Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

Taking Taco Day On The Road

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

It is my birthday week and due to a variety of circumstances, I have decided that a trip to the Pacific Northwest was in order. I am currently sitting at the Austin airport using my Verizon MiFi (recently upgraded to the 4G edition and low and behold, the AUS is getting a 4G signal) and checking emails and decided to put up this blog post.

My trip is not a vacation really, just working from a different locale, a change of scenery as it were. I will be in Portland also doing some recon for one of my clients that plans to increase their retail presence out in that area. So checking out the competition, determining whom they should speak with, etc. Should be a nice change of pace from coding and looking at call detail records.

I won’t be able to really take Chicken Day on the road with me (which is Tuesdays) as I fly back next Tuesday and leave Portland at like 9am, whilst my layover is of a good length in LAX, I don’t want to think about where I might find edible chicken wings there.

But Taco day is a different story altogether, that is tomorrow. Several times when mentioning Portland, people (white people mind you, not that there is anything wrong with them being white, just a data point), have said how I won’t likely find any Mexican food or people of Hispanic descent. When I first heard this, I thought, you know what, I don’t know. Then a friend of mine said that “There are many of our peoples there you know.” (he is half-Mexican too), therefore not knowing what to believe (not that I don’t believe people out of hand, but I was raised to find the truth yourself, and not to always blindly follow people, even people you trust).

I looked it up….

* Per the 2000 Census, the population of Portland was 6.8% Hispanic. That means something like 30-36k Hispanics in Portland, per numbers from 11 years ago.

* Per the same 2000 Census, the population of Austin was 30.5%, meaning 215k Hispanics, which makes sense given the fact Texas used to be part of Mexico and general proximity to Mexico.

* Per the same 2000 Census, the population of Lansing, MI (my hometown) was 9.98%, which translates to almost 12k hispanics in Lansing, MI.

* Portland’s Wikipedia page states that in data collected from 2006 – 2008, the population of Hispanics in Portland is now at 8.8% or 48k, and it is Wikipedia, so has to be right, right?

So per the quick search for data, there appears to be more Hispanics living in Portland than my hometown, but on a percentage basis it is lower and both towns are lower than Austin. Note, in some areas of Austin, the billboards are in Spanish (not ingles and espanol, solo en espanol).

With all of that hard statistical data there, I am certain that Rachel can find us a place to eat Tacos in Portland that is fairly authentic (not necessarily Tex-Mex, but far, far from a Taco Bell, Taco Bueno or even a Taco Cabana [which for fast food tacos is actually pretty good]).

I am looking forward to seeing my sister’s town (yup she owns it now) as I have never been to Portland, ever, was in Seattle and drove east to visit the Douglas County PUD once, but that is as close as I have come to Portland. I have at least one CoWorking place (the Collective Agency) that I want to check out. I would like to visit at least two, maybe three.

I fly back to Austin on the 27th. I hope to have a great visit with my sister, I am currently cleaning out all the pics off my phone so that I have plenty of space available to take lots of pictures.

Oh yeah, if you are a runner or in search of a dog, go visit Gina’s Shelter on the 24th, they are having a 5k and of course always have cute puppies, kittens and great adult dogs and cats too.

Laterz!

 

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Like 3 miles a day

Thursday, July 7, 2011

OK, the pic has nothing to do with this post, except that I took it during our campfire the other night. Just looked cool.

If you have been reading this blog, then you might know that I have been swimming. Therefore it would seems a bit odd that with a WHOLE lake not but a brisk 2 minute walk across the lawn and small sandy beach I have been walking/jogging the last few mornings.

The swimming pool has spoiled me on giving me lanes, lines on the floor of the pool and sides to turn around on, the lake doesn’t offer these, making it hard to swim laps. Fun to play in, hard to swim laps. So I figured I would try some jogging, same as I did last year.

This year I found that I was not nearly as winded/taxed/exhausted as last year. However, my legs still hurt from the running, all the exercise I have been getting has been very low impact and I really have not done any jogging for quite a while. I made sure the stretch before and after, but still my legs are hurting, so I think I will skip the jog tomorrow, seeing as I have done about 3 miles a day (1.5 out / 1.5 back).

Last summer my niece, Abigail, got me to use a snorkel mask and sort of kick around near the end of the dock, I really liked it. I think that was part of what really got me started on the idea of learning to swim. This year, I figured I would get myself a full snorkel kit. Back home I have been using a freestyle snorkel, which mounts to the front of my head and keeps the snorkel out of the way of my arms.

