To date I have intentionally not written about work or software development, and the little I have written about has been very vague. This has been because of my employment. I work in a national laboratory, where a lot of our value is in our intellectual property, and there is a strict process for disclosing anything outside of the lab. Any publication or video or presentation must be approved by at least five people before it is allowed outside the lab.

Naturally, this has a tendency to stifle things that people say outside the lab, and makes communication and marketing a little more difficult. Blogging and contributions on forums and comments on web sites are sticky as well, and we have to be careful about what is said and how it reflects on the lab.

For a while I’ve been pushing back, asking management, legal, and IP folks about what is allowed and what is not. They’re coming around and starting to see the value of participating in the online community, and seeing the importance of having a presence on the web.

The current interpretation of the rules is that once something has been through our review process and is approved for disclosure to the public, that approval is good for more than just the event or journal for which it was approved. In other words, once it’s been approved, we can reuse it anywhere.

So I’m going to write more about what I do, and post more media and information about the projects in which I participate, but it will only be stuff that has been approved already. It’s a fine line, but I’ll do my best to tread on the right side of it.

Saturday morning I went to bed at 2am and got up at 6am. I finished packing for the trip and waited for Doug to pick me up. We all met at Nick’s house, then the eight of us went in two cars down to Eagle Creek, which is in Oregon next to the Columbia River near the pleasant town of Hood River. We stopped in Hood River for bagel sandwiches before we finished the drive. It took a minute to find a parking spot, but we found a place and got all our gear together, then started the hike at about 12:30. The whole hike is through a canyon next to the creek, passing by, over, and even under tributaries to it, and passing from side to side over bridges. The hike itself was easy; very little elevation change. Even though my backpack was full, I was having fun on the walk and had extra energy.

We stopped a few times to let others catch up, and there were a couple stops where the view was amazing; one bit had a sheer wall over 150 feet high, and we could look straight down into the pool of water and see the bottom of the turquoise river. Eventually we made it to tunnel falls, 6.5 miles into the hike. The trail meets the waterfall and goes behind it through a small tunnel. It was loud and there was lots of spray. We took a bunch of pictures. I tried a vertical panorama, and it turned out pretty well. The picture below is a very very small version of it.

Some of the others were getting tired, and we hadn’t found our campsite yet. There was a rumor that the campsite we were planning to stay at further up was taken by boy scouts. I had tons of energy still, so Nick, Ryan, and I went ahead while the others stayed and rested. For a little bit I was even running with my pack. We passed a few more waterfalls, including one that split into two streams and then one went under the other. The few campsites we found were taken, though, so after a mile we turned around and went back to tunnel falls and met the rest. Then we walked back about a mile to the next campsite with free spaces.

We set up our tents and made dinner. Then we started a fire and smoked our clothes and hair. Eventually we went to bed; I had my phone so I was able to watch an episode of the Simpsons before falling asleep. Sleeping was rough, but I managed.

In the morning we got up, filtered some water from the creek, and had oatmeal. Then we packed our tents and left the campsite. The hike back was just as easy, and it only took us a few hours to make it back. The couple that had stayed in the campsite next to us had also parked next to us, and unfortunately their car’s window had been smashed the night before. Nick’s BMW was untouched, though.

Back in the vehicles, we stopped in Hood River at a nice cafe for burgers, then drove the rest of the way back to the tri-cities. It was a fun hike, and there were some gorgeous bits of scenery. I was surprised at how much I was in shape for it. Neither the weight of the pack nor the distance we hiked bothered me a bit.

On Memorial Day I traveled with two coworkers to San Antonio for a project. I’ve been working on some emergency management software for the Air Force, and we were going down to demo it for them and hopefully get a decent chunk of money to continue working on it. We had an early flight, and I arrived at the airport with my ticket 30 minutes before it was scheduled to leave (in other words, in plenty of time considering the Pasco airport). Unfortunately, the TSA guy checking tickets and IDs was an old man more interested in conversation than getting any actual work done, and though both x-ray lines were open (which I’ve only seen a couple times), the line was backed up pretty far. I made it through the line and got directly on the plane, giving Gariann a few gray hairs in the process as she got worried that I wouldn’t make it in time.

