!French Doors!

From the time we moved in 8 years ago we haven't cared for the sliding glass doors that led to the back yard. So on Friday we went to Lowes Home Building Store to get a new light to put in the yard as ours had quite. We did get the light but found French Doors on sale at a price we could almost afford. So we splurged and bought them. The first photo is of the old door after we pulled it out as I forgot to take a photo before it was removed. Next are photos of the opening for the door from inside and outside. Then come the photos of the new french doors as we got them in place and then got the lock on the door. We really like our new door but it has really confused the dogs and cats. The sliding glass door opened on in the left corner for them to go in and out. The new door opens in the middle. They keep going to the corner to get in or out. I hope they learn soon. I am sure they will.

A stroll down Sausalito harbour and promenade

I've heard from friends who have been in and around San Francisco that I should not miss visiting the charming little coastal town Sausalito, even the KLM flight attendant highly recommended this place. Now Sausalito has piqued my interest...







There are a few ways to get to Sausalito from San Francisco and the two easiest ways are by car and by boat. I have no experience with the boat, although I would love to—they can be boarded in Pier 39 and Embarcadero. By car the drive is about 10-15 minutes from San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge.



Funnily, because we arrived at the other part of Sausalito town where it’s a bit quiet, Dutchman started jeering, taunting me albeit jokingly—‘Now, show me... where is this Sausalito hype...?’ We drove around a bit and decided to park the car to explore further on foot. After walking past the harbour filled with yachts and down to the main street where many shops are located, we saw a beautiful coastal promenade with spectacular views of San Francisco, and this was when we realized—aaah, this is the hype people have been talking about.



March is obviously not high season and there were very few people there but I can only imagine how the place would look like in the summer, or even in spring.



The harbour and the dramatic shoreline lined with shops, restaurants and a sidewalk promenade, the wooded hillside peppered with houses and the impressive panorama of San Francisco makes the little town of Sausalito a beautiful place to visit and experience. Great for a half to one day side trip.





My souvenir photo of course.









Charming little wooden boat houses (this is only one of them) along the harbour.











Yacht masts and lockers for the yacht owners in the harbour.





A sailing school.









Love these lavender-coloured flowers dotting the shoreline.





View of San Francisco from Sausalito harbour.



More pictures of Sausalito:

















Sausalito reminds me of Italian coastal villages, American version of course.



More on Sausalito in next entry.

Visitors Center

There was a visitors center at the end of the road to the top of the mountain. It has tons of information about Hurricane Ridge. We spent time in the gift shop buying souvenirs, and gifts for others, as well as myself. They were having a sale and it was a big hit with the customers. We had lunch at the snack bar. Then spent a goodly amount of time just enjoying the view from all angles. The parking lot was packed and there were a lot of people there, especially sense it was a Sunday, but it didn't seem that crowded as so many parks can get on weekends. And everyone there was enjoying themselves as much as we were. You would find yourself uuing and awing, and exclaiming over the view, the flowers, the grass, the mountains, the glaciers, the sky, or a passing deer with a total stranger standing next to you. I found myself watching a small child about 2 years old and his parents as they enjoyed the park. I, also, found myself sitting quietly by an elderly lady and neither of us had to say a word about how we felt at what we were seeing. I heard several languages besides my native American - Spanish, German, English, Canadian, Japanese, and others I couldn't put a country to.

Garden

Squarsh blossoms, butternut squarsh, squarsh vine, green cherry tomotoes, corn flower

Dine with the Ancestors at the Carnival

Wow, the COG just keeps getting bigger and better! Thirty-one posts comprise the February 4th Carnival of Genealogy, 41st Edition. The topic is: "If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why?" Take some time to meet the dinner guests and enjoy the culinary delights presented. They will make you laugh, they will make you cry, they will make you think. You'll run the full gamut of emotions and you will be amazed at the vivid imaginations of some very talented writers!

Who, What, When, Where, Why? is my contribution to COG-41.

Jasia also announced the topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy:

"The Best of The Best!" It's Academy awards time... time for the Academy of Genealogy and Family History aka AGFH (an esteemed organization that all genea-historian bloggers who participate in this next edition of the COG will become founding members of) to honor their best blog posts of ..* in the following 5 categories:

Best Picture - Best old family photo that appeared on your blog in ... Tell us which you liked best and why.
Best Screen Play - Which family story that you shared in .. would make the best movie? Who would you cast as your family members?
Best Documentary - Which was the best informational article you wrote about a place, thing, or event involving your family's history in ..?
Best Biography - Which was the best biographical article you wrote in ..?
Best Comedy - Which was the best funny story, poem, joke, photo, or video that you shared on your blog in ..?

The award given to these very deserving examples of quality writing of family history will heretofore be known as the iGene Award.

