SOLD!!!!

Our house is finally sold. One less house to worry about and also only one mortgage to pay.

An interesting thought on flooding

One of the key predicted effects of climate change is the increase in extreme weather events, such as extreme rain falls and extreme droughts.  You could think of this as having a bit of a lead foot on the weather accelerator.  This NY Times article highlights how such changes may have contributed (not cause mind you, simply contributed) to our flooding.

At a scientific discussion group on global warming, the guest speaker made the statement that if current models are at least somewhat accurate, then in about ten years the effects of climate change should move far enough away from the noise that its fingerprint would no longer be very controversial.  Unfortunately for us, that might mean a millennial flood becomes a century flood and this year's suffocating record heat may have to be suffered through more frequently.

Chihuly Nights

We were able to go to our nearby botanical garden that has the Chihuly exhibitions. The exhibits were so gorgeous at night.  The following pictures are some of the samples of his works.

Boat

Silvered Purple Herons

Blue Polyvitro Crystals

Walla Wallas

Retirement of our Old T.V.

AM's older brother gave this television to her when she was a freshman in college and plus we have kept it for 18 years of our marriage. We had it for a long time and it serves it purpose. It gave us a chance to get up and down when we have to change the channels. No remote control but it was a color T.V.

For Sale

So our house has been on the market for two weeks now. We have had a lot of showings and one offer. Unfortunately the offer was extremely low. I don't feel badly about that because the women lived down the street and it was all that she could qualify for and she just loved our house and had to try. But we would essentially be giving the house away at that price.

So I hope a better offer comes along. Meanwhile, if you know anyone looking for a really cool house, send them our way.

Pac-12 bound

I am so excited that the Utes have finally gotten into the Pac-10 (now Pac-12). In my mind, the addition of Colorado and Utah made a lot more sense in terms of what the Pac-10 stands for than schools like Texas. Would it have been nice to have BYU included? Yes, at least for Utah to continue its rivalry, and BYU probably travels with more fans than Utah, but the reality is that only Utah really fits in with the Pac-10 in terms of academics and Olympic sports teams and being a public university. (Okay, Stanford is private, but not a religious affiliated private school.)

In the absence of a play-off system in football (and the speculations of the last few weeks have highlighted the absolute need for a play-off) the only chance that a team like Utah has to play for the national championship is to be in an automatic qualifying conference. Otherwise, the best we can hope for is being invited to the BCS bowl.

So now the next obvious move for Utah is to fire its basketball coach and to get somebody respectable, so that we can once again be perennial sweet 16 or better. Playing in the Pac-12 should help recruiting, but only with a better coach. Some sports like swimming and baseball will probably improve simply by virtue of the new recruiting pool and exposure. Gymnastics will continue to be the juggernaut it has always been, but again, may get more exposure.

I'm going to Disneyland

A few weeks ago I was in Anaheim and wrote the following:

Sitting in a hotel room outside of (because my conference is next door in the conference center) on a Sunday night brings back memories of a family trip we took over thirty years ago. I remember sitting in a hotel room on a Sunday, with manicured bushes trimmed in the shape of animals outside, so excited to be going to Disneyland the next day. I wonder where that hotel room is. Maybe its the same one and animal bushes have gone out of style.


1. I was so excited to get the chance to drive the little race cars that went around the track that I ended up leaving my camera in the car. The camera that I had saved up for months and months. And thus began my career as a destroyer/loser of cameras.....

2. Going to a Sambo's pancake house that had pictures of the story of Sambo, a boy in (India?) who is treed by four hungry tigers, but gives them his fine clothes after which they become jealous of each other and chased each other around the tree until the turn into butter. Thinking it was really cool that you could turn tigers into butter and wondering if you could do that with other animals.


3. I learned my first lesson in capitalism. I don’t remember the exact details, but it had something to do with soda drinks. I somehow thought that since we were at Disneyland the place built for kids, that they gave kids drinks. My dad explained that wasn’t about being a magic place for kids, it was about making money.

4. I remember wanting to ride on the submarine but we didn't have enough A tickets, back when Disney assigned rides A, B, or C status.


5.I also remember being excited that I was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn, but being disappointed that I couldn’t ride on Space Mountain

6. I remember really, really wanting mickey mouse ears. There was a show on TV, the mickey mouse club, where the kids all had the mickey mouse hats. Both my older sister and I got them and I think they stuck around or house for nearly 10 years in more and more tattered forms. Just a piece of felt and two pieces of plastic stapled on, and they meant the world to me as a child. I also really, really wanted a davy crockett coon skin cap. Now I live in Davy Crockett's homeland and see dead raccoons with some frequency. Haven’t had an urge to wear one on my head for some time.