Toilet paper on sale! by rorytait
You gotta go to Vancouver, though… but apparently that’s all they sell.
Thanks to Anthony for letting me post the least-aesthetic photo in his Flickr collection. For real photography, check out his albums.
November, 2004
-
Toilet Paper On Sale!
November 30, 2004 by Gail
Posted in Other Photogs | 1 Comment
-
We Went Flying Today…
November 27, 2004 by Gail
It always takes us a while to get out the door on the weekends (heck, during the week, too), so by the time we got to the plane, it was quite late in the afternoon. But I’ve since learned that I love night flying!David wrote about our last flight in Multiply — the barrel rolling and all that:
The Silent Birdman… Nests
I don’t think he mentioned night flying in that post, but it was our first time for me to fly after dark. Flying at night is a whole different experience, but no less beautiful, than flying during the day. In fact, I have a better layout of the valley because the lights of the city and residential areas are more noticeable. I get an idea of neighbourhood density, highways, hospitals, and various other points of interest… and non-interest — like this chain of ENORMOUS service stations called Sheetz, decked out in red and yellow. They’re like the McDonald’s of gas stations!
Sunsets are gorgeous from the sky — you have an unobstructed view, and atop the clouds, it’s even more impressive.
David even pulled out a surprise barrel roll on me. We were in this gap in the clouds, and I thought he was banking hard to the left… next thing I knew, we were upside down! Whoa!! But I wasn’t scared, it was more thrilling than startling. Woo-hoo!
The moon was extraordinarily bright; we saw it shine through the clouds from a great distance — it was as if Manhattan was on fire!
Technorati tags: flying, night flying, barrel rollPosted in David's Writing, Flying | 2 Comments
-
I already have a Christmas tree!
November 27, 2004 by Gail
One of the mums in the Civil Air Patrol has *pun alert* taken me under her wing — she’s given me a wedding kit and a Christmas tree! I’m so chuffed! I’d like to take the tree on the plane, but I think it’s a little large… that’s too bad, because it will have to stay here while David and I are in Vancouver for Christmas. Oh well, I hope Hugh (the cat) enjoys it.Posted in House of Fielding | No Comments
-
Hugh
November 23, 2004 by Gail
I have to give Hugh his own journal entry. He’s quite the character:
- about 14 years old (David says)
- is more like a dog: follows people around, underfoot
- will paw at you relentlessly when he’s hungry (even if you’re asleep)
- likes to play…This cat makes me laugh. When either of us is lying down, the old bean insists on finding the highest point, then making himself comfortable right there, even if it means 17-lbs of cat weight on some paws digging into your ribcage. Bless ‘im!
Posted in Hugh | 4 Comments
-
Mushy Self-portraits
November 22, 2004 by Gail
David and I had a long-postponed photo session last night to take an engagement picture for the local paper.
For those who have seen the two of us together — thus far a very select few — it is clear that I’m not the mushy one between us, that would be David. Public displays of affection are just not me, although, this seems to apply only to other adults, not to small children. In Albany earlier this month, the other Orkuters couldn’t even get a photo of us kissing — and they really, really tried. David’s even a bit worried that I won’t kiss him at our wedding!!
So, here’s a photo I took last night of a kiss. For the public. (It was taken in black and white, and David Photoshopped it a bit.) There are more photos in my Flickr albums, if you can stand it.
Posted in Engagement/Wedding | 5 Comments
-
The Doorknocker, Unveiled
November 21, 2004 by Gail
NO, THIS IS NOT MY ENGAGEMENT RING.I’d mentioned in a previous journal entry that there’s a ring that has stones we’re using to make my engagement and our wedding rings. I didn’t have a photo of it until today, only photos of David’s grandmother’s ring — which is also very *bling* — that I’m using as an engagement ring until the designed one is finished.
We went to the jeweller’s today to see the designer together, as David’s been too busy lately to consult with him until this weekend. It’s a father-son team of designers; the father’s been working with Bartikowsky’s for 40 years, and his son is trained in CAD software to render the rings onscreen. David showed them the drawings he’d made and we discussed what we were looking for and showed him the two rings with the stones. Marc (the son) thought it would be a shame to break up the ring that I’m wearing as the engagement stand-in, but this ring has enough stones in it to supply the three rings David designed. The plan is for David to refine his drawings, send the electronic files directly over to them, they’ll drop them into the CAD software, and then it’s just a matter of fine-tuning from there. Because David is already supplying them with the design, they said it will be no problem having them done by Christmas. David will fly out to Seattle on December 24 (I’m flying back Dec 13th), and have the ring/s with him.
Posted in Engagement/Wedding | 3 Comments
-
Smuggler’s Cove Restaurant
November 20, 2004 by Gail
Posted in Local Colour | 2 Comments
-
Gail and The City
November 18, 2004 by Gail
I’m still recovering from the hectic, frenetic pace of the last week and a half or so…
It culminated on Tuesday, when I went to Manhattan for Paperloop’s 12th Annual Global Outlook Conference. Both Ross and Kevin were asked to speak, so I’d spent last week in Vancouver preparing the speeches and working on our big monthly report.
I make it a point to not talk about work on my blog, but I thought I’d make an exception this time.
Paperloop’s 12th Annual Global Outlook Conference, Roosevelt Hotel
Ross presenting.
Kevin presenting.Originally, only Ross was speaking, but the Paperloop people asked Kevin to speak about a week and a half before, so I had to work on two presentations. This wasn’t such a big deal, since Kevin’s speech was a modified version of one he’d given in Portland to another association a couple of months ago, but with the monthly report looming in the foreground, this was still a lot of work!!
