Awaaaay we go ~

In a moment, you'll be redirected to the new home of my Life &
Times...hope you enjoy the ride! [If nothing happens, it's GWAblog.com ]

Lub-dub ~

Spurred on by Daughter Caroline's interest in jogging paraphenalia (as though I have none), I unpacked the Ironman Triathalon heart-rate monitor/watch I got at Costco yesterday -- itself an aerobic event given the usual impenetrable plastic packaging -- and strapped myself up with the wireless heart-rate monitor for an early-afternoon jog. I watched as my baseline 58-62 pulse rate climbed to 140 and stayed there, with occasional excurisons to 158 on the grades. Neat to watch. It will be interesting to monitor when bicycling.

The rest of the day I frittered away doing on-line tasks and enjoying my new Facebook passtime, which I find to be the on-line equivalent of chips-n-salsa. Glad I never discovered it while working. M has also spent a lot of time here in the study as she prepares for a number of public presentations over the next two months.

Rew has begun his studies at "SC" (as they call the University of Southern California out there) and while we have no details, he reports preliminarily that things are Exciting. And we had an interesting talk with Ms Caroline this afternoon, who has an interesting prospect on which she's doing a lot of work and today got to participate in a six-hour board meeting. Next week she may find out more re Further Opportunities. In the meantime, she's hunkering down for the frigid blast that is blowing into Chi-Towne.

I got my periodic owners' "Wood & Steel" magazine from Taylor Guitars yesterday, which noted that My Brand is played professionally by Alan Jackson, George Strait and country ingenue Taylor Swift. And the Taylor 12-strings (like my 655ce) as a group were given a Gold Award by the readers of Acoustic Guitar magazine. Speaking of music, those inclined towards classic country, acoustic and blues would enjoy the Imus Ranch Record, a for-charity compilation produced by Don Imus including cuts by everyone from Randy Travis to Little Richard. Randy Travis' "I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore" is everything a classic country blues song should be. If I could trade voices with anyone, it would be him.

That's about it from The Burg. Stay warm out there ~

Monday, Monday ~

A quick note after a nice day hereabouts. It began early with M creeping out of bed before 6am for the second day in a row, due to her Wounded Knee discomfort (Dr Brado has phone-diagnosed tendonitis/bursitus, I believe). Not long after that we were robo-phoned by the James City County (yes, a county named for a city) school system which was checking to see whether M might choose to exercise her substitute-teacher creds today (no). Then another robocall, this one seeking LA Rew, ended my attempts at sleeping to a Retirement-Appropriate hour. "Sunrise is really pretty down here," M chirped from her perch in the sunroom as I came down, and I'm sure it was. I was sorry to have missed it by so little.

We headed off for the bank and the post office, where a lonnng line of snail-mail-obsessed retirees were lined up for whatever. I surveyed the scene briefly and then returned to the van, saying, "Let's go to Costco," our DLA (Default Life Activity). Once there I tried to persuade M to use one of their free electric scooters, which I've always thought were pretty nifty. I might've limped up to one myself and challenged her to a race to the tool aisle and back. But no, no Rascal for her.

We picked up a few things, including a couponed-down Timex watch with heartrate monitor for moi, which may be fun to mess with. On a gloomier note, I picked up this year's TurboTax since it too has a coupon discount now. (Alert, Costco shoppers!) A hot dog apiece and we were on our way back to the PO, stopping for some $1.59 gas along the way, up 20 cents from ten days ago.

Determined to get a leg up on her knee, as it were, M set herself up in the family room with some DVDs and snacks and ice-wraps whilst I did some more holiday cleanup, putting away the C'mas tree (sniffle) and turning Scooba loose on the sunroom floor. All three floor robots got another workout today, and they are handy little critters.

Do you know what else works? The Scrubbing Bubbles rotating shower-spray machine, that's what, which you can get at WalMart for $12. Hang it on the shower pipe and punch its button as you climb out; it then sprays a solution all around that mingles with the water droplets and slithers down the walls and floor, keeping them amazingly clean with zero effort.

