Boots on the Prowl

Boots on the Prowl
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

Despite my uncertainty, below, I plan to keep taking digital photos. Sometimes you get lucky.

This is Cool, but...

The Flickr site has a neat new tool for exploring the multitude of photos that are posted there each day.

They've come up with a way to measure what they call "interestingness." They use that metric to find the most interesting shots on the site.

This is great. The photos this finds are inspiring and fascinating.

But they are also, frankly...daunting.

Bummer(s)

I'm saddened by what's happened with Raphael Palmiero of the Baltimore Orioles. I tend to believe him when he says he didn't knowingly use steroids. But, according to the news guy just now, so does President Bush. So, now I just don't know....

Meanwhile, Karen and the girls and I have been watching Hell's Kitchen this summer. This evening was the finale, and the winner was ... Michael. harrumph.

Clearly, this kid can cook, but his approach to the game of this contest was disappointing. In short, he wasn't averse to sabotaging his coworkers to get ahead. Yes it was a competition. Yes, he was trying to win. But I just don't like seeing him get ahead by being a jerk.

Seventh and Eighth Golf Games in 2005

Games seven and eight were part of our week in Vermont.

We are joined on our annual trip to the great north by my golf-buddy Andy Southmayd and his family. Andy and I try to get out for several games on various courses around the Tyler Place. Andy is great at researching what courses there are in that area and finding ones somewhat off the beaten path.

Our first game, on the Monday, we went across Lake Champlain to Rouses Point, New York, and played at the North Country Golf Club. We played with Rich Catanese and Rich's wife's brother-in-law Paul, who were vacationing with their wives' family further down the Lake at a place called Eagle Camp.


North Country is a pretty wide-open and forgiving course. We had a fairly good time and my play was only moderately bad; I had a few good holes and scored at least one par.

We got caught-up in the middle of what appeared to be a week-day women's tournament which went off as a shotgun start. We found ourselves ahead of a fast-moving threesome and ended up skipping several holes to get out of the way.

On Friday, we headed out again. This time, we went east to Richford Country Club, a wonderful nine-hole course just about a few thousand feet south of the US/Canada border.


What I love about this course is its rolling, up-and-down, wooded, mountainside aspect. None of the nine holes is at all flat. The views are sweeping. There are woods and exposed boulders to challenge you.


This is the eighth hole, looking back downhill towards the tee. This green itself appears on the Google Maps site to be about 1,500 feet from the border.

When we played here several years ago, the woman in the pro shop told us that, before 9/11, Canadian members used to simply hike over the border and through the woods to play. Now, they have to go through the border-crossing at Richford just west of the Country Club.

Another fairly good round. Andy was hitting well and I was starting to find a short, but straight and dependable, drive with my three-wood.

Once again, we didn't manage to make all 18 holes. This time, things got crowded and slowed down and we wanted to be back at the Tyler Place in time for lunch. We quit after 15 holes.

For the last 6, we teamed up with an older, retired couple from Canada. Very nice people and course regulars from who we had a few tips.

Golf in Vermont. I can recommend it!

Ten by Ten

This is an experiment in structured random searching.

1. I start with a Google search of the word "ten."
   
2. I take the tenth result (Late Show with David Letterman) and find the tenth word in the first block of body text and do a search on that word: musical.
3. Tenth result: Musical Traditions Internet Magazine. Tenth word: come.
4. Tenth result: We Come in Peace. Tenth word: my. (Rule violation #1: I had to use the words in the title blocks on this, a Flash site.)
5. Tenth result: WebMDHealth. Tenth word: can.
6. Tenth result: CanTeach. Tenth word: of.
7. Tenth result: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Tenth word: understandably.
8. Tenth result: USAToday: US Airways seeks court OK to end pacts with two unions. Tenth word: its.
9. Tenth result: MathDL. Tenth word: publication.
10. Tenth result: International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication. Tenth word: ICAAP.
    

And the final (tenth tenth) result is: The Journal of Distance Education.

Some caveats.

I presume that this same search approach undertaken at a different time will yield a different end result, since the top ten results of Google searches should be expected to change over time.

Finding the tenth word on any given page may be somewhat subjective. I have chosen to try to find the tenth word in the first block of "body text" I can identify. I tried to avoid words in titles and subtitles.

So who else will try this and share their results? Maybe someone can do this on Yahoo and see what they find? Perhaps starting with "nine?"

Curiouser and Curiouser

Lily 1
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

This photo that I posted on Flickr last night is shown as having been viewed 115 times already (as of 6:45 this morning).

That's well off the scale of "views" for most of my photos. Only one has more views over time.

I can't see any obvious reason for this. I'm proud of the shot but didn't think it was that special. No one has commented on this shot on Flickr and I don't see that anyone has tagged it as a "favorite."

I'm going to have to look into this....

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I spent a week with Karen and the girls at The Tyler Place, at Highgate Springs, Vermont. The Tyler Place is about two miles south of the Canadian Border, on Missisquoi Bay in Lake Champlain.


One can spend much of the week by the pool, sitting in the shade or floating in the sun. We also love to swim in the Lake.

The Tyler Place is set up as a combination of summer camp and family resort. The kids have organized activities, by age group and with very talented counselors. They are with their groups from breakfast through lunch. There is family time in the afternoon and they go back into their groups for dinner and evening activities.

The adults have activities too. For Karen and I there are freelance volleyball (Karen) and golfing (me). We also took part in a bike ride around Isle La Motte and a kayak float down the Missisquoi River.

We did a few things on our own, too. Karen took advantage of a chance for a facial and joined in a tennis round-robin. I indulged in some massage therapy and a hike up a mountain.

The mountain hike is a personal favorite. It's a moderately difficult walk up Burnt Mountain. I spent part of the walk up chatting with an older gentleman who had worked at the Tyler Place in the 1960's and met his wife there. They named their eldest son Tyler. Two of their kids have worked there too; one also met his wife on staff at the Tyler Place. The hike ends at Window Rock, featuring this view.

The descent is followed by a plunge into The Three Holes at Montgomery, Vermont.


The Three Holes is a town Natural Area; it's a favorite swimming hole and a lovely site. Vermonters love their swimming holes; they should, they are great.

There's also plenty to do at the waterfront. We slid down the lake-slide. We bounced on the lake-tramp. We went for a Banana Boat ride. We took rank-beginner water-skiing lessons one afternoon.


The waterfront staff were most helpful. We all four managed to get up on the skis and ride for at least a short way. We all also took some spectacular face-plants.

That's just a few of the things we did on vacation. We had fine food, and fine friends. We saw mountains, rivers and lakes. We had sunshine, and sunsets.

Tyler Place Photoset

I have selected 51 photos from some 250 or so that I took at the Tyler Place and around Vermont last week and created a Tyler Place Photoset on Flickr. I've annotated a few of them with notes and comments.

Over the next few days I will pull some into more detailed blog entries on our time up north.

I have a few others from our flying visit to Smuggler's Notch on the way home to pull off the camera and post.

...And, We're Back

Lake Champlain II
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

We're just back from our week at the northern end of Vermont. We had a great time. More pictures, and details, over the next few days. For now, the car's unpacked and I'm off to bed.

Heading North

Skytop Compass
Originally uploaded by bikeracer.

We're heading out again. This time to Vermont. We'll spend a week on the shores of Lake Champlain.

When we vacation, I like to go "luddite." So, no blogging for the next week-and-a-day-or-so.

But I'll be taking pictures.