D Musing

Some of the cool things I've been doing.

2008-10-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the fun things I've done up here in the "Pacific" Northwest.

After seeing the Mariners play (yes, yes, weeks ago), Kathy and I drove down to her place, then the next day we drove down near Portland, where her sister Susan lives. Another sister, Becky, drove up from Salem, Oregon to meet us. So it was a fun family get-together.

It happened to be Susan's son Sheldon's birthday, so we had cake and sang happy birthday, which apparently was the third time for him for this particular birthday ... the novelty really seemed to have worn off for him, but I think it was still pretty fun. Sheldon bought himself a dune buggy for his birthday with money he had saved up himself doing chores. The money that came in for his birthday apparently put him over the top, and his dad let him buy it. A true testament to this kid's staying power. It's a really cool dune buggy.

Susan is not prominently featured in these photos, since she told me there were to be no photos taken of her until after the baby came. Fair enough.

Other things that happened that weekend include:

hanging out at Lake Sylvia with Kathy, Brett, and their family,

taking on Cache in a kungfu match - and losing badly,

picking blueberries (HEAVEN!!).

Cache picked blueberries, too, but mainly took advantage of the 'sampling' clause. You've got to know if the quality is right.

It was a week or two later that a group of us from work took a road trip down to Cannon Beach in Oregon. Beautiful spot.

This is me, Tim, and Joe. Joe sometimes plays the 'New York Guy' on radio prank calls - he pretended to be a guy building an illegal deck in his back yard a few weeks back ... and I thought those things were real. Joe's a retired NYC cop, and a very funny and nice guy. Tim's become a good friend, as well. The people I work with are all top notch. I'm very fortunate in that regard.

Another shot of the rocks at Cannon Beach.

A good friend of mine from undergrad named Cindy-Lou Who used to live up here in Seattle, and she has definitely been a boon to me by introducing me to other fun friends up here. One of those, Kristina, met up with me to give me a bit of a tour of the area one night early on. One of the places we stopped by had this view:

... which really is great, if you enlarge it and lighten it up a bit. I'll have to post another shot. This is from Kerry Park, and apparently is the view used as "the view from Frasier's apartment" in the sitcom by that name. Kristina also invited me along on this great progressive-dinner-by-bike a few weeks ago. Lots of fun, and there are photos on facebook, but I left my camera at home, unfortunately.

This is a shot of Elliot Bay on the Puget Sound, with the Olympic Peninsula in the background. This shot was taken just down the street from my office building, which leads me to this next shot,

which is a view of Elliot Bay from my office building. It's a nice place to work.

Finally, I thought I'd include a random shot of Seattle. This is from a plaza near Pioneer Square. There are a lot of cool little niches here and there in this city.

Ichiroll

2008-09-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

This is Ichiro. He plays left field for the Seattle Mariners.

This is an Ichiroll ... you can buy them at the Seattle Mariners' Stadium.

This is me enjoying an Ichiroll while Ichiro is up to bat at the Seattle Mariners' Stadium.

This is Cousin Kathy and me kicking back at the game. Her team won.

LA

2008-09-04T23:51:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm going to try to keep up on this thing.

Last weekend I took a last-minute flight down to LA, where my sister Jules lives. My sister-in-law Holly was visiting her parents down there with little Katie, as well, and my parents and aunt and little sister all drove down to catch the little tyke and Jules and Holly all in one short trip ... so I decided to get in on the party.

The main highlight, and the one where I clipped the best photos, was Katie's first SoCal beach excursion. I'd say first beach excursion, except that technically, England does have 'beaches', and she has been to one of those. Apparently there was no wave jumping or wading involved there, though, so this was her first full beach experience. She loved it, and here are some photos to prove it.

Here are some more photos from the beach.

Mom, Aunt Colleen, and Allison. MY BABY SISTER'S PREGNANT!!!!

Holly, Mom and Aunt Colleen.

That's me out there in the surf. I got pounded a couple of times trying to body surf. Sweet fun!!

For dinner Saturday night, we went to El Cholo near my sister's house. It's the location where Mom & Dad went on a few dates before they were married, and where they used to take the first few kids out for dinner before they moved from LA. Dad even took Mom and Aunt Colleen there once, as a thank-you for something nice they had done for him. A little bit of family history wrapped up in those sweet-corn tamales.

Mom & Dad in the drastically-redone interior of El Cholo. They said it was nothing like what it used to be. Success, I suppose.

Pleased customers after a big meal. I guess I'm a slow eater sometimes.

Well, that was Saturday. Sunday we went to church with Holly's family ... love those Raddons! ... and followed Katie around and around and around and around ... Mom, Dad, Aunt Colleen and Allison took off back home after that, and Jules and I killed time around Pasadena until Katie woke up from her nap, and then we went and saw Holly, Katie, and Mum, one of Katie's namesakes and one of the nicest people anywhere ... always fun to see Mum. Then it was a tough parting from Katie, and off to Jules' to pack and then to LAX. Oh, funny story about the flight back. I checked in online and decided to sign up for the mileage program with United, just because ... why not. When I got to the gate in San Francisco for the second leg, they called me up to the counter and told me that since I was a Mileage Plus member, they had bumped me up to first class! Fantastic! I can't wait to see what happens next time I fly, when I've been a member for more than three hours!

Trip to Monterey

2008-09-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

I was in Stockton, CA for a couple of weeks, and from what people told me going in, the best thing about Stockton is the fact that you're really close to other places. Doesn't say much about Stockton, does it. I thought the all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet at Rubie's was good. Other than that, though, I pretty well agree with the assessment.

With that in mind, a friend and I took the only weekend I was there and sped West. He was staying in Stockton for a while, and had all the options open and lots of weekends to use them up, so he left the choice up to me. I chose Monterey.

Monterey is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, if you ask me. I was fortunate enough to have a marine bio professor allow me to go along on a few Spring-term trips with him, and have always looked for a chance to go back.

We were lucky enough to catch a Stanford grad student pulling into the Hopkins Marine Station, where we spent our class and lab time in Monterey. She let us follow her in, and it was great to be back there. The photo above is a view of the beach outside the lab building and dive lockers, looking toward the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row. There are a lot of good memories from there. One time we were sitting around on the beach after dark, and I sprinted over toward the dive lockers and woke a sleeping elephant seal that we'd not noticed. I was pretty startled when it reared up and bellowed just as I was a couple of feet away. Those things are huge.

