Monday, April 02, 2007

Critters




The new Federal Court House is an impressive building at the west end of downtown, near Old Sacramento. Its court yard is maintained by these whimsical characters - definitely a California theme and a humorous counterpoint to the building's seriousness.

Wildlife



The last round is underway and I'm off for more coffee and sightseeing. The canine is walking fast between the convention center and the theatre. I think the feline was guarding a bank.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Sunday Morning



Beautiful morning in Sacramento. Round Six got off at 9, with kids still running in after the clocks started. Some of them, like P, played until 11 last night, though this morning the players didn't look as wiped out as they have in some past years. Maybe its because unlike some years, we didn't have to set clocks ahead Saturday night. One more round to go, this afternoon, and then awards and 1000 kids heading for airport to go back to school in Phoenix, Tampa, the Bronx, and Deer Isle-Stonington (Maine). Not to mention Seattle.

I'm settled in at the Temple on 10th - free WiFi, good coffee, and a little less overwhelming than the Starbucks at the Convention Center.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Round Three



D had a frustrating game last night, but won in Round Three this morning. P has won all three rounds so far! And E wound up playing an almost four-hour game on Board One (fuzzy picture) against Marc Tyler Arnold (rated over 2300, top player in this tournament). Round Four is underway - I guess I should head back over and check on the guys - or at least buy another latte.

Nationals



It's nice to have one of these events on the west coast - though the trips to Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Louisville the last three years have been fun. I'm glad there are still some big crowds of kids from back east, representing both some big inner city districts and a bunch of really high end suburban private and public schools. About 1000 kids are registered this year.

K-9 Chess Championships

Weather is great and Convention Center is just across from the hotel. We found a great crepe place for dinner last night a few blocks west on "L" Street.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Sacramento




I arrived just in time to wish D good luck in the first round. M&D got in last night and then joined up with others this morning to visit the state capital across the street. Apparently Arnold wasn't in, or at least wasn't taking visitors. We hoped he'd speak at the opening ceremony, but no such luck!

This blog must be about one year old, since I began it at last year's Nationals in Lousiville.

D has joined up again with P & E and all three won their first rounds.

Sea Tac



I left Vancouver yesterday after the morning sessions and lunch. Battled construction (pre-Olympic frenzy, I suspect) getting out of the city and a 45 minute wait at the border. I got home in time to take M&D to the airport. And then I came back again this morning to catch my own flight. Took pictures of airplanes and fish mobiles while admiring just how long some people are willing to wait in line at Starbucks!

English Bay



I walked down Denman to English Bay several times this week - our annual stays at the Sylvia make this place seem a bit like home. A falafel sandwich one night sitting on a bench at the beach and a late afternoon (when these pictures were taken) stroll admiring the beach when there aren't 400,000 people lining up to watch fireworks (see blog from last August). Thursday morning - the last day of the conference - I got up early and had coffee at Delany's before going over to the Sylvia for breakfast. I wish I'd had my camera - beautiful light on the freighters in the bay and just incredibly relaxing (and much cheaper than the conference hotel, too).

Burrard Inlet


Back to Vancouver, though this time without the family. The Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference gets up here once every four years - we're at the Westin Bayshore on Coal Harbour. Despite threats that the weather will deterioriate, it hasn't, yet. Between technical sessions and preparing Wednesday's talk, it's been busy, but by foregoing some of the social functions, I've managed some nice runs in Stanley Park and a chance to explore some of the damage from December's storm. Pretty impressive. Many trees down and much damage to the seawall promenade, particularly along the stretch between Third Beach and the Bridge.

As usual, I'm impressed with the level of development along this shoreline. And the public accessibility. It's fun to watch the walkers, joggers, dog trainers, bicyclists, tourists, rowers, leaf blowers, limo drivers, condo owners, and seagulls. Not to mention constant seaplanes.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Mercer Island




We struggled to round up the requisite five players for a team - some of our players actually have other things to do on Saturdays than play chess! Our final five included a wide range of experience, from D with hundreds of games to J with only four rated games prior to this event! They did great, taking 2nd Place to Odle, which is probably not just the top MS team in the state, but the top MS team in the country! P managed a draw on Board 2 in our match against Odle, keeping them to 24.5 points (out of a possible 25).

Friday, March 02, 2007

North City

Friday evening at Hot Wire while D plays chess at SCC. Jessica Star Rocker is playing to a small audience tonight. Nice acoustic act with good voice. Some of her own songs and some wonderful covers of others, including a really great quieter version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

Retrieved my car this morning from the shop, after they fixed all the seals and oil leaks that weren't done right during our holiday jaunt to East Wenatchee. It's true that I hadn't put much money into the car for the first 140,000 miles. But, boy, gettting to 145,000 has been awfully expensive. Won't seem bad if the car goes 100,000 miles without further mishap - though I'll spend the whole time wondering if the head gaskets were really done right - especially on those long nighttime drives across US 50 in Nevada that I fantasize about, but haven't actually done in two decades. What a warped sense of nostalgia.

The car's not the only thing suffering from too many miles. I've seen more doctors in the last two months than in my entire life - plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgeons, dermatologists, oncologists - not to mention all their elves. I now have one less mole and one fewer lymph nodes than I began the year with - but it looks like it hadn't spread. Cancer is a powerful word - though always best when applied in the past tense.

