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The Daily Doings of Steph

Here it is the last day of April and it’s snowing to beat the band. Question: Exactly what does the phrase “beat the band” mean???

Anyhoo, it’s 36 degrees - just warm enough so the snow won’t stick. Unlike Friday’s 2 foot dump at 32 degrees. But the flakes sure are big!!!!!

Wonder what impact this will have on the 7th Annual Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic…

Entries close at midnight tonight!!!!!!

Read: It’s Snowing - AGAIN!!!!! »

Via Very Short List, a BBC video promoting the Beeb’s video streaming. It is hilarious. It certainly gives March of the Penguins a run for their money.

Read: The BBC’s Flying Penguins »

Yesterday, Anchorage was flat out buried in a huge snow storm. It was the 3rd snowiest day ever recorded in Anchorage. As Weather Service described in their recap:

THE HISTORIC STORM THAT AFFECTED THE ANCHORAGE AREA ON APRIL 25-26 2008 BEGAN AS LIGHT RAIN SHOWERS. SNOW BEGAN TO MIX WITH RAIN IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS AND CHANGED OVER TO ALL SNOW AROUND 9AM ON THE FRIDAY THE 25TH. THE HEAVIEST SNOW FELL BETWEEN 3PM AND 6PM AT A RATE OF ALMOST 2 INCHES AN HOUR. SNOWFALL TOTALS WERE UNIFORM ACROSS ANCHORAGE AS THE HILLSIDE RECEIVED AROUND THE SAME AMOUNT AS LOWER ELEVATION LOCATIONS.

I can attest to the 2 inches per hour rate in the afternoon. Digging Henry out at 5:00 PM yesterday was a major excavation. I then had to do it all over again an hour later. I have never seen it snow that hard. Evidently, a large Gulf of Alaska cold front moved in and then stalled over Anchorage. And at the end of April for God’s sake. It was mind blowing. I know everyone thinks that Alaska is the land of snow and cold - and we are. But not on April 25th. By the date, we’re moving into what passes for Spring.

This was Perfect Storm II - a worthy follow up to Perfect Storm I - the famous St. Patrick’s Day snow storm of 2002.

THE ONE DAY SNOWFALL EVENT ON APRIL 25TH (FROM MIDNIGHT TO MIDNIGHT)
WAS THE THIRD HIGHEST ON RECORD. THE CURRENT LIST OF ONE DAY SNOWFALL
TOTALS IS LISTED BELOW.

DATE SNOWFALL
1. 03-17-2002 22.0 INCHES
2. 12-29-1955 15.6 ”
3. 04-25-2008 15.5 ”
4. 12-04-1998 15.1 ”
5. 03-18-1976 14.3 ”

More goodies from the Weather Service recap:

AT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE ON SAND LAKE ROAD THE SEASONAL SNOWFALL TOTAL IS NOW 109.1 INCHES. THIS MAKES THE WINTER OF 2007-2008 THE 6TH SNOWIEST ON RECORD FOR ANCHORAGE. LISTED BELOW IS THE CURRENT LIST OF TOP 10 SNOWIEST WINTERS IN ANCHORAGE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1915.

YEAR SNOWFALL
1. 1954 - 1955 132.8 INCHES
2. 1955 - 1956 128.8 ”
3. 1994 - 1995 121.5 ”
4. 2003 - 2004 111.5 ”
5. 1948 - 1949 111.0 ”
6. 2007 - 2008 109.1 ”
7. 1989 - 1990 102.6 ”
8. 1991 - 1992 99.5 ”
9. 1965 - 1966 94.5 ”
10. 1958 - 1959 94.5 ”

Yesterday’s 15.6 inches vaulted us high up into the top ten of all time! We had 18 inches at our house. And at Judy’s house way up on the Hillside, they had 30 inches. And it was still snowing up there this morning.

Henry II was definitely challenged by the snowfall. I’d had his studded winter tires swapped out two weeks ago - that’s what one does in mid-April. So, yesterday afternoon, we were tooling around on his summer racing slicks in 18 inches of very wet snow. Actually, the tires weren’t the real problem. Clearance was the issue. Henry II is a low slung model - high centering was a real problem. Fortunately, we didn’t get stuck until last night - in our own driveway.

Poor Tygey also had high centering issues. The snow was up and over his gunnels. I had to tramp out a path this morning in the back yard so he could attend to his business.

Below are several pics and another video!!!!

Our snowed under Salmon.

Tyge last night at the Lagoon. One thing that everyone is commenting on - it is so bizarre to have this much snow and still have it be light at 9:00 PM at night. Unheard of!

Rudy - our reindeer windsock. I’d been giving Peter a hard time earlier in the week - we’re way past Easter and our Christmas windsock is still flapping in the breeze. Well, yesterday’s weather was very appropriate for Rudy.

Henry snowed in at work. The snow on top of him had accumulated in just one hour.

I dug out a friend’s car.

