At Speed

Some fantastic footage of the new LCS out on speed trials with a bone in her teeth. This is exciting for a number of reasons. First, it is the Navy's first new surface combatant class in almost 17 years, since Arleigh Burke was commissioned. More importantly, Jane is up in Wisconsin playing a big part in the sea trials, and she did some important design work on the project. It is a great achievement for her, and I could not be more pleased.

Since our company is working on the competing design for LCS 2 Independence, I'm looking forward to when she gets in the water sometime in the next year. She will be a much more futuristic looking boat, if nothing else:

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Reds at Nationals

CIN @ WAS 8-1-08

With the current unbalanced schedule in place, most teams only play other teams in the league outside their own division about 6 times a year.  One series at home, one away.  So I get three chances each season to catch the Reds when they visit Washington to play the Nationals.

I enjoy games the most when I can see them with someone.  Since most of my friends aren't as big baseball fans as I am, and none are Reds fans, I can introduce them to the game and the team.  I do love to talk about both.  So invitations were made, and Sarah & Paul were able to join me Friday night.

Homer Bailey started for Cincinnati. The former phenom, this past-tense prospect, did not have a good night.  He lasted two innings, giving up five runs.  Rather than attempt to build suspense, I'll tell you now, that was all the offense Washington needed.  There were some good plays on both sides, including a diving catch by Jay Bruce in right.  Bruce added to his excellent night with a solo home run, which proved to be half of the runs the Reds would get all night.

Even with my Reds having a tough time of it, I love seeing games live, so it was a great time for me.  In fact, the most disappointing thing was not the outcome, but our neighbors.  We sat in the upper deck, and after a few innings some folks showed up to fill the row behind us.  They were Reds fans, I'm ashamed to say.  I suspect they had "pre-gamed" some, as they were already quite loud and obnoxious.  Despite children sitting nearby, they cursed quite a bit.  They sloshed a bit of beer on us.  And, possibly most annoying to me, they were ignorant about the game.  They would yell out how so-and-so couldn't hit, and how another player was a great fielder.  They were almost uniformly wrong.  Baseball is a subtle, elegant game, but they had no appreciation for it.  I don't understand how you can be a baseball fan, and not be interested how baseball actually works.  Adam Dunn may "only" hit homeruns (not entirely true), but he also walks.  A lot.  So he forces in a lot of runs, and puts himself on base so others can bat him in a lot.  He is immensely valuable.  Austin Kearns is a decent player, but is not nearly as valuable as Dunn because he is often injured and has never shown the same degree of power.  But they had to share their contrary opinion with the whole section.  These are just two examples of their errors.

We ended up moving to some empty seats in the ninth to get away from them.  I think I actually prefer it when the crowd is less in to a game - I can concentrate on what is happening and enjoy the details of defensive positioning, pitch selection, and the running game.

I've complained a lot, but truly the annoyances were a drop in the bucket compared to watching my team play with my friends.  It was a lot of fun, and even if this is the last time the Reds are in town this year, I look forward to catching some more games before the season is out.

Bike Shop +

A friend sent me this article about a bike maintenance vending machine.  Actually, it's more than that; it's a supply depot, information center, training facility, and community message board all in one.  I think it's a great idea, and would love to see more like it outside the bike shops in my area.  I don't think they would work anywhere - I think they would work best in tandem with a shop, like the the free air offered at many shops already.  More pictures and information from Trek here.

Getting the Runaround

Aaron passed through DC again this weekend for work, and was able to come and visit.  We made our usual visits to Poblano and the Dairy Godmother.  Flavor of the Day: S'mores.  One of my favorites, so the timing could not have been better.

Before he had to go on Sunday, we thought we might go see a movie.  There were movies he had seen that I wanted to, and we're trying to get tickets to the Imax showings of The Dark Knight in a few weeks when he is in town again.  So we ended up getting tickets for the new X-Files movie.  If only it were so simple.

We were early, so we just kind of camped out and waited.  Eventually, more people started showing up.  Aaron noticed that the scheduled start time had come and gone.  The audience started to grumble.  Soon, folks were leaving their seats to go out and complain.  Still, nothing happened.  Then, the pre-movie local ads and trivia cut out, and we were left sitting there, puzzled.

