Marion's Blog

On Lake Nipissing - Road Trip 2012

As we continue our Summer 2012 rod trip Duke and I have stayed in one place for four nights! After moving to a new place almost every night for four weeks staying in one place would have been a nice change but staying at our cabin on Lake Nipissing has been idyllic. I say our cabin which is not strictly true.

Last Wednesday we left Ottawa knowing that we wanted to find a place to fish. We didn't have a destination but decided to explore a left turn off the trans canada highway. It was raining pretty hard. We checked out a couple of places but didn't find anything we liked. As we continued down the road I saw a place with freshly painted cabins. Duke did a u-turn and we checked them out. The place in called Lakair Lodge. The lady at the counter was very friendly and showed us a spotlessly clean two bedroom cabin right on the lake. We took it.

Above is our cabin and below is the view out our front door.

We woke up the next day. and went fishing. Lakair rented us a wooden boat and a motor and loaned us a map, net, and life jackets. We caught a few fish but only kept this one for dinner.

This is Duke's biggest fish that first day.

We packed a picnic lunch and found a sunny point to enjoy our lunch and relax.

Day two was overcast with a prediction of rain. The morning turned out to be great fishing weather. We caught and kept four fish. Duke caught a monster northern pike. It turned out to be by far the biggest fish of the trip.

I caught a clam!

 

In the afternoon it started to rain and we headed back to the cabin to nap, read and play cribbage.

The wind was really blowing and a large branch came down from a tree in front of our cabin.

On day three it was still raining but the wind had gone down. Instead of going out in the motor boat we rented a canoe and explored some inlets. We caught a few small fish but we already had enough big fish to eat for dinner so we didn't keep any of them.

 

 We left lake Nipissing this morning. I loved Lakair Lodge. Check out their website here..

Montreal and Ottawa

Today Duke and I started week four of our six week 2012 road trip.

Sunday we drove along the St Lawrence River from Quebec to Montreal.

Monday we walked all over Montreal.

We bought a one day Metro pass and went out to the Olympic Park. the Olympics were in Montreal in 1976. That was the year of Nadia Comaneci. Remember her? I had forgotten, but building the Olympic stadium cost over twice what it was originally projected to cost. Montreal just finished paying it all off in 2006.

 The swimming pavilion was pretty amazing. It has 6 pools. In this picture you can see the olympic swimming pool, the diving pool and the raised part is the synchronized swimming pool where we saw the Canadian Olympic team practising. The coaches can watch the swimmers under water through the glass sides.

This is the olympic stadium. it didn't have a roof when the olypics were here but now the roof is held up by an enormous tower.

A funicular goes up the right hand side in this picture and we rode it to the top for  a view of all of Montreal.

We left Montreal on Tuesday morning and drove to Ottawa. We toured te parliament building and even got too watch a speech in the House of Commons

 

This morning we left Ottawa and drove west. Tonight we are in a fishing cabin on Lake Nipissing. We are going to go fishing for three days. There is no cell phone coverage here but we do have wireless internet in our cabin. Isn't technology amazing! Our view out our front window is very peaceful and beautiful.

 

Quebec

We spent Friday and Saturday nights in Quebec City. Friday we drove from Grand Falls (Grand-Sault) into Quebec and then southwest along the St Lawrence Sea Way. There were lots of dairy farms and houses that all looked freshly painted. They were white with colorful red or green or blue trim and then an occasional blue one with yellow trim or some other happy combination. Lots of bright red tin roofs too.

Along the water there were great picnic spots every few miles but when we found this one we had to stop and use it!

French is very definitely the language of Quebec. The only people we heard speaking English were tourists. and unlike in the rest of Canada where the signs are in French and English, in Quebec they are only in French. I used Bonjour and Merci a lot but beyond that I had to switch to English. People are very friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel ( Hotel Pur) that Duke got on Priceline for around $100 a night. The halls are all black and the room numbers are painted on the doors in foot tall orange numbers. When we walked into our room I had to take a picture.

We walked and walked and walked all  over the city exploring the fortress, the old city, the narrow streets and the parks. A while ago I read David Hackett Fisher's book Champlain's Dream and it was fun to see the city Champlain founded in 1608.

 

We talked to the organist in this Presbyterian Church which is the oldest in Quebec. He explained that the Church was founded by the Scottish Regiment who defended Quebec from the Colonists.

 

Quebec City has been wonderful now we are on to Montreal.

