Huffman Coding

After years of begging, we finally got our tweenagers cell phones with text plans.  Within an hour of activation, Katie had sent 2 dozen texts.  To head off problems, we had them sign a contract.

Cell phone rules

Be Safe

• Never give your cell phone number to a stranger. We don’t want strangers calling you.  When you call someone, they will have your phone number whether you want them to or not.
• Do not take embarrassing pictures or videos.  Any picture or video you take can be forwarded onto strangers.  If it is something you or someone else wouldn’t want your parents, teachers, friends, enemies, or the President of the United States to see, don’t do it. We are allowed to see what is on your phone at any time.
• Answer our calls or texts.  We will worry and get upset if you ignore our calls or texts.

Don’t waste money

• You can send and receive texts, pictures, videos, and instant messages on your phone as much as you want, but do not download other stuff or use the Web browser/Internet.  That costs extra. Unexpected charges will come out of your allowance.  If you want a special ring tone for your phone, ask me and I can get it for you.
• Never enter your cell phone number on a website.  There are lots of websites out there that make money by tricking you into giving them you cell phone number.  For example, websites that offer ring tones, quizzes, coupons, etc.  Once they have your number they can bill us even if they say they are FREE.  It is very hard to cancel these charges.
• Do not text anyone unless it is okay with them.  Many people don’t have messaging plans and it will cost them money even if it is free for us.

Be Courteous

• Only use your cell phone where you are allowed to.  Silence your cell phone when people ask you to. For example, in movie theaters, during school and at the dinner table.
• Most things are more important than your cell phone.  Do not use your phone if you have homework or chores to do. Do not use your phone after bedtime. If you are talking to someone, don’t text someone else.
• Text or call us if you go somewhere.  For example, a friend’s house after school.

I agree to these rules and understand that I might have to give up my phone if they are not followed.

Name: _______________________________________  Date: ________

Did I miss anything?

I won this Italian cycling vacation in a Livestrong raffle and it is due to the generosity of many people, most especially the tour operator, Cicloposse, which is owned by a husband and wife in Pienza.  She does all the correspondence; I think I have about thirty emails in my gmail account helping me figure out which trains and make other arrangement.  She’s been very pleasant to work with and extremely helpful.

He does the cue sheets, which give bicyclists the directions on where to go along the route.  For the interesting days, I have an elevation graph so I know when I’m suppose to panic.  (I’m breaking no land speed records over here.)  But for every day, I have a full page color map with the route highlighted.  There are a dozen or so numbers superimposed on the route that correspond to the times I have to turn.

The separate “cue” sheet, I have diagrams for each of those numbered locations.  They are hand drawn representations of the intersections with landmarks and arrows indicating which way to turn.  Next to each diagram is description of the intersection and what to do.  Here is an example of just one of the paragraphs:

Continue along the Cassia. After the road sign marked Buonconvento and behind the train tracks, you come to a large intersection with a gas station: stay on right on the Cassia road.

At the third intersection, after passing a building marked “consorzio Agrario” on your right, turn right into road SS451, towards Chiusure, Asciano and the yellow road sign marked Monte Oliveto Maggiore see picture 4.

And that is just the details for a single turn.  Only an idiot could miss a turn with that much information at his disposal.

But I can explain… I was pre-occupied with the beautiful scenery.

There is a fresco in our hotel room.  It is in the corner of the front room and under glass while the rest of the room is finished.  It has deteriorated quite a bit since the 15th century, but you can make out a cherub and what I think is the Papal crest.

Hotel room fresco

Pienza was put on the map in that century when one of its own became Pope.  As would be his want, he threw church money behind building construction in his native town.  A Duomo with beautiful art from that time period is the centerpiece of this walled city.  For these first two days, the hotel we are staying at is a former cloister built in that time period.

As far as I can tell, the WiFi was added later.

My wife is exhausted from 22 hours of traveling. Car. Plane. Plane. Plane. Taxi. Train. Taxi. Chris, the sane one, is pooped and resting in the hotel room but I, on the other hand, am wide awake and psyched.  Starting tomorrow it is: Bike, Bike, Bike…

On the flight over to Europe, I had a chance to watch the Hanna Montana movie on 5 inch screen from 8 feet away, but I chose to sleep instead. You know you’ve been traveling alot when your wife remarks, in all seriousness, that there are only 7 more hours left in the flight. It took way too long to get through Frankfurt security during its Monday morning rush hour, but they held the tiny plane to Florence for us and a dozen others (I’m guessing).

We took the train from Florence to Chiusi and, with the help of two strangers, found out which track to stand on. I for the life of me couldn’t figure out where that was documented on the ticket or the gigantic posted schedule. A particularly unhelpful person at one of train stations took one of our bags (the lighter one) out of Chris’s hands, carried it 30 feet, then demanded 3 euro ($4.50) for the privilege. Ug. I have also learned to say “metered, please” before entering a taxi.  Lessons learned.

The road to the hotel was blocked when we arrived due to an open air market, so we had to drive around on some narrow cobblestone roads to get here.  This village defines gorgeous and quaint.

The bottom legs on Chris’s heavier bag have broken off and it no longer stands upright, but I’m not concerned as the contents are still intact. After viewing the steep hills from Chiusi to Pienza from the back of a taxi, I doubt I will be standing upright either by the end of the week. But I hope to keep my contents intact too.

My wife and I have completed our arrangements for cycling in Italy.  Originally I was planning on taking Katie, the second most seasoned cyclist in the family with hundreds of miles under her feet, but Chris could not turn down a trip to Italy.  So Katie was bumped.

Understandably, my young stoker is a little disappointed.  But if that is the case, Chris is okay with that.

