Happy New Year

We are back from Skye, and had a great time. It was a wonderful trip (apart from The Boy's car sickness). Father Christmas was kind to the family. I got a new winter outdoor sport coat. Waterproof, windproof, warm and light. I also got a new jumper and some Dalek cuff-links. The cuff-links are cool. I got out and did a bit of hill walking on Christmas day.

The best way to imagine what it was like is to see the photos. They will be up on Flickr shortly. There are a couple of panoramas that I stitched together using Autostitch. Below is one.



At 57 N (and a bit), the days are short. It's further north than the southern shores of Hudson Bay, about as far north as the northern tip of Newfoundland or the southern tip of Greenland. It would get light about 8:30 or 9:00 and then get dark about 3:30 or 4:00. So you really only had about 6 hours of usable daylight. Even then the sun didn't get very high in the sky and when it wasn't raining, the low sun created spectacular rainbows in the mist (which was perpetual). We saw probably two or three double rainbows. One rainbow was so bright, you could clearly see it in front of the hills in the background. Very much gave the illusion that it was touching the ground.

The best thing to do to get a feel for our holiday is browse the photos. A lot of them need digital manipulation to improve the color. Most of the scenic vistas are quite soft in appearance because of the constant mist and rain. I'm still learning how to get good results from the camera. I think my skies are getting better now that I consistently shoot -0.5Ev.

This was a great year overall. I'm looking forward to coming home soon though.

Back in the UK

I'm back.

Last week I was in the US. My flight over was on Air France. It is so cliche, but the French are rude. Actually, the better way to say it would be that attitude which is perfectly acceptable for the French is seen as rude by Americans. For example, on an American airline, the flight attendants would pace the cabin seeing if you need anything. On Air France they just hang out in the kitchen until you page them. Also, the starter course for dinner (both out and back) was foie gras. I've tried to like foie gras in the past, and I tied again this time. I just can't; the flavor is too strong and the texture is like dry mud. Lastly, I got altitude sickness on the flight over. It was no big deal, I just felt like crap before landing. A bit queasy and the start of a headache. Then, as the plane started to descend, I suddenly started to feel better again. Probably a bit dehydrated because the flight crew didn't bring water around. Damn French.

In DC I had a great time. I had dinner with Alix and Kevin a couple of times. On Tuesday night we went to see Avenue Q at the National Theater. I haven't seen puppet sex like that since Team America, World Police. I laughed until my voice was hoarse. A great time.

On Wednesday night I had dinner with the COO of the company that I was there to see. We started talking about his business ventures in the past and he said he made a great success of moving Baskin Robbins around the country. He would find a failing store, buy out the assets for about 25 cents on the dollar, and then rebuild it in a more profitable location. Turns out the first one he did this with (with great success) was the Baskin Robbins in Kewanee in 1986. Small world.

After DC I flew into St. Louis for the night to attend the ATF reception. I had lunch with my family which was great. My nephew has grown a lot. Every time he sees me he hopes that I am bringing the kids back. Next time, Gavin. I also briefly saw Merl, Kristi, and Charlotte. I think being home for just one night made me even more home sick.

On Friday I flew back. I had a five hour layover in DC, so I took the 50 cent shuttle bus to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum which is right by the airport. If you are at Dulles for more than about two hours, take the time to see this place. It was very cool.

And now I'm home again.

Catching Up

The last two weeks at work have been brutal. I had two colleagues in from The States, and we were working on a tough problem (asynchronous extended Kalman filter for tracking 19 state variables). It was the kind of problem where I get so engrossed in solving the next step that I forget to break for lunch until about 15:00. I have notebook pages of derivatives now. Done by hand. The most calculus I've done since university. Fun (not sarcastic). As a result, I didn't feel like blogging when I got home at night. (As an aside, I finally have a fair understanding of quaternions!)

Last weekend I went with a couple of mates up to the peaks for a quick walk around. It was raining in Sheffield, but as soon as we got into the peaks (not even 5 miles away) it was snowing, near blizzard, limited visibility at the top. Below is The Girl, standing in front of Stannage Edge. There are two others on Flickr. It was cold and windy, but we had fun.



The family also went back to Bolsover Castle. I think I liked it a bit better the second time around. There were no crowds this time.

I did get Thanksgiving off. Both Thursday and Friday. Thursday was spent on a bit of shopping and fixing Amanda's car. Monday, her car wouldn't start. I figured that it was a weak battery since the weather turned cold. When I got home Monday night I tried it and it cranked just fine. I even got it to run briefly, but labored. Then it couldn't hang on and quit.

Luckily one of the guys at work used to be a Peugeot mechanic. I had him come over and take a look. My guess was that it was getting starved for fuel for some reason (fuel pump?, something else crazy expensive?). We popped the bonnet and I turned the key while he looked and listened inside the engine bay. Almost immediately he said "Got it" and invited me to take a look while he cranked the engine. Said I'd spot it right away. I was sure that I would see smoke or a leak somewhere once pressure was on the system. Instead, as he turned the key one of the spark plug wires started arcing to the engine casing straight away. Because it was dark out it was as obvious as someone flicking a cigarette lighter. Trip to Halfords for new spark plug leads (a mere 17 GBP), and 30 minutes under the bonnet. Car fixed.

Amanda wrote about Thanksgiving dinner. It was good. The breast was acceptable, though I still would have preferred a whole turkey. They had small ones at Sainsbury's (4-6 people on the label). We would have eaten half I think.

For my birthday, Amanda and I got two copies of Neverwinter Nights Chaotic Evil. It's a package of NWN1, NWN2, Shadows of Undrentide, and Hordes of Underdark. Online D&D, here we come.

Yesterday I went bouldering. I worked on some Font 4-5 problems. Some were really lame. One or two were great. I climbed until my fingers were blistered (I worked on about 15 problems). Today I ache. Bouldering problems are a lot more demanding of strength than routes. Still, you see all ages there from children to 60's. It is a life long sport.

Little Boulderers

I took the kids bouldering this weekend at The Climbing Works. What is great about this venue is that they have a kids problem section. Lots of holds closely spaced. The Boy was doing actual problems, and The Girl could get up all-holds-on under her own power. You can see a quick glimpse of the kids section in the video below. The kids actually get to top out, and then come down a slide from the top. Lucky them. It was a great day and we spent about three-and-a-half hours there.



Today is Guy Fawkes day! So fireworks have been non-stop all weekend. After bouldering we all went over to a mates house for diner, a bonfire, burn an effigy, and a few fireworks. I can just see the kids when we get back to the States.

Random Teacher: What did you learn in England?
The Boy: How to set a scarecrow on fire.

Tonight, we just got back from a fireworks display at the kids school. It was cold, but loads of fun. I really like the school that the kids go to and will miss it terribly when we get home.

Speaking of which, it looks like we will be here until the end of March, for those of you who don't read CPA Mommy. It's not carved in stone yet, but seems quite likely.

I have a coad.

(This post has no continuity.)

For the last few days, I've had the sniffles. It started Thursday night, and I took Friday off of work so that I could rest and get better for Legoland. Then Legoland kicked my ass and by Sunday night I felt like shit. Still, I had a great time at Legoland.

