The Adventures of Milo, Lorie, and Brian Groth: Blog

Comedy at the Pimm’s Summerfest

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:47:23 GMT

Sunday night we saw the last night of comedy at the Pimm’s Summerfest in Holland Park. The venue was pretty interesting, since it was outside under a large tent, but half surrounded by an old Victorian building. Click on the Holland Park link to see it in the map. For those who don’t know, Pimm’s is the summer drink of choice at pubs all around London, and goes over quite well in Minnesota when we bring it there. The 4 comedians we saw were great (should have been 5, but 1 didn’t make it) and we plan to go again next year if they do it again.

Bishops Park Photosynth

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:11:12 GMT

Milo’s playground in Fulham is Bishops Park. I took a bunch of photos of it in an effort to create my first Photosynth, which is Microsoft’s latest cool thing. More specifically, Photosynth is a new way to create panoramic photos, but online and in a way that lets you navigate around the set of photos instead of seeing just one big image.

Click on the picture to see mine.

Party at Virgin Radio

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:29:01 GMT

A bunch of co-workers and I spent Thursday evening at the studios for Virgin Radio (recently sold, soon to be renamed) for a night of team building and rock trivia. I did OK despite the fact that I had never heard of some of the English bands that didn’t make it over to the US in the last 30 years. Being the only American helped a little, but not too much. It was a fun night and included a rather strange race at one point…

I’ll post photos once I get them, but there were about 30 of us and they needed 5 volunteers to wear large, full body-sized, foam costumes and race each other around Golden Square in SOHO. I of course jumped at the chance! The choices were a lemon, a red pepper, a banana, a carrot, and a hot dog. I chose the hot dog, but the guy in the red pepper won the race. It was difficult to run in a big costume with no peripheral vision, with the mesh thing over my face rubbing my nose raw, and of course we had all had a bit of wine with no food yet.

Just another odd experience of living in London.

Central Italy in an old Fiat Panda

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:45:09 GMT

Yes, the Colosseum in Rome is amazing, St. Peter’s has more marble than anything I’ve ever seen, and all of the various ruins are quite interesting. However, we really felt like we got a feel for Italy after a large Italian meal, with a large Italian family (sort of since they’re mostly a mix of Europeans now living in Italy), in a small hill town near Orte (a different small hill town), and drinking a very good house wine. Although, to be more precise, after this big meal with locals, 5 of us squeezed into a worn out Fiat Panda with the local 22-year old driving with blaring Italian music on the radio going between 70 and 100 kph – often on small roads, with cell phone in hand. It all seemed quite normal for him and the rest of his family, and a bit surreal.

We just got back from a few days in Rome and a few days in Orte with friends Geoff and Silvia. Geoff’s cousin owns a place in Orte that we rented and it is her family that we had dinner with and their Fiat Panda that we borrowed while there – after the above driving lesson. This means that we got the experience of squeezing a car through very narrow roads in various hill towns, driving like crazy Italian drivers (sorry my Italian friends, but I think you know what I mean), and tasting gelato in different locations. It also means that I got to test the waters (at least my foot) of another sea: the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was a great time and we can’t wait to get to other areas of Italy, preferably in the smaller towns and countryside.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos.

In Rome

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:48:27 GMT

Rainbow on Munster Road

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:46:31 GMT

We live near Munster Road in Fulham and saw this tonight. Yes, apparently rainbows do end in London, but we never saw a pot of gold.

If you look real close, you can see a plane under the street light – it had just flown through the rainbow.

My meeting at the Chelsea Football Club

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:21:05 GMT

Yesterday started with a meeting near our place in Fulham at the Chelsea Football Club. There were people from the club, some from Microsoft, and a couple of other technology partners. The most interesting thing about the meeting is that everyone involved except two Americans (one was me) was that they were all avid Chelsea fans. I think it is somewhat of an unspoken rule that you don’t do business with them if you are not an avid fan, or if you aren’t, you send someone in your place that is.

I didn’t get to tour the stadium, but I’d like to. That costs £15 though. However, they have their own television studio, since they have their own cable channel. They are quite proud of this, so I got to see their studio. It isn’t as impressive as the Big Ten Network studios we saw the other week in Chicago, but this is just a football (soccer) club, not a television network.

