unwiredben

I just uploaded a new set. This is from the last day and a half of the safari in Africa while we were visiting the Ngorongoro Crater. One more set to go with a few pictures taken while we were in Zanzibar.

I've just finished uploading pictures to the Africa - Serengeti set, although I've got a few more videos that are being processed right now. There's still one day of safari pictures left to sort through from our visit to the Ngorongoro Crater, plus pictures of Zanzibar. It's a good thing I've got some downtime on this trip to Palm HQ. I really like this video that I captures of two zebras fighting while we were driving through the big migration. The creatures were really beautiful, but they can be brutal.

I've just updated the first set on Flickr with a few videos that didn't originally upload. We've got a secretary bird stomping around, some guinea hens moving through the trees, a herd of zebra grazing, and a herd of wildebeest running in front of our vehicle. Enjoy!

We're back in the US and recovering from the trip. Annelies is still having a little bit of lag, and I got a weird allergic reaction blister on my neck from an unknown cause, but with some prescribed steroid cream, it's healing nicely.

I've started going through all 1500+ pictures from the trip, and I've put the first set on Flickr. This covers my arrival in Tanzania and the first 24 hours of our safari. This is the travel from Arusha to the Ndutu Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We had a great driver for the safari named Jojo, and on this first day, we passed by a number of Masai villages before heading off the main road. We saw many, many zebra, wildebeest, and gazelles that day, but the real fun was at dinner when we got to watch the lodge's resident genets hang out on rafters above the lounge area. The next morning, we went on a drive around the lake near there, watching a few sleeping lions, a hard-to-track cheetah, a snake-kicking secretary bird, and some more herd animals. We returned to the lodge for lunch, then headed out to the Serengeti (more on that in the next picture dump).

I'm got a brief moment of Internet connectivity here from the ICTR, so I wanted to post a quick note about the trip to Africa. So far, it's been really wonderful. Safari was great, with us seeing all of the "big 5" animals: lions, leopard, buffalo, rhinos, and elephants. We also saw a huge zebra and wildebeest migration where you were surrounded by these creatures as far as the eye can see. The pictures will be amazing.

However, there is other news. On the third night of the safari, while looking down on the Ngorongoro Crater from our room at the lodge, I asked my girlfriend, Annelies, to marry me. She immediately said yes! We're both very excited. At this time, we know NOTHING about the actual wedding; there will be time to plan all of that out after we move to New York.*

I hope you all are doing well back in the US. Today, we're in downtown Arusha, and tomorrow we fly to Zanzibar. I miss you all, but I'm also having a great and relaxing and romantic time out here.

*Annelies says: sorry to tell you all about this via internet instead of in person- but we're super excited and couldn't wait a week until we're back in telephone-land to let you know!!! (and also the ring is beautiful!!!!!)

Unlike Costa Rica, I'm not planning on blogging about the trip to Africa while it's happening. In part, this is due to there being even less technology there, but also because I really want this to be a vacation. I'll have plenty to say about it when we get back.

You might want to catch up on Annelies' travel blog about her stay in Tanzania so far; it's at http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/afrikanya/1/tpod.html. She just wrote about me visiting; apparently, the corn tortillas I'm bringing are going to be put to use in a "taco party". Exciting.

I would have been in the air already if not for KLM canceling their Friday flight to Kilimanjaro from Amsterdam. I learned about this when I was checking my itinerary online yesterday; they didn't send any sort of notification to me, and the first rep I talked to on the phone thought the original flight still existed. They've rerouted me through Minneapolis, London and Nairobi, Kenya now, leaving this afternoon. I get into Kilimanjaro Airport about 15 hours later than originally planned. Fortunately, the safari leaves Sunday morning, so we didn't have to make adjustments for that. After Safari is a day in Arusha then a few days in Zanzibar. I'm very excited.

We're coming back on May 6th. I'm going to take tons of pictures, and I look forward to seeing y'all when I return.

I was looking at the Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport website trying to see what I can do during my four hour layover on the way to Tanzania later this week, and I found this passage very illuminating:

"Allow yourself to be surprised by one of the many surprising toilets at Schiphol. You will feel as though you are in the heart of Amsterdam or are being surrounded by Dutch tulips. Location: G-pier and Lounge 2."

