Weekend log

Saturday we went to a fair in Victoria Park, right here in Widnes. It had these great old organs, ranging from very small to gigantic. The biggest one had a dance floor in front and some girls were showing off thier vintage dancing skills from the turn of last century.


Some intereting cars and motercycles on display. This 1960's Triumph Herald is for sale for 1500 GBP.


Also they had plenty of junk food, midway games, and carnival rides.

Today we took the train to Liverpool. The Widnes station is a mile and a half from our house. It takes 30 minutes to get to the end of the line. It cost 11pounds total for our round trip tickets. From Limestreet Station you walk a block and arrive at the Walker Art Gallery, central Library, and Liverpool World Museum. Both the gallery and the World Museum really impressed me. Admission to both were free, and either would have been worth paying 10 quid per ticket, easy.

The art gallery was very good for families, because they've redesigned a wing just for kids. After they've played for a while, they get a scavenger hunt to look for certain works around the museum. Both kids were into the hunt, but I could see them stopping to take a good stare at some of the paintings...wonder what was going through those little minds. The world musuem is done up very nicely, with 5 levels divided by subject matter (sea life, 4 great human civilizations, bugs, pre-history, and space). Then on the other end of the buidling it has in depth sections on other civilizations, Indian-Asian, Japanese, African...you could spend days going through all the stuff. Once again, they worked really hard to make things interesting for adults but also for kids. My son loved counting the 24 arms of the bodhisattva or compassion, and my daughter was quite taken with the mummy.

Something tells me we'll be going back there many many times!

You've never seen a church like this...

My supervisor brought his team together from around the world this week. For dinner we went to Alma De Cuba. This is a 200 year old church in downtown Liverpool thats been converted into an upscale resteraunt and bar. The approach from the street gives no clue about what is found inside. The nave is a long marble bar, with and tall narrow booths along the edge. Almost like confessionals, all done in very dark rich woods. Great old stained glass going down the sides. At the front of the place is a very ornate alter that they've prett much left alone. Going upstairs (on spire staircase, stones worn where you step) there are candles leading the way to the balcony which wraps around the walls. These are the main eating areas. Sat next to Eddie who I haven't spent time with since the Ben Lee concert. The food was perfect, decent wine, great company, a time I won't forget.

Swimming

We put the kids into swim lessons...the local public fitness center is very nice. We can watch the kids practice through this window.

Badders and Boddis

Had a friendly doubles match of badminton tonight, and afterward a few Boddingtons at the local pub. I could get used to this! This pub, called Micklehead Greene, is pretty close to our place. It has a decent menu, large non-smoking section, beer garden, outdoor playground, and most importantly, a big supervised indoor play center. It has video cameras so you could be anywhere in the pub and check in on your little ones. Even slighly older kids would be entertained whilst you drink your beer due to the free playstation kiosks. I could really get used to this!

Trip to Microsoft Campus in Reading

Today I drove down to Reading (pronounced "redding") for a Sharepoint 2007 seminar. The system blew me away. I think the search crawler complete with knowledge mapping email account scanner is the most impressive part. Out of the box it will allow you to scann your company's email boxes for key words and associations to quickly help you find knowledgable people an any subject indexed. It has privacy features as well, such as a user filtering what content can be indexed. Enough of that boring techy stuff...

The campus is in a beautiful setting along the river Thames, just northwest of London. I stayed in what must be one of the oldest Quality Inns around, built in 1890. Of course I don't know when it became a QI, but it just seems wrong.

The drive was so perfect. Blue skies, colorful sunset, hot air balloon drifting overhead. One thing the British really seamed to have figured out, is they don't have nasty looking utility poles and wires strung about. Also, they tend to keep the greenways green, and sprawl kept to a minimum. One thing they haven't figured out, is how to put garbage into a trash can (or recycle etc). There amount of litter here is astonnishing, and you never see volunteers cleaning any of it.

First day of school

Both of the kids seem quite happy with the local public school...I know I am. After meeting the teachers, parents, and seeing the behavior of the kids, you couldn't ask for much more.

Like a rock...

Had to get a picture of this...


