Another Trip to the Zoo ....

Yesterday myself and the girls decided to brave the cold and head to the Zoo again. This time the plan was to see the kiwi at the bird house. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11 AM they have one of the zoo personnel bring out one of their kiwis and you can get a chance to see one of these nocturnal creatures up and close.

So first of all I had no idea that these birds were so big. I guess I always imagined a kiwi being a small bird but they definitely fall into medium size. This one was bigger than my head - and I have a big head. I actually learned quite a lot. Kiwis lay VERY large eggs - the egg is at least a third of the size of the bird. To see it in the bird (they have a skeleton with one in it) you cannot help but think - "How the hell does that thing lay an egg that big?" To me it looked like a woman carrying a 30 lb baby. I also learned that the new born, once it hits 4 weeks old, is chased out of the burrow and they are on their own. The lady at the zoo also said that there were only 3 dozen kiwis outside of New Zealand and 4 of them were at the National Zoo It was actually a very fascinating talk.

As we walked through the Zoo we did manage to catch a number of new videos along with lots of pictures. I need to get the pics from Tika so keep an eye out for those but in the meantime here are links to a few videos we took:

• Barple remembered Sammy and to prove it - a quick video update 
• While in the bird house we did see a male hitting on a female - Do not worry "G" rated video 
• and finally a trip to Meerkat Manor - DC style 

OK - back to work for me. I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years!

.... cu

A Great Christmas Break ....

Wow - it has been a busy week but a great one at the same time.

This time last week I was getting ready to head to a work Christmas party with one of our partners and some of the customers we work with together including the Department of Labor, Homeland Security, State and Energy. After meeting at a local bar in DC we headed to the Verizon Center to a suite we had reserved to watch the Wizards-76ers game. It was the first professional basketball game I have been to. The crowds were not huge - not sure if that was due to the fact that it was December 23rd and people still had Christmas shopping to do or if it is because of the Wizards record (now standing at 10 and 19. In either case it was a fun night and the Wizards did win so the local crowd was happy.

The day after the game myself and the girls headed down to the National Zoo. The panda that was born at the Zoo is due to return to China early in 2010 and the girls had not seen him (I know - we live 30-odd miles away we should go more often). Normally the Zoo is so full it is hard to get in to see them but with the combination of recent snow and the cold it meant that there were very few visitors so we got to visit the Pandas and then went to the bird house (mainly to get warm). While at the birdhouse Sam met a friend. Well sort of - more like made a friend - and not really a friend in that it was a bird. I guess the video shows it better (click here for it). Now do not be mislead - this was not a one off occurrence. Every time Sam walked by this part of the exhibit and called out this birds "name" it came running over no matter where it was. And yes it was the same bird - very identifiable within the exhibit. It was actually pretty funny.

Friday we got up and did our Christmas thing and then the girls came over after lunch. The pretty looking tree did not look like this after they opened their presents. I will say that they were very happy having had Christmas morning with their Mom and spending Christmas afternoon and evening with us. The big things were a new telephoto lens for Tika's camera, a pair of Doc Martens for Kris and games and DVDs for Sam. They also had other things but those are the highlights. I cooked a Roast Beef Tenderloin with Potatoes Anna and Garlic Broccoli and made a spicy Cuban Black Bean Stew for Tika.

Now with Christmas behind us (or I should say with Christmas 361 days away) we are looking forward to New Years, then Sammy's and Laura's birthdays. Tomorrow I am taking the girls to DC again so we they can see the Kiwi at the zoo.

We hope you have a GREAT new year.

.... cu

Happy Holidays!

OK - I am not being politically correct here as it is not Christmas yet and since Hanukkah just finished I figured I get both with one phrase. But that being said I am looking forward to a white Christmas and given the pile of snow we got this past weekend I am figuring it will be white. Tika said she measured 20 inches on the table on her deck. As you can see from the picture it was more than deep enough for La to bury her boots and she is standing on a couple of feet of snow at least. I know I shoveled a couple of feet from the front of our garage (and our neighbours) since they did not plow our back street very well.

We are all ready, I think. Well we are waiting for a couple of weather delayed packages but I expect they will show up on time. We are looking forward to having the girls over for Christmas afternoon/evening. And I know I am looking forward to seeing some excited faces when they open gifts.

I did see a cool Seasons Greetings picture and I have to share it. It is the worlds smallest snowman made at the National Physics Laboratory in the  UK. It is 1/5th the width of a human hair. Hope you like it and I hope you all have a GREAT Christmas

.... cu

Is it really only 10 days to Christmas?

Wow - I never realized it was getting so close. Still so much shopping to do.

