January-2006

Sunday, 29 Jan 06

(link removed)
Big Business - "O.G." - Head for the Shallow (Hydrahead Records)

Another long weekend for us. We took Thursday and Friday off work to drive up to Memphis for our 11th anniversary. Hard to believe that we've been married that long and that we've lived down here that long. It was nice to get away again, and a clear reminder why I'd rather be elsewhere than at my office most of the time. The work isn't bad, but most of my co-workers leave something to be desired.

Anyway, we slept in a little bit on Thur. morning then drove up to Memphis after stopping by Jason and Ellen's on the way out of town to drop off a batch of cookies for Friday night. We were on the road by 10am and the ride was pretty smooth all the way up. A quick stop in Hattiesburg for coffee at Starbucks, a stop for gas and switching drivers past Jackson, and we pulled into our hotel in Germantown (a yuppie suburb on the east side of Memphis) around 4pm. I hooked up the laptop and geeked a bit while we rested for awhile, then we headed out to a barbecue restaurant nearby. The Germantown Commissary was a place that we had found on-line and looked decent. It was kind of a hole-in-the-wall place in old Germantown, but a popular place. It was pretty crowded when we arrived, but we found a spot and sat down. The woman who took our order was quite a character, and quite attentive to us and the many other tables she was serving. Kelly ordered a tamale and the 1/2 order plate of ribs. I originally ordered the bbq shrimp, but they were out of shrimp so I settled for the 1/2 chicken plate. We hadn't eaten anything for lunch, so the sides that came with the meats filled us up pretty well. The rolls tasted homemade and the baked beans were good as well. Kelly also had the homemade banana pudding for dessert (one of Kelly's favorite things is banana desserts). She said it was the best she had eaten and it sure as hell wasn't Jello. After dinner we headed toward the Hi-Tone where we were going to see a ROCK show, but first we had to get coffee at one of the many Starbucks along Poplar Ave. Our friend Jared (and Coady, his bandmate in Big Business) were playing with some metal/punk bands touring the country together, and it worked out perfectly that they were playing Memphis on our anniversary. We arrived at the club a little bit after 7pm, when the doors were supposed to open. The bands were there, but it seemed that they had just recently arrived, so doors weren't open yet. We walked back up the street where we had parked and listened to a hockey game on the Sirius radio and played gin rummy. At 8pm we walked back down to the club where doors were open, but first we knocked on the window of the Big Business van because we saw someone inside. It turned out to be Jared, so I gave him the bag of cookies I had made for him, making it look like a drug deal, then he quickly closed the van door he had cracked open slightly. He actually then jumped out and gave each of us a big hug and we talked outside for a few minutes before going inside and he put our names on their guest list (thanks, Jared!). We talked with him a bit more inside, then he had to go make a few phone calls. We sat at a table near the bar and a Tron video game (I almost played, but didn't have any quarters). There was a guy with two turntables playing the music over the p.a. (live dj), which was a mix of heavy rock from the late 60's/early 70's (think old Black Sabbath and may other obscure bands from that era with a heavy bass/guitar and some slight funk grooves, but definitely rock). He had a mix cd for sale that we ended up purchasing for $8. Finally the show started at 8.30pm and the first band was Buried Inside, and they played heavy rock/grunge. It was kind of funny to watch the two guitarists and bassist, along with the crowd all whipping their heads in synch with the drum beats. Not too bad, but not something I'd listen to on a regular basis. Big Business were next, and at first Jared seemed to be having some slight problems, but said that it would be noisier than usual between songs, but that's basically what everyone wanted and was what he intended, so it didn't really matter. As usual, they rocked the place and it was entertaining to see all the metal fans (seriously, almost everyone in the crowd was wearing black clothes and had long 'rocker hair' or big bushy facial hair) bobbing their heads and 'flashing the devil sign' with their index and pinky fingers. Big Business looked like they were having a good time and thanked us and another couple who came out from Little Rock to see them play. They played a new song as well as an extended, freestyle ad lib version of 'Off Off Broadway' to finish the set. It was pretty awesome and the crowd totally ate it up. I'm disappointed that I couldn't get any photos of the 'devil signs' just to Jared's right.

Jared serenades the crowd Coady beats the hell out of his drum set

The next band up was The Bronx. They were a bit more hardcore/punk (think old school Black Flag) than the other bands on the tour, but had their own following and some of the crowd were into it. They did also definitely have their own fan base locally who really enjoyed it and got the band into the show. It was really crowded by this time, and we had already moved towards the door because the smoke in the air was stifling. It was making both of our eyes burn. The tour headliner was High on Fire, who are quite popular with a lot of fans (and their merchandise booth was a big indicator with about 15 different t-shirt designs along with assorted other goods. The funniest thing to me was not only the guitar rack with about 5 different guitars (kind of like a big arena rock show with someone like The Rolling Stones), but the lead singer/guitarist had taken off his shirt to show off his tattooed upper body and had these huge leather wristbands with a few large studs, kind of like some viking warrior. What is cool is that their new bassist is Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins), who actually fits in quite well. We listened to a couple of songs, but the smoke was too much so we found Jared and went outside to say goodbye to him. He said that he'd probably be touring again later in the fall when the Melvins/Big Business super group tour together, so we'll be waiting for that to come around. Then we gave him a hug again and took off. We were kind of hungry by then since, so we stopped at this little all-night diner next to the railroad tracks off Poplar. It was an old school place with counter stools and the booths each had their own coatrack. We each had grilled cheese sandwiches (Kelly had hers with tomato) and hash browns. It was like a Waffle House, but not as greasy and there was a non-smoking section. A good midnight snack before we headed back to the hotel. Kelly fell asleep pretty quickly, while I geeked a bit then read some before falling asleep.