And, as is always the way, I'm calibrating a machine this week. So, work Monday was drug induced stupor. Today I felt much better. A bit of Sudafed to clear the congestion, but I actually felt O.K. for most of the day. Now it's evening, and my congestion has returned, but at least I don't feel miserable. I should be done with the machine on Thursday (we are doing this machine the slow, traditional way because my super-cool fast way won't work this time). If I still feel like this, I'm taking Friday off again.

I have no Halloween costume this year. It's strange. I really really want one, but what's the point. There is no party to go to.

I'm coming back to St. Louis on the 6th of December, but only for the day. I fly in about noon on the 6th and leave the morning of the 7th. I already have plans for that night, but will probably not bother going into work that day if anybody wants to hang out for lunch somewhere. Preferably a burger joint.

OW!

I did bouldering instead of routes last night. I got up some V2s which was fun. I also wrenched my back somehow. I hate getting older. So today I've been in pain. It will heal. Need to remember to stretch more before climbing. Especially bouldering.

The Stonehenge and Bath pictures are up on Flickr. I particularly like this one. I think I might get a print of it.

Not much new (random rumbles to fill space)

Amanda has been on me to post. Not much new going on. We went to Bath a bit over a week ago now. It was nice, nothing spectacular. I'll get the photos up this weekend probably. I spent most of last week and a bit on Saturday getting a demo ready at work. I now have a lame little demo where a robot puts dowel-pins into an MFI cabinet side. Mostly, I've been wasting my time.

I finally finished Zelda, Wind Waker. O.K., so I'm about four years behind everyone else in video games. It's new to me. I did enjoy it, but felt it got very tedious at the end (wait for controller to vibrate, hit [A], maneuver to a good position, repeat). I only consulted the Internet three times throughout the game, which is pretty good for me and puzzle games. Now Amanda and I are back on to Dark Alliance II, making a second pass through the game.

It gets dark here now about 6:30. A long cry from it being light until 11:00 at night before. The weather is cool and rainy. About like you would imagine England. I heard that it is hot in St. Louis. Read in the news that a few dozen people at the Chicago Marathon ended up in the hospital because of the heat. Glad I ran it last year.

I'm thinking of starting running again. I'd like to just work on doing a 10K in 52 minutes. Its a goal. Also, I've noticed that without any bike riding or any aerobic activity whatsoever my climbing stamina has suffered. I can't make it to the top of the wall on lead without a break about 3/4 of the way up. That has to change. So, back to running for a while. I also have a goal of ascending Long's Peak next summer. That is my big motivation for improving my cardio and endurance. It's about a 14 hour 8 mi one-way hike with just under 5000 vertical feet. Not technical, but not for the faint of heart, or the out of shape.

Thats about it really. Winter is setting in here, and there is less to do with less light each day.

Imagine, Laugh, and Celebrate.

I have a collection of video links for this post. You'll need sound for all of them. Grab your headphones or turn on your speakers.

The first is for TED talks. TED is a conference held anually in Monterey, California with a goal of spreading ideas. They have started putting videos of the talks online for people to watch. I try and watch a presentation about once a month, because I find them so inspiring. The people that give the presentations have amazingly creative ideas in technology, entertainment, and design (TED) that make me think more creatively about the problems I face in my work. Most of the talks are very short, some are a bit longer. This talk (at just under 8 minutes) blew my mind. It starts with the rapid and seamless display of enormous quantities of visual information, and then shows the integration of this technology into a photogrametry application. I can't really describe how incredible this is, you have to see the presentation and play with the demo. It only takes 8 minutes, go watch it now.

OK, are you back (shame on you if you're skipping ahead)? Think of the amazing implications of this. Normally, as a research scientist, I think in terms of "How can I gather this information?" This technology challenges me to instead think "Who else is gathering this information, and what does it tell me that they weren't expecting to find out?" The people gathering the information aren't even aware that they are contributing a piece of the puzzle. Each of the photographs of Notre Dame were taken by ordinary people, none of whom thought, "Gee, if I take enough photos, then I have enough information to reconstruct a realistic 3D model of the cathedral." But many researchers in my field have thought, "Gee, if I had enough photos, I could reconstruct a 3D model of the cathedral" and then set off to take a ton of photos all with proper calibration artifacts, etc. etc. etc. The brilliant part, the truly creative part, was the person who thought, "If I had enough..." and then realized, "But the world does have enough photos of Notre Dame!" and instead solved the bigger and more interesting problem of how to find these photos with all their flaws and work with them anyway. Brilliant. Now extend that network thinking to other areas! Genius.

The second is the first of two commercials that have been airing on UK television lately. One is a surreal commercial for Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate bar. It made me laugh. I like it.

The third video is for a Woolworth's commercial. "It's a bit on the dark side".

Finally, I found out last week that I was selected for Associate Technical Fellow. So yeah me! I'm glad it's over, and I really feel proud about this accomplishment. It was a lot more work than I probably thought (especially since I did the process from the UK while still being classified as "Central"). If you care to join me in celebration, go find a bottle of Black Sheep Ale. And if you do, please let me know where I can get it when I get back to St. Louis.

Moving Air

I've updated the Places I've Been page. I didn't go anywhere in July except back to the US (and other work related trips). Amanda went with the family to Scotland. Maybe I can show her how to tag the places they went to and upload those. It's kinda cool to see everywhere we went in Ireland from 300km up. We covered a good bit of the Emerald Isle.

One thing I forgot to mention that I accomplished last weekend. I fixed Amanda's blower! The heater blower fan for Amanda's Peugeot wasn't spinning (even though I was certain that I checked it when I test drove the car) and as a result if the weather was wet and cool you had to crack the windows to get the windshield to defog. Not a big deal right now, but wouldn't be acceptable come winter. I'd already checked the fuses and relays without finding a problem, but I needed some free time to really check everything out (and a multimeter).

So, last Sunday I borrowed a coworkers multimeter and took out the blower assembly. Turns out it is very easy to get to in Peugeot 306, right under the passenger side dash. First thing I did was check the windings. Measured about 45 KOhms. OK, that sounds reasonable (not open, not short). Put the multimeter on the harness. Dead simple setup, there was two wires for power and one wire to supply a speed control voltage (which means that the speed control circuit is part of the blower assembly and can be replaced in one go if it if faulty, nice). Supply voltage is 14V, good. Control voltage ranges from .7V to something around 2V depending on where I set the fan speed switch on the dash. That looks OK. What the hell is wrong with this thing?

One thing left to try. Hook it back up and see why it won't spin. So I hook up the harness, turn on the car, and whirrrrrrrrr. OK. Reassembly everything, and it continues to work. So, best case scenario, the wire harness had a bad connection with the motor assembly. Disconnecting it and reconnecting it fixed the problem. Worst case scenario is an intermittent fault somewhere in the harness which wiggling stuff around to disassemble and reassemble has temporarily fixed. As long as it keeps working right now, it's fixed. More importantly, I did it, and didn't get ripped off by a garage charging me for a new fan motor (which they probably would have just to do something).

