travel - she's the one

category: travel

Today

Posted May 6, 2006 • Comments Off

Today we went to a really great house museum called Hillwood, way up in extreme northwest DC. Beautiful house, amazing collection of Russian imperial art (much of which properly belongs in Russia, if you ask me), gorgeous gardens. Excellent audio tour. Just a lovely, lovely place.

Then we went to Lake Fairfax park, where my parents are camping. Along the way in, we saw a sign saying “Cricket Fields,” and we figured those were sports fields named after some guy called Cricket. Or something. On the way out we went up, and lo and behold, dudes playing cricket. Mostly Indian or other South Asian. The three of us were the only observers who weren’t players (not counting what looked like a couple of wives and three or four young children). One very nice young man took the time to explain the rules of the game (score when we left: 200 to 47) and make small talk with my dad about the RV and satellite television.

Both those things were completely delightful and completely strange. Neither was what we expected. My understanding of cricket, which I had never seen played before, has at least quadrupled. I’m smarter than I was this morning.

Plus? I’m not as damned as I thought I was.

Your Deadly Sins

Envy: 60%

Sloth: 60%

Gluttony: 40%

Greed: 40%

Lust: 40%

Pride: 40%

Wrath: 40%

Chance You’ll Go to Hell: 46%

You will die at the hands of a jealous lover. How ironic.

How Sinful Are You?

Catching up with the cameraphone

Posted April 2, 2006 • Comments Off

I tend to take pictures with my phone and then forget to show them to anyone. Now rectifying that.

This was on the Metro, in one of those rear seats where there’s a panel in front of you.

Education is really suffering these days. As are manners. When I was a teenager, I never would have written BICTH and MORTHER FUCK on a train.

I took this picture of a shirt at the Tall Girl Shop while I was there with Deborah.

And last November, on my way to Florida for Thanksgiving, I saw this example of Internet Explorer’s rock-solid stability.

Tilt-shift photography

Posted March 26, 2006 • Comments Off

Lately in the blogosphere there’s been quite a fad for tilt-shift photography, a technique of making a photo of real objects look like a photo of tiny scale models. The effect, especially of trees and cars, looks like an overhead shot of a model railroad setup.

This is a tutorial for the method, and this is a collection of tilt-shift photos on Flickr.

I just went through my photos looking for something I could easily adapt to this technique. I have a couple taken of the beach at Waikiki from our (high-floor) room at the Marriott, and I have a couple old ones of the inside of the Toronto SkyDome, from the bar in the attached Renaissance hotel, where I stayed during the 2003 Worldcon, and I have a few of Boston from above, taken from the window of the hotel I stayed at during the 2004 Worldcon.

But none of them are as good for this as a picture I didn’t even take. Jeff took this in Germany. And we’re gonna make it look like a toy.

It’s kinda cool. Let’s do a Hawaii one.

Ha! Check out the trees on the island on the left. That’s groovy.

New Jersey

Posted January 2, 2006 • Comments Off

We had some Dom Perignon at the party.

Arwen bought it at Costco.

The drive home was nightmarish, but there was one saving grace to all that time on the New Jersey Turnpike. Harold and Kumar, eat your hearts out.

Bathroom view

Posted December 31, 2005 • Comments Off

When you look out the skylight in Arwen and Peter’s bathroom, the entire view of the sky is blocked by their immense ham radio antenna. It’s really quite hilarious. I’ll post a picture when I get home.

Edited to add photo:

There’s a thick, very wet snow falling. It turns to rain as soon as it hits a power line or a tree or anything. It was plain old snow this morning, but now it’s airborne slush. Gross and nasty.

I had a hell of a time getting here last night. I’ve become so spoiled by the way streets and houses are labeled in the Washington area–every light has “Next Signal” signs, and every house (it seems) has the number out by, or painted on, the curb. Not so in New Jersey! I had forgotten how the power and phone lines are strung across the streets (not the case in Virginia or in Florida, but the case in my youth), and I had forgotten how all the curbs are made of cobblestones. Back in the day, you used to hear about how the cobblestones were stolen. Like all the New Jersey developers had stolen up to Boston in the dead of night and ripped them out of historic streets. Anyway, they ain’t got no house numbers painted on them. I had a hell of a time finding this place. Plus it was roughly a six-hour drive. Big fun.

