Hey everyone. No photos from Washington uploaded yet, I did get them of the cameras but then my new motherboard arrived and I decided to put my upgraded system together. It's up and humming but I haven't put everything back on it yet, like Outlook and our photo archive. So bear with us, no email replies from us for another day or so.
One of the main reasons for the upgrade was the switch to 1080i video, I couldn't even edit it with my old Gfx card as it had only 128MB of RAM. My new card has 768MB, nice! It has 192 time more memory than my first 386 computer had total. I just got Studio reinstalled last night and man does it cook on the new hardware.
Quick summary for the geeks, an E6600 o'clocked from 2.4 to 3.4Ghz (nice and stable with just air cooling, sweet), 2GB of PC8500 (1066Mhz) DDR2, a screaming new Geforce 8800 GTX and lastly 1.1TB (yeah a terabyte) of usable storage in RAID5. I don't think I'll be upgrading again for a few years :-). My 3DMark2006 is just a hair over 12000, more than 15 times faster than my old hardware, and I haven't o'clocked the Geforce yet.
Our new Xbox 360 arrives tomorrow, another eBay buy, and that will replace our old Xbox as the home media hub. Again it's needed for HD, the old Xbox just doesn't have the grunt to decode HD video. Although, to be honest, I'm more looking forward to getting Guitar Hero 2 and playing that over the weekend, rock on!
Andy, out.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Ticket to Ride
It's been a really nice day. The weather has improved daily and today was a beautiful cloudless 22 or so degrees. It's so nice to see some warm weather after a long and late northern hemisphere winter, especially since being back in Aus for a week or so and having great weather there. We walked half a dozen blocks down to the Federal Triangle, home to the dreaded IRS (the US Tax Dept) where we picked up our web-booked cycle tour. Cam rode shotgun with me on a tag-along and the girls all had their own transport. It was the perfect day for riding around the Washington Mall and visiting all the buildings and monuments. Our guide was a friendly enough bloke and we had a mixed bunch of tourists including a fellow ANZAC in town from the land of the long white cloud for a conference. Straight off a trans-Pacific flight and onto a bike, better her than me.
Cam did wine a little about the duration but for the most part the kids enjoyed cycling around the mall and stopping every couple of hundred meters or so for a quick spruke from our guide on the character of the figure described by this statue or the funny story behind that building. It was a fairly entertaining ride. Being on bikes though meant that we didn't spend much time at each monument, and there's a lot to see. We didn't get more than 200m from the Capitol and I would have liked to have had time to walk up the steps and see all 19 feet of the statue of Lincoln, another time perhaps. But there's no doubting that we couldn't have seen the sites in a better way, the kids pretty much occupied by the riding and the day designed for being out on a treadly. I shudder to think of how we might have managed had I suggested that we walk it... the ride was over 4.5 miles, that's around 7klms to you and me Rusty. Nope, walking would not have worked at all.
In the end we made our way back to the hotel and the kids were, once again, in the pool around 2pm. I worked out how to get some beer and G&T's up to the pool, a generous tip at the restaurant bar made some plastic cups appear, and we watched the kids play for a few hours. We have reservations at Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner and plan to do it early. Tomorrow we have a 9 hour drive back to TO.
Washington is a great town, there's just so much to see and it's all pretty impressive. Walking back from our cycling we strolled passed the J. Edgar Hoover building and saw a few gents wearing FBI badges, sights from Hollywood movies abound... We saw the south side of the White House, the 'ID4 view' across the lawn. But for me the single thing that brought Washington home was sitting by the pool yesterday and seeing two Sea King helicopters fly away from the White House in different directions. When Dubya leaves town for the weekend they send 3 choppers in 3 directions, 2 decoys and only one containing the fool. I wonder whether I saw the one he was in... I couldn't sense the foolishness from that distance. DC has been great, I wish we'd had more time here but a long drive awaits tomorrow and a steak has my name on it in about an hour. Cheers.
Andy, out.
Cam did wine a little about the duration but for the most part the kids enjoyed cycling around the mall and stopping every couple of hundred meters or so for a quick spruke from our guide on the character of the figure described by this statue or the funny story behind that building. It was a fairly entertaining ride. Being on bikes though meant that we didn't spend much time at each monument, and there's a lot to see. We didn't get more than 200m from the Capitol and I would have liked to have had time to walk up the steps and see all 19 feet of the statue of Lincoln, another time perhaps. But there's no doubting that we couldn't have seen the sites in a better way, the kids pretty much occupied by the riding and the day designed for being out on a treadly. I shudder to think of how we might have managed had I suggested that we walk it... the ride was over 4.5 miles, that's around 7klms to you and me Rusty. Nope, walking would not have worked at all.