Yesterday I went climbing up at Stanage again, and to stay on topic it was windy as hell. At the bottom of the crag, you barely noticed, but by the time you reached the top it was a very steady 15 mph or so. Never really dangerous, but it did feel like I was more likely to get blown off the face than fall off. We climbed some good challenging routes first, then Rich showed me how to properly set an anchor at the top and how to set protection in the cracks.

I led a very easy route first (I don't remember the British grade, but I'd put it at a 5.5 or maybe a 5.6). This let me concentrate on setting good protection and not having to do anything under duress. All my protection I could set while well balanced with a good hold. Then I led a Severe route. Estimate about a 5.7, maybe an easy 5.8. Again, I could set all my protection from a good spot. I set way more than I needed just to get practice setting protection. It was great. I'm glad to be leading again.

Wednesday I have scheduled some time with the instructor at the climbing gym to show him that I am capable of lead climbing. One other person in the climbing club can lead now, so I hope to pair up with her and get back to leading routes.

The kids start school on Tuesday and they are looking forward to that. I find out the results of my ATF interview on Wednesday. Looks like an exciting week ahead.

Quit complaining, it builds character!

So if you've read Amanda's blog, you know that we spent the first six nights camping in Ireland. Of these nights, it rained six nights (that's every night for the numerically challenged). It was not the best camping, but it was a very long way from the worst camping. The tent was (for the most part) dry. It dripped in during the absolutely heaviest rain, and even then, it was just an occasional drop. Mostly from a seam in the fly that doesn't seem to be quite water tight (have to hit it with seam sealer).

Regardless, I think the kids will fondly remember this for the rest of their lives. What with all memories seeming better over time. For example, I'll probably start a PhD after we return. The memory of my Master's Thesis doesn't seem so bad anymore.

My absolute favorite campsite was the Glen of Aherlow. It was more peaceful, more remote, better views, and free showers. That's a pretty good combination. Still not anything as good as a state park in The States. Camping here is all private and business, not the nature feel you get at a park in the US.

Ireland itself was beautiful. All the pictures are up now on Flickr (along with Scotland, London, and Roche Abbey). Take a look and see what we saw. Nothing is tagged, so aplogies for that. Maybe I'll get around to dividing them up into finer sets instead of simply "Ireland". The coast was fantastic. I really wanted to get out there and try surfing, but didn't have the time. I think in October we'll try to get over to Irish sea side of the UK and I'll do some surfing then. We saw some amazing ruins from several different centuries.

An anecdote from the trip. Amanda had bought this low res map of the stone circles between Cork and Kilarney. It's the highest concentration of stone-age ruins in Europe. She really wanted to find one. I pointed out that the map would be useless as it wasn't to scale, and only gave a vague indication of where they were. I would be like trying to find a particular stone in an entire farmer's field. Actually, exactly like trying to find a particular stone in a farmer's field since all the land is privately owned. But, because I love my wife, we stopped at a book store and bought a proper OS map with a scale of 1:50000 and all the topographic features and ruins marked.

After a nice lunch at a local cafe, and corelating the tourist map with the OS map, we set out to find a stone circle marked near a road (little hiking) and with a decent drawing on the tourist map. It took about a half an hour of backtracking to find the approximate location to park. The map was not waterproof, and it was raining, so while Amanda and the kids sat in the car I studied the map, jumped out of the car, hopped the farmers' fences and looked for the relic in the rain. Retreat to the car, relic still hidden. Study the map some more, try again. No luck. We were close. I should have been able to find it, but in the summer, the brush was grown in quite well hiding anything low to the ground. Without the map in hand, I had to go by memory, and there were builders nearby working on a new house and I didn't want to get kicked off the property. Anyway, it ended in no luck, muddy pants, and a tired Phil from running around trying not to get noticed.

There is a nice stone circle near our flat in England, and I know exactly where it is (theres a picture of it on Flickr with The Girl climbing on one of the stones). I'll take Amanda to that one this weekend if she's up for it.

I'm working on the Google Earth track of our trip. As soon as it's done, I'll post a link.

This weekend, I did some bike riding on Saturday. I rode up to the highest point in South Yorkshire. When I say I rode, what I mean is I rode, then pushed, then rode, then pushed, then tossed the bike to the side of the trail and walked. Beautiful views.

On Monday (holiday here) I did some bouldering with The Boy. I bought a bouldering guide for the peak district and found that there was some decent (read easy) boulders at Burbage South. The Boy kept mocking me for not taking the easy way up. I kept thinking I couldn't climb because the best I could do was a 4, equivalent to something between about a V0 and a V1! I think that not having a crash pad was making me too nervous to try anything harder. Also, my shoes suck for bouldering. Yeah, that's it, it's the shoe's fault.

Finally, in response to Mike's post on Flash games I want to point out one that a friend sent me. Bloxorz is a very clever puzzle game. Took me about 2:30 to finish all 33 levels, so you won't feel like your wasting your life if you do start it. You can finish it in one or two sittings.

NO MORE TRAVEL (sort of)

I haven't posted in a while because I've been traveling like mad lately. The first part of August I went with my parents and family to London. I'm glad I went and I had a great time. I've seen London, but I think others who knew it a decade ago are right, it is just another world city these days and the local charm of "London" is gone. I didn't ever feel like I was in a foreign country. It felt only slightly different than the few hours I spent in New York years ago. Anyway, I've been to London now.

After that, I had a trip back to the States briefly for the second interview in my job/career track thing. I thought it went well, and I will find out the end result on September 5th. I'm anxious, but confident that I passed. While in St. Louis, I did a ton of work. The hours were long and I was basically eating, sleeping, or working. I did get to have dinner one night with some friends and that was special. Thanks to Merl for a fantastic spread!

Then, when I got back to the UK, I rested on Sunday, worked on Monday, and then headed off for my actual family vacation to Ireland! Nine days and eight nights, six of which we were camping. Amanda brought her computer, and wrote blog entries every night. She will be posting them shortly. I will write my impressions of the trip this weekend. Basically, Ireland has rain. Rain is wet, but it makes things green. Green is very pretty.

So between London, Amanda's trip to Scotland, and Ireland we've got over 500 photos to go through and put up on Flickr. It will take me a while to get them all up and organized. Just to give you all an idea, about 1/2- 2/3 of the photos get put up on Flickr, the others are poorly exposed or crap or whatnot. Most of them are duplicates from exposure bracketing or playing with aperture and shutter and I judiciously try to pick the best one to put on Flickr. I haven't even looked to see what is on The Girl's camera lately.

So, except for a probable trip to Maryland in the near future, I'm done with travel for a while. Back to work in the UK!

+5 Informative?!

I rarely comment on Slashdot, because for the most part it's a waste of time and my non-IT brain doesn't communicate well with the mostly IT crowd. However, every now and then I feel I have some wisdom to impart. Usually the Slash-herd disagrees, and I get modded to about 2. Today, I just saw that a comment I posted on Sunday made it to +5 Informative! Woot, it is like my happiest Slashdot moment until I realized ... I wasn't even on topic anymore. The topic was about schools asking parents to shell out for MS Office, and my post was a reply to a person about fitting data in Excel. And I got +5? Slashdot really is broken these days.

Either way, here is my highly informative comment. For those not in the know, +5 is the most you can get your comment elevated to. Comments are ranked from -1 (really bad, probably intentionally trying to offend someone or pick a fight) to +5 (worth reading by everyone reading comments).

