Monday February 21, 2005

Recovery

I'm just getting my home PC back in service after a hard disk crash of some sort. (maybe a virus?) The worst of it is I had no backups. I certainly know better but I guess I am too much of an optimist. Anyway probably the worst thing I lost was an inventory of my home library that had about 700 books in it and was about half finished. I used this really cool program called Readerware All you have to do is type in or scan in the ISBN for your books and it looks up all the info for the book from web sites like Amazon and the Library of Congress. I don't know why I was so much enjoying creating the inventory or why it seems so cool but I think it must have something to do with how much I love books and the pleasure of seeing all my books listed in one place. Oh well, I'll probably start over again in a few weeks and this time I will keep back ups!

Sunday February 13, 2005

Great Music and Great Food

Last night as our Valentines gift to each other we went out for live Dixieland music and dinner. We saw Mal Sharpe's Big Money in Jazz New Orleans Band, with Lady Memphis (vocals) at the The Downtown Restaurant in Berkeley. What a wonderful restaurant. We were sitting right in front of the stage. And when I say stage I really just mean a 12 inch platform at the back of the restaurant. So we were right there!

The food was great. We started with salad and a plate of fried olives stuffed with anchovies. I think they are a specialty but boy were they good. They had some special Mardi Gras menu items so I had the spicy fried catfish and Duke had the Gumbo. They each had just the right amount of spicyness and were perfectly prepared. I would recommend the restaurant even without the music.

As we started to eat the Dixieland music started. All I could do was smile at the combination of great music and great food. The vocalist Lady Mem’fis was sitting at the next table. Even before she got up on stage and started singing you couldn’t help notice what an elegant woman she is. They started with a couple of songs featuring the band members. I especially liked the pianist, Charlie Hickox. And then Lady Mem’fis started singing. What a performer and what a voice. I love blues and jazz. Her rendition of the song "Dream" was special. After the break and some more Dixieland music, the guitarist (Whose name I’m sorry I can’t remember.) sang the song "She talks too Much". He said it was because his ex-wife had just called. Mal Sharpe gave him a hard time that "She talks too Much" is a politically incorrect song to sing in Berkeley.

Then Sharp pointed out that three of the musicians who had just finished performing across the street at The Jazz School were at a table behind us. He invited them to join in. So the last song had these three additional awesome musicians. Steven Bernstein played something that looked like a cross between a trumpet and a trombone. Ben Goldberg played the clarinet. And Jeff Cressman played the trombone. There we were, right in the middle of it all - ten guys and Lady Mem’fis making this amazing music. As we left about midnight all I could do was smile. What a wonderful evening.

Thursday February 10, 2005

Book Club

My monthly book club meeting was Tuesday night. We read "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have to admit that I haven't finished it. I love to read. In fact reading is one of my passions. But I have been spending all my reading time studying for the CFP exam. I've enjoyed the book so far but I don't want to give my opinions until I finish it. I will definitely finish it.

What is truly amazing is that the 12 other women in the group all loved "Middlesex". This is very unusual. The women in this group are very articulate and literate. Several of them were teachers. We usually have very diverse opinions about a book. This time only the comments were diverse. Comments included how emotionally moving the novel is, how well constructed, how well Eugenides gives you a sense of being there, and how well the many themes are woven together. It is almost impossible to describe what "Middlesex" is about. It is about so many things. It definitely is an epic. Even though I have only half finished it I can see why it won the Pulitzer prize.

Wednesday January 05, 2005

New Kitchen Floor

At home we are in the process of installing a new ceramic tile floor in our kitchen. To be perfectly correct it is a porcelain tile floor. I should also say that I use the term “we” very loosely. My husband, Duke, is doing all the work and I am admiring the finished product. The old linoleum was in terrible shape. We thought it would come up easily but discovered that removing it was a big job. I did do quite a bit of the work pulling it up. After one whole Saturday working on it both Duke and I had blisters and we were only half done. So we hired a friend of one of the girls to do the rest.

Last weekend Duke laid almost all the tile. He has a little more to do and then we will be ready to start grouting. I think I will be able to help with that. So far it looks fantastic!.

Sunday January 02, 2005

Vacation in France

As I mentioned in my last entry I spent Christmas with my daughters in France. It was a wonderful trip. We arrived on Monday morning, December 20. We took the TGV from Paris to Aix en Provence. The TGV is France's high speed train system. It was awesome. The TGV goes as fast as 300 km/h (186 mph). It was a smooth ride and we had very comfortable assigned seats. We all slept for most of the 3 hour ride although I felt like I should stay awake for the experience.

Monday night we met Allison's host parents for dinner. Allison lived with them for her Junior year abroad in 2000-2001. We ate at Antoine Cote Cours (in a courtyard off of Cours Mirabeau). It was full of locals, the food was very tasty, and the conversation was wonderful. Apparently a very well know French politician was a the next table too.

