The Baker Blog II

Re-Introduction

2011-07-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

So this blog started off to chronicle the Sweden adventure and the various side-trips related thereto and then sort of meandered into marathon-ing and then fizzled. I think that is fine because blogging simply to blog is uninteresting. I started some posts about India but then the India-ness of it all overwhelmed and I'm still attempting to process the whole thing.

Our family is embarked upon a new adventure and I thought I'd breath life into this golem one more time and document our San Francisco month.

Walkabout

2011-01-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Tina had some more shopping to do so I tagged along with the camera to do some walkabout of the streets and get pictures of the slice of life stuff I had been driving by. I get lots of stares here, nothing threatening ever but very frank looks of ‘wow, that guy looks funny’. I went to a few shops and bought a coke, snacks etc. I talked to some people and had a little sit down for tea. 1 old man stopped me while I was snapping some cows eating garbage and asked me to take his photo. This happened fairly often, I’m not sure what the photographee gets out of it but they seem pretty pleased and aren’t shy about asking me to do it. This particular guy gave me 10 minutes on how bad Indians are about garbage. I took this to mean with regard to throwing trash on the street and/or the local authorities not picking it up. He also seemed to be making a larger point that it had always been like this and always would be. For my part I think that if you are going to have cows roaming free and want them to handle of all the organic composting for you right there on the sidewalk that’s fine but you have to figure out what to do with the plastic. All the little bodegas sell these tiny packets that have little bits of crunchy flavored stuff. Think sunflower seeds sold by the pinch. The problem with them is that the wrappers are all tossed on the ground immediately after consumption. You can’t look 10 feet in any direction without seeing brightly colored wrappers littering the street. The old man was embarrassed and upset by this and I can’t blame him.

Goats, Trains and a Harrowing Escape

2011-01-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a pretty laid back day. We started a little rough w/ no hot water in our shower forcing some Indian style ‘squat and fling water at smelly parts’ technique. It was early in the trip and everyone still had the spirit of adventure going so no major protests went lodged. I worked on arranging travel/hotel for us to get to Jaipur on the 28^th/29^th and on to Agra from there. The train booking system was mystifying me so I enlisted help. Turned out I was doing it all right but there were no spaces avail. on any trains going from Vadodara to Jaipur. Apparently I could go down to the station and get better results by claiming part of the foreign tourist quota. This is a 5-10% set aside on every train saved for those like me which gets released to locals 24 hours before the train leaves. Sounded easy enough so I arranged for a lift to the train station the next morning.

I was kinda punked out for some reason and stayed in bed sleeping a good part of the day. T and the kids hung out w/ the family for 1 year old Eshan’s b-day.

Wednesday

Every Train Station in the world smells to varying degrees like urine. Let me clarify, varying degrees doesn’t mean there are any that smell 0% like urine. I guess we’d say the range is from 5% of the air is actually urine to 100%. Vadodara train station is in the upper 70s. There are mangy sleeping dogs everywhere and a great deal of anxious scurrying by humans whose purpose I never quite nailed down. After several mis-starts (wait 20) I finally got to the appropriate queue and was 3^rd in line when without so much as a ‘piss off’ the guy running the line dropped a ‘closed sign’ and said he’d be back from lunch in 20. The problem of course is that this is the only line that can hand out the tourist quota tickets. Wait 20. I made it to the front only to be told I had to do a different form. Back to the end of the line. Wait 20. Back to the front and now the bastard tells me that the trains I requested are full and I’d be on a waitlist. He did this with 2 keystrokes and could easily have told me the first time when I had the wrong form but such is bureaucracy so no melt down. Before I left he did advise me that there was ‘no chance’ I’d make the train. No explanation, just ‘no chance’.

Frustrated I found the rickshaw pool out front and asked who would take me the gom (that’s town for us down w/ the lingo) and for how much. I knew from having checked earlier w/ the family that 50 was the real number. The first 8 guys wouldn’t go less than 100 so I just started to walk away when one guy kind of boldy stepped forward, puffed up his chest and said “I'll take you for 50”. When we got there I gave him the 100 cause I liked the hustle and that sort of thing needs to be rewarded. We went from there to a little garden party lunch put on by 1 of the aunties. Good food and got to have my first fresh sugarcane juice. By fresh I mean they had the cane in piles there and a rickety old machine cranking out juice by the cupful. It looked like a wasteful process, getting very little juice for the quantity of plant pushed through but no matter, I loved it. Not intensly sweet like a soda, just a nice pleasant refresher on a hot day.

From there we toured Laxmi palace. The place was beautiful but hard not to think of the resources dumped into it when there was so much poverty around. But during the Raj times I guess weird stuff like that was the norm. The audio tour was nice and full of interesting facts like how the architect became obsessed with the idea that the foundation was not sound and so killed himself. J esp. liked the armory, T and Sophia the clean bathrooms.

Back to the flat to get into tuxes and fancy business for the big Casino Night, featuring goat race and booze. I don’t recall if I mentioned this or not but Gujarat is the only dry state in India. Foreigners are allowed to buy and consume though so through complex machinations involving passports and paperwork a great qty. of booze was laid on (later news reports valued the stash at 40K. US though I'm skeptical). Me and J struggled through but eventually got our self-tied bow ties on, joined the girls (looking stunning) and drove to a secure farm location. We were informed en route that these parties were sometimes raided but not to worry because the local police chief was invited and would be in attendance. The needful had been done, or so we thought.

The place looked great and the bar was going strong throughout the first goat race. The goat race is a special wedding add-on by one of the cousins based in Uganda. He had run a few for other family functions and good time was had by all. First he solicits goat owner consortia. For 1K INR you and your friends can buy the rights to your choice of goats. Winner gets the entry fees and the intense satisfaction of being proven a good judge of goat flesh. Once the goats are all claimed the betting begins. The Goat Race Master (assisted by the Assistant Goat Race Master –Jackson Baker) then announces the opening of the para-mutual betting period. Winnings are shared pro-rata by everyone picking the right goat.

I backed Bhapu (Sophia picked Big Momma) who led for the entire race including the warm up lap but was nosed out by NRI Patel at the line. I’m not claiming a fix or a mis-read of the photo results but let’s just say that the chief of police was the primary owner of the NRI Patel goat and I noticed he and the Goat Race Master sharing a big whiskey just after the race results posted.

The program was to include a family skit followed by a series of additional goat races. The family skit had been rehearsed since we arrived and the purpose was to ‘introduce’ each member of the family by having other members of the family do a sort of general imitation via dance set to favorit bollywood tunes. Each was about 30 seconds and there must have been 30 family members introduced. J, S and Tina were great sports and despite not know the songs, Hindi or any of the ‘moves’ did their part in several shows. The family laughed at the inside jokes, the crowd laughed at the songs + spectacle of people dancing and the girl marrying in wondered what exactly she was in for.

During preparations for the next goat race I noticed a group of guys standing near the entrance talking animatedly. Not wanting to be a pain, I hovered over nearby and grabbed a cousin to see what was up. The rumor was we were being raided and the police were negotiating with the in charge uncles about letting most of the party go and just keeping a few to send to jail. As things became more and more heated the guys on our side began pointing and gesturing (the Guji one where you take your right hand up by your head, palm in and make a kind of pinching motion and then rapidly and violently flinging it forward to an open hand in front of you as though you are pulling a super huge booger off of your forehead and flinging out in front of you to show someone) at me. The whole group turned to me and considered me like I was some kind of puzzle they had not considered. Eventually one of the uncles came over to me and told me to just stand there and watch what was happening but not to leave. Odd. The back and forth went on for about 15 minutes and the cops finally left. I went back to the table to finish eating but the cousins started rounding everyone up insisting we leave immediately. Apparently the uncles had gotten rid of the initial scout party but the ‘strike force’ was coming and we only had a little time to get everyone out. I helped getting everyone away from the bar and into cars and as the last groups were heading out a shabbily dressed guy reached over and grabbed one of the cousins by the arm. I kind of glared at the guy and when he noticed me I put my arm around the kid and we walked off. Later I found out that he was the plainclothes that had infiltrated the party and was trying to grab a few before the strike force arrived. I couldn’t figure out why me scowling at him did anything but glad that we got the kid home. We went bouncing through the darkness in wildly overfull cars trying to find a back-way out of the farm country that would bring us around the roadblocks. Once we were 10 mins down the road everyone kind of breathed easier and the aunties had a good cackle explaining to me the uncles told the police I was an American diplomat here on business and that if they busted the party with me in it, it would be a bad scene for all of them. The deal they worked out was to let all of us go and just arrest the catering and bar staff. I was assured that the unlucky ones knew this was a risk and ‘would be taken care of’. I later learned this turned out to be true but also that a few regular people showed up late to the party and got caught in the net as well. The guy that owns the farm is a cousin and had to hide out for about a week while a deal got done to keep him out of jail.

Sophia was a little freaked out but we talked her down eventually. Jackson thought it was the coolest night of his life. Assistant Goat Race Master on the run from the law in a foreign country. I’ve been referred to as the American diplomat ever since.

Feet

2011-01-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

We didn’t seem to have too much jet lag and got up at a reasonable hour to show up for breakfast. We were informed we’d all be going for a day of beauty so split up as always…gents this way, ladies that way. They gave me a shave (both face and dome) and when I looked later noticed it cost about $4. I once paid $50 for a Royal Shave in Vegas and as far as experiences go, they were almost identical. I’ve never had a facial, manicure or pedicure and I don’t much care if I get another one. My heels are super dry and cracked (I make those Before pictures on the Heel Tastic commercials look smooth and supple by comparison). I didn’t mind any of it except when the dude tried to put my foot into a crockpot of wax. That too would have been fine but the crockpot is made for 1 large roast or a size 11 foot. Like Operation, the trick to this procedure is to get your foot straight in without touching the sides on account-a they are super-crazy hot. His English wasn’t good and he couldn’t or wouldn’t mention this fact and also he is bad at estimating foot sizes (mine is 14). A bit of burnt foot smell later we go the procedure done and I was pronounced fit to display.

Everyone had bailed so flagged down the rickshaw man and through bad English, worse Gujarati, sign language and grunting I got him to take me home (maybe 5 KM) for .75 with tip.

Back to the house I was instructed to take J, some younger cousins and a driver to go get shoes. The theory is that me and J stay in the car and the local folks go negotiate a price before I show up. The glaring American-ness of my visage apparently triples prices. We haggled it through and I think I spent $50 for chumples (?) and mogiridi (?) for me and J. Incidentally when the day of the event to wear my mogirdi came, the aunties decided I should wear my Eccos instead. The mogirdis were too fancy for the wedding. Wtf.

On the way back the driver got a call that we had to pick up and old man and drop him at the clinic where Haresh was getting a malaria treatment. Already present in the car were: driver, me, J, Tilak (14) and Tania (18). The car was some type of micro-sedan so unless we were gonna tie the old dude on the roof I didn’t see how this was going to get done. The resourceful driver flagged down an empty rickshaw and negotiated for him to follow us for the pickup. When we came around the corner and the geezer saw our full car he lost his shit. I offered to go in the rickshaw with Jackson but the driver wouldn’t have it so the old man finished his tirade and finally climbed into the rickshaw. We watched out the back as he followed us and throughout the 10 min. ride he never let up in shouting at the rickshaw man. We arrived at the clinic and the driver went over to direct mr. grumpy pants to the appropriate office. He got another ass chewing while we watched and laughed.

Continuing the trend of not knowing what was coming we found out late that there was to be a Swaminarayan pray service (bhujan?) put on by Pooja’s family that evening. We (the groom’s side) all thought this was an informal prayer session at the bride’s family’s house so no one got particularly dressed. When we pulled up to the elaborately decorated lot and found the white gloved caterers there was a collective groan of ‘we look like slobs’ but home was 30 mins away so we soldiered on. Dinner is a big bustling buffet where J and I got our first lessons in Guji buffet etiquette. Push hard, wave plate and demand service. There were candle stands with oil lamps sprinkled around and Sophia walked right into one with her eyebone. We panicked at first thinking she had scalding oil dumped into her eyeball but thankfully it was just a solid thump instead. After dinner we stopped into the swami service. Fanatically hospitable as always they spotted the big white guy standing in the back and first insisted on bringing me a chair (I declined 6 times, chair got brung anyway) and then all but dragged me to sit up in the front. I don’t much like people putting their hands on me and people here love putting hteir hands on me. I shrugged the little usher guy off finally and we listened to the signing and preaching for a few and finally rolled out for the evening.

My Head is Spinning

2011-01-04T06:38:00.001-07:00

Started our first real day to hang out with family and dive in to the wedding madness. We slept in a bit and joined the gang for brunch in Sonal’s backyard. Because the wedding had not officially begun there was some non-veg cooking happening in the backyard. A little gas burner was setup so Tina and some of the less dietary-restricted aunties fried up some ham/bacon, a type of sausage and omelets. Apparently during the actual wedding time no one is supposed to eat meat, or something. This was the big opportunity to get in some non-veg while it was allowed. Let’s talk about veg and non-veg. To this American the phrase ‘non-veg’ is one of those logic puzzles that cause my brain gears to seize up. In this largely Hindu country the default assumption seems to be that the food will be vegetarian. So if it’s anything but that then it’s ‘non-veg’ which means meat, eggs and cheese…or something. I’ll not belabor the point of how unimaginable I personally find the concept of vegetarianism but will say that non-veg sounds like some kind of triple or quadruple negative. During brunch a clamoring for Bloody Mary’s began and so we set off to town to find ingredients. I guess clamor isn’t the right word, it was one guy but that guy has a big personality and I think is a little awesome. Before the store we stopped by to visit Sonal’s husband Haresh who was in a little clinic above a grocery store (of all things) getting an IV treatment for malaria. He told me he gets this every 15 years or so and after a few days of treatment is fine. Gulp. After the clinic, we set off in search of tomato juice and worchestchisre. We failed to find anything so we stopped at a roadside vendor and bought his whole load of tomatoes. They got chopped, vodka was added and we called it bloody mary. Don’t judge us.

