Wii Web - So close yet so Far

So I downloaded the web browser for the Wii. I was honestly pretty
excited. I have always wanted to have a PC attached to my tv and sound
system but it never seemed worth it to go out and buy a whole computer to
do this. Not to mention the negative of having a new 300 watt space heater
in my living room.

There are only really a few things I want to be able to do with this
system. Almost all of them revolve around surfing the web:

1. A quick view of imdb for times when the person on TV or in the movie
looks really familiar.

2. A lot ofTV shows are on line now so being able to watch a show that I
forgot to DVR or something that I'm just not that interested in is very
interesting to me.

3. Being able to play my MP3 collection through my tuner without a bunch
of hardware would be awesome!

4. Being able to view or listen to other media that requires a browser.
For example: we are members or Red Sox Nation which gets us acess to mlb
gameday audio. There are times when we would love to be able to listen to
the game.

So when I saw that there was a browser for the Wii I thought it would be
able to provide a sloution to a number of my desires.

However, I quickly discovered that really this browser isn't an optimal
platform. Most of the sites I wanted to use required plugins that weren't
available for the Wii. Imdb was really the only site that worked well.
Everything else just got me blank pages with plugin not available. So if
Nintendo and the plug-in community is listening... Develop some plugins
there are probably millions of people out there running into the same
issues I am and I am sure they would use the browser more if multi-media
was an option.

So what now? Well I am formulating an idea that may work. Sun has just
released XVM server so I am thinking I can stand up a Solaris 10 guest on
my home computer and use SunRay software to get my desktop to a sunray
(using RDP) at my TV. This should meet my needs well and all I need to
pick up is a SunRay. I might even be able to find a cheap used on Ebay.
Not that thay are expensive to begin with. And since they are low wattage
and have no fans I don't have to worry about the pwer and fan noise!

Now all I need is free time to set this all up :-)

The Bottom of Waimoku Falls

On our recent trip to Maui I was able to convince Mary to go on another hike with me. Fortunately for me she is always willing to go (at least she hasn't said no yet). I love getting to places that require a little bit of work. Partially because I feel rewarded once I have gotten somewhere. Additionally, going to places that require a bit of work usually weeds out the casual tourist.

I am happy to report that this hike (even though it wasn't nearly has arduous as our Pu'u O'o hike 2 years ago) was very rewarding. At the end of the Pipiwai Trail is a wonderful waterfall. We visited during the dry season so there was only a little water in the pool below. This made the falls and the pool approachable. There were a few people swimming and enjoying the massage from the plummeting water.

This is a great place to visit if you are in Hana for more than a day trip. We stayed at the Hana Kai Maui which was a great place. The hotel is right on the water and it totally has a remote tropic feel. There is a more upscale hotel in town too.

Lava Ocean Entry

 

This is one of my best/favorite pictures from our night at the lava ocean entry near the end of Route 130 (Kalapana). The light show was amazing. Aside from the lava which you see here we were treated to a couple of lightning flashes in the steam as well.

We were much closer to the lava this time than we were on our Honeymoon in 2004.

Hawaii.... Again!

We just got back from another visit to our favorite place. I have quite a few pictures but they are probably going to take a while to convert to jpg (I took a lot of RAW images) and a few have to be messed with.

Above is a early morning view of the Haleakala "Crater". There were some amazing colors to view here. We were joined by a few friends for the second week. It was a fun to show them around our favorite island and have some new experiences too. The ocean entry from the TEB vent was very active just outside Volcanoes National Park. We were treated to an amazing evening fireworks show. It looks like a few of my pictures turned out decent despite the lack of a tripod. I totally wish Troy was there with his high powered Digital SLR...... Maybe next time.

I will post more photos as they are ready....

Corn Hole Video Game

That's right a corn hole video game at a bar here in Houston, TX. Golden
Tee watch out. People will be dropping golf and darts like hot potatos in
order to play a round or corn hole. You heard it here first. The
nightlife scene is changing for the better.

Traveling Tribute to Victums of Terrorism

A week or so ago I was on my way over Plymouth Meeting and I drove past this very impressive display of American flags. I figured it was a tribute to troops who had lost their lives over seas. But it seemed a bit early for a Memorial Day type display (not to say that we shouldn't remember and honor our troops every day). In any event I made a mental note to try and return before the display was dismantled. I figured with the spring trees blooming and the few nice days forcasted it was be a good opportunity to take some pictures.

Fortunately Mary and I had to make a couple trips to the tile place so we ended up driving by with a plan to stop and take a look at the display. As it turns out the monument is a tribute to victims of terrorism since the 1983 US Embassy Bombing in Beirut. There are a huge number of flags in the display. It was impossible to get a vantage point to see all of the flags.

I think I like the black and white version of the picture I have above, but the original reason I stopped was because the colors were so impressive. So here is a color image as well. I think I have to adjust the colors a bit to make the sky bluer.

I haven't been by in over a week so I don't know if the display is still there. If it is still there or if you happen to read about it in your local paper it is definitely worth stopping and taking a few minutes to remember those who have lost their lives to terrorism.

counter tops

Our little kicthen project is comming along. We had the counter tops installed today and the kitchen is looking much more finished. Should have the plumbing tomorrow. Then all we have to do is pick out tile... oh and the floor. The kitchen looks one thousand time better than it did when we started. I will have to post before and after pictures when it is all done.

In a semi-related vein.... I can't believe that i took these pictures from my Treo. I mean sure they are something I would print out and frame. However, the pictures are much better than I would imagine a camera phone would take.

Following the president

So I followed the President around the country today. This morning Mary
and I went on a tour of the White House with some people Mary works with
and a family from Germany. The tour was fun. There was quite a lot
involved with getting into the white house. Including not having any bags
or cameras. And there was a surprisingly few number of rooms available to
see. But the self guided tour was interesting and definitely worth the
short amount of time that it took.