I did listen to the first half of Flush by Carl Hiaasen, and I did listen to all my saved-up NPR “Story of the Day” podcasts (nine of them! I love that podcast so dearly), and I listened to some music, and I listened to the entire Dane Cook album for the first time yet. Julie told me the other day that her copy was the best thing she got this Christmas, which was nice of her.

I’m typing on a Thinkpad on Arwen and Peter’s kitchen table. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the keyboards on Thinkpads? I accidentally just pushed some sort of hotkey placed really, really close to an arrow key, and went to a different webpage. What the hell, I said to myself, I better not have lost that whole entry. It turns out it’s a “forward” or “back” key or something, like the existing keyboard shortcuts for that aren’t good enough, and luckily the entry was still here when I got back. I would’ve been mightily pissed.

Argh.

Posted December 26, 2005 • Comments Off

Today we drove for an HOUR to get up to north Tampa to go to MOSI and see an IMAX movie and the “Bodies” exhibit, an idea that had its genesis in my desire to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on IMAX and my mistaken belief that the MOSI dome was the only IMAX theater in this area, and an idea that had its exodus (as it were, whatever comes after genesis) in finding that the IMAX movie playing at MOSI was a piece of 3-D Christmas hilarity written and directed by Steve Oedekerk.

When we got to MOSI, there were two thousand people in line. Shoulder to shoulder. We walked in the handicapped entrance and out the main entrance and immediately went back to the car.

On 75, on the way home, I saw a billboard and thusly suggested maybe we could go to Channelside, where the other IMAX theater is, the one that IS showing Harry Potter. I wish I’d known about that one ahead of time. However, Jeff looked up the showtimes and it was only doing evening shows.

So we stopped at Westshore to see The Producers there, but the mall was so packed there was nowhere to park, and we were already pissed because we’d driven for ages the wrong way on Westshore, so we left.

When we got to 60, my dad turned off and saved the day: we went to Bahama Breeze and drank six of those crazy garnished-with-extra-liquor margaritas and had some pepper and onion quesadillas. That was lovely.

Then we came home. What a total disaster of a day—almost. Never go anywhere family- or shopping-oriented on December 26th. Good lord.

What happened at airport security

Posted December 20, 2005 • Comments Off

I pride myself on knowing how to do things like Go Through Security™ properly. I have my driver’s license and my boarding pass (which I printed at home last night) in my back pocket. My coat has been inside my checked bag since I arrived at the airport. I wear slip-on shoes, and I keep the Velcro strap over the padded computer compartment inside my carryon open so I can slide the computer out.

I put my shoes in a box.

I slide the computer out of the padding.

I hold it in the crook of my arm.

I step out of my shoes.

I bend over to pick them up.

The carryon starts to slip off my shoulder.

I forget I’m wearing a new fleece top made of frictionless acrylic, and that my hands are very, very dry.

And, as if in slow motion, right in front of me, and completely outside of my control, my computer tumbles out of my arms, tumbles to the hard, hard airport floor. It bounces on one corner, and it comes to rest flat, upside down. I, and the nice older couple behind me, and the guy in front of me, make a soft oohhh noise.

The older man looks at me reassuringly. “They’re tough,” he says. I look at the computer. It’s just lying there. I half expect it to cry or blink its lights at me or something.

I pick it up. I pick my shoes up. I pick my bag up. I put everything on the pre-belt table. I look at the computer. You know what? It looks fine. FINE. I open it, and the screen lights up, and it’s FINE. I say something idiotic to the nice couple, like “Christmas almost just got a lot more expensive.”

Half an hour later I notice the left back corner is puckered in, concave where once it was convex. I cringe, remembering the immense size of the repair estimate—and the warranty-related luck and not-afraid-to-fudge-the-date Genius Bar guy—involved in getting the bottom half of the case replaced after my mishap LAST Christmas.

I look closer. The aluminum around the pucker is displaced very slightly. But the plastic edge is undisturbed, and the plastic ring around the power input (for that is what’s in that corner) is undisturbed. I could not, had I dropped it with aim and purpose and planning, chosen a better place for it to dent.

It’s dented. It’s not perfect anymore. But it’s okay.

Anything good I may have said about the Tampa airport…

Posted August 29, 2005 • Comments Off

…in my last entry twenty minutes ago does not apply to the THREE MORONS* I just dealt with at the Starbucks here…

…who did not understand what I wanted when I ordered a grande coffee light Frappuccino and asked for clarification repeatedly in rapid Spanish.

