If you aren't listening to the the OZ right now you are wrong
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Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
In-Port Race Alicante | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15
Also I made it thru the entire wedding without looking at my phone once for the in-port race results. Leg 1 starts in 1 day 7 hours and counting...get excited!
Home Is Where The Hangover Is....
I had a great post written for this trip but I accidentally deleted it on the flight back to Gulfport. I could try and re-write it but I really doubt any effort to resurrect it would be worth your time in reading so I'm going to give you a bunch of photos and captions and hopefully the story will develop organically from there. Like a real life cartoon strip.
When it gets cold, grab your lady, take her scarf, wrap it on your head and take a nap.- Boson's words of wisdom ( eventually this will be a Dadism, I'm sure)
BETTY LORD LADY SOCKS
Bourbon is the most effective way to cure writers block that I've found thus far....
Last weekend we flew home for our friends Lord Lady Socks and Betty's wedding. It was definitely worth the trip.
When your flight is delayed at 6 am on the tarmac due to weather (note the rain in the window) this is the best way to keep your kids calm. Only the most well behaved children and the most Saintly patient parents can fly without some form of audio visual stimulation for their kids. Obviously ours are not the most well behaved...yet... and we absolutely do not have the level of calm required at times like this.
After having our dear friend Jamie pick us up in Baltimore we dropped the girls off with Grandma (my mother) and went to York to my Dad's house. I got in some guy time with the boys. Mrs. Standby got to drink with the girls. The evening eventually degraded into a bit too much Scotch and a dare that lead to me and another poor soul eating these Ghost Peppers.
Look, I ate one. I thought I could probably die, I considered calling 911. At one point I hoped the pain would cause me to pass out. People... don't do this unless you really want to know God's creative genius. These peppers....just don't.
The next morning we got up...a bit floggy from the nights bad decisions and drove down to the wedding. Let me just say we've done a lot of weddings this year. This place wins the award for best wedding venue. A beautiful family farm in Montgomery County. The property is huge and stunning... and rumor has it that it might be for sale in the near future (in case anyone wants to go in on it with us). It was amazing getting see old friends, I love these guys dearly.
Face it, if you invite us to your wedding you will be guaranteed a few things...
-we will look good
-we will dance shamelessly
-we will drink as much of your open bar as we possibly can
-we will pass out before the after party
- we will be at the family brunch, because we love brunch
The lovely couple cutting the cake. I would like to add, I am a man, I am quite confident in my hetero-sexuality so I can say "Betty your dress was amazing! You rocked it girl." Sadly, I never had any cake, we were too busy dancing. Besides I'm pretty sure I saw Charlie (one of the absolutely adorable kids at the party) lick the icing off the bottom. BUT the food truck was a pretty baller move!
When it gets cold, grab your lady, take her scarf, wrap it on your head and take a nap.- Boson's words of wisdom ( eventually this will be a Dadism, I'm sure)
The morning after in the boudoir, feeling a bit slow. We drank a lot of Bourbon and didn't stretch properly before wedding dancing. Had to get up since there was brunch to be had. Pro Tip- Never Miss Post Wedding Brunch--EVER
Absolutely awesome weekend. Our travel struggles were nil and the love made everything worthwhile!
Shout out to the lovely bride and groom
MR. & MRS BULLOUGH
Friday, October 3, 2014
Its 3:50am...do you know where your blogger is?
Packing the car with strollers and luggage. First flight out of gulfport means up before the sun...before breakfast...before anything of reason.
Monday, September 29, 2014
This is my Superbowl VOLVO OCEAN RACE
I wait for two years to watch these boats sail nearly 40,000 miles, 9 months, 5 Continents, 4 Oceans. This is my Super Bowl, this is my World Cup, This is my Tour D' France,
Last time around I was in for Puma, this time around I'm behind Team Alvimedica. Charlie Enright, Mark Towill, Armory Ross are my player favorites. I am giddy with excitement.
That said in case you are new to this craziness I've posted a link here for you to get caught up with. It's a three part series from CNN it should just play all three back to back for you.
Seriously though, I'm excited. This is the culmination of two years of reading the message boards, following behind the scenes drama. Nail bitting stuff seriously. The big change that the media will focus on is that the VOR is now a one design race. What does "one-design" mean? It means that instead of a 7-10 boats built and designed by different firms by different yards, one design was chosen and one boat yard was allowed to build the boats. This makes it easier to raise funds for a cheaper race campaign and in theory lets the team that gets the first boat practice while the next 6 boats are being built.
