Cancelled - Opening Day

Today begins the official T-ball/baseball season here in Allen. Normally it is marked by the symbolic throwing out of the first pitch (that would be the baseball part), team parade around the field, a team banner contest, food booths and a dunk-your-own-coach dunking booth. Last night due to an amazing quantity of rain the fields are closed and the celebration cancelled. Sunil's team will have their first game Monday night.

Lies

Ive been reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. This book was actually recommended to me by my 16 year-old niece. I've enjoyed it but I confess I'm mostly just skimming it at this point. It's due tomorrow and I wont have time to read it in any more depth next week so I'll take it back. I may get it again at another time. It spent too much time harping on the importance of Helen Keller's socialist tendencies early on -- I almost gave up before I got to "lies" I consider to be both more important and certainly more interesting. One of Loewen's theories for why American students hate to study history is because it has been rendered completely two-dimensional and all of the reality has been drummed out in the interest of making both the country and our National figures/heroes seem perfect especially when they weren't. I have to admit I was convinced that I hated studying History. It was boring and irrelevant. It's only been the last ten years or so that I've realized that I am interested.

National Young Scholars Program

Sheela was nominated to a program for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders called the National Young Scholars Program. I've never heard of it before, but her 2nd grader teacher nominated six kids to the program this year. Three of them are friends of Sheela's. It sounds pretty cool to me (rather like summer camp for geeks). It is a week long program at a hotel downtown. She would share a room with 1-3 other girls and do a research project with a team of other kids. It looks like the Dallas camp only offers one topic for the third graders - it's a forensics class (fingerprinting and hair analysis). It sounds like a condensed version of DI. It is, of course, very pricey so we will probably pass (plus she is pretty nervous about staying away for a week) but it was flattering to be nominated.

Sweathearts of the Rodeo Dance

Sunil and I went out last night. He took me to dinner and the Mother-Son dance. We had a great time.

Quite a few of his friends were there, but we mostly spent time toghter. There was a horse roping contest, penny pitching, hat tossing and of course plenty of dancing.

Western Day

Friday was Western Day for the Kindergartners. Here Sunil is wearing his hat and sitting in the saddle in his classroom.

High School Soccer Game

We went to the last home game of the season for our local high school team. Sheela's team was invited to be ball girls during the game. One of the team captains used to help coach Sheela. This was the first time we've gotten to see her play. She is really good, the whole team is good.

The most impressive part of the evening though was the field. It has full bleachers, gorgeous grass, full snack bar and electriconic score board. It is the football stadium for one of the JUNIOR high schools. Texas is big on soccer but insane about football.

A productive, well-timed trip

The trip to the Northeast was very productive. I'm (once again) trained to safely handle dry ice. I didn't know that that was the point of the trip, but it's always good to get a refresher. Most of my questions were answered too. Best of all our return flight cleared the airport before the winter storm moved in. We made it home with no poblems.

Springfield, CT

I'm going to Springfield, Connecticut tomorrow for a one day visit to our sister company. They have a product line that they would like us to help them support. It involves setting up some special storage and monitoring systems, and quite a few additional registrations. I get to lead the effort from our location, but we will be mostly following their script. Have I mentioned that I love the variety that I have in my job?

This may be my first visit to Connecticut. I may have driven through as a child but I don't actually remember being there at all.

A year

It has been a year since my friend Lynn passed away. That seems like only a few days and a lifetime both. I'm sure she would be pleased with the way we have taken care of the things that were important to her.

The Nap Game - my personal favortite

I promised I'd play with Sunil after work but I was too tired to be much fun at trucks. He decieded that I might enjoy another round of the "nap game" instead. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this activity it is played in two parts. In part one we lay down together and he sucks his thumb and twirls my hair. In part two we fall asleep. Part one only lasted about 30 seconds, part two lasted three glorious hours. At 9Pm we got up had dinner and went back to sleep.

Spring sprang while we were gone.

This is actually our neighbor's Bradford Pear tree... but we get to enjoy it. Many of our neighborhood streets are lined with pear trees. It makes it very easy to see when the seasons change.

The mummified Bat

I posted another picture from the caverns but it ended up on Sheela's blog instead of here. Take a look if you get the chance. The link is in the links section (of course).

1700 Miles

We arrived back home today around five o'clock. All in all it was a wonderful trip. After a full day of Roswell on Thursday we drove to Ft. Davis, TX and went to a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory. The lecture didn't really hold the kids attention. Sunil in particular was not impressed, but the constellation talk, outside under a West Texas sky, was incredible. We even saw a few meteors. But Sunil was really won over by the telescopes. I counted fifteen and I think we managed to look through them all. They ranged from 8" to 36" mirrors. We saw starts, star clusters, supernovae debris, Venus and Saturn - complete with rings and moons. Afterwards we drove to Odessa to spend the night.