The flight to Denver was a lot of fun as we descended. For many miles we skimmed along right above the cloud line. It was like flying a couple feet above rolling hills, and occasionally we would go right next to a high standing cloud and it felt like we had narrowly avoid running straight into it. The flight from Denver to San Antonio was less interesting, though it was unfamiliar territory. As we exited the plane the oppressive humidity hit immediately. We made our way to the rental car and proceeded to get lost. Dave’s GPS couldn’t find the place, and my Google maps gave me completely wrong directions. Fortunately, we called the hotel and asked for directions after I directed us only a couple miles in the wrong direction. Bad Google. No no.

We checked in to the hotel, which was in the middle of nowhere, then met back downstairs and went out for a late lunch. We drove over to the Rudy’s BBQ place near Sea World. It was an interesting experience, but the ribs were good. After that we stopped at a Bass Pro Shop for Dave and explored that for a bit before going back to the hotel. I watched TV for a while, then accidentally fell asleep. I woke up completely drenched in sweat about an hour later. It was about 8, and I was hungry again, so I called Gariann and we went to dinner at the Cracker Barrel right next to the hotel. Then I went back to bed for good.

Up at 5:45 Texas time, I got ready and met Dave and Gariann for breakfast downstairs, and we drove about half an hour to the base where we would be doing our work. Fortunately, Tuesday was just for us to listen and watch, so I paid attention and watched the demos of the other software and listened to the discussions without saying anything. The other two were the program managers and military liaisons; I was the technical guy who made it all work. After the meetings all day, we went back to the hotel and changed, then met some of the other military folks at a different Rudy’s; this time I got a full rack of ribs. Back in the hotel we practiced our demo some more and I made a couple improvements to the software before going to bed.

Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:45 again and brought my things downstairs for breakfast. We stopped at Starbucks for some large containers of coffee for everyone (except me), then were praised as we delivered the coffee to all the military guys. The first part of the meeting was demos by other guys, and I took the opportunity to prepare for our presentation. When it came time for us, we got up there and ran through our demo with only a couple hiccups that actually were to our advantage. Dave was doing most of the talking as Gariann and I walked through the software, but at the end I had a few minutes to present a separate but related project that I also work on. After our demo was lunch, and we had some interesting discussions with some of the guys about our software that will probably lead to more work.

After the meeting we were done, so we went back to the hotel and took a nap. At about 7 we met up again and headed downtown. I had convinced the others to go down to the riverwalk, since I had never been there and hadn’t had a chance to do any sightseeing. Parking was odd. We stopped at a parking lot and there was a guy there who charged us $10 to park. I handed him a $5 and 5 $1s. He handed us back a $10 bill. I was thoroughly confused, but none of us were about to correct him. So we parked and got out and headed for the riverwalk, stopping to see the Alamo on the way. It was closed, so we only got to see the outside, but it was still pretty neat. Then we continued on.

The riverwalk is fascinating. It’s probably best described as Texas’s version of Venice. It’s a single river with small boat tours and walkways along both sides with many bridges connecting the two sides and restaurants all along the way with tables outside. We sat down for dinner at one restaurant and I watched people go by as we ate. Then we wandered up and down the walk for a while exploring, and finally stopped for ice cream on the way back.

Thursday morning we were up early again to get to the airport for our flight. We checked out, then headed back to the airport. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. We didn’t see a single sign off the highway and ended up passing it. So I checked Google maps on my phone for directions and directed us to what didn’t seem quite right and ended up being completely wrong. It took us to the cargo terminal on the other side of the runway! It was very embarrassing for me to be wrong with the directions again no thanks to google. Usually I’m a huge fan of Google, and I love having Google Maps on my phone, but in San Antonio it just didn’t work out so well. We still made it to the airport on time, but none of us appreciated the scenic route around the whole airport.

The flights back were unexciting, and my efforts at sleeping were foiled by annoying passengers. After I returned to Pasco at 1:30, I went directly to work and had a meeting at 2:30. Then I was in meetings until 4:30, when I left to go home and change before softball practice. It was a really long day.

A few weeks ago I went to Boston for a conference. I hadn’t really been to Boston before (at least, not that I remember. I think I went when I was a lot younger), so I took the opportunity to travel a few days early and explore the city. As an added bonus, my friend from way back in high school is living in Boston, so I had a place to stay, a tour guide, and a great opportunity to catch up with a friend.