Nothing is really going on these days. The rain really and truly stopped for a few days! Last night the sky was cloudless. Actually cloudless. I stood on the balcony for about half an hour and just looked at the stars and moon. The moon was full, and it caught me by surprise. I think I was surprised because I normally have some inkling of the phase because I see the moon every now and again. I hadn't see it in so long, I'd lost track. Today was sunny and warm (mid to upper 60's). Everyone said this is what an English summer is supposed to be like. I hope this sticks because it's fantastic.

I am planning on going climbing tomorrow evening, which I'm looking forward to.

Amanda is home again which is great. The kids and I really missed her. I'm glad she got the chance to go home and see her family.

Wednesday the family is off to London to meet my parents. I head back to the US on the 8th returning on the 11th. Then the family goes on our Irish vacation for a week.

Travel and Sir Walter

I'm in Atlanta. It's 6:30. My flight home is at 8:30. I've been here Since 1:30. This layover is too long.

This week I was in Reno, NV. It didn't rain at all, which was a nice change of pace. The hills were on fire, which was impressive to see. The fire burned the whole time I was there. It didn't seem that big, but I think the forest service now has a policy of "managing" forest fires to allow old growth to die off. Anyway, when I flew in you could see the flames flicking against the horizon line. It was an awesome sight.

My paper went over well, and the organizers for a conference on the same topic in Liverpool have asked me to present there. Liverpool is just past Manchester, so easy to get to from Sheffield. I'll probably go.

I went bouldering twice while in Reno at the local gym. I went Tuesday night because I figured it would be the only night I could go. Then I went again on Thursday night because I had this gift card and time on my hands. As a "thank you" for speaking, the conference gave me a $25 gift card. Except it was in US dollars and could only be used in the US (per long leagal sheet that came with the card). I should point out that this was an international conference and many of the speakers came in from outside the US. Still, free money. So, I spent it at the gym.

I worked on a V-? bouldering problem. It was unrated, and by the end of the night I could do all but the last move. There were three of us working it. Nobody could do the last move. I'd say up to the last move, it was probably a V-2 or just barely a 3. With the last move, a V-inf. We even asked the gym worker if there was a trick. Nope, just a suicidal dynamic off of a single foot hold and a crimppy almost sloper on one hand. Bollucs. I declare the problem solved.

I like that I get to travel. I like that I get to see so many places and I like that I'm only gone about once a month. I'm better at it now than I was a few years ago. I know more what to expect, and I get more out of my trips. The upshot of this is that I had over 100,000 frequent flyer miles in my account.

We found out this week that Sir Walter isn't going to make it. He has cancer and it is spread through his body. I'm sure Amanda will write more on her blog. This is only slightly non-sequiter because Amanda will travel to St. Louis next weekend and put her cat to sleep. I now have about 2,000 frequent flyer miles. Totally worth it.

It was like Prom (except there was beer)

Last night, Amanda and I went on our first date since we came to the UK. A coworker and his wife came over and watched the kids while we went to a formal black-tie ball put on by the kids' school. The girl took the picture here of Mom and Dad looking sharp. I think the flash might not have gone off, which is why its so grainy.

Amanda and I had a great time with dinner, dancing, and conversation. Dinner was Duck breast, which was quite good. There was a band of geriatrics who were just not the right people for this party. They played one set of awful renditions of various types of music, and then the DJ started. Hardly anyone was dancing to the band, but as soon as the DJ started, the dance floor became packed. The band took a hint, and packed it in. I got to meet a lot of the parents that Amanda had already met through school and (since I don't dance) had a great time talking with the other dads (who also don't dance). One of them told me to just tell my company to "Sod off" and move to the UK permanently. Quite honestly, its just a bit tempting.

The event started at 7:30 and we didn't get home until 1:30! The time flew by, plus the weather was unbeatable. It had been sunny and warm (about 65) all day (finally, no rain!). The ball was held in a large reception tent out on the athletic field. Since it stays light until after 10, I didn't even realize that it was getting late until I looked down at my watch and saw that it was already 11:30. Amanda and I didn't feel like leaving in the slightest. It really was a great time.

Last Wednesday I went gym climbing. I did a few bouldering problems and then did routes. I was crap. Not climbing for three weeks really screws up your skills and your grip. I'm thinking I'll get a squeeze ball or something for the times that I can't get to the gym. I also need to go in early next time and show the staff that I know how to lead. The gym is about 70% lead only routes, so I've started to get bored with the limited top rope routes.

Sheffield has two large climbing gyms, The Foundry and The Edge. (There is also a large bouldering-only gym.) I have climbed both places and The Foundry is better, but The Edge is closer and has the climbing club thing where they will pair me up with other climbers. Anyway, the Edge was absolutely packed on Wednesday. I figured it was just all the rain had driven the area climbers indoors, but I found out it was also that The Foundry was flooded and had not yet reopened. It really is awful how many homes and businesses were lost or damaged. June was the wettest on record (over 100 years), and the locals all agree that it has never rained like this in their memory. Here's hoping July is better.

Next weekend my parents are coming to visit! The whole family is very excited and looking forward to seeing them. Then I'm off to Reno to present at a metrology conference. Back in the UK for a couple of weeks. A short trip to London with my parents. Then back to St. Louis for my second and final interview. Finally, the family is planning a trip to Ireland for mid August.

Oh, we also bought Amanda a car today. It needs its MOT inspection, and so the owner is going to do that and we will get it on Tuesday or Wednesday. It's a Peugeot five-door hatchback. Automatic transmission (an essential for Amanda). Seems to be a fairly decent car. It is always a gamble, but I think we'll come out O.K. on this one.

On the Train To Cardiff, Finally.

[I wrote this on Tuesday. While in Cardiff, the hotel didn't have Internet access, so the only net connection I had was my breakfast at Starbucks. Because of how much it sucks over here that Starbucks won't open until 8am and then closes at 7pm (the same hours as the conference), I spent my precious few minutes of net access doing work. I'm now home and can sit down and post this, which I wrote three days ago.]

Yesterday, the rain came down in buckets. In 24 hours South Yorkshire received as much rain as they normally do in all of June, about 50mm (2") in most places and 75mm (3") in some. The train I was on made it half way to Derby, a small city about a one hour drive south of Sheffield, and then had to reverse due to flooding on the track. It's spelled D-e-r-b-y, but it's pronounced "Darby". At least the way my ears hear it.

I spent most of the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get to Cardiff. The train station provided buss es to Derby where you could make your way south from there, but they strongly advised you to simply not travel if you didn't have to. I spent part of the afternoon standing in the rain with an umbrella that was beginning to lose its battle with the wind and a water resistant coat that had resisted as much as it possibly could. I was asking around, trying to figure out if there was a bus headed to Derby soon and what my chances were from there. No, and not good.

By early afternoon, routes north and east were also cancelled due to flooding. At that point, the only place you could get to from Sheffield was Manchester, but you apparently couldn't get south from there either. By evening the train station was evacuated and closed when the river burst its banks and flooded the station (I was back at the apartment by then). It is expected to stay closed until later this afternoon.

