There are things we take for granted that are simple yet serve and important function. Witness the aglet, the plastic or metal cap at the ends of a shoelace. It has no intrinsic value, but if you ever lose one, it makes it next to impossible to relace the shoe. On the other end of things, we have things that are, in some fashion, so complex that it's easier not to think of them, like the electrical grid or gravity.
In between these points, we have the human back. Muscle, bone, nerves and connective tissue, all critically important to a variety of processes. Walking, standing, sitting, lifting, turning, there's not much by way of human movement that doesn't, at some stage, involve the back. But, like aglets or gravity, it's something we tend to take for granted.
Usually.
I stopped taking it for granted last weekend, when my lower back decided to remind me just who was in charge. I have no idea what caused the problem (the wife thinks it was an awkward movement while separating car seat and stroller, which sounds about right), but the results were not long in coming:
Friday afternoon: Felt a twinge, took two Aleve. In past moments of back and hip discomfort, this usually takes care of things.
Friday night: Twinge is still there, maybe even a little worse. Took another Aleve, put a couple pillows behind me for support when sitting, but no other changes.
Saturday morning: Getting out of bed requires a variety of hand holds on any furniture within arm's length. I can walk - barely - with a fair amount of pain and over short distances, using the wall for support. When upright, I can feel the muscles in my lower back seize up, which is a new experience for me.
We try a heat pad to loosen things up, but it doesn't work. So it's off to spend our Saturday morning at the hospital. But when we get there, we discover that they're running some sort of disaster drill. We're stopped as we turn into the road that leads to the hospital, and asked if we're there for the drill or actual care. We reply the latter, and are given a green tag for the dashboard. This allows us to get by the next two checkpoints, but we do have to weave through a variety of first responders, volunteers and emergency vehicles to actually get to the Emergency drop-off.
Which, of course, is manned by someone who is also checking to see if people are there for the drill or for treatment. The guy asks me to stop at the door, but before he can say anything else a woman comes by and he leaves with her. I think he intended that I'd wait for him to return. I did not. He actually followed me into the ER when he was done with the woman, so if nothing else if we do have a disaster up here, we certainly have the right people to handle traffic flow, if nothing else.
Saturday morning is thr right time to go to the Beverly Hospital ER, as our entire visit was no longer than 90 minutes. It wasn't especially crowded; there was one mother with two kids who spent more time on her cell phone than minding her kids, one of whom apparently needed some sort of medication, and a woman who I know but haven't seen in some time, who chatted with the wife while I was being seen.
(The wife gets this semi-regularly, running into people she doesn't really know but who know me and know that we're married. Though in this case I don't know why the woman just didn't say hi while I was out there.)
Anyway, I get called and spend the next 20 minutes sitting in a room wearing shorts and a johnnie (I think we can all be thankful that they let me keep my shorts on). In this time, the woman with the kids winds up down the hall, and in the 20 minutes I was waiting they managed to get the nurse manager to come in and cause a panic when one of the kids yanked the emergency call switch in the room. Things quieted down after that; I assume the hospital had someone babysit the room from that point.
Once the doctor showed up, he spent about five minutes checking breathing, heart beat and leg movement before deciding it was a muscle problem and not an issue with discs or the like. I got various scrips and was sent packing.
And by that afternoon, I felt pretty good, well enough to hang out downstairs as if nothing happened. Which worked well, for a while. But it wasn't too long before things locked up again, at which point I put myself to bed... for nearly three days. This is the longest period I've ever spent laid up like that, and I don't recommend it. As bad as it was for me, I was also mad that I'd put the wife in a position where she had to do all the work with the baby and take care of me. I tried to minimize the amount of time she needed with me, but it was still hard on her, and I'm grateful - but not surprised - that she managed the situation in fine form. I think she only wanted to kill me once. Maybe twice.
But as the saying goes, time - and drugs - heal all woujnds, and by Wednesday I was able to get around enough to go to the baby's two month check up and into work. I'm still a little tender with some movements (getting into the car, for example), but I'd say I'm 85 percent and rising.
So whatever you plan on doing today, take a second to think about your back, and where you'd be if you were stuck on it for the weekend (and not in a good way).
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recap. Show all posts
17 July 2009
21 May 2009
This is the 2000th post in Blogalicious history, so I'll recognize that milestone by writing about a much larger one: how we left the house on Thursday as a two-person family and returned on Monday as a three-person family.
Before Thursday - The wife had appointments on Monday and Wednesday, the upshot being the baby was pretty damn big (estimated 9 pounds 14 ounces) and had to come out. Induction was planned for Thursday, causing us to scramble a bit to tie up loose ends and make ourselves marginally less ill prepared for being parents.
Thursday - Got to the hospital at 7 am, and by 7:30 the wife was hooked up to IVs delivering, among other things, oxytocin, a hormone used to kick-start labor. Prior to this we did have a discussion with the OB on call regarding c-sections, as he had some concerns related to the potential size of the baby and potential injuries from shoulder dystocia. We decided to give induction a go and see where it led.
It led nowhere, or at least to a place in its neighborhood. After 12 hours, there were no contractions to speak of, only some back pain. While you hear that labor with the first baby is long, this was a little dispiriting. The new OB on call came in and went back over the issues we'd talked about in the morning, allowing us to weigh the options between continuing induction or going with a c-section. We finally decided to go with a c-section, thinking that the results of the induction was a sign that a standard delivery might not be the best choice.
Once the decision was made, things moved swiftly. The c-section, paraprhasing the description given to us, was five minutes of prep, five to ten minutes to get the kid out, and a half hour of putting my wife back the way she was found. The wife was wheeled to the OR, and during her prep I got to put on scrubs. Let's just say that there are apparently not that many large surgeons, or if there are they get their scrubs to order. The best fitting part of the entire outfit were the booties I put over my shoes, a bad sign indeed.
I went into the OR, where most of the wife was flanked by surgeons and nurses, so I (thankfully) did not get to see what was going on there. I was seated up by her head, where there was a drape up to keep us from seeing the gory bits. I fought to keep myself from sliding off the stool - scrubs and polished metal seats don't interact well - while the wife was trying to scratch her nose against the inside of the oxygen mask. We were quite a pair.
And, as described, within ten minutes of my arrival we had a baby (sadly, if it had been later we would not have gotten him for free). And, as my wife thought, we had a boy with a pretty full head of hair (pregnancy heartburn signifying hair is apparently not an old wives' tale). He was crying away, which is understandable given that things were now awfully cold and bright.
But the first thing I really noticed about him was his umbilical cord. It was huge. The doctor who delivered him compared it to a garden hose in size, and the nurse in charge of cutting it was a bit puzzled at first with how she was going to do it (I wanted no part of it, as I've never quite bought into the dad cutting the cord thing). Once that got done (and once he celebrated his own arrival by shooting off his personal water cannon, so to speak), we were off to the nursery.
Once there, they confirmed the OR staff's statements that we did, indeed, have a big baby. He weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces, and while that was a half pound off of the ultrasound estimate, it's safe to say that he was big enough that a standard delivery would have been harrowing for mother and child alike. At some point both of us wound up back down in recovery with the wife, and after a few minutes of getting acquainted we all made our way up to the room we'd call home for the next few days.
Friday - During our first round of doctor visits, our OB stopped in and asked how Thor was doing.
Thor?
Turns out that when the delivering doctor asked us what we were going to name our son, the wife said Thor, spoofing on his size (though he does not have long, blonde hair, nor does he wield a hammer). The doctor went and put that on the chart, in what I hope was him going along with the joke. Then again, with some of the names bestowed upon kids now, Thor might not be that bad.
Still, it did raise a point - we had not yet decided what to name the kid. By the time we made a decision, the kid had three nicknames - Thor, Jethro (courtesy of my brother) and Cheeks, which was given by one of the nurses given his big, round cheeks. After some discussion, we did what my dad did with me, and used the reverse of the paternal grandfather's name, landing us with Joseph John Coen.
The rest of the day was spent resting and getting used to young Joe's rhythms for eating and excreting. We got a first-hand introduction to meconium (NSFLunch) that night, and after I changed the diaper solo Joe gave us a second first-hand intro twenty minutes later, one that was a three-person job to remedy. This, in combination with the Egypt-themed book I was reading would lead to a fourth nickname, Poopenkhamun. I still use this when the dreaded "curse" has claimed another innocent diaper.
Saturday - Another day resting and getting used to our son. The wife was recuperating pretty well, and was able to move around much more than the day before. We had our first spate of family visitors outside of my in-laws, who'd come down on Thursday morning in anticipation of a new grandchild. We also made the decision to bottle feed, which was difficult given the strong preference given to breastfeeding in our birthing class and in pretty much every pregnancy publication out there. I will give big ups here to the nurses and lactation consultants at the hospital, as they worked hard to help us get to a decision and fully supported it once it was made.
Sunday - We were all getting a little bored with the hospital by this point, and while we could have stayed until Tuesday, we decided to leave on Monday. I'll admit to being a little worried about not taking our full compliment of days, as I figured one more day of nurses to help with the baby and take care of the wife's incision couldn't hurt. But with the baby getting a clean bill of health and the wife recovering well (by this point managing post-op pain with ibuprofen only), there wasn't much point in staying.
