Joe Shlabotnik Is My Hero
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
[Who Is Joe Shlabotnik?]
[20 Random Pictures Taken By Peter]
[What Is Peter Reading?]
Below are the 41 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter, Not Joe" journal:
|
02:47 pm
[Link] |
Old Greek Dress
As is the tradition, we spent the Fourth of July weekend up at Sue's grandmother's cottage on the ocean in Maine. It's much the same every year, only this time Violet was able walk around and play in the cold, cold water. She was initially shocked at just how cold the ocean was, but quickly warmed up to it (ha!), and certainly outlasted our tolerance to it. Funny how a cold ocean doesn't seem to bother kids as much as it does adults. Even when it was foggy and 55 degrees (and that was probably warmer than the water temperature), there were children brave and foolhardy enough to splash around without wetsuits. I got extra chills just looking at them.
Sue's grandmother had a surprise for us. She pulled out a dress that she bought in Greece when Sue was a baby, and dug out a photograph of Sue wearing it in front of the cottage. So of course we had to re-create the photo with Violet (shown here). We're keeping the dress in case the cottage is still in the family when we have a granddaughter. Check back in thirty years.
(For now, here are more photos of our trip to Maine this year.)
Tags: maine, vacation, violet
|
|
06:06 pm
[Link] |
Ice Ice Baby
Next time I go ice skating, remind me to never accidentally fall through the ice.
One of the fun things we did while we were up in Tremblant (photos here) was go to the beautiful Scandinavian Spa for an afternoon. It's a complex of outdoor hot tubs and cold tubs, and indoor steam rooms, saunas, and warm "relaxation rooms", with full spa services offered if you're in the mood (we both got massages - my second one ever). The idea is to alternate between warm places and cold places, for an authentic Scandinavian experience. It's supposed to be good for you, they say, and it's definitely fun.
If the 57-degree plunge pool or waterfall isn't enough for you, there's the option to take a dip in a hole cut in the ice in the Diable River. And how often do we get the chance to do that? We just had to give it a try. After all, it was by far the warmest day of our vacation (a balmy 25 degrees - that's Fahrenheit, my foreign friends).
Well, getting in is surprisingly easy. By the time I was up to my waist, though, my feet were telling me to get out. Very insistently. The bigger surprise was then the searing pain about ten seconds after getting out - there were about 30 seconds where I doubted I'd ever be able to stand again.
Yet I survived, and so did Sue. And then I had to do it again because Sue somehow didn't get a good photo of me in the water. And what's the point of doing it if there's no proof? People ask me how Sue can put up with all the photos I take - well, I'm willing to suffer for my photography habit, too!
There was no suffering the rest of the day; if we hadn't had to get back to our hotel to pick up Violet from daycare by 4:30, we could have stayed there warming and chilling (literally and figuratively) all afternoon into the evening. But not in the river again. We got our story and our photos and that's enough.
Tags: vacation
|
|
10:53 pm
[Link] |
Violet Is One!
It's cliche to say "I can't believe my baby is one year old already!" so I won't. I don't actually feel that way. On the contrary, I'm amazed that she's *only* one - it feels like she's been around forever. Yet paradoxically I'm still surprised that we have a baby at all. Even after a year, it feels normal and not normal at the same time - like we're Violet's parents, but we don't feel like parents. You know what I mean? Other parents of one-year-olds might.
We didn't do anything spectacular for her birthday - my parents came up from Florida, my brother and his family came down from Westchester (twenty minutes away), and our neighbors came from next door. Some cake, some champagne, some presents, and boom - Violet is officially one.
She's pulling up and sitting down, doing some cruising, and loves climbing stairs (but can't come down - fortunately, she's usually good at knowing not to come down). She's not walking or talking yet, but it really seems that could happen any day now.
Last week she went to her first foreign country - we drove to Canada to go skiing at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. It was our first ski trip in two years, and our first with the baby. And it was fantastic. We picked Tremblant mostly because the daycare situation was ideal - our hotel was right at the lifts, and the resort's daycare center was right inside our hotel. Plus with the pedestrian village, it was easy to walk her around at night for dinner and some window shopping. She didn't mind the 5-degree weather at all. Without any wind, it wasn't as bad as it might sound.
Violet loved being in daycare. Perhaps too well - other babies were crying and clinging to their parents; Violet just zoomed right off in the morning with nary a glance back. I guess that's good. She probably picked up a few words of French there, too. Maybe. She didn't seem to understand "ne mange pas!" any more than she does "don't eat that!".
Sue was worried that a two-year hiatus would make her skiing pretty rusty, but we needn't have worried. We got right back into it, and didn't fall once. It hadn't snowed in a long time there, so the trails were quite icy and slick. Which we got used to. At least it's less tiring than pushing through snow (or slush, which was the conditions in the 65-degree weather when we were at Tremblant six years earlier).
It'll be two or three years before Violet is up on skis, so we have time to prepare - as much fun as it will be to ski with her, daycare has got to be easier...
(PS - photos of our ski vacation can be found here and photos of Violet's birthday and other March photos can be found here. As of now, I have tons more photos to upload to each set, so feel free to come back often in the next few weeks...)
Tags: skiing, vacation, violet
|
|
03:35 pm
[Link] |
Magic Kingdom
We've been to Magic Kingdom a bunch of times before, but we never noticed before that most of the rides are designed so that a baby can easily be brought on. Without a baby, I guess you don't pay much attention. But when you're traveling with a baby, and you see all the other babies on line, it becomes obvious. It was a pleasant surprise.