Somehow, I never think of toilets as something I want surprising me, but that might just be my cultural insensitivity talking.

Also, in describing the Back to Life Aquamassage at the airport, they say you "can leave your clothes on", which seems to imply that you could also take them off. If that's the case, I'm not sure I want to get into the aquamassage chamber.

Finally, in the "fun for kids" section, they talk about the Grand Café Plaza, which serves "genuine clown pancakes". I never thought clowns would make good pancakes; they might taste funny.

I've got my airline tickets booked to go to Tanzania and to come back. I leave April 24th and return on May 6th. That means I have almost ten days of actually being in Africa (counting late evening of the 25th and most of the day of the 5th). That should be enough time to see Arusha, go on a small safari, and hit Zanzibar. Annelies will plan things out before I get there.

Next step: get immunizations updated (yellow fever and typhoid) and get some malaria medicine to bring with me, and send my passport off to the Tanzania embassy to get my tourist visa.

First, the UK, then Europe, then Central America, and now Africa. I guess I do get around.

Yesterday morning, I dropped off Annelies early in the morning at Austin's airport. According to the flight tracking, her last of three flights just landed at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania, so she's probably getting off the plane and going through immigration now.

We spent the last couple of weeks doing all the fun Austin stuff we could. We went to the Alamo Drafthouse three times, including a really fun "Real Genius" quote-along that I mentioned on Twitter. We had dinner out with several couples, getting to go to some places we'd not been in a while. We sat on my couch and watched "Out of Africa" and "Before Sunrise" and travel programs about climbing Kilimanjaro and going on safari in the Serengeti.

Friday night was a big Russian food dinner party that she hosted with her friend Heather. There was lots of toasting with vodka and lots of different salads and appetizers to try, most featuring mayonnaise! Saturday night, we had date night and went out to Zoot, one of Austin's fancy restaurants that I'd never visited. It was very nice; they have a farmer's tasting menu that's all vegetarian, although not vegan, so we both got that. The risotto with truffles was amazing, and I also really liked their basil ice cream that was part of Annelies' dessert.

I know that she'll be doing well out there. She's spent a lot of time preparing for the trip, and she's got great travel skills. I'm definitely already missing her, but we've got some ways to stay in touch, including cell phone and Skype. She's also writing a travel blog about the trip so all of her friends and family can see what's she's doing. (Here's the syndication feed for it as well!)

As part of a week of having the parents here in Austin, I took off a day from work, Annelies skipped her classes, and we headed on a road trip out to see some small Texas towns.

It started with coffee at Genuine Joe's in North Austin. While sitting on the patio, we saw one of Austin's wild parrots in the tree above my head. It was dropping some berries on me and had bright green plumage.

We headed down IH-35 to visit Gruene, Texas next. Officially part of New Braunfels, this little town sits on the Comal River and has a number of neat antique shops, gift shops, and restaurants. We saw some firepots shaped like pigs for grilling, and ended up going to the Gristmill Restaurant for lunch and a view of the river. I had a really nice poblano pesto pasta salad along with some jalapeno and cabbage slaw, and the other members of my party were pretty satisfied with their dishes. After lunch, I found some old issues of the Journal of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the antique shop that I picked up, and after a visit to the general store, we headed back north.

Rather than track 35 all the way back, we took state road 21 out to Lockhart, Texas. While it's famous for its BBQ, we enjoyed its historic courthouse as well as some locations that were used in the movie "Waiting for Guffman".  We got some drinks at the Javamotion coffee shop, then sat outside and watched the cold front come in, with the temperatures dropping 10 degrees while we were outside.

It was fun.  I got to see some nearby places I'd never been, and we all got to hang out more.  I'm about to head out to pick up my sister from the airport, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and the cooking has already started in full force with my spicy green beans resting in the fridge.

I've just put up a set of the best photos from Colorado on Flickr. I'll try to get them labeled and tagged later today, but most of the shots are either from the day trip to Estes Park and the surrounding mountains or from the snow that fell in Longmont on Sunday morning.

