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.