So I decided to spend the night in Sheffield, wake up early and drive to Derby, which was as far north as any trains were going. I awoke at about 3:30 (morning twilight) and was out the door at about 4:15 (just before sunrise, this is still weird to me). Even getting to the train station was a bit of an adventure. I had to divert around some flooded roads in Chesterfield, and ram my car across a flooded interchange when I got to Derby. Scared that despite the highway cone in the puddle to judge by, it was deeper than it looked and I would get stuck. First gear and I was across, barely. It was stupid to try, and I should have found a way around. Little 100Hp cars and big puddles don't go together. My Focus hatchback is not my Murano, that's for sure.

I got to the station about 5:30 and found a train that was headed straight to Cardiff at 6:35. I went over to the Best Western across the street, had a cup of coffee, and then got on the train. Since Derby was the starting point for the train, I got my pick of seats and I have a nice single seat with a small table.

Today the sky is crystal blue with only a few clouds on the horizon and the train is speeding across the English country side. It's fast and comfortable. Much better than driving the distance. I should get to Cardiff in time for presentations.

Ugh.

Two weeks! I haven't put up a post in two weeks. It's been a fairly laid back two weeks, and a wet two weeks.

Of course, during that time I was back in St. Louis. My interview went well enough (I haven't heard anything official, but I'm not worried). The interview was "round one" so to speak, and presuming I passed will make another trip back to St. Louis in August or September for the final interview. I think I had beef for nearly every meal while I was in town. It was fantastic. I very much enjoyed seeing family and friends. While we are having a great time in the UK, being home reminded me of how much we really do miss America.

The only down side to the trip was Sir Walter, as some of you have read on Amanda's blog. He is on antibiotics now, but not responding as well as the vet would like to see. Hopefully, he will get better soon. He seems to still be losing weight.

Last weekend I went rock climbing at Stanage with a mate from work. Some photos are up on Flickr. There were just the two of us, so no free hands for taking photos of either of us actually climbing. One of the photos is a composition of two photographs so that I could get a decent sky (under-exposed) and a decent rock face (over-exposed). It's been a long time since I did any real photo-editing beyond a bit of histogram tweaking and unsharp masking. I really had fun doing it, and I like the results. It took me way too long though. I killed most of an afternoon playing in Gimp.

Other than that, we did a bit of car shopping for Amanda and not much more. It has been raining fairly steadily since I came back from America which has put a damper on planing outdoor activities. The Monday that I was back South Yorkshire was more or less under water. Flooding in most of the low lying areas. It was a lot of rain even for the UK.

Tomorrow I leave for a conference in Cardiff, Wales. I'm really looking forward to it since its on one of my main areas of research. I'm not presenting, so that makes it double-plus-good because I don't have to worry about my own paper, I can just go and see others.

Anyway, Amanda and I are watching 28 Days Later right now, and I'm going to get back to all the blood and gore. I'll probably write a bit more on the train tomorrow.

Homeward bound

I’m writing this from Manchester Airport at 8:00. My flight is delayed a bit, and I’m mostly killing time. I got a taxi service from my apartment to the airport, so that was easy. I’ve about an hour until I need to board. Breakfast this morning is a bowl of Special K and a cup of coffee in the lounge. The very wierd part is that blogger thinks I'm in Germany, and all the buttons have German labels.

I had a good day yesterday, mostly. In the morning I went for a ride in the peaks. For whatever reason, my body just wasn’t up to it. I spent most of the ride feeling like I look in the photo on the left. However, there were a few good times when I looked like the photo below. By the way, that determined look on my face is me concentrating my mind through fear. A fast bumpy downhill on loose rock makes me wonder why the hell I do this stuff. The guys I ride with wear full downhill protection (pads on arms and legs). Mostly, it gives them a psychological edge, less fear of getting hurt. They also have full suspension bikes. My hard tail bounces all over the place, and I never feel in control on decents.

When I got back to the apartment, I showered up and took the kids to a museum much like the St. Louis science center. It was great, and the kids had a fun time playing with the exhibits. We stayed until the museum closed at 5. As we were leaving, the Girl had to go potty. So we detour back to the toilets and explain why we have to go in the boy’s toilet (Amanda stayed at home, well deserved). And then, as we were leaving the toilets, I left the Girl’s camera hanging on the coat hook. Damn! After explaining to her how careful she has to be not to leave it anywhere and take good care of her camera, I leave it.

Fortunately, we were the last ones in the museum. Amanda is going to call first thing this morning and see if we can recover it. I know exactly where it is at, and that is a bonus. I am really hoping that the Girl can get her camera back. If it truly is lost, I will replace it while in the US.

I still haven’t fixed the mirror on Amanda’s borrowed car, but I think I’ve located the part now. ₤144. That’s without a shell or indicator, so I’ll still need to get an indicator (the shell is fine). And I’ll have to figure out how to extract the guts from the shell. Benz parts are crazy expensive.

New Link

I've added a new link on the right. It goes to my very primitive home page, which has a growing list of Google Earth paths and placemarkers of places I/we have been.

Camping at Wasdale Lake

Yesterday, we got back from camping at Wasdale Lake in the Lake District. By the time you read this, the photos should be uploaded to Flicker. The family went on one hike (about 4 miles) and then that afternoon I went on another. I've made Google Earth maps of the hikes for download (Hike with Family and my Hike up Scafell Pike). These were not done with some fancy GPS device in my pack or anything, just me drawing a line in Google Earth and then saving the file. They are only as accurate as I could make out the trail from Google Earth and draw with a steady hand. I just figured out how to do this, so if there is a "better" way, let me know.

The weather was perfect. It rained just a little bit the first night we were there. Neither night was cold enough to be bothersome (a light jacket outside the tent was all that was needed). The mornings were bright and sunny enough to require sunscreen. We got some cloud cover each afternoon, but nothing major.

Everyone enjoyed the camping (or so they tell me). The kids found other children at the campsite to play with, and had a great time playing tag and football. It was a very family friendly campsite, and I think we will return at some point. One of the parents asked how we knew to pick this site, as they felt it was the best site of the three run by the national trust. More remote, less crowded, and beautiful surroundings. More remote is what I liked.

The family hike was frustrating for me. Little Girl didn't really want to go, and that made it hard since she would decide to just sit down and not move. She wanted to stay at the campsite and play with the other children. She didn't understand that during the day, no one is at the campsite. They are all out doing something. Amanda and I wore our packs with light loads just to try them out and test ourselves. My goal was to make it to the tarn (small mountain lake), about a mile further on from our turn around point. I think the boy and I could have made it. Amanda was wearing out, and the girl was being stubborn.

So, because I still felt like taking a hike after we got back, I made the trek up Scafell Pike, the highest point in England at 978 m. I put myself on a time limit (for Amanda's sake) and made it up in 2 hours and down in 1.5 hours. I'd like to go again and spend more time at the top (the view is fantastic). This was a steep and very strenuous hike. Like climbing stadium stairs that go for 2 miles. Today, my legs hurt.