That is a major change to the premise of the race. At the surface it says that the sailors are going to be the ones tested and less so on the boats since all the teams are using the same boat. BUT I AM NOT SO EASILY FOOLED!
My theory: the yard that is building the boats, Farr Design, has a great history and a solid track record. I personally love some of their ocean cruising designs. But they are building 7 boats! The last boat to come out is definitely without a doubt going to be better than the first. There is just no way to avoid it. The processes are adjusted and kinks fine tuned in the building system to streamline production and create a better product. Its the nature of the beast!
Interestingly enough though....and arguably (everywhere just look to the forum and builders blogs) The first team will have had their boat for something like 18 months (don't quote me) by the time the race starts. Which means they'll be able to practice to their hearts content and work out all the human factors well before the last boat is finished...in theory.
Here's the catch: The first boat finished went to the ALL WOMEN team SCA the last boat finished is going to the team who's skipper came in 2nd in the last edition of the race. How's that for engineered balance. Knut Frostad is definitely scheming in his Volvo Home office.
Someone else that is probably scheming but in a far more sinister fashion is Juan Kouyoumdjian and his team. They are the massive sore losers in the one-design plan. Juan K has designed boats for the couple of editions of the VOR and has put more than one boat in each race. Believe me when I say, he lost a LOT of money in this deal. Here's the thing though, his designs, they have a tendency to break. But maybe thats not his fault. Maybe it's the boat yards fault. Maybe the crew pushed the boats, dare I say it, TOO HARD?
Here's the juice, this is going to be a sick race. New tech is going to allow us to have live interviews with the crew mid race, there is going to be high definition video and graphics. Think of all the graphics that go into explaining where the 1st down line is in football or the arc of the kick in soccer, or the wind line in golf. All of that is going to be added to Volvo this edition... and it's going to be nutz!
oooo I got goosebumps... there's rumblings that we might fly out to one or two of the stops on the race.
photo credits: volvo ocean race 2014-15
Saturday, September 27, 2014
New Port,Rhode Island or a Brush with Death
I'm playing catch-up with my posts this trip was actually 3 or 4 weeks ago....
I was supposed to have been on a flight that got me into Providence at like 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. Instead it was 11 pm and I was on the runway in Baltimore. Honestly, I was just quietly glad to be on the ground in one piece. I called my one of my friends in Baltimore to just in case I couldn't get on another flight (not a thrilling idea) and I needed a crash pad. I then called the hostel I was staying in to let them know I would be even later than expected. I then called the rental car agents who told me if got there by 1am I might have a chance at getting a car. Otherwise I'd be paying a $70 dollar cab fare into Newport from Providence.
Flying standby is never a guarantee. You never know if your flight will have empty seats, if it will be on time, if you'll make your connection, if... if....if... So what ends up happening for us is 25% of our trips go smooth as butter. We show up to a flight an hour early, we usually only check a bag if the kids are with us. We cruise thru security, wait for the standby list to clear. The flight has a short list of people on standby and we are near the top which doesn't matter because there are plenty of available seats. Occasionally we get upgraded. We board and make a smooth connection and arrive at our destination on time.
BUT 73% it goes like this. Arrive an hour early, cruise thru security. Sit anxiously watching the standby list. Refreshing it every 30 seconds to see if we have fallen lower or if we got bumped. There 40 people on the list and 10 seats available. The four of us are traveling and we are 11, 12, 13, and 14 on the list. Hoping some poor soul misses a connection or oversleeps so we can get to our connection on time. Nope, everyone shows up and the flight is oversold adding 6 more people to an already growing standby list. We miss the next flight out too and end up catching the third or fourth thus barely catching a connection to get to our destination at the latest possible hour. Which inevitably pisses off the people who were picking us up, and thereby creating a dreary precursor to our trip.
