Washington run II

Update: If I had made the loop up 32nd then it would have come out the same distance, but I didn't really study the map before I set-out.

Made it safe and sound--party went well...

With all the logistics of flying and the fact that we only came in one day before the party, it was a big relief to actually set foot in Washington.

Tons of people (in terms of many, not mass) were able to come and many I had not seen for more than a decade. It was somewhat lucky that my aunts, uncles and cousins have been taking good care of themselves: They all look unchanged--time has gone by but left no mark on them. This is good. Time will win in the end, but best if we can stave-off her depredations for as long as possible.

All the kids were changed a lot--we expect this and it is good and really fun to see. I think there were 10 children (counting ones that are pretty grown-up), 5 neices and nephews, and 5 more children of cousins. It was quite festive.

Clarification: The 10 kids listed do not include our own 3. So there were 13 in total.

I felt a pang when I slid open the freezer door

Awake or asleep, in the room or somewhere distant; open the freezer and Meenah comes running for her ice-cube ration. She loves crunching on ice and who can blame her? I love chewing ice too.

Well, for a couple of days she is away visiting friends. When I slid open the freezer drawer on a routine mission to emplace some pesto pucks, no Meenah!

Lately I have chafed at having to give her ice whenever I go into the freezer. Now that I don't have to, I miss those pleading eyes.

One fine day in France

Four men huddle around a café table in the outskirts of Paris and are seen to be chatting about something very serious…

Amaury: That was a very interesting practice session we just had today.

Alain: We are going to smash those Americans—we just beat the world record by more than 3 seconds and will do even better in China.

Fred G.: Take it easy Alain; these new suits might be responsible for some of time we shaved off and…

They fall silent for a moment as a waiter walks close-by their table, the waiter notices the sudden silence and the faint scent of chlorine in the area.

Fred B.: Yes! The Americans and everyone else has these suits too.

Alain: You guys are acting like, how you say in English? Cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys. I say let us trash talk the Americans. Then crush them.

I want to garden, Fate wants me to be a mechanic

I knew going into today's session of lawn mowing that I would have to fix the drive-belt first, since I broke it last time I mowed.

So I took off the blade and heaved the belt back into its groove.

Then I put fuel in and started her up. She was running rough and slow, so I adjusted the throttle but this helped hardly at all.

How about the air filter? It is usually pretty dusty, so I opened it up and cleaned a lot of dust and debris out. Wow! It ran great: Tons of power. Then after one minute of mowing, it died and wouldn't restart.

Last resort: Take out the spark plug and have a look. It was all covered in greasy black soot. I sanded off the conductor with fine sandpaper--just for good measure I narrowed the gap a little since the electrode looked like it had eroded away somewhat. A final extra measure was to pour a cap full of oil into the spark plug hole to lubricate the top of the cylinder.

She ran great: Plenty of power, little smoke (except right when I started it and it burned off the oil I put in) and it seemed to sip fuel.

I think I spent a little more time tuning and repairing the machine than I did mowing with it. Here is hoping that all I have to do next time is put some gasoline into the tank.

Perfect timing, as always...

After a week off from work, I came back to a dead computer. So instead of catching-up on my work, I spent the last day and a half rebuilding my system.

THEN

This morning I broke a tooth on some sweet tarts my sister got for us. It is not your fault sis, the break was painless and so that part of my tooth must have been "ready to go anytime".

My dentist wasn't open on this Saturday so I went to a new place: They were great! Fast, efficient and painless. I now have a temporary crown and am good to go.

Cell Trees and Yale

I have seen these cell towers disguised as trees before, but never had the chance to take a picture of one before. They don't look much like trees and I have no objection to cell towers, but I appreciate that someone took an effort.

From what I understand, Harvard is still harder to get into, but Yale sure is a lot nicer looking.

A nice drain pipe might be made of copper--that is pretty fancy in my book. This one is not just copper--it is also decorated.

Where is this?

Who am I with?

What's it look like outside?

A Mickey Mouse jog through the lower East side.

The U.N.

Some sculpture...

Back home

Scenes from a run to and through Central Park

I started at the South East corner. Here was a roof that I liked the look of.

A pool somewhere in the middle of the park. It would have been a nice morning for a swim--quite warm, clear and humid.

The Natural History Museum: The film Night At The Museum, was modeled on this actual place.

I ended at Columbus Circle and took a couple of pictures there. I walked back to the hotel to cool down.

The Beast

You will get wet!

The Yankees Game.

The same day as driving down to NYC, we go to the game...

Not sure who to root for. The Yankees are the natural enemy of our Red Sox but it is just not the same winning the pennant if we don't do it by beating them--so I was kind of hoping they would beat the Angels.

Last time my sister came out East, we saw a game at Fennway against Philadelphia and that was the year the sox finally broke the curse. So I was telling my nephew that maybe they are good luck to whatever team they see when they come out here. What I had in mind was that maybe the Yankees will win the World Series this year. The Angels won 12-6, so maybe it is the year they go all the way.

Next season, the games will be in that new stadium.

Surenna is excited as the game is about to begin.

The game begins.

We made it to Manhattan

With great trepidation, I surrender our truck to the valet.

By pure chance and luck, our room is right above where we left the truck and there was a window which opens, if just wide enough for the camera to fit, on the right side of the room.

I will add pictures later...

So far we have done a lot:

Been to a Yankee's game--they lost to the Angels 12-6 and a little girl about 20 feet away caught a foul ball.,P.

Mom, aunt and children went to the American Girl place. I went jogging in Central Park.

Lots of walking around and rubbernecking. Got a great pastrami on rye.

Took a boat ride on the beast--a high speed ride out to Liberty Island and back.

Took another jog this morning down the Lower East side past the U.N. to about Hunter College and then back here to 53rd and 3rd.

Still at the hotel and so will toss in some pictures once we get home.

Sister and sons arrive safely

All we have done so far is dinner and talk, tomorrow off to Manhattan! Hopefully there will be lots of great pictures from the big windy apple.

With a gun

WATDH

Too sad...

WATDH

Shovel throwing test

WATDH

Snippets of conversation at the CS & T adult social...

...and so even as I intended to stay at Lincoln Labs for a year or so, I've been there ever since...

A woman approaches, "you guys talking business"?

Me: "Not really, he was just saying where he works. I kind of assume that given the place, it is probably electronics, optics or something computery."

Guy: "More like defensy"

Woman: "Yeah, if he tells you what it is, he will have to kill you."

Me: "I never understood all that cloak-and-dagger stuff. I had a top secret clearance in the Marine Corps and am pretty sure I never saw anything even confidential".

Woman: What did you do?

Me: "I worked in electronic warfare--like radar jamming". Woman: "And what do you do now"?

I described the work at Millipore and our role in the pharma industry.

Woman: "How did you start out in electronics and end up in biology".

Me: "Other than the Marine Corps, I never worked in electronics. It has never been much more than a hobby for me."

Music in stores

I should say at the outset that I don't normally mind music in stores. It is not like the old days when they piped-in that execrable Muzak. The problem today was that at Linens-N-Things there was an issue with the sound system: The songs were interrupted with moments of static and silence. It was roughly as distracting as candle stores which assault your nose with gag-reflex inducing levels of scent.

From there we went to Market Basket where the quality of the sound was first rate, song choice--not so much.