So as we were exiting the Whitehouse we watched Marine 1 take off. A few
of the people in our group saw GW actually boarding the chopper. Sort of
interesting to see but really nothing too exciting.

until of course I land in Nashville and find out that just before I touched
down the airspace had been closed due to the President landing.....

I sure hope he isn't headed to Philly tomorrow night because then I'm sure
my name would make it to the top of all kinds of watch lists :-)

Curling at the Dykes

So this past weekend I gathered a couple of guys frm the club together (well really Eric did the gathering) and went up to the Francis Dykes Men's 5 & Under Bonspiel. We didn't go up with high expectations. Our plan was simple:

1. Have Fun!
2. Try and stay close in every game
3. Get some experience under our belts
4. Win a game if we could

I have to say we were fairly successful in all of our endeavors. Of course we had fun. Of the 3 Philly teams in attendance we were the least experienced so we had the least to loose. Also for many on the team it was teh first away event so we were just looking to meet people and have a good time. Item number one... done.

I felt like we held our own in every game we palyed. The first team we played was very good, and ended up running away with the game, but we really didn't give up very big ends and while the score was high by the end of the game we all curled well. The game would have been much different if I could have made a few keys shots. But I just couldn't execute, which was a shame, but we didn't want to compete in the first event anyhow :-)

The second game was a game we could have won. The other team was good, but I made the mistake of underestimating the team's ability based on their front end. That lead us to not put up some guards early on. Our opponents vice was very good a take outs and seemed to hit every stone near exactly where he needed to. That combined with my continued inability to make a few key shots saw us off to an early deficit. Towards the middle of the match we were down 5-1 and our opponents were sitting 4. Ends like this (especially at our level are tough to come back from. We can generally take a point or two, but getting 3 or 4 especially late in the game is difficult. To make things even more interesting the front was well guarded. There was only really one shot for me to make. I just had to wing a stone down and hopefully knock one or two out and maybe out count a few more.

So I slid down to the hack and lined up for the shot. I let the stone go and just hopped I didn't get caught up on one of the front guards. Amazingly I cleared all of the guards and hit everything in just the right order (fortunately we had the hammer). Suddenly I instead of being down 9-1 we were only down 5-2 and with a few ends left we had time to mount a comeback. We stole one in the next end and suddenly we were only down by 2. The details of the rest of the game are a bit fuzzy. But we kept it close. We ended up eking out a defeat, but were all very happy with our performance.

Finally we arrive at Saturday morning. Thins seemed like they were falling into place. We had curled well the night before (especially in the last half of the game) we were curling in Albany, which our club is modeled after, which makes it feel like home. So we started out really well. We kept winning end after end. We had a very good lead built up going into the 5th end. Then I got a little off the game plan and fouled some things up. That combined with another missed shot by yours truly left out opponents sitting 5. In this end the gaurded up the front well and had some points counting. I just needed to draw and cut them down to maybe 2 points, if I was lucky (or good, but lets face it I'm not good yet) I could have out drew them and maybe even come away with a point. But instead I was wide and ended up one of their guards. Unfortunately my weight was perfect and I ended up knocking another of their stones into the rings. So now instead of being up by 7 we were only up by 2. It was a very bad feeling. But I had to make sure that we didn't let it get to us. We still had a game to pull out.

It came down to the last end and we were up by 2 or 3 points. We had a nice house set up. The middle was open and we had 2 guarded stones on either side of the 4 foot about the T-Line depth. It would be very hard for our opponents to come away with enough points for a victory. The opposing vice managed to sneak a stone onto the button and I was ready to call a guard to conceded the end in favor of winning the game. Then our vice reminded me that if I successfully removed this stone the other team would not have enough stones to win. The down side didn't seem to bad either. At worst I would hang up on a guard of ours and block the whole maybe tap some stuff around. But it would still be hard for the other team to get 3. Again things fell into place and I managed to take the stone out leaving us sitting 3 and making it near impossible for the opponent to win. The skip conceded the game and we had walked away with our first victory (and my first victory outside Philadelphia).

I would love to be able to report that we won our next four games (which we would have had to 2 to win the 3rd event. But alas out winning streak stopped at one.

In the end it is safe to say we all had a great time and we accomplished all of our goals. I hope the team wants to get back together next year. We should have an even better time.

Reconnecting

A few months a go some dear friends of mine set of on an amazing adventure. Rachel and Sudhir planned to visit Nepal (Sudhir's home) so Rachel could spend some real time with her new family. During their trip they kept an amazing blog which you should really check out. If you don't have the time or patients to read about the trip at least look at the pictures. However I suggest you read the stories as well. R&S had an amazing trip and the blog is very well written.

Upon returning to the US R&S settled on the left coast, a pretty major change from Somerville, near Cambridge, where they met. Of course since I no longer love in Boston I really shouldn't have much to complain about it isn't like I get to see these guys all that often any how. But Boston is just so much closer. When Neeraj was living in San Diego it was alwasy difficult to communicate. Of course e-mail works great, but phone calls are tough. The 3 hour time difference is really just enough off that schedules are strange. Usually when I am thinking of friends it is to early to give them a call because they would be at work. And by the time I am ready for bed they are probably eating dinner.

Anyhow, R&S got to San Francisco on the 4th or so of January and have since been looking for a place to live and employment and all the things you need to do when you move to a new place. How delighted was I when I found out I would be in the Bay area for a few days in earl February! I sent Rachel an e-mail to let her know of my plans hoping that our schedules would match up and fortunately they did. I was able to arrive early enough the day before my meetings to meet up and catch up on life.

I made my way to their new apartment which is in a very nice part of the city. They live sort of towards the top of a hill in a larger apartment building. The street they are on dead ends at their building and someone in the area has done an amazing landscaping job at the end of the street. Walking through the garden to the building is enjoyable and sets this place apart from mot other locations.

of course Rachel and Sudhir's apartment was still awaiting furniture, but they have a great place. It is very open and inviting floor plan and they have a balcony that looks out over to garden/entrance. I am sure they will make it an even better place to visit once it is furnished.

