Tag: Raleigh

Biscuits and gravy, trains, and a visit from Kelly

On Friday, June 12, 2015

Pam's Farmhouse (Raleigh) menu Pam's Farmhouse (Raleigh) biscuits and gravy I think my buddy, Troy, sent me these images just to torture me. We regularly met at Pam’s Farmhouse in Raleigh on Saturday mornings before we went into the lab to work on the GaugeCam project at NCSU a few years back. Very high on the long list of benefits of living in Raleigh is the stellar quality of the biscuits and gravy generally available in the South and the very specific benefits of Pam’s Farmhouse Restaurant where they only take cash, they serve their iced tea in Mason jars and the waitresses call you “Hon.” There might be a place here in Oregon that does biscuits and gravy right, but we have not found it yet.

Kelly goes back to University of Washington

That little bit of nostalgia was the latest in a series over the last couple of days. The anniversary of Lorena’s father’s death was a big part of it, but Kelly’s visit on the train got me to thinking about the several momentous train trips I had taken–A trip to Klamath Falls from Albany to visit cousin Merle when the kids were little (we saw a herd of elk a couple of feet from the train while moving slowly up a steep grade) and a trip from Portland to Idaho where I met a Catholic priest who became a lifelong friend.

I had completely forgotten about a great train trip my buddy Curt N. and I took from Boise to Denver on the train to visit our friend Karen K. That was one of two trips Curt and I took together to visit Karen, but the second one was a New Years eve trip to Seattle. Both trips were momentous high marks of my (relative) youth. The thing that triggered the memory of this trip was Karen K’s comment on the tribute post to Grandpa Lauro. I was so happy to see Kelly is maintaining the family tradition as is just as inspired as us about the train. It really is a great way to travel and all this brought a tear to my eye (especially the part about the biscuits and gravy)!

Betty Blonde #344 – 11/10/2009

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Sun in Oregon, snow in Raleigh

By Dad

On Monday, February 16, 2015

In General

Snow in Raleigh (by NCSU) We have had an amazing run of good weather in Oregon since we got here. Today started out as another bright and sunny one with temperatures supposed to get up into the low 60’s. Meanwhile, Raleigh is getting slammed with a boatload of snow. We love this picture that was taken not to far from the kids campus at North Carolina State University after only two inches of snow. Today, four inches are supposed to fall. We are still on the school-closings text list at Wake Technical Community College and everything is shut down today. There could be all out war and starvation. Keep Raleigh in your thoughts.

Betty Blonde #261 – 07/20/2009

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Thinking about the return to Oregon

By Dad

On Saturday, January 24, 2015

In House and home

Lorena and I have had lots of time to reflect about our return to Oregon. We thought about moves to Arizona and Texas before we settled on Oregon. Now it just feels right. There was really no good reason to stay in North Carolina even though we loved our time here. Things just did not work out in any place but Oregon. Now that we are settled, it just feels great to be going home. There is no place on earth we think is more beautiful (of course that is a religious discussion), we understand the culture, we know our way around and we will be much closer to the kids. It is funny how, when you get away from a place you have lived and understand, it is hard to hear what other people think about the place. It is not so much that others do not have valid opinions, it is that most of them only know part of the story and the parts they do know are often wrong. Outside of the obviously backward political thinking in the state, there is no better place of with which we are acquainted (with the exception of Monterrey) on just about every level. We know that is just for us and we understand why other people like other places better, but we are Oregonians.

Betty Blonde #250 – 07/03/2009

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Wrapping it up – Why I love North Carolina (professionally)

By Dad

On Friday, January 23, 2015

In Work

I wrote about why we love North Carolina in my last post. I thought I would write about why it was a good move for me professional in this post and maybe add another one on why it was a good academic move for our kids in the next one. Again, I am reserving the right to add to this if I think of more stuff after this post gets published:

Three great interesting jobs in North Carolina:

Centice (Raman spectroscopy and machine vision based pill identifier)
Bioptigen (Optical Coherence Tomography based hypercube, 3D eye imager)
Cimtec (Machine vision supplier–interesting applications in MANY industries including lumber, nuclear power, food and automotive)

Volunteer work at the NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering department

Refereed journal artical
Very remote (no power, only cell/satellite connectivity available) machine vision detection
Introduced the Arduino to the NCSU BAE deparment–It is ubiquitous there now

Learned new stuff and extended skills

Qt/Qt Creator/QMake
Cross platform development
LMI Gocator/Sick 3D imager programming
Much more

Earned a few more patents

Made a lot of new professional friends

I would put my current job at BHVD in here, too, but really I worked in Prescott, Arizona for the last two years, so I guess that does not count.

