Vacation - Addendum

For any of my relatives that may ever consider visiting - do not be alarmed when you arrive at the security checkpoints in Dulles International. The swarm of Middle-Eastern and African people milling about the checkpoints, speaking in strange tongues and accents are actually TSA employees. They are there to protect you from bad people.

Uh-huh.

Coors Gets Around

Man, you find find Coors beer everywhere now. Not like the old Smokey and the Bandit days. Even on a Scottish beach.

The mystery of a huge container washed up on a beach in the Western Isles has been solved.

The 27m container has been identified as a beer fermentation tank belonging to the American brewery Coors.

I like the other ideas people had for it.

One reader thought the numbers 5580 written on the container could have meant the container was used to house the chemicals used in DTD 5580, a three-part paint scheme used for aircraft all over the world.

Another website user thought it could have been a rocket stage previously launched from the South Uist launch site.

Vacation, Part 6 - Home Again

Friday morning we thought it might be prudent to check flight status, given the snow, before going out to DIA. All showed normal.

Sucker! We got to check-in 2 1/2 hours before flight time, and the flight was showing delayed an hour and a half. (Eventually they told us the captain, coming in from San Francisco for this Denver-DC-Munich flight, had called in sick.) So we got a chance for a leisurely breakfast, and chance to wander the shops, and to deal with security without time pressure.

The flight was good though. A Boeing 777, nine seats across, 9 channels of video at each seat, etc. We got in at a quarter after five, and were in our car with bags by about 6:30. Fought the traffic for 90 minutes, and had dinner in Fredericksburg. From there it's 105 miles home. Too bad it rained the whole way, as that slowed us down a bit.

We got home just before 11, schlepped all of the bags inside, brought in a huge pile from the mailbox, and went to bed. I was asleep in about two minutes.

This morning we reclaimed the dog children from the kennel (oh, were they happy to see us!), got settled in, and opened presents. Ah, it's good to be home!

The final funny bit we discovered just as we got home. In our haste to get moving a week before, apparently the door to the house never got locked. Neither did the back door. Not that where we live is small town or anything...

Vacation, Part 5 - Denver

The morning of the 26th we were off to Denver. This trip was uneventful, after an easy drive back to LAX. Except, if DIA is supposed to be such a wonderful airport, why did it take 45 minutes before any of the baggage arrived at the claim area? We visited with my parents in the afternoon, and had dinner with them. All seemed peaceful.

In the night the snow started to fall. By breakfast time it was getting ugly, and I'm out of practice driving in this. We spent the morning on a couple of short stops. Winnie had found a job to apply for just a day before we left home, and had spent spare moments filling out the application. The last step was to stop at Kinkos and mail in her transcripts.

The second stop was at Sheplers. I had been looking at Stetsons for years. Traditionally, Colorado School of Mines students got one when they got to be seniors. The tradition had kind of died out in the 70's, which I attribute in part to one weird student that no one wanted to be "like". None the less I kept looking at them, especially now that I'm so bald and in constant need of using a hat.

So, I got a salesperson's attention and asked if they had the Open Road hat I wanted. No, it's a very popular model, but they didn't carry them in the store. Just as a matter of interest, how much would it be if special ordered? $164. So, I'm hedging when Winnie says

Shut up and order the damn hat. You've been whining about this for 25 years, and I'm tired of hearing about it.

So, under orders, I did. It should arrive in a couple of weeks.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at my parents, with my sister's kids, and new great-niece. Isn't she cute?

Later, all of the family in town, 14 in all, went out to dinner, and had a great time. I went over to my sister's house, after dinner, and visited for a couple more hours. Then, a perilous trip back to the hotel in the snow, and get ready to travel.

Vacation, Part 4 - Christmas Day

Christmas Day we went over to Mark and Erin's again, had breakfast, and opened our respective gifts. Then we all jumped in Mark's car, and he took us out to Malibu. We got a chance to see crazy CA drivers. There was a wreck on the Santa Monica Freeway, and cars were moving a right angles to the lane markings to get over onto the parallel collector road. Yikes!

We had coffee and snacks (since almost nothing else was open), and walked on the beach for a bit. It was pretty nice, but very windy. Good thing there were no fires that day! Beautiful setting for houses, but it looked very perilous.