I flew early on Friday, May 9 to Boston, and had no trouble navigating the T to get to within a few blocks of Katie’s apartment. Her husband Tim was travelling to Seattle for a wedding, so she was glad to have company while he was away. We met up and I dropped my stuff at her place. We chatted for a while, then went to a spanish tapas place a few blocks away for dinner. It was mostly really tasty. I like to order risky dishes, and sometimes it works out very well. This tapas place was good. Our next stop was an irish bar nearby, where I had some Sam Adams seasonal, and we chatted for a couple hours.

Saturday we went to some museums and did a lot of walking. First was the Museum of Fine Art. It did indeed have a lot of fine art, including some of my favorite french impressionism. So Paris, Chicago, and Boston all contain my favorite artists and most memorable pieces. It was a large museum with many exhibits, so after a couple hours we were a bit exhausted. We wandered around searching for lunch and finally found Bertucci’s. A few blocks away from the MFA was the Isabella Gardner museum, which was the former home of a very rich woman who collected a lot of art and opened the lower floors of her mansion up as a museum and specified that upon her death the museum would remain exactly as she had left it. It was a neat place.

We meandered back to the apartment and collected ourselves a bit, then went out to dinner nearby at a place called Fireplace, which was a really nice restaurant that had good seafood. I had grilled bluefish, and really enjoyed it. We had some really good cheeses and a strange sausage as well. But looking at the wine list I realized we have it really good here in Washington. Back at the apartment we watched some british tv, then called it a night.

Sunday morning we went out to downtown Boston to do what is known as the Freedom Trail, and is essentially a painted red line that takes one on a hike of a couple miles past many of the most famous sites in Boston. Katie was a great tourguide as we went to each place on the trail, and it was amazing to think that each of those places was hundreds of years old and that these were the places that we had learned about in history and are so important to our past. It was really cool. A little sad, though, considering our history is only a few hundred years old and over in Europe they work in the thousands of years old. Oh well.

Lunch was a little Italian place in North End, where the food was excellent and the portions were gigantic. It was a great meal.

The last stop for us on the Freedom Trail was the USS Constitution. We joined the guided tour and got to see the various decks and struggle not to hit heads on ceilings below.

After we got back, Tim had returned from his trip, and they gave me a ride to my hotel in Waltham. I dropped off my stuff and they brought me back to the nearest T stop and left. From there I went to Cambridge and explored for a while before meeting my friend Dennis and his friends for dinner. We ate at a local bar and talked for a few hours. Then I took a cab back to my hotel and prepared for the conference the next day. My hotel room was huge. For some reason I was given a suite, so I had two bedrooms, two baths, a living room with a large flat screen tv, and a full kitchen. It was WAY more than I needed, so I closed off one of the bedrooms so they wouldn’t have to do any cleaning in there.

Monday was the conference, and there were a lot of interesting sessions to attend. In the evening was my poster session, where I presented one of my projects writing software for mobile devices used by law enforcement. It went well, and my posters looked fantastic.

Tuesday didn’t go as well. There were still a lot of sessions that interested me, but it wasn’t long after eating that it started to disagree with me in a bad way. I made to the end, but hastily went back to my hotel and proceded to writhe in misery throughout the night, barely sleeping and hurling more than I thought possible in the middle. I had planned to do a lot of work Tuesday night and then explore Boston more on Wednesday, but morning came and I didn’t feel like going out. Eventually I made it out by checkout time and took a cab to the nearest commuter rail station, where I took the train to the T, then took the T to the airport. I was a few hours early, so I had some lunch and caught up on some TV episodes I had been missing (yay for getting internet on my laptop through my cell phone).

The flight back was uneventful, and I made it home late Wednesday night.

The first part of my trip was great. I really liked Boston, though it’s definitely not my favorite city ever. It was nice catching up with Katie, and I’m glad I had her to show me around.

