Finally Spring

It rained part of every day last week and the temperatures were unseasonably chilly. So today was a treat. The sun shone and it was t-shirt and shorts weather. I put in a few hours in the garden. I am a little worried about the owner of the bird's nest that I inadvertently exposed with all my pruning. I kept hacking (ha ha) off suckers from a tree and bits of a bush that grows through from the neighbor's and some of the dead parts of our rose trees and all of a sudden I heard chirping and flapping and realized that I had removed much of the protective covering for a bird's nest built on a piece of our dilapidated wooden fence. I stopped immediately, but there isn't much shade left. I then moved on to the vinca which has taken over the path from back garage door along the side of the house. I am sure there used to be a path there, and with continued efforts tomorrow I hope to find it.

I am also really enjoying the super new heart monitor that I got for my birthday. I rode my (ok, Catherine's) bike part way up Mill Creek Canyon and got technical feedback that yes, I was indeed exceeding desirable maximum heart rate. I didn't really need the monitor to tell me that. The slight nausea and panting were probably indicative. But it is fun to see that you burned 604 calories. Bring on the tortilla chips.

My birthday

Here is what Craig did with my birthday presents.
They were all bagged and laid out with a number attached.



I rolled the dice till I got one of the numbers.



Then I opened what was there. In these case -- hangers.

germaphobia gone mad

Just went to the bathroom at a coffee shop and saw something new. It is equipped with "clean escape". What is this you ask? Well it is a metal plate at the bottom of the door that you can hook your foot under to open the door so you don't have to, heaven forbid, touch the handle....

Before and After

Craig took the dogs to be groomed today. I guess he said 'short' for Sadie and the lady heard 'shorn'. This is what she looked like the other day:

And this is what she looks like now:

Just one picture from Poland

I am going to post some Poland pictures on facebook if I get the energy, but I thought I'd pick one picture to put here. And this is it:

My new favorite soup: chlodnik. I'm going to try making it this week.

More from Poland

Talk went ok – I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a bigger audience, but I was in the last session of the conference after a late lunch so the crowd had thinned quite a bit. And I was scheduled against a rather more famous person (me being not at all famous). Did have some nice questions, which was pleasing. Then we dashed out of there to get to our train to Krakow, which we are still on. Seven hours – but no change in Warsaw this time. We were dismayed to discover that there is no restaurant car. Needless to say we are getting a little peckish and hoping for some delicious possibilities in or near our hotel.

Update - peanuts from the minibar and some wine also from the minibar. Looking forward to that breakfast buffet.

New Sounds 2010

This conference rocks! I love the people, the talks are fabulous and they serve us delicious central European food (and, no, that is not an oxymoron) at regular intervals. My talk is tomorrow after lunch so I shall have to forgo the lashings of goulash so that I don't fall sink into a post prandial stupor. Immediately following my talk, we rush to the train station for the return journey to Krakow. Mum has insisted on first class tickets for this trip. When we walked through the train last time, it was clear that those folks had air conditioning. And we are all about not getting heat stroke again. I have taken some pictures so will upload tomorrow so you all can vicariously enjoy Poznan. We had a walking tour yesterday evening and we ended up in the group with the guy who didn't really have enough English to be doing the English speaking tour. But he was one of those souls who transcends such things as linguistic obstacles and by the end he had the group eating out of his hand. Some of our favorite moments: "I want to say you something about this building" pointing through the trees across a park "well, you cannot see the building, but..." and then he told us all about the building that was not visible. He had also aquired a pronunciation for 'century' that sounded more like 'sanctuary' which was unfortunate for a tour guide with a historical remit. We learned a lot about things that happened in various sanctuaries. And then we came home to our sanctuary-- the Sheraton.