SparrowCam

In case you haven't heard, we have some sparrows nesting in the nook between our house and an exterior light fixture, under the eaves of the roof.  We've been noticing them building a nest for a while, and upon returning from our trip to the east coast we heard lots of chirping coming from the nest.  Turns out there are three babies in there and mom and dad are popping in and out every couple of minutes to feed the hungry kids.  I set up a webcam to watch (and share) the action without disturbing the birds, you can watch for yourself here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sparrowcam

Be patient if nothing happens for a few minutes, but during the day, pretty reliably they get fed every few minutes.  Busy job!

Here's mom:


And dad:

 And the three kids as dad flies away:


Any suggestions for names?

iPhone Pictures, part deux

Tom here with some iPhone pictures myself!  Consider this an update from the past 8 months...

 Group bike ride to the coast and back

Golden Gate Bridge in the fog while riding back from Marin

 Niners game!

Pretty SF sky and Marin Headlands from a SF trip for the Halloween BANG puzzlehunt

 Parents visit and hike in Arastradero Preserve

Monterey coast after my SCUBA class

Thanksgiving - Ann made a pie.  Yum.

Kate selecting the most odiferous Christmas tree in the Santa Cruz Mts.

Sleepy dogs

 Mission Peak hike

 Kate coaching basketball for her HS.   That's her in the white sleeves on the bench.

 Neighborhood tree in winter

 Sunshine and fog on bike ride up above Saratoga

 Christmas with Claire and mom in NC

 Tom and J in the Dean Dome for a UNC game

 Muddy, wet Banjo.

 Double rainbow!

 Kate at a beer and cheese tasting event we went to.  Very fun!

 Cupcake making party for our friends who set off to hike the Appalachian Trail in April

 A's game in Oakland

 POTUS visiting Palo Alto - I rode out here on my bike to see him on his way to Facebook HQ

 Kate making, or trying to make, carnations glow for physics

 Hiking in Coal Creek

 Riding part of Day 1 of the AIDS ride from SF to Santa Cruz with Mei-Yen and Glenn

 At the water sculpture near the Ferry Building in SF - can you spot the Kate?

 Alcatraz visit with all of Kate's family.  This is the old warden's house.

There you go!  Hope that wasn't too many pictures in one sitting.

iPhone Pictures

About a year ago, Tom and I decided to get rid of our rotary-dial "mobile" phones and upgrade to the clean, slick iPhone. While we do get the occasional dropped call and have to turn off our 3G service at home in order to get a stronger signal, they've been mostly fantastic. One thing that is fun is that we always have a camera at our disposal, so we end up taking more random pictures and videos than we used to. I downloaded all of my pictures yesterday and had a fun time looking through them and remembering when they were taken. Thought I'd share a few with you all.
1) iPhone photo #1! Speaks for itself, I think. Still my screen saver.

2) Probably the most dangerous Physics doohickey I have built - an electric hot dog / pickle cooker. It is essentially like plugging the pickle directly into the wall. Did you know that pickles glow bright yellow whilst being electrocuted?


3) My pop holding a balloon. This is from last week - Ebel family reunion out here in the bay area.

4) 4th of July cupcake platter. We had an epic weekend with a bunch of our friends from out here. We may be in our thirties, but we can party like we are 28!


5) Fantastic seats at a Giants game with Adam and Ashley.


6) Banjo being his usual slothful, immodest self. Hahaha.
7) The two of us at a swanky symposium reception for science teachers at the Cal Academy of Sciences. The martinis were swizzled with glow sticks, soup was served in test tubes, and there was a live penguin display behind the bar. Yep, being a teacher is quite the extravagant lifestyle.
8) My student teacher, Ryan, holding up a massive solar balloon we made out of trashbags after school one day.
9) Swing batter! Tom's softball team wins the league championship!


10) Fresh hops beer festival in Portland. We're looking forward to more events like these...

11) Curling with the Dartmouth Alumni of Silicon Valley. Harder than it looks...

And that's it for now. Maybe I'll download some from Tom's camera later on and add to the story. Cheerio!