Here's the pix of the famous Media Lab. According to this prof I was asking directions from they are currently working (among other things) on armour for soldiers that is like gel so comfortable but will harden when hit.



MIT Media Lab

And another really cool thing was the "Kendall Band" that was in the subway station for MIT. The students had designed this giant wind chime sort of thing between the tracks that waiting passengers can twist a handle to begin. I tried it of course! It really gets a neat sound going through the underground station...very interesting echo effects.



Kendall Band (Kendall is the name of the subway station)

Back home now after a wonderful trip but as much as we enjoyed the big cities of New York, Washington, and Boston it is great to be back breathing this wonderful west coast air and in a quieter place. Sorry for those big pix that made the print very hard to read since you had to scroll so much. I just couldn't seem to resize my pix on Jim's laptop. Great to be back working with Photoshop. Will be posting lots of pix of our trip over the next while.

First up is a shot of Harvard. I lucked into joining a tour that was in progress while Jim headed to Special Collections to do his usual gig. It was really interesting and learned lots of things.



* That Harvard chooses the best people then finds money in grants, work study, etc. to make up the $40 K US tuition for those who don't have parents that can pay the whole shot. Also, new this year is that anyone whose parents make less than $40K will not have to pay anything.

* 97% live on campus for the entire 4 undergrad years

* most classes have no more than 14 students

* As one would expect, they want students to take a broad range of courses outside their specialty but what was rather cool is that instead of things like Biology 101, they will design directed studies courses for you. For example, the student giving the tour took the Physics of Musical Instruments".


Then on to MIT to take a pix of their Media Lab for my son, pick up a souvenir from MIT for him, and to see the new Stata Centre (not quite finished) by Frank Gehry that is getting lots of press because it is so wild in design. Gehry says the inside of the building is more important than its striking outside. The MIT faculty, he says, wanted to "produce collisions of people by accident".

I thought this building was a total "WOW" inside and out. Everything else there is sooo.... boring that this building comes across as absolutely brilliant by comparison. This opinion probably isn't shared by everyone. The person I asked directions from on campus (probably a prof) referred to it as the "drunken building" but did admit that now they had something (like Harvard does) that people would want to see.

Posting today from Portland, Maine which we're really enjoying. After a long drive yesterday (9 hours) with lots of delays and tie ups we did finally arrive around 5pm yesterday to this very charming seaside hotel in Hampton Beach. Had a great lobster dinner (with mussels thrown in) while watching the sun set over the ocean from the hotel's dining room. Exploring Maine today, will hit the Kennebuck area (Bush has a summer place there apparently but I doubt he'll be there relaxing....), Portmouth, and Kittery, then back for another lobster dinner (they have lots of variations) for me at our hotel. Tomorrow we head to Boston which looks like a pretty easy 1 hr drive, drop the car at the airport, taxi to our hotel, then Wed take the train back to NYC to leave for home Thurs. Yeah...no more difficult driving! Jim's in a bookstore...have to rout him out.

Princeton is a very beautiful small town with lots of interesting architecture in the town and university. Very small place and lots of large impressive churches and no sign of any pubs or where you can get a drink outside. Good place for these 6,000 students here who no doubt are very serious (physics and all that stuff...where Einstein went, where "A Beautiful Mind" was filmed). 12,000 employees at the U. for these students. Gee, they even beat out Royal Roads Military College which had a ratio of one to one.

Pretty sleepy town...not a lot to do but they did have a rather interesting little local museum on the "lost" Princeton. Looks like they haven't preserved their heritage as much as they could have. Unlike Georgetown that in 1950 made the entire place heritage and put restrictions on everything. It shows....it's a wonderful place.

So now off to Maine and area for the weekend. Will be quite a long driving day...about 7 hours I think. Then into Boston for three days then home. The time has flown by.

Well..I give up...will post pix when I get home.

Arrived (finally...!) in Princeton after getting dazed and confused. Things are not laid out on a grid around these old New England towns to say the least. Talking to some people in a store and they said everyone gets lost around here and regaled me with numerous stories about themselves to prove it. Also, seems they have something called "jughandles"....sort of an involved round-a-about that means you have to keep changing direction to eventually get through it. Guess we'll recognize it when we see it. The wierdist thing is you can (and we did) end up going south back to Washington when seemingly on the road north. My mind is still spinning. What we have seen of Princeton and the area is very beautiful and impressive....wow! The research library was open till 8pm tonight so Jim took the opportunity of getting started on his research. Currently a thunder and lightning storm which is too bad for a Cinqo de Mayo outdoor festival they have going on around here. Have an ethernet connection in our hotel room so will try to post some pix.

