Only Elite...

Well, the Heels lost. That was a bummer. It seemed to me that they totally outplayed GTown in the first half, at least, and most of the second. Somehow they started shooting from the perimiter towards the end there which 1) isn't their strength to begin with, 2) didn't attack the Hoya players already with 3 or 4 fouls, and 3) didn't allow for any offensive rebounds, as they just shot up bad shots before anyone was in position underneath. Still, not closing it out with 3 points, the ball, and a minute left is bad. Then the OT was even worse. That was ugly. Oh well. I'm not really excited about any of the teams in the Final Four this year. I think I'll root for UCLA, just because I like the names of the guys on that team best: Afflalo. Luc Richard Mbah a Mmoute. Those are fun to say. And aside from the 2 guys from Cameroon, one from Serbia, and one Canadian, EVERYONE on the team is from California. Seems neat.

Also, since it seems worth mentioning because it overshadows any basketball game stories, the UNC mascot who was hit by a car before the USC game - Jason Ray - died today. Gosh, how sad. He had been the mascot for the past 3 seasons, and was a senior.

Cricket World Cup

The Cricket World Cup is going on now - which I only found out about after seeing this headline in the NYTimes. Apparently the coach of the Pakistani team (the favorites to win) was murdered in his hotel room following their elimination by Ireland. Sounds like the beginning to some mystery novel. We actually saw part of Pakistan's next game (vs. Zimbabwe, they won) in the new Indian restaurant that we got some takeout from on Wednesday night, but this was before I knew that it was the World Cup. I guess the sport is, or has been, pretty widely recognized to be corrupt and plagued by scandals involving game-rigging, betting, and otherwise ill-advised behavior. For example, also this year an English player went on a drinking binge and "had to be rescued from the ocean after he fell off a pedalo boat."

Tragic coach murder and drunken Brit aside, you've got to love a sport where a guy like that looks like this is a professional athlete. And, they don't use gloves. I'm officially rooting for Bermuda.

Bad Dog

Man, just when we thought our dog was perfect, he tore up a corner of carpet in the extra bedroom that we keep him in while we're gone. Also, he's apparently chewed off the last few inches of the FM antenna on our stereo in that room. That's a little ominous, considering the cornicopia of compter and other miscellaneous cables around there. Well, we can probably fix most of the carpet. Today Banjo's stuck in his crate, which he doesn't really like all that well. We'll see how this shakes out...

Also, Saturday is the annual Lockheed Great America Day, where they rent out the entire amusement park for Lockheed people and guests. It's pretty fun, but also amazing when you consider that all of the people there are somehow connected to LM.

Then on Sunday, it's our fantasy baseball draft! Yes, we're that dorky, that BOTH of us play fantasy baseball. Too bad we can't do it in person with all of our college friends, but it's still a good way to keep in touch. Maybe after the draft I'll post some team reviews, per Sky's tradition.

Happy Spring! (unless you're in the northeast, as I just checked the Dartmouth webcam and there appears to be a good blanket of snow up there still) (Check that - yesterday it looked all white, but today it looks like it's mostly melting. Muck season!)

Busy Weekend

Tom and I took last Friday off - it feels like it has been a while since we were both able to get away with that despite the fact it is built into our work schedules. It is a little tougher for me usually because I am one of only a few people in my office on the 9-80 schedule which means that people often expect me to be there. And Tom is getting into a really crazy time at his job - he may have to start working on Saturdays some in the coming weeks as well.

At any rate, we certainly made the most of our long weekend. We loaded up Tom's Subaru with a grill, tent, pillows, and a dog, and headed down the coast for big sur. Since it was kind of an impromptu trip, we didn't spend a lot of time thinking about our packing list and ended up without some important-ish items such as headlamps, sandals, or shorts. On the way, we stopped at Nepenthe for a drink. Nepenthe is a pretty funky little restaurant with a fabulous view, that apparantly originated as a "mecca for poets, artists, travelers and vagabonds". We sat outside and watched the sunset next to a nice outdoor firepit.

Next stop was Kirk Creek Campground, which we've stayed at once before a couple of years ago. We talked with the groundskeeper last time we were there, and he proudly bragged that it had one of the "top ten rated individual campsites in the country". I can't imagine who goes around rating INDIVIDUAL campsites, but regardless, it certainly is spectacular. It is on a bluff right above the ocean, so every campsite has a fabulous view and the sound of crashing waves all night long. They allow dogs, too, and in fact it seemed like there was one at almost every site around us. Banjo did great - he particularly enjoyed having a healthy portion of our steak dinner and getting to sleep with us in the tent.

