Bjorn Lind of Sweden won the gold medal in the Men’s Cross Country Sprint. As my grandfather used to say, that’s Swedish power.

Lind victory dance video

I racked the Ruination IPA clone to secondary this weekend. So far it’s at 7.5% ABV. I threw in two ounces of centennial hops to dry hop for a couple of weeks. That should give a nice hoppy aroma.

A CIRCUMSTANCE BEYOND OUR CONTROL,
OH OH OH OH

As promised - here’s the tale of my fateful stay at the St. Regis in SF. Sit right back and read this (long!) one!

The summary: I’ve had two all-department meetings at the St. Regis in SF. The most recent one went without a hitch. But still. I can’t seem to let go of the trauma that shook me during November during my last visit. At that time, the St. Regis in San Francisco had been open for a grand total of 2 weeks. And in those brief 2 weeks, they’d had 5 meetings or so and 2 weddings. But apparently, they were still working out a few kinks.

The stage: The St. Regis in SF is a cutting edge hotel, where old-world sophistication and Silicon Valley gadgetry intersect - and down-right collide. The hotel itself is lovely - everything is dark chocolate brown and purple, albeit a little masculine. The rooms are lighter in feel, more Scandanavian. Deep tan panelling on one set of walls, cream leather on the other (yes, there are leather walls in the room - leather companies even SPONSOR the suites, so you can stay in the “COACH room”, for example), and natural stone in the bathroom.

Act I: My first night

My adventure started when I returned from dinner. I came into the room and saw that my coat had walked away from its place on the chair. I eventually discovered it hiding in a secret set of TINY closets that blended in perfectly with what I had thought was just panelling (this panelling also contained my minibar I was delighted to discover).

Incident #1: This was how I discovered that I had a personal butler. By the way, I couldn’t open the closet door fully to retrieve my coat - it was blocked by the desk. So I had to do this sneaky maneuver of reaching over the desk with one hand to keep the closet door open, while I reached in with the other hand to hang up or retrieve clothing.

My mysterious butler had also turned down the room. I hate sleeping with blackout curtains, so I was determined to raise them. I pulled. I poked. I peered for a cord. Which is when I discovered that rather innocuous looking touch screen LCD panel by the bedside - the one I had thought was just a clock (hereafter referred to as the BSTSLCDP - BedSide TouchScreen LCD Panel). Oh! Of course! It’s one of those NEW MODERN rooms! Cool! Click-click -click - and up the curtains went! Technology rocks! While I was there, I set the alarm, scheduled a wake up call, lowered the room temperature, and noted that I could ring my personal butler from the comfort of my pillow. He was no longer an enigma.

Incident #2: Everything in the room is controlled from the BSTSLCDP. Only later would I discover that there are in fact bypass switches in the room - but you need a magnifying glass and bloodhound to find them.

But now, I was on a mission for an iron. With Kyle on the phone, I hunted for the one that must surely exist in such a high tech room. High and low - in the closet, under the bed. How could there not be an iron in such a new, modern, high-end hotel room? Of course - it was there, it was just hidden from view - just like those closets. It had to be a built- in ironing board secreted among those invisible closet doors.

Incident #3: Sure enough, I located an awkwardly placed panel in the wall behind the desk - one of those Scandanavian designed things. But once again, that desk was in the way. I pulled, I prodded, and eventually managed to slip a couple of fingers in a crevice, to feel what I thought was the ironing board cover. With new determination I pulled off the panel, delicately avoiding the desk… to discover the heater vent. Oops. I ended up calling down to my butler to have an ironing board delivered.

I went to bed. But that BSTSLCDP just kept glaring at me. Brightly. Geez. You’d have thought that it had an automatic dimmer setting. End Act I.

Act II: My first morning

First of all, let’s get this straight. I am not a morning person. I’ve tried to be one. I’ve even talked to a doctor about it. I’m just not. I do my best thinking between 3pm & 8pm, and NOT between the hours of 5am and 8 am. I’m the anomaly of my friends and family. So when I have to report downstairs at 7am it’s a big deal. I set two alarms AND schedule a wake up call.

My first alarm went off. And of course, I slapped the top of it. Again. And again. The blasted thing wouldn’t go into the snooze mode. Why? Astute readers will have caught that the alarm was none other than our friend the BSTSLCDP.

Incident #4: There are NO BUTTONS on the BSTSLCDP. Realize my pain. It’s pitch black - and I’m absolutely blind in the morning without my glasses. And now you’re asking me to:

1. Find my glasses
2. Put on my glasses
3. Read the BSTSLCDP
4. Navigate the BSTSLCDP
5. Tap the snooze icon on the BSTSLCDP

Well I tapped the snooze icon and went blissfully back to sleep. The second alarm went off. But this time, it wasn’t responding to my gentle, persuasive taps. In fact, the alarm just kept getting louder and louder. And then phone started ringing - why it was my personal butler with my wake up call.