At Georgetown University in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. at the moment and overlooking some beautiful trees while I'm posting this. We're staying in Georgetown and it's a great area...very village-like with lots of neat shops, restaurants, small galleries, antique shops, and row housing that's very reminicent of the UK ...probablly dating from late 1800's I would say. Jim is doing is usual library thing...found some great Graham Greene letters yesterday that he will be able to use in his introduction to the the new novella by Greene he is publishing that I'm sure the publisher will be very excited about. We met the publisher/owner of Hesperus Press in NYC just before we left as he was there briefly. A really neat guy and they are very excited about publishing the Greene story and also the unpublished first novel if that works out. Jim had a quick look at it yesterday and he feels it's pretty good.

I went to the National Gallery of Washington and it was wonderful for all the works there as well as the buildings themselves...very impressive even after the Metropolitan Art Gallery of NYC which we also just visited. It's free to everyone and they don't even have a donation box (that I could see anyway) so a wonderful facility for everyone. In addition to loads of impressionist and modern paintings (and of course everything else but you've got to focus on your real interests in these places since I'm going non-stop these days) they had a wonderful Mayan special exhibition with great supporting materials including a really neat guide for children and also around 30 very interesting and impressive cubist paintings of Diego Rivera. He only produced such paintings during a two year period when he was in Paris around WWI. I just loved these paintings!

I think we'll do some sort of tour of Washington later this afternoon since we are very short of time here since we leave tomorrow and Jim really hasn't seen much except Georgetown.

Guess I haven't posted for a while. After Greenwich Village we walked along the Hudson River embankment walk...a wonderful decompressing area for New Yorkers and walked up the the 9/ll site and the winter garden (14 palm trees) in the World Financial Centre. Talking to a woman in Greenwich who really wanted us to see that as apparently they rushed this redevelopment through around the 9/11 site and it meant a lot to New Yorkers to have something beautiful again around that devastation. It's very moving to hear people talk about that experience.

The New York Public Library is also just amazing and I loved the park beside it which is the "Bryant Park Reading Room" where they have all sorts of bistro type tables and chairs along with movable shelves of books that people can temporarily borrow while they're there and even a rack of newspapers on rolls. I took a lot of pictures of that and think I'll try to paint that scene.

With all the frenzy of NYC there are many areas of oasis. We walked to the Frick Collection (wow...more wonderful stuff!)from our apartment via Central Park...another wonderful place where people can relax. Then walked to Zabar's food emporium on 80th and Broadway...can't believe the variety of stuff they manage to sell there from a relatively small space...a foody's delight...just bought a bag there for a souvenir to add to my collection of book/ shopping bags since we were leaving fairly soon.

Now at New York University checking email and posting to this site while Jim does some special collection stuff. I'm starting to get a bit of a collection of temporary library cards. Jim has loads from all over. We'll have to do something with them some day. NYU is in Greenwich Village just off Washington Square so a rather neat area to explore. Big news yesterday was about a student in creative writing here actually managed to live in the library for the last eights months undetected. He got found out because he was posting his experience to his weblog! With tuition at just under 30K US and residence another 12K he didn't have the money to live in res. Seems the university officials were pretty good about it and gave him a free room in residence until the end of the year.

Weather is sunny and coolish today so makes for great walking weather. We heard LA was 102 F yesterday...glad we aren't there now.

We've done the bus, metro, taxi, and walking and it really is great that NYC is such a wonderful pedestrian city which means lots of transit. Manhattan is really easy to get around and taxis are unbelievable cheap although I read in the New York Sun (great little newspaper for only 25 cents) that next week fares go up 26%. I think the cabbies really deserve it...seems they clear around $75 a day with no benefits paid. One fellow interviewed said the only doctors he sees are the ones he has in his cab as passengers.

Yesterday Jim had to spend the whole day at the New York Public Library (found lots of great stuff) so went to Lincoln Centre and also to the annex of the American Museum of Folk Art which is in the region. Will go to the new main building later in the week. The annex had some very interesting quilts as well as the a special commenorative 9/ll quilt, decoys, weather vanes, and various other quite neat things. I'm looking forward to the main exhibit. Then actually walked 50 blocks back to where our apartment is in the upper west side. Walked along Central Park Avenue for most of the way. It is a most magnificent park. Also, fun to see all the doormen calling cabs for their wealthy tenants. And of course the ubiquitous brownstones have a quality all themselves.

