This year we took everyone out to a place owned by Jose Garces, a friend of a friend. Mercat a la Planxa is one of the best reviewed new restaurants in the US right now, it’s a well deserved honor. The food was delicous, the drink was never empty and the atmosphere was nearly perfect.
We spent our Thangsgiving break in North Carolina with the better half’s half of the family. (Read on …)
Obama announced his running mate this morning and held a kickoff rally at the Old State Capital building in downtown Springfield.
1. Brake Light Switch
2. Moon Roof Pinch Sensor (twice)
3. Moon Roof Air Spoiler (it just went missing one day)
4. Seat Heater Computer
5. Seat Heating Element
6. Fuel Lines, Heat Plates
7. Right Rear Window Gears (stripped)
8. Mystery Fuse For Rear 12V Socket
Car age: 4 years. All repairs were done at the dealership under warranty. To VW’s credit service has steadily improved since I’ve owned the car.
Four years have passed since we all were here. It seems that Moab changed a bit more than we did.
(Read on …)
The most prominent feature in Edinburgh is the castle, which sits atop a volcanic core. The core is all that remains after glaciers stripped away the rest of the mountain. It’s a naturally fortified position, which made it that much more difficult for the Scots to retake after the English took it over. (Read on …)
We landed in Scotland on Sunday. Leslie managed to sleep a bit on the plane while I caught up on all the movies I had missed from the last six months. Having not slept, or not much anyway, we decided to hit the town immediately. (Read on …)
Leslie was up in Toronto, I had just arrived home that evening from San Francisco. I had trouble sleeping with the jet lag and an empty house. But I did manage to nod off around 2am only to be roused by the shaking and the noise at 4:37.
This was not my first rumbler. In 1993 I was similarly jolted out of bed by a more violent quake. This one was only a dozen miles away did more bouncing than shaking. The ‘93 quake condemned the main building of my high school and extended my spring break by a few days. I was too shocked to take in the entire experience of this event.
The Illinois quake had extensive aftershocks, one in particular stands out because I was in the office. My office is on the fifth floor of and old masonry building. It started at 10:14 and lasted what seemed like minutes.
During these quakes I was careful to pay attention to everything I could, the noise, the movement of the ground beneath my feet and of the rattling of the buildings.
