Fairly Symmetrical

So yes, we vacationed in Virginia for a week. We had a really good time, especially in Williamsburg. JetBlue caused us no end of problems, including losing our suitcase (I wish I'd taken a photo of all the Transfer tags on it when it finally came back, because it was impressive), but I'll not dwell on that.

Virginia was beautiful, it really drove home how much different the flora is from Central Texas. Austin is a fairly well-treed Texas city, but the ones here are scrubby little poseurs next to the woods they have in more temperate climes. Cooler weather was a lovely surprise, too, although if you want to know what the single best change was in my opinion? The lack of mosquitos. Oh, I'm sure there were a few, but I am not kidding when I say that spending thirty seconds in our backyard right now will result in no less than four mosquito bites. I've seen flocks, I kid you not.

On the plus side, all that rain has produced a very impressive cucumber vine and some massive tomato plants. Here's hoping they fruit before Texas succumbs to drought and everything dies again.

Williamsburg was really cool, it was very effective in making me more interested in revolutionary America. Jamestown (particularly the glassmaker) and Yorktown were fun too, but to be honest I could have passed on Busch Gardens.

I know I keep saying this, but Ollie is changing so fast. Since we left for Virginia he has started rolling over really easily, sitting up, eating solid food for real (applesauce and peaches are big hits; bananas are as well, but they're off-limits after he had a reaction to one), laughing all the time at just about anything, learning to love swimming (and splashing), and moving ever closer to talking. We're kind of halfheartedly doing baby signing, although to be honest I think it's an open question whether he signs "food" or says it out loud first.

There are, of course, a boatload of new pictures (more than 100, a new vacation record for me) and two new videos in the gallery.

Work is good. My team's current task list has them scheduled until at least the end of 2008, and there's always more to do, so no worries there. In fact, our R&D department, and our management, are emphasizing some things that will have my team at the very forefront of the company's long-term strategy, which is exciting.

Lindsay asked me recently if it was frustrating to be selling software now that I already know is obsolete. In some ways it's an interesting question, because it's not a question one programmer asks another; it's kind of a given. In other ways it's a really interesting question, because it's kind of the central fact of my professional life. Yes, it is frustrating. I know our customers could really use everything we're working on. In fact, some of the stuff I worked on in the last two weeks, I wish I could just give our customers, because it's so much better than what we're selling now. On the other hand, that does give them a reason to pay those software update fees, which keeps my dogs, cat, and baby in kibble, and they do like that. ;)

Anyway, for those of you who want a better insight into what it's like to write software, you might try looking at the book Dreaming in Code. Or you can buy me a beer and ask me questions, but then, Lindsay's flying off to Australia next week, so I guess she hasn't got that option. :-P

Being captain of my hockey team is so far a lot of fun. I tried to pick a team that just wanted to have a good time and play some good hockey, and it's by far the best locker room I've been in. Not a bad team, either, even if we are 1-2, but I'm certainly having a good time. :)

(The title of the entry comes from a set of clothing Ollie has; it's pretty apropos considering this trip, our upcoming trip to Williamsburg, the trip to New Orleans after that, and possibly a trip to Baltimore in October.)

I have to admit, I was a little trepidatious about taking a four-month-old on a six-hour plane trip. He's got his schedule, and lately he's gotten to the point where he's interested enough in things that unless the room is dark and quiet, he has a lot of trouble falling asleep, but he still needs a nap every three-four hours or he gets pretty unhappy.

The trip started out the way they always do: our flight from Austin to Houston was delayed long enough that it would have been faster to drive to Houston and start there. Still, Ollie took a bit of a nap before we got on the plane and he didn't seem to mind the ear pressure as we ascended, which was a nice surprise. And of course on a plane there's always people to look at, talk to, make faces at, etc, so that helped. But overall Ollie was an angel; even though we had to detour around a storm in northern Texas, which meant we didn't land in Louisville until after 9 PM (our time), and he was clearly exhausted, he was obviously trying very hard to be happy and cheerful and friendly. There was very little crying. He's such a great baby and a hard worker. Of course, he slept terribly that first night; he slept maybe an hour, and then he was basically awake until 4 AM (mostly with Jenny; I'm a bad husband) and then slept until maybe 8.