One final picture for today. As soon as I saw this sculpture, I knew I had to take a picture for kazanya. It was just sitting in front of an apartment building near the Chicago Diner, so I stopped the car I was in, got out, snapped the picture, then drove off.

The artist, John Kearney, seems to be fairly well known, with a lot of works in the Chicago area.

(originally written on Monday morning... just pulled off my Foleo and posted now)

I'm sitting on my JetBlue flight back to Austin, and I had a few more memories about New York that I wanted to write down.

In my last posting, I forgot to talk about our trip out to Coney Island. I'm glad I went, because redevelopment in the area may mean that this is the last summer with Astroland. A developer bought the land, and the rumor is that they're boosting the rent for the amusement park from $160,000 a year to $3 million.

We took the train out the Brighton Beach and walked down the boardwalk for a ways. Brighton Beach was interesting for its dense Russian population. Many signs were in Cyrillic, and Annelies had to translate some of the text for me. She was really excited to see women selling lots of different kinds of fried dough from little carts.

The boardwalk was long and not in the best repair. There were many uneven boards, and you always felt light you might just step through a hole and lose a limb to the structure. We took care to walk near the middle at one of the support beams just to have a little more wood under our feet.

Astroland was just as I expected, a dirty carnival with rigged games, cheesy rock music, and lots of nasty food. I glanced at the arcade, but I didn't see much in the way of classic video games. The highlight was the Cyclone, the 80-year old wooden roller coaster. We got a car in the middle-rear of the train, sat on the stuffed seats and pulled in the lap bar for an exciting and jerky ride. It wasn't quite as intense as the Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, but it had more character.

To end our trip, we walked over to Nathan's and got a plate of crinkly french fries, served with some excellent mustard and two long red plastic forks. There wasn't any free seating, so we found space outside on the sidewalk and ate the fries standing up, swapping between holding drinks and fries. We then walked out the pier and watched men send metal baskets with raw chicken to the bottom of the bay to catch little crabs.

It was great. Hopefully, Coney Island will get a reprieve, but if not, I'm glad I got to see it before it's gone.

More recently, we headed up to Vermont for a wedding. Two of Annelies' friends from college got hitched after seven years of dating in a very pretty ceremony at a rural farm school. We got to help with the setup and breakdown, and I got to run the MacBook and iPods that provided music for the various parts of the evening. I got to spend a lot of time with Ani's friends from school, and there were many car rides of hysterical laughter.

We got back to the city on Sunday afternoon, and for our last night, we went out for Aghani food. The restaurant was lovely, with low tables where you sat on cushions. I really liked the spicy chutney, and the kudu (pumpkin-filled pockets served with yogurt sauce) was quite excellent. While eating, the NYC police closed off the block by the restaurant to traffic. I'm not sure why, but I did see a street sweeper pass by once before it was reopened.

I've been lax writing about my New York visit for the last few weeks since getting back from LinuxWorld in San Francisco. It's been a very busy time here in Morningside Heights. Annelies finished her summer associateship and has been working on papers for school during the day, and I've been busy with a lot of detailed work on speeding up the video playback on the Foleo.

We've been to a lot of cool restaurants. Just this evening, we headed over to downtown Brooklyn to visit Grimaldi's for some very yummy pizza. They've got a coal-fired oven that gets up to about 850 degrees, and it makes the crust really nice, crisp and chewy. They don't skimp on excellent toppings either.

On Saturday, we headed down to Chinatown to go to Vegetarian Dim Sum House, a place that serves all veggie dim sum (duh!) It was a bit of an adventure; I really loved the hot-and-sour soup, but some of the other items were a bit mushy and odd tasting. It was nice to have "pork" bun finally, and the place was hopping.

We also got to see some of the FringeNYC festival pieces. The first was "Galatea", an interesting take on Pygmalion, but its clunky takes on science and Buddhism and trite ending made us view it as a failed experiment. The better work was "Helmet", a videogame-themed take on the relationship between a troubled teen and a video-game store owner. It made clever use of gaming tropes and had sharp dialog and a lot of action.