In the afternoon we went shopping for clothes for all the events. Some earlier arrivers had ordered tuxedos and we stopped for a fitting at a place called Raymond’s. Raymond’s must be a chain because I saw a few around town and even a reference to it in the book from 1973 I’m reading (Great Railway Bazaar). Nice place doing all sorts of formal wear and made to measure suits and shirts. We spent the most time at an ethnic wear (their term) shop getting the kurtas (link). Shopping is a very different experience here. They brought us water, tea etc and I heard the girls were brought sandwiches and snacks. Meanwhile all our measurements were taken (video) and the clerks began slapping cellophane wrapped packages onto the counter. You basically tell the guy what sort of color you are looking for and either simple or whatever the Gujarati word is for not simple and he starts pulling down packages to which our leader would rapid fire ‘no, no, no, yes, no, no’ scanning through dozens at once. We got the whole pile put together and made a side trip through the old city to have a different tailor make me a jodpuri suit. The shop was in one of the tiny alleys of the old city and we got to watch some monkey mamas w/ babies in tow scamper down 1 side of the alley and up the other. Never been that close to a real monkey before, despite the cuddly image they portray up-close they seem mean.

I’m still not ready to talk about driving in India but driving through the old city of Vadodara was totally nuts. The streets are inches wide, lined with parked bikes/scooters/motorcycles, congested with pedestrians and somehow through all this squeeze lanes. I’m not exaggerating to say that 1 average street lane in Tucson would be 2.5 here. There are not many side mirrors and clearances between oncoming traffic is measured in mm. There was tons of cool stuff to see but I’ll cover Vadodara generally in a later note.

The girls got back late from shopping fairly exhausted, we had some standard Gujarati food and off to bed. Big first day.

Coming to Vadodara

2010-12-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

We rented a car+driver combo to take a short tour through Delhi. Our driver was super friendly but only spoke some pretty broken English so via pantomime and lots of nodding we hit a few major tourist sites before leaving for Vadodara.

India Gate is a major national pride. 12 people said this to me verbatim. It must be printed on a coin or something.

At the Humayun's Tomb we were joined by 6.5 million kids on school field trips. One of the flickr pictures shows them in an endless line. As I was walking by one of the little Sikh boys reached up and hi-fived me which I reflexively replied to. Immediately 400 little arms also went up so I high five-d the entire line like a Jonas Brother which was awesome.

We got suckered into a Kashmiri museum. You see the Kashmiris have lots of trouble right now so they pay cab drivers and hotel van operators to kidnap people and drop them by to hear about how Kashmiri rugs are awesome and Turkish/machine woven are just offensive garbage . Oh and by the way you seem interested ma'am, maybe you would like to purchase a handmade rug...free shipping? I knew this little scam existed but thought having the hotel driver would keep us out of the flim flammery. I now know better. Also Kashmiris are kind of rude and dismissive of women. Tina is not down w/ that sort of business. After sales dude shushed her 1 too many times, I removed the sheep shearing tool she stuck in his eye and we left.

There are some pictures over on the Flickr site but not much was remarkable. I mostly get bored touring around famous landmark type places. The fun of travel is in the travel and the people you meet on the way.

Off to the airport w/ our huge stack of luggage which caused a little stir but we convinced Jet Airways that because we were continuing on from an International flight we should get to carry the 40 metric tons of crap in our little trolley tower. After seeing the plane later I understood why they were concerned. I think we took the whole carrying capacity of the stupid little prop plane.

In the airport we just had time for lunch, Sophia and T got Indian. J got some 'fried chicken' at 4 Fingers according to the signage it has something do with New York, cause you know.....NY makes fried chicken. The chicken wings were bone in and were the whole wing including the tips. They were fried and served w/ a huge scoop of plain rice. Awkward to eat but mostly ok. I ate at McDonalds. I don't eat much McD at home but figured I should try it out and see the difference. Fries are the same, coke is served no ice and kinda warm and there is no beef. Instead you can feast on the awesome sounding (and > Big Mac) Royal Maharaja Mac Double Chicken Spiced Meat Sandwich. I also grabbed a paneer wrap which has no analog and was just good.

Flight was fine but we left late because a fat NRI dude inexplicably had to go back and forth from the bus that took us out to the tarmac 3 times. I learned later that an NRI is a Non-Resident Indian and that this is 'NRI Season'. Everyone comes back for weddings and such which explains the exorbitant rates on our plane tickets and the general feeling of sold-out-ness I got in booking accommodation and travel. Most NRIs are fine but a few display a nice blend of rich, pushy Indian and ugly American which is a nuclear meltdown of manners.

We collected bags and were met by the house driver who remembered Tina from previous visits. He launched into 1,000 kph Gujarati to which Tina replied "Si". It took her a minute to change gears but thank god she does still speak it fluently making everything smooth for us while in Gujarat. Tina's cousin is the one w/ the 2 kids having weddings and she is putting us up in an empty flat across the road from her place. The building is under construction but this one tower seems done and its a nice place. The shower is a bit mystifying but we have a Western style toilet so by definition are happy.

Arrival in Delhi

2010-12-28T20:56:00.001-07:00

292 from ORD to DEL (link,map) is long, longer than I thought it was possible to go in the air. We left about an hour late after some de-icing which I’ll always gladly wait for. After take off and all we were served a nice meal, of which T and the kids hardly ate anything so I had like 4 portions because I am a gluttonous idiot. A few hours later all the lights were shut off and they passed out some sack lunch type things so that everyone could nosh on their own sleep/wake schedule.

I did manage about 4 x 20 minute naps along the way which for me is pretty good. The thing is that the seats are not tall enough for me to be able to really settle in and even w/ the super specialized neck pillow I bought it was near impossible to get comfortable. I made the decision to sit with the family even though I could have gotten an exit row or bulkhead. That is not a mistake I’ll make again. I love hanging out w/ T and the kids but sitting in regular coach seats for 15 hours is not something I’ll ever do again.

To pass the time I watched a pile of movies but most notably my first 2 real Bollywood productions. I had seen pieces before but never invested the time to actually sit through one start to finish. Up first was Dabanng (link) and it was great. I don’t mean great as in actually great but great as in I was equally entertained and puzzled for like 3 hours which on a flight like that is what you want. Dabang is about a cop with RayBan Aviators (amazingly similar to the ones I brought), a top button unbuttoned to show off his muscle-y hairy chest and one of the top 5 mustaches of all time. As far as the story goes, I don’t have a clue what happened really. He may have been a dirty cop, or a slightly less dirty cop but I know he took money from robbers and shot people sort of indiscriminately. There were some good ‘bullet time’ action sequences and the big main theme song has him doing this dance w/ his belt that you can find here:. Since I have the sunglasses I will do the dance for you upon request (link note the pit stains starting at :39, :55 begins the very very very famous belt dance, 1:12 he dispenses some foot-race justice and it just keeps going)

Up next was a movie I enjoyed un-ironically. 3 Idiots is silly and good without being too much. Not gonna go into the plot cause it doesn’t matter but know that there is plenty of the quirky 'Indian' english, lots of singing and a big kiss scene at the end. If you are going to watch a Bollywood flick, watch this one. The English is great and full of ‘the needful’ but my favorite was rusticated. I took it to mean expelled but it could have meant constipated, no way to know.

The girls behind me were white, 16, in a church group and silly in a very familiar way. Evangelical Christians teens are awesome in their hardcore earnestness and loud declarations. All that scripted language about being a servant, maintaining purity blah blah blah and truly believing they have the world figured out. Without commentary on religion I'll just say that Christian or not, 16 year old humans are ridiculous.

With 3 hours to go we passed over Iraq and Afghanistan and it kind of tripped me out to think there were wars going on 35,000 feet below me and I said a little prayer to the flying spaghetti monster that the Mujahadeen didn’t have any SAMs left over from the Charlie Wilson days.

Breakfast was delivered about 2 hours before landing. Some clever chef came up with a orange, white and green main dish (India flag..get it?) that I think had some green beans, paneer and some dahl or such. Again, the family ate a fraction so I finished everyone’s food. We got the customs forms and were glad to find that we didn’t need to declare anything. Passport control was no problem and getting our bags took some time but no trouble. The 3 trolleys loaded w/ the baggage were an impressive sight and we rolled through the ‘green lane’ at customs without even a second glance from the very bored looking old man taking the forms.

In the reception hall we found the Hilton representative holding a sign w/ my name and the drivers took over from there handling all the bags. We had some tug of war over who was going to carry what but in the end I just relaxed and let them do everything. It’s a tough thing for me to just let people handle stuff but I am making a commitment now to try.

We wheeled the carts around and tried to check them in w/ Jet Airways but Jet had just cancelled/rescheduled a bunch of flights and had no interest in holding onto our bags. Fortunately the Hilton people brought 2 mini vans and with a bit of engineering everything got loaded.

Out of the airport I finally got the first taste of India, and it tasted like smoke. Despite being 11 PM there were people everywhere and the constant din of horns honking. I'll do a whole article someday on cars and driving but the shrill little 'beep' that every rickshaw and bike uses to signal all manner information is the soundtrack for this trip. The Hilton was super nice and as with everywhere we've been in India, the service was totally over the top fawning by 3-4 people at all times. Security is very tight, they checked our cars throughout when we came in the barred front gate and all our hand luggage went through an x-ray machine. Surprisingly there were Christmas decorations including giant snowmen in the lobby and a snack shop decorated as Santa's workshop selling gingerbread and paneer panini. The room was great and we all loved the shower room walled in with glass that faces in toward the bedroom. Curtains are there for modesty but its odd and we agreed it must be setup this way to allow someone to watch TV while shampooing. I also loved the 'magic' button on the phone.

Donut Wallah or the Trip Begins

2010-12-28T04:30:00.000-07:00

Up at 3:45 I packed the truck with 6 suitcases averaging 47 pounds each, 2 moving boxes tied with Dilip’s special knots and filled with gifts and wedding stuff, 3 carry on suitcases, 4 backpacks and 4 x 2.5 lb trays of Costco baklava Jackson had wrapped up in a bag and tied off with para cord to make a sort of hammock style carrier. Luckily I still have my gold status with American so we got to shortcut a few lines along the way. The lady next to us was shipping either a small camel or a large dog in a kennel big enough to park a motorcycle. The old man in front of me turned to the old lady with him and said ‘I can’t believe she is putting her kid in there’ to which she responded with a medium length tirade about how unsafe and scary that would be for the kid. I think I understood them to be siblings and from the deadpan delivery I guessed this was not the first time the brother had wound up the sis, either she was playing along perfectly or was very dense and he never delivered the punch line.

A bit of breakfast in the terminal and then the 6:45 flight to Chicago was very unremarkable. TinaB had been working nearly round the clock for the last 2 weeks to get all her paperwork in for school and the night before we left she worked the whole night through. She passed out for the vast majority of the flight. The kids were tired and did sleep some but were so jacked with adrenaline that it took a while before they zonked out. I never sleep on planes. It’s a curse to be both tall and unable to turn off one’s brain in the necessary way to suspend disbelief that somehow 2 small engines can produce enough force to keep driving this huge machine full of meat and gear through the air. I have always believed that it is my will alone keeping us flying and so to sleep would be totally irresponsible. This of course does not bode well for the long flight coming up.

Knowing we would be in Chicago for 8 hours, the AA Admiral’s Club (link) was an easy decision so we could have some quiet and a little more comfortable place to recline. A few annoying guys on phones but mostly quiet and we had fun playing board games and eating. T had our Christmas cards done so we put together an assembly line to stuff, address, stamp and seal them to be sent from the little mailbox dropbox in the terminal. During the morning me and the kids wandered up to the food court to get coffee and donuts at the Dunkin shop. The guy behind the counter was a Patel and had this little sing song Gujarati/English thing going where he would confirm your order and try to upsell everything. He sang us a song that ended with me getting a free glazed in the bag with a wink and the wobbly head (link, link = about the 11 second mark you'll see 2 of them going together) that means…well….something or nothing, definitely that or maybe.

India for me started at the gate to board the plane, I had several people smelling like body odor and odd spice mixes start the kind of vague pushing and personal-space-crowding in line that I keep telling myself isn’t rude, just Indian.

India - Mysteries of Elimination

2010-12-03T16:56:00.001-07:00

I thank this guy for posting pictures of an element of this trip that has me mildly freaked out and makes Soph threaten bodily harm. I have so, so many questions. Among them: do men squat to pee? does one take off all one's clothes so as to avoid any kind of blowback/overspray situation from the provided (I hope) hose? does one bring one's own soap, towel and hand sani w/ one each time? I don't want to know but isn't there a whole female hygenie realm complicated by this system? How do old people w/ lack of quad strength deal with this?

I'm not going to link but there are lots of internet-loud arguments about the advantage of the rinse and wash vs. wipe systems. I guess I'll soon be able to decide for myself. Remember not to shake my hand for a while, k?

http://www.pbase.com/jtodhunter/indian_toilet

India - Interstitial

2010-12-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

2 weeks until we leave and we are on schedule for most of the planning stuff. Christmas gifts are pretty well finished, still not sure how we are going to get everything over there with us but it'll work out.

There is a about a week between the weddings and so I've put together a little side trip to see some of the touristy spots. Tina's been to all these places and a part of me didn't want to see the Taj Mahal fearing that it would just be like seeing it in a picture but Jackson wisely pointed out that its a little crazy to go to India and not see 1 of the Wonders of the World so we are going.

This is what I'm thinking so far.

Good site with train info for US/UK types:
http://www.seat61.com/India.htm

Tuesday 12/28 (evening?)

Leave Vadodara for Jaipur by train

12-16 hours, some of the boarding times are at odd hours of the morning but all would include sleeping on the train. We definitely want to take a train at some point, its something the kids have never really done.

Train:
http://www.cleartrip.com/trains/results?from_city=Vadodara&to_city=Jaipur&class=2A&date=28-12-2010&adults=2&children=2&male_seniors=0&female_seniors=0

Wednesday 12/29

arrive Jaipur, check into hotel etc

some hotels I'm looking at: http://goindia.about.com/od/wheretostay/ss/palace-hotels_2.htm

3 nights, the normal sightseeing stuff and something with elephants

Thursday 12/30 play in Jaipur

Friday 12/31 play in Jaipur and New Years

Saturday 1/1 Train to Agra

Train is 4-6 hours sleep in Agra

http://www.cleartrip.com/trains/results?from_city=Jaipur&to_city=Agra&class=2A&date=1-1-2011&adults=2&children=2&male_seniors=0&female_seniors=0

Hotels:
http://goindia.about.com/od/citie1/tp/top-5-agra-accommodations.htm

Sunday 1/2 Taj , Train to Delhi Fly home

We might extend this a bit, but from what I've read Agra can mostly be seen in a day.