In the morning we trooped down to the beach below the bluff for some rock hopping and general enjoying-of-the-ocean. Banjo overcame his intial fear of crashing waves when he discovered that seaweed tastes DELICIOUS and he spent the rest of the walk sprinting from one stinky pile to the next.

After breakfast, we headed back north to Big Sur Station, which is a starting point for a number of hikes in the Ventana Wilderness. We set off for a hike with no particular destination - just enjoyed the redwoods, earthy trail, and views of big sur and the ocean. With a bit of trepidation, we let the little bugger off his leash - he had been so good on our snowshoe hike a couple of weeks ago that we figured it would be worth a shot. Of course, as soon as we let him off, he sprinted off as fast as his little legs could take him about 200 feet down the trail..... at which point he abruptly stopped and waited for us to catch up, much to our relief. So we did the rest of the hike with him off-leash - stopping to smell whatever he wanted, but always making sure to keep us within eyesight. Whenever Tom and I would get separated by a little distance, he would sprint back and forth between us - just stopping long enough to get a quick pet before tearing off to find whoever was missing. Maybe he has some sort of herding dog mixed in with his border terrier. Anyway, we were so proud of how well he stayed with us and how well he listened to our commands - he is going to be a great little hiking buddy for us.

We headed home Saturday night with only one stop for ice cream. Relaxed most of the day Sunday (I had my first rec soccer game) and started getting excited about our upcoming fantasy baseball season. Speaking of baseball, the A's are on TV for the first time this year, so I'm outta here...

Oliver Zebarah Ebel

Hi All,

Thought I would introduce the newest edition of Ebel - my nephew Oliver Zebarah. He's about one month old now and by all accounts a wonderful baby. I can't wait to meet him!

Kate

Pulled an almost-all-nighter

Well, I am coming off about three weeks of a seriously crazy work schedule. I have been working on a BIIG report that is finally due TODAY. The last few weeks have been high-speed stop and go - write a section, submit it to client for review, wait, wait, receive ridiculous client comments, revise frantically, conference calls, boss calls client mean names, revise again, submit for review, repeat. It culminated in an all-weekend bender topped off with my boss and I at the office until 4:00 this morning, putting the finishing touches on the report. Today is frantic too, because the report has to be reproduced and made into an electronic copy for submittal to the regulatory board. At any rate, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to getting a LOT of sleep tonight.

I don't think I've pulled an almost-all-nighter since college. My job has actually been a very relaxed 8-5 most of the time, so I don't really begrudge it these past few weeks. But it made me wonder, what about the rest of y'all? Do your jobs ever keep you up all night?

Blogging Parents

If you read our blog, then there's a pretty good chance that you either:
a) know my parents, Doug and Judy, or
b) are my parents, Doug and Judy.

If you fall into the former category, you may or may not know that my parents just embarked on a cross-country trip to visit family and friends, see sights, escape the frozen northeast, and find out whether they might want to upgrade from the family SUV with a roof rack and air matress in the back to a mini-RV (actually a "conversion van"), and join the rest of the baby-boomer generation on the electrically enabled side of the campground. Anyways, it looks like it will be an exciting trip - they're going lots of places I would love to see someday, especially in the southwest - and they just set off this morning. My mom is going to try to keep a blog going during their trip, so if you're interested, HERE is the link. I'll also add it to the links section on the right. Bon voyage!

'It Barks and Bites!"

Hey! I got a mandolin! I returned the rental I've had for a couple months and got my very own solid-wood F-style bluegrass mandolin. Here she is, in all her glory. I did a fair amount of research about it online, but in the store I am too much of a novice to even really tell a difference between the $200 mandolins and the $2000 ones. Consequently, my Rover (on the inside it says "Rover - it barks and bites!") is on the lower end of the price spectrum. But as you can see it came with a fancy case, so I'm ready to hit the street corner with my ragged version of Cripple Creek an see if I can make a few bucks. Since the last mandolin update I've learned 'Red Haired Boy' and yesterday figured out the chords to some Tom Petty song that my iPod decided to play on shuffle. But I'm about to go download some new ones to practice from Folk of the Wood, which is a great online resource for any stringed instrument.

And just because no blog post in the post-Banjo era would be complete without a cute picture of him, here you go. Kate trimmed off some of his long neck hair the other day, and stripped a bunch of his other hair (that's what you do with wire-haired dogs), so he may look a little different. You should ask her about what he did to her laptop cord, too...