Yesterday was better though, he got more regular naps, which always helps. We went out to my parents' house and he met my dad, my brothers, and my maternal grandmother. He really seemed to enjoy it, smiles all around except for a brief tired/fussy period in the middle. As expected, my dad managed to make him laugh as we were getting ready to leave because it was close to bedtime and he was fussy/tired. :) He went to bed readily enough, but traveling seems to have thrown him a bit (or maybe he was still tired from Tuesday); he woke up every 2 hours. Still, it's better than nothing and I can live with that schedule for a while if necessary. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to record for the world that my baby is a world-class traveler and incredibly outgoing, and I'm really proud of him. :)

So now that I've had a few days to decompress from our whirlwind tour of New York ;), here's the post I promised.

We flew into JFK on JetBlue, which just recently started flying to Austin. As far as flying goes, it wasn't bad; I'm not really a fan of leather seats (true even before I became a vegetarian), and for some reason the air vents (in both directions) blew warm air rather than cool for much of the flight, but other than that I was pretty happy. The XM radio wasn't much of a draw for me; there weren't really any channels I liked, and with my Zen on hand I just did a quick scan and turned it off. The free DirecTV service, on the other hand, was pretty cool. The flight itself was quick (we got in to JFK right on time, and we arrived back in Austin 30 minutes early), everyone was courteous, and the snack variety was excellent. I'd definitely fly them again.

We flew into the city with a really ambitious plan for the night; we'd arrive, grab a SuperShuttle to our hotel in Manhattan, go to an amazing fromagerie for dinner, then catch an off-off-Broadway show before crashing for the night. Like I said, ambitious. Unfortunately, Fiona and Simon got held up in customs for two hours, so we missed dinner--but we did make the show. Barely. Fortunately we ended up at the restaurant the next day for lunch, and it was really, really, really yummy. Definitely give it a try if you're in Manhattan.

Our hotel was really conveniently located--the Chelsea Star Hotel, at 30th Street and 8th Ave. One block from Madison Square Gardens, near Times Square, Broadway, etc. So the rest of the second day we spent walking around Manhattan; we checked out the Art Gallery district (which appears to be largely closed except on Saturdays or by appointment), walked through Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and up Broadway. Then we picked up a rental car, checked out of the hotel, and headed out of the city. Fortunately our hotel was only about a half dozen blocks from the Lincoln Tunnel, so I didn't have to deal with all that much traffic. Although, to be honest, in many ways driving in NYC was less annoying than driving rush hour in Austin. :-P Sure, lane divider lines appear to be invisible to the average NY driver, and there's all kinds of crazy jockeying for position, but the traffic moved much better than it often does here. (Of course, we missed rush hour in NYC, so that might have something to do with it.)

So out of the city, to a timeshare in the Pocono Mountains, where we met up with Jen's family and my family. The next few days were very "resort"-y: golf, tennis, late-night poker games, etc. Some of us went white-water rafting (kind of a misnomer; the river was running more slowly than the Guadalupe here in Texas, and we went down that with margaritas and inner tubes), some visited a historic farm, we went shopping in small towns, etc. Jen, Fiona and I visited Jim Thorpe, PA, where the Asa Parker Mansion is. Asa Parker was, at the time of his death, the second richest man in the US (worth $54 million in 1870 dollars--better than $4.3 billion today, IIRC), and his 11,000-square-foot house (built for $14,000 with an $85,000 renovation a few years later) is incredibly cool. His daughter died in 1912 and deeded the house and all its contents to the borough of Jim Thorpe, which didn't know what to do with it and so locked it up for 44 years. It's in near-perfect shape; everything is original to the house, no reproductions. Among the coolest things in the house is an automated orchestral, essentially an early jukebox. Paper tubes with punched holes store the music, which is then played by several automated instruments. All with 1860's-era technology. There are actually only 2 left in North America, and the Smithsonian has the other--but theirs doesn't work. The Asa Parker one does, and is played for every tour that comes through the house. (It's all polka music, but neat in any case.) The woodworking in the house is incredible as well--apparently they spent about $75,000 of the $85,000 renovation on carpenters.

