Quiet Weekend

It's largely been a quiet weekend. Hilary was up at a conference in the Cities, and I send a fair bit of time just taking care of errands. We could dearly use another day (or two) of weekend just for relaxing. Ah well.

As such, I haven't really got anything to report. Instead, Here are some pictures.

This is a part (not even the most sophistocated part) of the ATLAS detector/experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Notice the guy hanging out in the low center. Yes, it's THAT big, and its hundreds of feet underground in the Alps. The eight rings arrayed around the central axis are enormous superconducting magnets that create a cavern-sized torroidal magnetic field. The big area in the middle, which has since been filled, is where the actual particle detectors are located. This photo was the astronomy picture of the day from Feb 25th. The picture was taken by a CERN employee named Maximilien Brice.


This is me Da hanging out at one of the lookout/sniper embattlements of the walls of Old San Juan.


These doors are a masterwork of Renaissance Florentine sculpture: the intricate brass doors of the Baptistry of St. Giovanni, which faces the Duomo cathedral of Florence. For an interesting read on the background of both the Duomo and Baptistry, read "The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World."


The quaint streets of the hill town of Radda in Chianti.


More quaint streets, these in San Giminiano in an evening mist.

That's all I got for now. Look ahead to posts next weekend from the start of the (outdoor) Farmer's Market!

Knife Returned

It was more than a week in transit, and arrived sometime while Hilary and I were in Italy. But waiting for me when we got back in the weeeee hours of the morning was a nice fat envelope posted with $2.42 in Madonna with Child (Madonnas with Children?). We had ourselves been in transit for 26 hours coming back from Chianti, which was quite enough, thank you. Inside the envelope, of course, was the knife that I had sent to myself from the San Juan Airport. What a relief. The story of having to cut myself free from a taxi cab is now better that it has a complete and happy ending.

Cut Free

Todd was kind enough to send these two shots from my recent brush with a stuck seatbelt. A nice little before and after of my knife work.

Not much to see in this first one, save that I am clearly in an uncomfortable spot.

Despite appearances, I am not cutting my fingers off. This was taken just after I had sliced the seatbelt, so I was in the midst of my usual one-handed maneuver to close the knife. Notice the shoulder loop behind Hilary's face has no belt going through it. My iPhone is on the seat next to me (more about that later today, I think).

These events happened on Saturday afternoon, and the San Juan airport post office was closed. Sunday and Tuesday were postal holidays. So, there hasn't really been enough time to tell if my dear knife has come back to me. I surely hope that it arrives today or tomorrow, before Hilary and I leave town again.

Some More Pictures

This is one of the many lookouts built into the outer walls of Old San Juan. To me, it looks like something out of Myst.


A hibiscus that was blossoming just off the porch of La Finca. It would overhang someone seated in one of the many hammocks.


Sunset at Green Beach - our first foray out onto the sand.


Todd wrestling Steph back into the water.


Adding some diced red pepper to guacamole at the beach.


Dancing to Indigo Girls


Us four young'ens having a quick bite in Plaza Colon in Old San Juan.

Rooster

This fella was probably the only downside we encountered at La Finca. He didn't belong there - our hosts speculated that he belonged to a farm across the way. As well groomed as he appeared, he was certainly taken care off. A cock of the walk, you might say.

However, attractive though he may have been as a rooster, as a time keeper he was about as useful as a stuck watch. Actually, even a stuck watch is right twice a day - I don't think we could give this guy the benefit of the doubt. He somehow got it in his head to crow, quite pathetically, at all times of the day or night. Hanging out in a tree just outside our window, Hilary and I were treated to being awoken a couple of times in the middle of the night.

He was a tricky little bugger, too. Hiding out about 8 feet off the ground in a tree, he was safe from the dogs - and from the caretakers. He managed to dodge a shot glass tossed at him at 4 am by Nelson.



He did, I think, finally realize that if he just fluttered back across the way, he wouldn't have to have crowing contests with his far flung competition. So, by the time we were on our way out, we think he had moved on.