So Violet's first theme park ride was Snow White's Scary Adventures (which aren't that scary), and she seemed to like it enough. Ditto for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, It's A Small World, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (which is a laser target-shooting ride where she could play with the lever that spun the car around, thus ruining daddy's aim). She sat patiently through the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and Mickey's PhilharMagic. But I think her favorite ride (judging by her bouncing and laughing) was being pushed around the park in her stroller.
She didn't even mind the lines, of which there were plenty, it being the day before Thanksgiving. We spent over 12 hours at the park and didn't get to do everything, but at least it was a gorgeous day, and Violet behaved perfectly throughout. Sue's parents live half an hour away, so there's no question we'll be back to do what she missed the first time.
The rest of the week we pretty much did nothing except eat turkey, play bridge, and drink lots of wine. Which was fine by me.
Also, Violet was a perfect doll on the plane, so we were worrying about nothing. Though airport security was still a pain in the ass. They made us take Violet's shoes off. But then didn't blink at the 8oz bottles of formula we brought through. I don't understand them at all.
(PS - Here are photos of our day at Magic Kingdom if you want to see...)
Tags: disney, family, florida, vacation, violet
|
|
02:01 pm
[Link] |
On A Plane
This evening we're going to be at Sue's parents' house in Orlando. Which means in a few hours we're going to be taking Violet on her first airplane trip. We've gotten all the advice we can, now all that's left is for you to wish us luck...
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tags: vacation, violet
|
|
12:28 am
[Link] |
3241.4 Miles
Our 3241.4-mile road trip is over! In 18 days, we covered 14 states (plus D.C.), saw friends we hadn't seen in years, and made our parents very happy. We took Violet to National Parks and bourbon distilleries and Disney World and highway rest stops galore. She saw Gettysburg, the Washington Monument, Lincoln's birthplace, the Grand Ole Opry, roller coasters, caves, a 62-foot Jesus, fine barbecue joints, okapis, peach groves, Amish people, swimming pools...
Yes, she's seen all that before she was ten weeks old, yet she's never been out to Long Island (8 miles down the highway).
She'll remember none of it, of course, but I have hundreds of photos to prove we were there. (And I'm still adding more.)
I'm happy to be home, but part of me wanted to keep on driving while we had the chance. There's still so much to see...
Tags: vacation
|
|
12:11 am
[Link] |
Welcome To Florida!
Some people had warned us against taking Violet on this long road trip, but so far, so good. We left NYC at 12:30 in the afternoon (later than we had expected) on Wednesday, did some brief sightseeing in DC and had dinner there with friends, and stayed our first night in a hotel south of Richmond. Then it was a relatively short drive to Raleigh, where we stayed Thursday night with more friends. Violet was a bit crankier on the long haul from Raleigh to Jacksonville on Friday, but it wasn't anything that stopping to feed her couldn't cure. So that leg took 11 hours - longer than it would usually take, but we could afford to be leisurely. Now we're at my parents for a few days before heading down to Sue's parents for a few more days. Sadly, I don't think I'm going to be able to get a job driving around the country visiting people, so we're eventually going to have to come back home. Drat.
Tags: florida, vacation
|
|
04:44 pm
[Link] |
Babymoon
Peter Island, British Virgin Islands, November 18, 2007 - Peter Island totally lived up to its name. It was incredible. Obviously, one expects awesomeness from a luxury Caribbean resort, but what makes Peter Island truly special is that its a private island. There are about 50 rooms spread out over one corner of the island, and that's it. So there's no fighting crowds; you practically have the beautiful beach or pool or spa or sunset or windsurfing equipment to yourself. We were a bit apprehensive before going, thinking that we'd be bored before the four days was up, but after four days, we were wishing we had four more weeks.
We had never heard the term "babymoon" before, but apparently, that's what we were doing - one last big vacation before the baby comes and makes it harder to go on vacations like this. Not impossible, just harder. No matter how much people say they love their babies, nobody ever says they make life easier. Then again, everyone told us to expect Sue to get tired and moody and sick, and she's been none of that. So what does everyone know, right?
(PS - See the photos!)
Tags: peter island, vacation, virgin islands
|
|
05:26 pm
[Link] |
Big Ass Fan
British Virgin Islands, November 21, 2007 - While the service at the Beef Island airport leaves a LOT to be desired (seriously, did they search the entire West Indies to find the slowest and least friendly people they could find to work there?) you gotta hand it to the person in charge of buying the huge and cool-looking ceiling fans, which do a good job of cooling you down as you're waiting and waiting (and waiting) on line. Then looking up and seeing that the big-ass fans were actually made by a company called Big Ass Fans, well that can't help put a smile on your face!
Tags: vacation, virgin islands
|
|
08:47 am
[Link] |
My Island!
Peter Island, BVI, November 18, 2007 - Is it really so odd to be online while on a beautiful tropical vacation at an awesome private-island resort? The computer room is in a beautiful glass-walled hut overlooking the pool, so it's really no different than sitting by the pool reading...
Yesterday morning was my first time ever windsurfing. The guy at the watersports hut gave me a couple minutes of pointers on the beach, then a couple more minutes of shouting instructions from the shore while I floundered around (it was harder on the legs than I expected), but I did eventually get some sort of idea of what to do. After a few hours, I was good enough at getting up, going around, turning around (not very gracefully), and going back, although not really ever to a place where I intended to go. But at least I didn't end up flying out-of-control across the channel to Virgin Gorda or Venezuela...
(Today I'm not even that sore, which might be due to my first-ever massage yesterday afternoon!)
Tags: peter island, vacation, virgin islands
|
|
11:29 pm
[Link] |
France
France, April 2007 - I took nearly 600 photos while in France last month. Of those, I uploaded a mere 550. It took a while to upload them, since I wanted to caption and tag them all, but it's finally done. So in case you're interested, I've split them into three separate albums: Paris, the Loire Valley, and Karine and Derek's Wedding. Enjoy!