This is Cannery Row, with Doc Ricketts' lab in the foreground. It's not the best photo of Cannery Row, but if you want the tourist version, you can Google that. It is, though, one of the coolest spots on Cannery Row, since few people understand what it is. This is where Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck's friend, had his Pacific Supply Company, where he'd process all the sea critters he caught and ship them off to schools back east for dissection. No markers, nothing to show it off, it just sits there as tourists pass by on their way to other things. If you've never read Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat or Log from the Sea of Cortez, I'd recommend any of them.

Here's a view of the Pacific from China Point on the 17 mile drive, between Pacific Grove and Carmel. This is one of the most scenic spots in the Monterey area. And when the tide's out ... spectacular. So many critters. The Monterey Bay has one of the deepest canyons as close to the shore as it is, and the deep-water upwellings bring huge amounts of nutrients, resulting in an incredible biodiversity and biomass in this area. We had so much fun tidepooling in these areas.

This is the famous "Lone Cypress" on the 17 mile drive, just up the coast from the Pebble Beach golf course. What struck me the most about this spot was the amazing stretch of kelp floating on the surface out there in the ocean. It stretched like this for hundreds of feet. Those kelp beds are such amazing hotbeds of biota, it's almost boggling to think of the numbers of critters out there. If you can't tell, I really loved doing marine bio in Monterey.

From the sublime to the truly reediculous. We headed up the coast from Monterey to Santa Cruz and found the Boardwalk. It was the end of the season, one of the last good weekends, and the place was wall-to-wall Whisky-Tango. Quite the cultural experience. We tried our best to fit in. I try to eat right, but there was a place selling deep-fried Twinkies, and the absurdity of the concept of eating something so artificial, deep-fried, overwhelmed me. It sucked ... at least until I loaded on the chocolate sauce. It was a decent base for eating chocolate sauce.

And there you have my favorite part about Stockton, California ... not too far from Monterey.

Canandaigua Family Vacation Part 2

2008-08-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is out of hand ... It's over a month late ... But what can I do? Here are some more photos from our awesome trip upstate.

From the National Museum of Play - yes, there is such a thing.

Stephen, Jonny and Me in a room that makes Jonny and Stevie tall and me realllll small.

The boys sit back and relax after a tough time piling all of the "sand" from the sandbox into one corner. Ooooookay.

Merrill and Julia Suzanne spend some quality time with Mr. Troll.

Annabelle in action mode at the Bernstein Bear's Family Restaurant.

Some pictures from our Niagara Falls expedition:

Niagara, when James and the boys met up with us at the end of their cross-country trek.

Matt, Tom and Miles become Sticky Cousins!

Gearing up for the Maid o' the Mist ride.

Mike, Rachel, and little Sean-Sean.

The awesome HorseShoe Falls.

Mom with the American side of the falls in the background. You might be surprised, but the ponchos weren't only for looks!

Matt and Tom soaked.

Finally, some shots from the Hill Cumorah Pagent.

Some of the Stripling Warriors' understudies.

Mormon and Matt.

King Noah and some of the guys.

And that's the extent of it. We had a good time.

My New Car

2008-08-19T23:07:00.001-07:00

It only set me back 2.4 ... million. But think of it in Euros ... a bargain at only 1.1 million.

Lake Canandaigua and Palmyra - Family Vacation Part 1

2008-08-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, work's been pretty busy, and it doesn't promise to let up anytime soon, but I have to get these photos out so the family and friends can see them. All of the East-Coaster Liechtys and Mike & Rachel (sorry, Illinois is not "East") got together in upstate New York for a little fun and Pagentry. Here are some photos.

First, a series of photos from the lake campground where we stayed for the week:

Dad, Sammy and Annabelle.

Joe and Julia (and Mike flexing his calf).

Matt with a flagpole growing out of the top of his head.

Tour of the Sheriff's boat at the park, with Joe in superhero uniform (of some kind).

SQUIRTGUNS!!!!!

Matt prior to the water balloon fight ... this was his second set of dry clothes for the day.

Next was a trip to the Joseph Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove (or "Secret Grave," as Matt slipped once and said).

At the Joseph Smith Farm.

In the Joseph Smith frame home.

The lineup in the Joseph Smith frame home.

Genet in Immigration Limbo

2008-07-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

Genet Kebede is a wonderful, beautiful woman. I first met her when I was going to church in Alexandria and was assigned to hometeach her, a sort of fellowshipping role for those of you not familiar with the LDS church. She is an Oromo from Ethiopia.

The Oromo are one of the largest tribes in Ethiopia by numbers, but have been politically oppressed historically. As a young woman, Genet worked with an Oromo organization to build up political activity among the Oromo women in and around Adis Ababa. As she worked in a city called Bethlehem, government police arrested two of her co-workers, and she herself went into hiding in Adis. Genet was in hiding for a year while her friends were in prison, and when word finally came out that her two friends had been killed, and that the government police were looking for Genet, friends of hers helped her escape to Nigeria. She eventually made her way to the United States on a tourist visa.

At the time she arrived in the United States, a joint Amhara and Oromo group had taken over the government, and she was optimistic about returning to Ethiopia. However, it soon became apparent that the Amharic tribe would be in control, and oppression of the Oromos started anew. Genet's entire family was politically active in the Oromo cause, and the Ethiopian government police caught and killed her two brothers and her sister, taking her brothers to their home village and shooting them in front of her mother and father. During this time, Genet sent small amounts of money back to various Oromo widows and other individuals and also donated a small amount to an Oromo political organization, the Oromo Liberation Front.

Under these circumstances, Genet decided to apply for political asylum from the U.S. government, which would allow her to stay in this country and become a citizen and eventually bring her mother, son, and nephews (her sister's children) here to the U.S. and away from the Ethiopian government's scrutiny. Due to some lawyerly mismanagement, what should have been a cut and dried case for granting asylum was denied by a judge that very much wanted to grant the case. It was at this point that I had met Genet, and she showed me the letter denying her petition and asked what we could do. Apparently there had not been enough evidence that she was still in danger if she were to return.

