A Quiet Evening at Home

Polly digging the fire
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

Sometimes, the best thing to do is build a nice fire, load up the crockpot, turn on football and/or an awards show, and settled in with wife, kids and cats for a quiet evening.

"The King's Speech" is as Good as They Say It Is

Karen and I went to see the movie "The King's Speech" this afternoon. It is a really good movie; well written, well acted, and inspiring.

Colin Firth plays Bertie, who eventually became King George VI of England after his brother abdicated. Bertie's problem is having a crippling stutter at a time when public speaking, amplified by the new radio technology, is needed to lead England in World War II.

Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue, an Australia speech therapist living in London, to whom Bertie goes, reluctantly, for help. The movie is the story of their relationship and efforts to fix the stutter.

We were surprised to find the theater stuffed with folks for the matinée. It may very well have been a sell-out, which you don't usually expect on a Saturday afternoon. Having seen the film, though, I guess I know why.

In Which I Shut Down my Tumble Blog

There’s nothing wrong with Tumblr, it is a perfectly good blogging tool. The problem is that my experiement with Tumblr -- What Fell Out -- has negatively affected this blog, my more established web property, which I have been writing since 2004.

I had originally started the tumble blog as a place to put things deemed too small for a formal blog post. But the nature of blogging is changing. Shorter items, photos, qoutes, links to other content are becoming more common and long-form article-writing has waned.

Twitter has emerged as the go-to tool for quick thoughts and links. Facebook is where we place personal notes. I need to go back to more frequent, if shorter, blog posts on my main site.

Time to Reorganize Some Things, I Think

I have personal experience of the byzantine nature of state and county government in Delaware, yet I'm still surprised that not all libraries in Sussex county are part of the same system.

The Sussex Co. government posted a tweet this am:

Due to winter weather, Sussex County's libraries -- Greenwood, Milton and South Coastal (Bethany Beach) -- are closed on Sat., Jan. 8, 2011

I use the Lewes Public library. Is it open today? I doubt it, but wonder why that information isn't included.

Wouldn't it make sense to have one library system so that that tweet could have read:

It's snowing like bastard out there. All the libraries in Sussex County are closed. stay warm, dudes.

2010 Metrics: Reading

I read 60 books in 2010, down a bit from my reading totals in 2008 and 2009.

All but two of the books I read were fiction, the exceptions being The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis, and Craig Ferguson's outstanding memoir American on Purpose. I like fiction. I read for entertainment and escape and I usually choose fiction.

As my word cloud of authors shows, I read a few folks more than once last year. I read three by Chris Knopf, who writes anti-hero mysteries set in Southampton. I like the off-beat nature of his characters and the fact that he sets his stories in a beach resort, often off-season. It rings bells for me. I also read three of Neil Gaiman's books. All of these I had read before. Mr. Gaiman is a personal favorite.

Among those I read twice was Jack Kerouac, who appealed to me this past fall for some reason. I really enjoyed travelling back to his time.

As usual, most of the books I read in 2010 came from the Lewes Public Library. Forty-seven -- 78% -- were library books and thirteen -- 22% -- I either bought or borrowed from family members.

Me in 1983

me in 1983
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

I've been meaning to post this, or something like it. This is a picture of me in my dorm room at Colby College in 1983, when I was a 21 year old junior. I tell folks I work with that I used to have long hair. Here's the proof.

2010 Metrics: Gas Mileage

Over the last year, we drove our 2008 Toyota Scion a total of 15,407.2 miles, down a bit from 2009's total of 16,737.6 miles. Over the year, we burned 481.27 gallons of gas, averaging 32 miles per gallon. The gas cost us $1,313.19; or $2.72 per gallon on average. By contrast, I paid $3.02 for a gallon today.

Gas mileage varied more this year than last.The best we did was between September 5 and September 22, when we averaged 35.6 miles per gallon. Most of that was highway driving -- to and from the airport for travel to the 2010 NSGIC conference.

Two time periods were tied for worst gas mileage, at 29.2 mpg. One was between January 28 and February 3, when it was fairly cold (with a little snow). The other low-point came immediately following the high-point. Between September 22 and October 5 we also averaged 29.2 mpg, but I have no idea why.

The metrics above are for the period between December 31, 2009 and December 31, 2010. They are derived from my gas mileage log, which is maintained as a Google spreadsheet. I also record mileage using Matt Haughey's fuelly.com, which tells me that my long-term average mileage -- since the summer of 2008 --  has been 32.1 miles per gallon.

Restaurant (Ristorante) Review: Luca

Karen and I headed over to Millsboro this evening to try out the new Italian restaurant - Luca - that opened there this month. We'd both noticed it driving through town and decided to check it out.

Luca is a small place, in the old Delaware Trust Co. bank building, from  1916, at the corner of Main and State Streets. It has been lovingly finished inside, with pressed-tin ceilings, hardwood floors and a bar designed to look like a teller's counter.

The old bank vault has been turned into a private dining room. This evening, a group of about 8 was in there. That was a little tight, but the vault looks like a cool place to eat.

The food, admittedly based only on two data points, was great. Karen had a ravioli dish that looked both light and rich. She was impressed. I had a rolled pork-loin dish that was really outstanding.

I am ready to return and try a few more dishes.

Snow-Related, Panoramic Time Series

9:00 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

A Snowy Day

Delaware is getting hit with a minor blizzard this Boxing Day. It's one of those Nor'Easter storms that hugs the coast; the snow started from the south and east and is working its way up to the north.

We spent last night in Bethesda, Maryland. We'd had Christmas Day with my family there and planned to spend today in Upper Marlboro with most of Karen's family. The changing forecast for the storm tortured us for most of the day. When we went to bed last night it looked bad and this morning conformed it. We had to leave early.

We made a quick stop in Bowie to drop off gifts with Karen's sister and left for home at about 10:30, with a few snowflakes starting to fall there. By the Bay Bridge, snow was falling heavily enough to obscure the horizon. By Denton the roads were wet and by Bridgeville they started to become snow covered. 

It was east of Bridgeville that we crossed some sort of border and into the heaviest part of the storm. The roads became thickly covered and our speed steadily decreased. The ride from Georgetown over to Lewes was slow and slippery with nearly white-out conditions. 

But we made it. there's a fire in the grate and warm blankets all around.