Dec 14 2005
Just some pics
So I am finally getting around to posting some of these pictures from the last month or so.
We went to Sturbridge, MA for Christy's 30th birthday and had a pretty good time. We went to OSV and then to the Publick House for dinner, which was where we had our wedding reception. We stayed there, but I was unable to get us back into the honeymoon suite. But Christy evidently scored us a free room and dinner for later on since we didn't get the nicest room that night, so we will be going back sometime soon I guess.
The last picture above is of the bank. It seems like it should really be in an old west type town rather than colonial New England, doesn't it? But they tell me that it is an accurate reconstruction of the building, so what the hell do I know?
And being the geek that I am, I noticed a bunch of pieces of the security systems they have in place at OSV. Below are a few of the pics of the various sensors they have in place in the buildings and on some of the exhibits. I did try out the one in the first pic, which is a photoelectric sensor. I stuck my hand in front of it and an pretty loud audible alarm went off, so I guess they didn't want me screwing around with their old furniture. But no colonial cops came running to toss me in the colonial jail, so I guess they really aren't paying attention too much. I would be curious to know if they have a central monitoring station. I guess they must.
I also took a few pictures at the Publick House. They did a pretty good dinner for the bunch of us that showed up for Christy's birthday.
So I have spent way too much time traveling this year. I was up to almost 75 nights in a Marriott this year, so I only needed a few more nights to get to their super snobby Platinum level, which evidently makes them treat you like royalty, so Christy and I decided to stay down in Boston one night to get the extra night that I needed. We stayed on Tudor Wharf, which was a pretty decent spot and went over to see the Constitution and Bunker Hill.
My friend Dan is getting married this month, so we took him out for a bachelor party to the UConn / Louisville game in East Hartford to watch the Huskies get smacked down. It was about 0 degrees out on the airfield where we had the tailgate. The stadium is built on the site of an old airfield, which is pretty cool, and the parking lots are the runways, so there were just two lines of cars going miles down the tarmac, and it was a long walk, but they did the tail gate the right way. Then we did a bunch of stuff that I won't talk about. Anyway, represented in the photos are Dan Black, Dan Red, and myself, looking very Blair Witch. You can't really tell that Grabski has a bottle of vodka stashed in his coat, and neither could the security guards who let him into the stadium with it. They did manage to steal the beers I had in my jacket though, which pissed me off.
Christy came down to Newport, RI, to visit me during my conference down there last week. Friday was a nightmare of wind and freezing rain and some snow. We managed to get a few pictures of this sailboat getting smashed into the dock by four foot surf in the harbor. It was pretty ridiculous, and there were a half a dozen guys trying to hold it off the dock. Not sure how successful they were, but the boat was gone the next day. I don't think you can really make out the boat below. I'll have to get the video we took and post that at some point.
Now for some random pics of the pets. Nik is very excited about the snow. Some of you Nik fans may notice her new collar. We had to get that for her after she had a bug bite on her neck that got infected. And the lone killer damsel fish is still alive. We had a successful water change yesterday, which is encouraging. After New Year's we'll go out and get some more fish.
Here is a pic of my Exilim camera after it broke. It is very small, so it is really handy and fits in my pocket, but I am not a huge fan of the big LCD on the back, since evidently it is easy to break. And since there is no viewfinder, if the LCD breaks, taking pictures is nearly impossible. To Casio's credit, they took it back and fixed it for me at no cost. I went out and got a little case for it, so hopefully it will stay ok for a while.
And finally, a picture of me not giving up a goal. It is a very rare occurrence these days. Maybe I should go back and find JoBu…
