Whistler in the Summer

We got back on Sunday from a few days at Whistler, where we spent some days of vacation with my brother and his family. While we all never felt very rushed, we managed to get quite a few activities in while we were there, including a gondola and chairlift trip up to the top of Whistler mountain, a ZipTrek tour in the forest above and around the Fitzsimmons river, a hike to Lost Lake, a couple of movies (”Get Smart” at the local cinema, “Jumper” on DVD) and several lunches and dinners out. My niece Renata also got in a couple of sessions on the bungee trampoline, which helped her to bounce a couple of stories (at least) into the air. While I can’t document all of it in pictures and video, here are some high points (sic):

Pam wasn’t quite prepared for how cold it would get, but fortunately, there were some blankets available at the chairlift, about 2/3 of the way up.):

I also thought I’d include a few ZipTrek videos. This gave me a chance to try out Flickr’s video features. I’m not including one that I can’t seem to flip horizontally (my Sister-In-Law held her camera sideways and no matter what I do, including changing the file and saving it to a new movie, the uploaded file seems to revert to that orientation).

Here’s Pam sliding on the wire across the Fitzsimmons River:

Now, from the point of view of a participant. Need I add that this is a blast?

In addition to the rides up in the trees (about 5 times over the river and back), you get a bit of an ecology lecture about the area and some tips on what you can do to be more ‘green’. I really like ZipTrek, who seem to practice what they preach, in terms of an ecologically-aware business. Aside from the vans that they use to transport people to and from their sites (and I heard that once there are electric ones or perhaps hybrids that will serve in this capacity, they’ll switch to those), they are pretty gentle on the environment. They even have a small water-driven generator via the river that provides most of the electrical power for the A-Frame where they house their offices, train employees, and end some of the tours. Our tour leaders were college students majoring in Eco-tourism and Geology, and they made sure that none of us were ever in danger or uncomfortable, despite what looks like an ‘extreme’ sport.

In addition to some good meals together (Monks up there is very nice and beautiful to look at; Pam’s Halibut dusted with porcini mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes was superb), Pam and I also had an excellent celebratory dinner of our third Anniversary of coming to Canada on July 5th at Il Caminetto , one of the restaurants of Umberto Menghi (his Il Giardino and Umberto’s are both downtown). He’s one of the three celebrity chefs in the White Spot commercials, (the other two are Rob Feenie and John Bishop) always talking about ‘the sauce’. We ate a light dinner; Pam chose a subtly flavoured Roast Cornish Game Hen atop chickpeas and mixed vegetables, and I had a simple but perfectly done homemade Fettuccine with cream sauce, peas and prosciutto along with some excellent wine: A good BC Pinot Gris made by the Pentage Winery from Skaha Bench in the Okanagan, as well as an intense Italian Muscat for dessert . I’ve become a big fan of dessert wines, and sometimes prefer them over a cake or tart.

So for trying of celebrity chef restaurants in the area, we are now 2 out of 3. I guess a visit to a Cactus Club would now count for Rob Feenie, since he has become the ‘food concept architect’ of that chain. That’s what the articles say, at any rate.

A nice time was had by all (I think), and we feel pretty lucky to have this beautiful resort area so near to us (for those who don’t live in Vancouver, depending on traffic and construction on the Sea-to-Sky Highway, it’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the city). My brother summed up Whistler by and large better than I could: “It’s a bit like Disneyland for adults.”

Back from Baltimore, and a Dubious Honour

Welcome to 2008!

We’re back from an extended Holiday Season visit to my brother and his family, my parents, and some social calls on both sides of the continent. Highlights included seeing my niece dance in the Seattle Ballet’s Nutcracker for the second year, and a Roast Goose New Year’s Day dinner with my parents in Baltimore (including Spaetzle, Green Beans, and Red Cabbage - the theme was clearly German Cuisine). I’d not had roast goose before, and it is a treat, particularly if you like ‘dark’ meat. Even the breast meat on this bird is dark!

Pam was able to swing north to Massachusetts for a few days to visit with her brother and his family, while I helped my Dad upgrade to Leopard. A good thing, too, as his upgrade was just as difficult as mine (once again taking 3 attempts, and ending up with a call that went to 2 Apple Tech Support Reps and ultimately required a clean install, as well as us manually installing all applications and moving all of his email accounts, documents, calendars and address book entries - just as I had to).

The trip to the States was not without some culture shock (it always hits me, despite my best efforts to prepare for the differences). On our flights there, my seat companions were constantly reading Bibles. On the way back (with a stop in Cincinnati, where I was able to get some Cincinnati Chili at the food court, a delicacy of my undergrad years), we were amazed at the throngs of soldiers everywhere, with make-shift lounges set up in all of the airports we were in. Religion and the Military: not a great combination for me.

I’m still recovering from a nasty cold that I caught while away (which unfortunately, my father also caught and in his case it has since turned into Flu). Work starts up, but for me it’s just a week as the following week I’ll be in San Francisco for MacWorld Expo.

Speaking of things in Tech, my brother alerted me to a somewhat puzzling honour for our family:

Drucker : next gen Windows Mobile smartphone from Palm
January 6, 2008 – 11:22 am

Now that all of Palm’s flagship Treo 750 smartphones have been upgraded to Windows Mobile 6, it’s now time to look forward to 6.1. Engadget reports that the next high end Windows Mobile phone from Palm is code-named “Drucker”. Here’s what we know so far about Drucker:

• GSM/EDGE/HSDPA
• runs Windows Mobile 6.1
• 2 Megapixel camera
• 1500mAh battery
• 320×320 screen
• Bluetooth

Drucker, which will be a replacement for the Treo 750v, will be the first smartphone from Palm that supports WiFi. It’s also the first to match current Palm OS-based smartphones in terms of screen resolution. Drucker is expected to have a retail price of £270 (about US$534), and will probably be available first for Vodafone.