We came back to NYC for 3 more days with everyone (Fiona and Simon left Saturday midday, our families left early Sunday morning). Much more walking about Manhattan. In one day we walked from our hotel, through the Fashion District, all the way up to Central Park, with stops in lots of stores (including Tiffany's and FAO Schwartz). It was exhausting. :) The other two days we used the subway more, since 60+ blocks (one way) tends to punish the feet a bit. We saw a Broadway show (Avenue Q, which was completely hilarious), ate at famous restaurants, and generally had a good time. (Chinatown was a bit meh, though.) One day we got up very early, headed up to Central Park (a great place to go on a summer morning, to see all the dogs playing and enjoy the relative lack of crowd), hit up an Upper East Side bakery (Le Pain Quotidien--I highly recommend their Belgian Waffles) for breakfast, and then did museums. We all visited the Metropolitan, which was overwhelmingly huge but very cool. Some of us went to the Natural History Musem, but I went to MOMA with Jen, Fiona, Ryan, Katie, and my dad. MOMA was a lot smaller than I expected, although it did have a very cool photo of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. (We would have liked to get to the NYC World's Fair remnants, which we saw on the way from/to the airport, but there just wasn't time.) The thing about the MOMA is that, especially in the Design area, they don't give much explanation or background; sure, there's a ball bearing in there, as well as a cellphone, but no indication of why these things are selected over others. Anyway, it was an interesting visit. On the way out of the MOMA we stopped in at the branch of the NY Public Library across the street, which has the original stuffed Winnie the Pooh and friends.

Our last night we went to a bar overlooking the Columbus Circle (next to Trump Tower), where we got to watch the sun go down over Manhattan. Kind of a fitting end, I guess. ;)

My lasting impression of Manhattan is that it is overwhelmingly vertical. I've been in other large cities, including Chicago and London, and they're nowhere near as purely tall. Obviously that derives from the limited space to spread out, but it's hard to get away from mentally. The other thing to notice is how crowded it is. I'm not really a big fan of crowds and noise, and NYC has limitless amounts of both. Our first stay in the city, we were in rooms right on the street, and the city was so loud it sounded as if the windows were open all night.

It was fun to see all these places I knew of or had seen on TV, though; all the Project Runway locations, for instance. (And Wednesday's episode had them going to Tavern on the Green, which we visited our last day--random but neat.) So all in all it was a good trip, I think, although I was more than glad to get home to the pets and our own space. :)

So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 8 (Debarkation at Galveston)

Jenny and I arise at 6:30, since debarkation begins about 7 and we are anxious to be off. We again need to hurry on account of Dog Boys, since they close at 2pm. Unfortunately, we don't actually debark until 10:30 (lesson: always sign up for Express Walk-Off unless your legs are actually broken), and there is construction (meaning bad traffic) in Houston, which puts us near Dog Boys at 3pm. We have called ahead to make sure someone will be there at 3, so this is OK. Unfortunately Eric takes several wrong turns on the twisty, identical, unlabeled streets leading to Dog Boys (entirely due to a lack of preparation), which puts us at Dog Boys at 3:30 due entirely to the intervention of a saintly Lutheran Good Samaritan. Nonetheless, they kindly allow us to pick up our dogs, who dash out to see us, climb in the back seat of the car, and pass out for about 6 hours (as they do every time they come home from the Ranch).