Can't you just hear Bob Seger singing about it? I've now seen 4 huge American vehicles over here...guess that averages 1 every 2 weeks. First was a Cadillac Escalade with 22" blingbastic rims. Next came a huge Dodge Ramm 4x4. Then a Ford F150 Harley Davidson edition. Finally, the Chevy full size conversion van. There is also a common thread, they are all black. Though the others didn't have the rivet wrap around look.

Don't worry about the parking job, everyone parks crazy over here. Can't imagine the cost in gas...my jaw about hit the ground when I first filled up my Zafira. 50 pounds, that's nearly $90 folks!

Weekend log...

Friday night, Dominos pizza party at the Myers household

Saturday we visited the Catalyst science museum here in Widnes. It started off great, with some great interactive exhibits for the kids. Made it through the first floor, onto the glass elevator all the way to the top. This gave a nice view of Widnes, Runcorn, the Mersey River, etc. There are no tall buildings in Widnes, so this 5 story view is about good as it gets. To our dismay, we found that this science museum only had 1 more floor to explore, and the place isn't exactly sprawling like COSI.

So by 1pm we were finished there and looking for more to do. Decided to head down to Wales and take Megan and the kids to a place I had already been... Conwy. We didn't go inside the castle there, but we spent some time walking the town. You can't go very far without being harshly reminded that this is a medieval town from the 13th century! I didn't really know where I was going, but headed back towards the bay. We slowly drove past 4 people riding these huge beautiful horses. The road started narrowing, and sloping, and winding. We rounded a corner that went steeply down to an old wall section of the city. The road lines followed right on through an opening in the wall, but it looked only to be 6 feet wide and 5 feet deep. No way I'm getting my van through there. So here I am in my 6 speed Zafira (that I'm in love with), burning up the clutch in reverse trying to find an area to turn around. More people are coming down this road (albeit in tiny cars). I managed to turn around and take a different tunnel back into the town (easy, we had at least a foot of space on either side of the van). The streets of town are very tight, winding, and confusing. Down one street I met a huge bus face to face. The driver just stopped, and motioned that I must turn around. Once again, I find myself backing this thing up and turning around. We found that there was a small blue arrow indicating that section of road as one-way, but very easy to miss. Normally here you would see "No Entry" written on the street where you are not supposed to turn in. I decided to give up driving and found a parking spot. We walked the town center, bought some pastries, saw a creepy old church, browsed some shops, had some ice cream (ask the boy about the dungeon), and then were on the road again.

Next we stopped in Llandudno, a great seaside town right next to the Great Orme Head. This town would be a great place to stay at a bed and breakfast for a relaxing time. There is a long pier that you can walk out on the bay with some midway style amusements. There is a cafe, bar, and arcade at the end. It is very scenic.

At the end of the day, near sunset, we drove around the one-way marine drive (in the proper direction). It was so beautiful. Some mountain goats were trotting up the road, when they saw our car, they hopped onto the stone wall out of site. We assume they knew what they were doing (not committing suicide?).



On Sunday we went on a smoothie making adventure in Lymm. My friend Bob has lived in Lymm Hall for the last 6 years. He made this great little map and 30 point plan for my son to follow. It included things totally unrelated to smoothie making but the kids didn't take notice. In the end we finally arrived at a field with wild black berries, a plum tree, and an apple tree. The formerly majestic estate of Lymm Hall is in "gentile decay" as Bob puts it.

weekend update...

Spent most of the weekend unpacking and truly moving in. Took a break yesterday to see the Knowsley Safari Park. When we approached the baboon area we saw some people driving on the exit road (at a more than moderat rate of speed) with the primates hanging onto their their cars! After we drove through we could tell why...it was like a drive through chop shop! They had absolutely no fear of vehicles, tearing off car parts and running off with them to the bush. Crazyness.

Our stuff came today, I'm so happy!

When they said 3 to 6 weeks for our ocean shipment, I think they meant to say 3 + 6 weeks, because this is week 9 that we've been without the bulk of our 'stuff'.

The kids are elated that their old toys and beds made it safely. Luckily Megan and I just bought a new one when we arrived.

Got the kids computer configured and seems to be happy running on 240v. Looking forward to re-assembling my rig...I'm going through BF1942 withdrawal.