This being our last night, we got to enjoy the hospital's traditional celebration dinner, which is a couple steps up from their regular fare (though their regular food wasn't bad, certainly better than what you'd think of from hospital food). I can't say I ever expected to have rack of lamb at a hospital, but they did a nice job with it.
It was also my last night sleeping in the convertable chair provided so dads can stay over. I did stay every night, more for the wife's sake than the baby's, as the baby went back to the nursery for overnights. That's apparently a somewhat controversial practice, as there's a strong school of thought that the parents should room in with the baby as much as possible. My thinking is that the last thing the wife needed while on the mend was the baby waking her up at some ungodly hour. There'd be enough time for that once we got home.
Anyway, the convertable chairs aren't particularly comfortable, but I've slept in worse.
Monday - There's an odd feeling to leaving the hospital with a baby. Both the wife and I were expecting that someone would stop us before the maternity ward doors, knowing that we're not as prepared as we'd like to care for a newborn. But as we pushed the call button to let us out, no one came running to save the baby from his parents. The doors swung open, and we walked out into our new life together.
Before Thursday - The wife had appointments on Monday and Wednesday, the upshot being the baby was pretty damn big (estimated 9 pounds 14 ounces) and had to come out. Induction was planned for Thursday, causing us to scramble a bit to tie up loose ends and make ourselves marginally less ill prepared for being parents.
Thursday - Got to the hospital at 7 am, and by 7:30 the wife was hooked up to IVs delivering, among other things, oxytocin, a hormone used to kick-start labor. Prior to this we did have a discussion with the OB on call regarding c-sections, as he had some concerns related to the potential size of the baby and potential injuries from shoulder dystocia. We decided to give induction a go and see where it led.
It led nowhere, or at least to a place in its neighborhood. After 12 hours, there were no contractions to speak of, only some back pain. While you hear that labor with the first baby is long, this was a little dispiriting. The new OB on call came in and went back over the issues we'd talked about in the morning, allowing us to weigh the options between continuing induction or going with a c-section. We finally decided to go with a c-section, thinking that the results of the induction was a sign that a standard delivery might not be the best choice.
Once the decision was made, things moved swiftly. The c-section, paraprhasing the description given to us, was five minutes of prep, five to ten minutes to get the kid out, and a half hour of putting my wife back the way she was found. The wife was wheeled to the OR, and during her prep I got to put on scrubs. Let's just say that there are apparently not that many large surgeons, or if there are they get their scrubs to order. The best fitting part of the entire outfit were the booties I put over my shoes, a bad sign indeed.
I went into the OR, where most of the wife was flanked by surgeons and nurses, so I (thankfully) did not get to see what was going on there. I was seated up by her head, where there was a drape up to keep us from seeing the gory bits. I fought to keep myself from sliding off the stool - scrubs and polished metal seats don't interact well - while the wife was trying to scratch her nose against the inside of the oxygen mask. We were quite a pair.
And, as described, within ten minutes of my arrival we had a baby (sadly, if it had been later we would not have gotten him for free). And, as my wife thought, we had a boy with a pretty full head of hair (pregnancy heartburn signifying hair is apparently not an old wives' tale). He was crying away, which is understandable given that things were now awfully cold and bright.
But the first thing I really noticed about him was his umbilical cord. It was huge. The doctor who delivered him compared it to a garden hose in size, and the nurse in charge of cutting it was a bit puzzled at first with how she was going to do it (I wanted no part of it, as I've never quite bought into the dad cutting the cord thing). Once that got done (and once he celebrated his own arrival by shooting off his personal water cannon, so to speak), we were off to the nursery.
Once there, they confirmed the OR staff's statements that we did, indeed, have a big baby. He weighed in at 9 pounds 6 ounces, and while that was a half pound off of the ultrasound estimate, it's safe to say that he was big enough that a standard delivery would have been harrowing for mother and child alike. At some point both of us wound up back down in recovery with the wife, and after a few minutes of getting acquainted we all made our way up to the room we'd call home for the next few days.
Friday - During our first round of doctor visits, our OB stopped in and asked how Thor was doing.
Thor?
Turns out that when the delivering doctor asked us what we were going to name our son, the wife said Thor, spoofing on his size (though he does not have long, blonde hair, nor does he wield a hammer). The doctor went and put that on the chart, in what I hope was him going along with the joke. Then again, with some of the names bestowed upon kids now, Thor might not be that bad.
Still, it did raise a point - we had not yet decided what to name the kid. By the time we made a decision, the kid had three nicknames - Thor, Jethro (courtesy of my brother) and Cheeks, which was given by one of the nurses given his big, round cheeks. After some discussion, we did what my dad did with me, and used the reverse of the paternal grandfather's name, landing us with Joseph John Coen.
The rest of the day was spent resting and getting used to young Joe's rhythms for eating and excreting. We got a first-hand introduction to meconium (NSFLunch) that night, and after I changed the diaper solo Joe gave us a second first-hand intro twenty minutes later, one that was a three-person job to remedy. This, in combination with the Egypt-themed book I was reading would lead to a fourth nickname, Poopenkhamun. I still use this when the dreaded "curse" has claimed another innocent diaper.
Saturday - Another day resting and getting used to our son. The wife was recuperating pretty well, and was able to move around much more than the day before. We had our first spate of family visitors outside of my in-laws, who'd come down on Thursday morning in anticipation of a new grandchild. We also made the decision to bottle feed, which was difficult given the strong preference given to breastfeeding in our birthing class and in pretty much every pregnancy publication out there. I will give big ups here to the nurses and lactation consultants at the hospital, as they worked hard to help us get to a decision and fully supported it once it was made.
Sunday - We were all getting a little bored with the hospital by this point, and while we could have stayed until Tuesday, we decided to leave on Monday. I'll admit to being a little worried about not taking our full compliment of days, as I figured one more day of nurses to help with the baby and take care of the wife's incision couldn't hurt. But with the baby getting a clean bill of health and the wife recovering well (by this point managing post-op pain with ibuprofen only), there wasn't much point in staying.
This being our last night, we got to enjoy the hospital's traditional celebration dinner, which is a couple steps up from their regular fare (though their regular food wasn't bad, certainly better than what you'd think of from hospital food). I can't say I ever expected to have rack of lamb at a hospital, but they did a nice job with it.
It was also my last night sleeping in the convertable chair provided so dads can stay over. I did stay every night, more for the wife's sake than the baby's, as the baby went back to the nursery for overnights. That's apparently a somewhat controversial practice, as there's a strong school of thought that the parents should room in with the baby as much as possible. My thinking is that the last thing the wife needed while on the mend was the baby waking her up at some ungodly hour. There'd be enough time for that once we got home.
Anyway, the convertable chairs aren't particularly comfortable, but I've slept in worse.
Monday - There's an odd feeling to leaving the hospital with a baby. Both the wife and I were expecting that someone would stop us before the maternity ward doors, knowing that we're not as prepared as we'd like to care for a newborn. But as we pushed the call button to let us out, no one came running to save the baby from his parents. The doors swung open, and we walked out into our new life together.
22 April 2009
Finally, getting back to things here, with the hope of playing catch up with everything in the coming weeks so that I can get monumentally behind once we increase the population of our household by 50 percent.
So what have I been up to?
Baby - we finished our birthing classes a couple of weeks ago with some Q&A with parents who were in the last class. It wasn't as horrifying as the movies (thanks to the lack of pictures), and the parents did confirm two themes that have developed as the months passed: expect whatever plan you have for the birth to go wildly askew and don't plan on sleeping once the kid comes home.
I followed this up with a Saturday morning session of daddy boot camp, where we dads-to-be met up with some new dads to talk about parenting and get some practical experience with things like changing diapers, feeding, etc. I won't say it was the most useful three hours, but it was good to get some perspective, and we even got a "five wiper" from one of the kids, though thankfully not of the "up the back and all over the clothes" variety.
We've been making our appointments and had another ultrasound, with another estimate suggesting we're having a big baby (estimated weight is about three weeks ahead of the average for the week we're on, and we're still ahead of average if you take off the pound that seems to be the upper end of the margin of error).
Otherwise, things are going about as well as can be expected, though the wife is at the point where she'd be happy to stop being pregnant.
Wedding - the sister in law got married last week, and while I wasn't particularly involved it did take up a fair amount of time given the influx of relatives from England who came over (some of whom stayed with us, and others of whom we saw over Easter) and whatever assistance was needed to help the wife with errands and whatever (mostly related to running around the day of when people were getting ready).
All in all it went off very well, and the cakes as centerpieces idea worked better than expected.
Throw in back-to-back registration periods at work and the looming graduation in May and that's pretty much my life the last two weeks, sad as it is.
So what have I been up to?
Baby - we finished our birthing classes a couple of weeks ago with some Q&A with parents who were in the last class. It wasn't as horrifying as the movies (thanks to the lack of pictures), and the parents did confirm two themes that have developed as the months passed: expect whatever plan you have for the birth to go wildly askew and don't plan on sleeping once the kid comes home.
I followed this up with a Saturday morning session of daddy boot camp, where we dads-to-be met up with some new dads to talk about parenting and get some practical experience with things like changing diapers, feeding, etc. I won't say it was the most useful three hours, but it was good to get some perspective, and we even got a "five wiper" from one of the kids, though thankfully not of the "up the back and all over the clothes" variety.
We've been making our appointments and had another ultrasound, with another estimate suggesting we're having a big baby (estimated weight is about three weeks ahead of the average for the week we're on, and we're still ahead of average if you take off the pound that seems to be the upper end of the margin of error).
