Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day yesterday Don and I had planned on going out to eat. We usually plan on going out but end up deciding to make a nice dinner at home to avoid the hassle of trying to find parking and having to wait at a crowded restaurant to eat.  

So, yesterday, we decided to try and recreate this fabulous steak dish I got at this expensive French restaurant during my company holiday party last year. We had never attempted to cook steak before, so I stood around at the Sunflower Market for about 15 minutes staring at the steaks and asking random people questions about picking good meat.

After I learned all about picking steaks from several helpful women and then about shallots from the guy in the produce department, we went home and cooked the steaks.  We were both hopping anxiously around the stove trying to decide how long to sear them and how long to broil them.  Don made a blue cheese sauce which we put on the top of the steaks and I mixed some into the mashed red potatoes.  We also had some steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a loaf of artisan bread I bought at the market. I was amazed at what a good job we did!  It was one of the best dinners we've ever made!

After dinner, Don took me to the symphony to see the Boulder Philharmonic.  They played Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, Bach's "Air", and Mozart's Concerto in E-Flat for for Two Pianos.  The baby really liked the french horns.  He would start kicking any time the french horns played. I think the timpani scared him; he would jump at the loud sections with lots of timpani banging. Maybe he'll want to play the french horn someday since he seems fond of it already. It was a great Valentine's date.  

We came home and had hot fudge cake and I gave Don his present.  Earlier, he had given me some really nice earrings and promised me a professional prenatal massage, but I had some technical difficulties showing him the video to explain his gift, so he had to wait 'til after the Symphony.

One of the Program Managers at work, Craig, flies a trike.  It is like a motorized hang glider with two seats that you can take off and land in because it has a motor, propeller, and wheels.  For Don's Valentine's present, I arranged for Craig to take him for a trike flight.  I found this video so you can see what flying in a trike is like. It looks a little scary, but really cool!  Craig flies his trike almost weekly and is thrilled that Don is going to go with him!

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/321551/clear_sky_ultralight_trike_flying_in_the_midwest/

Don said he might want to wait to go flying with Craig until after the baby was born.  I asked him why and he said he wanted to see his son atleast once before he died. Ha ha! 

It was a great Valentine's Day!  I'm so excited to go get my massage.  My back is killing me!

San Jose Run Around

  I (Don) went to San Jose, CA last week to attend the Photonics West conference. My research advisor from last semester thought it would be good for me to go and learn all about what is going on in the world of multi-dimensional microscopy and to make connections with some of the big names in the field. I won't go into any boring details about the current state of multi-dimensional microscopy, but I will relate my fun experience trying to get to my hotel. 

  When selecting the hotel to stay at for the conference I thought it wise to pick a hotel near the airport and the light rail line in San Jose. I found one within three-quarters of a mile of the airport and a light rail station for a decent rate. Thus sparing me the annoyance and expense of renting a car. 

  Upon arriving in San Jose I set out to find city bus number 10 which went to the light rail station. I would have preferred to just walk to the hotel, but there was no direct way to get there. The airport is surrounded on all sides by freeway and the only way in or out of the airport is by automobile. I found the number 10 city bus and jumped on. It took only a few minutes for me to realize that I was on the wrong bus (I should have been to the light rail station within five minutes). Fifteen minutes later I reached the Santa Clara Transit Center, which is a commuter rail hub, not a light rail station. I asked the bus driver for directions, he informed me that I "got on the wrong number 10 bus." Apparently there are two number 10 buses that leave the airport and go to different destinations... brilliant! He instructed me to jump on the bus in front of us. 

  Eventually I made it to the light rail station, so I went to purchase a ticket. At the ticket machine, I realized that I could buy all of the tickets that I would need for the next couple of days all at once. Fantastic! I put in my money and pulled out all five tickets. I then read the top ticket..."This ticket is valid for two hours from the time of purchase." 

  I used one of the tickets to travel to my stop. I got off and began walking the three-quarters of a mile to the La Quinta Inn. It was a nice evening and I enjoyed the walk. When I arrived at the hotel I noticed that the hotel had a shuttle van. "How nice!" I thought "I wonder if they drop people off at the light rail." I went in, got my keycard, and inquired whether the shuttle would drop me off at the light rail in the morning. I was informed that it wasn't for that, it was only for transportation to and from the airport, which was unfortunate considering that I had just wasted half an hour on the wrong number 10 bus, and wasted eight dollars buying too many tickets!

  The next morning I made the trek back to the light rail station, purchased a new ticket and waited for the train to take me downtown. As the train approached I noticed a white van with "La Quinta Inn" written on the side stop across the street and drop someone off. After all that had happened the night before, I wasn't surprised.