U.S. Suspends Haitian Airlift in Cost Dispute

Ugh - how do you suppose this happens?  All the more terrible because nobody is surprised "....It was not clear on Friday who exactly was responsible for the interruption of flights, or the chain of events that led to the decision."
Worse yet, Florida hosts the Superbowl this coming Sunday and 30 sec advertising slots cost around 3mil each.......do you think the networks could donate some of that revenue to the Florida hospitals supporting Haiti's injured?

Freak'n - in a good way

In the long ago past (as in 5 years ago) when I lived in Wellington I started getting acupuncture for pain in my ankle.  Long short story about near death motorcycle accidents, crushing ankles and breaking femurs on the Hutt motorway means that I have one gimpy leg that, despite the odds, serves me quite well.  Taking up running again isn't necessarily what everyone would recommend given the previous injury, so I decided that I wouldn't wait for the pain but go and get some preventative acupuncture.  I am not a scientist and don't have a scientists curiosity, acupuncture is magic.  There is a certain logic to how they think it works and that's pretty much all I need to be convinced.  Once a week I see (yet another) very sweet guy, who needles me.  Tonight he suggested that we might needle the scar I have on the front of my ankle; it's quite impressive but mostly goes unnoticed unless you look closely (and nobody does).   It's actually where the surgeon did his magic so is tidy but wide (I won't go into the gruesome details).  Given Marc was recommended by Case my immediate response was "....well it makes me a little nervous but lets give it a go" (with Case I leave out the nervous part as it just prompts him to greater excesses).   Actually the thought of it made me more than nervous, it freaked me out (at least on the inside).  As it turned out it wasn't quite as painful as I had thought it would be...not painful at all to be honest.  And now Marc is promising that I might actually see a change in how the scar looks and the needling will help with the other mysteries around how it interferes with the "flow" of something or rather that contributes to the occasional swelling I have around my ankle.  One of the high points of the whole adventure had to be the delight on Marcs face as he gazed down at his handy work and noted it was "quite a picture" - acupuncturists have their own unique view of the world I think!  Regardless of how this particular treatment goes the three things the acupuncture has already brought, 1. the best nights sleep I have all week is the night following my treatment 2. way less ankle swelling 3. knee pain gone (very specific treatment I asked for after I did "something" to it during a training session).  I live in the land of magic.

Changing things, 14 milers, adventures and working....

Busy week on all fronts.  For those that have noticed I've been playing around with the blog and added some things, most notably the countdown clock and the list of races I have registered for!  Maintaining two blogs just became too much and, given running has become my fav pastime I decided to dump it all in here.  One race that I can't yet add to the list is the NYC Marathon in November 2010.  Two ways you can get in, lottery draw or sign-up as a charity runner.  I've written to the official charity and asked for an application as I like the idea of both being able to run and raise money.  We shall see.........
Friday I ran 14 miles (22.5k for the kiwis), per Case's instructions.  It's a long way with the last two miles feeling particularly long.  I did manage to do it in 2hrs 13mins though, which made me quite happy.  It does mean I am ready for my half in February.  It's around Golden Gate Park in San Fran and Michelle is coming along to cheer me along - well most likely drink coffee and eat cake waiting for me to finish.  This race will be huge with 1000s entered, I think we can assume that I will be back in the pack among the minions slogging it out.
Weekend of Feb 13 (well the Thursday before) Michelle and I are off to Chicago, her to give a paper at a conference - me along for the adventure.  We are on the hunt for some fun things to do and trying to figure out where we might find the girls, well go dancing I mean.  While Chicago will be cold it will be fab fun and I have been before.  Fortunate for everyone I didn't get that job.
One fun, out of the box thing, at work this week.  I ended up presenting a case study to a perspective new client outside of Cisco.  I haven't pitched for work in eons so it was an excellent opportunity to dust off the skills and generally enjoy walking into the unknown.  It was for a very large global company and it really dawned on me just how much I've learnt in the last few years - I could honestly talk about the challenges of global comms.....having now been doing it for nearly three years.
It's Sunday, the rain has finally stopped.  I'm off to the gym to see Case.....simple life for me.

Bible References on Gun Sights

I've been following this one in the news.....here and in NZ.  Wow, this just strikes me as plain weird.  Weird in a way that only the US can be weird....and exactly how long have they been doing it? Trijicon, the manufacturing company originally issued a statement saying "As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of-the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation.".... then backed down the following day saying  they would remove the references given concerns raised blah blah blah....well actually given their single largest customer (US Department of Defense) probably said, stop it or no more contracts from us!
My bet is that every military inventory system around the world who has these sights not only has the serial numbers included but also has the biblical reference as well - when do you suppose somebody noticed?

Rain and running adventures

I'm always loathe to start out by talking about the weather but right now it's truly awful.  Big storm hitting California..... weirdly though every time I've had to commute on the 17 it's cleared and been event free, which is a near miracle given the chaos on the roads!  It's been raining for about 5 days, it never rains for five days here - it's reminding me of Wellington on those dark winter days, although the wind is less relentless here.  All this dreary weather is making me depressed, California has made me soft - where's my sun???