A low-level employee then came in and made an announcement.  After they had sold us our tickets, and sent us to this theater, they had switched the showing to another theater in the multiplex.  And it had started on time.  So we had missed a significant amount of the movie.  Complaints all around as we exchanged our tickets for the next showing.  We left the theater to run some minor errands before returning for the show.

We took our tickets and headed for the 3rd theater of the day.  However, the digital marquee at the door tells us that Mamma Mia!, the same show that took over the 1st theater, was playing here as well.  It seems the staff was not having their past day, logistically.  We ask any member of the staff we can find, mostly stereotypically surly teenagers.  They tell us to go upstairs to a fourth theater.

That theater is labeled as playing Mamma Mia!.  The groups of women headed inside humming "Fernando" was also a good clue.  We head to the service desk, and are told to return to the 3rd theater, though it is still listed as showing the ABBA musical.  At this point, the "answer" comes in the form of shrugs, "I dunno where it's playing" and a resigned handwave towards one theater or another.  We settle into our seats, and begin to observe our fellow audience members.  They do not look like stereotypical X-Files fans.  They do look like they know all the words to "Dancing Queen."  Someone was in for a disappointment.

Eventually, a very nice woman, a customer, comes in and asks if anyone is here to see Mamma Mia!, because she has spoken to the manager and that is being shown at a fifth theater.  About half of the audience gets up and leaves.  One woman laughs as she left, "I did think there were an awful lot of men here for Mamma Mia!"

The movie itself was all right.  Basically a decent episode of the old show stretched to feature length.  The story to get to the movie was probably more entertaining, though.

America's Vacationland

This past weekend I took a quick trip north to Portland to visit my family. This was the last free weekend everyone had before the expected arrival of Ryan & Bethany's son, so we made plans to get together.

We didn't do much once we were all there, mind you. We are a pretty low maintenance clan when we get together. I helped Dad get parts for some home improvement projects at the hardware store. We had a few nice meals - Mom made pulled pork, Ryan made french toast with cinnamon swirl bread, etc. Mostly it was just spending time with each other, not doing anything in particular.

We did go out to Crescent Beach south of Portland and had an extremely filling barbecue. I was a little woozy after eating, since we had stayed up late the night before at Ryan & Bethany's playing their new Wii. But we had a nice walk along the beach, and it was a beautiful day. Any trip that includes time by or on the ocean is a good one for me.

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Who Are the People In Your Neighborhood

So my friend Z is dog-sitting a few blocks away, and stopped by while walking said dog last night.  This thing is huge - a Great Pyrenees that has got to be nearly 200 pounds.  Very well behaved though.  In fact, despite her size I was able to finally get some use out of the fence enclosing my yard - we were able to just let her out there without any worries.  Apparently a very lazy dog.

I can't remember the last time any one of my friends lived close enough they could just drop in while walking the dog, going for groceries, etc.  It's kind of a neat.  I'd go over to where she is dog sitting and ask to borrow a cup of sugar, but she only uses sugar substitutes like Equal.  What's the point?

Celebrate Myself

It is almost time for me to stop feeling so full of myself for passing the PE. I've passed the word at work, and had a discussion regarding how a PE should be a Senior or Principal Engineer instead of an Associate. Purely hypothetical, of course. I just got my stamp and seal for marking any drawings that I review and find satisfactory. "Within 30 days of ... notification" I should get my official certificate, "suitable for framing." Steph & Aaron sent the awesome "cookie bouqet" pictured here. I was treated (very generously, I might add) to dinner by Paul & Sarah, and had a final "study session" at Poblano with Jane, Jackie, and Sarah, along with some other friends. Much more will seem like self-aggrandizement.

Actually, I'm embarassed to admit that while Steph & Aaron were considerate enough to get me the very delicious congratulations, I barely did anything for her latest big achievement. She was promoted, becoming a Lieutenant Commander. For my money, that is a much bigger deal than my certification. And that's just one example - if I paid more attention, I'm sure I would find that most of my friends and family are pulling off stuff like this all the time. So I learned something. Another step forward in the personal growth program.

Also, now that the decks are completely clear, as it were, I have no excuse not to work on my paper for the MAST Conference. I should probably be working on it now... I wonder what's on tv?