At the Chuckwagon in Laramie, Wyoming

We overnighted with family in Colorado and are now in Wyoming. The plan is to spend tonite in Park City, Utah. We had to make a few pitstops this morn but are making ok time.

The high plains here (8600 ft) are beautiful.

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A night out in Omaha

We have a room at the old fashioned Magnolia Hotel in downtown Omaha, not far from the historic cobblestone street district. After checking in, we walked down there to the Upstream to get some dinner, which was ok but nothing special. On the way back, we took a horse drawn carriage ride with Thunder (horse) and Xander (dog) and a taciturn drover. Happily -- since we could not find a place to get dessert -- they had cookies and milk waiting in the hotel lobby upon our return.

It was a long drive today, and tomorrow promises more of the same. But we are about half way across the nation. It has been interesting seeing all the various crops grown across the heartland.

The Oracle of Omaha

We are in Omaha, Nebraska now.

But we are not calling on Warren Buffet.

Staying at the Magnolia Hotel and looking for dinner now.

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My own private Iowa

We are in Iowa on our way to lunch with a college ski buddy.

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Just crossed into the Land of Lincoln

And we are getting chicken dinner at White Fence Farm in a little bit. Yum!

We had quite a detour going through Indiana but google maps and
Gtraffic found us a back route through some cornfields. That made things easy and interesting. So far the car map system is underperforming. We will try more
flexible settings so it can solve reroutings better.

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Indiana now

Passing through the flatlands of Indiana now.

Passing into Central time soon.

So far dry but overcast.

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Breakfast in Ohio

And soon we are heading into Illinois.

We are hearing the cats are causing mischief in our absence.

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Slow traffic in West Virginia

And rainy all day so far. Averaging 29 mpg so far.

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In the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania

We are getting fuel for ourselves and the car here. The farmland out
here is covered with winter wheat, harvested corn, and some kind of
greens. Long drive still ahead of to our rendezvous point two in
Columbus where we are seeing old college friends and coworkers.

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We are on the road in Western Vermont

We are currently driving through the beautiful Vermont mountains on
our way to rendezvous point one in New York.

It was sad to leave on such a pretty blue sky cool and bright day. It
was a blessing to have had the cabin part of our lives this last
decade plus however.

You can track us on Latitude by the way.

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Back from NYC

I just got back from a busy Labor Day Weekend in NYC. I had a range of things to do, some fun and some chores. Here's what we did

• Packed up the last apartment bits & pieces


• Hosted a goodbye party at our place, pleasantly well attended and behaved


• Had contractors do a small job in Vermont, which went smoothly


• Met our new tenant and did the walk through of the cabin, explaining the home's quirks


• Tried the new Scottish pub, where we had "steak pie"


• Went to the American Legion fair, purchasing bake sale cookies and glow in the dark knick knacks


• Watched the Labor Day Fireworks in our village, a nice sendoff on J's birthday


• Dropped the Corvette off for service and shipping to the West Coast


• Flew the (disgruntled) cats back with me, in their own purchased seat (You can see their new carrier up on the right)

It was nice seeing everyone, as well as having a last weekend in Vermont.

But it was tiring.

Found a House

After fairly extensive hunting, Jenn found a suitable home for us downtown. I inspected it twice, and after doing some background checks on the owners, signed a lease for it over the weekend. It's near the UCD Davis Med Center, in the part of Sacramento that is referred to as midtown, downtown, Elmhurst, or East Sac -- depending on who you ask. There are a vast number of houses here for rent (and sale) but only a small number could fit our needs. Going through the process was both annoying, and amusing. Hopefully we will not have to deal with this again soon.

Returning to Sacramento

I have some news to share. As some of you have known, Jennifer and I had been looking to return to the West. After a long set of discussions, I have joined the investment office for a western pension manager this week. I am working for CalPERS in Sacramento (conveniently close to Sierra skiing).

Apologies for the short notice, but due to the California budget issues, I had to get on site quickly. It was sad+hard to leave my prior shop -- which I loved and was thriving at -- but we are excited about my new role, and expect that it will offer a different path for professional growth. At this stage in our lives, it is also important that we be closer to family.

Hopefully I will get back to the East Coast a few times this year so that we can more properly say goodbye to many of you.

Weekend in the City

What we did this weekend

• "Surprise" birthday party for Lauren at Blau Gans, which was pretty good, although not spectacular. The place is loud due to many hard surfaces, and the lack of soft sound baffling table linens.
• A field trip to Queens to visit the Jackson Heights Diner, Patel Brothers, and Costco (they seem to have abandoned couponing). We got lots of idli mix as well as fresh spices.
• Broiled veal chops, topped with a cranberry/garlic relish. Awesome.
• Watched The Dark Knight, with Heath Ledger as the Joker. I'd heard this was good, as well as his acting, and it delivered....although at 2.5 hours the movie was way too long.
• Planted catnip, rosemary, and parsley in the patio garden.
• Got the cats wound up by blowing bubbles for them to ferociously bat.
• Made fresh bruschetta and ahi tuna poke.
• Went to Pinkberries.
• Took a platter of stuffed grapeleaves to church.
• Read The Hi Tech Strategist and ICAP Shipping newsletters.
• Was annoyed by the Food Emporium's low level bait & switching.