We did get out this past weekend and got a tree. We decided it had to be a real tree for our first Christmas tree so we went out Saturday and found a nice balsam fir - we threw it on the Mini and took it home. Sunday the girls came over and we all decorated the tree after myself and the girls went out to find some lights for the new tree. The girls had hot chocolate and tea, we played Christmas music in the background and tried to combine two sets of Christmas ornaments. I will post a pic of the decorated tree after.

Afterward Tika wanted me to watch a movie with her so she put on the very Chritmassy (????) "Pineapple Express". OK it was not all that Christmassy but it was funny. This weekend Laura got tickets to take us all to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It is supposed to be a great show and since her sister had been in it before I think it holds a special place for Laura as well - I know I am looking forward to it.

OK - back to work for me - have a GREAT week before Christmas

.... cu

Winter running .... it has challenges

I got up a little after 5 this morning and saw that the Accuweather temperature was well above freezing - woohoo! I had run 6-1/2 miles on Saturday AM and wanted to go out for a nice run this morning and seeing that the next couple of mornings was to be nice I figured a couple of nice warmer runs before the cold comes back in Wednesday AM. I threw on my shorts (Yes I said shorts) and my long sleeve shirt and a technical jacket, grabbed a pair of light gloves (I have now also lost one of my good running gloves along with my hat).

Now that I was ready I stepped out

Well I was about six steps into my run when I realized that EVERYTHING was covered in ice. The air temperature seemed ok but I guess the fog we had last night and early this morning had coated everything and with the ground being colder it froze. There was ice on the grass! It was too nice to be out in shorts and not run so off I go with half strides - no running on the balls of my feet - just very flat footed (but sure footed) running.

After only 3 miles I gave in to common sense and went back in. The good news was I did not fall and I did get a short run in. I guess next time I will have my skates by the door for days like these.

Aaaahhhh - the joys of winter running.

.... cu

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

A big congratulations to Laura.

Yesterday she signed the patents for her work on the chemistry and also for the instrument design for the test that she has been working on for the last number of years.

I know very few people that have patents and none of the people I know have used their patented work to help in the creation of a product that will literally save hundreds of thousands of lives a year.

Laura, I am so VERY proud of you.

(and obviously Elly is as well)

Thanksgiving ....

This was only my second American Thanksgiving as an American and I guess my first real one as this one was with family, friends and the requisite turkey.

Laura had planned this well in advance as it is a big holiday for her - probably her second biggest day of the year. She arranged flights for us that got us into Nashville Thanksgiving afternoon and had booked us into one of the oldest, and I later learned, most prestigious hotels in the US. I have read somewhere that there are over 95,000 hotels in the US - only 37 of these hotels (less than .04%) have a 5 Star AND a 5 Diamond rating and the Hermitage in Nashville is one of them. It is not big but they do pay attention to detail and that makes all the difference in the world. The photo is one of the lobby ceiling - all beautiful stained glass.

After we arrived in Nashville and relaxed a bit we headed over to Lisa's for dinner where we were greeted by two very enthusiastic dogs, Jordy and Cookie, and of course by Lisa, Laura's Mom Kaye and her niece Britni. We would later be joined by Steve, Britni's boyfriend. We had a fabulous turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad and much more including 3 different desserts and some GREAT wine. It was a fabulous evening, even when we were each asked to say what we were thankful for.

Friday was yet another great day. Lisa's birthday was actually on Thanksgiving Day so I took Laura, her Mom and Lisa out to lunch at a great little spot that Laura booked called the Yellow Porch. Again great food, good conversation and for me some good local beer. After lunch Laura took me on a surprise tour of some of Nashville, showing me some of the prestigious neighbourhoods and then taking me to Cheekwood. Cheekwood is more than a park - it includes a sculpture garden and some beautiful grounds but also a mansion which had a wonderful collection of American Art including Warhol and many others. Along with the art display there is a tradition of Christmas tree displays after Thanksgiving so we were there to see some wonderfully decorated trees that were decorated by local artists or groups. It definitely gave me some good ideas :-). We then walked the grounds before heading off to dinner at a wonderful restaurant that Laura had booked, the Park Cafe. A nice little restaurant that had some wonderful art from a local artist.

Saturday was to be travel day so we filled up at Noshville, I on pancakes and Laura on a turkey sandwich, before she took me to Centennial Park where we saw the Parthenon. OK - I know - the Parthenon is in Greece but this is a full sized replica of the original and in fact is the ONLY full sized replica. A quick trip to the airport and we were home safe and sound to get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner with the girls on Sunday. Another wonderful afternoon and evening with the kids and more eating - Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, veggies, a Lentil Loaf and some more good wine.

As you can see - my first real American Thanksgiving was not just filling but also wholly wonderful.

Looking forward to next year in Nashville.


.... cu

A chance to relax ....

... at least for a few days ... and then we get to think about getting ready for the holidays.