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
09:04 pm
[Link] |
Wedding Songs
Montigny-le-Gannelon, France, April 28, 2007 - We were warned that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) karinebou's wedding was going to go all night, and it sure did: the ceremony was at 4pm, the cocktail hour started at 6, dinner started around 8:30, dancing started around a quarter after midnight, and when we left around 3:30am, there were plenty of people still dancing up a storm.
What we didn't expect was the singing at the reception. One of the guests had written a song for the bride and groom, which he sang while playing the guitar. Rather well, too. Then a chorus of friends sang a couple of songs they had written, along with accompanying slideshow. (The song photographed here is to be sung to the tune of "We Are The World"). It was great, although it made me worried that I was supposed to have written a song, too, but forgot. Oops. Sorry about that.
The whole wedding was great - and of course you know I have the photos to prove it!
Tags: france, vacation, wedding
|
|
03:57 pm
[Link] |
French Exam
France, April 2007 - If this were my final exam, I would have failed. Or at best have managed a "D" from a sympathetic teacher. I could read fairly okay, but speaking was hard, and comprehending spoken French was often impossible. Oh, I got phrases here and there, but neither here nor there enough. Fortunately, most people understood that I was a person who needed to be spoken to in English. Especially in Paris, I would ask a question or order something in French, happy that I got the words out with a minimum of stammering, and almost always the person I was speaking to would respond immediately in English. I didn't know whether to be embarrassed or relieved.
Less English was spoken in the Loire, but at least people were nice enough to speak slowly, and with Sue's help, I got by (though she needed some help herself).
Oh, it was all just so wonderful and I wish I were still there. So far I've uploaded 25 out of 596 photos (captioning takes longer than one would hope). Watch this space for more photos and more stories!
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
11:29 pm
[Link] |
Whistler, Part IV
Whistler, British Columbia, March 4-11, 2007 - Just like last year, we went on our local ski shop's trip to Whistler-Blackcomb. It was such a great week of skiing, you'd think I'd have lots to write about. But really, ski vacations are simple, as vacations go. People were met, slopes were hit, poutine was eaten... Every day it's up at 7am, out to the slopes by 8:30, ski until 4:30, followed by hot tub at the hotel, drinks, dinner, then bed by 10pm, sometimes earlier, though always with the vow that tomorrow we'll stay up later to sample the renowned Whistler nightlife. Repeat until they make us go home, which we most certainly weren't ready to do.
Of course I took hundreds of pictures that will tell a more complete story of my trip than a brief blog entry could. (And if you're dying for more, here are my 2006 trip photos.)
Tags: skiing, vacation, whistler
|
|
01:35 pm
[Link] |
Out In The Open
Paris, July 2006 - So I'm on the Champs Elysées watching the Tour de France and, thanks to the copious amount of free Nestlé-provided water I've been guzzling in the 97-degree-heat, I have to pee. Do I stand on line for the port-a-potties (which are always so pleasant when it's 97 degrees outside), or do I sieze the rare opportunity to legally relieve myself in full view of the public?
I stood on line. It wasn't that long.
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
05:59 pm
[Link] |
The Getty Center
Los Angeles, January 14, 2007 - While in L.A., we sampled the local culture, but we also sampled some Culture-with-a-capital-C at the Getty Center, a fairly new and fairly humongous art museum on a hill overlooking the city. It's an odd place: there's an exit off the freeway that leads you to a multi-level underground parking garage, then once you park, you take an elevator up to a tram station, and wait for a driverless tram to take you up the hill.
The center itself is like an office park on steroids: large shiny silver-and-travertine modernist buildings connected by massive plazas and gardens. All with great views of the ocean and the city, although we were told we were extremely lucky to be there on such a beautifully clear (and cold) day. The views are usually far more limited.
As for the art, fortunately it's mostly non-modern. But there's not much of it. It's a surprisingly small collection compared to the size of the building (or maybe we're spoiled by going to the Met and the Louvre). I suppose the Getty Foundation spent all their money on the building and didn't have much money left over to fill it. Which is okay with us; after a while, all the old paintings kind of run together. Connoisseurs, we're not.
(More pictures of the Getty Center and our L.A. trip are here, if you're interested.)
Tags: los angeles, vacation
|
|
10:12 pm
[Link] |
Peter The Paparazzo
Los Angeles, January 15, 2007 - I never seriously expected that we'd be right there on the red carpet at the Golden Globes, but there we were, away from the crowds, standing with just a few photographers, security men, and people with clipboards, watching the stars get out of their limos. I mean, we could have reached over and helped them open their doors, we were that close. I took some photographs, though it was difficult to get a good one; often I was standing too close to whip out my camera. Other times, there was too big an entourage getting in the way. Plus the real photographers were across from us, so the celebs tended to turn towards them (and away from us) after emerging from their limos. Never mind that we weren't supposed to take pictures anyway; only credentialed press were allowed to. But I was unobtrusive enough that nobody bothered us, and there we stayed until it was time for the Globes to start.
Sue was able to get us tickets to the E! Golden Gloves viewing party (and after-party). We took a limo from our four-star hotel (Shutters in Santa Monica) to the Beverly Hilton, got through security (we're so glad all of us remembered our tickets), then didn't really know where to go, and somehow ended up standing where we were standing kind of through sheer luck. The party was across the road where the stars' limos were driving in, but we weren't in a rush to get there.