Will still keep filling in the blanks from our Paris trip and other items I noted but didn't have time to finish journalling yet.

One interesting thing I noticed tonight is that my amazon rank is about 68,000. Have gotten some decent approvals of my reviews, but people seem to really hate my review of Raising Victor Vargas. I really like artistic, creative, dark films...but this one just wasn't that good. Can anyone give me an amen? Oh well, can't win em all.

Paris Day 5

This was our last day in Paris, and probably one of the best. We decided to catch the train out to see the Cite Science Center. It is a terrific place, with a lot of something for everyone. Admission: depends how much you want to see inside. Going through the area geared towards kids, on similar scale to COSI, 15 Euros for the 4 of us.


We spent a good deal of time inside the center, but noticed a lot of activity out back. Behind the center is a cool water garden with a huge reflective geode (theatre inside).


There is a big dragon slide at the edge of the canal. You climb up about 30 feet through its rib cage and come out its mouth. Notice how small the person looks sliding down this thing! Admission: Free


On the other side of the canal is a sprawling public park.


And what Paris park would be complete without a carousel? I turned on the fast exposure for my Canon and got this terrific shot of my wife and the kids as they rode by. If you look closely, you'll see that there is an upper deck to this ride. Admission: 1 Euro

Paris - Day 4

Eiffel Tower - from the second platform. It was way too busy to wait for lift to the very top.


Pony ride in the park


Eglis du Dome - I guess Napoleon is burried here?


Rodin's Garden - Son standing at the "Gates of Hell". Boy, get away from there!


Jarden Antlantique - Metro Rooftop garden

One of our books about Paris noted what to see from various train stops. At this one, there is a park built on top of a train station. It has raised walk ways and tucked away places. At certain parts you can look down through the ground and see the trains.


The kids enjoyed themselves at this park for a while before we set off for dinner.


We ate at Hippopotamus, and then, very full and very tired, headed back to our room.

Paris: Day 3

We slept until 10, had a lazy breakfast at the hotel hotel. Made it to the train station at noon. Took train to Chatelet Les Halles station, which lets out at an underground mall in the center of the city. In this mall, as with many places in Europe, you must pay to use the toilets. In this case there is a man with remote control opening and shutting doors after you pay him. At least when the restrooms must be paid for, they are typically clean!

The center of the mall opens up to the sky, it was pretty neat! When you come up to street level, you see these terrific gardens and a huge cathedral (St Eustache) at one end.


This park has a couple of play grounds tucked in. I let my kids play in one for about an hour while Megan browsed around. There was a huge sand box, water fountain, play equipment, etc. It was really cool watching these 4-6 year olds try to play together and realizing they had no clue how to communicate with words.


After this we started walking Paris ...mmmm banana crepes. We walked around chappel of saints, house of justice, Notre Dame ...mmm ice cream/gelatos.

We noticed an area called the Beach, down by the river. Evidently the city wanted to give people a reason to stay in the city on the weekends rather than going to a real beach. They trucked in tons of sand, and set up free umbrellas and reclined chairs. You could bring your own towel if you wish, or just sit in the sand. There were even shower stations to clean off!


What a great use of the waterfront! There were so many people walking up and down it. There was garden area, that many people took advantage of the misters to cool off.


For the pre-teens, there was this great obstacle course...all this for free. They had ballroom dance lessons (once again, outdoor dance floor), food vendors, street performers, and more.


We made our way down the river to the Louvre court. When we walked in I could here this opera singer and was just overwhelmed. I felt shivers and my eyes welling up, just giddy, very similar to my friend Christine one time at the Toledo Museum. We saw the glass pyramid, reflection ponds, the arch out front, but we were in no shape to go inside today. So we walked back toward Le Halles.


On the way I noticed a metro entrance that the one in front of the Toledo Museum must be modeled after! What serendipity!


One thing that really stood out about this city, is the great mixture of transportation. The trains and buses were excellent, but you also saw cars, scooters, bycycles, and plenty of walkers.

We ate Chinese for dinner, train ride back to bus station, bus ride back to hotel. What a long but terrific day. In the train station, my son tried to befriend a boy with a couple of french words he picked up, and the boy didn't understand. His mother came over and told me in English that the boy didn't speek a word of French (or Enlglish), only Hebrew. Never know what you'll find!