The last few weeks have been busy once again. Three weekend ago myself,  Sam and Tika headed up to Ottawa for my nephew Isaac's Bar Mitzvah. My parents and sister flew up from Newfoundland so it was great to see everyone all at once. It was a busy weekend - the girls staying with two sets of friends on two nights, myself with staying with Malcolm and Lynn, and of course the weekends events. The weekend started for us on Saturday, we got to Ottawa late and missed the Friday dinner, with the Bar Mitzvah service at the synagogue early Saturday. Isaac did a wonderful job reading the Torah. After the service the we had a wonderful lunch catered by David Smith, a well known restaurateur in Ottawa. Saturday evening was the big party which was held downtown in Ottawa, again catered by David and VERY well attended. It was quite the party and one I am sure Isaac will remember, as will my Dad according to the picture.

Sunday we left and took Mom, Dad and Michelle and drove back to Virginia so they could spend the week with Laura and myself. It was a great week - did a bit of shopping, some sightseeing and we had a birthday party for Mom, Dad and Michelle (since they were here about half way in between everyone's birthdays). It was a nice little party with all the kids, Laura and myself and Darlene joined us as well. Saturday myself and Tika drove everyone back to Ottawa so they could stay with Wayne, Kayla and the boys for a few days while we spent a night at Dave and Michelle's. The drive was interesting - everyone watching the side of the road for wildlife. We saw horses and cows of course, but also some alpacas, wild turkey and zebra (YES zebra on a farm in Maryland - way too bizarre)  Myself and Tika got up early and headed back to Virginia on Sunday after we made a quick trip to the Byward market for some GREAT fire baked bagels and a little bit of shopping and then had a nice drive back.

It was great seeing everyone in Ottawa and it was nice to have Mom, Dad and Michelle here in Virginia with us, even if it was a short trip.

OK - back to work ..... cu

Finally home for a few days

I just got back from Ottawa around lunch time today. It has been a long few weeks so it is nice to be home right now. Do not get me wrong - the weeks were long but were enjoyable. Switzerland was a great time - 8 days of enjoying small Swiss towns and then exploring the old part of Zurich. We were also treated with great hospitality by people at the hotels and Laura's colleagues. As I mentioned last time we went to an old Abbey church which was followed by a great meal at a nice Italian restaurant - some great pizza, pasta and wine. Thanks to Monika and Bernd for a great treat on our first day in Switzerland.

The rest of the first few days I spent exploring Rapperswil-Jona and doing some running to Ruti. Between doing a little shopping, exploring the castle and the old parts of the town (along with the occasional long lunch with a nice cold Carlsberg) and taking lots of pictures -  my days were full. Thursday we had what was probably the most delicious meal I have ever had in a restaurant, and it was at the hotel's restaurant overlooking Lake Zurich.

Monika and Bernd continued their hospitality Friday night when we went to Zurich for dinner. We met Andreas, another colleague of Laura's, at a wonderful old restaurant called Kaiser’s Reblaube. The upper room was once occupied by Goethe. We ate a wonderful meal in the lower dining room - very traditional with good wine and great conversation.


Saturday we hopped on the train and headed to our hotel for the weekend in Zurich. The train followed the lakeshore from Rapperswl to Zurich. A quick walk from the train station and we were in the center of old town Zurich and at our hotel. We knew we were in Switzerland when we looked across the cobblestoned street and saw the blue cow on the balcony. Saturday we did a little shopping, did some sightseeing in the old churches and of course found a great place for lunch and a nice little Italian place for dinner, It now appears to us that wherever we go we find ourselves eating pizza the first night we are there (true for Victoria, Seattle, Seaside Florida, Rapperswil and Zurich). We continued our sightseeing Sunday, visiting the Grossmunster church (climbing the 186 VERY narrow tower stairs to get the pic on the left), the Art Gallery for a Seurat exhibit, and of course exploring more of old town. Lunch today was a picnic lunch with a nice bottle of Amarone on the Lindenhof Plaza that overlooked the Limmat River. My lunch choice - Roast Beef with mustard and dark chocolate - all in the same sandwich!


Sunday evening was my turn to treat Laura to dinner and I wanted it to be special so I had reserved a table at the Kronenhalle. The Kronenhalle is one of the most famous restaurants in not only Zurich but all of Switzerland and our impression was it was deserved. From the moment you walk in you see the history - not just in the building and the fact that the restaurant has been there for almost 150 years but the artwork that is hung on the walls. It is things that you would see in a good American restaurant where they would hang prints of Matisse or Picasso except at the Kronenhalle they are Matisse and Picasso paintings. One painting in the entryway is valued at over CHF 2 Million (that is 2 million Swiss francs - about 2 million dollars). The food and wine matched the impression as did the service from a full staff. It was a meal to remember. However we did not stop there but stopped at the Terrace Restaurant on the bank of the Limmat for dessert. It was a night that made it hard to leave Zurich because one had to wonder what we had missed and in a city so beautiful you could miss things and not know. Hopefully we will be back in Zurich some day again.


