Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 67

I hate losing an hour of sleep

to "springing forward," but tonight is the night I (and everyone else in the U.S.) must endure that cruelty, so I'm crashing early.

The XPRT Women Code-a-thon began today, and it was exciting to be there.  Folks are doing a lot of interesting work, and I'm psyched to see the results.

Dinner took us to Chavez for some truly excellent Mexican dishes, including possibly the best queso fundido I've ever tasted.  I definitely recommend this restaurant.

Tomorrow requires another early start, alas, so the lost hour of sleep is doubly annoying.

To sleep I go.

Seattle sunshine

graced us for a few hours today, but then the weather turned rainy and chilly.  We enjoyed the clear skies while they lasted.

For a snack we enjoyed some tasty ice cream from the Kurt Farm Shop.

Click an image to see a larger version.
It's definitely worth a visit if you live here.

Dinner took us to Wild Ginger, which serves a variety of Asian-inspired dishes.  All the ones we tasted were good.

Walking there and back, we had this side-on view of a ferris wheel.


Lovely.

For dessert, we stopped at Gelatiamo for some very good gelato.


Tomorrow, the XPRT Women Code-a-thon starts early!

Exactly why they canceled my first flight

is not clear--the most consistent mumbling involved "equipment" (read: airplane) issues--but I got up this morning to learn that my day was not going to be what I expected.

When you travel as much as I do, this sort of annoying change happens from time to time, but it's still no fun.

I stayed up and worked from home while Gina worked her magic and booked our whole team on a new set of flights.

From that point on, the day has gone pretty much as it should.  I even enjoyed a Red Mango parfait in the Charlotte airport.

I'm writing this post from a plane, though, because by the time we land, collect our bags, acquire our rental van, drive to the hotel, check in, and finally make it to our rooms, it's going to be very late, and I'm going to crash.

Tomorrow, we begin the set-up work for our event, and we also will shoot some b-roll for the video we will eventually create about the event.

I'm heading to Seattle

because this weekend PT is one of the sponsors of this exciting event:


You can read more about it and register for it on the code-a-thon's EventBrite page.

I'm quite excited to see what the participants come up with and to hear what Kristin Toth Smith, the keynote speaker, has to say.

If you're in Seattle and like to code, come on down and join the fun!

I had to hear this song tonight

I hope it works for you, too.

Getting better

but still sick, so it may be a day or three before I return to normal blogging.

In the meantime, in the restroom at work today, the album version of this song was inexplicably playing.  I saw Crenshaw perform in Raleigh on the first tour in support of this album, and I very much enjoyed his performance.  I hope you like the song.

I'm sick

Something hit me hard late last night and all through today.  So, I spent the day in bed, and now I'm about to spend another long stint there.  I hope to awaken feeling better.

I'm home

I've been up for almost 25 hours, but I'm home, and all is well.

Time to sleep for a very long time.

A quick note before bed

It's late here, I have yet to pack, and I want to grab some sleep before the very long flight, because I don't sleep well--if at all--on planes.  So, I'll keep this short.

My first adventure today was to follow recommendations and check out the Tower Bridge.  It's a nifty structure whose middle raises--though not today--and one that offers amazing views of London.

Click an image to see a larger version.
The small section of glass floors was cool, but photographing through it with my phone did not work as well as I had hoped.


Next up was a return visit to the British Museum, again to follow a commenter's recommendation, this time to see the Sutton Hoo exhibit.  (I caught more while I was there, of course, but this exhibit brought me back.)  It was a small but powerful show, with a nifty selection of artifacts from Britain around 600 A.D.  I particularly liked this battle helmet, which was amazingly well preserved and then restored,


as well as this replica of what they think the helmet once looked like.


The final big event of the day was a play, the musical Kinky Boots, which comes from the movie of the same name.  A romp with a serious message of acceptance--tolerance is not enough, acceptance must be the goal--this play was fun from start to finish.

Now, to pack, to sleep a bit, and then to begin the long journey home.

Busy, busy

I don't think I will ever see all of the British Museum, but I visit it each time I'm in London.  My progress is slow, though, because there are so many exhibits that I like to see again.  Today, I spent most of my time in the Egyptian sections, which are obviously huge and so take a lot of time even if you're only browsing.

After that, I popped over to the Shaftesbury Theatre to catch the musical, Motown.  Long on music and short on accuracy, the show was both fun and, at times, a touching quick trip through some of America's fairly recent past.  I don't feel I learned anything about Berry Gordy, but the story served as an adequate framing device for the many, many songs, and they were great.  (I should note here that I am a Motown fan, so I already knew all of these tunes.)  As long as you go just for the music, this show is a blast.

Dinner tonight was at one of London's finest restaurants, in my opinion possibly its finest, The Ledbury.  I had eaten there on my last trip to London, and that meal was fantastic, so I wanted to see if a second visit would prove to be as good.  It most certainly did.  I cannot recommend The Ledbury highly enough.

I'd write more, but it's quite late, and I'm very tired, so to sleep I go.