This one is a traditional side mounting one, I used it a little bit yesterday and it was fun. Today I used it for about 20 minutes and swam back and forth between the docks, hugging the ‘drop-off’. I saw all sort of fish and crawfish and other small lake water creatures swimming around. I got a good swim workout going back and forth like that, this was after doing 3 miles of walking, had to take a few work phone calls on the way back.

I hope to do about an hour of swimming tomorrow, just going back and forth and possibly going pass the drop-off just a little, I will need Gina to play lifeguard and make sure I don’t drown.

Almost forgot to mention, that my waterproof iPhone armband has been great, for both the lake and for my walks. And for my time in the lake, I bought a pair of Vibram KSO (keep stuff out) shoes, they are like gloves for your feet. They have been great in the water keeping the zebra mussels and rocks from hurting my baby soft feet, also they were a great conversation starter at the 4th of July party.

Well, I best get back to it, I want to get a bit more done before my afternoon dip in the lake.

Laterz

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Master Fisherman

Saturday, July 10, 2010

It seemed like only yesterday, that I was roused out of bed with shouts about how I needed to grab a camera and run down to the dock, that was two years ago (almost to the day). My Father-in-Law had caught himself a 40-inch Muskie, with the record on the lake being 42-inches.

Well, unless someone managed to catch something bigger than a 44-inch Muskie in the last two years, my Father-in-Law, Tom Coscarelli has broken the record with his 44-inch Muskie catch that happened this morning. I was already awake and was making myself some toast.

And with almost the same level of excitement it was proclaimed that my wife, Gina needed to bring her camera down to the beach immediately as her father was coming back with the fish that had his lure. A few days back, Tom lost a lure (antique I was told) and he had been searching the lake everyday since.

I was really, really impressed that he managed to hook the same fish that had stolen his lure a few days before.

However, it turns out that the fish in question, did not have the lost lure. Tom explained that the fish in question was hooked really well and that he had called asking for Charles (Gina’s brother) to come on the wave-runner to come help with the removal of the lure (which apparently is a smaller version of the lost lure).

Tom is pretty certain that he did not lose the antique lure to a fish, as the smaller version of the lure had prevented the 44-inch Muskie from diving.

Regardless, it is an impressive catch. The previous Muskie was too small to keep, but this was is above the 42-inch required size. Tom was planning to release this monster of a fish back into the water, but upon first release into the open water, the beast went belly up.

Not a good sign for the fish, so Tom began to use all the tricks he knows to try and revive a stunned/shocked fish. Moving it back in forth in the water as to move the water through it’s gills to allow it to breathe. However, after about an hour and a half, and Charles’ (soon-to-be) Father-in-Law attempting to aid Tom in reviving the fish, they called it quits and began to determine who would clean the fish, as later today we will be having fish steaks (or possibly in the morning, either way, I will let you know if Muskie is good eating).

I need to get back to coding.

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UpNorth Update

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Just a quick update.

The 4th of the July part over at the Wights (which was also a surprise 40th birthday part for Tim “Timmy” Wight) was really great. They had a keg of Labatt’s tons of good food, including this buffalo chicken dip that my father-in-law created. I will have to snag the recipe from him, but let me just not that it includes one whole bottle of Frank’s Red Hot sauce (12oz size I think).

I fell asleep on the couch watching The Soprano’s and when I awoke to the 4am infomercials I decided it was time to crawl into bed. I managed not to wake Gina.

While I slept, Gina and her parents made a run into one of the nearby cities, Gaylord, there they hit Meijer’s and Wal-Mart. I sort of remembered telling Gina to pick up some flour and what not but overall I didn’t remember too much of the conversation that we had.

As soon as they got back it was time for breakfast, Tom (my father-in-law) started cooking bacon, eggs and hashbrowns. My mother-in-law, Brenda’s laptop needed the drivers for the Belkin wireless adapter that is part of the DIY wi-fi extender kit that I have left up here. I booted up my laptop, which I must not have shut-off properly as the battery was completely drained, and downloaded the drivers.

I transferred the drivers to her laptop via my handy Jaduka branded USB memstick. After getting her online, I sat down and scarfed up breakfast.

I don’t remember how much time went by, but I mentioned to Gina that I needed a couple more things. A few minutes later we were in the Vibe and heading to Gaylord. Gina took the backroads and got us there much quicker than the 52 minutes that Google Maps had predicted.

We did the bulk of our shopping at Wal-Mart, given that Gina had already scoped out both Meijers and Wal-Mart earlier that day. However, Wal-Mart did not have my PBR, Pabst Blue Ribbon. I know it is an old-man beer, but I just really like the taste it gives the chicken that I marinate in it. Furthermore, I have started to like the taste.