Once in the party, drinks and dinner were served, and some minor celebrities were there with us. (In general, I'm bad at "spot the minor celebrity", but others we were with aren't - they helpfully pointed people out.) More celebrities trickled in to the party after the Globes were over, but the biggest names generally went elsewhere. Probably to a party that was indoors. E!'s party was in two big open-air tents connected by a big open-air area. Really swanky... but it was freaking 40 degrees. Yes, we enjoyed record cold temperatures in L.A. that weekend. Down to 35 some nights. It reminded me of Miami and Key West, only colder.
I could bore you with a huge list of stars we saw up close, but I'll bore you with photographs instead. There were many celebs I didn't get pictures of, so there are fewer pictures than there should be. But hopefully we can go back next year and rectify the situation.
Tags: los angeles, vacation
|
|
10:53 pm
[Link] |
Bacchus, God Of Grape Juice
Disney World, November 24, 2006 - True conversation overheard at Disney World's Fantasia mini-golf course:
Young mom: "Do you remember the scene in Fantasia when they were crushing all the grapes?"
7ish-year-old son: "Yeah"
Young mom: "Well, that's the guy with all the grape juice!"
Tags: disney, florida, vacation
|
|
04:51 pm
[Link] |
I Was Promised Global Warming!
South Florida, Thanksgiving Week - It was in the 70s the week we left New York. Then it was in the 60s in Key West. 50s at night. When we got to Miami Beach Tuesday night it was in the 40s. 40 degrees during a ski vacation is fantastic. 40 degrees sucks when you'd rather be lounging by the pool drinking margaritas. But hey, at least there are still margaritas.
Right now, we're with both sets of parents at Sue's parents' house in Orlando. It flurried here last night. Really. At this rate, we're going to be going ice skating by Sunday.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Tags: florida, vacation
|
|
10:06 pm
[Link] |
Speed Kills
Jekyll Island, Georgia, December 29, 2004 - I'm assuming that this was a compromise between those who championed a sensible speed limit of 18 and those who would throw caution to the wind and allow traffic to fly by at 26.
Tags: vacation
|
|
08:07 pm
[Link] |
Fun With Pleakley
Walt Disney World - Any picture you've taken at Disney World has also been taken by dozens, if not millions, of other tourists. A search for "Pleakley" on flickr.com is evidence of that fact.
So I decided to put together a Flickr group named Pleakley In Tomorrowland commemorating our Pleakley picture. So far, there's 14 pictures in the group; not bad for a group with a ridiculously specific criterion for joining.
(Hey, try it for yourself if you are so inclined: take one of your pictures, start a ridiculously specific Flickr group, and see how many people you can get to post their relevant photos to it.)
(In case you're wondering, I made the mosaic using one of fd's flickr toys - the Mosaic Maker, of course.)
Tags: flickr, orlando, vacation
|
|
10:05 pm
[Link] |
Who Is Joe Shlabotnik?
Santa Rosa, California, September 3, 2005 - It's been nearly a year since I started my LiveJournal, and I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping it up. Thanks for reading. Some of you have already asked me who this Joe Shlabotnik person is; the rest of you either already know, don't care, or just simply accepted it as the way things are.
Well, the first thing I noticed about LiveJournal is that nearly everyone has an alias. This makes it harder to find people, but I suppose that that's the idea. I toyed with creating a completely anonymous blog, so I could really express my innermost thoughts and feelings to the world. The flaw with that idea is that I then wouldn't be able to tell anyone I was writing a blog, and well, then who else would care to read it? And if nobody was reading, then why write? So instead I keep my deepest and darkest secrets inside, and invite everybody to read. Which sort of defeats the whole purpose of having an alias: I'm not really incognito, and all it does is confuse people. But that's the apparent rule here: aliases required.
Okay then, so why Joe Shlabotnik? Right before I started this, we took a trip to San Francisco, Yosemite, Napa, and Sonoma. While in Sonoma County, we just had to stop at the Charles M. Schulz Museum - I've been a huge Peanuts fan all my life, and I highly recommend it to all you other Peanuts nuts out there. So being in a Peanuts kind of mood, I chose a semi-obscure character from the strip: Joe Shlabotnik is Charlie Brown's favorite baseball player. And a terrible baseball player, at that. As was Charlie Brown. And as was I.
(But why start a blog in the first place? Well, everyone has a blog, don't they?)
Tags: california, vacation
|
|
12:31 pm
[Link] |
I Now Know What a Peloton Is
Paris, July 23, 2006 - I'm glad we were in Paris this past January, because the schedule Sue's company had us on didn't leave us much time for sightseeing on our own. The first day of our trip we met our friend karinebou for lunch, and the last day we climbed up to the top of Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, and late one night we walked to the Eiffel Tower, but much the rest of the time was taken up with work events. Not that I'm complaining; the bike tour was great, we had fantastic dinners (and plenty of wine) late into every evening (which never seemed late because at this time of year the sun sets about an hour and a half later than here in New York. It's still light in Paris at 10pm!), and there was often a group heading off to a club after dinner (I only joined them once, Sue not at all) - all on the company's dime. Very generous of them!
Being that we were there because of the Tour De France (OLN, one of Sue's networks, broadcasts the Tour in the U.S.), there were also daily Tour-related events. I now know more about bicycle racing than I ever thought I would know. Most days we gathered at a bar or conference room to watch the race on a big-screen TV. And on Sunday we had a fantastic lunch, then gathered in a special bleacher section on the Champs Elysées right near the finish line to watch the final stage. It was a pretty awesome place to watch - the bicyclists start about 50km or so outside Paris, bike into the city, then make eight 6km loops through Paris, meaning we got to watch them go by sixteen times. Plus we got to see the whole thing on a jumbotron conveniently set up near us. It's pretty impressive - not just the speed of the bikers, but how close they all are to one another. And not only that, but how close the support cars and motorcycles are to everything. There seem to be many opportunities for injury and death; you have to be on drugs to want to do that.
