When I was running on Key Boulevard I passed three kids who were throwing snowballs earlier. I was a little apprehensive about getting snow in my neck but that didn't happen. Instead, a boy turned around and started running with me. He was maybe 10 years old. He ran with me until Lee highway than yelled: "I am going home! Bye!". I told him: "Good run!"
Freezing rain started halfway, but it didn't get slippery.
"Squeak! Squeak!" We were trying to figure out where the strange noise in the car was coming from. It was 9.00 pm and we were on highway 101 on our way to Menlo Park. At first I thought it was the gas pedal but then we realized it came from the back seat. My colleague Chetan and I were in California for business meetings.
At the airport in San Francisco we rented a minivan -- it was that or waiting another 20 minutes -- so I drove one of those huge cars for the first time. But the noise was bothering us -- was it a bird? Some sort of small animal?
Thankfully, neither. After a few puzzled minutes we realized that I had accidentally switched on the wiper-blades on the rear window and they were making the noise.
Wednesday was a very productive day at work. We had design meetings all day, with people who are normally in offices in four different states. We made a big breakthrough in a difficult architecture question -- clearly a result of meeting face-to-face. Of course I found time to 'do the rounds' and I said hello to a lot of my colleagues. I like our Menlo office, it has a cool vibe.
The time difference is nice. I got up early in the morning and then went for a run on the Stanford Campus. I talked to Sasha and Nora around Nora's dinner time and sure enough, when she heard my voice she said: "hapje eten!" "Wat ben je aan het eten, Nora?" "rijts!" -- she was explaining that she was eating rice. And then she sang a song! She sang 3 sentences of зън зън зън, a Christmas song we've been singing with her. Amazing.
In the evening my colleagues and I made a quick stop at Nak's, a small Dutch store in downtown Menlo Park, on the way from my work to dinner. It's a quaint small store with a nice mixture of Eastern and Dutch goodies. The son of the owner persuaded us to try the dried persimmons, which were indeed good. This being Silicon Valley, he said that Steve Jobs used to come in and buy them. We then had dinner in an Indonesian restaurant where I had nasi goreng and green beans with sambal, among other things.
I travel back yesterday. We had a working lunch and from there went to the airport. Travel went smoothly, it was great to be home again. The first thing Nora said in the morning? "Hoofd, schouders, knieen, teen".
After reading a great book on the experiences of Lewis and Clark, where the Indian population played a very important role in keeping the expedition alive, I wanted to know more about life in the Americas before Columbus. This book came highly recommended from a list on reddit; perhaps not the most reliable source but this book was terrific and I can't wait to read the follow-up, 1493.
1491 makes three big statements about Native Americans (or Indians, the nomenclature is fraught with peril but these are the names used in the book). First, Indians have been in the Americans much longer than what is usually depicted in older history books. Second, Indians were much more populous than previously thought -- perhaps close in population to Europe around that time and third, that Indians had a very active role in shaping their environment.
These three statements, which point to incredibly rich cultures and civilizations, are based on recent scientific insights. The book does an excellent job in describing what modern scientists think about these issues, and what the consensus is. The author gives descriptions of the political and scientific "battles" that took place in academia over the past hundred years or so.
It's a great book, but the story it describes is a tragedy. The introduction of smallpox and other European diseases had a horrific effect on the Indian civilizations. Over the course of a hundred years, more than 90% of people died, possibly as many as 97%. In the author's words: the Columbus Exchange where goods and ideas transferred between the New and the Old World, resulted in a calamitous death toll. The people in the Americas who died made up as much as 20% of the entire world population.
It's a tragedy, even many generations later. It's also a shame that we know so little about those great civilizations.
It's been a while since I visited Palo Alto but I remember my running route pretty well, including the spot where I got lost last time. I checked the map and made it onto the Campus this time around. Ultimately I forgot to turn right on Campus Drive but I made it an out-and-back run and it felt great.
