XMas Morning at Home

We're saving travel and vacation-day budget for a March wedding (yay Rachel!) in Kansas City, so this year Christmas is at home. Here we are with our tree, waiting for breakfast to bake.
Breakfast is going to be Praline French Toast - a baked egg, bread, and sugar concoction that has us on edge with anticipation!

Merry Christmas!

Zippy's Foray to the U.K.

I can't believe my luck! Just weeks after being rescued from my tin can prison, I crossed the pond and arrived in England. How cool is that?! I stayed across the street from Clifford's Tower - York Castle's Keep, which sits high atop a man-made hill and was originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068.

Right next to Clifford's Tower, is the York Castle Museum. It had historic household items dating back several hundred years. My favorite exhibit was the toys! I wanted to break them out of their glass prison, but didn't have as much luck as the folks who released me.

I also walked the wall that encloses York's city center. I stopped to get a quick picture of myself in front of the York Minster, an amazingly beautiful cathedral.

I had a fabulous time exploring England. I can't wait to see what other adventures I'll have in the future.

Pip pip & cheerio! - Zippy

Rachael & Paul

The reason for our trip to York was to see my friend, Rachael, get married to her bloke, Paul. We all went to an 18th century pub in York, The Black Swan for the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, where I got a great picture of the happy couple.

And a picture of the two exchanging their vows at The King's Manor on Saturday:

And a picture of the former Books/Cole Publishing gals at the reception:

Congratulations, Paul & Rachael Stamper!!

Castle Howard

About 30 minutes northeast of York lies the estate of Castle Howard, ancestral home to the Howard family. This stately home has a centuries-long history as the seat of the Howard family, who have been involved at the top levels of English politics and society. Touring the indoors and the grounds, we found its grandeur to be remniscent of Hearst Castle (I'm sure it's much more proper the other way around) and its history to be richly deep and interesting. The grounds were gorgeous, as you can see:
In addition to fighting slavery, championing Irish causes, and being involved with many other liberal efforts, apparently the Howards like peacocks, too.
This home was also used as the set for the BBC television production and later the Miramax cinema production of "Brideshead Revisited". I'm not personally familiar with either, but Jen says it's in the Netflix queue now...

Jolly Ol' England

After a rather inauspicious start involving a departure change (thunderstorm canceled Monterery - LAX flight; re-booked through San Fransisco requiring a one-way rental car to get to SFO on time), and an "inoperable" plane (requiring deplaning and waiting 5 hours for a new plane & crew), we finally arrived in Manchester, England. Whew!

We met up with friends Stacy & Robert, who took us to Fountains Abbey. Henry VIII had this abbey demolished when the Anne Bolyn troubles were taking place.
They also took us on a drive through the Yorkshire Dales, with a late lunch at the Wensleydale Creamery - Yum!! Here's a picture of the Yorkshire Dales:
We also met up with Rachael & Paul (the soon-to-be-wed happy couple), and the others here from "across the pond" for dinner last night. We packed a lot into our first fun-filled day here in Yorkshire.

Oh! And check out our view of Clifford's Tower from our hotel:
Pretty darned awesome!

Wine & a Fault Line

We took Bev & Barb to the DeRose winery in Hollister for some yummy wine tasting. The DeRose winery has a fine selection of wine to try, but their tasting room / barrel room is also a historic landmark. Not only is it the the oldest in California - dating back to 1851 - but the San Andreas Fault also runs right smack dab through the middle of it.

The picture above is the historic landmark plaque right next to the wall that has crumbled away due to the slow migration of the two tectonic plates. The picture below shows the giant crack through the cement floor of the winery.

"I got to tag along, too!" - Zippy TLM

Zippy the Lego Man is One of Us Now

Hi! I'm Zippy the Lego Man.
I lived for years in a small plastic box called a geocache. It was dark and lonely. I was hidden in a tree, where few people came by to visit. Occasionally, someone would open the box, and reveal the freedom available outside. Finally, some nice people released me from my prison. They have agreed to take me on adventures. Today was the first day of my new life. They took me to the beach, which was beautiful. I haven't seen so many colors in years. Then, I was ready for a tasty beverage.
Maybe I overdid it? Anyway, after this was series of cool tricks!
Not bad for a lego man, huh? I admit to being inspired by the fact that this was Riedel crystal. Nothing like fine acrobatics to match a quality wineglass.

Later, we encountered another geocache, at the home of a weird white tree.
I just can't wait to see what my next adventure will be!

Gettin' Zippy with Mom!

So those of you who know me know I'm a bit crazy in my adventurous hobbies. I got it from my Mom. As a kid, any adventure my father was too scared to do, my Mom needed a partner for. Every scary ride or bizarre circumstance was a bonding moment for us. I've extended the practice perhaps farther than she intended. We have been skydiving, paragliding, and now ziplining together.