Start digging back into your archives and choose which of your blog posts deserve to be recognized for outstanding achievement. This is not a competition between bloggers but a chance for you to spotlight your own shining efforts at recording your genealogy and family history in ..*. There is no nomination process. You just need to announce your winning blog posts for the 5 categories mentioned above in an article on your blog and submit it to the Carnival of Genealogy.

Please act as your own "award presenter" by writing an introduction and include it in the "Remarks" box on the BlogCarnival submission form. The deadline for submissions is February 15, ...

*We're going to define ".." to include any posts written in .. as well as those written Jan. 1-Feb. 15, .. as well (so that new bloggers can participate).

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

A Moveable View

Staying by the sea, I notice how unaccustomed I've become to a stationary view of any kind. Back in the city, the windows of my apartment offer vistas of a brick wall, a narrow alley, a tangle of branches and telephone wires. And I usually keep the blinds closed when I work anyhow; there is too much commotion outside.



But now I sit on this porch, just yards from the water's edge. A vast harbor is stretched out in front of me. The surface ripples of the cerulean water are like a silk scarf fluttering in the wind. Lobster buoys bob up and down. Now and then a fishing boat goes by. A family of swans travels back and forth along the shore in perfect peloton formation.



It is peaceful and almost improbably beautiful. And as I try to work, I find that it drives me nuts - the unchangeability of it. I am not used to looking at scenery so... passively. My eyes focus on the right outeredge of the harbor, where the rocky shore curves and disappears from view. As I study it, the curve begins to look hard-etched and forbidding, willfully preventing me from seeing beyond the bend.



In fact, I know - roughly at least - what lies around the bend; I have been there many times. A hilly back road winds along the shore's edge sleepily. There is a small patch of dense woods along the cliffs, then a gravel garden path, a wild rocky beach, an abandoned coast guard's tower... Soon I am visualising each of these landmarks in great detail, picturing them as they look when I cycle past them. I laugh at myself, realising that I am enjoying this mental game more than looking at the view in front of me.



I close my laptop, get on my bike and take off just as the sun begins to set, heading for the hilly back road that will take me around the bend. No one else is here. The road narrows and steepens dramatically and I get into my lowest gear. With each pedal stroke I see more and more of the landscape that was hidden from view as I sat on the porch just minutes earlier, and this fills me with an absurd sense of fulfillment. I reach the top easily, unhurriedly, and there sits the patch of woods with its narrow mossy path to the edge of the cliff. I keep going, coasting down the steep hill now at what feels like flying speed, passing all the landmarks I'd recalled. The mysterious garden path, the wild beach. And I remember now also the old sprawling house with a beautiful garden and the "bunnies for sale" sign taped to the green fence. After the coastguard's house I stop and turn around, my urge to experience a movable view satisfied. It seems silly now to have taken this short ride for no reason at all, but I am pleased.



I roll up to the porch as the last of daylight disappears. The vast harbor is still there, its fluttering silk surface now a deep indigo. A green light flickers in the distance. A stray boat is being rowed ashore. The swan peloton is making its last round. I get my coffee cup and turn on the porch light, ready to settle down in the stillness. But I know the moveable view will call out to me again tomorrow, even though I know what's around the bend.

The Seat Cluster: a Starburst of Lugwork

One of my favourite parts of a bicycle frame's anatomy is what's called the "seat cluster" - the joint where the seat tube, the top tube, and the rear stays of the bicycle meet. If done nicely, the seat cluster can look like a beautiful starburst of lugwork, and that is what I love about it. On the picture above is the very classic seat cluster on the Waja trackbike I rode in Vienna earlier this summer.

A similarly classic seat cluster on the Rivendell Sam Hillborne.

[image via Franklyn W]

And another example from an Ebisu bicycle. You can see how the individuality of the cut of the lugwork interacts with the colour of the paint to create subtle variations in form and shade. The stay caps (those narrow diagonal pieces that taper to meet the main lug) can be rounded or pointy, flat or concave, stubby or elongated.



[image viacycleczar]

They can even wrap all the way around the main seat lug, like on this Toei bicycle, so that the pointy tips meet. This is called a "wrap around seat cluster" design.





The stay caps also make for a good surface to embellish with an engraving of the manufacturer's name, like on this vintage Trek 610.



[image via Dancing Weapon]

Or with hand-painted flourishes, like on this Bob Jackson.



[image via Royal H.]

They can also be carved, if so desired, like on this early Royal H. frame.



[image via ribalrid]

While I prefer classic seat clusters, there are also many designs that deviate into all sorts of creative directions. On this Bates B.A.R. bicycle, the seat stay caps look like sharpened pencils and meet the main lug at the bottom.



