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.

This is going to be quick and dirty

Nothing wrong with that at all!

But, given one pound and 17 minutes on the computer for it, I have to type fast and loose and hope I don't spill wine on this stupid 12%£ limey computer. All while watching football and basketball scores in the background. What I have learned that I cannot jam into twitter:

• Virgin Atlantic allows only 6 KG for carry on. Got that? 12 pounds. That's nothing, nothing at all. All my planning in the crapper because of that. Sorry Virgin, you get booked no more. Eat that Branson.
• Cab from the airport is 55£, not 35£ as on the Arran house web site. You are losing points on Trip Advisor. Also losing for not having a main level door to the lounge- you know you should. Great location though, but there are 10 other hotels right here, with connections and probably better washers. Oh, and some personality, as you had promised but does not exist.
• Harrods and Oxford St. Who the hell thinks people aren't out shopping for the holidays!?! We could barely walk with the crowds. They are thick as horse manuer on Grandpa's farm. All other observations are media hype.
• If you don't care what's going on or what you might do next, travelling with children is a dream.
• The Sound of Music was ok, good, but you can get good half price tickets two rows back from where we were on the same day. Now I know. Now you know. :P
• Potted Potter- Fringe festival best thing you can do with an 8 year old who likes fart humor. Really. Absolutely the best thing you can do.
• Duck tour (dukw) - very funny and worth the 55£ for the whole family. Brilliant tour guide and lots of giggles.
• The buses in london are very nice, warm and neat. They take forever. But the tube is horrible and hard to find your way around in and you see nothing but, well, other people. And cabs, they are just as slow but should be your end of night transpo.
• Winter wonderland was ok, but expensive and not worth it except the little pancakes and mulled wine.
• Aran is a wise old soul and Nelson is a hedonistic old soul and they are an absolute delight to travel with.
• I cannot wait to get out of London - three days is plenty, thank you - and head for the hills on the train (spend the extra couple hundred for first class over four days if you are with kids and they are free).
• Somerset is the best place to go ice skating but book a day in advance.
• Don't go to the tower of London. Just don't. Oh, it's a 'must do!'. No it isn't, really. Go to the Tate. Go to a pub. Go shopping.

I bought a Hugo Boss scarf. Never thought I would, but, you know what? it's fantastic. Long and warm and very sporty green. Nelson and I plan to buy tweed jackets in the highlands because we are two dudes on a mission to be sporting it Scottish style. That's it, with 3:42 to go. Go Hokies!

About SDmicros

I completely forgot this nugget, but it is only really interesting to me given a long history working with computers thanks to my Mom (she wanted to know how to read the Library of Congress' new card catalog system in 1980 so I got introduced to a TRS-80 that year).

I have sd micros I bought for $29.95 each that are as big as my index finger nail and hold 8 GB of data. There were some with 16 GB, but who wants to be greedy. Look at your index finger nail. Just the nail. And imagine something a little smaller and black with gold connectors and that's 8GB. That holds up to 7 DVDs. That holds all the albums I care about. That goes in my little phone. That knocked me over, and it takes a lot for little technology to knock me over.

The TRS-80 mom bought had no hard drive (just like my phone!) but it couldn't store anything. Loading programs meant playing a tape recording into it's 16K of memory. 16K is 16 kilobytes. The memory in that machine that took up one very large desk was one 64th of a megabyte. And this was an advanced machine mom bought- you usually couldn't find one with more than 4 kilobytes of memory in it. In 1993 I took out a loan, a very large one for my means, to buy a computer that had a 20 MB hard drive. That's 20 Megabytes, 13 years later, storage. The memory was probably 256K, but I don't really recall. For storage though, and that's what we are talking here, that was one 51st of a Gigabyte. And that came in a slow spinning hard drive that liked to get scratched, lose data and die.

Now, by 1998 we were cooking. Solid state devices were out in the form of Newtons, then clios. 40 MB, no moving parts. Even when they got to 80 MB they were 9" by 5" and still one 12th of a Gigabyte. Mid 2000s, the first ipods? Yes, lots and lots of space, but moving parts whizzing around in there a whole 2" by 2". And now I have 8GB in something smaller than my index finger nail in my phone and oh my music sounds so nice. It plays movies by the way. Free software to rip down and rewrite DVDs and next thing you know you are carying libraries of useless things to the UK in your pocket.

Data for Family Trip to UK

Bumped up...

As you can see from my twitters, we have an outgoing dataload of 54 GB and 1,500 pages analog. Surreal and impressive, in some ways. In some, just interesting. And that's with nothing larger than a cam corder- two blackberry world phones with 8 GB sdmicros (more later), two ipod 3gs with 4GBs and one HD HD cam corder half price with 30GB for almost 10 hrs record time.

More impressive to me is 4 people doing two weeks in winter with only carry on. Two 21" rollers and two 25" rollers along with two courier bags (simple and small). All liquids, of course, diffused and in less than quart sized baggies. All it takes is planning, the willingness to wear some things twice and the knowledge that at least a couple guest houses you are visiting have laundry (that isn't even necessary as anyone who can't find a coin laundry next to a bar in any western city should not be travelling). For winter, one sneaky trick is silk undies- head to tow -for layers in cold and for pajamas.

Each of us has rolled- 7 socks, 7 undies, 2 silks (head to toes), 5 shirts (plus our wear over stuff), 3 pants (you must wear these multiple days dandies), hat, gloves (slimline), cotton sweater or sweatshirt, thicker sweater or winter coat. Extravagences include second pair of shoes (you don't need these, but we have a Christmas dinner to attend, the theater, Christmas eve service, St. Paul's choir, High Tea), a sports jacket (travelsmith) for me, skirt for the ladies, a tie (Nels and I- see above), a travel pillow each (we are not cavepeople!). The kids, being little people, crammed in one 6" by 5" stuffed animal each for rough spots.