Last night was a wine party and barbecue. The wife of a friend and coworker works at a winery nearby, and every year employees have access to all the bottles that have been mislabeled or unlabeled at ridiculously low prices. They can get up to 15 cases (that’s 12 bottles per case), for $15 dollars each. She then sold us those cases at cost. The cases were mostly random; she works at a wine conglomerate that represents a few different wineries, so we had some variety. The point of the party was to get our cases and trade bottles with each other to get closer to the cases we wanted. First we had a barbecue and did some wine tasting.

I am horrible at judging wines; I couldn’t tell any difference between three of the four reds, and it was especially astonishing that they ranged in price from $10 to $75 per bottle. I don’t particularly like reds anyway, so I wasn’t too disappointed in myself. But I also wasn’t very good at blind tasting the whites either. I didn’t correctly identify any of them. Oh well.

In preparation for the barbecue, I spent part of the day in the kitchen working on my first lemon meringue pie. I had no idea how complicated it would be. The pie crust, meringue, and filling each required many steps, and some of them had to be done very close together. To confound matters, the recipe was split across three separate sections of the cookbook, so I was flipping back and forth. In the end it all came together, and when it went into the oven it looked fantastic. Then I tasted the filling and meringue in the bowl and got a little worried. There was a strong aftertaste of corn starch. It came out of the oven looking even better:

I let it cool for a bit, then put it in the fridge while I went to work for a while. Then I went to the wine party, and after we ate, I cut it up to discover how tasty it was. There were more people than I expected, so the cake had to get split into 14 slices. The thinness of the slices made the filling have a hard time staying together. That’s just an excuse, though. I should have boiled the filling a little longer so it would retain its shape. So it wasn’t the prettiest slice of pie, but the meringue part turned out great. And the taste more than made up for the presentation. The corn starch flavor was gone, and it tasted exactly like it should have.

In the future I’ll be doing the filling a little longer so it retains its shape better, but other than that, it was a great pie.

Sunday the 9th was my birthday, and it was a very happy one indeed, though thanks to some stupid legislation was one hour shorter than everyone else’s. I can’t complain, though; my grandma’s birthday is February 29th.

It started bright and early when I got a text message from Nick, then immediately after that from Carolyn. I replied to Nick that he had won and was the first to congratulate me, then found out later that they were actually competing with each other. I made it over to their house at 11 and brought the leftover cheesecake from the night before. We put it in the fridge for later, then Marina, Doug, and Naomi arrived shortly after. Marina and I followed the others to a short hiking trail about 25 minutes away called Twin Sisters at Wallula Gap. It was basically a pair of large rock pillars sticking up near the river. We wandered around and explored. As we walked by a fence, a man on the other side was walking towards us. I waved and said howdy, but he ignored us. Later, he got in his truck and moved it down his driveway to a vantage point where he sat in the truck and watched. At one point I got too close to the fence and was treated to a long blast from his horn until I moved, followed by some loud and indistinguishable yelling. He moved his truck again and we could see him watching from binoculars. What an odd and grumpy old man. Otherwise it was a pleasant hike, though more an exploration than any distance or difficulty.

We went back to town and stopped at Sonic for burgers and drinks, then went back to Nick and Carolyn’s for the cheesecake and to see the pictures. Afterwards I went home for a couple hours. I had intended to work, but ended up watching some shows online instead. I talked to one sister, then to my mom. I was supposed to arrive at my birthday party at 6:45 and dinner was to start at 7. I was watching the microwave clock and thought it was 5:30 when my mom called. She asked if I had to get ready, and I said I had plenty of time. Then I thought about it and realized the microwave was the only clock I hadn’t yet changed, and that there was no way I was going to be on time. I got off the phone and changed quickly, then bolted out the door. I talked to my mom again as I drove, watching the clock pass 6:45 and cursing every red light. Fortunately I found the place with little difficulty and walked in at 6:55, the last person to arrive.

The venue was the Blue Moon Restaurant, and it is only open for catered groups of 10 or more. They served a six course meal, and we were the only ones there. It was a total of 19 people, and it worked out great, even though there were people from a few different circles of friends. The first course was crostinis with Italian sausage. Second was a lobster bisque. After that was a salad with Dijon dressing, followed by a berry sorbet. For the entree, we chose between steak with Diane sauce, crusted chicken breast with Porcini sauce, sauteed pork loin, and salmon with fennel cream. I picked the salmon. After that was coffee, but I was able to get tea instead. Finally, dessert was a cheese souffle glace, which is like a combination of ice cream cake and cheesecake. It was all pretty good. The conversation was fun, and since I was towards the middle of the really long table I could listen to and participate in a few conversations at once. People were dressed nice, and despite all our efforts we still ended up with extra silverware at our places. I got a cookbook, a bottle of wine, and a nice card/scrapbook.

