Also, i couldn't decide what to get rid of so I posted most of the pics we took. I am creating a new set that will have a couple of hte best pics from each adventure. Right now (b/c I still have no internet access at home) we only have this one, but there are a bunch more coming.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
It's coming
Hey all,
sorry, sorry. I have a bunch of news, but I haven't had a chance to get it out. I have moved and such, this pic is about 100 yards from my house. I have notes on the italy trip and will get them out. We are off to marrakesh this weekend so I will have more from that.
sorry, sorry. I have a bunch of news, but I haven't had a chance to get it out. I have moved and such, this pic is about 100 yards from my house. I have notes on the italy trip and will get them out. We are off to marrakesh this weekend so I will have more from that.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Back to the Nederlands
That was a very short week. I got back late Tuesday. Work all day and night weds. I had to; I had a concert to go to on Thursday. Priorities and all.
The concert was the Decemberists. A recent softer rock band out of Portland. A buddy from work mentioned he had bought tickets. “I have heard of them!” was my basic thought, sure I will go. The open band was a bit odd. Lavender Dying or similar. A girl dressed more or less as a fairy, dancing more or less like a fairy. She did have a good voice but she seemed like she should have been in a B fantasy flick.
The Decemberists were quite good. The lead singer had a good, witty, stage presence. A lot of songs about historical American wars, revolutionary and civil. Go figure.
Friday night I caught an evening flight to Rotterdam. For the second time in a week, they didn’t take my ticket on the way to the airport, w00t, trip gets cheaper. After an easy 40 minute flight (which I passed out on, I am very tired at this point), I landed in the Netherlands. Breezed through customs and caught a bus to the central train station.
Stupid ticket machine wouldn’t take any form of payment I could give it so I didn’t manage to get a ticket. My train was in 2 minutes. I tried the ticket line but there were 6 people in front of me. I ran to platform 9 but missed the train by no more than 10 seconds. Slummin. Ah well, that was the express but there is a local that leaves in 20 minutes. The last train that goes to the Haag. I headed back towards the ticket counters but there were a bunch of guard types closing down the entrance. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get back in if I left to get a ticket. OK, no ticket, have to catch the last train. I guess I can always play the ignorant American if it comes down to it.
It turned out not to be necessary, there was no conductor or anything to bother me. According to my man on the ground in the Haag (Lat), I was supposed to get off at Spoor. Unfortunately, none of the stops were called Spoor. Turns out that is another name for Den Haag HS. At least the train conductor said it over the loudspeaker. I got off and was heartened to find Lat after an easy couple of blocks walk.
We hit the hostel to drop my stuff. Small room, small bathroom but clean and safe. Not the ritz by any means but not bad for a family traveling on a budget. They were very strict about quiet times and such. I had to give them a license in order to get a key that would let me in after 10pm and we had to renew it daily.
We headed out and walked to the central area in about 10 minutes. Stopped at a little Turkish? Lebanese? Place for dinner as most everything else was closed. Den Haag closes early I guess, after dinner we couldn’t find anywhere open.
Slept in a bit the next morn and didn’t really get moving until early afternoon. What to do, what to do? We were split between the Escher museum and the beach. Swayed to the beach by the testimony of some local that Lat met, “It is everything the Dutch love about Holland”. How can we miss that? Also, the tram to that takes us past the Peace Palace and other land marks. Since it was raining, this seemed to be the best way to see Den Haag sights and not get pneumonia.
The beach was like a slightly modern version of the boardwalks on the Jersey shore. They did a very nice job of having a nice, clean, wide open beach area right next to the tourist boardwalk, with its restaurants and entertainment. Near each other but still separated by the railing, each was done well.
We wandered around the beach for a bit and got some grub. Not much to say about Dutch food actually. Lots of fried tubes of indeterminate edible substances. Most of the ones I have tried are pretty good but they don’t exactly seem healthy.
Hit a couple bars and what not in the evening, nothing too notable. Every now and then I would still get a hit of New York City similarity. Or I guess it was the Dutch roots of NY that caught my attention. This town does close early though, come 1:30 everything was closed.
Woke the next morn and decided to just head back and spend the day in Rotterdam. A really easy, 20 minutes train ride from the Haag gets us to Rotterdam and a short cab gets us to Lat’s hotel. We dropped our stuff and headed out towards the EuroMast. In the summer you can rappel from this thing but that was closed for now. It is still a destination and it was close so we headed that way.
The walk to the Euromast took us through a nice little park, very idealic place. The Euromast was on the other end of the park and we went up top. It reminded me a bit of the space needle in Seattle, especially as it was pretty grey and overcast. We had a small meal with a great view in the restaurant. We tried to wander around and find a place I had found last time I was in Rotterdam (with the good pool tables) but my memory was a bit shot and we went exactly the wrong way. It started to rain too so we kind of just ducked in the first pub we saw.
I doubt I will really get the chance to live out there but Rotterdam may be the only burb I could consider living in. A burb in that Amsterdam is the main attraction but it is also easy and close by train that living in Rotterdam could offer enough to do day to day. When you want something more, you can always just hop a train to Amsterdam. Never thought I could consider living in a burb, but these ones are different.
Before we knew it, it was time for my flight so I headed over and caught an easy flight back to London and got ready for a really busy week.
The concert was the Decemberists. A recent softer rock band out of Portland. A buddy from work mentioned he had bought tickets. “I have heard of them!” was my basic thought, sure I will go. The open band was a bit odd. Lavender Dying or similar. A girl dressed more or less as a fairy, dancing more or less like a fairy. She did have a good voice but she seemed like she should have been in a B fantasy flick.
The Decemberists were quite good. The lead singer had a good, witty, stage presence. A lot of songs about historical American wars, revolutionary and civil. Go figure.
Friday night I caught an evening flight to Rotterdam. For the second time in a week, they didn’t take my ticket on the way to the airport, w00t, trip gets cheaper. After an easy 40 minute flight (which I passed out on, I am very tired at this point), I landed in the Netherlands. Breezed through customs and caught a bus to the central train station.
Stupid ticket machine wouldn’t take any form of payment I could give it so I didn’t manage to get a ticket. My train was in 2 minutes. I tried the ticket line but there were 6 people in front of me. I ran to platform 9 but missed the train by no more than 10 seconds. Slummin. Ah well, that was the express but there is a local that leaves in 20 minutes. The last train that goes to the Haag. I headed back towards the ticket counters but there were a bunch of guard types closing down the entrance. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get back in if I left to get a ticket. OK, no ticket, have to catch the last train. I guess I can always play the ignorant American if it comes down to it.
It turned out not to be necessary, there was no conductor or anything to bother me. According to my man on the ground in the Haag (Lat), I was supposed to get off at Spoor. Unfortunately, none of the stops were called Spoor. Turns out that is another name for Den Haag HS. At least the train conductor said it over the loudspeaker. I got off and was heartened to find Lat after an easy couple of blocks walk.
We hit the hostel to drop my stuff. Small room, small bathroom but clean and safe. Not the ritz by any means but not bad for a family traveling on a budget. They were very strict about quiet times and such. I had to give them a license in order to get a key that would let me in after 10pm and we had to renew it daily.
We headed out and walked to the central area in about 10 minutes. Stopped at a little Turkish? Lebanese? Place for dinner as most everything else was closed. Den Haag closes early I guess, after dinner we couldn’t find anywhere open.
Slept in a bit the next morn and didn’t really get moving until early afternoon. What to do, what to do? We were split between the Escher museum and the beach. Swayed to the beach by the testimony of some local that Lat met, “It is everything the Dutch love about Holland”. How can we miss that? Also, the tram to that takes us past the Peace Palace and other land marks. Since it was raining, this seemed to be the best way to see Den Haag sights and not get pneumonia.
The beach was like a slightly modern version of the boardwalks on the Jersey shore. They did a very nice job of having a nice, clean, wide open beach area right next to the tourist boardwalk, with its restaurants and entertainment. Near each other but still separated by the railing, each was done well.
We wandered around the beach for a bit and got some grub. Not much to say about Dutch food actually. Lots of fried tubes of indeterminate edible substances. Most of the ones I have tried are pretty good but they don’t exactly seem healthy.
Hit a couple bars and what not in the evening, nothing too notable. Every now and then I would still get a hit of New York City similarity. Or I guess it was the Dutch roots of NY that caught my attention. This town does close early though, come 1:30 everything was closed.