The next morning we slept in until 10am and missed breakfast, but checked out of the hotel before noon, hit a Starbucks, and we were on our way home. We listened to the mix cd we had purchased the previous night and it was pretty good. We both decided that Ellen really would have enjoyed the show (she likes heavier rock music) and that we needed to make a copy of the cd for her. We stopped in Madison (just north of Jackson) to get a replacement phone for Kelly (she's had problems with her cellphone replacement that she got last time) at AllTel and file an insurance claim on her current phone. After that I drove the rest of the way. Traffic was starting to get heavy going through Jackson and just south of it on highway 49. We arrived in Hattiesburg and stopped by Suwanna's for Thai take out. We chose the panang curry with chicken, green curry with shrimp, drunken noodles with shrimp, and some fresh spring rolls, which sounds like a lot but we planned to take some to Jason and Ellen since we weren't going to make it home before the poker game they were hosting that night. We arrived at their house a little after 6pm and they were preparing some other food for everyone else coming over, but we shared what we had brought with them and they enjoyed it. We'll all probably go back up someday soon. Anyway, poker was on Friday this week instead of Saturday because some of our friends had other plans on Sat. night. There were 14 players and two tables. Kelly and I had agreed the previous night that both of us were going to be in the money this time (placing in the top 3). We both played pretty well and it came down to Kelly, Richard, Lam, and myself at the very end. Unfortunately, Kelly went out in fourth place and didn't get any money. I was shortstacked at that point and should have gone out, but a couple of lucky breaks when I went all in and I doubled my money. Richard was getting lower and Lam's mountain of chips just didn't seem to be shrinking at all, even with the blinds now at $10/$20 and a $4 ante. I folded a hand and Richard decided to go all in, and Lam took him out. Not much later I was big blinds, and went in with a King/10 off suit. Lam had a pair of nines. A ten came out on the flop, but it was to no avail because by the river Lam had a straight and won the game. I'm pleased with my play though and placing second. At least I won both of our buy-ins back plus some extra ($55 total payout). We came home and both the girls were happy to see us. Josie especially since she did what we were afraid of while we were gone. She lost her collar, which was admittedly not too secure since it was a size small. Poor thing. We gave them some love then Kelly went to bed. I stayed up geeking and reading until 3am before I came to bed.

We slept in until 10am again before we got up on Saturday. It was sunny and windy outside, but I got out on my bike as I had planned. I only ended up riding 12.5 miles around Diamondhead, but got a pretty good workout because that damn wind was blowing pretty strong against me. Not fun to ride in. After I got back we headed out to Gulfport. Kelly and I were originally going to meet Ellen to see 'Brokeback Mountain' again (now finally playing at the local Cinemark) and support films like this coming to the coast (with the hopes that they'll bring more 'indie' films here), but by this time I didn't feel like sitting watching a movie again, so while they went to see it I did the grocery shopping. I first went to get Josie a new collar and name tag as well as some soft food pouches (special kitty treats) at PetSmart, then went to Sam's Club and Walmart for our groceries. I found most items except for cilantro (with all the Mexican workers on the coast it was all sold out) and rye flour (I'm going to try and make a sourdough bread starter). I finished a little after 4pm and went to sit and read in the theater parking lot. I only had to wait about half an hour. Kelly and I headed home to watch some of our Tivo programs and then the Colorado/Vancouver hockey game at 9pm. It was a pretty exciting match and the Avs played pretty well through the first and second periods, save for a couple of defensive breakdowns at the end of the second. Into the third they were down 3-1, but came back to tie the game at 3-3 forcing an overtime period, then a shootout. One tricky goal got past Aebischer in the shootout and he stopped the other two, but Svatos, Sakic, and Hejduk all couldn't get the puck past Auld and Vancouver ended up with two points to Colorado's one. That was two games in a row that the Avs have lost in a shootout. That and some defensive work are areas that are slightly suspect, but they are looking much better than they did at the losing stretch in December.

This morning we slept in once again, but did get out of the house by 11am and were able to get coffee at Jumping Bean before they closed at noon. We drove down through Pass Christian and down highway 90 all the way to Biloxi. We stopped in Long Beach at two grocery stores to find cilantro, rye flour, graham crackers, and a couple of other items for bread making. Kind of like when we first moved down here and lived in Waveland and always used to have to go to 2 or 3 grocery stores to get everything on our list. The clean up is in progress along the coast, more in some places than others, but it still looks pretty bad. It was interesting to drive the whole way this time though and see what is now missing. We went to a new Italian restaurant across from the Walmart in D'Iberville that Peter had told us about. The pizza looked really good, but Kelly chose the lasagna and I had a chicken pesto panini sandwich. Not too bad. For dessert they had a decent selection of gelato. It wasn't nearly as good as the place in Philadelphia that we went to, but not too bad for the coast. Now it's 5pm and we're home to watch some of our Tivo programs.