I wanted to take the opportunity to attend this conference so I can see my work up on the big screen. (I have never seen, in more than 6 years, either Ross or Kevin present at a conference, not even in Vancouver!) I wanted to check out the colours, fonts, transitions, which graph styles worked best, and to compare them with other presentations. I might sound biased, but even the IT guy backed me up on it: most of the other presentations had FAR too much data and were difficult to read. You would think, after years and years of electronic presentations (and, before those, years and years of presentations using overhead projectors) that people would learn that there is such a thing as too much on a slide. Especially in a room this large!
As you can see here, I was on the main floor at the back of the room for Kevin’s presentation in the morning, and went upstairs to the balcony to view Ross’ presentation in the afternoon.
To get to Manhattan for Kevin’s speech shortly after 9am, I had to catch a bus at — eek! — 5:35am from Scranton. I couldn’t believe that people do this every day. I brought along my iPod, DVDs, and other things to amuse myself for the 2.5 hour journey, but I’d imagine most people try to sleep.
It’s easy to be anti-commuting when you’re single, but I can understand if you have a family and you want to live in something larger than a shoebox, you’ll end up commuting. It’s just so much wasted time, though. At least on a train or a bus you can do things, instead of just sitting in your car, trying not to go into autopilot. I looked out the window at the beautiful sunrise — thanks to quality pollution — and the endless traffic through New Jersey. I realise New Jersey is supposed to be the Garden State, but all I have ever really seen on trips through NJ is desolate wasteland and terrible roads. I’ve got relatives in Randolph, so I’m hoping to see something more when I visit them.
The traffic into Manhattan was chockers, so I didn’t get into the Port Authority until nearly quarter to nine. I took one look a the taxi queue and decided to walk it, instead. It was a fine morning, and I had a vague idea of what direction to go in to find the hotel, so I headed off that way…
My mental map of Manhattan from previous trips served me well, as I only had to ask one doorman where the Roosevelt Hotel was. I saw him later, when I left, and thanked him… jovial guy.
I did have some moments of panic at the conference, though. After observing and recording Kevin’s speech on the digital recorder and my digital camera, I had to deal with Ross’ speech, which I’d only e-mailed hours before and brought on CD. I’d found the IT guy — or, rather, he found me — and he told me that he got my e-mail from 1:30am (yeah, I didn’t have much sleep the previous night), showed Ross the file, and Ross said a slide was missing! My heart skipped a beat while Rick explained that it was in the original black and white version I’d e-mailed the week before, so the only difference was that the last slide was not formatted. That wasn’t acceptable to me, although he said Ross was OK with it.
I went on an immediate search for an internet connection, which took a while. Eventually, I was able to get a conference person to hook me up via ethernet to a free connection in the their meeting room. I went into the office server, retrieved the file and worked on it locally. But, I had to use Kevin’s PowerBook to check the slide in XP because even though I’d loaded Virtual PC on my PowerBook, I forgot my XP CDs at my apartment in Vancouver… argh! What a mess! Anyway, I got it all fixed before lunchtime, so the panic was short-lived. Ross, Kevin, and I went to an Irish bar and grill nearby, and I could finally relax for a while. Had this fantastic Irish cider called Magner’s that reminded me of the great cidre I’d had in May in Brittany, France.
I didn’t hang around long at the hotel after Ross’ speech, as I had to catch the bus back to Pennsylvania — I wanted to observe David teaching a class at the Civil Air Patrol meeting (they’re always on Tuesday). I did get to meet Martin Glass from EMGE, an associate from the south of England, and I showed he and Kevin a couple of videoclips of barrel rolling in the sky last Sunday. He was impressed! — turns out he has a pilot’s license, too.
I headed back to Port Authority in the warm early-evening sunshine, walking along 44th Avenue, passing The Algonquin Hotel (see left) where David and I stayed a few weeks before, then through Times Square. It reminded me of nearly two years before, standing with 600,000 other people, waiting for the ball to drop for New Year’s. It also reminded me that I should get in touch with my aunt and uncle who live in Chelsea, who have no idea that I’m around!!
Technorati tags: New York City, Roosevelt Hotel, conferencePosted in Raconteurism, USA, Working Life | 3 Comments
-
Roll Out the Barrel !!!
November 15, 2004 by Gail
Home Office, Pennsylvania
Folks, I haven’t dropped off the map (I’m flying over it — haha), I’ve just been leading this double life that involves a lot of travel and too much work at the moment. I’ll be posting lots of updates this week now that I’m back in Pennsylvania and hooked up to highspeed internet full-time again. I was only in Vancouver for six days and swamped to the gills, arriving at JFK on Saturday night for a reunion with David. I’ll be here for at least a couple of weeks, but more likely longer as there are new developments at work which allow me to return later than originally planned.
So, for now, I’ll leave a video link of some VERY EXCITING flying yesterday afternoon with David.
Barrel rolls!!!
[UPDATE Nov 22/06: added videos uploaded to YouTube.com]
In the second video, you can hear me yelling, “Again! Again!” I think David did four rolls in one take! WOO-HOO!
Watching the sun set over the horizon from the plane is something to behold!Posted in Flying, Videoclips | 2 Comments
-
Fly Chicks for the Geeky Guy — Dax, Dre, and Dan Triple Birthday Bash
November 9, 2004 by Gail
How many FC/GG can you get in one frame?I touched down in Vancouver on Sunday, and I’m overdue to post about last weekend. I’ll let the photos do the talking right now, and add text later.
Gail’s Photos on Flickr
Andre’s Photo Gallery
Heather’s Photo GalleryPosted in Friends, Out + About | 3 Comments