Knife

Well, Hilary and I are back from Vieques. Bummer. We were so enjoying lounging around in 80-degree, sunny weather. Now we're back in Minnesota, encountering teens and blowing snow. We are, however, extremely glad that we have this one last day off (Sunday) to regroup back at home before returning to school and work. We'll be posting more pictures from our trip as time goes on, but I'll post this one neat story from our return trip.

Most of you who read this blog know that I carry a knife with me regularly. Not just a small swiss army keychain knife with a nail file, but a 4" straight-edged lock blade made by Spyderco (the link is for the current model, mine's a few years old). I have carried one around since junior year in college, and find that its utility in my day to day life outweighs the odd remarks I sometimes get when I whip it out and flick it open it, one handed, in the space of about a second. I use it to open letters and packages, pull splinters, trim cuticles, strip wire, and as a fine probe. It has many other uses, including in emergencies.

Obviously, this isn't something that, even back in the day, would have been allowed through airport security. Therefore, it must be in my checked baggage, or I simply don't bring it on trips. I have actually had one disappear from my checked bag en route, but that's a different story entirely.

Anyway, suffice to say I had it with me on this trip - I peeled mangos with it, for instance, since the knives at La Finca left much to be desired. I won't get into all the details of our return itinerary, but in summary: us young'ens got back to San Juan airport in the middle of saturday morning, checked in with our respective airlines, and checked one bag apiece. Then we caught a cab to Old San Juan to kill a few hours before we went back to the airport to catch our mid-late afternoon flights.

The cab we returned in was in good repair, but my seatbelt was clearly having issues. When we pulled up to the drop off area, I found that I couldn't release the latch. Try as I might, it simply wouldn't let me go. The driver had no luck either. I could conceivably still extricate myself from the seatbelt by pulling some extra slack out and sliding underneath it. That is, I should have been able to pull some extra length out. However, the belt arrest mechanism, which prevents the belt from reeling out in an accident, engaged as I was playing around with the belt latch. Before I knew it, I didn't have enough slack in the belt to even continue play around with the latch. There are pictures of me in this predicament, which may or may not get posted in the future.

The cabbie was a good sport and, realizing that this was a serious problem, mentioned that he'd cut the belt if he had a knife. Well, as it so happened, I did have a knife and, after shimmying it out from my pocket under the seatbelt, whipped it open and sliced the belt. Freedom!

[As it happens, this means that my knife would be useful in case of a car accident - yet another good reason to carry it around]

By the time I got to the curb, however, I realized that the fact that I had my knife with which to free myself was a bit of a problem - we had already checked our bags hours ago! My knife had pulled me through in a real pinch, was I now going to have to relinquish it? Determined to keep it, I sought out the airport post office. You would think that, with the large number of items banned from airplanes, every airport would have a post office facility (or, at least, a self-serve kiosk) RIGHT NEXT to security, available for 24-hour, last minute shipping. However, this isn't the case. The San Juan airport has a post office but, alas, it is closed on Saturday and Sunday. What the Hell?

The airport does, however, have a Best Western Hotel and Casino. I was able to beg a hotel stationary envelope from the desk clerk and a few sheets of paper. Visits to three different souvenir shops yielded a place that sold postage stamps (at a 10% markup - is that even legal?). Next question: how much postage? It was a typical envelope, into which I was putting my several-ounce knife folded into a few sheets of paper (to keep the envelope from breaking). What's the postage for a several-ounce envelope? Is the postage from Puerto Rico the same as it is for the rest of the U.S.? I suppose I could have used my iPhone to look up the knife's weight online (from the mfg website), then the postage (from the USPS). But, I was in a hurry, so I just rounded it way up and put six stamps on it. Then, crossing my fingers, I slid it across the check-in counter at the casino/hotel and went back to find the rest of my group.

As it turns out, when I checked the USPS postage calculator this afternoon, I found that I was probably conservative by a factor of 2. That's fine - the extra postage is nothing compared to the replacement cost. We'll see if it makes it through.

Height of Geek

If only because I can, I am blogging from Sun Beach, on the south side of Vieques Island. I have here a picture, taken with my iPhone, that I am sending to Mooses of the North.