We decided to head to dinner and we choose a BBQ place Memphis Minnie's. The web site looked interesting and the food sounded great. After a bit of an adventure getting there. The bus had to let us off a few blocks away because the street was closed due to a movie being filmed. We discovered that the place had apparently sold out of BBQ and closed early. We were so disappointed and since none of us really knew the area finding a second place was a bit of a challenge. If I make it back to the area, I think we will have to try this place again, the interior looks similar to a few other BBQ places I have been and all of these places were amazing.

After a bit of walking and peering at menues and in windows we ended up at the Asqew Grill which had an interesting manue and concept. It is basically a meat (chicken, fish, or vegtable) on a stick establishment. You order your "main course" and choose a starch to server with it. They have a number different choices. We decided to each order something different and then we could share. The food was all very good. Very flavorful and well prepared. The atmosphere was very casual and laid back. It was great to spend some time catching up. Even though I didn't get a chance to see them often when they were in Boston California is just so far away, I hope I have some more opportunities to visit.

After dinner we meandered back to Rachel and Sudhir's apartment, with a bit of a bus fiasco do to the movie again, where I hopped in the car and headed home. It was sad to have to leave, but I had been up since 4 AM EST (it was now like 1 AM EST) and R&S had to work. So back to my hotel I went hoping I could make it back to the Bay area soon.

So if you guys are reading this, thanks for a great night. The East coast misses you! But I hope you are having a great time getting settled into your new place.

Wnning our first event

Well it was bound to happen some time!!! Mary and I won our first in Curling. The Bonspiel was our club in-house annual "Mushroom" event. We started off witha fairly goos team. Myself and Mary bot 2 year Curlers. Our Vice was Eric who has curled for 6 years and our Skip was Ken who has also been curling for 2 years but has picked up the sport rapidly. Unfortunately due to circumstances within reach of our skip he was not about to make the first game so we had a different Ken sub for us as Vice. We created a pretty simple strategy and executed well. We ended up winning our first game, and event in and of its self since Mary and I hadn't won a Bonspeil game yet. Our egos slightly boosted we headed into Saturday evening's game with high hopes.

Those hopes were dashed late in the game, but we didn't give up game 2 without a fight. We ended up making a few execution errors in the 6th and 7th end that we just weren't able to recover from. But it was great to know a team of relativly novice player could hold their own again some of the more experienced curlers of the club. We had a feeling we would give the next team a good game had we won, but we would certainly get blown out in the first event finals had we made it that far. Losing this game dropped us into the 3rd event, which we were happy to play in.

Finally Finals Sunday had arrived. We only had to play one game (they used a points scheme to determine the winner of the 3rd event). However we were playing the Fishers and their experienced front end. The game was shapping up well. We managed to score points in the first 2 ends. The 3rd end we made some near fatal mistakes. Starting with a guard of mine going to deep which lead to an open double that Christa made easily. With not many guards and teh back unds up the takeout game began and at the end of it we had given up 4!... The game was close again and there were only a few ends left in the is abbreviated game. However we were able to regain our composure and take the rest of the ends as well.

Mary and I were particularly on for this game almost every time Mary needed to throw a guard it ended up in the right spot. All of my draws were exactly in the right spot I managed to throw a couple of stones that froze to Troy's stone which had stopped just behind the button. From here we could guard our point and take the end. As I mentioned the only time this didn't work we gave up 4 points.

We ended the game with a points total of 23 which would be hard to beat. Fortunately for us the team on the next sheet had the exact score, but their opponent had managed to take one more end leaving them with 21 points. All we could do now was watch the second set of games and hope that there were no blow outs. The curling god were smiling upon us that day as one game ended close and the other ended in a tie. 23 points became the magic number and we walked away with the 3rd event.

The big problem with winning is now we feel like we have to keep it up. I have the Dykes (5 and under Men's tournament) coming up next week. Lets see if I can keep a winning streak alive. The team we have assemebled is all 1 and 2 year curlers, we aren't expecting to compete but who knows. Perhaps we can get a victory or two under our belt.

Finally, following our stellar performance at the Cracked Bell (yes that was sarcastic). Actually we did fairly okay. We didn't win anything, but we seemed to "loose" less. And there were points in most games when we could have taken ends had we executed better. So CPK will hopefully be looking to attend a bonspeil at the end of the season to see if perhaps we can win a game or two.

I'm a Boston Sports Fan (If you didn't already know)

So anyone who reads this blog probably know that Mary and I are not native to Philly. We are originally from Boston (well technically Mary is from upstate NY, but she is a Boston girl at heart). Any how, we are also Boston sports fans. I will admit that I wasn't always the biggest sports fan in general. When I was younger I really enjoyed playing sports and going to games but I couldn't really watch them on TV and I was never fanatical enough to know stats and all of that junk. A game was sort of like a movie, watching one was entertaining, but I watched with out regard for, or the context of, the entire season.

Ice Hockey was the spot I played growing up. I wasn't ever great, but I was good enough. And really I have never had a super competitive attitude so sports were always just fun for me. As I have gotten older it is much easier, and sometime less painful (at least physically), to watch sports than it is to actually participate. Obviously curling is an exception here, but you can't really watch curling on TV in the US. I watched the "fist" super bowl in '97 at a college rush party. I still hadn't really caught onto football yet. It seemed sort of exciting. But I really didn't understand the game. It didn't really matter anyway we lost, and I was still getting used to this whole college thing.

I was really introduced to football during the 2001 superbowl championship season. I didn't watch much of the reular season, but I watched all of the championship games and began to understand the excitement of football. Of course it helped that the Pats won and exhilarating game an played in such crazy weather.