In the end we made our way back to the hotel and the kids were, once again, in the pool around 2pm. I worked out how to get some beer and G&T's up to the pool, a generous tip at the restaurant bar made some plastic cups appear, and we watched the kids play for a few hours. We have reservations at Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner and plan to do it early. Tomorrow we have a 9 hour drive back to TO.
Washington is a great town, there's just so much to see and it's all pretty impressive. Walking back from our cycling we strolled passed the J. Edgar Hoover building and saw a few gents wearing FBI badges, sights from Hollywood movies abound... We saw the south side of the White House, the 'ID4 view' across the lawn. But for me the single thing that brought Washington home was sitting by the pool yesterday and seeing two Sea King helicopters fly away from the White House in different directions. When Dubya leaves town for the weekend they send 3 choppers in 3 directions, 2 decoys and only one containing the fool. I wonder whether I saw the one he was in... I couldn't sense the foolishness from that distance. DC has been great, I wish we'd had more time here but a long drive awaits tomorrow and a steak has my name on it in about an hour. Cheers.
Andy, out.
Friday, April 20, 2007
GPS saves Lives
Well maybe not lives, but marriages for sure. Washington is a hive, the basic layout of the main grid is sensational, streets running east-west are Lettered (A-W) and streets running north-south are numbered (1-22), plus there are many diagonal streets named for states of the union, like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York Avenues. But the rest of the pace is a maze of one-way streets, curving expressways and cryptic exits that go in unexpected directions. GPS is a MUST.
The Mall is the central focus of the city and it's bordered by Constitution and Independence Avenues of course. It's bookended by the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other with the Washington Monument in the middle. The Malls patchy early-Spring grass is lined with the various Smithsonian Institutes, museums to die for, Natural History, Art, American History and of course the famous Air and Space Museum. James Smithson, a Brit and scientist, bequeathed his wealth in 1826 to the USA and no one really knows why, but his money was placed in trust by the US government and used to build a mighty repository of the worlds knowledge in the US capital.
The most amazing stuff is in the Smithsonian, the original Wright Bros flier, Dorothy's actual Ruby Slippers, the hat Honest Abe Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated, the actual Apollo 11 command module and the space suits Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon in, the original Kermit the Frog muppet, the gloves Ali used against Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, the X1 rocket plane that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in... man the list is endless, a wish-list of awesome 20th century bric-a-brac. We were very lucky today... we saw all of the above. My plan was to simply go to the Air and Space Museum, a goal from early childhood, and lo-and-behold they're also showing a best of American history on the upper level. So we rubbed shoulders with Chuck, Gus and Buzz in the main halls and then got to see Judy's shoes, an R2 unit and his nerdy friend 3PO (who's the nerd?-Ed), Ali's jaw breakers... and the list goes on. It was a cool day.
Actually I'm getting a little ahead of myself, can you tell I'm a little giddy? Might be the beer... the day started in great style, no clouds, 20 degrees and short sleeves. The plan was to 'museum' today as it's Friday and hopefully there would be smaller crowds, then tomorrow we would stalk the various monuments in the open. Jumped in the car and headed west over the Potomac trying to find the Iwo Jima monument. I couldn't work out how to ask the GPS for directions and so screwed up our approach, to be fair I only made one wrong turn and I was flying pretty blind. Jo worked out the Magellan and got us on the right track, fate delivering us the perfect parking space within walking distance of a classic WW2 image.
From the monument to US Marines we walked to Arlington National Cemetary, also known as the Field of Stone. The cherry blossoms have just bloomed so the gardens are particularly pretty, but the stones just went on forever, no photos or movies can ever do it justice... The tulips were also out at the Netherlands Clarion, a present from the Dutch to the US after WW2, and the kids enjoyed some mucking around in the gardens. From there we tried to hit the Pentagon and only succeeded in skirting the car park, man this place is a fricken maze, damn the political labyrinth it's actually hard to find you're way around.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Spy Cafe and had MI-5 and Langley dogs before returning to our hotel and hitting the pool. Tomorrow we're booked on a bike tour of the DC sites, hopefully the kids can hack the 3 hour ride we have in store. No photos uploaded yet, far to tired to be bothered sorry.