For now - I am happy to be home :-)


.... cu

A long weekend ....

Well it was a long weekend from an activity perspective if not from a federal holiday perspective.

I took the red-eye back from San Francisco on Wednesday night. It was a good couple of days in the Bay area with meetings etc... I did get to do some walking in San Fran before we caught the late plane and did manage to snap a couple of shots on my phone. On the right is a view of San Fran Bay from Polk St looking out towards Alcatraz. On the left below is the first Tesla roadster I have ever seen. It looks pretty slick for an electric car. Not sure that you can see the plate - ZZROGAS.

After getting back from San Fran I had to get ready for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K and pack for Switzerland. The 10K was Sunday AM - starting at 8:05 so it was an early morning making sure I had all my stuff for the race. I got to DC nice and early had just under an hour before the start. The start was pretty dramatic - how could it not be when the starting "pistol" was a howitzer. The race itself was good - ran comfortably - the slopes were nice. I do not wear a watch so I had to rely on the Marines shouting out times at each mile marker. At the finish I felt I did ok for me - first race since April and first since the bike accident. Turns out I finished in just under 51 minutes which placed me 603rd out of 5385 runners. Not too bad for an old guy I guess.

After the race I took the girls out for dinner, finished packing and then we grabbed a cab for the airport. The  flight to Zurich was good but I did not sleep much, neither did Laura. We arrived in Zurich and took a train to Jona and a short cab ride to our hotel. Laura went off to work and I went walking around. I visited nearby Rapperswill and the castle there. After work one of Laura's colleagues wanted to take us out - we were beat but figured we did not have many opportunities like this. We were ever so grateful, for a great meal and a trip to a nearby abbey church, Einsiedeln, which was absolutely stunning. We could not take pictures there but suffice to say it was awe inspiring. This morning I went for a run and Laura went off to work. Before she left she took a quick picture of the view from our room - may qualify as stunning as well.

OK - off for more sight seeing, walking and some lunch. I will post more pics later.

..... cu

Back from one trip ....

... and onto another.

Well I guess technically I was back from two trips and I literally am on the plane for my next. October and November are turning into travel month. Florida, Texas, California, Switzerland, Ottawa, Ottawa again and then Tennessee - all in a matter of 6 weeks.

That being said I am not complaining, especially after last weeks initial trip. Grant it I did have to leave earlier than planned due to having to get to Dallas for meetings but I did have a fun few days. Laura's sister, Lisa, has vacationed twice a year for the last 7 or 8 years in a little place called Seaside which is on the Florida panhandle. As you can guess it is on the Gulf and quiet nice. Large beautiful homes and white beaches. This trip she invited Laura and I and Laura's younger sister, Leslie, and her family came in from Australia as well as Laura's mom, from Texas, also were in Seaside. (Pic on the left is Laura's Mom, Lisa, Laura and Leslie) Lisa's daughters were coming in a few days after we left so we did not get to see them this time but we will on Thanksgiving.

The trip was great. Lisa had a wonderful little house with a great kitchen just a short walk from the beach and from some great little shops that included the requisite coffee shop. The shops had galleries along with your regular clothing and jewelery and beach wear stuff. In some cases the art was on display in wonderfully manicured gardens.

We did take great advantage of the beach. Not excessive but every day for a couple of hours of walking, swimming or playing with the kids, who were a whole lot of fun. Gracie, quite the little cutie, loved to play in the sand and the water, and would always want to involve her mom who is on her way to number 3 (woo hoo!). Daniel, Gracie's big brother, loved to get in the water, whether swimming or body surfing or just playing in the waves - he would stay in there forever but we did find time to play on the beach with some airplanes we got for them.

In the evenings we would try to catch the sunset from the beach but a little cloud cover in the evenings kept the sunsets elusive for us, so instead we enjoyed the glass of wine on the beach and then a great meal. It was hard leaving Seaside. Not only was the few days off fun but the company was great and the wine and food matched. I look forward to Thanksgiving in Nashville to see most of the Bell family again.

So for now I am off to San Francisco for a couple of days then back to race Sunday before I fly off to Zurich Sunday evening. What a busy few weeks - but worth every second.

.... cu

Virginia Nature

Myself and the girls decided to take a hike on Sunday. I guess that sounds worse than it was. And in reality it was myself and Tika deciding to take a hike, Kris agreeing and Sam reluctantly coming along. Sam of course would much rather go do something sporty - mini golf or any thing like that.

