Starting off in 2007

Cascade Lake #1

We had a quiet but nice Christmas. Dave chose to not try to get home - he moved to a new apartment two weeks before Christmas, and between that and an unexpected business trip to Denver, he ran out of time to make arrangements. Too bad.

The week between Christmas and New Years was devoted to planning for a party for our neighborhood. We last had a party two years ago, and felt that it was our turn to do something. And since Ralph and Steve, and Dave and Mugsie hadn't been able to come the last time, we wanted to do something with them. Unfortunately, Dave and Mugsie were both under the weather and didn't make it. Too bad.

I have also been pretty busy trying to create statistics from raw data to support the IAS periodicals review coming up in February. At this point we have all but run out of time - the report is due this Friday - and we have only been able to account for 40-50% of the papers processed by the Society over the five-year reporting period. I'm afraid that's going to be a problem - the Society was told five years ago to do something about the lack of a central focus on papers review, and now we are going into another review without actually having accomplished anything toward that goal.

Since I have to go to California next month for the review, Linda and I are planning to extend the trip to visit Dave in Mountain View and perhaps do some other things. We haven't booked any reservations yet, but we need to get on that quickly since the cheap seats are already selling out. I want to take the big camera this time, and I have figured out how to transport it, but I need to find a solution for the tripod.

Went to Bunz this morning - we had to relocate to Starbucks since the Bread Basket was closed today. I noticed an interesting potential picture in the woods near the race track on the way into town, and also another possibility (the outside wall of Bethesda Church) while sitting in Starbucks. So the plan for tomorrow is to go back into town with the camera to see if I can capture some interesting images. The weather is very strange - unusually warm and no significant snow accumulation.

New Year's Eve was fun. Linda and I had dinner at Thai Garden, and then did the First Night thing - Youth Orchestra, Racing City Chorus (a barbershop group), Kate Taylor, Hair of the Dog, and the McKrells, all followed by a spectacular fireworks show.

This picture was from a day rip back in September up to Lake Placid. I have more negatives from this trip that I need to print - perhaps next week.