Woke the next morn and decided to just head back and spend the day in Rotterdam. A really easy, 20 minutes train ride from the Haag gets us to Rotterdam and a short cab gets us to Lat’s hotel. We dropped our stuff and headed out towards the EuroMast. In the summer you can rappel from this thing but that was closed for now. It is still a destination and it was close so we headed that way.
The walk to the Euromast took us through a nice little park, very idealic place. The Euromast was on the other end of the park and we went up top. It reminded me a bit of the space needle in Seattle, especially as it was pretty grey and overcast. We had a small meal with a great view in the restaurant. We tried to wander around and find a place I had found last time I was in Rotterdam (with the good pool tables) but my memory was a bit shot and we went exactly the wrong way. It started to rain too so we kind of just ducked in the first pub we saw.
I doubt I will really get the chance to live out there but Rotterdam may be the only burb I could consider living in. A burb in that Amsterdam is the main attraction but it is also easy and close by train that living in Rotterdam could offer enough to do day to day. When you want something more, you can always just hop a train to Amsterdam. Never thought I could consider living in a burb, but these ones are different.
Before we knew it, it was time for my flight so I headed over and caught an easy flight back to London and got ready for a really busy week.
Off Piste in the Alps
Trying to leave at 3:30pm on Friday turned out to be a bit harder than I had thought. Still on the phone as I walked to the train station and again on the phone on the train, I eventually got things more or less finished.
After some luggage concerns (the bags can only be 15k on ryan air. That’s like 30lbs) we eventually got checked in. In the line for security, I got a message from Lat, a buddy meeting us from the Philippines. After receiving some bad advice from a couple people, including the hotel concierge, he was at the wrong airport in Brussels. With no way to get to the right one in time, he was going to miss his flight. Doh!
The plane was of course late, Ryan air boasts a 85% time rate but according to our anecdotal experience, it is more like 15% on time.
We got into salzberg and rented a car at the airport. A 45 minute drive into Germany and back into Austria got us to Pension Thistle. The pension was really nice. It was newly redone by a nice Scottish couple that took it over that fall. The apt was more or less a 2 bedroom apt. A double bedroom downstairs and a dorm-style, 4 twins in a big bedroom on the second floor. There was also a kitchen, living room, balcony, etc. A nice place. There was a mythical 7 km run from the slopes to our flat but there wasn’t enough snow on it so it was closed. For 30 euro each a night, it was a sweet spot.
Got up the next morning and headed down to salzberg to get Lat. He ended up taking the trains through the night. 2 mistaken connections and 10 trains later, he showed up in Salzberg at 9am or so. I cruised down to pick him up. Problem was, I saw no signs for the train station as I was approaching Salzberg. Airport, bus station north and south, but no train station. Got completely lost in Salzberg and had a impromptu tour of the city. Seems like a nice place. Eventually found the place, but by the time I did, I was lost enough not to know how to get back out either. After a few twists and turns we made it and started back up the mountain. The valley was quite scenic and it was a pleasant drive.
We picked up our ski gear and I was pleased to see it was decent quality. Front loading boots, parabolic skis. I haven’t been on many other mountains in the last few years but I was surprised to see how parabolics have taken over. There wasn’t even a choice.
Another cool thing they had was an RFID ski pass. I guess this is pretty common now, the ski jacket I had borrowed from a workmate had a little arm pocket made more or less for this. Just stick the pass in your clothes on your left side. When you get to the lift, there is a turnstile with a reader that ‘sees’ the card, I assume validates it, and lets you through.
We hit the slopes to meet the boarder crew by about 2:30. The mountain is huge. A road up the middle of the valley connects 3 towns with ski slopes on either side. There are at least 5 or 6 different peaks. 3 of the lifts were closed which left us with only 52 lifts we could explore. 52! The snow was about half of what they average. Lots of snowmaking. Some ice but in general not to bad. It has been a long time but I think the snow was pretty comparable to Taos having a not so great year.
After a couple of hours of skiing, we tried to catch the gondola at a midway stop. I wanted to go back up for a last run. When we got on though, I realized it was going down. I tried to hop off and they wouldn’t let me. I guess I am riding down. Turns out to be a good thing. The boarders had to hike through some grassy slopes at the bottom of the hill.
We went out in the first of the 3 towns, Saalbach. The male/female ratio could use some work here. It was roughly 6:1, men to women. Plus, the crowd seems much older here. Mostly 50s or older I would say.
We broke off from the boarders in search of moguls in the morning. Couldn’t find much but we did find some nice areas.
My biggest pet peeve with the damn snow boarders is that they plow the moguls. Multiple times I saw a wide slope with a couple of smaller moguls in one area of the slope. Invariably, a snow boarder would go over there and since he can’t really do moguls on a board, just slide down the hill sideways and plow them down. Fucker! Use the rest of the slope but don’t ruin that part for the rest of us.
We aren’t in the best of shape so we cut out a bit early. Went out that night to the next town, Hinterglemm. The age on this crowd was better and we found a much better club (the London pub, go figure). Still a bad ratio but it was down to about 3 or 4 men per woman.
I was expecting some Seattle friends, Jeremy and Michele to show up the next day. Thought they were going to be here fairly early so I kept checking my phone all day. Due to another unfortunate series of trains, they didn’t show until 5 or 6.
We found some ‘off piste’ skiing that was definitely the best snow on the mountain. Only a couple people had even been on the run before us so while we didn’t get first tracks, it was definitely fresh tracks. Probably a bit more than a foot of powder covered this run (at the top, there were some grassy patches at the bottom). The powder was a bit heavy but the run was just great. We did it twice, found a couple of jumps, the snow was deep enough for easy landings. Halfway through the second pass though, my body stopped cooperating fully. I would say “turn!” and most of my body would say “cool, we’re turning” but my left leg would say “Fark off, I’m tired” and down I would go. After that one, I cruised down and met up with lat who was at the base in Saalbach.
Ate a bit of food for lunch and hit the wall. I was sooooo tired. Could hardly keep my head up. We headed back to the lodge in the early afternoon to take it easy. I thought I was doing pretty well, conditioning-wise until then but that powder kicked my ass.
Jeremy and Michele finally showed up around 5:30. We went up the mtn and got them set up for night skiing ( I couldn’t stand the thought of getting my skis back on). We headed up some 200 meters straight up the slope to a ski bar. This party was pretty good but I just had no energy for it. Plus they were still playing après-ski which can be fun as a kitschy song now and again but it basically sux if that is all they are playing.
Everybody was pretty beat by this point. I realized this may be the first time I have ever skied more than one day in a row. We gathered for a large meal and then stayed up somewhat late chatting.
Lat and I decided to skip the last day of skiing and instead we went exploring. We found a nice little town with a hardware store to get rope and got some breakfast. Got massages, took the gear back, etc. Just took it easy. The boarders came down the mtn, we packed and hid the road back to salzberg around 6.
Of course it started to snow more or less as we left the mountain but oh well, I think the trip was pretty successful. I highly recommend skiing in the alps.
After some luggage concerns (the bags can only be 15k on ryan air. That’s like 30lbs) we eventually got checked in. In the line for security, I got a message from Lat, a buddy meeting us from the Philippines. After receiving some bad advice from a couple people, including the hotel concierge, he was at the wrong airport in Brussels. With no way to get to the right one in time, he was going to miss his flight. Doh!
The plane was of course late, Ryan air boasts a 85% time rate but according to our anecdotal experience, it is more like 15% on time.
We got into salzberg and rented a car at the airport. A 45 minute drive into Germany and back into Austria got us to Pension Thistle. The pension was really nice. It was newly redone by a nice Scottish couple that took it over that fall. The apt was more or less a 2 bedroom apt. A double bedroom downstairs and a dorm-style, 4 twins in a big bedroom on the second floor. There was also a kitchen, living room, balcony, etc. A nice place. There was a mythical 7 km run from the slopes to our flat but there wasn’t enough snow on it so it was closed. For 30 euro each a night, it was a sweet spot.