It was a little weird having to pay ‘deposit’ again, so the 30 pack of beer cost an extra $3.00, the nice part of that though is you get back $0.10/can.

A batch of caraway-rye is sitting there rising, at least another hour before it can go into the fridge. I needed to boot up the laptop to figure out how much chicken broth goes into the dog treats, I promised Curly and Killer I would make a batch while I am here. Therefore, I figured i would do a quick blog post before turning the machine off.

Time to make the dog treats.

Laterz

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I think I should have brought a sweater

Saturday, July 4, 2009

I could have sworn that I left the blue sweater up here, but I cannot find it. It likely is back in Tejas.

Curly is loving it up here already. He has already marked just about every tree in the yard, drank from the lake, run on the dock and played with Killer (my In-law’s dog).

We got in early, early this morning about 1:30 (am) local time. I brought in the luggage and left the coolers out in the car. We brushed our teeth and went to bed.

The morning came early, we were up and about around 9:30 am. My mother-in-law was already starting to work on her macaroni salad for the party later today. My father-in-law has brought some new dock pieces in the trailer.

I was requested to boot up the laptop and begin searching for a recipe as there was a scare that a page was missing from the recipe book.

I made a couple of new wi-fi extenders (metal colanders with holes cut in them), I was hoping to garner another bar of signal with the different designs that these have in them. However, there has been no signal boost. There however is an upside to having more than one wi-fi extender, I also happen to have an extra USB wi-fi adapter, meaning that Gina and I could use the wi-fi at the same time.

I need to get an additional USB extender cable before we can use both of them at once. I will keep an eye out for one when we hit up Meijer in Traverse City.

The lake looks absolutely beautiful. This is a shot from the dock looking out into the water about 10ft out. The water is so clear you can easily see the bottom and then the darker area is the ‘drop-off’.

A shot of from the dock, looking out across the lake. You can see the transition between the bottom and the ‘drop-off’.

I should probably shut down and get ready, Gina has talked about going into town and getting some stuff. I need to grab some PBR and some flour, going to be baking some bread while I am up here.

Laterz

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Like a fish out of water.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

My wife has recently become addicted to technology, one might go so far as to call her a TechnoSnob. I just got off the phone with Gina a few minutes ago, she is in Florida for the next few days on vacation with her mom and a few of her cousins. They are all in town for Bubba’s wedding, one of her cousins from Lansing who has since moved to the Florida (somewhere in the Ormond Beach Area).

Well, apparently there is no Wi-Fi in the vicinity of their hotel. Gina told me that she was not able to find any available networks when she booted up her macbook earlier.

NO INTERWEBS!!!!

Whatever is she to do?

Apparently, the correct course of action is to text me and ask for locations that are nearby that have wifi access. I found a couple of places, the one that actually looks pretty neat is 15 miles north. I didn’t bother to send her the link for the BeachHouse Beanery. Maybe if she gets online and reads this post, she might think about heading 15 miles north for some wifi and coffee on the beach.

The only time that I have ever really been without access to hi-speed Internet access was up at the cottage and well I kind of found a way around that as well.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

UPDATE: I was looking over the hotel website and it says “We also offer our guests a lobby business center with complimentary high speed internet access.” I read this as them offering wi-fi in the lobby, it could just mean they offer a computer that is hooked to the Internet. I have yet to hear from Gina as to what form the “complimentary high speed Internet access” comes as.

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‘Early’ doesn’t begin to describe this morning

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

As I type this, Gina is winging her way to Florida.

Her flight left Austin just about an hour ago. 6AM doesn’t seem like too bad a time to fly out, right?

The thing is though, the airport is like 45 minutes (the way I drive, closer to 30 the when Gina drives). Factor in that you are supposed to be there an hour before your flight, means that Gina was supposed to be there at 5AM.

She was there at about 5:10AM, she says you really only need to be there 40 minutes before your flight. So I guess she made it with a few minutes to spare, after you figure the line for check-in, etc.

Of course, one should not just roll out of bed and into the car. Figure another hour to get all cleaned up and what not.

That means that my today started at about 4:00, give or take a few minutes. (Though, the alarm went off at 3:30AM.)

After dropping Gina off at the airport, I needed to get some breakfast and caffeine. I wanted to hit up HEB, get a donut, maybe some fruit. No such luck, the HEB in the arboretum doesn’t appear to open again until 8am. It certainly isn’t open at 5:30AM or whatever time it was when I pulled into the parking lot.

