The Adventures of Milo, Lorie, and Brian Groth

I finally got my patent!

Portobello, Wimbledon – life in London

Pigeon on the District Line

Barcelona

Off to Barcelona

Dog Blog, part 276

Happy Paraskevidekatriaphobia Day

WWII bomb makes Milo ride the bus

Why Is It always Daylight In London?

Ford GT on Top Gear

Taco Town commercial from SNL

A day in New York city

Large London Bumble Bee

New Bench in the Garden

Random Thoughts: Cider, Space Junk, and Milo

Brian has built and released Messenger TV

Warm weekend in London

Long weekend in London

Where my blog readers are at

Bowling in Antwerp, Belgium

Photo Album: Barcelona - June 2008

Photo Album: New York City - May 2008

Photo Album: Blog Images

Photo Album: Helsinki

Photo Album: Stockholm - April 2008

Photo Album: Florence Italy - March 2008

Photo Album: Sunny California - March 2008

Photo Album: Utah Skiing - March 2008

Photo Album: Les Arcs - Feb 2008

Photo Album: Bath - February 2008

Photo Album: Reims and Paris - January 2008

Photo Album: Canal Boats in Yorkshire

Photo Album: Champagne Region

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:58:23 GMT

Barcelona - June 2008

Walking around Parc Guell

Lorie is attacked by a large cactus

Weird art at Parc Guell

Tourists hiding in a small cave at Parc Guell

At Parc Guell

Parc Guell entrance

Lizzard of Parc Guell

Sagrada Familia panoramic 1

SANY0034

Ping pong tables in the parks

More Photos...

Sun, 25 May 2008 13:47:47 GMT

New York City - May 2008

Union Square

Empire State Building

Hot Dog stands are all over NYC

Number 6 subway

Brooklyn bridge

Looking up the Brooklyn Bridge

Looking over the Brooklyn Bridge at Brooklyn

Lorie pointing out a police call box

SANY0016

Statue of Liberty from the Brooklyn Bridge

More Photos...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:11:38 GMT

Blog Images

More Photos...

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:02:35 GMT

Helsinki

Helsinki train station-1

Helsinki train station-2

One of the trams in Helsinki

A mix of architecture and colors

Another mix of architectures

Cowgirl and Greenhat walking on a Sunday

Senate Square

On the side of the Senate Square

Brian and Lorie in front of the Senate Square

Lorie dancing

More Photos...

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:29:37 GMT

Stockholm - April 2008

Most locals look better than this

Stockholm panoramic

Flowers in a square

Lorie smelling the flowers

Phone booth in old town Stockholm

The mix of buildings

The royal band - or something like that

Stockholm waterfront panoramic

Stockholm waterfront

Streets turn into small tunnels in old town

More Photos...

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:12:22 GMT

Florence Italy - March 2008

Castle built in 1199 - now a winery

Italian wine in French oak barrels

View from atop the castle - panoramic

Brian in the tower of the 12th century castle

View from atop the castle

12th century castle from the distance

Countryside in Tuscany

Guard dog

Vinyard ready to grow - panoramic

Happy to have wine with lunch!

More Photos...

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:19:59 GMT

Sunny California - March 2008

Brian at Bolinas beach

Clifford and a dead shark

Man of War on Stinson beach

Being a passenger is good

Lorie wondering why her photo is being taken

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:12:08 GMT

Utah Skiing - March 2008

Taylor ready to ski

Haakon ready to ski

Haakon Michael and Taylor at Alta

Brian ready for powder

Brian in the powder at Alta

mid-mountain lunch

Brian on the chair

Brian snowboarding

Brian and Michael at the tunnel

View from the top of Snowbird near the tram - 2

More Photos...

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:26:47 GMT

Les Arcs - Feb 2008

SANY0004

SANY0005

SANY0006

Transarc 47

At Col De La Chal - 2600m

Lunch with Cullen Bonnie and Jeff

The start of the Plagnettes ski run

We could see Mont Blanc on the other side of the valley

Brian at Les Arcs-2600m

Pick a direction

More Photos...

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:06:06 GMT

Bath - February 2008

Lame famous buns

Big tree in the middle of Bath

Bath Abby - 2

Where to be a tourist

Roman Baths

Roman Bath drainage

Steaming bath

Steaming bath panoramic - 2

Slippery when wet

Steaming bath panoramic

More Photos...

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:54:09 GMT

Reims and Paris - January 2008

Kings Cross station

The cathedral in Reims

Lorie in the chalk tunnels of Ruinart

Chalk tunnels of Ruinart

Old Roman steps in the chalk caves of Ruinart

Dom at Ruinart

Impressive grounds of Pommery

We bought a little bit of champagne

Henry the bunny

Lorie found bunnies to adopt in Paris

More Photos...

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:18:30 GMT

Canal Boats in Yorkshire

SANY0014

SANY0016

SANY0017

SANY0018

SANY0023

SANY0024

SANY0031

SANY0034

SANY0035

SANY0042

More Photos...

Golden Gate Bridge from Berkeley

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:07:58 GMT

Champagne Region

VeuveClicquot_label

Our Citroen C3 rental car

BandB

By the BandB - remains of a flour mill from before WWI

Creek through Verneuil in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France

Lorie and Anne having bread cheese and champagne at the BandB

One of the many wineries in the area

Lorie at the Veuve Clicquot factory store

Anne at the Veuve Clicquot factory store

Old Roman chalk caves now used to store Veuve Clicquot

More Photos...