Got up the next morning and headed down to salzberg to get Lat. He ended up taking the trains through the night. 2 mistaken connections and 10 trains later, he showed up in Salzberg at 9am or so. I cruised down to pick him up. Problem was, I saw no signs for the train station as I was approaching Salzberg. Airport, bus station north and south, but no train station. Got completely lost in Salzberg and had a impromptu tour of the city. Seems like a nice place. Eventually found the place, but by the time I did, I was lost enough not to know how to get back out either. After a few twists and turns we made it and started back up the mountain. The valley was quite scenic and it was a pleasant drive.
We picked up our ski gear and I was pleased to see it was decent quality. Front loading boots, parabolic skis. I haven’t been on many other mountains in the last few years but I was surprised to see how parabolics have taken over. There wasn’t even a choice.
Another cool thing they had was an RFID ski pass. I guess this is pretty common now, the ski jacket I had borrowed from a workmate had a little arm pocket made more or less for this. Just stick the pass in your clothes on your left side. When you get to the lift, there is a turnstile with a reader that ‘sees’ the card, I assume validates it, and lets you through.
We hit the slopes to meet the boarder crew by about 2:30. The mountain is huge. A road up the middle of the valley connects 3 towns with ski slopes on either side. There are at least 5 or 6 different peaks. 3 of the lifts were closed which left us with only 52 lifts we could explore. 52! The snow was about half of what they average. Lots of snowmaking. Some ice but in general not to bad. It has been a long time but I think the snow was pretty comparable to Taos having a not so great year.
After a couple of hours of skiing, we tried to catch the gondola at a midway stop. I wanted to go back up for a last run. When we got on though, I realized it was going down. I tried to hop off and they wouldn’t let me. I guess I am riding down. Turns out to be a good thing. The boarders had to hike through some grassy slopes at the bottom of the hill.
We went out in the first of the 3 towns, Saalbach. The male/female ratio could use some work here. It was roughly 6:1, men to women. Plus, the crowd seems much older here. Mostly 50s or older I would say.
We broke off from the boarders in search of moguls in the morning. Couldn’t find much but we did find some nice areas.
My biggest pet peeve with the damn snow boarders is that they plow the moguls. Multiple times I saw a wide slope with a couple of smaller moguls in one area of the slope. Invariably, a snow boarder would go over there and since he can’t really do moguls on a board, just slide down the hill sideways and plow them down. Fucker! Use the rest of the slope but don’t ruin that part for the rest of us.
We aren’t in the best of shape so we cut out a bit early. Went out that night to the next town, Hinterglemm. The age on this crowd was better and we found a much better club (the London pub, go figure). Still a bad ratio but it was down to about 3 or 4 men per woman.
I was expecting some Seattle friends, Jeremy and Michele to show up the next day. Thought they were going to be here fairly early so I kept checking my phone all day. Due to another unfortunate series of trains, they didn’t show until 5 or 6.
We found some ‘off piste’ skiing that was definitely the best snow on the mountain. Only a couple people had even been on the run before us so while we didn’t get first tracks, it was definitely fresh tracks. Probably a bit more than a foot of powder covered this run (at the top, there were some grassy patches at the bottom). The powder was a bit heavy but the run was just great. We did it twice, found a couple of jumps, the snow was deep enough for easy landings. Halfway through the second pass though, my body stopped cooperating fully. I would say “turn!” and most of my body would say “cool, we’re turning” but my left leg would say “Fark off, I’m tired” and down I would go. After that one, I cruised down and met up with lat who was at the base in Saalbach.
Ate a bit of food for lunch and hit the wall. I was sooooo tired. Could hardly keep my head up. We headed back to the lodge in the early afternoon to take it easy. I thought I was doing pretty well, conditioning-wise until then but that powder kicked my ass.
Jeremy and Michele finally showed up around 5:30. We went up the mtn and got them set up for night skiing ( I couldn’t stand the thought of getting my skis back on). We headed up some 200 meters straight up the slope to a ski bar. This party was pretty good but I just had no energy for it. Plus they were still playing après-ski which can be fun as a kitschy song now and again but it basically sux if that is all they are playing.
Everybody was pretty beat by this point. I realized this may be the first time I have ever skied more than one day in a row. We gathered for a large meal and then stayed up somewhat late chatting.
Lat and I decided to skip the last day of skiing and instead we went exploring. We found a nice little town with a hardware store to get rope and got some breakfast. Got massages, took the gear back, etc. Just took it easy. The boarders came down the mtn, we packed and hid the road back to salzberg around 6.
Of course it started to snow more or less as we left the mountain but oh well, I think the trip was pretty successful. I highly recommend skiing in the alps.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Holidays 06 (pt. 4)
The next step in my journey was a Red eye flight to Newark. I pretty much slept the whole time. Not that I slept well but it did make the trip go fast. Another thing that made it go fast was the fact that we arrived in Newark an hour early? How does that work? If we can get there an hour early why didn’t we just schedule it that way? I guess that is one way to pad your ontime arrivals.
Trained down to PA and spent the weekend in Levittown. Saw most everybody in the few days I had there.
Having been gone from work for so long, I decided to head back into NY earlyish on Sunday and head into the office to get settled. We had a bunch of new servers to put in so I coaxed Pop into coming up and helping me put them in. I thought it would be a fun day but unfortunately, we were missing the disk arrays. We also ran into trouble getting the OS loaded. It turned out later, after Jordan fought with this for a long time, to be a bad external CD drive we were trying to use. Ahh well. It is too bad we didn’t get it up. It was probably good for me to remember how annoying some of these things can be and how long it can really take to do seemingly simple things.
The week went too quickly. Went out for golden Tee on Monday. I think I actually won a game. W00t!
Was way too beat to go out on Tuesday w/ the pool people. Passed out on the couch as I got home.
The Twins came up on Wednesday. We went down to china town and went to Joe’s Shanghai for some soup dumplings. This is one of my favorite NY restaurants and I try to get down to 9 pell street when I make it to NY. Jesse was “not hungry” (or maybe was sketch by the food), but Becky dug right in. It was a good meal and I always like introducing people to good new things. Afterwards, we headed down to ground zero. Supposedly they started on the construction but it still looks the like the same hole in the ground. I really wish they would stop the bickering and build something.
This was the day that Bush had his Iraq speech. I missed it but we saw part of the dems rebuttal when we stopped for a bathroom break. It seems the Dems, even though they took congress are still very much, “That isn’t a good plan”, without offering an alternative plan. Ugh, somebody needs to step up and offer some options. I am halfway through the Baker and co report on Iraq and that seems to be a pretty decent plan. It even seems like Bush is following a good portion of it. Problem is, as seems to be endemic in the administration, is I don’t see them being up front about what they are doing. I always get the feeling that I am treated like a 5 year old child that has to be protected from the real plans. Anyway…
Thursday was the Christmas party. Had a good time, danced a bit, ate a bit, drank a bit more. The bar was a bit weak on the good stuff. The Vodka was absolute and the beer Budweiser, for example. I decided to switch to wine and, as Matt put it, “Bad white is usually better than bad red, at least it’s chilled”. After the party, we continued back to our golden tee bar. As fun as that was, I have had better thought out plans. The next morning, I had the option of dragging myself in and hurting all day, or sleeping a bit late and hopefully being useful. I chose the later and it was the right choice, I actually managed to get a good bit done.
Friday evening, I headed back up to the catskills. We did a couple little tasks, like putting up the mailbox, etc. Mostly just hung out in the country.
Came back early on Sunday, packed and got ready to head back to fair ol’ England.
Problem was, London had a big fuck you waiting for me. I returned to a stack of mail and a ruined bed. It seems the roof had leaked on my bed while I was gone and the whole thing was mildewed. Sweet! Looking through the mail, I had a notice that my council tax was overdue (though I am still waiting for a revised bill), another that says it was overdue so I had a court date and another that said I missed my court date and was found in default judgment against. I do like how they want 10 working days between any contact w/ them and their action on it but they can send me a letter to show up in person less than 10 working days away. So between the ruined bed and $1500 dollars in unexpected bills, it wasn’t exactly a welcoming feeling.
I got most of it straightened out. My landlord replaced the bed and I am dealing w/ the city. Ahh well… I am only back for a couple of weeks. First weekend in Feb I head to the Alps for some skiing. Since lat is in country, I am going to head to Den Haag the next weekend as well. Maybe Berlin the next so expect some updates in Feb.
Happy new years to everybody and hope everybody is well. Drop me a line some time.