Odessa is more than just a convienient stopping place, it has a famous meteor crater of its own. Actually a pair of craters that are still visible. The main crater was originally (50,000 years ago) more than 100 feet deep. Now it is only about six feet deep. This was our second attempt to see the crater and museum. Last year we arrived just as they closed the gate for the night. This time we managed to walk the crater (in broad daylight) but they opened the museum late and we couldn't wait for them.

Roswell, NM

We had a fabulous day yesterday and crammed in as much of Roswell as we could. I got to see my friend Jackie. She lives here now but we used to work together in Dallas. She took us to the UFO Museum. She left it up to us as to whether or not we really wanted to go but how could we pass it up? Then we went to one of the museums here and saw a variety of things, including Goddard's workshop and some of his prototype rocket parts and some antique guns and swords.


Then we went out to Bottomless Lakes State Park to run around some. We came back for wine tasting at a local winery. The wines are all local and were quite good.



Next we headed out to the Bitter Lakes Wildlife Refuge at dusk to watch the birds. The time of year wasn't optimum but it was a beautiful time of day.

Jr Rangers again

Of course the kids earned their Junior Ranger patches again. Here you earn a patch, then you can show the patch to buy the badge. They completed all of the requirements in the first five hours and then got to wear the badges for the rest of our visit.

Carlsbad Rocks

The original plan was to spend three days in Carlsbad (personally I thought that we could wrap it up in one) and then to go down to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park for a day. We ended up staying in the caves for three days. Each tour was better than the last.

The first day we hiked down the 750 feet from the Natural Entrance to the cave. It isn't a particularly difficult walk but it is very dramatic with lots to see, especially for your first time cavers. The trail is dimly lit mostly with lights behind the cave features to add drama. This formation is called the whales mouth.
Once you reach the cave "floor" you find a snack bar and a gift shop. This is something that would never be allowed today. We bought our lunch and then set off on a tour of the "Big Room". The big room is the size of 14 football fields and the path circles the perimeter. Of course it isn't all visible at one time as the room meanders around quite a bit. Most of this path is wheelchair friendly and takes you past such sights as the Hall of Giants, the Totem Pole and The Lions Tail. Then we took the elevator to the surface. Sid did try to hike out but he didn't have time the cave is closed at night.

The next day we walked in again and then took a guided tour of the scenic rooms. The three most highly decorated rooms include the King's Palace, the Papoose Room and the Queen's Chamber. They were incredible and the guide added a lot of detail about the formation of the rock, the formation of the caves and the formation of the speleothems.

The third day we cheated on Sunil's age by a few months so that we could take a tour of the left hand tunnel. This is another guided tour but only 15 people get to go each day and the tour is given entirely by lantern light. They even had half-sized lanterns for the kids to carry. Since entry to this tunnel is so restricted it looks a lot more natural than the big room. They used to have weddings, parties and Chamber of Commerce meetings in the big room so the floor has been leveled.

Most of the cave is inactive (it is underneath a desert after all), but in some places water is still seeping in and the formations are still growing. Growing formations appear wet and glossy. Falling water drops are called shooting stars and getting hit with one is called a cave kiss.

Pics to come soon....

maybe even tonight. For now we have left Carlsbad Caverns behind and find ourselves in Roswell, NM looking for aliens. We have a reliable connection and an indoor pool. The kids have been great and deserve to burn off some excess energy. We are off to the pool.

Pecos, Texas

We drove as far as Pecos today. It's a little over 400 miles from home. The drive was mostly made with the DVD players running which doesn't really interfere with the sightseeing out here. West Texas, much like East Texas, is relatively flat and dry. The landscape was even more depressing in that nearly every bush along the way has caught and held an empty plastic bag blown in from somewhere. Pecos its self is a sad town. The buildings are old, but not historic, the restaurants are mostly closed on Sundays or For Sale and the movie theater is only open two nights a week. We had dinner at the motel and went to bed early. Sunil is feeling poorly so we may need to attempt to find a doctor in the morning.

Dinner out?

I'm definitely not in the mood to cook tonight. We have to get through all of the packing, planning and arranging still. We haven't done much in preparation for this trip beyond doing the laundry and setting out a vague plan. But we will be eating out for every meal for the next week. I guess I'll have to cave and come up with something homemade tonight.

We have a Spring Break plan

We will leave Sunday morning to drive over to Carlsbad Caverns. We will stay there 2-3 days and then go to Roswell to visit my friend Jackie (and the UFOs). Friday we plan to head back to Ft. Davis to go to the McDonald Observatory Star Party. We should be back home late Saturday.