In the week before Christmas, Varya and I drove north out of Houston and spent a couple days in Branson, MO. Advertised as a family vacation destination in the Ozarks, it seemed like a small, low-budget, poor imitation of Vegas without the fun parts. The Titanic museum exceeded expectations, however, handing you a “passport” for a real passenger when you enter so that as you walk through the authentic and recreated artifacts and rooms, you keep an eye out for clues as to “your” ultimate fate (not surprisingly, her 1st class lady survived, my 2nd class schmuck did not). The other “museums” in town underwhelmed. At night, we enjoyed the Shanghai Circus at Mickey Gilley’s Grand Shanghai Theatre, which was more multi-cultural than Chinese, with artists much more diverse than the audience. The performers were not quite ready for Cirque du Soleil, but their repeated mistakes were part of the fun, building to crowd-pleasing triumphs when they finally completed stunts successfully.
Farther north in gray St. Louis, we experienced Beyond Van Gogh in a mall parking lot. Gotta love Vincent, and the big room with the high-intensity, high-res projected animations of his work was truly immersive, albeit overpriced for a half hour show. Still, a fun little diversion.
Unfortunately, during our visit with Mom and Sis in St. Charles, Claire had to quarantine in a guest room and on the back deck to reduce the risk of infecting the rest of us with the COVID-19 she likely caught just before flying west from NY. Fortunately, she was fully vaccinated, so her symptoms were mild and short-lived. She participated in opening presents on Christmas Day via FaceTime on an iPad in the morning, and on the deck when Carla dropped by.
We spent another night in Branson during the long drive back south, taking in Dolly Parton’s Stampede dinner show with a variety of animals and human performers. Though it can be cute in a kitschy way, we can cross Branson off the list, as a few days there is plenty.
In past road trips to MO, we’ve overnighted in Memphis and now Branson. Next? I hear good things about Eureka Springs, AR…
As a gift of gratitude for supporting her highly successful Flatiron Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp in 2019, Varya gave me an Italian mistress named Ducati Multistrada. Out of love and appreciation, I treated my girls Varya and Duca to a Hill Country moto-holiday over the long Memorial Day weekend, staying with an old friend and former roommate, Erik and his fiancé Liza in Austin. I initially thought of riding the bike all the way from Houston, weather and holiday traffic be damned, but better thoughts prevailed and I rented a motorcycle trailer and packed up the SUV for a more comfortable mini adventure.
Ready to Roll
Erik and Liza have a big, beautiful, new house with an epic hillside view west of Austin, and generously provided us with the most excellent room, meals, drinks and banter for 3 days and 2 nights…5 stars! Inexcusably, I and the official trip photog, Varya, failed to get a single photo of our Best Hosts Ever, only the front of their Super BnB in a deceptive pic that hides most of the house. After a Saturday night of food-n-fun with friends, we awoke early Sunday morning, prepped the bike, dressed to thrill, and set out for the eastern half of what Cycle World and Butler Maps deem among the best rides in the US.
After a quick stop in Blanco for a map check, we strolled around the old German town of Fredericksburg and had brunch. Judging from her first pics, my pillion photog seemed very impressed by architecture.
From Fredericksburg, we dove south to Kerrville, veered west to Hunt, then southwest along some of the most beautiful and breathtaking roads of the day. In sun-dabbled woodlands we curved along lazy rivers full of soaked kayakers and soused floaters, finally riding a giant roller coaster of a road carved through huge hills south to Leakey, the westernmost point of our day trip, where we ate a late lunch of tasty roadside BBQ.
“Brisket & Ribs” Face
Italian Mistress “Duca”
The twisty ride east to Vanderpool was among the most technical and thrilling of the day, with some of the most spectacular hilltop views. I was having too much fun to stop for photo ops, but will get some cool peak pics during our next visit. We zipped by the Lone Star Moto Museum, but didn’t have extra time to stop and play moto-tourists, so we continued east, again having some of the most moto-fun of the day. So much fun, in fact, that a very nice local constable invited me to stop and chat about speed.
