Phi Psi Bros

Mike finally showed up Saturday with Phi Psi bros Chared and "T" in tow. Stayed with us through today before moving on to their Christmas stopovers in Whittier and Escondido. I think the endless football games I was watching drove them off. They're a long way from home -- Nepal and Singapore respectively. Cat was freaked out and wouldn't come downstairs with strangers in the house -- hid under a nightstand. No food, which doesn't bother me, but no litter box! Much debate. Kill the cat, bring up food and box? Ah, well, it's Christmas. Room service.

Mike with Chared and "T" 12-19-04 

Nothing New

Nothing much new now that we're back home. Work work work for Loni, goof-off goof-off and work for me. Loni's Mom was hospitalized after suffering severe memor loss and disorientation. After they yanked her recently-modified pain patch, the symptoms gradually cleared and she's back home with much more alertness. More burdens for Loni as she had to navigate the weekend-hospitalization scenario where the attendings don't want to do anything until the regular doc returns on Monday. Now we're gearing up for Thanksgiving and having the boys home (yay!), with Christmas right behind and our Australia-NZ trip close behind. Nice to have stuff to look forward to while grinding through the day-to-day. No pics for this post. Later.

LAST OF BALTIMORE

Last days in Baltimore. Yesterday the Constellation was moved for the first time in a long while. It was taken by tugboat tow down to Annapolis to participate in the 150th anniversary of something or other. The ship was restored here over the last decade or so, and has become a fixture in the harbor. They had the usual politicos giving speeches, schoolkids waiving flags, and volunteers trying to figure out how to release the lines and coordinate with the tugs. After a few false starts, they got a tug alongside the aft stern side, hooked a line to the stern and another to the side, and off they went. Slowly. After they backed her out, and got her straightened in the channel, it was off down the bay to the Chesapeake. The Baltimore fireboat had its water cannons going, another ship was firing cannon rounds, and it generally was a pretty neat sight. The dock where it sat looks mighty lonely. After actually doing some work in the hotel room, I took a water taxi down the harbor and out to Fort McHenry to do the Star Spangled Banner thing. There’s a lot more history involved in the battle there than I had realized. It pretty much turned the tide against the whole British campaign. Interesting to see that much of the fort is preserved just like it was in 1814. Much lore about Francis Scott Key and writing the poem (it wasn’t set to music until later). Picked Loni up at the end of the convention and we took the water taxi down to Fell’s point to a restaurant that I had scoped out yesterday. Turned out to be the find of the trip. An unadvertised place called John Stevens Ltd., right at the Fells Point Landing. Loni had seabass in a sauce-to-die-for, and I had almond crusted halibut that was wowser. We both rated that dinner as one of the all-timers. You’d never think the place was much from the outside, but they know fish! Today we had our first sleep-in (to 8:30). Really needed to recharge the batteries after five nights of about 4 hours sleep per. Did our packing, checked out, checked our bags, and took off on a walking tour of all the surrounding neighborhoods. Very neat old buildings, many about 200 years old. Took some photos which I’ll post with this. Had a late lunch-dinner at a French patisserie called Napoleons. Brie sandwiches and great fruit tarts. The sun came out for our water taxi trip back to the main landing to end a picture-perfect stay in Baltimore. I wasn’t keen on coming along, but I’m sure glad I did. This is a great city to visit. We’re waiting in the hotel lobby for the Super Shuttle to the airport. Hope we get a van with brakes.

Constellation heading out of Inner Harbor Baltimore to the Chesapeake with fire boat salute at left. 

Tug with stern line pulling the Connie out. 

Constellation and tug to tow it from Baltimore to Annapolis 10-26-04 

More Baltimore

Yesterday was lousy weather, overcast & drizzling, so I loafed in the hotel. Used the gym, watched football and Nascar. Picked Loni up at the Convention Center and looked at the poster presentations. Loni got through her four hour presentation with flying colors, so she was de-stressed and ready to party. Fortunately, the Red Cross invited us (and 28 others) to a late dinner at at Ciao Bella in Little Italy. Great food, and they kept pouring the wine until I (yes, I) had to say no mas! Stuffed ourselves silly, and gathered a small group to walk back instead of cabbing it. The cold air felt good and the walk was needed after all that food. Only had a few panhandlers approach, but not aggressive. The harbor area is relatively compact (took us 15-20 minutes to walk to the hotel) and for the most part is well lit.

Today was still overcast but at least the rain stopped. I took in the "National Aquarium In Baltimore"(that's the official moniker) and it was pretty neat. You figure you've seen Monterey Aquarium, and nothing could beat it, but the NAIB had some very cool exhibits, especially a large section on the Amazon basin critters. I took a great shot of a frog and a snake, which I hope I can post with this. The frog looks unbelievably plastic or rubbery, but I saw its eyes move. I was just taking its picture when the snake appeared in the frame. My shots of fish all failed. I was trying to use only available light. The exposures were right, but the shutter speed got set really slow and all the moving fish are blurs. See sample. After that I did the Maritime Museum tour, which consists of three vessels tied up in the harbor: a Chesapeake lightship, a WW2 submarine, and a Coast Guard cutter that saw action at Pearl Harbour, Korea, and Vietnam (and then drug interdiction until decommissioned in 1986. Had a 50-year history. Being ex-Nav, I found this all fascinating, but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Thought of going to Annapolis tomorrow, but the train-and-bus ride would take over two hours each way. Save it for our RV tour! OK, let's try the pics.