This is a 1% trip. I missed my first two flights out of New Orleans ended up with a 6 hour layover in Atlanta (which really isn't the worst thing See: One Flew South). I did catch the last flight to Providence, only for it to nearly be my last flight. I'm not so sure how close disaster we were but I will say that plane did loose hydraulic pressure in the right engine which meant the pilots couldn't close the the doors over the landing gear. The flaps were also not functioning the way they should have been and when we came in to land the emergency crews were waiting for us on the runway. The door over the gear hit the ground and flaps stopped working altogether. I don't know the cause of the problem but I know that hydraulic pressure is extremely important in modern flight. I was just glad to be on the ground in one piece.
Now I bet you did the math....there's 1% missing.
1% of our flights go like this. We arrive 30 minutes before our flight, breeze thru empty security lines, walk right on to the flight because we've been cleared for seats in business class and get to board first. We are wined and dined sleep well. We make a seamless connection. Arrive slightly early so we can get our bearings and stretch our legs before we explore a new place.
Now then, like I had said. I did eventually get in to Providence and had another fiasco at the car rental booth. That's another post altogether. I finally got a car and drove down to Newport. Checked into my little hostel and slept for and couple hours. I was in town to check out a boat for the New Orleans Maritime Heritage Foundation. Just a favor for some friends with the added bonus that it was in Newport. I might do a full write up on that but for now here's some pictures.
Let me start this off by saying I fly because there is no other way to get someplace faster or in our case cheaper.
Newspaper write up... sugar coated appropriately
Its a bit hard to see but the emergency crews are outside my window inspecting the underside of our broken plane
Flying standby is never a guarantee. You never know if your flight will have empty seats, if it will be on time, if you'll make your connection, if... if....if... So what ends up happening for us is 25% of our trips go smooth as butter. We show up to a flight an hour early, we usually only check a bag if the kids are with us. We cruise thru security, wait for the standby list to clear. The flight has a short list of people on standby and we are near the top which doesn't matter because there are plenty of available seats. Occasionally we get upgraded. We board and make a smooth connection and arrive at our destination on time.
BUT 73% it goes like this. Arrive an hour early, cruise thru security. Sit anxiously watching the standby list. Refreshing it every 30 seconds to see if we have fallen lower or if we got bumped. There 40 people on the list and 10 seats available. The four of us are traveling and we are 11, 12, 13, and 14 on the list. Hoping some poor soul misses a connection or oversleeps so we can get to our connection on time. Nope, everyone shows up and the flight is oversold adding 6 more people to an already growing standby list. We miss the next flight out too and end up catching the third or fourth thus barely catching a connection to get to our destination at the latest possible hour. Which inevitably pisses off the people who were picking us up, and thereby creating a dreary precursor to our trip.
This is a 1% trip. I missed my first two flights out of New Orleans ended up with a 6 hour layover in Atlanta (which really isn't the worst thing See: One Flew South). I did catch the last flight to Providence, only for it to nearly be my last flight. I'm not so sure how close disaster we were but I will say that plane did loose hydraulic pressure in the right engine which meant the pilots couldn't close the the doors over the landing gear. The flaps were also not functioning the way they should have been and when we came in to land the emergency crews were waiting for us on the runway. The door over the gear hit the ground and flaps stopped working altogether. I don't know the cause of the problem but I know that hydraulic pressure is extremely important in modern flight. I was just glad to be on the ground in one piece.
Now I bet you did the math....there's 1% missing.
1% of our flights go like this. We arrive 30 minutes before our flight, breeze thru empty security lines, walk right on to the flight because we've been cleared for seats in business class and get to board first. We are wined and dined sleep well. We make a seamless connection. Arrive slightly early so we can get our bearings and stretch our legs before we explore a new place.
Now then, like I had said. I did eventually get in to Providence and had another fiasco at the car rental booth. That's another post altogether. I finally got a car and drove down to Newport. Checked into my little hostel and slept for and couple hours. I was in town to check out a boat for the New Orleans Maritime Heritage Foundation. Just a favor for some friends with the added bonus that it was in Newport. I might do a full write up on that but for now here's some pictures.
Family matters | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15
Being a Husband is hard sometimes...being a Dad is even harder. I get the feeling sometimes that our society has made it seem as if there are no good dad's out there anymore. Like we are all deadbeats that don't take care of our kids and let them grow up to be criminals. But I think the reality is that there are a lot of dads out there busting their asses to be the heroes their kids can look up to. But the mainstream media portrays us differently. Here's a good dad that inspires me to be better.
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