!)
• Money clip (I lost that Visa gold card you see peeking out there)