Let's Geek Out!

Tangible Goods

I’ve been on a bit of a baking binge lately. Cookies, cakes, brownies… desserts have been baked, wrapped, and packed off to hungry coworkers and family memers. It keeps me off the laptop for a night and works an entirely different set of creative muscles. (It also makes the house smell amazing.)

When working all day writing software, then coming home and pouring more energy into other online efforts the only thing I have to show for it are headaches, tired hands, and a couple billion rearranged electrons (which are unfortunately invisible.) Every keystroke disappears into a compiler, and countless clicks and screens of researched data are simply absorbed into my brain to be silently gnawed at.

Cake, though, is an physical result of exerted effort. Ingredients plus technique plus patience, love, and heat can equal a delicious chocolate cake. You can look at a beautiful homemade cake and see an effort made - and even better, you get to share it with people you care about.

But then lies part of my paradox… after the platter is licked clean am I really left with much morethan a few billion rearranged electrons? Maybe I should start making birdhouses…

Nah, I think I’ll stick with dessert. Mayan Chocolate Cupcakes, anyone?

CTRL+ALT+DEL

A coworker today told me that he’d Googled me and been amazed at the number of results. The least I can do is have updated information for prying eyes, right?

Alaska Airlines Flight 14 : Now Playing

Perhaps it is the cross-country flight, the long weekend away from home, or just the three Cape Cods I’ve had… but I’ve powered through reading half of Twilight, and feel like I’m a little too into it.

(Thanks again to Robert and Kyle’s Amazon gift certificates, who are partially responsible for the book to end up on my Kindle.)

Leaving on a jet plane…

This trip has been so fun and filled with little observations… We’re in the GORGEOUS Oslo airport, where many staffers get around with Razor-style scooters… Some even with a little cargo platform on the front!

The food in all three countries hasn’t been as terrible as everyone makes it sound… We’ve actually enjoyed nearly all of it!

Oslo also has a bad rap for being “boring” but we definitely disagree with that. The only thing there is that the night life starts so late that we didn’t see much of it.

We now have something like 24 hours of travel ahead. We didn’t sleep well last night, so we’ll probably sleep like angels on the plane.

Oh, and I am bringing home Norwegian and Nederlander chocolates - so be nice and I may share.

We’re on the move… Heading towards the Netherlands locks. I’ve had one cocktail and am drunk… Beware the Long Beach Iced Tea!

Captain’s reception soon, then the formal dinner. We have already drunkenly purchased cologne duty-free onboard… Beware when the casino opens!

I love vacations. We still have a week until we’re back at work! Seems like we’re usually wrapping up by this point!

:o)

Departing Amsterdam

What a whirlwind of activity!

So, making our way from London to the Harwich Cruise Terminal the train line was down for construction - instead we had to board busses for the long drive. We did get to see some of the English countryside though.

The ship is quite nice, and as we pulled away from the pier a group of bagpipers played us off.

Yesterday we did a coach & canal boat tour of Amsterdam, where we learned that we were in town for two of their national holidays. The first is their Rememberence Day, mourning the events of WWII (I think) and then today their liberation.

Near the Anne Frank House is the Homomonument, which pays trubute to the gays fallen during the Holocaust. Overnight large amounts of flowers have been left at the monument.

While walking around yesterday we also saw preparations taking place in Dan Square for a rememberence event includig the queen placing flowers at the large monument there.

Mostly we’ve been walking around visiting shops and museums — including The Other Side coffeeshop.

We’re back on the boat now, nibbling on some purchased chocolates and reading. (I just finished Carrie Fischer’s Wishful Drinking.)

Day at sea tomorrow!

Yesterday in London

Our last few hours in London — how sad!

We slept well into 9am yesterday before heading off to find 221B Baker Street. We toured the gift shop and nearly missed the Sherlock Holmes Museum, but finally purchased tickets and went upstairs to see “his apartment.”

After that was a jaunt over to the British Museum, where we took a quick spin through the exhibits I was most interested in — the fantastic rooms of Egyptian artifacts, as well as the Roman (Greek?) sculptures.

We hopped on the tube and then met Tania, Alfonso, and their other Seattle friend Chris for a walking tour of their neighborhood. We hit a bustling street fair for picnic fare then headed into the park.

London is unusually warm and beautiful at the moment, and it happens to be a bank holiday on Monday so it seems most of the city is crowding into the sunny areas of the city parks — sipping on beers with their disposable charcoal grills fired up.

We had a great picnic (meeting up with their friends James, Valeria, and daughter Olivia) and then they escorted us back to our hotel by way of an upper-deck bus ride on one of London’s famous red busses.

We said our goodbyes then cleaned up and grabbed a bite. After a gelato, we walked back towards Leichster Square for the late showing of Le Clique. This cabaret show was fantastic, and came highly recommended by Tania & Alfonso, as well as our waiter that night. Comedy, an aerialist, roller skates, hula hoops, balancing men in suits, balancing men in trunks, an amazing drag artist, a juggling Freddy Mercury, and a contortionist… Yeah, a pretty eclectic group! We stayed for an extra cocktail or two afterwards then came back to the hotel and crashed.

Now it’s just about 8 and we’ll venture out once more to do some shopping before heading off to Harwich cruise terminal. We’re sad to leave London behind, but are sure there are more great adventures ahead!