India - Ensure Your Luggage Will Fit

2010-11-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

As I post this we are now at 16 days, 16 hours and 16 minutes until our plan leaves Tucson and we are getting very close to ready I think. The Visas are done and the passports are now back. I've gotten some money and travelers cheques (an antiquated spelling for an antiquated product)

We have arranged for a guy w/ a sign that will pick us up in Delhi to take us to the Hilton where we have a quick overnight. The Hilton lady said we could rent a car w/ driver the next day to do a few laps around Delhi.

Luggage is a minor controversy. We fly American to Delhi and then switch to Jet Airways for the flight the next day and found out that the 8 (!) 50# suitcases we are checking can be left with Jet Airways the night before once we clear customs. I was worried about having to haul them to the hotel and back along with all our carry-ons but there is happily a system in place for this. On the topic of 8 suitcases, we are trying to do the family a solid and volunteered to bring some stuff over. Tina's pop has taken the opportunity to claim 3 of our 8 bags. We are still in negotiations on this point. To do some planning I had J and T do a prospective clothing dump so I could weigh it out. 50# is the max I get free for each bag (thanks for the status AA) and we plan to use it all. J's clothes weighed in at 22#, Sophia's a bit less and Tina's and mine at just under 50# each. This doesn't include gifts or toiletries which aren't heavy but take up tons of room. The net of it is I'm projecting 3.5 suitcases for clothes, 2 for toiletries + gifts and 2 for the family tax with a bit of leftover. So far her pops has delivered 1 full suitcase plus odds/ends and promises 2 more full boxes. I keep telling him '2 boxes totalling 100#s', we'll see.

India - No running off to Mexico for a while

2010-11-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

A Visa is required for Americans visiting India. It's all the paperwork you'd expect including an application form to which is attached (oddly required to use glue) 2 passport type photos, copy of drivers license, copy of birth certificate, all along with the ACTUAL US passport. They say they'll send it back in 7-9 days, lets hope so. Because T's dad and by extension the kids granddad is originally from there we also had to provide her Dad's naturalization paperwork and her birth certificate proving they are all related.

The whole thing is handled through a company called Travisa that does some kind of middleman role I don't fully understand. Again, I just hope they send me back my passport in the near future so I can leave the country if I decide to rob a bank or such.

India - Just a dash of virus please

2010-11-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Immunization is a probability game right? I personally believe that I'm invincible so none of it is really necessary but if I were to get scabby-ebola-typhus it would be in India right? Planning to go somewhere where the microbiology will actively try to kill you requires some prudence. The kids it seems are routinely given sufficient vaccination now that they only have to take some typhus and malaria pills close to when we go. No shots was a big selling point for them. T just had a couple on account-a she's been before (and plus she must have some like racial defense right?).

I've had to get the Hepatitis A and B (B was a series of 2 so that was awesome) and Tetanus (that bastard hurt for a week, I think it had actual flakes of rusty metal in there). Getting Polio on Friday and we take the typhus and malaria tablets closer to go time.

45 days to go, its coming fast.

India - What to Wear

2010-08-24T11:17:00.001-07:00

So we don't have the formal invite yet but did get a hilarious email inviting us to what sounds like several weeks of awesome. The table below is very intriguing to me for many reasons but not least because I have not been to an Ascot Goat Race, much less in a tuxedo.

India - Travel Data

2010-08-16T10:38:00.001-07:00

We have been hovering over buying the tickets for a while and looking at all the angles. The complexity of the trip is a function that looks like C = (HxTxB)^S where C=complexity, H=Humans x 9.73 (the universal constant of how much more work it takes going places with people), T=Total trip hours, B=# of bags, carry on and check and S= # of stops. So the math tells us to change plans as little as possible and leave 1 of the kids at home (sorry JB).

We settled on the itinerary below. Outbound its as good as we can make it, returning we just could not get straight to Delhi without making things way more expensive so we'll have to cope.

The Chicago to Delhi flight is the longest AA has, and I wonder if its the longest ever. 15 hours in the plane is pretty remarkable.
We have an overnight in Delhi and I found a Hilton nearby. I wonder about handling all of the bags during this portion but in any case we may get a chance to see a bit of Delhi in the morning.
I have never heard of Jet Airways and I can't help but think of this

8 hours in Bombay airport with a ton of bags will suck, nothing to be done about it
The return flight is a little longer from Delhi to Chicago, anything over 14 hours I guess is a wash

Outbound:

Tucson to Chicago

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

AMERICAN AIRLINES	374	TUS Tucson	Dec 16, 2010 06:50 AM	ORD Chicago	Dec 16, 2010 11:15 AM	McDonnell Douglas Super MD-80(S80)

Travel Time:	3 hrs 25 min ~ 1450 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Food for purchase

Chicago to Delhi

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

AMERICAN AIRLINES	292	ORD Chicago	Dec 16, 2010 07:35 PM	DEL Delhi	Dec 17, 2010 09:45 PM	Boeing 777(777)

Travel Time:	14 hrs 40 min ~7500 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Dinner Breakfast

Delhi to Vadodara

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

JET AIRWAYS OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS KONNECT	2601	DEL Delhi	Dec 18, 2010 05:25 PM	BDQ Vadodara	Dec 18, 2010 07:40 PM	Aerospatiale/Alenia ATR72(AT7)

Travel Time:	2 hrs 15 min ~500 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Beverage service.

Return:

Vadodara to Bombay

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

JET AIRWAYS OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS KONNECT	2006	BDQ Vadodara	Jan 09, 2011 11:15 AM	BOM Mumbai	Jan 09, 2011 12:10 PM	Boeing 737-800 Passenger(738)

Travel Time:	0 hrs 55 min ~250 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Beverage service.

Bombay to Delhi

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

AMERICAN AIRLINES OPERATED BY JET AIRWAYS	7839	BOM Mumbai	Jan 09, 2011 08:05 PM	DEL Delhi	Jan 09, 2011 10:05 PM	Boeing 737-900 Passenger(739)

Travel Time:	2 hrs 0 min ~750 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Beverage service.

Delhi to Chicago

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

AMERICAN AIRLINES	293	DEL Delhi	Jan 10, 2011 12:55 AM	ORD Chicago	Jan 10, 2011 05:00 AM	Boeing 777(777)

Travel Time:	15 hrs 35 min ~7500 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Breakfast Snack or brunch

Chicago to Tucson

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing		Arriving		Aircraft Type
		City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time

AMERICAN AIRLINES	1637	ORD Chicago	Jan 10, 2011 09:25 AM	TUS Tucson	Jan 10, 2011 12:20 PM	McDonnell Douglas Super MD-80(S80)

Travel Time:	3 hrs 55 min ~1400 miles
Economy Class Meal:	Food for purchase

India - Step 0

2010-08-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

I've never been and it's time to go. Tina's oldest cousin in Vadodara (aka Baroda) has 2 kids getting married over Christmas break and we've decided now is the time to make the big trip. Me, T and the kids (7 and 11) will be flying a little under 20,000 total miles, celebrating Christmas, 2 weddings, New Year, J's birthday and our 2 anniversaries over the span of 26 days from 12/17 to 1/10.

It seems far off now but starting up the lists of shots and clothes and packing logistics tells me that we need to get thing moving. My plan is to chronicle all of it here (including the trip of course) and to use this as a forum to complain about things and offer observations on the process.

Know 2 things: I am mildly terrified/super excited about this trip and I can say whatever I want here cause T doesn't read it. Boobs.

Infinite Summer - Uncountable

2009-07-08T14:25:00.012-07:00

Obviously I gave up on the blog posts viz. the reading. It was easy on the days that I was reading near a computer but this time through I've been reading on the Iphone Kindle and the bookmarks feature is 'ok' but frankly not great so I've resorted to some brief notes in the notes app marking the kindle location and some nonsense words. The notes are obvioulsy just for me.

I wonder how old you need to be to read the book, I think I am about the same age now as DFW was when he wrote the book and while I don't think there is a mid-life crisis as such there is a sense of grown-upness, maturity and seriousness about what things mean and what is important.

I have read alot of books and this is one of the very few book that affected me, literally spoke to me directly. In a way that is almost uncomfortable but so fantastically good, I honestly can't talk all that much about it.

The remaining notes.

7385

Marathe on USA vulnerable, ashamed re: belief

Gaudemeus Igatur

"How do trite things get to be trite? The truth is not just un but anti interesting"

8596 She wanted only tall cold bottles that spoke of proof

8726 special children's second world of chairlegs and tile that exists under long tablecloths
8833. Lamont chu and fame "The truth will set you free. But not until is is finished with you."

8839 escape from a cage requires awareness of cage

Post storm sad

8851 Lyle tells Blott not to let the weight he would pull to himself exceed his own personal weight.

8867 warm and close

10119 Old fish asking young fish how's the water

10142 Vapider the cliche the sharper canines of truth

He has that rare spinal appreciation for beauty.....those without native words

11319 my fathers mood filled a room

11470 ubrippable fabric

You are what you walk between

14961 clattering bleachers

We are more perceptive re: our lovers family than our own

25171 hot showers and toilets

25317 16s are strange

25493 endnote 337 hamlet graveyard scene

19450 Radiated vulnerability

20400 Black Nurses

Infinite Summer - 2

2009-07-07T15:31:00.002-07:00

So I am nearly caught up to pace. I'll need 60 page or so by the weekend, should be no problem.

I guess I can start adding more thoughts about context once the pace slows for now I've got:

Schitt - "We are what we walk between"

1920 - fn32 ETA motto "They Can Kill You, But the Legalities of Eating you are quite a bit Dicier"

1946 "this diagnate infinity of infinities of choice and execution, mathematically uncontrolled but humany contained, bounded by the talent and imagination of self and opponent, bent in on itself by the containing boundaries of skill and imagination that brought one player finally down, that kept both from winning, that made it, finally, a game, these boundaries of self.

Cantor of tennis....I love this section (not getting the whole math part of course though I did slog it through Everything and More) as it makes me think of basketball...a guy about to make a move has infinite options bounded only himself not as a shape but as a pattern. beautiful blobs of patterns sliding around.

1965 "A U.S. of modern A. where the State is not a team or a code, but a sort of sloppy intersection of desires and fears, where the only public consensus a boy must surrender to is the acknowledged primacy of straight-line pursuing this flat and short-sighted idea of personal happiness."

1963 - "without there is something bigger. Nothing to contain and give meaning. Lonely. Verstiegenheit - FN 36 "wandering alone in blasted disorienting territory beyond all charted limits and orienting markers"

1984 "The true opponenet, the enfolding boundary, is the player himself. Always and only the self out there, on court, to be met, fought, brought to the table to hammer out terms."

Tiny Ewell

Marathe in Tucson (area code 6026?) a tripling or quadrupling agent?

personnes qui on doit ?

Steeply - OUS

Rodney Tine - architect of ONAN, sr. cheif of Unspecified Services

ETA - little things I love like 'waiting for his feet to get dry enough to put on socks'

2334"sometimes he finds out he believes something that he doesnt' even know he believed until it exits his mouth"

Pledge

Back to Tucson

2532 'make amusement all you wish. But choose with care. You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice."

FN FN 304 feral annulaized babies, wheelchair assassins origin and the Endless Kiss game

Big buddies lectures

USS Milicient

Lyle, Yogi w/ sweat : 3031 "He's like a baby. everything he sees hits him and sinks without bubbles."

yrstruly, Poor Tony, smack and its perils

Infinite Summer - 1

2009-07-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

The schedule laid out by the organizers is below. I am behind the curve after a disastrous 4th of July trip to Mexico left me near comatose from heat exhaustion and all the reading I got done the Fwd by Dave Eggers.

Hit it hard Monday including re-reading the Fwd and the first week's assignment (something past Kindle location 1530 at the end of part in the hospital).

I should mention here that even though I own the 10 year anniv. edition in paperback I tested and loved the $9.99 kindle edition on the Iphone. The endnotes alone make it worthwhile. I like the Kindle setup so far but the subjective (?) location as opposed to page number thing is annoying.

Here are my notes and some quotes that stuck out. Locations where available:

Foreward -
I should someday read Proust I guess. I suspect it might not be worth the effort but still.

? "Your heart is sturdier"

? "Its long but there are pleasures everywhere. There is humor everywhere."

139 "a thing that will outlast him and you and me, but will help future people understand us - how we felt, how we lived, what we gave to each other and why"

Chapter 1(actually nothing is numbered) Year of Glad

Hal at UofA, flips out taken to the bathroom and the ER. Flashback to eating mold.

215 - "Right and center Deans have inclined together in soft conference, forming a tepee of skin and hair."

303 - "I can picture deLint and White sitting with their elbows on their knees in the defecatory posture of all athletes at rest"

452 - "Not for nothing did Orin say that people outdoors down here just scuttle in vectors from air conditioning to air conditioning. The sun is a hammer."

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Eredy freaking out waiting on pot

690 the whole thing about ideas floating, too long to quote.

1 April Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad

Hal with the professional conversationalist (gotta be Himself)

Entertainment stuck in Himself's brain? and accusations about Moms

9 May Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

831 "my head is filled with things to say" ... "I don't mind....I could wait forever"

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

medical attache (moms connection?) pkg from phx, this can't be Orin I don't think

Year of the Trial Size Dove Bar

Ebonically written Clenette and dem

Bruce Green and MIldred Bonk and Tommy Doocey living in a trailer

Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment

Hal and Mario at night talking about god in sports and the mom's not sad about himself dying "with me so tired my hair hurts"

October Year of the Adult Depend Undergarment

Orin and the awfulness of phx (heat, malevolent plants, sewer roaches), time lapse fetal salt shapes

first howling fantods

1136 'These worst morning with cold floors and hot windows and merciless light - the soul's certainty that the day will have to be not traversed but sort of climbed, vertically and that going to sleep again at the end of it will be like falling again off something tall and sheer"

Interlace of the paranoid re: radioactive fluids being pumped w/ radioactive fluids

Subjects

1317 Hal gets secretly high, "Like most north Americans of his generation, Hal tends to know way less about why he feels certain ways about the objects and pursuits he's devoted to than he does about the objects and pursuits themselves."

medical attache is stuck on

Autumn - year of the dairy products from the American heartland
- screw the chapter headings, they are meaningless for the notes anyway

Gately w/ the toothbrush and accidentally kills a guy

Troeltsch get sick, fever dreams

The dreams of new kids, face in the floor....'and then you wake like that quivering like a struck drum'

Himself's history (note the Tucson-ness....not particularly meaningful but its where I live so it makes me unnecesarily happy)

The f-ing list of Himself's movies, part slog, part important, part funny

Pemulis w/ little buddies and shroom presentation, dream of unmanageably huge tennis court

Gompert's in the hospital...description of depression after DFW himself's death kinda has me in a funk. That section was hard to read knowing now what we know.