…who asked for my name, which is a cute (in an invasive way) conceit at a neighborhood store but REALLY FUCKING STUPID at an airport. I have no interest in telling people at Starbucks my name. How do I refuse to provide it?

…who then wrote my name on the cup as “Elen” or some other bastardization.

…who rang up said Frappuccino and a blueberry muffin and arrived at a total of $3.63, and did not speak enough English to understand when I then said “did you charge me for the muffin?”

…who would not accept the Starbucks gift card I got in Hawaii, the having of which is the only reason I went to Starbucks just now in the first place, and which works fine in Washington and Virginia.

…and who were really, really confused when I then said “nothing then, forget it, jesus christ” and walked away, leaving the muffin on the counter and the drink half-made.

*Yes, I’m sure they’re doctors back home in Mexico. Whatever.

A few things about this trip

Posted August 29, 2005 • Comments Off

I got to the airport late, meaning I checked my bag at 9:14. The cutoff, of course, was 9:15. I got in late, probably 12:45 am, but at least my bag was the first one off the plane. Then I waited a really long time for a van ride home, but it worked out. There was a lady in a wheelchair on my van who was being dropped off at a retirement community in Largo, so instead of taking 60 and going through Clearwater Beach, we took 275 to Ulmerton and then to Roosevelt/East Bay to the Belleair Beach Causeway. This means I drove right past Trader and past Timber’s grandparents’ old house, among other 1994–98 landmarks. The crappy diner where Mike Riley and I used to eat breakfast is still there. There’s a new Carmax across the street from the turnoff for Trader, which is bizarre. The crappy outlet mall is now a relatively nice-looking strip mall. I remember trying to go there to buy a dress for my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary ten years ago, and it was closed because of Hurricane Eunice (not sure on the name, but it was 1995 and it was an E, so look it up if you want). I got home around 2 am and endeavored (successfully as it turned out) to enter the house and go to bed pretty much silently. I went to sleep around 4. My mom woke me up around 8, and we went out to breakfast, and I took them to the airport. I saw my parents for maybe an hour and a half, total. I didn’t think it would bother me, but it really did. I missed them over and over all weekend.

Friday, I watched my Friends season 5 DVDs. Lest you misunderstand, I watched ALL of them. Something like seven hours’ worth of episodes, plus special features and menus and disc-changing and rewinding to catch jokes I’d never seen before because they hadn’t aired originally or were cut out of the syndicated episodes. So basically, what I’m saying is Friday I watched Friends. And nothing else.

That isn’t true. I also ate all the deviled eggs my mom had made for me. That night I woke up with stomach cramps, so that was fair.

Saturday, I went to Timber’s shower, and we had a lovely time. Timber is such a cute pregnant girl. She’s due in less than a month, and she waddles, and she can’t get up out of a chair or make her knees touch when she sits down, and she’s clearly really uncomfortable, but oh my god she’s adorable. The baby is a girl and will be named Aria Marie Faught. After the ‘regular’ shower guests left, we sat around and talked for a while. We talked about music and the military (Thomas is in the Air Force reserves) and about Tommy. It makes me simultaneously happy and sad that they smile and laugh when they talk about Tommy. We played a really good card game called “Apples To Apples.” I liked that, even though I did not win.

Sunday, we went out for Mexican food at Carmelita’s, a fair-to-middling restaurant in the same shopping center where the Bruegger’s Bagels Kim and I used to eat breakfast at when we worked at Trader was (it’s now a bar called Beef O’Brady’s, which is awful). We always go to Carmelita’s. Kim and Mark live in Altamonte Springs (though they were staying at Timber and Thomas’s for the weekend), and Timber and Thomas live in Holiday. Yet we always go to Carmelita’s. It’s weird. Anyway, then we went to the movies and saw “The Brothers Grimm,” which was lovely to look at and not a lot better than I had expected. It was a nice fun matinee movie. Heath Ledger was really pretty good. I should watch some other stuff he’s been in.

My flight being at 6am, I stayed up all night. I finally watched “Shanghai Noon,” which I have had from Netflix for—no lie—five months. It was cute, and as always I’m amazed at Jackie Chan’s inventiveness, but of course it wasn’t worth what amounts to an $80 rental.

I got to the airport about 45 minutes ago, parked my parents’ car with the keys and the ticket inside, and checked in. Now I’m at the gate waiting to board in about 35 minutes.

And now we arrive at my point.