PEI Ancestors and heading west - Road Trip 2012

 We spent three nights on Prince Edward Island. The first two were in the Capital, Charlottetown and the last was in a B&B in Kensington.

While we were browsing in Charlottetown we talked to a shop owner who told us a cruise ship was coming in the next day. Apparently they get about 35 cruise ships a year. Before we left Charlottetown on Wednesday morning we drove by the wharf where we had dinner our first night. As you can see the cruise ship dwarfs the restaurant.

We drove west on the Island to the towns of Hunter River and Hazel Grove. The plots marked "Heirs of E.C, Bagnall" in Hazel Grove on the map below would have been where my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother lived before they moved west with their family.

 My Great Great grand parents are buried in this cemetery.

 Prince Edward Island is verdant green with startlingly red soil.

And of course it is the setting for the book Anne of Green Gables.

A lot of the restaurants and sites weren't open yet. They only open during the tourist season of July and August. We had a hard time finding a resaurant that was open for us to have dinner Wednesday night but finally found one and had a great dinner. We saw a couple of foxes as we were searching.

On Thursday morning we left Prince Edward island and headed west. We spent Thursday night in Grand Falls (Grand-Sault). The falls in the middle of town were Niagra like. During the summer you can zip line right over the gorge!

We spent the night in a lodge a few miles outside of town. We were able to take a hike around the lake. Unfortunately their German restaurant wasn't open yet.

Friday morning we left the Province of New Brunswick and headed into Quebec.

Road Trip 2012 - From Maine to Prince Edward Island

As I write this on Wednesday morning, May 23 we are starting week three of our road trip. We spent last Saturday night in Bucksport, Maine, just south of Bangor. Bucksport is at the mouth of the Penobscot River.

We had our best restaurant meal of the trip so far right across the street from our hotel. Duke had steak and lobster and I had giant scallops. Mmmmmmmm.

Before this trip I had never heard of Fiddleheads. They are a local delicacy, the curled tops of ferns, and are only available in the spring. I really want to taste them  I thought I was going to in Bucksport. They were the vegetable of the day and the waitress said they only had one order left. But by the time she put my order in they were sold out for the night.

We crossed the border into Canada at Vanceboro, Maine. We must look harmless because the Canadian border patrol guy let us through after just a couple of questions. He didn't even ask us our names or look at our passports.

We spent Sunday night in Fredericton,  the capital of New Brunswick. The weather the last few days has been fantastic. As we wandered around Fredericton on Sunday the temperature was 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

From Fredericton we drove down along the Bay of Fundy. We were in St John as the tide was turning. We saw the eddies in the water as the water was changing its direction of flow.

The last few days we have seen millions of dandelions. The fields are yellow with them.

The Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island opened in 1996. It is 13 kilometers long. The toll of $44.25 is only collected as you leave the island.

My Grandmother Marion Bagnall Gibson was born on Prince Edward Island and I have always wanted to visit here. We spent our first two nights here in Charlottetown, the capital. We are staying in a B&B and have been able to walk everywhere. The first night we had lobster and PEI mussels on the wharf. They were great!

Tuesday morning we did some research in the provincial archives which are on the top floor of this building. We located exactly where my Grandmothers family lived and where some of the family is buried. We also found out more about the original Samuel Bagnall who came to Philadelphia from England. He was a loyalist and ended up here in Prince Edward Island after the revolution.

 

 Today we are headed out to explore the countryside.

New England - Our Road Trip 2012

As we left Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Wednesday morning we were beginning week three of our 2012 summer road trip. We spent Wednesday night in Groton, Connecticut. The Naval Submarine Base in New London is just up the road from where we stayed. There is a museum next to the base and we go to go  onto the first nuclear powered submarine, The Nautilus. The Nautilus is the first vessel to complete a submerged transit beneath the North Pole on August 3, 1958.

Just getting to go onto a submarine was very cool, but seeing the extremely cramped quarters and imagining the pride the sailors who served there must have had was a great experience.

 Foxwood and Mehegan Sun, the two biggest Casinos in the U.S. are near Groton too. Of course we had to check them out. I especially liked Mohegan Sun it was beautiful.

 On Thursday we headed towards Boston. First we stopped at the capital of Rhode Island to visit the capital building. I learned that the official name of the state of Rhode Island is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

 From Providence we went to Quincy Massachusetts. I have always wanted to see where John and Abigail Adams, and John Quincy Adams lived. The Adams National Historic Park includes the houses where they were born and the house where they lived in later years. I read and really enjoyed biographies of both Adams presidents and also of Abigail. They are probably my two favorite presidents.