-posted by Chris

Wednesday, 25 Jan 06

(link removed)
Mind Over Matter - "New York, New York" - Chairman of the Board (Grass Records)

Act I - New York, New York Day 1
OK...so Chris told you about the Philly portion of our trip last week & and so it's up to me to talk about the NYC portion. Monday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the train station...it was a pretty short trip into the city. Uneventful...we didn't get to sit together because most of the riders were singles sitting in window seats...so we sat across the aisle from each other. Our first taste of how abrupt people in the NE are, as everyone was hurrying to get on the train and the business men behind me were impatient about me wandering the aisles looking for 2 seats together. And the people that we ended up sitting next to never even offered to move so we could sit together, much less acknowledge our presence. C'est la vie. We got in pretty early and hiked the few blocks from Penn Station to our hotel (Comfort Inn Manhattan) in mid-town - just around the corner from the Empire State Building. And then we were quite surprised to be checked in so early...so we hauled our suitcase up to the room and chilled for a minute while making plans. We first hiked to the subway station, but got distracted by a Starbucks along the way. Then looking at our very handy Not For Tourists tour book, we noticed that Grand Central Station was close by, so we walked up there to take a look and pictures. Then we wandered around the station for about 15 minutes or so being very confused as to 1) buy a metro ticket and 2) where was the subway? I'd hate to be a foreigner who doesn't speak English in that place! I've navigated my way around Korea and Japan easier than that! We hopped on the 6 line towards the park, got off and walked the few blocks to the Museum of the City of New York. It was very cool and barely occupied...there was a cool exhibit on the history of lighting in the city, another exhibit featured old photos from the 1930's and another was about Mayor Koch. All in all it was a very cool museum & definitely worth checking out. After that we headed back to the subway and caught the 6 line down to lower Manhattan, got off and walked to Chinatown. Our destination was a restaurant called Malaysia. We both got different Malaysian curry dishes and both were really good and subtly different from both Indian and Thai curries. Then we headed around the corner to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory - I got mango and Chris got green tea ice cream. It was good (even in the cold weather), but not as great as the gelato we got in Philly (though Chris did get a cool t-shirt). It was heading towards 4pm by then and we wanted to try to attend a live taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We got there and stood in a line for awhile before figuring out that it was the line for ticketholders (which we were not). So we went across the street to the "standby line" which consisted of 5 people standing around. We waited for awhile before a woman came over, gave us numbers and told us to come back in about 40 minutes. She pointed us in the direction of coffee (inside a Land Rover dealership). We got back and waited for a good bit of time while freezing our asses off and thinking the whole time that we were never going to get in. But lo and behold, we did get in...and Chris and I ended up in pretty decent seats (the whole studio isn't that big, so all the seats were decent, but we were directly in front of the set). We rehearsed screaming our lungs out for some comedian as a warm-up before Jon came out. He answered a few questions from the audience before taping. The show was pretty entertaining and featured Eugene Jarecki, who just made a documentary called "Why We Fight". But the highlight for us was seeing Rob Corddry and This Week in God (with the "God Machine"). Always good for laughs. The taping was fairly short, they only did one take. We walked back to the hotel...a very long walk, but we were feeling invigorated after seeing Jon Stewart. Stopped off at a Swatch store in Times Square and we each got a new watch. Rested for a bit in our room and then headed out for food nearby...ending up in a microbrewery and grill called Heartland Brewery. The food was decent and the beer was tasty. We never even realized we were dining in the Empire State Building. Quite an exhausting albeit fun first day in the city.