So, about this zipline thing - you're 150 feet up in the air, strapped in to some steel cables slung between giant redwood trees. With some friendly encouragement from Phil and Steve (our guides at Mount Hermon, near Santa Cruz, CA), you push away from the platform and zing across the abyss.

The first video is my Mom taking off, and the second is Jennifer arriving at a platform in the trees. This was really a blast - fast, a bit scary, and amidst gorgeous forest scenery.

After zipping down, across, down, and down some more, we ended our high-flying tour of the redwood forest canopy. We learned some great things about the redwood forest, and had a fun time doing it.

The Man Burns... Eventually

So after a half-day whiteout dust storm, we got the call for the big Burn. Jen and I marched out to the playa and got ourselves some seats near the front. Here are two clips of the fireworks.

After the fireworks and one heck of a huge fireball explosion, the man started to burn, and burn, and then smolder, and then smolder some more. After about an hour, he FINALLY toppled over into the pile of ashes beneath. This was way past the patience level of (we guess) about 20,000 of the burners who had already rushed the fire. But the fire would not be denied its prince, no matter how hard he resisted.

So with this, the week ended for us. Our friends are at the temple burn (Sunday night) as we write this; maybe next year we will stay the extra day for this special ceremony. After all the hard work of putting the camp together and being full-fledged participants all week, it does seem like we should have stayed for the temple burn rather than punch out Sunday morning like a couple of weekend tourists. But I think eight nights on the Playa are just about all I could ask Jen to put up with, and she admits to being quite happy about sleeping in a bed tonight after a couple of showers and a good meal.

Surprise Miniature Golf!

Out on the playa today Bill & I stumbled upon an 9-hole putt-putt golf course. There's nothing better than surprise miniature golf!

Flamethrower Shooting Gallery

So here's a great example of something that attorneys would never allow in the real world: the Flamethrower Shooting Gallery.
Yes, happy campers, that's right: they let you handle and operate actual flamethrowers at Burning Man. You do not wear gloves, eye protection, or a fire-retardant suit. The qualifications are these: you may not be drunk or stupid (the definitions and measurements of which are arbitrary and at the discretion of the attendants), and you may not be wearing any especially flammable clothes. If you are wearning flammable clothes, one semi popular option was just to remove them. Once you pass all the tests, it's flamethrower time!!!

An Evening on the Playa

Last night Bill & I rode our bikes all over Black Rock City and took in a lot of the sights, sounds, and entertainment. We spent hours out there, and I feel like we only scraped the surface.

We saw beautiful statues, one made of rebar (& fire!) and the other of locks & keys:
We saw lots of fire-art. We're going back tonight to see (and maybe participate) in the Flamethrowers Gallery. (Yes, 5 people at a time get to fire actual flamethrowers - it's frakin' cool!)

But our favorite event of the evening was "Darwin's Wedge" a giant, astro-turfed slide for anyone and everyone. You had to climb up the side ramp, which is so steep you have to use the banister to pull yourself up. Sit on the nylon rug provided, and head towards the foam blocks at the bottom. It was brilliant! I don't think I saw a single person at the bottom of the slide who didn't have the biggest grin on their face! It was worth the 3/4th of a mile ride out into the middle of the playa :)
And of course, a picture of The Man. Poor guy's gonna burn in 2 days...
Our night ended with a free grilled cheese sandwich from Camp Black Rock Dinner (they serve them nightly from 11:00PM until they run out). A lovely end to a lovely day here at Black Rock City.

You Know You've Been on the Playa a While When...

• bacon grease drips on your arm and makes your arm cleaner.
• you rub your eyes and see dust sprinkle out of your eyebrows.
• having a conversation with a naked person no longer gives you pause.
• you wake up to an art car driving by blaring Wind Beneath my Wings at 11 and just roll over and try to go back to sleep.
• your legs are so chalky, you can use it like a reverse chalk board.
  
• you think just maybe you could spin a flaming hulu-hoop too.
• a one half-gallon shower, every other day, is absolute BLISS.
  

Views from Above Black Rock City

I said earlier that the tower was assembled during a windstorm. The brave gentleman who performed this daunting task was Arturo, a tower installation technician from Tijuana. He thought he was going camping, and was stunned by what he saw here. He took a camera with him up the tower and got some shots of the Sunday state of Black Rock City, prior to when it opens to the general public. So here's a couple of his photos, and a shot of him on the tower. Arturo, you ROCK!

A Very Swirly Art Car

Jen and I rode in this art car - it's quite a spin!

Gnome! Fire!

