In Memoriam Mae Noblitt - A R Ammons

When you want something holistic to put life in perspective as things get rough. And you have a scientific bent. Go to A R Ammons.

In Memoriam Mae Noblitt

This is just a place:
we go around, distanced,
yearly in a star's

atmosphere, turning
daily into and out of
direct light and

slanting through the
quadrant seasons: deep
space begins at our

heels, nearly rousing
us loose: we look up
or out so high, sight's

silk almost draws us away:
this is just a place:
currents worry themselves

coiled and free in airs
and oceans: water picks
up mineral shadow and

plasm into billions of
designs, frames: trees,
grains, bacteria: but

is love a reality we
made here ourselves--
and grief--did we design

that--or do these,
like currents, whine
in and out among us merely

as we arrive and go:
this is just a place:
the reality we agree with,

that agrees with us,
outbounding this, arrives
to touch, joining with

us from far away:
our home which defines
us is elsewhere but not

so far away we have
forgotten it:
this is just a place.

A. R. Ammons

DOSTOEVSKI SAID MAN

DOSTOEVSKI SAID MAN

1.
Dostoevski said man
is unhappy because he doesn't know

he is happy. What I am is
so real it dies on my tongue.

2.
If I loved you I
would say no if you loved

me you would not let me
say it.

3.
Everything you say is cruel
and bitter glory in my mouth.

4.
There is no disease for this cure,
I tell you what is

on my lips and what I know
it is too soon to know but

something is
falling from me like rain in sunlight.

- Peter Klappert

The Dropkick Slurpies

The cousins came for Thanksgiving and we had a band all of a sudden.

What sports I am going to try and watch this long weekend

Wednesday November 25th:

Nothing?! Well, some college ball will be on and I'll watch it. Maybe this is the night for the Charlie Brown special. Maybe catch the Dookies being beat.

Thursday November 26th:

Yes, I'll catch the NFL, but there is not much to cheer for. Green Bay at 12:30 root for them for tradition's sake.

At 4: root against the Cowboys or Raiders? This shall be when dinner is! Or college basketball.

At 8: Go Broncos! Actually, I'll be watching Texas A&M and rooting for them tilting at windmills.

At 4 I should catch Clemson in basketball. And flipping later to the top 20 matchup of Minnesota and Baylor.

Friday November 27th:

Oh yes, the buffet commences. After going out to cut down our Christmas tree (yes, we are doing this Friday!!) I am going with a wood fire and...

at 2:30 College football, WAR EAGLE! No. 2 Alabama at Auburn
I'll want to catch some Nebraska (our great opponent) at 330
at 7:30 Pitt (booo) at West Virginia (triple boooooooo)

but, most important, we have VT vs. Temple in hoops at 8!! The stove will have the room at 90 by then so Nelson and I can jump around in our VT bball shorts.

Saturday November 28th:

VT has a 6:15 basketball game against Deleware that I'll watch if televised and assuming the UVA matchup is a blow out. But Saturday is built for football, college football:

Noon- I have to watch Clemson beat old man Spurrier.
3:30 The Hokies march toward yet another 10 win season
I'll have to flip to see F$U pull the upset on the annointed ones.
8:00 - rooting for Georgia Tech (grumble) to beat them dogs.
10:30 if I am still alive- NAVY!

Sunday is rehab and dancing and ignoring my fantasy football team.

Jamming with Aran and Nelson

I promise to have more like this soon. Grandpa Nelson came by on the way from seeing his very ill father and we got to have an impromptu jam session.

A Note about my Name

Well I just don't do blog posts anymore do I? I'm also hopelessly behind on my video editing and producing.

So, the nickname DougHed? From Quake in the clan days. I was DougHed in the No Pants clan. We were killers and I still have flashbacks. Sometimes my kids find me whispering "BFG 9000".

- Don't bring a shotgun to a rocket launcher fight.

I love this picture

Phyllis doesn't, but I do.

From

She loves this one, which I do too:

From Paris 2008

Sometimes love

Sometimes love
Can be as simple
as finding your daughter’s mouse dead in its cage
And burying it
While she’s out of town

Sometimes love can be as simple as a dog
Touching his cheeks as he turns his
Large white head to your hand

Sometimes love can be easy as making your son’s bed
Or smelling his washed head or holding
His hermit crab while giving it water

(For my sake, realize the mouse was old
And she knew
And had picked a place out to bury
Her, dear Silver)

Sometimes love is crying over those you’ve lost
In war, and in tragedy

And in nothing but peace, like flurries by the tarmac
Sometimes love can be not killing a man
You know deserves to die
Or hunting
For food for a family
Hungry in an Appalachian winter
And making a quick and merciful kill

And sometimes love is sitting
On the memorial benches
Among the dead outside
The Pentagon with pictures
Of your friends
With pictures of them smiling
With pictures before
They were a bench

And sometimes love can be the last story
Before bed
Or describing constellations
To your children
you hope will live so far into the future
And live such good lives into that dim
Horizon

Cloud Computing: Show me the money panel

Well ok then, this sounds just a tad bit more like marketing or how you actually make money doing this stuff? Goodness knows I need lessons in that.

A knowledgeable friend tells me that SOA is fast dying.. great, we are just getting into SOA for a client, but.. anyway.. he says the near future is all about the Cloud. So, here I am.

Rags, the speaker (really) is saying- Cloud computing is replacing SOA and web services. “Cloud computing- everyone says they are doing it, but are not sure what it is and they are in fact lying.”

First up: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

Ok, this wasn’t actually a demo of Amazon, but actually the amazon guy’s little traffic map application and I had no idea that going to one site, grabbing images (maps in this case) taking a snapshot and storing them locally and maybe doing a little manipulation. So, everything I do is now categorized as CLOUD Computing. I declare JPI experts on cloud computing and we will be talking at future conferences.