I remember the first time I attended other Boston sporting events. I remember my first Baseball Game at Fenway and my first Hockey Game at the old Garden (a birthday present from my parents). I even remember my first Celtics game which occurred much later in life (I was in my mid 20s). My dad and I went with company tickets. Even tough neither of us understood basketball it was really a blast. The one thing I remember, and maybe this is just because of my lack of interest in sports when I was younger, is that we never seemed to get too down on ourselves for not winning. And we never gave up on our teams. I will admit, however, that over the past few years it has been much easier to be a Boston sports fan.

The one sporting event in Boston I have yet to attend is a Patriots game. When I was in scouts we used to head to the stadium for the tailgate parties (it isn't what you think). We would roam around and collect cans an bottles form all of the parties and recycle them. In MA you get $0.05 a can so this was generally a pretty good fund raising opportunity. Of course I was a young'n so this was at the old Foxboro/Sullivan stadium. Mary and I did get a chance to watch a game in the new stadium, we actually attended the MLS Cup championship game in Gillette Stadium in October 2002, right before we moved to PA.

So why all of this silly background info? Well I came across this video today and it made me chuckle. I felt the need to share it with friends.

Of course it digs at the Bruins, which I do feel bad about. But it is just too true for a Boston fan not to at least find the humor here. Especially since hockey was my sport and the Bruins were my team. If you were to tell me when I was in High School (the early 90's). That the Patriots and the Red Sox would be dominate teams and each would have won (even one) a championship before the Bruins would win a Stanley Cup I would have sneered at you and laughed you out of the state.

I'm not shamed to admit it. I am greedy and I think what Boston needs is 2 more championship teams. I am rooting for the Celtics this winter (as much as I can since Basketball is very enigmatic to me). But really what we need for the Bruins to don their bloody soxs (get it :-) )and pull out some victories. I will accept nothing less than the Stanley Cup.

This one's for Eric

So the curling season has begun. We actually stated in October with ice making and a kick off party. Then Curling officially began. The club had a push to involve new members in the ice making this year and I took the chance to participate. The entire process was very interesting. The process is sort of what I expected with one major difference.

Our club consists of a large rectangular concrete pad with the curling surface painted on it. Under the concrete are a number of pipes. We run our chilled water through these pipes. The chiller and pumps are turned on a day or two before hand to get the concrete cold then we begin putting water down. Here is where the major deviation from my expectation comes in. I figured we turned on a faucet and fill up the rink with water, much like a swimming pool, and wait for the water to freeze. In fact we actually lay down a small layer of water starting at one end and working towards another. We apparently repeat this a number of times over a couple of days. This process serves 2 purposes. First it freezes quicker and more consistently/even (this seems obvious). Second, and less obvious, the layering of the water creates strength sort of like plywood.

After a week or so of preparation the ice is ready to go. I unfortunately went out of town the week the ice was ready so I wasn't able to get on the ice before my first game. Following the ice making we had out Put-in-the plug party (this is a figurative name there is no "plug" ). And now we come to the reasoning for the title of this entry. During this event I was talking to a club member who informed me that I don't write nearly enough. Especially when you compare my entries to Troy. Initially I was shocked that there was someone actually reading this... well I knew Troy checked it out ever once in a while. But I figured that was about it. Then I had to defend my lack of writing.

So what is my excuse... I don't have a good one. Only to say that I have been spending my "free" time toying around with other technology. Specifically I was destroyed by the efficiency and quality of Troy's blogging on our Germany trip. i figured the best way for me to contribute was to get my photos up and inserted into a map so people could see where we visited. I already had the images loaded into Picasa (Cheep Plug) they are here

Germany March/April 2007

and here

Prague March/April 2007

My next step was to get them in a map and post that somewhere. The great news is picasa has a way to drop you pictures onto a map. And you can link to that map. Google Maps also provides you the ability to save maps (Troy has used this in his blog). And one of the options in the map making screen is to show images from picasa. So this should be a super easy task. I have to ways of getting the map I want posted in my blog. But neither of the ways work how I would expect them.

So Lets look at Picasa... Yes you can drop your images in the map and link to the map page but you can't set a view on the map and save it. So I first had to split my albums in two with the Prague pictures in one and the Berlin pictures in another. Even then it doesn't work great because I have a few pictures out side Berlin. These pictures force the map link to zoom far out so you are presented with a view of almost all of Germany. A similar problem can be seen in my Hawaii album as well. I really want to create a view of just the Big Island. However, I don't want to split this into 2 albums.

Refusing to be beaten I figure I will approach this dilemma from a different angle.... I will go to google maps and create a map view. This is also impossible from google maps. Or at least I can't figure it out. So I go to google maps and create a view of Berlin (or teh Big Island) and I invoke the picasa search filter. I search on a number of things (I start with my user name which returns nothing!!!) then I figure I should search on album name. pictures start populating. I am very excited. Everything fills in and it seems to be only my pictures! Great!!! I save the view and send a link to myself. When I click on the image the map view loads... but no pictures! I only get the map view and a search field. I have to type in the album name myself. This doesn't seem very useful!

So the method that does work, which is much more labor intensive, is to put a sticky at each location and link it to one of my pictures. I'm not going to use this method. It will take much too long. I was exploring other options when the curling season (and sadly TV) picked up. So for now I will have to see if anyone stumbles across this post and provides a better suggestion.

Quiet summer?

It seems I haven't written much this summer. That shouldn't be confused with a boring summer at all. We didn't get to Hawaii this summer but we plan to remedy that next year. And there weren't any other "big" vacations (I already wrote about Vegas). But we really had a great summer.

We went up to Boston for the 4th of July. We caught up with friends. Paul bought a house. Rachel and Sudhir are in Nepal for few months and will be moving to San Francisco when they return. Kevin and Amanda are having a baby!! So a lot is happening at "Home".

