The Day After Tomorrow

Sunday, our NYC snow bonus day, was awesome. At some point during the night, the snow stopped and the city cleaned off the streets. Officially, Central Park received 26.8" of snow, just 0.1" short of the all-time record. Most of the sidewalks were clear and we were able to make our way unhindered to Rockefeller Center for brunch. The skating rink was cleared and there were a dozen kids with rosy pink cheeks skating around.

The Atlas sculpture is 40 feet tall. This was the nicest art we saw all day; from here we spent a few hours in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Halfway thru JP and I looked at each other and said "The Emperor has no clothes."

Later that night, we went up to the Top of the Rock for a gorgeous view of the snow capped city under a full moon.

Monday morning, we had a couple of hours before we had to leave, so we ambled over to get the must-have photo of the snowbound NYC puclic library from the weather apocalypse movie "The Day After Tomorrow"

NYC Snowmaggedon 2016

It snowed all of Friday night and on into Saturday. When we got up, we couldn't see the street below from our room due to the snow. The city enacted a travel ban for cars, which made it eerily quiet - imagine mid-day NYC without any cars, buses, or honking cabs. Just quiet snow.

We made our way to the subway and figured out how to take it to within a few blocks of the Met Art Museum, where we spent most of the day. They closed early due to word that the city would be shutting down the subway at 4:00. We wandered through Central Park; there were a billion kids, dads, and dogs romping in the snow. As we got to the subway station, a train was just pulling away - it was packed tighter than a Japanese rush-hour subway. Our eyes widened a bit as we watched the overstuffed cars race away. The next train arrived for us, and it was empty! This was our how our luck ran all weekend.

By afternoon, we had about 24" of snow in Midtown. We made it back to the hotel with no problems. The restaurant with our dinner reservations called and notified us that they were closing - no dinner tonight. We found a cozy Irish pub around the corner from the hotel and had some yummy comfort food instead. After that, we trudged down the middle of the street and settled in with the other snowbound hotel guests. 

We expected more traffic than this on a Saturday night in NYC.

Birthday Escape

Last October, I got bumped from a flight and was given a travel voucher for my troubles. Awesome!! I started looking into destinations to take JP for her birthday. We've talked about getting away, but never do. This was my golden opportunity to surprise her. 

We've never been to New York City and have always wanted to go, so I started looking into it. Just before Thanksgiving, Hilton sent me an email about their Black Friday hotel sale: 1/3 off, so I booked two nights at one of their fancy NYC hotels at a rate that we could afford. Now all I had to do was keep it a secret until January...

We were scheduled to fly on Friday, 1/22/16, the same day that a major nor'easter was forecast to destroy the east coast. All week I monitored the weather outlook as the hype and excitement built. By Wednesday night, it looked like NYC had a 100% chance of 5-8" of snow. I decided that I had to spill the beans to JP - I didn't want to drag her on a trip through East Coast Travel Hell if she wasn't up for it. Delta beat me to it and sent her an email telling her to check in for her flight to NYC. She called me with more than a few questions. When she finally realized that we were going to NYC for the weekend, a 40-mule borax team couldn't have pulled her away from going. We rescheduled our flights to add a day and leave on Monday rather than Sunday, just in case the city got some snow and slowed down the airport.

Our flight in was flawless. It only took 30 minutes to get from LaGuardia to midtown Manhattan. We checked in to the 42nd floor of Towers the Waldorf Astoria and set out to take in the city. We had dinner at a seafood place a few blocks from the hotel and then headed west to the Lincoln Center to snap a selfie. 

We had reservations at Dizzy's, a jazz club near Lincoln Center on Columbus Circle that overlooks Central Park. It was truly magical listening to professional live music with the city as a backdrop. Halfway thru the show it started snowing.

January Chill

We finally got a taste of winter. GP was flabbergasted that we had ice on the inside of our windows. What? How is that possible?!? Where did it come from? 

Brrr.

Funny that the cats never seem to notice that it's cold outside.

Puzzling

What do you do with a snowbound houseful after the holidays? No one can eat another bite, All the presents have been opened. All the video games played. The tree has been put away. No one can watch another poorly matched bowl game. The new Star Wars movie has been seen. What to do?

Get a 1,000 piece puzzle for $10 and spend the next few days fighting off the feline helpers while putting it together. V was never so happy as when the final piece was put in place. The puzzle is now hers.

Christmas 2015

So far this year, we've had wonderful weather. Up until Christmas Eve, it had been warm and sunny and snow-free. No one thought for a moment that we would have a White Christmas. We were wrong!