Augh! It seems I can't get a pic into the posts, I have to create separate posts. So, see the following.

Brazilian Tree Frog and Tree Snake 

Baltimore Inner Harbor 10-23-04 

USS Constellation 10-23-04 Baltimore 

Baltimore Oct. 23, 2004

Flew into BWI last night after an uneventful (good) flight, although it was like riding on a cobblestone street for about half the flight. No big dips, but lots of jouncing. Pilot kept trying to change altitude to get above the storms, but once you're up to 41k feet there's noplace else to go. Caught the Supershuttle in to the city. Interesting ride. Driver spoke Carib-glish and had a peripatetic right foot, so we kept lurching all the way in. The had a full load of seven passengers, and the shotgun seat was a 70+ year old local lady who just loved describing the sights to the rest of us. She was VERY proud of her city, and her enthusiasm was infectious. I asked if she could give me a private tour. She praised some former mayor as having sparked the downtown renaissance, and then castigated him for some unstated failures when he became governor. She highly recommended some local Mexican restaurant as her favorite. I pointed out that I was from Los Angeles and the last thing I wanted to eat in Baltimore was Mexican. Didn't she know any good seafood places? Nope, she can't stand the stuff. Originally hails from Western Pennsylvania where the surf definitely is not up. We were the last two to get dropped off, so got a great circuitous tour of the downtown due to all the one-way streets. Having observed the driver shake his head in disgust when the penultimate passenger walked off without tipping, I made sure to slip him a few bucks which made him smile broadly. I also tipped him that he should take the van straight to the garage and have the brake pads replaced as he was horribly scraping metal on metal all the way. He allowed as how he would do just that. My advice is to avoid van # 724 if you happen to come this way.

Loni beetled off first thing this morning as she had an 8:00 seminar, so I lazed about with the paper wondering why there were no West Coast football games scheduled. All these lousy Eastern teams. We're about two blocks from the Inner Harbor, which is a redeveloped area where the van lady confided that "good people didn't used to go" before the rebirth. Anyway, it's terrific. You can walk for several miles along the harbor, with museums, the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation, a submarine, and dozens of restaurant, shops, etc. I took a self-tour of the Constellation and felt I was in the "Master and Commander" movie. Very neat. Don't miss it if you are here. That was one tough life that they led. They have youthful (isn't everybody else youthful these days?) docents who are dressed in period (circa 1850) naval costumes and who speak (somewhat annoyingly) in the present tense (that's present as in 1850) when answering your questions. They were uniformly cheerful and very enthusiastic. As the day was picture perfect, I took a couple. I'm not sure I know how to insert a picture in the body of this text, but I'll give it a go. ***** Nope, that didn't work. I'll have to try posting them as separate posts. Bummer.

Anyway, I walked around the harbor and climbed Federal Hill, a nice promontory that overlooks the Inner Harbor and downtown. The sign at the top says that's where 4000 citizens met for a picnic in 1784 (?) to celebrate the joining in the Union. The whole top is a park with a walkway around it for about a 250 degree view of Baltimore. I took a shot from up there as well, so look for it later.

I have to say that this town appears to be about the friendliest city I've been in in a long time. Everyone seems to like their city and their job. What the heck is in the water? Guess I'll close this segment and return to the tube. Boston College just scored to pull close to Notre Dame. Later.

POMONA RV SHOW 10-17-04

Nothing like avoiding work to update the journal. Loni & I went yesterday to the Pomona RV show, convinced that we knew exactly what we were after. Came home more confused (and enthused) than ever. Great show, marred by lousy signage. After thirty-odd years of doing this, you'd think they would have a handle by now on street signage (to the parking) and site signage (to figure out where you were inside the show). The first was sadly lacking, the second was non-existent. The website was totally misleading as to the parking, and there were a lot of people cruising White Avenue trying to figure out where the parking was.

The show itself was great. Every type of vehicle and trailer, and very low-key on the sales end. The "special" show prices give you a good idea of how much discount you can get without any haggling, even after the show. And it's substantial.

We went with the clear vision of looking only at the Mercedes "Sprinter"-based class B's, and got a good feel for the quality differences among the conversion shops. Some were relatively crude, others very well finished. We liked the Pleasure Way best, which is a Canadian outfit. Unfortunately, all of these babies cost a ton. $65k on up to $87k. That's pretty steep for a fairly small space, no matter how thrifty the diesel engine is. The advantage is that we could park it in front of the house as it is only 78-80" wide. Of course, the neighbors might have a different point of view (pun intended). Our driveway, being short and steep, can't store anything. There aren't any storage yards anywhere close.

Nontheless, we got seduced by certain trailers (Bigfoot was particularly nice) and one larger RV maker, Lazy Days. The trailers top out at $25k, and the Lazy Days we like was about 70k, and so much more room in not much more length, but w-i-d-e-r. No street parking on our block!

Gotta go work.

FIRST POST (TEST)

This is the first test post. I still don't know what any of these things do.