Last eve we resumed our weekly small group and had a nice turn-out, including some folks we hadn't seen in awhile. It went well and we discussed transitioning to new leadership, since M&I don't regularly attend the Chapel any more; happily, the folks we thought best-suited to take it over readily agreed. This evening I went with Pam to the leaders' winter kickoff session at the church. We'll explore a similar group at New Town Methodist, where we're currently attending. [The issue that has eased us out of the Chapel is its failure to appoint any women to its senior lay leadership, perhaps the sole blemish on what is otherwise an outstanding church but one that is important to us.]

I had a nice chat with Caroline and her friend Dave Dean this afternoon, who are bringing about my new blogsite (which you can preview at www.GWAblog.com) as part of C's long-acting C'mas present to me. I'm learning how to remold it as I wish and should eventually have even more toys and widgets attached there than I do here. One of these days relatively soon I'll switch my postings to that new site (after appropriate notice here, of course).

Last night Marcia Budnikas, wife of TJC stalwart Peter, called to say "Channel 6 NOW!! Kingston Trio!!" I turned it on and there was the Trio in a Tijuana jail skit on the old Jack Benny TV show from the early '60s. Were it shown today on the airwaves there would probably be a Latino riot due to its politically-incorrect depiction of Mexicans, but the Trio looked handsome and youthful and sounded very good. They also weren't bad actors.

Time for bed. I can hardly wait to see which call-bot wakes me in the morning.

The Morning After ~

A good Sunday afternoon to friends and onlookers everywhere from a cloudy but still-mild Burg. I see the Nashville Allens are down almost 30 degrees from yesterday, but we're still tickling 50F. We shall not mention our LA Allen outpost, which is enjoying low-80's today. As usual, the coming polar blast will be fairly diluted by the time it gets in here mid-week. For now, things aren't bad here (except compared to Orlando and LA) and I should be jogging. And perhaps will, he says with characteristic non-committment.

Last night's Gourmet Club wine-tasting party went well; attendance was down to about 50 people due to travel and a competing Oysterfest down at The Club. Nonethless, the folks consumed 32 bottles of carefully-selected wines and brought trayfuls of delicious heavy hors d'oeuvres, which (combined with my letttuce-like resolve to diet) has done no favours for my More-Is-Not-Better 2009 Self.
I was up until 0230 Friday night messing around with Facebook; for some reason, a previous effort to get on had been blocked but this time, I succeeded and discovered a GWA-grade time-sink. We were fairly bizzy all day finalizing preps and so the nap I promised myself (and sorely needed) never happened. Thus by late eve I found myself saying in response to a departing guest, "Yes, and thank YOU so much for having us over!" Folks lingered until 2230 and it was an enjoyable evening. We'll have some folks over Friday eve for wine and hors d'oeuvres to do some catch-ups. Social

M's Wounded Knee is acting up again after five+ hours on her feet last night so she's chilling out again today. I've hung around to put things away and keep our Scooba and two Roombas humming on floor cleaning duties. To keep them happy, I also ordered some new filters and brushes for them and a new six-pack of fluid for Scooba's floor-washing efforts.

Meanwhile, my opinion of my new desktop computer has finally emerged from the swampy lowlands, due entirely to my acquisition of AOL 9.1, a version of AOL's software that resides on one's computer and is FAR superior to the on-line version I'd been saddled with until 9.1 was offered as a download. This is the version resident on the old desktop which I bequeathed to M and who hasn't always appreciated entering the office thereafter and finding my carcass parked at her workstation. In addition to giving me back the interface I know and love, using this 9.1 AOL as an Internet gateway has eliminated the all-too-frequent crashes of both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the Safari web browser that have in the past made me wonder why I bought this thing. Some on-line commentaries suggest the problems reside in the thick layer of HP software it came with; one of these days I'll see if I can peel it away. In the meantime, I now finally gravitate to the new machine with its gorgeous monitor and lightning speed. Which was kinda the whole idea six months ago.

Rew, meanwhile, is rhapsodic about having his new iMac safely arrived and functioning in LA, and M continues to make friends with her new Apple laptop. I've messed with it and my reaction so far is "ehh." It's a gorgeous piece of design/equipment fer sure and the graphics are neat, but its browser crashes from time to time just like mine was. Guess I haven't had enough of the KoolAid yet.

I had better go jog; as I sit here and watch the winds pick up I'm coming up with more n more reasons to kick it over to tomorrow.