Four generations of Adams lived in the Old House at Peacefield. The last Adams to live there was Brooks Adams, great grandson of John Adams who lived there until 1927 when the houses were turned into a historical park. As a result the houses contain the furniture, paintings and other stuff used by all the Adams. It was amazing to see the desk that Adams used to write the Massachusetts Constitution and all the other things that figured so prominently in our history.

On top of that we had two fantastic guides. Their knowledge and passion about what they were showing us actually brought tears to my eyes as I thought about what this great family did for our Country. If you haven't read John McCullough's biography of Adams or watched the movie you should!

The tour of hte Adams houses and the fantastic library built to house their books were absolute highlights of the trip.

 

This is the Old House at Peacefield

Our Passionate and knowledgeable tour guide of the house.

The library is the building on the left.

 We spent Thursday night with my brother and his wife near Boston. They have a new outdoor pizza ovena and my brother made us really delicious pizza for dinner. It was a wonderful treat to get to spend some time with them and visit with them at their house. On Friday morning Charlie went ot work and Annie took us for a hike in a beautiful park near their house.

Friday morning we went to the New Hampshire state capital in Concord. There was a school group touring when we were there so we learned a lot. The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the largest in the country. They have 400 representatives. When the guide told the fourth graders that the representatives are each paid $100 per year there was a gasp of shock!

Friday night we spent with our friends Marc and Christina who have just moved to White River Junction Vermont. It was fun to visit with them and we got to see the outside of the house they just bought. They don't actually close on it until July.

Saturday we visited another state capital, this time Montpelier, Vermont. It was small but beautiful. Montpelier has the smallest population of any state capital, only about 8,000 people.

Last night we spent the night in Bucksport Maine, A beautiful town right on the coast. We had a fantastic seafood dinner. As soon as i post this blog we are headed up the road into Canada.

Road Trip 2012 - Pennsylvania

Duke and I are on a six week road trip through the U.S. and Canada. In my last post I was doing family history research in Cumberland, Maryland. From Cumberland we went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It rained all day. I can see why the countryside is so lush and green.

As soon as we checked in to our hotel in the center of Gettysburg we drove out to the Gettysburg National Historic Park.

When we got there we decided first to take the tour of the Eisenhower National Historic Site. The only way to visit the site is to take the bus that leaves from Gettysburg. This is the farm that President and Mrs Eisenhower owned during and after his Presidency. Even though it was raining we explored the farm and the barns. We also toured the house. The Eisenhowers bought the farm in 1950. It looks just like it did when they lived there. It was fun to see a part of history that Duke and I remember.

 

After the tour of the Eisenhower Farm we explored the Gettysburg Museum and saw the film about the battle. The tickets also included the Gettysburg Cyclorama. I had no idea what a cyclorama is. It turns out that back in the late 1800s before the days of movies, painters sometimes created these life size depictions of a famous event and sell tickets to view it. The Cyclorama is a painting of Picket's Charge 377 feet by 42 feet painted by Paul Philippoteaux. It was painted in one year and completed in 1884.

It is displayed on the wall of a special  very large round room. As part of viewing it you watch a special sound and light show. It is difficult to tell where the trees and guns in the foreground end and the painting begins. The effect is absolutely stunning!

 

The devastation and lives lost at Gettysburg is stunning. There were almost 8,000 killed and 27,000 wounded. The battle had the largest number of casualties of any battle in the civil war.

On Tuesday we left Gettysburg and headed east. My Banta ancestors who we looked for outside of Lexington, Kentucky lived in the area east of Gettysburg before they moved to Kentucky. We searched out the Low Dutch cemetery where some of them are buried. We also took a  picture of the house they lived in starting in about 1747.

We made a short stop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to check out the Pennsylvania State Capital.

 

 Our next stop was Bethlehem Pennsylvania. For me Bethlehem conjures up visions of rusting steal mills and pollution. But it turns out that Bethlehem is a very pretty town. We had a nice dinner down town and visited a beautiful new casino that sits on the river where a steal mill used ot be.

The best part of our trip to Bethlehem though was the private tour we were given by a friend of my daughter. Just Born makes Peeps, Mike and Ikes, and Hot Tamales. We got to see how they are made and packaged. It was fascinating! and we got samples!

Road Trip - From Nashville, Tennessee to Cumberland, Maryland

Duke and I left Reno May 2 on a six week U.S. road trip. From Nashville we headed north into Kentucky. The countryside is beautiful, lots of spring green and wildflowers. Every day we stop for a road side picnic.