Sales Force guy is reinforcing this impression- grabbing sales data, crunching it, producing a map. That’s cloud computing.

FACT: I do not think they are right. But they are interesting.

The Enterprise Integration Patterns guy is talking: he’s doing a servlet for us. Oh, he writes the little app and puts it INTO the cloud. The cloud part is the ASP where you can put your app out there. Well, that’s pretty cool.

The Intuit presentation was much better- a little applet on the cloud that goes out and grabs client data from various sources to build them a billing record. That’s very useful and made much more sense. Reach out, grab a few fields here, a few fields there, and some other fields over here, pop into a nice AJAX front end and voila, a great little app.

The Microsoft guy is up next and his prime number checker app just died a horrible death. He blamed JSP and we moved on. Poor MS guy.

Wrapping up the day

Tired!

SOA at Enterprise Scale: Solving Real Challenges with GlassFish ESB

Whoah, this was a snoozer. Off to air hockey.


Coding REST and SOAP Together

Two guys from Prague. I think REST stands for Milan Kundera Potato Farmer. I could be wrong. I’m just surprised they threw one vowel in there.

What’s new in Groovy 1.6?

This should be fun- it’s all new because I have no idea what Groovy is.

I assume it is this: http://groovy.codehaus.org/

This is one of the talks I signed up to get outside of my box.. literally I have been mainly staying in a box here.

Well, it’s got BigDecimal arithmetic. Don’t underestimate the importance of things like this!

Fascinating- three examples of “Hello World” in Groovy. I’m lost. I’m not sure how many of my clients want something that says “Hello World!” and responds “Hello Groovy”.

Wait- I am sure. 0.

http://Groovyconsole.appspot.com

AJAX Performance Tuning

Ahh... this was a good talk...

Here’s some meat and potatoes for me.

Optimization Strategies: scale down your development environment- both your client and your server, because users invariably have lower quality than developers; browser incompatibilities should be researched early; do performance testing as well as usability- start with single users, then go to multi users; use tools to test; QA last, then ship.

FUN FACT: These strategies mostly go back well into the 1970s, but don't tell anyone I know that.

Good AJAX design separates content (HTML, XML, XHTML) from CSS from script. That’s each goes in its own file folks.


De-reference unused objects:
Var foo = ‘blah’: // then do something
Delete foo;


Setup vars for your declensions. This goes WAY back in coding history:

This is bad
divs[i].style.color = white
divs[i].style.alignment = right
divs[i].style.blah = blah

This is good:
Ds = divs[i].style
Ds.color = white
Ds.alignment = right

And so on. Simple.


To do with pages: Put style sheets at top. Put script calls at bottom. We’re going to try this.

Rethinking ESB

Oh boy, this speaker is not what I’d call engaging. Not good for first class of the day.
I mainly care about ESB for grabbing a single “thing” off the shelf and plugging it into much larger/broader applications we build.

This talk- focus on the API being simple, easy to learn, snap in, snap out. All great ideas, until you really need the bean to do something complex, e.g. plot a complex set of S-Curves for value management of a capital construction project, then a whole set of them. Sorry, I’m being snotty, but that’s the sort of real world stuff we run into and that API cannot be simple.

Here’s a nice point: when doing complex graphical output, give an option to view the data. I may have to run that by the line of business for their graphs. We sort of do this already! Yay.


Don’t wrap your business logic in code. Well, duh. Actually, I need to be careful here, having done that. But no longer! So, lesson to you- don’t wrap your business logic in code.

FACT: There will always be bugs (they said it, not me). So, be careful with your patch management.

FUN FACT (from Doug): Bugs are what happens when life is what happens when you are waiting around for something great to happen.

AJAX vs. Java

This seemed like a pretty useful discussion, but the presentation and content was fairly tortured. They tried to make it all entertaining, but I wanted to see some of the functional work done to deliver useful data to users.

So, here’s the take away- Java is much faster these days. Well, we knew that- remember 1.0? 2.0? Complete pigs and made up the popular phrase “Java- write once, run slow everywhere” or “debug everywhere”.

FUN FACT: Ajax and graphic rendering, even in 3D is still faster than Java, once you have the images to the user- especially in chrome (in IE, not so much).

The biggest wins for client side java these days seems to be its thread less nature (a very important, but singular issue) and it’s use in smaller devices (which is a much bigger issue as this is where the world is going). And by smaller devices, I should throw in giant TVs that are now including MIPS chips like LGs new LCDs. Why? Movies, games, anything on demand.

REALLY FUN FACT: Blackberry is head to toe java. You can’t do that with AJAX (duh) and it is the largest user base hands down. Blackberry doesn’t do anything crazy like working with only one carrier (ahem, iPhone) but with 400 of them. Dayum.

So, yeah, Java is great, but doing rich UIs like google wave, inotes R8.5 and other things with AJAX is still the best choice. Marry it up with a push method, like comet, and then you have everything you need.

Thoughts on fund raising

I volunteer for a local charity and, not surprisingly, donations are in the tank this year. They've asked for social events ideas and I have always thought a casino night(s) would be great for raising money and getting a younger crowd into the charity. I've also thought about regular Texas Hold'em tournaments.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences, suggestions, etc. for this sort of thing. I have never put together a casino night and I am daunted by how much work might go into it. Poker tourneys, however, I've done and they are very easy to organize.

AJAX and JSON

Ok, I can tell already this one is a little too basic for me. The basic idea is that AJAX is DHTML with XML. We’ve been doing the latter for ten years and the former since it first came out. Though I can use the brush up on current JSON.