A miracle then happened. One of her son's friends, who happened to be a city policeman in Adis (and thus could still be of the Oromo tribe) was given a lottery green card and came to stay with Genet. We learned through him that the Federal police were still looking for Genet and that they had locked her son up and beaten him and had taken her mother and aunt in for questioning and had beaten and raped them. Her family had been keeping all of this from her. So, with the help of another attorney friend I had worked with in Utah we got the case reopened based on a change in circumstances. It looked like a sure case, since the judge had been so sympathetic to Genet in the first place.

Then the Patriot Act was passed, and Genet's case became a bit more complicated. She can get asylum based on her circumstances, but because she gave approximately $200 worth of support to the Oromo Liberation Front, she falls under the Patriot Act's "Material Support Ban." This part of the Patriot Act bans anyone who has ever given "material" support to a "terrorist" organization. The Ethiopian government has labeled the Oromo Liberation Front (the "OLF") a "terrorist" organization, and the U.S. Government has accepted this designation. The issue gets a bit more convoluted, as a small part of the OLF has actually broken away and armed themselves against the Ethiopian government, but Genet was never associated with this particular group.

The Patriot Act provides for a "waiver" to get around the material support ban, so there should be some way for Genet to apply and get this obstacle removed. The judge wants to see that happen, and in every other way, Genet is eligible for asylum. The problem with the "waiver" is that the U.S. Government has no application process to get this waiver. Genet's very able new attorney has actually put together and submitted an application for a waiver, under the judge's direction, but there is no protocol for the government to review and make a decision on it.

So the upshot is that Genet, whom I will have to expand this post to extol, is stuck in a limbo state because she gave money to widows and orphans and worked to improve the political representation of women in her oppressed ethnic group. There are many other cases that have been similarly caught in this "material support ban" glitch. This post is as much a plea for any of you to take up the phone, a pen, anything to tell your senator or congressman that this is something that needs to be changed. Genet and others like her are the kind of people that we need in this country to help keep it strong.

Thanks for reading.

Five Fingers

2008-06-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yep, I got a pair. And yes, they are comfortable once you get used to them. And yes, they work your calves like crazy. I was sore in places I didn't realize my calves extended the first time I ran with them. Of course I ran for two hours straight, rather than easing into them, but still ...

Air(borne) Conditioner

2008-06-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well, my roommate Ned thinks this is a funny story ... I'm not so certain myself. I'm sure I won't be thinking it's too funny when another heat index of 105 hits the area. But here it is.

It gets hot here in the city - think of that Lovin' Spoonful song - and there is no respite at night as with the canyon winds in the west ... it's just hot hot hot. Our apartment seems to hold the heat in, also, and it becomes unbearable. Last summer we just dealt with it, but since I'm getting up and putting on a tie every day for work at the moment, I did not look forward to hot summer days in this apartment. Ned used to have an old air conditioner, a monster, that was never installed, and during the winter, we hauled it out to the alley. I guess I never really asked if it worked, I just assumed that it didn't.

When the heat rose to 95 for a whole week, with humidity levels increasing that to a balmy 100+ during the day, during the first week of June, I figured it was time to start looking for a replacement for that old A/C that we never installed. Sunday we got wind of a free one, from a friend at church, and my other roommate (who shall forever remain nameless on this blog because he's offended that I've never once mentioned him by name!!!! okay, it's Brent) and I drove down and picked it up. It was a fairly new Panasonic air conditioner. A smaller model, nothing too fancy, but in good condition ... good for one room. Small enough for me to carry up the stairs into our apartment alone.

Once I got it upstairs, I figured ... hey, that was easy to carry up the stairs, I could probably install it myself. It wasn't hot yet, and there was no reason to rush to it, but there wasn't any reason not to, either. So I went ahead. I got the thing secured in the window easily enough - it was small enough to simply rest against the closed window without putting much strain on the window at all. I pulled out the expanders on the sides and noticed that the thing wasn't centered. I couldn't get one side to stay opened all the way.

This is where I stopped thinking clearly. Instead of closing the expanders and holding onto the a/c from the back, where I could be sure of its balance, while opening the window to move it over, I simply pushed down on the front of the a/c, thinking that would counter weight the a/c enough to keep it inside the window. So you probably have the story figured out by now. I cracked the window up slightly, and the a/c started to tip, and I had no way to hold onto it, and it just started to fall. Time slowed, the camera panned the scene in a circular motion. I stared in disbelief. The a/c was falling out the window. I grabbed at the cord as it slipped over the window sill, thinking that maybe I could arrest its momentum without wrenching the cord from its attachments in the innards of the a/c. All that served to do was to scrape my hand along the brick facing of the building as the cord slipped on through.

I live on the fourth floor, and in the back of our building the basement is walk-out level. Needless to say, the a/c hit hard. It bounced twice, plastic covers and switches and dials popping off everywhere. I was stunned. It was a loud noise. I looked at all the other a/c's sitting in windows ... not propped up ... and looked back at the ground below. A neighbor wrapped in a towel stuck her head out the window, looked down, looked briefly at me, looked down again, went back inside.

There it is. It bounced all the way to the other side of the alley.

A close-up of the damage done.

So, now we're down an a/c, my hand had to be bandaged, people at work comment on my skills in home improvement disparagingly, one even doctored this posting from the gothamist: http://gothamist.com/2006/06/14/prop_your_air_c.php to make it sound like "some guy named Dave" was at fault and passed it around. No end in sight to this humor.

Me and the Boys

2008-06-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

James happened to have a wedding in Long Island last weekend, and while he and Becca were enjoying the festivities out there, I had the great pleasure of hanging out with four of my favorite people, James & Becca's four sons, Jonny, Stevie, Neddy (I still can't get used to "Matthew"), and Peter. What a fun day we had.

First stop was the theater on 72nd street, where we bought tickets for a later showing of Kung Fu Panda. Then it was off to the American Museum of Natural History on 81st. That's where we parted ways with the "parents" and headed out of the heatwave and into the air conditioned museum. We had been priming Peter with promises of seeing dinosaurs, and once we got into the entry way, with the brontosaurus (?) skeleton, he didn't want to leave. It took a lot of convincing that there were more dinosaurs inside for him to finally agree to move on. The first room was the African Mammals Hall. Peter was fascinated, as were the rest of the boys. It was a good choice to go to the museum.

