Fun and Games Dept

Guess who’s excited about the Apple event that is starting in less than 30 minutes as of the writing of this blog entry?

The media has been chattering about the imminent release of the iPhone 5S and it’s new, less expensive sibling the iPhone 5C for weeks. While I am not due for an upgrade of my phone (I’m on the non-“S” cycle and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with my iPhone 5), I am excited to see what Apple brings to the party today. Will there be a surprise? Will there be some new, nifty feature that’ll show that Apple can still innovate?

I’m also excited about the release of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. As an Apple developer I’ve had iOS 7 on my iPhone for a few weeks and as of the latest beta I have had very few issues with it. And while at first I did not like the new “flat UI”, I’ve actually grown to love it. It took me a little while, but it feels “airy” (for lack of a better word) and modern. If you visit directly, you’ll notice that I’ve switched to a flat UI theme for my blog.

I’m really hoping Apple gives us “one more thing” and talks about something completely unexpected. Let’s see what happens today.

Taken from the back seat of the car right at the Ohio-Indiana border.

The storm appears to be over Michigan.

So on Saturday Earl and I went to the great New York State Fair. The New York State Fair takes place on the ten-days leading up to Labor Day and we try to go and enjoy the festivities every year. The arrival of the fair is bittersweet, as while a fun day at the Fair is always enjoyable, the arrival of the fair signifies the winding down of summer.

I try to focus on the fun part.

We tend to follow the same routine when we go to the fair this year, so we started out at the Center of Progress building, which is actually a building where lots of vendors fall out of their television sets and start selling their stuff in person (markers that erase, wondrous mops, teflon pots and pans, unbreakable glass, you know the type). This year, however, we were surprised to see that the Sand Sculpture had been relocated to the Center of Progress building. A couple of years ago the fair folks messed with the existence of the sand sculpture and there was an outcry from the community (it had been replaced by a mockup of President Bush’s oval office). I was prepared for outcries on the relocation of the sand sculpture this year, but people seemed to go with the flow.

We tend to focus on the agricultural stuff more than the midway and the like, including going through all the barns and watching the various animal competitions. Earl likes to name the hens and roosters after rock stars (usually Tina Turner), this year I snapped a photo of this stately guy.

There were several improvements in the horticulture and the International Food Pavilion buildings, but this year we decided to stick with the tried and true and we ate dinner at Baker’s Chicken Coop.

I am always fascinated with the way the staff at the various eateries handle the fair traffic. Many food places are in permanent buildings on the fairgrounds; Baker’s Chicken Coop is in the taller of the A-Frames alongside the barn. The buildings get used only a few weeks out of the year and I’m sure they’re just hiring teenagers from wherever to handle the counter duties, but it’s always been a friendly and good experience for us.

When we got down by the 4H building and the Youth Pavilion, we noticed a chorus of youngsters assembling on the stage so we thought we’d sit around and listen to them sing a few tunes.

It took them quite a while to get things set up. Once they were ready, a man came out and started shrieking and praising and yelling about the gospel and the savior and all that; the concert was a full-out gospel revival. The fervor of the crowd made us a little nervous so we left before we heard the music but the yelling and such got louder and could be heard down the midway. No worries, we didn’t go up in flames or anything.

We made our way down the midway and for the first time in several years I passed on riding the Top Spin. My stomach wasn’t feeling it.

I couldn’t imagine seeing bears in captivity on the midway so instead we played the roller ball game, where you need to roll a bowling ball over a hump and get it to stay on the other side of the hump. Ten dollars later we added Jerry the Giraffe to the family.

All in all it was a good day at The Fair and if you’re in the area we’d recommend going and seeing what it’s all about. It’s a fun time, mostly family friendly and it’s not really that expensive.

Go see what the Empire State is all about!

If I were to listen to a radio station right now, its call sign would begin with “W” and not “K”.

The More You Know.

So my work responsibilities in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area have come to an end for the week. I am currently waiting for my flight bound for Atlanta, where I shall connect to fly to lovely Upstate New York. My flight leaves from gate E17. I am currently sitting at a quieter area of the terminal at gate E10. DFW has “comfort stations” where one can sit in a comfortable chair and just relax before jumping on their plane. Some people prefer to kneel in front of an internet station. To each his own.