Very useful things, that are new to me:

• Jsoneditor.net -- As the name says, an easy and rich editor.
• Jsoneditor.appspot.com -- same as above with neat features
• JS Loader - http://www.jsloader.com/ -- load libs independent of platform and in order and with great confidence.

Sun Opening General Session

Well, this was refreshing. Compared to the whacky motivational speakers Lotus and IBM seem to prefer for their general sessions, Sun does it up with people doing the work and what they are working on and why it's cool.


FUN FACT: Last IBM conf. was Neil Armstrong- neat, but, um, he's not a programmer.


FACT: I already have Armstrong's autograph on my wall.


Down to some Java business. JavaFX will kill your DVR with a blunt object. DVRs will be around in ten years, but not for folks who like to order up their own content- much of it for free with commercials. TVs will just be another net appliance on your home Wifi, running whatever comes after N. Game consoles- you have 5 more years, maybe 7.


FUN FACT: Everyone in the AJAX talk has a laptop on and they just told us to turn off all electronics. Everyone just laughed.

FACT: Chicago Options market runs java applets on hand helds and the whole system logs 300,000 transactions per second peak. 300,000 transactions. Per. Second. Mind blowing.

Packed Community One sessions

And I post nothing. Oops!

Ok, other than some tips on AJAX, the best thing I saw was this:

http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/

And, yes, of course you can plop it into any Eclipse project you are working on:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/wa-dw-wa-pz-opensocial.html

FACT: linkedin uses open social, so does the GOOGLE.

What is ESB?

First off, I'm going to get an overview of Enterprise Service Bus:

Ok, introducing your talk with how much GlassFish is being googled and downloaded for 10 minutes- not so great.

GlassFish portfolio: Enterprise server, Web space server, web stack, OpenESB.

sun.com/glassfish

Well, this whole talk is much more sales than I expected and almost no OpenESB- which is what I wanted to hear. Maybe tomorrow's ROA talks will have more of the ESB stuff.

FUN FACT: If you are wondering, IBM Websphere does integrate with OpenESB- apparently quite well. Though I should not be typing that at a GlassFish talk.

FUN FACT: IBM has a robust federated ESB architecture. Not banging their drum, but it really is old hat for them:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/products/appintegration/esb/?ca=campaign=agus_itebffesb-20090428&me=psearch&met=google&re=ibm_esb&s_tact=usitk011&cm_mmc=campaign=agus_itebffesb-20090428-usitk011-_-k-_-google-_-ibm_esb


Background:

Sun GlassFish Enterprise Service Bus builds on top of the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Platform and OpenESB to provide an enterprise-quality enterprise service bus (ESB).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_service_bus

"There is some disagreement on whether an enterprise service bus is an architectural style, a software product, or a group of software products. While use of an ESB certainly implies adherence to a particular architecture, the term "enterprise service bus" is almost always used to denote the software infrastructure that enables such an architecture.

An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) brings flow-related concepts such as transformation and routing to a Service-Oriented Architecture. An ESB can also provide an abstraction for endpoints. This promotes flexibility in the transport layer and enables loose coupling and easy connection between services."

Blogging from Javaone

I'll try to post regular updates here.

FUN FACT Hadoop on apache- yahoo uses it to build 4,000 node clusters. Actually, they have 25,000 nodes in their cloud, but 4,000 is their operational cluster. All open source.

REALLY FUN FACT: they have AMD sponsored "Hang Zones" with video games, movies, bean bags, comfy chairs and even air hockey. Don't tell anyone I work with.

August 2, 2008 Part VIII

All things end, good or otherwise, and we wrap up our last day shopping in Paris and having lunch on Rue Cler. We had read about the Bon Marche, so we headed there. It is interesting, impressive, but ultimately uninteresting and crowded. On the top floor, however, Phyllis finds some wonderful needlepoint and all the presents we need to bring back to Gayle (Nana) and Aunt Sharon for taking the kids to camp for a week. If you must go, head up quickly away from the crowds, perfume and ridiculous fashion (ok, there were a few cool things we saw for bajillions of dollars). There are other smaller bookstores and shops nearby and we head to them before going off for lunch. Again, if you want a quieter place to stay in Paris, Rue Cler is the place to settle in. St. Germain de Pres is larger and also nice, but nothing compares to the Rue.

From Paris 2008

Our travel out I’m almost hesitant to mention. I saved a few dollars by routing us from Paris to Dusseldorf then to Atlanta and on to Roanoke. Don’t do this. Don’t go from one European country to another to connect then to fly back. Yes, yes, they have a “union”. That’s great, but that is not the United States. They dump you out on the tarmac and have you go back through security, if you can find it, check in to your next connection, go back through security and, running now, make your connection if you are lucky. We were not happy.

From Paris 2008

But we did make it home, harried and long suffering, but so glad to see everyone.
Some things I learned, knew, found useful:

• Paris can be very hot in the summer- maybe not quite as bad as Washington, DC or New York.
  
• People get concerned about wearing shorts to tourist sites in Paris. Pah, no issue. Wear them.
  
• As mom says, always take a slow boat down the river.
  
• The end of the Tour de France is a great show.
  
• Steak Frites, baby.
  
• Do it. Wait in the line. Go to the top of the tower.
  
• The Louvre is excellent, but there are many other fantastic art collections in Paris- Orsay, Chantilly and many we missed.
  
• For lunch- museum cafes; for dinner- the Marais; for sleep- Rue Cler.

August 1, 2008 Part VII

As with excitement about vacations, my notes start to run down and run thin as we near the end. We’ve gotten to the point where we are talking about the kids more than what we are going to do in the city, so it’s time to escape someplace away from the crowds and noise. We head for Gare du Norde then off to Chantilly. This 16th century castle is much smaller, much quieter and much more relaxing than Versaille. The castle was burnt down during the French revolution, but rebuilt in 1875–1881 by Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–1897) to the designs of Honore Daumet. The duke clearly loved his hounds and his house and it shows in his statues and private art collection.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

The Duke's dogs were a huge highlight for us.

