Rhonda and Dana hosted a summer party in the middle of winter. Good times. I was a bit cold getting over there in shorts and Chacos when it was 20 degrees outside, but once inside summer was in full force. A nice break from the cold.
Ian, Kate, and I took off for a nice day of snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park. My new showshoes held up well, though it wasn’t always clear which one went on which foot. We went up to Emerald lake, which I believe is called “White, windy-as-hell lake” around this time of year.
As always, lots of pictures in the flickr gallery
Dani and I got dressed up and went to the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association dinner. It was a nice evening but more formal than I’m used to. Lots of interesting people there and we had a good time talking with many of them. My, did we look dapper.
I really like this post about a professor who used lies in his lectures to engage the students and promote critical thinking. You should always evaluate ideas and information critically; I’m fond of the quote: “you should always keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out”.
Dani and I went to see the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Denver museum of nature and science yesterday and really enjoyed it. We had a private showing as part of a lawyer networking group Dani is part of, so it was nice to go at our own pace and not have to fight crowds or anything. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the exhibit, but I recommend going to anybody who’s interested in history and lives in the area.
Danielle and I just got back from a weekend visit to Wyoming. There was a surprise birthday party for her mom as well as general visiting with family and friends. It was a fun time overall, and the people for the most part were great. I like to visit small town America occasionally, though I think it would be hard for me to live there again. Green River and Rock Springs are nice and blue collar, with mining and the railroad being the major employers. They have a nice small town feel, though it feels to me that towns that are exclusively industrial can’t really grow much or have the kind of social diversity that is really needed for a city to thrive.
It looks like I’m probably going to be spending another summer at LLNL in Livermore, California. I really liked it there last year, and this year there were a few interesting projects to be had. The project this year looks to be bigger in scope, which is why I picked it. Hopefully something in this area will lead to my thesis. In any case, it’s going to be a more ongoing type of project than just a summer project.
On a related note, I have office space at NCAR with a great view. I’m on the 5th floor of one of the towers and have a great view of Boulder and the plains beyond. Having a window with a view is a big deal to me.
Well, it’s another year come and gone, and it was a good one. Things are going really well between Dani and I, I had a great time in San Francisco / Livermore over the summer, I picked up my Master’s degree, finished up my coursework, and got to go back home for a few weeks to see friends and family. I some pics to the flickr gallery, though not nearly as many as folks may be accustomed to. I’m trying to keep it under control because I have a tendency to take a thousand pictures per event.
Christmas break was good times. It was maybe a bit too long, but I got to do most of what I wanted to do and see most of the folks I wanted to see. Christmas was at Mom’s house and the kids snagged some good stuff. I spent a couple of nice evenings at my sister’s house, which is always fun. I have to admit I like it best when it’s just the two of us hanging out without all the trappings of crazy family gatherings. Just a nice evening spent hanging out, which I like. I also really like just hanging out with Mom, though she was having a pretty rough time with her back and so didn’t get around much. Hope she gets to feeling better.
My buddy Jordan got a place down on Story ave. in Louisville, right down the street from where I used to work. It was good to walk those sidewalks again and hang out with him. He’s got a pretty sweet place, just down the street from a good bowling alley, My Old Kentucky Homebrew, and Sergio’s world of beers. Ah, Sergio’s. What an amazing place that was. Super nice and knowledgeable guy, with an amazing selection of beers. I consider myself something of a connoisseur of beers, but I’ll admit I had never even heard of most of the beers he had. An amazing experience. While we were there I ended up talking for hours with a nice couple that was also at the bar, and it ended up that the guy was Tom O’Shea who owns O’Shea’s Irish pub and Flanagan’s alehouse (where Goat took me for my 21st birthday). We had a great time hanging out and talking; interesting guy.
Hope 2010 is as good.
In the continuing saga to be more organized, my current wish list item is a piece of software (for Mac or web) that combines journal entries for specific projects with TODO or task items. I’d like to have a narrative about the day-to-day progress and larger goals, as well as specific action items (preferably with its own division such as items to be done today). I already use tools for the individual parts, but don’t have anything that acts as a project “portal” if you will. A cursory glance across the Internet and a survey of the tools I already have and use doesn’t turn up what I’m looking for, so if anybody knows anything along these lines please let me know. I’ll keep looking and report if I find the killer app for this.
I’m not the best at updating my blog or uploading pics to flickr, but I recently uploaded a bunch of random iPhone pictures to flickr. There should be a set for them. They’re kind of unorganized because they span a few months worth of time, but there’s some pretty interesting ones there if anybody wants to check it out.