Trained down to PA and spent the weekend in Levittown. Saw most everybody in the few days I had there.
Having been gone from work for so long, I decided to head back into NY earlyish on Sunday and head into the office to get settled. We had a bunch of new servers to put in so I coaxed Pop into coming up and helping me put them in. I thought it would be a fun day but unfortunately, we were missing the disk arrays. We also ran into trouble getting the OS loaded. It turned out later, after Jordan fought with this for a long time, to be a bad external CD drive we were trying to use. Ahh well. It is too bad we didn’t get it up. It was probably good for me to remember how annoying some of these things can be and how long it can really take to do seemingly simple things.
The week went too quickly. Went out for golden Tee on Monday. I think I actually won a game. W00t!
Was way too beat to go out on Tuesday w/ the pool people. Passed out on the couch as I got home.
The Twins came up on Wednesday. We went down to china town and went to Joe’s Shanghai for some soup dumplings. This is one of my favorite NY restaurants and I try to get down to 9 pell street when I make it to NY. Jesse was “not hungry” (or maybe was sketch by the food), but Becky dug right in. It was a good meal and I always like introducing people to good new things. Afterwards, we headed down to ground zero. Supposedly they started on the construction but it still looks the like the same hole in the ground. I really wish they would stop the bickering and build something.
This was the day that Bush had his Iraq speech. I missed it but we saw part of the dems rebuttal when we stopped for a bathroom break. It seems the Dems, even though they took congress are still very much, “That isn’t a good plan”, without offering an alternative plan. Ugh, somebody needs to step up and offer some options. I am halfway through the Baker and co report on Iraq and that seems to be a pretty decent plan. It even seems like Bush is following a good portion of it. Problem is, as seems to be endemic in the administration, is I don’t see them being up front about what they are doing. I always get the feeling that I am treated like a 5 year old child that has to be protected from the real plans. Anyway…
Thursday was the Christmas party. Had a good time, danced a bit, ate a bit, drank a bit more. The bar was a bit weak on the good stuff. The Vodka was absolute and the beer Budweiser, for example. I decided to switch to wine and, as Matt put it, “Bad white is usually better than bad red, at least it’s chilled”. After the party, we continued back to our golden tee bar. As fun as that was, I have had better thought out plans. The next morning, I had the option of dragging myself in and hurting all day, or sleeping a bit late and hopefully being useful. I chose the later and it was the right choice, I actually managed to get a good bit done.
Friday evening, I headed back up to the catskills. We did a couple little tasks, like putting up the mailbox, etc. Mostly just hung out in the country.
Came back early on Sunday, packed and got ready to head back to fair ol’ England.
Problem was, London had a big fuck you waiting for me. I returned to a stack of mail and a ruined bed. It seems the roof had leaked on my bed while I was gone and the whole thing was mildewed. Sweet! Looking through the mail, I had a notice that my council tax was overdue (though I am still waiting for a revised bill), another that says it was overdue so I had a court date and another that said I missed my court date and was found in default judgment against. I do like how they want 10 working days between any contact w/ them and their action on it but they can send me a letter to show up in person less than 10 working days away. So between the ruined bed and $1500 dollars in unexpected bills, it wasn’t exactly a welcoming feeling.
I got most of it straightened out. My landlord replaced the bed and I am dealing w/ the city. Ahh well… I am only back for a couple of weeks. First weekend in Feb I head to the Alps for some skiing. Since lat is in country, I am going to head to Den Haag the next weekend as well. Maybe Berlin the next so expect some updates in Feb.
Happy new years to everybody and hope everybody is well. Drop me a line some time.
Holidays 06 (pt. 3)
I woke up on New Years Day feeling really quite good about the world. Not sure why exactly, just happy and hopeful in general. This is going to be a good year.
We went back to the flying star for breakfast. By the time we gathered and made it through breakfast, it was time to head to the airport. I took Jay and Devoney on to the airport for flights that finally seemed like they were leaving.
Since I wasn’t sure that anybody was going to make it out of town, I wanted to stay in town until they were on the plane. This gave me a perfect opportunity to go see Theresa and Blayne’s new car dealership. More Seattle friends, they recently moved out to Abq. to start a car dealership. I got the full tour of the huge building they are setting up in. Still some work to be done but it looks like a good place and the location seems good. In a car dealership area, it is on San Mateo right next to the busiest intersection in … something. At least Abq. but that would probably also mean in NM. It was good to see them and I hung out for a bit. Met Blayne’s family finally. They had been living out Abq. while I knew Blayne in Seattle. Good to see everybody doing well.
Wanting to make sure I hit Taos before dark, I headed out in the mid afternoon. The roads ended up being more clear all the way up then they were in Abq. I think Abq. just doesn’t have enough plows.
Cruising back through Taos was nice. I was really sorry Jay didn’t make it up, I would have liked to show him Taos. Met up w/ a bunch of Taoseno’s at orlandos for dinner. Hung out next to the fire pit outside waiting for everybody to gather.
Headed up to the Pennington's after dinner. This is the house that always reminds me that I wanted a house of my own design. His father was in construction and it has great, thoughtful, well designed touches all over the house. And the views are amazing.
Everybody was still a bit rundown from new years so it was a mellow evening. Matt taught us a new game. The game was very fun. We divided into teams w/ about 4 people on each team. Everybody put 3 famous names (historical, celebrity, whatever) into a hat. Then for round, team A would have 1 minute to get their team to guess as many names as they could without saying the name, one point for each correct guess. After their minute, Team B would get the hat do the same thing. Once you go through the hat once, you put all the names back in and you have another minute to get your team to guess the same set of names, but this time you can only say one word for each clue. Round 3, is the same set of names but this time you have to pantomime. We played a couple of rounds, it was a good way to pass the evening.
Woke the next morning and headed out for breakfast burritos w/ Zach. He went to run errands and I went to find Rohm. Found him, home with his family, as hoped for… Another tough day, we hung out and chatted all day. It is always nice to see them, Rohm still has that easy smile.
Eventually, I headed over to Zachs to find Zach and Ian playing City of Heros. I jumped on for a second. Wow, that game is fun. I tell you, these massively multiplayer games are dangerous. I have to stay away for the same reason I stay away from Heroin. It is just so addictive. I know many people that play and only one that has managed to quit. Many have tried but few can kick the habit.
We headed over to the Taos Inn for a going away party. Pleasant dinner/chat and then back to Zachs to sleep.
Next morn, I went and found Ky’s new place. Another super cute family, he is living over by the hospital with his lady and two daughters. Hit El Taoseno for a breakfast burrito. I have been going to that restaurant for, what, 20 years? I think I have had not the breakfast burrito maybe 3 times. Afterwards we came back and played a bit on the computer. I put in Google earth and zoomed around the world with Tatayana.
Ky headed to work and I headed over to Rohm’s for another tough day. We even broke out the magic cards.
Back to Ky’s around 9, we stayed up late shooting pool in his computer room/den area. Another great time, hanging out w/ an old friend.
Woke the next morn a bit early so I could get a picture of Tata before she headed off to school. I think I was feeling better than Kayum this morning but not by much. We spent the morning on the couch. Eventually, it was time for me to get off my ass and head to Abq. for my flight.
Back in Abq. I stopped at a little market and picked up a bunch of chili before heading over to Theresa’s dealership for a bit. We gathered a large posse and went out for one last NM dinner. It was ohh so good but a week of nothing but food smothered in chili and cheese is taking its toll on my digestive system. I need a salad or something.
We went back to the flying star for breakfast. By the time we gathered and made it through breakfast, it was time to head to the airport. I took Jay and Devoney on to the airport for flights that finally seemed like they were leaving.
Since I wasn’t sure that anybody was going to make it out of town, I wanted to stay in town until they were on the plane. This gave me a perfect opportunity to go see Theresa and Blayne’s new car dealership. More Seattle friends, they recently moved out to Abq. to start a car dealership. I got the full tour of the huge building they are setting up in. Still some work to be done but it looks like a good place and the location seems good. In a car dealership area, it is on San Mateo right next to the busiest intersection in … something. At least Abq. but that would probably also mean in NM. It was good to see them and I hung out for a bit. Met Blayne’s family finally. They had been living out Abq. while I knew Blayne in Seattle. Good to see everybody doing well.