One guide book. I felt extravagent not ripping out pages and putting them in a baggy like my mom taught me. You should do that if you are not a really good packer- only take where you will actually be, duh.

Other things in the packalongs: two power cords (1 for ipods, 1 for blackberries), two decks of cards (extravagant! we only need one! A deck of cards is the only game you need for this sort of trip- it is about 1,000 games in one), airborn (medically proven not to work, but nice little logenzes with an excellent placebo effect), directions to everything with reservations all cut right down to size (data duplicated on phones), money and plastic.

Next winter trip, I do away with the winter coats. Have done so for me this one- layers and waterproof windbreaker can do everything a bulky, single winter coat can do. Thick winter coats are a scam and I think I've broken that wide open.

Well, that's it. I'm sure I've forgotten 10 essential items I am going to scream about from the UK. If so, I will tweet them and pray I don't die of frostbite. Wait, it's warmer in London than Virginia? What? Another scam!

Thank you GA Tech

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer,A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer,Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear,I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,And put her on the campus, to cheer the brave and bold.But if I had a son, sir, I'll tell you what he'd do.He would yell, "To Hell with Georgia," like his daddy used to do.Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar three thousand pounds,A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it around.I'd drink to all good fellows who come from far and near.I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer.

Nice fire, football and dogs

Hmmm... I cranked it up a little too much, but who cares. Man, the Hokies are young, but I love em anyway.

NFL Update

Already rethinking my picks. The NFC East is hands down the best division in the NFL. The question now is which three teams make the playoffs, which one wins the division and which two play in the divisional round and which two in the championship game. Instantly revised standings:

Giants 12-4
Redskins 12-4
Cowgirls 10-6
Eagles 10-6

Eagles lose out on the tie-break, as do the Skins. Skins and Giants match up in NY for the Championship.

Lucy, Teddy and the Start of Fire Season

I'm still not getting far enough writing my Paris Journal. When I do, I will bump the first one up and get the whole trip posted. But, in the mean time, it is fire time. Freezing in Blacksburg, so I build a woodstove fire. Luckily, I have big dogs to help me get warm: Teddy and Lucy. Oh, and singlemalt whisky. A young Teddy. He's about 90lbs now.

From Teddy

Lucy and Teddy together in the field.

From Teddy

Such handsome dogs, but now Teddy towers over Lucy.

From Teddy

Lucy in front of the fire two years ago. Nothing has changed.

From Lucy!

I now have a twitter

<--- had no clue this weirdness was out there. I encourage only reading funny things on it.

I recommend finding funny people and following only them on it. That will encourage more to be funny on there, thus helping my attention span. In fact, I am going to go dump non-funny people from my list immediately.

Old friends, new funnies

Here comes another birthday for me, and a chance to think about old friends. Last year I got to see highschool and college friends John, Mike, John and Dave in no particular order. Two are more Asian than me and two are more bald. I think that means I'm the median.

From Doug, John B, Wonger, Dave M

Mike above, third from left, sent me this today:

"BTW - I met Chris Lu (Obama's chief of staff) during the second debate. We're going to have an Asian pretty high in the administration. So get ready to build the railroad - Whitey :)"

I love it!

From Doug, John B, Wonger, Dave M

Of course, around here we get the "you'll be picking cotton soon, whitey!" Ah, great hilarity. 12 more days to President Obama.

And, finally, the playoffs

Of course I pick the Skins to win it all. If I were objective- NY Giants lose to Pitt in superbowl.

Playoffs:

Wildcard Round NFC
Washington at St. Louis
Washington 29, St. Louis 10

Carolina at Green Bay
Greenbay 21, Carolina 3

Wilcard Round AFC
Jacksonville at San Diego
Jacksonville 10, SD 7

NY Jets at Tennessee
NY 13, Tenn 7

Divisional Round
NFC
Washington at NY Football Giants
Washington 17, NY 14

Green Bay at Atlanta
Green Bay 33, Atlanta 28

AFC
Jacksonville at New England
New England 31, Jacksonville 9

NY Jets at Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh 41, NY Jets 6

Championships
Washington at Green Bay
Washington 39, Green Bay 21

New England at Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh 23, New England 21

Superbowl
Washington 27, Pittsburgh 26

The finals for all the NFL

1.NFC East - NY Football Giants 13-3
3. NFC North - Green Bay barely gets it at 10-6
2. NFC South - Atlanta wins it at 11-5 with
4. NFC West - St. Louis surprises and sqeeks out 9-7
NFC Wild Card-6. Carolina getting wild card at 10-6, 5. Washington 11-5


2. AFC East - New England comes roaring back and wins it at 12-4
1. AFC North - Pittsburgh dominates at 13-3
3. AFC South - Tennessee falls apart but wins at 11-5
4. AFC West - San Diego puts together a 9-7 one and done playoff showing
AFC Wild Card -6. NY Jets 10-6, 5. Jacksonville 10-6 (Yes, the bills implode)

Some NFL Talk

Some fun during lunch today, broken into different posts:

The NFC East- the division that matters:


TEAM W L T PF PA
NY Giants 5 1 0 170 101
Washington 5 2 0 140 128
Dallas 4 3 0 189 175
Philadelphia 3 3 0 167 123

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=was

Where they will end up

TEAM W L T
NY Giants 13 3 0
Washington 11 5 0
Philadelphia 9 7 0
Dallas 7 9 0

And only two NFC East teams make the playoffs this year. The Skins go to NY to play the Giants there for the Championship.

Now, that record has my skins losing again to the Giants at home later. If the skins win, and it will be close, then they are tied. Then they are also tied in division wins. It then goes to conference opponents and the Giants get the bye.