Day 7.087: Rug Capital

A few days ago, I started the countdown to our move with a last "Rug City" creation. The post is here, but I'll repost the photos to save you flicking back-and-forth:

There were some proposed solutions in the comments, but the local commenters knew the truth, now revealed thanks to Google Earth.

It is Albany, New York - the Empire State Plaza to be more specific - including the Egg, the State Museum, the Corning Tower and with a guest appearance by the Capitol Building.

Tomorrow, the packers arrive to start dismantling our home and on Thursday we will wake up for the last time as residents of New York.

Day 7.068: You can thank me later

I have just discovered (thanks to today's XKCD) 2048. It's a very addictive puzzle game that you can play on your computer or mobile device. Click here to try for yourself!

I've since introduced the rest of the family, and a cross-section of my Facebook friends to the fun.

Here is my best score to date - check out the 1024 tile (not, however, the eponymous 2048 yet)!

Enjoy and - when you're ready to complain because your whole life has fallen apart - read the second sentence again and don't say I didn't warn you!

Day 7.045: We're on the Internet!

...er yeah!

OK - we're somewhere else on the Internet!

The people who do the blog at the Magna-Tiles website asked to use my photos of E5N1's Rug Cities. Here is their first post about it!

As E5N1 put it on our call today (although not actually related to this blog-jumping news):

Day 7.036: Other side of the line

We had major computer problems at the end of my last trip home, and one of today's tasks has been trying to restore it to its former state (after Exile #2 managed to get it functional again for Skype, printing school work etc.)

In the process I happened upon a load of photos that E5N1 has been taking recently including one of me eating my dinner in Maine.

It looks like I've been caught out, but this s pretty much a daily situation, I get home, cook some dinner and sit down to catch up with the family while I eat it. Still, it's funny to get a glimpse of it from the other side.

Day 7.021: Book of Yum Cooking

Exile #2 stumbled across this recently - one of E5N1's early-morning creative endeavours:

Book of Yum Cooking

Egg pie Recipe

4 eggs

A half cup of raisins

A whole cup of chocolate

A quarter cup of raspberries

And a pie pan

--

Mix up 2 eggs with chocolate

When you mushed up the chocolate, put it in the pan.

When it is done, put raspberries and eggs on the pie.

Also put the raisins on.

And then, nestled amongst the "Yum Cooking" comes a moment of E5N1 fantasy:

Exile #2 (in E5N1's thought bubble): You can do screen.
E5N1 (out loud): Can I Mom?

Day 7.018: Meanwhile, by video conference...

...crafty things like these sometimes happen:

Incidentally, if you're playing along with the rug city game, now is your last chance to identify Rug City #2 - or, if you're feeling confident, see how many of the landmarks you can name!

Day 7.017: Ice, shrink-wrap and a war memorial

My outing to photograph the loon wasn't quite that simple. Rather than drive to the park by the lighthouse, I drove to the next lighthouse along the coast and walked from one to the other.

The lighthouse I drove to was this one:

the four nouned, Spring Point Ledge Light. I set out to walk out to it, but was struck first by the icy wind and then by the questionable footing - ice combined with jumping from rock to rock:

and thought better of it.

Instead, I set out for the Bug Light, walking first through the campus of Southern Maine Community College and then into the adjacent marina.

Not surprisingly, there are no boats in the water - as you can see here they are not only brought up onto dry land, but most of them are shrink-wrapped too!

With the wind at my back and hurting the back of my head even through my winter hat, I was pleased to arrive at the other park after a short walk.

I'd run past this strange ship-sculpture a couple of times, but yesterday I could investigate.

It turned out to be a war memorial of sorts - nervously I wondered which war (finding revolutionary war or 1812 memorials is always strange given my nationality) but it was WWII.  It turns out that nearly 240 of the 2700 Liberty Ships - all built to the same design between 1941 and 1945 were built at a pair of shipyards near here.

Day 7.016: Deja viewed

Having complained about my running taking me to places with no camera, I found myself with a couple of free hours this afternoon and decided to brave the bitterly cold wind to take my camera back where I'd been yesterday morning.

I got a nice picture of the light and the dual-carriageway trails:

But the big surprise was to see the same huge bird I'd attempted to photograph with my phone yesterday.  In the same place - diving and reappearing near the shore.  I got some better pictures:

and with the help of my parents on a Facetime call earlier, identified it as a common loon - its winter plumage threw us off briefly - but it is quite unmistakable once you've seen it.

And as a bonus, I captured a nicer picture of a previously-punned common eider.

Day 7.011: To MiSci and back

I'm back in Maine this evening - after leaving home at around 5 to be at work at around 9 - I'm quite tired now.

Yesterday afternoon (seems like so much longer ago), we shook off our house-marketing duties and took the kids to MiSci (formerly known as the Schenectady Museum).  It was the last day of the train layout exhibit, which we all enjoyed, but the rest of the museum really gets better each time we go there. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon.

Here's Exile #4 with the rope-squirter, the girls testing their pedal-power and E5N1 marvelling at an item from my youth - now a museum piece!