Wanting to make sure I hit Taos before dark, I headed out in the mid afternoon. The roads ended up being more clear all the way up then they were in Abq. I think Abq. just doesn’t have enough plows.
Cruising back through Taos was nice. I was really sorry Jay didn’t make it up, I would have liked to show him Taos. Met up w/ a bunch of Taoseno’s at orlandos for dinner. Hung out next to the fire pit outside waiting for everybody to gather.
Headed up to the Pennington's after dinner. This is the house that always reminds me that I wanted a house of my own design. His father was in construction and it has great, thoughtful, well designed touches all over the house. And the views are amazing.
Everybody was still a bit rundown from new years so it was a mellow evening. Matt taught us a new game. The game was very fun. We divided into teams w/ about 4 people on each team. Everybody put 3 famous names (historical, celebrity, whatever) into a hat. Then for round, team A would have 1 minute to get their team to guess as many names as they could without saying the name, one point for each correct guess. After their minute, Team B would get the hat do the same thing. Once you go through the hat once, you put all the names back in and you have another minute to get your team to guess the same set of names, but this time you can only say one word for each clue. Round 3, is the same set of names but this time you have to pantomime. We played a couple of rounds, it was a good way to pass the evening.
Woke the next morning and headed out for breakfast burritos w/ Zach. He went to run errands and I went to find Rohm. Found him, home with his family, as hoped for… Another tough day, we hung out and chatted all day. It is always nice to see them, Rohm still has that easy smile.
Eventually, I headed over to Zachs to find Zach and Ian playing City of Heros. I jumped on for a second. Wow, that game is fun. I tell you, these massively multiplayer games are dangerous. I have to stay away for the same reason I stay away from Heroin. It is just so addictive. I know many people that play and only one that has managed to quit. Many have tried but few can kick the habit.
We headed over to the Taos Inn for a going away party. Pleasant dinner/chat and then back to Zachs to sleep.
Next morn, I went and found Ky’s new place. Another super cute family, he is living over by the hospital with his lady and two daughters. Hit El Taoseno for a breakfast burrito. I have been going to that restaurant for, what, 20 years? I think I have had not the breakfast burrito maybe 3 times. Afterwards we came back and played a bit on the computer. I put in Google earth and zoomed around the world with Tatayana.
Ky headed to work and I headed over to Rohm’s for another tough day. We even broke out the magic cards.
Back to Ky’s around 9, we stayed up late shooting pool in his computer room/den area. Another great time, hanging out w/ an old friend.
Woke the next morn a bit early so I could get a picture of Tata before she headed off to school. I think I was feeling better than Kayum this morning but not by much. We spent the morning on the couch. Eventually, it was time for me to get off my ass and head to Abq. for my flight.
Back in Abq. I stopped at a little market and picked up a bunch of chili before heading over to Theresa’s dealership for a bit. We gathered a large posse and went out for one last NM dinner. It was ohh so good but a week of nothing but food smothered in chili and cheese is taking its toll on my digestive system. I need a salad or something.
Holidays 06 (pt. 2)
We got up fairly early the next morning and began the drive to NM. It was a pretty easy trip until we hit Socorro. That is when we hit the storm. Albuquerque doesn’t rain much and snows almost never. This storm dumped 26 inches of snow in the NE. 14” on average through the city. The roads were closed from Albuquerque to TX, AZ, and CO. You can go south if you want to get out. Apparently Angel Fire had 50” of snow. The mayor came on and asked people not to come. You know you are in trouble when the mayor of a ski resort is telling you not to come skiing. Albuquerque still had roads closed 3 days later. And all of that was still nothing compared to Denver.
We met up with Zach and Ian for dinner in Albuquerque while we planned our next move. To my surprise, Ian showed up with his friend Cleo. Cleo and I have a habit of meeting in far flung places. A Seattle friend, last time I saw her we were in NYC. She was with her sister Devoney. After dinner, they all headed off to the Rev Horton Heat concert and we went to find lodging. We ended up staying with Jay’s uncle up in Cedar Crest. His uncle, Chuck, even took us out snow plowing the next morn. If I had laid odds on things I didn’t expect to be doing on this trip, I would have bet heavily against snow plowing. But it was a nice way to pass the morn, cruising around sketchy mountain roads, plowing, trying not to get stuck.
After plowing we headed into Abq for breakfast. When renting the car, I made sure to get an AWD vehicle. Thinking it might be useful in Taos, in case we wanted to go up to the mountains or we got some snow and had to get through the canyon. I had no idea how necessary it would be come. We had a ford escape, I guess they make a hybrid model too. That little fucker was great in the snow. I could hardly even make it slide. Saw people stuck and helped people get going all over town but we could get anywhere in the escape. Maybe it is just the first traction control car I have driven but I was quite impressed.
We made it down the mountain and met Ian and gang at the Flying Star in the Nob Hill neighborhood. Nice neighborhood actually. It became our neighborhood for the next couple of snowed in days. We got a hotel a couple blocks away. Good location, Ian lived around the corner and Zach not too far away. Most of our snowed in time revolved around this area and it offered enough to keep us interested. The flying star was our breakfast spot for the whole time, which was good b/c it was a great café/restaurant with a nice feel. I wouldn’t mind having one of these in my world.
Since Abq was shut down, we decided there was little to do but drink so we hit the bar and spent a cozy day warming up in an Irish pub nearby. Really didn’t accomplish much but hanging out chatting. It was pleasant enough to be an accomplishment in itself. Eventually we got dinner and retired to Ig’s for more of the same. Tough day.
Enter New Year’s Day. We probably could have made it up to Taos but it was still iffy and we had to be back the next day for Jay’s flight anyway. It felt like we were really just going to drive up for the party at Matt’s house and then turn around and return. I like those guys and all but a 2 hour commute for the party was a bit much.
We made a good day of it anyway. Went over to Zach’s and played with his 360 for a bit, that is a pretty system. Got Big Tom to come out and we all went to shoot some pool. It was good to see Tom. He has a new daughter to attempt to balance out his 2 boys. Everybody sounded like they were doing well. Shot pool for a while and then Ian showed up and announced we had dinner plans. A friend of theirs was going to make an Indian feast. Hmm, that is valuable green chili space that is being wasted but it is hard to pass up a home cooked meal.
As a side note, other than that meal, I think I was successful in having green chili in every meal in NM. Ian kept asking what I wanted to eat and I kept telling him that was a dumb question. I have to get my season’s fill of green chili, I have no room to waste on anything else.
Back to New Years. Just before dinner, we got word that Devoney, who was supposed to be flying out, had her flight cancelled again. We couldn’t leave her stranded in the airport for New Years so we swung by increased our party by one.
It was about this time that one of our party started really getting loaded. I knew he was in trouble when somebody handed him a wine sized bottle of a (Russian?) stout. One of those gourmet type, 11% jobbers. He tipped back his head and drained the whole thing in one burst, complete w/ overflow spilling down his chin. Uh-oh, here we go… Just after dinner, he fell into a snow pile. When I asked him if he fell or dove he replied “I don’t know”. Now I have been out w/ him before and knew that all would be ok but I think the rest of our party was a bit sketched out by the whole scene. Ahh well, it’s New Years.
After dinner, we headed back to our neighborhood and dropped the car off at Ian’s. W00t, now I can start drinking! We called a cab to go to the club and hung out for a second waiting for it. It actually came quite quick. On our way down the hill though, in this old rear wheel drive cab, the cabby hit the breaks and mutters, “Uh oh!” Heh, not really what you want to hear as we slid towards an intersection. He managed to pump the breaks a bit and get us stopped on the still very icy roads.
So next stop was Pulse. Ian and Zach have a history with this club. They both worked there. I guess it is the preeminent gay club in Abq. I have ended up there a couple times with them. Tonight, I was feeling a bit low energy so I had my reservations. Once we got in and started dancing though, I realized that this was a good call. Good vibe and a lot of fun was had, with one minor bump.
About 15 minutes before midnight, we were walking from the hip-hop to the house room. I don't think there was any specific incident, maybe just the loaded look was enough. In any case, a big bouncer comes up and grabs our loaded one by the head and tells us he is too loaded to be in here. “Give us 10 minutes through the new year”, I ask. “This is not negotiable!” is the reply as he drags my buddy out by the head. Fucker. Ig was the only one of our party in sight so I told him to stay and I would go take care of this.