From Paris 2008

The Duke's art collection was impressive and worth the trip.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

The Chateau is a long 2 km walk from the train station, but through a lovely park and quite nice with good weather. There is a hippodrome you can walk along behind rather than taking the long way down the road.


After returning to Paris, we head for Le Marais, the Jewish Quarter, for dinner. It turns out, five days later, we’ve found an area just down the way from where we are staying that is the best area for finding small, inexpensive and fun restaurants. And for our last two nights we wandered back to this fun neighborhood.

July 31, 2008 Part VI

It’s Phyllis’ birthday and we are headed for a full day at the Louvre. We slept in and had a large brunch with coffee that I can taste months later. All of the sidewalk cafes have a prix fixe breakfast and are well worth sitting for to start the day with people watching.

From Paris 2008

The Louvre is huge. Sure, you’ve read about it before- it is very, very, very large and you could spend three days in it and be lost and maybe forget to leave a trail and be wandering the halls well past your flight home. But you have to understand, that is all understatement. It is absolutely, magnificently, stupendously huge. And that’s the first floor.

From Paris 2008

My Favorite painting. Well, besides the Harem.


I’m a complete art novice and I’m sure I will get everything wrong- I’ll like the wrong pictures and think something priceless is a stupid piece of junk (I’m looking at you victory, yes you. Ugh. Snooze). But I absolutely love some of the pictures and even the Mona Lisa, which I am fairly sure other people know about. The Harem, Italy, Temptation of Jesus are all wonderful. The Raft is stunning. But I love the statues. I love to wander among them and photograph them. The detail and form the Greek and Roman artists used are quite stunning.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

So, you’ve taken your wife to Paris for a week without the kids, over her birthday, you had better make sure you’ve arranged a nice dinner on the day. And I had. I had researched and found a nice mix of French home cooking, just a little tiny bit upscale and raved about on Trip Advisor. So I had. And I had made reservations via email. An odd way to do it, but it seemed to work. The people at Aux Lionnaise seemed nice enough and setup the reservation no problem. Well, no problem until we showed up and saw that they are closed for the month of August, conveniently starting on July 27. Sure, they could have mentioned that in the email and pointed out that they would actually be CLOSED the day I made the reservation for, but, well, that wouldn’t be very French, would it? After apologizing profusely to Phyllis, we made for a corner and found a wonderful restaurant. I didn’t write down the name, but it is just on the corner down from a very rude and probably closed all year round Aux Lionnaise.

From Paris 2008

After dinner, we cabbed it out to the Eiffel Tower. It was a long wait to get all the way to the top- wait at the bottom to get a ticket, then wait at the 2nd level in a huge line to get to the top. There was a distant lightening storm as we waited to ascend that back lit clouds off to the north. The Eiffel Tower has an EU light show that started as we went up. At the top, the clouds continued to flash in sudden silhouettes. We had champagne at the top and toasted the 11th anniversary of Phyllis’ 29th birthday.

From Paris 2008

July 30, 2008 Part V

The heat is brutal and it is humid- we may as well be back in Virginia and not at 48.86 degrees north. 48.86? Yes, I like to be exact and know exactly how outraged I should be to be hot at this latitude. Home is 37.23 degrees north. We have hardly made good use of more than 10 degrees of northerly movement. The cheap apartment I’ve found in the “whore’s district” has no air conditioning. Why would it!? We’re at 48.86 degrees north and have no continental effect – Paris is regularly washed from the north and west by air chilled by the North Atlantic. That’s air coming straight down from Iceland!

From Paris 2008

Maybe the English have put up a fence or something. Maybe all the new wind farms are slowing down that cool air. Whatever it is, I vow to always ask for air conditioning in Paris in the summer from here on out, and to stay in someplace near rue Cler or St. Germain.

And we went to Versaille today, but, you know what? I’m going to give it a pass. It was nice, but also very easy to skip. Hot, crowded, so huge it is over the top and ultimately sad. And you can read about it anywhere- though you probably won’t read about me bumping into a university of Miami jerkoff who thinks Ron Mexico is still our QB. So, nice picnic there, but I’d never recommend going. At the end of this I’ll write about Chantilly- a wonderful outing from Paris.

From Paris 2008

But coming back from Versaille, we stop by the rue Cler. If you want the quieter, more settled Paris, you want rue Cler. It is a wonderful pedestrian street with outdoor cafes, fresh vegetables and seafood and it is so wonderfully quiet.

From Paris 2008

Oh, and just an FYI- don’t ever get sushi on the Grand Boulevards. For all I know, Paris is not a sushi city- and I base that on a visit to one restaurant. Want Sushi? Go to Osaka or Washington, DC.

July 29, 2008 Paris Journal Part IV

A good night’s sleep pays for the sins of enthusiastic travel- today we are up earlier and off to the old city! In the middle of the Seine that splits Paris into North and South, are the original islands of the original Roman settlement- Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint-Louis. Our first stop, after crossing Pont au Change and walking up the beautifully shaded Boulevard du Palais, is La Conciergerie. This is an old palace with the best gothic interior example in Paris. It later became a revolutionary jail.

Not that you can see it, but in my actual journal right here there is a nice red wine spill during the writing of the actual notes. Cote du Rhone, Chatalet. Nothing special I can remember, but I did write down the name. Now, I’m typing this on a computer from notes and memory months later, but the stain looks fabulous.

The most famous “visitor” to the jail La Conciergerie was Marie Antoinette. The gothic architecture was nice to see. The rest of it was incredibly depressing. Sure, high arches are fantastic, flying up to meet each other in odd points. But the small cells with hay on the floor and little else weren’t what I was interested in seeing in Paris.