We did not have a lot of time since we had a late lunch and there was a College Fair at SBHS that Tika wanted me to go to with her. So we decided we would drive to River Bend and hike down to Great Falls. It was a great afternoon for it - not too hot but Sunny, well at least on the way down to GF. It clouded over quickly on the way back and we got a few sprinkles on us - but I think that was mostly because Sam was teasing the rain gods. We did not see a lot of wildlife this time but we did find out that the lizard that has been living in my backyard is a five lined skink.

We did see some other wildlife - but that was a bunch of kayakers in the Potomac, some trying to learn to do eskimo rolls. We also got a kick out of the C&O canal which looked more like the source of the Nickelodeon Slime.

Of course I do not need to walk far to see wildlife. On my way over to get coffee one day I saw something in the waterfalls next to my place. I took a closer look and saw a small turtle zip off. I stayed still for a bit and he stuck his head up and I grabbed a quick pic with my cell phone.

Now all I need to do is to get pics of the skink and the bunny that has started to inhabit my backyard.

... cu

Good News on the work front ....

Well - not on my side but on Laura's side.

Laura has spent the last few years working on a test for detecting the Human Papillomavirus. This is not any old test but is one that is designed to address the needs in less developed countries. She has told me stories of doctors literally parachuting and kayaking in to villages in Africa to treat women. Well this test is designed to be portable, not require advanced training to operate, provide rapid results and to allow detection and treatment. To give you an idea of the operational ease, in a trial in rural China, all the women in the village were screened and tested by one of the farmer's daughters after she was taught to use the test. The goal is to reduce the cases of cervical cancer in women in these countries where prevention, detection and treatment is a rarity. An article, earlier this year, in the New England Journal of Medicine expected that the use of this test would cut cervical cancer deaths, often the leading cause of death, in half in the developing world saving hundreds of thousands of women a year.

The work is hard but some days she gets to see the rewards and last week had one of those days. PATH, www.path.org, is an organization that Laura works with. Her program has some funding through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and if all goes as planned will be the first product that becomes available based on funding from the foundation. Last week the Gates wanted to see the test in action so PATH demonstrated the test to them in Seattle. As you can imagine this was a big thing for Laura and her team - and something to be VERY proud of.

Sometimes the rewards are more personal. The women in Haiti sent Laura a carved "Tree of Life" in appreciation of the work done in Haiti where the screenings were the first ones they had ever had. It is made from steel from oil barrels that are pounded out and then carved and now hangs beautifully over the fireplace.

Today was another big day for the team as well as her company, Qiagen and Merck announced a joint initiative to provide HPV vaccines and HPV testing for the world's poorest countries. This is yet another big step in beginning to reduce the threat of cervical cancer to women in developing countries.

If you cannot already tell I think the work that she is doing is more than admirable and I know I have lots of reasons to be proud of her but this adds one more to the big bag of reasons. Congratulations Laura!

OK - I need to get back to work - I have been trying to find a few minutes to get this post out in my hectic schedule.

.... cu

Another busy couple of weeks .....

So the good news ---- the girls all like their teachers (or at least so far). Yes they are back in school. Sam loves one of her days as it is with teachers that she likes and not a lot of homework. Kris seems to be enjoying her second year of high school and yes Tika is now a senior. I have yet to meet all their teachers, some I already know, but next week I will get to meet the rest of Tika's and Kris's teachers (need to figure out how to do that in one night) and then the week after will be Sam's back to school night.

I did say it was a busy couple of weeks - all of it has been fun so no complaints. This past Saturday myself, Tika and Laura went to DC to see an exhibit of Tika's Art teacher. He was showing with another artist at Studio Gallery on R street. His work was very intriguing. The exhibit included some of his sculptures along with some paintings/prints that are based on utilizing oxidization as a basis of the process. Here is a link to the exhibit - Kirk at StudioGallery. We did make a stop on the way at the DC VegFest - some good food but quite a lot of strong voices for the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. I am a big believer in choice but I would rather make the choice than have someone force it on me. Do not get me wrong - it was still fun and we did find a couple of new restaurants for us to try.

The weekend before all of us, Kris, Sam, Tika and Laura went to lunch at Sunflower, a vegetarian restaurant in Vienna. Tika of course loved it as did I (I think I was the only one to clean my plate). Kris and Laura enjoyed theirs and Sam - well I think she liked it but I think she would have been happier with a Five Guys burger. I did make it up to them after and we went to Cake Love so the girls could get dessert and Laura treated them to some Starbucks drinks.

OK - I better get out of here - wanted to go workout - now I have two races coming up - a 10K last Sunday in September and then the Marine Corps which is last Sunday in October.

Have fun ....... cu

All kinds of good news ....