This is where the week turns tragic. We arrive home, tired and in need of a bathroom break, only to discover that our guinea pig Neil has some kind of terrible infection which has covered and inflamed his entire right eye. He had a sinus infection when we left, but we had left instructions with the pet sitter to take him to the vet immediately if he changed for the worse (and this is very much worse). Unfortunately it seems that the infection developed very rapidly, so the first anyone knows of it is when I greet Neil on arriving home. One emergency trip to the only open local vet later, we are given the news that the infection apparently backed up and exploded into his eye orbit, and that he is virtually certain to be permanently blind in that eye. Both of us feel completely terrible about this, although Neil himself is taking it like a trooper (good appetite and energy, and he was purring when we cuddled him, glad to see us). We're going to make sure he has the best possible care, of course, but both of us feel like if we'd just been here we could have caught it in time to save his sight in that eye.

Not really much to say after that; we've called everywhere in and out of town (including specialists at Texas A&M) and we're just going to have to see what happens. Wish Neil luck, he's a plucky little guy but he's going to need it.

So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 6 (Cozumel)

Despite the fact that Cozumel is merely 9 miles away from Playa Del Carmen, across an open strait of water, it took us all night (5pm til 7am) to get from the latter to the former. I am not kidding. Scuttlebutt (okay, I eavesdropped) on the ship was that the delay was so that they could open the casino, shops, and bars, which they could only do in international waters. Indirect support for this is provided by our route, which was roughly 100 miles straight out into the Carribbean, a U-turn, and 91 miles straight back along the opposite heading. :-P

Cozumel was, a year ago, a tourist trap on par with Playa Del Carmen. Unfortunately, Wilma seems to have played the part of abusive spouse for Cozumel while leaving PDC largely untouched (at least as far as I was able to tell). The pier--steel-reinforced concrete--had been torn up for nearly its entire length, and there were no untouched trees I saw. Cozumel itself was a reprise of PDC, including the silver shops, though today we found a very pretty necklace that, while it does not match Jenny's imaginary specifications, is still attractive enough to make a dashing birthday present (largely to herself, as she haggled for it).

Our excursion for today was snorkeling; we put on borrowed snorkel masks, fins, and live preservers, and waded out into the painfully blue sea. It really was beautiful, which fails to explain the remarkably grumpy-looking white fish (with a furrowed gray brow) Jenny and I saw. Sadly, I neglected to purchase a waterproof camera, so there are no photos of that. The water was a tad bit cold for long exposure (wetsuits would have been nice), so after 45 minutes or so we hightailed it back to shore, but I did enjoy it (after I learned not to panic when breathing with my head under water ;). Next time perhaps we will snorkel something more exciting (we were scheduled to do a reef/wreck snorkel in canceled Grand Cayman).

Dinner tonight was ravioli and a sadly disappointing spinach flan (I know Jenny was looking forward to the flan). Tomorrow we have demanded a custom entree in observance of Jenny's birthday.

So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 4 (Belize)

Jenny and I took our first steps away from dependence on the cruise line today; we got off the boat without a shore excursion planned, but hired a local tour company to take us to the Community Baboon Sanctuary (CBS) outside Belize City. They're not, of course, actual baboons (which only live in Africa and Asia), but black Howler Monkeys, the local slang term for which is baboon. Our tour guide for the day was Reggie, who was dare I say waxed loquacious on all things Belizean. Among other tidbits, he told us that a Texan named (of course) Tex had purchased an entire island just off the coast. Islands in Belize are surprisingly affordable for Americans (in the neighborhood of $250,000--sans house, of course). Tex is apparently a "nice guy", since he allows the locals to use his beach for barbeques, provided they clean up after themselves. We heard about another Texan (not named Tex; that would be too confusing) who owned a truly huge mansion. Of course, it wasn't a patch on the American Embassy in Belize, which spans (I am not kidding) roughly six city blocks, all dutifully flying the Stars and Stripes.

Anyway, as I said, Reggie had been engaged to ferry us to the CBS and back, which he did, after a semi-thorough tour of what he called "uppity-town" (the wealthy section, approximately 90% of whose inhabitants were expatriate Americans). :) Reggie was a delight of a tour guide and an informative way to spend several hours.