After lunch Friday we took a tour of the Makers Mark Distillery.

My Low Dutch Banta ancestors were some of the first settlers near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. We visited the old meeting house and cemetery they used.

We spent Friday night in Lexington, Kentucky. On Saturday we drove to Athens, Ohio. Ohio University is in Athens. We came into town about 2 in the afternoon. We immediately noticed student parties in every yard. We started counting the partiers and in about 5 minutes counted 65 partying kids as we were driving along. I Googled Ohio University and Party and discovered that the school is rated the number one party school in the country!

We were staying in Athens to go to a concert Saturday night at the Fur Peace Ranch. Yorma Kaukonen is a guitarist best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. We have seen him perform a couple of times and have always wanted to attend a concert at his guitar school - The Fur Peace Ranch. So Saturday night we went to a fantastic concert by the California Guitar Trio. It was a fantastic concert and the venue which only holds about 200 people was wonderful too.

From Athens we drove to Cumberland Maryland, another town where some of my ancestors lived. This time it was the Erbs and the Musslemans. We explored the area where they lived and Monday morning I did some research at the Genealogical Society. Duke was very patient. A couple of the people reading this may be interested in the results. I did find a couple of things. I will write it up soon.

It has been a great trip. If you would like to see all of our pictures they are on Flickr here.

From Durango to Nashville

I haven't blogged in a few days because we have mainly been on the road with just a few fun stops.

After getting off the train in Durango we drove a few miles east and spent the night in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Soon after we left the next morning we left the Rockies behind. In northeastern New Mexico we stopped at Capulin National Monument. It is an extinct cinder cone volcano. We drove up the road almost to the top and then did the hike around the rim.The view from the top was fantastic.

Capulin was pretty much the last mountain we saw as we drove towards Guymon, Oklahoma to spend the night, Guymon is in the panhandle of Oklahoma.

On Monday we drove from Guymon across the great plains to Joplin, Missouri. Joplin is in the southwestern corner of Missouri and is green and wooded. On May 22 last year an enormous tornado hit Joplin killing 160 people. We didn't see the tornado damage in Joplin but we did see some tornado damage along the road during the day.

Tuesday morning we visited the George Washington Carver National Monument just south of Joplin. The farm where Carver grew up is covered with  trees, there is a stream running through it and there were birds and butterflies everywhere. It is easy to understand why he loved nature. The visitor center told the story of how Carver was born a slave, never knew his father, lost his mother early on and then went on to be a world famous scientist. Of course the fact that he graduated from my alma matter, Iowa State University is a source of pride to me. We learned a lot about his life and his many discoveries It was a cool, bright morning and we really enjoyed walking the nature trail.

From Joplin we drove through the Ozarks to Branson, Missouri which is only 112 miles. The scenery was hilly and green. We had a nice picnic lunch just outside of Branson

Just recently a tornado also hit Branson. There was some very impressive damage in Branson. It must have been very scary when the tornado went through. One of hte buildings hit was the Hilton. Lots of windows were blown out and are now boarded up and the Hilton is closed.

We had a wonderful dinner overlooking the river and watched a water and light show.

 

From Branson we drove to Memphis Tennessee where we spent the night with my sister lizabeth and her daughter katherine.. We had a wonderful  visit and then left for Nashville yesterday.

We visited Nashville on our Honeymoon so it is fun to be back 9 years later. We went out honky tonking last night. That is visiting the bars down town to listen to the music. It was a much fun as I remembered. I don't know anywhere else in the world that you can hear so much great music. We must have visited 6 or 8 bars in two blocks and they each had great bands playing for tips. And we certainly didn't visit every bar! We also had a great dinner at a restaurant from our last visit because Duke remembered the meat loaf. It was a great as we remembered

 

Riding the Rails - The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Yesterday was day four of our road trip. It was a great day. It was also a long day. But most of all it was an incredibly fun day.  We rode the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway from Durango to Silverton. Had lunch and did some shopping in Silverton and then rode the train back to Durango. We boarded at 8:30 in the morning and didn't get back to Durango until almost 7 last night. The train runs 45 miles from Durango north to Silverton along the Animas River through wilderness that can only be accessed by train.

It was a wonderful day for a lot of reasons. During the winter the train just goes part way to Silverton and then turns around. Today was the first trip of the season for the train to go all the way to Silverton. There was a festive air. It was an extra long train so part of the time we had two steam locomotives pulling us. There were all sorts of people along the route  who were waving and taking pictures as the train went by.