This past week was definitely a good week.

Martika has finally gotten her braces removed and she could not be any happier. The first thing she ate was an apple. Not that she could not eat apples with her braces on BUT she did enjoy finally being able to eat an apple without slicing it up.

She still has some work to do - she gets her retainer on Wednesday and she has to make sure she uses it. Given the efforts she went through with her braces I am sure that she will have no issue in making sure to use it as needed.

The other bit of good news is that I am allowed to start running and riding again - Woo Hoo!

I went to my Neurosurgeon on Thursday and he had seen my last CAT scan report and the scan itself. He said that all of the bleeding had stopped in my brain and that the blood and scar tissues had been absorbed as they should be. He did some tests to make sure things were physically working right and asked some questions to make sure things were ok there as well. He did say I would still have some headaches, especially for a few more weeks while the orbital socket finished healing. After all of that though he said I could start running again, just cautioned me to take it easy (so only do 3 miles at a time right this week) and he also said it was ok to get back on the bike. Again with the bike he said take it easy to start. The bike will wait a bit as I need to fix the brakes on my mountain bike and the road bike still needs to be repaired from the damage from the accident. I am just happy I get to run again. Of course everyone else is happy that I got the all clear for all of the other reasons.

Well now you can start looking for race results in October :-)

.... cu

Tika and me in DC

The end of the school year I spent a day chaperoning Samantha's class on a field trip to DC. It was a cool field trip in that it was focused on the mall but required the kids to answer a list of questions about things in and around the mall. A couple of weeks later myself and Tika spent at Saturday afternoon at the Corcoran Gallery and we talked about the field trip and Tika said that there were a lot of places in DC that she had not been to so we planned a day for just the two of us to go see some places in DC that we had not seen or that it had been a while since we had been there.

Our day started with tea at Teaism, a place we both like for lunch but it was too early for that. After we were caffeinated we headed off to the National Archives - which neither of us had been to. The lines were short early in the morning and we got to spend a couple of hours looking at the collections there as well as the architecture, such as the Rotunda. Since Tika enjoys history, and does well at it (a 5 out of 5 in her AP History exam last semester) she had lots of things to talk about. We saw the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence but also things like drawings for the initial lunar lander and Shaq's shoe that he gave to the president.

After we left the Archives we walked over to the Canadian Embassy and saw an exhibit of Yosuf Karsh's photography as well as played in the echo chamber before walking up and around Capitol Hill on our way to the Library of Congress. The Library was also a place I had never been to. We were hoping to get to actually go into the library but we found out you need to be doing research to get in so we toured the building, looked into the library through the viewing area, saw the Jefferson Library and exhibits on Gershwin and Bob Hope.

Once we left the Library we were getting hungry so we walked over to Union Station, one of my favourite buildings in DC and had lunch. We spent some time walking through the station, since it is such a beautiful building, before we headed over to the National Building Museum. I guess by now you can tell we both like architecture :-)

After touring the Building Museum we headed back home. We were fortunate not to get rained on but we were also fortunate enough to take advantage of living so close to so many fantastic things to see and do.

I am looking forward to keeping up that tradition.

..... cu

Sam is tonsil free

Last Friday Sam went in to have her tonsils removed. She had been getting sore throats or strep quite frequently over the last few years so we took her to a specialist and he recommended getting her tonsils out. We of course had to wait until she came back from the US National Karate Championships. Sam and Tika went with their dojo, Ichiban Karate and Sam came back with a Gold and Bronze while Tika came back with two bronze medals.

Once she was back and rested she went in early last Friday for the surgery. The doctor was very open about things as were the assistants and nurses. The surgery was less than 20 minutes and she was home about 2 hours after she went in. Her throat has been a little bit sore but she is eating and drinking as best she can. She does not like her pain medicine but she is taking it. The doctor said no strenuous activities for a couple of weeks - which of course she does not like, she would much rather be doing karate and learning new things. So far though she is behaving and that is what she needs to do.

OK - back to work for me ---- cu

First day back to the office

OK - maybe not a full day but I did manage to get into the office for a morning meeting and also a conference call afterwards.

It does still amaze me that just getting out of the house and back into a more usual environment does help get things back to normal. Well I guess back to normal based on what normal has been for the last 3 weeks. It will be nice to get back to exercising and doing the real normal stuff I would do. Another few weeks and hopefully I will get clearance for all of that. At least I hope so - I have a race in October that I would really like to do.

.... cu

What a hard couple of weeks ....

So everyone says that moving is one of those "stressful" events that should be avoided. Well I will safely say that moving is hard but add to that a lady cutting in front of you as you ride at 20+ MPH on the road a couple of days before moving and moving gets REAL interesting.