Paris: Day 2 - Disney

We started off the vacation with a day of completely comercialized pursuits ..."Eurodisney". It was a gorgeous day. We went right away in the morning, went back to the hotel in the afternoon for naps.


Back to the park around 5pm - 11. We saw the light parade which was quite a bit different than the one in Orlando. Just at the end we started seeing lightening bolts and a storm blew in...so they canceled the fire works. We ducked into Planet Hollywood for dessert to avoid the crowded bus stop and torrential downpour. It was a great ending to a nearly perfect day.

Paris Day 1

Today was mainly a day of travel. Manchester to Amsterdam to Charles De Gaul in Paris.

Bon Voyage!

We're off to Paris...can't wait! Will post pics when we get back.

The Bloods & Crisps

In some ways food is very different here... haggis, blood pudding, bangers/mash, mushy peas, etc. Crisps are potato chips, and chips are french fries. Shopping can be very different because all of these little towns have very pedestrian friendly (car unfriendly) main streets. In other ways, things are exactly the same here. New American style outdoor strip malls are popping up all over, and you can't travel very far without seeing Subway, McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. Hell, our town even has Dominos delivery! You have towns struggling to change after factory closures and the social problems that follow high rates of unemployment.

Today we went far away from all of that, up into the Lake District at Lake Windemere. It is a very beautiful area. We took a half hour cruise around the lake, and saw countless sailboats, row boats, and waterfowl. There are no fast/loud boats ripping through which makes it all very relaxing. The lake is 10 miles long and we drove the length of it which is a narrow winding stone wall bordered road.



Most of the buildings in this area (even new ones) are made of true fieldstone. It is amazing. There is good food and nice sidewalk shops in Bowness. Ambleside looked terrific too, but we only drove through. We ate at the Travellers Rest pub, good food and the building has loads of "character". When I say character I mean there isn't a true wall in the place anymore! Great selection of cask ales but I was driving so I resisted. I have to say Theakston's Old Peculiar is my "favourite" so far.

While in Bowness, we toured the Beatrix Potter museum. The kids were very afraid because many of the storybook animals looked so real.



I think there was a little bit for everyone today. The best part for me? We stopped by a guy's home in Blackpool to pick up my Yamaha subwoofer ebay win. yay!

School's out...

School let out for the boy today. He said he prefers his school in England over that in Toledo. They have recess 3 times a day and better food.

Finally...broadband @ my UK home

Today I came home from the Laundromat and saw the wonderful green light on my broadband router. This was supposed to be activated long ago, and after many long phone calls its finally working!

You may be wondering, "Aaron, you seem to have a great job with a great company, why would I be going to a Laundromat?". Ahh, a question my wife has asked me as well. It turns out that our dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer, all languished while waiting for our arrival. We knew about this 2 weeks ago, but I'm learning that NOTHING happens fast over here (except how quickly the taxes start piling up). Yes, there is a 17.5% sales tax (VAT) added to nearly everything. And our first piece of mail we received was a letter from our borough (county) asking us to promptly pay our council tax (property). Shortly after we received a letter from the government asking us to quickly pay our annual TV license (you pay an annual fee to government just to have a TV in your house)...ugh



We are starting to venture out a bit more from the house now. Yesterday we spent time at Albert Dock in Liverpool, and then on to the great beach in Southport. Both are just 20 minutes from our house. I'm still getting used to how quickly you can travel what seem like long distances on a map. UK has about 54 million people and is probably comparable in size to Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

I'll definately be bloggin' more often now that I'm back online...feels good.

Settling in

Life has been very busy getting settled into our new house. The kids are loving it. Megan is trooping along without a car, but the towns here are very pedestrian friendly with great public transportation.

Our air shipment arrives tomorrow and our ocean shipment should be in the next week or so.

I'm working with a great bunch of developers now and I think I'll enjoy it much more. Before I was sort of alone in my work and now I'll be with a good size team.

More to come...

Moving day...

I always joked that if Toledoans re-elected Carty then I was getting the heck out of Dodge. Well, it took a while but the movers are coming to get our stuff later today. Seriously, I don't dislike the guy that much but coincidentally Megan, the kids, and I are moving to the UK for a 2 year assignment with Pilkington (soon to be Nippon Sheet Glass).