Got to the Guggenheim after Columbia the other day and certainly the architecture is rather impressive. Lots of strange modern stuff (mainly in the minimalist genre) in the spiral. One piece I thought was quite fun was a very large bunch of cellophane wrapped licorice bars and the viewer was invited to "take one". I took a couple and have an illicit pix of someone taking one (didn't realize you couldn't take photos). I liked this because a number of the other exhibits had to have special guards making sure you saw what the exhibit was and didn't step on it or something. Also had some good impressionist and modern stuff in the Thannhauser collection.

Greetings from NYC! We had a great flight...only about 1/3 full on the plane so could spread out and everything on time. We're very pleased with our apartment here and he owner was very nice and helpful. Lots of markets, restaurants, and services in the area so fun to shop and feel like a part of living in NYC. I'm always amazed about how friendly and helpful New Yorkers are. Raining today so impossible to get a taxi so took the bus but unlike LA where you can use bills, here only quarters, which, of course, we didn't have. Someone on the bus immediately pulled out a bag of quarters to help. And it continues on with all sorts of people helping us find our way, chat, etc. At Columbia University right now killing time as the rare books area isn't open until noon. Think we'll try to take in the Guggenheim after that.

Aa few pix of our visit to Beaconhill Park. Now I know why I haven't been there since making trips to the petting zoo with Richard. It is sooo dull...! The petting zoo is still the best thing about it.



The alapacas were very cool...don't remember them being there.



I'm quite sure this is the first time I've seen a white peacock.



Richard and me taken by holding the camera in front of us. Great thing about digital cameras is you can always take another one if it does't work.

Practicing uploading to blogger from Jim's laptop.

A few pix of these great poppies that seem to come up every year around our house.

This is the only painting I did when we were in California. Forgot I did it actually...just came across it when trying to get rid of clutter. I'm not going to bother taking paints on our next trips since we're moving around too much. I must work on simplifying what I take when I do think I will do some painting.



Fox Cinema - acrylic on paper 8" x 10"

I've been impressed with the art I've seen at Toronto's new Terminal I. I particularly liked this aluminum-plate sculpture of five flying figures by Jonathan Borofsky called "I dreamed I could fly". Perhaps Toronto's airport will make it in the top ten in the world.

Vancouver is #8 and is the only North American airport to make the list. I think it's a wonderful airport and feel very proud every time I enter it. I notice it took a few hits from the evaluators for surly over-zealous customs agents...I can testify to that!

Hong Kong's relatively new airport shares top spot with Singapore's. Ten years ago I was very surprised and disappointed by HK's very dingy airport...glad to see they have something world class now.


"I dreamed I could fly" by Jonathan Borofsky
Location: Terminal I - Toronto Pearson International Airport

This is a canvas mat I just finished. I've been wanting to do sunflowers and a black and white check border for a while now for a mat to go in front of the sink. It didn't quite work out the way I had in mind but I'm quite pleased with it and it goes well with the terracotta kitchen floor.



"Sunflowers and checks"
Canvas floor mat - 23" x 29"

Books I'm NOT reading...all rather disappointing...glad I got them from the library!

"Consider This, Senora" by Harriet Doerr. As much as I liked her first novel (Sontes for Ibarra), her writing style seems to have gotten worse in this rather than better...too many happy coincidences and not very authenic sounding. I did like the painting on the cover, though.



"Island" by Jack Hodgins. I heard him read from this and although I enjoyed his reading I figured I wouldn't particularly like the book. Picked it up on a 7 day Fast Read to give it a try.

"Cat's Pilgrimage" by Marily Bowering. Didn't get past the book jacket on this one. Also had read a bad review.

"Tell No One" by Harlan Coben. Thought I might find a good mystery writer here but his style isn't for me.

I'm really pleased with the way the Victrola came up and it's working great as a wine and liquor cabinet. I changed the design a bit from the canvas I did first.

I don't seem to have been reading that much lately. Too busy with travel and travel plans I guess and I don't seem to do a lot of reading when travelling. Read another No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency called "Tears of the Giraffe"...simple, charming, delightful as always. I guess I will tire of these stories because there isn't really much to them but for the moment I really enjoy them.

When we were in LA I picked up Shirley Hazzard's memoir on encounters with Graham Greene called "Greene on Capri". They both had houses there and met frequently over the years. I bought it for Jim really but surprised myself by reading and liking it. Generally I'm not thrilled with memoirs.