Oops
A few minutes later–at a notably slower pace–we found The Apple Store in Medina where they sold no iPhones or Macs, but plenty of the best apple-cinnamon ice cream in Texas, perfect for a Ducatista and his pillion gal pal. A couple waffle cones of sweet-tart creamy goodness made everything better.
“The” Apple Store
Love Creekers?
Ice Cream Therapy
Happy Biker Chick
Some of the sharpest switchbacks of the day lurked in a short patch of 16 north of Medina. Shortly after gassing up in Kerrville, we caught a short and light drizzle of rain on the way back north to Fredericksburg…a little foreshadowing. On a little northern road parallel to 290, we stopped within an hour of Erik and Liza’s house to get some final shots and stretch the legs for a few minutes…perhaps just a few too many.
After avoiding inclement weather for the entire day, our luck finally ran out in the last couple miles, where the sky opened up and deluged us with a true Texas thunderstorm just a few minutes from shelter. So, during our 10 hours on and off the bike, the weather was 99% “yahoo!”, but ended in 1% “yikes!” Erik and Liza prepared for our drenched arrival with garage space and towels, and after a change of clothes, Varya crashed while I joined other lucky house guests, Doris and Chris, enjoying another great Liza dinner with fine wine and good company.
The next day, Liza fed us another nice breakfast, Erik pumped us with coffee, and both gave us a lingering “Chinese goodbye” in the early afternoon…big thanks again 3E & L! On our way out of Austin, Varya and I made one last stop at Slab BBQ and fondly recounted our favorite moments from a great Hill Country holiday weekend.
Varya topped her bewitching Hallows Eve Tea Party with two more extravagant tables for two this holiday season, on my birthday and again on Christmas Day.
Birthday Binge
The incredible spread my multi-talented wife laid out earlier in December started with pistachio & cherry scones, then descended 3 tiers with crab salad canapés, sweet potato canapés topped with chorizo, and smoked turkey & cranberry cream cheese sandwiches, and finally topped it all off with my favorite dessert, tres leches con fresas! No ketosis that week.
Birthday Tea PartyPistachio & Cherry Scones with Cream3 Tiers of Tasty3 Milks of Mmmmmmmmmm
Yuletide Yum
For Christmas dinner, Varya took it to the next level in terms of variety and artistry. Beef and radish canapés led it off, followed by crab and chive sandwiches, and roasted grape and brie tartlets with fig spread and (everything’s better with) bacon for an enticing sweet/cheesy/savory combo. Climbing the 3 tiers were orange almond scones topped with whipped cream and/or lemon curd, creamy lemon & raspberry tartlets, and cardamom butter cookies dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with pistachios. The centerpiece/masterpiece was her maple pecan cake with cream cheese frosting adorned with “holly & berries” made of rosemary & sugared cranberries. We’re still finishing leftovers, so no keto until next year.
Varya practiced her high sorcery in the kitchen, adapting British “spells” found in Tea Time magazine to concoct a wicked Halloween afternoon tea party for two.
Varya’s Halloween Tea Party1st Course: Curried Butternut Squash & Apple Soup2nd Course: Smoky Pimento Cheese and Walnut Sandwiches, Chicken Chutney Sandwiches3rd Course: Date, Chive & Parmesan Scones with CreamSide Tiers of More Sandwiches, Scones and Almond Cookies with Cinnamon Pear Jam4th Course: Orange Cake on Skull Plates5th Course: Chai Spice Ice Cream (yes, she made that, too)
Staying home is the safest option, avoiding the increased risk of spreading the coronavirus and COVID-19 to your relatives and yourself, but if you must take the risk and gather, consider..