subway

There goes the subway Typical NYC block

Act II - New York, New York Day 2
The next day we got up a little late...ate some leftover bread from the Italian Market in Philly...found a Starbucks while walking through Times Square. Headed to the Museum of Television and Radio and got there right before they opened at noon. We wandered through the lobby looking at pictures of the Muppets (a special exhibition featuring some really nice photographs of those lovable characters) before heading to our first screening. This museum is a little different then most and features several rooms that screen a variety of programs...and also has a library where you can check out up to 4 shows of your choice. We sat through the ending of a Friends episode (the one where Ross and Rachel get back together after she watches footage from her prom night). Then there was a Jim Henson special which was entertaining in a late 80's kind of way. Next we headed up to the library to choose what we wanted to watch. Chris and I ended up w/ separate viewings. I chose a Saturday Night Live episode from 1975 featuring Paul Simon (w/ a Garfunkel reunion for several songs), a Fridays episode where Andy Kaufman went nuts and refused to do the skit, General Hospital where Luke and Laura got married (a bad choice admittedly, but I was reliving my childhood) and the pilot episode of Soap (I used to love that show and it was still pretty entertaining). Chris watched an old Penn and Teller show, an old broadcast featuring John Coltrane and Miles Davis and the news broadcast of Edward R. Murrow rebutting Senator McCarthy (what Good Night and Good Luck was based on). After viewing our chosen shows, we caught one more entertaining vignette - a screening of iconic tv commercials from the 1950's to 2005. Another very interesting museum and one where you could spend a lot of time at...I mean we didn't even hit the radio part of the museum! When we left the museum it was 5pm and we were pretty hungry, having skipped lunch. So we walked back towards the theater district and ate at a Thai restaurant called Pongsri Thai. I got the Gang Sub Pa Rod curry with scallops...I had never tried that kind before (actually never seen it on a menu anywhere else) and it was really good. Chris got the seafood curry casserole which was also yummy. All in all, great food, good service and not too expensive. After dinner we headed to the Shubert Theater where we had tickets to see Spamalot. Unfortunately, Tim Curry has left the production...but Hank Azaria (Simpsons) and David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) were still there and all the other cast members were great. The show was a lot of fun and hit on all of the memorable parts of Monty Phython and the Holy Grail (flying cows, killer bunny, Knights that say "Ni") plus many extras including "Always look on the bright side of life"(Life of Brian, Meaning of Life)...a song that I often get stuck in my head. After the show we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Act III - New York, New York Day 3
We got up, finished the bread, found more coffee and then took the subway up to the American Museum of Natural History. It was pretty expensive, especially since I really wanted to see the Darwin exhbit and that seemed to come with the mack daddy package ($30 each). We started off in the butterfly house...it's always fun watching butterflies. Unforunately neither of us were very flower like that day, and so no butterfly landed on us. We then checked out the stuffed primates, dinosaurs (way cool), and repiles...all why trying to avoid huge masses of screaming school children. We headed to the Darwin exhibit and ended up spending well over an hour in there...it was awesome and featured many actual writings and artifacts from his Beagle voyage. It makes me want to pick up a book on the evolution man and read more about his life and voyage. Imagine this...the Beagle was only about 93 ft long and they circumnavigated the globe over 5 years in that! I shall complain no longer about our puny 300+ ft ships. We were pretty tired by the end of that exhibit, skipped the Imax (included with our ticket package) and checked out the moon landing photos on our way out. We headed back to the hotel and rested awhile. We were just about to head out for Ethipian food, when my friend Deb called. She and her beau Jan met us at Ghenet in Soho. The food was awesome...again relatively inexpensive and a huge amount. Chris and I split the shrimp and scallop tibs and misir wett (lentils), scooping it all up with the yummy injera. By far, the best meal we had on our vacation...which is saying something, 'cause we ate some damn fine food throughout the week. After dinner we headed to a hole in the wall blues club and listened to some live blues before deciding it was time to go because we were getting sleepy. One very nice thing about going out to clubs in NYC - no smoking! Yee-haw, that means my clothes did not stink of cigarettes and my lungs felt normal afterwards.

ancestors to pelicans

a few of our museum friends...

Act IV - New York, New York Day 4
Got up and headed first thing for the original Cupcake Cafe. Chris had heard about it on Sugar Rush (a show on Food Network) and wanted to check it out. We got some yummy cupcakes to go and headed back to the hotel, stopping off for bagels for Chris. We then waited around for about an hour for Deb, who was supposed to join us for our last day's adventures. Gave up on her and headed to the subway station. There we caught the train all the way to Brooklyn. We got off at the first stop and walked down to Grimaldi's Pizzeria for some authentic NY pizza. We got a small, which was still pretty large, half pepperoni with fresh basil over the whole pie. It was delicious...fresh mozarella (white, not yellowish), yummy thin crust and good, traditional sauce. We devoured the whole pie, agreeing that this was the best traditional pizza we've ever had (Atlantic Street Pizza in Seattle still reigns supreme, but theirs is not traditional pizza). We then walked down to the East River waterfront and took some pictures of the skyline and the bridge. Then it was time to head over the Brooklyn Bridge - definitely a worthwhile walk for nice views and good people watching. After we got back to Manhattan we hopped on the subway and Chris got off at Grand Central while I took the train up to 59th for shopping. I stopped off in Bloomingdale's (with a convenient entrance just off the subway) and then headed over to 5th Ave...destination Tiffany's. So it wasn't Breakfast at, but I wanted to check it out. I went up to the 2nd floor (I think there were about 6 floors) and gazed longingly at the wedding bands (spotting a nice platinum band with inlaid emeralds that looked just about right). Then I got annoyed that the 2 women behind the counter and one guy next to the counter did not even acknowledge my presence much less ask if I needed assistance. I really wanted to know what that ring was going to set me back, but thought "well fuck Tiffany's...I'll find something similar somewhere less snooty". I'm sure Chris will breathe a sigh of relief (not!). I then walked down 5th Ave. towards our hotel, stopping in at St. Patrick's Cathedral and gazing lovingly at the stained glass along the way. I went up and down the escalators at Macy's (just around the corner from our hotel) and then just got exhausted looking at all the floors before heading back to our room for a catnap. Chris came back later, we packed our stuff for our early departure and searched our tour guide for a good place to eat. We decided on a place called Blue Ribbon and hopped the subway to Soho/Tribeca...walked into the place and felt strangely out of place (it was kind of fancy, crowded, small and expensive). We wandered down the street before deciding on an Italian restaurant called Ciao Soho. I had a nice glass of red wine and we both had some yummy, but simple pasta. It was quiet...we virtually had the place to ourselves, so we had very good service. After dinner we decided we would hit the newer Cupcake Cafe before going back to the hotel. Chris got a big cupcake and took some pictures, while I had a slice of homemade cherry pie. We walked from 18th St. up to our hotel on 35th...and called it an evening.

mmmm...cupcakes!

the Brooklyn bridge

Scenes from the Brooklyn Bridge

He's almost smiling 'cause he just ate yummy pizza

Act V - Farewell NYC
Bright and early in the morning (like 4:20am) we got up, showered and headed to Penn Station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:05. Unfortunately, there was some signal problems in New Jersey causing all the trains to be delayed. Luckily we had some cushion room between when our train was supposed to get to Philly and when we were flying out. We were a little rushed but not too bad. Made it back to New Orleans in the afternoon...hit Barnes and Noble in Covington for some coffee. And that was the end of our trip. Our kitty-girls were quite happy to have us back.