Noticed the Shirley Hazzard had a new book out (first one 20 years after "The Transit of Venus") called "The Great Fire"...all about the aftermath of WW II. I think it quite captures that end of war chaos and people left adrift to re-create their lives again after the war and in the shadow of the prospect of another war. I enjoyed it and was engaged by the characters and story even though I sometimes got the feeling the author was using up material that wasn't really necessary. Something about the atmosphere in the book that I quite liked and I found I didn't mind these faults. Also enjoyed some very insightful comments by the male protagonist on the nature of women. Always rather interesting when a female writer writes through the male point of view and comments on women.

"Stones from Ibarra" by Harriet Doerr...another of my Christmas books that Jim feratted out.
Most interesting writer. She was the ultimate "late bloomer" - finished her Stanford degree at 67 and won a National Book Award for "Stone..." at the age of 73. Story about a California couple who sell everything to reopen a copper mine the husband's grandfather was forced to abandon during the Mexican Revolution. More a collection of insightful vignettes about the Mexicana and American cultures than a novel although it does hang together as a novel as well.

I got back to doing some painting this last week and worked out the design on a canvas that I want to do for the top of the Victrola cabinet. Since it's going to be storage for bar related items I wanted to do something that fit along this line. The "Ricard blimp" is especially for Jim as he has always had this idea that there should be a blimp on the Victoria-Vancouver run.



Cafe Pastis
Acrylic on canvas - 12" x 16"

Wow...even sunshine today...not what was predicted. Here are some pix of Willows Beach from yesterday.

Very windy and bitter today. I went down to Willows Beach to get some storm watching pix and walked in the middle of a crew making a movie in Estevan Village. So will post these pix today and the storm watching later.


Movie making in Estevan Village


"Twigs and Blossoms" aka Jennings Florists


Think this might be a redo of Bungalow? Nope...this is a "new" creation in the vacant space where Dove Travel was.


Wouldn't it be great to have this deli in the village! This is what they did to Bungalow.


"River Valley Ice Cream" aka Willows Galley

We tested out our new car (2002 Chrysler Concorde) going to Saltspring Island yesterday to visit friends. We're very pleased with the way it rides and look forward to taking it on our trips to the desert. Our old heap finally packed it in and could barely limp into the dealership. We hadn't been on Saltspring for quite a while and were surprised and delighted to see a couple of vinyards there. Garry Oaks Winery is one and can't remember the other. So many local places now that one can imagine being in the south of France. I hope to get an olive tree this Spring to plant among my lavender and sunflowers. Add a littler rose wine to that mix and it will almost seem like we're in Bandol!

I think I'll paint some oak trees on the Victrola cabinet Don and Elaine gave me. I've been collecting pictures to do some paintings of these for a while. Oak on oak seems like a good idea. Here are some pix I took in the Fall...sun's out now...perhaps I'll go out and take some more before the leaves start coming. You really get to see the twists and turns in the trunks now.

Back from California and being treated to some great local weather. Jim had to cut the lawn and I guess I should get out in the garden. Forgot I planted so many crocuses so they all look great...think I planted a bunch of tulips too so look forward to them. Nice to be home...working on the NY phase now. A few pix of CA.


Fox movie theatre in Westwood, LA


George Burn's handprints, footprints, and cigar print


Venice Beach and the Santa Monica foothills


Santa Monica Pier


palm...


palm...


palm...palm...palm...

I am now a member of the LA Public Library (neat card!). Seems they let anyone with address ID become a member. What a fabulous place...great architecture, paintings, murals and wonderful holdings (had ALL of Jim's books...need I say more...) While downtown we took in the Biltmore Hotel where the academy awards were held initially. Quite the old hotel and lots of interesting photos of various events in the past. Then to the Grand Central Market. Really neat to see the foodstalls of all the various mainly Latino stuff...the chili's alone could blow up the city I think! The El Salvadorian stall had the most unusual stuff including cow's heads for sale. Then had to wait a rather long time for the bus home close to Broadway (very down at heel, rather like Cordova and Hastings) and of course another fascinating bus ride home.