We don't suggest giving your cat a bath at home

Some of the things we did this weekend:

• Clambake on the patio - a big pot of corn, clams, and scallops - along with some Seabreezes.
• Went to Central Park and saw the carnival
• Another night we made stuffed pork tenderloin along with some stuffing.
• Washed and groomed the cats, and got the heck scratched out of us in exchange
• Church pot luck
• Planted flowers and cleaned the windows
• Watched "Burn After Reading"
• Made a slow cooker ragu and had that with noodles and a bottle of Barolo
• Went to Bloomingdales and Dylans Candy store
• Cleaned the closets

Memorial Day Weekend in Vermont

We were up in Vermont for the long weekend, which was very pleasant weatherwise -- cool and sunny most of the time. We fired up the grill and made steaks, ribs, and burgers over the various nights. It was sunny enough to use the Corvette the whole time we were up there so after getting an inspection sticker we went up to Springfield to do some errands and found an old time soft serve ice cream place. One day we went into Grafton and picked up some local common crackers, and stopped at the lonely real estate agent's office to get their views on the market. There are a lot of houses on the market up there, with very few sales. Not much different from the national perspective, although prices in Grafton (and Vermont in general) never got as wild as they did in the sunnier states. On the night we arrived, we went down into the village where one place is doing BYOB and serving crepes. The crepes were kind of weak, but it was still fun enough to try.

Heading up to Vermont now

Been a long week in NYC and we are heading out of town now.

Spring has sprung

I've left out a couple of weeks of activity, but we had a busy weekend up in Vermont. On Saturday we switched our warm/cold clothes out, as well as culled the closets and gave the excess to PlanetAid. Then we switched the storm windows for the screens and cleaned/charged up the Corvette. After doing a half dozen loads of laundry we barbecued a brisket, made a fresh endive & orange salad, and warmed up some cornbread for dinner. We had an 01 Clarendon Hills grenache that had the licoricey flavors to complement the brisket which J. had rubbed in fresh ground star anise, cumin, and chili powder. It was good, and quite different than it was in its grapey tannic youth. However we've stopped buying that kind of overripe wines. After that we relaxed and watched a movie.

Today we harvested the daffodils to take back to the apartment/office and then went for a ride in the Corvette. Happily the car was behaving properly and started up well after a few hours of charging at 10 amps. It was too cold to take the top down, so we pulled on sweaters and took it out. We drove down into town and stopped at the farm stand where we got some fresh fiddleheads to saute with dinner -- grilled tomatoes and porterhouses -- along with some mature 96 Clerc Milon. We gave the pestering cats some turkey and started packing for home. (To the left is a picture of Pablo, which I took when I visited home for a few days. He muzzle has turned from brown fur to a silvery shade as he has become a senior citizen. He still has the same spit and vinegar of his youth, and raided my satchel within 20 minutes of my arrival, gobbling the gourmet macaroons that J. had packed for me and running off with an apple in his mouth).

Anniversary at Sugarbush

We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a weekend at Sugarbush, which was a pleasant 2 hour drive up from the cabin -- with an early start -- and had a great spring afternoon skiing their southern Mt Lincoln area. Things got slushy in spots, but other areas were in good shape, and we skiied most of the important trails except for OrganGrinder. Well I skied the bottom part, which was good, but not the exciting part.

The next day it was raining so we went shopping in the charming little villages and did a drive by of Mad River Glen followed by dinner at the Pitcher Inn. The Pitcher Inn is probably the finest restaurant in Vermont, and is in a village not too far from Sugarbush. It was fabulous, and although priced like NYC, it's worth every penny. The wine list is deep, and very well selected, without the typical resort town scam of bad vintages from good houses. Great stemware, service, ambience, and food. You'll need to make reservations, but its worth the effort.

We woke the next morning to a spring storm of a half foot of fresh powder, so we went off to the northern mountain of Sugarbush, Glen Ellen. We got a pretty good deal for skiing here on a Monday, and skiied the whole mountain, including the usual closed Inverness racing area. Near the end of the day, we finished by skiing the fresh snow off the smaller lift on the lower left side. J. really enjoyed that feeling. (if you click on the picture to the right you can see the untracked powder we skiied) Driving home had a little quirk; we changed at the mountain and headed back to southern Vermont to change/wash/eat at the cabin. However we found the road mired in impassable mud about a mile from the house, so we wisely gave up and went into town to eat. We then headed back to NYC and washed up at home. It was such a range of conditions over the weekend: sunny spring conditions one day and cold, snowy, powdery the next.

Its great to be able share a sport you love with people you love.

March 1 at Okemo

We had a nice day skiing at Okemo, although the ice was bad the day before, but they had done some snowmaking and grooming that made conditions better. We took J. over to the Jackson Gore side of the mountain for the first time, which she enjoyed, and I tried the new trail they had cut, called White Lightning I think. It was barely groomed, and does not appear to have been destumped, nor have snowmaking, but was kind of interesting to try.