Self portrait of Tyge and me last night.

A now for our feature video short. The Ski Boy in action!!!! We’d just come home from dinner at Sack’s. I tried to get Henry II into the driveway. But he got so high centered that he basically plowed up his own snow berm in front the car and we ground to halt. The Ski Boy, ever the gallant gentleman, shoveled out the berm and then after much pushing, more shoveling, getting stuck twice, more pushing and more hoveling, Henry II finally blasted through the driveway to the garage. Huzzahs all around!!!!!!

Read: The Perfect Storm II »

We’re in the midst of a major winter storm. Twelve inches of very wet, heavy snow! Of course, it’s April 25th as opposed to January 25th. The Ski Boy is not a happy camper in regards to this rogue storm.

I shot my first ever video today with our new Flip video camera. I think the video is pretty fun and has an interesting perspective!

Read: It’s Winter!!!!! »

Tyge at the west end of the Lagoon, yesterday afternoon. The temperature was 55 degrees. Today, that same location has morphed back into a winter wonderland

I’ll bet you all were worried - how can it be April without a Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic??!!!! However, we’ve had very cold Spring and as I type, we’re in the midst of a huge blizzard - 7 inches of snow on the ground and the storm total is predicted at 12 inches. Pretty impressive for April 25th!

Predicting ice out is going to be a challenge. But, as in years past, it’s time to break out the weather almanac, consult weather service predictions, check your horiscope, try to figure out if this is an El Nino or a La Nina year, read the tea leaves, ponder the state of the pussy willows, count the number of returning geese and assess the impact of global warming - all in an attempt to be the winner of this year’s Ice Classic!!!!!

I have no clue as to when the ice will go out. This time last week, there was still a foot of snow on top of the ice. It didn’t look as if it could possibly go out until June 1st. However, by yesterday, we’d had three days of 60 degree weather, all of the snow was gone and the ice was a bit rotten around the edges. But, after today’s blizzard, who knows????

The rules (such as they are) are listed below. You’ve got a little bit of time to get your guess in, but don’t wait too long. That ice could go out and leave you behind!

Rules:

1. The participant must guess the date the ice goes out of the Lagoon.
2. Each participant gets only one guess.
3. Date for entries closes at 11:59 PM ADT on April 30th, 2007.
4. A guess consists of just a date - no time. I refuse to install a timing tripod on the Lagoon.
5. I will check the ice several times each day.
6. ALL the ice must go out. It sometimes goes out in chunks - but chunks don’t count.
7. Participants must supply their e-mail address. This is so I can contact you if you win.
8. If more than one person guesses the winning date, each winner will get a full prize - up to 4 winners. If there are more than 4 winners, the winning 4 will be selected based upon earliest entry into the contest.
9. All judge’s decisions are final and I (Steph) am the judge.
10. Ah - the prize. It’s a good one - a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.

Voting:

1. Voting will be done through the comments feature.
2. The voting comments button is at the bottom of this post.
3. Click on the comments button and submit your vote.
4. The cool thing is that everyone will be able to see everyone else’s vote - hopefully there will be a lot of them.

Notes and Hints:

1. In 2007, the went out on May 2nd. We had two co-winners: Rick and Elliott.
2. In 2006, the ice went out on over a two day period: May 3rd and May 4th. Our winners were Gordon, Da Ski Boy, BJ, and Sean!
3. In 2005, the ice went out on April 29th and the winning prognosticator was Cory Gish.
4. In 2004, the ice went out on May 4th a day on which we set a record high temperature of 66 degrees. The 2004 winners were Dr. L., and Phil.
5. In 2003, the ice went out very very early, April 26th The 2003 winners were Brad and Phil.
6. In 2002, the ice went out quite late: May 10th and the winners were Erin and Brad.
7. I saw a parasailor-skier out on the Lagoon last week on April 18th.
8. The section of Chester Creek just East of Spenard Road is partially open. For you non-Anchorage-ites, Chester Creek feeds into the Lagoon.
9. If I got to vote, I’d vote for May 5th - 10 days from today.

So vote away.

Read: Time for the 7th Annual Westchester Lagoon Ice Classic! »

First up - sorry about the lack of posts for the past ten days. It’s been another stretch where I got whumped by the CFS stick.

Anyhoo, a blanket of sorts has settled in over Anchorage. It’s hazy. Really hazy. And the haze is not locally generated - it’s not dust left over from winter sanding. Nope, this is foreign stuff - a combination of fine particles from the Gobi Desert (the Gobi Desert located in Mongolia) and smoke from huge Siberian forest fires.

Here’s a more detailed explanation from today’s Daily News.. This paragraph provides an overview:

Annual sand storms in the Gobi Desert often assault neighboring areas with drifting grit dubbed Kosa, meaning “yellow sand,” by the Japanese, whose islands it frequently crosses, said Catherine Cahill, a researcher with the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Such storms are common through April and May, and the dust routinely reaches Alaska and beyond, she said.

