l33tminion: (Default)
This week is Erica's school break, and I took Erica to Cleveland to visit my parents while Julie gets a focus week back at home. Had the Monday holiday off, but the rest of the week was "working from elsewhere" for me.

Last Sunday, our travel day, was very snowy overnight and rain and heavy clouds all day in Boston. Bad weather in Cleveland, too. As a result, our 10AM flight became a 4PM flight. Erica had bought a matching sweater-and-sweatpants set with her allowance at Target on Sunday which she wanted especially for the trip, she definitely got the most use out of her airport loungewear. Still, overall it was a reasonably pleasant travel day. And it was in a way lucky that we had to wear boots in the morning to wade to our airport ride, and thus had to have our boots and couldn't neglect to pack them. It's been snowy all week here, so we've been wading through snow all week.

There was another brief delay in our flight as the plane had to do an abrupt go-around before landing on the second attempt. It was a pretty dramatic maneuver, and someone a few rows back form us was overcome by motion sickness and lost their lunch. But of course it could've been worse.

On Monday, we got to catch up with Dan and Anne and Isaac and baby Naomi, who has doubled in size since I last saw her and become extremely engaged and vocal. I also got to catch up with Markos Monday evening, played a bit of kitchen table Magic. Took me back, though I kept embarrassingly misreading the cards.

On Tuesday evening, we went to a concert at CIM featuring Olga and Daniel Kaler with Michelle Bushkova. Was really great. Had to duck out at intermission because of kid bedtime (but had thought that might be the case).

On Wednesday evening, we saw a "Picasso and Paper" special exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

On Thursday evening, we went out to dinner at Tita Flora's, a Filipino restaurant which was really good.

Friday evening, had a nice Shabbat dinner at home and my Uncle Jonathan came over.

And of course Erica has been up to all sorts of activities with my parents during my workdays.

For lunch, I made excursions to a bunch of places nearby, mostly on Larchmere. I did get to Michael's Diner in Shaker Square, which I love (it's a wonderful, classic train-station diner). But Shaker Square does seem, as always, a bit cursed. A new cafe will be opening in the again-vacant cafe spot soon, at least. Brandon Chrostowski's restaurants Edwins Restaurant and Edwins Too closed on Monday, relocating to the former Nighttown jazz club space. Didn't get to go there again, but fancy for a random weekday, but at least I did get to go a few times. Lovely memories. I'm sure they will make the most of the Nighttown space, too, it's a great space. I did go to the other Edwins restaurant in the area, their bakery and deli venture, which as far as I know is staying put. Had an excellent pastrami on rye. The restaurants are all run by Chrostowski's nonprofit, which has a mission of helping former prisoners with reentry support and job training in the hospitality industry.

Hopefully tomorrow's return trip will go smoothly. Weather will be better this time at least.
l33tminion: Mind the gap (Train)
I've been so long without writing and don't know where to begin.

The last few weeks have been day-camp weeks for Erica, with two weeks of arts camp at Parts and Crafts on either side of one week of climbing camp at Boston Bouldering. Erica had a lot of fun with both.

Last weekend, I took Erica to Baltimore for a weekend visiting my sister and meeting up with my parents. Now she's off with my parents at Cascade of Music & Dance, then back to Cleveland for more grandparent time. I'll go there to pick her up after.

Baltimore trip was a ton of fun. Erica really loves spending time with her cousin Simon. We went to Chesapeake and Allegheny Live Steamers at Leakin Park (an adorable little 1/8-scale model rail that the kids can ride), spent some time at the pool, and took the water taxi shuttle across the harbor.

I flew Southwest to Baltimore, which was perfectly on time on the way there (despite warnings of bad weather) and then an hour delayed on the way back. Still was pretty nice. I'm always struck by Southwest's odd efficiencies. For example, their snack choice was these onion-and-monkfruit pretzels, which is a distinctly less middle-of-the-road choice than I'd expect for a one-option snack (compare, for example, with Delta's Biscoff cookies). Southwest does kind of have a bit of a "you'll do things our weird way and like it" attitude.

I enjoyed watching some of the Olympics coverage with Erica over the past weeks. The Tahiti surfing was especially spectacular.