Papa Legba Grows a Camp

So after two solid days of hard work, adaptation, and coping with Mother Nature's fine sense of humor, we have gotten our camp mostly together. Jen posted one pic of the "Blue Tube" (which looks way better attached to the ground on all sides than it does flapping in the wind and about to fly away along with all our stuff!!!), so here's another:
This shot shows Star connecting a power harness to the callsign sign midway up the 70 foot tower. The tower was assembled during a wind storm the day before. Our tower technician got lots of applause from the onlookers. Star had to put up with some raindrops - threatening, but not actually too bad. Still, kudos to her for a job well done in non-ideal circumstances. Here's the sign at night:
So, what's the point? Well, the Papa Legba Crewe is offering free text messaging service that people can use with their cellphones. The WD9XSP callsign was assigned by the FCC as an experimental license good for use at Black Rock City. So far, we've helped one camp acquire 30 gallons more water, some people find each other, and are currently supporting texting for about 400 early subscribers. Whew! It's working!

Getting to Black Rock City

We drove to Rocklin (just east of Sacramento) Friday night after work. Rocklin was not rockin', but then again, we arrived at the Day's Inn after midnight, and left shortly after 8 AM. We drove the rest of the way to Black Rock City (BRC), through lots and lots and lots of desert that is mostly reservation land or under the control of the Bureau of Land Management.
They say the desert has a stark beauty... I guess I see it. Maybe I'm just a forest / ocean gal.

It took us close to 6 hours to get to BRC, and then another hour or so to find our camp site, but we found it (thanks to a guy named Baulknaub)!
The rest of our group showed up that night, and we got to put up our shelter in a wind storm. Fun! The next day another wind storm blew our shelter apart, and we had to re-do & double-down on the tie-downs. Now we're home!
Bill will explain the giant cell tower in the next post. Hope all is well back in civilization!

Leaving for Black Rock City

So last year I got talked into joining some colleagues at Burning Man 2008. You can read about the camp I was a part of if you want. Basically, 50,000 people show up, camp for a week, and build an impromptu city out of a dried up alkali lake bed in Nevada. There's a ton of art, from body painting and costumes, to enormous sculptures and eight-story steel-girder buildings placed out on the playa, to fire dancing, spinning fire, and generally lots of stuff that emits flame. Yeah, not the kind of thing anyone who knows me would expect me to go to, but despite my self-conscious feelings of being far too normal in crazytown, it was a ton of fun.

This year, I have talked Jennifer into going along. We are participating in the Krewe of Papa Legba Camp with many of the same people as last year, and will be trying to build a free cellphone text messaging service using free software and equipment like the USRP commonly used with GNU radio.

So what do I bring to this party? Lots and lots of camping gear, and a willingness to help. This year, we're building a shower and evaporation pool, a solar electrical system, a 70 foot radio tower, and lots of fun goodies. Pics on all this to follow if we get an Internet connection. Here's what it all looks like packed on my Jeep (last year I did this with a Miata!).

Jennifer on Julia

Like many American women, I went to see Julie & Julia this weekend with a few of my favorite gal pals. And I was so enamored with the food presented in the movie that I talked about it until Bill took me to Borders and bought me a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (and a few other ladies).

After our adventure out at the Disneyana swap meet this morning, I purchased all of the ingredients for Julia's Boeuf Bourguinon (beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onions, and mushrooms). I started cooking at 2:00, and by 7:30 we sat down to a truly scrumptious meal.

I won't/ can't cook like this every week (my waistline would HATE me for it!), but every now and again, I'm just gonna have to bust out the Julia Childs' cookbook. Even without pictures, the recipes in her book just make your mouth water.

Now that I've had my weekly allotment of butter, it's salad and fruit for the rest of the week.

But, damn, it was worth it!! :)

Adventures with Mom & Dad

We had a great time with Mom & Dad, who came to Monterey for a visit this weekend. We went to Duffy's (Dad's favorite pub in Monterey), Mom redeemed her Mother's Day gift of a massage, and on Saturday we walked 5+ miles up and down the recreation trail. We stopped at the Trailside Cafe for breakfast (Yum!), and stopped by the aquarium so they could see the two newest exhibits, "Wild About Otters" and "Secret Lives of Seahorses."

Here's a picture of the Leafy Seadragon from the seahorse exhibit:
And a picture of Mom & Dad by the rec trail:
On our way back to the car, we stopped at the new Clement Hotel for an afternoon glass of wine & to check out the ocean life. We spotted a lone sea otter chomping down on an abalone. I pulled out my camera to make a short video, right when another otter popped up & stole the abalone from the first otter - d'oh! Check out the (very) short clip:

Thanks Mom & Dad for a weekend full of good food & lots of fun!