Farewell to NYC - view from New Jersey

-posted by Kelly

Sunday, 22 Jan 06

Hi, it's been awhile. We got home from our vacation on Friday evening, but we went out to dinner with Jason and Ellen that night at a new Japanese restaurant in Ocean Springs (Chef Scott's- kind of an odd name for a place serving mostly sushi). It was packed and really loud. The food was really good, and the service was good for the most part (minus the rude reply to our inquiry about the dessert items on the menu that were unavailable due to business), but the BYOB policy made people get more intoxicated than they probably would have otherwise, which in itself made the whole place louder with drunks trying to talk over each other. We ended up getting ice cream in Gulfport for dessert at Marble Slab. Yesterday I went over to Covington to pick up my bicycle late in the morning, then we spent the afternoon watching the Avs lose to Detroit at home 4-3 (Aebischer made some awesome saves to keep them in it, but ultimately the rest of the team fumbled in the defensive zone and couldn't get the puck into the net when they should have) and the rest of the evening catching up on the Tivo programs recorded while we were on vacation.

As for our vacation adventures, we're splitting up writing about it. I'm writing about the first half in Philadelphia, then Kelly will tell about the second half in New York.

We left New Orleans on the morning of the 12th. A direct flight from New Orleans to Philadelphia was nice. We arrived mid-afternoon, took a shuttle to the hotel, and I took a nap for a bit while Kelly watched a movie on AMC. We got up and went down the street through Chinatown where we found a great restaurant called Singapore, a 'kosher vegetarian restaurant' that served Southeast Asian vegetarian food. At first when we looked at the menu with the different sections (Vegetarian Poultry, Vegetarian Pork, Vegetarian Beef, etc) we thought that it was a place that served vegetarian items along with the meat items, but it was actually all vegetarian/vegan items and the 'meat' dishes were made with seitan or gluten products made to simulate meat. A pleasant surprise and one that was delicious. I chose a curry bean curd entree and Kelly chose a noodle dish, which we both enjoyed. I don't think you'd find a place like that around here. After dinner we walked further into town towards the river and a club called The Khyber where we were going to see some new bands that we hadn't heard before. The Double, Celebration, Wooden Wand, and Make a Rising, a local act. All of the bands were decent, but not really spectacular or something that we'd go out and buy their cd's, but it was live music (something which is slowly starting to come back to New Orleans) and bands we weren't familiar with. The band I ended up liking the most (and Kelly liked the least) was Make a Rising that played free-jazz/noise, which reminded me of college days when we played in our friend Brad's apartment in Portland, banging on pans or whatever was handy. This group had instruments and much more potential, and Kelly was disappointed that they seemed to waste their talents by playing noise. They mixed keyboard, violin, horn, guitar, and drums. Kind of like the Sun Ra Arkestra scaled down with present day rock foundation. The hole in the wall club was really smokey, so we left halfway through the headlining set of The Double. As we left the club there was a small group of guys on the sidewalk, one of which offered us 'shrooms, crack, or weed?' No, but thanks for asking. It seems the dealers have a full-serve menu. We then hiked the 13 blocks back to the hotel, but it wasn't too bad. Philadelphia was a very pedestrian-friendly city (at least the downtown area) and we ended up walking most places while we were there. It was starting to get a bit chilly with the approaching front, but we had brought some warm clothes and were somewhat prepared.

Friday morning we woke up and went to find an internet cafe and try to get tickets for The Daily Show the following week (after calling the phone number listed on the web site and finding out they now only took email requests for tickets). We were also going to meet our friends Brian and Erin (recently transplanted from New Orleans) for lunch. We walked around and after asking in a computer repair store, found an ING Direct (the financial institution) cafe that offered free (for 30 minutes) internet access. What a novel concept. We checked email and sent a ticket request (which was bounced back on three attempts), then waited for Brian and Erin. They walked up and we ate at a small cafe they had found previously. It was good to see them and they seem to be doing pretty well in their new settings. Not yet employed, but living on savings and looking for jobs. Brian was in Mexico 1910 who kind of disbanded after the storm after losing equipment and moving to different parts of the country. Too bad, but he and Miles may have a future project if Miles ends up going to school in Philly. After lunch we left our friends and walked over to the Franklin Institute of Science. We wanted to see their Body Worlds exhibition, which was a special exhibit created by Gunther von Hagen using plastination to show all sections of the human body from outside to inside. It was kind of eerie and grotesque in some sections, but overall really fascinating and interesting. An educational event that anyone interested in the body (especially doctors) should go check out. After Body Worlds we walked around the rest of the museum checking out some of Ben Franklin's experiments and inventions before it closed. After the museum we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant, both having great calzones. On the way back to watch 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' at the IMAX we stopped at a gelato place for dessert. They had a wide selection of flavors, but I ended up getting a dish with mocha and cinnamon. Mmmm. Seeing the movie again on the IMAX screen was great, but at times dizzying. After the film it was back to the hotel for the evening, with a brief stop at a hotel nearby that had a Starbucks. We were hoping maybe we'd catch a glimpse of the Avs players (we really didn't know which hotel they were staying at), but instead found hundreds of lacrosse players in the lobbying drinking and chatting. In town for some U.S. Lacrosse workshop or tournament maybe.

