Exciting East Lansing 2025

You can look back in the blog history and see that I have visited "exciting" East Lansing many times. I collaborate with Keith Promislow in the Math Department of Michigan State University.  This year we continued to work on models that describe how interfaces in materials and biological systems move in time to equilibrium states that minimize a prescribed energy. Keith is the driver of the project, interested in the applications but mostly now in the analytic theory of the models. I develop computer simulations of the model, to investigate new phenomena or to confirm the analytic results. I have worked with Keith for many years (since 1998) and really enjoy the collaboration. 

The MSU campus is quite beautiful:

I have an enjoyable routine for my visits. Besides the research work, I host a weekly gin and tonic night at my long stay hotel with Keith and his wife Ronay and any other visitors that are around.

I had a rental car this trip and did some shopping at COSTCO. I had to try their house brand gin, that comes in a 1.75 litre bottle. My son tells me that tonic is hip. The Engine gin was something Keith brought back from Italy for me to try. What a good buddy! 

To keep myself out of trouble I always bring a hobby with me. This time it was embroidery. I decorated hats to celebrate G&T nights. 

The only new thing that was exciting was that a local Trader Joe's had opened up. I have to say that Trader Joe's is not as exciting as I remember it. I first went to one in LA years ago and it had all kinds of eclectic items that looked like they had fallen off the back of a truck. This modern one just had more or less regular groceries. 

I will end with a couple of extra things unrelated to this trip. My irises came up in the garden before I left. For some reason, my wife really does not like them. 

Before I left for East Lansing I had a short work trip to Penticton (at the south end of Okanagan Lake). I am our department's representative on the BC committee of all Math and Statistics departments, and our annual meeting was there. This was the view from my hotel room:

The weather has been great here since my return, here is a nice view from the steps up to my studio:

East Van Culture Crawl 2024

 Last month, I participated in the East Van Culture Crawl. It is a four day event where studio artists open up their space to the public. 

I debuted the sale of my paper mache creations, under the banner of "Three Circles Pottery and Paper".

I did sell a few things, came close to breaking even on the registration cost (if I am careful about what costs I count). I got a commission from a good friend of mine, John, for two more rainbow poppy vases and I think they turned out well. He bought the first one I made at the event. 

I put together a playlist for the event, available at YouTube Music. It was well received by the other artists in the studio, not sure if it made the visitors more comfortable. 

If you want more of my YouTube Music playlists (they are awesome) I am @brianwetton4068 on that platform. You can also see more of my craft adventures here. 

Whistler Weekend November 2024

Veronica booked us for a couple of days at Whistler, a mountain resort town near Vancouver. There is skiing in the Winter and Hiking, Golf, and Cycling in the Summer, but we are in between seasons. The weather cooperated this morning and we went on a walk around Alta Lake. This was a nice chance to get away from everything, I really enjoyed the break from the routine. First stretch of the walk was around the golf course.

Then it was around Alta Lake

Some beautiful vacation homes to see along the way.

I had minor envy, but I never did make the financial moves to end up affording something in that price range. I do have a three story, rustic place in the forest in a more dangerous part of town (in the Black Forest, in the game, Valheim):

I have a new page for my craft studio work

I have enough craft creations that I am trying to sell some of them, and now have a web page to advertise them: https://sites.google.com/view/3cpp. I am participating in the East Vancouver culture crawl November 14-17, details on the events tab of that new site. 

My father, Anthony Brittain Robinson, died last month

He was 97 years old, and in good mental and physical condition until the last few days he spent in the hospital after collapsing at his retirement home. There is an obituary for him on a web site hosted by the funeral home that handled his cremation:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/burnaby-bc/anthony-robinson-11985574 

My parents separated when I was four years old and later divorced. My mother went back to her maiden name and took me with her, which is why I am now a Wetton although I was born a Robinson. My father stayed a committed parent and took me for every holiday from then on. I got to see the province as I came to visit at the places his career as a professional forester took him. There are a lot of things to admire about my Dad. He had a successful career and really cared about the people that worked for him. He designed and built a cabin on Babine Lake (that is still standing). He was a real gentleman and I have had many kind words about him from his friends and the staff at his retirement home. My wife and I got to know the old man version of him well when he lived with us through COVID. He will be missed. 

These are pictures I took of him at his home in Kamloops just before he moved down to Vancouver. They were publicity shots for his books, still available (I think) on Amazon. 

Bulgaria Trip Summer 2024

My wife emigrated from Bulgaria in the 90's and still has connections and a family home (shared with her sister) there. I visited for the first time two years ago and we had another long trip this Summer. The first stop was Albena, a resort area on the Black Sea. We stayed at an all inclusive hotel, my first time at this type of vacation venue. It was all eating, drinking, sleeping, sitting in the sun, and a bit of sea swimming. The all-inclusive experience was fun to do once, but once is probably enough for me. 

Albena was originally a resort area only for Western tourists when Bulgaria was a communist country. This was the first time my wife had been there, so new for both of us.

We then had a few days in her home town, Perushtitsa, near Plovdiv, on the slopes of the Rodopa Mountains. It is an interesting town, with easy access to hiking trails. One leads to the Three Generations Monument, a nice hike I did a few times on this trip. It has a view of the town and beyond. 

The town has a population of about 5.000, down from 8,000 in the peak of its prosperity in the late 80's. There are a number of neglected and half built houses. This one I remember from two years ago on the way up to the monument and does not seem to have been worked on in the intervening years. There are still some influences from the communist era, like this mural on City Hall. 

The last leg of the trip took us up to a local mountain resort, Varhovrah. More hiking for views and to a nearby village, Churin. 

Many of the mountain villages were built near water springs. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet my wife's sister and her husband. We had some good times together. 

I tried out a low volume and weight solution to portable computing (iPad, stand, and wireless keyboard) that worked well for e-mail. As the final note, I can say that there is a perfectly acceptable, low cost local gin.