Please forgive my lack of blogging lately, but life has been crazy busy. I'll be posting pictures, thoughts, and life adventures from across Europe over the next couple of years.

By the way, if COSI closes in that time, we won't be moving back to our home in central Toledo heh heh. Is this some sort of self fulfilling prophecy developing?

Stay tuned...


A

Cymru (Wales) Road Trip

We had some spare time so my colleague Steve (from Australia) suggested a road trip. I'm so glad we went for it! We tried to get lost but our USB GPS and MS AutoRoute would not let us. It kept a nice log of our journey.

Here is Steve on the northwest tower of the castle at Conwy.

Here is the beautiful South Stack light house at Holyhead.

Spring Break 2006 - Day 9

A long day of driving!!! Saw some terrific views though, the 19 Mountain Expressway was a good scenic diversion around Charleston WV. You get to cross the New River Gorge Bridge. It felt like driving through clouds. Made decent time, driving 814 miles in 14 hours. Including stops that averages 57MPH. Really the kids slept most of the day after the exhasting prior two days.

10:15am leaving Savannah GA for Erie PA: 15,790
12:20-50pm Columbia: 15941
4:00-4:40pm lunch somewhere
6:30pm somewhere else in West Virginia: 16237
12:30am Erie PA: 16604

Spring Break 2006 - Day 8

Went swimming at hotel

Downtown Disney



Lego store!!!



Dinner with Andrew at Mama Fu in Sanford

8:15pm Leaving for Savannah GA: 15528

Spring Break 2006 - Day 5

2:25pm leaving Alphretta for Orlando: 14973
6:05pm - 7:45pm Lake Park FL: 15231

Light breakfast with the Bumpus family...everyone was groggy. Mostly a day of travel.

Spring Break 2006 - Day 4

9:05am Pigeon Forge for Atlanta: 14657
10:35am rest stop: 14738
12:30pm Alphretta

Today we visited our old friends the Bumpus family near Atlanta, GA. First we visited their nearly complete new home that will have a terrific view of a forested pond. The house will is very spacious with a sensible layout, I'm sure it will be marvelous when the finish work is done.

After an early dinner at Cracker Barrel we went downtown to the Georgia Aquarium, which is simply amazing.



We spent 3 good hours there then walked down to Olympic Park which was bustling with people. For dinner we walked a couple blocks down to the Hard Rock Cafe. The kids all bonded pretty well.

Spring Break 2006 - Day 3

Today we went hiking with my mom, stepfather, and sister in the Smokey Mountains. We took an "easy" trail to Grotto Falls...I think mom was reaching her limits! It was a perfect day in every way. The kids really like the falls, my son liked it so much he went for a "butt swim" by slipping and putting his rear squarly into the water. I soaked one shoe pulling him out making the hike back to civilization a bit squishy.

Later we went to the Dixie Stampede which was a great show! My daughter is convinced she wants to ride two horses at a time some day just like Dusty. Tip: get a vegetarian plate and a regular plate for a better variety of food to share family style.

Spring Break 2006 - Day 2

9:00am Waffle House
10:00 Explorium and lunch in downtown Lexington



1:30pm headed for Knoxville
4:00pm Knoxville Zoo
5:00pm Headed for Pigeon Forge: 14,582
Dinner with the Conrad's, putt putt, rest!

Spring Break 2006 - Day 1

1:45pm departed from Toledo: 14,091

3:15-5:00pm : 14,182

We ventured south to Wapakoneta's Neil Armstrong Space Museum. This was a decent stop with some interesting items. The size of the place is just right to see and then get back into the car after an hour or so. Megan liked the original paperback copy of Stranger in a Strange land that one astronaut read onboard a space shuttle.



7:30-8:15pm Skyline Chilli just south of Cinci: 14,300

Spent the night in a Motel 6 north of Lexington...ewe

UT Campus - Dorr Street corridor

Dorr street by campus has been looking cleaner since Corpus Christi has bought and torn down a couple of old commercial buildings. Also, Jimmy Johns and Papa Johns (any relation?) have moved side by side a bit closer to campus. With the student population greatly shifting to the south side of campus...that whole strip needs redeveloped into something cool.