Incident #5: The phone next to the bedside is connected to the BSTSLCDP. The BSTSLCDP had frozen. By freezing, it had also taken out the bedside phone. Which means that, IN THE DARK, I had to navigate to where I remembered the second phone to be (on that desk), figure out how to turn it on (it was a cordless phone), and explain (at 5:30am) that my alarm clock wouldn’t shut off. My butler’s response? “They have a mind of their own sometimes. Shall I send up a technician?” “No thank you. It just blue screened, and now appears to be rebooting itself.”

You might be wondering why I didn’t just turn on the lights to find the second phone? Remember - as far as I knew, the lights were controlled by the BSTSLCDP. I didn’t yet have my bloodhound to find the invisible bypass switches.

OK. So now it’s shower time. The shower is one of those new overhead “Rain” showers. A little odd because it’s kind of a Truman Show-like experience. You’re in it, but then you move, and you’re completely out of it.

Incident #6: I didn’t like that rain shower thing one bit. The St. Regis hotel designers must have figured that some less-progressive guests (aka me) would react this way, so they thoughtfully supplied a handheld showerhead as well. So I rigged the handheld to function like a normal, angled shower and was happy. Until I turned off the water. You know how showers release any left over (usually cold) water a few seconds after you turn them off? You guessed it. Just as I exited the shower (all nice and warm) I got a “refreshing” dose of cold water from the rain head above. I don’t like being cold. Period.

Enough said. In that round, I battled technology and lost royally. As did 5 of my colleagues I discovered. I wasn’t as bad off as them though - I had a toilet seat cover. Like I said in an earlier post, the good news is that during my most recent stay, my alarm clock turned off, and didn’t blue screen. Still no irons in the room, but at least I have a good relationship with my butler.

A man makes a picture
A moving picture

Our meyer lemon tree is bursting with fruit. So naturally I took the opportunity to make a Lind family treat - lemon tart! This one’s got a short buttery crust with a slight almond flavor. Lemon curd recipe courtesy of Kyle’s mom - extra tangy!

The spheres’re in commotion
The elements in harmony

I was convinced I left my nerdy days behind. Yes - I got manganese right, thank you very much.

We are family
Get up ev’rybody and sing
I finally got around to posting pictures from last year. In addition to Kauai 2006 (see below), check out the Family album for pictures from 2005’s Mahadevan family reunion, the Cousin poker party, and Chitra & Foday’s wedding.

Bodies in the sand
Tropical drink melting in your hand
We had a fabulous week in Kauai (our 3rd trip there for those of you keeping score).

Here’s the breakdown:
Days hiking: 2
Days at the beach: 3
Days on the hammock: 2
Books read (K+M combined): 4
Sudoku puzzles completed (K+M combined): 17
Neighborhood dogs befriended: 4
Neighborhood geese befriended: 1 (Lucy the Goose, nonetheless)
Whales seen: 3
Wild roosters heard: 172
Shooting stars seen: 1
Sunburns received: 2 (both of us!)
Surprise cloudburst drenchings: 2
Pineapples eaten: 2
Maitais drunk: 5
Lavaflows drunk: 1
Tropical fruit smoothies enjoyed: 4
Macadamia nut encrusted sea products eaten: 0 (this is a minor victory)
Miles driven: 352 (a far cry from the 1352 miles Avis tried to charge us for)
Temperature of house when we returned: 46F
Days until our next vacation: Too many. Sigh.

The high Hedonism score surprised me. I guess I shouldn’t have said ‘Very Accurate’ to all those alcohol questions…

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic..

Orderliness results were high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun. Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

trait snapshot: clean, organized, regular, self reliant, tough, positive, high self control, very good at saving money, dislikes chaos, resolute, realist, trusting, hard working, dislikes unpredictability, prefers a technical specialized career, not worrying, respects authority, enjoys leadership, finisher, normal, optimistic, controlling, prudent, modest, adventurous, does not like to be alone, intellectual, likes the unknown, very practical, high self esteem, assertive, perfectionist, busy, altruistic

Let me tell you about a girl I know,
had a drink about a hour ago.
Geez - who ever thought I would be a cliche? Those who have known me since my angst-ridden teenage years should be shocked at how high my stability results are. Must have been the hormones. Thanks zerodoll for the ever-fun personality tests.

Stability results were moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

Trait snapshot: Changeable, in the middle, suspicious, somewhat traditional, dislikes chaos, down to earth, group oriented, practical…

I’ve got the brains
You’ve got the looks

Today was Communication Day at work. The day that our little block of Wall Street starts shopping for new cars, new diamond tennis bracelets, and - in our neck of the woods - new gadgets. It also seems to be the day that everyone leaves work early to get manicures (men and women mind you - whole different topic there). The men take their grooming ritual one step further - the haircut. This combination of gadget shopping and personal grooming led me naturally to contemplate the Art of the Man’s Haircut (it seems to be only coincidence that Kyle got his do done today too btw). I mean really - is it that hard to cut a man’s hair? And if it were, then WHY (please tell me why) would someone think that this gadget would be bought. And really - WHO ARE THE people that would buy this thing?????? And why didn’t I come up with that idea???????
Had to get that out. Thank you.