Saturday was the main reason we planned this vacation in the first place. The one-time meeting of the Colorado Avalanche against one of their former star's (Peter Forsberg) new team, the Philadelphia Flyers. We got up early and after getting coffee took the subway directly to the arena. The doors were supposed to open at 12.30pm for the the 2pm game.We arrived around 12.10 and stood outside with the other fans (many sporting Forsberg jerseys) until they opened the doors. We didn't really get too much razzing, although the ticket taker kind of joked about 'even letting us Colorado fans in'. We had great seats behind the net that Colorado was defending during the first and third periods, eleven rows up. The Avs looked good and scored first taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Right at the beginning of the second period they scored from the face-off making it 2-0. Philadelphia came back later in the period to make it 2-1. The Avs scored again first in the third giving them another two goal lead, but the Flyers scored a power play goal towards the end of the period, smartly pulling their goaltender for a 6-on-4 advantage, then scored another with in two minutes to tie the game up at 3-3 and send it into overtime. Early into the overtime period Philadelphia took a penalty giving the Avs a power play, then not long after another penalty gave the Avs a two man advantage and with a flurry of shots finally managed to put one into the net and win the game. We jumped up and yelled (happily while the local fans booed) and were happy that the Avs won the game and totally made our trip worthwhile.

avs1

Old teammates Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic face off. The Avalanche celebrate after winning in overtime.

After the game we rode the subway back to the hotel where Kelly's friend Amy was waiting for us. She had taken the train up earlier in the day from Washington D.C. and went to the Body Worlds exhibit while we were at the game. She was joining us for dinner that evening at Morimoto's (Iron Chef and Iron Chef America) restaurant. We changed out of our jerseys and walked to the restaurant. By now the cold front had moved in from the west and put the temperatures in the 20's with a whipping wind chill probably making it feel like it was in the teens. We arrived at the restaurant and were promptly seated for our 6.45pm reservations. The food was superb (as expected), although Kelly was a bit disappointed with her selection. She had ordered the $80 eight-course omakase (tasting menu) which she said was good, but was pretty much the same the last time we came (summer 2004) and she had ordered the same thing. She thought that maybe it would have been a bit different if she ordered the $100 nine-course option. Many seafood items, which was good because she let both Amy and I try the dishes. Amy ordered the calimari salad, which was large (she shared with us) and also the pan roasted arctic char. I ordered the green tea soba noodles, which were chilled and had a broth for dipping and tasted great. I also ordered a few sushi items including a few fish I haven't seen at other Japanese restaurants locally. Of course we all had dessert (Kelly's dinner included a rich chocolate cake). I had the wasabi tiramisu and Amy had a chocolate-raspberry dessert. All were fabulous. We had a great time and even saw Chef Morimoto walking and talking to some of the customers on the aisle next to ours. A fun, delicious evening. After finishing, we came outside and found snow blowing around. It wasn't really sticking yet, but it was definitely snow flurries. We walked back a few blocks to a Starbucks where I got a hot mocha and left Kelly and Amy. They were heading back to the hotel room to chat and I was going down to the Khyber again. The line-up tonight was local poppy punksters Amateur Party (reminded me of an older, wiser Green Day when they were starting out), Ris Paul Ric (former Q and not U) which was indie guy electronica/solo guitar, and French Toast (James Canty) who were a bit disappointing by playing music that is associated with D.C. and the Dischord label. Not bad, just not great. I didn't stick around for the headliners Supersystem (formerly El Guapo) because it was smokey and I figured the later I stayed, the colder the walk back to the hotel would be.

Sunday morning we got up and walked down to the Italian district. Kelly and Amy wanted to get cheesesteaks (well, Philadelphia is the place it originated) from a traditional place. It was still a bit chilly and the wind was blowing strong at times, but the sun was out so it wasn't totally unbearable. It was neat walking from downtown into the suburbs and the mixture of ethnicities. All sorts of great little shops that even in New Orleans (prior to the hurricane) you didn't find very often. We first stopped at Gino's, which Kelly had read was the original creator of the Philadelphia cheesesteak. It was a little walk-up window on a corner where you place your order and sit down on the chairs/tables outside. Kind of like a drive-up, but without your vehicle. Now, despite Vietnamese and Latino residents and businesses nearby (next door), there was still a sign on the window that said 'Only American spoken here' and all sorts of patches from police stations and organizations from around the country, as well as a big sign that has a photo of policeman Daniel Faulkner and says 'In Memory of Daniel Faulkner who was killed by Mumia Abu-Jamal'. I didn't get a photo of that (or of Kelly and Amy chowing down on the cheesesteaks which they decided were better with cheeze whiz as opposed to the provolone when sharing two), but instead took these:

After they ate their cheesesteaks and I picked up a turkey/cheese hoagie at another place, we walked back towards the hotel and center of town. On the way we stopped at a chocolate shop so Kelly and Amy could pick up some truffles. We also wandered inside a cheese shop which smelled fabulous, a deli that had huge 'bricks' of provolone covered in wax hanging from the ceiling along with other breads and kosher foods, and an Italian bakery where we picked up some cookies and a loaf of multi-grain bread to munch on for breakfast the next few days.