This year we flew Nana out from IL rather than having her fight the weather and drive. Getting here was no problem. Going home, though, O'Hare slowed down due to some rain/snow/ice and we got two bonus days with her while Chicago thawed out. This was the first time in 17 years that G&G didn't make it - we missed them, but are looking forward to seeing them at Spring Break in March.

As usual, we all ate too much each and every day, both at home and all the surrounding restaurants.

Datalogger II

Just before Christmas, I received an awesome present at work: prototype samples of our new Datalogger! The one I developed in 2012 has some limitations that are holding us back in our quest to acquire more data. The old one was an 8-bit Arduino compatible setup.

This one departs from that simplicity and is a full fledged high-end piece of hardware. It has an 32-bit ARM processor running at 80 MHz with a full megabyte of memory. The main circuit board houses the power supply, CPU, accelerometer, and SD card. There's a small module that attaches for a GPS puck, and a large daughterboard that holds all the signal conditioning circuitry. We have a CAN interface as well as K-Line so that we can converse with our engines. Also on the daughterboard there are 8 RGB LEDs, a bluetooth module, a couple of high-current outputs, an analog out, and a bunch of hardened inputs. If anyone wants one, let me know - we're looking to increase production volumes to get the costs down.

Hole in the Ceiling

Last month GP and I were in the basement studio playing Rocksmith and he asked me if I was ever going to do something about the spot on the ceiling of the closet. "What spot!?!?" I asked him. "That one right there on the ceiling."

I immediately though the worst - the closet is under every water/drain pipe and HVAC duct in the house.

We cut out a patch and found that it was drip from a seeping butt joint on one of the water lines. I'm not a plumber and I don't enjoy sweating copper joints, so we called in an expert. He was able to make the repair in less than 30 minutes.

It took $20 and an hour to patch up the hole and retexture the pattern. The studio is good as new again.

Speech Auction

JP chaired the LSW Forensics (speech & debate) Teams' fundraiser at the WR Lodge. She has been knitting Buddy the Elf sweaters and coffee cup sweaters for the last few months.

This year we had a live auctioneer to hawk the high-dollar items. It was really fun, especially for JP after she had invested so much time.

We scored at pretty landscape painting by a local Bob Ross instructor. GP now has it hanging in his room.

Project Guitar

I found a beat up 2007 Ibanez S320 at the Lincoln MusicGoRound store! Traded in the 5-string bass that we got there (to see if we liked 5 strings better than 4 - we don't). I always want to play guitar outside when the weather is nice, but both of my guitars have nice painted finishes and all the outdoor chairs have metal armrests that scratch/dent. This old guitar is solid mahogany stained black. It shouldn't take too much effort to strip it down to bare wood and apply a plain finish that will be more compatible with the outdoor furniture.

Uncle Alice

CG's daughter bought him a pair of tickets to see Alice Cooper and Motley Crue here in Lincoln. Both acts were awesome!! I saw Alice Cooper in Phoenix when I was in school. JP sat next to him on a flight there (he's from PHX). His band has a new guitarist: Nita Strauss. She's the blond one on the left in this video:

Quite talented and very beautiful, too. She is a member of The Iron Maidens - an all female Iron Maiden tribute band. 

The drummer for Motley Crue is known for his wild stage presence. He had a big roller coaster setup going over the crowd that flipped him and his drum kit upside down while he was playing his drum solo. 

Clubbing it

We wanted to grab a quick dinner downtown, but there were no tables open anywhere. While waiting for one to open up, the hostess told us that the dance club upstairs had seating and we could eat there. The only tables they had were outside and despite the radiant heaters there, it would have been too cold for JP. We opted instead for a white leather sofa and cocktail table on the dance floor. 

It was way too early for anyone to be there dancing - the staff was just setting up. They checked the lights and I realized what I am missing in my music studio. The ceiling had a bright LED light cluster every 6" that could change to any color. Same for the white balls on the wall behind us. They are all linked and function as a sort of giant room-sized computer monitor. I can't imagine how fun it would be with the house lights down, the music turned up, and a hundred people dancing.

New XMas Tree

JP refused to put up our old tree. Something about it smelling like dust and being more than 10 years old. The new tree is 9 feet tall and fits nicely in the entryway. GP had fun helping hang the decorations.

Thanksgiving 2015

We made our annual pilgrimage to Lanark with good weather and boys that are less restless in the car than they were a year ago.

