friday evening alicia and i met with maria and jeff to watch the new york grand opera's free opera in the park. since alicia was closing, she missed Suor Angelica, which is what she wanted to see since it's one of the pieces she's been studying. but the rain held off and overall it was a pleasant evening other than the fact that i'm getting old and can't sit on the ground for 3 hours.

yesterday we went to see the dada exhibit at the MoMA. then we watched munich at home and ordered sushi.

i had to work this morning (longer than i had anticipated). its been a rainy and miserable day, so it's ok i haven't done anything else.

pluto gets demoted

recommended reading. bbc did a laptop linkup in southern lebanon with some local residents. it's interesting to see the perspective of the people affected. disappointing to read statements that hezbollah finds joy in the death of civilians and its fighters as martyrdom. but at least pierre seems to have a true desire for peace.

its always interesting to view my traffic to see how people find there way to this blog and where they are from. in just the past week, i've had a vistor from egypt and one from poland. the polish visitor found his way from a not so public part of elan's old blog.

most folks i don't know personally find there way here by searching for pictures of europe.

saw little miss sunshine this afternoon. one of the better movies i've seen in a while. from what i can gather this was written as a screen play (not adapted from a novel or other story source). the characters had a depth--well played by the actors--that i just havent seen or connected with in recent movies.

today's weather is perfect. 75, sunny, low humidity. couldnt ask for better weather during and outdoor wedding.

create your own visited states map


Can you tell i've driven cross-country...twice?

google is trying to give wifi away for free. (makes part of me want to go back to the bay).

there are a few new pics on flickr. just some random new york photos.

movie. i know ryan loves a good movie review, so i feel a bit remiss that i havent posted more recently.
alicia and i saw scoop yesterday. in contrast to match point, it was a much more 'woody allen' movie. i thought scarlett played her part very well. and woody played his part (the usual type of part he plays) well. if you're not in the mood for mann's miami vice action or the humor of owen wilson in dupree, then go for scoop.

ingenuity. i experienced one of those moments of 'wow, what an incredible waste of ingenuity' last night as i was entering my apartment building after dinner. it was 8pm or so, about the time the party is just barely getting start in my neighborhood. i heard loud music that you normally hear coming from a tricked out car. but this was moving far too fast to be a car in the traffic on the street. i didn't hear a motorcycle engine. that's because it was a bicycle rigged up with a box on the back housing what appeared to be 2 6x9" speakers.

truly amazing...and obnoxious.

too much time on your hands. try building a penny bridge or a nickel spiral.

heat wave, nyc. its been a warm one the past few days. and a. hasn't had electricity in two days.

in case you want to try to grow some bad-ass facial hair. like me.

off to pennsylvania for the fourth. have yourself a lovely barbeque.

here's a little narrative of the trip in scotland as documented by the picture set on flickr.

the trip started off with a circumnavigation of manhattan in a super shuttle van, during which i receive a travel alert from orbitz telling me the flight was delayed. eventually the flight left and we went nonstop to edinburgh. got our luggage and went to pick up the rental car.

we had the car, the atlas, and sense of excitement as we set off for a drive to catch the ferry to arran. first, i had to get out of the parking lot. the car was manual, which is fine, b/c i drive a manual. however, i have never shifted with my left hand. despite starting in 3rd gear a few times, i did alright.

after we were able to navigate the roundabouts to exit the airport (we did an extra lap around the terminal for kicks). we were on our way. we did well up until we ran into some road construction and couldn't figure out where the detour was telling us to go. we somehow visited the same roundabout 3 times before we eventually found another route. which neither of us was sure if it was the detour or not.

uneventful rest of the trip to glencloy. the first picture (101) is the view from our room's window. notice the condensation due to rather chilly temperatures (even for scotland). the second (159) is the ferry between the mainland and isle. the third (155) is me behind the wheel - more detail on that later as it was taken on the return trip. i dont think it was a fully functioning farm, but they did have this chicken with chicks in the front yard (145).

that evening we went to a local pub for some food and sampled some arran ale (quite good). then we crashed.

the next day we went for a short walk from whiting bay to some water falls (128, 119, 110, 120, 111). 110 is a single rhododendron.

we had lunch on the shore a kings cross point (skip ahead two to 131). this had a nice view of 'holy isle' that has a lighthouse on it. after lunch we set off for brodick castle where we toured the castle (no photography allowed). it was interesting b/c it had been lived in up until the late forties. then we wondered around the grounds (138) and the walled garden (135).

the following day was the distillery day. since i figured i'd be tasting some, we decided to catch the bus. again no photography in the distillery itself, but it was cool to see how the whole process takes place. the end of the tour had a tasting (152, 149), after which i did a separate tasting of some cask strength. those were surprisingly good and not too overwhelming. altho after 3 i felt pretty good. since it was pouring down rain we decided to have a little snack at the restaurant.

the rain didn't let up and bus ride home wasn't the best part of the trip. but the worst was walking the last half a mile home in rain and driving winds. i think the misery factor was at about 8 about now. but it did get better.

the next morning we were scheduled to catch the ferry about 11am. due to the high winds the ferry was delayed and we sat in the car (155, 159). so we spent several hours in our little car staring at the sea and hoping we would make it back to edinburgh that day. which we did, just a few hours later than planned.

this is getting a bit long, so i'll write about the time in edinburgh in a separate post.

scotland trip pictures are up on flickr. have a look.

last day. so today is the last day of holiday. it's amazing how fast it's gone by. arran was a great visit; got to taste some nice cask strength whiskies at the distillery. we also did a short hike to some waterfalls.

we're off to dinner and then a pint or two before we head out early tomorrow morning. more details and pictures to come. sam and kristin, thanks for letting us crash in their room while they were away.

day of the beast. whew, looks like we made it through 6/6/06 without the arrival of apacolypse.

a little something of a preview for the world cup.