Back in LA and although it's sunny today we have had a spell of rather cool and rainy weather. Apparently they need the rain here so I guess that makes it better. The coast weather here is somewhat different than at home. We were at the Getty again yesterday...it is so amazing...it's just great to keep walking out of any door and find yourself with a wonderful view always a bit different than you've seen before, some wonderful aspect of the architecture and gardens and then to be lead back to the centre and reorient yourself again so easily. Given that the weather was somewhat rainy we figured we wouldn't be able to see the vistas (at home everything would be socked in) but we could see out to Santa Monica and the ocean and even as far as the Santa Ana mountains.

We had an interesting time the other day at Houle Books where the owner allowed Jim to view a couple of Huxley letters he was selling. Jim helped him out with some names and made some corrections in his transcription of them. Huxley's handwriting is rather cryptic. It does underline the importance of looking at the originals. Quite an amazing bookstore. It is by appointment only and no question of browsing through the mainly first editions and collectibles. The owner bought George Cukor's library. It became available because the estate got rather annoyed that the university he originally donated it to actually got rid of some important materials at a student booksale...seems the librarians weren't really with it. Then they sold a painting (for 6 million US) he had also donated only six months after he died in Switzerland to try to hide the fact they were selling it. Seemed a friend happened to notice it. Guess there are lots of stories in this town.

After the bookstore we had a coffee in this rather modern equivalent of an opium den (lots of sofas and overstuffed chairs) in a cafe called the "Insomnia Cafe" only instead of opium, all the clients were silently communing with their wireless notebooks or walkmans...conversation seemed a no-no.

We had a wonderful game of golf on an executive course with Tom and Claire....really cheap too....$10! There is lots of reasonable golf in the area. We started playing this course around 3:30 and there was no one else on it. Wonderful views of the mountains all around and absolutely a perfect temperature. It really is paradise around here. We should have taken their suggestion to have a quick bite before the Valentine Day crowds but since we had a late lunch we decided to take our chances. Really crazy with people waiting up to 1 -1 1 /2 hours everywhere so ended up back in our hotel suite with a couple of sandwiches from Borders, a bottle of wine, a cancle and a rose....quite fun really. Seemed to be lots of screaming kids in all the restaurants around here so probably better.

We've booked a place for January of next year! Our plan was to look around at places but Claire pointed out people often book a year in advance so seemed like a good idea since then we will have the pick of places and know what we're getting. We decided to locate within a few blocks walking of Palm Springs itself as we really liked the animation there and it means we won't have to be constantly driving. It was great having this Internet connection in our room so did the preliminary looking online then went to a booking agency in Palm Springs and narrowed it down. It's in a super looking complex called the Deauville, 3 pools, tennis courts, lots of lush vegetation and fountains. Our unit is an upper one bedroom (with California Kingsize...even bigger than normal, of course!), two bathroom, large balcony very elegantly furnished suite of about 750 sq ft. We talked to some owners and it's an older, quieter crowd so should be perfect for us. We were very pleased to get that all sorted out. Initially the search is rather overwhelming because there is so much choice but lots of places are rather deserted and not really suitable for what we want.

Saw Lost in Translation last night...very amusing and thoughtful.

Jim's going to play golf today (could hit 80 degrees apparently) and I'm going to stroll El Paseo in Palm Desert...lots of neat shops and art galleries but you don't want a man dragging around...

In the desert now and enjoying it immensely. The wonderful air and the mountains looming round with the sun creating alll sorts of affects at various times of the day make me feel very inspired to paint. I won't have time to do it now on this short trip but will take lots of pictures. The first night we had booked here ended up to be a major truck stop so was very noisy with all the rigs coming and going every night. Also ended up to be difficult to get a place since it's the President's Day weekend and Valentine's (seems to be almost a national holiday around here!). However we did get into a new place in Palm Desert, the Hilton Garden Inn, and have a lovely suite here which also has free ethernet connection so it will be easy to post to the blog, do email, and also check out places to rent for a longer period of time down here for future years.

We had dinner last night with one of my Victoria golfing buddies, Claire, and her husband, Tom. It was really fun to see them and we're all going to play a Par 3 course this afternoon. Lots of wonderful golf courses here but also reasonable golf. Claire and Tom do a lot of hiking and that looks pretty interesting as well.

The LACMA had lots of amazing stuff too including Magritte's "C'est n'est pas un pipe". Also had a great collection of muralists such as Diego Rivera and Sigueires (sp?)...anyway, the guy who did all those fantastic murals we saw in Guadalajara. Some very interesting American decorative arts and furniture and Arts and Craft stuff. Another amazing complex of various museum buildings with architecture that allows views of the city and surroundings while you're viewing the art. I believe it has the biggest collections of art west of Chicago.

