Tue Nov 30 2004 16:36 MST
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Ski Lunch
Skinned up Pajarito at lunch today. It was a long hard climb, with lots of zig-zagging and breaks. It is a gorgeous sunny day out there and there was lots of powder to hike through. It was tough, but man was it great going down!
I tackled my first black diamond because there was so much powder that I figured it was more like a blue run, which it was. There was an amazing view north of Black Mesa, the Sangre de Cristos, and the Rio Grande Valley. I started getting the hang of telemarking in powder. There must have been three feet at least of powder for most of the run. Totally fantabulous.
Here's a little map I made of my route. Take some advice from me - try to avoid climbing up the black runs - it gets freaking steep!
I just looked up the elevation gain - I climbed 1240 feet, from 9200 at the lodge to 10441 at the top of Aspen lift.
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Were the lifts broken?
Flatlander
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December 03, 2004 09:48:03 PM MST
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Tue Nov 30 2004 10:54 MST
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allergies
I had a three hour allergist appointment yesterday. They gave me a thorough going over, including the test where I exhale forcefully into a tube, pinprick allergy tests on my arms and back, a few minutes breathing in Albuterol mist, and another breathing test.
The outcome: I have mild asthma still - I just haven't been treating it for the last five years or so.
I am hardly allergic to anything - I showed reactions to the spring tree allergens like cottonwood and oak. Hardly any reaction to the fall weeds though, and I'm not allergic to any indoor allergens like cats and dogs.
My breathing test came out borderline normal, so they had me breathe in the asthma medication for a few minutes. 15 minutes later I took the breathing test again, and my scores improved slightly to above that borderline. However, one score dramatically improved, the one that tests my little lung branches - it went from 48 percent to 80 something percent. I did notice I was breathing better after the medicine.
So - I now have an inhaler to use again. Should help me climb up those mountains faster. Yay!
Mon Nov 29 2004 15:00 MST
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Los Alamos
Congress has eliminated the financing of research supported by President Bush into a new generation of nuclear weapons, including investigations into low-yield atomic bombs and an earth-penetrating warhead that could destroy weapons bunkers deep underground.
The MSNBC story that came from is no longer easy to find on their site - but i found a brief mention of it at the Economist.
Guess we won't be working on bunker bombs here at LANL. Bet there are some unhappy people behind the fence, however.
I have to say I am a little surprised that Congress isn't acting like Bush's lap dog. Maybe there is hope yet. Or maybe not. Maybe I should still move to Canada.
Mon Nov 29 2004 13:33 MST
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thanksgiving
We had Thanksgiving in Phoenix with our friends Mike and Heather, former Albuquerqueans. It was warm in Phoenix - a balmy 60 something. It was a long eight hour drive with three cats.
Some highlights:
Smoked Turkey - Mike smoked the pre-brined turkey over pecan wood for three hours. The result:supremely juicy turkey with a smokey flavor throughout. Mmmmm... Wally the cat and his addictions. I learned Wally is crazy about the 'nip and about turkey. He absolutely loves Mike now because he fed him the most turkey. Corvettes go fast. IKEA has some super cheap goodies for tiny houses like mine - 5 dollar bathroom shelf, for example. Apple Store is packed full of iPod wanters and G5 droolers the day after Thanksgiving. Triple Ginger Cookies are GOOOOOD. Kitchenaid Mixers are GOOOOOD... Thor loves Panic Mouse. It's the top one on the page. My cats all get kind of violent when high on catnip. They kind of bullied Heather and Mike's cats Sassy and Zipper. Hitting 120 mph in the Audi in the middle of nowhere on the drive home. driving the backroads home through Apache country and El Malpais, the badlands of eastern New Mexico.
Mon Nov 29 2004 13:10 MST
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snow
Woke up to a few new inches of powder at home this morning.
We climbed up to the top of the Santa Fe ski area again yesterday, and skieed down. There wasn't a whole lot of powder - it was patchy - I would be skiing in an inch or so of powder, then hit a foot or so and usually the speed change made me fall.
Now there must be like a foot of new powder up there. I think I might skin up Pajarito this afternoon, if I have time after my allergist appointment.
I just went to Pajarito's website, and it looks like they will be opening this Friday. That is sooner than Santa Fe is opening. Woo hoo! Skiing at lunch, baby!
Mon Nov 29 2004 13:04 MST
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New Hybrids
Honda is coming out with the Accord hybrid. It looks nice - costs about 10K more than my Civic Hybrid, but has a hell of a lot more horsepower - but of course, the gas mileage isn't quite as hot. It gets 37 on the highway compared to my 49 or 50. Still - great for a larger sedan.
Then, there is the LUV - what Lexus wants you to call their SUVs - Luxury Utility Vehicles. Their hybrid will probably have much crappier fuel efficiency compared to the other hybrids. They don't say yet on their website what the numbers are.