Eric Branner and Edie

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:39:51 GMT

I’ve given my dad a CD from Eric and made a copy for Anne (sorry Eric) and Alyson just sent me a URL to a good video that you should see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8toUUnAJfgI

You can see and hear more from Eric at http://www.youtube.com/user/ebranner

More about Eric at http://ericbranner.com/

British International Motor Show

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:46:24 GMT

I decided to check out the British International Motor Show today, which unfortunately was way over in East London. With weekend tube closures and summer tourist crowds, it took me almost 2 hours each direction to get there and back. From bus to tubes (Picadilly line to Jubilee line) to light rail (the DLR). I only spent 2 hours at the car show, so my travel time was twice that of my entertainment. Oh well, at least my new Zune is full of good music.

My favourites were electric cars from the NICE Car Company. MSN has a list of their view of the 10 greatest cars at the show. One of the trends I certainly noticed was that most car companies are creating small cars like my 1992 Honda Civic and are focusing on low CO2 emissions. Even Ford and Chevy were at the show with their environmentally friendly cars.

British International Auto Show - Aug 2008

Sampling good Champagne

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:32:29 GMT

One of the nice things about living in London is access to a variety of champagne, probably because of the close proximity to the Champagne region.

With Anne on Friday, we sampled a new champagne (new to us) and one we had picked up a few months ago when we were in the Champagne region. Pictured here are 3 of our favourites, left to right:

Pommery: We had the Blanc de Blanc, also called "Summertime"
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin: pictured is the Brut, but we didn’t have any this time – it is our regular standby, which a pretty good one to have as a regular.
Louis Cesar Beaufort: We had the Cuvee Hannalice, which is the new one that Anne introduced us to.

If you get the chance to have one of these, I recommend you give it a try.

Moonlighting as a sports announcer

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:00:22 GMT

The other night, we were with our friends Odele and Brent in Chicago when we got an interesting opportunity: see the set and operations of the Big Ten Network, which is where Odele works. I don’t watch any sports, but those of you in the US might recognize the set used by the news/sports-casters pictured here. I have a few other photos here, but didn’t want to take any that might give away details of their operations, broadcast, and editing machines. I am happy to report that almost all of the computers I saw were running Windows. We were there after-hours so the place was pretty empty, which gave us the opportunity to check out how they can monitor and control multiple games being displayed all at once, including multiple cameras, instant replays, and so on.

Minnesota – July 2008

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:09:21 GMT

After just two days, we have gone sailing, kayaking, wake boarding, knee boarding, skurfing (pre-cursor to the wake board), swimming, diving, golfing (yes, even me), driven golf carts (the good part about golfing), and ridden a paddle boat. We still need to get some bike riding in, especially since this is where my recumbent bicycle has ended up. A bit too much food though! The Pimm’s we brought from England has been popular, although possible with us more than our local relatives.

As you can see from the photos, the weather has been great, which has made the sailing a bit of a challenge, but everything else good. Only a few mosquito bites so far, which is certainly a rare bonus.

26 miles on the London Bikeathon

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:09:46 GMT

Today Lorie and I (not Milo) took part in the London Bikeathon from Chealsea to Richmond Park, and back. This was the first time I had seen Richmond Park, and seeing it via bike on a nice sunny day was the perfect way to experience it. There were a few routes to choose from, and we were on the Scenic Ride, which meant we each got a wonderful light pink t-shirt.

One big difference I noticed between this ride and ones I have been on in Washington State was at the rest stops. In the US, we get bananas, oranges, energy bars, water, and maybe a sport drink. On this ride in London, we got bananas and water, which was fine, but you had the option to purchase burgers and beer too.

The ride was a casual 4 hours, which was about 3 1/2 hours of biking – all at a pretty slow pace, which is how Lorie prefers it.

I posted few other photos here.

Brian listens to Beethoven?

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:06:32 GMT

No, I am still not a classical music fan. However, one of the great things about London is the vast amount of interesting events happening at any one time. Last night, Anne invited us to what turned out to be a fascinating talk by John Suchet about Beethoven. What made it fascinating is that Suchet is so passionate and excited about Beethoven as a person and what events in his life inspired him to write his music. He almost turned me into a classical music fan and he never played a single tune.