Community level: Check the number and rate of COVID-19 cases in the gathering location and where travelers may be coming from and through
Location: Outdoor gatherings are less risky (and colder) than indoor
Duration: Shorter gatherings are less risky (and less filling) than longer
Number: Fewer people pose less risk (and less noise) than large groups
Travel: Local trips are safer than distant travels, especially if people are traveling from multiple locations
Behavior: Responsible people–who wear masks, maintain social distance, and wash hands–pose much less risk than irresponsible people who refuse these basic preventative measures
People should NOT gather if they…
Have symptoms of COVID-19 or the disease itself
Are still awaiting results of COVID-19 tests
May have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the previous 2 weeks
Are at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19
Staying home is the safest option, given there is no perfectly safe way to gather, but a difficult choice for many families, so…
Talk to relatives openly ASAP about how you plan to protect them, your immediate family and yourself
Don’t feel pressured into taking uncomfortable or even dangerous risks
Don’t judge those who opt out this year
People not in the same household (or larger “pod”) pose the same risk to each other as strangers, so maintain social distance and wear masks as you would in public
Testing everyone in advance helps mitigate risk, assuming all results are negative, but is not a guarantee, since people may become infected anytime after the test sample was taken, or may get a false negative result (25% of the time with some tests) and still be infectious (this may be the case in some of the White House’s super-spreader events)
Eating together increases risk, since people remove masks and spread droplets and vapor by breathing, talking, coughing, sneezing
Holiday parties potentially spread infections, even if small and only with relatives, as evidenced by infections traced to weddings, funerals, religious gatherings and other everyday group events
CDC advice may be mocked by some who feel it infringes upon their “freedom” (to infect?), at their relatives’ and their own peril
There is no ideal choice between risks (loss of health and life) vs isolation (loss of in-person camaraderie and rituals this holiday season)
Test types: Antigen tests are usually quicker (and sometimes cheaper) but less accurate than “gold standard” PCR tests.
My wife and I just took a PCR test with saliva samples that claims 90% accuracy but takes 36 hours for results.
The same clinic offers an antigen test that provides results within 15 minutes but with only 75% accuracy (1 in 4 chance of false negative).
Family members added to my Apple Family Sharing list get to use my purchased iPhone and iPad apps, iCloud storage, Music and News+ subscriptions and watch my purchased movies and shows, and vice versa. Instead of trying to explain this to some of my family members by phone or email (again), I thought I’d post a visual step-by-step guide for future reference by them and others.
Let’s start with my iPad home screen (below), in which I’ve highlighted Apple’s App Store, Music, News and Settings icons (your icon locations may vary). Using the same iPadOS 13.5.1 that I’m using will make it easier to follow along, so as a first step tap on Settings > General > Software Update and make sure your software is up to date; if not, go ahead and update it…I’ll wait here.
Now that our iPad software is matched, you’ll want to make sure your Family Sharing is turned on. In Settings, tap on your Apple ID/name at the top left, then on Family Sharing on the right. Below you can see that I’m already sharing with a few family members.
At the top of the Family Sharing window, you’ll see the Organizer (in my case, me), and any adult and child Family Members the Organizer has added, up to six people total. Scroll down and you’ll see all the available Shared Features. As shown below, I’m sharing my app purchases, my iCloud storage and Apple Music subscriptions, TV channels and movies, and my Apple News+ subscription. (I share my location on my iPhone that usually stays with me, so I have it turned off here on my iPad that usually stays home.) Go ahead and turn on your Purchase Sharing so that other Family Members can access your purchased apps.
Now we’ll close Settings, open the App Store, and tap on the Apple ID icon in the upper right, in my case mother Earth (your icon may vary).
This brings up a smaller Account window in which you can tap Purchased. You could also tap Subscriptions just below that to see a list of all your active and expired subscriptions, handy for canceling subscriptions you may have forgotten about or no longer need, but that are still charging to your credit card, or to the Organizer’s card if you’re a Family Member.
Tapping Purchased provides a choice between My Purchases and Family Purchases listing Family Members who are sharing purchases. In my case, Phyllis and Varvara are sharing purchases, while Claire is not and does not appear here. I’ll tap Phyllis to see what apps she has to offer.
I get the scrolling list of Phyllis’ purchased apps shown below. Apparently Phyllis likes words and cards. I tap on “Not on this iPad” at the top of the sub-window to make sure I’m only seeing apps I don’t already have, apps that Phyllis bought and that I’m able to download for free from the App Store because of Family Sharing and Phyllis’ Purchase Sharing.