There are an incredible number of restaurants in our area and we discovered a very cool French bistro type restaurant where the chef specialty is rack of lamb. So famous apparently we were asked if we had heard about it. We hadn't but it did live up to expectation...7 chops done very rare with a kind of escargot type sauce. Also, great potatoes with lots of gruyere...not as good as Monique's but getting close. I think we'll return there. Lots of rather interesting things on the menu even a hamburger with Roquefort called the "French Disaster".

Off to the desert tomorrow for a week so it will be good to get some swimming in and some real heat although it does continue to be in the mid 70's most of the time here and not a cloud in the sky. An unusual ridge of high pressure for the coastal area it seems.

Did I mention the Getty Centre had all the paintings in the top floors designed with special louvres that change and allow the paintings to be viewed with the natural light the painters would have used. We'll return there again when we do our next shift in LA.

So, what's going on in Victoria and B.C....any more scandals? Send me an email.

Now I know why we never bothered going to Hollywood. The Mann Chinese Theatre with the footprints, handprints, Betty Grable's leg, Bob Hope's nose etc. is rather fun but what a tacky strip for the most part. I don't think I've ever seen such a poor collection of kitch in the stores...some upscale stuff but mainly unbelievable junk. Always interesting to see various areas, though, and there was a station for their limited subway system.

It's been quite an experience on the buses...have encountered all sorts of very talkative (often talking in rhyming rap rhythmns) and partly crazy people...mostly harmless, but did have a rather unpleasant experience yesterday coming back from the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) when a black couple decided to have an argument and held the bus to ransom with their foolishness. I guess it's a power thing to do that...obviously street people who don't have much other power I guess. Seemed like both had been in prison from the "conversation".

The stone they used is amazing and it took 100 freighter loads from Italy to build it. Even though it is vast you can exit easily almost everywhere through doors (rather incredible in themselves and there are 3700 of them) and come across a vista of the gardens, the ocean, the mountains. Just a wonderful setting to view the art and you can't seem to get lost or feel you are in an immense place. Quite an architectual feat. Loads of welcoming volunteers and the people in the rooms are very knowledgable and helpful.

They have loads of stuff but very impressed with the decorative arts displays and furniture. Even had a whole process display of how a mid 18th century table would have been made. Wonderful stuff for kids as well.

Jim figures Getty was pretty much the richest man in the world and what a gift for people. Seems he was a bit of a skinflint and well known for penny pinching ideas like having payphones in his home for his guests!

Off to Hollywood later on today.

Had a fun weekend. Went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier. Venice Beach seems like a time warp what with all the palm readers and weird "spiritual" stuff on offer. Guess there's a market for it all. Just a gorgeous day in the mid 70's and really enjoyed walking the beaches. The big game on the beaches if Paddle Tennis...a much smaller court than regular tennis and kind of a cross between raquet ball and ping pong but looked like a lot of fun and wouldn't be as hard as tennis.

Went to the J. Paul Getty Center Sunday and we were both just blown away....absolutely amazing and free for all. It was completed in 1997 from the Getty Trust and cost a billion to build...that's not counting the many art treasure s worth billions that it houses. In the foothills of Santa Monica with the most amazing views from everywhere in the buildings and gardens. You go up in a tram designed specifically to give you a sense of going to a different space...and what a space to view fabulous works of art.

I continue to be amazed at some of these collections of art. Our hotel is very close to the Hammer Museum of Art (of Arm and Hammer...a few bucks obviously). It was free on Thurs so went there yesterday...quite an amazing collection of Impressionists and loads of other stuff like Titian, Goya, Reubens, Rembrandt...you name it. Planning on getting to the Santa Monica Pier area and the J. Paul Getty on the weekend. Jim's research is going well and he got the go ahead to publish the Graham Greene discovery so exciting news.

It's been sunny and warm since our arrival. We had a rather exciting time our first day as it appeared we were supposed to do the visa stuff in Vancouver not LA. Told we might have to return to Canada...ugh...
Anyhow, we ended up sorting it out by going down to the Federal building in downtown LA. Quite an experience waiting in line just to get into the building...lots of security and people yelling at all of us. Good thing I didn't take my camera as they only confiscate restricted items. When Jim mentioned we'll probably be treated like criminals when we do get in, the man behind us commented "you can be sure of that"! Sorted out fairly easily for us in the end but some people around us seemed to be getting quite a hassle.