I've also been enjoying the new Magic: the Gathering set, Bloomborrow. Set in a world of critters, it's a bit Magic meets Redwall (presumably also Whitewall, Bluewall, Blackwall, and Greenwall). The delayed rotation of the most-recent-sets Standard format has freshened the experience up a bit, though I still feel like the wider window on Standard makes it less fresh than it could be.

Julie's been extremely busy with newcorp stuff, but seems like something is getting off the ground.

I finished reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on the trip. Thought it was pretty good, though I felt it had a bit of a period-piece-syndrome in the early parts (i.e. like it was trying to crowbar-in 80s references a bit too hard for realism). But I really liked the surrealism of some of the later bits. Overall a good novel, an interesting story.
l33tminion: (Default)
Just got back from a weekend in Baltimore. Was great to see Melissa and Elliott and Simon (that baby was G R O M P Y, at least some of the time, but his communication skills are really coming along and that stage of development is really amazing to see). My parents were also visiting there before heading off with Erica on second grandparent trip of the summer. On Sunday, Erica and I took a day-trip via train to DC with my dad and Melissa. We saw the sights Erica most wanted to see (views of the Washington Monument, a visit to the Lincoln Memorial, and the National Children's Museum) and made it back to Baltimore for a sushi dinner. We had a great breakfast Monday at Golden West (wanted to go to Paper Moon, but that's closed Mondays, another time). Then saw Erica off on a trip with my parents. They're going to Cascade of Music and Dance and then back to Cleveland for the end of the summer. I hear Erica is already having a great time.

The trip to Baltimore was smooth, and generally Erica was a great traveler and good company. Was traveling on Southwest this time for the first time in a while, and they really do so many things differently. The trip back, on the other hand, was plagued by delays. I managed to switch to an earlier (also delayed) flight that was just before departure when I arrived at the airport (again, yay Southwest for being so nice about same-day changes). But the flight was delayed on the tarmac by weather for almost an hour, then had to return to gate to get more fuel after their route was changed. Then the flight was turbulent and they couldn't serve beverages or snacks. I arrived still at least an hour-and-a-half earlier than I would have on my original flight, and somehow not too hungry. But my bag didn't make the last-minute transfer. I went home for dinner and bed and swung by the airport this morning to retrieve that from the baggage office.
l33tminion: Mind the gap (Train)
Kid bedtime changes are doing well. Still high intensity, but at least we're getting more sleep. Work has been high intensity, too, but overall going well. Had a nice team week onsite at our office for the wider Android Stylus Team.

Anyways, I keep putting off writing and then trying to reconstruct my thoughts instead of just, you know, write about what's going on, so skipping over a lot of things to about the present.

We're currently all in Cleveland for kid's April break, visiting my parents, and it's been 2.5 years since we were last all here. Nice to be here for Passover. And my sister, Melissa, is visiting with her family, too. So I get to spend some time with my new baby nephew, Simon, which is really great!

Travel went smoothly. Nice to take the new Green line connection on our way to the airport. We ran into one of Eris's school friends in the terminal, which was cool. COVID situation still looks very alarming, though how bad is still TBD. At least we escaped getting sick pre-trip. (Very much hope during as well!) I'm very glad to be here, but also feeling very exhausted. Travel is always pretty tiring for me, and I was pretty tired to begin with.

All right, I guess I'll loop back to some recollection:

My indie tabletop RPG group has been playing Sig: City of Blades (a Blades in the Dark-style with a setting that's a bit of of off-brand Planescape). It's been fun so far.

I've been able to have some fun playing Magic: Arena, though I can't build all the decks I want to and I've been perma-stuck at Platinum rank in constructed.

I finished watching Eighty-Six, and thought it was pretty good. Doesn't overreach with it's ending, but I think it earned a little dwelling on its epilogues.
l33tminion: (L33t)
Back home, and back in the pattern of "too busy to write during the day, too tired to write in the evening".