The CBS itself was very interesting. Despite only being about 18 inches tall and weighing maybe 40 pounds, howler monkeys are quite intimidating. The little black forms 30 feet up in the trees were making sounds that could be heard a mile away, and standing right under them is somewhat nerve-wracking, although we were assured they weren't aggressive towards humans. We saw several other interesting things on the trip, including a roughly millenium-old palm tree, a fern-like plant that "goes to sleep" when you touch it (folds up its leaves), and the opportunity to try cashew wine. Apparently the cashew is actually a fruit; the nut we generally eat is a single seed that, unusually for fruit, grows outside the fruit itself. They make wine from the fruit in Belize; I wanted to try it, but Jen wasn't game, so we passed.

All in all we both really liked Belize; it's actually not that far from Texas (2 days' drive, give or take), so we could go back if we wanted. Definitely a worthwhile stop.

Tonight was the night of the Maitre d'Hotel's wine tasting. While the Maitre D was in attendance, most of the talking was by various waiters; the best of whom ended up somehow talking into his wine glass and testing the aroma of his microphone, much to everyone's amusement. The only wine we particularly liked was something called a meritage, which was really quite tasty. Plus, Luigi (one of the head waiters, from Italy) hand-made us some very wonderful pasta in a spicy tomato-garlic sauce, and I'm a sucker for anything involving both garlic and capsaicin. ;)

Dinner was our second formal night (the first Jen and I attended, having skipped Pojarski night), so I wore my suit and Jen wore her Valentine's dress (in which she is dazzling, let me assure you). I have no recollection of what we ate, she's that distracting. ;)

So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 2 (At Sea)

So since Jenny's birthday was going to occur while we were on the ship, I had previously contacted Princess to discuss a special dinner. The CSR I spoke with was very confident that this would be easily arranged. It was not. The first response I got was that Princess' vendors "could not procure" the items we had requested. The second response I got (after I modified my request) was that we should talk to the Maitre d'Hotel once onboard and he would "be happy to accommodate any request". Fine, no problem. In fact, we actually had two reasons to talk to the fellow, because the menu for that night (posted every morning, or available the night before on request) indicated that the vegetarian entree was something called "Vegetable Pojarski". Vegetable Pojarski is an (apparently) Polish invention which consists of squished up, mushy vegetables. I am not kidding. In this particular case the Pojarski was to be shaped into "cutlets" and pan-fried. Now, I recognize that Jenny and I are foodies, but mushed-up vegetable bits are something I expect to serve a newborn baby, not actual adults. So--off to see the Maitre D.

I use that phrase advisedly, as for several days we were convinced that the Maitre D, like the Wizard of Oz, did not actually exist. Our first try was the ship's phone directory. No entry. Next we tried the Purser's Desk. They told us to go to the dining room and ask for him. So, being literal people, we did. We were directed to a head waiter, who assured us that the Pojarski was "very good". We remained skeptical, but the head waiter claimed he had never heard of any such creature as a Maitre d'Hotel (I'm sorry, what was that? It sounds French, doesn't it?), but that the Pojarski was in fact wonderful. (He was, not surprisingly, not a vegetarian. One of the waitresses was, but we never discovered her views on Pojarski.)

Of course, a cruise ship offers a number of ways to acquire calories. So we avoided the dining room that night in favor of the fast food in the forward pool deck. Now, in the interest of fairness, I should point out that in order to efficiently use limited resources, the ship's kitchen will reuse a lot of items. One night you'll see asparagus soup, in addition to several asparagus sides, etc etc. So it wasn't entirely a surprise when Jenny and I had so-called "veggie burgers", which turned out to be Pojarski on a bun. I assure you, it was entirely unappetizing. Even on a bun with lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup, and mustard. The fries were good, though.

Jenny and I also attended a wine tasting, at which we were invited to partake in a "much more expensiveexclusive" wine tasting, hosted by none other than the Maitre d'Hotel. We speculated on whether this would prove to be a waiter in a tux. We did, of course, decide to attend (who could resist?). We didn't like any of the wines in this first tasting. :-P