We found each other outside the club and started heading back towards the hotel, looking for one last new years drink on the way. In this way, new years passed. 5 after 12, we stopped in a really strange little local bar and had a new years toast. We hung for a short time before we went and poured him into a bed in a nearby hotel.
Back to the club, I decided that with all the timezone jumping I was doing there was no real reason for me to be stuck in mountain time for new years. I decided I had just as much claim to pacific time as mountain time and I got back to the club about 10 mins before my new years. Happy new years! We danced for a few more hours in to the night. A random night truly but all and all a good night.
We met up with Zach and Ian for dinner in Albuquerque while we planned our next move. To my surprise, Ian showed up with his friend Cleo. Cleo and I have a habit of meeting in far flung places. A Seattle friend, last time I saw her we were in NYC. She was with her sister Devoney. After dinner, they all headed off to the Rev Horton Heat concert and we went to find lodging. We ended up staying with Jay’s uncle up in Cedar Crest. His uncle, Chuck, even took us out snow plowing the next morn. If I had laid odds on things I didn’t expect to be doing on this trip, I would have bet heavily against snow plowing. But it was a nice way to pass the morn, cruising around sketchy mountain roads, plowing, trying not to get stuck.
After plowing we headed into Abq for breakfast. When renting the car, I made sure to get an AWD vehicle. Thinking it might be useful in Taos, in case we wanted to go up to the mountains or we got some snow and had to get through the canyon. I had no idea how necessary it would be come. We had a ford escape, I guess they make a hybrid model too. That little fucker was great in the snow. I could hardly even make it slide. Saw people stuck and helped people get going all over town but we could get anywhere in the escape. Maybe it is just the first traction control car I have driven but I was quite impressed.
We made it down the mountain and met Ian and gang at the Flying Star in the Nob Hill neighborhood. Nice neighborhood actually. It became our neighborhood for the next couple of snowed in days. We got a hotel a couple blocks away. Good location, Ian lived around the corner and Zach not too far away. Most of our snowed in time revolved around this area and it offered enough to keep us interested. The flying star was our breakfast spot for the whole time, which was good b/c it was a great café/restaurant with a nice feel. I wouldn’t mind having one of these in my world.
Since Abq was shut down, we decided there was little to do but drink so we hit the bar and spent a cozy day warming up in an Irish pub nearby. Really didn’t accomplish much but hanging out chatting. It was pleasant enough to be an accomplishment in itself. Eventually we got dinner and retired to Ig’s for more of the same. Tough day.
Enter New Year’s Day. We probably could have made it up to Taos but it was still iffy and we had to be back the next day for Jay’s flight anyway. It felt like we were really just going to drive up for the party at Matt’s house and then turn around and return. I like those guys and all but a 2 hour commute for the party was a bit much.
We made a good day of it anyway. Went over to Zach’s and played with his 360 for a bit, that is a pretty system. Got Big Tom to come out and we all went to shoot some pool. It was good to see Tom. He has a new daughter to attempt to balance out his 2 boys. Everybody sounded like they were doing well. Shot pool for a while and then Ian showed up and announced we had dinner plans. A friend of theirs was going to make an Indian feast. Hmm, that is valuable green chili space that is being wasted but it is hard to pass up a home cooked meal.
As a side note, other than that meal, I think I was successful in having green chili in every meal in NM. Ian kept asking what I wanted to eat and I kept telling him that was a dumb question. I have to get my season’s fill of green chili, I have no room to waste on anything else.
Back to New Years. Just before dinner, we got word that Devoney, who was supposed to be flying out, had her flight cancelled again. We couldn’t leave her stranded in the airport for New Years so we swung by increased our party by one.
It was about this time that one of our party started really getting loaded. I knew he was in trouble when somebody handed him a wine sized bottle of a (Russian?) stout. One of those gourmet type, 11% jobbers. He tipped back his head and drained the whole thing in one burst, complete w/ overflow spilling down his chin. Uh-oh, here we go… Just after dinner, he fell into a snow pile. When I asked him if he fell or dove he replied “I don’t know”. Now I have been out w/ him before and knew that all would be ok but I think the rest of our party was a bit sketched out by the whole scene. Ahh well, it’s New Years.
After dinner, we headed back to our neighborhood and dropped the car off at Ian’s. W00t, now I can start drinking! We called a cab to go to the club and hung out for a second waiting for it. It actually came quite quick. On our way down the hill though, in this old rear wheel drive cab, the cabby hit the breaks and mutters, “Uh oh!” Heh, not really what you want to hear as we slid towards an intersection. He managed to pump the breaks a bit and get us stopped on the still very icy roads.
So next stop was Pulse. Ian and Zach have a history with this club. They both worked there. I guess it is the preeminent gay club in Abq. I have ended up there a couple times with them. Tonight, I was feeling a bit low energy so I had my reservations. Once we got in and started dancing though, I realized that this was a good call. Good vibe and a lot of fun was had, with one minor bump.
About 15 minutes before midnight, we were walking from the hip-hop to the house room. I don't think there was any specific incident, maybe just the loaded look was enough. In any case, a big bouncer comes up and grabs our loaded one by the head and tells us he is too loaded to be in here. “Give us 10 minutes through the new year”, I ask. “This is not negotiable!” is the reply as he drags my buddy out by the head. Fucker. Ig was the only one of our party in sight so I told him to stay and I would go take care of this.
We found each other outside the club and started heading back towards the hotel, looking for one last new years drink on the way. In this way, new years passed. 5 after 12, we stopped in a really strange little local bar and had a new years toast. We hung for a short time before we went and poured him into a bed in a nearby hotel.
Back to the club, I decided that with all the timezone jumping I was doing there was no real reason for me to be stuck in mountain time for new years. I decided I had just as much claim to pacific time as mountain time and I got back to the club about 10 mins before my new years. Happy new years! We danced for a few more hours in to the night. A random night truly but all and all a good night.
Holidays 06 (pt. 1)
Whooo boy, what a trip. I think we won.
There was a lot of worry about getting out of London at the start of the trip. Flights had been cancelled for days on account of the fog. I was overhearing stories of people trapped in Heathrow for 2 days. Virgin said that they were unaffected and indeed, I had no problem getting out. It made me start wondering if the longhaul flights have better radar that allows them to not worry about the fog. That makes sense but does that mean that the continental flights don’t have the fancy radar?
The flight was very easy, going west is always easier than going east. We stopped at a great Italian restaurant in the Bronx Italian section. Around 184th and Arthur Anderson, called Dominics or similar, it is one of those great hidden gems. No menus, family style dining. They come out and tell you what they are cooking tonight and you pick a couple things. The other people at the table were very friendly and recommended some dishes. We ordered some of our own and some of their recommendations. Of course, their recommendations were far better. Simply fantastic chicken dish.
After dinner we headed up to the Catskills for Christmas. Everything came together nicely, other than the bottle of wine that broke in my luggage. It was, of course, red wine but most of the presents made it. And we figured out that dish washing soap and hydrogen peroxide gets red wine stains out very well.
Day after Christmas, we headed back into the city to meet up with Aunt Beth and Uncle Gerald. We went to the natural history museum and saw a show at the planetarium. There were a bunch of young kids running around the museum and we wondering how much of this they were “getting”. I was quite impressed when I saw a group of 10 years olds run right up to a topographical globe and pointed out the Himilayas. “Oooh, lets find the Rockies”. I guess our educational system is doing something. We stopped in Korea Town for a meal before I caught the train out to Newark for the next phase of the adventure.
Jay picked me up in Tucson in a small little desert airport. We headed up to his parents place and pretty much called it a night. Finally dug into some real Mexican food before we headed out to the Tucson outdoor zoo. It was called something else, but it was basically a zoo of all the indigenous plants and animals of Arizona. We walked the whole thing and felt very cultured afterwards.
After lunch (more Mexican) we broke so people could get ready for the big night out. Before that though, we hit the hill top resort for the twilight toast. Because seriously, who can pass up free tequila? We got maragrita’s at a very picturesque spot in front of a fire overlooking Tucson, At twilight, they passed out a shot of tequila and told a story about Pancho Villa. We toasted to a story in which Pancho Villa had to drink more tequila than the bride to be’s father. Nice setting for a drink.