The boys in the African Mammals Hall.

After the mammals, we headed upstairs to see more dinosaurs. Peter was insistent that they were dinosaur "spirits" not skeletons. I guess in a two-year-old's mind that's what's left over after the bodies disappear.

Here we are in front of a triceratops "spirit."

After the dinosaurs, we saw the special horse exhibit and then went to see the life-sized model of the blue whale down in the basement. Then we hit the gift shop. Each of the boys had ten bucks for the day, with a contest to see who could buy the coolest thing, and a five-buck prize at the end. Jonny bought a big swirly lollipop, saying he wanted that and didn't want to win the prize - gotta give him credit for that - Stevie got a 5 million year old shark tooth and some space putty, and Neddy left empty handed - not anything he really wanted. But that was okay, because NYC is a big place, with lots to buy.

We grabbed some hotdogs on the street and headed down to 72nd, getting into the theater just as the trailers started - and on opening day, that meant front row was the only place we could find four seats together. The boys didn't seem to mind, and it really was a 'big-screen' experience.

Good show. I recommend it to anyone.

With the museum and the film we missed the worst of the 95+ degree temperatures for the day, and headed out to see Central Park. We wanted to rent a boat to row around the big lake, and Neddy even offered to use his ten bucks to help out, but it was closed when we got there, unfortunately. So we headed on, southward, and found the Lewis Carroll Through the Looking Glass statue, which I hadn't realized was meant as such an interactive piece of artwork.

You'll notice the boys aren't the only ones climbing on it.

Peter was intent on jumping from one mushroom to the other, by himself (!), which caused me a bit of concern. Good thing Jonny was right there watching him. Those boys did a fantastic job taking care of their little brother.

I think this is the only photo that I got that's in focus. Neddy sitting atop the Mad Hatter. I like it.

Nearby the Lewis Carroll statue is this big pond used for racing remote control boats. There happened to be one youngster, from Liverpool, of all places, speeding his boat around, and he was generous enough to give each of the boys a turn at the controls. Pretty fun stuff.

By this time it was getting toward evening, and we did a little more exploring before heading down to the south end of the park and over to Broadway. I didn't realize that we walked right past the Central Park Zoo - where Madagascar was "filmed" - until yesterday. I wish I would've known. I guess a visit there will have to wait until the boys, or some of the other nephews, nieces, or friends' kids come to visit again.

The street vendors on Columbus Circle were packing things up, but one was still open, and a cool motorcycle statue made out of nuts and bolts (almost literally) caught Neddy's eye. He had been complaining about not being able to spend his money yet, and he saw his chance. The price was around $25 for the motorcycle, and some smaller statues were $15, but when it was apparent that Ned wanted the motorcycle, but could only spend $10, and we were willing to walk away, they came down to $15 for the motorcycle, and I chipped in an extra $5. Ned was very gracious and made a point of thanking them for dropping the price. They wrapped the purchase up and handed it to him in one of those "I 'heart' NY" logo bags. Neddy said "This bag says 'I love N-Y,' and it's true, because I love N-Y."

After that it was a short hop to Borders where we scored cheap copies of The Two Towers and Return of the King for Stevie, then a stop at Ray's Pizza - which I was actually impressed with - I'm usually not a fan of chains. Stevie said the pizza tasted a lot like the pizza his mom makes ... a strong endorsement. Then we made it to the hotel, where Peter jumped around on the beds like the energized little kid that he is, the other kids watched tv, and we all waited for James and Becca to get back, which they eventually did.

I don't know who won the coolest purchase award. Neddy got a cool motorcycle, Stevie got a 5 million year old shark's tooth, and Jonny got exactly what he wanted, which is always very cool. I think it might've been a tie. Oh, and Jonny and Stevie both threw money to street musicians, which is always admirable. All in all it was a good trip.

Daredevil - or Flyin' Blind

2008-06-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

The day after I got back from Switzerland I was scheduled for yet another swinging session at the Trapeze School of NYC, this time at their outdoor location on the roof of Pier 40 on the Hudson River. The session started out fine, I arrived, signed the waiver, and then changed out of my coat and tie and into my supersuit. The trouble started when I put my contacts in. As they burned my eyes, I vaguely remembered having filled up my contact lens case with some sort of solution that in my jet-lagged state came back to me as being glass lens cleaner and not contact lens cleaner. Aiyiyi! My red eyes did not like that at all. I pulled the lenses out and tried to rinse them, but there was no water in the bathroom I was in! I stumbled out and found a water fountain and rinsed them off and then replaced them. Better, but still burning. Back up at the trapeze setup, I got sympathetic looks from friends (and suspicious ones from at least one instructor, until I explained myself), and Karen loaned me her contact lens case, with its residue of fluid, and I rinsed the lenses one more time and replaced them. Much better, but it still hurt to look up at the sun in the sky, even with it behind all those clouds threatening rain.

After a while, of course, it was my time to hook into the safety lines and climb the ladder to the platform. I thought of my predicament, unable to keep from shielding my eyes, about to pull some stunts high above the city, and looked north for inspiration, towards Hell's Kitchen, where one of my favorite comic book heroes grew up, Daredevil, the blind acrobatic crime fighter.
I figured this was about as fitting a tribute as I would ever be able to pull, so I clipped on those carabiners and stepped up the ladder. Not so pretty on that first flight, but I was there. The second flight was much better, with some expert tips from my friend Corrie, and here's the proof:

Criminals beware!!

Roethenbach, Schangnau, Arni and Biglen

2008-05-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

Final Post for the Switzerland Trip 2008.

Day 6 - Sunday May 26th. (Dad requested the dates be included.)

Sunday, a day of rest and family togetherness. We didn't find any LDS church services in time, so Mom, Dad, and Dan headed into Wengen and found "The English Church" where a visiting Episcopal minister and some of his flock-in-tow were holding services. I opted for further resting, and I don't know what Brig and Holly did.