Our trip back home went well, except the carseat (which also serves as the top half of our stroller) failed to make the connection and arrived on a later flight. It all got sorted out, though. They delivered the seat to our house the next day, and gave us a loaner carseat for the interim (which made the trip home from the airport much easier). BA's agent in Boston was much nicer than their agent in Manchester, and pointed me to the correct place for filing a claim for the earlier damage as well. Unfortunately, the site for that says "within seven days", so I'll see if anything comes of it. In the meantime, I've ordered a replacement canopy, which will hopefully be here in not too long, and a lightweight sun-shade, which I'll try to use for future travel.

I had one moment in the hotel, holding Eris, where I just suddenly really felt the love. And it was sort of a surreal experience, similar to how the birth was a surreal experience, feeling that at that particular moment. It was like the stork had knocked at the hotel-room window with a follow-up delivery or something like that.

The Sunday after we returned was spent with cousins from both sides of the family (by coincidence, all of our New York cousins were in town).

This week, Julie is back to work, and I'm enjoying a week as a stay-at-home parent. Next week, I also return to work, and Eris starts daycare. I think she'll enjoy it.

The developmental milestones continue, the latest being that Eris has realized that objects can be interacted with (as in grabbed and moved), though she's not completely sure about how yet. So been getting in a lot of time playing with colorful spinny toys and grabbable rattles.

Eris has also been sleeping more at night and staying up more during the day. She seems to fight sleep a bit every time naptime rolls around now. So much to do, so little time!
l33tminion: Yay microbes (Microbes)
The early part of last week was uneventful. Some of the items on my todo list seem to have stalled out and really need a kick. Little chores have kept me busy, and I've managed to get in some relaxation.

Took a long weekend (Thursday-Tuesday) visiting Juile's folks in Lubbock, Texas. Unfortunately, on Saturday both Julie and I came down with a serious stomach bug (which, we later found out, has been caught by just about everyone in Juile's lab). At least we weren't sick while we were actually travelling. We did introduce Erica to her great-grandparents (Julie's mom's parents), which was an important motivation for the trip. And she also got some quality time with grandparents (they looked after her while we went out for a movie (Deadpool), report was that little Eris was displeased with our (well, Julie's) absence).

The trip was a good trial-run for Julie's upcoming conference trip in late March. At least Eris handled the flights pretty well, and didn't seem to be bothered too much by the crowds and the changes in altitude.

Since getting back, I've had a few stints of looking after the kid by myself. Getting enough food to her is no problem, but having her rest comfortably afterwards without Julie around is another matter. She doesn't seem to satiate properly when she's being bottle-fed, instead going from ravenously hungry to painfully full but still demanding more for some reason. Also, even the low-flow bottles we have seem to be a bit too fast. May try bottle liners to reduce air intake. And today's experience suggests that switching to a pacifier for a bit after 50 ml or so might let her rest afterwards without so much stomach discomfort. It would be great if there was a bottle where the flow slowed down a bit more as the feeding progressed.
l33tminion: (Conga!)
Last weekend, I went to visit Julie's family, and it was a rare white Christmas in Lubbock, Texas (enough to give the yards and rooftops a uniform coat of white, little enough to vanish without a trace the moment the sun came out on the 26th). It was good to see her folks under less-hectic circumstances, and it was a very pleasant and relaxing weekend. We watched Cats (the musical, on DVD), played catch with the most energetic German shepherd I've ever met, and had a fantastic Christmas dinner. I kept Julie company, reading while she continued to grind out the last bit of her thesis, and I played some games of cribbage with her dad and brother (wasn't nearly as rusty as I expected).

The flight there was smooth, but the flight home was marred by a 4.5 hour delay and subsequent missed connection. At least American put me up in a hotel nice enough to almost make me forgive them for the delay (the Grand Hyatt at DFW).

Then back home and back to work. Trying to wrap up end-of-year stuff and get some good work done in the quiet office.

Winter has been delayed here, but seems to be dragging itself in the door.

Can't believe 2011 is almost over.
l33tminion: (Default)
The conclusion of my San Francisco saga follows, in not particularly organized fashion.

Thursday: My family arrived in town, I joined them for dinner with my dad's host sister, her family, and some of my dad's other acquaintances from the Philippines. Was fun.

Last night at the Union Square Backpacker's Hostel. That stay went well, of the six nights, I had a room to myself for four, and the other two nights my roommates were friendly, sound sleepers, didn't snore. The accommodations were minimal but reasonably comfortable and clean.