Before the bikers get to the city, we were treated to the "advertiser's caravan". Think of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. Now imagine of a couple of dozen European companies who each have at least half a dozen cars done up like their own relevant versions of the Weinermobile - giant tires, giant pretzels, giant unidentifiable French company mascots. And proceeding not at a stately parade-float pace, but taking a couple of loops whizzing by at like 30-40 miles an hour. Very bizarre, but very much fun.
Now if I were a real important client, I would have been able to take a couple laps in a support car, or perhaps I could have gone to one of the stages in the Alps (the first day we watched, the stage ended in the very town we were in this past New Year's!), and watched the race from a helicopter. And then maybe I could have gone on the Team Discovery Channel boat ride down the Seine with Lance Armstrong and crew. But I didn't - I wasn't important enough. (I at least got a tour of the production trailer and we met the on-air announcers - former Tour competitors - at dinner one night.) Again, no complaining here - it was more than enough to be wined and dined and feted at all. Plus five-star hotel and business class plane tickets. It's astounding how much money is spent on this sort of thing. It's all coming out of my cable bill, I know. And yours. Thanks!
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
05:47 pm
[Link] |
Tour de France
Paris, July 22, 2006 - Bicycling was a very appropriate way to see Paris, considering that we were there to see the Tour de France. But I'd recommend it no matter what sport you're in Paris to see. You'd probably look silly kicking a soccer ball all over town, or trying to arrange a modern pentathlon to get you to the sites. (Do they even do modern pentathlon in France? Or does it only exist every four years at the Olympics? I could look it up, but why bother?). So biking is the way to go. Anyway, the bike tour (from a company called "Paris à vélo c'est sympa!") was one of the many awesome events that Sue's company arranged for us while we were there. There were about 40 people on the trip - some of Sue's clients, some of Sue's coworkers, and some lucky guests of people in the other two groups. About half of them signed up for the tour, and only nine actually showed up to do it. The rest all had second thoughts: too scary, too difficult, too hot, too whiny... Sue apparently works with a whole crew of nervous Nellies. The ones who were brave enough to go all thought it was fabulous. It was easy enough to be appropriate for all ages and abilities, and most of the trip was on attractive, empty side streets. We'd bike for a few minutes, then we'd stop and listen to the attractive, friendly tour guide talk about where we were for a few minutes. Repeat for about two and a half hours; really, it was great fun. And the heat wasn't much of a bother - once you're going, you get a nice breeze. It was probably the coolest I felt all weekend, actually. Every day it was sunny and in the 90's, and while the French *have* air conditioning, they don't seem to know how to use it. They'd cool the buildings (even the airport) down to, oh, about 85. Even a woman we met from Phoenix complained it was hot. But back to biking: it was such a nice time that after it was over, I was ready to rent a bike for the rest of the weekend. Although I wouldn't have had much time to enjoy it; the weekend was packed with activities, about which I'll write more some other time...
Tags: biking, france, vacation
|
|
05:40 pm
[Link] |
Happy Bastille Day!
Paris, January 6, 2006 - There's one of these towers in Las Vegas, and another one in Epcot Center. But I've been told that the one in Paris is older. It's certainly bigger. Orlando and Vegas don't get as cold and dreary as Paris does in January, though.
Paris certainly won't be cold and dreary when we're there again next week! I was there for the first time ever this past January, and I certainly wanted to go back sometime; I never expected that it would be so soon. Sue just found out two days ago that her efforts to finagle a business trip there were successful. Not only that, but her company is nice enough to fly me there, too (business class!) and to put us up in a five-star hotel for five nights. How's that for a nice surprise?
The catch is that we won't have much free time - Sue's supposed to be schmoozing clients (and, by extension, I will be, too). Another catch is that I'll have to wear a blazer for dinner every night. This in a country that apparently does not believe in air-conditioning or ice.
But these are of course small catches - I'm so looking forward to going back! (Who wouldn't be?) Now if I had only kept up with my French lessons over the past six months like I hoped I would...
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
02:20 pm
[Link] |
Higgins Beach
Scarborough, Maine, July 1-4, 2006 - I made sure to put on jeans and a long T-shirt before going out to read on the porch. And yet it wasn't enough; I still needed to go inside for my jacket. Welcome to Maine. On the Fourth of July. At noon.
Sue and I spend nearly every Fourth of July weekend with her relatives at her grandmother's cottage at Higgins Beach, which is a rare stretch of sand along Maine's rocky coast, just south of Portland. The beach is pretty, but tiny - just a half-mile long, and while at low tide it's about a hundred yards of smooth hard sand to the water's edge, the whole beach pretty much disappears at high tide (it's an impressive change throughout the day). Early in July it can be warm enough to sit out on, and sometimes it's even warm enough to brave the frigid water. Very rarely it's hot enough to almost enjoy the frigid water. But no matter how warm, the frigid water can kick up a wicked cold breeze (yep, "wicked cold", as they say in Maine), and the ocean-facing cottage porch somehow catches every bit of it. Often I'd go down to the beach just to warm up.
(One can also just head inland to warm up - it actually feels like summer a few hundred yards from the water.)
Every year we tend to do the same things - some beaching, some porching, some jogging, some shopping in Freeport and/or Portland's Old Port. Occasionally we stroll through the amusement park at Old Orchard Beach. This year for the first time we went to see a Portland Sea Dogs game - they got trounced by the Trenton Thunder 15-2 (and the game wasn't even that close). But that's okay - Trenton is the Yankee's Class AA farm team, while Portland is the corresponding team for the Red Sox. Plus there were fireworks after the game, which everyone could enjoy.