Hmmm…Words With Friends Classic…isn’t that basically Scrabble (yawn)? I can tap on the app icon on the left or title in the middle to see the app description, ratings, and other app information. Or, I can simply tap on the cloud with down arrow icon on the right to download the app immediately. The circular download progress icon appears for a few to several seconds, depending upon your broadband speed and the file size, and finally becomes an OPEN button when the app is downloaded and installed.
At this point, I could tap OPEN to open the app from here. Or, I could back to the iPad home screen and find and admire the newly installed app icon…then delete it because, you know, Scrabble (yawn).
Let’s move on from shared apps to TV shows and movies. Tap and open the Apple TV app. Mine is in my Entertainment folder, but your location will vary.
In the Apple TV app, tap on Library at the bottom, then Family Sharing on the left to see a list of Family Members who may or may not be sharing anything.
When I tap on Varvara, I get a message, “No TV Shows or Movies, Your library is empty…”, because she doesn’t buy or rent video content in Apple TV or iTunes. When I tap on Claire, I get a message, “Family Member Not Sharing, Claire is currently not sharing their purchases. They can change this in Settings.” She’s not a sharer, or inadvertently turned off Purchase Sharing in Settings > Apple ID > Family Sharing. When I tap on Phyllis, I see her entire library consisting of one Blue Planet II show trailer that I installed on her iPad as a test long ago. I could download and watch it on my iPad from here. Fortunately for my Family Members, they see a much larger selection of TV shows and movies when they tap on my name in the Apple TV app, including Apple’s original shows in my Apple TV+ subscription. (We recently enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan’s creepy Servant series in Apple TV+.)
Finally, Apple Music and Apple News+ are much easier to share and use: once the Organizer has shared them, all Family Members can simply open these apps and use the subscription services. Apple Music has about 50 million songs in all genres, as well as a For You section that learns your tastes and offers playlists and artists. Apple News+ includes most major news outlets and–what really sold me–many magazines, including a few I used to subscribe to separately, but now get as part of my Apple News+ subscription. Back on the home screen, find and tap to open Apple News (stylized red N on a white icon…see the first image at the top of this post), then tap News+ on the left to browse, search and read magazines in many genres. The image below shows I like Scientific American and Wired (two of my former subscriptions replaced by Apple News+), and if you could scroll this image to the right you’d see Motortrend, Forbes, Macworld, etc.
Apple has added Election 2020 and COVID-19 as special sections on the left side of Apple News for easy access to the latest-n-greatest news on these topics of mass interest. You can add or delete channels & topics in your list if you wish, or let Apple’s learning algorithm auto-pick them for you.
That should be all you need to get started with Apple Family Sharing on your iPad and iPhone. Happy sharing.
Varya spent the first half of this month in Russia getting her parents’ apartment ready to rent and visiting friends in Moscow and family in Saratov. She brought back some of her folks’ documents and keepsakes, including this 100 ruble note issued in 1910, perhaps handed down by one of their grandparents who grew up in the late Russian Empire, though Varya suspects her Dad simply picked it up somewhere as a collectible.
These days, 100 rubles would be worth about a buck fifty, but that’s not a valid conversion for this old money. The Russian ruble has been redefined/reset several times since the days of Tsar Nicholas II (whose “N II” crown seal is in the upper right corner), first by the Communists and a few more times during the 1990’s, a decade of financial and societal turbulence in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It’s more informative to read the reddish section in the lower center, which states this Russian government note may be exchanged for real gold at a rate of 15 rubles per imperial gold coin. So, this 100 ruble note would have been worth 100/15 or nearly 7 gold coins, a tidy sum for a member of the proletariat under the last Russian Tsar. Unfortunately, the Russian Revolution would render it worthless just seven years later.
Not unlike some of our US currency picturing fancy wigged dudes from a couple centuries past, this 110 year old ruble note featured Empress Catherine II, aka “The Great”, as she was still revered over a century after her death. The fancy E to the right of her image stands for Ekaterina, the Russian form of Catherine. At 26 cm (10.2″) wide and 12 cm (4.7″) tall, this is a big bill! So, the creases showing it was folded into a 1/8 area square are not surprising…how else would you carry this big, valuable paper around?!