Friday: Had breakfast with my family, went to the Museum of Cartoon Art and the Golden Gate Bridge, relocated to a rather luxurious hotel. Friday evening service, and dinner at some Mexican restaurant. In response to Stephan's enthusiasm (Stephan being my cousin and the bar mitzvah in question), the rabbi said something about "having a prophet in the room", which struck me as a remarkably rabbinical backhanded compliment. I'm usually lukewarm about Reform congregations' services (and that's relative to my non-enthusiasm about religious services in general), but I enjoyed the weekend's services more than I expected, the ritual was very heartfelt.

Saturday: Saturday morning service (the main event of the bar mitzvah celebration), reception at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma, family gathering at my aunt and uncle's house. Stephan gave a really excellent d'var torah.

The portion in question was Parshat Terumah, in which God tells Moses to take donations from those whose hearts are moved and build a tabernacle (portable temple for the Israelites' journey through the desert) and then gives incredibly precise instructions for how such a tabernacle should be built. Stephan used the example of playing a musical composition to explain why something done freely "because one's heart is moved" might still require following incredibly precise instructions.

In the evening, stayed up late drinking at the hotel bar with a woman who was tagging along on her mom's business travel (since the room and rental car were covered, it made for a cheap weekend vacation). She was the sort of drinker who wants everyone around to continually drink more and extols the virtues of drinking to excess. I ignored her nagging, I don't drink more than I find fun. But that aside, it was good conversing with her (and the other travelers who got drawn into that conversation), and I didn't pay for any of my own drinks (she bought me a beer and a cocktail, another drink came from an anonymous (also rich and/or foolhardy) benefactor who decided to buy a round for the house).

Sunday: Morning brunch at my aunt and uncle's house with homemade lox (really, really good; Uncle Marty is a professional chef and consequently an excellent cook), then airplane trip back home, with more good conversations along the way. Only problems were a slight delay due to weather and the fact that I seem to have lost my cell phone charger (I'll probably be able to buy a new one tomorrow, but if not my cell phone might be dead for a few days).

It was really good to see so much of my immediate and extended family. I enjoyed meeting family friends and cousins of Stephan that I hadn't met before. Also was great to see Stephan again, he's an unusual, cheerful kid. I hadn't seen him for ages, so I'd expected he'd be rather different than I remembered, but he's much the same as ever.
l33tminion: (Progress)
The screen on my new laptop cannot be upgraded, unfortunately. HP support is prompt but their writing skills leave something to be desired. At least they did answer my question. Ubuntu setup progresses in my spare moments.

I'm still recovering from this cold, and now I'm worried that I'm coming down with something else.

Evidently this bailout bill may cause Wall Street execs to take their golden parachutes and say screw the economy. On the international front, the first stock market to open post-bailout did not do so well.

Finally, in totally random news, here's a post translating a Norwegian news piece about how Barack Obama loaned a stranger $103 in 1988 to help her out of baggage trouble at the airport. I like that anecdote. It shows good character, especially since Obama was hardly rich at the time, and jibes well with my favorite piece of advice.

To bed!

And Yet...

Jul. 27th, 2008 08:52 pm
l33tminion: Touch your wings and wonder if this is a dream (Wings)
The con went well, and yet now that all is done my mind seems to drift to the impression that things could have gone better. I don't feel quite ready to return to work.

Doesn't help that my flight is delayed, although I am grateful that the Pittsburgh Airport has free wi-fi.
l33tminion: Mind the gap (Train)
I've just arrived at the Doubletree Hotel, the venue for this year's Confluence. The trip here was incredibly smooth: Up at 6 AM, out the door at 6:40, airport at 7:20 (without a minute waiting for a bus or train), through security by 7:40, breakfast (surprisingly affordable, apparently Logan Airport is now enforcing their long-standing no-gouging policy?), board plane at 8:30. Comfortable flight, no delays, shuttle from airport to hotel (called GOOG-411 for the hotel's number, which I had forgotten to write down), warm cookie at check-in, great accommodations. Con registration was (apparently) supposed to be from 11, but they don't seem to have set up quite yet.
l33tminion: (Default)
On Friday, I went to anime club. They started a bunch of new series, including Kodocha (likely to cause cardiac arrest in large doses) and Hare+Guu (surprisingly awesome).