[image via somervillain]

On this vintage Trek 560, the seat cluster is one big lug, and the seat stays are held by lugged sockets at the back.



[image via Kevin Saunders]

And then there are seat clusters where the stays connect to the tube directly, below the lug, like on this Formigli frame. (My understanding is that both this and the method used by Trek above is done to create tighter clearances?)



[image via Royal H.]

A similar approach to "fastback stays" by Royal H., with the seat stays attached at the rear.



When it comes to lugwork, there is no shortage of details to get obsessed about, and the topic can provide hours of impassioned discussion to those who feel strongly about one design over another. Crazy? Maybe so, but also beautiful... like the seat cluster on my Royal H. frame that will (hopefully very soon now) emerge as a fully built bicycle.

Weekend Wrap Up and snippets of Luchtmacht Dagen

Friday – went to gym and worked out for 2.5 hours, then ask for and signed my “uitschrijving” because I am moving gyms. Thought its better to train nearby home during the weekends, plus Dutchman and I will be going together so that would be good I hope, hehe. He’s not into fitness though but swimming.

After the work out I had this insatiable hankering for hot spicy chicken wings, and since Dutchman is off skating for the evening, I really have no desire of getting my hands dirty in the kitchen, so here I come KFC! Yeah, KFC on my birthday, lol.

Saturday – picked up our blonde curly haired 11- year old nephew. We are borrowing him for a day to the Luchtmacht Dagen (Royal Netherlands Air Force Air Show) in Volkel Airbase down south in Brabant.


The impressive red and yellow act represent the Spanish flag. These are Spain's Patrulla Aguilla, one of the air show acts that I really like. Next foto is the British Avro Vulcan with his 2 escorts, famous to have served during the Cold War.

On the way, the traffic was horrible! It took us more than 2 hours to get to Volkel and vice versa to Utrecht. Because of this we missed a couple of shows.

Two of the shows we missed but were lucky enough to get a glimpse of are: a) the KLM Airbus with his entourage of jet fighters, and b) Chinook helicopter and a jeep strapped hanging below it, also with his entourage of helicopters.

Me sitting on the grass just after having lunch. Next foto... the Chinook has become a live museum.

We caught sight of the spectacular show on Peelweg, the road to the airbase which at that moment was jammed with cars moving slowly. I was able to take a foto of the Chinook and we had a great view of it through the trees when it flew so low and hovered above us. It was simply awesome. Images of the Vietnam War flashed before me.

Below are a few videos I took with my Nokia Nav mobile phone. More to come on a different post!




F-16 solo act from I believe a Belgian pilot, if not Dutch... then the Spanish Flies, the Patrulla Aguila, I really enjoyed this act.

It was my first air show and the Dutchman being the airplane enthusiast was our coach for the day, giving information about the airplane, the model, and pieces of related history which I find really neat. Most men are into cars and fast driving (think about a sports car shooting down the no speed limit autobahn here), unfortunately Dutchman is into flying. If he could turn back the clock he would have been a pilot now by profession.

The event anyway was a success. There were so many aficionados and spectators, even children!

Saturday evening – after dropping off little nephew at his parents – I like kids you know as long as I can return them to their parents, we went home to change for dinner.

Grand Hotel Karel V in Utrecht has a Michelin Star restaurant

I didn’t realize that Grand Karel V is actually a 5-star hotel until I saw the 5 stars on the hotel’s sign board. The food was good. The wine excellent! I didn’t take fotos of the food as I thought it would be “genant”. I don’t mind doing so during my holidays because many tourists do this anyway but not here and not in a fine dining place.

I however did take a foto of myself in the toilet. I also managed to take a snapshot of Karel V’s facial mural impression in the basement for souvenir which I will post later together with the other fotos and videos of the Air Show once I have the software of my camera installed and running on my new laptop. Right now I only have the software of my mobile installed.

Basement of Grand Hotel Karel V, quick fotos I took before the stroll outside in the garden.

After settling the bill, we went for a little stroll in the Centrum and discovered small passageways that we never saw before. We hopped on the bike just after midnight with me perched royally at the back as Dutchman pedals home.

Sunday – spent the morning till early afternoon cleaning the house after which entertained the Dutch families for my birthday feast. I got nice presents but the present I am waiting for is from Dutchman – he promised to bring me to Berlin this autumn when we are back from our Philippine summer holiday. Yay!

Original plan for Sunday was picnic at the park with everyone but the weather was not cooperating. Bouts of dark clouds, showers and sunshine... not a good idea to be staying outside.

All in all the weekend went good.

I will be posting fotos and videos of the Luchtmacht Dagen (Royal Netherlands Air Force Air Show) separately once I have uploaded them all to my laptop.
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