1779 "I've thought sometimes before like the feeling maybe had to do with Hope'

Infinite Summer - 0

2009-07-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

http://infinitesummer.org

Sergio pointed me to this last week and I couldn't resist. I'm 1/3 of the way through Gravity's Rainbow for like the 3rd time and was making actual progress so this distraction was unwelcome but I am a) a sucker for an interesting challenge and b) a huge-er fan of D. Wallace and Infinite Jest.

Publish Post

IJ is a top 3 book for reasons I guess I'll go into later but reading it the first time was long, incredibly pleasurable and work. Given the ruinous time-sequence, multitude of plots/characters and my unfamiliarity with Quebecois Separatists politics I've always said I'd want to go back and re-read it to put things in order in my brain.

So I am starting a couple of weeks behind but its slow at work right now so I should be able to catchup.

Tyler Hansbrough NBA Career - Long Bet

2009-04-02T16:02:00.004-07:00

The debate here is if Hansbrough (link) will be an NBA player for more than 4 years. I say no, G$ says yes and so we will begin to track long bets here on the rarely used blog.

G$ has OVER 4 years (any 5 years pays) on an NBA payroll as a player betting 110 to win 100.

Spelling Bee

2009-01-12T08:57:00.001-07:00

13 kids 4-6 grades
6 girls
1 black girl, 2 hispanic boys

1 girl crying 10 mins before start

JB in 2nd position

Words:
Balcony - 3 down this round

Tutu - tons of giggles, she offered to define and JB says sure, more giggles. 2 more down this round

Hassock (missed the K at the end) 3 others gone in that round

Crier gone in round 1 ghphel for gospel

Larry King Style

2008-10-20T08:01:00.005-07:00

Found the UA line vs USC is +15, that is very enticing. I'm officially pretend betting 100 virtual dollars. My concerns are numerous but I'll be at the sold out homecoming game screaming my head off as we try to keep a streak of homecoming upsests alive against a top 10 oppenent for first place (?!?!?) in the Pac 10 with my sonand I defy you to name a better thing than that.

Concerns:
1. Actually 1-25 are variations on: RUN DEFENSE which means time of posession.
26. Grigsby getting back his confidence
27. Remembering to throw the ball to Gronkowski on every play.
28. Jordan Hill foul trouble, I know this isn't football as such but I'm getting an early jump on worrying about this.

If you are a nerd you should look at xkcd every day, if you are not a nerd you should still look at it and will probably appreciate 50%.

I'm new to the Facebook and I am fascinated by many things but today's headscratcher is the status update feature. The following from a married couple who as far as I can recall do live in the same house...together, you'll notice I cleverly replaced their names with pronouns (or something).

Husband is finished putting up Halloween decorations.
11 hours ago - 2 Comments

Wife: at 9:34pm October 19
and you did a fantastic job :)

Husband:
at 9:37pm October 19
Thanks :)

Old people sometimes embarrass themselves through their own bad ideas and sometimes by listening to people around them. I'm glad to know Lute isn't the craziest coach in bball right now. Click the pictures for links and the context is that this is Midnight Madness celebrating the 1979 Final Four run.

I'd like to celebrate our 1997 National Championship run with a throwback day where DJ's on Campbell would reopen, wing guy would make me wings, beer guy would pour me beer, my order would be hopelessly screwed up and I could watch the most exciting 3 nights of basketball of all time with good friends.

El Tour Training Ride #1 9-28-08

2008-10-07T14:23:00.004-07:00

Did the El Tour training ride with Chill and GABA on Sunday. I had never ridden in a pack before and it took some getting used to. A big upside was in always having someone to chase and set pace from. I still believe that drafting works but can in no way prove it. If I ride on someone's wheel I spend more time thinking about not crashing into them than riding.

We rode with some people Chill knew and I did what I could to keep up but the Craycroft hill climb dropped me badly. I am still learning about optimum gears to use and I think

Data

Up at 5 to have enough time to get dressed and have time for a bit of food. I take a silly amount of stuff on bike rides but I don't think there is any I would leave behind. Before I ate I weighed in at 257 (252 on the return).

I'm guessing I had about 280 calories right at an hour before exercise consisting of a small bagel and 3/4 cup of yogurt. I also probably had half a bike bottle (11 oz ish) during the morning.

I took a Camelpack with about 50 ounces of water of which I took in about 34 ounces during the ride. I had an extra 24 oz bottle just in case but didn't touch it.

I figured 3 hours for the ride (40 miles ~15 mph with some reserve) is 7.5 scoops of Perpetuem (per the chart for a @ 250 lbs. dude) and filled the bottle with about 10 oz. of water. It combined pretty well as long as I shook it up well before drinking it. I took a gulp about every 15 minutes and chased it with water. The taste was fine but the texture was a little gross. Chasing people faster than me throughout the morning was hard work but I never felt out of gas. I can compare this against the first time I went ~40 miles and took 0 calories during (yes, I am a moron) the ride and bonked badly at the end.

I'm happy with the overall pace I rode and definetly happy with the gear I brought in terms of water and fuel. In fact another 40 miles I could definetly do without the camelback and instead just fill the bottle at the turnaround point.

View Larger Map

Who is the famous-est?

2008-09-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today I had luch with James van der Beek. He was very polite and we had a brief conversation about an available table. So this summer I've bumped into 2 famous people (see the Morgan-freaking-Spurlock episode from Vegas) and im wondering who is the most famous. JVB has the teen thing from the Dawson Creek but MS had a movie about big macs. MS is certainly better known to me but I assume JVB would famouser. I had no intrest in asking for an autograph so I took a sneaky phone pic from a mile away so there would be n doubt this happened.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?eosr=on&q=wiki+james+van+der+beek&source=m&hl=en&ei=1vDPSLC6EYLkmwOW7Z_SAg&sa=X&oi=blended&ct=res&cd=1&rd=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJames_Van_Der_Beek

NYC 2008 Day 4

2008-07-17T07:22:00.009-07:00

Our last full day in the city and we made it a big one.

Breakfast in the hotel and then took 2 trains to the American Museum of Natural History. We were joined on the train by some kids from a YMCA day camp and their counselors. The counselors (teenagers themselves) kept constantly counting to make sure they had the right number of kids. I think they counted Jackson in there a few times causing some head scratching at having too many. I was surprised that the back door to the museum (cool mosaics)was accessible directly from the subway. We missed seeing the big impressive lobby until the end when we went out that way. In the lobby is a dinosaur with a neck too long to ever have been real. I'm beginning to wonder about this whole dinosaur thing honestly. Maybe the christians are right after all.

The museum is pretty old school and if you've seen Night at the Museum you get the idea in general. All of the animal stuff was very cool but the geology section is totally not interesting, rocks just don't move me. The science\space area was really great and we watched a show about things crashing into the Earth narrated by Robert Redford. I'm a sort of jaded entertainment consumer but this really blew me away. The round theater experience was totally immersive and everyone loved it.

For lunch we caught a train down to Katz deli which is about 700 kinds of awesome. Un-awesome is the fact that 'When Harry Met Sally' was filmed here and they have a big sign indicating where Sally sat to ENJOY her sandwich. We followed the general advice here (scroll down to Lower Eastside Excursion) and were made happy. The counters really are 5 deep and it wasn't even busy apparently. They have a system to keep gawkers out where you get a ticket upon entry and they total up your purchases on that ticket as you order stuff. After eating you are then funneled out through the payment chute and have to present the ticket to pay. I think it was like $10 if you had a blank ticket. Its one of those funny situations where they don't have a good sign explaining the system but instead pay a dude to sit on a stool by the door and repeat the same thing over and over and over all day long.

The food was awesome, the pastrami just melted in the mouth and the pickles were killer. Tina almost didn't get pastrami but after the cutter gave us a taste she was hooked. There are 4 or 5 cutters, each with his own line. You elbow your way to the front and make your order. It was kind of expensive but 3 sandwiches plus pickles were way more than our team could eat.

Down the street for the egg cream mentioned in the linked post above. I was glad we tried it but it was underwhelming. I don't drink alot of straight milk but the kids and Tina do and none of us loved this. I'm glad we tried it because its allegedly very New York-y.

Caught a cab to get us back to the train station, it was pretty hot and the kids were beginning to wilt. Unfortunately I again made the mistake of assuming that all trains run both directions. Sometimes you can take a certain train going one way but not take it back the other from a given stop. We had to fudge a bit to get back but eventually got to the museum to make it through the Horse exhibit. It was fine but I'm tired of museums for a while now.

Across the street from the museum was Central Park. We had skirted it previously but now decided to cruise through, get some ice cream and generally hang out. We wound up by The Lawn (link) where people were being very picturesque playing frisbee, softball etc. I think we stayed about an hour just lounging under a tree cooling off and napping. Ok, I was the only one napping, the kids were digging something and playing with the dogs that people were walking. On the way out we watched some pickup basketball on an outdoor court. I expected pickup ball to be like amazing here but it was totally a game I could have played in and that made me irrationally happy. I think I mentioned this to Tina about 400 times over the course of the next 2 hours.

A cab over to Anthony Bourdain's place Les Halles. This was in part driven by the boy's request to go some place 'fancy where they have smaller sizes and more presentation'. I'm thinking he might be a chef someday.

Its a nice place, dimly lit with dark wood, kinda hip but not overly anything really. Background music was present but not too loud and of particularly good quality. As if someone with generally good taste brought in their ipod and hooked it up on random play.

Starters:
Brie topped with honey & cracked black pepper, roasted and served on croutons
Snails in garlic butter
Assiette de Charcutailles ( you know, the one with various meats)

Entrees:
Steak, Frites, Salad
Moroccan lamb sausage, french fries, salad

Cheeses:
There were alot and they were good. I made no notes on this because my daughter ate it all before I had a chance to react.

NYC 2008 - Day 3

2008-07-02T19:31:00.015-07:00

Wednesday July 2

Still kind of beat from the prior night's adventure we slept in a little and so did not beat the rush to breakfast and had a short wait. Next up was the M&M store which we promised the kids we'd get to after they spent 2 nights freaking out over while watching the billboard from our window. Its an awful place. Everything costs alot, they play terrible, saccharine pop music at jet engine decibel levels. We spent money, took pictures and got M&Ms. I don't really want to talk about it any more.

From there we headed uptown to the Met stopping on the way for a bit of baked stuff and coffee in place of lunch. The upper east side looks like it does on tv, rich people with tiny dogs in apartments with doormen.

The Met is an impressively large place and a total maze inside. We spent a little time going through some egyptian stuff at the beginning and then headed for the Arms/Armor (what did you think the 9 year old boy would pick?). The collections are documented pretty well and the scope of what they have is really impressive. Just to name a few:pre-Crusader stuff, Renaissance European, some non-European (Indian, Tibetan and Japanese in particular), amazing wheelock/flintlock, combo sword/knife guns and some fully decked out out armored horses sporting armored knights with lances. It was all very amazing but there was a group of Germans there and somehow hearing German spoken in the context of military weaponry gives me pause.

From there we decided to spend some time (turned out to be all the rest of the time) in the modern art sections. I bet we saw 15% of the whole place in the 5 hours we were there.

We started up on the roof where they had some Jeff Koons stuff. I'd seen a thing about him so am vaguely aware of what he's about. I was initially kind of dismissive (my art appreciation-fu is not strong) but hes kinda growing on me.

Both pieces are pretty big and at first its just a big balloon dog...but up close when you really look at it, its an amazing piece of craftsmanship. I'll have to think some more about what I think a giant ballon dog 'means' but if nothing else its easy to enjoy this on the level of an interesting thing made awesomely.

From there we went down into the museum proper and cruised around. I made scribbly notes in the margin of my crossword and found images of some of what I liked below.

Susan Rothenburg - Galisteo Creek

Chuck Close- Mark

Must be seen to really get the full value. It seems pixelated here but in person looks like a photograph. Amazing

Kusama - B. 62

A red painting that looked like dragon scales, can't find it online

David Smith - Beca

Up close the etched wavy lines seemed 3D and in motion

Bridget Riley - Blaze 1

link

Joel Shapiro - (didn't catch the name on this)

Sophia loved this one

Sol Levitt 13/3

Picture does not do it justice. The shadows and light made this simple set of boxes totally amazing. I probably wandered around this one almost as long as the Kapoor one.

Marco Reille - The Battle

Can't find it online, it was on the wall next to Pollock (who I'll freely admit to having no use for) and I really want to see it again. It reminded me of 'the scream' but like 100 of that guy all sort of woven together. I'm sure I wrote it down wrong.

Matta - Being With

Tina hated this one because the dudes seem like they are being tortured, which I guess they are. I liked that it had alot of depth (literally I mean) I kept seeing little things further back in the background. I get the torture stuff but I saw it more about a big machine that sort of eats us up.

Jasper Johns - White Flag

Kenneth Noland - Magic Box

Sophia loved this one, can't figure out which it was from him but here is our picture:

Anish Kapoor - Untitled

Kinda hard to explain but here is a picture...sort of. Its like a concave piece of metal made of small scales maybe 1" by 1". standing dead center in front of it bends all the sound from the room around you kind of like you hear it going past you but you are no longer in the room. The scales also reflect strangely so that at most angles you don't see anything but a shine until you find just the point and then its like seeing a fly's eye seeing you. Totally freaking loved this.

Kandinsky - Garden of Love

Chuck Close - Lucas

Again...so different in person. This is a huge grid where he did a sort of color by numbers deal putting colors into the squares to replicate a photograph. The picture is like 8' tall and frankly terrifying.

Picasso - Girl Asleep at the Table

Dali - Madonna

This is like one of those mall paintings (oh pipe down art guy) where you can get different pictures dpending on how you focus your eyes.

Max Bechman - Beginning

After all this we headed over to Plataforma for dinner. Tina and the kids had never been to a Rodizio so we thought to give it a shot. The place was fine but lost on a little family who aren't big enough to really eat their weight. We had Caipirinha's which were nice. I didn't bother to take any notes, the salad bar was all great and mostly not salad. Most of the meat they brought was between fine and good and we hated the yucca flour salsa combo. It was a nice time but hugely expensive and not at all worth it. If I was 21 I could have eaten enough to pay for all of us...now I am old.