That seemed to work. At the UCLA library computers that do seem to work better than the wonky one at our hotel. Our hotel is in a great location pretty much in Westwood Village and close to UCLA. Our first night here we ate in a restaurant that has lots of buzz, lights, action going on across from it...some opening night with "stars" appearing...we were too focused on our Jambalaya to notice but it was fun to have it all going around us.

Having problems posting so will try this short message now.

Repacking and planning for our next trips...LA and southern California for Feb., then New York and eastern seaboard for three weeks in April/May. Jim needs at least a week for his research in NY so we decided to rent an apartment. We're really pleased with what we ended up with and looking forward to taking advantage of the food markets that are in the Spring in our area and, of course, all the other wonderful things about NY.

Back home and in the midst of repacking already for LA. Had some aligator in a Houston airport restaurant. Very much like chicken. Also had some wonderful oysters with crab and hollandaise sauce...ymmm. Here are some pix of the Texas trip.


Our B & B in Austin


Downtown Austin...6th Street has some very nice heritage buildings


The Alamo in San Antonio


Waiter making an avocado salad at a restaurant on the SA riverwalk


Rather liked this "statue" in SA


Gulf of Mexico, Galveston beach area


Statue commenorating the victims in the big hurricane around 1900


The beautiful boulevard in Houston where nobody walks!


Houston's new fancy light transit...too bad there isn't more of this kind of thing.
Just thinking of all those cars and freeway loops makes me dizzy...

Huston is getting all ready for the Super Bowl...quite a bit of hype about it and everyone's hoping to make a killing. Saw a news report where someone was renting a house (more like a mansion) for $150,000 US for the week. Also, someone with a small bungalow was hoping to get $1300 a night for his house, plus charging $100 a song for playing the piano! Ah well, best of luck to them. Glad we're not going to be here.

Seems they''re very short of teachers in Texas and have a program to certify people without degrees and counting life experience. Read this as part of a course description for people thinking of becoming teachers. The course focuses on certification and also giving a balanced view of teaching and not just the horror stories. Any of my retired friends interesting in a new career in Texas? No takers....gee, what a surprise!

Well, that post seemed to work. I'll back up a bit to our time in Austin. We spent quite a lot of time at our B & B sipping tequila and Rebel Yell bourbon while on our loveseat swing on the veranda and listening to the rain. It was cosy though because it was warmer than usual so sitting outside was fine. Our hosts, Sandra and Herb, were just terrific. Jim had a very successful research time in Austin and made some important discoveries so it was really worth the trip.

We went to San Antonio after Austin for a night. At the B & B we met two young women who were training as linguists in the military (one for Chinese and the other Arabic) who mentioned we'd be seeing lots of blue uniforms in SA as all airforce basic training takes place there and a group was finishing. Most of the young men we saw didn't look more than 15 years old...hope they don't see action soon. We made quite a faux pas in a restaurant by referring to an empty bottle of wine as a "dead soldier". This is such a common idiom for us but insensitive here...we'll definitely make a point of not using that again! We hit the perfect day to do the River Walk and boat ride in SA...in the high 70's and sunny. Saw the Alamo too, of course.

Then on to Galveston as we wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico and our B & B hosts warned us off Corpus Christi. We enjoyed Galveston...beautiful beaches and seawall and we lucked into a reasonable room right on the ocean. The downtown has been nicely restored and there are a lot of restored Victorian homes, some right beside shacks...gives a rather raffish quality to the neighbourhoods.
Had the "Crab Feast" at Landry's on the waterfront.

Made quite a long post the other day and lost it...getting used to Jim's laptop. Nice to have high speed internet in our suite at the Hilton. Great apartment and wonderful location for the university, museum district, and on the brand new above ground light transit. Very spiffy trains that even have whistles like real trains. What a deal public transit is here...$2 for a 24 hr unlimited day pass for all buses and transit. Went downtown today but not an awful lot except office buildings, restaurants, a few stores. Guess everything is out in the burbs like most American cities. They seem to be wanting to revitalize downtown and developing a number of loft apartment places...at $475, 000 US for a two bedroom it seems pretty pricey for having street people as your neighbours.

Our room here looks out over the university playing fields and a beautiful residential area...very quiet. And we're very close to the big medical complex. Certainly a car culture, though. Yesterday I walked back from the Museum of Fine Arts (fabulous impressionist stuff among many other things) along this gorgeous treed boulevard. I was the only person walking except for two joggers and a team of 9 people picking up litter. Didn't seem to be doing a very effective job although there wasnt' much litter to begin with. Think I'll post this now before I lose it.