On Saturday, I played DDR at MIT. The arcade was crowded with ninjas and other assorted randoms. I can't seem to beat End of the Century (on Heavy) or Healing Vison: Angelic Mix anymore, so I'll have to get back into practice.

On the train home today, I ran into a girl who seemed really familiar for some reason. I introduced myself, trying to figure out where I knew her from. Apparently, I don't. However, she (her name is Shlomit (Shulamit?; sp?)) was in the movie Hineni: Coming Out in a Jewish High School. (I haven't seen that movie, but I'm certain someone mentioned it to me recently.) We had a brief convesation about Judaism and books; I reccomended Telushkin's Jewish Wisdom, and she reccomended Schachter-Shalomi's Jewish with Feeling.

Aside from that, my life has been fairly uneventful...

Random

Mar. 28th, 2006 02:33 am
l33tminion: (L33t zombie)
Another thing I neglected to mention: On my flight home, I was seated next to this older lady who apparently knew one of the Olin seniors. Small world, but I still have to figure out who she was talking about.

My flight back to Olin went fine except for failing to meet my friend at the airport (between miscommunications and phone problems). I took the T home, then almost got stranded at the T station as the cab company had all its cabs out picking people up from the airport. Fortunately, some randoms were willing to give me a ride home.

One bit of news to share. I must say, this current administration never fails to surprise me.

Finally, a random meme, just because:
Meme )

Finally!

Mar. 18th, 2006 02:51 pm
l33tminion: (Default)
School's out for spring break and I'm coming home on Monday! This week was strange and very busy, but I'm doing swimmingly.

Haven't gotten a chance to update lately, so I've got a lot of randomness to get out of my system.

Classes: "Science Fiction, Historical Context" started this week. Differential Equations ended, a week late. In biology class, I'm switching from the initial lab to a project on computational evolution, which is good because I hated the labwork. Pipetting minuscule amounts of clear fluids into other clear fluids may be some people's idea of a good time, but it's just not for me. (The rest of bio is pretty fun. One of the best parts are the weekly "media discussions" on various topics. Our group went this week, and we discussed artificial life.)

Links:
The Top Ten Coolest Robots
"Red Rain" in India May Hold Alien Life

Movies:
I saw a preview showing of V for Vendetta, at an IMAX theater located in a furniture store. I enjoyed it. The acting was good, and it was a solid actions film. (I have yet to read the graphic novel the film is based on.)

Random:
- Playing DDR in the arcade yesterday I beat Rhythm and Police on Heavy. One of the randoms who I saw there over the summer was playing as well, so that was cool.

- Walking home from anime club last night, I had an interesting conversation with a college student who had randomly decided to visit Boston for St. Patrick's day (he goes to school in Philadelphia). It reminds me that I need to travel on impulse more. After all, when but college can you get away with that sort of thing. (Apparently, that dude decided to visit New Orleans for Marti Gras last year. He decided this the day before, and drove there from Pennsylvania. Now that's the way to travel, eh?)

- I'm trying to get to know a bunch of Oliners better (people who previously were just acquaintances). In particular, hanging out in The Stick (one of the suites) is a lot of fun. (Sarah throws some pretty sw33t parties.)

Memes:
Johari
Nohari
Tarot Card Meme )

Home

Dec. 24th, 2005 11:13 pm
l33tminion: (Default)
I got back home yesterday after spending a relaxing day in Boston. The flight was overbooked, so they upgraded me to first class, which was pretty cool.

This morning I had to wake up to go to a bar mitzvah celebration for one of Solomon's friends. Aside from that, the day was pretty uneventful.

We've got cable internet at my house now. Wireless, too. :-)

Books- Finished Cryptonomicon, started The Dwarves of Whiskey Island. Cryptonomicon is definitely a masterwork (although I think I'd recommend Snow Crash over it if someone was only going to read one of the two; I recommend reading both, though).