To cheer myself up I've signed up for the Country Music Nashville 1/2 Marathon in April.  What makes this fab is that all along the course there are bands playing....country music, signing up has made me ridiculously happy.  They have a rock equivalent but, you know, I love country music!  Even better I know people who are going (which finally prompted me to signup).  Lila, who I house sat for in San Jose last year and is on my team, her husband, daughter and a cousin are all signed up, so I will at least know some folks to have a drink with post the event.  I've spent the evening registering, finding a hotel and checking out flights....long way to Nashville!
My "other" race is also looming - Feb 7 is my first half marathon in San Francisco.  I ran 12 miles the other day and the half is 13.1 so I just need to do 14 this week and I will feel set to give it a good shot.  Case has done a fine job of preparing me and Michelle is coming along to cheer me on.  It's around Golden Gate Park and there will be thousands of people in it, so very different from my Marin 6 miler.  M and I are going to stay in San Fran overnight and I expect I'll be just as nervous as I was for Marin, but with a better idea of how it all works.
I've also gone back to acupuncture, trying to make sure my gimpy leg doesn't let me down.  So far it's been good and I'd like to keep it that way, acupuncture will help.

Adventuring with The Mother

Alright given The Mother has been staying with me I’ve been a little lax on the blog…busy busy busy.

Fun things we have been doing.  Went to my first Ice Hockey game.  20,000 people jam packed into the stadium and the local team (The Sharks) won in the last 58 secs, the place erupted.  It was great fun to watch and we had excellent seats.  It was cold though, poor mum was freezing and the food was terrible (surprise!).  It’s all very well put together though, huge TV screen hanging over the ice that gives you some real up-close and personal views.  One startling moment; gloves off two players started pummelling one another……which is what you expect but nobody intervenes, it goes on for several minutes, everyone just sits back and watches until they are done – oddest thing.  Well then they both get sent to the sin bin for 5mins.  That aside, it was fun and I’d definitely go back again.

Two weekends back we headed to San Fran to see Wicked.  This is a great musical that tells the story of the friendship between the two witches from the Wizard of Oz, before the actual Oz story.  It’s funny and a little dramatic, costumes were amazing and the singing fantastic.  We stayed over night given it was quite a late show.  Because I’d hesitated to get tickets I ended up going to a reseller site and was delighted to end up with center block, four rows back.  Had a lovely meal at the hotel we were staying in before we headed out and enjoyed 2.5hrs of great entertainment.  Highly recommend it.

Lots of shopping happened too and mum cleaning our my entire wardrobe....new me had to go and buy new clothes as mum decided my "big clothes" had to go.  Mum was very cynical when I suggested we put the bag of big clothes on the street and someone would pick them up!  Took maybe 4 hours and they were gone, including her broken handled suitcase!

I’ve been back at work for two weeks and immediately found myself recruiting for four new roles – yikes!  I don’t much like recruiting, all that chatting to try and figure if someone is a fit, but gotta do it, does have the team implode to 16 though.  No sign of work slowing down and I can’t complain given the economy here is still tight, although some signs things are easing.

Vegas: The Food

Once the foodies arrived eating out became a whole new thing!  Okay mum and I did enjoy a nice meal at Outback, which is a chain restaurant based on ??? Yeah Australia.  Challenge with Vegas is that it's either up market or low rent, not much in between.  Although I didn't know it was renowned for its restaurants with a lot of well known chefs opening restaurants (I say that like I would know who the well known chefs are!).  Anyway Outback is kind of in-between, nice enough for steak and chips and pretty consistent wherever you go....okay okay, cheap copout on my part. I did manage to have us go to one very nice place in the MGM Grand before the foodies arrived.  Emerils is all about cajun food and owned by Emeril Lagasse......if anyone reading knows chefs by name.  Food was very nice but portions massive.  The picture to the right makes it look a bit glitsy and trashy even....I don't remember it looking quite like that, in fact not at all like that!

Karen and Brice's arrival heralded some more upscale experiences including the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Paris.  Now this was very fine.  Looking at the "Tower", which is exactly half the size of the real thing, the restaurant is in the base (the dark line you can see above the legs).  You take a lift from the Casino floor and it opens out into the kitchen!  That was pretty startling and fascinating to watch all the chefs at work.  We sat in a booth looking out over the strip and enjoyed a very lovely dining experience on Xmas eve, including a lovely glass or two of Tattingers (yes I did drink something over the break....not much, but something).

Xmas day was a whole different treat again.  Aureole is in the Mandalay Bay  Casino,  They weren't working Xmas day but this place features a two story wine "cellar"...well glass enclosure, where "wine angels" abseil up and down the wine racks pulling out bottles for diners.  I had the most lovely sashimi and fresh fish for my Xmas dinner....as odd as that sounds!  It's quite a stark atmosphere, very stylish.
The other place we went to that I loved loved loved was Julian Serrano's.  This place was tapas paradise and, for those that recall, that was something I loved about Barcelona.  The small plates here were fabulous - I would love to eat like that all the time.
Final note, as always, a good cup of coffee isn't easy to find in the US of A - Starbucks it was, if there was a better place we never found it!

Bodies the Exhibition - not for the faint hearted!

I'm going to write up Vegas in little chunks....so here's chunk one! Post Karen and Brice's arrival we had a a day of "forensic" investigation, part of which included seeing this exhibition. No, this isn't my video but it does capture the feeling....it's fair to say that Brice and I looked at everything but didn't dwell (unlike mum and Karen, who were fascinated!). Despite having been told that lots of people think the bodies look plastic I didn't think that at all - all too real was more my thinking. It was interesting to see, I'm glad I went but won't be going back, once was enough.
After Bodies (which was at the Luxor Hotel - the big pyramid) we headed back to the MGM Grand and tried out CSI: The Experience. You get to choose one of three crime scenes to examine and solve a case. It's not done on a computer, you actually work through a series of stands, taking notes and answering questions, including examining the crime scene, then toxicology, autopsy etc etc. Finally you enter your results into a computer and Grisholm tells you if you have it right. It was fun and an easy distraction - yes, we all guessed correctly, although we didn't all get all the clues right.