Another thing that made it interesting was where this talk was being held, which was at Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street. This has to be the most interesting travel book store I have ever experienced, but thanks to Megan’s fascination/addiction to the place , I already knew about it. Here is the description of the talk, which sounds dull, but certainly wasn’t.

Following his wonderful fictional trilogy about Beethoven, "The Last Master", broadcaster John Suchet has now turned his attention to "The Treasures of Beethoven". He tells the stories behind the music, and highlights some of the most important events in Beethoven’s life by investigating the many items of memorabilia to be found in museums and collections around the world.

In Madrid

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:51:13 GMT

I flew into Madrid, Spain this evening to attend meetings on Wednesday. We landed at about 23:00 (11pm), so I didn’t get any time to play tourist. Since I will be in meetings all day before heading back to the airport, I won’t have any time to seem much of the city or sample the local food, drinks, adventure, or entertainment. So, I took a little walk tonight around my hotel and snapped this photo of my hotel and the square in front of it that was full of people finishing their dinner and drinks (at midnight). It seems to be a pretty popular area. The hotel is the “Melia Madrid, Reina Victoria” – or “Reina Victoria, By Melia” – or “ME by Melia”. It is too trendy for its own good since the name keeps changing depending on what I look at.

4th of July in London

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:51:46 GMT

I should really start taking pictures of something other than just Milo, but here are two more. One is in Putney near the Spencer Arms, our typical Friday night hang with Megan, Alan, and Daisy out after some dog play. The other is on the bus ride home from the pub. In addition to this, we also went to a party filled with Americans to celebrate. The other photo here should give you a good idea that there were at least a few others from the Seattle area at the party.

I finally got my patent!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:46:44 GMT

Suppose you are in a cafe and of course you have a laptop with you. All of the sudden, a little box pops up and says “Brian Groth is nearby and you have a meeting next week. Click here to see more details.”

Microsoft and I recently got patent number 455041200 that explains how this works. It is titled “Automatic Detection and Notification of Proximity of Persons of Interest”

It took a few years to get through the USPO and I am not able to find it via the USPO web site, but it can be found via Google’s Patent Search site.

Thanks to Shish letting me know that it was finally approved. Good luck on your patent Shish!

Portobello, Wimbledon – life in London

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:27:18 GMT

Wimbledon is known for tennis, which is like ping pong, but played with dog toys (the yellow ball). Friends from Chicago, Brent and Odele, have been in town to see a few games and apparently even had good seats and only got rained on for about 45 minutes during the 2 days they were there.

We ventured to Portobello road to see the market up there, relying on Cullen, our Montana friend, to be the tour guide. We figured that would make sense.

And of course, there have been a few pubs, busses, tube delays, and dog time.

Pigeon on the District Line

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:03:44 GMT

I just saw a pigeon fly out of a tube car. It was on the District Line at Earl's Court. I guess he didn't want to fly, so he took the tube, but I bet he didn't pay. He was too qiuck for me to get a picture of him or the woman that had to duck to get out of the way when he flew out as soon as the doors opened.

Barcelona

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:17:27 GMT

We spent 3 days & nights in Barcelona, Spain and if I go back I plan to spend most of the time in the beach town of Barceloneta, which is basically the waterfront area of Barcelona. It has a couple of good boardwalks, a nice beach, and a ton of good bars and restaurants.

However, the entire city is interesting with the weird architecture from Antonio Gaudi. It’s an easy city to walk around with a few nice large parks worth seeing. We were there with our friends Nina & Fred with their 2 little boys, which is why we ended up at the parks. It was very warm, so the large trees in the parks provided some much needed shade, which was much nicer than the streets and the beach was too crowded to really enjoy, so the parks were a good choice for the long weekend. I have posted a few photos too.

Off to Barcelona

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:14:13 GMT

Travelling during the week without my laptop will be strange, but it is time for a short break. There are a variety of things to see and do, or so we are told, and one of them is this strange looking church called the Sagrada Familia.

I will upload photos when we are back, but might blog a little from my phone while there. It is only a 4 day trip, which is short by European standards, but seems about right for us. We can’t sit still for too long!

Dog Blog, part 276

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:54:52 GMT

Wandsworth Park is South of the river from our place in Putney, but an easy walk through Bishops Park then over the Thames via the train bridge. Milo gets some good of off-leash time when we hit both parks on the same walk.