The route follows the Animas River. It was full from snow run off and there were lots of waterfalls coming into the river. When we were at over 9000 feet there were still jagged snow covered peaks towering above the canyon.The most impressive part of the ride was the High Line. The train creeps along a narrow rock ledge 240 feet above the river.

And the history was fascinating. The Durango and Silverton railroad has been in continuous operation since 1882 when Durangoa and Silverton were booming mine towns.

But the best part of the whole experience was the people. There were four or five people in character who took turns coming into our car and  telling us about their lives on the frontier in the area.

The conductors and concessions people were friendly and clearly excited. They hung around and answered our questions and pointed out their favorite sites along the route. They even pointed out a moose that was swimming across the river to get away from the train.

We stopped several times to take on water. Another time we stopped so three hikers could get off the train to start their back packing trip.

One of the coolest things though was that the owner of the railroad was riding the train. He stopped in our car and talked with us. He told us he used to be a Florida real estate developer which allowed him to fulfill a dream and buy a railroad. He now owns a couple of other railroads and manges several others including the Tequila Train outside of Guadalajara, Mexico. He talked about how important he thinks it is to make history and our heritage alive and fun. His passion was contagious.

These trains are a for profit operation and you couldn't help but notice how it improved the experience.  The guidebook cost $20 but it is a 188 page well written book with lots of color pictures. It covers everything from the history, to what we saw along the route, to how to run a railroad. Everyone we ran into from the owner down to the girl selling guidebooks made us feeling like we were a part of something very special.

If you ever get the chance take a ride on the Durangoa and Silverton Narrow Gauge railway. Do it!

 

 

 

 

 

Spring 2012 Road Trip - The Beginning

Duke and I left Wednesday on a six week U.S. road trip. From Reno we pretty much drove straight through to Cedar City Utah. We drove 527 miles. Nevada has some beautiful scenery and a lot of sage brush but we have explored much of it on previous trips.

Thursday our first stop was Zion National Park. We drove through the 1.1 mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel. it was built in the 1920s. In this picture you can see one of the ventilation holes in the tunnel.

Right on the other side of the tunnel is the Valley Overlook trail. It is a one mile round trip trail with an amazing view. It was a perfect day and a great hike.

From Zion we drove to Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park. If you look very closely you can see Duke on top of that sand dune. You should also be able to click on the picture to get a bigger view.

Our next stop was the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. The dam created Lake Powell in northern Arizona. I was surprised that it was just completed in 1966.

Our mileage Thursday was 487 miles so after our stops at Zion and Pink Coral Sand Dunes we didn't get to Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde National Park in south west Colorado until sunset. We watched a beautiful sunset as we were driving into the park and then had a fabulous dinner with a bottle of wine at the lodge restaurant.

This morning (Friday) we took a tour of the park including climbing down into the Cliff Palace Cave Dwellings. Native Americans lived at Mesa Verde and farmed corn, beans and squash for 700 years but the cliff dwellings were only occupied for about the last 80 years before the Native Americans migrated south in search of water.

Mesa Verde is covered with archaeological sites. We saw pit houses and a fascinating museum. I would like to visit again some day. After a picnic lunch we headed to Durango where we are tonight.

If you would like ot see all of our pictures from this trip they are available on Flickr here.

 

Project - New Aquarium, Divider, Stereo Cabinet, and Bookshelf

When we bought our house it had a half height divider between the hallway and the family room. This picture was taken on Thanksgiving 2008 just a couple of weeks after we moved into the house.I am standing in the living room looking towards the hallway and the family room. The divider can be seen just to the right of the book shelf.

 

Duke tore out the divider before he installed new hardwood flooring. Since the beginning of this year  he has been building a new divider. the divider includes our stereo equipment and a new 75 gallon aquarium which he also built. He finished the project a couple of weeks ago. It looks great. I am going to share some pictures with you. This picture is taken in the living room from about the same place as the picture above.

Now looking in the other direction from the family room here is Duke with the finished product.

The aquarium was built from two 4 foot by 8 foot sheets of Plexiglas. 

The filter is built into the cabinet below the aquarium.

 The cables for the stereo system are accessible from the doors on the back of the divider.

There are also speakers built into the bottom right and left.

Duke also built the bookshelf  on the right above. You can see our turtle in the tank. We are a bit concerned that he may be getting jealous because of all the attention that the fish have been getting lately!

 Duke's next project will be to build desks in our office. Watch this space for updates. We are leaving on a six week cross country road trip  next week so you will soon be seeing travel pictures as I blog our trip.