Back we went to their place, where a trans-Atlantic call to Mark's family was used so each side could open their presents together. Later Erin made us another yummy dinner, we drank a lot of wine, and eventually said goodnight and goodbye to them. (Yes, we ate a lot in Pasadena.)

Vacation, Part 3 - Christmas Eve

This is what comes of being married to someone who was first a geologist. Our entertainment for Christmas Eve was to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. This is Pit 91, from which they have removed over 250,000 fossils. The most common large fossil recovered has been dire wolves.

In the evening, we went over to Mark and Erin's and had a yummy duck dinner, but tried to get out at a reasonable hour, so they could get a little sleep.

Vacation, Part 2 - Pasadena

On Sunday we got to see a little of the town. We met Erin and Mark over at the Paseo, and did a little shopping. Erin and Winnie looked for clothes, and I found a bookstore to amuse myself. When we finished there we walked the few blocks down to old town Pasadena, and had lunch.

After lunch, we went back to their apartment for a while, and met Buster. He is a rowdy little dog, but not the hell hound Erin sometimes makes him out to be.

Later on we to the Huntington Botanic Gardens. We stayed there wandering the grounds until the guards chased us out near sunset.

Later we had dinner at Porto Alegre, which is a Brazilian steakhouse place. This meant "meat on a sword" as Erin stated it. It also meant eating until I nearly popped. The deal is they come to your table with whatever is just off the grill, slice you off pieces, and go on. That along with the huge salad/sides bar constitutes more dinner than bears thinking about. I should have taken a second statin before bed.

Vacation, Part 1 - Arriving in Pasadena

A week ago tonight we left on vacation. Our first stop was to Pasadena to see Erin and Mark.

In order to keep to non-stop flights, we left via Dulles in DC, which meant a 175 mile drive after dropping the dogs off at the kennel. We got there in plenty of time, and the flight went off without a hitch. Well, except the usual part about being squashed in coach.

What I don't understand came at the other end. We get to Hertz at about 8 pm, 3 days before Christmas, and there are four agents on duty at LAX. It took an hour to get a car and get our of there.

The drive up to Pasadena was surprisingly easy, and we got in touch with Erin right away, informing her that daddy was hungry. They met us at our hotel, and we walked over to the Paseo Colorado for dinner, which is only a block away from the Sheraton.

They started out trying to take us to the Yard House, which we rejected when they told us it had a 45 minute wait (around 10 pm). That was fine with me. It was a screamingly loud club, which isn't what I really wanted then. Actually, it's not what I ever want.

Instead, we wound up at Islands, which was good, and what I needed at that time of night. Pork tacos, and a shared Kona Pie.

Christmas Carols

As Larry says, "now that there's funny, I don't care who you are."

Off the Grid

Toshiba has got it all set up so I can go off the grid. Maybe I can be the first on my block to own my own nuclear reactor.

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.

Collies at Play

And now, for something completely usual.

My Christmas Letter

I'll spare you the embedded photos, but this is the Christmas letter I sent in my Christmas cards this year.

Family and Friends,

It never seems like I have anything worth telling in these letters, but as I think this out for this past year, that’s not true. There has been quite a lot going on with us.

Winnie taught a couple of Sociology classes this year as an adjunct professor at a local community college. She has also been working with her old advisor on a number of projects over time, and this fall he was able to get her hired full time as a research scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (part of the College of William & Mary), where she specializes in the social effects of fishery regulations on coastal communities. She has also been asked to serve as a social scientist on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, evaluating the effects of new regulations for them.

I am still working as a consultant to the Virginia Department of Transportation where I’m the lead business analyst and head of testing for a statewide Geographic Information Systems project. The first portion of the project went “live” in September, but it’s still almost three more years until it will be complete. So, I gather software requirements, design the application look-and-feel, explain how it’s supposed to work to the developers, and then show them why it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. Overall, it’s wonder they haven’t mugged me and tossed me in a dumpster, but we have an incredibly cohesive team. The boss also keeps me pretty busy as a mentor on software development methodology for subjects like requirements and software configuration management.

Erin has finished her class work at the University of Minnesota for her PhD in Astronomy. She is now working on her dissertation project which involves the detection of near-Earth asteroids using data from the NASA Spitzer infra-red space telescope, and the new Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham in Arizona.