Then came the hail. Marble sized hail and freezing rain, in Tucson? Go figure. After a bit of trouble getting the limo to show up on account of the weather (and they had forgotten our reservation), the guy finally showed up. Things got a bit hazy at some point but I am pretty sure we hit every bar in Tucson. We finished the night out on the mesa in true southwest style. Yup, we won.
Not exactly feeling our best the next day, we decided not to hit the road just yet. Instead, we went to the Titan museum. The Titan missiles were our way of assuring peace through Mutually Assured Destruction. As stupid of an idea as it sounds, it seems to have pulled us through the Cold War. The basic premise was that if you shoot at us, we are going to shoot all of these huge missiles back at you, ie if you take us out we are breaking the earth. Each of these missiles carries a 90,000 megaton detonation, this is equivalent to a multi thousand car train loaded with TNT stretching from Arizona to Kentucky. The Titan missile site is the only remaining, though non functional, site of the original 54, spread in 3 locations with 18 missiles each. The missiles are spread out around a 90 or so mile radius south of Tucson. As they were very careful to point out that it was “our biggest”, or the “US’s biggest” weapon, I have to assume that this is not the biggest ever produced. The museum was quite cool. The height of late 60’s technology, it is completely dug out and placed on big shock isolation springs. This means that it would take basically a direct nuclear strike to take it out. Inside the complex, which is all underground, was nearly entirely a “no lone zone”. This meant that anywhere you were in the complex, other than the kitchen, you had to be in sight of somebody at all times. Even just stepping behind a control panel or something, you had to have somebody watching you. For 20+ years, the one in Arizona was set to “Target 2”. Still classified, nobody knows what target 2 is. When asked how they were sure these would fire when needed, they told us about their testing program. 42 times over the 20-odd years of the program they removed a missile, removed the nuke, and sent the missile and team to the test center. Some time during that week, they were called upon to fire. The target was a small island I had never heard of. Out of the 42, only 2 missed by more than 100 yards. “You don’t have to be that accurate with a weapon system like this”, the guide remarked. Indeed, the fireball itself is 3 miles in diameter. At some point in the late 80’s (IIRC), we signed a Non Proliferation treaty to disarm many of our massive weapons. To show that we, and the Russians, had done this, we disabled the various parts of the installation (drilled holes in the rocket’s fuel tanks, etc) and left them outside for 30 days so the satellites could document what had been done. Then we salvaged what we could and filled in the silo.
The museum was especially packed because it was raining. It rained all day? This is just the weather fucking with us, which would continue to be a theme on this trip.
There was a lot of worry about getting out of London at the start of the trip. Flights had been cancelled for days on account of the fog. I was overhearing stories of people trapped in Heathrow for 2 days. Virgin said that they were unaffected and indeed, I had no problem getting out. It made me start wondering if the longhaul flights have better radar that allows them to not worry about the fog. That makes sense but does that mean that the continental flights don’t have the fancy radar?
The flight was very easy, going west is always easier than going east. We stopped at a great Italian restaurant in the Bronx Italian section. Around 184th and Arthur Anderson, called Dominics or similar, it is one of those great hidden gems. No menus, family style dining. They come out and tell you what they are cooking tonight and you pick a couple things. The other people at the table were very friendly and recommended some dishes. We ordered some of our own and some of their recommendations. Of course, their recommendations were far better. Simply fantastic chicken dish.
After dinner we headed up to the Catskills for Christmas. Everything came together nicely, other than the bottle of wine that broke in my luggage. It was, of course, red wine but most of the presents made it. And we figured out that dish washing soap and hydrogen peroxide gets red wine stains out very well.
Day after Christmas, we headed back into the city to meet up with Aunt Beth and Uncle Gerald. We went to the natural history museum and saw a show at the planetarium. There were a bunch of young kids running around the museum and we wondering how much of this they were “getting”. I was quite impressed when I saw a group of 10 years olds run right up to a topographical globe and pointed out the Himilayas. “Oooh, lets find the Rockies”. I guess our educational system is doing something. We stopped in Korea Town for a meal before I caught the train out to Newark for the next phase of the adventure.
Jay picked me up in Tucson in a small little desert airport. We headed up to his parents place and pretty much called it a night. Finally dug into some real Mexican food before we headed out to the Tucson outdoor zoo. It was called something else, but it was basically a zoo of all the indigenous plants and animals of Arizona. We walked the whole thing and felt very cultured afterwards.
After lunch (more Mexican) we broke so people could get ready for the big night out. Before that though, we hit the hill top resort for the twilight toast. Because seriously, who can pass up free tequila? We got maragrita’s at a very picturesque spot in front of a fire overlooking Tucson, At twilight, they passed out a shot of tequila and told a story about Pancho Villa. We toasted to a story in which Pancho Villa had to drink more tequila than the bride to be’s father. Nice setting for a drink.
Then came the hail. Marble sized hail and freezing rain, in Tucson? Go figure. After a bit of trouble getting the limo to show up on account of the weather (and they had forgotten our reservation), the guy finally showed up. Things got a bit hazy at some point but I am pretty sure we hit every bar in Tucson. We finished the night out on the mesa in true southwest style. Yup, we won.
Not exactly feeling our best the next day, we decided not to hit the road just yet. Instead, we went to the Titan museum. The Titan missiles were our way of assuring peace through Mutually Assured Destruction. As stupid of an idea as it sounds, it seems to have pulled us through the Cold War. The basic premise was that if you shoot at us, we are going to shoot all of these huge missiles back at you, ie if you take us out we are breaking the earth. Each of these missiles carries a 90,000 megaton detonation, this is equivalent to a multi thousand car train loaded with TNT stretching from Arizona to Kentucky. The Titan missile site is the only remaining, though non functional, site of the original 54, spread in 3 locations with 18 missiles each. The missiles are spread out around a 90 or so mile radius south of Tucson. As they were very careful to point out that it was “our biggest”, or the “US’s biggest” weapon, I have to assume that this is not the biggest ever produced. The museum was quite cool. The height of late 60’s technology, it is completely dug out and placed on big shock isolation springs. This means that it would take basically a direct nuclear strike to take it out. Inside the complex, which is all underground, was nearly entirely a “no lone zone”. This meant that anywhere you were in the complex, other than the kitchen, you had to be in sight of somebody at all times. Even just stepping behind a control panel or something, you had to have somebody watching you. For 20+ years, the one in Arizona was set to “Target 2”. Still classified, nobody knows what target 2 is. When asked how they were sure these would fire when needed, they told us about their testing program. 42 times over the 20-odd years of the program they removed a missile, removed the nuke, and sent the missile and team to the test center. Some time during that week, they were called upon to fire. The target was a small island I had never heard of. Out of the 42, only 2 missed by more than 100 yards. “You don’t have to be that accurate with a weapon system like this”, the guide remarked. Indeed, the fireball itself is 3 miles in diameter. At some point in the late 80’s (IIRC), we signed a Non Proliferation treaty to disarm many of our massive weapons. To show that we, and the Russians, had done this, we disabled the various parts of the installation (drilled holes in the rocket’s fuel tanks, etc) and left them outside for 30 days so the satellites could document what had been done. Then we salvaged what we could and filled in the silo.
The museum was especially packed because it was raining. It rained all day? This is just the weather fucking with us, which would continue to be a theme on this trip.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Pari' again
Well, I didn’t manage to get a single picture in Paris. Work was as frustrating as ever. Lots of sitting around and waiting for them to do something. The second day, I just started working on my own stuff. Probably was able to get about 3 hours worth of work in the 2 days I was there. I will never put my money in a French bank.
Monday night, my Paris friend Vero and I went to a Chinese restaurant from the Shang Dong (sp?) area of China. It was excellent, quite possibly the best Chinese meal I have had. It was in the 13th district but that is about all I know. Not sure if I will be able to find it again. I ate myself (nearly) sick and then we stayed up way too late in discussion. One of the French traits I admire is the interest in conversation for the sake of conversation and expanding your mind.
Tuesday night I went to a restaurant that, while it would have been acceptable to good in England, was really disappointing in france. Ahh well, can’t win em all.
Spent Weds working in the hotel bar, Christmas shopping and wandering around Paris. The Christmas market in Montparnasse was quite nice. I tried to go to the La Fayette Market as I was told that there was a sight to see there. Something akin to the windows on 5th ave as far as I could tell. When I got there, however, it was basically a Macy’s. Not where I wanted to do any of my Christmas shopping, I forgot about the windows and continued on my way. Through this whole day, I forgot my camera. So no pictures of Paris or the (suitably picturesque) Champs Elysses and Arc de Triumph all lit up for Christmas.
