First random thing: Anita and I made mayonnaise this weekend! Turns out it's a little tricky, but totally doable. It's basically made from two egg yolks and 1.5 cups of oil. You beat the oil into the egg yolks a tiny bit at a time... Go too fast and you have an puddle of oil with some funk in it, which is what happened to our first batch. But the second batch was awesome.
Next random thing: I took a tour of the Boeing manufacturing plant in Everett as part of a VIP group from our UW Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. Huge place. The main assembly building is 40 acres with 115 foot ceilings. Huge cranes and equipment strowed everywhere. They were building 767s 777s and 787s (the Dreamliner). The 787 is definitely looking pretty cool. There are three that are painted for All Nippon Airlines, rolling down the line. ASA has 55 of them on order. If you were to place an order now, the plane wouldn't be delivered until 2020. Was fun to see the plant.
Madrid
Last entry, we had just arrived in Madrid. Adam and Maria made us a home cooked meal. We just stayed in that evening...
Days 9, 10, and 11 -- Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Sunday, April 22, 23, 24, and 25th.
Anita and I went to the Prado in the morning. It is a top-notch place with lots of European paintings and statues. The focus seemed to be on Spanish works. A few of the paintings were being copied. My dad and I were talking the other day about how small details make a big difference. For example, when dry fly fishing, subtle differences in fly presentation can make all the difference. This rule surely holds true for painting too.
This guy was doing a pretty good job copying this naked chick. But I think the fine details on the original make it significantly better.
This Goya painting show the Spanish royal family around 1800. The old lady third from left has a big black spot on her face. Turns out this was is an artificial mark thought to be beautiful in that day. Almost like Cindy Crawford, but slightly witchier. (I stole this picture from Wikipedia.)
We also walked around a large pleasant park in central Madrid. That evening, we went out to several different tapas places. The first place was kinda cool because they just served mushrooms cooked in various different ways. Exciting if you're into mushrooms :) I do think they're pretty cool after reading Omnivore's Dilemma which describes the biology of mushrooms in some detail. The rest of the evening was nice .. just socializing with Anita's friends and their friends there in Madrid. There was this really funny German kid who worked with Adam. (Adam is a programmer.)
The next day, we first headed off on a mission to find saffron and buy a bunch of it for Anita's parents if it was a good deal. We found it and it is NOT a good deal. That stuff is amazingly expensive! In fact, I'm thinking of becoming a saffron farmer at some point. There was some hope it would be cheap in Spain because it is grown there. We wandered by a fancy palace upon which the Spanish royalty squandered the sweat and blood of Spanish peasants on hundreds of rooms full of trinkets. We passed through the main Madrid plaza and saw some interesting and unusual street performers. My favorite was the fat, middle-aged Spiderman. I thought he was so funny I tossed 50 cents in his hat. He then insisted on a thorough photography session. Interestingly, he spoke very good english. Almost like he had had money at some point and a good education, then just decided playing Spiderman was the most fun he could have.
Spidey even convinced Anita to take a picture with him.
Nothing too special left to report. We enjoyed the rest of the day, had a special dinner Adam cooked up for us. Then went out for a beer or two on the town.
Saturday morning, we embarked on our return trip which was quite a fiasco. The volcanic eruption in Iceland had clogged European airways. But Madrid was a good place to be because we'd fly south of the mess. Unfortunately, the Delta airplane broke down. Some kind of hose problem in the nosegear. We waited 3 hrs at the gate before they finally gave up and cancelled the flight. Anita and I split up so she could get us on another flight while I retrieved our bags. It was quite an affair, but the plan worked. I got our bags. Anita got us booked on Air Europa. The Air Europa line was incredible. Took over 2 hrs there... Enjoyed talking to some Harley rider dude who had a twisted mustache like Salvador Dali. Finally made it into New York. No flights until the next morning. Delta was so kind as to put us up for the night. After waiting in 2 or 3 more hours of lines, we landed in a room. The next day, Sunday, we got back without any more trouble. It was tough to get up and get back to work Monday morning, but not too bad. finally, back in the routine, we could get some rest...
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3 comments:
Huh. I actually find that gross that mayo is eggs and oil. Never knew that. Seems gross.
The pudgy spiderman is awesome. That's very good that Anita got a picture with him. A classic.
Hi Eric,
Sounds like you needed rest after all the waiting around on the way home. The painting I was trying to think of is The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Apparently the painting is in the Prado museum, so maybe you saw it.
this dreamliner is still having strength and materials issues, recently some connecters which hold the skin on were found to be weak.
i bet they wish they had done the job at home.
to fly international these days sounds like u need to be an pro. athelete with all the sprinting back and forth across airports and town to hotels to arrange for all the needed changes.
not to mention those who lived/slept/ate/bathed/ etc. in the airport for days waiting for flights.
will need a personal trainer in the future.
steve
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