Since a primary reason for our trip to Switzerland (in my mind, at least) was to get in touch with some of our Swiss heritage, we made the train trip back down to Lauterbrunnen and then headed out toward the Emmental Valley, where the Liechtys, the Stuckis, the Gerbers, and numerous other family ancestors sprung up. We had a map with probably twenty little towns circled, but settled on a trip near Bern that would take us to Oberdissbach, Arni, and Biglen, three towns with Liechty family history, and also to Rothenbach, where Ida Stucki, one of our Liechty grandmothers, was born. It was only pure inspiration that took us on the road we did, since we found the road to Shangnau, as well, which I had been unable to locate on the map. Schangnau is the birthplace of Mom's connection to Switzerland, John Gerber. So, here's how it all went.

First we jumped in the car with a crazy driver.

If this shot doesn't get the women, I don't know what will.

We didn't get any photos of Oberdissbach that I remember, but it was the first village we passed through. Dad couldn't remember exactly who came from there, but said it was the Liechtys prior to those we had records for.

Next town we reached was

Roethenbach. Ida Stucki and her family were from this little village. Ida married my great-grandfather Abraham Brigham Liechty.

Another shot of this sleepy little village.

Mom and Dad.

After stopping long enough for the yapping dog in the parking lot to get used to us, we loaded up and headed down the road toward Biglen. The Emmental area is amazing with its rolling hills, green farms and forests, and homes in the traditional Swiss style. There were many large house/barn combo structures, with the front half being the living quarters for the upright-walking mammals and the back half being for the quadrupeds.

Along the road to Biglen, with me worrying that we just might not get to see Schangnau, where one of my heroes, John Gerber was born, we saw a sign that said "Schangnau that way," and I made an executive decision and turned right,

down this road that passed under this covered bridge,

past this incredible view,

and down to the little village of Schangnau.

And here it is. The picturesque little village where John Gerber got his start in life. For those who don't know about him, he was trained as a doctor and a Lutheran minister and did two missions to Africa in the 1800s. On the first trip his wife died. He remarried and on the second trip his second wife died. They then sent him to the United States, and he was head of a congregation in St. Louis. While there he joined the LDS church, and his congregation burned his house down and kicked him out of the city. He left with his family and traveled to Utah, where he settled in Midway. For a time he was Brigham Young's personal physician. So, that's a little about him and now you know why it was important to me to find this little place.

This is another view of Schangnau, with a church steeple.

This is a better view of the church in Schangnau. No idea if John ever preached here.

Brig on the outskirts of Schangnau.

Brian did a whole photo shoot of Dad and Katie. These are some of the highlights. Oh, for those that don't know, Brian and Brig are the same person.

She was in a good mood for all of these. Don't let the facial expression fool you.

We piled back into the van and headed up the back way to Biglen and Arni. We got on this tiny little skinny road that wound back and forth through the forest and farms. I was a bit concerned at times trying to negotiate with cars passing. It was barely wide enough for two cars to pass, with no shoulders. Surprised me that it was on the map. On our way to Arni and Biglen, we passed this little spot, and winner of the 'my favorite name on the trip' award,

Nice view of Langnau to the left. Schangnau is to the right, behind the hills, toward the mountains.

Yes, the winner is "Moosegg." Like what's on yer head when you get thumped.

Katie really took to Dad. It was so great to see. Other than Holly and Brig, he was the one she wanted.

Action photo of Katie patting Dad's back.

And after a short break, we were on our way down the mountain and across the plains to the little village where Johannes Liechty joined those crazy Mormons and left for Utah. Dad wanted to look up the mayor of the town, who is a Liechty cousin, and whom dad met on a previous visit, but we decided to press on, as we didn't know how long the little one would last.

Arni from one side.

Arni from the other side.

Then it was just a short jaunt down to Biglen, where Johannes' father, Johannes, grandfather, Johannes, and great-grandfather, not Johannes, but Hans, were all born.

The church in town.

A building that was probably not in existence in 1791 when the middle of the Johanneses was born in Biglen. The city was a bit bigger than the other villages we visited, and wasn't as photogenic. These were the most picturesque of the shots.

And the parting photo, taken from Brig's photo shoot.

Stechelberg, Murren and the Trummelbach Falls

2008-05-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in the states, but we're just going to pretend that I'm not, as I tell you about ...

Day 5 - Saturday opened beautifully, with just enough clouds, though, to show us that a trip up to the Jungfraujoch or to the top of the Shilthorn peak would be only a stellar waste of money. There is a television channel that streams live webcam footage from the top of these sites (see it here: http://www.swisspanorama.com/index.html), so after looking at the teley for a bit we knew right off that it would be a day for going elsewhere in the region.

Soo ...

We jumped on the train down to Lauterbrunnen, then

drove to the very south end of the Lauterbrunnen valley, to Stechelberg, where

people were doing this sort of thing, and

loaded up onto the cable car heading

up, up and away above Stechelberg,

to Wengen's sister city on the other side of the valley, a village called Murren. If you look closely on some of the shots I've posted from the Wengen side of the valley, you can see Murren perched seemingly on the very edge of the cliffs. Quite a sight.

Here we are taking in the main view, across the valley toward the Eiger in the far distance.

A great picture of Holly.

And of Dad.

Brig and Katie.

Mom and Dad.

Dan and Me.

The clouds were wafting off the Eiger, and I tried to get a good shot of it.

Here you can see the meadow where we were dropped off on Day 4, I think that's Wengernalp, where we walked back down to Wengen.

This shows the drainage of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau peaks ... all three drain into the same little valley, which has some interesting consequences, as we saw after we descended back down into the Lauterbrunnen valley and drove over to

The Trummelbach Falls, which some enterprising individuals tunneled into and inserted an inclinator to take you three quarters of the way up, then tunneled around a bit more to make sure you could see the crazy twistings and curvings that the runoff from the glaciers has carved into this little canyon.

Close-up of the sign - F.Y.I.

I've included a bunch of shots of the canyon, to give you a sense of it. I was reminded of some of the canyons in Southern Utah that I've hiked. I think the rock here is quite a bit tougher, though, than the sandstone down there, and it's probably only the huge volume of water that courses through this tiny space that has carved out the twists and curves. All of the other waterfalls in the valley appear to be out on the surface ... of course we probably wouldn't be able to see those that weren't, now would we. Hmmmm.