Otherwise, things are going about as well as can be expected, though the wife is at the point where she'd be happy to stop being pregnant.
Wedding - the sister in law got married last week, and while I wasn't particularly involved it did take up a fair amount of time given the influx of relatives from England who came over (some of whom stayed with us, and others of whom we saw over Easter) and whatever assistance was needed to help the wife with errands and whatever (mostly related to running around the day of when people were getting ready).
All in all it went off very well, and the cakes as centerpieces idea worked better than expected.
Throw in back-to-back registration periods at work and the looming graduation in May and that's pretty much my life the last two weeks, sad as it is.
02 February 2009
About yesterday...
Game - that was the oddest Super Bowl in some time. Consider that it included:
Ads - unlike the game, these were less entertaining than expected. The best ad according to USA Today's Ad Meter was the Doritos ad where a guy uses a crystal ball to get free Doritos. It was apparently made by two guys with no advertising experience. Someone's getting fired today.
Meanwhile, the brain trust at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management tabbed the Monster.com ad as the best of the bunch. Considering I had to check what this ad was about when I first read about this (and then had to check again before writing here - it's apparently the ad that had a guy sitting under the rear end of a deer), this may not be the best choice.
And to muddy things ever further, the GoDaddy "enhancement" ad was apparently the most-watched ad of the night. I assume it has to do with the promise of seeing boobies if you go online to watch the rest of the ad.
All that being said, three ads that I liked better than the AdMeter folks were the Pepsi "MacGruber" spot, the Hulu ad with Alec Baldwin, and the Audi ad (mostly for the way Jason Statham doesn't even try to use a Lexus to make a getaway).
Puppies! - and yes, I did watch some of the Puppy Bowl, both before the game as a time killer and during halftime (which managed to sync up with PB's all-kitty halftime). I'd have been more interested had there been a daschund involved, but I did like the touch of using a Chinese Crested as a streaker.
Game - that was the oddest Super Bowl in some time. Consider that it included:
- the longest play in Super Bowl a history, a 100 yard interception return for TD to end the first half
- a safety, the first since Super Bowl 25
- the first Aussie to play in a Super Bowl (punter Ben Graham)
- a missed opportunity to invoke the Tuck Rule at the end
- the NFC winning its 12th Super Bowl coin toss in a row
- the Arizona Cardinals
Ads - unlike the game, these were less entertaining than expected. The best ad according to USA Today's Ad Meter was the Doritos ad where a guy uses a crystal ball to get free Doritos. It was apparently made by two guys with no advertising experience. Someone's getting fired today.
Meanwhile, the brain trust at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management tabbed the Monster.com ad as the best of the bunch. Considering I had to check what this ad was about when I first read about this (and then had to check again before writing here - it's apparently the ad that had a guy sitting under the rear end of a deer), this may not be the best choice.
And to muddy things ever further, the GoDaddy "enhancement" ad was apparently the most-watched ad of the night. I assume it has to do with the promise of seeing boobies if you go online to watch the rest of the ad.
All that being said, three ads that I liked better than the AdMeter folks were the Pepsi "MacGruber" spot, the Hulu ad with Alec Baldwin, and the Audi ad (mostly for the way Jason Statham doesn't even try to use a Lexus to make a getaway).
Puppies! - and yes, I did watch some of the Puppy Bowl, both before the game as a time killer and during halftime (which managed to sync up with PB's all-kitty halftime). I'd have been more interested had there been a daschund involved, but I did like the touch of using a Chinese Crested as a streaker.
28 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 10
Not sure how much of a vacation day this was; I suppose it depends on how much you like being in the car. We spent the whole day driving back, leaving before 7 am and getting home around 5:30 pm. I worried about getting stuck in traffic around the Meadowlands as the Giants were home, but it was fine (even stopped at the Vince). The traffic hit once over the GWB and on to the New York Thruway, which was very slow. Another argument for taking the long way around.
The only notable part of the trip was on 128 coming up from the Pike to home, where we got to see a fully engaged car fire. Thankfully, it looked like everyone got out of the car before it went up.
All in all, a much better vacation than Indiana, which was only a vacation for one of us (and even then not much of a vacation, as there's only so long you can hang out by yourself before you start to go a little batty). Then again, vacationing with in-laws can often lead to the same thing.
Not sure how much of a vacation day this was; I suppose it depends on how much you like being in the car. We spent the whole day driving back, leaving before 7 am and getting home around 5:30 pm. I worried about getting stuck in traffic around the Meadowlands as the Giants were home, but it was fine (even stopped at the Vince). The traffic hit once over the GWB and on to the New York Thruway, which was very slow. Another argument for taking the long way around.
The only notable part of the trip was on 128 coming up from the Pike to home, where we got to see a fully engaged car fire. Thankfully, it looked like everyone got out of the car before it went up.
All in all, a much better vacation than Indiana, which was only a vacation for one of us (and even then not much of a vacation, as there's only so long you can hang out by yourself before you start to go a little batty). Then again, vacationing with in-laws can often lead to the same thing.
27 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 9
We finally connected the Historic Triangle by going to Colonial Williamsburg. It was pretty interesting, though we'd have appreciated more clarity between what buildings were recreations and what ones were original. Guides would usually note this, but not always (the guide for the capitol building never mentioned that it was rebuilt), and if you didn't go into a building you really had no way of knowing.
Also interesting were the number of buildings on the site that were serving as private residences. You'd need a very high tolerance for strangers traipsing through your backyard, among other qualities. I don't think I could put up with it.
Consequently, you can just walk on to the site from the town. You'd not be able to enter buildings (the staff is very alert to people not wearing a ticket badge), but if all you wanted to do is nose around and see the performances (there's a drum and fife procession, and on the day we were there a number of street theater pieces telling the story of local reaction to independence), you certainly could. And for the money we paid, I almost think I'd have preferred to nose around for free.
And that wrapped up the actual vacation portion of things. All that was left was the drive home.
We finally connected the Historic Triangle by going to Colonial Williamsburg. It was pretty interesting, though we'd have appreciated more clarity between what buildings were recreations and what ones were original. Guides would usually note this, but not always (the guide for the capitol building never mentioned that it was rebuilt), and if you didn't go into a building you really had no way of knowing.
Also interesting were the number of buildings on the site that were serving as private residences. You'd need a very high tolerance for strangers traipsing through your backyard, among other qualities. I don't think I could put up with it.
Consequently, you can just walk on to the site from the town. You'd not be able to enter buildings (the staff is very alert to people not wearing a ticket badge), but if all you wanted to do is nose around and see the performances (there's a drum and fife procession, and on the day we were there a number of street theater pieces telling the story of local reaction to independence), you certainly could. And for the money we paid, I almost think I'd have preferred to nose around for free.
And that wrapped up the actual vacation portion of things. All that was left was the drive home.
26 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 8
We put the history aside for the day and took up geography, so to speak, by going to Busch Gardens Europe.
For those not familiar with the park, it has nationally-themed sections whose rides and attractions theoretically tie in to the country. For example, in Scotland you'd find the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster, in New France the log flume ride, and in Poland the Escape from the CIA Secret Prison motion ride.
(OK, I'm kidding about the last one. Poland isn't represented in the park.)
One of the things I've noticed as I've aged is that I've become a bit of a wuss where roller coasters are concerned. For me to go on one I need to see it in operation, gauge the height of the initial hill, find out what sort of restraint system is used, and then take a few minutes to ponder if it's for me. The Griffon was clearly not a coaster I was going to ride, given the 90 degree drop after its initial hill (and the way that the riders are held at the top, over the edge of the drop, for a few seconds before plunging to, what I see in my mind's eye, as a splatterific death on the pavement below).
To that end, I wound up passing on the Loch Ness Monster, which the wife went on about five minutes after we entered the park. If she'd been willing to wait a few more minutes I may have joined her, multiple loops be damned.
I do not have this same problem with other rides, so I did go on the variety of motion rides, the log flume, and even the bumper cars (I love bumper cars, they were always the highlight of summer trips to Canobie Lake Park when I was a kid). I did squeeze in one coaster, the Big Bad Wolf, which isn't too bad (though it has its highest hill towards the end, which seems a little cruel).
We also took in a few of the shows, which was kind of disappointing as they had all been changed for Howl-O-Scream. Seemed to early for that to me, but as Halloween candy has been on sale in our supermarket for a month I suppose it's the way things are going. While I wasn't looking forward to the shows, I would have preferred step dancing and guys and liederhosen slapping their feet to vampires singing covers of '80s music.
I will say that Busch Gardens is marginally less of a gougetastic experience than the Disney parks, and going on a Friday in mid-September pretty much guarantees minimal lines. It wasn't a bad way to spend a day of the vacation, and I'd go back if I was in the area (and it was a day where it wouldn't be too crowded), but I'm not exactly plotting my return trip now.
We put the history aside for the day and took up geography, so to speak, by going to Busch Gardens Europe.
For those not familiar with the park, it has nationally-themed sections whose rides and attractions theoretically tie in to the country. For example, in Scotland you'd find the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster, in New France the log flume ride, and in Poland the Escape from the CIA Secret Prison motion ride.
(OK, I'm kidding about the last one. Poland isn't represented in the park.)