Beach 'n' Back ~

The clock has just struck Saturday and we've been back home for about an hour after a 90-minute nonstop home from Orlando this evening. Severe clear all the way and nary a ripple, quite unlike the one-stop thru ATL on the way down where we had to punch thru a front and got jostled a bit as we did so.

Our week in Orlando and environs was lovely. Upon arrival at the Payless car rental emporium, they didn't have to twist my arm too hard to get me out of a Corolla and into a nice fresh slate-grey '09 Mustang convertible. I dropped the top and cranked up Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" as we blew outta the parking lot. That's how WE roll.

We got checked in at the Villas at Grand Cypress Resort, where the environs are gorgeous and you at least get excellent service for your $18/day "resort fee." For example, we had a bottle of wine that we wanted to chill but the little under-counter fridge, though empty, was locked. As a guy delivered a complimentary gourmet chocolate sampler M asked if he could unlock it for us so we could put the bottle in there. No, he said, but he'd bring us a refridgerator. And ten minutes later, they wheeled in a free-standing dorm-size unit for our use.

We set out to roam around in our ride after a quick nap and it felt great, smelling the green grass and enjoying the breezy 80F temps. We decided to drive an hour over to Cocoa Beach, where we went out on the pier to watch the fisherpersons and pelicans and enjoy a margarita overlooking the surf. Then we sought out a Mexican restaurant I'd spied on the way in that advertized a mariachi band starting at 5pm. The food was excellent and so was the band; as usual in such circumstances, I impressed them with my Spanish savoir-faire by requesting the lovely but somewhat obscure love song, "Los Dos" ("The Two"). They sang it to M and earned a $10 tip.

Wednesday morn I went for a lovely jog along the extensive golf courses and then enjoyed lolling around in the whirlpool and waterfall pools in the pool complex next to our building. Shortly thereafter the threatened cold front blew thru with a vigorous but short-lived burst of rain, following which we napped briefly and then headed out for M's hair appointment and my continuing quest for shirt collar stays, which thus far had produced blank stares. I might as well have been asking for buggy whips. On a whim I plugged the nearest Brooks Bros into the GPS, which proved to be in an absolutely humungous discount shopping mall, and there the guy responded to my question with, "You want plastic or metal?"

The conference went well and attendance was surprisingly strong, down only about five percent from last year. My speech went well and I also wound up with the honour of giving an extemporized after-dinner tribute to Cecile Hatfield, head of our Program Committee and a DoJ attorney in the early '80s, as part of the surprise inauguration of a Lifetime Achievement Award named for her. I thought (and perhaps they did too) that I'd be one of several speakers, but my remarks came out well and they decided to immediately go to the "this is your life" video they'd prepared, which was excellent. Cecile, a sweetheart who's also been a Moxneii contributor for many years, was surprised (to put it mildly) and delighted.

When the conference ended today M&I did some convertiblized noodling around Orlando again, touring some stately lakeside developments right near downtown and of course paying a (second) visit to the local Costco.

We had a nice chat with The RewCor last eve; Rew is thrilled to have his new Apple safely arrived from Back East and he's pumped about finally starting classes next week. The new Spielberg building is open and he says it's a jaw-dropper. Caroline, meanwhile, is in DC for a long weekend, catching up with old peeps.

Saturday eve we have the wine-tasting so I'd better get some sleep. Happy weekend to all ~

Lost & Found ~

I mentioned yesterday (and there WILL be a quiz) my travails in losing and FINALLY finding the GPS I'd bought for Brudda Dwight weeks ago. This was not the only MIA item, however; a new wireless meat thermometer I got for M for C'mas (along with her new Scooba -- I know, I know, she married an incurable romantic) had gone missing since the trip back and then, just since Sunday, the new camera I got her also couldn't be found despite each of us searching our favourite hidey-holes. So today we re-searched the A/Bus where M was confident we would find the camera, last seen at First Night, and a missing Nixon book. No such luck on the former, but in searching for it I DID find the meat thermometer, and M found her book.

This eve we re-launched a household search for the camera, without results. Then, about an hour later, M noticed it sitting right out in semi-plain view here in the study. Jeepers.

Note to the Cosmic Nymph responsible for all this: enough already!