Click on the picture below to see where the park is on the map. Switch it to “Bird’s eye” view to get the view I have below.

Happy Paraskevidekatriaphobia Day

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:08:27 GMT

That goes double if you have a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th, which is what paraskevidekatriaphobia is. Yes, the phobia is rooted in history, but I think it’s just a way to explain coincidences in life. Although, this is a good story:

Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck - as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday. Over one hundred years ago, the British government sought to stop once and for all the widespread superstition among sailors that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again. Since then, ships are not usually launched on that date.

WWII bomb makes Milo ride the bus

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:09:06 GMT

Yes, the war is never far in London. The other day the District line (the one we take most often) was closed due to an unexploded WWII bomb that was found. It was the biggest one found in the last 30 years.

This meant taking the bus for the day, which is no big deal since I usually take the bus anyway.

Sometimes Milo takes the bus too. This time it was on the way home after our normal Friday night pub experience in Putney. OK, that has nothing to do with the bomb that was found.

The strange thing about the bomb is that when searching for news articles about it, there seems to be another bomb that closed other train lines too.

Just another odd experience in London!

Why Is It always Daylight In London?

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:23:59 GMT

After having just come back from Seattle, I noticed that it always seems to be daylight in London. This is partially due to the nice sunny weather in London versus the clouds and rain in Seattle, but there is more to it.

This of course just makes me think of Jimmy Buffett’s Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

	Seattle	London
Sunrise (June 6)	5:12am	4:45am
Sunset (June 6)	9:02pm	9:12pm
Latitude	47°36′35″N	51°30′28″N

Ford GT on Top Gear

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:14:01 GMT

I’m not much of a car enthusiast, but I do enjoy the Top Gear show in the UK. I just found this video that has them talking about the Ford GT. (sorry, but the embeded code didn’t work)

Taco Town commercial from SNL

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:15:37 GMT

I’m not sure if you can see this if you are outside of the US, but it is a great commercial from Saturday Night Live about a taco wrapped in a soft shell, a pizza, a pancake, and more.

A day in New York city

Sun, 25 May 2008 13:45:21 GMT

New York City - May 2008

The day before we headed to New York, I saw that the Brooklyn Bridge was 125 years old. So on Saturday morning we jumped on the subway (to compare it versus the Tube) and walked over the bridge. As you can see, it was a nice and sunny day Manhattan. Other than walking around Saturday morning and having lunch with our friend Hayley, we didn't have time to do much else before catching a train from Grand Central station so we could get up to Westchester county.

Large London Bumble Bee

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:38:21 GMT

Milo loves to chase them, and Lorie and I are in awe of the size of some of them. The bumble bees in London seem larger than in Seattle. Pictured is one (average size) that was dead in our garden. We had never felt the fuzz of a bumble bee before, but it is nice and soft. Milo probably wants one as his own pet - too bad he tries to eat them though.

We are off to New York, then Seattle. I will try to post about our travelling adventures when I can.

Unrelated, but if you live in the US and you want to save cash when purchasing stuff online, start by searching for whatever it is you want to buy at http://search.live.com/cashback

New Bench in the Garden

Sun, 18 May 2008 17:09:23 GMT

A while ago, Christmas I think, my brother Mike sent us a bench via Amazon. Yes, metal legs and wood pieces make for a heavy box. After cutting the grass today with some hand-shears, I put finally took the time to put the bench together. This included repairing a broken metal leg with some packing tape. I should at least get some tape that matches the dark green metal leg or come up with a better solution. It is the front leg on the left if you can see the white spot. Using packing tape to fix a metal leg is a pretty poor excuse for a DIY job.

Milo and the ~~troll~~ gnome watched, but never helped other than a brief moment to "water" the grass.

Random Thoughts: Cider, Space Junk, and Milo

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:16:54 GMT

Cider: I usually drink the Aspall Cyder at our favourite Friday night pub (Spencer Arms) and I just discovered the half-pint. Most beers and ciders in the UK have their own glasses, except half-pint servings are often in a generic glass. Not so for the Aspall Cyder at the Spencer Arms.