We had a relatively early night and watched Nim's Island which Sophia liked but wasn't very good.

NYC 2008 - Day 2

2008-07-01T20:51:00.005-07:00

Tuesday (July 1)

After a late night we got up late breakfast at the Doubletree. I still have a little status there so we got breakfast for free. It was a nice enough buffet, the fruit was all fresh and the bacon had been cooked in the recent past. There was a sort of short-order cook doing waffles, pancakes, omlettes and fried eggs. He was a great guy and made me good food. I noticed that very few other people tipped him which is a shame since he is making great stuff to order and most of the tourists on line were probably free-rolling breakfast anyway. Jerks.

We had some subway issues...the train doesn't always go where I want it to but the Bangladeshi guy running the newsstand got us on the right line. I should also mention here that I bought my daily new york times from him as I will be trying to complete the puzzle everyday. As you may know from the movie Wordplay or just general nerdliness the puzzles printed in the nyt get harder from Monday to Sunday. I'm pretty good up to Wednesday though Wednesday is not always a sure thing. I have completed 1 Sunday puzzle in my short career but had to look up 2 words to put the last 2 letters in. Anyway I thought it would be soooo special to do the nyt crossword in ny...like in ny with an actual nyt paper get it? Monday was no problem and I was cruising on Tuesday but left it on a subway someplace and had to redo the whole thing to finish the last 25%.

We got off the train way, way downtown under Trinity church and walked by the WTC site. You couldn't see much and frankly I don't like going down there anyway. We took a brief trip through Trinity church and the tiny graveyard. Its an amazing place right in the middle of the canyons of skyscrapers. If not for all the dead people it would be as Tina said 'a great place to eat lunch outside every day'.

From there down a few blocks to Battery Park to get the ferry over to the statue. Battery park was full of people doing portraits and selling knick knacks. There were 2 of those silver dudes that stay motionless and then do the robot thing. They were in the full sun and it was hot and humid. Insane.

Fortunately this was one piece we had planned well and Tina had a reserved spot for us on the ferry and statue tour. The other schlubs had to wait in a 1 hour line in the freaking heat. We went through an airport style screening before getting on the boat and then another before going into the statue. You can't take anything bigger than a purse so I had to drop the backpack in the rental locker which was slick because it used fingerprint scans instead of a key to manage access. The security before the statute itself was the airpuff type. All the women wearing skirts/dresses giggled and blushed when the air hit them. Not sure why. Jackson got pulled out of line for having a hackey-sack in his pocket. They were cool about it but it makes me wonder what sort of corrosive chemicals are in what is obviously a chinese import.

If you haven't been to the statue I don't want to spoil it but its not as tall as you think. Not even close. It is still awesome and if you have any sense of history etc. you'll enjoy being there. Just saying it didn't freak me out climbing to the observation deck. Amazing views of Manhattan and NJ and also out the toward the bay where there were dozens of cargo ships lined up. The observation deck is not very wide so everyone is really scrunched together. A nice Aussie family in Harley Davidson t-shirts took a picture for us and we returned the favor. We also met a nice teacher from Miami that travels the world with here little kid (maybe 8) during the off times from school. That is kind of cool but I can't imagine how she affords it. We talked Scandinavia a bit her and the 2 Norwegian high schoolers over her au pare-ing.

Next the ferry takes you over to Ellis island. It was kind of late in the day so we just hit the highlights of the museum. They had some great 3-D graphical representations of demographic data on immigrants and a flag that was people on one side and a flag on the other. We also watched a movie about the immigrant experience narrated by Gene "Hoosiers" Hackman that left most of the audience misty. It's one thing to hear about how hard it was to get here and how great it was to see the statue. Its something else to hear a guy talking about having a life here that is not even possible to dream of back home and how by being here he came to believe that literally anything is possible. Personally I just had some dust in my eyes I think.

The one downside to this long hot part of the trip is the line standing. I know I've said it one million times but walking is for suckers and I can't stand getting herded around like cattle. There is alot of that on this trip but I'm not sure how to avoid it, that said its a requirement that you go.

Back to Battery Park to take the train so far uptown that we are going to leave Manhattan and visit the Bronx. This was a bad idea and I am damn lucky that it didn't end badly. We switched trains at one point and met a really friendly 'spanish' guy. I enquote-ify that because it took us a minute to sort out what he meant by 'spanish' food when he was making recommendations. In NY apparently 'spanish' is someone who speaks spanish and eats food from Puerto Rico. Once we had that sorted out he recommended a couple of places and warned me to be careful in the neighborhood I was venturing into. He also told me not to drink too much water, recent scienctifical (sic) thinking is that 8 cups is too much and it swells your internal organs or something. Not sure how to evaluate this so consider yourself on notice.

When we got off the train at 182nd and Gran Councourse it quickly became apparent that we would be taking a stroll through the hood to get to dinner. I encourage you to take a street view of the walk. It was fascinating. I'm pretty sure we saw 3 junkies freshly fixed staggering around. There were cops standing in pairs on several corners and everywhere were people sitting on stoops staring at the well-dressed (we were going to dinner after all) obvious tourists stomping around. No one hassled us we just got weird looks. Several times a black car would slow menacingly near us and honk his horn twice. I later found out these were gypsy cabs that could have saved us a 1 mile walk through the heat but no regrets of course. The first set of crazies we encountered were sitting outside what was a clearly labeled halfway house. These 5 women had probably 6 teeth between them and were caring on an animated screaming match prominently featuring the f-word. Did I mention I have my 2 kids (9 and 5) on this walk with me? no? Yeah...moving on. About 2 blocks away just when we though we'd made it a reallllllllly stoned/drunk guy took up station on the port wak and followed without talking for half a block. Finally I turned and said hello and accepted his offer to shake hands (obviously not a great move but keeping him civil seemed wise) and he eventually continued muttering and drifted away.

We made it to Roberto's finally and it was exactly what I wanted. Roberto (I later discovered) was on a cell phone in check chef pants and black jacket screaming in engtalish (english+italian+spanish) at what seemed to be a cook that didn't show up for work. It was a caricturare of an italian guy screaming at someone with the cigarette pasted on the lower lip just flailling wildly to keep the non phone hand free to make that gesture (upturned palm, fingers together like you were balancing an egg) for em-a-phas-a-sis. Inside it was more upscale than a red-check tablecloth red-sauce place (which I do like and would like to have found a good example of but didn't) but not overdone. It was kept dark and seemed to be filled with neighborhood types because many at the tables seemed to know each other. Roberto made the rounds throughout the night and sat down with several tables to chat. The hostess was a college senior, very cute and friendly who before we left made us a list of places to have lunch near the park the following day. Other than the people selling tickets on trains who were universally jerks we found the people we talked to to be incredibly friendly and hospitable. NYC gets a bad rap imo.

We got a table in the back and started with the Calamari e gamberi alla griglia ( Grilled calamari and shrimp served over a mesclun salad and drizzled with virgin olive oil and lemon) which the waiter divided up from the common plate he brought out. I don't prefer this method when eating with the kids but I appreciate that its their style and its fine. The calamari was really excellent, very fresh with just a hint of oil and lemon. None of the rubbery texture you get sometimes and I had to arm wrestle the 5 year old for the little tentacle-y bits. The shrimp were tiny but not overcooked which is easy to do and the salad and dressing was nice and light. A good refreshing start.

For dinner Sophia and Tina got specials and Jackson and I ordered off the menu. I had the Vitello piccante (Veal scallopine with hot cherry peppers and white wine sauce) which while good was a mistake. I'm a sucker for spice and big flavors and this was just some nice veal in a nice white wine with some pickled cherry peppers on top. It tasted like something i could make and that is fine but I expect a little more from a chef. The dish had no subtletly. There were 20 other things I wanted to get and they all would have been better. I am a jerk.

Jackson had ' Orecchiette con salsiccia e broccoli di rapa (Orecchiette with Italian sausage and broccoli rabe sautéed in garlic and oil)' but they subbed orecchiette for another name I couldn't catch. All the pasta was homemade and this was like orzo kind of but longer. They were very dense and a little flour-y (dumpling-esque?). A plate of that would make you gain 20 pounds. The sausage was very homemade had just a hint of some mild herb flavor that went great with the rabe. Btw, until this trip I had never heard of broccoli rabe but it turns out I loved it. Looking forward to trying the roast pork with broccoli rabe in Philly when we get back. The sauce was very light and not in the way at all. The only criticism of this dish was that this particular pasta was too heavy and kept us from finishing much. I even took some back to the hotel for a midnight snack but was stuffed after about 5 bites.

Tina had foil wrapped pasta with marscapone, artichoke, tomatoes and onions. I think it had a light kind of pesto and was very tasty.

Sophia had a plate of homemade ravioli stuffed with blue cheese and a sort of asparagus puree which sounded weird (the puree not the cheese) with a cream sage sauce. This was outstanding. The pasta melted in your mouth and the funkiness of the bluecheese went great with the sage-yness of the cream sauce. I didn't really taste much of the puree but I didn't care a bit. We fought for the scraps and licked the plate. We really should have ordered it again.

We had some wine with dinner (I took a pictue with the phone but the phone is now broken) which we liked and I even mixed some with water for the kids which they both liked. It was a super tuscan but thats all I remember. Stupid phone.

For Dessert the girls got Tiramisu (Light composition of Pavesini biscuits in a coffee liqueur mixture then layered with rich mascarpone and sprinkled with cocoa.) Jackson had Tartufo (Chocolate ice cream envelops a heart of vanilla with chocolate chip sprinkles) and I had the Bricciolata (Specialtv crumb cake made with Amaretto, chocolate chunks, fresh ricotta cheese & sliced almonds served with Hazelnut Gelato). My gelato was silly, it was a top 5 dessert of my life. The crumb cake was also outstanding, moist and delicious.

So as not to take any chances we had the waiter get us a cab to get to the subway stop. The ride back was uneventful except for the drunk guy in a kind of half squat near the door for the first 4 stops. He looked like he was going to poop on the floor but had fallen asleep and somehow perfectly balanced himself so that he didn't even rock with the train. It was very zen. After him we got crazy repeating guy. He got on and began addressing the train though not loudly saying "whatever, Americans say whatever" over and over again but changing inflection some each time so it sounded like a conversation. He would occasionally riff onto short bridges of "don't follow her she don't love you no more" or "smell of coffee, I like the smell of coffee".

NYC 2008 - Day 1

2008-07-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Monday morning was the first day of vacation for me. We got off to a slow start but eventually returned the car to the Enterprise in some little place that isn't Trenton, NJ but I'll call it Trenton because I am now totally out of patience with the whole township/burrough/city/town/county thing that I may begin to rant.

The friendly man from the car rental place drove us to the train station in the tiny PT cruiser with our 2.5 huge suitcases. I have a good sense of direction but I could not retrace a step of the route he took interchanging between highways, state routes, turnpikes etc. The unhelpful counter lady sold us tickets on the NJ Transit NE Corridor train and we got on a mostly empty train to NY Penn station. Don't get off at Newark Penn Station because you would be in the wrong state and city. Just FYI. We shared the train with some guys who sell weed for a living and they spoke loudly about the same. To prevent the children from listening I made Jackson read a book and I played his Lego Indiana Jones game on the DS.

Arrive in NY and begin to schlep the bags around (gotta say schlep cause thats what people in NYC do in the movies) to find the taxi stand. About 30 seconds into the trip we come across 2 guys screaming obscenities at each other across 2 escalators. I couldn't sort out the root of the argument but there were several suggestions to perform anatomically impossible or at the very least unsanitary acts. Several suggestions. Loudly.

Living out west it still amazes me how many cars can fit across what would be 1 lane. Our cab driver had the magic squeeze button that could suck the sides in to put us between a cab and a bus and was not afraid to use it.

We stayed on the top (43rd) floor of the Doubletree right in the heart of Times Square and it was a zoo at all times. I'd imagine its kind of expensive but we used points so didn't feel the sting. Overall it was a perfect place for us. The suite had a fold out queen sized bed in one room and a separate bedroom for me and Tina. I'm not looking forward to when the kids are slightly bigger and not able to share a bed any longer. Not sure what people do in that case other than getting 2 rooms. The staff was all very friendly and we got 4 of the infamous cookies plus a kid's pack for each kid upon arrival. After check in and cleanup we just did a couple hours of walk about including Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's, the Atlas statue that I like and heading down for the NY Public Library. From there we hopped trains to Chinatown.

This was my first time in Chinatown and it was really struck by how foreign it was. I literally could have been in another country. I'm making these little walking maps which would be good with a street view but not sure how to mash those together. Anyway I had done some research and decided to go for a place next to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for obvious reasons. The walk from the subway was fascinating and we passed a dozen Peking duck shops that on reflection might have been a better play but in any case had display windows chock full of odd looking pieces of fowl/pig. The smell of Chinatown is pretty unique because you have the fishmonger shops with their ice pans draining onto the sidewalk mingling with the bags of trash that are left on the street for pickup ( I assume) nightly. Add to that the produce stands everywhere selling lichis, dragon fruit, coconuts and all manner of strange asian fruits.

We wandered a bit soaking it all in and eventually got to the place. Its now called Shanghai Kitchen and used to be Moon House. There were about 10 tables mostly full and 100% asian. Ours was the only english being spoken so I kinda thought I was in the right place. We started with a communal bowl of hot and sour soup that was not spicy in the least but was exactly the right amount of sour. Delicious. For dinner we got some veggie noodles, Chow Fun noodles with beef, orange chicken, some kind of kung pao variation that featured broccoli stems and was billed as super hot but wasn't very spicy at all. The bill was $30....AFTER a %20 tip. I thought about coming back every day. The food was excellent and our seat near the dumb waiter fascinated the kids (and um..me) to no end. I love chow fun and this was the 2nd best I've had. I still love the Crispy Fry in Emeryville but whatever it is they do at the Fry to make the beef so tender and delicious was well replicated at the S. Kitchen. The plate was overall kinda greasy but so flavorful and the beef had maybe a hint of curry. The only thing it was missing was some heat even though I ordered it spicy. Both the chicken dishes used dark meat which is alot more flavorful. The orange chicken had lots of fresh orange slices along with some fried rind, it looked smelled and tasted great. The kung pao was only disappointing in lack of spice. The nuts broccoli and sauce were all outstanding. The veggie noodles were kind of forgettable but what do you expect from food without meat?

