Buildings in Rio

It’s 39 F and raining here in Salt Lake.  What better way to deal with the arrival of fall than to think about our trip to Rio- which was hot and humid.  I just located the CD of photos we took in Brazil- half of the photos were “missing” in the organizational system that was our move. As I should be studying, I’ll just show a few highlights. This set is buildings in Rio- they ranged from colonial era buildings that have become museums to more futuristic buildings to buildings in the favelas.

Favela Rochino

Municipal Hall

Palacio Tiradentes (yes, it is named after a dentist)

Petrobras (an oil company)

Museu de Arte Contemporanea

That Luang

I know I still haven’t had a chance to post about our Laos trip which was more than 6 months ago… As a preview, here’s a photo I took of That Luang in Vientiane. The “Great Sacred Stupa” of Vientiane is the most important religious edifice in Laos.

ACL

Fortunately Kristen had her camera with her this past weekend.  You can see photos from this past weekend here.

We were certainly disappointed that Amy Winehouse and White Stripes both canceled their shows- but we had a good time listening to Paolo Nutini, Cold War Kids, Damien Rice, Indigo Girls, and Muse.  The Indigo Girls played with another vocalist and then brought her band up as well which made for a fun show.  Damien Rice and Muse were both excellent live.  In addition to listening to good music, we got to catch up with our friend Rath (from college) and Ravi (from when I was in Japan).  We went out on Lake Austin for Alexander’s inaugural boat trip.

At one point at ACL on Saturday Mark, Kathy, Michael and I retreated to the shade of the beer garden.  We got to talking about where we were and what we were up to 10 years ago.  Kathy was already teaching in Singapore, Mark had just applied, and Michael and I were considering starting our applications.  Who’d have guessed that we would have all stayed in touch and then meet up in Texas for a music festival all these years later?  We’re starting to plot a 10th year reunion for next summer…

E18

It turns out that some Canon cameras get their lens stuck and that generates an E18 error message. That happened to us last week (after 4 years of faithful service!). I’m hoping that with a little bit of jiggling and prodding I can get the lens to open again. Unfortunately that means that I have no photos of our excellent trip to Austin this past weekend.

I do, however, have what I consider possibly the funniest photo of Gavin and Connor. My sister Maia and I were attempting to get a nice photo of the two boys to include in Connor’s birth announcement. While we didn’t exactly accomplish that, this photo makes me laugh every time I see it.

As Maia said, there are bad photos, and there are BAD photos.

Go Utes!

Despite my best intentions to put some more recent photos up, studying for the PE exam appears to have consumed most of my free time. I did take a study break last Saturday to go to the University of Utah game with Damon, another post-doc, his wife, and their 3 kids. I somehow associate college football with freezing temperatures- must be something about growing up on the east coast. Saturday it was a balmy 82F and it was sweltering in the stands. It was a fun game despite the loss to Air Force.

 

In the continuing trend where I spend no more than 10 consecutive days in Utah, we’re headed to Austin City Limits this weekend for a mini-reunion of Singapore friends at Kristen and Mark’s.

Travel Links

Squirt (aka Karen) gave me a copy of Fast Company to read on my trip back to Salt Lake City from Seattle on Monday.  It was the first time I’d heard of the magazine but I found a couple of interesting articles, including one about 3 websites that can aid with airfare purchases.  The first one, Farecast.com is one of my longtime favorites recommended by my old housemate Debika because it provides predictions on whether or not fares are increasing, decreasing, or holding steady.  The other two websites, FareCompare.com (which has a first class search option) and Yapta.com (which allows you to take advantage of guaranteed airfare rules) may become new favorites as well.