Bio Bay a Bust

The highpoint of this evening was to be a trip out to the bioluminescent bay - a local attraction. Technically, it is called Mosquito Bay (with good reason), but is called Bioluminescent Bay because it is filled with a plankton that, when disturbed by, say, a passing boat, paddle, or swimmer, glows in the water. Hilary and her folks partook the last time they were here, and the effect was said to be amazing. They went out with a guide in open kayaks, and slipped over the side to swim around. The water dripping off their arms and legs would even glow a bit.

So it was with great anticipation that we drove down to Banana's bar in Esperanza this evening to meet up with our guide - Berito. With a couple of kayaks strapped to the top of is little Isuzu, he lead us on an increasingly-poor dirt road to our put-in point. It was 10-15 minutes of very dicey driving that in other places would be considered mild off-roading. In our rented Caravan, it was definitely an impressive bit of work on Holly's part to keep making headway.

The kayaks were, as I said, open - kind of like sitting on top of a hard-plastic lozenge. Tandems, too. We launched and headed out into the water.

Unfortunately, observing this faint bioluminescing phenomenon is premised on some good night vision conditions. With the moon hanging almost straight above past first quarter there was a fair bit of light about. The phenomenon is also, of course, premised on the conditions being right biologically. Alas, Olga has passed by a week or two back and churned everything all to heck. Plus, the tide was out, which affected things further. As it happens, these things were already known to us, and made our crew only five for this outing. We had tried to arrange things such that our six elders would get their tour from a pontoon boat, while us four young'ens would do the kayak thing. The pontoon boat tours are out for the next week at least, owing to the aforementioned waxing moon and spot of difficulty with Olga.

So, after paddling in a wide circle for 15 minutes or so, we (us four and my dad) had to admit that there wasn't anything really to see tonight. Bummer. We headed back to shore and pulled out. Our guide, Berito, was gracious with his apologies, and would not accept payment for a no-show show. But, for his troubles, he would accept a drink from us back at Bananas.

So, fifteen minutes of suspension flexing, oil-pan threatening, sidewall straining driving back to the paved roadway, and we were back in Esperanza. The round ordered, we sat around to learn that the world is, in fact, increasingly small. Berito's ex-girlfriend, as it turns out, is from my hometown of Rochester, NY, and so he had been there a few times. He's planning to get his first experience with snow next month by learning to snowboard in Colorado (Steph's current home).

And here, since I've got nothing else for tonight, is the previously promised picture of an iguana. Its buddy, at the time this picture was taken, was about 15 feet higher up, trying to scale the top of a telephone pole. Why? Only he knew.

Vieques Day Two

Another relaxing day on the island! We spent part of the afternoon in Esperanza, one of the two towns on Vieques. There's a nice walk by the water, and some shops with local crafts and other goodies. We ended the day at Sun Bay, where several of us went for a sunset swim. There was a bit of excitement when the van a) developed a flat tire and b) refused to start, but that was eventually all sorted out. Alex cooked us a wonderful dinner of enchiladas, and Todd wowed us with a test batch of chocolate mousse for dessert. Some photos below...and look out for the iguana as soon as we can persuade it to load.

Coffee and La Campesina

The wireless network at La Finca Caribe and Blogger weren't wokring well together last night, so no pictures just yet. Soon enough Hilary will blog more fully.

After drying out for the 2-3days while in transit, and suffering the requisite caffeine withdrawal headaches, the first cup of coffee today hit me like coffee has not done for many years.

We shopped at three different places yesterday for provisions: a roadside produce stand, a supermercado, and the local health food store. The first was outstanding - it is great to reap the tropical bounty around us in pineapple, mango, avocado, and bananas. The supermercado was a little lacking in certain areas. For instance, Todd and Steph wanted to bake cookies for the group, but we were unable to find crystalized ginger (a long shot even stateside), nor molasses (wasn't there a time when they did nothing BUT?), nor chocolate chips. Interestiingly, there were plenty of packaged chocolate chip cookies from the Keebler elves. The health food store, bless 'em, was a small place that must be holding on by a thin margin.