From Paris 2008

Saint Chappelle

From Paris 2008

After La Conciergerie, we visited Saint Chappelle. The upper chapel is quite amazing, and I’m surprised so few hear about it before visiting. Notre Dame is bigger, but not nearly as spectacular in artistry. Pictures say much more than I ever could. A friend, Monika, told us we had to visit Saint Chappelle and we owe her dearly for that insistence.

From Paris 2008

Notre Dame was our next stop, but was extremely disappointing. First of all, it is free! We bought a 4 day museum pass and I was not happy to get something free! Ah, well. Ok, Notre Dame is big. And quiet. Hmm… interesting frescos, but I just liked Saint Chappelle so much more. The best part of Notre Dame is the outside- so many gargoyle rain spouts and flying buttresses.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

After the obligatory visit to Notre Dame, we crossed the bridge to Ile Saint-Louis. It was mid afternoon and that was a shame, since it would have been a delight to eat lunch here on the quiet and picturesque smaller island in the river. The best ice cream shop is on the main street on this tiny island, but it is open only Wednesday through Sunday, and we came on a Tuesday. A complete mess and many points lost for me.

From Paris 2008

Ile Saint Louis and Phyllis

From here we hopped back on the Batobus to go to the Louvre stop, then cross over to the Musee d’Orsay. It is a huge and newer museum that is a converted train station. The main hall, open for four or five stories, is a statuary on various open levels. We made our way upstairs for tea and a bite to eat before heading to the impressionists. Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is my favorite and astonishing in person. Another wing has the realists with “Whistler’s Mother”. I can only take that suicide inducing genre for a few minutes and I scamper away down the hall.
We meandered briefly through the Jardins du Luxembourg, just to see what it is like and to watch people. This is another beautiful and large park and garden with shaded lanes, ball fields, tennis courts and a central pond and fountain. As with some other places, at another time of day we would have spent much more time here.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

Steak Frites. You go to Paris, you like to eat at bars/cafes on the corner and watch the people, you are going to have to order steak frites perhaps many times. And we wind this day up somewhere in the 6th arrondisement, I think, sitting on a corner and eating steak frites, drinking bottled water and rose. It was a very hot and humid day- well into the high 80s and I’m wishing I had brought more t-shirts. As we end the day with our wine, the man with the ponies from Tuileries walks down the cobblestone street by our café.

July 28, 2008, Paris Journal Part III

Ah, to sleep past noon. I can’t remember doing that for more than 15 years, but I also have a very poor memory. We got out for a long walk to get all of the toxins we carried with us from too much travel, drink and jetlag. We headed due south form the apartment to the grounds of the Louvre. It was fairly hot, bright and humid. We perused the crowd and grounds and moved along to the Jardin des Tuileries. This long stretch of park reminds me of the mall in Washington DC, but with less regular sections of walk and grass. To the right side, coming from the Louvre, there is a large amusement park. Outrageously expensive, it’s still much less than a visit to Disney World or Busch Gardens- and you can just buy tickets for one or two rides. We had to, of course, ride the massive carousel. I would recommend this to anyone early in a trip to Paris to enjoy the sights.

From Paris 2008

The Jardin also had many free and open playgrounds back in tree covered cool nooks as well as pony rides (later in the trip we got to watch the ponies being walked back to their stable through the Parisian streets).

From Paris 2008

We wandered on past the 20 lanes of traffic at the Place de Concorde. We were getting hotter and just bumbling about, so we made it to a Tourist Information booth near Champs Elysees. There we bought the very useful 4 day museum pass to start using the next day. After that we hopped on the metro to wander aimlessly by the Eiffel Tower. Now, I thought it would be smart and quick to take the RER- train – that runs from Elysees to Eiffel, but that train sat in the heat with no air conditioning for 15 minutes. Huge mistake I should never live down.

The lesson there, I cannot stress too much, don’t take the RER point to point in the city. Some guidebook that would make good firewood might claim it is a good idea, but they lie. And that’s why they should be shoved into my woodstove and blogged about publicly. But I am above actually saying that Frommers recommended this idiotic course.

So, we wander on to the tower. Huge and imposing, this steel tribute to mathematics and the triangle seems to follow you down every little street in this arrondisement, and crowd you along the river front. And, below it, it contains a grand stage for all the tourists and vendors and even the odd gypsy women who come by to beg for money. But I’m getting a little big for my journal britches. Places like the tower are neat, and worth seeing, but the park just south of it is wonderful for laying down and watching people and taking a nap. While we didn’t manage to get a picnic, we did very much enjoy the park. We first found a wonderful side street café – I had salmon over rice that was perfect. Then we headed right back to that park for a nap.

From Paris 2008

From Paris 2008

There is a batobus just down from the tower on the river and we got a pass to use that- like a bus that follows the Seine and stops at all the highlights- Musee d’Orsey, Notre Dame, the Louvre, etc. While we didn’t need the four day pass, the batobus was a really nice, unique way to get around. The batobus got us some nice pictures and back to the Louvre. A late night cheese plate at café at the Opera metro to finish off the day.

From Paris 2008

Passing Notre Dame

From Paris 2008

Some advice from things I learned:

• Get some sort of transport pass, but only for a couple of days- maybe you are like me or different, but three days bugging around a city is plenty of time
  
• See Paris from the river- it is a must, must, must. An hour cruise is fine, but you must do it!
  