We arrived back at the hotel and Amy grabbed her bag and took a cab to the train station back to D.C. We took a cab to the Mutter Museum because it was quite a distance from the hotel (actually not as far as we thought and we walked back to the hotel afterwards). This was along the lines of the Body Worlds exhibit, but more grotesque and more of a 'freak show' of oddities, but still fascinating. There was a temporary exhibit about the Lewis and Clark expedition and how only one man died on the whole journey. It also showed some of the medicinal and preventitives of the time as well as the tools used (enemas and bleeding with leeches or vacuums). We enjoyed it, and the most interesting display was of the skulls from around the world telling the ethnicity and age of the person's skull displayed. A place my sister who is studying to be a physician might find interesting. When finished we walked back to the hotel. Kelly went out and got pizza and another item from an Italian place down the street for dinner and after I got up from taking a nap I walked down and got take-out from the Singapore restaurant we went to the first night. We had to get up early the next morning for our train up to New York City, so after watching 'The West Wing' and 'Desperate Housewives', we went to bed and read for a bit. We'd had quite an adventurous and busy four days and our vacation was only half over. We were looking forward to the next four days in New York City and what awaited us there.

-posted by Chris

Wednesday, 11 Jan 06

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Elliott Smith - "Thirteen" - Thumbsucker Soundtrack (Hollywood Records)

I downloaded some images of Diamondhead and overlaid FEMA's flood elevation data on top using ArcGIS. The results can be seen at these links...the first image is of our neighborhood. Notice that the water made it a lot closer than I would want to believe. Based on that, I'm leaning towards getting flood insurance before next hurricane season. The second image is all of Diamondhead...the semi-transparent blue area is the extent of the flood - note the surge that went across I-10 and into many homes along Diamondhead Drive (many of which are emptied out shells now). Anyway...it gives you a good idea of the extent of flooding during Katrina.

So the president is coming back to the coast tomorrow. He's stopping in New Orleans first and then going to Bay St. Louis and Waveland. Good...Waveland should be a real eye opener. He's seen some damage...but that will show him about the worst of it. My friend told me today that she's driven through most of the heavily damaged areas - Pass Christian, Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans East - but in her opinion Waveland is the worst. Wish I could be there to watch his reaction and hear what he has to say. Perhaps we'll catch some of it on the news.

I forgot to mention the other day that we went to see the movie Munich. It was really good...long, but it didn't really feel that long. Eric Bana was really good in that role...not to mention he's easy on the eyes (even with the 70's hair). The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg...definitely one of his best. The whole look of the movie was retro - it almost felt like it was shot in the 70's. It's based on Israel's attempt (and often success) at seeking revenge for the Black September terrorists' attack on Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. The movie is definitely worth while...although I thought the end was a little over done (Spielberg focuses on Manhattan w/ the World Trade Center as a final shot). Yes, I understood the parallel that he was trying to make with the September 11th attacks and the aftermath. But I kind of felt like he was trying to shove that message down my throat.

I am looking forward to our few days away...we get to go to some nice places and fall along with the daily progression of the rest of the country. Plus I desperately need a break from work...morale is low including my own. What I really need is to go out to sea for a few months...hopefully that will happen in the spring (it looks promising right now anyway).

One more song for the road. Elliott Smith is still in my opinion the best songwriter from my generation, "Thirteen" comes from the Thumbsucker soundtrack. We still haven't seen the movie...but definitely need to. Enjoy!

-posted by Kelly

Monday, 09 Jan 06

I've been a member of the American Geophysical Union since grad school. Every week or so we get an issue of EOS with our annual membership dues...EOS or as I jokingly call it with Chris "GeekOS". Usually I just skim over the articles, but this last issue had a couple of articles that were near and dear to my heart. The first one is an editorial about Intelligent Design. I like their idea of teaching different theories of intelligent design, such as that of the "flying spaghetti monster". Now there's an idea one can really sink their teeth into. (Ok...that was admittedly bad).

The second article is about a need for a revised scale to measure hurricanes. I had ranted about that a little just a few days ago...this is definitely something that I feel is needed - goodbye Saffir-Simpson, hello new & more meaningful scale. National Hurricane Center, NOAA, The Weather Channel - is anyone listening out there? Hopefully something like this will be implemented eventually. (Note that the second to last column in Table 2 should be HII not HHI)

Ta ta for now...it's Avalanche hockey time. The Blues are going down!

-posted by Kelly

Saturday, 07 Jan 06

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DJ Shadow - "Six Days" - The Private Press (MCA)

Welcome to the new year. We've been a bit lazy this past week about updating the blog, but we've been keeping ourselves entertained. On New Year's Eve it was really foggy outside and we weren't sure who all was going to show up, but we had a nice group of friends come over to play games and enjoy the food we prepared. Kelly made this Brazilian beer marinade that was in one of our grilling books and we used it for some chicken breasts that I grilled. We let them soak for a few hours, then took them out to boil the marinade, and after I put them on the grill I basted them a few times with the marinade. They were a big hit, which pleased us. We also had a different marinade for shrimp which we had soaked overnight and put on skewers to grill. They turned out well also, but everyone really seemed to enjoy the chicken. We also had rice and black beans along with tortilla chips, spinach & artichoke dip, and chocolate chip/peanut butter chip bars for dessert. We put a lot of work into it, and were happy that everyone enjoyed it. After eating and talking for awhile we broke out the games. Jason and Ellen had brought over 'Name That Tune' which was a combo board/dvd game. We broke into four teams and with many of us former Be-Bop employees and all music lovers, we did pretty well with some of the crazy questions about totally obscure bands from the 80's. After Peter and Kevin won that game we broke out the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture 2 game which also combined the board game with a dvd option. We had chosen different teams, but Peter again won with his sister by going on a six question run at the end. We did pause to watch the ball drop on television and listen to poor old Dick Clark give the countdown (after his stroke last year it made him sound like he was drunk with his slurred speech). After the second game everyone headed home. Kelly stayed up for awhile, but I went to bed because I was getting up early the next morning to drive out to Mobile and go mountain biking on the trails there with some of the guys from the local bicycle club.