The other interesting thing from camping at almost 55 degrees North, was that I never saw it get dark. Officially, sunset was at about 9:30, and sunrise was at 4:40. I was up past 10:00, and it was still light. I woke up a few times during the night, and could see the tent glowing with some light. At 3:30 one morning I woke up and stepped out of the tent to look around. I could see a very distinct dusk-like glow in the North. The sky was clear, but you could only see bright planets. The sun was below the horizon, but there was still enough light to read by. I don't think it ever got dark enough for the stars to come out, but maybe I just wasn't awake at the right time.

We ate well enough. They didn't allow any open fires, so we cooked everything on a small camping stove. We made smores for desert, sort of. The marshmallows here don't brown right. They start to melt, and then you have to scorch them a bit to get some color. They seem to have a sugar coating that goes from white to black almost instantly. After some practice, we were able to get acceptable results. Also, we weren't able to find any graham crackers. We got some biscuits that were close, and used those with acceptable results. One of the other children came over while we were cooking our marshmallows and clearly thought we were nuts.

It was a good first go. Amanda and the kids did say they would do it again. I had a great time overall and look forward to doing it again.

Coming to St. Louis

I have some business in St. Louis in a few weeks, so I'll be home briefly. I fly in on the 10th and leave again on the 13th. Have your people call my people and we'll do lunch.

Also, I've put up a batch of photos taken by the little girl (LG set) on Flickr. I think she got the best slug picture! It's almost a story just to flip through them. The trip to the grocery store with mommy tells quite nicely.

Camping

We went and bought some camping equipment this weekend. The weather is crap, but I'm excited.

Everyone got a new sleeping bag. Only the boy and I had a sleeping bag before. And even then, I'd bought them for summer camping in St. Louis. They would be too cold at night here. So now we all have light-weight three-season sleeping bags. GBP 110.80.

For our first camping trip, we will go car camping. We have an air mattress that the boy and I use for camping. Amanda and I can use that. Bought two backpacking air mattresses for B & G. 39.90.

The backpack I liked was on sale. A lot. I think it's last years model, and they were dumping it for clearance. So I bought my new backpacking backpack. 60L capacity (3600 cu. in.) internal frame backpack. While we were at it, we bought a 50L for Amanda. I had her try on the "Mens" model, because she does have a longer torso (plus if she hated backpacking, I'd have a 50L pack also!), but the "Womens" model fit her hips much better. The waist belt does have a different shape to it and that made a big difference. So we have our packs! 94.90.

I also looked at tents. My thought was that if we really did go backpacking, we would need a backpacking tent. A four person backpacking tent is a bit of an oxymoron, since "real" backpackers try and keep the load down, and don't carry more than a two person tent. I had weighed the camping tent that I had, which is really a three man tent, but could fit two adults and two kids just. It came in at 5kg (about 10 lbs), which was not much heavier than the larger 3 man backpacking tents that I've looked at, but my tent's bag is this monster canvas job. When I got home, I unpacked the tent from the canvas bag and looked at how it might pack tighter. I was able to re-roll the tent and fly into a nice tight sausage. For this I bought a new stuff sack. The tent poles fit nicely on the side of the backpack and the stakes can pretty much go anywhere. 3.95

We also picked up some other miscellaneous stuff. Little flashlights for the kids. A backpacking stove and mess kits. inflatable pillows. Stuff like that. 35.55

I very clearly remember camping with my family growing up. I know I have memories of it from when I lived in Colorado, so that makes me not much older than the girl at the time. I've had a great time camping with the boy, and the girl really wants to go too. So, (I know you saw this coming) camping with the family, Priceless!

Lots of Photos

I've activated our Flickr account. The link is listed on the right. We are uploading photos today, so you will probably see most of them up by tonight. Prints can be purchased, and all the photos are uploaded in full resolution.

Ale

One of the better things in England is of course the Ale. The local store has a shelf full of different kinds. Maybe I'll take a camera next time and add a picture to this post. So far I have tried:
Fursty Ferret
Old Speckled Hen
Black Sheep Ale
Wadworth 6X
Marston's Old Empire
John Willies
Courage Directors (if you can find a link, feel free to leave it in the comments).
And some that I can't remember (is that a bad sign?). Actually, I only recently started deciding to log the ales that I tried. I'll try and write some brilliant words about the ales that I drink as I try them. Right now, I can say that Black Sheep Ale has been the best, hands down. I've had two bottles just to be sure, and I was right. Really, if you can find some Black Sheep Ale, try it. RateBeer agrees with me.

Of course, I've also had several cans of Guinness (what I'm drinking as I write this), but that's not an ale.

In the fridge I have Hobgoblin, Duchy Originals Organic, and Black Sheep Riggwelter (they got the first one right!). I'll let you know how they go.

Ale comes in 500ml (about 17 fl.oz.) bottles over here. Around $3-4 a bottle. I usually drink about half with dinner, and the other half after the kids go to bed since I hate to pour it out, and I don't trust it to keep overnight. So, come across the pond and I'll happily share a bottle with you.

On a separate topic, I think we might go camping in the Lake District next week. We'll take lots of photos and put the better ones up on Flickr.

I'm Back!

After weeks of only internet access at work, where I would rather go home at the end of the day then blog, we finally have internet access at home again! hooray BT! So much has happened. Where to start.

About two weeks ago, the minivan got crushed. It really wasn't my fault. really. It was parked in a car park near a construction site. A lorry carrying a bunch of steel girders was using the car park to turn around and didn't clear the van. Crushed the rear left hand pillar and shattered the rear windscreen. Drug the van about 2 meters. Then he drove into the construction site as though nothing had happened. Fortunately, the gardener at work saw the whole thing and wrote the drivers plates down. When I pointed out what had happened, he didn't deny it and gave over his insurance information. He claims he didn't know he'd hit the van. How could you not notice that you just crushed and drug a minivan 2 meters? Whatever.

Of course this was all a rental, so I could care less. National replaced the van and I was off and scaring the crap out of the UK drivers again. I suck at driving by the way.

Two weekends ago was a holiday weekend. We spent most of it moving into our new digs, but we did go to Bolsover castle on Monday. It was great! They were having a sort of renaissance fair for the weekend and we watched knights jousting and roman soldiers re-enacting a battle. The castle is about 17th century, so not very old. It was built on top of the ruins of a Norman castle as a sort of vacation cottage for a noble man who was trying to climb in rank. He would throw lavish and sordid parties for greater nobility in an attempt to gain more title. It didn't work. The castle has been very beautifully restored in parts and you can imagine what it must have looked like when it was new.

Last weekend, it rained a lot. Finally. It has been raining fairly steadily all week in fact. I guess the April showers are running a month late. None the less, on Sunday we went for a short walk in the moors. It was very windy. The Boy was the first to spot the slugs. Then, we couldn't help but notice them. About every 30' or so, we'd see another slug. Cute, aren't they?

Amanda has said she's willing to try one of my greatest fantasies. She said she would be up for backpacking! (What did you think I was going to write, my mom reads this blog.) The whole family backpacking! I've been perusing the catalog for Decathlon (which is like REI quality in a Sports Authority warehouse) looking at tents, backpacks, and sleeping bags. Tonight I went for a walk in Eccelsall Wood with the kids to see how they would do. They each wore backpacks, but only very lightly loaded. They did about 2 miles before getting cold. The Girl was getting worn out, but The Boy was still strong. I think with practice The Girl could do 3 miles, each lunch, and then do 2 miles. We'll work up to it.