Since Mom sold her house over the summer, this was the first time in several years that we did not fly north for Christmas. As we searched for our long unused tree and decorations, we flew Mom south to our home, while Claire stayed nearby with Dad and Elaine. Varya spent Christmas day smoking tender ribs and cooking several appetizers and sides for an excellent Texas holiday dinner.
Ruby takes Claire’s empty seat
After dinner, it was time to open presents, much to the delight of Varya…
The best Christmas cooks do it in heels
…and the Monkey, who couldn’t get enough of a catnip-laced fake bird.
Every December, I have to remind myself to save some presents and make dinner reservations for the day after Christmas, Varya’s birthday. This year, she broke from her tradition of Americas or Perry’s steakhouse and chose Brasserie 1895 in Friendswood, where a Belgian Master Chef makes every visit deliciously surprising. The elk chops were the best game I’ve ever had!
Go ahead and double up on desserts, Birthday Girl!
The Brasserie 1895 chef, managers and waiter couldn’t have been nicer, though we stayed past closing time, with the restaurant nearly empty. They even treated Varya to a candle-lit eclair for her birthday.
Varya and Claire remembering their delectable duck, steak and desserts
On our way out, a Brasserie manager grabbed an ornament from their Christmas tree and gave it to Varya as another birthday present. Only when we got outside did we realize it was an ornamental slab of bacon. How did they know that’s what she wanted?!
Claire flew in from brisk NYC for a warm Thanksgiving week and weekends in Houston, joining us at Elaine’s & Dad’s Pearland home for Thanksgiving dinner. Elaine prepared an excellent table of some of the best turkey, corn bread stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and green beans with new potatoes that I’ve ever had. With none of the food being less than completely delicious, overeating was unavoidable…even before diving into Claire’s cheesecake plus pecan and apple pies…with ice cream. Oh my. I digested over the next few hours like a python with a gobbler-shaped lump, and fixed the usual IT issues for the senior set, while Claire showed them how to rent a streaming movie on their Roku box…a tasty, productive and entertaining T-day.
For 15 intensive weeks, Varya has been leaving the house every weekday at 7am, driving to a Metro park-n-ride lot, riding a bus to the Flatiron School in the center of downtown Houston to attend their software developer bootcamp from 9am-6pm, returning home after 7pm, then reading textbooks and working on labs and projects until bedtime. This past Friday, she graduated as a skilled full stack web site developer, and the joy on her face says it all…
Varya is a very glad grad!
When Varya posed the idea of attending a software bootcamp at the beginning of the summer, even after she explained what it was, my first reaction was “why?”. After all, she’d already earned a PhD in software engineering from the Institute for System Programming in the Russian Academy of Sciences, not to mention BS and MS degrees in software engineering from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the top technical university in Russia, and even an MBA in Finance along the way. In the US, she knocked out a couple Oracle certifications as a Java programmer. But, as she reminded me, all of these degrees and certs seemed to matter less to recruiters and interviewers than the multi-year gap in her employment history after she immigrated to the US. I listened in on a couple calls from job site recruiters who focused on that gap, then falsely promised to send her tests to confirm her software currency, though they never followed through. Frustrated by such treatment, and wanting to broaden her focus from scientific parallel programming in Java to modern web site development, she convinced me that Flatiron was the best path to a new, interesting career in the US.
New class ready to #ChangeThings
Not only did Flatiron teach Varya full stack web development skills, but they prepared her for employment by helping her update her LinkedIn and Github sites, technical blog and resume. They’ll spend the next few weeks giving her mock/practice interviews and help and advice applying for jobs. Flatiron claims a 97% success rate finding employment for their grads, so we’re confident that Varya–at the top of her class due to all of her prior software experience–will add to that percentage as an attractive candidate for them to present to employers.
I’m very proud of all the hard work she invested in the last 4 months, so impressed by the cool web site projects she completed, and excited to see where she takes this new endeavor. That excitement is only partially due to the new bike she said we’d buy once her new career is underway! 🙂
Moonday 