Next up was the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I'd seen several references to it as a must stop kind of place so we stopped. They had a good selection of standard ice cream and sorbets along with some nice asian flavors. We got lichi, mango, green tea and tangerine plus a couple of shirts for the kids which are pretty fantastic.

We wandered some more and finally got back on the train for home. It was a long day but the kids did a great job trooping all over and I considered it a wild success.

The Neeful Part 3

2008-06-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday (6/28) was a drive into Philadelphia for me to do some sightseeing with the family. Did I mention we have a purple PT cruiser? Its basically the perfect little in town car for my team of 4. We spent the morning at the Franklin Institute which is a very cool hands-on museum for kids. The first part was a Pirates exhibition. This guy actually dug up a pirate ship and found actual booty and its now sitting (the booty not the ship) in a glass case for me to look at, impressive. The rest was pretty standard fare: a gigantic room-sized heart that you can walk through, airplane experiments, awkward teenagers holding plasticized monkey brains out for children to fondle. There was also a cool sports room with a rock wall, virtual soccer goalie training, reaction time tester in a mock drag racer (my best was 12 ms and JB got a 3) and a vertical leap tester. Not to make too big a deal of this but this picture makes it look like I can kind of jump. I'm framing it.

After the museum we navigated over to Jim's Steaks (the Center City location) for my cheese-steak experience. The ended up not having the roasted pork on the menu and its not the kind of place where you ask a-lot of questions (late addition: I am an idiot who cant' read... the roast pork is at Tony Luke's). We waited in the line of about 50 people (we were there at 3 Pm hoping to miss the rush and apparently this was a light volume) for a couple of steaks and a hoagie. You order the steak before the hoagie but lets knock out the hoagie first.

It took forever to make. The guy moved like molasses and since the hoagie is like an afterthought at this place I think put their slowest guy on this station. The rolls they use are great, a little texture on the outside but then soft and fluffy inside perfect for soaking up juice. I think the meat was cappicola, prosciutto and some just boiled ham type thing (imagine Tina's horror). The hot/sweet peppers, salt/pepper, mayo, tomatoes etc. were all great and this would have been a great sandwich if it had not prevented me from eating my cheese-steak for 10 minutes.

For the steak portion you tell the man cooking the steak what you want (see previous post for the lingo), we went with 1 wiz and one provolone. The guy has an impressive volume of food on the griddle at all times and clearly is an experienced pro knocking out steaks at about 10 second intervals each one identically sized and with customized topping combos. You have to tip the man for the pleasure of watching him work. In the back you can see the other guys slicing the meat. There is a regular meat slicer but set to an impossibly thin setting and a kind of basket that catches the molecule-width steak and creates probably 2 lb stacks of meat in slightly offset piles so that Griddle man can scoop a known amount of steak onto the griddle when he needs to refill. Many cows meet their end at this place, I was awed. He keeps a pile of onions and peppers caramelizing right next to the steak and is like a Benihana chef with the metal spatula making a quick chop and scoop move to fill the steak. I could go on for hours about how much I loved standing at this counter watching an awesome thing being made awesomely.

As for the steak itsef this guy really says it all. The chopped texture IMO allows each bite of steak to be fully integrated with wiz and meat sauce. The bread texture is really perfect, holds the juices so that the last quarter of the sandwich kind of makes your head explode with happiness.

I plan to try some others next week when we get back toward Philly but this was pretty damn great and I'm officially putting it on the list of Places That Rock.

On the way back to the car we stopped into a little deli/bakery (Famous 4th), which was an accidental find and turned out to be great coffee (fresh ground) and amazing pastries. They are deservedly famous for the cookies and the rugelach (wow, there alot of ways to spell that I had no idea) was amazing.

After leaving to walk back to the car I noticed a weird guy in the second floor window across the street looking up and down the block with tiny binoculars. The camera was packed so I couldn't get a shot but it seems he is a fixture because on the google street view I'm pretty sure you can see him in the window. From that link go to full screen and look at the rounded corner window on the right. Anyway, he was a creepy dude.

That section of town was pretty funky and interesting, by funky I mean a million tatoo/piercing options and by interesting lots of great looking ethnic restaurants. Could be all tourist setup I guess but I would go back.

Next up is drive over to another foi's house for a home cooked Indian meal. I'm gonna need some time to put together all the notes on the Indian food we are eating, Tina has a notebook with recipes and notes but its in at least 3 languages and I'm not even so good with english.

Before the trip I got Tina a new phone as we are migrating over to AT&T. I wanted something PDA-ish but small for her but that had internal GPS for a backup to the general use of google maps on all our wanderings. The samsung blackjack ii has been a nice little phone. No complaints so far except that GPS kills the battery fairly quickly and couldn't get the satelites through the roof of the PT cruiser most times. Using it to get a fix on location though is great and the Locate Me feature in google maps that works off of cell towers is usually plenty when you are totally lost.

I mention this right now because any machine is only as good as the data we give it. To get to foi's house we pulled up directions 'from here' to 'contact address' and headed out. The problem was that she lives on Forrest drive as opposed to the Forest drive we had stored. The mailman can figure it out as she has gotten mail before but the little phone map sent us to a very nice house with a very nice family who were not at all Tina's and totally refused to make us any Indian dinner. A few miles away we got to the right spot and I at a silly amount of crazy hot food. We had to open all the windows during the cooking process because the kids were starting to choke/wheeze/cry that they couldn't breath for the chili fumes. Good times. After dinner we took the kid's to Friendly's for ice cream which seemed to be a corporate and ghetto mix of Tucson's Austin's. The place was filthy, the waitress sucked, the people at the table next to us were overfed/loud/NJ jackasses eating waffle fries and sundays at 11 PM on a Sat. night plannng their trip to the strip club. Oh and the ice cream wasn't great.

Saturday night and Sunday day was at another uncle's place. He has 2 girls and a boy who have all gotten married in the last year or so. They are all staying together while the 2 new husbands (from India) get all their work stuff setup. We did a short Valley Forge trip in the morning but the oppressive wet heat kept us from touring too far. The re-enacter guy who had all his kit laid out for like a demo was particularly unfriendly. E. Coast people are an odd lot.

From there we were meant to drive back to Newtown, PA for a night of staging before the NYC adventure but we got lost again when I couldn't get to the N. bound lane quick enough to make the PA turnpike and we got stuck in a morass of little country roads that were all under construction and not showing as such on our map. We cursed the phone but really not its fault. We also ran a turnpike payment stop when I got stuck in the Fast pass lane and some jackass tried to kill me when I went to merge to the cash lane. I assume I'll get a bill someday but whatever.

The Needful Part 2

2008-06-26T19:47:00.004-07:00

Tina and the kids have been spending the days messing around: Monday was berry picking, Tuesday was a kid's museum, Wednesday was the aquarium.

So I didn't work much on Monday (Baker, Mouth, Out) but the rest of the week is pretty much the usual pace. Getting used to the time zone is strange. The account I'm working now is in Denver so MT, AZ is currently on PT (back an hour) and I am currently on ET (Denver +2) so my annoying 7 AM call (AZ time) now starts promptly at 10 AM (ftw!!!1!1). Granted we don't go to bed early but I'm rolling out of bed every morning promptly at 7:45 having a leisurely shower, shave breakfast etc. and am still at my desk 90 minutes before Denver even starts to come online. No one is the wiser unless they check my ST status and see "Working from the Needful".

Dinner is pretty late out here but I don't know if thats just this house or everybody. The sun goes down at like 8:30 and I don't think we've finished dinner before 9:30 even once. I do know that we are always done by 9:45 because that is when we watch the Hindi soap Doli Saja Ke which you can find all over Youtube and is some amazing stuff. Keep your Mexican telenovellas, this stuff is corny like off the charts. My daughter and I speak no Hindi and everyone is too engrossed to explain it to us (and not afraid to shush me and the 5 year old) so we have created our own names for the characters and plot lines for everyone. The music is pretty obvious for the heavies and they do an awesome 'dun dun dun' camera shake deal when some one is shocked to learn the revealing truth about something, or whatever. Great fun.

Tina is filling a notebook with recipes and instructions so she can cook me some Indian food when we get home .........or so she can carry on family traditions or whatever. I am to report back to the foi (thats paternal aunt if you weren't paying attention to the earlier primer) on how well she is feeding me. Did I mention I love it here?

I plan on doing some sightseeing myself in Philly this weekend and having a real cheesesteak experience. There are the famous Geno's and neighboring Pat's (best website) along with some recommendations for Dalessandro's but I'm going to try for Jim's and get a cheesesteak plus pork sandwich (dude, I've been eating at a vegeterian house all week...I'm due). Rick's has a great how to order site and this freaking guy is my hero.

The Needful Part 1

2008-06-26T12:41:00.004-07:00

I love maps. I liked paper maps back in the day and now I'm a google map/earth super dork. One day while playing with the maps at my home office I had a burst of inspiration. I work from home and home is just where my internet connection is so home is really wherever there is internet so home is really everywhere and therefore I can work from everywhere. You can't argue the logic so far. I also realized that Tina and the kids are out of school for the summer and its kind of a waste of time to just hang out in Tucson when its 100+ daily. Adding this all up I decided we should go on a huge cross continent road trip. I would break the trip into chunks and drive a few evenings a week. We would stay mostly with family but also use the Hilton points (we do all our family bidness on an Amex card that racks Hilton points) for intermediate stages. Everyone loved the idea (by that I mean my son.....and pretty much just us) so I laid out a rough plan and map including dates and everything. That trip got whittled down to Tina's version which is fly to PA, stay with family for a few weeks in PA and NJ and do some sightseeing in the area (mainly Philly and NYC). I'm ok with baby steps I guess but the big trip is still out there...someday. Anyway this will be my journal of the trip that actually was (scroll down past the trip that might have been).

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Tuesday	Jul 1	5pm	Drive Tucson to LA
Thursday	Jul 3	5pm	Drive LA to SF
Sunday	Jul 6	12pm	Drive SF to NV
Monday	Jul 7	8am	Drive NV to Yellowstone
Wednesday	Jul 9	1pm	Drive Yellowstone to Denver
Thursday	Jul 10	8am	Drive Denver to Wichita
Monday	Jul 14	5pm	Drive Wichita to St. Louis
Tuesday	Jul 15	5pm	Drive St. Louis to Chicago
Thursday	Jul 17	5pm	Drive Chicago to Cleveland
Friday	Jul 18	5pm	Drive Cleveland to Pennsylvania
Wednesday	Jul 23	12pm	Drive Norristown to Richmond
Thursday	Jul 24	5pm	Drive Richmond to Knoxville
Friday	Jul 25	5pm	Drive Richmond to Knoxville

Friday	Jul 25	5pm	Drive Richmond to Knoxville
Saturday	Jul 26	8am	Drive Knoxville to Atlanta
Monday	Jul 28	5pm	Drive Atlanta to Vicksburg
Tuesday	Jul 29	5pm	Vicksburg to Ft. Worth
Wednesday	Jul 30	5pm	Drive Ft. Worth to Midland
Thursday	Jul 31	5pm	Drive Midland to Tucson

Tucson to Newtown PA (map in the sidebar is in development)

The trip out was fortunately uneventful. We had a 7:15 AM flight which means out the door at 5:30 AM. We were loaded up with a backback each plus 1 carry on and 4 big time suitcases all right at the 50lb limit. Luckily we bought the tickets before the extra fees went into effect.

Air travel with kids is always potentially dicey but ours are pretty savvy and well behaved. The same does not hold for the little hellion behind me on the way from DFW to Philly. He spent the whole trip being a snot screaming loudly at his parents and even more loudly to the plane in general “I am Optimus, I will blast you a million!!!!!!!!! (three year old mouth explosion and laser sounds)".

Sunday was a sleep in day and then to a first birthday party for one of the cousins. Lets set the stage here because we'll be talking alot about Indians. My wife's father is from India, specifically Gujarat which is a major supplier of the Indians (see language on that page) you'll find here in the US. He came over for college and met my mother-in-law (who like me is one of the whiter people on the planet) at Kansas Univ. His pickup line was something to the effect "would you like to smell my sandalwood" which just goes to show its not what you say but how you say it that gets you girls. He has several brothers and sisters in the NJ/PA area and Tina was born here before he came out to Mesa with Motorola. We've been back here a few times for weddings but never really stayed long. We will be staying with an aunt (foi) in PA (there is a crazy complex way of titling people in Gujarati that I only barely have down) and uncle (kaka) in NJ with a few days in NYC in the middle. Indian hospitality is frankly ridiculous, in the good way. They go so far overboard to be welcoming and taking care of guests that I can't help but feeling a overwhelmed all the time. The women do 100% of the cooking, cleaning etc. and I'm really trying hard to instill those values in my home (good thing Tina never reads this). Because I married in and took (traditionally thats kinda how it happens) one of the daughters they are supposed to be extra nice to me so that I 1) won't beat her too much and 2) will let her come back to visit occasionally. I'm obviously overstating but we all know its not possible that they like me this much, it must be an obligation. I can't refill my own water, make a plate of food, throw away a napkin without causing a great commotion. I might stay forever. All kidding aside my wife's family are as a whole and individually some of the nicest people you would ever have the chance to meet and I'm very proud to be considered part of their extended family.

ANYWAYS, Monday was d-day for me. I have crap teeth due to gross negligence in my formative (pre-marriage) years and now am fairly discolored with several fillings in the front that are beginning to show. I’ve wanted to deal with it for a while but the cost of veneers are prohibitive even with my good dental insurance. After we put this trip together Tina came up with the idea to get my teeth done back here. Her uncle and cousin have a cosmetic dental practice just outside of Philadelphia and were very kind to offer to do the job on my top 8 teeth.

I don’t have a paralyzing fear of the dentist but certainly a healthy anxiety about the process in general. This is in no doubt a direct result of the quacks and charlatans I was subjected to when I was young. I always wondered why those Argentineans they sent me to had such strong German accents.

I went in with Dr. Patel the Younger to the main office for one of the digital x-ray deals where they lock your head in place with a set of vices and screws and a giant magnet slowly swirls around your perimeter while the staff hides under lead fallout shelters. From there we went to the older office where the real work gets done. Dr. P is great guy in general and is one of those doctors that makes people feel comfortable without seeming false. I listened while he worked with other patients explaining procedures, calming kids etc. and I was very impressed.