My wife hadn’t cycled appreciably since we got married, so she had to get back into the swing of things.  She bought some cycling shorts and I got touring shoes and pedals for her and has been cycling on the local bike path a few days a week.  Nothing like the hills of Siena, but it is a start.  When she felt comfortable with her progress, I starting planning the trip with Cicloposse.  Chris Daguanno was kind enough to donate and arrange for the flights.  Meanwhile I’ve been rescheduling my fall dental appointment, notifying the credit card companies of our imminent travel, and changing my PC’s desktop background to a landscape of Val D’Orcia.  Yes, I know I’m getting off easy.

After the plans were finalized, Chris has discovered that perhaps this was quite a bit of training to do in the span of just eight weeks.  While I ride along side her at her pace and I’ve waited at the top of hills, she doesn’t find cycling the rolling roads of southern central Ohio as enjoyable as I do.  I’m looking forward to the trip, especially the days I cycle.  Chris is looking forward to the trip too, especially the days she doesn’t cycle.

I hope she isn’t disappointed.  But if that is the case, I’m okay with that.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I follow a few bicycling blogs.  Probably the most enjoyable for me is www.FatCyclist.com and not just because I am Fat and a Cyclist.  That’s just a coincidence.  Elden posts pictures and videos about his rides in Utah, funny stories on how to buy the right bike, and the shelf life of gummi-based nutritional supplements. Meaningful stuff.

What comes through in his postings is that he is a real nice guy and a loving father and husband.  In between his rants about overpriced bike clothes, he shares what it feels like to care for a spouse living with cancer.  Really meaningful stuff.  Susan is blessed to have that particular blogging cyclist as a caring husband.  And while I just walk around wearing a yellow wristband, he helps raise tens hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer support and research.

A few days ago, “Fatty” and Dorothy Gibson and Cicloposse (and several other readers who donated frequent flyer miles) got together for a contest: Donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and be entered in a raffle for a chance to win a cycling vacation in Italy. Since I’ve always wanted to cycle in Europe, I was one of hundreds of people earlier this week that helped them reach their goal of $5000.

And yesterday when my wife and I got home from a local production of Rent, there was a message on the answering machine from Dorothy telling me I was the winner.   With Fatty’s post today, I suppose it is official.  In his post he mused over the many good things for the week.  My raffle win is mentioned as #8.  It pales in comparison to the importance of #6: His wife made out of bed to watch TV with her family.

Win Susan.

Claire is bringing home schoolwork that she has accumulated over the year:

Dear Litt Red Riding HOOd I’m so sorry for eating you.I should be punished for a long time.I will never eat you again. I will just eat pinapl. From: Wolf

How did Ray’s camera know I was in the picture:

Click to see the "Encoding Process" for image

Original picture of Claire taking a picture while on the back of the tandem.

P.S. How many of you guys clicked on the image’s red X to close the image?

The Ride of Silence was started seven years ago in response to a Texas bicyclist who was killed by an automobile driver.  Over the years it has become an annual event in many cities across the United States, including Columbus.  This year we were remembering three riders who were killed by central Ohio motorists.

Claire's picture of the Mayor

It is called the Ride of Silence because the riders ride in a tight group at a solemn pace and none is supposed to talk.  After waffling back and forth, I decided to take my youngest daughter Claire.  My rambunctious one.

Before the Ride of Silence

On the drive downtown she was her usual talkative self asking one question after another (“What is a googolplex times another googolplex?” ), but with the promise of ice cream if she stayed quiet (“twist in a cone with sprinkles!”), Claire was 99.44% compliant during the ride.

But the moment the ride was over, she was back to her regular form.

Claire, after the ride

It has been more than a week since I last blogged and since I didn’t have a chance to blog our long, final day in Vietnam, wanna pretend I made this entry last week?

With a red-eye flight leaving the country, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea for us to wake up before dawn Wednesday and drive four hours to Halong Bay.  It is a beautiful tourist destination, but it is a bumpy 4-hour drive from Hanoi.  To stretch our legs, we stopped at a ceramics factory halfway there.  They were opening the place just as we were getting there and there were a handful of workers hand painting bowls.

Hand painting bowls at the ceramics factory

Even though they usually break when on the trip home, Chris brought a couple of items.  A decorative plate and a whistle that, when filled with water, warbles like a bird.  It is bound for Claire’s show-and-tell when we get back home.

Halong bay is famous for hundreds of large limestone rocks (karsts) that rise steeply out of the water.  Its name, translated, is Descending Dragon because the rocks supposedly look like a legendary dragon that protected ancient Vietnam from the Chinese.  We took a boat tour around the rocks, unfortunately it was a very overcast day.  We had to get out Marissa’s broken school umbrella that we brought from home.  We were the only passengers on the boat, probably because it was such a dreary day.

Boat ride on Halong Bay

One of the most famous formations is called the Kissing Rocks. It is also called the Ho Ga Troi (Fighting Cocks) by those not in a romantic mood. A picture of it is on the 200,000 Dong note.

Kissing Rocks (or Fighting Cocks)

These rock formations were formed by the erosion of the limestone and some of that erosion also caused large caves within a few of the rocks.  Our boat stopped at the Dong Thien Cung (Heaven Palace Grotto).  The cave is lit up by multi-colored lights, which I thought was pretty, and fake fountains, which I found tacky.

Dong Thien Cung

The boat also stopped by a floating fish hatchery that had Cuttlefish, Prawn, Eel, and Crab.  After the stop we had lunch on the boat and all that fresh seafood was prepared for us.  When it was obvious to the waitress that Marissa was not interested in any of it, they kindly made her a batch of fries.  Thank goodness Marissa likes rice or she would have starved on this trip.