I love people watching in the airport. People continue to fascinate me. I enjoy people most when they are there and I am here. I don’t need to be up in their face or interacting in an overload way; I am content to sit here and watch from a little bit of a distance. I like my personal space.

I checked out of the hotel close to the office last night and headed to a hotel closer to the airport so I would have less stress this morning. Every experience at DFW has been stress free for me (this is my second experience flying out of this airport) and I would like to continue that trend.

As a quick aside, I enjoy the sight of a pilot at any age in his official uniform. Just sayin’.

The woman from the TSA that greeted me as I entered the line for security asked me if I had a “piper ticket”. I was extremely confused by this and when I showed her my boarding pass, she said that I did. Still confused, I looked for some sort of marking that represented a Piper ticket. Did I miss the logo of the Piper Cub? Why would it be on my boarding pass?

It turns out that I had a *paper* ticket because I opted not to use my phone for boarding today. I actually had no choice in the matter; the Delta app doesn’t work well with iOS 7 Beta 6.

I giggled (I was recently told that I have a distinct giggle) and told her that I thought she said “piper”. She said she did say “paper”. It was a point of hilarity. We had a laugh together. Right there, we laughed and mine was distinctive. She didn’t call security or anything.

There were former servicemen and women manning the TSA checkpoint this morning and to alleviate the boredom they were treating their daily duties as a special mission. There was grunting and HOO-AH.

I think this should be done at all times to make the TSA checkpoint more pleasant. I know I certainly enjoyed the camaraderie amongst the former Marines and Army men.

I send a text message. It starts out simply. I say “Earl”.
He says, “What?”
I say, “Earl, why don’t we live in Texas?”
Now, it’s rare that I call my husband Earl. His name is Earl and like me, he shares the name of his father but he’s not a junior. It’s one of the many things we have in common. Well, that and our marriage license. But I don’t call him “Earl” because that’s his name. I have my favorite nickname that I call him and it makes me feel good. But I’ve had a beer or two so I call him “Earl”. Formalities and all that. Back to the question. “Earl, why don’t we live in Texas?”
He always has the same answer, “because we have good jobs in Upstate New York. We do quite well in Upstate New York.”
“I could have the same job in Texas but they wouldn’t let us be married.”
“That won’t be a factor much longer”, he always replies as he’s always the optimist. That is one of my biggest worries. When you’ve married your best friend for real, you want everyone to recognize that realness forever.
This is how it goes. I’m in Texas on business and have had a couple of beers with the guys. I played golf tonight. I suck at golf. I’m horrible. As I told my friend Matt, I could push a Vega with my cyclist legs, but if there’s no windmill or waterfall to putt-putt through, I suck at golf. Apparently my legs dance around. I don’t feel embarrassed because I’m sharing a pitcher of beer with a co-worker who I’d call a friend. He’s a good guy.
Even though I don’t “get” Texas, I like the vibe of working down here. Good people. Totally different than the office I work at home, but the vibe is still good and they believe in what we’re doing. That’s important to me.
I say, “Earl”.
He says, “What?”.
I say, “Earl, but I’m tired of the snow.” I don’t whine. I hate whining. Whining makes me insane and happy that I’m an introvert that shuns the company of those that whine.
“Hold on until I retire, then we’ll make our move.”
I have a pretty sweet gig. It’s a lot of work, I occasionally bitch about it, but when I meet with others in the group, as we are all over the country, I’m reminded that I work with good people. I need that reminder. It energizes me. A lot. I could skip the beer (but I don’t) with them, but I enjoy working with them. Traveling to the next office over (150 miles away) or to the Texas office (1000 miles away), it doesn’t matter, it’s the group camaraderie that isn’t completely replicated over the telephonic conference calls. Contact with your peers is good. I need to find a way to do it more often.
There’s a lot of nifty things around this office in Texas. I don’t know if it’d be as enjoyable if we lived down here but I’m willing to take that gamble. It was 102F when I landed yesterday. They’re enjoying a cool spell at 85F. They say it’s fall-like at home in Upstate New York. I don’t know if I’m ready for autumn yet.
I might have to convince someone that I need to come down here one more time before the end of the year, just to make sure all of our ducks are in a row on this new big project I’m a part of at work. I wonder if they’ll buy it.
I text again: “Earl”.
He says, “Go to bed, sweetheart, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
I say, “I love you” and then I call it a night.
I shall include a photo from “I Dream of Jeannie” for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Actually, when I golf I think of a scene from the movie “I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later”, but I can’t find a screen cap so this one will do.