Andy, out.
The Mall is the central focus of the city and it's bordered by Constitution and Independence Avenues of course. It's bookended by the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other with the Washington Monument in the middle. The Malls patchy early-Spring grass is lined with the various Smithsonian Institutes, museums to die for, Natural History, Art, American History and of course the famous Air and Space Museum. James Smithson, a Brit and scientist, bequeathed his wealth in 1826 to the USA and no one really knows why, but his money was placed in trust by the US government and used to build a mighty repository of the worlds knowledge in the US capital.
The most amazing stuff is in the Smithsonian, the original Wright Bros flier, Dorothy's actual Ruby Slippers, the hat Honest Abe Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated, the actual Apollo 11 command module and the space suits Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon in, the original Kermit the Frog muppet, the gloves Ali used against Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, the X1 rocket plane that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in... man the list is endless, a wish-list of awesome 20th century bric-a-brac. We were very lucky today... we saw all of the above. My plan was to simply go to the Air and Space Museum, a goal from early childhood, and lo-and-behold they're also showing a best of American history on the upper level. So we rubbed shoulders with Chuck, Gus and Buzz in the main halls and then got to see Judy's shoes, an R2 unit and his nerdy friend 3PO (who's the nerd?-Ed), Ali's jaw breakers... and the list goes on. It was a cool day.
Actually I'm getting a little ahead of myself, can you tell I'm a little giddy? Might be the beer... the day started in great style, no clouds, 20 degrees and short sleeves. The plan was to 'museum' today as it's Friday and hopefully there would be smaller crowds, then tomorrow we would stalk the various monuments in the open. Jumped in the car and headed west over the Potomac trying to find the Iwo Jima monument. I couldn't work out how to ask the GPS for directions and so screwed up our approach, to be fair I only made one wrong turn and I was flying pretty blind. Jo worked out the Magellan and got us on the right track, fate delivering us the perfect parking space within walking distance of a classic WW2 image.
From the monument to US Marines we walked to Arlington National Cemetary, also known as the Field of Stone. The cherry blossoms have just bloomed so the gardens are particularly pretty, but the stones just went on forever, no photos or movies can ever do it justice... The tulips were also out at the Netherlands Clarion, a present from the Dutch to the US after WW2, and the kids enjoyed some mucking around in the gardens. From there we tried to hit the Pentagon and only succeeded in skirting the car park, man this place is a fricken maze, damn the political labyrinth it's actually hard to find you're way around.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Spy Cafe and had MI-5 and Langley dogs before returning to our hotel and hitting the pool. Tomorrow we're booked on a bike tour of the DC sites, hopefully the kids can hack the 3 hour ride we have in store. No photos uploaded yet, far to tired to be bothered sorry.
Andy, out.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
By George, what a surprise!
Another nine hours in a car, why the heck does the rest of my family put up with my hair brained ideas? We left Oakville at 5:20am this morning and headed south, over the border at Fort Erie and with our 90 day green cards still in effect from our Aussie trip we stormed through (at 5 miles per hour) with no delays. Our route then took us south-west towards our Pennsylvainian friends in Wattsburg, but sadly we had no time for a lay-over as we blew through Erie and then punched south towards Pittsburgh, home to the Superbowl champs of 2006. The interstate skirted PA's big steel town and soon we were headed back east and into Maryland. The route really surprised Jo and I, we hadn't expected it to be so hilly, especially after 18 months in Ontario, which is thanks to the grinding glaciers of the last ice-age, as flat as a pool table. The Appalachians however are sorta interesting, not peaks per-say, more like the high country back home. So I-70 took us right through the mountains, at one point literally as we took a multi-Klm tunnel, and we started to see evidence of spring having sprung at bloody last. The buds are out, officially in Maryland at least, even if Canada is still in denial.
So where are we? Are you following this on Google? WTF right? District of Columbia baby, Washington. A few days and nights in perhaps the most powerful city on the planet, and one with a very high murder rate. Important Safety Tip : Stay off the streets at night apparently. We're straying at the Embassy Suites about 3 blocks from the White House so hopefully we'll be safe enough.
Leaving in the early hours has it's own dangers. For example packing the kids into the car still in their PJ's, talking their clothes and forgetting to bring their shoes... I thought you were bringing them... backatchya babe, bugger. Quick stop at an outlet mall along the way and the kids have shoes then back on the turnpike before Jo's itchy credit card finger starts twitchin'.