I walked through the new Ottawa House East/West dorms for the first time this week. I'm really impressed, they put a trendy looking new coffee shop in as well, open to the wee hours of the night.

In any case, UT/MUO administration is thinking of a new name for main campus. Go here to give your input.

Shout out for Death Cab for Cutie

I heard Transatlanticism from Death Cab for Cutie a few years back, and although I liked it, I'm fully addicted to Plans. I know they opened up for Pearl Jam at the sports arena in 2004; now I really regret missing that show.

New toys

My new Mpeg1/2/4 video capture board came yesterday from NewEgg, as well as a dual layer DVD recorder (up to 8.5 GB per disk). I was very pleased that the price of the two...about $70 combined, will let me convert some old VHS home movies as well as other things to digital formats. My tool-less Silverstone case made it so simple, both things were unboxed, installed, and working in about 20 minutes. The part that took the longest was digging out some extra AV cables for the VCR!

weekend log

The remodeled family room is finally complete... it is 21 by 11ft. It used to be very dark with orange knotty pine shelving. I removed all the gingerbread trim, primed the whole thing, ditched the rickety ceiling fans, installed new closet doors, patched some drywall holes, new baseboard trim, and installed carpet tiles. Overall the project took me about a year, but I had many starts and stops.






...onward to the upstairs bath.

Frank Morgan

I took a colleague visiting from overseas to hear a great jazz quartet staring Frank Morgan down at Murphy's tonight. Its been a long time since I've been down to that place, brings back some nice memories.

46645

I've been toying around with Google SMS, its so kewl!

Try this one: w 43697

4 day forecast of beautiful Toledo weather...

(*****) Tag

My friend sent me a link for a new laser tag game in the UK. Even though I'm not a paintball fan, I couldn't really get excited about this high end laser tag either. There was all that work of hunting and shooting without the exhilarating feeling of knowing you inflicted pain on someone. I retorted that what the world really needs is paintball/laser tag "kicked up a notch"...taser tag.

After googling we found this and laughed our arses off.

Weekend log

Saturday we ventured to the zoo for a puppet show in the Czechoslovakian style. The kids were a little scared when all the lights went out and the music came on, but when the story started coming together they really loved it. All of the puppeteers wore all black, and the puppets were lit with black lights. It really is something to see!

Saturday night I watched Japon by Carlos Reygadas. If you are looking for thoughtful movie WAY out on the fringes, give it a shot. I really couldn't relate in any way to this movie, but I can say it was unlike anything else I've seen. It won special mention at Cannes 2002. The main branch Toledo library has a copy.

Other than that I spent the rest of the weekend painting in our new family room. I bit more cutting in with trim and it will be ready for the carpet.

Downtown Toledo pics

Today for my walk I made two laps around the Lucas County Courthouse and something struck me as odd. The Ten Commandments is displayed prominently from the corner of Adams and Erie. The monument is about 5 feet high and has a couple Stars of David and the all seeing eye, like on the dollar bill.



Further down Erie and less prominently displayed is the Bill of Rights.


Religious establishment, or just that the Eagles had the idea of sponsoring their donation before the ACLU? Probably the latter.

ok, I'll play along...

Jason tagged me, so I'll take the opportunity to talk about myself, this is my blog after all.

Four jobs I've Had...

1. Paper delivery for the Defiance Crescent
   
2. Field worker for Dekalb
   
3. Short order cook for Frisch's Big Boy
   
4. Warehouse grunt for Hardees

Four movies I can watch over and over...

1. The Princess Bride
   
2. Reservoir Dogs
   
3. Dune (original)
   
4. Forest Gump

Four TV shows I love to watch...

1. In a Fix
   
2. Charlie Rose
   
3. BBC
   
4. Project Runway?

Four places I've been on vacation...

1. Cleveland, OH
   
2. Ann Arbor, MI
   
3. Dayton, OH
   
4. Fort Wayne, IN

Pretty exotic huh? Yes, I've gone other places too.


Four favorite dishes...