Our Hotel in Aix, Hotel des Augustins, was built on the site of an old convent. It was great place to stay because we were right off the Cours Mirabeau and could walk all over the winding little streets of the old town. I liked being able to walk everywhere. The Cours Mirabeau was decorated for Christmas and lined with wooden booths selling everything from jewelry to hot cider to olives and pottery. Just off the square were several booths selling Santons. Satons are figures made from the Provencal red clay. Their were hundreds of choices ranged in size from less than an inch to about 18 inches tall. There were Christmas creches and Provencal figures. I spent a lot of time browsing and bought some for each daughter for Christmas. It was also fun to browse all the stores and markets in the town. It is a good thing I ran out of time or I probably would have kept buying. Allison took us to the best chocolate shop and all her favorite food stands. We had crepes, and omlette sandwiches, and paninis.

On Wednesday we took a tour to Lex Baux de Provence It is the remains of a 12th century town on the top of a hill. The wind was blowing like it does in North Dakota and the puddles were frozen. We took the audio tour of the ruins and spent a little bit of time exploring the reconstructed town. The great thing about traveling in December is that you have the tourist sites almost to yourself and the cold just makes it an adventure.

On Thursday we went to the Mediteranean, the little town of Cassis. The weather was the exact opposite of the weather on the mountain top at Les Baux. We sat on a park bench overlooking the harbor and had ice cream cones. Then we went for a hike out to the Calanques, the deep inlets cut into the limestone cliffs. We started a bit late in the day so we didn't see as much of the coast as we would have liked but the mediteranian was beautiful and it was a lovely hike.

On Friday, Christmas eve, we had lunch with Allison's host family and their three girls at their home. Then her host Dad drove us and our luggage to the TGV station and we headed back to Paris.

In Paris we stayed at Hotel des Gandes Ecoles It surrounded a garden and felt like a bed and breakfast. The neighborhood was nice too. It was fun to browse on the rue Mouffetard which was about a block away.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Midnight Mass at Notre Dame. We walked from our hotel along the Seine. It was windy and cold but Notre Dame was all lit up and was absolutely breathtaking. Inside it was packed and we stood for at least an hour before we got seats. The music including Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and Angels we have Heard on High almost brought tears to my eyes. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel arm in arm singing Christmas Carols.

On Christmas day we walked from the Eiffel Tower down the Seine to the Place de la Concorde. We rode in the Ferris Wheel and then walked down to the Louvre and caught a bus over to Montparnasse to see where Shannon has classes. Then we walked to the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pantheon, and back to the hotel. In the In the evening we met one of Shannon's friends at the Eiffel tower to go ice skating on the first level. We had to wait in line quite a while. The rink is small but but it was great fun.

Shannon was a great tour guide. She had tickets for us to the Turner, Whistler, and Monet exhibit at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. I don't know very much art history and knew almost nothing about Whistler or Turner. It was fascinating to see how impressionism evolved.

Even though this was my third time in Paris I had never been to the Louvre. On Monday that's where we went. We saw all the things the Louvre is famous for like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. But I just love that as I walked around the museum I incidentally saw several works of Art that I had only seen in pictures. On the way to seeing the Code of Hammurabi, there off in an alcove was one of the Easter Island statues that I learned about when I read Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki as a kid.

The was pretty cool too. It is a code of laws, carved in stone. It was created almost as long before Christ as we are after Christ now, almost 4000 years ago. It was found about 50 miles south of where Baghdad is today.

Friday December 17, 2004

Last posting until after Christmas

You won't see any activity on this blog until after Christmas. My oldest daughter, Allison and I are off to France to visit my youngest daughter, Shannon. We will spend about half the time in Aix en Provence and the rest in Paris. Shannon has been studying in Paris this semester.

My husband is taking his girls on a road trip which includes looking at colleges. They left last night but only got a couple of miles down the road when the van broke down. They are hoping to get it repaired today. Then they can try again to leave.

I wrote a “Dear Friends and Family” Christmas letter for the first time ever this year. I mentioned my blog so some of my friends and family may be reading this. Hi everyone! I'm hoping that blogging will help me keep in touch this year

I find Bloglines really great to keep a list of blogs I read. It allows me to see when the blogs I am reading have been updated. Here is the current list of blogs I read.

And last but not least, Have a wonderful Christmas!

Thursday September 16, 2004

iWork, JDS and Me

I'm one of the IT people for the iWork Solutions Group at Sun.The first thing I'd like to do is tell you a little bit about iWork and what I do.

iWork is Sun's internal program to provide the tools to support distributed work. iWork integrates edge technologies, forward thinking work practices, and new workplace ideas to create an innovative, wholly Sun work environment where the network is the computer, and employees can work anywhere, anytime using any device. Sun's Real Estate, IT and HR organizations have been collaborating on iWork Program development for several years. The result is a range of products, tools and support processes that enable Sun employees to work effectively wherever their work may take them.

I mainly focus on user acceptance for iWork IT technologies. My projects right now include change acceptance for Java Desktop System (JDS) internal to Sun and developing a change acceptance process for the JDS/SunRay transition for external IT organizations. The iSG IT team is also working on the SunRay at Home pilot, Printing tools, Global Session Mobility and a bunch of other cool things that enable iWork at Sun.

So it will be interesting (at least to me) how this evolves. Right now I think I'll be writing about iWork, JDS, Change acceptance, and whatever else hits me.