This morn I oozed out of bed about 0915, having semi-promised Amy we'd launch for Jamestown well before this time. Eventually we got loaded up and over there, and spent an interesting two hours in the museum and then on a tour of the reconstructed fort and ships. It simply beggars the imagination to picture over 100 colonists crammed into the lower deck of that tiny vessel for almost six months. Not quite the m/s PRINSENDAM, that's fer sure.

I dropped Amy off at Norfolk Int'l about 1430, having learned from her that the team her beloved U-TX Longhorns were playing in the Fiesta Bowl this eve was -- Ohio State! Glad to see the Bucks have just gone ahead 3-0.

M spent a fair part of her day prepping Greystone for the Sat nite Gourmet Group wine-tasting party, being held here for the third straight year. We'l have about 80 people here and look forward to it. Sue Frye, who helped with the rehearsal dinner, is helping, along with other Gourmet stalwarts.

Of course, we'll roll back in at about 11pm Friday night from Orlando, for which we launch at 0600 in the morning from Richmond. We'll be at the same gorgeous golf resort we were at last year and the wx forecast for the week looks very nice, mid-70's.

We have an 0330 wake-up call, so I'd better get my bald head to bed.

Something's Gotta Give ~

That was the movie Amy Patterson chose for us to watch this eve as she hadn't seen it and we recalled it fondly. It is an absolute hoot, perfectly cast with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keeton and a really sparkling, clever script. Three thumbs-up from us. We paused it a time or two so Amy could take calls from Evan, newly ensconsced in his dorm room at the FBI Academy in Quantico where things have gone fine so far. Look out, bad guys; he and his new FBI peeps will soon be comin' atcha like spider monkeys!

We went to church this morning and then came home for lunch and got Evan on his way about 1300. M needed to keep her knee off-line so Amy and I set out to take the scenic route around Jamestown and down the Colonial Parkway to Colonial Wmsburg, where we got tickets and did the Governour's Palace tour before strolling the streets there at sunset. We made it all the way up and down DOG Street and even walked up to the Wren Building at Wm & Mary; I hadn't been back there in the seven months since the wedding and it looked far more somber on a grey, damp winter's day with no blushing bride and dashing groom and festive wedding party around.

But things were warm and cozy back at Greystone, where after a hearty dinner we set about putting outgrown playroom toys in the attic and setting up the wine-tasting stations for the party for 80 people we're hosting this Saturday nite, 20 hours after we step off the plane from Orlando. Along the way I conducted yet another search for the Magellan GPS I'd bought in Nashville over Thanksgiving as a C'mas present for Dwight & Robin, but which has been unaccounted for since. I had high hopes of finding it back in Nashville since I recalled seeing it there in a paper bag with rope handles, but when that didn't happen, I finally bought another one and gave it to them during their visit.

After numerous re-searches of closets, the A/Bus, the van, the garage, etc etc, I decided to do one more thorough sweep of our master closet, digging thru the detritus at my end and then moving on to M's end, where she'd looked several times. I noted a handled bag deep back by the wall and looked down into it; there was a turkey brining kit she'd bought at TG but hadn't used. I moved on but then something clicked re where I'd seen the GPS last. I went back to the bag, pulled it wide open, and finally, voila!!, there it was. Thus endeth a vexing mystery of a month's duration.

So tomorrow it goes back to Costco, where we'll stop on the way to drop Amy at Norfolk Apt for her flight back to Houston. We may also do Jamestown in the morning. Then on Tuesday we gotta be at Richmond APt to depart for Orlando on an 0605 flight. Ouch!

Turns out sister Gay and family in Papua were unaffected by the big Indonesian earthquake, since it wasn't in their area after all (Someone misread the map of the quake's location -- hard to understand since he has a new GPS!). Caroline's skiing conditions out in Big Sky will get even more interesting as strong winds kick up tomorrow and snow squalls invigourate the single-digit temps.

Happy Monday to all ~

Just the Facts ~

An FBI leitmotif here at Greystone this eve as FBI new-hire Evan Patterson and wife Amy rolled in from Texas. We enjoyed some chats /n' salsa followed by Bumsburgers and then a viewing of the excellent film "Breach," about FBI spy Robt Hansen, up in the BatCave. Tomorrow afternoon Evan will hie himself on up to Quantico where he'll begin the FBI academy Monday.