Irena the mostly silent Russian assistant however lacked some of the office charm. She ran me through a lot of before tasks like taking 'before' pictures and specific x-ray stuff communicating only with grunts or (go thick Russian accent now) ‘turns the head’ commands. I’ll admit to feeling afraid that if I got out of line she would not hesitate to plunge a pick deep into my ear to ensure compliance.

Once she was done the Dr. came back and got down to it. Irena's big left babushka was flopped onto my shoulder during the morning’s work and was somehow maternal and comforting despite weighing roughly 40 pounds.

First he hit me with some numbing stuff and then did the shots. This was the worst part of the whole thing and really not bad at all. The shot in the front teeth was the worst and actually burned a bit. I barely felt the rest and soon my whole upper mouth and nose was totally numb. Then the grinding/drilling process which sound and smelled bad but I couldn't feel so no problem. After he got them all ground down I had to bite on a mouthpiece full of play-do for 5 minutes to make the mold. When he told me "this is the the grossest thing you can have in your mouth" I had to suppress my inner Michael Scott and the very obvious 'thats what she said' moment.

Net of 3 hours later and he had me setup with some temporary veneers that 3 days in are doing fine. I just have to avoid eating rocks, apples or laffy taffy and I'll be fine.

Vegas = Win , Blog = Fail

2008-06-26T12:18:00.003-07:00

Um, I forgot something. We had a celebrity sighting that I forgot to mention. Maybe you have heard of a certain director with certain distinguishing facial hair and a certain vegan wife? Thats right we partied with Morgan-freaking-Spurlock and I somehow forgot to document this.

I noticed him walking to the sports book at the Venetian and scurried back to tell the gang at dinner that I finally had the only celebrity sighting of the week. I think they didn't believe me because if you are going to fake a celebrity sighting its gonna be of Morgan-freaking-Spurlock. Anyway, when we were leaving dinner I was walking a bit ahead and came across them AGAIN so I very very nonchalantly and with great subtly turned around and inclined my head slightly in their direction to indicate to my close friends for whom a huge display would not be necessary what direction to look. They immediately caught my subtle signal and I didn't have to resort to frantic flailing and jumping up and down and we all stood and marveled for a few minutes at the most famous people in the room. I think the wife had a tribal armband tattoo which is too bad and he was taller than I expected (movies = tiny people). I missed Javon Walker's champagne incident so this was as close to newsworthy as it got.

Vegas - This Time with Less Running Day 3

2008-06-25T07:27:00.004-07:00

Tuesday morning, our last full day on site. Breakfast should have been simple but the E. germans at the bakery didn't want to sell me coffee so we had to go up the escalator to the coffee shop where the son of the Rico Suave guy, a girl and a guy with an impressive afro shaped by his visor hat. Afro guy was literally dance humping the girl when I arrived trying to convince Rico's kid that he (Rico's kid) knew the lyrics to the Back to the Hotel song and using his dance hump to trigger the memory for lil Suave. He was unsuccessful as Gerardo was already (or still) stoned. After repeating my order 4 times (medium Americano) we got the man paid off and moved on. The pastries, yogurt and coffee were all great.

The girls went shopping again and we shot dice for a bit at the Venetian, losing again and had no drinks. An executive decision was made to go back to the CR and stop flushing money at the Venetian. It was not a mistake.

We played some craps and met the greatest cocktail waitress of all times. We didn't catch her name because she never stopped long enough for a good look at her badge. Upon delivering my second drink she wouldn't even stop long enough for me to tip her. SERIOUSLY. When I got a later drink I gave her a handful of white chips to make sure I didn't get behind and she was a machine after that. I don't recall the end of the crapping but I eventually convinced the boys to try out the live 3 card poker table. We sat down with a ginormous hawaiin lady dealing who was having more fun than our happy drunken selves. She was a riot, making fun of the silent asian guy that eventually joined us and just about everybody that walked by. Hawaii was spelled for a few by some weird Canadian-ish white guy who was a real buzz kill. She made fun of him too. I remember betting for her alot but no idea if she made money from us. Dan hit one of the small jackpots with a straight flush or 6 monkeys or something. Other than that Sprintwaitress didn't slow down and I was pretty smashed by the end of all this ( I assume the other guys were too). Waiting at the slots for the others to relieve I played a dollar on the penny slots (AND GOT 2 DRINKS IN 5 MINUTES!!!!!) and turned it into 1,000 on one of those video slots that has lines that go everywhere. When the lights started flashing I began laughing uncontrollably and when the screen came up asking me to play a memory game to quintuple my win I think I actually started crying with laughter. I somehow picked 3 cameras together so I got up to 6,000 or so and finally cashed out with like 4,000 pennies. I desperately hoped they'd pay me off in pennies but a very nice lady gave me dollars instead.

Lunch at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba was really good and I am thoroughly impressed we were able to navigate there on foot. We met up with the girls and had some unimpressive white and red sangria along with a wide selection of tapas. Again I wish I had made notes but I was a little sloppy by this point.

We split a small paella plate. It was pretty good but not great, very little crust on the rice but it was very moist.

spanish white anchovies, avocado & roast pepper - very good but the avocado wasn't ripe

spanish cheese - manchego and a few others I don't recall for sure but all were very good.

squid a la plancha, olive oil, garlic - was good and seemed pretty fresh

rioja short ribs, manchego mashed potatoes - again very nice but I didn't catch alot of wine flavor

beef skewer, horseradish cream, red onions - this one was so good even ate the caramelized onions. seriously

spicy potatoes with tomato alioli - were good but I prefer my homemade version

I think there might have been a couple of other plates in there but I frankly lost track.

We walked through the Wynn to get back which was very posh but for cripes sake is just another casino and I don't care at all. As near as I can tell I stumbled back to the room and took a 2 hour nap until dinner missing the first half of the final NBA game. I got up and showered and realized I had just enough time to get down to the book to make a halftime bet. I literally ran to the window and didn't even look at the score just caught that the Celtics were getting 5 in the 2nd half. I jumped on it and then later realized that the Cs were up like 20 at the time. They wound up covering for me but it just goes to show you that no matter what you cousin sal tells you with sports betting its a coin toss everytime.

Dinner was at Pinot Brassiere and I gotta give it a mixed review. I think the food was great across the board but again the service was well....problematic. I hate to sound like the guy that totally gets hung up on that but I guess for this trip I'm that guy. First up big points for the no corkage policy. I'll need Dan to fill in details but he brought a magnum of chateauneuf de pape, a great pinot and an outstanding one from bordeaux. The wine was fantastic and Dan gets several merits for arranging its delivery.

There was a long delay in having someone come over and deal with us but not a huge deal as were in no rush and having a nice evening. I should mention here that TinaH ended up having to send back her steak requested m. rare when it came a few degrees past medium. It took a while to make but they handled the best you can, the manager came over and comped the plate and she and the waitress apologized. It happens sometimes just saying that there were several missteps like that.

The waitress was very nice and even brought us a decanter for at least 1 of the bottles. I was looking forward to trying the sweetbread foie starter having still never tried sweetbreads but it wasn't on the menu and in its place was a foi and seared scallop so I got that instead. The foie was great and the scallop would have been perfect but it was like 5% too dry. So I guess thats either from being frozen or cooked just a few seconds too long. It was still buttery delicious just saying it wasn't perfectly perfect.

For dinner I had the pork belly from the regular menu. I was debating between that and the osso bucco and asked the waitress to help me break the tie. She did the 'both are good' routine for so long that I finally threw a dart. This is a pet peeve of mine, if I want you to recommend something then freaking do that. I'm sure they are both good.....you tell me which to get. Anyway it was delicious but I'll always wonder about that osso bucco I missed out on. I loved the citrus flavor with the pork. I'm going to have to find a way to infuse that the next time I smoke some butt. The truffle vinagrette was a light background, not overwhelming. I really liked that someone thought this dish through and 1) didn't go crazy with flavors and textures and 2) balanced the few flavors on there with the fundamental flavor of the pork which is the right thing to do. There were vegetables and they were fine but didn't do anything else one way or another.

For dessert I had a plate of cheese that offhand I know had Savarin, Humbold Fog, Pierre T something and a hard Basque sheep's milk. They were fan-freaking-tastic. It was served with little crackers and a plate of currants, honeycomb and celery (maybe celery I can't be sure). We basically licked the platter on that one. As we were ruminating waiting for the check one of the waiters moving a table lost control and dropped the point of the corner into the center of my back. It hurt and I got a little bruise (cue the awwwww from the crowd) and the waiter asked if he got me and apologized but on the whole made it seem like that happens some time. Someone might crash into you with a table, you know it happens. Again the food was great but the service wasn't so much.

There was no question we would end up back at the CR to shoot some dice and introduce the girls to our new dark mistress. She did not dissapoint and I had all I wanted for drinks and we had a good craps session. It was a packed table and we each had to elbow in for room. At the other end of the table a couple of youngish guys bought in for like 2K (at CR...come on). Our dealers were a weird lot we had a very grumpy slovak that refused to pay Dan off on the $10 change only bet he made. The stickman had a stool to make him the same height as TinaB. He moved slowly and Dan named him Lawrence which seemed to fit. We hit a run of bad shooters until Bill from Chicago got us all back on track. I ran off to the restroom and returned to find everyone heading for the cage to cash out. Apparently my TinaB had called game over right as Kerrie was about to get the dice. She has been properly chastised and it won't happen again.

Dan and Kerrie flew home in the morning and we were on the road around 9 I think. The only notable part of the return trip I recall was at the cowboy cafe in Wickenburg. We all ordered and TinaB was last looking at the ham and cheese sandwich. Let me set the stage a bit and say that this is the cowboy cafe. Posters (many signed) of pro bull riders cover every wall and there are handmade doilies everywhere. ANYWAYS, my little wife asks "in the ham and cheese sandwhich what kind of ham and cheese do you use" to which the now exasperated waitress replied "I think its boiled ham and american cheese". TinaB will argue this point but I swear I heard her say 'that won't do' under her breath a little and she went with like a chicken salad or something instead. They obviously spit in our food after that but my club sandwich and chili hit the spot.

I think everyone had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next trip which probably won't be to Vegas but if it is will take us back to CraftSteak.

Vegas - This Time with Less Running Day 2

2008-06-24T10:45:00.004-07:00

Breakfast

We met up with the team for a late breakfast at Bouchon. My hope was that this would be a good mix for the group for the whole trip. Some nice pastries, fruit and more savory stuff in case of hangovers. Didn't work out but you never know when traveling.

We ordered and then waited about 15 minutes for the guy to come over and let me know that the Boudin Blanc I ordered wasn't available. I took his suggestion for the corned beef but it was just kind of annoying that it took that long to find out the dis wasn't available. They then eventually brought out half the table's food and we waited another 5 for the rest. Lame.

The food was fine but the portions were ridiculous. Part of why I picked the frenchy spot was thinking it might be well done food on European portions. My wife was delivered a full pound of bacon and we would up leaving a net of 3 breakfasts on the table. The food was fine, not great but fine and I doubt I'll go back.

From there we split up a bit. The girls to the pool and or shopping, Dan to the dice tables and me and g$ to the poker room. On the way to the poker table we stopped at the sports book to look at the NBA lines and put some silly money toward the Euro soccer national championships or whatever the hell it was. We were clueless and threw money away. Even more clueless-ly we ordered drinks from the cocktail waitress and she came back wanting money. There was something about a drink ticket but I only had the betting ticket so it cost $15 for 3 beers. This began a pattern of not drinking at the Venetian. Boo.

Before hitting the table I decided to cash in the match play money they gave me at check in. Having not read the fine print I soon found that I had to first sign up for the players card and then I could only put the coupon down an even money bet in an equal amount to actual cash. By this time I didn't care so me and my pretend $25 went to the craps table and after alot of excitement I wound up with a $5 profit and no drinks.

I've been playing some online poker again in the run up to the trip and put together a little stake but I'm still not much as a live player. We opened a 1-2 NL table at the Venetian and played for a few hours. I think made my buy in plus 150-200% based on 1 giant hand and a only 1 or 2 others. The action was sorta choppy for the first bit. Opening raises ranged from the minimum $2 to a healthy $12. Early on I had an A-K and led out with $7, fold all around. A guy from Kentucky to the dealer's immediate left was playing kind of aggressive, big opening and continuation bets and he didn't get called down for anything. On the good hand he limped along with another guy and I made it $12 to go from the button with JJ. KY called and I think the other guy bailed. The board comes J-2-2 and he bets out around $20. I almost raised but at the last second decided to call and let him keep firing. I didn't see him improving whatever he had unless he made quads. Turn is a blank and he fires again. Maybe $40 this time and I call. River brings an A and he checks. I go all in and he calls immediately. He turns over A-2, 2s full which obviously loses to my Jacks full. After I doubled up so quick I was a little reluctant to mix it up and only got into one other decent hand that the crazy lady at the end finally laid down.

The table was fine and had all the requisite poker weirdos. To my left G$, no additional commentary required. To his left a young asian kid with more money than sense but obviously plays alot. He has all the mannerisms down, the way he flings his chips, holds his cards. He has spent alot of time cultivating an image. Next is a kind of disheveled (clean just sort of untucked and slouchy) white guy who played only for big raises. I kind of think he was a good player but have no evidence to prove it. Next is the dealer played by the 4 generic stereotypes: asian lady who likes to talk trash, young asian guy who is just biding time until he can play again, old white guy who 'has a few stories from back when the stardust was a real swank joint' and young white guy who was just bad in high school We had 2 of the young white guy clones who appeared to literally be the same guy they were so identical. Next was KY guy. He is easily tiltable, drinks, goes to strip clubs, hunts, golf, cheats on his wife and goes to Sunday school. Kind of your standard cultured-version redneck. Next is a workout guy who has no idea what he is doing but likes the rush of the game. Next is Long Island lady, she is on her second marriage and came to the game through her husband who has money. Her home games with the ladies are pretty loose and her play is wild. Next is grumpy old guy, solid player who is not enjoying sitting by LI lady. Next is an older black guy, he isn't very good but he like to call bets so we keep him araound as long as possible. Last is KY's buddy who is a poker junkie and probably organized the trip for his buddies who by the way keep drifting in and out and each is more cheesburger-filled than the last. These guys could lay waste to a buffet.

After Tiger made his inevitable charge to twin the US Open I finally convinced G$ it was time to roll out. We'd had 1 drink at the table and said we'd wait for 1 more before we rolled out. This ended up being 20 minutes. Boo Ventian, bad form.