Out of boredom, I'm violating one of my principles and am posting a blog without a photo, but short of taking a crummy picture with my cellphone of the reflection of the neon North City LOUNGE sign in the wet pavement of 15th Avenue Northeast, offering up a picture of the recent needlework on my forearm, or pulling some unrelated photo out of the archives, that's all I can do tonight.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Olympic Sculpture Park





From the Mojave to the Gulf of Mexico and back to Seattle. Amazing how much routine, and sometimes not so routine, life gets left in the gaps! Yesterday, I took advantage of a brief gap in that routine to wander through the new sculpture park. It still needs to be finished up - especially the section down near the water - but what is done looks great. I hope it sets the tone for future work along Seattle's waterfront.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Gulf of Mexico



M is just back from St. Pete Beach, though this time she didn't bring the boys. She claims the conference was good, but I think she mainly did pedal boats and the beach tricycle. Funny to think that I was here last May and she and I both walked through in June.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Kelso Dunes




It's been about twenty years since I last climbed up these dunes. Beautiful day and although there were others heading up, I had the summit to myself. Great views towards Cima Dome and Mojave Sink, as well as Kelso itself - where they've done a nice of fixing up the old train station into the new Mojave Desert Preserve museum and visitor's center.

Mojave Desert




Thursday, I left M&D on their own for breakfast and the morning round and headed off for the California desert. Nice to get out of the traffic and the construction and the commercial schlock. South through Searchlight, then old Route 66 through Goffs and Amboy (where it doesn't look like you can buy a malt any more). Hiked up Kelso Dunes - beautiful, cloudless day, with almost no breeze. I still love the thick forest of Joshua Trees on Cima Dome.

Red Rock Canyon



During Round Four, M&I headed up to Red Rock Canyon. Nice contrast to the city, which is visible in the distance and whose suburbs have climbed the hill along West Charleston right up to the park boundary.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Boulder Canyon




On Tuesday, we drove down to Hoover Dam. Slowly -- since the traffic below Boulder City was terrible. The new bridge will be great, though I guess they haven't made much progress since the cranes collapsed in September. We didn't go on the tour - too crowded - but we did walk across the dam so D could add Arizona to his list of states visited. Parking garage was pretty cool the way they tucked it into a side canyon.

Las Vegas





We spent the holiday in Seattle, but flew to Las Vegas late Christmas Day for the four-day North American Open. D opted to play up, which is admirable, since his chance of winning the big bucks would have been better if he'd played in his own division. Besides playing chess, D has watched lots of ESPN. During the rounds M&I have wandered the strip, watching volcanoes and pirate ships. We walked across the both the Brooklyn and Rialto Bridges (different nights).

Bally's put us in the newly-renovated north tower the first night. Fine, except the phone didn't work, the toilet didn't work, and you had to walk through the casino to get to the tournament rooms. So we asked to move. They said the decor in the south tower might not be as nice, but it seems fine, and now we look out on the Eiffel Tower, with the New York skyline in the distance. We can watch the south half of the Bellagio music-fountain show, too.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

East Wenatchee




We headed for the Methow, looking forward to a few days in the snow before Christmas. We delayed our start so the Methow could put itself back together after last week's storm - at least get the electricity back up and the roads plowed. We left Monday morning and got as far as Bluett Pass before the water pump failed. Coasted down to U.S. 2, got pointed to a small garage in Dryden, and then got towed to another small garage in East Wenatchee. Where we spent two days learning about cooling systems, timing belts, and head gaskets. At least there was a motel next door and a good Italian restaurant (Garlini's). Headed home by bus yesterday, when it became clear that we had been blessed with the Subaru head gasket curse. Hope that job gets done fast so I can retrieve car before the holiday. M&D managed to light Chanukah candles in the hotel room without setting off the smoke detector. On a related note, I got to watch Davis furniture go up in flames across the river on Tuesday morning.

BLOG probably stands for belated-log or backlog. Somehow I made it through D's Bar Mitzvah, ultimate frisbee season, several chess tournaments, and a few family birthdays, all without posting anything. Maybe over the holidays I can fill some gaps - or maybe I'll just resolve to be better next year.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Safeco Field



We celebrated D's birthday at the Yankees Game. Given the occasion, I suppose it would have been nice if the Yankees had won, but D handled the loss well. The rest of us had no problem handling the loss at all! Randy Johnson pitched all 9 innings for NY and A-Rod was brought in at the very end (much to the crowd's delight, he struck out). The Mariners won 4-2.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Peace Arch



So what do bull kelp and the Peace Arch have to do with one another?

It turns out that kelp used to be harvested as a major source of potash for explosives. Given the current state of paranoid affairs in the U.S., the notion of someone smuggling potentially dangerous seaweed across the border, though not very practical and a bit harebrained, may be a high priority for DHS folks who have now filled several warehouses in Virginia with nail clippers and overly sharp pencils.

It started as a simple problem - we found a 20' strand of kelp on the beach at Fernwood and desperately needed to do something constructive with it. Fortunately, and just in time, we found a bumper to tie it to. It dutifully followed the poor tourists back to their cabin. Saturday morning, I found it hanging from a bush, suffering severely from road burn and dehydration. Somehow it ended up in our car. On the ferry to Tsawassen, it reattached itself to its original bumper. Where it stayed until the unwitting smugglers were pulled out of the line at the Peace Arch crossing and subjected to considerably more stress and humilation than they deserved.

We have learned some lessons: 1) Seaweed should stay in Canada. 2) Border agents should always ask whether you have let your vehicle out of your sight or whether strangers have asked you to drag strange plant material behind your car. 3) Friends shouldn't let friends drive with brown algae tied to their bumper. 4) Some things, like driving past friends pulled over by border guards, can make you feel really bad and yet be sort of funny at the same time.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Fernwood



This long red dock is just down the hill from the Raven Market, on the east side of the island facing Wallace and Galiano Islands.