Here we appear to be having what the locals advertise as a typical summer. We've had our two week hot spell, and now it isn't even the end of July and we can barely scrape together 70 puny degrees. Not that I'm complaining! Makes for fabulous sleeping weather. And it has nevertheless been sunny, so a guy can still exercise pretty much every day without expiring in the process - such a guy might quickly get spoiled having summer weather like this. But wait! The forecast says summery again this weekend, temps are going back up, low-to-mid 80s forecast for next week...
Recent events have gotten us to thinking more about marriage and weddings. First of all, our favoritest babysitter, E, is getting married back in the States on Aug. 2nd. She's a fellow graduate student from Maryland, and we both just love her to death.
Unfortunately for us, it means we lose a reliable babysitter for five weeks starting now, and permanently at the end of December. Unfortunately for her, she has to come back here after her honeymoon and finish up her tenure here for four more months, sans husband.
I also know of another fellow graduate student back in Minnesota, P, who went through the courses same time I did, who is getting married a week later. Having just defended her thesis she is going to move to Austin (TX, not MN) with her new lawyer husband and join the Weinberg theory group (that's right, a theoretical physicist married to a lawyer! The joke possibilities alone stagger the imagination). She's already published several articles. Talk about your high powered lives...
Meanwhile, K was able to score a camcorder on loan so that we can transfer the video her uncle made at our wedding from mini-DV to DVD. It's good to be reminded of your beginnings, of some of the fundamental values and beliefs we professed, the themes we wanted to own in our marriage. As we all know, living the day-to-day day after day tends to dull the senses...
When the mundane threatens to drown out the profound: time to go on vacation! We've wanted badly to arrange for one the whole summer. The tension for us is heightened by the simultaneous allure and intimidation (cost, language, unfamiliarity) that a European vacation presents. But K was persistent in her searches and also scored a chalet in Grindelwald, "Rocky Docky", that isn't too high-priced.
And the scenery is unmatched. Just do a google search: Grindelwald sits in the shadow of the renowned Eiger north face (movie buffs: who starred in "The Eiger Sanction"? -no internet trolling, that would be cheating!) The Eiger is one of the trio of "Jungfrau" mountains, Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau. In fact, the area has several landmarks famously highlighted in books and movies - the top of the Schilthorn features a 360-degree rotating restaurant shown in a James Bond film, and not much farther away, the Reichenbach Falls where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle prematurely killed off his character Sherlock Holmes.
We got to visit the region very briefly (just a few hours) two years ago on our European tour, so we're glad to get 3-4 days this time and linger a little longer. We leave Saturday morning. We've been researching the terrain (this is what Google Earth was made for - thanks, Pete) and the cogwheel train tours and other touristy options. Hopefully the next blog will be full of impossibly beautiful pictures...
This area has simply too much to offer not to take advantage of it. The temptation is to hole up and work, and thereby give in to the difficulties and inconveniences of living in a foreign country. Well, I for one refuse. Even something as simple as going down to the lake in Geneva for some exercise means overcoming traffic and numerous long annoying stoplights, but I've found that it is always worth it. Last Friday once again I corralled K and B to go with me down to the lakefront, where they are preparing for two weeks (plus) of "Fetes de Geneve". For the "Pre-Festival" they throw a musical stage up and food booths and a Ferris wheel.
All sorts of people come out of the woodwork - and surprisingly many families and people pushing around strollers just like us - to take it all in.
We ran across one guy carrying a baby pig. He charged K 0.50CHF to hold it. B was nonplussed.
Caption contest: enter a comment with your idea for a caption for this picture!
Then on Saturday K and I went to the local suburban mall - "Balexert" in Meyrin - almost as big as your typical suburban mall in the states. The anchor store is a Migros. Migros is a huge chain in Switzerland - actually, according to Wikipedia the biggest employer in Switzerland. They also mention that "the supermarkets are categorized in the three size classes of M, MM and MMM." Virtually every community around Geneva has one of some size or other. The Migros in Balexert is a MMM. We went there to arrange for payment of our vacation and stayed for lunch at the Migros Restaurant outdoor patio. Sort of like a Byerly's experience, for you Twin Citians...
Then on Saturday night, our last opportunity to take advantage of E's babysitting services for a while (and wish her "bon mariage" since we can't be there) so that K and I could take in the latest Narnia movie (English version with German and French subtitles) at the Pathe Balexert theater back at the mall.
Movie prices there are 17.50CHF ($17) per movie (!!) - but if you buy a card, you can bulk up on movies for only 13.50CHF ($13) a pop.
The buildup to "beam" and "collisions" is accelerating. The CMS commissioning team is feverishly working to install the final elements of the detector before it has to be closed and the cavern evacuated, before particles start circulating through the beam pipe. Just today I was up at Point 5 for tests, and took pictures of them installing the ECAL endcap "D's" on "the plus side"...
...and the "BPIX," or barrel pixel detector on "the minus side."
Weekly "mid-week global runs" (MWGRs) have been scheduled until CRuZeT4 and CRAFT (see previous blogs, sorry :) in mid-August and then 24/7 operation thereafter. Here's a picture from the Surface Control Center during the last CRuZeT3 run. The tracker had just been included in the run and everyone was gathered around the central DAQ station to see what was happening.
They will shortly be injecting particles on the south end of the ring, but dumping them again before they get to CMS. Speculation is that they'll have particles circulating all the way around by middle or end of August. About that time, all work directly on the detector in the cavern ceases, the detector is closed (all the pieces shoved together), and then we turn on the magnet again for the first time in two years (first time ever with it all assembled) to see if anything breaks. =8-O
Keeping our fingers crossed,
-PKBD
P.S. Don't forget your weather comments and caption contest entries! :) Just click on "X Comments" (or on "Post A Comment" depending on your browser) where X is some number. And then below the text entry box click "Anonymous" if you don't have a google account. But in that case make sure to sign your comment :)
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