Geneticists are the ROCK STARS of the tech world!!

Sorry.....perhaps I am getting carried away but I love this stuff

Thanksgiving

After a grand total of 11 Thanksgiving holidays in the USA I am finally beginning to get it!

It is always on a Thursday and is followed by a very quiet weekend. There is no distraction from having to give and receive gifts and it has no (current) religious overtone, which means everyone gets to enjoy it together at the same time and for (just about) the same reason. Nice!

This year we went to Brent and Susan's place and enjoyed the day with them and and their kids Caelen, Aiden and Maya and Brent's sister Dawn, her partner Diane and their son Elijah. Fab!

Today we went for a quiet walk in Todd Sanctuary, which is an Audubon Society wilderness North of Pittsburgh, and rounded the day off with beer and pizza in the Church Brew Works.

Adam Turns 8!!

Adam was 8 on the 15th.  We ended up having a bit of a birthday fest with one party and a sleepover (complete with Star Wars movie fest) for school mates on Friday, followed by a grown up gathering on Saturday and another party for neighborhood mates on Sunday.  We even had a "Skype breakfast" with my mum.  Good times!  Time flies!

Who Says Barbershop Choirs Can't Sing?

I've been interested in Barbershop music for almost 30 years!  During that whole time I cannot remember meeting another vocalist from outside the Barbershop world who didn't regard it as "naff" and unimportant.

Well...too all those muscial snobs......none of whom I realize will be reading this.....kiss my ass!!....cos the Westminster Chorus won the 2009 Choir of the World title in Llangollen this year.

Here is the link to their performance.

And just for Dave Berg here is a video of some more top quality vocal music. Vocal Spectrum (another Barbershop group) singing in Dunedin New Zealand.

And more from Dunedin here

Finally.....in case you thought only Americans sing Barbershop...here is a Kiwi group called the "Musical Island Boys"

Don't Play on the Railway!

Look at this for a near miss (x2)

Graduation Day

Last weekend, Soph graduated from her little 12 inch wheeled kiddie bike to something more sophisticated.
 I am particularly proud of her because her old bike had "coaster" brakes operated by the feet as oppose to the regular handlebar levers.  As we were riding along the trail I kept checking in with her to make sure she remembered where the brakes were and she did fine until just as we were turning from the Panther Hollow trail onto the Jail Trail.......

There is a steep descent and as Soph began to accelerate she panicked and completely forgot where the brakes were.  She was hurtling down the hill screaming in terror with me yelling "hands Soph!!!!"....HAAAAANDS!  Fortunately when she hit the 4 foot high boulder she had remembered where the brakes were and had slowed from about 20 mph to around 5 mph.  Phew!!  The end result was a traumatized little girl who...bless her......got right back on and started pedaling.  She is hard is our Soph.  Hard as nails!

We had more dads vs lads at the footy last week which was a hoot because the field was a swamp.  It reminded me of playing for Newheys!


Of course Halloween is a big deal here.  Adam is dressed as Django Fett from Star Wars.  Soph was Yoda.  Personally I think she should have been Darth Vader!

All American?

Adam has gone to the Pitt football game with Brent and Caelen.  Given that I am writing this in Pittsburgh this is REAL football.....not that other game that is played in a few corners of the world.  After all....this is a football town.  The Steelers have won the super-bowl more times than LFC have won the Cccchhhhampion League. 

I have to admit to being a little jealous......the games are played at Heinz Field.  The view of the city from the stands is pretty amazing.  The Mighty Reds could do with somewhere like this.

GO PITT!!!!!

Digital Open Winner

This is a really cool digest of the Digital Open.  An online science expo for kids of 17 or younger.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/15/digital-open-winner.html

Block Party and Big Dummy

Last weekend was our neighborhood block party, involving a large "Wall-E" bouncy castle, pot luck grub and lashing of beer from the East End Brewing Company.

The kids spent about 9 straight hours bouncing on Wall-E apart from a few party games and other mandatory activities like consuming 10 million chocolate brownies and a few gallons of lemonade.

ALSO!!!........I have a new bike.  I sold my poor unused road bike on Craigslist and spent the proceeds on a Surly Big Dummy frame set.  Then I took my old mountain bike into the famous "Kraynick's" bike shop in Garfield and stripped all the parts off it before using them to build up the Surly bike.  Kraynick's is unique in that Mr Kraynick (Gerry to his mates) allows poor hapless souls like me to use all his bike tools and workshop space for free.  So I did.  Despite my complete lack of mechanical know how the project seemed to go pretty well.  Well.....OK.....to be honest I had to take the bike into "Iron City Bikes" in Oakland where Steve and Luke did a fantastic job of undoing all my mistakes and tuning the bike to perfection.