Back at the Deli and listening to someone trying to convince someone that they faked the moon landing. Generally a lot of support for Bush's plan for space. We continue to meet very friendly people. On the airplane coming down the pilot suggested we introduce ourselves to our neighbour...never heard that before. On the buses (many which are free and the rest only 50 cents) the students seem to always thank the driver when they leave. A rather neat custom.

At our B & B we've got quite a selection of people. A very nice family with a little boy of five from Grenada, Spain. He's in Math and has a year's appointment at the university for the year. The common language for us was French so that was good to be able to communicate. Also, a very nice family from Milwawki (How do you spell that...!) dropping off their daughter who is finishing off her degree this term. Very interesting family as they spent time in Guatamala. Got some good local knowledge...esp. that students are returning for term beginning next week and 6th street bars and restaurants will be loaded with drunken students. Think we'll go to an old heritage hotel called the Driskill here for dinner instead of doing that scene...has a piano bar apparently too. A little more our style, I think.

People waiting for the computer.

Hello from Austin, Texas. I'm on a complimentary computer terminal at Schlotzdky's Deli. Just had a terrific "original" sandwich...smoked meats, ham, cheese, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, onions on toasted sourdough...yummy! Browsing some restaurants on 6th Street for tonight. About 100 venues here have live music. Think I'll go to the Friday morning tour of the studios of Austin City Limits. Saw "pork shanks" done ossu buco style...also whole crayfish...so many choices so little time. BTW, Jim's sweating it out in the library.

We've been very favourably impressed with Texas. People are wonderfully friendly, especially that state trooper who pulled Jim over for speeding 15 minutes after we left the airport. He gave him a warning and almost apologized. Guess who's been doing the speed limit since! We ended up with this rather hot looking car (only one available when we went to pick up our rental...well, the other was a mini van) so I think the guy expected to see some kids when he pulled us over. I think he took pity on us when he saw we were a couple of jet lagged old fogeys.

Our B & B in Austen is terrific. Beautiful old house with porches all around. Our room enters onto our own little private part with a wooden swing for two. Seems almost all the houses around here have at least a small porch complete with wooden swing and often rocking chairs. The B & B is a rather grand house but there are lots of small bungalows that look like mini Arts & Craft houses. Seems some developer in the early 1900's made a point of making these lots available for the "working man or woman"...the advertising pitch was "Have a house for the price of two beers a day". People built their own for the most part so there's quite an interesting variety.

Weather's great...sunny and in the 70's.

Bye for now.

Off to Vancouver today then flying to Texas tomorrow! Really looking forward to all new tourist territory for me and Jim has lots of interesting research to do. Weather forecast in the 70's so should be pretty warm. Perhaps my next post will be from the Alamo....

I've really enjoyed reading the two books Jim gave me in the Virago Modern Classics series

One is two novellas by Vita Sackville-West "Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir". Both quite charming and amusing in their way. And currently enjoying discovering a completely new author to me, Catherine Carswell, a Scottish lady who published the book I'm reading in 1922. It's called "The Camomile" which is a novel of letters and journals somewhat autobiographical. Quite an interesting person in that she became a dramatic and literary critic for the Glasgow Herald...a very unusual thing for a woman to be doing in 1906! She was a friend of D. H. Lawrence who had admiration for her writing and she for his. After nine years of writing for the Herald she was fired for writing a favourable review of "The Rainbow"...very scandalous for the times. The review was only published because she managed to smuggle the piece to the printer without the editor's approval. Seems like she would have been an interesting person to know.

Looking forward to being introduced to more women writers from this press.

How delightful not to have to make our ways to work today! Very cosy looking out at the snow. Hearing a lot of rain now so I guess we'll soon see flowers blooming and the snow all gone.

Quite a dump of snow on Friday night. Very cold air front so not much melting. Don't see this kind of picture around here very much!

Happy New Year everyone!

Taking the day to clean out files before we begin our marathon travelling over the next six months. Came across this note on a telephoning session to parents about student absences...just in case I forgot why I retired!

Student 1: Father seemed surprised. Father has been sick. Felt son was reliable.
Student 2: Talked to Mom and Dad. Both seemed surprised.
Student 3: Guardian unaware of absences
Student 4: no answer
Student 5: Talked to mother. Has been sick the past 2 days but not before.
Student 6: Parents at wit's end. Refer to counsellor