• Take a picnic of bread and cheese and wine to the Eiffel Tower
  
• Take the metro in the city, not the RER

July 27, 2008 , Paris Journal Part II

Ok, so you surprise your wife for her 40th birthday by taking her to Paris. Be sure you keep it a secret- only telling her two weeks before you go. Swear the kids to secrecy and watch amazed as they both actually keep it secret! Make all the arrangements… flight, a private car from the airport, coach class sure, but the airline club during layover through work so you can have wine and cheese, oh, and Paris, did you mention Paris? It’s Paris on her 40th. You got an apartment. Not some little hotel box, but an apartment with a bedroom, washer, living room. Nothing grand, but an apartment. Then, tired, but happy you head off in the private car and enjoy the early Sunday morning drive in to Paris.

And, as the streets become more narrow and the houses become steadily older, the driver says, “oh, rue St. Denis, it’s just up ahead. But, this was (is?) the street of hooores.”

“Excuse me?”

“This is all hoores.”

“Whores?”

“Yes, whole street.”

“Red light district?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Oh. My. Well, it looks nice. It is early Sunday morning, but it’s very nice. Sure, there are a couple of peep shows and sex shops, but what street in Paris doesn’t have those? It turns out most don’t, but rue St. Denis has four every block, along with an afternoon show of women over 40 parading in front of doorways selling their bodies. C’est la vie. The only saving grace, the only thing that didn’t kill me off right away, was that Phyllis was tired and also couldn’t care less- we were in Paris!

From Paris 2008

Someone will be angry that I posted this picture here!

We managed a shower in the odd little flood stall shower that was in the apartment we rented. How the French or any young person can think a one inch pan, no wall and then a drop off into the bathroom then apartment proper is a decent shower, I have no idea. I traded time in a “corporate” apartment in dc with a, ahem, poo and spit shower arrangement and also did time in Navy housing and they were never as wacky or useless as this. But we managed to get and stay clean. And, frankly, it wasn’t bad, just very weird.

I can’t recall completely now in what order we did these things, but we got out, got lunch, saw the madness that is the Tour de France coming to Paris, then got back for a nice nap. Paris late afternoon in July usually has incredible light and large edible looking clouds, and this evening was no exception. We wandered on down to the river and crossed over to the Ile St. Louis. It was neither hot nor humid and we were still a little punchy after our nap, but so happy to be in Paris.

Then, finally, to a café. A café just on the left bank, looking back across the Seine to Notre Dame. This is where we could really get into Paris, away from the circus crowd that was the Tour. Here all the chairs face the sidewalk and tight intersection. We order a carafe of rose and sit back to steak frites and quiche- too much food! Our eyes and nose overcome sane ordering, but that’s the point. We’re in Paris. Enjoy. Over-enjoy.

From Paris 2008

So, it’s hard to sit down and write what is so great about a French café. The service is impeccable and it is hard to tell if you pay more for that or the good quality of food. Ah, who cares, both are outstanding. Just a simple steak, pounded out and cooked in a pan, is fantastic. With the crowds to watch, the light coming down in front of use streaking through the clouds and rose, we couldn’t be happier.

Our return from the café has us wander over three hours, maybe more, the 9 blocks back to our apartment. Into the pietone zone, we stop café by café, enjoying small drinks as we go (too many, I think) and arrive at the English pub the Frog and Rosbif that we saw on the travel channel. Our final stop is the tiny café just outside the apartment.

From Paris 2008

Silly French Cafes...

Top ways you know you are in Paris:

• Constant scooter noise
• Business men bustling down streets with the mandatory two baguettes
• Soldes!
• Almost everything is in French

Paris Journal Part I

July 26, 2008

July 26 found Phyllis and I at the Roanoke Airport waiting for a flight to Cincinnati and then on to Paris. We managed to get the kids all packed to go with Grandma Gayle and Aunt Sharon to Augusta for a week long folk crafts camp. We managed to haul all three dogs off to the kennel and get all of our own stuff together and geared up for travel. We were meticulous in packing to take as little as we could so that we could carry on everything. I still brought one pair of shorts too many and two shirts too many since our apartment had a washer and we were able to re-wear so much of our wardrobe. We also used older non-frame backpacks to carry all of our clothes- these were nice for fitting in the overhead bins but, being both in our 40s now, it would have been much nicer to have small roller suit cases.

Flying from Roanoke to Cincinnati on Delta went smoothly and the Cincinnati airport is perfect- large, clean but not the bustle of Atlanta. We saw Lou Holtz strolling through the International terminal too! The airport has a small duty free, but we didn’t care, we wanted to travel light and live off the land. I was surprised at how nice it is to fly transatlantic on a 767. It has seats of 2, 3 then 2 so we had a couple just to ourselves and Delta puts in leather seats so it was very comfortable. Enough of mundane travel details, but here are some initial nice to know items:

• Do not exchange money from dollars to Euros at the airport- the rate I got was $1.71 for a Euro. At the ATM in Paris right off the plane it was $1.57 plus a 1% fee from my credit union making the actual rate $1.59.
  
  
  
  
• Always take a good book- not a heavy one (subject wise) but one you want to read, even if it is junk. Airplane entertainment is horrible and unreliable.
• Neck pillows are great and absolutely worth taking.
• Carry on. If you are travelling, you can carry on. Do it. Coming and going. Follow the old trick of laying out all the clothes you think you will need on your bed, put half of each item back and pack the rest.
• Learn all you can about the neighborhood you are staying in. More on this later.

Summer plans

Well, at some point I'm going to have to finish writing up the report from last summer, and last winter. And forget California- I got pictures, that's it.

Ok, writing this week, that's my goal- old trips recalled and filed away.

This summer is Seattle with the kids and the wild about. Then a week home and off to London! Kids are off for a week with some gypsies and we have tickets to see U2 in Dublin. I'm dizzy thinking about it.