I have very fond memories of celebrating Sinterklaas with Ettie and my parents. Sinterklaas is a winter holiday celebration around the Saint Nicholas figure that is very popular in the Netherlands. When we lived in Opperdoes we would go see Saint Nicholas at the community center, where we'd get pepernoten and clementines.
I haven't celebrated it in years but now Nora is old enough to participate old memories started to creep back up and so this weekend we are going to the St. Nicholas celebration at the Dutch Embassy.
The tradition holds that in the weeks before December 5th kids can put their shoe in front of the chimney in the evenings. Nora put her shoe in front of our fireplace last Saturday and we sang two songs. I explained her the ritual and she sort of understood it. The next morning (after a rather rough night) we went downstairs... and there were presents!
Nora smiled when she saw them -- but she was also shy and didn't want to get near the fireplace without us. After breakfast we sat on the carpet and Nora opened her gift: a beautiful coloring book about Sinterklaas. She was quite impressed with the whole thing.
Thank you very much Ankie and Joost for making her first "schoen zetten" a big success!
I ran my usual course but just before one of the hills on Custis another runner entered the trail just behind me. Challenge accepted! I increased my speed, up the hills, probably for a good mile. It was tiring but a little bit of competition is nice. And I was faster! He never managed to pass me and I increased the distance between us quite a bit. Felt good, and it resulted in a record time of 44 minutes. Nice.
Nora kept us up from 1.00 am to 3.00 am and we were all quite tired today. Sasha has a bit of a cold also. I took a nap in the afternoon and felt better. Went for a run at 6.30 pm and it was great.
For the first time this season I was wearing my jacket but that wasn't necessary, it was quite pleasant out, if pitch-black.
There was absolutely nobody on the Custis trail, not a single runner or bicyclist. A bit eery.
Yesterday we had our big Thanksgiving meal, something that we all greatly enjoyed. Thanksgiving has all the nice parts of Christmas but it feels less stressful. We had great time with the Zanes; they are on their way home now. After they left we went for a walk.
We made our favorite dishes: turkey with sauerkraut, a pitka bread, mashed potatoes, apple sauce... we also made some Brussels sprout which came out nicely. After dinner we had some chocolate truffles that Irena brought from New York and we watched a documentary, "The Queen of Versailles". We used our new Roku appliance to watch it on Netflix.
Nora came down with a cold yesterday. She only wanted to sleep on our shoulders and would cry as soon as we put her down. Once she was asleep we moved her to her crib. The first night of a cold is always the hardest for her. She is taking a nap now and so far, so good.
The Zane family arrived yesterday. On the days before Thanksgiving traffic is always bad, so they left late in the evening and avoided virtually all traffic. They arrived at 1.00 am. It was great waking up to a house full of people and we had banichka for breakfast.
I made kruidnoten and speculaas cookies, the latter in the shape of Nijntje, a Dutch cartoon character. Nora loved them.
In the late afternoon the Zanes left to visit Jonathan's parents. We are going to have our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow -- it's a day off also.
"Squeak! Squeak!" We were trying to figure out where the strange noise in the car was coming from. It was 9.00 pm and we were on highway 101 on our way to Menlo Park. At first I thought it was the gas pedal but then we realized it came from the back seat. My colleague Chetan and I were in California for business meetings.
I have very fond memories of celebrating Sinterklaas with Ettie and my parents. Sinterklaas is a winter holiday celebration around the Saint Nicholas figure that is very popular in the Netherlands. When we lived in Opperdoes we would go see Saint Nicholas at the community center, where we'd get pepernoten and clementines.
Yesterday we had our big Thanksgiving meal, something that we all greatly enjoyed. Thanksgiving has all the nice parts of Christmas but it feels less stressful. We had great time with the Zanes; they are on their way home now. After they left we went for a walk. 
The Zane family arrived yesterday. On the days before Thanksgiving traffic is always bad, so they left late in the evening and avoided virtually all traffic. They arrived at 1.00 am. It was great waking up to a house full of people and we had banichka for breakfast. 