Helping set things up for Mom’s wedding!
Tiny Tonka T-Ball
Mazie and I had our very first Tiny Tonka T-Ball game last night. Sorry, no pictures or video from it. Tammy had plans, and I’m one of the coaches! Next week we’ll get some media coverage.
Of course Mazie just turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and you may be asking how exactly t-ball works with 3 and 4 year olds. Let me explain a bit.
First, this is for fun and there are no scores, no strikes. In fact, there isn’t much left of the “game” and it’s more just fun for the kids. And fun they had!
The first “inning” the kids were really into it and having a blast. It was funny to watch the different kids. There is only one girl other than Mazie on the team and they became fast friends. They were standing in the infield with their arms around each other. On the other hand, some of the boys didn’t feel like taking turns and were pushing and shoving each other to get at the ball. By the second “inning” our entire team, with one exception, was sitting on the infield with their gloves next to them playing in the dirt.
Our team, the yellow team, now known by unanimous vote as the Yellow Bees has one ringer. One of the kids is a future hall-of-famer. He can hit a line drive right up the middle, has a heck of an arm and can play all bases equally well. He was not playing in the dirt.
Summer of Love Day 43 Log
- 8:24 am: On the road again. 429 miles until we are home.
- 11:06 am: On I-35 north. We are in the final stretch!
- 11:30 am: Back in Culver’s country.
- 1:57 pm: Hello Minnesota!
- 3:28 pm: Home Sweet Home!
- 7:17 pm: Thanks for all of the Welcome Backs! It’s really great to be home again. Much to catch up on!
- 10:48 pm: Really happy to be sleeping at home tonight.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Day 42 Log
- 12:45 pm: Heading home.
- 1:17 pm: 906 miles to go.
- 3:01 pm: DQ stop in Ogallala, NE.
- 3:04 pm: Excited to be heading home, but equally sad that our big road trip is ending.
- 3:04 pm: 706 miles to go.
- 8:06 pm: Done driving for the day. Stopping in Lincoln, NE.
- 8:14 pm: Stuck behind 50 basketball camp teens checking in. OMG.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Just passed 3,000 photos for our 6-week Summer of Love road trip!
Horse Run
We are having a great time here at C-Lazy-U. Every evening they send the horses out to the pasture for the night, and the wranglers get up early to go get them back in for the day. Sometimes they send them down the main road to a pasture across the way, and it makes for an amazing sight, and sound.
Great day rafting down the Colorado River followed by an awesome massage.
Summer of Love Day 36 Log
- 2:07 pm: First ride at the dude ranch was really great. My horse for the week is Buster.
- 10:59 pm: The Internet is exceptionally elusive at the dude ranch.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Day 35 Log
- 9:27 am: Nice breakfast at Cali Cochitta B&B in Moab. Heading to see Arches soon.
- 10:51 am: Great vistas at Arches National Park.
- 12:12 pm: Heading out of Arches park and starting drive to C-Lazy-U Ranch near Granby, CO.
- 2:30 pm: Hello Colorado!
- 2:59 pm: U2 seems like Colorado music. Working well for us!
- 4:37 pm: Iced Triple Espresso from Sacred Grounds coffee shop in Glenwood Springs, CO.
- 5:43 pm: Still decent amount of snow at 11,000 feet.
- 6:44 pm: Trying to explain to Mazie why a mosquito bit her. Not going well.
- 6:56 pm: Hello Winter Park, CO! Shout out to Jim Bernard and Jeb Sr.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Day 34 Log
- 2:49 pm: Hello Utah!
- 2:50 pm: Driving from Sedona, AZ to Moab, UT today. Quick stop in Moab on way to Colorado.
- 4:36 pm: Exploring downtown Moab.
- 6:51 pm: Nice dinner at Miguel’s Baja Grill in Moab. Trying to quick adapt Mazie to time change.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Day 33 Log
- 11:55 am: Heading to Montezuma Castle National Monument.
- 1:45 pm: Lunch at Judi’s in Sedona.
- 2:49 pm: 104 °F in Sedona today. Yeah, hot!
- 3:34 pm: I still don’t understand how and when to take out the video camera. I’m so much more comfortable with photography.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Road Trip So Long You Need An Oil Change
Yesterday we passed a milestone on the Summer of Love. After 29 days on the road and driving 4,541 miles the Honda Odyssey kindly let us know that it was due for an oil change.
Before we left on our trip my friend Kent had the revelation that our trip was so long that even with a fresh oil change, which we had done, we would need to have an oil change on the way. This, rightfully so, justified in his mind an entirely new level of road trip. One that exceeds all relevant norms. In fact, after learning of our oil change he reclassified the Summer of Love as an “epic” trip.