Evan's grandparents were among my folks' dearest friends, and I've known his dad since we were babies. The third leg of the Allen-Patterson stool was Jack and Anne Keith, who are still living and in San Diego where M&I visited them two years ago. Jack was an FBI agent and SAIC in Las Vegas, and I know he's thrilled about his old friend Pat Patterson's grandson joining the Bureau.

Evan's specialty will likely be cyber-crime given his deep computer background. He and AMy are delightful and impressive young folks and it doesn't seem that long ago when M&I were at the stage of Great Beginnings, looking forward to career development and having kids and wondering where it will all lead. Keeps ya young, thinking this stuff.

I didn't feel so young this morning when I dragged my increasingly-torpid self out for my first jog since C'mas Day with Caroline. It was a gorgeous clear day and the beauty of dear GovLand never fails to inspire, especially with a light caffeine buzz goin' on as I started.

I did a WalMart run this afternoon, then made chili and pre-formed the burgers for later. A 30-minute power nap in the sun room was especially sweet. M continued to rest her Wounded Knee when she could.

We spoke to Caroline this eve from Big Sky, just north of Yellowstone, which has had a minor flurry of earthquakes recently. She's been skiing in below-zero conditions and experienced lightning and hail/sleet on the slopes yesterday. Now it's sunny and beautiful, but still frigid. She's having a Large Time and wheedled an extra day out of United, who'd lost their luggage for a day on the front side of the trip; now she'll fly home Tuesday, as we head down to Orlando.

Speaking of earthquakes, Gay's neck of the woods in Papua just had a mag 7.4 a few hours ago, which was probably pretty dramatic. That's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on, as Jerry Lee Lewis would say.

Time for bed. Happy Sunday to all ~

Travelogue ~

I was reading in one of the books I salvaged from Rew's college years (Biological Psychology, I believe) that the prefrontal cortex of the brain, far more prominent in humans than in primates and lower animals, appears intimately connected with subtle decision-making processes -- evaluating alternatives, weighing alternatives, etc.  If this is so, I must be suffering from PFCortex Fatigue after an afternoon spent trying to figger out my travel schedule for February.  

Involved were my trip to LA, Palm Springs, LA again, DFW/Tyler on either the front or back end of this trip, and interfacing all this with M's trip in the same time period to Omaha and Nashville on the backstroke.  I cannot begin to describe the subtleties of schedule and finance that entered into this, but eventually I settled upon a solution: I will fly with M on 2/17 as far as Chicago/Midway, where perhaps we'll have a cuppa Joe with Caroline before M flies on to Omaha to give a presentation and I go on to LA and then Palm Springs for LPBA's Winter Meeting.  M will hit LA the next day and we'll fly out from there on the 24th, me to Dallas/Tyler and M to Nashville; on the 27th I'll fly from DFW to Norfolk via Nashville, where M will join my flight for the last leg.  A symphony of travel harmonies has been created. My prefrontal cortex is proud. 

This morning we had a nice chitchat with Dwight & Robin over coffee and pastries before they headed off for some antique malls and heading northbound.  The weather was raw and rainy so I put off cleaning out the A/Bus, unleashing Roomba I on the interior and waiting for the weather to clear, which it eventually did.  I ran it over to Chickahominy park to dump the tanks and then put the A/Bus away, a somewhat melancholy experience as I thought back to the anticipation of the Yuletide Express and then departing for Fishersville and Nashville and the fun of the New Year's Eve, all now history.  And now we have January, the Monday morning of the year. 

Of course, this Tuesday we fly off for four days in Orlando so it's not exactly tough times we're dealing with here.  

M has been nursing a sore knee, apparently the product of roughhousing with the grandkids, so she's been spending time with her feet up and messing with her new Apple laptop.  I'm afraid another AppleCorps member may be in the making.  It doesn't help that I keep migrating over to the older HP PC here in the office, since this new one keeps crashing both Internet Explorer and the Safari web browsers for no apparent reason. 

We're looking forward to welcoming John & Judy Patterson's son Evan and his bride Saturday eve, as Evan prepares to report to Quantico next week for his 20+ weeks of training to be an FBI agent.  M counseled and advised him in his pursuit of this career and it will be fun to be a part of this Great Beginning. They're driving in from a stopover in Atlanta and will spend Sunday with us before Evan goes on to Quantico and Amy flies back to San Antonio.  We hope to see them here at Greystone again during his sojourn up here in the Old Dominion.