And every year we have some amazing fried clams at the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, yummy vanilla milk (or chocolate, coffee, strawberry, or blueberry milk) from Smiling Hill Farms, fresh strawberries since early July is strawberry season there, and of course, a ton of lobster.
Nope, nothing much changes. Even the pictures here are from last year. Sue's been coming to the cottage since she was a baby. Sue's mom has been coming to the cottage since she was a baby. And Sue's grandmother has been coming to the cottage since *she* was a baby. Nothing changing is what they're probably happy about. And I can't blame them.
Although some change is good. I'm personally happy that they finally replaced the 80-year-old mattresses and put in a shower than works. There's still no insulation and no heating system at all - an odd choice for Maine - so unfortunately the cottage still remains empty during the winter (October through May).
(More of my 2005 Higgins Beach pictures can be found here and here. And my 2006 pictures are here. Compare for yourself!)
Tags: family, maine, vacation
|
|
04:51 pm
[Link] |
36 Hours In Vegas
Las Vegas, April 23, 2006 - Ah, I remember being in my early twenties, sipping giant tropical drinks by a swank swimming pool in Las Vegas with a bunch of my happy and attractive friends...
Actually, no, that must be a mirage. I don't remember that. These kids will. I didn't do much in the way of swank at their age. And it's usually difficult to gather a group to go anywhere. We're shooting for Key West this fall, and we even know people who are interested (sadly, no bikini-clad 22-year-olds) but we have six months for those plans to fall apart.
So anyway, a day and a half isn't a whole lot of time to spend in Las Vegas, especially when most of those precious hours are spent at your wife's work dinners. Or sleeping: I wanted to go out Saturday night after dinner, but I was still on Eastern Daylight Time, and therefore exhausted. Ditto for Sunday night. Fortunately, that meant I had no trouble at all getting up at 4am Monday morning for my flight home. (Travel note: you will never see so many people at 4:30 in the morning as you will in Las Vegas International Airport. If you're checking bags, get there earlier than you're expecting.)
The little amount of time we had to ourselves we spent either wandering up and down the Strip (travel note: the best bloody Marys in the world are at Commander's Palace in the Aladdin), or lounging by the pool at the Mirage. Sipping Hey, there are worse ways to while away a weekend.
Tags: vacation, vegas
|
|
10:20 pm
[Link] |
Bike The Sea
Jekyll Island, Georgia, December 29, 2004 - The drive from New York City to Jacksonville, not including stops, takes about 18-21 hours, depending on traffic, and Orlando is about two or three hours farther. I-95 may be an objectively boring drive, but I still have fond memories of my parents driving my brother and I to Disney World when we were kids. These days, when Sue and I visit our parents (who all have moved to Florida, as the law requires of citizens their age) for more than a weekend, I usually prefer to drive. It sort of makes me feel like a kid again, only now I can control the radio (well, the iPod, as it were).
But as an adult, I can no longer fall asleep on a pile of pillows in the back seat while my parents drive. (Actually, can kids do that anymore? Or do they have to be strapped into a car seat until they're 18? If so, it's a shame that a new generation is growing up without knowing the joy of building pillow forts in the back seat of their parents' Chrysler while Juice Newton's "Queen Of Hearts" plays continuously on the radio...)
If we feel like it, we also get to stop in DC or Virginia Beach or Savannah or Charleston or Myrtle Beach. Or Jekyll Island, as we did on the spur of the moment while driving home from my parents' house after Christmas in 2004. Unlike on Long Island, where the sand is extremely soft and deep, the sand on Jekyll Island is rather hard-packed. Which seems like it would be uncomfortable to lie out on, but as we discovered, it makes for a great bicycling surface.
So we biked around for a couple of hours on that beautifully warm December day, then headed back on the road. I think we had dinner at Hardee's in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Hey, it's better than Shoneys. There's not much else better to eat in Fayetteville. Or along most of I-95 for that matter. It's a flaw in the road's design.
Then again, it's better than airline food. Not that airlines serve food anymore. Or give you pillows to make forts with...
Tags: biking, vacation
|
|
03:04 pm
[Link] |
Museum-Worthy
Paris, France, January 4, 2006 - Apparently, the big secret to getting into the Louvre is to skip the long lines underneath the Pyramid, and instead buy tickets in the attached underground mall. We discovered this secret when we discovered said mall after waiting in the long line underneath the Pyramid. Oh, well.
It's a nice enough little mall, with upscale stores - such as this one, which sold kitchen gadgets and housewares and such. I don't remember the name; think Pottery Barn meets Sur La Table. Anyway, there were displays of delicious-looking gourmet foods throughout the store, including this display of... Arizona Iced Tea! We found that hilarious. I mean, we like Arizona Iced Tea, but it's something you can get in the U.S. in any old deli or convenience store. It's certainly not something you'd display in, say, Crate & Barrel and sell for 3.5 Euros ($4.38) a bottle!
Yeah, I know this works both ways. Right now some French person is visiting America and laughing about the fact that we consider Nutella exotic. (Is it still exotic? Ten years ago it was. I think. Anyway, you get my point.)
So will iced tea catch on in France? Or will it forever be considered some peculiar drink from across the ocean (much like we regard boxed milk)? Truly a question to ponder.
As for the rest of the Louvre, of course we loved it. We're no art history majors, so we can't really discuss anything about the museum intelligently, but we had a great time. And best of all, there was no 20th-century crap! We took an hour-long tour to get to the highlights (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, etc.), then wandered around for about six or seven more hours, taking only a short break for some coffee (no iced tea). I feel justified in feeling that we've gotten our fill of art for the year, though. Maybe even for two.
