Back to school 2007

Today was freshman arrival day -- 1300 new faces and new computers on the Emory campus. Our job is to get them onto both the wireless and wired networks, set up with Emory's software, and ready to begin their lives at Emory, one of the first tasks of which will be to register for classes using their computers. So, it's important that they work. And if we don't recognize that fact, their parents are sure to remind us! :-)

This is a weekend that reminds you, forcibly and completely, of where we work and what we're all about -- in a good way.

For Alan and me, the day began in the gym, where everyone goes to get their initial materials. The whole place is set up with tables with information on everything from majors, to the arts, to transportation, etc. Everyone has handouts and freebies. This year, our big ones were pens, mints, and retractable ethernet cables. You have to explain to the 18 year olds what they are because they've never seen them! The gym is exhausting -- six hours on your feet saying the same thing 64 million times (Did you get your computer on the network? No, okay, did you run the CD we sent?). But we had fun with Rhonda, the head of Net Comm, and Brett, Alan's new boss, who handled Back to School like a master.



While we were in the gym, 70 IT staff were in the residence halls, helping students to get their computers ready for Emory. This year went well. The network was great and the only major problems involved Vista authentication. Tomorrow should be okay.

At the close of the day, we enjoyed some beers back at the Jones room. Stories were shared, laughs exchanged, and we all reveled in our shared labor and enjoyment of an important job well done.

Idaho meanderings

The Seminar on Academic Computing sessions were great--it was perfect to plunge into two days of intensive talks and discussions on all matters IT after the two very different musical encounters of the weekend. Somehow the music seemed to open up our brains to soak in the intelligence, wisdom, and creativity of the SAC crowd, sadly for the last time at Snowmass. Tuesday night there was a heartfelt tribute to the many years of SAC at Snowmass (30+ years). Lots of folks made it an annual tradition, meeting up with old friends and colleagues, so there was a definite sense of melancholy in the air. Next year will be in Broomfield, CO. We'll hope for new traditions and adventures.


Wednesday morning we headed out to meet up with Alan's sister Suzy in Sun Valley, Idaho. While in the airport, I called into work to check in with Nancy; she asked where I was and I said, "I'm at the Aspen airport headed for Sun Valley." "You suck," was her rejoinder. :-) En route to Sun Valley on a prop plane, I took this photo looking out at the engine--weird how the light refraction produced this image.


Suzy rented her usual awesome house, this one with a beautiful pool and hot tub that we enjoyed thoroughly Wednesday afternoon and into the evening. The pool and hot tub are separated only by a wall so you can hop into the hot water and then back into the cool water, a strategy our niece Avery apparently mastered while she was here. I'm told deer wander through the yard although I haven't seen it myself.


Today, we got up and went to Silver Creek to arrange for Alan to have a fishing adventure tomorrow morning on, you guessed it, Silver Creek. I bagged out because of too much sun -- the sun is so strong out here that even with SPF 45, I'm getting burned. For lunch, we took the chair lift up Mt Baldy to the summit. Unfortunately for us, there was a party of 22 ahead of us in line for hamburgers. In time, and after being 'helped' by an incredibly rude server, we got our lunch which was tasty, as were the views. I had perfect connectivity with my iPhone and seeing that the weather in Atlanta was 100 degrees was just icing on the cake. Heading down on the chairlift, both Alan and I lost our hats to a gust of wind -- his only about 2 hours into his possession, mine a beloved Patagonia hat that had been on many adventures. I will miss it. :-(

Music of a different sort

The day dawned cool and misty in Snowmass. We toured through the arts fair here in Snowmass Village, checking out the photography, jewelry, and other works, including some hand-crafted lamps made out of fishing rods. They were pretty cool, with actual reels (spin and fly) that really spun. Floor and table. There is a website but it says "coming soon." We liked the contemplative collage work of Ann Astrella Buel and stopped to chat with her briefly. She's a native San Franciscan who now makes her home in Colorado. I was intrigued to read in her biography that she does work with art therapy and Alzheimers patients.



Following a delicious lunch at Cantina, we headed down the river path towards the Benedict Music Tent of the Aspen Music Festival. En route, we saw some trout in the Roaring Fork, including one *huge* fish -- looked like a brown trout -- that kept coming to the surface to feed. We had tickets to the 4pm symphony performance which was a tribute to the late CBS newsman, Ed Bradley, conducted by his good friend, James DePreist. The concert began with excerpts from Chris Brubeck's Convergence, which was both beautiful and jazzy in the New Orleans style, followed by excerpts from Bernstein's 2nd Symphony, featuring Misha Dichter on piano. He was phenomenal--so powerful, yet delicate. The piece is difficult, based on Auden's "The Age of Anxiety," and some in the audience looked less than intrigued, but we liked it.

Following an intermission, Sarah Chang took the stage as the soloist for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, which she has recorded here.
She is a virtuoso with the instrument and quite passionate in her performance, which was well received. Lots of people left after her piece, but we stayed for a beautiful rendering of excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

During the concert, rain came and went, pattering gently on the roof of the tent. The aspen trees that surround swayed and shook in the wind, adding another dimension to the sound. It was one of the most beautiful performance venues we have ever attended.

Our original thought had been to wander the streets of Aspen and discover dinner but more rain put that thought to rest and we came back to the Silvertree for some light room service and Sunday night TV. Tomorrow, the conference begins early at 7:45am.

P.S. Aspen came back to beat Steamboat, 28-25.

Serendipity in Snowmass

This morning found us on the 7am flight out of Atlanta, westward bound for Snowmass and the final Seminar on Academic Computing at the Silvertree Hotel. This is an event Alan has gone to regularly for many years and we didn't want to miss the last meeting. Apparently, they will tear down the entire complex to put in high end lodging and condos. Sad, but that seems to be the theme these days in Aspen-Snowmass.

We lunched at a lovely French café at the foot of Mt Aspen. Alan indulged in moulles et fritês, l'Amerique (which involved Sam Adams). I had a very nice gazpacho. We wandered around Aspen, through the Saturday market, where Alan bought me a purse made out of recycled soda bottles -- it looks like a straw bag but you can wipe it down. Cute, too. We also spent a good 45 minutes watching the Aspen rugby team take on Steamboat Springs. Unfortunately for Aspen, Steamboat dominated play, at least in the first half.

On arriving at the Silvertree, the very friendly general manager informed me that there was a free evening concert on Fanny Hill, immediately adjacent to the hotel. The artists? Shawn Colvin opening for John Hiatt!! Alan couldn't believe it. We could actually see the stage from our room and enjoyed John's extensive sound check from there but went out on the hill for the actual show, which was amazing. He's such a great performer and brought out lots of goodies -- Tennessee Plates, Thing Called Love, Crossing Muddy Waters, Memphis in the Meantime, Perfectly Good Guitar, and Real Fine Love, finishing up with a sweet version of Slow Turning.

We sat on the hillside, watching the sunset in the distance over the mountains and felt lucky indeed.