The drive into Washington DC was a little disarming. I'd expected the standard expressway and buildings and crap everywhere, not so. The drive along the George Washington Parkway was awesome, the cherry blossoms have just started to come out and the parkway is a beautiful stretch of road that weaves it's way through a forest before depositing you on the banks of the Potomac River and presenting you with a view of the Washington Monument (the obelisk thingy) and the Capitol in the distance. We drove through Georgetown (much here named for the revolutionary general of course), a great uni suburb and promptly had problems with our GPS. Not really it's fault but we had some issues with lane choice in a town with lots of traffic and more one-way streets than Sydney (if that's possible). Despite our best efforts to remain completely lost for the rest of the day we somehow managed to make it to our hotel just in time for the kids to fall into the pool. While there my eyes to developed a fantastic sting from the chlorine while simply reading at the pool side (thank god I didn't go in the water, prolly would have dissolved completely). Anyway that's for the best, it was completely full of kids so the standard ratio applies - 2 parts water, 1 part urine, throw in some more chlorine, too much is barely enough.
The hotel provides a free breakfast (hot thank goodness) and a managers 'reception' each evening, which is basically happy hour without having to get your wallet out. So here I sit, dear reader, a couple of beers on my way to a good nights rest, waiting on room-service sushi and a Sam Adams chaser. Tomorrow the plan is for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and perhaps the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery (Fields of Stone, JFK's grave and the Iwo Jima memorial). Stay tuned...
Andy, out.
So where are we? Are you following this on Google? WTF right? District of Columbia baby, Washington. A few days and nights in perhaps the most powerful city on the planet, and one with a very high murder rate. Important Safety Tip : Stay off the streets at night apparently. We're straying at the Embassy Suites about 3 blocks from the White House so hopefully we'll be safe enough.
Leaving in the early hours has it's own dangers. For example packing the kids into the car still in their PJ's, talking their clothes and forgetting to bring their shoes... I thought you were bringing them... backatchya babe, bugger. Quick stop at an outlet mall along the way and the kids have shoes then back on the turnpike before Jo's itchy credit card finger starts twitchin'.
The drive into Washington DC was a little disarming. I'd expected the standard expressway and buildings and crap everywhere, not so. The drive along the George Washington Parkway was awesome, the cherry blossoms have just started to come out and the parkway is a beautiful stretch of road that weaves it's way through a forest before depositing you on the banks of the Potomac River and presenting you with a view of the Washington Monument (the obelisk thingy) and the Capitol in the distance. We drove through Georgetown (much here named for the revolutionary general of course), a great uni suburb and promptly had problems with our GPS. Not really it's fault but we had some issues with lane choice in a town with lots of traffic and more one-way streets than Sydney (if that's possible). Despite our best efforts to remain completely lost for the rest of the day we somehow managed to make it to our hotel just in time for the kids to fall into the pool. While there my eyes to developed a fantastic sting from the chlorine while simply reading at the pool side (thank god I didn't go in the water, prolly would have dissolved completely). Anyway that's for the best, it was completely full of kids so the standard ratio applies - 2 parts water, 1 part urine, throw in some more chlorine, too much is barely enough.
The hotel provides a free breakfast (hot thank goodness) and a managers 'reception' each evening, which is basically happy hour without having to get your wallet out. So here I sit, dear reader, a couple of beers on my way to a good nights rest, waiting on room-service sushi and a Sam Adams chaser. Tomorrow the plan is for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and perhaps the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery (Fields of Stone, JFK's grave and the Iwo Jima memorial). Stay tuned...
Andy, out.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Désolé, je ne parle pas français
Yep, I don't speak French, well not much, certainly not enough to order a french donut (croissant) in Quebec City. However it didn't stop us thoroughly enjoying ourselves in Quebec last year and I've finally cut together the video. It actually includes the end of our summer with a visit to a beach on Lake Huron (fresh water beaches are weird) and the school cross-country where Abs came in first for her school out of 200 or so kids (Olympics 2016 here we come). Hope you enjoy it.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Shopping Marathon
I dropped Anth, Shane and Josh at the airport on Tuesday morning, they're off to San Fransisco for a few days before returning back down under. It was fantastic to have them with us, even if only for a few days and I think that they had a great time here. In ten days they toured Toronto, went to Ottawa, Montreal and the fabulous Quebec City, then stayed at the Sheraton Niagara with a view of the falls from their 17th floor room.