One of the things I've noticed as I've aged is that I've become a bit of a wuss where roller coasters are concerned. For me to go on one I need to see it in operation, gauge the height of the initial hill, find out what sort of restraint system is used, and then take a few minutes to ponder if it's for me. The Griffon was clearly not a coaster I was going to ride, given the 90 degree drop after its initial hill (and the way that the riders are held at the top, over the edge of the drop, for a few seconds before plunging to, what I see in my mind's eye, as a splatterific death on the pavement below).
To that end, I wound up passing on the Loch Ness Monster, which the wife went on about five minutes after we entered the park. If she'd been willing to wait a few more minutes I may have joined her, multiple loops be damned.
I do not have this same problem with other rides, so I did go on the variety of motion rides, the log flume, and even the bumper cars (I love bumper cars, they were always the highlight of summer trips to Canobie Lake Park when I was a kid). I did squeeze in one coaster, the Big Bad Wolf, which isn't too bad (though it has its highest hill towards the end, which seems a little cruel).
We also took in a few of the shows, which was kind of disappointing as they had all been changed for Howl-O-Scream. Seemed to early for that to me, but as Halloween candy has been on sale in our supermarket for a month I suppose it's the way things are going. While I wasn't looking forward to the shows, I would have preferred step dancing and guys and liederhosen slapping their feet to vampires singing covers of '80s music.
I will say that Busch Gardens is marginally less of a gougetastic experience than the Disney parks, and going on a Friday in mid-September pretty much guarantees minimal lines. It wasn't a bad way to spend a day of the vacation, and I'd go back if I was in the area (and it was a day where it wouldn't be too crowded), but I'm not exactly plotting my return trip now.
25 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 7
This was our second day of historical nerditry, as we went over to Yorktown. Same deal as Jamestown, the state has their own facility with recreated period scenes and the National Park Service is in charge of the actual location. Unlike Jamestown, though, there's been no numerically-significant anniversary to spur spending, so both locations are a bit disappointing.
The state's facility, the Yorktown Victory Center, has a decent museum area, but the movie they show is not very good at all. It tries to tell the story of the battle and the revolution by going through an American encampment before the last big push of the battle and hearing what various soldiers are talking about. It's not content-free, but it doesn't tell you much.
The recreated areas are small, and the encampment is too clean and ordered to suggest that the troops stationed there are fighting a war. There's also a farm/homestead area which doesn't quite fit in, though I liked that they were growing hops.
The NPS site's visitor center is suffering from age a bit, and the movie appears to have been made no later than 1981. The short walking tour we took did an excellent job of covering the basics of the seige and did take us through some of the remaining earthworks. But to see the whole site requires a driving tour, which we decided not to take. Which is too bad, as I'd have liked to seen more.
We did go through the actual town on the way to the NPS site. The downtown appears to mostly be an open-air mall-type thing, which we thankfully did not stop to explore.
One thing we noticed on the way home was the preponderance of gates on the on and off ramps that would cut them off from the roadways. From what I've read they seem to be there to allow for contraflow during hurricane evacuations, though I imagine they'd also help if the military had to get a lot of people in or out of the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area quickly.
So that was two-thirds of the Historic Triangle down.
This was our second day of historical nerditry, as we went over to Yorktown. Same deal as Jamestown, the state has their own facility with recreated period scenes and the National Park Service is in charge of the actual location. Unlike Jamestown, though, there's been no numerically-significant anniversary to spur spending, so both locations are a bit disappointing.
The state's facility, the Yorktown Victory Center, has a decent museum area, but the movie they show is not very good at all. It tries to tell the story of the battle and the revolution by going through an American encampment before the last big push of the battle and hearing what various soldiers are talking about. It's not content-free, but it doesn't tell you much.
The recreated areas are small, and the encampment is too clean and ordered to suggest that the troops stationed there are fighting a war. There's also a farm/homestead area which doesn't quite fit in, though I liked that they were growing hops.
The NPS site's visitor center is suffering from age a bit, and the movie appears to have been made no later than 1981. The short walking tour we took did an excellent job of covering the basics of the seige and did take us through some of the remaining earthworks. But to see the whole site requires a driving tour, which we decided not to take. Which is too bad, as I'd have liked to seen more.
We did go through the actual town on the way to the NPS site. The downtown appears to mostly be an open-air mall-type thing, which we thankfully did not stop to explore.
One thing we noticed on the way home was the preponderance of gates on the on and off ramps that would cut them off from the roadways. From what I've read they seem to be there to allow for contraflow during hurricane evacuations, though I imagine they'd also help if the military had to get a lot of people in or out of the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area quickly.
So that was two-thirds of the Historic Triangle down.
24 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 6
My brother is an excellent golfer. My father loved to play, and wasn't too bad, either. One of his uncles was, for a time, the pro at the Westchester Country Club. So there is some connection to the game in my family.
I, for whatever reason, don't seem to share that connection, or at least not to the same extent. Which is why I had some trepidation going into this day of the vacation, the day where I annually tee it up with my father in law and the wife's uncle.
The Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg has two championship courses, one designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and the other by his son Rees. We did not play either of those. Instead, we opted for the $29 special to play the Spotswood Course. Which, when you think about it, isn't a bad deal considering it allowed us to play unlimited holes and included carts.
The course itself needs a little work. The 8th hole (which is the subject of the bottom right picture on their web page) may not be draining properly given the level of green slime on the water, and had more sand than grass on its green. Overall, though, it's a perfect course for hackers like us.
We're quite a trio when we go out, considering that the wife's uncle is legally blind and I often play like I am. Seriously, if this were a Cooch golfing recap I'd have had to contact MIT to design a polygon to contain some of my more egregious scores. But as we played on I got into the rhythm of things and even had legitimate par opportunities on occasion. Not that I converted any of them; it's hard to putt when you're more used to doing so while timing the arms of a tiny windmill. On at least two holes I took shots from under trees with a left-handed seven iron that my dad carried around for just such an occasion.
We wound up playing the course three times, as the second time around we zipped through in just about an hour. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but around hole 23 we started to flag, and we more or less played it out to satify honor.
The day ended up pretty much like every other vacation golf day, I enjoyed myself but not so much that I want to play every week. Though we do have a municipal course in town that's fairly cheap...
My brother is an excellent golfer. My father loved to play, and wasn't too bad, either. One of his uncles was, for a time, the pro at the Westchester Country Club. So there is some connection to the game in my family.
I, for whatever reason, don't seem to share that connection, or at least not to the same extent. Which is why I had some trepidation going into this day of the vacation, the day where I annually tee it up with my father in law and the wife's uncle.
The Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg has two championship courses, one designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and the other by his son Rees. We did not play either of those. Instead, we opted for the $29 special to play the Spotswood Course. Which, when you think about it, isn't a bad deal considering it allowed us to play unlimited holes and included carts.
The course itself needs a little work. The 8th hole (which is the subject of the bottom right picture on their web page) may not be draining properly given the level of green slime on the water, and had more sand than grass on its green. Overall, though, it's a perfect course for hackers like us.
We're quite a trio when we go out, considering that the wife's uncle is legally blind and I often play like I am. Seriously, if this were a Cooch golfing recap I'd have had to contact MIT to design a polygon to contain some of my more egregious scores. But as we played on I got into the rhythm of things and even had legitimate par opportunities on occasion. Not that I converted any of them; it's hard to putt when you're more used to doing so while timing the arms of a tiny windmill. On at least two holes I took shots from under trees with a left-handed seven iron that my dad carried around for just such an occasion.
We wound up playing the course three times, as the second time around we zipped through in just about an hour. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but around hole 23 we started to flag, and we more or less played it out to satify honor.
The day ended up pretty much like every other vacation golf day, I enjoyed myself but not so much that I want to play every week. Though we do have a municipal course in town that's fairly cheap...
23 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 5
This was the first day of historical geekery, as we went over to Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement on American soil.
I was a little confused when reading about Jamestown, as there are two main attractions. One, Jamestown Settlement, is run by the state of Virginia and is a recreation of early Jamestown on land that is near, but not part of, the original site. There's a large and well-appointed visitors center, behind which you find the recreated settlement area, which includes typical native dwellings, the fort and a work area of the town in about the 18th century, and full-sized replicas of the ships that brought the colonists to Virginia in 1607.
The other part is the actual site, which is run by the National Park Service as part of Colonial National Park. The site doesn't have any original structures, but does have some later ones as well as a good museum showcasing artifacts found during excavations. It's also cheaper than the settlement site.
We wound up doing both, and both have their advantages. The settlement recreation made it much easier to visualize colonial life, and some of the guides were quite adept at explaining life for natives and settlers alike (the younger guides were less knowledgable, though I expect that they were recently-hired college students based on some comments they made). We also got to put on some colonial armor and help hollow out a canoe, which was fun. Still, there was an air of make-believe to the place that made it a little hard for things to fully sink in.
The actual site has the advantage of being the actual site, as well as some extremely knowledgable rangers. It helps to have seen the recreation first, I think, as it allows you to overlay the visuals on to the original site. It takes away some of the fun of coming up with your own mental pictures, but at least replaces that with something reasonably accurate.
Both facilities show the benefit of the 400th anniversary of the founding, with new buildings and exhibits. Both also try to demonstrate the balance between the English settlers, the natives they found upon arriving, and the Africans who wound up in the area after escaping from the Spanish, an important part of the history but one that the settlement beats over your head a little too much, I think.