We watched the fireworks with my family and the parade the next day. I hadn't seen the parade in a few years and Needham did a great job as usual. I also started riding again which is great. I have been doing about an hour ride 2-3 times a week. The exercise has been great and I am sure my bike has enjoyed the use. Finally we worked on a summer show which was great. The show was Chess which is one of our favorite shows. The summer part was a mixed blessing. It ensured that we were home for much of the summer but of course there always seems like something more fun than rehearsal. The show came of well and it was really a great time.

We "ended" the summer with a weekend in Baltimore to watch the Red Sox play the O's. The tickets for Baltimore are very reasonably priced and it is the easiest way to watch the Sox play. Not to mention the Baltimore seems to turn into a mini Boston for Sox games. There were tons of Sox fans mulling around. The weekend went well. While the Sox blew the game Saturday they won Sunday and we left happy.

The fall should be just as fun as the summer. Hopefully I will finish the Berlin posts and provide more regular updates.

Berlin Day 3 - or - how I got someone else to do my dirty work

Okay so the title is misleading -sort of - I may have to give up on the rest of Germany and Prague. Not because the trip wasn't amazing or because I have forgotten. But really because Troy has already finished and has done a really nice job with maps and everything.

It was actually initially my intent to fit all of Germany into one post. Then my first post ended up being pretty much about day one and I realized I have a good amount of material. Then as you can read elsewhere I got side tracked in trying to get my pictures onto a map. So I will leave you with a link to Troy's Berlin posts: Troy's Blog - Berlin

I have also included below the notes I was using for the rest of my posts. They are not complete but enough to spark my memory. So perhaps I will use these to fill out the rest of the trip. But I wouldn't want to keep my reader (I left it singular on purpose :-) on the edge of his/her seat. So Enjoy the stories. and I will try and keep this site more up to date.

Sun - Some mall thingy, Anne Frank museum, museum island (Berliner Dom, Pergamom), Closed restraunt. Mon - Olympic Stadium, Split up (Zoo), destroyed church, New Wall monument, Jewish museum, Dinner at Storch Tue - Train to Prague, Prague Tour, drinks at Uprince Wed - Train home, dinner kinipa - beginning of sickfest Germany Thursday - recovering from sickfest Germany Friday - Fly Home

Happy 10th Anniversary!!!

The Original title of this post was going to be "Vegas Baby!" But after a week there that specific phrase seems over used. Mary and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Mary's Cousin Bob and his wife. Coincidentally Mary and I met the same summer that Bob and Sandy were married so it also happens to the the 10 year anniversary of Mary and I meeting!

So 1. I can't believe Mary and I have known each other for 10 years!! Wow!!! and 2. do you really need an excuse to visit the entertainment capital of the world?

We had a very good time. Vegas is deffinatly a wonderful place for a group vacation. All in all there were about 20 people who made it out for the trip. We arrived on a Wednesday, spent afternoon cleaning up from traveling, unpacking and doing the normal new hotel stuff. We grabbed lunch and met the Wednesday group for "free" craps lessons at the Imperial Palace Casino. Now I say "free" because nothing in Vegas is free., but at the same time everythign is free. Obviously ofering free lessons is a benefot to the casion because it luers people over to a game people are unfamiliar with and will contribute to the guest spendsing lots of money.

Craps also happens to be a pretty fun game, and is a lot less mindless then sitting at a slot machine punching a button like a mindless slug :-) So we learned the game and then headed next door to Casino Royal to try our luck at the $3 craps table. We didn't do to bad. This started a fairly good craps streak that lasted us almost our entire visit (yeah almost, I will explain the almost part later). We would spend a few hours at a table and generally leave with a bit more money than we entered the game with. Then of course in true Vegas style we would spend all of our winnings on beer, or slot machines, proving that the Casino's really have a wonderful business model, there is no way in hell you are leaving a casino with more than you entered. Well they let a few people out with more, but really this is just an advertising scheme so that more people will come in.

Some people had booked shows Wednesday night so we all split up with plans to meet at 10 when all the shows and dinner were done. Being that we were all on east coast time. none of us made it to the 10 PM meeting. We all gathered again at Casino Royal for some more craps! again we had a fairly profitable morning. Then we went to O'Shey's for beer pong. What a great concept for a bar. They basically had a number of custom beer pong tables and all you needed to buy were 2 pitchers of beer. The cups, ball and tables were free. We grabbed a table and spend a few hours throwing ping pong balls into beer cups. Since the group had grown to 8 we had enough to alternate between playing and just hanging out. When we got to the tables the bar was pretty empty. By the time we left for dinner business had picked up. every table was full and there were some people waiting to get on. We all went back to the Excalibur (our hotel) for a late dinner.

After dinner Mary, myself, and Rob and Becky (Bob & Sandy's friends) walked up to the Bellagio to watch the fountain show. We then waled over to Paris to look around the casino, we tried out luck at the "wheel of death" as we called it. This is a straight odds wheel usually divided into 40 or so sections. Each section is labeled. Usually 1 section with the highest pay out(number of sections to 1). Then lessening payouts down to even money. You win if the number you picked get selected on the next spin. You have a pretty good chance at winning a dollar at a time if you keep playing the even money payout. But how upset would you be if you were at the wheel when the 40-1 payout was spun and you didn't play it? This is what the casino hopes too, so you almost have to play a higher payout and will almost never get paid on the odds. We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Friday there was obviously more gambling, but the big even was the Anniversary party. So we all met at he Monte Carlo Brew pub around 9PM to celebrate the anniversary. The Brew Pub here is known for selling bear by the yard, basically a tall 3' or 5' test tube of beer with a gravity fed tap. The 3' looked daunting, until we poured a few glasses, then all of a sudden we started ordering the 5 footers. We spent the evening ordering beer by the foot and catching up with cousins from all over the country.

Saturday Mary and I caught up with some of Mary's co-workers who happened to be in Vegas for the weekend to celebrate a birthday. We met at the bar out side the Crazy Horse theater in the MGM. We moseyed onto the bar in the center of the MGM and ended at NYU NY for Pizza.