There isn’t that much in Sedona, so on our way back from the Grand Canyon yesterday we stopped in Flagstaff to run a number of errands – including getting the oil changed at Flagstaff Honda.
Summer of Love Day 32 Log
- 9:25 am: Heading to the Grand Canyon today!
- 5:16 pm: Waiting for Tammy and Mazie to emerge from Target in Flagstaff.
- 5:18 pm: Arizona is really hot. Yes, obvious. You’re welcome.
- 5:31 pm: Qualifier for a really long road trip: Getting the oil changed. At the Honda dealer in Flagstaff.
- 8:35 pm: Dinner at the New Jersey Pizza Company (wha?) in Flagstaff.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Day 30 Log
- 8:56 am: Packing up. Leaving Las Vegas and awesome Mandalay Bay. Heading to Sedona, AZ! Laundry day too.
- 11:01 am: Hoover Dam!
- 2:33 pm: Lunch stop at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, AZ.
- 4:24 pm: Arrived in Sedona, AZ. Cool scenery. Hot temperatures.
- 4:27 pm: Wondering what the fate of golf courses in the desert is once “the water wars” start.
- 9:36 pm: Tammy is reading about snakes and other dangerous creatures that live around Sedona, AZ. This isn’t good. :-)
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Summer of Love Index - Updated
Number of days on the road so far: 29
Mileage on the 2006 Honda Odyssey at the beginning of the trip: 48,139
Mileage on the minivan at the end of the day, June 2nd: 52,680
Total miles driven during Summer of Love: 4,541
The average number of miles driven per day: 156.59
Cost of fuel for the trip thus far: $921.78
Cost for fuel per mile driven: $0.2030
Number of hotels stayed in: 9
Total number of photographs taken during the trip so far: 1,955
Average number of photographs taken per day so far: 68.79
See first index for comparison.
Summer of Love Day 29 Log
- 4:26 am: I seem unable to sleep in Las Vegas. This sucks.
- 9:44 am: Heading down to the pool. Lazy river today.
- 1:52 pm: At Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay) for lunch. Awesome. Cactus Pear Margarita.
- 9:33 pm: Mazie: “I’m going to blog on my post. This is blogging on my post.”
See full Summer of Love Collection.
Take a Lap in the Lazy River
Have a couple of minutes? Join us on the Summer of Love for a trip around the Lazy River at Mandalay Bay. Mazie’s very first time in a lazy river.
Summer of Love Day 28 Log
- Heading to the pool again.
- Fathers Day cake? Sure! Fathers Day cake!
- Black Cherry Mojito at lunch. Yum!
- I wish there was a way to rid the world of Comic Sans MS.
- Left Mandalay Bay and ventured down the strip. So far, a mistake.
- Todays mojitos: Black Cherry, Watermelon and Apple.
See full Summer of Love Collection.
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
A while back at one of my book club meetings John Riedl mentioned the author Tracy Kidder. I expressed my ignorance and he was dumbfounded. “You haven’t read Kidder? Soul of a New Machine? You have to read it.” His conviction was strong enough that I figured I needed to read it and rectify this horrific literary gap. I finished it today, and really enjoyed the book.
To start with, Soul of a New Machine is not a technical book. You do not need to know anything about computers to read this book. Also, this book was originally published in 1981. This is a time when “super-minis” were just coming out and the computer industry was jumping to 32-bit architectures. This is four years before the introduction of the first Macintosh computer. I would recommend this book to my technical friends for the same reason I would recommend Steven Levy’s Hackers (1984), Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg (1990) or Out of the Inner Circle (1984). There is a great depth of history and culture in this book that is worthwhile and reminds us of the roots of our profession. We still see these roots playing out today in nearly all computer related industries. Thirty years ago it was displayed by wire-wrapping boards to make CPU’s, today it’s shown in mashups. The world of programming and computer engineering, despite what many might think, is filled with passion and creativity.
Soul of a New Machine chronicles the development of a new 32-bit computer from Data General called the Eagle (or the Data General Eclipse MV/8000). Kidder does an excellent job of telling a compelling story of how this machine comes to life and dives into the stories of the people that make it. He concludes that a computer isn’t just a machine, but represents the ideas and personalities of those that create it. He’s spot on.
Kidder illuminates the culture that has filled computer labs, computer science departments, technology, and now Internet startups for years. A born-desire to solve the unsolvable. The unstoppable desire to know how something works.
As I read Soul of a New Machine I could draw parallels to products that I had worked on in a variety of different roles. It was amusing to see that while almost all the tools have changed, so much of the “how” and the “why” has stayed the same.