 

The Beginnings of a Computer Career 45 Years Ago

I attended college and had a career in the computer industry during a fascinating time. When I started college the computer industry was young. I don't think Iowa State had more than a hand full of computers and undergraduates only saw the computer from behind glass. During the 40 plus years since I started college computers have become ubiquitous

I've decided to start writing a series of blog posts about some of my experiences. I hope to write about things that might be interesting to my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  I would have liked my grandmothers to write for their descendants. They could have written about driving a Model T, teaching in a one room school house, growing up on a homestead in North Dakota or living in the Canadian Rockies in the 1930s.

I remember being intrigued by computers during my last couple of years in High School. I built an electronic decimal to binary converter for a science fair, I think during my senior year. It was a project from a book. I knew nothing about soldering and not much about electricity. I built it but it didn't work. As I recall my Dad took it to one of his friends who got the project working for me. It had a few resisters, some wires, some lights and some push buttons. You pushed a button next to one of the numbers 1-9 and the right combination of four lights would come on to represent the binary equivalent of the number.

This is a picture of me in January 1969. I was 17. January is the beginning of the school year in Australia.

I attended school in Australia from 1964 until 1969. I went to high school at Clayfield College a Presbyterian and Methodist Girls school in Brisbane. The space flights leading to the first landing on the  moon were during this period. I was fascinated by space exploration. The practical use of computers and science in the space program fueled my interest in computers. Not long before we left Australia my Mom brought a television to school so we could watch the first moon landing on  20 July 1969.

From Australia we moved to St Charles Illinois and I started my senior year of High School year there in September 1969. It was hard being a new kid and having no friends. I was really glad to leave St Charles and move to London, England. I attended an American military dependents high school. I'm not sure but I think the science fair and the binary converter project may have been while I was a student at London Central High School. 

I got contact lenses soon after we moved ot London. This is my HIgh School graduation picture.

I knew I was going to go to college in the U.S. but I had no idea where to go. I took the SAT test in Brisbane before we left Australia. There was one other guy taking the test at the same time. I remember I had to have a social security number to sign up for the test so that is when I applied for and received my social security number. 

While we were living in Illinois one weekend my Dad drove me out to Ames, Iowa to visit Iowa State where he and my mother had gone to college. It is a beautiful campus. We met with the admissions director because I had a pretty strange high school transcript. He said I was admitted. As part of the admissions process I had to declare a major. I remember pouring over the Iowa State catalog which was a thick paperback book listing all the majors and classes. Since I enjoyed math I thought "What the heck, Computer science looks interesting." and I checked that box on the application. I figured I could always change it later.

At Iowa State in the Fall of 1970 my first computer science class was Fortran. We wrote programs on key punch pads so the key punch operators could punch the cards for us. Each line on the programming pad became a card to read into the computer.  If you procrastinated on your programming assignments you would have to use one of the key punch machines in the  basement of the computer science building to punch the cars for your assignment yourself.

This picture of one the keypunch machines in the basement of the computer science building is from my college yearbook.

 

Once we had our program on cards we would hand in our deck of cards to the clerks behind the desk in the basement where the computer was and the program would be run through the computer in the room behind the glass. Just finding all your syntax errors could take several cycles of handing in cards and coming back a few hours later to get the results of your run.

Although there were very few woman  in my classes my first computer science teacher for the Fortran class was a woman. I think June Smith was here name. We learned early on that if a line of code was longer than the 80 characters that would fit on one card we could create a continuation card by putting an x in the first column of the next card.  I remember her telling us about the student who thought you made continuation card by stapling the two cards together. You can imagine the serious damage that did to the card reader machine!

The first electronic pocket calculator the HP-35 was introduced by Hewlett Packard in 1972. It cost $395. I don't think I ever owned a calculator while I was in college. We did math for classes like Physics by hand or we used a slide rule. This picture of the HP-35 is from the book Core Memory - A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers.

 Student protests against the war in Viet Nam and the killing of students at Kent Sate by the national guard occurred during my Freshman year at Iowa State. I was politically very conservative and Iowa State was a fairly conservative school. Although I had misgivings about the war I supported the U.S. policy in Viet Nam so I took no part in the protests at Iowa State.

If you have memories of this era please add them in the comments.

Random Stuff - Knitting and Duke's BDay

It is so much fun to have a baby to knit for. In the past few month I knit a couple of things for my new granddaughter Briana.

Most recently I finished this sweater.

Before the sweater I knit a cape for her.