The rest of the weekend consisted of more of the same. Our craps luck continued, Mary and I even ended up at a $10 table for a little while. We hadn't initially intended on approaching a 10$ table, we just didn't look at the sign close enough and didn't realize it until after we had already bought in. We actually did well. We played for a few ours and both ended up walking away up (Mary was up $100 and I was up about $80). The casino was just baiting us for the end of our trip. We would meet up with cousins and walk around in between gambling sessions touring teh different casinos and seeing the sights. People started leaving Saturday and by Sunday night it was Mary and I and Bob and Sandy. We decided to round out our tour of the seedy casinos of visiting the Slots A Fun casino next to Circus Circus. This end of the strip is much older and probably a poster child for the dank rundown image that anti gambling people have. We all tried our hand at the $2 craps table a really enjoyed our selves. The dealers weren't the best. There were a few times they paid us incorrectly, or had to discuss the correct payout. There was even one time when the pit boss fought with the whole table about who the shooter was.

There was this one poor guy at the table who contently betting against the shooters and he just seemed to be a very negative person. Wasn't really doing well and kept buying in for more chips. Finally Mary ended up with the dice and rolled a couple of 5 during her turn. The guy kept putting his money on no 5 and kept loosing. Well finally he put all his money (about $200, remember we were at the $2 table) on no 5... and the very next number Mary rolled was a 5. Well Mr. Negative left in a hurry and didn't seem to happy. The rest of the night was uneventful. By the end of the night we all left up just a bit. We returned to the hotel after a long bus ride and headed to bed.

Monday Mary and I had the day to ourselves. We had tried to get into a craps game Sunday night, but the tables were packed. we walked around to all of the casinos in out area looking for a $5 table butt he Excalibur had the only one (and it was packed) we called it quits and decided to try out luck in the AM....

And so goes the casino luck spirits.... We started the day off with a good feeling. We had done well in craps all week. we almost always walked away with more than we started and the few times we walked away with less we hand and by the end of Monday we had pretty much returned to the casinos everything we had taken earlier. We capped off the day by making the 3-4 mile trek up to Treasure Island. Mary and I hadn't seen the Volcano at the Mirage or the Siren's of TI at TI. We watched the Volcano which was really interesting, but we just missed the TI show. Unfortunately it began to sprinkle around 10:45 or so. The 11:30 TI show was canceled. I guess we will have to make a trip back later to see the show.

So Mary and I had a great week in Las Vegas. We got to catch up with family and spend some time touring around The Strip. We didn't end up winning lots (or any really) of money. But we didn't spend a whole lot of money either. I think if you can keep everything in perspective and go with the intention of being entertained you can really enjoy your self.

Berlin Part 1.5

So I have the Berlin part II post almost done. It has taken a bit longer that I was expecting. Stay tuned faithful reader :-)

I'm Sailing

Mary and I were invited on a sailing adventure Memorial Day weekend with a good friend of mine for the early Sun days. I have been on a number of different boats in my life. Even a number of small sail boats. But I have never spent the night on a boat. I was a little nervous about motion sickness. I have only gotten motion sickness once on a boat. Mary and I were taking the ferry from Bridgeport, CT to Port Jefferson, NY and a strong storm blew in while we were under way. There was lots of rocking and rolling and it really hit me hard. I didn't get sick, but I really didn't feel right all weekend after that trip. I was a little nervous that I would feel the effects more in a smaller boat.

Mary and I got up early Saturday and headed to Baltimore to meet Kevin, Jessie and the rest of the sailing party for the weekend. We got to the sailing club around 10AM went shopping for provisions and hit the water. The boat was beautiful. We were on the Miss Ann a Beneteau 343 35' Sail boat. She is a wonderful boat.

The trip plan was to head south to Rock Hall for the evening and head to Waterman's Crab House for dinner. Watremans has the "amazing" crab dip which was Jessie's favorite place to go. I will admit the food was very good. I haven't had seafood that good in a while. I ordered some steamed clams for an appetizer and the Baked Crab Imperial for dinner. Both were amazing and very fresh. The steamers were so good even Mary had one or two of them.

We spent the night at a marina in Rock Hall. The people around us were very friendly. Many of them were older, probably retired. I was sort of prepared for the cold shoulder based on the fact that we were so young. However, he reaction seemed to be quite the opposite. Everyone around us was very friendly and seemed to be excited that "younger" people interested in sailing. Everyone was quick to introduce them selves and chat for a while.

The next morning we got up and cooed breakfast. Eggs and bacon mostly, but we had picked up some other stuff as well. The plan was to head to the western bay to anchor for the night and try our hand at crabbing. The wind wasn't as favorable so we didn't get much speed but we had 7 hours to make a 3 hour trip so we were not in a super rush. Around 4 PM the wind died and we decided to drop sails and motor the rest of the way to our destination.

We got to the Magathe river around 5ish and had an interesting time getting our anchor down. Once we were anchored we decided it would be a good time to try crabbing. We got our turkey necks (chicken necks weren't available) out tied them to some string and chucked them overboard. We had been taking bets on how long it would take us to catch a crab. The first time window of 30 minutes came and passed fairly quickly. We were quickly approaching the hour mark when a storm started to blow in. We left our turkey necks in the water and went below for the storm.

The wind picked up quickly and, while we were watching out the back, we noticed that our anchor had broken free and we were drifting toward a sail boat anchored near by. The men rushed into action Kevin started the engine and got us away from the boat we were approaching. Brian and I grabbed our danforth and sunk a second anchor. We were again solidly anchored in the cove. We went back below slightly moistened by the rain to wait out the storm.

