Fish. Muir Woods, ice cream, and Napa

Made it to San Fran after surviving an uneventful, if somewhat turbulent, 6:00 AM flight out of Boston. After lunch at Fish in Sausalito, went for a 3.6 mile hike in the Muir Woods, north of San Fran. Alice took more pics than I did, but here's one for now:

and the bridge on the way back to San Fran:

We spent way too much time trying to find Ghiradelli Square to get ice cream (GPS had us going to the Ghiradelli store in downtown SF, not to the square near the wharf) then met up with Stephen and Elizabeth and made it to Napa.

Today is vineyard day, and it's supposed to get to 97 degrees.

Congratulations, Laurel!

Congratulations to Laurel Reckert, the reigning Autocracy Poker Champion! Laurel battled through a very evenly-chipped final table and ground out a tough win.

Paul Fletcher was this year's runner up. With his third consecutive cash at an APC, Paul is now the all-time APC money leader!

APC newcomer Jen Brophy took third place:

Laurel's win created the first APC Power Couple-- She and Dan became the first husband and wife pair to win the title!

Here are the results of the final table:

8th: Alice
7th: Russ
6th: Joe
5th: Brian D.
4th: Brian K.
3rd: Jen (wins $85)
2nd: Paul (wins $130)
1st: Laurel (wins $215)

A big thanks to all who participated! I hope everyone had a good time, and I look forward to seeing everyone next year at APC 5!

Here are some more pics:

Republica Dominica, Day 7

Day Seven began with a rainy morning van tour of the city of Puerto Plata. Stopped at an overlook for pics:


Then toured the Brugal Rum factory (it was LOUD!):

Then the Amber Museum:

Then the Spanish Fort, which would probably have been the most interesting thing to see had it not been for the rain, and the graffiti, and the missing (presumed stolen) displays:



That evening, we in the middle of our dominoes game, Doug got up and signed up for Karaoke. Then he karaoked:

Clowns to the left of me, Albanians to my right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you!

Republica Dominica, Days 5 and 6

Day 5 brought more nice weather, but I was hitting the Advil really hard just to be able to walk to the beach. I got to lie in the sun (and take pictures) while the rest of the gang played volleyball.




It rained all day on Day 6.

Republica Dominica, Days 3 and 4

Finally some nice weather! We spent most of Day three on the beach, playing volleyball and enjoying the surf, sand, and sun. The downside to the good weather was that it brought out all of the backyard jungle players who were hiding inside on the previous days. So people basically just wanted to hit the first ball back over the net, people were in the net on every play, and about 90% of all contacts were illegal and nobody knew better or cared. The other downside was that I hurt my foot somehow. Tendinitis. maybe? I don't know, but at the end of the day, I couldn't walk any more.

The upside? This:

And this:

We woke up early for a snorkeling excursion on Day four. I don't remember too much of the trip, because I got seasick. I do remember seeing one of our guides standing on the reef (very bad) and that we were encouraged to feed the fish (also very bad. If you don't know why these things are bad, I'll explain in a comment but I'm not in the mood to get on a soapbox right now... I'm feeling seasick again just thinking about it!)

Alice took a few pictures from the boat, possibly while I was leaning over the side feeding the fish with the breakfast I had eaten a few hours earlier.




Spent most of the rest of the day lazing on the beach, thanks to good weather and my inability to walk.

Republica Dominica, Day 2

Day 2 began with the breakfast buffet, and then volleyball, volleyball, volleyball! The weather was a mixed blessing-- naturally we would have preferred sunshine, but the on-and-off rain kept the jungle players away, and kept only the die hards on the beach. So the level of play was reasonably high, given the resort location. We played all morning, taking occasional breaks to jump in the ocean and cool off.

In the afternoon, Alice and I decided to do some exploring. We hiked up to the lighthouse (actually a gazebo) and then down to a remote section of beach, where we suddenly realized we were no longer on resort property. The "shops" we found were not hotel-affiliated, they were run by the indigenous population, i.e., the very poor. Everyone yelled and called for us to enter their shops. We finally caved and went into one, and were shown some interesting wood carvings, paintings, and some fake-looking jewelry. We were also asked if we wanted to buy marijuana, which we politely declined. At least, that's what I think he said. We eventually left without buying anything, and hurriedly strode back to the resort. Here are some pics:





That night, we had dinner at the steak restaurant. The overcooked ribeyes tasted like Steak-Ums, and Alice's fillet tasted like lemon-scented Pledge. We decided we'd settle on the buffet from here on in. After dominos, we went to the Plaza for mojitos and Ping Pong before turning in.

Republica Dominica, Day 1

The amount of sympathy I expect to receive if I complain about going to the Caribbean when it's 5 degrees in New England? Not a whole lot! So I'll leave out all commentary about the rain, and keep the focus positive.

Alice, Doug, John, Terri, and I landed in Puerto Plata after a pleasant, uneventful flight. After paying our "Welcome to the Dominican Republic, we like American Dollars" tax, we found Dayong and Ron and hopped into our taxi... for the MOST TERRIFYING CAB RIDE EVER.

Oh right, keep it positive. Well let's see. We made great time, thanks to our driver's excellent passing and weaving skills. We didn't kill anyone, thanks to our driver's honking skills and the excellent dodging skills of the scooters in our path. The trip was probably fuel-efficient, thanks to the tailgate drafting our driver was able to perform when not able to pass. And the guy by the side of the road with the machete? He was using it on goats, not on humans.

After a warm greeting at our resort, Alice and I passed out (we had woken up at 5:00 AM after all to make our flight.) We awoke for a buffet dinner that was much better than I expected it to be (I had low expectations!) and then our first dominos match, which I lost.

Oh, one last positive comment for the day: I tried the all-inclusive alcohols in our hotel mini-bar, and I could still see, my head didn't hurt that much, and I did not die.

More pics (and more positive comments) to come!

BMWs and poison

I despise graffiti. It is always ugly. It is always offensive. If someone spraypainted something of mine, I would be hard pressed not to spraypaint their ass with copper-coated 12 gauge #4 pheasant shot.

And yet, during one of my morning rush hour commutes this week, I found myself immensely amused by some graffiti applied to a BMW billboard.

The next day, I brought my camera, hoping to immortalize and perhaps even glorify the terrible vandalism. But alas, by then, the billboard had been replaced. So unfortunately, what you see below is not the actual billboard I saw, but my artistic reconception.

All was not in vain, however. Since I had my camera, I was finally able to take a picture of this box, which has been sitting on the grounds of my contractual place of employment for the past several weeks:

I read the words on the box very carefully and decided that opening, moving, or otherwise coming in contact with the box was probably not a great idea.

Anyone have any idea what's inside?