The Randall’s across the street was also closed. Luckily though the Starbucks attached to the Randall’s opens at 5:30.  I grabbed a Venti Soy Mocha at 140 (degrees) and an apple fritter and headed to the office.

After catching up on some email, I figured I would write a quick post. I have to admit, I am finding it hard to concentrate, I am hoping that doesn’t last all day. I’m fairly certain a bit more caffeine will help with that.

I am going to try and finish up a blog post I started the other day.

Laterz.

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“Go west, young man”

Thursday, January 8, 2009

I am not sure exactly why, but I felt like using that quote to make the announcement that Gina and I are going to hit up Seattle this year for a real vacation.

We are not sure exactly when, but we want to hit Seattle before July, because well we go home to Michigan in July to lounge on the edge of the lake. We have talked a little bit here and there over the last couple of years about taking a “Real” vacation, a cruise or something. I believe it was on New Years day that I looked at her and said that we should take a real vacation in 2009.

We discussed where we might want to go for a trip, places that we have been wanting to go to. Florida, California, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle and Alaska were all part of the first round of discussion. We widdled down the list to just three, New York City, Seattle and Chicago.

I have been to Chicago briefly (not including the O’Hare airport) and have never really done anything touristy there, Gina on the other hand has and wanted to go back. I would not mind going there, but in the end Chi-Town didn’t win the race.

Now, Gina has never been to New York City, I have been there several times for business and notably one time where I got to spend the weekend (doing non-business stuff). I love NYC, I wish I could afford to live (comfortably) there. As one might guess, NYC was the most expensive of the three and likely wouldn’t be some place we could visit and enjoy before July. Another one that we will have to hit in the years to come.

That left Seattle. Now, I have spent I believe a total of three days in Washington state. Back in 2001, I flew into Seattle with a couple of sales guys for a trip to the Douglas Country PUD, in Wenatchee, WA. Fun, Fun!

While the business relationship never panned out, that trip showed me some of the most majestically beautiful forest scenes that I can remember, if only the N95 had been around back then I would have some truly stellar pictures, vs the ones I took with my Mavica.

Gina has become quite the fan of Amazon.com lately, for those of you that don’t know she has become addicted to the Kindle E-Reader. She takes it everywhere and can be found reading it whenever she becomes bored (including while standing in line).

So we are going to try to get some sort of visit or tour of Amazon.com. And in a somewhat odd twist, she is excited about visiting the Microsoft campus. The reason this is odd, is that well she has recently become quite the Apple “FanGirl”, because of the brand-new 13.3 inc aluminum MacBook she bought a couple of months back.

I am sure that if we were going to San Francisco (which came up in conversation, as we loved it the last time around) we would be going to the Apple campus.

I want us to rent a car one day and drive out into the country, to try and find this one particular place that I took a picture of along the way. It is this old wooden bridge that when you cross it and look back at the road, it frames up perfectly with the mountain in the background.

Bridge in Washington State

That image was the background on my computer desktop for quite, quite a while indeed. Other than that, I want to see some museums, eat some great and extremely fresh seafood, and enjoy the local culture.

I will post updates on the travel plans as things move along.

Laterz.

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Serena Day Two

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Well technically day 3 for me, or 4 depending upon when you start the timer.

But it is day 2 of the conference.

I gave my first public presentation yesterday. I think it went pretty well, I had a couple of people ask for my contact information after I was done, so I am pretty sure that offsets the fact that a couple of people got up and left while I was talking.

I am not taking it personal, I think the conference session was a bit vague and they probably were expecting different information about Serena’s mashup exchange.

I also tried to keep the presentation from being a commercial for Jaduka. I had a slide in there that described Jaduka and NetworkIP, the regular sort of we do 15 billion phonecalls a year and have a database of over 780 860 Million user accounts, etc. I glossed over that and made a joke about how it was a slide that marketing required.

I glossed over the slide, because I overheard a few folks in the audience complaining about attending a couple of sessions that were commercials and did not contain useful information. In football terms, I believe that is called an ‘audible’. At the next Serena even I am pretty sure we will be able to give a detailed presentation of a Serena-Jaduka mashup.

I have been having an enjoyable time meeting and talking with the Serena executives, staff and various Serena Partners.

Back to the keynote.

Laterz

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Getting ready for Serena

Saturday, September 6, 2008

My flight leaves at 3pm this afternoon. I will be out in San Jose for most of the week attending and presenting at the <Tag> conference. I am looking forward to meeting the folks from Serena.

Back to packing and what not.

I have a couple of half finished posts that I will try to complete after I settle into the hotel.

Laterz

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