“This is actually fairly normal,” she said. “Pretty much every spring, we get a huge amount of dust from the Gobi Desert. Some years we get more dust than others. This is definitely a worse year.”

But not the worst in recent years. The spring of 2001 was the fourth-dustiest on record in Asia, with the minuscule dust particles drifting across the entire U.S. and even into Greenland, Cahill said.

This year, dust is only half the problem. Massive wildfires spanning a huge swath of southern Siberia in the Russian Far East broke out last week, contributing smoke to the mix and worsening an unusually dusty spring, Albanese said. One can’t smell the smoke because of its lofty position in the sky, he said.

Here are a few pics:

The view East to the mountains:

The view North.

Another shot looking North.

Read: Gobi Desert - in Anchorage »

This afternoon, The Ski Boy and I headed down to the Qwest Field parking lot and then over to Chinatown to snag a few geocaches. Guess who was also at Qwest Field? Yup, His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Of course, His Holiness wasn’t geocaching. He was speaking to a crowd of 50,000 people as part of The Seeds of Compassion conference.

There is something delightfully serendipitous when one snags a geocache while watching and listening to the Dalai Lama on the Jumbotron.

The Dalai Lama on the Jumbotron.

At the gate to Chinatown.

Read: Geocaching and Dalai Lama »

Me, the Ski Boy and The Dalai Lama are in the Emerald City for the weekend. Seattle is definitely a happenin’ place.

This morning, we (Peter and I - not The Dalai Lama) did brunch with Alix, Anna, and Mari at our favorite place, Cafe Campagna. Pomme frites were enjoyed by all!!!

The girls. From left to right: Anna, Alix, and Mari:

Read: Seattle! »

As I was walking out of AT&T Park after the Giants beat the Cardinals 5-1, I thought, “I’ve had a really great day!”

This morning’s (early morning, btw) Identity Management sessions at the RSA conference were quite good. I think that in regards to Identity Management, RSA 2008 has been the best conference that I’ve attended. Really good stuff.

I had lunch - for the third straight day - at the Samovar Tea House. They have the most amazing cherry scones ever - served with clotted cream and strawberry preserves. Plus, their tea is sublime. I have a feeling I may do brunch there again tomorrow.

This afternoon’s last Keynote speaker was Malcom Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink. I’m a huge fan of The Tipping Point - a brilliant and very well developed thesis. (BTW, I’m both a connector and a maven). His talk was great - in addition to being an excellent writer, and very smart, he is also an extremely engaging and intelligent speaker. The audience loved him!

I finished off my day with the Giants-Cardinal game at AT&T park. I walked over from the Moscone center and picked up three geocaches on the way to the ballpark.

The game was great and amazingly, the Giants won. Good pitching all the way through for the Giants. Just my kind of game.

All in all, a pretty fabulous day. The only way it could have been any better was if the Ski Boy had been with me.

Here are a few pictures from the game.

Me and Lou Seal. I love this pic!
And big thanks to Brendan and his iphone for this shot!

My seat buddies - one of whom is from Alaska!!! As I always say, Alaska is a very small town. Turned out that we knew a ton of the same people.

Left field.

Read: A Darn Good Day »

I’m in San Francisco at RSA 2008. Ironically, this year’s conference theme is Turing Lives. My post on the Dilbert-Turing cartoon of a few weeks ago was almost prescient.

RSA is one of the heavy hitter tech conferences. It’s quite large and the geek quotient is through the roof. If you think developers are geeky, wait ’till you’re around security geeks. But, even though geekery abounds, this conference runs the gamut from uber-technical to societal presentatation and speakers - such as Michael Chertoff - Secretary of Homeland Security. I don’t agree with Chertoff’s “Maginot Line” approach to security, but unlike several other Bush Cabinet members, Chertoff actually seems intelligent, engaging, and interested in dialog.

I’m here for Identity Management stuff and the conference has been really rich on the IdMA front. Several excellent presentations and I’m going to spend a good part of the afternoon at the Interoperability Demo’s.

Yesterday, I got a chance to hear one of my favorites, Bruce Schneier speak on Reconceptualizing Security. It was excellent - not only is Schneier a brilliant crypto guy, he really gets Layer 8 (human behavior). He’s in the process of working through a new theory of how security relates to reality, feelings, and security models. He’s an excellent thinker and his theory is quite compelling. This CNET column provides a good overview of Schneier’s presentation.

I always enjoy observing conference demographics. Usually, particularly at geek conferences, the male to female ratio is about 25 to 1. This conference, very surprisingly is more like 10 to 1. The number of observant jewish men is also high - lots of yarmulkes. But my favorite new observed demographic is the number of pony tailed men. Very noticeable - I don’t know if the extra hair is correlated with the security field or academia - which is also well represented here. But there sure are lots of middle-aged guys with pony tails.

Read: Hangin’ with the Security Geeks at RSA 2008 »