Once the storm had ended we decided to cook dinner and check on our crabbing bounty. Needless to say we had caught nothing. The general consensus was that it was way to early in the season and we were a bit up the river so the water may have been a bit too fresh. The rest of the evening went with out incident. We stayed below deck because it was sprinkling out. Played cards and drank beer. A few of us still hoping to catch something left our necks in the water overnight to see if we would catch anything.

We had breakfast, cast away our turkey necks pulled up our anchors and headed home. Unfortunately the wind was not cooperating with us on Monday. We saw a few other sail boats out in the bay but sails up and they were going no where. We decided to just motor back to the marina.

So our first sailing adventure was great! Mary and I really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was great, even with a brief thunderstorm. It really was a great weekend and we hopefully will be able to make a few more sailing trips in the future. We are also considering making Kevin's international New Years trip next year. Lets hope they pick somewhere exciting.

Berlin Day 2

The remainder of our trip was just as exciting as the first day. Our plan was to see as much as possible in as short a time a possible. A few of the books we had read suggested that we visit sections of the city in a day. Berlin is quite large (remember it used to be 2 cities) and traveling from one spot to another could be very time consuming.

We woke up Saturday and cooked breakfast (one of the benefits of renting an apartment). Our plan was to meet Colin and Maria in the morning at a flea market/farmers market then visit Mitte which is the central borough of Berlin. We read that the line to the Reichstag grows quite long in the afternoon so our plan was to start there and continue on.

We took the U-Bahn to Colin and Maria's apartment met them and walked to the market. This was a very interesting place. Apparently this is a weekly event and there are all sorts of vendors set up in this square. From florists and fresh produce to jewelry and crafts and prepared food. I assume that many of the apartments in Berlin are about the same size as ours and kitchen space is pretty limited. This means that appliances, like refrigerators, are small. It seems that people rely on fresh produce picked up a couple times a week rather than our habit of trying to make it to the store once a week or so to get food for a while.

The market was filled with people and each stand had something interesting to look at. We all decided to try a local sausage which was a foot long thin sausage served on a very small bun that was essentially a handle. I tried some fresh OJ which was very good. Kate, in an attempt to reconnect with her roots, tried an Alsatian flat bread with cheese on top. It is similar to a pizza. We were getting ready to leave when a jewelry vendor caught Mary's eye. We stopped there for a few minutes and ended up with a very nice necklace with a black pendant. It was a great beginning to day 2 and it was still early!

Colin walked us to over to the Zoo and we hopped on the 100 Bus which is a great way to see the city. This bus route stops at a lot of the major attractions and really gives you a great feel of the city. Unlike riding a subway you get an idea of where things are in relation to each other. We hopped off at the Reichstag and got in line. The line wasn't too long, but there was a wait. Fortunately we had lots of entertainment while we waited. First a group of mime/puppeteers performed for us. There were about 6 of them and they were moving this stick figure human character thing. They would make the character dance and interact with the line. It was interesting to watch. At some point they moved on to another location.

As we got closer to the steps we saw something pretty interesting. A group of people stormed the steps and posted a whole bunch of banners on the pillars of the Reichstag. Of course they were speaking in German and their fliers were in German so we really had no idea what was going on. But it was pretty moving to see an act of democratic free speech in a different country. The "disruption" was over pretty quickly and everything returned to normal. The short wait in line was worth the view from the top.

There is a glass dome one top with a spiral ramp that goes to the top of the dome. The entire structure is beautiful and fun to be inside. There are great views of the city both as you circle up the dome and from the roof deck of the Reistag. You can really see from this vantage point the Berlin is a growing city as there were a lot of construction sites visible.

We left the Reichstag and continued onto the Brandenburg Gate which was originally built as an entrance to the city but now pretty much sits right in the middle of the Berlin. The gate became an icon during the years of the Berlin wall because it was right in the middle on "no mans land". Not much exists of the wall, but in parts of Berlin there is a brick path that traces out the old footprint of the wall. It is easiest to find on the street between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate.

From the Brandenburg Gate our plan was to walk along Unter der Linden and over to Bebelplatz which was the site of the book burning. On our way to Unter der Linden we passed the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial was pretty amazing and it is fairly large. The site takes up a city block and it is an arrangement of stone pillars which look like a cemetery. The pillars are not all level or true so it give the appearance of an older cemetery. At the edge of the monument the pillars are rather short, towards the middle the pillars get taller and you are completely surrounded. It is a very interesting place. Beneath the monument is a museum which is dedicated to telling the stories of different Jewish families who were deported during WW II. In the last room in the museum the names of the Jews who perished are projected on the wall and read allowed. It is a very moving exhibit.

We left the museum and it was getting late. We decided to grab lunch (although he sun was setting) and continue on our way. We walked along Unter Der Linden for a while stopping at a few trinket shops and just taking in the street. We finally came across Bebelplatz and we hit it about the right time. The monument here is a room below street level. The room is a "library" with empty book shelves that are painted white. The entire room is lit brightly. You look down into the library from street level through a window in the square. We continued on to Check Point Charlie and out last stop for the evening.

Checkpoint Charlie was an interesting place. As with many location where the wall once was there is an interesting mixture of construction, ultra modern building and older buildings. The checkpoint itself is completely gone. A replica of the American shed is in the middle of the street at the checkpoint location. There are a lot of trinket shops nearby. There is also a Checkpoint Charlie museum which I had mixed feeling about. I think the idea of the museum is great and the collection of items that were there were interesting. However it seems as if this museum was created without much thought to the layout or perhaps the "curator" never received any formal training. There seemed to be a number of repetitive exhibits throughout the museum and the layout and flow was rather confusing. At one point I had gotten totally lost and couldn't figure out if I had been in this room before. I then went to Find the rest of the group and I found myself in a completely different part of the museum which I may have missed if I were by myself. Maybe over time this museum will be refined or redesigned. The exhibits are worth while as they are it just doesn't have a coherent flow.

