The Bean - Special Edition

This is a special edition of the Brownie blog. Uncle Mike has wanted to visit The Bean in Chicago for a long time. Mike and Jeannette were in Chicago this weekend for a wedding so they finally had an opportunity to see it. Lucky for them it was a beautiful day as well.

On the way through Millennium Park, we stopped to get a picture with Brownie on the BP Bridge. It was a little risky because if Brownie slid down the metal sides he would have been really hard to retrieve.

On to The Bean! The Bean is a giant bean-shaped sculpture. They welded a bunch of pieces of steel together and polished it to a mirror finish.


As you start to walk closer your reflection gets all distorted and different ways. Mike and Jeannette are in the reflection below, Jeannette is wearing pink. On the left side of the picture are our friends Mitch and Kate. Mitch is wearing a light colored shirt and is holding a camera.


Underneath The Bean, the reflections start to get even crazier. It's very neat and you can't see the weld joints at all.


As you can see, it was a beautiful day with the clouds and blue sky.


Here's another beautiful reflection:

Minneapolis for Work Again

Uncle Mike had to go to Minneapolis again for work. It was a pretty good trip, we got a lot of work done and also had plenty of time to hang out with Kevin. At Kevin's place, Brownie took a picture with a poster for Ricky Jay. Ricky is famous for card tricks and his ability to throw playing cards really far.
Here's a video of Ricky Jay:
Card Throwing

I encourage you and your parents to check out more Ricky Jay videos on YouTube.

Kevin is also into shooting guns for sport. Here's a picture of Brownie checking out his .308 rifle. I think the scope is a little too big for Brownie to be using!

This trip we had to stay at a different hotel and it had an indoor courtyard with little pools of water. Two days into the trip I realized that there were REAL DUCKS swimming around inside the hotel. I took a video of them, I hope it works:



Nearby was a science museum and we went there for trivia on Wednesday night. Between rounds of trivia we toured the museum and Brownie was able to get photos with dinosaurs. Here is a triceratops!

This next one Uncle Mike had never even seen before! Apparently it's a glyptodon clavipes, click here for more info.

This next one is awesome. This is Brownie with a bunch of petrified dinosaur poop! Isn't that gross?!?!


This last one is a bonus picture that has nothing to do with the trip. We were tailgating before an Illini football game and someone brought a giant homemade version of Jenga. It was so much fun! It got so tall that Aunt Jeannette could barely put the blocks on top.

Las Vegas, 2011

Welcome to Las Vegas!!

Uncle Mike went to Las Vegas last week for a couple conferences. It was a pretty good time and he learned some new information, but six days is a long time to be away from home. The first thing he did was visit the pawn shop that's home to the TV show Pawn Stars. It's actually pretty small inside and the famous people were all gone on vacation, but it's neat to say he was there.

Welcome to Ceasar's Palace, Brownie!

The first conference Mike attended was called Blackhat. It's a computer security conference. They provided a little bag with a drink holder than Brownie could ride around in:

Here's Brownie giving a talk at Blackhat!! Okay, not really, but he did get his picture taken on one of the podiums between talks.

Mike wasn't staying at Ceasar's Palace so he had to travel back and forth from his hotel every day. On the way back one night he ran into Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

Mike has a hard time going to Vegas without doing a little gambling. He's not very good and doesn't end up winning very often, but it's a good time. Mike had Brownie guard a $100 chip for him when it was time to walk away from the table. (Mike would later lose this $100 on more games.)

Pittsburgh

Had to hit the road again! This time Mike and Jeannette were headed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to celebrate the wedding of Roger and Floria. It was a 8.5 hour drive each way so they carpooled with their good friends Trent and Heather. Unlike Illinois, once you get a little further east you start hitting more hills and mountains. Here's Brownie riding on the dashboard as we approach the Fort Pitt Tunnel:

Whee! I'm not sure why, but driving through tunnels is a lot of fun.

The next day we explored some shops we had spotted the night before. They had a Penzey's Spices store! Jeannette loves Penzey's Spices with all the cooking she does and was super excited to visit a real store instead of ordering from a magazine. You could open up all the spices and smell the samples.

Here's a great picture of Jeannette from the wedding. Mike was behind the camera so we didn't get any real good shots of him this time.

On our last day we took an architectural cruise around the rivers. One of the coolest things was this building that had a hole in the side of it. The purpose of the design was so that every office could have an outside window. The building was built before the days of air conditioning.


Next week Mike is headed back to Las Vegas for another couple conferences for work. Brownie is almost certainly going to tag along.

Dan Inosanto Seminar

Uncle Mike is on the move again! Last weekend Mike went down to Evansville, Indiana for a two day martial arts seminar with the legendary Dan Inosanto. Dan is a master of Filipino Martial Arts and one of Bruce Lee's top students (I'd say THE best).

It was quite an experience, 6 hours each day for two days. Dan would go over a ton of techniques really fast and then ask us to try them out for a few minutes. It was really hard to keep up. On Sunday, my JKD/BJJ instructor, Jack came down as well and I was able to get a picture with the three of us:

Here are a couple videos you might enjoy:

Video of Dan Inosanto talking about Kali sticks

Dan giving a demonstration at the Smithsonian

Minneapolis for an Interview

It's been awhile since Brownie has been on a trip, but he got the chance to go with Mike to Minneapolis, MN (technically he spent most of his time in St. Paul) earlier this week. Mike had a job interview with US Bank after some encouragement from his good friend Kevin. Brownie made sure Mike was well-groomed and had clean hands before heading in to meet people on his Big Day:

The interviews seemed to go well. Afterward, Kevin and Mike had dinner a Faces, a restaurant located in the building where Kevin lives. Mike had something called a tagine. It was sorta like beef stew, but without all the broth and really tasty.

After dinner we went up to the second floor where Mike got his picture taken by an old supercomputer. This is the Cray 1 serial #12. It doesn't look at all like your computer, in fact, this one has a built-in bench that goes all the way around it. The colors are a little weird, but those are the school colors at the University of Minnesota where it was installed.

On his way out of town, Mike stopped by a shop in the airport so Brownie could get a picture with a big moose. The moose was so tall Mike had to stand on his tip toes to get Browie up on the antler. Moose aren't usually that thick, but they really are that tall sometimes!

One last picture at the airport with Snoopy and Woodstock.

That's it for now, but Mike and Jeannette will be home this weekend to see everyone!