From My Window (rev 7)

The cold this morning
washes the sky white
and painful to look at
directly
the moon
up early
a pulled fingernail
chased by weak sun

I can’t bear to breathe
nine degrees and westerly wind

There is no permanent
damage
but isn’t all damage permanent?

There is a fountain
improbably
jetting high white water
and steam just below
the hill
frozen foam
a crystallizing volcano
tumbling over grass, it’s
steam still in air and
I can smell it
like anticipating a blow
to the head
and the metal that follows

If it snows
it will snow on my confessional

But the fountain looks inviting
warm
it is so painfully white
it would burn my lungs
but I know it would
give you nothing but nonsense
and me
nothing
but grief

From My Window

The cold this morning
washes the sky white
and painful to look at
directly
the moon
up early
a pulled fingernail
chased by weak sun

I can’t bear to breathe
nine degrees and westerly wind

There is no permanent
damage
but isn’t all damage permanent?

There is a fountain
improbably
jetting high white water
and steam just below
the hill
frozen foam
a crystallizing volcano
tumbling over grass, it’s
steam still in air and
I can smell it
like anticipating rape

If it snows
it will snow on my confessional

But the fountain looks inviting
warm
it is so painfully white
it could burn my lungs
but I know it would
give you nothing but nonsense
and me nothing
but grief


---------
Nothing like taking a simple image and trying out a new meaning in it. That's all I am doing here as I write this for the 5th or 6th time.

From My Window

With the cold this morning
the sky is washed white
and painful to look
at directly.
The moon, up early,
is a dead fingernail
chased by the weak sun.

There is a fountain
improbably
jetting high white water
and steam just below
the parking lot.
It is frozen foam
a cold volcano
tumbling over grass, it’s
steam crystallizing in air.

It looks inviting, warm, it
is so painfully white
but I know it would
give me nothing
but grief.

Some nice pictures from San Francisco and Northern California

Phyllis and I escaped for a week to San Francisco for some work and then some play. I can't say enough about how nice it is to visit the Northern California Coast.

From 2009 san fran

Phyllis on driftwood.

From 2009 san fran

From 2009 san fran

A really nice little church

http://www.northsidebburg.org

And, of course, my favorite

U2 brings down the house.

UGH, HBO- really? Had to get the lawyers out? Sigh.

Go Pete Go

Sing all the lyrics Pete! You are amazing at 89.

From my Window

With the cold this morning
the blue of the sky seems washed white
and painful to see
and the moon a dead fingernail
chased by the weak sun

There is a fountain
improbably
jetting up white water
and steam just below a hill
past the parking lot
it looks like a white hot volcano
it's tumbling flow rising over frozen
grass, it's steam crystalizing in air
it looks inviting, a warm rescue in frigid wind
but I know it would
give me nothing
but grief

UK Photo Blogging Pt. 1.0

I'm just going with random photo blogging day by day, because it is going to take me forever to write the posts I need to. Like with Paris (still working!).

As I've written, we stayed at the Arran House Hotel on Gower Street. I was too harsh on them in my original post- all the places we stayed were less hospitible and warm than I had in my fantasies, but that's my fault not theirs. Arran was well run and had two huge pluses- location on many major bus lines and comfortable beds. Just don't count on doing laundry there- 4 hours to dry jeans, awesome! Bathrooms = tiny, but so are all in London unless you are filthy rich; rooms = small, ditto.

From Scotland 2008

Here we are heading to Pret a Portea on our second day. It was fun to bring a jacket and tie, but I did not need the tan slacks I brought and should have gone with another set of dark jeans. Now I know.

What did we do in London? First day was a nap and then the British Museum. Great to be around the corner from it. We found an excellent Greek restaurant around the corner from the museum- I'll look up the name for you in a bit, but it's the only one there. Don't go to the Chinese place there- roaches and indigestion, in no particular order.

Second day was high tea at the Barkley. We wanted to do quintissential London and UK things and tea is one of them! Browns is the most known of the known, but I found the Barkley pret a portea and thought it looked like a lot more fun:

From Scotland 2008

The tea sweets and savories.

From Scotland 2008

And we loved it. Getting the champagne for the parents is a big plus!

After tea, we went to Harrods to shop. I think its a legitimate tourist attraction and great fun. The toy department is huge, interactive and a hoot. I bought a scarf I love- probably paid twice as much as I should have on it- but with the exchange rate it was probably down to three times as much, who knows. The restaurant near the toy department is to be avoided at all costs, but the food stores on level 1 are to be visited! Too bad I didn't realize this until we had already eaten at the wrong place. And, yes, there is an opera singer in the escalator well.

From Scotland 2008

The tea tray was incredible.

My raw tweets from Scotland

Using these for notes for my journal:

Raw tweets for notes from travel in reverse order- start at bottom.

Forgot to mention the kids got to bunjee on monday- Aran managed backflips screaming she's going to be an astronaut. 2:10 AM Dec 31st, 2008

Great last day- london zoo, lion king matinee! Wow, the lion king is expensive and worth- amazing 2:09 AM Dec 31st, 2008

Sniff, going home today 2:08 AM Dec 31st, 2008

Last day! Oy. Zoo, then a show. 4:44 AM Dec 30th, 2008

At Durham, on way to kings cross london 7:52 AM Dec 29th, 2008

Visited Holyrood palace, shopping - but I ended up with nothing! The dynamic earth, turkish dinner. 2:01 PM Dec 28th, 2008

Brilliant calm, cold day in auld reeky. Nelson has a Campbell tartan vest that he is extremely proud of. Aran a kilt skirt. 1:57 PM Dec 28th, 2008

Whew tired. Enjoying holyrood, then the royal mile. Nelson's decided he wants a kilt. 7:11 AM Dec 28th, 2008