It's not a cheap outing for a family of five, but it's a really engaging place for all ages (all of ours anyway - 6 through 43).

Day 7.009: Sproing-ed

We had quite a busy day - but not one that leaves a lot to write about. I ran 13 miles, we went to church, we went to the store to buy some sproings.

Hang on a minute - to buy what?

Well, that this the name that Exile #2 used to describe the springy things that stop door handles making holes in walls. We were missing a few of them and we're trying to chip away at these odd jobs (rather than the walls) around the house while we wait for someone to fall in love with it.

So, E5N1 and I went for an outing and bought some sproings.

And also one of these for the door that opens against a closet door - preventing the use of a sproing.  It stops the door opening too wide by limiting the travel at the hinge.

We don't have a fun and pithy name for this useful item - do you?

Day 6.337: Sweet home...Alabama?

I'm home for the weekend. But Google Maps' generally excellent turn by turn directions seem to have an issue with the Albany turn off the Thruway - it's got that last-thing-on-a-Friday vibe.  Not inappropriately on this occasion.

The audio says:
"Take Exit 'exit 23' for Alabama nine west toward Albany/Troy," and the display shows:

A couple of minutes later, "Alabama nine west" seems to have turned into good old US 9W.

Which is something of a relief because making the trek to Albany is quite far enough - Alabama is rather more than I'd reckoned with.

Day 6.310: Five sit down for dinner

Exile #3 was not feeling well today - which means we didn't get out much, but also we didn't see much of her - especially at meal times. At dinner time however, we did have five at the table, thanks to a morning-creation of E5N1's and mine.

He started out with feet, and then gained wheels.  As for what he likes to eat...

...nuts of course.

Day 6.300: He's my only friend...

...he's not my only friend,
but he's a little glowing friend,
but really he's not actually my friend
but he is...

blue canary in the outlet by the light switch (who watches over me!)

Day 6.295: In the last 13 years...

It was my last day after 13 years working for the same company today.

13 years ago:

• There was no Blogger or WordPress.
• I wasn't a parent.
• Home dial-up internet access was a luxury item.
• I had never used Google to search for something (remember AltaVista?)
• Mark Zuckerberg hadn't even gone to college never mind started Facebook.
• I had never had a mobile phone.
• It wasn't too embarrassing to describe the features introduced in ISO 14882:1998 as "new C++" (I was still hearing this less than 5 years ago though!)
• I'd never worn a cleanroom suit.

It's been a long journey, we've been through a lot together, but it has come to an end.

Day 6.245: Hands-free on the road

Here's a couple of things I've never done before with the phone in its holder attached to the windscreen.

1) Take a photograph (or two in fact - just a few seconds apart):

2) Get Siri to send an email.

This is what I ended up sending to Exile #2:

I'm planning on coming straight time without stopping should be. That at about 635

All so very clear!

Day 6.241: Mine & his (craft)

It's fair to say that, despite our tech and geek cred, we're not really early-adopters in this household. So it is that I confess that we have just discovered Minecraft.

E5N1 has been experimenting with it for a week or so - on the iPad, but today in a bit of downtime while Exile #4 was at a birthday party and Exile #2 took Exile #3 out for some last minute back-to-school items, I sat down with him and with my phone entered one of his Minecraft worlds that he was exploring on the iPad.

Of course, I soon needed a challenge and set out to build a house. So, while he made lava rivers and tried to quench them with the traditional kind, I made a two-storey house.  E5N1 made some important contributions too once the structure was basically complete - some lighting for the dingy ground floor, some pictures and bookcases upstairs and - most important of all - a menagerie of creatures spawned in the top floor.  The animals eventually found their way out of the house (except for one cow that couldn't find the stairs) - the chickens were by far the quickest - and into the ocean (you can see them to the left of the top picture):

It's hardly impressive compared with the amazing things that people create in this game, but it was cool way to spend an hour or so!

Day 6.229: Do you want chips with that?

Our lighthouse visit back on Day 6.220 was to the Nauset Light. It was moved back from the rapidly eroding sea shore in 1998 and members of the preservation society who arranged that move were available to give us (and several other people) a quick tour.

The outside is the familiar image of the lighthouse from Cape Cod Potato Chips packets.  In fact, they recently paid for its smart new paint-job!  Inside is the impressive spiral staircase, a small watch room and you can climb the stairs to see the rotating light above.

The bottom left picture shows the staircase taken through a small hole in the metal floor of the room.  The bottom right picture shows Exile #4 with her "blinky pin" souvenir.

Day 6.196: Engineering work in progress

It was a beautiful evening - warm, but not hot and with low humidity. We went out to Five Rivers after dinner for a brief walk.

The beavers are at it again - upgrading their man-made lake with some engineering work of their own to increase the water level.

I suspect that either the weather or their landlords will remove their new dam sooner or later, but for now, we get to admire their industry!

Day 6.164: Rivers lookup

During our visit to Five Rivers yesterday we took a group shot at our traditional location.  As far as I can see, it was the first time since last October.

It got me thinking about how many we had - and how far back they go.  It turns out they cover more than five years.  With apologies for the technical issues, here they are:



Keeping a blog like this has its cool moments!