a blog by Ian Kennedy
Last weekend we travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee where we visited with my Uncle Dave, Aunt Ollie, cousins Shawn and David, and Grandmother Laura. Photos of the trip are posted here (I’ve added more for you this time Dav!). The highlight of the trip was an evening at the dirt track races.
I’m in Boston at BloggerCon II. This is following a week vacation in Cancun. The cycle of travel has picked up quite a bit as we’re then off to Tennessee to visit Uncle David and Grandmother.
I still need to post pictures from the Cancun trip and share some of the comments – Tyler’s happy to be back in a country where he can drink the water freely.
Went into NYC yesterday to check out the Search Engine Strategies show at the Hilton. The show was a little over the top, kind of like the ad sales posse of Madison Ave. had discovered a new channel and wanted to show how hip they were. Tried in vain to find someone who could tell me the nuts and bolts of how paid search ad networks really worked but all I got was big blinking mascara eyes, “uh, that’s beyond my realm.” You betcha. I did learn a new term though – “organic listings” – that is the term given to the lists of results that come back from a search on a search engine and are opposed to the “paid listings” which are essentially paid advertisements. For a humorous look at how paid advertisements are clogging our search engine experience, have a look at the results for a search on cars on Yahoo! It’s a whole page of ads except for a listing for cars.com peeking out at the very bottom of my 1024 x 768 screen. The web is becoming more and more like the Yellow Pages.
Just outside of Penn Station – saw this huge poster of Muhammad Ali with this great quote. Seems fitting for a someone coming up out of the station from the suburbs.
We went into Manhattan for Christmas Day, waking up early to open presents and then jumping into the Odyssey (dubbed “Flash” by Tyler) for the drive. It was the first time for me to drive in the city and it was a lot easier than I thought. Yeah, it was Christmas and the streets were pretty bare, but as a dry run for another trip next week, I have to say that the disregard the drivers have for the actual lanes on the Avenues makes it even a little fun.
We caught the Rockettes for their Radio City Christmas Spectacular with front section tickets we scored after trading in a bunch of our Amex points. It was quite the show. Kitchy? Most definitely. But also done with a high degree of percision. Those dancers are not any slouches and they even took the opportunity to poke fun at the Nutcracker Suite. I’ve also never experienced 36 people tap dancing in live in perfect unison before – I was certainly entertained. The kids also were most impressed with Tyler dancing through some of the numbers and Julia taking it all in, eyes wide open but arms crossed politely in her lap. Tyler also enjoyed the 3-D movie trailer but was disappointed to find that the glasses didn’t work outside on Times Square.
One of my high school friends was getting married on a farm in Vermont. It was a mini-reunion of sorts.
The weather was spectacular, blue skies, great friends new & old, good grub and drink, and a funky local band set the stage for a perfect afternoon.
The kids had a blast.
After a week in Hawaii where we hooked up with the rest of the Takei Clan including the Great Grandma Nagao, the 84-year old matriarch – we hurried back home for a quick overnight rest and then hauled up North to Vermont to witness my old high school roommate restate his vows to his lovely wife Heather. Here we are all dressed up for the show at an old church right down the road from the Kidder farm.
Upon arrival we quickly took advantage of the Takei’s hot tub which overlooks the tropical breezes of the Pacific Ocean. . .