It has been just over two weeks since I went out for a morning ride when a lady went through a stop sign right in front of me and I slammed into her new SUV. As one can imagine the cyclist rarely gets the better end of that deal and I spent the next 36 hours in various ICUs having doctors, nurses and who knows who else checking me out. They did release me on Saturday evening carrying home with me a small fracture on the back of my skull, two smaller fractures in my left orbital socket, some minor bleeding and at least a couple of weeks of headaches.

I do consider myself lucky in that I am walking, talking and no other obvious injuries. It will be a couple of more weeks before I get back to exercising again, and riding my ride bike will be a lower priority this year, but I am feeling much better than two weeks ago.

I finally got to see my bike again. A lady who was out jogging picked it up for me and took it home and we finally synced up on Friday. The picture does not do it justice and it will be interesting to see what the bike shop says - but the handlebars and left shifter and likely done, both wheels are bent and then of course a good scratch on the frame.

The good news is things are getting back to normal and now I just feel like I have a medium flu bug. I will be keeping my fingers crossed that all else is OK and I am DEFINITELY grateful that I had someone to look after me for the last couple of weeks. I would not know what I would have done without you Laura. I am also thankful that my girls and Darlene were also there to help when they could - again a big thank you.

Hopefully I will see you out running this fall - I d have a 10 K I am planning to run in October :-)

Take care .....

A busy couple of weeks ....

... and about to get busier.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. Father's Day of course - which was a great weekend - myself and Tika spent Saturday at the Corcoran Gallery in DC. We had been wanting to get there for some time but every time we went there they were closed so with their Summer Saturdays program we knew we would be able to FINALLY make it there. Sunday myself, Kris and Sam went out for barbecue and then hung out and played some board games - it was a lot of fun and a great way to spend Fathers Day.

This past weekend myself and the girls headed down to the Folklife Festival on the Mall in DC. It is an annual event that highlights two or three cultures and you get to learn about all aspects of the culture from education to food to homelife. The primary culture this year was Welsh which allowed us to learn of one of the world's longest town names .... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Try putting that on a post card.

We also made a quick stop into the National Museum of Natural History to see the new Oceans exhibit and the new Bones exhibit and then a run over to the National Gallery for the Royal Armour exhibit - which was INCREDIBLE.

We metro'd down and back, which was a challenge on the way back due to the crowds. As you can tell from the girls they were less than excited to be waiting in a crowded metro station for 20 minutes - but once we got on the train it was ok - crowded but OK.

Of course with tomorrow being Canada Day I am looking forward to getting together with some friends down at O'Sullivans in Clarendon. This will also be a special Canada Day as it will be my first Canada Day with Laura so I am looking forward to not only sharing with my friends but sharing with her as well.

Then there is moving day which is rapidly approaching. I have yet to start packing. Thankfully I am not moving far and I do have a pile of vacation time I have yet to take so that should make it easier - but It is still a process. Hopefully after the move we can get into a nice relaxing period - the occasional BBQ and relaxing weekends.

I hope everyone has a great CANADA Day and hopefully I will have some pics of it to post the end of the week :-)

.... cu

Late posting from last weekend ....

It has been a busy week so I did not get a chance to update everyone on last weekend. It was a busy weekend as well. On Saturday myself and Tika went to DC to work on her AP History project. She is working on it with two other class mates and she needed to do some video that would basically be "News story-like" on some of the top events of the 2000's. So off we went.

We started at the new Pentagon Memorial where she did a brief piece on 9/11. Neither of us had been there before so it was a nice opportunity to see the memorial itself. It was also tough in some regards as we saw the name of someone born the same year Tika was born and then realized that not only was she lost but also her Dad and step-mom. We then drove up to Arlington where we did a brief piece on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not the most cheery start of the work but it had a flow. We did have a challenge filming in Arlington as planes would take off every 60-90 seconds out of National Airport and fly overhead - but we managed.

Back in the car and across the river where we filmed a piece in front of the Federal Reserve on the financial crises of the decade, the tech-bust and the recent recession; a piece in front of the White House on the Obama election and finally off to Capitol Hill where we filmed a piece on the changing landscape in the Legislative branch.

I had a lot of fun. Tika was very professional when filming and we had a great time just talking about the different aspects of politics, things going on and school.

On Sunday myself, Kris and Sam picked up some food and headed to River Bend park for a hike down to Great Falls. It was a good day for it, not too hot and not raining for a change. The trail was a bit wet but not too bad. It was obvious from the Potomac that we have had LOTS of rain. As you can see in the pic - the water was pretty fierce.