Afterwards I went home and talked to my other sister for a long time, then watched the first hour of a movie from 1919 called The Spiders by Fritz Lang before going to bed.

It was a really good day. I had fun with people I like, and throughout the day people were sending me text messages or calling me, or sending messages through Facebook or MySpace. I felt loved.

Last night I was invited over to a friend/coworker’s house for dinner. I love going to his house because he and his wife are smart and we can talk about all kinds of things, and their house is cute, and the food is fantastic. This time was no different. There were six of us, and for the first hour we talked and ate from the vegetable plate while we waited for dinner to cook. Eventually, after setting off two smoke alarms, the main course was done, and it looked good. It was a mammoth chunk of salmon wrapped in red onions and spinach, and all covered in a sort of pie crust, looking a bit like a tasty pillow. It was served with leeks and broccoli and rolls, and it was delicious.

After dinner we talked for a while, then brought out the cheesecake. I had prepared the dessert, and if I must say so, I did a FINE job of it. I’ve wanted to try a cheesecake for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity. I had to go out to get a spring form pan. Making the cake wasn’t really that hard. It took a little longer than the recipe said it would, but it was my first time. I split the filling in half and added some chocolate to half, then poured the chocolate half in and the white half on top, swirling gently to get it to look right. I followed the directions exactly, and was very happy that the cake didn’t crack at all. While it was cooling I made a nice chocolate sauce and put it in an old mustard bottle. When we served the cheesecake, I added a little bit of the sauce to make it a little more presentable, and for my slice they pulled out a candle for me to celebrate my birthday. Here is what it looks like, but the picture hardly does it justice compared to the taste:

After dinner we talked some more, then went downstairs to watch a couple ancient videos of the Hanford area and the nuclear scare, like Duck and Cover. Then the party was over and I came home with a few slices of cheesecake left.

It was another insanely busy week at work, and an unusually long break between Salsa nights at Kimo’s, so I was particularly anxious to dance tonight. All the other regulars were there. My server and I have transcended audio communication and moved on to head nods . I think that may be a sign that I should mix up my drink orders. Anyway, the dancing was fun, and with more women than men tonight, we were out on the floor more songs than not. If only it wasn’t 40-50 year old moms with their 12-16 year old daughters.

After that I went over to Latin Night at another place. This is a younger crowd, but the music is mostly cumbia, with an occasional salsa or merengue. The tricky part about a guy going to a place alone is making it apparent that you’re not one of the creeps standing with a drink in one hand and watching everybody else, waiting to descend like a vulture on the drunkest one. Being alone is a warning sign for women, and it takes a bit of effort to convince them otherwise. Dancing alone on the floor is an even bigger warning sign, no matter how well a guy dances. It’s something you just don’t do. So the only way to remedy the situation is to be fortunate enough to recognize someone and say hi, indicating to everyone there that you know other people, and increasing your credibility as a human instead of an ape. The other option is to find someone and ask her to dance, but that can be tricky because if you get turned down a couple times, you will look desperate and will get turned down by everyone else.

I watched for a few songs, partly because they were playing cumbia, and partly because I was trying to find someone who danced well and wasn’t dancing exclusively with another partner. It’s simple research; you don’t want to ask someone if you can discover in advance that they will refuse, and you don’t want to break into the scene with a struggling partner. I don’t mind dancing with newer dancers at all; and sometimes I even prefer it, but not for that first dance where I need to establish myself as a good lead and friendly person. I think I’m unusually aware of everything that goes on and all of the interactions and reactions. Maybe it’s my scientific analysis of everything constantly running; maybe I’m just reading into it all too much.