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
01:04 pm
[Link] |
Denver
Denver International Airport, April 22, 2006 - If you're going to have a three-hour layover somewhere, you could do worse than Denver. Or at least they tell me I'm in Denver. I could be anywhere. But judging from the scenery, I'm actually nowhere. Flying in from the east you see nothing but flat farmland between here and Des Moines. And Denver is still about 40 minutes east of here. Well, it's a nice enough airport, as airports go. I'm on my way to Las Vegas to meet Sue. She has a conference there, and I decided at close to the last minute to join her. Which is why I had to get up at 6am and spend three hours here while her nonstop flight leaves four hours later and arrives in Vegas at the same time as mine.
So in my 36 hours there I get to look forward to going to two of Sue's work dinners, which preclude going to any shows. And I'm not a big gambler. And Sue doesn't want to go to any strip clubs. And my flight leaves 6am Monday morning. But hey, free food, free hotel, inexpensive airfare; it's not like I had anything better to do at home. It'll be fun! (That's the spirit!)
(There was nowhere to plug my camera into this public internet terminal, so I added the picture later...)
Tags: vacation
|
|
06:02 pm
[Link] |
Practicing For The 2010 Winter Olympics
Blackcomb Mountain, British Columbia, March 11, 2006 - It figures that the first completely gloriously sunny day we had all week at Whistler-Blackcomb would be Saturday, our last day. Still, we can't complain at all. The sun was in and out of the fog on Friday, and it snowed pretty much nonstop - 6 to 12 inches or so per day - Monday through Thursday. Great conditions, lousy visibility. And when you're in a jaw-droppingly beautiful wide-open bowl such as Blackcomb Glacier, you want all the visibility you can get. A mile wide and more than three miles long, with an extra three-mile runout at the end, a four-thousand-foot drop, and no civilization in sight, it's our most favorite place to ski in the world. Not that we've skied everywhere in the world, but I'm confident it's hard to beat.
The rest of Whistler-Blackcomb is fantastic, too - two immense mountains linked by a cute and extremely well-designed pedestrian-friendly village. We went with a group organized by our local ski shop, which was not only cheaper than we could have done it on our own, but we got to meet and hang out with some nice people, which made me happy, because as a friend recently pointed out (on a recent ski trip, coincidentally), I like collecting friends.
And of course we want to go back next year - I mean, we were only there for six days. And seven days last year. And seven days three years ago. We still feel like we haven't done everything...
(PS - here are a couple hundred photos from my trip, in case you want to see more.)
Tags: skiing, vacation, whistler
|
|
12:37 pm
[Link] |
It's A Disney World After All
Tomorrowland, February 4, 2006 - We were in Orlando visiting Sue's parents. Cheap weekend, actually. My flight was $130 round-trip and Sue's flight was paid for by her company (because she then went to a conference in Miami that Monday). We bought our Walt Disney World tickets in a seven-pack a year ago, so here we are.
We've been to all the other major parks since Sue's parents moved there (we love going to the parks), but the last time we were at Magic Kingdom was when I lived in Florida in 1995. (Before that, I had been there with my parents in 1978 and 1982.) It felt like I was just there yesterday. It was 1995 all over again. When I was there in 1995 it most certainly did *not* feel like 1982 all over again!
35 is of course a lot closer to 25 than 25 is to 12. It's funny how when you're in college, you know that people 10 years younger than you are completely different than you are, so naturally you assume that people 10 years older are just as different. And yet 15 years out of college, I still don't feel much different. Except that I sometimes talk about house renovations. (But I don't *have* to! Really, I can stop any time I want to...)
Tags: orlando, vacation
|
12:15 pm
[Link] |
That's How I Like My Women
LaGuardia Airport, February 3, 2006 - Yes, I'm so juvenile. But she happily went along. So we're both juvenile. Hooray for juvenility!
We were on our way to Orlando. (Are we ever not travelling??)
(PS - Happy Mardi Gras!)
(UPDATE - apparently, I'm not the only one who likes this idea)
Tags: orlando, vacation
|
11:59 am
[Link] |
Ski Buddies
Killington, Vermont, January 28, 2006 - Skiing is lots of fun with lots of friends, but it's hard to get a group together. I'm amazed that we managed to get seven friends to come along last month (has it been a month already?). Plus we met up with a friend's brother and his dozen or so friends who were there the same weekend. Great weekend. Too bad it was a short weekend.
But this Sunday we're heading to Whistler for a week. Hooray! We're going in a group organized by our local ski shop, so even though we don't know anyone on the trip, hopefully we'll meet some cool people. Not that it matters. Whistler is awesome regardless.
In my head, I'm already there...
Tags: killington, skiing, vacation
|
|
12:26 pm
[Link] |
Bonne Année!
Morzine, France, December 31, 2005 - It had been years since I played a proper drinking game, and even when I did, I didn't like them much. Nothing against drinking games per se; no, my problem was that the game always got in the way of the drinking.
But here I am on New Year's Eve playing a drinking game with my friend karinebou at her family's chalet in the Alps. Not just playing a drinking game, but taking part in a drinking game tournament, which involved round-robin games within your five-person league, followed by playoffs for the top two from each league. Scores were kept and everything. All that was missing were medals and national anthems.
I don't even know the name of the game, but it involved lots of people sitting on the floor flicking bottlecaps. I'll call it That Bottlecap Game. Each player rested a bottlecap on the bottle between their legs, and took turns flicking bottlecaps trying to knock the other player's bottlecap off the beer. If you knocked their bottlecap off, the other player could "defend" by knocking yours off. If the defense was unsuccessful, they get a point against them and they have to drink. A beer has to be finished at the fourth point and the eighth point. Eight points to lose.
(Have you ever heard of French beer? There's a reason why not. The beer was pretty bad. Thankfully I didn't do well enough to make the playoffs. But at least the beers were small. And you could take advantage of the confusion to not finish your second beer if you lost - nobody would pay much attention because it was time to find your opponent for the next game!)
Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Sue and I were skeptical at first, but we ended up having a blast. It was a fantastic way to meet people. There's something about sitting foot-to-foot throwing bottlecaps at someone's crotch for fifteen minutes or so - it's a real icebreaker. Shy people take note.
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
06:25 pm
[Link] |
Je Suis Sur Un Train
Somewhere in France, January 3, 2006 - Any French I know I learned from about six weeks of listening to language CD's in the car, and from reading translated Peanuts collections. So I can tell you that Charlie Brown is no good at flying a "cerf-volant", and that every Halloween Linus waits for "Le Grand Citrouille". Sue wasn't impressed with these new vocabulary words of mine, but amazingly, they both came up in actual conversations with actual French people. Then Sue was impressed after I alone could actually translate these words for everyone. Ha, I showed her!
Of course, that was about all I attempted. I could read a bit, and I tried a sentence or two, but I let Sue do the vast majority of the talking. She seemed to do well - only a few times did she get an automatic response in English. Actually, some shopkeepers told us they preferred to speak in English so they could practice. Good for me. Also good for me is that with three Americans, three Slovenians, a Hungarian, an Italian, and six or seven French people all at the house in the Alps where we spent New Year's, English was everyone's common language. God bless globalization.
Tags: france, vacation
|
|
11:01 am
[Link] |
Unexpected Skiing Hazards
Morzine, France, January 2, 2006 - I managed not to get hit by any helicopters while skiing in the Alps last week, and I'm thankful for that. A coworker of mine went skiing New Year's weekend as well, and broke his leg right at his hip joint after wiping out on a patch of ice and landing on it. I hate hearing stories like that. Thankfully, Sue and I have never been injured while skiing. Most people don't get injured while skiing. And one can be unlucky enough to slip on a patch of ice while merely walking on the sidewalk and break both arms, as Sue's dad once did. Still, I hate hearing stories like that.
Morzine was lovely, even if the sidewalks were scarier than the slopes (they seem not to have yet gotten the concept of snow shovels there), Paris was great, Switzerland extorted 30 Euros from us, and I will try soon to get around to writing all about it!
Tags: france, skiing, vacation
|
|
09:20 am
[Link] |
Running And Sunning
Miami Beach, November 21, 2005 - The sand on the beach was a fantastic surface to jog on - hard enough that you're not trudging through, well, deep sand, yet soft enough to feel, well, soft. Plus there were lots of other joggers and sunbathers to look at. It was so good that I was even able to get Sue to come running with me (shown here). The drawback was the powerful sun and stifling humidity - but hey, that made us feel we *earned* the post-jog layabout on the beach.
Haven't jogged at all since we got back from Florida. It's dark and cold when we get home from work. And it's snowed a few times so the sidewalks are icy. Sure, we could (and should) go to the gym, but that's what January is for...
Tags: miami, running, vacation
|
|
05:56 am
[Link] |
Giving Thanks
Miami Beach, November 20, 2005 - Get up late. Jog along the beach. Shower. Eat brunch at a cute outdoor cafe. Hang out on the beach. Shower. Eat dinner at a fancy outdoor restaurant. Sip martinis in a hip outdoor lounge. Sip some more martinis (outdoors) at a fancy and hip hotel. Dance the night away at a cheesy outdoor nightclub. Repeat tomorrow. What's not to love about vacationing in Miami Beach?
(Okay, I got a bit tired of the ubiquitous hip ambient techno music in all the hotels, lounges, stores, and bathrooms. And there was less topless sunbathing than had been advertised. But those are small nits to pick...)
It was such a great place to spend a long weekend, that I wonder why we haven't done it more often. We'll definitely go back, though maybe not in the summer (February through October), since one other thing to love was temperatures in the 70's and low 80's, rather than the high 90's as is often the case down there. That's what chased me away from south Florida ten years ago. (I lived 2 hours north of Miami and, stupid me, only managed to get to Miami once. I was 2.5 hours south of Orlando and got there far more often. But hey, Orlando is fun, too. And coincidentally, that's where we spent Thanksgiving. More on that later...)
Tags: miami, vacation
|
|
02:02 pm
[Link] |
Taft Point
Yosemite National Park, California, August 30, 2005 - So back to our vacation. We flew in from New York City and stayed a few days in San Francisco, a few days in Yosemite, and a few days in Napa/Sonoma - all places we've surprisingly never been to before. That's my wife Sue up atop Taft Point overlooking El Capitan and the Yosemite Valley; the valley floor being 3500 feet pretty much straight down. Yikes. I was feeling sick with vertigo just watching her hike up there. I felt even dizzier when I joined her. The flimsy-looking tiny metal fence didn't make me feel much better, but it held. We peered into the abyss, blinked, and backed away slowly...
Tags: california, vacation
|
|
09:23 am
[Link] |
Hello!
Sebastopol, California, September 3, 2005 - A friend of mine (rebbyribs) once asked me "why don't you have a LiveJournal?" Good question. I pondered it for over a year (well, not 24-hours-a-day pondering, but an occasional pondering here and there) without doing anything about it. But then I went on vacation in California, and visited for the first time the town my friend lives in. Only she wasn't there - she was on her own vacation. Figures. But I thought of her, thought of LiveJournal, and somehow this picture inspired me to finally start one. In the picture, I'm in Sonoma County, in front of the winery that bears my name. No relation. And no free bottle of wine out of it, either. So now I have to come up with a different name when I start my own winery. I'll probably have lots of time to think about it. And that's how one starts a LiveJournal.So is my life interesting? We'll see...
Tags: california, vacation
|
|