There were more interesting food adventures. I recommend both Cafe Viva Natural Pizza on north Broadway and Hangawi, a really nice vegan Korean restaurant near the Empire State Building in Koreatown. I also really like the local bar and grill up here, The Heights, with their second floor dining room and great veggie-friendly lunch specials.

Finally worth noting: Nussbaum & Wu. It's a deli and bakery just a couple of blocks from year that makes lots of really delicious bagels. I've discovered the wonder of a good egg and cheese bagel; I'll have my last one (for now) this morning before we head out. They've helped me appreciate how good bagels can be.

I fly back to Austin on Monday. I really do love New York, and I don't think I'll wait another 33 years to return.

What have I been up to? Lots.

Last Tuesday, I went down by myself to the Upright Citizen's Brigade theater for Harold Night. This packed show had five of their improv teams all doing half-hour long interconnected skits from a single audience suggestion. I really liked the venue and the friendly vibe, and I'll probably go back down this coming Tuesday to see more stuff.

Last Thursday, we had a sneak peak for the Foleo at the Palm Store at Rockefeller Center. It was fun for me; I love meeting potential customers for the product and getting their feedback. Some of their requests were a bit out there, but a lot of them are feeding into our future plans. They had some good food there, then after the event, I went out with the Palm folk to El Cid, a Spanish tapas restaurant downtown at 14th and Broadway that was quite nice.

On Friday, I stood in line with lots of parents and little kids to get book 7 of the Harry Potter series. On Tuesday morning, about 3AM, I finished the book. In the middle of all the reading, Annelies and I headed to Brooklyn where we had a wonderful birthday celebration meal at the Four Course Vegan supper club, a really intimate dinner with a bunch of cool strangers at Chef Matteo kitchen space. I loved the corn pudding and the radish ravioli, but all of the food had something to recommend it. On Sunday, Ani and I rented a car and drove out to Massachusetts to attend a friend's wedding. It was about four hours each way, but the wedding was very nice, and my new dress shoes worked out quite well.

On Wednesday, I met Annelies at work, then we headed down to the East Village where we had dinner at a Moroccan cafe, then we headed to the Bowery Ballroom to see Les Chauds Lapins, a very cute quintet playing French jazz hits from the 1920's and 30's. They were followed by this group called They Might Be Giants that I think some of you might know. They're really old, so old that their show was mainly songs from the early 1990s. They had some new ones, but I only knew the words to the classic stuff. Seriously, I really enjoyed their show -- it's the fifth time I've seen TMBG in concert, and they're always great. Highlights were Flans wearing a giant drum for a rousing version of "Whistling in the Dark" including a confetti cannon that dumped lots of shredded paper on me, the whole band performing the "Fingertips" suite, and all the back-and-forth between the two Johns about how some fan said they weren't having enough fun on stage.

Earlier this evening, I went to the prom. Well, not exactly -- it was the summer formal for the law firm where Annelies is working this summer. It was a private party at the Museum of Natural History and it had a safari chic theme. Despite not having a suit with me in NYC, I ended up being one of the best dressed men there through some creative costuming -- I found a great white silk blazer at Filene's Basement along with some white silk pants, so I added a real pith helmet I found at a costume shop in midtown. I got lots of compliments. The party was nice -- they had a buffet setup in the room with the stuffed elephants, while there were bars and casino night stations setup in the huge lobby with the dinosaur skeletons. I was really impressed by the displays, so I'll have to go back before I leave town. Alas, since the event was in the evening, I learned the hard way that the events of "Night at the Museum" are probably not true. Annelies looked very pretty in a black and white print dress, and I got to meet lots of her law firm summer associate colleagues.

This weekend another friend comes into town, so we'll likely try to go out to Coney Island for roller coasters and freak shows. Next week I head to California for LinuxWorld. The fun never stops.

Since I last updated, I've spent a long week working towards the Summer release of the Foleo mobile companion. I'll be at the Palm Store at Rockefeller Center this Thursday night with a bunch of marketing people doing a sneak peek of the device.