Betty Blonde #249 – 06/30/2009

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Wrapping it up – Why we love North Carolina

By Dad

On Thursday, January 22, 2015

In House and home

We went to our last Wednesday night bible study before out move last night. It is in Spanish and we will be leaving some dear friends behind when we move. Lorena and I look forward to our return to Oregon, but have talked about our time in North Carolina a lot over the last few weeks. We have been here for seven years and are leaving for work, proximity to family and for fellowship, but will always love North Carolina in general and Raleigh in particular very, very much.

We have made many, many good, life-long friends here. They, by themselves are reason to love North Carolina forever. There are just so many other things we love, they are too numerous to list, but I thought I would list just a few:

People still say please, thank you, yes ma’am and yes sir.
People wave and greet you in the neighborhood, grocery stores, in the street and everywhere else they get the chance.
The beautiful deciduous trees are nothing short of amazing.
Raleigh is the best small city in the country. Not Durham, not Cary, not Chapel Hill, not Charlotte, but Raleigh.
Charlotte. It is not Raleigh, but it IS Charlotte and that is a very good thing.
Cookout.
Bojangles.
Wake Technical Community College.
North Carolina State University.
The Hunt Library at NCSU.
The Hill Library at NCSU.
Cameron Village.
The Appalachians. Westerns have a tendency to act disdainful toward these smaller mountains in the East. They are wrong.
Kitty hawk and the beaches.
The Durham Performing Arts Center.
North Carolina is friendly to homeschoolers.
RDU is the very best airport in the country.
Values.
The Krispy Kreme run.
Research Triangle Park.
Great neighbors in our great neighborhood.
Fort Bragg and the Special Forces Museums.

I have missed a lot because I am on the run, so I reserve the right to come back and add to this list.

Betty Blonde #248 – 06/29/2009

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Raleigh living

By Dad

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014

In House and home

Every time I think I want to leave Raleigh, Lorena sends me a picture of the view from our back patio and I change my mind. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but we really like it. Lorena gets her hot summers. We get four distinct seasons with a little snow in the winter. It is ALL good.
View from the back patio--November 2014--Raleigh

Betty Blonde #209 – 05/05/2009

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Should we move to Portland

By Dad

On Tuesday, September 16, 2014

In General

Our last visit to Oregon gave us great pause about whether or not we should move back there. We have been gone for seven years now. We felt somewhat estranged from Oregon in general and Portland in particular. It has been difficult to put our finger on the reticence we feel about moving back, but it is definitely there. There are several smaller things that, on the surface might give us reason to prefer where we are now over Oregon. The reality is that, for us, they are minor considerations. The weather is a lot better in Raleigh–mild all year long (like Portland), but with many more days of sunshine. The metropolitan area around Raleigh features three truly superior National Research Universities while Portland features a pretty good, not great, but pretty good Regional University. All of the ones listed are better than any universities Oregon has to offer. There are lots of little things like that, but they are not the reasons that hold the most sway.

I am pretty sure both the culture in Oregon has shifted as have our cultural preferences. For all its hipness, Portland just seems more intolerant and coarse than other places where we have an opportunity live. I do not really believe the quality of writing or the truth of the content in the New York Times is very high, but they recently published an article about Portland titled Will Portland Always Be a Retirement Community for the Young? It captures a view of a part of the Portland reality that rings true. The certainly did not capture the whole reality, the nuances of old Oregon culture being so divorced from contemporary Portland culture, it would be hard for anyone to understand. Still, it is quite a good article that I recommend to anyone considering a move to, not just Portland, but Oregon in general. The description of Portland in this article is probably quite attractive to many, but does a good job of explaining why we are not so interested in moving back.

We are still in the throes of making a decision. We know we have to move West both for family and work. We are just happy that Raleigh, North Carolina is such an awesome place to live while we work through it.

Betty Blonde #164 – 03/03/2009

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Raleigh in 2½ inches of snow: The funniest meme of the year

By Dad

On Thursday, February 13, 2014

In culture, Entertainment

Day 906 of 1000

We laughed ourselves sick when we saw this because these people are us. Notice the commentary below the picture. That is us, too.

Here is what happens with 2½ inches of snow in Raleigh

Peeing in the 2½ inches of snow in Raleigh

Betty Blonde #69 – 10/21/2008

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New job

By Dad

On Wednesday, November 30, 2011

In Business, Work

Day 100 of 1000

Ten percent of our 1000 days is now complete. It is an auspicious day for that reason alone, but also because I turned in my resignation at my current wonderful job so that I could accept another position that will take me out of the world of medical devices and back into the world of industrial automation where I started. I cannot say too much about it yet, but it is a wonderful opportunity that allows me to stay in Raleigh so the kids can attend NCSU, travel around to see customers, and invent some new products that solve hard problems. It is very exciting.