Swing Shifts

Hi everyone. Happy President's Day. I'm celebrating by working until midnight!

No really, now that our telescope is undergoing some testing that involves being inside a vacuum chamber with liquid nitrogen flowing all around it, 24-7 personel coverage is required to make sure someone is around in case something goes wrong (a lot can go wrong at -196 C).

Anyways, it's not so bad, as I have my mornings free to take a long walk with Banjo, run some errands during normal business hours, and have a relaxing morning. And it's only a few days at a time. But there's something a little strange about being at work at midnight. At least I don't have to do the graveyard shift (midnight to 8am). Ick.

Speaking of Banjo, our trip this past weekend to Tahoe for some skiing and snowshoeing and winter fun went really well! The dog is still not thrilled about car rides, but he just hunkers down and deals. We stayed in a nice rental house/cabin right near Donner Lake that Dustin found - with 7 of us it was pretty affordable to do, and way nicer than a hotel or doing a day trip. We went up with Dustin + Sarah, Adam + Ashley, and Alex. Not surprisingly, the male contingent was all Lockheed employees. Sigh.

Friday some of us skied at Alpine Meadows, and the others went XC skiing at Tahoe Donner, right near where we were staying. Kate went romping in the snow with Banjo, who loved it! The weather was sunny and warm, which was nice but made for some soft, slushy snow in places. I really like Alpine, though - especially getting to hike over to the back side and ski the open bowls that lead to the Sherwood lift.

Saturday we packed up and headed over to a trailhead off I-80 near Donner Pass and set off on a popular trail to hike Castle Peak. There's a good description of the snowshoe hike we did here or here (since we didn't take many ourselves). Despite the poor winter, there was a pretty good amount of snow up above 8000'. Our trail took us from about 8000-9000', going from the highway up towards a pass and then a quick spur up part of the steep ridge towards the peak before heading back down. Banjo was really good about the snow, and we were able to let him off leash for most of it. On the way back down he seemed to get tired and was dragging a little, but this was the longest hike we've done with him (~6 miles), and in snow, and steep at times, and at altitude (does that affect dogs the same?). Anyways, we were real glad to see that he not only could handle, but enjoyed such adventures.

Sunday we had a nice laid-back recovery day where Kate and I cooked a whole bunch of things - waffles (on our wedding present waffle maker), minestrone soup (with wedding present knife to chop veggies), "the best meatloaf recipe" (with wedding present mixing bowls), a big batch of pesto (with wedding present salad spinner), and morrocan chicken (with wedding pot to make cous cous). After a trip to the dog park we lounged and watched "The Dish," a movie about the Austrailan satellite dish that was used during the Apollo 11 moon landing. Thanks for the recommendation, Auntie! We liked it.

And that brings us to today, which brings me to the start of my swing shift in 6 minutes. Off I go...

He's growing up so fast...

One of the unexpectedly gratifying parts of owning this dog so far has been watching little improvements in his behavior every day. He was never a bad dog, but he was (and still is) pretty timid and not exactly a social butterfly. So every time he does something new and fun it seems like his true personality is coming out more and more.
Banjo is at his most excitable in the morning. As soon as he hears our alarm go off, he trots into our room and sits on the floor to watch us. We usually "snooze" ten or fifteen more minutes, but as soon as the first foot hits the floor, Banjo declares it playtime. Toes get licked, pajama bottoms and blankets get pulled, and he spins around in circles over and over.
We took a long walk to the dog park after breakfast this morning, and there were only six dogs there, which was great for Banjo. After lingering on the edges for a little while, one particularly friendly dog lured him into more spirited play, which eventually escalated to Banjo tearing around the dog park as fast as his little legs could carry him being chased by the entire pack of dogs. It had been raining all day, so it was an absolute mud pit and all the dogs were skidding all over, and were covered in mud. He had a great time - he was jumping and playing with all the big dogs by the time we were ready to head home. He also stopped and visited with all the other people there - he loves to get petted.
We walked home via the busiest road in this area, El Camino Real. We had tried to take him on that road once before and only managed to drag our little wide-eyed terrier about a half a block before giving up. He really hates cars - probably a big part of the reason he survived as a stray long enough to get caught and taken to the pound. Anyway, we walked 5 or 6 blocks on El Camino, and Banjo only balked twice. He's clearly learning to trust us, which is really fun.
Anyway, that's the update for now. Tom put together a cool collage of new pictures of Banjo we thought we'd post. You can see his favorite sock, his first bath, and even a picture of his cousin Lucky. Fun days!!