That's about it from Day 2 of 2009.  Time to put my prefrontal cortex to bed. 

New Year's Eve 2009 got rolling about 2pm when M&I and Peter Budnikas rolled the A/Bus over to our Coachmen performance venue, the Wmsburg UMC, at about 2pm as the biting winds whipped and temps fell from the mid-50's to the mid-30's. The other band we were swapping sets with, Thunder Creek, arrived in their full-on band bus (previously owned by country group Sawyer Brown) and, since were going to mooch off their sound system, we helped them unload. They had the whole nine yards -- CD sales table manned by wives, logo'd black jackets, and a big sound system with two center-point mikes, one for vocals and a lower one for instruments, that cost $3000. What could go wrong??

After sound checks we repaired to the A/Bus for some of M's yummy appetizers and then headed in for our kickoff show at 5pm. As last year, the place was more than full about 4:50 so we started playing as it went to a modest-overflow crowd. The high-falutin' mikes began squealing and cutting in and out and eventually their sound guy just replaced them with two conventional mikes, one of which, we later discovered, wasn't really working until the next set.

But the first went well anyway and the crowd was warm and responsive. One woman told Peter she'd come down from Delaware just to see us and was going to attend all three shows. Later another couple told me they'd come over from Lynchburg to see us. At each show I asked for a show of hands and about half were hearing us for the first time, and about 2/3 were from beyond the Burg.

Between sets we'd run out thru the cold to the cozy confines of the A/Bus, festooned with a picture of the group propped up against an inside window, for relaxation, food and drink. M served up lasagna, ham on biscuits, fruit salad, and a host of munchies. Tim Seaman, the guy we played with at the Grand Illumination, dropped by with his wife to give us our checks for that performance and we loaded them up with food as well.

Brother Dwight & Robin rolled in just in time for the second set at 7pm. We called D up on stage to do the conga drum for a song in the last two sets and the crowd enjoyed that. Stocked up as I was on bananas and Gatorade and naproxin, I managed to avoid hand cramps, albeit barely. I think our last show was our best, which is the way you like to have it, and the crowds were most generous in their responses.

I stayed around awhile to watch about half of Thunder Creek's last show and then headed on home to rejoin my crowd. The New Year came in as I carried a few things off the A/Bus. We got out some sparkling wine and toasted the New Year and hit the hay -- hard.

For New Year's Day, we agreed we wanted to see the new Ron Howard film "Frost-Nixon" and I suggested an A/Bus trip over to the Newport News Maritime Museum for a look at the Monitor exhibits. That proved to be an excellent choice; the museum was supurb and we abandoned thoughts of hitting the 4:15pm movie back in New Town so as to take more of it in. I want to go back for a more extended look, and I'm not normally a Museum Person. A stunning collection of meticulously-carved wooden ship models was a highlight. The ironclad history was fascinating and they also had an excellent TITANIC display.

We hit the Bonefish Grill in New Town for a very nice dinner and then saw the movie, which was very good and does a little to restore my faith in Opie and his work. Somewhat to my surprise, Nixon was portrayed in a realistic and nuanced fashion and it was an interesting film. I give it 4 of 5 stars. You want more? Go to RewAllen.com.

Afterwards, with everyone but the DriverDroid sipping wine, we rolled up to WalMart for coffee and cinnamon buns for the morning and then came on home. Wide-ranging discussions consumed the whole day and we all agreed it had been Most Pleasant start to 2009.

Along the way I spoke briefly with Caroline, who was arriving at their group's condo on the ski slopes in Boseman, MT as a goodly snow was falling. Their group of 17 was split between two shiny new Infinity QX56 mega-SUVs. She was Pumped.

Meanwhilst, Jennifer & Mike Mitchell drew the black bean, reporting from Ohio that their house walls were full of hot water escaping thru an apparently-burst pipe up in their attic. A long and un-fun night lay ahead for them.

At Greystone the walls are dry and the grandfather clock is striking midnight so 2009 is officially a day old. Time to shut 'er down and call it a night.