More Pics

And here are a few photos I took with Réní Mamurd's camera after mine ran out of juice.

It's well below freezing. Are you cold?


Slow-mo sledding. . .

They say they got the run going fast by the end, but at that time, Chunlin and I had retreated into the car to wait. . . with the dog.


We were on Hayward Hill, you see? The sun sets in the south.

Yesterday or the Day Before

The days are blurring together. . . But that's what vacation is all about, right?



Heading eastward, over the mountains.


From the driver's seat of my car on the interstate. . .


Near Grammy's nursing home.


My grandparents' driveway (past the house to the barn).


Ask my dad to reminisce about this field.


Outside the back door. Don't stand underneath!!



But all in all, a fun Christmasy time with family.

Eight

Eight trips to load my car. And there's still a little room left over for Chunlin and her stuff.

But only just a little. . .

Happy Christmas Eve!!

You bought be lots of cool stuff, right? Right??

Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme!!!!

. . .

Ahem.

'Tis the season of giving. I shouldn't worry about what I'm getting.

But still . . . What'd ya get me?

There's always next year

So tell me, how did the Rice football team ever win a single game?

Oh, I know. The C-USA is full of medocrity.

The defense needs to retake tackling class. . .

Watch the New Orleans Bowl!!

You'd better be watching the New Orleans Bowl today! It starts at 7 p.m. Central Time, which is also 5 p.m. Pacific Time. But since it's in New Orleans, which is in Central Time Zone, . . . you get the idea.

GO RICE!!

I had scheduled today as vacation/"personal time", but I had to go in to work to finish off a few things due this year. I'm taking all of next week off. Yay!

Christmas, here we come!

But first, a football game. Watch it! GO RICE!!

So. . .

Is it winter yet, or what? 'Cause it looks a lot more like autumn than autumn did.

The End of the Rainbow Is at the Transit Center

But that's probably not how they see it.

Mt Hood

From Tom McMahon.

Allo-aloha-hola!

Howdy howdy howdy!

Done!

I finally finished wrapping all my Christmas gifts. Here they are, neatly arranged "under" my tree.



I think I need a bigger tree. . .

Hmmm. I bought even more stuff than last year:

Last Monday

Stuck in traffic, getting on I-90, I sit. So I pull out my camera, of course!

Seahawks Cause Bad Weather

The last two times the Seahawks have hosted a nationally televised game, we've had big storms come through.

Last night, their special Thursday-night game caused gale-force winds and massive power outages. A few weeks ago, their Monday Night Football game blanketed the region in snow and ice.

If Seattle hosts a playoff game, pray we don't have an earthquake!

If You're Reading This, You Have Electricity

As do I, at work. Not at home, though. A million customers without power in Western Washington, they say, all due to a few fast-moving molecules last night.

Chunlin took the bus over to Bellevue, but her office is without power.

But I have to get back to work now. As do you, if you can read this. You have more important things to do, surely!

Two

During the hour between one and two, time slows down. CDs finish quicker, the clock doesn't change as often, and work just isn't as interesting.

It doesn't matter if my lunch is 11-12 or 12-1, it's still the 1-2 hour that's the worst.

Only ten minutes to go.

My Native American Totem

From Quizilla.

Home Is Good

Familiar surroundings are nice, but the real reason is the people. Family and family-to-be.

Saw my parents today, went tree-hunting with my dad. We caught a fourteen-footer! But the farm had lopped the branches off the bottom four feet, so now it's only ten feet tall.

Every available moment with Chunlin.

And since today is Réní Mamurd's birthday, all five of us will be getting together for dinner. Racha Thai!

Happy birthday, Réní Mamurd!

The wind chill is 5 below. This must be Buffalo.

A 4.8-hour drive down old I-90 from Albany to Buffalo. No direct flights. Snow showers blinding us. Salt accumulating on the car, coating it an eighth-inch thick. I put my sunglasses on and could still see everything just fine.

This business travel thing ain't so bad. You just have to put the rest of your life on hold and go with the flow. I'm quite sanguine today. But maybe that's because I'll be back in Seattle tomorrow night! I just printed out my boarding pass.

This 80-hour work week is only temporary for me, but it's normal for my boss. In fact, he probably works 120 hours a week, if not more. 24/7/52. He'll probably work Christmas morning.

I may or may not have to come back to the East Coast next week. I still don't know. Leave Sunday? Leave Monday? Return Wednesday night? Return Thursday night, after the company Christmas party? No news is good news, but I'm preparing for the worst. Just put the rest of my life on hold for a few more days. . .

This too shall end.

Perhaps this is Albany. . . ?

Or maybe East Greenbush, over the river and through the woods from Albany.

Today's our off day, time to prepare for tomorrow and Friday, catch up on everything else.

I didn't get up till after 10:00. I should probably get my work done first before I go back to sleeping. . .

My hotel room has a kitchen. This place is for long-stay guests. Two days isn't really a long stay, now is it?

It's very cold and windy outside.

I'm not sure I'm fully awake yet.

I think I'm in Philadelphia.

Business trip. Sorry I haven't replied to all of your wonderful comments. Thanks to all!

I don't like business trips. Very tiring. My coworkers and boss are now going to go out to dinner. I'm not hungry and I have plenty of other stuff I want to get done in the next couple hours before I pass out from exhaustion.

But maybe I should go out with them. See Philly. I saw plenty of the Monday Night Football traffic getting here from Delaware.

The Wilmington airport is tiny. Only a hundred yards from the plane to the taxicab. But you have to wait a half hour for the cab to show up. . .

I want to go home and be with Chunlin!

And for those of you who wondered how I proposed, well. . . it was at the Medina police station. Cops were involved. Bye-bye!

She said yes.

Cut and Run Now!!

I approve of the immediate withdrawl of American forces from Iraq, just so long as we allow the military to topple one or more neighboring dictatorships on their way home.

The two biggest problems with retreating from Iraq are the incredible chaos that will ensue and the worldwide view that the United States is weak.

But, if we destroy the Iranian, Saudi, and Syrian governments (this should only take a week or two, maybe a month), and then bring all the troops back to America, at least the second problem would be alleviated.

The US military isn't made for peacekeeping and nation-building. It's designed for killing and destroying. Do you use a steak knife to feed a cow? No. So let's use the military for its intended purpose.

As for the first problem mentioned above, Iraq is in moderate chaos at the moment because the neighboring dictatorships are jockeying for position to take Iraq as a puppet state. The Saudi royals are fueling the Sunni insurgency and the Iranian mullahs are paying for the Shiite insurgency (counter-insurgency?).

If we give the Saudis and Iranians enough trouble at home, then those countries won't have time or money to waste on their Mesopotamian neighbors. They'll be fighting for their own countries' futures. And thus Iraqi will be free to live peacefully and everybody will agree that the United States is the most powerful and best nation on the planet.