Erin was fortunate enough to be the very first observer to use the LBT for scientific observations, back in January. So far she has apparently found a couple dozen new asteroids, and is preparing a series of journal articles on her results. She’s also applying for (and receiving!) grant funds to continue the research. While she is completing her dissertation, she has returned to working with the Spitzer telescope at Jet Propulsion Lab, at CalTech in Pasadena. That helps, because that’s where a lot of her data comes from anyway, and it’s nice to get paid for work you wanted to do anyway.

Last Christmas, Erin announced her engagement to another JPL staff member, Mark Lacy. Mark is an astrophysicist, and is also working with the Spitzer telescope. As I understand it, he is mainly involved in studies of large scale galaxy formation. He was formerly a lecturer at Oxford University, in his native England. Erin and Mark plan to be married next summer in California.

At Christmas this year we are going out to California for a visit of a few days with them. Previously, we’ve only spent a couple of hours with Mark, and anyone that knows Erin understands that means that he got to speak very, very little. Maybe we’ll get a chance to find out what he’s really like this time. Maybe even check out the planned site for the wedding.

We are also going to swing through Denver for a couple of days to see my parents and other family. It’s been two years since we saw Erin or them. This will be a nice break for us, as our only non-business out of town trips this past year were a few days each in North Carolina at Nags Head and up near Shenandoah National Park.

Other than that, life is pretty peaceful for us here in Virginia. Winnie is the president for, and plays flute and piccolo with, the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble.

I am serving as a Board of Trustees member for a ‘colony’ of my old college fraternity (Alpha Tau Omega) at the College of William and Mary. I am going to be advising them on fraternity ritual and membership education.

And, we continue to share our lives with four big loveable collie dogs.

We hope everyone has had a good year, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Merry Christmas!

My (Current) Nightmare

Seriously. I dream about this stuff.

The VDOT CIO has ordered we apply all required resources to get our roadway centerlines into tip-top shape for an application being developed for delivery in the spring. I could say "what do you think we been trying to do for the last 4 years?"

As probably the most experienced staff member in editing the centerlines, I got the charming task of fixing linear referencing system measures on US Highways. Meaning? Our records of how long the highway is between given intersections didn't seem to "add up" for some reason, throwing the whole system out of kilter by hundreds of miles.

So far, in 4 days, I've fixed about 30 miles of it. All of us, together, have until the end of January to finish the entire state. Cripe! I'm more afraid someone will want me to instruct others in how to do this. If so, I'll spend more time answering questions than actually working. This takes a lot of attention, as my office mates are noticing, and it can't be done by just anyone. It requires a real intuitive grasp of the relative geometry.

Let's take the simplest example. In the photo (click the photo to make it larger), the arrow points to where the road used to be before it got moved over to the right, aligning both of the secondary roads intersecting US-11, now at a single intersection. Thus, the measures between intersections didn't add up because one of the intersections no longer existed. So you add up both lengths, and apply it to the single section of road that does exist.

Like I said, this is the simplest case. Maybe I'll post one of the real spaghetti pieces later.

Global Warming

This is what happens when your global warming gets out of control.

Tuition Money

College students these days can have trouble coming up with their tuition money. Yes, indeed, it can be expensive.

A year of school at the University of Cincinnati costs roughly $9,400. It's less at Toledo, but still almost $7,000.

But Andrew Butler and Christopher Avery hit on a novel solution - rob a bank.

Avery, 22, of College Hill, and Butler, 20, of Milford, pleaded guilty Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to two charges of aggravated robbery and six charges of kidnapping.

What? You couldn't come up with the money some other way?

Butler said tuition went up so his scholarships and financial aid were not enough.

"I was stressed out," he said. "I needed more money for college."

Avery said an internship at Kroger fell through, leaving no money for summer classes.

"I was strapped for cash," he said. "I thought I had nothing to lose."

He was wrong. Both will soon be sentenced to not less than 20 years. That "Kroger" thing rings a bell though. Did you guys ever consider getting a job?

Europeans Are Clueless

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) has selected a country to chair the group in 2010, Kazakhstan.

The Central Asian country will be the first ex-Soviet republic to chair the human rights and defence watchdog.

The move has been criticised by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which says Kazakhstan's human rights record is not up to scratch.

Didn't the fact that this "European" country borders China give them any pause?