Anth and I played golf with my mate Shyam on Saturday morning and we were the first to play the course this season according to the marshall. As if to prove this fact we came home with about 25 more balls than we started with. When the snow melts and the fall leaves blow away it's amazing how many lost golf balls appear, they really stand out. My bag is bursting with balls... hmmm that didn't come out quite right. Moving on...
That's not the only shopping bargain we've found recently, our wheeling-and-dealing on eBay continues. During our Aussie trip our poor old JVC digital video camera finally gave up the ghost. It's taken so much video in the five years we've had it and been through a lot. Now it simply wont record or play tapes and likes to pull the tape out of the cassette more often than not. I might be able to get it fixed, but seriously what a great excuse to by a new toy, I'm not passing that up. Mmmmm, shiny! I had started pricing a new camera even before our trip back home, I guess the JVC knew that I was being unfaithful (I was reading the menu and planning to buy after all) and perhaps it died of a broken heart. Anyways I knew what I wanted and what I might pay and ended up with a brand new Sony HC5 for about 65% of the RRP. The HC5 is a pretty awesome camera, smaller than the JVC and high-def (1080i) too, I can't wait to start getting some real footage happening.
It snowed last night, just a cm or so and Easter is a or so day away, winter is refusing to release it's tenacious kung-fu grip. I get the Friday off but not the Monday and we have a very busy schedule at work at the moment so things are not very holiday-like. The Easter treats are not as over-the-top here as they are back home. Less chocolate and more 'fake' eggs to hide in egg hunts. I assume that this is because the North American 'candy' holiday is Halloween, so Easter takes a more low key approach here. Back in Aus Easter is the only treat-style holiday so it's no surprise that the eggs are in the stores in January and seem to come out earlier every year. We did bring some Easter treats from Aus with us so I'm sure the kids will be pleased.
Enough already. One other piece of info, I've loaded a selection of our older Canadian photos into Flickr, probably more interesting to our family than our other dear readers, but there you have it. Check for the new sets like 'Canada in 2005' etc. Oh and of course if we saw you when we were back in Aus it's likely there's a photo of you in the 'Aussie Family and Friends' set, enjoy.
Andy, out.
Anth and I played golf with my mate Shyam on Saturday morning and we were the first to play the course this season according to the marshall. As if to prove this fact we came home with about 25 more balls than we started with. When the snow melts and the fall leaves blow away it's amazing how many lost golf balls appear, they really stand out. My bag is bursting with balls... hmmm that didn't come out quite right. Moving on...
That's not the only shopping bargain we've found recently, our wheeling-and-dealing on eBay continues. During our Aussie trip our poor old JVC digital video camera finally gave up the ghost. It's taken so much video in the five years we've had it and been through a lot. Now it simply wont record or play tapes and likes to pull the tape out of the cassette more often than not. I might be able to get it fixed, but seriously what a great excuse to by a new toy, I'm not passing that up. Mmmmm, shiny! I had started pricing a new camera even before our trip back home, I guess the JVC knew that I was being unfaithful (I was reading the menu and planning to buy after all) and perhaps it died of a broken heart. Anyways I knew what I wanted and what I might pay and ended up with a brand new Sony HC5 for about 65% of the RRP. The HC5 is a pretty awesome camera, smaller than the JVC and high-def (1080i) too, I can't wait to start getting some real footage happening.
It snowed last night, just a cm or so and Easter is a or so day away, winter is refusing to release it's tenacious kung-fu grip. I get the Friday off but not the Monday and we have a very busy schedule at work at the moment so things are not very holiday-like. The Easter treats are not as over-the-top here as they are back home. Less chocolate and more 'fake' eggs to hide in egg hunts. I assume that this is because the North American 'candy' holiday is Halloween, so Easter takes a more low key approach here. Back in Aus Easter is the only treat-style holiday so it's no surprise that the eggs are in the stores in January and seem to come out earlier every year. We did bring some Easter treats from Aus with us so I'm sure the kids will be pleased.
Enough already. One other piece of info, I've loaded a selection of our older Canadian photos into Flickr, probably more interesting to our family than our other dear readers, but there you have it. Check for the new sets like 'Canada in 2005' etc. Oh and of course if we saw you when we were back in Aus it's likely there's a photo of you in the 'Aussie Family and Friends' set, enjoy.
Andy, out.
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