Interior.

Near the bottom of the falls. That's Brig and Katie down below.

Some of the interior.

More of the interior.

Shot of the cave tunnel at the very top.

Here's a little video footage to give you a sense of the volume of water coursing out of there.

Then we went home and ate more fondue and watched the Eurovision "Song Competition," which was quite the culture shock. Still can't believe the Russians won. I was pulling for either the Spanish (for out-there goofy) or the Armenians (?) for serious talent ... can't quite remember. The Russians were too gimmicky with their flailing ice skater. Oh, I also liked whichever of the acts it was that had drummers wielding battle axes and maces. Crazy Celts ... or Vandals ... or Mongols (?).

And our parting shot of Katie, on the cable car down from Murren.

Wengen and Wengernalp, Chamois and Ibex

2008-05-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

Day 4 saw the clouds lift, and probably the best day we'll see while we're here. The valley vistas opened up, and it was simply breathtaking. This valley really is something else.

There was a really cool pillar of a peak across the valley, and I thought this was a good shot of it, with the Wengen railroad station in the foreground. Tres Suisse, eh?

Since the clouds had lifted, we hoped to make the long trek up to Jungfraujoch, a railway station in the col between the Jungfrau and Monch peaks, the highest station in Europe. Unfortunately, this led to that and the other, and we couldn't get Katie ready in time, much less me, and we ended up missing the last train to Jungfraujoch by half an hour or so. One of the locals had said we might possibly see Ibex if we walked from Wengen up to Wengernalp, a rail station between here and Jungfraujoch, and we're pretty well convinced we like Ibex, so we thought we'd probably like to hike on that trail. We opted for the downhill option, though, and took the train up to Wengernalp to this crazy view:

That's the Eiger and Monch peaks there behind the clouds.

Here are some of the crew with the Eiger, Monch, and half of the Jungfrau in the distance. It was an incredible place. To give those in Utah some idea of the relative altitudes, Wengen is at around the same altitude as Utah Valley, and the Jungfraujoch (right there between the Monch and the Jungfrau in the photo) is at around 11,000 feet, or nearly Timp's height. Funny, they seem so much more dramatic than Timp or even King's peak in the Uintahs.

Holly and Brian headed down quickly with an ever-waning Katie, and Dad stuck with them. Mom just wanted to stay and look up at the mountains and walk around up there in the cold and wind. I guess I've never known how much love she has for mountains. She told us the story of hiking Timpanogas at 14 with her 8 year old sister in tow, arriving at the lake finally after all the other hikers had gone (it used to be a community event), and having a man simply appear and accompany them to the top of the peak, and then disappear once they had returned to the glacier and the lake. They made it down fine, but she was so grateful to have had that man there. Her sister was so scared at the trail along the final ridge that mom tied a hat around her eyes so that she couldn't seen down the sheer dropoff to either side. Typical mom to 'have' to finish the job and sign the book at the top. I guess she had it in her even then. Her sister was only scared, not unwilling. It turns out mom's climbed Timp twelve times. I never knew. Quite the mountaineer.

Well, here she is, with one of Europe's most famous peaks in the distance. She said she's going to put one of these photos up at Jay's shop to remind her of this trip. It was really something special to her. I'm glad we made the trip.

Here's a shot of a glacier just below the Jungfrau. I thought the icepack and sheer cliffs were a nice juxtaposition.

This was a very interesting stretch of the hike down. In the distance there is a ski lift tower, and this is one of the numerous ski lifts that dot the Jungfrau region. On the maps that I've seen, this run is labeled "Bumps." I didn't understand this until we walked it. They've literally created bumps in the ground, moguls made of dirt, hummocks or tussocks or what have you. I've never seen this before. I wonder what it does for the moguls once the snow flies. I'd really like to see how much of a difference they make.

Here's another shot of the "bumps" run, with the Schilthorn peaks on the other side of the valley.

And here we are winding our way toward Wengen. This is another station between Wengen and Wengernalp, so we're about half way down. We didn't see any Ibex, but a little ways below here, mom's sharp eyes picked out some Chamois, a little wild goat that lives in these mountains. They're about the size of large dogs and have tiny little horns and skulls that some people around here have mounted on the outsides of their chalets. Real manly. Tough. Jay, you should bring your bow over here for some real hunting! Except that you'd probably go after the Ibex, and I don't think I'd like to see one of them go down.
Ever closer to Wengen. Such a cool system of trails and markers here in Switzerland. You could hike for days and days just following these signs and probably never get lost more than a few dozen times ... okay, we did get lost for a bit because we left the trail (it disappeared under an old car and a stack of ski tower access ladders ... how were we to know that was the "trail" and not an access road?), so it was 'user error', but they could've put another sign ... or we could've had a better map ... yeah, okay. We did end up in Wengen, just not in the exact spot we thought we would.

And again, the parting shot. Didn't catch her smiling this time, though she certainly did much of the day.

Wengen, Wengen, Wengen

2008-05-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - Wengen.

This was the view from the front porch early morning Day 3. No valley to be seen, no view of the other side, just fog.

So it looked like a good day for this:
Holing up with some study materials for a new project while Brian worked and the rest of the crew hiked around Wengen, looking for new sights.

In the afternoon, when everyone got back, I took a run up around the Steinenwald, a nature trail through the woods above Wengen. It was fantastic. On the way back through Wengen, I stopped an picked up some groceries, including this great find:

Nick "the Easy Rider" brand pancake mix - ensuring the American Way of Life! I can't wait to try it. I've always wanted the American Way of Life!

So, it happened to be Dan's birthday, we got him a little something from the Swiss Made Store.

The clouds started to part about that time, as well, giving us a first glimpse of what the mountains around us actually looked like, suggesting a great Day 4.

So, to celebrate Dan's birthday,
Dan heated up the fondue,

and Dad cooked up the spaetzli.

And here's a photo of the full crew ... including Katie, up past her bedtime.

And the parting shot, again, Katie. With her new St. Bernard.

Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Bern

2008-05-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - A bit late, but hey, there you are, or Bob's your Uncle, as they say somewhere in the world.