 

Yesterday was Duke's birthday. I made the traditional favorite meal - meat loaf, peas, and baked potatoes. I also baked a yummy cake - spice cake with gooey coconut, pecan frosting.

And for his birthday present I gave him these.

 

The Biology of Growing Food - A Class taught by my Son-in-Law

My daughter Allison and her husband Doug Bruce lives in Oakland. Doug teaches at a couple of different community colleges. Recently he has started to teach a new class called Biology 801 - The Biology of Growing Food. I know I am biased but I think this YouTube video about the class is very cool.

Here is a flyer about the class

Download Bio801_flyer_1_page

Earned Income Tax Credit

When I first started learning about taxes I had heard of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and assumed it was a way for low income tax payers to reduce their tax liability. 

Then I took a tax class and learned about refundable credits. Both the EITC and the Additional Child Tax Credit are refundable credits. A refundable credit is a credit that allows you to get more money back from the IRS than you had withheld.

It wasn't until I actually began preparing taxes that I realized the magnitude of the EITC. Assume that you and your husband made $16,000 in 2011 and had $1,000 withheld for income tax.

When you file your taxes not only will you get back the $1,000 that you had withheld but you will also receive EITC of $5,751 and Additional Child Tax Credit of $1,950. Your total tax refund will be $8,701.

Last year according to the IRS 268 million tax payers received the EIC for a total of $59.5 Billion!

According to the IRS:

"In tax year 2010, almost 26.8 million eligible workers and families received over $59.5 billion total in EITC. The average EITC amount last year was around $2,200."

A Country of Vast Designs - James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent

In August of 2007 I set myself a goal to read at least one biography about each U.S. President. I later created a blog entry (which you can find here) that keeps track of my progress and has links to my reviews of each biography.

Of the nine presidents who served between 1837 and 1861, none served for more than four years. By reading about these presidents I am reading a lot about that period in history. I just finished reading A Country of Vast Designs - James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent. It took me over a year to finish, not because it was boring but because I took a several month break.

A Country of Vast Designs is a fascinating book and Polk is a fascinating President. He was president number 11 and served from 1845 to 1849. Polk came into office promising that he would only serve one term. He had four specific goals for his presidency.

1. To resolve the dispute with Great Britain over Oregon's fate and make Oregon part of the U.S.
2. To acquire California from Mexico
3. To reduce the tariff and replace its protectionism.
4. To create an independent Treasury

Polk achieved these four goals and is viewed as one of our most effective presidents. But he is almost unknown unless you are a history aficionado.

I don't think most Americans know much about the Mexican war either. It was fought during Polk's four years in office and resulted in the US getting California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming from Mexico. During the war we invaded Mexico and captured Mexico City. Future president Ullysses S, Grant, a lieutenant in the war, called it "the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.... an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies."

Polk is forgotten because a lot of people today agree with Grant. Many Americans would rather forget about the Mexican War, Merry says:

"This lingering sentiment is not surprising in a nation with a powerful strain of foreign policy liberalism - a philosophy that deprecates wars fought for national interest and glorifies those fought for humanitarian ideals. When the United States fought the Mexican War, it decisively chose national interest over humanitarianism, and that breeds still a sense of discomfort among some Americans."

I highly recommend A Country of Vast Designs. It describes a part of our history we should know about and it describes a very interesting man.

 

Democracy at Work - the 2012 Nevada Republican Caucus

I love being a part of democracy at work. I just got back from the 2012 Nevada Republican caucus. It was so much fun!

I've been to a caucus and blogged about it twice before. My blog about the 2008 caucus is here and about the 2010 caucus is here. Of the caucuses I've been to this seemed the most organized and the best attended. There were a lot of people there. The caucus was held at our local middle school. 

Registration didn't take long and then they sent us off to the classroom where our precinct was meeting. In my precinct meeting there were 23 people. We met in an American history classroom. I loved the quotations on the cabinet behind me.

First we elected a chair person and a secretary. My new neighbor was elected precinct chair person. She was efficient and did a great job. She is the one standing on the left.

The second order of business was allowing volunteers to speak for each candidate. My neighbor spoke for Romney and was quite convincing. She talked about watching Romney when she lived in Utah and how impressed she was with how he managed the Olympics. Someone else suggested we read Romney's plan for America.

Another woman spoke for Rick Santorum. No one volunteered to speak for Gingrich and when no one volunteered to speak for Ron Paul I said I would.

