We’ve watched the new Four Seasons Silicon Valley luxury hotel slowly being built over the past three years. Now, as of yesterday, it’s finally open:

East Palo Alto never has been what travel agents call a destination spot. For years, the Peninsula town didn’t even have a hotel. Not that anyone was looking for rooms in a place once known more as the nation’s murder capital than for its hospitality.

But as of Monday, East Palo Alto is home to some of the Bay Area’s priciest hotel rooms.

The swanky Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley at East Palo Alto — where standard rooms start at $325 a night — opened its doors for business, giving the town a taste of the gilded prosperity that enriched its wealthier Silicon Valley neighbors during the Internet boom.

We drove through the plaza and porte-cochère on Sunday just to see what was going on and saw that the place was already staffed up. At $325/night for a standard room, I don’t know that we’ll be staying there any time soon, but we’ll likely check out the restaurant (and review it, of course).

As of today, we are disconnecting our landline phone and using our wireless phones exclusively. If you don’t have my or Jen’s wireless number, you probably don’t need it, but go ahead and ask me for it anyway. As always, the best way to get in touch with me is by email or IM.

So I’ve had the lovely new OMNIMVR Mk. II (no license plates yet) for 23 days.

In that time, I’ve noted a few things that bother me about it. These are not horrible awful defects or anything actually wrong, they are just observations and are mostly in comparison to the Pontiac.

1. The side mirrors are small, so small that in order to get a good view to my left I have to lean forward and back while looking through the mirror. The Grand Prix had big mirrors.
2. The nose is low, low enough that when parking it tends to scrape on the concrete wheel stop. The Grand Prix had this problem as well, but the G35′s nose seems to be lower.
3. There is a noticeable lack of integration between the various systems, made more evident when such integration does reveal itself. For example, though the car is equipped with both a DVD navigation system–featuring “Points of Interest” including phonebook-style listings for restaurants, shops, etc.–and Bluetooth connectivity for my phone, selecting a listing on the navigation system does not dial the phone. It seems obvious to me that these two systems should work together.
   Another example: when using the Bluetooth handsfree system to make or receive a call, the stereo is muted. This is good. What’s missing is a manual “mute” mode for the stereo.
4. Finally, I really do miss the Grand Prix’s HUD. I am presently looking into whether one can be fitted into the G35.

Of course, the car has a much larger number of good points: beautiful lines, loaded with tech-y goodness, lots of power.

I think my most favorite little feature is Infiniti’s “Intelligent Key” system: the usual remote-unlock keyfobs are upgraded with RFID to identify the holder. This means I don’t have to use the remote to unlock the car, just walk up and press the button on the door handle… with the keyfob still in my pocket. It only unlocks if the Intelligent Key is within a few feet. The trunk works the same way. Not only that, but there are two Intelligent Keys and they are uniquely coded, so that when Jen drives the car… if she ever does… her Key will unlock the door and move the seat and steering wheel to her preset. They then move back to my preset when I unlock the door with my Key. And the best part: the ignition also recognizes the presence of the Intelligent Key fobs–only when actually inside the cabin–so no key is necessary to start the car; I just turn the switch.

So far the longest drive we’ve taken is to Walnut Creek, when we visited my grandmother two weeks ago. We’ll be driving to SoCal next weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the car performs on the long straightaways of I-5 through the Central Valley.

From BBSpot, a “Top 11″ list of reasons the American government is spying on you.

#11: Accidentally searched for “how to build a nuclear weapon and blow up the Super Bowl”.

Yesterday, Monday, January 23, was National Pie Day according to the American Pie Council and reported on SFGate Culture Blog:

Yes, it’s National Pie Day, all day, until midnight, as proclaimed by the American Pie Council, ‘the only national organization devoted to eating, making, selling, promoting and enjoying pie.’

I like pie.