We stayed in for a while in the morning, while Brig conducted some work with the home office back in London. After a while, though, Mom, Dad, Holly, Katie, Dan and I headed out on a 1 hour hike down to Lauterbrunnen while Brig kept working, then took the train down (15 minutes) to meet us. Here are some photos from our hike down into the valley:
Idyllic, isn't it.

Mom & Holly, Dad ahead.

Dan in charge of the buggy.

Dan did his best to keep her awake, but not even the rough road had the intended effect.

Dad, Mom, Dan, Katie, cool railroad bridge.

Action Photo.

Once we got down to Lauterbrunnen, we met up with Brian, grabbed the Silver Surfermobile and headed past Interlaken, then past the other "Laken" inter which Interlaken is, then Thun, and on up to Bern. We parked in the outskirts near the stadium where part of the Euro 2008 tournament will be happening in a few weeks, grabbed tram #9 into the city center and jumped off at the Zytglogge stop, at the west end of the original town established by Berchtold V, Duke of Zahringen in 1191. That's a long time ago. Really. So here are some photos from our time there:

The Zytglogge.

The armored bear fountain, with Brig doing some more business.

Close-up on the armored bear, my favorite fountain-topping statue in the place.

Katie, my favorite cute-looking kid in Bern.

The crew, minus Holly (behind the camera). Yes, I swapped out my camera for Holly & Brian's, though this one is taken with my little point and shoot ... you be the judge of the relative merits.

Brig, Holly and the cutest little tyke in front of the Euro 2008 teddy bears (or would that be teddy Bernen?)

And the last photos are of an old manor house owned by the city of Bern and used for meetings. I include this photo because it just happens that the man in blue standing just outside the doors is Pascal Couchepin, President of Switzerland.

There he is. Wish I would've used Holly's camera this time.

After we finished up at Bern, we decided to head straight back to Wengen, to get Katie to bed. The plan to visit Biglen, Arni, and Oberdiesbach, where some of the ancestors came from, was scrapped for the time being. The plan now is "Sunday maybe." Okay. Well, I'm sure it will happen.

So, after we got back to Lauterbrunnen, Dad, Mom, Holly, Brian and Katie headed up to Wengen on the train, and Dan and I walked through Lauterbrunnen a bit, taking some more photos. I've just included one.

When we got back to Wengen, we watched the Champions League Final ... at least until the end of regular time. We had to wait until the next morning to find out the final score. Arsenal wasn't playing, so we really weren't too invested.

And the parting shot, again, is of our favorite little member of the crew, little Katie:

Zurich, Interlaken and Wengen

2008-05-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

In Switzerland. Wish all of you were here!

Brig shows just how big our rental van is.

Some of the crew as we prep to depart Zurich.

A great little church somewhere on the road toward Interlaken.

Picturesque Bernese scenery.

One of the "Lakens" inter which Interlaken is.

The crew disembarking and ditching the rental van in Lauterbrunnen, in the Lauterbrunnen valley, in favor of the train that took us

way above the Lauterbrunnen valley to

a chalet with this front-door vista in

Wengen, an incredible car-less winter-sports resort town perched up on the cliffs above the valley. Since I'm far too jet-lagged to comment coherently (I think I've learned my lesson from a few posts ago), I will simply quote from The Rough Guide to Switzerland ... "It is hard to overstate just how stunning the Lauterbrunnen Valley is - even hardened Alpinists shrug their shoulders and call it the most beautiful example in Europe, bar none. An immense U-shaped valley (the world's deepest) with bluffs on either side rising 1000m sheer, doused by some 72 waterfalls [the local on the train up claimed 83], it is utterly spectacular." Can't believe this place actually exists. More photos will be forthcoming.

The expression that best sums up our experience so far.

Trapeze School

2008-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, Trapeze School. What doesn't Manhattan have, I'd like to know. Well, besides skiing and mountain climbing, and canyoneering, and ... and I'm gonna stop right there, because we know the list is long, but Manhattan does have cool stuff, and this is one more example.
I'll admit I was pretty jittery at first ... it's a pretty high platform, and I didn't know just how well I'd be able to hang on, but with the first swing out over the net, the knees-over-the-bar move, and the drop-your-hands-and-arch-your-back move, with all the momentum making it pretty darn straightforward, the jitters just went away. It all became nothing but fun. (Oh, and the woman in the photo ... she's hooking up my harness, not giving me a loving embrace.)
Then they said "on the next one you can do a backflip dismount" ... to which my stunned silence lasted only a half second before I said "yeah!" The jitters came back, but on the next swing over the net, with the same two moves, and then a "forward, backward, forward, let go, tuck, open," I had done a backflip dismount without straining a bit ... and it was fun. It felt so easy.

With all that success behind me, they said I was ready to try a catch and grab ... arch my back and grab the hands of another 'flyer' and go for a swing. I was pretty primed to make it happen, since it's supposed to be pretty fun. It didn't give me the jitters at all thinking about it, but my adrenaline got pumping a bit too much and I almost "skinned the cat" on one try - almost overshooting the bar on the 'knees over the bar' part, which threw off the set up and made them abandon the attempt. The other two times I missed the catch because we were just barely off on the timing ... or at least that's what they told me. Here's the best attempt:

Just a little disappointing at the end. It was pretty close. Overall, though, FUN STUFF.

Prince Caspian

2008-05-05T19:44:00.001-07:00

Yes, a new post. Long overdue. I've been rethinking the 'all work no blog' strategy, and hope a change will be for the better. So here it is, one more fantastic reason to love NYC ... free first-run screenings for great new movies! You'll notice that the poster has a certain release date that is almost two weeks in the future ... Well, I saw the movie this past Saturday. It was a press screening, and my roommate just happened to be exiting another movie last week when they were signing people up to fill the theater. He signed me up as well. So there's actually yet another reason to love NYC, good roommates. While waiting for the show to start, I struck up a conversation with a guy who turned out to be the producer, Mark Johnson's, assistant, and an extra in one of the scenes (a faun ... he said the make up was an unpleasant experience). Great guy. Wish him and also all the people at Disney the best, especially the woman that let us swap out our first-row-side-angle seats for something a little better when the show started and not all the press seats were filled.