Space Junk: Earlier this week, Lorie and I met up with a friend of a friend named Casey who works at Boeing and was in London for work. He does military-related stuff these days, so he couldn't tell us much about his work, but at a previous job at Boeing he designed the emergency exit doors for Boeing 737 planes. His dad used to work at Boeing too and some of his work is still sitting on the moon! Apparently the antennas of the moon rovers are his.

Milo: This is for Alex's benefit, since he calls this the "dog blog". This picture was taken in the Barnes Common field near what we call the "creepy hospital". We call it that because the hospital is closed, but sometimes lights are on and we once saw a nurse near the back entrance late at night.

Brian has built and released Messenger TV

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:48:48 GMT

I have been a bit slow to post anything recently, because I have been busy building and releasing Messenger TV. If you are in the US though, you don't get to have fun with it. We hope to change that in the future, but for now you can enjoy the screenshots and see the videos that will eventually be available in Messenger TV in the US by going to http://video.msn.com.

Here are a few interesting things to read about it:

Announcing Messenger TV for Windows Live Messenger (our pre-press release)
Microsoft Switches on Messenger TV (the press release)
Messenger TV in the news (the results of the above 2 links)

Meanwhile, Milo has been enjoying the warm weather.

Warm weekend in London

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:21:15 GMT

Despite the forecast for rain, the weekend turned out to be warm and sunny. We took Milo on a walk around the Thames from Hammersmith bridge to Putney bridge during low tide, so we were able to walk along the water and let Milo drink from the river. Hopefully the water wasn't too toxic.

We also ended up at a friend's party in Soho, where we were supposed come as Vikings. I figured being all Norwegian (a few generations ago) was good enough. You can see the BT Tower in the background from their deck, which is on the top of the building. It makes for a great place to have a party, especially when it is warm out and all the pubs down on the streets around the building are overflowing with people.

Long weekend in London

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:08:48 GMT

Thanks to a bank holiday, we had a 3-day weekend. No, I don't really understand bank holidays yet, but who cares - a day off is always a nice thing. This of course meant that Milo got a few more walks, such as through the Fulham cemetery where he sees foxes and squirrels. The photo is a pathway in the cemetery that is full of pink petals off of the trees.

We also found time to visit a pub we hadn't been to called the Nag's Head, pictured below. It is a strange little pub, but with lots of character. We also got to have dinner at the very fashionable The Thomas Cubitt. I basically had pub food (Shepard's pie), but it was good. The restaurant is right across the street from Milo's 24-hour emergency vet, but thankfully we didn't need to visit it this weekend.

Where my blog readers are at

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:40:30 GMT

Hello friends and family. I see that you are located in Salt Lake City, London, California, Minnesota, Bellevue, New York, Gig Harbor, and a variety of other locations. Usually the name of the location is related to where your ISP is located, but it is close enough that I can guess who you are, since I do know many of you. (I can't figure out which one is for Longview, WA though).

How does it work? I have a little IP2Map icon at the bottom of the right-hand column of my blog. When anyone visits http://GrothAdventures.Spaces.Live.com that icon is loaded from the IP2Map site and it records the IP address of you, my visitor. It then looks up where all of these IP addresses are located and puts them on a map. Scroll down to the bottom of the right-hand column and click on the IP2Map icon to see the map and list of locations.

Bowling in Antwerp, Belgium

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:04:01 GMT

I'm sure everyone reading this has wondered "is bowling the same in Belgium as it is in America?" I can now report that yes, it is exactly the same. Same shoes. Same balls (we had coloured ones). Same lanes & pins. Same types of machines to keep score. And of course, most of us were terrible - I was there with about 20 co-workers. The big difference about bowling in Antwerp is seeing stuff written in Dutch, French, and English.

Eurostar to Brussels

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:27:06 GMT

With a planned strike of all railway workers in Belgium now canceled, I am off to Brussels for some meetings with a bunch of other Microsoftees and maybe a customer too. Taking the Eurostar is much more relaxing than flying! It is also easier to get work done on the train too, which is good since I have to prepare for my presentation later today.

A short trip to Budapest

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:11:40 GMT

I didn't see much of Budapest - 2 days of meetings and one night out. But, at least I did see the Nyugati Railway Terminal, Saint Stephen's Basilica, and the Hungarian Parliament Building (pictured). All of these were at night in the rain, but they were nice to see anyway. I never saw the river or the bridge which are also famous. Check them all out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest

A bit more fun is the growing list of cities we've visited since arriving in London a year and a half ago. We are up to 18 (give or take) assuming I've not forgotten any of them.