Anyway, if you ever go I'd plan on visiting both sites. No combo admission, sorry to say, but both offer combos with sites at Yorktown. More on that on Thursday.
This was the first day of historical geekery, as we went over to Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement on American soil.
I was a little confused when reading about Jamestown, as there are two main attractions. One, Jamestown Settlement, is run by the state of Virginia and is a recreation of early Jamestown on land that is near, but not part of, the original site. There's a large and well-appointed visitors center, behind which you find the recreated settlement area, which includes typical native dwellings, the fort and a work area of the town in about the 18th century, and full-sized replicas of the ships that brought the colonists to Virginia in 1607.
The other part is the actual site, which is run by the National Park Service as part of Colonial National Park. The site doesn't have any original structures, but does have some later ones as well as a good museum showcasing artifacts found during excavations. It's also cheaper than the settlement site.
We wound up doing both, and both have their advantages. The settlement recreation made it much easier to visualize colonial life, and some of the guides were quite adept at explaining life for natives and settlers alike (the younger guides were less knowledgable, though I expect that they were recently-hired college students based on some comments they made). We also got to put on some colonial armor and help hollow out a canoe, which was fun. Still, there was an air of make-believe to the place that made it a little hard for things to fully sink in.
The actual site has the advantage of being the actual site, as well as some extremely knowledgable rangers. It helps to have seen the recreation first, I think, as it allows you to overlay the visuals on to the original site. It takes away some of the fun of coming up with your own mental pictures, but at least replaces that with something reasonably accurate.
Both facilities show the benefit of the 400th anniversary of the founding, with new buildings and exhibits. Both also try to demonstrate the balance between the English settlers, the natives they found upon arriving, and the Africans who wound up in the area after escaping from the Spanish, an important part of the history but one that the settlement beats over your head a little too much, I think.
Anyway, if you ever go I'd plan on visiting both sites. No combo admission, sorry to say, but both offer combos with sites at Yorktown. More on that on Thursday.
22 September 2008
Virginia Vacation - Day 4
A rest day, mostly spent in or by the pool at the timeshare. Had a conversation with a guy from Ohio that I gave up on once he recommended eating at Red Lobster while we were in town. That was pretty much all the interaction I had with other guests for the week, which is probably for the best.
We did go grocery shopping, and failed in my first quest for a bag of Utz's crab chips (which contain no crab, they're potato chips with Old Bay seasoning). They don't show up in supermarkets up here, even though Utz products have been widely available for at least a year. The only place I've found them up here have been at the Christmas Tree Shop and a local Italian grocery which doesn't always offer them (or were out the last time I went in, which was some time ago). Thought they'd be easy to find given our proximity to Maryland, but no soap.
A rest day, mostly spent in or by the pool at the timeshare. Had a conversation with a guy from Ohio that I gave up on once he recommended eating at Red Lobster while we were in town. That was pretty much all the interaction I had with other guests for the week, which is probably for the best.
We did go grocery shopping, and failed in my first quest for a bag of Utz's crab chips (which contain no crab, they're potato chips with Old Bay seasoning). They don't show up in supermarkets up here, even though Utz products have been widely available for at least a year. The only place I've found them up here have been at the Christmas Tree Shop and a local Italian grocery which doesn't always offer them (or were out the last time I went in, which was some time ago). Thought they'd be easy to find given our proximity to Maryland, but no soap.
17 August 2008
So I've been absent. What's been up? Let's start from last Friday:
Funeral - had my aunt Shirley's funeral on Friday, which went as well as a funeral could go. Saw a fair amount of family that I'd not seen in a while, and the rain managed to hold off for the most part. I did get to spend some quality time with the neices and nephews, which is always good. We got back to the house late in the afternoon, actually pulling up at the same time as our...
Houseguests - the wife's cousin and her husband are over from England, and they stayed with us for a few days. It was great fun, as we got to sightsee a bit, drank too much, and probably watched more Olympic coverage than they'd have liked (though we did see a swimming event where the Brits went gold-bronze, which went over well). I didn't get to spend quite as much time with them as I'd have liked, thanks to...
Work - our big graduation was today, and we added a little over 500 new alumni to the rolls without too many problems. We did have a few more problems than usual, though, thanks to a database problem on Monday that kept us from releasing grades to students until Friday. We could see them, so I was able to do a fair amount of my usual pre-graduation work, but parts of it got pushed back. I had a nice little plan going into the week, which was summarily blown to hell. We should have seen this coming when we closed grading with fewer than 20 individual grades missing. When I did get home, it was time to settle in and relax with...
The Olympics - which would be fine if I was in as much in love with swimming and gymnastics as NBC would like me to be. I wound up missing some sports entirely (cycling and judo), which others I've only caught fragments when I managed to catch a recap or the start of early morning coverage on one of the cable outlets. I feel like there was more variety to coverage in 2004, or at least the scheduling allowed me to see more.
So there it is. Back on the blogging wagon this week. Expect multiple appearances of the Book Log.
Funeral - had my aunt Shirley's funeral on Friday, which went as well as a funeral could go. Saw a fair amount of family that I'd not seen in a while, and the rain managed to hold off for the most part. I did get to spend some quality time with the neices and nephews, which is always good. We got back to the house late in the afternoon, actually pulling up at the same time as our...
Houseguests - the wife's cousin and her husband are over from England, and they stayed with us for a few days. It was great fun, as we got to sightsee a bit, drank too much, and probably watched more Olympic coverage than they'd have liked (though we did see a swimming event where the Brits went gold-bronze, which went over well). I didn't get to spend quite as much time with them as I'd have liked, thanks to...
Work - our big graduation was today, and we added a little over 500 new alumni to the rolls without too many problems. We did have a few more problems than usual, though, thanks to a database problem on Monday that kept us from releasing grades to students until Friday. We could see them, so I was able to do a fair amount of my usual pre-graduation work, but parts of it got pushed back. I had a nice little plan going into the week, which was summarily blown to hell. We should have seen this coming when we closed grading with fewer than 20 individual grades missing. When I did get home, it was time to settle in and relax with...
The Olympics - which would be fine if I was in as much in love with swimming and gymnastics as NBC would like me to be. I wound up missing some sports entirely (cycling and judo), which others I've only caught fragments when I managed to catch a recap or the start of early morning coverage on one of the cable outlets. I feel like there was more variety to coverage in 2004, or at least the scheduling allowed me to see more.
So there it is. Back on the blogging wagon this week. Expect multiple appearances of the Book Log.
25 November 2007
For the first time since Wednesday, I'm home. What happened in between?
Finger - I spent part of Wednesday morning having the final couple of stitches removed, as things had closed up well enough to allow the job to finish. Much less painful than the first destitching, though I still have to keep things covered as there's still some closing up that needs to happen.
This is expected to happen over the next couple of weeks, which will be just in time to have the finger cut open again to fix the nerve. Surgery is scheduled for December 7, and I'm a little concerned because it appears I'll be knocked out in some fashion for it. Seems like overkill for working on a finger.
Turkey - went down to my sister in law's and stuffed myself with the requisite amount of holiday food (a quick plug here for Spinelli's, a function hall and baker in East Boston and Lynnfield, from whom we got a blueberry pie, a pumpkin pie, and a Black Forest cake). I also watched about 30 hours of football, although none in person, which was too bad given the nice weather (another quick plug here for the high school alma mater, who won their conference with a Turkey Day win over dreaded rival Georgetown, and will play Brighton High School in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday).
Gotham - Yesterday we drove down to NYC to attend the BU-Cornell hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Traffic was awful (everyone in Connecticut was on Route 95 at some point yesterday afternoon), so we got to the hotel later than hoped.
We wound up staying at the Millenium Hilton, which is most notable for overlooking Ground Zero. We got a very good look into the construction site from our room on the 29th floor, but didn't have much of a chance to walk around the site (to the extent that one can).
We took the subway uptown and got off so we could walk over to Rockefeller Center. The tree wasn't lit, but there was skating and at least half of the people who were on Route 95 in Connecticut earlier in the day were there doing the same thing that we were doing.
After extricating ourselves we walked back down to MSG, met up with Chris (i.e. the Grim Reaper of occasional comment fame) and got to our seats... eventually. It's a odd system they use, as there are four "towers" with escalators, which you get off of when you get a floor with your "gate" number on it. It actually didn't work too badly going up (initial confusion notwithstanding), but going down there was a bit of congestion.
MSG bills itself as the World's Most Famous Arena, which is about the best thing you can say for it. It is on the old side, has a very interesting odor (left over from the years of circuses and boxing, I'd imagine), and the seating is done up in a very unappealing purple and teal upholstery which is made out of some sort of rubberized burlap. The sound works very well, at least in terms of volume, though I think at one point someone from JFK called and complained that they couldn't hear the jets take off.
The game went surprisingly well, as the Icedogs scored three in the first en route to a 6-3 win in front of a partisan Cornell crowd. Out of the 18,200 there for the game, I'd say about 16,500 of them were rooting for Cornell. We also heard the Cornell alma mater about 40 times, which is more than I've heard the BU song in 20 years (which is fine, as I'm not a big "Clarissima" fan). They even had Cornell folks locking arms and swaying while singing the song, which I don't think you'd see BU folks do without getting paid.