Tuesday night, we went to a cute cafe called Josie's at Amsterdam and 74th Street. Apparently, they started as a vegetarian diner but have added natural-raised meats to their menu in recent years. The beet salad we shared was quite good, but I found my lentil loaf disappointing until I added some lemon juice to it.

After that, we met one of Ani's law firm friends and then saw the midnight screening of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix" at the AMC Loews at 67th. I really enjoyed the movie, and I thought it caught the emotional arc of the story well, without being as much of a "favorite scenes" movie as "The Goblet of Fire". We had to catch a cab back uptown because the 66th Street metro station was closed at 2:30 in the morning.

On Thursday, we got visitors, with Gretchen and Travis (Annelies's sister and her boyfriend) showing up mid-afternoon. We hung out some with them on Friday night, going to a cool French/Moroccan bistro in SoHo then ending the evening at a dive-ish bar called Milady's.

Saturday was a big tourist day for me. We caught a torturous #1 train heading south at a very slow pace because of construction, got off at Chambers St, walked down to the Hudson River where I got to see Ground Zero, then took the Staten Island Ferry both ways to get a view of the city and the Statue of Liberty.

Later that afternoon, we walked up to SoHo and the East Village where I finally got to go to Moo Shoes, the vegan shoe shop. I got a pair of Earth Vegan shoes for walking and some fancy Oxfords for going to events. We then headed up towards Tompkins Square and had dinner at Crif Dogs and Pomme Frites. The later was super yummy with us trying out the rosemary-garlic mayo, Irish curry, and parm peppercorn dipping sauces with a large order of freshly cooked Belgian fries.

We just saw Gretchen and Travis off to the airport, and we're preparing for an afternoon at the Met, the huge art museum on the east side of Central Park. More adventures to come this week, including the rental of a car next Sunday to take us up to a wedding in Massachusetts.

So, my first week isn't officially over until Wednesday night, but I don't anticipate anything big until later this week, so I figured I'd do a wrap-up now.

I got in on Wednesday, the 4th, on a pleasant flight into JFK on JetBlue. Annelies found me at the airport and we took a cab into Manhattan to the apartment, a 2 bedroom flat on 114th street next to the Columbia University campus.

That first night, we went out into the city, with me taking my first ride on the NYC subway system. Dinner was at a vegan organic restaurant called Caravan of Dreams where we had walnut and sundried tomato pate and a variety of yummy grilled vegetable dishes. We were going to walk to the west side waterfront for the fireworks, but it was intermittently rainy, so we just headed back to the apartment.

On Thursday, I had my first day of working from NYC, then we went to the opening night of Austin's Salvage Vanguard Theater production of the (new and improved) "The Intergalactic Nemesis". They've done a good job with the rewrite, making it flow better and run quicker, and while the plot was familiar, there was enough new material to make it surprising.

Friday night was when Ani's friend Becca showed up. She's the one we visited in Costa Rica in January, and she's up in the states on vacation for a week. We hung out a while, but the big fun was the following day when more of Annelies' friends showed up for an impromptu Sarah Lawrence reunion. We spent the day eating brunch, visiting the huge Strand bookstore, hanging out in Washington Square, checking out a street fair, and eating dinner at Spice (a hip Thai place on University Avenue). I enjoyed the trek through the city and meeting up with her friends.

On Sunday, we went out to see Jill Sobule play at Joe's Pub. If you don't remember her, she had a minor hit in the early 90's with the song "I Kissed a Girl". She didn't perform that work, but she did lots of songs from her recent albums and some that she'd just written. It was a really fun performance, and Joe's Pub was a great, intimate setting. We had seats at a table about five feet from the stage, and after the show, I got to wait in line to say hello to Jill and get a USB dongle from Qigo that will let me download the show in MP3 format later this week.

Tomorrow, we've got tickets for a midnight show of the new Harry Potter film at the Lincoln Center AMC, then the next day, Ani's sister and her boyfriend come into town to visit. I've already identified a few shows to see and places to go. It's going to be a busy summer up here.

I'm in Cali all the time for work, so it's not usually worth writing a lot about my trips. However, this last one is worth mentioning, as I stayed over the weekend and had Annelies join me to go exploring.

