Thanksbegiving

Thanksgiving 2008

I just got back from an week's vacation in the Bay area for Thanksgiving.  I visited Meg & Rich in Silicon Valley, and Steph & Aaron in San Francisco.  But over the week I ranged far and wide, from Monterey to Napa.  In seven days I:

• Had excellent Mexican in Mountain View
• Toured through the Napa Valley and had a very fun tasting at Sequoia Grove.
• Drove to Monterey to visit Meg's future home, the Hopkins Marine Station and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, both of which were amazing.  This includes her future colleagues in that grad program, who were a very sharp group.  I was especially impressed by the details of the experiments they were working on - biomechanics, mostly.
• Had North Beach Pizza with Steph & Aaron and Meg & Rich.
• Hiked up over Russian Hill to go out for a very fun italian meal.
• Played through Gears of War 2 with Aaron.  Nerds!
• Helped (a little) with making a huge and amazing Thanksgiving Feast.  The real credit goes to Steph:
• Brined Turkey
• Sweet Potatoes
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Rutabaga
  
• Italian sausage and sourdough stuffing
• Bacon, roast chestnut, and cornbread stuffing
• Homemade gravy
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Rolls
• Blue cheese & walnut spread
• Pumpkin Pie
• Chocolate Pecan Pie
• All Paired with fantastic wine
• Went for a appetite-building walk along the waterfront to Fort Mason to see a nifty instrument that uses the flexing of the Golden Gate Bridge to estimate the temperature.  Solid science, engineering geekery - pretty perfect for me.
• Tried to visit the new California Academy of Science, but went to check out the Presidio after seeing the hours-long line to get in to the museum.  Next time...
• Ate a ridiculous amount of leftovers

Not so much a real post as an after-action report, but it was such a great week, and packed to bursting with excellent times.  I recommend any and all of it for anyone who finds themselves in the Bay area.

Good Decisions

Sailing

Made some of my better decisions the last few days.  On Friday I was at the office a little later than I would have liked (not to the good decision yet).  But it was a gorgeous day - partly sunny, in the 70s.  Bike weather.  With the cooling temperatures, earlier sunsets, and intermittent rain, I hadn't been out on the road in a while.

Coming home, I weighed the pleasure of a ride against the chance of getting caught out past sunset, which I really don't like on the unlit trails I would be on.  If I had waited 20 minutes, it would have been the wrong choice.  But I quickly changed and rolled out.

It was a great ride - warm, little breeze, and no crowds.  Well, there were some leaf-peepers that made some parts of the trail perilous.  But away from them, it was lovely.  I rode out to Hain's Point, and East Potomac park looks fantastic, with the trees all turning.

Coming back up to the Mall was even better, as the failing light gave all the marble monuments a warm pink hue.  Just a great ride, and I'm really glad I went.  And on Sunday, I went sailing with Sarah & Paul, and decided to take my camera phone on the boat, which I usually avoid.  I'm usually the type that would lose it overboard, get it crushed down below, or something similarly stupid.  But I was able to get some nice pictures of Sarah & Paul & Louie which I liked.  And then we chose to come in before it got too cloudy and cold: another good decision.

Sea Dog

It was another beautiful day on Saturday, and Paul & Sarah were nice enough to invite me to go sailing on their O'Day out of Annapolis again.  It was not blowing quite as hard as the last few times, but with less traffic and very light seas it was very comfortable and relaxed sailing.

Conditions were so good, we were able to concentrate on experimenting a little bit.  The first test was unintentional.  Sarah was on the tiller, and was sharp enough to notice that the depth sounder had suddenly started reading below 4 feet.  The O'Day draws about 2.8.  So she called for an immediate tack and we all performed pretty flawlessly.  Everybody did exactly what they needed to do without being told - even Louie (pictured above).

Later, as we were headed back towards shore, we tried going wing-and-wing.  It was a little challenging, since the whisker pole wasn't set up.  I tried holding the sail out away from the boat by hand, but it was surprisingly tiring.  I had to hang out off the stays, and with the following seas keeping my position with all the rolling was more work than I would have guessed.  And we didn't seem to get much speed out of it.  But that's why you experiment, I guess.

There was some traffic shenanigans on the way back due to some construction, but the sailing was worth it.  Though I've got to stop looking at the boat from a racing point of view: "You know, with a spinnaker we could really surf downwind back towards the creek..."  Boat noun: a hole in the water you throw money into.

Old Bay

The past two weekends I've been out to Annapolis to help Sarah & Paul with their boat.  Last weekend was mostly about boat work - cleaning, re-rigging a few things, trying to fix a leak in the gas tank for the outboard.  That day had two particular highlights.

First, we had to install a wind indicator at the top of the mast.  This meant someone had to go up the mast.  I volunteered - I've always enjoyed work aloft.  So up I went, and prepared to get to work.  First, we decided to test the mast head lights, to make sure they were in good working order.