Not much else to tell of our time, as we went back to the hotel after the game. We did nose around the neighborhood a little in search of a convenience store, and saw St. Paul's Church, which looked interesting, but didn't think that sightseeing at midnight was such a good idea. I'd have liked to have had an extra day, but between the holiday, work for the wife, and the expense of staying down there it wasn't going to happen.
Finger - I spent part of Wednesday morning having the final couple of stitches removed, as things had closed up well enough to allow the job to finish. Much less painful than the first destitching, though I still have to keep things covered as there's still some closing up that needs to happen.
This is expected to happen over the next couple of weeks, which will be just in time to have the finger cut open again to fix the nerve. Surgery is scheduled for December 7, and I'm a little concerned because it appears I'll be knocked out in some fashion for it. Seems like overkill for working on a finger.
Turkey - went down to my sister in law's and stuffed myself with the requisite amount of holiday food (a quick plug here for Spinelli's, a function hall and baker in East Boston and Lynnfield, from whom we got a blueberry pie, a pumpkin pie, and a Black Forest cake). I also watched about 30 hours of football, although none in person, which was too bad given the nice weather (another quick plug here for the high school alma mater, who won their conference with a Turkey Day win over dreaded rival Georgetown, and will play Brighton High School in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday).
Gotham - Yesterday we drove down to NYC to attend the BU-Cornell hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Traffic was awful (everyone in Connecticut was on Route 95 at some point yesterday afternoon), so we got to the hotel later than hoped.
We wound up staying at the Millenium Hilton, which is most notable for overlooking Ground Zero. We got a very good look into the construction site from our room on the 29th floor, but didn't have much of a chance to walk around the site (to the extent that one can).
We took the subway uptown and got off so we could walk over to Rockefeller Center. The tree wasn't lit, but there was skating and at least half of the people who were on Route 95 in Connecticut earlier in the day were there doing the same thing that we were doing.
After extricating ourselves we walked back down to MSG, met up with Chris (i.e. the Grim Reaper of occasional comment fame) and got to our seats... eventually. It's a odd system they use, as there are four "towers" with escalators, which you get off of when you get a floor with your "gate" number on it. It actually didn't work too badly going up (initial confusion notwithstanding), but going down there was a bit of congestion.
MSG bills itself as the World's Most Famous Arena, which is about the best thing you can say for it. It is on the old side, has a very interesting odor (left over from the years of circuses and boxing, I'd imagine), and the seating is done up in a very unappealing purple and teal upholstery which is made out of some sort of rubberized burlap. The sound works very well, at least in terms of volume, though I think at one point someone from JFK called and complained that they couldn't hear the jets take off.
The game went surprisingly well, as the Icedogs scored three in the first en route to a 6-3 win in front of a partisan Cornell crowd. Out of the 18,200 there for the game, I'd say about 16,500 of them were rooting for Cornell. We also heard the Cornell alma mater about 40 times, which is more than I've heard the BU song in 20 years (which is fine, as I'm not a big "Clarissima" fan). They even had Cornell folks locking arms and swaying while singing the song, which I don't think you'd see BU folks do without getting paid.
Not much else to tell of our time, as we went back to the hotel after the game. We did nose around the neighborhood a little in search of a convenience store, and saw St. Paul's Church, which looked interesting, but didn't think that sightseeing at midnight was such a good idea. I'd have liked to have had an extra day, but between the holiday, work for the wife, and the expense of staying down there it wasn't going to happen.
29 October 2007
Notes on a weekend passed, which I will entitle "Of Course, I Saw the Losses in Person."
Thursday - Met the wife after work and got on the road. You can tell there was World Series madness in the air as there was an actual skywriter attempting to further thin the ozone layer with a "GO SOX" message. Only problem was that on the first pass, he drew the 'G' backwards.
We got roughly to Syracuse before stopping for the night, listening to Game 2 on the ESPN Radio affiliate out of Chicago. I've pulled in WFAN and WBAL here, though not with the sort of clarity that we were getting Thursday. We thank you, WMVP-AM, for your strong signal.
That being said, listening to Joe Morgan on the radio magnifies his inadequacy about a hundredfold. At least with TV there are the pictures and other distractions.
Friday - back on the road, and thankfully the WHTI passport rules haven't quite taken hold for driving into Canada yet, as I put mine through the wash when we got back from England. It's still perfectly legible, but I don't think I'd want to have it be the only thing between me and spending time in a Customs and Border Protection holding area.
It's also notable that we got through Ontario without the jack-booted thugs issuing us another speeding ticket.
Got into Livonia, Michigan at about mid-afternoon, at which point the wife had to do some work catch-up, scotching plans for dinner. We instead ate at the Red Robin across the street, as we'd never eaten at one and the chain was involved in a Top Chef challenge this season. I don't think the winning burger is on the menu, or they've changed it so significantly that it's unidentifiable. In any case, the food was fine but it's a loser on the value for cost principle.
Then it was off to the first of two BU-Michigan hockey games, complicated by getting lost, which I manage regularly when visting Ann Arbor. We parked downtown, leaving us a pretty significant walk to the rink. We did get to the game on time, and saw the team play better than they did against UNH, but still lose 4-2. The team still can't find the net with any regularity, and are now showing a tendency to allow odd man rushes. I hope that, by now, they realize that John Curry has graduated and will not be around to bail out sloppy defensive play.
We got a ride back to the car after the game (with thanks to Mike, who also gave us a nifty driving tour of Michigan's athletic facilities and a suggestion for parking on Saturday, important given that the hockey game was close after the Michigan-Minnesota football game).
No World Series game, so we pretty much packed it in when we got back to the hotel, though I stayed up for a while watching The Godfather.
Saturday - we slept in a bit, but eventually got over to The Henry Ford, the unusually-named historical attraction outside of Detroit whose showpiece is Greenfield Village. We didn't tour that given the rain, so we opted for the tour of Ford's Rouge assembly plant. Pretty interesting, though I'd have preferred more history about the plant. The most we got was on the "Battle of the Overpass" between union organizers and Ford security. We got to watch some assembly of F-150s, which was mostly people twiddling with hand tools. Though we did get to see robots put in windshields, which is less exciting than welding but still pretty neat to see.
Then it was back to the hotel and walk through the attached mall, which was too nice for us to buy more than a book and some ice cream. We napped, watched some football, got dinner, and headed back down to Yost.
And promptly got lost again. Turns out Ann Arbor has a Fifth Street and a Fifth Avenue, and we had directions for the wrong one. We eventually worked back to the road we'd missed the night before from our original directions, and got within three blocks of the rink, once again making it just in time for face-off.
We'd have been better off chucking the whole thing and seeing a movie, as Michigan scored in the first minute and never looked back, winning 6-2. I am not optimistic about the season, which is kind of sad given the healthy number of seniors on the team. Expect a quote from Jack about the team's lack of heart by the end of the year, earlier if they don't beat Cornell at Madison Square Garden over Thanksgiving weekend.
Sunday came early, as we were making the drive home in one shot. Nothing too amazing to report here, as we got through Ontario again without attracting enforcement from The Man. I did nearly get us impounded at the border when I misconstrued the CBP officer's question about where we came from as being general about the weekend, not specific about that morning. The glare he shot me was punishment enough.
We only caught the second half of the Pats game on the radio, as we couldn't pull it in until we were back in state. We ran across five different stations for Bills-Jets, which seems like at least four too many. I do wish I'd seen the Pats game, given the near-video game quality of the score. It's almost too bad we have to play the Colts next week, as if we had a more pliant opponent (let's say Atlanta), we'd likely put up 100.
Got home in time for the final game in the Series, though a poorly-placed nap led to some confusion when I saw the score was 4-3. There was a minimum of celebrating given the hour, so I was able to go to bed happy about the win and Mike Lowell's MVP nod (I chose not to consider free agency implications until today), and before A Rod decided all the attention on people who aren't him just wasn't acceptable. I look forward to seeing the last decade of his career unfold from San Francisco, where the fans are used to highly paid, prickly superstars on a megalomaniacal quest to break the home run record, even if it means very limited playoff appearances.
Thursday - Met the wife after work and got on the road. You can tell there was World Series madness in the air as there was an actual skywriter attempting to further thin the ozone layer with a "GO SOX" message. Only problem was that on the first pass, he drew the 'G' backwards.
We got roughly to Syracuse before stopping for the night, listening to Game 2 on the ESPN Radio affiliate out of Chicago. I've pulled in WFAN and WBAL here, though not with the sort of clarity that we were getting Thursday. We thank you, WMVP-AM, for your strong signal.
That being said, listening to Joe Morgan on the radio magnifies his inadequacy about a hundredfold. At least with TV there are the pictures and other distractions.
Friday - back on the road, and thankfully the WHTI passport rules haven't quite taken hold for driving into Canada yet, as I put mine through the wash when we got back from England. It's still perfectly legible, but I don't think I'd want to have it be the only thing between me and spending time in a Customs and Border Protection holding area.
It's also notable that we got through Ontario without the jack-booted thugs issuing us another speeding ticket.
Got into Livonia, Michigan at about mid-afternoon, at which point the wife had to do some work catch-up, scotching plans for dinner. We instead ate at the Red Robin across the street, as we'd never eaten at one and the chain was involved in a Top Chef challenge this season. I don't think the winning burger is on the menu, or they've changed it so significantly that it's unidentifiable. In any case, the food was fine but it's a loser on the value for cost principle.
