A Fire Upon The Deep
A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
My review
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
To say this book is vast in scope would be an understatement. It begins way out at the far edges of the Milky Way galaxy (the Beyond) and eventually makes its way toward the "core" (the Slowness). The beings encountered are also unique and interesting, not to mention the "Powers" who live in the Transcend past the Beyond. Vernor Vinge weaves together the tales of the medieval dog-pack Tines with the humans and Skroderiders so deftly that you scarcely notice when he shifts from one world to another. The one thing I did wish is that he would have delved into the mind of the Blight a bit more, as he did at the beginning. But such is a minor quibble for a novel that managed to tell its whole story in one book, unlike the proliferation of trilogies and multi-book sagas that plague the genre so.
Next up is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, one of THREE books on hold that came in while I was on vacation. I've got a lot of reading to do.
I Win The Amazing Race
Just back from visiting my mom and brother. Much more to come, but I had to share this story from our flight out.
We were scheduled to leave early in the morning on Wednesday, so we drove up to Baltimore on Tuesday night and stayed in a hotel which conveniently allowed us to leave our minivan there while we were gone. We got to the airport in plenty of time, and went through security and arrived at our gate very early. We had a perfect view of the puddle on the ground under the wing which the mechanic was staring at, then staring up at the wing. So it was inevitable that, after consulting with other mechanics, they came over the loudspeaker and said we would be delayed for a full inspection. If we left at 9am after the inspection, we might make our connection in Minneapolis. But 9am rolled around, and I could see the mechanic had not put the screws back in the wing, and we were not making that connection, so I got in line to rebook. At that time, there were about 4 people ahead of us and 2 people working at the counter.
While chasing Ellie and Evan around the terminal and Lisa still waiting in line, I noticed that the Northwest flight to Detroit had just left from the gate next to ours, and there was no one there any more. Except one woman who was closing down the counter at the gate. I walked up to her holding Evan in my arms and asked nicely if we could rebook through her, since we were obviously going to miss our connection. She happily said she could, and I called Lisa over. Our helpful Northwest worker then told us we could go through Detroit and arrive at about 4:30, or she could try to get us on a Midwest Airlines flight through Milwaukee arriving at 3pm. We were well aware that Midwest has free fresh baked cookies, so we jumped all over that flight. She called over to Midwest to confirm they had space, and we were rebooked. Somewhere during this time, the gate agent for our original flight came on and confirmed the bad news: they had to fly a new part for our plane in from Minneapolis. That flight wouldn't arrive till 1pm, and they might leave at 4pm for Minneapolis, and I'm sure there was no way we would have gotten onto a flight from there to KC. When we left, the line for the counter was at least 50 people long, and there was no one waiting at our gate agent's counter.
I'm probably never going to make it on the Amazing Race (it'll get canceled before the kids are old enough for us to leave them for an around-the-world race), but for a brief moment, I felt like I had just finagled our way into winning the race. Our trip could have started out just miserably, but with a little forethought and good fortune in finding a helpful gate agent, we got onto our Midwest Airlines flight with no problem, enjoyed our chocolate chip cookies (on BOTH legs), and made it to KC only a little later than we had planned. We win!
Old Rag Hike Data
I finally got around to uploading my GPS watch data, which included my hike up Old Rag while the rest of the family was out of town. Check out the elevation chart! Fun stuff.
Low Car Diet Math
The end of the Zipcar Low Car Diet is tomorrow. It was a complete and total success from my point of view. I didn't drive the Civic a single time, and Lisa only drove it about 4-5 times, to go to doctor's appointments and such. I ended up taking the bus four times, and biking the rest of the days. The experiment was such a success, I decided to run some numbers to see what it would be like to get rid of the car altogether. During the warm months, I can bike most places, so the costs of owning a car are pretty much only the insurance. But let's look ahead to the colder winter months when I might not be biking as often.
First, the current costs of the Civic. Insurance, now that I got a new policy, costs only $30/month. Gas is probably about $40-50/month. Maintenance and such, averaged out over the year, probably runs around $30-50/month as well. So we're looking at anywhere from $100-150/month.
Now, going car-free. Taking the bus every day would cost $2.50 a day. Averaging around 20-22 work days per month, it'll cost about $50-55/month.
Even looking at keeping the car and riding my bike every day (only expense being insurance at $30) versus riding the bus every day ($50), I'd only be saving $20/month, and obviously it's not a fair comparison. At this point, it kind of looks like getting rid of the car is a good idea. There is one more thing though: extracurricular activities like curling.