Tuesday I went gym climbing with a mate from work. I was on lead even! My first time leading since we left St. Louis. I sucked. I was managing 5+ on lead O.K., but not great. On top rope I did a 6a fairly clean, and a 6b on a slab with a few falls at the crux (but I did finally figure it out). I'm anxious to get back out to the peaks some weekend.

Tomorrow I'm off for a bit of cycling near Hope.

I also got my new power supply for my Xbox, so I'll be installing that. I fried the 110V one messing around with 220. Really, it was stupid (Amanda warned me). I blew three fuses, one in the transformer, one in the outlet adapter, and one in the Xbox as well as blowing up a capacitor on the Xbox power supply. As any electrical engineer will tell you, when you let the magic smoke out, the circuit stops working. It looks like the damage was contained to stuff before the PS transformer, so no MB damage likely.

The replacement power supply is dual voltage. Bummer. I was hoping that it would be a 220V supply only. Then I'd have an excuse to just get a 360 when I get home. But the new supply will work in the states too.

I plan on getting a Flickr or Shutterfly or something account this weekend so that I can start uploading lots of pictures. When I get that set up, I'll post a link.

Cheers to all. It's good to be back on line from home!

2 Weeks!

It has been two weeks since my last post! I'm just not a very diligent blogger. I'm sure many of you are following my wife's blog, so you should have decent idea of what is going on. Last weekend, we went hiking in the Peaks just outside the village of Hathersage. It was beautiful.

Walking around here is done on public footpaths. This is an interesting idea which I gather has been around for centuries. The land is private, but the footpaths are public access by law. This means that you can be walking right through a farmers field or someones garden. Coming from the states where property laws and trespassing are almost religion ("You damn kids, get off my lawn"), this is an interesting feeling. Who remembers when Madonna bought an estate over here about two years ago? She tried to get the public footpaths on her property shut down because the paparazzi were using them to photograph her. Parliament kept them intact. An Englishman's right to wander was the way they described it.

It also rained a bit. When we got to the top of the hill on the walk, Amanda and the kids were knackered, so they went off to, as Jim describes it, England's rudest cafe/pub to wait for Jim and I to go get the cars. As Jim and I worked our way back to the car via the footpaths, one took us through some grazing sheep and their lambs. One lamb thought it important to stand his ground and defend his field. About two feet tall and covered in soft wool, he stood firmly on the path baying as we approached. Once it was clear that we weren't going to leave, he trotted off to his mom and hid. Lambs are cute. Tasty and cute.

This weekend, the family went to see Peveril Castle, a Norman Castle built in the 11th century. I took dozens of photos and the family and I had a great time. Amanda says she is going to post a few of the photos so check out here site in the next couple of days.

Sunday (today) I went mountain biking. Holy crap that kicked my ass. We rode on a trail near Ladybower reservoir which had a section considered one of England's 10 best downhills. The elevation change was on the order of 1500 feet. At the top, the wind was cold and brisk. And it pressed my shirt against my gut in the photo. Damn, must drink less beer. Or maybe do like James and fold my arms in photos. Yes, that's it fold my arms.

You can see the reservoir (where we started) down in valley. We started on the far side and rode around it the long way before even starting the accent. I think the whole ride was about 10 miles.

Still waiting to move. Still working constantly. Enjoying every day.

Presentation Zen

This has nothing to do with England.

I hate bad PowerPoint. Wait, that sentence might be too long. I hate PowerPoint. This is a passion of mine. I go to enough conferences and presentations (as I'm sure you have too) where the presenter is using PowerPoint as a note-card for himself rather than as a means of visually augmenting an oral presentation for the audience. If you know me well, you know that this is a hot button topic of mine.

I don't know if you've followed it, but there is a link on the side of my blog to a graphic designer's blog on presentation creation. This is probably the best website out there for thinking about the visual aspects of a presentation. I have a fairly long list of other great websites and articles for giving and writing technical papers and presentations, but I think Presentation Zen does the best job of making me think about the visuals in a completely different way. Every time I have to sit down to work out a new presentation, I read a few Presentation Zen posts to get into the right frame of mind.

If you haven't followed the link yet, do so now, and watch the "Chicken, Chicken, Chicken" video. I've seen it twice, and I can't stop laughing. It is like nearly every bad dissertation/technical presentation rolled into one great mockery. It's brilliant. The Matlab generated plots of cluster analysis. The citations in the introduction. The blocked out outline. It is indicative of exactly how many of us learned to do technical presentations, that turns out to be just plain wrong.

I'd like to embed a classic image of a New Yorker cartoon. But they are actually pretty vigilant about copyright, so I've linked to it instead. What the heck, buy a tee-shirt while you're there.

'ello

My children are already changing their English. Just the other day, my son greeted me with "'ello". I just about expected "gov'na" to come out next. He often will lilt the second to last syllable of a sentence. If you heard it, you'd know what I was talking about. I knew this would happen, I just didn't expect it so soon.

That said, it seems my own accent is starting to change. It's a strange thing. I'm vaguely conscious of it, and I fear that it is interpreted as mocking. Its just the desire to be understood and fit in. When I'm talking with Amanda, it all but disappears. I also caught myself saying "far" instead of "for" in a conversation yesterday. Damn you St. Louis.

Sunday was absolutely beautiful out. I went climbing at Froggatt Edge. It was amazing. Single pitch grit stone, trad climbing. I didn't lead (since I don't know how to set anchors) but seconded, clearing the anchors as I climbed. Very different from gym climbing, but I could use everything that I've picked up at Upper Limits. It didn't really push myself much. I onsighted all the routes we tried. The hardest was an HVS 4c, which I would put at about about a 5.8+. Pretty much stuck to cracks and dihedrals. (Okay, so the last paragraph was for Rob, Jae, Brian, and Alan.)

The most interesting thing was that chalk was only slightly helpful. You could just about smear on the stone without any chalk and just stick to it. It was very rough and very hard. Like a brand new hang-board. Great fun for climbing on. I can see why the Peak District is considered the best climbing in the UK. We even ran into a couple up from London for the weekend just to climb.

Like an idiot, I didn't take a camera. Next time, I'll post my own photos.

Beautiful Saturday

Today looks like it's going to be a beautiful day. Tomorrow promises great weather also. Today the plan is to go to the Chatsworth House. Depending on situations, I may get some climbing in at the Peaks also. Very much looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Wednesday night was clear and cool. I took a photo from the balcony of our apartment looking to the South and East across Sheffield. The shot is pushed about 1 stop, it was actually much darker than it looks in the photo, but I like the look of the deep blue sky in this picture. The full 10MP image is really pretty. Maybe I'll get a flickr account and put it up there.

This morning I went out to Tescos (small market) and picked up some hot cross buns and blueberry muffins for breakfast. I was the only one who liked the hot cross buns. I guess currants are a taste to get used to?

I find myself bouncing back and forth between tea and coffee. I've gotten used to instant coffee since it's what is commonly available. I do have a coffee press in the apartment (its what I'm drinking right now), but it is a pain to clean so I rarely brew it in the morning. While coffee makers exist, tea kettles are of course far more common.