Then it was off to the first of two BU-Michigan hockey games, complicated by getting lost, which I manage regularly when visting Ann Arbor. We parked downtown, leaving us a pretty significant walk to the rink. We did get to the game on time, and saw the team play better than they did against UNH, but still lose 4-2. The team still can't find the net with any regularity, and are now showing a tendency to allow odd man rushes. I hope that, by now, they realize that John Curry has graduated and will not be around to bail out sloppy defensive play.
We got a ride back to the car after the game (with thanks to Mike, who also gave us a nifty driving tour of Michigan's athletic facilities and a suggestion for parking on Saturday, important given that the hockey game was close after the Michigan-Minnesota football game).
No World Series game, so we pretty much packed it in when we got back to the hotel, though I stayed up for a while watching The Godfather.
Saturday - we slept in a bit, but eventually got over to The Henry Ford, the unusually-named historical attraction outside of Detroit whose showpiece is Greenfield Village. We didn't tour that given the rain, so we opted for the tour of Ford's Rouge assembly plant. Pretty interesting, though I'd have preferred more history about the plant. The most we got was on the "Battle of the Overpass" between union organizers and Ford security. We got to watch some assembly of F-150s, which was mostly people twiddling with hand tools. Though we did get to see robots put in windshields, which is less exciting than welding but still pretty neat to see.
Then it was back to the hotel and walk through the attached mall, which was too nice for us to buy more than a book and some ice cream. We napped, watched some football, got dinner, and headed back down to Yost.
And promptly got lost again. Turns out Ann Arbor has a Fifth Street and a Fifth Avenue, and we had directions for the wrong one. We eventually worked back to the road we'd missed the night before from our original directions, and got within three blocks of the rink, once again making it just in time for face-off.
We'd have been better off chucking the whole thing and seeing a movie, as Michigan scored in the first minute and never looked back, winning 6-2. I am not optimistic about the season, which is kind of sad given the healthy number of seniors on the team. Expect a quote from Jack about the team's lack of heart by the end of the year, earlier if they don't beat Cornell at Madison Square Garden over Thanksgiving weekend.
Sunday came early, as we were making the drive home in one shot. Nothing too amazing to report here, as we got through Ontario again without attracting enforcement from The Man. I did nearly get us impounded at the border when I misconstrued the CBP officer's question about where we came from as being general about the weekend, not specific about that morning. The glare he shot me was punishment enough.
We only caught the second half of the Pats game on the radio, as we couldn't pull it in until we were back in state. We ran across five different stations for Bills-Jets, which seems like at least four too many. I do wish I'd seen the Pats game, given the near-video game quality of the score. It's almost too bad we have to play the Colts next week, as if we had a more pliant opponent (let's say Atlanta), we'd likely put up 100.
Got home in time for the final game in the Series, though a poorly-placed nap led to some confusion when I saw the score was 4-3. There was a minimum of celebrating given the hour, so I was able to go to bed happy about the win and Mike Lowell's MVP nod (I chose not to consider free agency implications until today), and before A Rod decided all the attention on people who aren't him just wasn't acceptable. I look forward to seeing the last decade of his career unfold from San Francisco, where the fans are used to highly paid, prickly superstars on a megalomaniacal quest to break the home run record, even if it means very limited playoff appearances.
25 September 2007
Thanks to all who donated for the PKD walk, which went pretty well, good weather (bright sun, cool to warm as the morning progressed) and good friends to walk with, but the pre-walk speechifying wasn't so hot.
You can see the route here, as we walked the stretches of Soliders Field Road and Greenough Boulevard bounded by the two bridges at the northeast and southwest cornerns of the map. It may not be the best route for a charity walk, given that we were stuck to the sidewalk on the bridges and for a decent length of Greenough we were walking on the shoulder of the road. Perhaps as it gets more established it'll get a better spot.
Not that they could have had the Esplanade, as it was booked for the weekend for some blues festival. I note this because, as is becoming standard practice for Hatch Shell shows they're closing down a lane of traffic by the Shell for parking. Because why would you need all the lanes of the city's most important east-west arterial road on a weekend?
We got stuck in that traffic on Saturday, as we were meeting friends for dinner, after which the wives took in the So You Think You Can Dance tour, leaving the husbands to hang out and watch sports. A fair trade for all involved. This also allowed me to see the continuing gentrification of BU's West Campus, between the now closed Store 24 and the Coldstone Creamery that's where the Korean place (former Mrs. Wilson's for those of you who go back as far as I do) used to be. The McDonald's has been closed for a while, but I can't say I lament that. At least not until it becomes a Starbucks or something.
Not much else to note from the weekend. Watched lots of football, but I bore you enough with that during the week.
You can see the route here, as we walked the stretches of Soliders Field Road and Greenough Boulevard bounded by the two bridges at the northeast and southwest cornerns of the map. It may not be the best route for a charity walk, given that we were stuck to the sidewalk on the bridges and for a decent length of Greenough we were walking on the shoulder of the road. Perhaps as it gets more established it'll get a better spot.
Not that they could have had the Esplanade, as it was booked for the weekend for some blues festival. I note this because, as is becoming standard practice for Hatch Shell shows they're closing down a lane of traffic by the Shell for parking. Because why would you need all the lanes of the city's most important east-west arterial road on a weekend?
We got stuck in that traffic on Saturday, as we were meeting friends for dinner, after which the wives took in the So You Think You Can Dance tour, leaving the husbands to hang out and watch sports. A fair trade for all involved. This also allowed me to see the continuing gentrification of BU's West Campus, between the now closed Store 24 and the Coldstone Creamery that's where the Korean place (former Mrs. Wilson's for those of you who go back as far as I do) used to be. The McDonald's has been closed for a while, but I can't say I lament that. At least not until it becomes a Starbucks or something.
Not much else to note from the weekend. Watched lots of football, but I bore you enough with that during the week.
20 August 2007
Finally get a chance to surface. It's been busy.
Work - Wentworth has 450 or so new alumni after our graduation ceremony on Saturday. Busy as hell in the couple of weeks leading up to it, as we have more than four times as many students graduate in August than in May (a ratio that will only get worse once the new architecture curriculum is fully in place).
At least next year I'll get an extra day, as both of our ceremonies move back to Sunday. They'd moved to Saturday after a lone complaint about having graduation on Mother's Day. It may just be me, but I think seeing my child graduate from college would make a swell Mother's Day present.
Me - As mentioned before we had birthday fun to deal with, capped by a trip to Maine. Not only did we have the requisite birthday cookout, but we also got to take in the 150th anniversary celebration for Stockton Springs. We caught the parade, and I even have pictures if you're into public safety vehicles or horses.
I did not manage to get a picture of Susan Collins, the junior US Senator from Maine. I'd forgotten she was going to be there (it was mentioned in the paper). This is easily the closest I've been to a sitting Senator, at least since the time I got to ride the shuttle underneath the Capitol. Fair to say I'd not have recognized most of the Senators at that point.
Or now, I suppose.
Other crap - the only thing of note here is that I broke the lawn mower yesterday. Or rather, it broke itself. I was pushing it along, minding my own business, and a wheel just fell off. Thankfully I was close enough to done that I could freehand the rest with the weed whacker.
I spent about 15 minutes trying to put the wheel back on, but didn't succeed. I can see how it needs to go on, and even had a wrench that'd allow me to fasten the wheel securely. I just didn't have the third hand necessary to manage the wheel, the mower, and the wrench at the same time.
That's the sort of thing I didn't miss when I was renting or living on campus.
It should also be noted that while the sweet pea isn't in the same league as kudzu, it is one hearty plant. One of the neighbors has it growing along his bushes and grape arbor, and it's everywhere in my backyard, both growing up the side of the house (the one I yanked down yesterday was a good eight feet up) and in the middle of the yard. I fear that I'm going to have to invest in some sort of lawn care products to give the grass a fighting chance.
Work - Wentworth has 450 or so new alumni after our graduation ceremony on Saturday. Busy as hell in the couple of weeks leading up to it, as we have more than four times as many students graduate in August than in May (a ratio that will only get worse once the new architecture curriculum is fully in place).
At least next year I'll get an extra day, as both of our ceremonies move back to Sunday. They'd moved to Saturday after a lone complaint about having graduation on Mother's Day. It may just be me, but I think seeing my child graduate from college would make a swell Mother's Day present.
Me - As mentioned before we had birthday fun to deal with, capped by a trip to Maine. Not only did we have the requisite birthday cookout, but we also got to take in the 150th anniversary celebration for Stockton Springs. We caught the parade, and I even have pictures if you're into public safety vehicles or horses.
I did not manage to get a picture of Susan Collins, the junior US Senator from Maine. I'd forgotten she was going to be there (it was mentioned in the paper). This is easily the closest I've been to a sitting Senator, at least since the time I got to ride the shuttle underneath the Capitol. Fair to say I'd not have recognized most of the Senators at that point.
Or now, I suppose.
Other crap - the only thing of note here is that I broke the lawn mower yesterday. Or rather, it broke itself. I was pushing it along, minding my own business, and a wheel just fell off. Thankfully I was close enough to done that I could freehand the rest with the weed whacker.
I spent about 15 minutes trying to put the wheel back on, but didn't succeed. I can see how it needs to go on, and even had a wrench that'd allow me to fasten the wheel securely. I just didn't have the third hand necessary to manage the wheel, the mower, and the wrench at the same time.