I have nothing to do with this phone, and frankly, I’d probably never buy a phone using Windows Mobile. I wish they had at least code-named the Palm OS phone with our last name, but then again, these days, if it’s not an iPhone, I’m not all that interested. I’m less and less satisfied with my frequently-crashing Treo, and I doubt if a new one is in my future. I’ve been a Palm user for perhaps 12-15 years but it’s clearly time to move on if the best they can do is to use Windows and code-name the device after our clan. (Heh).

Holiday Cheers

It’s understandable that some people get depressed around this time of the year. There is the uncomfortable weather, lack of sunshine, and incessant reminders of how we should all be out shopping, etc.. Fortunately, the flip side of that is that we can get cozy at home (with a tasty stir-fry of lemongrass-marinated beef), meet with friends in the evening (the blogger meetup was this Thursday night), give and get gifts, and perhaps even make plans for the new year. Pam has the jump on me this year in several ways: first, with one of the coolest gifts that you can give a nerd, an OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO computer. Although it hasn’t arrived yet, I got the email confirmation of the gift so the cat is out of the bag. The way the OLPC purchase works is to ‘give one and get one’, so in getting me this interesting piece of technology, Pam’s also insured that some child in another country (like Uruguay and Rwanda) also gets one. It’s a project started by Nicholas Negroponte, the flamboyant and charismatic founder of MIT’s Media Lab, and now the of the Non-profit organization (OLPC) that has created the device with the idea of getting an inexpensive (the original goal was <$100, the real price is now a little less than twice that number) laptop in the hands of children in poorer countries all over the world, with the hope of bridging the information divide). Here’s an ad with Heroes’ Masi Oka for OLPC:

You can be sure that future postings will be about this new gift, and given that it has a pretty long wi-fi range and is one of the few laptops that has a screen that is visible in full sunlight, as well as long battery life and lightweight design, I’m hoping that there will actually be some postings for this written on it (perhaps from the park out back?) as well.

Big Travel Plans

I mentioned that Pam had the jump on me in the gift department. She’s also out ahead on plans for next year. She’s going to do something that she’s wanted to do for years now: see Antarctica. In February (the end of summer for that part of the world), she will first fly to Santiago, Chile, then board a charter flight to the southern tip of Argentina at Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego (the world’s southernmost city). At that point, she’ll board the ship Explorer II, a “Double bottomed Ice Class vessel with an ice rating (Italian RINA Class 1-D) that exceeds the requirement for operating safely in Antarctica” (thank goodness for that, with the recent sinking of a vessel from Gap Adventures, the M/S Explorer) The ship cruises for 2 days through the Drake Passage to the Antarctic peninsula. She’ll spend about 4 days there, making excursions in Zodiac rafts to the ice,where hopefully she’ll see penguins like these. There are plans to land on the South Shetlands, including Half Moon, Cuverville, Paulet, Penguin, Goudier and Deception Island, depending on the weather conditions. I’m hoping that she’ll be able to send some of the day-to-day details of her voyage, although I’m not sure how easy email will be.

Before all of this starts, there are a few other (less impressive trips), including a visit to my parents’ house in Baltimore, and a week in San Francisco for MacWorld Expo. Looks like 2008 is going to get off to a busy start.

Happy Chanukah!

A picture can say a thousand words, can’t it?

My First AF Birthday

Although today was my birthday, I decided that I wouldn’t take the day off, and we’d celebrate over the weekend. So, after breakfast with Pam (and a very cute card and her own Happy Birthday wishes), I headed into work, equipped as usual. By this I mean, pre-iPhone nerd attire: On the left side of my waist, my Treo smart phone in its beat-up holster. On my right, my iPod in its carrying case, white earphones draped over my shoulder. Both are attached to my belt, and like some gunslinger in the old West, I’m flanked by metal over each hip. Indeed, if I did have have an iPhone, I would have had only one device attached, but I’ll leave that for a future posting.

After I got to work, the little alarms on my Treo started.

I’ll back up. I’m on Facebook. It’s hard to find many people who aren’t these days, as even the most die-hard technophobes seem to have fun on the service. For a somewhat extroverted geek like yours truly, it’s a blast. There’s an option on Facebook to have the site send your cell phone a text message when someone sends you a message or ‘writes on your wall’, a free text field on your own profile page of Facebook. Usually I get 1 or 2 messages a week, or perhaps a few more. Never enough to become a nuisance, so I’ve kept this notification setting on.

I had a busy day, with a few meetings and deadlines to work toward. Nevertheless, all day, every half hour or so, my Treo would vibrate (I set it on vibrate when at work so as not to interrupt meetings). About 30 friends sent me birthday greetings of some sort via Facebook. While I’m not a Facebook junky as some people have admitted that they are (and I rarely check it at work), but even I had to admit that this was a bit unusual.

You might think that I would have been peeved by the steady stream of notifications from my hip, but I wasn’t. We all know that there are times that others think of us. Most of the time we don’t really know for sure. Our ears burn or some friend exclaims ‘I was just thinking of you’, when you call them. But today, I knew that quite a few friends thought of me, perhaps for just a few minutes or so, and wished me a Happy Birthday. Some of them were back in Boston, some were in Japan or San Francisco, and some were here in Vancouver. I have to say that it was really kind of fun getting so many little shout-outs.

So today I experienced my first ‘After Facebook’(AF) Birthday, and it was kind of fun. And to all of those friends who sent me a message today, thanks. I’m thinking of all of you, too.