I am a life long Republican. I believe in small government. I am a fiscal conservative and I believe that usually free enterprise can do things better than government. But I do believe that government has a role to play. I have become convinced that everyone should have health insurance and that Obama care is a step in the right direction. I am pro choice and pro gay marriage.

When I spoke for Ron Paul  I was thinking about foreign policy. I still have not forgiven the Republicans and George Bush for capriciously taking us to war in Iraq and for running up our national debt. Because of George Bush I voted for a democrat for the first time in my life four years ago.

The president can't change fiscal policy without the congress but he can take us to war. After listening to the Republican debates I am afraid that Romney would invade Iran to prevent them from becoming a nuclear country. So I spoke for Ron Paul because even though he is a bit of a wing nut I am confident that he wouldn't start another war.

So anyway, the next step in our precinct caucus was for people to volunteer to be delegates to the county convention. I volunteered.

Next we voted and the chairperson and I counted the votes.The results were

Romney 14

Santorum 4

Gingrich 3

Paul 2

 

The whole experience was fun! I got to meet neighbors and as I said enjoy democracy at work. I even got to see Reno's mayor Bob Cashell.

 

If you would like to see all my pictures from the caucus you can see them on Flickr here.

I usually avoid talking about politics but you can see all my politics blog posts by clicking on politics in the category list to the right.

 

Your Time is Valuable so Outsource your taxes to H&R Block

When I was a director at Sun Microsystems I attended a meeting for women directors where the speaker was a woman engineering vice president. This woman grew up and was educated in India. She was highly effective and highly respected. The purpose of the talk was to help other women move into positions of senior leadership.  I will never forget one thing she said. It had a big impact on me.

I think the impact was so big because I really did try to do it all. When my daughter Shannon was about 12 she gave me this sign as a Mother's Day gift. She didn't intend it as a joke. She thought maybe we should start using it.

I grew up thinking that woman could do it all, have a career,  raise children, nurture friendships, exercise, cook, maintain a clean and beautiful home, maintain household finances.... the list goes on and on. Once I had a family and a career I learned that the reality is that you can't do it all. There aren't enough hours in the day. I came to the conclusion that if I tried to do it all I would be mediocre at everything.

The woman VP who was speaking to us that day said that she didn't understand why American woman tried to do it all themselves. She said that in India woman have help and don't feel guilty when they rely on help to allow them to focus on the important things. She recommended hiring help. She called it outsourcing. It made me realize that if I hired help I could focus on my career, my children and the other priorities in my life.

As I said I didn't follow my own advice very well. I outsourced very few tasks but some of the  things which could be outsourced are cleaning, cooking, laundry, paying the bills, driving the kids around, and doing taxes. I used to think I had to do them all myself. If I was starting over I would figure out a way to have someone else do many of these things. I would create a support organization for me incorporated.

If you are a woman or a man today with a busy life I suggest that you think about hiring help. Instead of spending hours doing your own taxes have H&R Block do them. One of the benefits of doing them yourselves is you learn how taxes work but if you have someone like me do your taxes you will save time and you can still make it a learning experience. Allow me to do the detail work and you can focus on asking questions and understanding how your taxes fit in the big picture of your life.

Another advantage of having H&R Block do your taxes is that for just $35, you can purchase the Peace of Mind® Extended Service Plan. If you owe additional taxes due to our error in the preparation of your return, we'll pay up to $5,500. But more important if you get an audit or an IRS letter you can outsource the handling of it to H&R Block and you can focus on the important stuff.

As I was writing this post it occurred to me that over the years I didn't do a very good job of following my own advice. But I still think it is pretty good advice

As you know I am a tax preparer for H&R Block. Obviously all the opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone. I do not speak for H&R Block.

Tamarind to make Pad Thai

I subscribe to a  magazine called Cuisine at Home. A few days ago I decided to make the Pad Thai recipe out of the latest issue.

The recipe called for several food that are unusual to me. (sambal oelek, tamarind paste, fish sauce) I was able to find everything but the tamarind at my local grocery store. I had never heard of tamarind paste before and had no idea even what I was looking for. According to the recipe "Tamarind is a staple in Thai cuisine and gives the dish its sour note with a tangy, dried fruit flavor that tastes somewhat like raisins and lemon".

I tried  two grocery stores yesterday and had no luck, The staff I asked were no help at all. So I gave up. Today I went to our local Mexican grocery store.

Right away a man asked if he could help me and showed me where to find the tamarind paste.

Tonight I made the recipe. Although the paste said it was seedless I did have to take out a few seeds but other than that the recipe came out well.