@medc2 nelson says hi 3:18 PM Dec 27th, 2008 from in reply to MedC2

And a big no to scotland bus travel. Poo. Train is 10000 times b etter. 3:16 PM Dec 27th, 2008

Ok, that was a long day. 3:15 PM Dec 27th, 2008

The real climate rears its head- worriers will be glad to hear our silkies do the trick- very warm! 2:37 AM Dec 27th, 2008

The slow journey home begins- edinburgh for two nights, then london for same. 2:35 AM Dec 27th, 2008

Glenmorangie 18 yo in sherry wood cask in front of a roaring fire 3:36 PM Dec 26th, 2008

Ach, best day yet with loads of video. We went up the mountain to feed the reindeer herd. 8:49 AM Dec 26th, 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! 3:51 AM Dec 25th, 2008

Santa came!! Shhhhhh 6:48 PM Dec 24th, 2008

Fyi- we saw two santas today. Nelson is pretty sure something is afoot. 1:40 PM Dec 24th, 2008

Complete kickass day to be a kid: santa train, reindeer center with another santa, funicular up the mountains 1:32 PM Dec 24th, 2008

No, they were plumbs. Yum. And now a stop to look aroond. Santa has a scottish btw. 6:54 AM Dec 24th, 2008

And minced meat pies! 6:50 AM Dec 24th, 2008

Wow, santa express has mulled wine. This is not the states, this is great! 6:49 AM Dec 24th, 2008

Santa train time! Off to the strathspey railway and a steam locomotive! 6:03 AM Dec 24th, 2008

Happy Christmas eve to everyone- reindeer and santa train today. 4:01 AM Dec 24th, 2008

Had haggis. Och. Super fantastic! Done gourmet style with a reduction and neeps. 2:49 PM Dec 23rd, 2008

Whew. Very short day. Then dark. Then whisky. Now I get it. 1:11 PM Dec 23rd, 2008

Ach oh ow... Ice skating in inverness. Cripes almighty my feet. 9:40 AM Dec 23rd, 2008

Highland air indeed- what a night sleep for everyone! We're never leaving. 2:34 AM Dec 23rd, 2008

@hokie_guru its in the 40s in scotland, well, high 30s tonight. 1:22 PM Dec 22nd, 2008

Edinburgh! Allo Scotland! 11:32 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

Woah, sunsetting at 330. On train still. 10:32 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

@medc2 ha- 55 in london. Off north now. 8:19 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

in reply to MedC2 Barrelling toward scotland and all of us are asleep. 8:

Me: hey dummy. Me: yes? Me: there is a 1st class lounge. Me: oh, that's nicer than starbucks. Me: why do I travel with you? 6:10 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

Saw an advert for sdmicros on a cab in london. Ha. 5:07 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

Gingerbread latte (what? Its my holiday!), nelson with lemonade, aran with cran raspberry, mom with filtered coffee neat. 5:03 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

At starbucks waiting for noon train to aviemore. The $100 upgrade to 1st class passes is looking brilliant. 5:01 AM Dec 22nd, 2008

whew, wrote more faster than I thought I could. In vino veritas. http://doughed.blogspot.com/ 3:22 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from web

What I've learned coming up on the blog: http://doughed.blogspot.com 3:06 PM Dec 21st, 2008 from web Engaging toot power under giant snowflake. Dad has now earned a number of drinks. 11:56 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Srsly, still on bus. Nelson driving number 9 cross town. Racing other #9 and losing! 11:55 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Whisky tango hotel? Rush hour on sunday? Yessah, london. Sitting on bus. Nelson is star of CCTV. 11:35 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Ah, ok, ice skating. You MUST make reservations. Nice. Dad blows one this but still batting .800 11:28 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Italian food then ice skating at somerset 9:07 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Saw "potted potter" slap jaw funny- all 7 books in 70 minutes. 9:06 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Well, I managed laundry after a fashion. But I know why I bought highefficiency machines years ago 4:19 AM Dec 21st, 2008

Zzzzz... Wht is it about laundry? So tired. Ice skating at somerset tomorrow. 5:41 PM Dec 20th, 2008

@MedC2 poot poot, Uncle Dan, giggle. Lots of that today. Aran shared in from the cab. 3:50 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from web in reply to MedC2

Wow, long day. Duck (dukw) tour, big ben, Sound of music, found Phyl's fav indian restaurant, laundry 3:47 PM Dec 20th, 2008 from web

@medc2 it was. Built in 1942 by GM! Went in the river next to MI6. Really. Nelsons sends farts. 9:16 AM Dec 20th, 2008

From the sound of music bar. Show in 10! 9:14 AM Dec 20th, 2008

Dukw was excellent. Quick italian lunch then off to sound of music. 7:19 AM Dec 20th, 2008

On thames in a dukw 6:54 AM Dec 20th, 2008

Wine and fire at the arran house. Whew- tea and shopping, what a day. 4:10 PM Dec 19th, 2008

@medc2 not eating cow brAins here. But seriously doubt the milk is remotely dangerous. 4:09 PM Dec 19th, 2008

I can highly recommend lodging on gower st. In london. Arran house is nice but all look great. 3:22 PM Dec 19th, 2008

Crap- data interruption. In london on tottenham. Nelson kicking sister. 2:53 PM Dec 19th, 2008

Freeeedom... Here comes the sky. At dulles terminal b soothing to dave m 5:54 PM Dec 17th, 2008

Almost at dulles. Woot! 2:50 PM Dec 17th, 2008

Coming soon, photos and video

Raw and unedited. I'm going to work on captions, then some explanations, but bear with me as I am slow and tired:

http://picasaweb.google.com/doughed/Scotland2008

I didn't get near a computer after the first nights in London so I have lots of catching up to do. Luckily, lots of football on too, so I should plow through lots.