The Big Dummy is a cargo bike that can also haul passengers.  On Monday, Adam and I rode to his footy practice on it and this morning I loaded it with no less than 7 cardboard boxes packed with stuff I just sold on Ebay (more bike bits) and rode to the post office.  Who needs a car???




Happy Autumn!

Endless Mountains 1240K Randonnee

Hardcore man.....hard-core!!

Check THIS

Saturday Footy.....Dads (and a mum) v Lads and Daughters

The reputation of the mighty Edgewood Red Team must have preceded it today because only a single member of the opposition team turned up.  Even their coach didn't show!

Instead, the parents lined up against the kids.  Great fun.  Adam enjoyed scoring against us.  Bah!

Even more of a Hoot!

Psychiatrist's Answering Machine

This is a Hoot!

Great school policy....hope it's real.

I am on the Telly!!!!

I got my 2 seconds of fame today.  I was pedaling home from work along Forbes Avenue in Oakland and timed my run brilliantly to get in the shot from the WTAE news team who were covering a story about how EVERY kids in the Allegheny County school system MUST have a full complement of vaccinations or risk exclusion.  Gulp!

Anyway....here is the link.  I am the dude in the fetching dayglow vest cruising by about 20 seconds in.

Pedal Two-gether

Me and the Shaz hit the road for some tandem riding this weekend. The kids were ensconced with their mates so we sneaked off for a ride around the city. Sorry the pics are rubbish....I was trying to get the bike in the frame while speeding through Polish Hill (having just ridden up it).

Pittsburgh took on the image of police state last week during the G20. We stayed well away and enjoyed the two days off that were enforced by the shut down of schools and my work place. The only minor excitement we got in Squirrel Hill was being buzzed by the Blackhawk helicopters. Well....they looked like Blackhawks anyway. Never seen one close up before.

Fall has arrived. Bike rides are getting chilly. Brrrrr...

Synthetic Biology

I am posting this link so that I don’t lose track of it.  I know this is a rather eccentric way to bookmark something but I thought Bergy, Pete and the dog from the chippy (my only readers apparently) might find it interesting.

What would you synthesize using synthetic biology???

Here is the link

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/28/090928fa_fact_specter

I guess it works! Coooooool!!!

I am exploring mobile blogging. If this gets published then.....it works

Bonkers!

The story at THIS LINK is bonkers but it made me chuckle.

This is How We Roll

Ride On

Turbo Gran!

Mum and Derek are heading home tomorrow so we went for a final jolly on the local bike trails today. Considering that she had knee surgery only a couple of weeks before arriving my mum did LOTS of riding while she was here. She and Derek even skipped out for a few days down the Pittsburgh to Washington DC bike trail (they didn't make it to DC....fair enough really given that it's about 250 miles).

Adam had his usual Saturday soccer match yesterday and I surprised myself by not picking an argument with any of the opposing team's coaches or the ref. I guess that's progress.

We'll miss "Granny and Grandpa" when they go back. Having family over to stay or going back to the UK always makes Pittsburgh seem a long way away from our roots. Sniff.

Soph is 5!!!

Soph turned 5 last week. I am still trying to figure out what happened during the interim. All I seem to have achieved since we had kids is a fairly impressive collection of grey hairs and a smaller bank account (and "lots of bikes".....says Shaz. I guess that explains the smaller bank account :-))



We have been quietly enjoying the last of the summer weather. Unusually for us we have spent most of our time in town. One of my favorite city pass-times is to hang out in Shadyside on Walnut Street at Jitters Cafe where I can get thoroughly soaked in caffeine and the kids can gourge on ice cream. This is a good Saturday ritual for after Adam's footy match now that the season has started again.





The G20 circus is coming to town next week so we are all getting 2 free days off school and work.



Adam is losing teeth at he rate of about 1 every week. I need to record him saying "some silly sausage stole my sixpence".......hilarious (but then I don't get out much).



Shaz has been heavily into yoga for quite a while. Here she is doing a "double downward dog" with Adam.

Alive and Kicking

Yep.....I am still here. Only 4 months hiatus. Life has been busy so not sure why I haven't blogged. But now I am back!

Lots has happened. We spent a couple of weeks in Maine at the beach. Did loads of canoe paddling and swimming in lakes etc. Adam finally learned to swim properly and has taken up kung fu (now a yellow belt). Mostly the kids spent the summer playing with their mates on our street which was easy and great.

Soph turned 5 last week and has started proper school and my mum is in town visiting with Derek.

OK...I've run out of things to say. Here are some pics :-)