Well it was getting late and we needed to have dinner. The Sony Center is located in east Berlin neighborhood of Potzdammer Platz. It is a very new area which contains an outdoor mall/entertainment center. We decided to head over there for dinner. We ended up at the Hofbräuhaus which was an excellent choice. We tried some "authentic" authentic German chain restaurant food and had 1 liter beers. We even got a pin for ordering the "medium" size. Of course I immediately regretted not ordering the large, only because I wondered what bauble I missed out on. Alas after a liter of beer I was not ready to have any more. So after a very long day we headed back to the apartment. For another viewpoint to this days activites check out Troy's Blog.

Berlin Part 1

I created this image from one of my Berlin Pictures. What is amazing is the guy on the bench isn't even visible in the original jpeg. I really liked the way this turned out.

Now onto the Adventure.... We loaded up the family wagon and headed to Newark Airport to get our cheap flights to Berlin. The trip had been a few months in the making. Troy and Christa had heard through the grapevine that cheap tickets were available to fly directly from Newark to Berlin and it just so happened that Christa's cousin was going to be in Berlin too so it seemed like a really good idea to go. We started by looking into places to stay in Berlin.

Shortly after Kate was added to the attendee list and the total traveling group would be 5. I quickly realized that we would need at least 2 hotel rooms and that the cost of such an endeavor would we rather high. I, at some point, stumbled on a business week article regarding renting vacation apartments. I realized that if the cost was right then this would probably be cheaper than 2 rooms for a week. A bonus is that we would have we would have more room and a kitchen to cook if we wanted. So we settled on a site and an apartment we were all set of our trip.

Back to traveling day.... Which was pretty uneventful we made it to the airport with time to spare. I had never been to Newark before and quickly realized why the flights out of there were so cheap. You have to drive half of the way to your final destination just to get to the long term parking lot! Well obviously not really but you get off the highway south of the airport and have to drive around the entire airport to get to long term parking. When you finally get to long term parking lot you are almost right next to the exit ramp. So we check-in eat and board the plane. Land in Berlin after a fairly long flight.

Upon exiting the airport our adventure begins. Problem 1.... none of us speak German. Problem 2.... it is really hard to fit 5 people in a regular cab (4 would fit without luggage). So we wander over to the taxi island and stand around like silly Americans not really knowing what the correct way to hale a cab, and not really seeing a cab that could accommodate our party. After a few minutes a van drops some people off and we manage to flag him down. The good news for the cab driver is that he got to circumvent the taxi line which was full of smaller cars. We get in and get to the apartment very quickly.

Now I will admit that this was my first experience renting an apartment and I was a little stressed about being the one responsible for booking the apartment. We also had to pay cash when we got there. I have visions of us walking into a dirty dingy apartment that looked nothing like the pictures on-line and finding the landlord to be some smarmy guy who was going to demand the full rent plus a few fees for things like running water. But all of my fears were assuaged when we arrived at the apartment. First off it was right on the Spree and the neighborhood was wonderful. Full of residential flats with restaurants and shops at street level.

We rung the bell and the owner answered right away. Then came my first surprise. I had assumed that there would be no elevator and I knew we were on a high floor. I was prepared to make a few trips up and down with the luggage. But right in the lobby was a small elevator which let us get to the top without effort.

We got the the apartment and the place was amazing.

A breif commericial intruption.... if you are looking for an apartment in Berlin check out this place. I'm not getting any money for this ad. But the apartment is great and the owner is very nice.

It was 2 bedrooms with a living room/bedroom a dining room and a kitchen. Plus the view from the balcony was just as advertised! It was truly an amazing place. The owner was very friendly and lived right upstairs so we would be close should we need anything. We quickly got settled in and started to plan our first day out. We knew from advise and experience that taking a nap now (even though it was like 4 or 5 AM back home) would be a bad idea. We we headed out. Our first stop was shopping for breakfast food. Upon our return we decided to take the bus to the Hard Rock Cafe to ease into the German cuisine and get our required souvenirs The bus rid was a great way to see the city. The one down side to traveling by subway is that you get no relation to where this are. The buss allowed us to get a good introduction to the city and allowed is to view some places that interested us.

We made it the the HRC for lunch and some shopping. Then walked around a bit. We had plans to meet Christa's cousin for dinner so we wanted to make sure we got back and dropped our stuff off at the apartment and cleaned up. We had been up for almost 24 hours now and we were deffinalty feeling it. We left the apartment for a 3rd time to locate Christa's cousin at their apartment. It was actually fairly easy to find them. We were already getting fairly good at navigating the public transit system. We hung out with Maria and Colin for a while then headed to this African restaurant Masai. I wouldn't call myself and adventurous eater, but I am willing to at least go to strange restaurants and try and find something. I was not disappointed here. I think I ordered chicken (they did have Ostrich and some other beasties that sounded tempting, but I chickened out (pun intended).

We then walked around the neighborhood (near Viktoria-Luise Platz) for a while. and learned a great deal from Colin and Maria who had been living in Berlin for a few month already. While walking around we toured a neighborhood project that probably isn't listed in any tour book. This neighborhood has posted on street lights a number of signs. The signs contain different laws that were passed by the Nazi party that restricted the rights of the Jewish people in the community. It was interesting and moving to stroll around the neighborhood and read some of the laws that were enacted.

We ended our evening in the Nollendorf Platz which Mary and I had a small connection to since we are theater people and the musical Cabaret takes place at least partially in this neighborhood. We sat out side on a perfectly marvelous evening and ate Ice Cream. It was getting late and we were all fading fast we made it back to our apartment and all fell quickly asleep. We planned to meet Colin and maria the next morning at a farmers market to walk around and see what there was to see.

Well it seems that I have only made it through the first day here and were in Berlin for an entire week! I guess I will have a lot for writing to do and you fellow reader will have a lot of reading :-) Fortunately while the next few days were exciting to us, they consisted of mainly touristy things so I won't need to provide much detail.