Monday night, my Paris friend Vero and I went to a Chinese restaurant from the Shang Dong (sp?) area of China. It was excellent, quite possibly the best Chinese meal I have had. It was in the 13th district but that is about all I know. Not sure if I will be able to find it again. I ate myself (nearly) sick and then we stayed up way too late in discussion. One of the French traits I admire is the interest in conversation for the sake of conversation and expanding your mind.
Tuesday night I went to a restaurant that, while it would have been acceptable to good in England, was really disappointing in france. Ahh well, can’t win em all.
Spent Weds working in the hotel bar, Christmas shopping and wandering around Paris. The Christmas market in Montparnasse was quite nice. I tried to go to the La Fayette Market as I was told that there was a sight to see there. Something akin to the windows on 5th ave as far as I could tell. When I got there, however, it was basically a Macy’s. Not where I wanted to do any of my Christmas shopping, I forgot about the windows and continued on my way. Through this whole day, I forgot my camera. So no pictures of Paris or the (suitably picturesque) Champs Elysses and Arc de Triumph all lit up for Christmas.
Ro-Town
So it’s official, I like Holland. Rotterdam wasn’t much of a town. With a population of about 6-800,000 people, there was just a few “hip” streets. I wouldn’t live there long term. I was supposed to be there about 28 hours but I caught an earlier train. 24 hours was just about right. Despite all of that, the Nederlands still has that feel that I like. Rotterdam, which was apparently devastated in WWII, is very new architecturally. This is fine with me, they have lots of interesting buildings. Even if some of their architecture is perhaps too “noveau” for my tastes, I like that they didn’t pull a Belgium and try to rebuild everything as it was.
It wasn’t “tourist season” so I couldn’t do one of the things I had wanted to. They have some Euromast thing, I am assuming it is similar to a Space Needle. This one, though, you can repel out of. Unfortunately, it is only open during the summer. Alas…
I did sleep on a boat though. I booked into the Clipper Hotel which was a house boat. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I booked it. I arrived at the side of the canal and climbed down a sketchy iron ladder to get on this house boat. Entering, I was in somebody’s living room. There were 3 medium dogs and a (rather bratty) kid. “Mom” was a young woman, younger than me, I believe, who checked me in. She was courteous, though not friendly. While she was dealing with one of the boy’s little temper tantrums, I admired his art and school papers posted around the house. Very homey feel. I had booked out a double room for myself and ended up with a small twin bunk bed with a port-hole window. Though it was cramped and some what an odd scene, I was boyishly excited to be sleeping on a boat.
After getting settled in, I headed out to see what Rotterdam (or Ro-Town, as the cool kids call it) had to offer.
I was in a good mood heading out and Ro-Town didn’t disappoint. I stopped in a small bar to get my bearings and was treated to an excellent beer (Belgian, I believe). Wandered towards the ‘hip’ area. Most of the shops and what not were closed down but I did find a pool spot. Randomly, the bartender at this pool place gave me a quick history of some of the battles in the civil war. He was apparently writing a book on the US Civil War. Go figure. We chatted for a while and I went up to shoot pool.
The pool table was excellent. The dutch really care about their games (probably why I like them). The table looked old and the felt was worn. After playing a couple of shots though, you could see, or rather feel, that this was a quality table. I shot for a couple of hours and decided to see what else I could find.
I wandered a bit, got dinner at some bar, and pretty much covered all of the downtown areas of Rotterdam. A far cry from some of the larger cities where there is a bar or café every couple of feet, Rotterdam has a select set of establishments that stay open. After wandering around a bit, I found a casino that was playing the new Bond film. Pretty good actually.
Wandering back to my boat, I was a bit worried about navigating that ladder in the wet, dark, slightly intoxicated state. I was very surprised to find that I the 6 or so hours I had been gone, the water level rose about 8 feet. I had to step up to get into the boat. Ocean tides and what not. Since Rotterdam is mostly under sea level and protected by a series of dikes, I didn’t think the tides would affect them. I suppose they could be ‘man made’ for some purpose. Flushing the system perhaps?
Anyway, I checked out the next day and saw that I was staying right next to the cube houses. Some fancy housing experiment, they are basically cubes standing on one corner. It seems like a pretty inefficient way to build a house. Some 20% of the space is un usable due to the slanting walls. Ahh well, progress.
I went to the local art museum and saw a Magritte exhibit. Really good, quite a few things that I would hang on my wall.
After that, I went and found a café near the train station to pass the time until my train left. This place had a pinball game that I got to playing. This was another example of high quality games as it was much better built than most pinball games I have played. Real carved figures inside, lots of mechanics and less flashing lights. The flippers had a very analogue feel.
Wandering around, I realized that New York was founded by the dutch and both towns had something in common. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but there is something there. Maybe just a feeling.
Well, they say Amsterdam to play, Rotterdam to work, and the Hague to live. I guess the Hague is my next destination.
It wasn’t “tourist season” so I couldn’t do one of the things I had wanted to. They have some Euromast thing, I am assuming it is similar to a Space Needle. This one, though, you can repel out of. Unfortunately, it is only open during the summer. Alas…
I did sleep on a boat though. I booked into the Clipper Hotel which was a house boat. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I booked it. I arrived at the side of the canal and climbed down a sketchy iron ladder to get on this house boat. Entering, I was in somebody’s living room. There were 3 medium dogs and a (rather bratty) kid. “Mom” was a young woman, younger than me, I believe, who checked me in. She was courteous, though not friendly. While she was dealing with one of the boy’s little temper tantrums, I admired his art and school papers posted around the house. Very homey feel. I had booked out a double room for myself and ended up with a small twin bunk bed with a port-hole window. Though it was cramped and some what an odd scene, I was boyishly excited to be sleeping on a boat.
After getting settled in, I headed out to see what Rotterdam (or Ro-Town, as the cool kids call it) had to offer.
I was in a good mood heading out and Ro-Town didn’t disappoint. I stopped in a small bar to get my bearings and was treated to an excellent beer (Belgian, I believe). Wandered towards the ‘hip’ area. Most of the shops and what not were closed down but I did find a pool spot. Randomly, the bartender at this pool place gave me a quick history of some of the battles in the civil war. He was apparently writing a book on the US Civil War. Go figure. We chatted for a while and I went up to shoot pool.
The pool table was excellent. The dutch really care about their games (probably why I like them). The table looked old and the felt was worn. After playing a couple of shots though, you could see, or rather feel, that this was a quality table. I shot for a couple of hours and decided to see what else I could find.
I wandered a bit, got dinner at some bar, and pretty much covered all of the downtown areas of Rotterdam. A far cry from some of the larger cities where there is a bar or café every couple of feet, Rotterdam has a select set of establishments that stay open. After wandering around a bit, I found a casino that was playing the new Bond film. Pretty good actually.
Wandering back to my boat, I was a bit worried about navigating that ladder in the wet, dark, slightly intoxicated state. I was very surprised to find that I the 6 or so hours I had been gone, the water level rose about 8 feet. I had to step up to get into the boat. Ocean tides and what not. Since Rotterdam is mostly under sea level and protected by a series of dikes, I didn’t think the tides would affect them. I suppose they could be ‘man made’ for some purpose. Flushing the system perhaps?
Anyway, I checked out the next day and saw that I was staying right next to the cube houses. Some fancy housing experiment, they are basically cubes standing on one corner. It seems like a pretty inefficient way to build a house. Some 20% of the space is un usable due to the slanting walls. Ahh well, progress.
I went to the local art museum and saw a Magritte exhibit. Really good, quite a few things that I would hang on my wall.
After that, I went and found a café near the train station to pass the time until my train left. This place had a pinball game that I got to playing. This was another example of high quality games as it was much better built than most pinball games I have played. Real carved figures inside, lots of mechanics and less flashing lights. The flippers had a very analogue feel.
Wandering around, I realized that New York was founded by the dutch and both towns had something in common. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but there is something there. Maybe just a feeling.
Well, they say Amsterdam to play, Rotterdam to work, and the Hague to live. I guess the Hague is my next destination.
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