It all started with dinner at Dishdash in Sunnyvale with girlpurple, Bill, and their friend Eric. The food was great, as always, and it was very nice outside, so we ate on the sidewalk. Everything was good, but Ani didn't care for the dessert we all shared which was a stringy and cheesy cake made of shredded filo dough with a rosewater glaze.

After dinner was a trip to Golfland USA, the mini-golf course on El Camino. We played the "King's Quest" course and I got a few hole-in-ones (and also flubbed some easy holes). It was a really nice evening outside, ending with a trip to the pool and hot tub at the hotel.

On Saturday, we headed up to San Francisco. I'd not been there since 2000, and Annelies hadn't been there since she was 12, so it was all pretty new to us. The drive up 101 had us in the City about 9:30, and we parked at the Exploratorium near Golden Gate Bridge with time to spare. The walk around the Palace of the Fine Arts was quite nice, with lots of geese, ducks, and giant fish. We got to see some gulls fight over a fish one had caught in the middle of a lake.

The Exploratorium was an interesting way to start the day. We played with about half of the interactive experiements scattered around the museum. My favorite was the working cloud chamber that showed trails from the cosmic rays; I hadn't realized they hit that often. The mirrors that let you merge faces with a friend were also fun.

After that, we walked out to the beach by the Golden Gate Bridge and Ani got her feet wet. I was surprised that there were people out in skimpy swim suits as it was really cold by the beach, but I learned later that this was a warm day for SF. :)

After this was take-away lunch at Greens, a famous vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason, where we sat on the piers and watched more gulls, then a walk down to Fisherman's Wharf where there were lots of tourists. I really liked the large sea lion colony at Pier 39, but the best part was the boat trip out into the bay where we went under the bridge and around Alcatraz.

We had dessert at Ghiradeli Square, the site of the famous chocolate factory, then drove over to Columbus Avenue where we walked though Chinatown and North Beach, finishing with the steep hike up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Books were bought at City Lights, then we had dinner with more friends at The Stinking Rose, a resturant that specializes in garlic dishes. That was very, very yummy, especially the asparagus and the dinner rolls with a garlic and parsley table sauce.

For the final SF experience, we drove up to Twin Peaks. Unfortunately, our luck in coming on a warm and clear day finally ran out, as we encountered thick fog on the way up and never were able to get a view of the city. By the time we got back to Sunnyvale, we were bushed and stinking of garlic. :)

On Sunday, we took a drive to Santa Cruz, the beachside community on the other side of the mountains from San Jose. The trip took us through some wonderful redwood forests and to the Boardwalk where we took a couple of rides on the Giant Dipper, their 83-year old wooden roller coaster. We also had a great veggie meal there at Dharma's, a cafeteria-style restaurant that makes a killer tempeh reuben.

The trip finished with the flight back to Austin on an American 757. I was able to get us upgraded to the front of the plane, and Annelies got to experience First Class service on a plane for the first time. It was nice to actually get some food on the flight, and they served everything from warm nuts as a starter to a cheese plate and chocolate sunday for dessert.

It was quite a nice trip, and it's always great to explore new places with my girlfriend. I'm sure she'll return the favor this summer when she's in New York and I visit; I've already heard great stories about Coney Island.

Due to sleep deprivation, my trip to San Jose wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I was out cold before we took off from Austin, and managed to stay dormant for most of the flight.

My rental car for this trip is a brand-new white Ford Mustang Convertible.  It's pretty, but it's also raining and cold in Silicon Valley and not likely to get much better before I fly back. :)

I'm in my favorite place to stay out here, the Wild Palms Hotel.  While it took a walk through the misty air to get there, the hot tub and its jets were quite nice, and I'm finding the wired net connection in my room to be quite fast.

I really should get in the habit of booking the Monday afternoon flight to San Jose instead of the Monday earlt morning. Waking up at 5AM to get to the airport by 6, longer security lines, and completely sold-out 757s where you've got a crummy middle seat in the back and no chance to upgrade all are things I dislike.

At least last night's Oscar party was fun. Three couples, lots of chips and dips, Tivo that let's you skip Celine Dion songs, and a whiteboard to track predictions all make for a great evening.