During the curling season, I usually play on Sundays and Mondays. When I play on Sunday, the whole family comes to watch and have pizza, so I wouldn't need the car for that. On Monday evenings, I could take the Metro to a station in Maryland with a Zipcar and rent that for 3 hours or so. If I had a late game, I could even just drive the minivan (or the Zipcar from the Vienna station), since the Metro closes around midnight, and our games probably wouldn't be done in time to Metro home. On those days, renting a Zipcar for 3 hours at $7-9/hour would cost $21-27/week, or about $80/month. Even with those numbers, it's a close contest. $100-$150/month for the car versus $50 (bus fare) plus $80 (Zipcar) equals $130/month.
Let's also consider that selling our Honda Civic hybrid could get us about $13k. That could help accomplish any number of things. $13k would go a long way toward defraying the Zipcar costs. I could also upgrade the lights and such on my bike. Or, it could help pay off a good portion of the $20k we have left to pay on our minivan (which costs over $420/month in payments). And it's here that it starts to look better for the selling argument. Selling the car for $13k and having $130/month in Zipcar and public transportation costs gives me 100 months of costs paid for. That's over 8 years! Let's say I "only" get $11k for the car, and that my Zipcar and public transportation costs balloon to $200/month. I still have 55 months, 4 and a half years, of expenses paid for by selling the car. And all those numbers assume that I don't ride my bike and that I use the Zipcar a lot! Suddenly, owning a car seems like a silly idea. I am going to have to seriously consider it.
He Said Beer, She Said Wine
He Said Beer She Said Wine by Marnie Old and Sam Calagione
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Many people don't think much about which beer they are going to drink with their meal. That's because most people drink the ubiquitous light lager, rather than one of the multitude of styles which could be more appropriate as a pairing. The good news is that brewers like Sam Calagione are out to change that. After running beer vs. wine dinners with Marnie Old over the years, the pair got around to writing a book summarizing the finer points of their arguments for pairing their fine beverages with food.
The book is a fun read, with the playful banter coming through quite well for printed text (it isn't always like that, as anyone who's used the internet can testify). They each begin with an introduction to the different styles of wine and beer, and then get right into the thick of it: picking foods and the beverage to go with it. This part of the book is quite comprehensive, with each section devoted to a specific main course (poultry, pork, pasta and pizza, etc), and then pairing 6 individual dishes with the appropriate beer or wine. They encourage readers to take an active role in the argument, and even give recipes and planning pointers for running your own beer vs. wine contest.
I definitely enjoyed reading this one, as I'm always trying to learn more about beer. Maybe someday I'll even host my own beer vs. wine dinner. It seems like a lot of fun, and I'm sure Marnie and Sam would agree on that point.
I'm still waiting for my books to come into the library. I'm sure that once they do, I'll end up with 3 books to read at the same time. Until then, I'll make do with some books I have on the shelf at home.
Doing The Lunch Math
We actually now have a Subway in our building, and they also participate in the $5 footlong subs (of which they recently expanded to 8 subs). You can choose from Meatball Marinara, Cold Cut Combo, Spicy Italian, Veggie Delite®, Black Forest Ham, Oven Roasted Chicken Breast, a BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato), and Tuna. I decided to do some lunch math to challenge the whole "brown bagging is cheaper" paradigm. So, here we go.
I purchase a $5 footlong every other day, saving 6 inches for the following day. Ignore the fact that a meatball sub is going to be soggy and play along. Total cost for 5 day work week: $12.50. And I can load it up with lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. My favorite is to get the chicken sub, and put the sweet onion sauce on. Voila! Instant cheapo Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub (normally around $6).
Grocery store: Primo Taglio Oven Roasted Turkey Vacuum Pack - 8 Oz - $4.99
Kraft Cracker Barrel Natural Cheese Sharp Cheddar Slices - 7 Oz - $4.99
Arnold 12 Grain Bread - 24 Oz - $3.99
Total: $13.97, and I have no condiments or lettuce or anything on top. I also usually only get 4 days worth of lunch from this combination, 2 ounces of turkey a day. In fairness, if I wasn't lazy and went up to the deli counter to buy my turkey, it'd be about a dollar cheaper, and the cheese would be about a dollar cheaper too. Yet that only brings us down to $11.97, or a $0.53 difference, not including condiments, etc. However, since that's not what I do, I only present it here as an exercise.
The catch, obviously, is that you have to stick to the $5 menu (and avoid the delicious cookies!), which ironically does not include turkey. Still, I think there is enough variety in there to not have to worry about it, especially since I've been eating turkey since I can remember. The other catch is that I am lucky enough to have the Subway in my building, so it doesn't cost me anything to walk over there, whereas others who have to drive (or ride their bikes!) to Subway every other day have additional time and gas costs to consider. The other consideration is chips, which I believe are still cheaper to buy at the store rather than buying by individual bags at Subway, whether through the combo or not.