Movies- Saw Attack the Gas Station! yesterday. It was all right, but not as hilarious as the person who recommended it to me seemed to think. I also say Narnia today, and it was very good, about as good as an adaptation of that book could be. (Though, regarding the book, I still sort of agree with this.)
l33tminion: (Default)
My vacation was nice.

On Thursday, I went to pick up my siblings from Centauri. On Friday, I went to the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy with a bunch of friends. On Saturday, I spent time with Rene, which was cool. On Sunday, I saw the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Museum and headed home.

My flight on the way home was delayed in all sorts of ways, so I ended up missing the last train by far and having to take a cab. The airport was pretty quiet when I got there; everyone who wasn't leaving was stretched out on a cot for the night.

I did get some reading done, though, with all that traveling time. I finished Sinner on the way home and read Chasing Vermeer and The Secret of Platform 13 on the way back to Boston.

Pronoia

Mar. 19th, 2005 11:00 pm
l33tminion: (QED)
I have the rising suspicion that the universe is out to shower me with good things.

For one thing, I'm home.

For another, I had a remarkable conversation with Katie, a lady I met in the airport and talked to on my flight home. This is the second time this year I've had a remarkable conversation with someone in an airport who just happened to also be sitting next to me on the plane. (As a matter of fact, Katie had actually been scheduled to be on a flight the previous day, but that flight was canceled due to maintenance problems).

Katie, the person I talked to, is a Baptist minister with ten children, who studied and worked in education, sociology, and psychology, and who is planning to return to school to get a PhD.

When I arrived at the gate, she was talking to some other person about a book she had just bought on impulse because she had read it as a child. The book was Make Way for Ducklings, and, as it was a childhood favorite of mine as well, we ended up striking up a discussion. We ended up talking about theology, philosophy, personality types, systems based psychology, bible stories, Greek etymology, and personal faith.

Clearly, it was fate. Or luck. Or quantum entanglement. Or the laws of probability simply not applying to air travel.

I reiterate my advice: Talk to people in airports.
l33tminion: (Default)
At least the flight has finally left Cleveland now and is on its way here...
l33tminion: (Default)
In the airport on the way home, I heard two guys talking about game theory, so I couldn't resist joining the conversation. A woman from the same flight then also joined the conversation. As it turned out, the two guys, Brandon and Derick, were both IT people from a college in Kentucky who had been in Boston for a training seminar, and the woman (who's name I did not get) was an enterprise marketing executive for Microsoft's eastern seaboard operations. (Only later did I realize that I should have asked for a business card. D'oh!)

The conversation continued on the plane, where Brandon, Derick, and I, were joined by Peggy, a teacher from Boston, and we talked about economics, ethics, politics, and the meaning of life. Brandon talked about his love of order and his belief that labor unions were obsolete, Peggy shared her spiritual existentialist philosophy, and Derrick and I talked about social justice (me from an atheistic point of view, him focusing on Jewish conceptions of social justice centering on the concept of Tikun Olam (healing the world), which I knew far too much about from my experiences at Camp Tavor (which I went to before I went to Centauri).

The moral of the story is talk to people in airports.

Anyway, it's great to be home, but as soon as I met my dad in the airport, I received the sad news that my Great-Aunt Sala has passed away (apparently a few days ago, but, due to problems in communication (each thinking that the other had done it), my parents had not told me). My mom had mentioned Aunt Sala's declining helth a few weeks ago (when Aunt Sala had a stroke), but Aunt Sala has had health problems for a while, so I either missed the tone of the email or it made things sound less serious than they really were. *is sad*
l33tminion: (Default)
Fortunately, all my flights arrived safely at their destinations.
Unfortunately, the flight from JFK (New York) to Dulles (Washington, D. C.) arrived late.
Fortunately, it was only a little late.
Unfortunately, this still caused me to miss my connecting flight to Cleveland.
Fortunately, the airline put me up for the night in a hotel.
Unfortunately, there were no non-smoking rooms available, so my room reeked.
Fortunately, I was still able to sleep well.
Unfortunately, I had to get up again in five hours.
Fortunately, I finally got home.

It's good to be back.


Randomness:
Sanity Test )
My AP Scorecard

(Note: Journal entries are now back on normal time (EST))
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