4th of July BBQ

Monterey decided to go all curmudgeonly this year & cancel the big fireworks display over the bay (I don't care if we don't have a city budget, no fireworks display just stinks!), so Bill and I decided to host a BBQ on our patio. We invited our friends over for a traditional 4th of July feast, including hot dogs & hamburgers with all the fixin's, potato salad, cole slaw, "hot olives", margaritas, and beer, beer, beer. The sun actually came out right before the afternoon event, and we didn't have to bust out the patio heater and chiminea until the sun went down.

My new cupcake cookbook came in handy - I made some patriotic cupcakes for our dessert.

Our littlest party attendee gave the cupcakes high marks!

Riding a Bike is just like... Riding a Bike!

I haven't ridden a bike for more than 5 minutes in probably 20+ years. Bill convinced me to rent a bike this morning and ride the recreational trail down by Cannery Row with him. What fun! And great scenery, too!

Here I am with the rental near Cannery Row:

And by Fisherman's Wharf (minutes after this picture, we walked though the Memory Garden where they were setting up for an afternoon wedding, just like ours almost 4 years ago):

Bill at the top of a sand dune, overlooking Monterey Bay:

As you can see, it is a beautiful day today. We might even reach 75 degrees!!

Jury Duty

I have been called for jury duty several times. Every time, I call in the Friday before, and the automated voice says something to this effect "If you are in group XYZ (which I was), you are not needed. Thank you, your jury duty service is complete for the next two years."

That didn't happen last Friday. I had to show up on Monday morning at 8:15 to the Salinas court house- where the criminal cases are tried. After waiting about an hour, they had 200 potential jurors sitting in their auditorium. I was quite peeved, as I had assumed they would have boxes of donuts and a never-ending supply of coffee for the potential jurors. Maybe the sad state of the California coffers is to blame for the lack of sustenance for those of us doing our civic duty. Or maybe coffee and donuts are only available to movie-jury-duty folks. All I know is I was ticked off.

The officials announced that two court cases would need jurors; and they called 55 names for the first case. SWEET - I'm not called!! A half hour later, they say the next case needs 75 potential jurors, and start calling names. DAMN - they called my name!! As the bailiff leads the 75 to the courtroom, we see the remaining potential jurors sent home; their jury duty completed. DAMN!!

At this point, the jury selection begins. 18 potential jurors are called up to the jury box and asked question after question. And then more questions. As jurors are released for various reasons (mostly, because they're complete idiots), they call additional potential jurors up to the hot seat. My name is called. And I knew - based on the questions they were asking, that I did not have any conflict or personal history involving anything similar to this case - that I was on-board for the ride. DAMN!!

More potential jurors are let go (mostly, because they're also complete idiots), and I am moved up to Juror #3. DAMN IT!!!

By 3:00 in the afternoon, the 12 of us are finally sworn in as the jury. Only, one of the 12 then raises his hand and says his Grandma's dying and he has a plane ticket for the morning to fly off and visit her. WHAT?! He is dismissed, and the court calls more names to find the final juror. Which they find, send the rest of the folks home (I think only 10 or so people didn't get their names called to be in the hot seat), and we're on to opening statements. I'm beginning to realize that court cases move about as fast as a heard of turtles.

Three days, one hostile witness, two juvenile witnesses, several police witnesses, and one witness pleading the "5th" later, we're sent to deliberate. Sadly, the deliberation room did not contain coffee, food, windows, or air. Those movie jurors have it great!

About 4 hours over two days later, we the jury reached a decision. Aside from the legal decision, we also came to the consensus that jury duty, while important and necessary, totally stinks!

My jury duty service is now done for two years. Next time should I act a complete idiot???

This One is for Kristen

Here's a pretty manhole cover...

and a not-so-pretty "pit" cover...

Both photographed in Galway. Enjoy!

Video Clip of Galway Concert

We captured two video clips of the Sharon Shannon concert in Galway. Unfortunately the one with the better song is a bit longer, and Blogger doesn't seem to like it. Therefore, I have posted the shorter clip (of some Irish drinking song, from the sounds of it) for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Irish Signage

If you're thinking of coming to Ireland, you may want to study these roadsigns that Jennifer and I have learned through painstaking application of cunning insight to decipher. See if you can follow along:

"If this happens to you, you cannot say you were not warned."

"Danger - Volkswagen Beetles descending ahead."

"This man is falling to his death. So would you."

"Stupid people try to cross the street here. If you run them over, the road will be bumpy."

"If you continue along this path, bad things will happen."

"Irish children dress and play like Dick and Jane. Do not crush them please."

"Don't throw these rocks - they are very old."

"If you continue driving onto these train tracks, well, you will be crushed."

"Pray. Now."