1. Anything my wife cooks (safe answer)
   
2. Indian/British hot currie (not a narrow topic I know, terrible with names)
3. pizza
   
4. Sushi

Four websites I visit daily...

1. news.google.com
   
2. maps.goole.com
   
3. mail.google.com
   
4. theonion.com

Four places I'd rather be...

1. Everywhere
   
2. nowhere
   
3. somewhere
   
4. underwear? (whoa! where did that come from?)

Four bloggers I'm tagging...

1. Jim
   
2. I've always sucked at tag...

If this were a scored test I'd barely pass, what a slacker!

A meditation on the speed limit

These guys are lucky they didn't die trying. Basically a group of friends tried to see what would happen if they all drove the speed limit on a crowded Atlanta highway. They blocked all lanes for a few miles, containing all traffic to 55. The clip is produced nicely...very funny.

Downtown Toledo pics

You don't expect to see horses frolicking downtown, but if you look hard you will find them hanging out at the TPD ranch.

The one at the fence kept sticking his tongue out. Thanks to Mr practical joker horse, I had to retake the shot several times.

Toledo, a great place to raise a family?

I've heard this time and time again...I guess there is evidence to refute this claim:

race riots

forced teen prostitution ring

and now terrorists?

Keep it up COSI

COSI Toledo is so important to the long term technical and social scene in Toledo. Support it, even if you don't have kids. Looks like they've been recently recognized for an award...nice photo of Dr Walsh and Laura Bush here.

funny

Catching up on email since returning from the trip, thanks for this one Andrew...

Last day in UK

I purchased a map of St Helens and surounding areas, caught a train a few towns down the track, and then wandered my back to the hotel. I estimate based on the map that I walked around 30 miles all together over an 8 hour period. It was really cool to stop through the town centers and see what people really live like over there. I stopped and spoke with various people, all of whom were friendly. One was very guarded until I assured him I was not a j witness.

After I ate and rested a while and ventured back out to hear some live music at the Citadel. Daniel Amor opened for Amy Wadge. I totally fell in love with Amy, she is so amazing. She rocked the acoustic 6 string, 12 string, and piano all the same. She was very energetic and funny, great great show. She was backed up by a pretty good band as well, including another keyboardist and standup electric base. I took a non flash snapshot, hope she doesn't mind...

Another year wiser

Yesterday was my birthday...so I've been blogging for a whole year. I think I've achieved my goal of having an online journal that captures snapshots some of my thoughts, interests, and activities. I've made some great new friends this year, and had many excellent experiences.


In the evening we went to a great Thai restaurant in Lymm. I was joined by Icaro, Steve, Bob, Udo, and Peter. We drank a good amount of Sigha beer. Afterward Bob hosted us at his home where his wife Sharon served up some deserts and champagne. In the photo from left to right: Udo (Germany), Peter (Denmark), myself, Bob(US), Steve(Australia), Icaru (Brazil).



Some of my friends/coworkers put together a nice audio montage wishing me happy birthday from back home. They called and recorded messages at Bob's house all day and he compiled them into one. When I heard my daughter's I wanted to be with her right then... we'll all be together again Sunday.

Rugby League - Wigan Warriors

Today was the last day with the SAP EP6 consultant. After work we headed up to Wigan for a rugby match. Excellent game, Wigan won.



The area around the stand (stadium) is built up very nicely with shopping and resteraunts. We had a round at the Red Robin after the match, not a chain like you have here. In England you have these pubs everywhere that have great food, beer, and character. If you are looking for the mens room, its always refered to as the 'gents', and if you would like chips, they are 'crisps'.

Manchester

After work today we headed for Manchester. We walked around down town for a while, what a beautiful city. Excellent mix of old and new architecture. There are many colleges in town and hence many hip urban gen x/y'ers. We stopped by a candle light vigil for the Brittish soldiers who died in Iraq.

After dinner, went to the Life Cafe to see Ben Lee, Tina Dico opened. They were both so terrific...some of the best music I've heard live. Steve was worked up when I called them folk singers, but its really what they are. Hip young folk singers, they play accoustic guitar and sing melancholy songs. There were fun and lively songs too, good mixture, good good time.

At the end of Ben's show he sang We're All in this Together, he walked in through the crowd and we were all singing it together, it was quite moving.