Fri Nov 12 2004 17:31 MST
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fun weekend
In Pagosa Springs. Just skiied at Wolf Creek. Great snow - quite a bit of powder, not too cold, not too blustery. Tired now. Fondue tonight!! woo hoo. Kitties are having fun in our little cabin playing with their new toys.
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Mon Nov 8 2004 09:52 MST
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the new kitten
We have another kitten now, tentatively named Wallingford Richard-McFarland III.
Little wally (or ford), was hanging around last week, sneaking in for naps on the couch when nathan wasn't paying attention and grabbing some grub as well. When I got home I was all for letting the kitten hang around inside - mostly so Pounce would learn to get along with stranger kitties. The kitten ran over to the food and ATE. Then he curled up on the couch. And stayed the night. And has been here ever since.
We figured at first he was a neighbor's cat. But now since he has been in our house for all but a few hours of each day for about four days now, we think he is ours. The kitten is solid black, with a hint of white at his chest. He is older than Pounce, so maybe seven or eight months old. His head seems a little large for his body, so he may be a little malnourished. He also sleeps a lot - more than Pounce and Thor. He is totally friendly and loves being petted. We think maybe someone abandoned him around Halloween or so. Poor little kitty. But he came to the right place - the Casita Cat Haven.
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It appears that you've inherited the cat-owner-by-default gene...
Dad
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November 08, 2004 09:01:10 AM MST
Mini Willinois
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Thu Nov 4 2004 18:38 MST
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new mexico
Kerry is winning in New Mexico at the moment by 2000 votes or so. Here's the Secretary of State's page with the latest results.
The final tally will be done around Nov 23. I want to keep a little island of blue in the midst of the United State of Texas.
Update: Well Bush won NM too dang it.
Thu Nov 4 2004 16:15 MST
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iMix
Lost the Election Mix
Thu Nov 4 2004 12:17 MST
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Canada 2.0
Love It!!!!
What province would you live in? I'll probably choose somewhere in Baja Canada
Thu Nov 4 2004 12:01 MST
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black box
Audit the Voting Machines Now!
Diebold machines, which I voted on, leave NO paper trail. This bothered me while waiting in line to vote. What stops Diebold from manipulating the vote count? What stops a hacker from being found out? Nothing! There is no way to verify the electronic count with anything else - the only thing that can be verified is how many people voted on each machine. I want an ATM style receipt to be generated, or perhaps a scantron style ballot to be generated as well.
Black Box is using the Freedom of Information Act to request the internal logs of the these voting machines. They did this for the King County (Seattle) primaries, and found some disturbing things: the audit log (which is supposed to not be able to be modified) has a three hour deletion during peak voting hours. Plus, when they received the public records, the dial-up modem number that the results go to was given to them as well.
When we obtained the trouble slips, in a public records request -- documentation that indeed the modems were not working fine, we were accidentally given the access phone number for King County.
Were we so inclined, if we had simply kept this under our hat, we could take control of your central server on election night from our living room.
I think that it is important to audit our votes and I'm planning on donating to help them with this important task.
Wed Nov 3 2004 15:21 MST
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The Presidential Election
I just heard an interesting point on Pacifica radio. The radio show hosts drew an analogy between that understanding gap between Americans and the rest of the world - how most Americans think that people in other countries share our core beliefs and political views. They compared it to liberal Americans, who believe that the majority of Americans think the same way they do.
The truth is that the majority of Americans are very culturally and morally conservative, and the Democratic party is going to need to become more conservative in order to be viable in future elections. We need someone who is just barely Democratic enough to be in the Democratic party. Basically, we need a party that is the soft Republicans, like McCain. The Centrist Party perhaps. I don't think the Republican party will be offering up any liberal Republicans anytime soon.
This of course means that I and other Dems will need to make some hard compromises. Would I prefer our foreign relations improve even though the tradeoff might be overturning Roe vs Wade? Would I be ok with not teaching evolution or contraception to students in order to have universal health care for all Americans? What about banning gay marriage in the constitution in order to end a pointless war?
These are tough questions and I hate to think that we can't have it all and that many people have beliefs so diametrically opposed to mine. But it looks like this country is growing more conservative and at some point the Dems are going to have to venture out of our safe liberal nests into these bible-thumping, non-evolution-believing towns in fly-over territory.
But really, this political gap is wide, and in order to get back into play, we're going to have to move right. i guess the question is how far right will we have to go?
suck.
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Tue Nov 2 2004 11:18 MST
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vote
I exercised my right to vote this morning with Nathan. We bundled up in some warm clothes, walked a few blocks (or acres, more appropriately), and walked to our little local La Mesilla-San Pedro fire station. The line was not very long. The ballot was electronic, a huge ballot, where you pushed arrows next to the candidate's name. I voted straight Dem. There weren't a whole lot of things to vote for in my precinct - mostly to re-elect Tom Udall, my representative, and of course, to hit that Kerry button and watch the little green arrow light up.
I encourage you all to go out and vote if you haven't done so already.
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