So it is Monday and Earl and I have been home for just shy of 24 hours. Tomorrow morning I board a plane and head to the greater Dallas, Texas area for work; this was not planned until I received a phone call while we were in the more rural area of Wisconsin. Though things are wicked busy at work and at home, I’m looking forward to this little trip.

When all was said and done, Earl and I hit 11 states in 11 days and 3506 miles. On Saturday morning we left Louisville and made the short drive to London, Ohio, where we met up with Tim and Kevin. Tim and I have been chatting regularly since February or so; they finally hunted me down because Tim collects the *exact* same clocks that I collect. I must say, he has a beautiful collection of these clocks.

We drove around Columbus and went to dinner in their ’61 Lincoln Continental convertible, complete with suicide doors. A couple people yelled “Green Acres” at us!

And we had chocolate covered bacon!

It look obscene but tasted wonderful!

Yesterday morning the four of us met Tim and Kevin’s dear friends Mitch and Sheri where we had a fabulous brunch on the patio before we headed home in the Jeep. 10 1/2 hours later, we were home.

And tomorrow, I hit the road again.

So today has been a day of relaxation in Louisville, Kentucky. Last night we met up with our friend Kody, who I believe recently moved to the area from Lexington. This morning I woke up and I was still feeling sniffly and stuffy from the cold-I-don’t-have. Not to be deterred by this, I decided that I was going to evict the cold-I-don’t-have by sweating the bastard out. I achieved this through walking.

I walked from downtown Louisville to an area I believe is called the Highlands. I did this via a neighborhood called NuLu. NuLu looks like it’s rebuilding itself to a former glory, whereas the Highlands (Bardstown and Baxter) is fully of locally owned eateries, pubs and cute little shops.

Abandoned Passenger Train Station.

I walked the 3.1 miles from the hotel to the nearest Starbucks, where the fever-I-didn’t-have apparently broke. I felt 500% better but I was sopping wet. Hoping I didn’t look like a homeless person, I ordered a bottle of water and an unsweetened green tea and quickly chugged them down. Even though I didn’t have a cold, I felt victorious because I suddenly felt like my normal self again. The bonus of this cold I didn’t have is that my voice is really deep right now. I sound like Barry White but without the panache or hit singles that were remade by Taylor Dayne. If I tried I could sound like Taylor Dayne but usually I end up sounding like Anastacia.

I think I’m digressing.

Earl and Kody opted to drive (as they thought I was nuts to walk that much) and they met me for lunch, where we went to Wick’s Pizza Parlor and Pub.

Vegetable Stromboli.

One thing that occurred to me during lunch, and this was obviously because I was feeling better than I was before, was that we hadn’t had any pie or any sort of dessert along this trip. We rectified that with a stop at the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, where I had Chess Pie for the first time in many, many years.

Another thing that I had not accomplished yet was a visit to a local barbershop for a shave, which is something that I enjoy from time to time. I ended up going to the Derby City Chop Shop, which was highly recommended by all things electronic. I wrote a review of the experience on Google+.

Official Barbershop greeter.

Foaming at the mouth.

It was a long wait but that was a beautiful thing, because I got to get a feel for the local flavor and it was quite a nice vibe.

Nearby Cherokee Road.

After my chop shop experience (and no loss of blood), Kody and Earl decided to drive back to the hotel but I declared I would walk back, after all, why settle for 3.1 miles when you can walk 6.2 instead? Still feeling fantastic, I walked back to the hotel where I again sweated like a pig. On the way back, I passed a shop in NuLu that had this on the front wall of their building.

Documenting your dreams is a beautiful thing, whether you say them silently and toss a coin, repeat them every night before going to bed or write them on a chalk board on a storefront in Louisville, Kentucky.

After you document the dream you have to go chase it. While still feeling inspired, I spotted this whiteboard in another store front.

Live it up, baby, live it up.