Helsinki, Finland

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:41:31 GMT

We walked around Helsinki on a cold (6 Celsius), but sunny day today seeing the mix of architecture and cultural influences. We have seen restaurants that are themed around Latin America, Texas, Memphis, Russia, India, Japanese, Chinese, and of course Finland. It is certainly a different mix of culture than Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen. Even if you do see some of the same restaurants in those cities, you get the feeling that Finland is much more influenced to the Eastern Europe cultures than its Scandinavian cousins to the West.

I have posted a few photos here.

Stockholm then Helsinki

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:26:18 GMT

We spent the day walking around Stockholm today, mostly in the old town, then caught a flight to Helsinki. During the flight we saw about 1 million islands off the coast of Sweden then again off the coast of Finland: maybe it was about 10 million little islands. I'd love to have the time to explore them one day!

While walking around in Stockholm, I saw two games of Bocce Ball like we play in Minnesota at the lake cabin. However, the balls were metal so that could get dangerous. I uploaded a few new photos here.

This evening in Helsinki we had some reindeer meat for dinner, but most of the meal consisted of mashed potatoes and red currents. Reindeer tastes sorta like steak and the potatoes tasted like... potatoes.

Stockholm

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:37:27 GMT

After 2 days of solid, but useful, meetings I finally got an hour or so this evening to walk around Stockholm. The old town area, which is on a little island (Stockholm has lots of islands) is a great place to walk since there are few roads that cars can drive on. Click the photo for others pictures. Now it is time to find dinner.... will it be sushi or Swedish meatballs?

Flat bread just like mom makes

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:29:58 GMT

We landed in Stockholm, Sweden this evening and enjoyed a tasty little meal (fish of course) but the main item I have to share is about the bread. Flatbread, or crisp bread to be precise: the restaurant had some along with regular bread and it was good, at least after putting butter on it. After all, flatbread isn't that exciting so it is basically a tool to carry some sort of spread/topping. In Swedish, it would be called knäckebröd, spisbröd, or hårdbröd.

Back in Sunny & Stormy London

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:32:51 GMT

This is a picture that I stitched together of the inside of a black taxi - a TX4 by LTI to be specific. It was my ride home from Heathrow Terminal 4 on Saturday.

Milo and I are due to get good and wet this weekend as thunderstorms roll through the city. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better in Stockholm, Helsinki, Budapest, and Brussels; all of which I will be visiting over the next couple of weeks, so expect a few more interesting posts compared to this one.

Fish & Chips Around the World

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:08:02 GMT

I met up with the folks and Keith & Lisl last night at Ivars Acres of Clams (yes, the same place we used for a dinner at our wedding - classy, I know). I had to compare their fish & chips since it is my normal pub meal in London. The batter Ivar's uses is much better than what I've had in London, but the chips are certainly better in London. I might need to retest though, just to be sure since I think I had halibut instead of the normal cod or haddock.

Lorie's Career Aspirations

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:10:11 GMT

If we could open a small business for Lorie, then we both agree that this would be a "day in the life" sort of video of her.

Click the picture to watch the video.

The Boat Race, 2008

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:28:36 GMT

Yesterday Milo and I walked over to Bishops Park to see if there would be a big crowd for The Boat Race like there was last year. Despite the beer tent, pig roast, big screens (to see the race if the crowd is too big next to the river), and two portable rock climbing walls, there was hardly anyone there. I think the cold rain and wind was a bit of a deterrent. I find this event somewhat fascinating, probably because I've never run across a sporting event like it before. Some facts I find interesting:

It's quick: It's one race and takes about 21 minutes from start to finish, and as a spectator, you see 2 boats cruise past just once, and that's it.
It's old: This is a rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge universities that happens each year and has been going on since 1829 - there have been 154 races.
It never ends: So far, Cambridge has won 79 of the races and Oxford 74, but there was a tie back in 1877. Oxford won this year. Basically, this is an ongoing match that never ends.
It's popular: 7-9 million people in the UK watch it with millions more outside the UK watching it.

Essentially, it is a good excuse for people to lounge around at or near a pub along the river with a bunch of other people. In other words, it's an excuse for a party.