This is where the story takes an interesting turn.  With two naval architects, and two experienced sailors onboard, you'd think someone would have remembered this important fact about working aloft on small boats: it radically shifts you center of gravity.  Enough so that, say, having a person my size at the top of the mast almost eliminates the righting moment when the boat heels.  So when the crew shifted down below to reach the light switches, the boat heeled over.  A lot.  To the point were I looked straight down and saw the pier - the far side of the pier.  But the she stopped - once I knew that was as far as she'd go, I knew I could just ride out the  rest. It was actually pretty fun.  And I did eventually get that windex in place.  It was a hell of  ride.

The day was not through with us.  Sarah & Paul had brought their dog, Louie.  And later Louie decided he wanted to get off the boat onto the pier.  Trouble was, he didn't quite make it.  Into the Chesapeake he went, and we had to haul him out by the handle installed on the back of his lifejacket.  He was drenched, but he helped by shaking most of the water off onto us.  Good dog!

This weekend the boat was all dialed in, so we were able to get out quickly and sail south of the Bay Bridge.  It was a perfect day for sailing - good steady breeze, sunny and warm but not hot.  Just ideal.  Louie acquitted himself well on the boat, and all four of us did quite well pulling off some very nice tacks - more challenging that it sounds since there are three adults and a dog in a fairly small cockpit.

Out on the water we were surrounded by every possible type of boat and ship.  I saw a cargo barge, a pilot schooner, a topsail schooner, a Farr 40, a Nonsuch, a few very nice Catalinas, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, and an MSC containership.  Between the sights, the company, and the excellent sailing, it was just about a perfect Sunday.

It's Time for the Boat Show

The Annapolis Boat Show is this weekend, and I was able to go with friends.  The show is enormous - every size sailboat from small dinghies to large schooners.  Plus tents and booths for all the nautical gear any sailor could wish for.  I didn't see all of it, by a long shot.  But I got a good look at some nice racing dinghies from Laser, some cruiser from Catalina, even the schooner Virginia, the state's official Tall Ship.

As is so often the case in big events like the boat show, there was absolutely nowhere to sit down and take a break.  I'm sore from being on my feet all day.  So today will be given over to aggressive relaxation.

Before the rest, though, there was the hockey game.  Some of my friends had tickets they were unable to use, and were generous enough to offer them to me.  They were up high in the corner, giving a pretty good view of all of the ice.  And it was a good game - the Caps trailed through midway through the second period, and took the lead late in the third.  There was some sloppy play early; it's only the first home game, so that wasn't too surprising.  That also meant we got to see them hoist the Southeast Conference pennant they won last season.

All of this made for a very long, fun day, but an exhausting one.  I'm already looking forward to  a few naps and going back to bed.  So  lazy...

Gordie Howe Hat Trick

A friend offered me a ticket to the Capitals pre-season game against the Flyers on Friday night.  It was pretty great - we were 9 rows behind the penalty boxes, as close as I've ever been to the ice at a pro game.  The Caps had a good game, winning 5-1.  We debated whether Ovechkin qualified for a Gordie Howe hat trick: he had a goal and an assist, and got sent to the box for fighting.  Problem was, it wasn't the gloves-off kind of fight that leaves no room for doubt - more of a scuffle.  And besides, it was preseason, so does it really count?

For a follow-up, on Saturday I biked over to the Shirlington Oktoberfest after checking out Art on the Avenue.  It was pretty fun, once I managed to meet up with friends and stow my bike at their house.  Great weather for biking, and the perfect way to avoid the headaches of parking.  It was an absolutely enormous crowd, which usually makes me kind of squirrelly.  But it was very relaxing, just hung out and tasted a few beers.  Afterwards, watched the first half of the Alabama game at the apartment before riding home.  And then watched baseball until bed.  Pretty good day, I'd say.

Disappointment

Today was fairly unpleasant.  I didn't have much to do at work, and when I'm unapplied on the job I get bored quickly.  This was punctuated by a few waves of bad news.  One revelation was that the company has eliminated any discretionary travel for the rest of the calendar year, so I will not be going to the MAST conference in Cadiz in November.  I still hope to get my paper published, but unless I pay for it myself (and burn up 4 vacation days to do it), I won't be going to present.  This is a great disappointment, but maybe that just means my sense of entitlement is a little overdeveloped.

That wasn't all, and at the end of the day I felt exhausted.  And at the end of bad days I'm always left thinking what I could have done to avoid it all.  If I had just been smarter, made better choices, things could have turned out different.  And on bad days it can seem like all of your days are bad.

For all that, the day had its moments.  I had a nice lunch out with my friends, which is always a welcome change of pace.  I had a nice ride on the trainer at home, and there is all kinds of postseason baseball, and Pushing Daisies is even back on tv.