7am came pretty early the next morning, but I wasn't too tired. I met a couple guys at Crossroads and we all caravaned over to Mobile. The trails at Chickasabogue Park were really nice. There was a group of five of us, and I was kind of slow in the back, but followed not too far behind the other guys. The trails were really nice and well maintained, either not receiving much damage or cleaned up nicely after the storm. Unfortunately, three miles into the trail my chain broke. No more riding for me, and along with a broken chain I also had a damaged rear derailleur. That sucked. I tried to walk ahead a bit on the trails to see if I could find the other guys, but they were obviously way ahead of me by now, so I walked back to the car (which was actually only a little over a mile walking), packed up, and left a note on one of the other guys cars to let them know I was done for the day. I hope they weren't pissed that I slowed them down. I grabbed lunch at the Indian restaurant buffet, then did a bit of grocery shopping at Target before driving back home. That was pretty much it for the day. Kelly and I were bums at home the rest of the evening.

Monday I went over to Gary's for anime fest. We watched two discs of 'DearS' and 'Daphne of the Brilliant Blue'. Not too much, but we did take a break to have pizza for lunch. It was good to start a new series and continue one of the ones we were watching with some new episodes. I really enjoyed 'DearS' and 'Daphne...' is starting to pick up after the first couple of discs didn't really have a plot that seemed to be forming. Gary also got me this, which is still in the box with plastic display window:

I set it on my nightstand, and Kelly hasn't said anything...yet. At least she's not wearing a bathing suit or something else more revealing. I also picked up the Japanese import Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles/xxxHolic wall calendar (by artists CLAMP) which was part of the calendar order (preorder) he and I had made together earlier in the year. It came with a bonus desk calendar and both are really nice. I put the wall calendar in my office and the desk calendar on my nightstand next to Hazuki (she's a vampire catgirl for those who are curious).

Tuesday the Avs played Nashville, and won 3-0. It was a good game where Aebischer played great to get the shutout. This was their second win in a row after winning against Phoenix on New Year's Eve (we had the game on while we ate, but were playing music on the receiver). Wednesday we didn't do much in the evening but watch more tv. Thursday I went up to Hattiesburg for a supervisor's meeting that was less than thrilling, but had some useful information. We watched the Avs play poorly in the first period against Minnesota, but still come out of the period ahead 2-0. They went on to win again 4-2, even with a less than stellar performance in front of David Aebischer who basically stood on his head to give them the win.

Friday finally came and I was glad to see the day end. I was kind of grouchy and it didn't help at work by being busy and having irritating co-workers who 1) wouldn't drop something after an answer from our branch director was given to them, and where I finally told the worker that I didn't really care about the point they were trying to make, and 2) another worker who made someone wait in the lobby for an excessive amount of time because they didn't come out to do the interview when they should have. I had a good workout at the gym, riding 10 miles on the stationary bicycle (we've been good about hitting the gym, Kelly before work and myself going after work), then came home and we watched some of our recorded programs.

Today we slept in, which was a nice change. We left the house around 10.30am and drove over to Covington. Well, first we stopped in Slidell at Starbucks for coffee. The first stop in Covington was the Bike Zone where I was dropping off my bike to have the chain and probably both the front and rear derailleurs replaced. They were also going to check everything else out as well. I told them I'd come back in a couple of weeks to pick it up and to just call when it was finished and leave a message. With our leaving for Philadelphia on Thursday, they can take as long as they need. Next we went to Barnes and Noble, then I looked around there for a bit while Kelly went clothes shopping at The Gap and Old Navy. She found a few items then came back to get me and we had lunch at Macaroni Grill. Kelly got the chicken parmesan (good hockey food) and I had penne with pesto, artichokes, and spinach. Yum. We came home to watch the last period of the Avs game, which ended with and exciting overtime period and the Avs winning in the fourth round of the shootout to get their fourth win in a row. This is encouraging to us since we'll be seeing them play in Philadelphia next Saturday (game will be broadcast on NBC, so check it out and look for us in the end wearing our Avs jerseys and Kelly going crazy). We were hoping to play poker tonight, but it looks like some of our friends just have to be wishy washy. We love them, but it'd be nice to get a direct answer instead of a maybe. It's not going to hurt our feelings if they say no. Anyway, so we're planning to stay home tonight and watch some of the hockey action as part of 'Hockey Day in Canada' (courtesy of DirecTV and the Center Ice Package) or other programs we've recorded. We may even watch some of the NFL playoff games, although Kelly switched to watching Buffy dvd's after seeing Washington ahead of Tampa Bay 17-3 in the third quarter. We may go to the movie later, but most likely we'll save it for tomorrow afternoon. 'Munich' started yesterday and we've been waiting to see it. Nothing too exciting, but we'll be keeping busy on our trip so low-key is fine until then.

-posted by Chris