I have a short week next week, since we will be going on vacation on Wednesday, so as an experiment, I'm going to get Subway rather than brown bagging it.
Comeback for the Ages
Seriously, if you haven't seen the 4x100 freestyle relay from last night yet, go to NBCOlympics.com and watch it now. Freakin' amazing.
In my own little world, I finished Week 5 of the 100 pushup challenge on Saturday, messed up arm and all. And yet, my max pushup test from yesterday was not enough to push me to Week 6, so I'll be redoing week 5 again this week.
After falling off a bike, there's only one thing to do: get right back on. So I rode in this morning, an uneventful ride, thankfully. The weirdest thing was that I actually had to think about wearing layers. In August! It was in the low 50s when I left this morning, but I decided to just wear a t-shirt and let myself warm up. It wasn't too chilly, and I was actually thankful for the cool weather. My road rash is healing, I won't say nicely, because it's ugly as all get-out, but it is healing. Hopefully it doesn't scar too badly.
Stalking Irish Madness
Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia by Patrick Tracey
My review
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I am usually horrible at reading non-fiction, but this book surprisingly kept my attention throughout. Part history lesson, part memoir, part scientific investigation, we follow along as Patrick Tracey searches Ireland for answers about his family's tendency toward schizophrenia. I learned a lot about mental illness, and even quite a few things I didn't know about the history of Ireland. I also picked up some tips for when we travel to Ireland as tourists next year.
The author's search was as maddening as the illness itself, but I was ultimately satisfied with the book, fruitless as the results may have seemed. I learned a lot, as did he, which is sometimes all you can ask for.
I'm sort of reading He Said Beer, She Said Wine at the moment, waiting for some books to come in to the library. No idea when they will come in, so we'll see if I finish this before they do.
That’s Going to Leave a Mark
There's a saying among motorcycle riders: You will lay your bike down at some point. There's no way to avoid it, even the most careful rider will have something happen to them. Likewise for bike riders: You will fall off your bike. For me, it happened yesterday.
I was riding down a hill, going pretty fast to stay in front of the approaching traffic behind me. I got in the left turn lane, and sat up in the saddle to get a view of the oncoming traffic. Sure enough, a car was approaching from the other direction, so I put on the brakes. Apparently, a little too hard, as my front wheel started going wobbly, and I lost control and went over the side onto the asphalt, hard. Luckily, all the cars around me were able to stop, and at least 4 of them made sure I was okay before proceeding. I ended up taking a large chunk of skin off my forearm near my elbow, and scraped my back and bruised my hip. But I didn't hit my head, and I was able to ride the 25 minutes the rest of the way home. Lisa cleaned me up and bandaged me up. Changing the dressings this morning was pretty ugly, and it's going to take a while to heal properly. I felt like I could have ridden to work if I really needed to, but I decided to ride the bus instead. I really only feel a little bit sore, and the wounds look a lot worse than they feel, probably because I have no nerve endings left there.
There is one week left of the Zipcar Low Car Diet, so I'm committed to taking the bus for at least that week. But man, it is tempting to just hop in the car and drive in.
Zipcar Date Night
On Tuesday night, my wife and I went out for dinner, by ourselves, no kids, for the first time in a long time. I decided to take the advice of Tommy Wells, DC Councilman from Ward 6, who I met at the Zipcar Low-Car Diet kickoff event. He mentioned that he used Zipcar for a lot of things, including going out on the town to places where Metro might not go. The best part, he said, was picking which of the many fun Zipcars he wanted to drive that night. Having made the decision to do a Zipcar Date Night, I had to decide: the Mini Cooper or the BMW 3 series? I ended up picking the Mini, because I had heard it was a lot of fun to drive.
I took the bus from work down to Ballston, where I picked up the Mini "Manchester." From there, it was a quick trip home to pick up my wife, and we were off to Et Voila, a Belgian restaurant in Palisades NW.
My daughter loves to play "Spot the Mini" on the road, she couldn't believe we had one in our driveway!
My wife getting ready to hop in.
The Zipcar Mini did not disappoint. A word of warning though, the layout of the controls and the dashboard is not like your other cars. Give yourself a little extra time to familiarize yourself with it, otherwise, you may think that those paddles by the steering wheel are the horn, instead of manual gear shifters like they really are. The Mini was surprisingly roomy and definitely fun to drive. And parking was no problem at all, even on the crowded streets of DC.
Our dinner was wonderful, from the ham-wrapped endives to the steak and mussels, to the chocolate mousse dessert (and don't forget the wide array of Belgian beers, but go easy since you have to drive the Zipcar home!). We took our time and lingered until it was time for "Manchester" to go home to Ballston. Our date was a great success, and the Mini was definitely one of the highlights. After all, who really wants to go on a date in a minivan?!?!
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