From there we headed over to the King of casinos, my new home away from home, the place where everyone knows your name, where the women are ugly, the men are desperate and the drinks flow freely. The Casino Royale.

I bought of a share G$'s crap dice and began angling to figure out how to get a drink. I sat down at the video game 3 card poker which is really too silly of a game for me to describe and made a few bucks and had a few gin and tonics. When the fake boobs of the fake video dealer no longer intrigued me I decided to sit down at the live 3 card game and play 'for real'. The other players were gin-soaked hard luck types. My people. The old lady running the table who had the whole thing figured out was named Lois or Babs or something. From Chicago but lives now in Goodyear, bright orange tan, lots of lame diamond jewelery and bleached blond hair. To my right was a lesbian couple. A tall white girl who played forward for the Univ. of Texas and was as tall as me and her partner who I got more of a coach vibe from was 5'5 and black. I started off playing drunk so I could pretend not to listen to Babs but eventually I got fully drunk and me and the lesbians had a good time screwing around with Babs. I lost some money but let me say it was some of the best I've spent. The drinks didn't stop and we laughed the whole time.

Dan and G$ eventually picked me up and we rolled back to the Venetian to buy cigars. We also stopped off at the faux Mexican place by the faux canal with the faux gondoliers singing a very operatic version of 'Volare' every 5 minutes while morons snapped pictures. Turns out mojitos were good but a little faux and Cabo Wabo margaritas were real and great. I also think we ate a little chrorizo and cheese and that someone who is not me spilled a huge drink on the table/floor. Cigars procured we met the girls and headed for Lotus of Siam.

We opted for cabs this night as its much closer. The place smells a little fishy and looks pretty dumpy but I don't care. Its a top 10 place.

When you go don't mess around. Get the appetizer that has sour sausage and the jerky one and the satay at an absolute minimum. From there we sort of let Dan and the waiter take over handling several bottles of wine and picking the rest of the food. We had a soup that was so hot it was making everyone cough followed by the drunken noodle sea bass, crispy duck, chicken on noodles and some green beef. For dessert that no one had room for they brought out the coconut ice cream, sticky rice and mango. All I can say is sooooo good.

I didn't make any notes from this meal, you just have to go and experience it yourself.

Cabs over to the Stratosphere so the Tinas could ride the retardedly high roller coasters and the rest of us could shoot craps again. We faded a couple of good shooters and made some money. More interesting than the game was the environment. First was the pimp that walked through causing a wake of awe and disbelief all around him. He was head to toe in white and tan with a white sort of top hat and an impressive weave full of big curls. You don't often see a man that sure of himself. Gerhard got nominated to hold all the purses but the cigar he was chewing made him look more like a skinny bodyguard than a skinny guy just holding purses. The dealer from OK who was a nice enough guy but porcine and farted at one point. He needs to improve his diet because it made an odor that told us he was terribly unwell. I know for sure it was him (and not me you accusers) because when he reached over to the pay the line he brought a foul wind of destruction with him.

Vegas - This Time with Less Running Day 1

2008-06-19T08:41:00.003-07:00

TinaH had the goofy idea for a Vegas roadtrip. At least that was my original take on the roadtrip portion it and it turns out I was dead wrong, we had a blast.

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Driving:

Left Tucson around 9 AM Sunday, gassed up (let me now be the last person in America to mention that gas is stupidly expensive) and made good time until phoenix. Took the 303 cutoff rather than going through town which proved to be pretty quick. Picked up 60 near Surprise and headed for Wikkieup for some BBQ.

Eat at Joe's

http://www.eatatjoesbarbecue.com/

G$ haunts the bbq forums and 'knows' the Eat at Joe's guy. By knows of course I mean they mutually and anonymously discuss smoked meats. Anyway the website does the place justice. It looked a little ramshackle from the outside but the inside was clean and nice. I got the hungry guy combo plate and it was all pretty good. It should be noted that other than the wings which were outstanding I would rather have g$'s bbq but that isn't a criticism necessarily. None of the meat was particularly seasoned but the texture on all of it was very good and the sauce was tasty but missing any heat. The chicken wings were especially nice...some olive oil and herbs (thyme and or basil mabye?) made a nice bite through crust and the meat inside was tender and juicy. Really outstanding. The sides were all good but with like 2 lbs. of meat in front of me I frankly paid them little notice.

I don't mean to sound like it wasn't good, it was. In fact there is 0% chance you will find better food between Phx and Vegas so you absolutely should go. I'm just spoiled because I make decent bbq and g$ makes ridiculous. Anyway, Eat at Joe's.

Dam Road

Hit some traffic at the dam. Not too bad but it allowed me time to gawk at the stupid new bypass bridge they are building. Look at this thing (link) and know that driving under it was humbling or terrifying...something like that. I'm reasonably sure I will not drive across that ever. At least not sober.

Arrive at the Venetian and cleanup for dinner at Rosemary's. One planning element I neglected in all the run up was how we would get to/from the offsite dinner spots. I had the car which seats 6 BUT I sometimes have a drink with dinner and don't wish to drive back. After consulting with the doorman and the accordion player (he was there and proved helpful...never underestimate the accordion player) we got a limo. It should be noted that we got it for much less round trip than what I was originally quoted thanks to their combined efforts.

Rosemary's

Dinner was great. Let me get the one sour note out of the way first so we can get into the good stuff. Our waiter was a young guy who was thoroughly attentive, extremely friendly and totally took care of us. Nearly full marks except that he talked 50% too much and 50% of what he said caused me to desire to stab him in the eye with my salad fork. Repeatedly. Just a for instance "Are you enjoying the wine?...Yes, its great.....DIE-licious huh?". I'm not saying this ruined the meal or anything, just knocked off a couple of points. Back to what was a great meal.

It is in a strip mall and looks like crap from the outside but don't let that throw you. The decor inside ranges from tasteful and understated to stuff stolen from the Olive Garden down the road 10 years ago when they were repainting. Also don't let that dissuade you. All that matters at the end of the day is good food.

I went big and got the tasting menu. Not listed on the website but was a 5 course deal for about $80. (menu)

Amuse
crispy wanton topped with goat cheese watercress and citrus aioli

Great small bite to start. The citrus alioli on the plate was light and tasty. The bite itself was a nice mix of the crunch of the wonton, creamy tang of the goat cheese and pepper of the watercress. Gerhard complained he got too much watercress so we threw bread at him.

Salmon Tartar
Watercress, Saffron Sauce & Caraway Crackers

This was the one I was least excited about. On the paper it remdinded me of the skagen stuff I ate alot of in Sweden and didn't really care for. This however was quite good, the fish was super fresh and the watercress had a nice pepper and crunch to it. I didn't notice much of a saffron flavor but it was a nice dish.

Hugo’s Texas BBQ Shrimp
Maytag Blue Cheese Slaw

The shrimp were good and the combo of blue cheese and slaw was not one I'd had and I thought went great together. The sauce was kinda smoky and I thought it was kind of out place, sort of unrefined I guess. The plate didn't make alot of sense until Gilligan came over and told us the story of how Doyle Brunson and the chefs Dad snuck into a kitchen and made the dish up and they keep it on for him. Whatever.

Crispy Skin Striped Bass
Andouille, Rock Shrimp, Fingerling Potato Hash, Hushpuppies & Creole Meuniere Sauce

TinaB had this for her entree so we swtiched plates and I got the full portion and she had my half. Let me give you some advice, marry a small woman. You will eat well. I don't love fish, its just usually not that interesting and is behind just about everything else that comes out of the water. This kicked ass. The crust on the top side was perfectly crisped and the fish was moist and fantastic. The taters and andouille sausage in sauce under the fish was rich and tasty but didn't overwhelm the fish. Nice and blanced, this is a must have dish.

Roasted Rack of Lamb*
Kalamata Olive Mashed Potatoes, Fried Arugula & Rosemary Bordelaise Sauce

I'm already full but I love a nice rack. Take that as you wish. I don't even remember eating the arugla, I was kind of food drunk by then. The lamb was cooked perfectly, great crust and the sauce was subtly but noticeably infused with rosemary. Classic combo and a great flavor. I didn't love the potatos w/ olives. Felt like the olives lost some flavor in the mix and they didn't add anything except a weird texture. None of that matters, the rack of lamb should be listed as meat dessert item. I gnawed the bones.

Desert was a trio of small portions: vanilla creme brule, some kind of chocolate cake and a tall shot of chocolate into which they poured some berry flavored lambic. My wife claimed all dessert which was fine but somehow I ended up with a lemon cooler and a highly alcholic coffee anyway. The creme brule was good, vanilla flavor is the best and the shell was crunchy just like God intended. Didn't try the cake, the lambic shot called to mind a liquid center chocolate. The lemon cooler pie was a center cut of some rich, sweet, tangy pie. I missed having more of the graham cracker type crust to cut some of the richness. There were also some mint leaves that I sort of sliced up and had with each bite. Fantastic.

I leave it to Dan to talk about the wine. I have no memory except that it was great and I like the first few glasses of champagne.

Vinnie the limo driver was ready when we were and took us back to the hotel. From there over to Harrah's for some craps. We should have walked away when the weird busty drunk lady to our right started arguing about her $1 hard ways working or not. The boss was ready to return her $4 but she kept on arguing so she 86-ed herself. Nothing of interest beyond that except the cartel lost about $50 each. Next up was the Flamingo where we played and made it all back plus aobut $25. Interestingly there was a (possible) transvestite at the other end of the table who rubbed the dice on their cleavage before each roll. At this point in the evening this was unbearably funny.

Dasyatidae

2008-05-30T10:20:00.002-07:00

So there I was enjoying my short Memorial Day vacation in Puerto Penasco (thats Rocky Point you gringo). It was remarkably cool and we didn't get in the water as much as we normally would have but it was still a nice time. Tuesday was the last day of the trip and during the last beach session I waded out into the ankle deep low tide to play with the kids when WHAM I felt like I stepped on a nail. I hobbled out and found my foot covered with blood from a small spot on the underside of my right foot. I think its called the pad of my foot a couple inches below my 2nd toe. It started hurting and didn't quit, like a really bad bee sting but that just didn't abate. I tried to gut it out sitting on the beach with my NYT crossword but just couldn't focus. 30 minutes later the other Dad travelling with us got hit also. We had a silent tough guy contest neither willing to admit he was in agony for another 30 minutes while we waited for everyone to get ready to go. Finally admitting that we were hurting we went online and found that an hour in near boiling water (as hot as you can stand apparently denatures the poison) pretty well fixed the problem but left me swollen and purple. Turns out the other guy still was hurting pretty badly several days later. About 8 days later I did some minor surgery and removed a peice of stinger. Its still sort of black and slightly raised but not longer any pain.

I write all this because I had to puss* out of a bike ride a couple days after it happened and I wanted to document my alibi. I played basketball the day after and didn't have any problem other than some swelling after I got home. The bike however nearly had me in tears. The attach point from the shoe to the pedal was just driving right into the stinger and felt like someone driving that same serrated nail in there again. I gave up at the Rincon market and went home. Like 12 miles round trip but I think we made good time.

Top of the Hill

2008-05-22T16:55:00.003-07:00

The days are getting long. The kids are out of school. Its time for crazy ideas.

Plan #1
This year I am riding to the top of Mt. Lemmon on my birthday Sunday 7/27. I don't have a lot of time to get ready in fact many of my weekends are spoken for so I need to find a way to get some rides in during the weeks. I'm looking at shipping my bike to Philly for the 3 weeks we are back there.

In 2008 I think I've been on the bike twice and despite being in decent shape from playing basketball 3 nights a week for the last few months I think this is an appropriately ridiculous goal.

Below is alot of ridiculous data. Enjoy

5/25/2008	Mexico
6/1/2008
6/8/2008
6/15/2008	Vegas
6/22/2008	Travel to E. Coast
6/29/2008
7/6/2008
7/13/2008	Travel from E. Coast
7/20/2008
7/27/2008

Check out the mile marker data I made in Google Earth (link)

Mt. Lemmon Data

Segment	Elevation (m)	Elevation (ft)	Interval Climb (ft)	Grade
0	878.5	2,882	-	-
1	961.5	3,155	272	5%
2	1043.2	3,423	268	5%
3	1107.6	3,634	211	4%
4	1190.2	3,905	271	5%
5	1273.4	4,178	273	5%
6	1346.9	4,419	241	5%
7	1437.8	4,717	298	6%
8	1529.1	5,017	300	6%
9	1592.6	5,225	208	4%
10	1649.8	5,413	188	4%
11	1743.5	5,720	307	6%
12	1800.2	5,906	186	4%
13	1898.7	6,229	323	6%
14	1989.6	6,528	298	6%
15	2047.7	6,718	191	4%
16	2108.8	6,919	200	4%
17	2185.7	7,171	252	5%
18	2268.8	7,444	273	5%
19	2357.8	7,736	292	6%
20	2434.2	7,986	251	5%
21	2491.4	8,174	188	4%
22	2445.3	8,023	(151)	-3%
23	2369.3	7,773	(249)	-5%
24	2424.6	7,955	181	3%
25	2411.1	7,910	(44)	-1%
26	2409.7	7,906	(5)	0%
27	2515.9	8,254	348	7%
Top	2543.3	8,344	90	2%

Travel to Kansa part 1

2008-04-22T13:41:00.001-07:00

I decided to stay on the account and do an easy (I hope) project through the summer. I also want to be around to finish cleaning up the disaster that was the project I am finishing now. No joke it was a nightmare.

Flying out the daily lot was full so I had to use the garage over by the car rental. Tucson airport is kinda growing up.

Some thoughts from the lounge.

1. Why do the bike cops wear helmets inside on carpet?

2. What is the mural by the mens room in terminal B? There is a vato promoting the gym show and a guy trying to eat a baby.

3. They put in tables with power but the chairs are the same height as the table, bad for knees.

2008-04-04T16:14:00.001-07:00

Denver Airport is a kinda weird place today...but good weird. There is a guy in boarding area playing quietly on a mandolin, a family is playing catch over by the bank of pay phones and a 75 year old man in a 40 year old threadbare member's only jacket has asked 5 people 'Where can a man find a water fountain round here?' in a spot on Jimmy Stewart impression. No point to all this, just kind of a strange day.

Gear Prep

2007-12-14T06:43:00.001-07:00

Marathon Day is done

2007-12-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Gerhard results and pics

Tina results and pics

Chris results and pics

2007-12-02T13:59:00.001-07:00