As usual, Thanksgiving dinner was spectacular with too much good food. After dinner, we played a rousing game of cards until the Bears/Packers game came on.

We opened up the bottle of Ditka wine we've been sitting on and everyone raised a toast to The Coach. (I rooted for the bears this year)

Speaking Out

The boys are off and enjoying the LSW speech team. CP is doing a humorous piece about how to be a dictator, and GP is still doing the one about the cop that let one Jeffery Dahmer's victims return to be butchered. The morning after I got back from China, the boys had to leave @ 6:15 AM to catch the bus at LSW. Fortunately they can transport themselves now.

The next weekend, they hit an event at Pius. CP took 3rd by himself and 2nd with his team presentation. GP didn't place, but he's not letting that get him down.

Homeward

The Beijing airport is HUGE! The return flight from Beijing to Chicago was also empty in the economy plus section, and I ended up with three seats to myself for the 12 hour return flight. I texted JP at 9:30 PM (Nebraska time) when we boarded the first flight from Hangzhou to Beijing. She picked me up 24 hours later at the Lincoln airport. A three-hour flight across the US doesn't seem that long any more. And two hours of jet lag? Mere child's play.

Due to the record early snow and cold weather, the government let everyone turn on their heat a week early. Most of the electricity comes from coal, so the northern cities got hit pretty hard with smog. It didn't seem to bother me while I was there, but now, two weeks later, I still have a frog in my throat.

We complain about not being able to see the stars from our metro areas. Imagine growing up and never even seeing the moon.

Hangzhou

Our last hotel was in the city of Hangzhou; it's another super-city that you've never heard of (21,000,000 people). Where we were it wasn't as densely populated as where we were in Chongqing. The part of town we were in used to be more industrialized and is now being converted into a normal high-rise metropolis.

The hotel gift shop was full of carved stone: jade, onyx, and marble. The piece below is about four feet wide and has a price tag of 5,800,000 Yuan. At six yaun per dollar, that comes out to just under a million dollars!! It was more like walking thru a museum than a gift shop. Even the small fist-sized pieces were out of my price range.

Chinese Food

No travelogue of China would be complete without a discussion of the cuisine.

With the exception of the breakfast buffets in the hotels, every meal we ate was at a large round table with a humongous Lazy Susan in the middle. Sometimes it was motorized so that the food coasted by like at a sushi bar. The tables were each located in their own private rooms and had two or three attendants present to serve food. Each meal lasts forever, and there is at least five times more food served than the group could possibly eat. By the end, there is no room remaining on the Lazy Susan.

I got by well at the breakfast buffets - bacon, fried rice, hash browns, omelettes, and smoked mackerel. All of the hotel buffets had three distinct food setups: Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Western.

The food in Chongqing was heavily influenced by Sichuan cooking (hot & spicy). One night, as the steaming bowls of unrecognizable food cruised past, I noticed a bowl of green beans and diced chicken approaching. How exciting!! Something recognizable, and one of my favorites. I took a huge helping and before I could taste it, the woman next to me took a bite of the chicken and opened her eyes wide with a grinding CRUNCH as she bit into a mouthful of bones. She leaned over and warned me to watch out - the meat is full of bones. Not chicken - just a diced up rabbit. That's OK - I can eat around bones. I dug into my green beans and returned to the woman the same wide eyed look she had given me. The beans weren't really beans - they were very hot chili peppers that looked like green beans.

Above is the standard lunch in a Chinese diner. In the lobby, there's a side room full of fish tanks and sample food so that you can see what looks/smells good and pick out your fish.

One of our hosts is a septuagenarian that has been running his own factory forever. He makes 30% of the split lockwashers used in Asia. In China, it's bad form to drink by yourself at the dinner table, so if/when you want a sip, you must toast someone at the table and have them drink with you. We each had glasses for beer, wine, and shots in front of us. The old man loved to do toasts with his favorite baijiu (sorghum-vodka). He would come over, fill your shot glass, proclaim something wise, and then clink the glasses and yell "Gambei!" which means "Bottoms Up!!" I quickly learned that you don't ever want to fill your glass more than half full of beer lest someone across the table catch you and hit you with a "Gambei!!" Fortunately, the beer was deliciously weak (2.5%) and the shot glasses were small and the food was awesome, so we didn't feel too bad the next day.

Presentation is key with Chinese food. This delicious dish that looks so tempting is a cup of duck tongues. I didn't try it then, but now wish I had. I tried everything else and found that most of the new foods were yummy.