What is really cool is how fast resistive heating stuff gets hot. The iron is ready in less than a minute. Eight cups of water boils in just a few minutes (fast rolling boil, not slight simmer) in the tea kettle. 220V rocks! I propose that the US needs to switch. 110 is for sissys.

The kids have started to settle in lately, which is nice since their constant excitement was starting to get unnerving. Its not just that they were excited, its that they didn't have constructive outlets for their excitement, so they would just end up yelling and running around our tiny apartment. This ultimately ended up in someone falling down and then crying, or simply bickering at each other. I suppose when we move, this will start all over for a week or so.

Speaking of moving, we found a great four bedroom flat near the school that the kids will go to. It is two stories with a balcony on each floor. There is a community garden right next to it. I doubt any plots are still available, but if they are I think it would be fun to let one and plant some veg for the summer. Its also out on the west end of town, so easy access to the Peaks!

The sun is now getting high in the morning sky, so I'm off to enjoy the day.

Jane is the greatest woman in the world.

I have a new best friend. Her name is Jane. She doesn't have a face, but her voice is sent straight from God, or in this case, an actress via a computer chip manufactured in China. Jane is the voice in my new SatNav system. I don't know how the natives do it. They have extra genes for navigating around here or something. I need my SatNav. I need Jane. For example, here is the route (acording to Google Maps) from our apartment to work. Oh sure, it looks easy from 10,000 feet up. But on the road, its confusing as hell. Its not natural for five roads to converge on a single location. So now I'm cruising the causways of Sheffield in my Vauxhall Zafira with Jane in my ear saying sweet nothings like, "At the next roundabout in 300 yards, take the third exit."

Today was also my first day of work. Most of the day was spent in a meeting with some guys from Manchester, NH who I already know quite well since my lab in St. Louis works as a beta tester for their equipment. So, it was just like being home. Except more English accents.

10 am, Sunday Morning (but only acording to the clock)

I didn't sleep well on the plane, and the jet lag is more noticable than usual. Normally, I'm good by the next day. Today, I still don't feel quite right. But I am awake.

The children did great on the plane. S watched Open Season, and then slept the rest of the way. C watched the movie, played some DS, and then slept the rest of the way. Yeah for overnight flights. When we arived in Manchester, it was quite foggy. We were all caught by surprise when the wheels touched down because we couldn't see the ground from the windows. However, by the time we got the car loaded, purchased a good map (Damn you National for not having Sat Nav available!) and hit the restrooms one more time, the fog had burned off and it was a very beautiful day. By the way, if you need a navigator, Amanda rocks! We didn't make one wrong turn.

We rented a minivan so that we would have enough room for all the luggage. Barely. The van was completely packed with our 11 suitcases + four cary-ons. We were all cramped in the car with luggage. It filled the back, the floor by the kids seats, between the two kids, and the floor of the passenger side. I was a bit closer to the steering wheel than I would have prefered. Horray for the tight packing gene (clearly on the Y chromosome). No cubic inch wasted. A lesser individual would have gotten a bigger vehicle.

To get from Manchester to Sheffield, you have to drive across the Peak District. It's very beautiful, somewhere between hills and mountains. The drive was pleasant, but crowded. I think all of England had decided that this was the weekend to go to the Peaks. Our 45 mile journey took about an hour and a half. Not that I minded driving slowly. Actually, it is a bit like riding a bike. It took no time to switch my brain back to driving on the left.

So, now it's Sunday. The body and mind are adjusting. We are here.

Today, the movers packed our stuff and hauled it away for shipping. So much for Thoreau. The company will pay for 1000 lbs of shipping. With 90 cu. ft. we used up 942 lbs. Of course, that also includes their giant triple thick cardboard boxes. Those things probably weighed like 20 lbs each, and they had like 7. So that means I'm only taking 800 lbs of stuff. That should qualify as below the threshold of materialistic American.

I have too much crap.

Last night I got very little sleep. I was up late packing and getting things sorted out with our house sitter. In theory, I should have gotten 4 hours of sleep, but then I lay awake in bed for at least an hour worrying. I feel like I slept about two hours. The good side of this is I'm exhausted. I should fall asleep early, wake up early and have that much less jet lag to deal with!

Tomorrow is our flight. We have a long day ahead. The thing I'm most worried about is getting the family through customs with our 12 (not a typo) suitcases. Two carts, six bags each plus two kids and jet lag. I think the trick will be to stay focused on the task at hand. Go through each step (I've done it enough times now) from landing to the hotel. Then sleep for two hours.

My next post will be from the UK!

We're outa here! (probably)

Thursday morning I came into work to find a charge number in my email! Of course, my boss is on travel, so it took until Friday to send off the travel authorization. Friday afternoon I got in touch with the person in our global mobility department who is working on my file. I said that I wanted to book my flight for Friday the 6th, and she didn't see any problem with that. I have one more person to talk to on Monday, and then I can turn in my travel request.

Also, it looks like Amanda may have found a place for us to live. From the online description, it looks like the perfect fit. We are having a friend at the AMRC go over on Tuesday to check it out and take pictures. I don't think it will stay on the market for long, so we may go ahead and put a deposit on it sight unseen.

We get to ship 1000 pounds of personal belongings, so now we are trying to figure out what to take and what to leave. We also get an excess baggage allowance. Amanda has started packing and figures that we will need yet another suitcase. Wouldn't it be cool if all we took was the absolute minimum that we needed. Live simply for 10 months, like a modern Thoreau. Just clothes. Clothes and my Xbox. O.K. clothes, my Xbox, and the computer. Clothes, Xbox, computer, dvds and all the other toys that I own. I'm so domesticated.

My Kingdom for a Charge Number

The one thing that has been keeping our trip in a state of limbo is Business Operations. They control the keys to the financial kingdom. Without money, I can't buy plane tickets, get my stuff shipped, etc. The magical words that open the gates to the well of virtual fortune, "Cost Charge Number". I've been waiting for months to hear those magical words and the 8 special alphanumeric characters that go along with them.

Today, I prodded at the gate keeper yet again to grant me access. "Tomorrow, promise". I think he means it this time. We'll see. If it is the case that I find out my magical phrase of corporate wealth, then I estimate that we will be gone in about two weeks (maybe less). Of course, I estimated that we would be gone on February 1st, then February 15th, then March 1st, then ... Maybe I should stop estimating departure.

Frist Post!

Stop me if you've heard this one. An engineer for a $50B multi-national company (let's call him Cog) volunteers and is selected for an extended overseas assignment. Cog's wife quits her job; he prepares his house and kids for the move. The Company gives him an estimated departure date of February 1st.

February 1st comes and goes.

March 1st comes and goes.

Bureaucracy sucks. However, it finally looks like Cog is in the last layers of red-tape. The purchase order has been signed and approved. About all that is needed is an assignment letter and a charge #, and then it's off to England for Cog and his family.

The continuing story of Cog's adventures in the far-away lands of Sheffield, England will unfold on these pages. His sampling of the fabled local cuisine. His basking in the endless sunshine of the British Isles. His disillusionment as he finds out that the food sucks and it actually rains all the time. But for now, he maintains his deranged optimism that "All I need now is a pony".

Cheers,