As Hilary will tell later, we had an excellent dinner at La Campesina, a fairly new place that surely will be a great success - if they can get their telephone hooked up.



Sent from my iPhone

Day One in Vieques

We had a wonderfully relaxing first day on Vieques yesterday. Everyone slept in just as late as they pleased, then tracked down some breakfast in the kitchen before finding spots on the porch. Most of the rest of the day was taken up with reading, sleeping, and needlework.


In the late afternoon, a group of us decided to head to one of the beaches for a sunset walk. After half an hour of driving on extremely bumpy and puddle-filled dirt roads, we ended up on a deserted Playa Verde (Green Beach) just as the sun was going down.


We ended the night with a spectacular dinner at La Campesina. The restaurant is under new ownership, and everything from the drinks to the food (homemade hummus) to the desserts (chocolate brownie waffle!) was just spectacular. The setting is lovely as well. The group that got here a day before us had already eaten there once, and enjoyed it so much that they wanted to go back, so we can highly recommend the place. They put together a very tasty off-menu vegetarian dish for me, as well. They may see see us again on Thursday, as the Key Lime Creme Brulee was sold out by the time we ordered dessert, and Todd (and the rest of us) would really like to try some!

Live from Puerto Rico

All this week, we'll be posting from a funky little shack in Vieques, Puerto Rico. We've got a pre-Christmas family gathering going on here: my folks, Hilary's folks and grandfather, and some school friends. Vieques is an island a ways off the main island - part of it used to be a firing range for the US Navy until a few years back. Since then it has slowly been developing, but is still fairly rustic. Hilary and her folks have been once before - the notable change from last time is the addition of wireless internet access at La Finca (the shack we're staying at). Although it's a bit slow, it is amble to allow a few postings of the goings on.

Saturday we dropped Jasper off at the dogsitter's in 10 degree weather. We drove up to Minneapolis, flew to Orlando, and then on to San Juan. We arrived a little before midnight, local time, and made it to our room at the Hotel Milano around 1 am. It made for a long day, to say the least. But what a change from that morning - it was 80 humid degrees in San Juan as we made our way to a late sleep.

The hotel is situated in the southern end of Old San Juan, and we planned to spend part of sunday touring around. We met up with my folks, who had stayed in the next room over on Saturday night, and toured the two remaining forts that made up the bookends of San Juan's fortifications: San Christobal in the east, El Morro on the western tip, overlooking the inlet to San Juan bay. The Spanish built up these fortifications starting some 500 years ago. They were attacked at various times by just about everyone, including the US during the Spanish-American war in 1898. The US army even used them during WWII to keep an eye out for German U-boats.

We headed back to San Juan airport in the mid-afternoon. We were to meet up with two schoolmates of ours: Todd, coming in from his parents' place in new Jersey, and Steph, coming from Detroit. Both ran into problems due to weather at their departure points - Steph was sitting on the tarmac in a snowstorm for nearly an hour and a half. As it happened, she hadn't yet landed when we had to leave SJU, numbering only five instead of six, in our hired van to Fajardo to catch the last ferry to Vieques at 6 pm. We tried valiantly to make a reservation for her on a puddle-jumper to Vieques leaving at 5:30 on Vieques Air-Link. Unfortunately, I don't think that they have nearly enough staff - my half-dozen calls to their desk went unanswered, even after 15-20 rings. Thankfully, Steph was able to make her own arrangements when she landed, and even beat us to Vieques by nearly an hour.

Those of us that took the ferry had a bit of an adventure in transit. The wind was up and just off the port bow. The seas were choppy, making for an undulating ride for those of us on the upper deck. As the bow came down, it would shoot up spray that would immediately be carried downwind. At first, nearer to shore, the spray passed us by. When we got out to open water and the wind picked up, we got hit by wave after wave of spray that soaked us nearly to the bone, and got into our luggage here and there. It was a group of drowned rats that Mark picked up at the Dock that evening. But, a change of clothes at La Finca and a long meal of pasta and catching up soon remedied that.

We'll continue posting as the week goes on. Expect pictures soon.