The time came and I walked over to a table where a good dancer was sitting with her friends. I tapped her on the shoulder and said: “Can I snag you for this one? I promise I don’t suck.” She laughed and said ok, but the girl next to her said something I couldn’t quite make out, but that sounded very much like gringo. Whatever; I was dancing with the one who had laughed. We danced, and she was an excellent follow. She even recognized me from the last time I was there, which was about two months ago. That actually happens to me a lot. I guess tall white geeky boys who can dance stay in people’s memories for some reason.

Overall it was a good night, but I’ll likely have my nose back to the grindstone again tomorrow. Sunday is another bit of respite for my birthday party.

Wednesday afternoon is when it started. Something felt… off. I thought immediately that I might be getting sick, so I went home and tried to sleep it off. No luck. That night it got pretty bad; I couldn’t sleep and my sinuses were extremely angry.

Thursday I woke up and felt alright. I thought maybe it was a really quick cold and that I’d be fine at work. I had a few meetings, but did my best to keep them short, wash my hands before and after, and not touch my face. I even had a dentist appointment, but the only symptom I felt was a closed throat, so I didn’t cancel it.

I had skipped lunch, so I picked up bento on the way back to work after the dentist appointment. After I ate, though, things got bad fast. The headache came back, the sinuses exploded, the throat closed, and I went home and watched some movies.

The throat closing thing really bothers me. It feels like I’m wearing a tie too tight and barely not choking. If you push on your neck just below the adams apple and right in that soft spot and just hold your finger there for hours on end, that’s what it feels like. Fortunately, I’ve found that swallowing helps, so I’ve been sucking on swedish fish all day.

Today the choking feeling was too much. While chatting with some coworkers (online. I was working from home), they convinced me to go to the doc-in-a-box. I went, they had a 2 hour wait, so I came home and waited for them to call me. Eventually, they did, and the doc had a quick examination. I told him about the throat closing, and he said he’d take a look. He got his instrument out, and looked in my left ear. I said “wrong hole, doc” with a smile. He did the other ear, then said; “ok, now it’s time for the money shot. Open your mouth real wide.” Fortunately, it was a wood tongue depressor, and I was able to contain my laughter. He took some blood for a couple tests, and I watched the Simpsons on my phone while I waited. He came back and the news was good; “no mono, no strep, and your blood is healthy. It’s probably viral, and you just have to sit it out. Your lymph nodes are swollen, but your throat is pretty open, so you don’t have to worry about suffocating in your sleep. You’re contagious, so stay home for a few days.”

This does ruin my weekend plans, and means I’m going to have to work harder next week to catch up. Oh well.

I started early this morning at WSU Tri-Cities. I had volunteered to be a judge at the science bowl, and met Nick and Carolyn in the room where we were judging. For the first round I was tallying correct answers. The second round I was a scientific judge, which meant making sure the moderator read the questions right and recognizing the person who buzzed in. For the third round I went downstairs to go over the next round of questions with the other judges to make sure we were ok with the pronunciations. For the fourth round I was the moderator. And for the fifth round I was the science judge again. It wasn’t long; we were done by noon.

I had planned to go in to work, but it was so nice out that Nick and Carolyn had little difficulty convincing me to go hike Badger Mountain. I changed quickly and met them at the mountain. We hiked it fairly quickly and all had a pretty easy time of it. I haven’t hiked in a while, so I was surprised that I didn’t even breathe hard. The weather was perfect for the hike and we all had a nice time.

I drove in to work for a few hours and made some progress on one of my projects, then went back home to make a dessert for later. It was a peach pie, made entirely from scratch. I was on a tight schedule, so the minute it came out of the oven it went into my car and I was off to Nick and Carolyn’s house. They had barbecued some chicken, and it came out great. After dinner we started the movie War, with Jet Li.

Partway through the movie we cut into the pie, and I was very happy with the results. I was still warm, and cooked perfectly, and very tasty. I’ll definitely be doing that one again, and the recipe was pretty easy to follow.

War was an interesting movie, but I have to admit the last minute seemed to come from nowhere and try to set up a sequel in the most unconvincing manner possible and tie up some strange loose ends in ways that just didn’t seem right. Everything up to that last minute was good, though, and I was pleasantly surprised by the twist that got revealed towards the end.

Now I have half a pie in my kitchen, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be my breakfast, lunch, and dessert. In all, it was a good day.