That's the sort of thing I didn't miss when I was renting or living on campus.
It should also be noted that while the sweet pea isn't in the same league as kudzu, it is one hearty plant. One of the neighbors has it growing along his bushes and grape arbor, and it's everywhere in my backyard, both growing up the side of the house (the one I yanked down yesterday was a good eight feet up) and in the middle of the yard. I fear that I'm going to have to invest in some sort of lawn care products to give the grass a fighting chance.
01 August 2007
Three things I did last weekend that I'd not done before:
1. Visited the Salem Witch Museum. It's billed as Salem's most visited museum, which is kind of sad given the quality of the collection at the Peabody Essex Museum. The main exhibit at the Witch Museum is a number of life-sized wax figured depicting the stages of the trial, from Tituba's stories inflaming bored local girls to the final hangings. The displays are along three walls of the main room, which is a problem as most of the seating is similarly situated. It is unlikely that you'll see the entire thing without having to get up and move around, potentially obscuring someone else's view.
The narration is overly-dramatic and sounds like it was recorded in 1982, less from the quality of the audio than the cheese factor.
The Witch Museum also has a section on the changing interpretation of witches, from the old crone to the green-skinned broom flyer to modern Wiccans. I imagine it's informative if you don't know anything about witches. The trolley tour we took was about as informative, and we could get on and off that all day.
2. Ate at Prince Pizza. I've been driving past this place all my life, but have never gone in, even with the enticement of the small-scale Leaning Tower of Pisa out front.
I can't say I was missing much. The pizza is similar to Greek pizza, thought the crust is a bit crispier and overall it's less greasy. That being said, it was on the expensive side, and their bruschetta is disappointing. I don't know if I'd bother going here again.
3. Saw the animals at the Franklin Park Zoo. I have vague memories of a kindergarten field trip to a zoo, but I think it was the Stone Zoo. I can't imagine our town would want to send its five year olds into the 'hood.
Franklin Park is not a big zoo. It's also not a very good zoo, as much of the fencing looks temporary and the habitats are either too small or (for the indoor ones) smelling of dank and feces. The indoor exhibits are also very dated. There's a push on to renovate the zoo, which is needed.
That being said, it was a good time. We got to see what we think was Bactrian camel foreplay, as well as a wildabeest that was three days old. There are also lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras and a popular gorilla exhibit. Not only do some of their gorillas paint, one, Little Joe, has talent as an escape artist. Thankfully, the new gorilla habitat seems more secure.
I'd go back, though with better directions. Getting there wasn't a problem, but leaving I wound up going down the wrong street and we had an impromptu visit to a part of Boston not normally on the tourist itinerary. It worked out fine, but I was pretty irritated at being lost.
All of this was courtesy of a visit from the wife's pre-teen niece, which seemed to go pretty well. At least she was never visibly bored or annoyed with us, which I'll take.
1. Visited the Salem Witch Museum. It's billed as Salem's most visited museum, which is kind of sad given the quality of the collection at the Peabody Essex Museum. The main exhibit at the Witch Museum is a number of life-sized wax figured depicting the stages of the trial, from Tituba's stories inflaming bored local girls to the final hangings. The displays are along three walls of the main room, which is a problem as most of the seating is similarly situated. It is unlikely that you'll see the entire thing without having to get up and move around, potentially obscuring someone else's view.
The narration is overly-dramatic and sounds like it was recorded in 1982, less from the quality of the audio than the cheese factor.
The Witch Museum also has a section on the changing interpretation of witches, from the old crone to the green-skinned broom flyer to modern Wiccans. I imagine it's informative if you don't know anything about witches. The trolley tour we took was about as informative, and we could get on and off that all day.
2. Ate at Prince Pizza. I've been driving past this place all my life, but have never gone in, even with the enticement of the small-scale Leaning Tower of Pisa out front.
I can't say I was missing much. The pizza is similar to Greek pizza, thought the crust is a bit crispier and overall it's less greasy. That being said, it was on the expensive side, and their bruschetta is disappointing. I don't know if I'd bother going here again.
3. Saw the animals at the Franklin Park Zoo. I have vague memories of a kindergarten field trip to a zoo, but I think it was the Stone Zoo. I can't imagine our town would want to send its five year olds into the 'hood.
Franklin Park is not a big zoo. It's also not a very good zoo, as much of the fencing looks temporary and the habitats are either too small or (for the indoor ones) smelling of dank and feces. The indoor exhibits are also very dated. There's a push on to renovate the zoo, which is needed.
That being said, it was a good time. We got to see what we think was Bactrian camel foreplay, as well as a wildabeest that was three days old. There are also lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras and a popular gorilla exhibit. Not only do some of their gorillas paint, one, Little Joe, has talent as an escape artist. Thankfully, the new gorilla habitat seems more secure.
I'd go back, though with better directions. Getting there wasn't a problem, but leaving I wound up going down the wrong street and we had an impromptu visit to a part of Boston not normally on the tourist itinerary. It worked out fine, but I was pretty irritated at being lost.
All of this was courtesy of a visit from the wife's pre-teen niece, which seemed to go pretty well. At least she was never visibly bored or annoyed with us, which I'll take.
25 July 2007
Good: Next year will see some form of competition in car insurance rates in Massachusetts. Right now we're the only state in the Union where regulators fix rates, and our last stab at de-regulation in the 1970s didn't go so well (I have very vague memories of this, more from the news than anything with my family).
So, finally, I may be able to get car insurance from a caveman, Cockney lizard or a pink-haired secret agent/robot football player/baseball fan. Given how we're getting jerked around by our current carrier, I'll happily put my fate in the hands (paws?) of one of these folks.
Bad: More doping allegations at the Tour de France, most notably Alexander Vinokourov's reported positive test for homologous transfusions, which led his entire team to drop out. On top of that, race leader Michael Rasmussen missed a couple of test dates outside of racing, which he blames on the process required to notify the sport's governing body of changes to his itinerary (to be fair, it's a little mind-boggling that riders can't make changes on-line somehow).
Cycling is dependent on sponsor money, and doping makes it that much harder to get new ones. Tyler Hamilton's suspension killed a good Phonak team that was transitioning to a new sponsor, and with deals soon to run out with T-Mobile and Discovery, more high-level names getting busted won't help keep current sponsors or find new ones. On the positive side, this may make some room for folks like Team Slipstream and others who are trying to clean things up.
Though I'm concerned about a cycling team powered by Mexican food. Don't get behind their riders in the peleton.
Ugly - this whole Michael Vick thing. Ugh.
So, finally, I may be able to get car insurance from a caveman, Cockney lizard or a pink-haired secret agent/robot football player/baseball fan. Given how we're getting jerked around by our current carrier, I'll happily put my fate in the hands (paws?) of one of these folks.
Bad: More doping allegations at the Tour de France, most notably Alexander Vinokourov's reported positive test for homologous transfusions, which led his entire team to drop out. On top of that, race leader Michael Rasmussen missed a couple of test dates outside of racing, which he blames on the process required to notify the sport's governing body of changes to his itinerary (to be fair, it's a little mind-boggling that riders can't make changes on-line somehow).
Cycling is dependent on sponsor money, and doping makes it that much harder to get new ones. Tyler Hamilton's suspension killed a good Phonak team that was transitioning to a new sponsor, and with deals soon to run out with T-Mobile and Discovery, more high-level names getting busted won't help keep current sponsors or find new ones. On the positive side, this may make some room for folks like Team Slipstream and others who are trying to clean things up.
Though I'm concerned about a cycling team powered by Mexican food. Don't get behind their riders in the peleton.
Ugly - this whole Michael Vick thing. Ugh.
11 July 2007
Three points about softball:
1. Not allowing walks is a problem when you have teams whose pitchers can't (a) arc the ball or (b) get the ball within three feet of the plate. Without the walk you force hitters to swing at crap, making it to a team's benefit to have a lousy pitcher. I'd rather hit off a tee than spend as much time as I did last night loitering around the plate.
Make the walk six balls or four balls in a row. Something to force at least mediocre pitching.
2. No one likes to lose; as someone much wiser than I once said, winning beats losing. Even so, batting out of order to give the women on your team fewer at bats is one of the lamest cheats going, especially from supposed adults. Worse still is that the women on the team seemed to have no problem with this.
(Oh, and point 2a: umpires should be clued in enough to see this is happening.)
3. I am in no shape to leg out a (defensively-aided) triple. But I did. Good thing we won, I'd have hated to almost kill myself in defeat.
1. Not allowing walks is a problem when you have teams whose pitchers can't (a) arc the ball or (b) get the ball within three feet of the plate. Without the walk you force hitters to swing at crap, making it to a team's benefit to have a lousy pitcher. I'd rather hit off a tee than spend as much time as I did last night loitering around the plate.
Make the walk six balls or four balls in a row. Something to force at least mediocre pitching.
2. No one likes to lose; as someone much wiser than I once said, winning beats losing. Even so, batting out of order to give the women on your team fewer at bats is one of the lamest cheats going, especially from supposed adults. Worse still is that the women on the team seemed to have no problem with this.
(Oh, and point 2a: umpires should be clued in enough to see this is happening.)
3. I am in no shape to leg out a (defensively-aided) triple. But I did. Good thing we won, I'd have hated to almost kill myself in defeat.
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