The show was great. Loved it. Better than the first, plus Aslan doesn't die in this one. Fantastic story, good characters ... Reepicheep is as cool as in the books, loved the armor and the special ops via griffin ... really cool. It was long, but I liked it well enough that I welcomed that. I kept wondering where the boat was the whole time, though, until my roommate pointed out to me that I was thinking of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Yeah, I know my Tolkien. :P

Afterward, I got to talk a bit with the producer, tell him how good it was. It was funny to actually see the film from his perspective for a second, as he talked about just seeing all the work that had gone into it, as much as a finished product. He said it was good to hear that we enjoyed it. I think he meant that.

So, I suggest everyone that reads this blog tell all their friends that this show is flippin' fantastic, and then everyone (take a pass on the bootleg dvds and actually) go see it in the theater. Yeah, Mark the assistant asked me to blog it up, and so I am ... but not just because he asked me to.

Well, that's the post for today.

Random Images

2008-04-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some random images I shot over the past few weeks, giving some indication of how I've been able to spend my time outside of work.

Last Sunday morning a few friends of mine and my two roommates took advantage of the later schedule for Conference and headed down to Harlem to check out the Abyssinian Baptist Church. It was a good time - lots of swaying soul-singing choiring, good-old Reverend Butts yelling into the microphone, those sorts of things. While standing in the "tourist" line to get in, I saw this cool old Chow Mein sign. I'd like to go back and see if there's actually a restaurant there, because I'm sure it would be goo-oood.

The watering-hole of choice for some of my work-mates just happens to have the name of my home state in it. Who'd've thought. They were headed over last week, and I just had to tag along. I didn't get a shot of the mechanical bull inside, but I did get one of this great sign sitting out front. My roommate and I are thinking that we should have a Manhattan Stake singles' family-home-evening event there some time. No open bar, though.
So my friend Karen calls and says that she and another of our friends accidentally bought too many standing-room tickets for La Boheme at the Met, and could I go? Since work is flexible and the hours I've been putting in have been pushing me toward burnout, I said yeah, I'll go. So, we stood at the back of the back of the hall, behind two other rows of standing-room ticket holders, including two very, very tall guys, craning our necks to see the tiny-looking stage way up front. At the intermission after the second act, as we were standing around, resigned to our fate, an older gentleman asked us "Are these your seats?" We said yes. He said "How would you like to sit on the second row?" and handed us his tickets. We were stunned, and couldn't say thank you enough. He and his diamond-clad wife beamed ... they must love doing that. I guess they'd seen La Boheme before. So, Karen and I headed up front ... and center, it turned out. Now the only problem turned out to be trying to see around the conductor. That was an obstacle we could put up with. Here's a photo of the curtain call from our perfect seats.
Someday when I have season tickets to the Met, and I've seen La Boheme thirty times, I'm going to give away my tickets to some poor couple at the back of the back of the standing room rows.

Jonny's First Lacrosse Game

2008-04-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of making a trip down to DC a couple of weeks back, and it happened to coincide with my nephew Jonny's first lacrosse game, ever. His take on lacrosse, when I asked him, was that the helmet is too tight and it hurts his head. Those helmets are too tight, if you ask me. Here's a shot of him looking tough in his defender's role.

Peter was dressed up with a Redskins hat and a Superman cape (reversible to Batman). What kid could be without one of those?

Where I spend my time

2008-03-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, and it has something to do with answer number 1 to the "5 things on my 'to do' list today" from my last post. I'm on a project that won't last forever, probably not through the summer, and I'm trying to take advantage of the extended hours they've allowed us to work. So, New York for me has turned into sleep, take the train, work, take the train, repeat. It's not too bad, really, I know it's temporary, I work in a pretty cool area - I mean, if you're going to work in NYC at an office job, it's about as storied as you can get - so it's all good, for a while.

Given that I'm in the office most of my life these days, I thought I'd take some time yesterday and snap a few photos to share - I guess that's what the blogging thing is all about, sharing 'what's going on.' So, here we go.

World Financial Center, where my project is currently happening:

A shot of the WFC from the East, with St. Paul's Episcopal church in the foreground:

The plaza outside the WFC is on the west side of Manhattan, right near the southern tip, near Battery Park City, and it looks out on two great landmarks, Lady Liberty and Ellis Island:

In the plaza there's this cool piece of history, an actual slab from the Berlin Wall. I really dig the look of the guy:

And inside, for all those long, cold winter days, there's the "Winter Garden" - aptly named. It's a great spot for hanging out and reading on breaks:

And to put the place in context, here is a photo of a group of tourists taking photos of the WTC site. I took the photo from inside the winter garden. The WTC was right across the street:

And that's it. I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Tagged

2008-03-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to fulfilling my responsibilities as a "tagged" blogger. Here's my post.

Here are the rules.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged

10 years ago I was:
Slogging through my second year of law school.

5 things on my 'to do' list today:
1. Work enough to bring my hours up to 65 for the week.
2. Pick up a package at the post office.
3. Understand Jefferson's report on the constitutionality of the national bank.
4. Write this post.
5. Start planning my trip back to Utah on Thursday.

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. Pay lots of tithing.
2. Travel the world giving most of it away.
3. Buy a brownstone in Greenwich or a condo in midtown and an old pioneer home on a big spread out west.
4. Take my nephews and nieces to Nepal, Bhutan, Peru, Finland, Antarctica, etc.
5. Employ all my siblings so we could all live near each other.

3 of my bad habits:
1. Scowling for no reason.
2. Buying things without a budget.
3. Going ahead without a plan.

5 places I've lived
1. London, England
2. Chavadi Purdur, Tamil Nadu, India
3. New York City, New York
4. Alexandria, Virginia
5. Monterey, California

5 jobs I've had
1. short-order cook
2. virus propagator and bottle washer
3. anti-money laundering consultant
4. patent attorney
5. fuel desk clerk

Things most people don't know about me:
1. I took the LSAT in Madras, India
2. I once got a ticket for rock climbing on a castle in Italy.
3. I've seen snow leopard cubs at a zoo in Darjeeling.
4. I've been on Monterey Bay Aquarium's deep-water research vessel.

You've been tagged:
1. Ned
2. Mike
3. Sara

4. Susan

Graffitti Street

2008-02-24T16:47:00.001-08:00

I tried to turn down this street the other day. Didn't get very far.