We did get to see some wildlife. On the way down there were two beautiful deer on one of the peninsulas near the falls. They were hidden in the woods but we got a very good look at them. On the way back we saw this Salamander, or I should say Kris saw this Salamander (myself and Sam walked right by it). Kris is great on the detailed stuff. We had a great hike, got a little muddy, but it was fun and the girls did not complain too much about the few miles we hiked.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I will get out for a bike ride tomorrow morning down to Lake Accotink and then have a relaxing afternoon. Sunday morning will be breakfast with the girls as they have a graduation ceremony to go to in the afternoon. One of our family friends has their son graduating from High School - Congratulations Cole.

Have a GREAT weekend.

.... cu

PS Go RED WINGS!!!!!!!

Sam's Field Trip

Today was Sam's 7th grade field trip. It is an annual event at BEMS where they take the 7th grade class to the National Mall for a scavenger hunt. Of course it is an educational scavenger where they have to find the answer based on clues - like how many states were in the US when Lincoln was president (hint - count the columns on the Lincoln Memorial).

I chaperoned on the trip and it was a great time. I had 4 kids with me - Sam, Alec and Sam's friends Melika and Kayla. We were dropped off at the Smithsonian castle and headed West down the mall to answer questions about the Mall itself, the Washington Monument, the White House, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Vets Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial and then ending up at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The picture on the left, of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was taken by Sam.

Sam did not limit herself to pictures of memorials and monuments however. She also was pretty busy taking pictures of her fiends and "SQUIRREL". Sorry, that was another UP reference. She was very good though at taking pics of memorials as well, as can be seen from the picture of the Lincoln Memorial.

The kids all did well answering the questions and the rain held off so all in all a very good day. She now has to pull together a project with her teammates which will be displayed next year at the start of school.

Next time you need a guide at the National Mall maybe Sam can help.

.... cu

Up .....

So it does also describe my mood but that is not why the title .....

This weekend we went to see the new Pixar movie Up. It was a great movie with something for everyone. It was a bit sentimental at times, lots of action and lots of comedy with memorable characters. I took Tika, Kris and Sam and Kris's friend Brie came along as well. They all enjoyed it. At many parts of the movie I caught all of them laughing hysterically. Who would think that the same kids that are eager to see "Drag me to Hell" could get so much entertainment out of a Pixar movie.

Tomorrow it is off to DC with Sam's class for a scavenger hunt on the National Mall. I am looking forward to that. Then on Saturday Tika wants to go to DC to do some filming for an art project. She is looking at the top influencers of the decade - everything from the Obama Election to the Iraq war to 9/11. It should be an interesting weekend.

So if you have not seen Up I would encourage you to do so - I know you will "SQUIRREL" enjoy it (you will get that joke once you see the movie)

...cu

Running Update ....

I guess it will be another couple of weeks before I can try out my running shoes again. The Doctor said things are looking good but he wanted me to start on a treadmill and I cannot run on a treadmill - especially when it is so beautiful out - so instead next week I will start some leg strengthen exercises and then start running in a couple of weeks. The good news is I should be running in June and that should mean the fall running season should be good.

I guess I keep riding my bike instead for now :-)

.... cu

A wet start to the week ....

A rainy Tuesday after Memorial day is not too bad I guess - unless you try and go out only to find road after road blocked due to flooding. I will not complain too much as it was a great long weekend - Saturday with Kris at the Torpedo Factory and Sunday with all the girls at the Finnish Embassy.

Kris had been wanting to go to the Torpedo Factory again ever since one of the potters that has a studio there came to her school. So this Saturday afternoon we took her and Brie down. Turns out Brie had never been there before so it was a nice treat for her. We had the opportunity to meet lots of artists along with seeing their work. We stopped into a couple of other shops on the way as well to see some more art, handmade jewelry and some ice cream.

Sunday myself and my girls all went to the Finnish Embassy in Washington to see an exhibit called My Helsinki. The premise was that the Mayor of Helsinki and the Ambassador from Finland had invited 12 Washingtonians from different walks of life to experience Helsinki and then to document their trip. There were environmentalists, educators, chefs, students and others involved. The first pleasant surprise was how beautiful the embassy was. The exhibit was wonderful spanning 12 different aspects of Helsinki. they had food and drink as well to refresh us. After the embassy we went to DuPont to eat at Teaism and then off to bowl. I have good days and not so good days when I bowl - this was the latter and Tika handily beat us all - but we all had fun.

You would think that the rest of the weekend would be boring - well not so. I found a new trail to bike on and took my Mountain Bike out on Monday morning and rode down a few miles of it to find Lake Accotink. It was absolutely gorgeous early in the morning. Not a ripple. After a relaxing day we went to the Museum of Natural History to catch the new Ben Stiller movie in iMax. The movie itself was good - seeing it in iMax is great. Seeing it in iMax at the museum - VERY cool. Afterwards pizza and beer at Ella's capped off a great weekend.

I hope yours was as fun.

.... cu